I Am Excited to Learn How to Keep Moving Forward Because I Don’t Want to Go Back to Who I Used to Be — The Emotional Growth That Helped Me Trust My Higher Power as I Become the Person I Was Born to Be

for more, knowing something is missing.

“Then this podcast is for you, so here's your host, Joe Middigan.”

Hello and welcome to we. There comes a point in our healing when something begins to change. For a long time, I thought healing was about fixing what hurt. I wanted to understand my pain. I wanted to understand my fear.

I wanted to understand why I felt so lonely, overwhelmed, anxious, angry. Our stock all the time, and you know what, little by little, I began to heal. But something happened that I wasn't really expecting. As I started healing, I began to realize that I didn't want to go back to the person I used to be, not because that person was bad, of course.

“That person, the old me, was doing the best I knew how to do, though, quite honestly,”

I was simply surviving. I was reacting to life through the pain, through my fears. Of course, the old beliefs and the experiences that had shaped my entire life. But as I began to understand myself emotionally and spiritually, I started to see something

I could never see before.

Healing wasn't only changing how I felt. Healing was changing who I was becoming. And that realization, quite honestly, was pretty exciting. But to tell you the truth, it was more than just a little scary. Because when we begin letting go of who we used to be, we don't always know exactly who

we're becoming.

“The old version of ourselves, it's familiar.”

Old thoughts are familiar. Old relationships are familiar. Old reactions are familiar. Even old pain can feel familiar. And sometimes, believe it or not, those familiar feelings feel safer than the unknown.

Even when we know the familiar isn't where we want to live anymore. And that's where I found myself. I knew I wanted to keep moving forward. I knew I didn't want to go backwards. But I was beginning to understand that moving forward would require something more than simply

changing my circumstances. I had to learn to trust the person I was becoming. And even more importantly, I had to learn to trust that my higher power might know who that person was before I did. Maybe I didn't need to have the rest of my life all figured out.

Maybe I didn't need to know exactly where this journey was taking me. Maybe my responsibility was simply to keep growing, keep healing, keep learning. And keep taking the next step. Because perhaps the purpose of everything I had been through wasn't simply to help me feel better.

Perhaps it was preparing me to become someone new, someone more loving, someone more peaceful, someone more courageous, someone more connected. Someone capable of living with purpose and helping other people along the way.

And today I have to tell you, I'm pretty excited because I never look back and I am super

excited that I'm always moving forward. I'm excited to discover who I'm becoming tomorrow because today it's been a pretty good day. My name is Joe Mitigah and this is we. Welcome everybody. Welcome to the Wii podcast and as always, I want to just tell you how grateful I am that

you're all here with me and it's been an exciting week.

My world is one of those that's kind of, I'm a half empty nester.

“I'm a two-thirds empty nester, my oldest son as in college now and my dog of almost 12”

years, Zeus passed away a couple of weeks ago. So used to be a household before and the two loudest ones, my dog and my oldest are now in their next adventure and myself and my youngest son Ryan, you know, we have a wonderful time together. Ryan spends a lot of time with his mom so my silence and my stillness has really been

quite amazing and I have to tell you I'm excited to share that the piece in my heart today

is really, it kind of takes my breath to be honest with you. Sometimes I remember back on how it just carried it and how crazy and how painful and how hurting and all of life used to be and now it's just not, it's really not and you know, this is a great topic I have for us today, the whole idea of moving forward and the emotional growth that helped me move forward and this whole concept of not only what a higher power

is but trusting a higher power and then acting on it based on trust, you know, I've said years ago, what is faith is faith is trust in action and you can have all the faith in the world but if you don't take action on it, nothing really changes and you know, I'm here to share that it's time and you know, the the we podcast is a podcast where

“I have a calling quite honestly to challenge some of the social norms.”

If you've listened to any of my podcasts, I do it around a original eye with no judgment, no right or wrong. I'm a guy who says if the it is working for you, please keep doing it and I applaud you and your it and my it, I'm sure very different in a lot of ways but the reason for the

podcast originally, it's initial form and this is my 50 second episode was to truly honor

this thing called spiritual growth, people considering themselves more spiritual and religious and the reason I talk from that side is because that's my pack. Now if I was deeply religious or in the Christian world or, you know, more from a place of the Bible, I would be here sharing those experiences but I'm not, you know, religion didn't work for me.

I have some wonderful people that work for their whole lives. Some of the kindest, most loving people were deeply Catholic, my priest, father camp. He saved my life and I don't mean figuratively.

I mean literally, it was a man that in the eighth grade, my dad was never around and he would

go out of his way to come pick me up, take me in the car and he's the one that helped me, taught me how to lift weights. Now as I grow older, he knew straight up. I did not believe his message from the Paul, but I didn't, but I believed his living. And that's what I talk about here.

I talk about a monolithic God and love. The foundation of all essence is a monolithic God and love. How you get there, I'm not to judge. I can only share my experience trying to hope, so I'm glad you're here. I've said it a thousand times.

If you can make it through my podcast, you are an absolute spiritual warrior, my last podcast on sexual abuse. It's one of the top podcasts now out there in my episodes and you can make it through that. I applaud you.

That was not an easy conversation. It was one, it was actually the one podcast that it took me a long time in preparation. I'm a guy that pretty much, I speak from the heart and I share what I'm feeling, I share my experience, I let everybody know. I'm not a doctor, I'm not a researcher, I'm not a therapist, I'm certainly not a teacher.

I'm just a guy and you know, I say that all the time, but I'm not kidding. I'm just a guy.

“And it's interesting because if you saw me, if you would say, well, who is this Joe God?”

You know who I am, I'm the man sitting next to you at church. I'm the man sitting next to you at the baseball game. Look across the grocery aisle, you'll see me, I'm right there, that's me, nothing more, nothing

I have the same struggles as you do, I have the same challenges you do, the literal only

difference with me and most, I've been on a conscious path since 1990, my first conscious,

my first therapy session, where I learned about the inner child was February the 16th, 1990. And for a lot of you on this podcast, you were young, probably really young in 1990, pre-malinia, pre-internat, pre-salphone, pre-texting, pre-google, pre-everything the world says as normal today.

And my first conscious thoughts were a couple of years before that. And you know, and I say that, so what makes me a little different than most practice, but doesn't make me any different, doesn't.

“And that's why I share from the heart, I just share me.”

And you know, you and me were the same. And that's why I call the podcast, the We podcast, a community and connection in a divided world. And the divided world isn't the sense of person to person or essence to essence. It's because we're all around the world, literally, and I want to welcome people from around

the world. podcast is literally exploding, welcome everybody in Norway, United Kingdom, Canada. Thank you. Thank you for your support. Thank you for being here.

Thank you for telling people about what we're doing, Kenya, Malaysia, South Korea. I mean, I have to literally just stop sometime. I am so humbled. I don't, you know, it brings tears to my eyes. It really does.

To think that people around the globe are listening to this message and it doesn't really surprise me, not because I'm seeing anything special. And when I say that I'm not putting myself down, I'm not, I'm just a guy and I'm not kidding, but it's humbling. It is.

The biblical quote, you shall do what I have done in grander things, that the technology of today allows people to reach the globe with a click of a button. And that's exactly what's happening with the we podcast. And I am extremely grateful that you're here.

“The overarching foundation of why I believe this is so important, the message I put”

out there is because we are the generation of change. We just are. I've done numerous podcasts on this. I have a keynote presentation. I do on this particular topic. You know, I literally believe over the next 10 years that the masses can heal the physical

ailments of the world of the globe. A lot of you know, I did a TEDx a year ago or so and South Africa.

And I learned that the continent of Africa, 400 million people don't have running water.

I just didn't know before and you know, I'm a guy that can't unsee something. I can't like, oh, be really bothered by it on a Tuesday and wake up on a Wednesday and act like there's nothing wrong. I can't do it. It's not me.

“And that's really the foundation of how the we podcast was started, truly, on that”

concept right there. And because of technology, because of the global economy, because of the long-term caregivers, because of generation, lab, and other things, we literally have the capacity as a humanity to make sure that the people on the globe that are in the poorer communities with less resources, the rest of us, if we share one percent, simply one percent of the wealth.

There would be no human on the planet that didn't have running water. And I'm going to share a story later on how that all came true, literally, and my non-profit projects mile helped. And that's one of the reasons I'm here, how the we podcast was started. I came back from South Africa.

I started a live stream called We Think Go Viggar. And got that live stream up to over 50,000 people. And my very last guest, his name is Farhan, he's an owner of a development company in Dubai. He was my last guest, and I'm going to share that story on how this man's spiritual essence and his spiritual communion is about giving back.

I literally just saw a presentation that he gave on LinkedIn. And I'm going to talk about that later. I'm going to tell that story on the why we need to move forward, because together we're changing the world. We really are.

We're healing the world.

And from the physical sense of things, basically, it's money.

The only reason human beings don't have running water, money.

The only reason there's the simplest of diseases, literally one of my groups in Uganda, these kids, they have no shoes. No shoes. Well, we got them shoes, but we have to get them nuts. I don't know, air conditioning, they sleep in big ass huts, but because if they get bit

by mosquitoes, malaria, kill some. Like, I don't know, I'm going to kid a year, but a bunch crazy doesn't need to be that way.

“And I believe with awareness, we can heal all of that, the human physical challenges of”

the world like that I really do. And, you know, that's a big reason I'm here. That's a big reason to bring awareness to that type of stuff. If you look at most of my social media, please follow me around on my different social media platform.

And I always have to kid because I wish I'd write them down.

I don't know the platform's names. I've thought my head. I know LinkedIn. Instagram is one, Facebook is another, I don't know, y'all know better than I do. Look up my name, Joe Mediga, something you'll find me.

And follow me. Please. Why?

“Because what are you going to see there?”

You're going to see Joe promoting Joe. Now, you're going to see Joe promoting Project Smile. And please, put the message out. We can help others. We really can.

And that's all about healing of humanity. It is. My ultimate goal, heal humanity once a mile at a time. My little nonprofit is about helping bring water. What's yours?

And I know a lot of you don't have a nonprofit, which is fine. But there's also ways you can give back and the moving forward and the living from the highest of you is about figuring out your action steps on a daily basis that you can add to start giving back a little bit. And that we're going to talk about that later on in the show.

And the foundation of the show, the true foundation, is to help people heal. We live in an era of time where humanity is a concept, the entire humanity consciousness of humanity is waking up. It's waking up to the feminine side of herself. It is.

And I always use the example of 100, 200 years ago, the owning of a human perfectly fine.

I literally, my last podcast was a story which would have been, I spoke to the grandson who's now 76 years old, so it had been his grandfather, however, whatever era of time that was, where he used his wife in a community neighborhood as a prostitute to make money and thought nothing of it, and the community did zero, not a nothing. Think about how unconsciously dead that humanity had to be, that consciousness had to

be. Well, when I think about it, that was probably around the 1900s somewhere that time, what the heck, 50 years before that, owning a human was okay here in the United States. Well, I share all that because we now, I'm not saying there's not an epidemic of human trafficking and all of the abuse out there, there is.

And there's a global fight, a healing. There's a global fight to stop it, to shift it, to change it, to grow, because humanity's waking up, perfect example. Again, as we wake up, there are the rest of us, the 99.99% of us that are in a place to where we're going through things inside of ourselves that you might not have before.

And you're waking up spiritually, but the challenge is the more you wake up spiritually,

“there's going to be emotional challenges that you have to walk through.”

There are. There just is. The concept of the new thought movement of 40 years ago, it worked forever, the changing of your thoughts. Great, is it a wonderful technique, yes, is meditation, a fabulous support, yes, to either

one of them heal, H-E-A-L anything, does it heal anything, no, it doesn't. I literally just saw a clip on a real, where a lady, 4,000 years at the best school in the fricking planet, not brain controls everything. We can just poof-o-click, go, and it's all done if we want it to be. You know what, I promise not to cuss, but if I was cussing, I would just start cussing

right now. Man, I'm sorry, you're wrong, wrong, falsehood, not true.

years, and she says it's true.

That's not true, how do I know? Because if it was true, everybody on this podcast, which is global, which was actually ranked 57th in the globe, you know one would be on my podcast. If what this woman's delusional ridiculousness was true, why do I get so big?

“Because influences of the day put out this fast fix, automatic, it's all you have to”

do is change your mind, and if you can't, it's your fault as if that's true, it's not true, it's false, and I'm just big enough to tell you, it's not true. So if you've had voices in your head that are driving you nuts, we've got techniques to help.

It's got all the first steps, start writing them down.

If you've got angst and you're taking your stuff out on your wife fellas, have you started the 15 minutes of beating the bed? There's several things I'm going to talk about every podcast before I get into the topic of the podcast. And one of it is emotional release in a healthy way.

I have zero tolerance for men taking their anger out of women. Zero, less than zero, not a, it has to stop. How?

“I hear a lot of influences, I hear a lot of people out there saying how poor, but how?”

The how-to fellas is get a bunch of pictures of people you don't like, like, including

your wife, everyone's probably shit doesn't have to know. She's going to push her button, she's in your world to push your buttons. It's not her responsibility for your rage. It's okay, put her picture in the pile though. And on Saturday before the football game, when your buddies are drinking and having beer,

go into one of their extra bedrooms with a waffle ball bat and start beating the bed on those pictures. 15 minutes a week fellas, it's all I'm asking, 15 minutes a week. I promise you, your entire life will change in 90 days or less. It'll change in 90 days or less.

If you just get the release valve of rage out in a healthy way on the bed, instead of drinking beer all day long. Silence. You know, people wonder how do they find their higher power? How do they know where their higher power is?

If the higher power is in us, Joe, how do we do it? The how-to, how do we follow it? You have to be able to hear it. How do you hear it? It's the quiet voice.

How do I get to the quiet voice, practice silence? A silence isn't no moment, silence doesn't silence is no external stimuli, no radios, no talking, no internet, no kids, no flipping of the reels, all that stuff. And notice the big thoughts and listen for the small thoughts, listen, and I'm asking everybody and I've been doing this now for several weeks and I hope there's a lot of

you on here now that can say, yeah, Joe, you know, I've gotten in the routine, I got up a little earlier and I've started my five minutes of pursuing silence. I say to people all the time, if I can go five or six hours, you can go five or six minutes about two months ago or so. I was, I follow my higher power voice almost exclusively now, I really do.

And that's one of the advantages because I spent so many years healing the pain, all on loving, shame-based guilt-based, hurt-based, hate-based voices in your head come from

“a hurt-little kid in your heart, all the voices in your head, that's why the affirmation”

concept doesn't work, all the voices in your head are sourced from a hurt in your heart, all of them, 100% of them are sourced from the hurt in your heart, heal the hurt in your heart, the voices go, oh, I. And as a lot of you know, but I know a lot of new people, welcomed everybody new, I spent seven years starting in April of 1994, when I had memories of being sexually abused as a little boy, brand new memories. I was 31 years old, I spent

the following seven years in silence and solitude, isolation, literally with just me seven years. I had a therapist, that was it. I moved to a city gain spell for three of those years, 50 miles away from everybody. And nighttime, because I lived in a business district, I was three miles from a living human, literally. And I spent that time healing, I did, giving

called. I have numerous podcasts on dual hand journaling. And that's how you heal. You give a voice

to your darkest parts. You give a voice to your deepest emotional hurting parts. Give a voice through the dual hand journaling. Eventually, you're going to feel grief. As you emotes the grief, you will be amazed at how wonderful eventually you feel. I've got a great story. I'm going to talk about on that topic later on in the episode of a woman that I've been working with now for a while. And it's working. And her spiritual communion now is her words. Joy, it's just

hard for me to comprehend. Because it works. It really does. Why? Well, because the feminine side of self is waking up. And if the feminine side of self is waking up, if the feminine side of self is where your spiritual communion is, your emotional senses there too. And if God is love, if we're trying to commune with this thing called God or higher power or oneness or universe or Jesus or whatever adjective you're putting on your divinity, right? If you described it with one word,

you would call love the word. Well, love is an emotion. The challenge is to really have communion

“oneness with this higher sense of self. You have to have oneness with your emotions. The challenge”

is, as we go emotional inside, there's so much suppressed emotion because we grew up in an era of time 30, 40, 50 years ago, where emotional support, it wasn't the thing. What we did do we just were? We lived in an unconscious society. We did. Good or bad? No, hurtful or hateful? No. Simply unconscious. Our parents did the best they could. And we were emotionally neglected in abandon because of it. We just were. It's not a bad thing. I'm not judging. It's just the facts.

Well, today, it's up to us to give a voice to the hurt little kid that wasn't given a voice 50 years ago, 55 years ago in my world, 60 years ago in my world. And people say, well, that happened 50 years ago. You know, kidding. I know. And if it wasn't still affecting you today, you wouldn't make that reactionary comment period. You know what? Well, we're going to talk about all that, too.

“We are. That's what we're here to do. And when you understand that we are an emotional being”

and we're as a human being, we have two sides of self, the male side and the female side, the male side, mental, physical. The female side, emotional, spiritual. Humanity has been dominated from millennia, from the mental side of self. Good or bad? No, just what it's been. The brain and the physical. If you were smart and you could physically dominate, you conquered you controlled period, asked the Roman Empire, Mr. Caesar. He wasn't a very loving guy. He killed

anybody that didn't agree with them. He killed their families first and then them. Why? Control.

Is that a big exaggerated example? No, it's not. Look at the history of the church and and governments a thousand years ago. They dominated their male dominance. And quite honestly, just look at history. 50, 60, 70 years ago here in the United States, 98% male dominated, men dominated. Now, male energy isn't just in men. Everybody, it's gender, it's not gender specific. But the feminine side of self is waking up in men and women. And quite honestly, men are much

more entuned with their feminine energy than men are. I have come across some of the most

powerful women ever that have been on a spiritual and emotional journey the past 20, 30 years

that in their most wounded states of emotional reactionary life, in their most addictive satiation times of their life, their gut instinct was still available to them. Could they follow it? No, was it available? Yes, it is. How do I know that gut instinct thing? Because literally, after all these years, about 90 days ago, my own intuition gut instincts started opening up.

“And that's why women that go through the emotional growth and the spiritual wisdom”

and then add their instinct, their intuition to it, their powerhouses. And quite honestly, in my opinion, women are the true essence of the healing of humanity. And I believe that with all my heart, I really, really do. And from that sense, feminine, male side, feminine side,

we have to be willing to emote all of those, mad, glad, sad and scared. And the delusional ridiculousness that the spiritual process is all about the happy and the joyous and the wonderment and the free, it's all BS. And if you live in some nonsense that says, oh, if I just to pray more, then God's going to make it, no, God's not codependent folks. God will give you the strength and courage to walk out of your challenge. And God will give you the grace and glory

when you're on top of the mouth. You will. God's job to rescue you is God's job to give you the strength and courage to walk out and rescue yourself. And I've had numerous people that have

“been confused in that delusion. I said all the time. That's why I was an F. U. God guy. And for those”

of you that don't know what that means, you know, I was in so much pain for so many years. I just

knew for a fact that couldn't be a God. No way. And I was never atheist, but that's why I say,

F. U. I was an F. U. God guy. And now I consider myself a God guy. And I said, there's no way there could be a God in me being so much pain. There's just no way. And then later, much later, eight, nine, ten years later, I heard the voice to say, God didn't cause your pain. God's not the reason you're in pain. You are Joe. You're environment neglected. You're environment abandoned you. And your behaviors, as you got older, doubled and tripled. Every time you drink,

Joe, you abandon yourself. Every time you act it out, Joe, you neglected yourself. Every time

“you cause somebody else pain. You abused yourself, Joe. That's why code dependence is such a”

toxic stamp of our society, quite honestly. And this, this episode is about code dependence. And I'm going to bring some, I'm going to challenge some of the human norms around that entire concept.

I am because I, I got a story I'm going to tell. And I always say there's nothing more toxic

than sexual abuse. And I believe that with Omaha, there is. And addiction just freaking kills. You know, addiction kills. It kills the soul. It kills the spirit. It kills the kills. And literally physically, you drink too much again and I, you leverage the stops and you die. And same with drugs of course, but code dependence, it's like the silent killer. And what does it kill? Does it kill physically? No, not literally, not literally physically. But what it kills is a steam. What it kills is

self-worth. What it kills is personal value. And we're going to talk about that today because I literally watch people that if the whole Allen, A, A is for the alcoholic, you know, the person addicted and the A, the 12 steps in the addiction process of alcohol or drugs or food or sex, whatever. It's the powerless process to a substance that, you know, the 12 steps of bill W are created around alcohol is 100 years ago. Well, Allen is for the person was typically,

it was basically created way back when to help the partner of the alcoholic stop rescuing the alcoholic

and stay with themselves. Find your own sense of self and stop rescuing somebody else in labeling it love because it's not. And you know, I was talking about that in the last episode where for every perpetrator out there, there's 50 victims. Some perpetrator, there's 250 victims. A lot of those perpetrators, they're just law souls. Do I think we could heal some of them? Yes, I do. And like I've told everybody, you break the law, I take you to jail and I did listen to last episode. But that

last episode would more about the 50 people who the perpetrator hurt and are you healing. I gave the story about sexual abuse and my lineage stopped with me because I chose to heal. I chose to feel the depths of my pain. I chose to get the support needed so that I could give a voice to my most powerless part, a seven-year-old little boy who was terrorized by two 18-year-olds.

“And I gave a voice to that part and if I can, you can, where the generation of change, that's how we”

heal literally. And, you know, my foundation message is if I can, you can, literally. And I mean that wholeheartedly, there is nothing special about me, nothing. And I say that, nothing uniquely different

a resource I have that anyone listening doesn't have. Everything I have, you have available to you. Literally, I start homeless and now I'm a global podcaster because I'm special. No, because I had a

million dollars. No, because I was famous. None of those things. Because I started.

Why show a global podcaster? Joe's not a global podcaster. We is a global podcast.

“And we, you and me, this is ours. Not Joe's. It's ours. How do I know?”

Because how else would that be? I have to just tell you this. When I say I'm not special, I'm not unique. There's nothing in me that all of you don't have. Truly, and I'm not kidding. You know, I struggle with money. I struggle. I couldn't stay married. You know, I raised two boys by myself. I haven't had a female partner in a decade. You know, so those of you that are single, those of you that wonder if you're going to ever have a partnership here. I get it.

You know, I wonder sometime if I'll ever have a partnership in my life. Again, I do. I do. Now, for 10 years, I chose not to, because I chose to give all my overflow to my kids.

“But I wonder that now. So there's not a, there's not an issue you have in your external world. I don't”

literally have us were speaking. Do I have a million dollars in the bank? No. I've got a business that pays my bills. I've got a house that I've got equity in. Barrier. Do I have big savings? No. How did I do this? Herendous. My mother died. When my mother died, she worked for 40 years. My self and my three sisters all got a little bit of money. I invested what I got in a piano for my youngest son, part of school for my oldest son, a basement where my youngest son lives

in the we podcast. Why? Because I want to get the message out. Truly, why am I doing the we podcast for the one person? If there's one person I can help, then the seven years have misery I lived in. It's all worth it. And I was thinking, literally, I literally, right before I got on the show tonight, I pulled up and the we podcast is ranked 57th in the globe. Right now, tonight, and I'm looking around and I am like humbled by the podcast and these people around the we podcast

amazing global figures with amazing messages and amazing personalities and wealth and so much hope and so much wisdom. And we is right in the center of them. Why? Because it's not Joe folks, it's the message. It's my divinity speaking to your divinity and together we're doing this together. Some of the names on that list, Megan Kelly, fabulous Tucker Carlson, amazing, Jamie Kern Lima, fabulous one of my most favorite person people ever, Michelle Obama and President Obama.

“And even though quite honestly, I might have some political differences with President Obama,”

I have never, ever in my entire life been more inspired by one human being than Mr. Obama,

and I'm sitting here saying the we podcast shares the same stage, why folks, because we're doing it together. Us, it's not the man, it's the message. And the message in me is the message in you. I say all the time, there's nothing different about me, who would I be? My sons, I was never baseball coach. My kids have elite talents, not because of Joe. I can't throw a baseball, literally, I can't throw a baseball, but I could bring the first aid kit. My son was a catcher.

And he'd get beat up, he'd get bruised, and then literally for five years, if any of these boys needed a band aid, then y'all for pop a map, I'm pop a myth to all of my sons' teammates. Now, I was that, I was just another dad. And I always was pop a myth. I was the guy because my son needed, you know, band, it's more than most being a catcher. That boys, they would scuff their knees, they would get big calluses, whatever they would call me. From young, nine, ten years old,

five of those boys got drafted just this past draft. 30 or 40 of those boys now are playing college

baseball. My son started his first college. My son always played up. He's always been an elite

player, so he always played up in age. And in 2029, the summer draft, the 2029, look for the name

There's a God inside him, and his skills are of God, and it's up to you to live those talents.

“And that's the thing I can say that I always did. I always taught my kids. And that's what I'm”

sharing here. And that's what I want to talk about today is the reason we want to move forward. Like, what is the real reason? Because we were all born to live as the grander sense of ourselves. And I don't care where you started. I know 99% of you would not have started where I started. Homeless seven years in a warehouse. No. Most of you started in a very different place. And I'm going to ask the question now, you know, because it's important. We want to bring

conscious awareness to your conscious path. Do you remember what your first conscious thought was?

Mine was. The police officers are not trying to get me to stop driving. They're trying to get me to stop drinking and driving. That was my first conscious thought after my second, do you why? Many, many years ago. What was yours? Write it down. And then think about the conscious thoughts you have. And what is that? On a conscious thought is on a Tuesday, you see something a particular way and a Wednesday, you see it differently. That's conscious thought. That's conscious awareness

brings spiritually aware. Now, when you wake up and you have something different,

“the living of it is called spiritual growth. And literally that's why the second part of”

this podcast, right? The emotional growth and the spirits are growth that took me so I could trust my higher power. It's in the trusting of the higher power. It's in the trusting that there's something else guiding you that helps you to move forward. And it's time for us as a humanity, because that's how we heal to start figuring out what it is is you. What are you going to start doing on your Tuesday morning that is making sure you're constantly moving forward?

Emotionally you're going to be growing. Emotionally you're going to be shifting. Emotionally you're going to go deeper. Emotionally you're going to heal. Yes. Of course. Wonderful. Different topic. I'm talking about moving forward from a position of guidance system,

“a part of you guiding you and the guidance system in one of my podcasts way back when when I lost”

my dad. That was a podcast that I did back in January. And I will tell you folks, I am very connected. I am very practice. I share that from a place of humility. I share that from a place that

says, if I can't, you can, that's for darn sure. Because I never was searching for a relationship

power greater than myself. I was never searching for a relationship with a power greater than myself. Never, not at all. And as I just kept emotionally healing and emotionally healing, all I ever wanted to do was stop hurting. That's it. Nothing more. Nothing left. We wanted to stop hurting. Well, as I stopped hurting, that emotional side of me, the awakening started to happen. I could feel I could sense I could hear a voice that wasn't mine.

My first book in her child has rights to channeled through me two and a half years into sobriety, hundred and six thousand eight hundred and forty-one words. Visit my website, folks. JoeMidega.com and download the book. Join one of the book clubs. You know, that website we're working on it for those people are going to be listening to this podcast a year from today. Go to

JoeMidega.com and download all my books. The first one is called "Filling the Void." Used to be

called your inner child as rights to. Now it's filling the void. A common man's quest to become one with God. And that whole idea, right? It was channel through me. It wasn't me. It was a math guy. I would hear voices. I would hear literally of voice. And I used to say, I'm not writing. The voices say, you're writing, Joe. I'm not writing. You're going to write, Joe. Now, let me put it in context. At this point, I'd already moved out of games while I was there over two years.

I'm now living in a room. My counselor had a room. Now this is back when a room cost a hundred to see the hundred and ninety or two hundred dollars a month. I had a room in a bathroom. No TV, no phone, a car that didn't work. Almost no money. I lived in less than $3,000 a month for seven years. Now I'm in this room and I would sit, endless hours, battling with my own

talking. I mean, what the heck would I know about that? But it was. And then eventually, I got

legal side pieces of paper and I started writing. And the whole book, 275 words, came through me. That book will be out to the public here very soon, called "Filling the Voine." Please rate it. And share your feedback with me. I really look forward to hearing your feedback. And join one of the book clubs because we're creating an entire system to help people truly use the book. What is the book? It's my story on how I gave a voice to my inner child and how I used the

12 steps to commune with God. That's it. That's my whole book. And rate it. See what's to think. Do the exercises. And it will help the concept of moving forward. And why do you want to do it?

Because I can promise you, you would you'll enjoy having a life where your voices aren't

torn torturing you. Where the angst in your heart isn't part of your day. Where the dull ache in your belly goes away. You will. And how do I know? Because I don't have that anymore. I don't.

“I live a very blissful life. And that's why I want to talk about because”

this whole concept, the whole idea that money in fame and location and building something big and all that causes serenity. Not true. Not. And I'm going to talk about that here at the end of the podcast. And I'll tell you the facts. I'll show you literally the facts and how I know that's not true. Let alone my own story. What causes all that? Healing. When we emotionally heal, the wounds of our past, when there's no emotional angst in our belly, then the voices in our

head go away. And when the heal, the angst in your belly and the voices go away, that's serenity. And from a place of serenity, there's a place of okayness, from a place of okayness, there's a sense of fullness, from a sense of fullness. And you start giving that fullness back out into the world.

“That's where you live from grace instead of gratitude. And that's what this whole process is about.”

That's what the whole we movement is all about. That's how we heal humanity. Joe's goal is a

hundred million downloads a month because I want to help a hundred million people heal the emotional

sense of themselves by learning how to dual-hand journal, to learning how to write down the voices. And if you're going deep, get yourself support, find your and then find your things that you're going to help give back to. You know, it's interesting because I'm now investigating a couple of different, a couple of different non-profits that are making true differences. And as I do it, I'm going to have the founders of these non-profits on the show.

And I'm starting to create a list and I'm starting to interview people to start having guests on the Wii 5 guest. And I've already checked a bunch of people off because I'm not going to have a guest on here. That's going to tell you what to do, person. I'm only going to have people on here. And I don't care their fame. I don't care how important they are, or how much money they make, and how many people follow them on TikTok. I don't care. I care if they've got the ability

and the wisdom and the humility to share their experience strength and hope. I want to know what they did on their darkest day on a Tuesday. And then what they did the following Tuesday? What they did the following Tuesday? Because if they don't tell us what they did on a Tuesday, when they're dark, there's no sense of hope that when they get glory. When they live the success, and a lot of you are in those dark Tuesdays, y'all. And I'm sorry. And if I can get out,

you can get out. Pray for strength. Pray for courage. Do what I did. I didn't ask to be rescued.

“I prayed for strength and courage from a power greater than myself. That's how I kept moving forward.”

And I kept moving forward. And over time, I'm going to have others with the same stories. Their stories, their styles, Mr. Farhan, which I'm going to talk about Farhan and what he did in such a wonderful way in the next episode in the Thursday episode. But it's really one of those ideas that the more okay you are. Now it's time to shift from constantly trying to be more okay, more okay, to giving back. I literally sit on LinkedIn. I mean on a daily basis. Where I see numerous

people. I just got another self-help but the degree. And I just got another just went to another retreat in Frickton, Brazil. And I felt the most peaceful I ever did because I was an error.

And that doesn't create grace. You know folks, most of you on this podcast. Now there's a

“button. There's some. You're in dark spots. But a lot of you aren't. And what you're missing,”

but you're literally missing and you're hanging here. It's time for you to figure out your give back. It's time for you to figure out what you're going to be doing on a Tuesday morning to start giving back just a little. Why? Because you've got the overflow to do it. You've got the wisdom to do it. You've got the, you've got the warrior in you to do your next it. How do I know that? Because if you can make it through my podcast, if you're a repeat listener

of my podcast, means you are a true spiritual warrior. There's two people on this podcast. People that are so freaking wounded and so much hurt and so they're here for hope and just grasping for anything. And the rest of you, the other 80% of you, everything I'm saying is validating

a truth that's already in you. I'm mirroring back something you've always known, but you don't see it

on the pulpit. You certainly don't see it from other influencers. You're here at here. You're already there because you've done a lot of work. You've been the 20 year, 12 step or you've been on your conscious path for 10 years. You've stopped drinking years ago. And oh yeah, by the way, I always have to bring this out. When was last time you went 30 days without drinking? When was the last day you went time, fell as you went 30 days without sex? When was the last time you

went 30 days without some type of mind-numbing substance? And why do I always bring that up? I'm going to make sure I bring it up every podcast because it was February the 13th, 1994.

When I asked myself that question for the very first time, when was the last time I went

30 days? Actually 90 days. The answer I was 15. And my sobriety day is April the 16th, 1994. My alcohol sobriety day is February 13th, 1994. So when was the last time, folks? And I hear the voice, well, you know, it's a Friday. Saturday, Joe, what would a football game

“would be without my beer? It'd be a football game. That's what it would be. Well, you know, Joe,”

it's Tuesday night and I play with the fellows, you know, I've got my bowling league, Joe, what would my women think if I didn't drink with them? Well, they would think that you're on a diet. You actually got some wisdom to you. There's zero health to alcohol folks, zero. Do I have anything against alcohol? No, but I do have something I am very challenged by what it does to the physical body and even more challenged on the Y. Because 99% of you are drinking or drugging or sexing

or acting out some way somehow if you are, not all of you are. But a lot of you are because you're

suppressing an emotion. You're suppressing an emotion. I'll never forget I had a nightmare one time

and I hadn't stopped drinking yet. I had stopped. I was in that battle in the beginning and I had a nightmare of my little kid pulling away from me and me pouring alcohol on his head. Jack Daniels on his head. Hey, folks, you know what? Every time you drink, there's an emotional little kid in you that's getting alcohol on their head. And if you think that's vulgar, if you think that's hateful, if you think that's harmful, tough, it's true. So, last time you went 30 days,

60 days, 90 days. Give it a shot. If you can do it effortlessly, then ask yourself, why on day number 91 would you go back to it? If you can't do it effortlessly, it gets some help. If you get some help. Why? Because you're going to feel better. You're going to emotionally grow and you're going to physically feel better if you don't have substance in your body all the time. And this casual nonsense, well, I only drink every other fourth Thursday. Okay. Am I going to actually hammer

that? No, you're going to don't figure it out. And try going without that once in a while. And just

“see, there might be something under there you need to discover. Might be. And it's a good thing.”

It's really a good thing. I can tell you, in this whole process of discovery, right? In my whole process of grieving and healing, the moving forward part, the hardest time in my entire life was when the seven years of grieving had stopped and life hadn't started. And I'm not kidding. It was an era of time. It was about a year and there where I was so lost and I was so confused

to survive because I was hurting all the time and I was grieving literally on a daily basis of seven

“years were it. So now we're talking the eighth year, right? And I had no television. I went a decade,”

no TV at all, zero, never, never even saw one. I wasn't in a grocery store for 10 years. And what

happens was I meet a friend, her name was Donna and she was just the sweetest kindest human on the planet. And we became friends and she introduced me to her kids and we started dating a little bit. And she was, I introduced her to my therapist. So she knew about the inner child. She knew my path. She knew the intensity of my path. And she was just so kind. She literally helped me like come back into the world in that year, truly. For a lot of you that don't know, I was in that

seven years and I would go out into the woods. And numerous times I would walk as far out of the woods as I can up in the North Georgia mountains. And I would just stay out there. But stay as long

as I could. I would try to bring a little bit of food. I never became a frontier man and like

could find berries and like survive out there. I could never do that. I'd bring a little bit of food so I could stay as long as I could. I'd stay there too. And I'd always try to find a creek to be next to. And numerous times I'd be out there. And myself and the trees, there was no

“difference. The veil was literally removed. My self and the trees. And I remember thinking back then”

that if I would have had my choice, I would have hitched a quest found 5,000 acres figured out how to, you know, be the frontier man and live off the land. And I'd have gone and out of state and bliss with the trees. The challenge was I was too close to my family. I had parents that were still alive. It wasn't dating anybody at the time. But my family ties. I grew up deeply traditional Italian and family is everything to me. It really is. Still is. And my parents were still both

alive. And it was because of that bond with my parents, which I never saw even these times. That

I could never just go get lost in 5,000 acres because I would have. It's definitely a choice would have made. So as now I'm trying to get back into the world, like get back into finding a normal job. And I learned one thing in college that myself and a boss were probably never going to get along. And so I knew I wasn't going to get a big job. So I had to start a business, which I did. And though Donna, in this time, she helped. She took me into a croaker for the very first time

“in a decade, or at least I will never forget as long as I live. We go into a croaker and first”

off it's ginormous. I mean, just huge. And we're walking, and we're walking like the milk. And I hear this cow. It's scared to be Jesus out of me. I was like, what the hell is that? She's the lamb. She's a junior in the milk section. Well, the decade that was gone, grocery stores had advanced. Then we go by the produce and it starts raining on the produce. And some of the things that society caught up with, I was completely away from and out of nowhere. I'm

like in it again. And it's crazy as it sounds. Donna was the sweetness that just helped me through that. And I have some other friends, summer was around a little bit, and other people were around. But she was the main one, which kind of helped me figure out how to do life again, not processing every minute of every day. And the moving forward, I just kept taking another step. It wasn't until much later that I really learned that I could ask God for guidance.

While I was processing all the time, I would say, I would ask for strength and courage. But I never really asked for guidance. It was later where I started asking for guidance. And I've shared the story. I started a business. And I got into, I eventually got married and all that, which that isn't really what today's episode is about. But here we are today. And through that period, I started to grow. I got even more involved with 12 steps. I started working the steps. And I keen to understand

what the 12th step is. For those of you that don't know, 12 step programs are 12 action steps to get your closer to a power greater than yourself. 12 steps have nothing to do with alcohol. Nothing to do

has nothing to do with that. Which I already talked about, alcoholics anonymous. Yeah, no kidding. But it has nothing to do with alcohol. Nothing. AA is a 12 step approach to giving you a different action step instead of drinking. When you're in the center of AA, you have a play of action steps to do instead of drinking. And quite honestly, the relationship you build with a higher power is the gap between you and your last drink. And that's where eventually through the whole discovery

process, there's 12 steps. They're all discovery steps. First one is powerless. The 12th one is service and there's identification of discovery between there. It's why eventually you hear people say I'm a grateful recovering alcoholic. I remember the first time I thought I heard that I said, that is the stupidest thing I've ever heard. Who the heck could be a grateful anything in these bozo rooms? That was how I used to think about it. And what I realized is that over time,

the gratitude was because they had created such a strong communion with their higher power that their need for alcohol was removed because their communion with the higher power was greater

than that. And I just thought that was amazing. I never knew what the hell I were talking about

until later. And then eventually I became a grateful recovering alcoholic. I did. And as all that happened in my own process, I really thought in the emotional side of all this because it's 12 steps. Folks, 12 step programs are not about emotional growth. They're not. They're not designed for emotional growth. It's a therapies for. That's inner child working all that. That is not 12 step.

“12 step don't drink and kill yourself the day. If you're an alcoholic, that's what 12 steps are.”

If Alan and I don't lose yourself the day, you know, that's what it's for. It's kind of about personal emotional growth. It's a different thing, inner child work. Well for me, when I really felt like I'd healed the core of my addiction, I thought I had conquered the world. And then I had to start working on my codependence. And I don't think there's anything more emotionally more challenging than healing your codependence. First off, it's very, very hard to see. Secondly,

it brings up all sorts of neglect and abandonment issues. And thirdly, it's such a confusing thing because the belief system in your human consciousness of your old you, you really think that the action steps you're taking are love. You've convinced yourself. Society says it's love. But in reality, it's codependence. And how do you know the difference? And this is where I challenge people all the time. Literally all the time when I support people. And just so everybody knows,

“when I say my client really the best way to talk about the people I support, I've supported people”

for 30 plus years in my 12th step servers. I charge nobody anything. Everything is free. It's overflow. It's me giving back my wisdom and my support, my love to people. That's what it is. That's what the we podcast is here. Any of the websites that I support divorce post or any of the other ones, I am not affiliated with them at all. Zero. I share about it. Divorce post, especially

is the one I've been sharing about. Not that I know these people. I've never met these people. I

still can. I don't know how to get them. But I have no affiliation with them at all. I share it because I see it. I saw the founder and this is an enlightened spiritually enlightened person deeply emotionally connected to her heart. The founder of that organization. And it's a give back organization. I have a passion for that. My role here at the we podcast is to be the voice our voice as we grow bigger as a bigger footprint. The we podcast is awareness. And then I'm going to be sharing my

places that I find that are support back. Right now I'm looking for an online support for addiction and recovery. I'm looking. I think I found a place. And I'm talking to him yet. And I've got two

“different nonprofits that are we're chose going to give my $40. And if you want to, they'll be on my”

website. You can donate there too. But I'm going to be always encouraging to ask you what's yours.

Go find yours. Well, when I realized how difficult co-dependence is, I never went to Alina meetings. But I became very familiar with that concept. And the story I want to tell today is because today I see people that will stay stuck in the tag lines of a program instead of

I'm talking to you 20 year 12 steppers out there. I'm going to talk to a brand new person. This

“conversation for the next 15 minutes. It's for you 20 year 12 steppers. And why do I get to”

this? Because I'm a 33 32 year 12 stepper. Okay? So I'm talking to you 10 year 12 steppers, 15 year 20 year 12 steppers. Let me make it as clear as I can possibly make it to you. The 12 steps are not designed to give you a scapegoat perspective to stay small, not a zeroness. And I see it all the time. 12 steps, especially now we're talking Alina. You heard me talk about a hear me talk about addicts. You know, you know my, if you've been around, you know my bigness associated. I am empathetic is all get out

for the alcoholic who can't stop drinking. I big and angry for the alcoholic that takes his rage out

on partners around. I can only speak from the male side. I've never sponsored a female alcoholic

and 98% of the male alcoholics. I've sponsored at some point. They take their rage out on their

“partners. And I have no tolerance for that. None. That's why I say go get your 15 minutes of”

the rage out. So, but this time I'm talking about the codependents side, the other side, the, the, the person, the male or female who lives in the belief system. It's their responsibility to rescue. How do you know that belief system? If in your, when you're hearing your thoughts, if somebody else's name is in your thoughts, that's codependents. For example, I have to help them. No,

you don't. I have to fix them. No, you don't. I have to take care of them. No, you don't. Now, I'm not

talking about moms and dads with children. I'm talking about moms and dads with other adults. So, I'm talking about, I'm talking about parenting. I'm talking about caregiving, rescuing. It's a falsehood. It's just a falsehood. It's not true. And most people, well, I have to. I have to take care of them. It's my responsibility to take care of them. It's, I have to. And they label the taking care of delusion. Love. It's not. In fact, if you're the person

out there that keeps your alcoholic partner from hitting a bottom, you're putting nails in his coffin. Hear me, and I know that probably sounds hateful. I really don't care. If you're keeping your alcoholic partner from hitting a bottom, you're, you are participating in their death. I said that this a person that long ago, my couple up in Connecticut, which by the way, they're doing fantastic. I said to the female, get out, get away. Go get safe.

And keep your backside on your couch. But I have to this. I know you don't. Keep your backside on your couch. And to her credit, she did. And she felt a lot of grief. She felt a lot of pain. She felt a lot of angst. She felt a lot of misery. She grieved her grief. But she stayed on her couch. And during that time, those three or four days, where she's on her couch, getting support from her mother and her family and grieving her feelings.

Her alcoholic husband met his demons. Literally, his devil voices, his massive voices, his loneliness, his angst, his eye can't breathe, his bottom, his hurt. I want to kill my said, they took the gun, they took the keys. He couldn't kill himself. So it's all BS. But you know what

“happened because he was in massive amounts of pain because the wife didn't rescue him?”

That's right. He reached out. He called his sponsor, eventually. He's now back in a program, probably close to a month. And she's feeling better than ever. So co-dependence is so toxic and confusing. So I have empathy for it. I do. I'm strong about it because it's social delusion. It's socially made up. Your responsibilities to take care of you. Other people's responsibilities take care of them. I've got a guy, John, who's going to be on this show as a guest and who told

his 20-year-old daughter something like that. I'm going to have him tell the whole story. No, you can't come home. She was addicted to drugs. No, you can't come home. And he said, hardest thing we ever did, John. My wife and I cried for a week. They thought they were giving her death sentence. But they knew if they kept rescuing her from her pain, she was going to kill herself on drugs. The great news about this story 15 years later, the squirrel got into treatment. She's now literally

And the rescue 99.9% of the time is because of your own pain. Period. Well,

“in hell and on, but hell and on does is hell and on basically make sure that you see”

your side of the street and you let the alcoholic see theirs. And you see your side and you just keep saying, well, you know, it's how I perceive things. And I have to make sure that I'm seeing things right. And I have to this and I have to that, which is all wonderful when it's just you and your a couple years in. Now let's fast forward 10 years. If you've been in hell and on for 10 years and you still have a drunken household, why? Why? Similarly, I have to ask yourself that question. What's even worse

is that I see people, they will not justify the unloving behavior, but they can guard themselves from acting as if the unloving behavior is hurting them. By saying, well, it's just how I perceived it. He didn't really mean to yell at me. He was drunk. So I have to take my fear and my anger to my meeting because, you know, he's being him. And I have to take my stuff to my meeting.

“It's great. My question is why you're still there. And that's what we're going to talk about right now, folks.”

I have a long term gentleman that I've supported for years. He's not quite as sober as me, but

he'd been around a long time. He's just freaking nuts. He's been nuts. He's always nuts. And he's

still nuts. As wife, I don't know her as well, but they're both in a program. He has a drink, probably, I don't know, 15, 18 years wife in the program, and I don't even longer. And long story short, the toxic nonsense that happens from the emotional immaturity of the alcoholic, causes deep angst and deep harm in the household just does. And this particular experience, and why I'm bringing this up is because this particular experience, multiple decades ago,

this couple had three kids and interestingly enough, and both parents are in 12 separate rooms. But interestingly enough, all three of their kids became heronatics. All three became heronatics. You know, the heroin on the street. And am I blaming them for that? No, I'm not. But what type of environment creates a childhood world where three of three all become heronatics in its an environment of emotional toxicity, period. And I'm going to share both sides of

that emotional toxicity. And then I'm going to share why I'm actually bringing that up today, because the dad, he's calm, he's old now, he's calm, was a toxic screamer,

“yeller, cusser, making less than putting the boys down, was there any type of physical abuse?”

No, you know, I'm sure they got slapped a little bit. But like physical abuse, no sexual abuse, absolutely zero. But just emotional toxic abuse, emotional toxic abuse. And the dad had come in screaming, hey, blah, blah, blah, you know, and when the kids were little four, five, he'd pick them up, put them around their, his waist, the kids would lock their arms around his neck, and then he'd let go. Now, here's a six year old, four year old. How long you think a four year

old can hold on? Before eventually the four year old has to let go and tear, and then he'd catch him right before I hit the ground. It's toxic garbage, and no one ever sent anything. No one

ever did anything. I was never close enough to say or doing anything, but it was never really my

place to intervene. Now, why didn't my talking about Joe, I thought you're talking about the Alan on side, I am, because you know, what is even more toxic than the dad being so abandoning and abusive to the kids emotionally? Is the mom sitting there watching it? The mom doing nothing. The mom not stopping it. The mom not throw in the drunk out. Well, I can't, no, that's the S.

She would have been financially fine, probably better off. So, the dad toxically abusive, yelling, cussing, screaming, calling me, you know, and the mom not protecting the kids. Which is more abusive? My opinion, the mom. Why? Because the dad is abusive, but the mom was neglectful. Period. Did that cause all three of their kids to be here on addicts? Did those kids

have a choice when they were 17, 18, 19 years old when they popped their first pill? No.

“No. Why? Because all the friends were doing it. Well, why did they do it, Joe? Why?”

Because they're a steam, they're value, they're worth, and they're a keenness was crucified by somebody who was in AA, and by somebody who was an Allen on the entire time. That's a fact. That's a true story. So, kids, when they're around their peers,

it's hard enough with the biggest to big, with the most confident, with the most self-esteem,

with the highest esteem to say, "No, they didn't have a prayer because they're only solace,

“they're only community, they're only communion, was with their friends." Whatever their friends did,”

they did. Period. And in this era of time, when I learned that the drug a choice back then, that we're talking good 20 years ago, probably, was $5 a pill. And it was chemically designed once you took one, you were hooked, how it was designed. His boys didn't have a prayer. One of these boys died and two of them made it. Two of them now are ground and working and whatever. Well, why do I bring that story up? Because way back when, one of these boys had a baby.

“And that baby is now 16 years old. 17 years old. And that baby now, she lives in that same”

environment. And the toxicity in the environment is the same. Is it aggressive and abusive and cussing? No. But the alcoholic, who now is probably, I don't know, 25 years over, clingy, surrogate spouse, lovey, dovey, dovey, dovey, o' come sit on my lap, no sexual abuse folks, not because if there was, you know, I would be telling you right now. And what's worse, is the mom is teaching the daughter the cliches of the program. Well, he's just been him, just

ignore it. He's just, you know, he is who he is. You just have to accept him for him. You just have to, you know, it's how you perceive it. I'm trying not to cause, but this folks is as toxic of abuse as there is and cloaking it in 12 steps. That is emotional trauma happening. And the precious little girl, she's got all sorts of issues. Of course, she's in psychiatrists. I said, just the other day, by the way, did anybody go into the psychiatrist with her and tell the

family history? Same environment raised three heroin addicts, did anyone tell the psychiatrist

of this grand daughter that? I never got an answer. Well, you can't, it's an anonymity.

That's dog. I'm trying not to cause. That's just false. That's a lie. It's toxic. That's cloaking 12 steps. That's using 12 steps and Alanon techniques to create neglect, to justify, literally the mom. It's teaching a 17-year-old girl how to use the 12 of the Alanon techniques to justify

him for who he is. She's a child in the mom's not protecting her. And

believing, she's doing the right thing. Because it's at a 12 step analysis. That's garbage. Complete and utter garbage. There have been different times with my oldest son. My oldest son and his mother have some challenge because he's asked and he's asked and he's asked and he's asked his mother to stop texting him all the time. She is this sweet kind. Hello is 40 words. Goodbye is 140 words and how are you is 700 words? Well, I loved her. She's the sweetest kindest human

on the planet. For my oldest son, it drives him nuts. But you know what I taught my oldest son? Block her.

Block her. You're 19 years old. Block her. You've asked and you've asked and you've asked and you've asked. And when you ask for your needs, if the human you're asking for can't give you your needs, it's up to you to take care of you. Now a lot of people will say that's disrespectful joke to as a mama. That's a load. His mother's not respecting his needs. Period. How do I know? Because I'm the one that taught him how to ask for his needs kindly, repetitively, over and over and over and over.

“So I said in this particular environment to the young girl, you ever think about blocking him?”

Oh, I would get in so much trouble, Mr. Joe, if I blocked him. That's going to be a conversation. I can't have with mom and dad because a child will get multiple texts from her grandfather throughout the day and is he trying to hurt her? No. In his twisted brain, he literally believes he's showing her love. He's not. And the mom is so emotionally closed down and makes it through her day with the cliches of Allen on. And she's teaching this little girl to do the same thing.

There's not a little girl anymore. And folks, that's where I say the 12 steps are not designed to keep you small. And if you're using them to keep you small, it's time to stop. Read the 12th step. The 12th step says, now that we've gained the promises of the program, it's time for us to give back. It's time to us to live. It's time for us to go out and society. It's time for us to be big. It's time for us to be the biggest us we can possibly be.

“That's what it's like to live in God's image to be the best you for those of you out there right now”

that are using the 12th step program to cloak your toxic environment. I'm looking at my side of the street. I'm going to ask you, why are you still on the same street? At certain places in time, you have to change the street. I did. Actually, I didn't. My past wife walked in. Joe, I divorced you. And I don't love you anymore. Why didn't she love me anymore? Because I couldn't put, give her what she needed. I, in Joe's belief, had a God of my understanding,

and I was not, could not and would not put her in front of that. Just Joe's interpretation. So for those of you out there that are in those relationships now, that it's toxic, but you're making it because you're a 12th stepber and you're using the program to make it. Folks, it's time to now use the program and to use the strength and courage of a power greater than yourself to change the street, to get into a world that mirrors your glass full,

instead of staying in the world of your glass empty and managing your glass empty world

“by using the clichés of the program. Now, if you're brand new, do what the heck you have to do to get”

okay first. I'm talking to you, Miss 10 year 12 stepber. I'm talking to you, Mister 15 year

AA 12 stepber. I'm talking to you, ma'am, Miss 20 year 12 stepber. In this particular example,

down emotionally to protect the drunk who's still a drunk. How do I know? Because his behaviors

“are not of God, they're of his addiction. Is he drinking? No. But his behaviors are that”

of an addict. And it's time. The 12th step is when we decide how do we truly know what it's like to live the moving forward. How do we know? How do we know when we're doing it? We know when we're doing it when we're literally in that place where we've got enough overflow. That we start

A, giving the overflow to ourselves first, which means we get out of toxic and we give into self-love

first. And then B, for those of you that are already in that place and you're looking for your next thing, it is in the place of overflow. It's in the place of giving back farhound the founder of Rev. The story I'm going to tell in much more detail in my next episode. This man has a whole presentation about if all of your gifts are from God, right? We all believe that our grace and our gifts are from God. Then it's time to give back in that same grace of God. That's his message.

And let me just tell you how I know that is the truth. Because so many people really believe they're

“going to feel better. They're going to feel hold. They're going to feel wonderful. Their life is”

going to be better because they just need more money. They just need the next job. They just need

a new location, the new wife. How do I know that's not true? Because there are the most successful people in the world out there. And I've got a list of him going to name some of these names. If I read the names of these 20 people, I can 99% guarantee you in the modern era. Anybody that has television in the modern era, every human on here, now every person doesn't know each one of these. But if I put this list of 10 out there, everybody on the globe would know some one of them.

That's how famous wealthy, traveled the world, global travelers, big musicians, millions of people love a more money than month that anything and everything they want. So why is it if that was the end goal? If that brought them serenity, if that brought them oneness, if that brought them wholeness, if that brought them everything they needed, like most of us believe, then why did Elton John start the eighth foundation? Why did Michael J. Fox start a Parkinson's foundation? Why did Lebron James

start? The Lebron James family foundation? Why did magic Johnson? Why did Bon Jovi? Why did

“Dalely Parton? Why did Leonardo da Vinci? The Leonardo da Caprio? Why did they start something new?”

Why did Matt Damon start? Water.org. Why? These are handsome, wealthy, anybody they want. Anywhere on the planet could do anything they want. Why? In their later years now, and I don't know the ages of these. I know a lot of those have been around a long time. Elton John's been doing it forever. Why? Because the way they live serenity is not by their money, it's not by their fame, it's not by their travel, it's not by the number of cars they have, it's by giving back period.

So it doesn't it makes sense if somebody with all the money and all the fame and all the travel and anything they want. Handsome people like Matt Damon and you know, handsome men and women like that, you know, I don't know their marital statuses, I hope they're all married, I don't know, I even know these people folks and I don't watch TV. My bottom line is they could be on any podcast, they would be invited any party, they would be anything and anything they want, they could be around

any environment they want to. Why are they starting them profits? The answer is because something

inside of them feels good when they do it. Period. So let's take that back to the rest of us, the me and use. What did Joe do? I started project smile. You know, project smile is project smile is not a little non-profit, I started, I say non-profit. It's me. I'm the sole donor of project smile. I give about $300 a month to two different caregivers in you got it. I said, less than a car payment, a month. And the very first time I did it, I gave $50 to a little girl named Patricia,

that arm. So I'm bringing this up because we can all do it tomorrow, Tuesday. I don't care

“where you are in your life, I don't care how successful or not successful. I'm telling you,”

the way you gain a sense of serenity, a sense of fullness, a sense of true okness, a true sense that you're moving forward. Yes, of course, all the emotional healing. Yes, of course, becoming aware of all behaviors. Yes, of course, creating loving and supportive environments. By the way, have you told somebody you love them today? This young, I can call on our little girl because I've known her freaking forever. I've started texting her every day. I love you.

I just started, I barely know her, but every day she's going to get a text from Mr. Joe saying, "How are you today, sweetie? I love you. I'm proud of you. I heard you had a tough night last night.

“I love you and I'm proud of you every day." Now am I blaming her caregivers? I don't know if”

they do that or not. No, but what can I do today? I can text the young woman that I love her and I did. I can text her that I'm proud of her and I did. I started my little nonprofit and I'm helping people with minimal amounts of money and so can you. You want your life to feel better. You want your world to be better. You want to wake up a month or two from today and just really feel like your world has moved forward. Keep growing. Keep healing. Keep giving a depth to the darkest

parts. But if you really want to feel like you're moving forward, there's a power grander than you that will guide you into something where you're giving back something. Matt Damon, I heard that

“particular organization, if I'm not mistaken, has raised over $100 million. Now, based on his”

wealth and fame and stature and big heart, he has the capacity to attract $100 million.

We don't folks. You and I don't, but I can promise you, you've got $20 that you could give somewhere. I guarantee you. You've got 30 minutes, once a month, to go volunteer somewhere. Get involved somewhere. People feel isolated. People feel alone. People feel not worthy. People feel not wanted. Take action. Give of your service. The greatest way not to feel alone is get up and go find some place to volunteer. Every organization out there needs money,

time, wealth, our treasures. Every organization does. That's all it's missing. And for people that have money, give it. For people that have time, give it. For people that have wisdom, give it. You want your world to feel better. What's the how to, how do you feel better and how will you literally look back a year from the day if every other week you volunteered at the school to help with kids that have challenge.

If you volunteer at the hospital and go hold the baby. If you volunteer at the food like, I don't know where your volunteer is. You want to feel. You want to experience a different tomorrow. You want August the 30th, 2027 to literally feel completely different than today. Find your place and start giving back. Five dollars or five million. It doesn't matter. It isn't the quantity. It's the following of the guidance system that's in you.

We're all have the same guidance system. We're all have the same divinity. The we podcast exploding around the globe because my divinity is talking to yours. You are true spiritual

warriors that you would never be able to be on this podcast. You're true spiritual warriors because

you made it over an hour and a half on this podcast. Living your spiritual warrior on the Tuesday morning, as you've already done your emotional growth, or as you're continuing to do your emotional growth, it's time to find your thing to start giving back to. I've got divorce post because if I would have had divorce post 10 years ago, my life would have been completely different. Now, after my divorce, that's why I talk about this site all the time. I talk about it a lot

I'm going to be volunteering for. How do I volunteer? If I get this place and I can create,

“if I can sense that the founder has his higher power in place, I will put him on my website”

on this podcast and I will tell all of you to every podcast about this particular organization. What does Joe get out of that? It helps me feel better. It helps me sleep at night. Do I make money off it? No. No. The other one is a man that's literally hands on the ground in south Memphis doing things in south Memphis for really challenged people. That's a particular organization. Again, once I get his permission, that I'm personally going to give my $10 to. And then there's

another organization where she is literally creating an income opportunity for women that have been

trafficked. So the other three, I haven't even got permission from this first one, but all four of

them over time will be on my directory page of the We Podcast. Why? Because all of them, I live what I teach. I live what I share. And I live a cool life. I really do. I live a life that's blessed from the inside out. Do I have more money than month? No. I've got one good car. My other car in my other son has it. My other car. My son Ryan and I we joke all the time. Because the front end, it rattles. We're like the one these days dad,

this car's just going to stop. I know when it stops, then we'll get another one.

“Yeah, that's why I live right now. Do I have more money than month? I am blessed to say I have”

enough money each month. You know, the last time I was on vacation, besides the the crews that Ms. Wendy gave me, I don't know, 30 years ago, at least. Do I have all sorts of, no, close? No, I don't. I'm just a normal guy just like y'all. I am no different than any of you. Now, there's some of you I can tell you you have a lot more money than month, but I don't, but I can pretty much guarantee you. I will put my sense of serenity, my sense of wholeness,

my sense of overflow equal to a greater than most of you. And I say that honestly, I want you all to live where I live. Every time I'm on WhatsApp with my caregivers, every time I get a picture, look at my stuff, follow me on social media, look at projects mile on social media. You'll see, you'll see right now we're putting a video up on social media six months ago, I gave this group $150 and they planted beans. Are eating those beans for a year? Right now, just as past two weeks,

I gave my other group $160. They planted an acre of corn. They call it mace, mays. It's corn. That corn will feed 22 kids for a year. 150 bucks. You wonder why my heart is so blessed? You wonder why my heart is so full? It's because I found and I'm following a part of me that every time I follow it, I feel divine. Every time I live it, I feel fall. Every time I give back, I feel fuller.

And the more I feel full, the more I want to give back, the more I give back, the more I feel full.

“And that's why I'm going to encourage all of you. Like I say, I do what I preach. I do what I teach.”

I do what I share. And you'll be hearing the names of these other places, because if I can do it and feel the way I feel, why do I want you to do your it?

Here's because I want you to feel how I feel. Because as I can help a hundred million people

feel how I feel, and I experience and I live in the sense of overflow, as I can help a hundred million people do it, and a hundred million people are giving back. That's how we heal. And as a hundred million people are feeling better, and they're feeling more, and they're giving back more, that's how humanity grows. And that's how humanity heals. And the more we grow, and the more we heal, and the more we help others heal, the more we all benefit. And together,

we're growing. Together, we're changing. And together, we're healing humanity. One smile at a time. And from around the world, welcome to we. So that's it for today's episode of the We Podcast. Head on over an Apple Podcast or wherever you listen and subscribe to the show. One lucky listener every single week that posts a review

private VIP day with Joe himself. Be sure to head on over to wepodcast.lovil and pick up a free copy of Joe's gift. And join us next time for the We Podcast.