Happy Easter, Like Recovery, This a Rebirth, New You

Easter isn’t only a date on the calendar, it’s a brutal and hopeful idea: something in you has to end before something better can begin. We take the Easter story of death and resurrection and translate it into real addiction recovery, where change isn’t abstract. It’s the moment you stop escaping and start living.

We talk honestly about how alcoholism, gambling addiction, and drug addiction breed loneliness and shrink life into survival mode. When you’re stuck chasing the next drink or the next bet, you lose the simple joys that make life feel worth it: showing up for family, being present at a game, handling small responsibilities, and feeling peace in ordinary moments. Recovery brings those moments back, but it also asks for emotional sobriety, because “you cannot outthink an emotional issue.” Healing means facing feelings, not arguing with them.

I also share what rebirth has looked like in my own story: learning my gifts, building purpose through speaking, coaching, writing, and service, and a pivotal experience in Fatima, Portugal that helped me finally become done with gambling. We close with a recovery-centered take on forgiveness and the Saint Francis or 11th-step prayer, plus a reminder that every emotion still shows up and you can stay steady through all of them.

If you want a more grounded, spiritual, practical path to sobriety and relapse prevention, listen through to the end. Subscribe, share this with someone who needs a fresh start, and leave a review so more people can find the show.

Transcript

Easter Welcome And Recovery Values

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It's Easter. That means rebirth, the new you. Welcome again to another episode of the 1% in recovery podcast, where we encourage you to laugh every day, to work hard, work hard in recovery, work hard in relationships, work hard in your job, business, school, just work. And the love unconditionally. Put much more love out there and watch much more love return. Recovery is beautiful. Your EQ is your IQ, and you cannot outthink an emotional issue. Now, we keep encouraging people to go to the website, lifefizwonderful. I repeat, the free recovery growth scorecard where you introduce natural dopamine, serotonin, endorphins, oxytocin, start healing the brain, start changing that neuroplasticity so you can be on the road to recovery, to changing your character, to have that spiritual awakening, to get to the next level of freedom. Now, let's jump into this week's episode. This week's episode is about Easter. Today is Easter Sunday. And Easter is always about, which centers around the death of Jesus Christ and then his resurrection three days later. You know, he has the Last Supper on Thursday, have the crucifixion on Friday, and then we have the ascension to heaven on Sunday. And that is similar to recovery. There's always got to be a part where your old life dies and your new life emerges. Something different, something better, and something that is just much more joyous, peaceful, and free. I can tell you, as an alcoholic gambler, someone who does love to drink beer, bet on sports, and in reality, waste a lot of time. Spend way too much time just whether in bars, clubs, watching games uh mainly at home, but over at my parents' house, or maybe at a sports bar, or maybe in Vegas. All that time. You know, they could have been better spent just either in relationships. Because you know what gamblers are? Gamblers are lonely. You know what alcoholics are? Alcoholics are lonely. Do you know what drug addicts are? They're lonely. And they also, neither one of those three, have true purpose. There's true new no enjoyment of the everyday life, of the simple pleasures. Whether that's making a sale, making your bed, cleaning your car, being there for family, whether it's taking your mom to a doctor's appointment, being there for your nephew or nieces or sons or daughters, little league game, all the simple things, eating an ice cream, all that simple things. When you're in, you're just so busy trying to get high, trying to escape. That is no way to live. That is survival. And God put us on this earth to live. Whatever that is, we are given so many gifts and talents. I know some of my gifts and talents are speaking, podcasting, writing, coaching, as well as sales, as well as being the best cat and dog owner, having Moose, Panther, and Creed. Moose and Panther are my two cats. Creed is my one dog. And always being there for family, being there for friends, being there for people in recovery, talking about the steps. I know what my gifts are, and I keep developing them. And of course, is loving going to the gym, love reading, love going to museums, and enjoying all types of food. But you gotta really understand all that. That is this is the whole new Hugo. Not the other one. The other one had its time and purpose, ran for 20 years from age 8 to 30 drinking, age 12 to 33 gambling. Things then got different. And yes, rebirth can be something magical. Same thing with uh different girlfriends. You know, I was with someone for 13 years, another person for three and a half years, then someone else for about six years, then someone else for a year, long distance, women that were older, women that were the same age, women that were younger. But you know, they all added so much value. I do actually all either, I mean, I still love them in in certain ways, but always want the best for them. You know, they helped me grow in different ways. Yeah, and there was also the fights, also the disagreements, but that's in any relationship. I have disagreements with my brother, with my nieces, with my mom or dad when they were alive, with friends. I don't agree because some of my friends are way hardcore Republicans. I have other friends that are way hardcore Democrats. Neither of one, I don't agree with neither party. I'm more in the middle independent libertarian. But you gotta just know who you are. And this is the rebirth. What are you comfortable with? I'm comfortable going to all kinds of places and knowing I'm not gonna drink alcohol. I'm not placing a bet on anything. I'm not getting into this weird um angles going way to the right, way to the left. Uh, I like I just like knowing what I know. You know, 59 and learning. And I think, you know, it all started back in Fatima. I like to always tell people, you know, there was a reason I already had a trip planned. I did not know that I was gonna completely stop gambling at the time, but I just had a trip already planned to Portugal and I was going to meetings, but I kept going uh betting at not bet for one or two days, but then I bet, this was going on for a month, I had to get out of here for two weeks, which was uh instead of going to a treatment center, I went to Europe. And but I was by myself and I could be there, just didn't have anybody else to uh kind of talk about. So, you know, in Fatima, you know, I was there where the Virgin Mary had an apparition to three little kids in 19, I want to say 1917. It could be 1919, but I'm pretty sure it was 1917, at the end of World War I. And that's where I found the strength. And I went and I prayed and I cried, and I finally felt God lit the candles, and that was my rebirth because when I came back here, I was finally done with all the gambling. I'd already been done with drinking for three years, already been in therapy for a year and a half, and now I was really gun-ho about doing this alcohol program, going to therapy weekly, doing this gambling program. That is the rebirth that's a new me. And then over these past 20, uh, so then the next 26 years, just doing things differently. And you know, there's been uh obviously the emotions are still gonna be there, still gonna feel joy, excitement, happiness, satisfaction, exhilaration, but also calmness, contentment, but also grief, sadness, anger, depression, anxiety, all those things. They all happen. But I wish everybody to have this wonderful Easter, be there with family, be there with friends, connect with your higher power, connect with God, being able to be reborn. There is something I love the Saint Francis, I'm gonna finish with the Saint Francis prayer or the 11-step prayer that some people like to say. It is by dying that you get to be reborn, it is by forgiving that you are forgiven. And I think a lot of times people don't really associate it, just like in the two about it's better to love than be loved, uh, and it's better to understand than to be understood. Man, if you just learn to just love people, you learn to understand people, if you learn to forgive people, and you learn to just let go and let the old life die, that way so many more people will understand you, love you, forgive you, and you have your new life. With that, we're gonna conclude this episode of the 1% in recovery podcast. Happy Easter.