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He said, bring it back to the breath. Always to the breath. And you guys have heard me talk a lot about breathwork, but he's not talking about breathwork. You guys have heard me talk a lot about meditation. He's not talking about meditation. He's talking about in the moment when something comes up that you don't like or in general, be mindful of your breath. What's going on? Podcast family My name is Michael Chernow and this is the Creatures of Heck Habit Podcast. Our habits will make us or they will break us. I've lived on both sides of the tracks and have experienced some of the best and the worst that habits have in store. The decisions we make on a consistent basis truly define who we are as human beings. This episode will be a solo episode where traditionally I interview guests. This is a solo episode where I share with you guys experiences that I've had, things that are relevant in my my life today that I think could potentially be interesting for you to hear, things that I simply just want to share or quotes or activities that I've done over the last few weeks that have inspired me. So sit back, relax, and get out your pen and paper because what you hear in this podcast could potentially make some big changes in your life. Let's go. What up, y'? All? Monday moment. It is Monday. Maybe, maybe it's Monday, maybe it's not. But this is called the Monday moments. These short little tidbits of things that I just want to share with you. I celebrated something pretty big recently. My 21st sober anniversary. I've been in the world of recovery for 21 years. That means that I do not drink alcohol and I do not use drugs or mood mind altering substances for 21 years. That's a long ass time. But it is a day at a time thing. It is only one day at a time. That is the only way I have strung this time together. One day at a time. And I have to just be very, very mindful of and grateful that that has been made real for me. My life today doesn't exist the way it exists without my recovery and my sobriety. And so I'm super grateful for it. And anybody listening to this podcast that's potentially struggling with some sort of addiction, I'm just here to tell you that there is a, there is a way out. I am living, breathing proof of that. I promise you. Even if you think that you're unique and everybody else is different and there's no possible way for you to change, I'm here to tell you that you're wrong. I'm just going to tell you that I know that to be true and I'm just very confident about that. You are wrong. There is a solution, I promise you. Now onto the good stuff. Almost every year, there's a guy who swooped into my life who I was introduced to pretty much day one that I got sober. His name is Marcus. I've talked a lot about Marcus and telling my story over the years. Podcasts and just interviews and things like that. Marcus really kind of came in and introduced me. Not only, like, made me feel comfortable making the decision to get sober that day, but he was a guy that I looked up to almost immediately. He was a guy that I wanted to impress immediately. And he took on the older brother, figure out the gate and wrote a plan for me. And that plan was, hey, like, you are going to have to refrain from drinking and using. I'm going to give you a long list of things that you can do in a specific order from the minute you wake up to the minute you go to bed to help you stay sober on a daily basis. If you do these things, I promise you, you're going to have this epic life. If you don't do these things, I can' promise you any of that because these are the things that I do. And this is what my life looks like. So almost every year. And so I'm so grateful for Marcus. I love. I love Marcus. I hope he listens to this podcast, but he knows the truth. I try to call him every year on my anniversary. And on my anniversary, I had an amazing day. I spent the day with my sons. It was actually the CrossFit games. And I took my sons, we had some breakfast, we hopped in the truck and we drove to the. The CrossFit games were in my area. They were in Albany this year. And we drove to the CrossFit games and it was, like, super cool for them. I knew a lot of people there, so they thought their dad was famous. And we got a lot of free cool stuff. The guys at rad, big shout out to Adam Klink. He hooked us up. He gave the boys sneakers. Me sneakers. I mean, like, we just got the royal treatment there. It was super dope. And Greg from CrossFit HQ, like, thank you so much, dude, for just taking such good care of us. Anyway, it was super fun for me and the boys to be there and with such awesome hospitality. We had just an epic day. And then we left the CrossFit games and the Bass Pro Shop just opened up in Albany as well. So we drove to the bass pro shop, and we had this awesome time at the bass pro shop. Bought some fishing stuff for our trip coming up in Lake George. And then we came home. My wife had cooked some really great dinner, and then it was time to put the boys down. I went outside. It was a beautiful night. It was a little bit chilly, and I actually treated myself to a cigar. And I sat up at the fire pit myself with my cigar. Like, looking out at the nature, I feel so lucky that I am able to be in such. Like, I don't. I'm not in close proximity to nature. I live in, like, rural New York in, like, I'm in nature every day. And I called Marcus, and I was like, yo, dude, I'm calling you, man. Hit me with some. Hit me with some gems. And I shared with him something that I think, well, I want to share with you guys. Not many. And I'm not saying this as to, like, pat myself on the back or to be cool or to get your, you know, sort of, like, approval to make you want to think. I'm like, whatever. I am not afraid of most things in life. I. For whatever reason, most things don't scare me in all genres. Like, I do have this weird sort of I'm not afraid, probably gene. However, the thing that has scared me from as early as I can remember is fear of getting sick with a bad disease or some sort of a catastrophic illness of some sort. And specifically for me, it is cancer. In the later part of my life, when I was a young little kid, it was like appendicitis. And I know this is weird, but it is something that. It's something that. That I think stems from maybe a trauma that I had when my father. My father was a type 1 diabetic. When I was really little, I remember my grandfather had took my whole family to Disney World in Florida. And at Disney World, my father had a diabetic seizure, a severe one. His face turned blue, foaming at the mouth, convulsing on the floor. And I remember how scared I was, and it was terrifying for me. And I was on the floor crying. I was so scared. Everybody surrounded us. Police, ambulance. It was, like, really traumatic. And I think that might have sent some sort of, like, a severe trauma into my subconscious. And maybe that is what projects this fear of disease and sickness and cancer specifically for me today. But I do have this fear. And I know it's a fear, and I know it's. And I know fear. You know, the fear is false. Evidence appearing real in many cases. So I'm aware of that. I know that this is definitely a trauma response for me of something deeper. However, it's a fact I do go there. It does bring anxiety and stress into my life. And so I said to Marcus, man, like, dude, 21 years sober. I'm so grateful. I'm so grateful that you showed up that day. Hey, I want to talk to you about this. This thing that I've been thinking a lot about. And it's this fear that I have that I'm going to get cancer. And I don't know what it is. Is it a fear of death? Is it. Is it really a fear of, like, not being with. Not being able to be with my family and support them? Like, I'm sure it's a culmination of all those things. And said to me something. He was like, yeah, I get it, Mike. He's like, let me give you a tool. And now that tool has been so helpful for me, and I want to share that tool with you. He said, bring it back to the breath. Always to the breath. And you guys have heard me talk a lot about breath work, but he's not talking about breath work. You guys have heard me talk a lot about meditation. He's not talking about meditation. He's talking about in the moment when something comes up that you don't like or in general, be mindful of your breath throughout your day. Just breathe and think about your breath. So simple. The breath is the most efficient way to ground and presence ourself. And if we're thinking about something that doesn't exist, it means that we're totally out of the present moment and we're future tripping. And it was, like, so easy for him to say that to me, but so profound for me to hear it and then put it into practice. So, like, I have been really using that a lot. Like, I will just stop and I will just, like, in the middle, like, wherever I am on the train right before the podcast, as I'm saying this to you, like, I'm gonna be like. And there's something super grounding and peaceful about it. And the more I do it, it shouldn't be like, oh, yeah, I meditate for, you know, 15 minutes in the morning, or I do breath work, like, every couple of weeks or once a month. You know, it should be like, no, man, the breath is like, the breath. Breath is life. Breath is. And he just made it. He shared that with me. So simple. And it was like, it was something that I'M now gonna use all the time and have with me forever. If I'm stressing out about something, chances are I'm not breathing properly and I'm breathing either too fast or too slow. Typically too fast. So I slow it down or I'm holding my breath. It really, really helped me to hear that from him. I don't know, maybe it's something that will really, really help you, because it really, really helped me. That was it for today, guys. I hope this podcast helped. Share it with a friend. Share it with a family member. Give us a rating. A review subscribe to this bad boy post about it. Trying to grow the thing. We're not here without you. Appreciate you until the next one. Y' all have a great week. Peace.