Sunday Serenity

Happy Sunday to the Cadre sphere. I hope you're all having a wonderful day. I'm Jason Lennox, coming from the east coast today, and I am your resident recovery champion. I'm here to talk about all things recovery, mental health, general wellness, and excited to be here with you today to share a little bit. I'm out here because, as you can see, I got the Celtics shirt on. I'm gonna catch a game tonight. They're in the finals. So I'm excited about that, but really excited to share a little more. Last week, I talked about this idea of integrity over popularity and how at one of my son's graduation ceremonies, that's what a teacher said about him.

He was incredibly amazed at how he would always choose integrity over popularity. And I believe I shared more about this last week, that integrity is just a critical component of any wellness, especially recovery, though, and being whole and complete. So there were a couple definitions. One, which was like a moral uprightness. So doing the right thing. Good morning, Sherry. It's always good to see you. And the other was a state of whole state of being whole and complete is what I shared, and I really love that one, but I want to dive just a little more into the first one.

Doing the right thing, kind of, you know, when nobody's watching is, I guess, something we've heard. So I believe, again, integrity is key because I think what keeps people sick, both from substances, mental health, just all kinds of illnesses, and not feeling good about where we are, is that we are out of integrity, that we don't do what we say we're going to do, we don't do the right thing. And that's because we're human, and that's all right. And so I think. Good morning, Jules. Good to see you.

So it really is all right. But once we know that we have something to deal with. And, you know, I was meeting with a guy last week, and one of the things I've been talking about is, as we meet, remember that it's important that we're meeting on time and that we're doing what we're saying we're going to do. And if that's not going to happen, then I need to make a new agreement as quickly as possible. So I just believe that so much of what comes with wellness and with the ability to overcome things like substance use disorder and mental health has to do with the level of peace inside us.

And, you know, again, that stems from a level of integrity that I have in my own life. So that's why I talk so much about it. So we get on here and it's like, okay, recovery. What does that mean? How does integrity, we're not talking a lot about substances, but this is one of the most critical components of any kind of recovery, in my opinion, because when I, I'm doing what I say I'm going to do, and when I'm keeping agreements and, or making new agreements, I sleep a lot easier at night. I'm not worried about what I did or didn't do.

I'm not like, there's this underlying feeling that we don't even realize or recognize that comes with breaking agreements. And so I just think it's such a critical component. But it reminded me of a story I was going to tell this a month or so ago when I was here. I'm in the state of New York, upstairs state, New York, where one of my aunts and some cousins live. And when I get out here, I'll come up here. And one of the interesting things is it's hard for me to get my normal workouts in. And I go back to integrity.

I say that each week I'm going to work out four times and no less than three times. Sometimes I'll have to cut one, but that's my word and that's my agreement, and sometimes I can't make that. But then I realize that and I find ways to create new agreements. So, point is, I have to find places to work out while I'm up here because there's not a gym, I don't have a membership. It's not the greatest area, honestly. So my aunt is always saying, I don't think you should run around a whole lot. I don't think you should go here, here.

Anyway, I'm committed to that. So I walk up to a park that's about four or five blocks away. This is about a month ago, and I don't have any weights or anything like that, but I know I was a personal trainer, so I know how to use body weight and just the nature itself to create a good workout. And so I'm doing some push ups, I'm doing some sit ups, I'm doing some walking lunges, I'm doing some burpees. So just doing all these things and getting my workout in. And I realized as I was starting it, I look across the street from this park and there are two kids.

There's a boy and there's a girl, maybe eight and nine somewhere in there. And they were sitting on a trampoline and just kind of not really doing anything. And, you know, so I continued on with my workout, and I look over a few minutes later, and all of a sudden, the boy is over here doing push ups. And, you know, they're watching. They're literally watching everything I'm doing. And then the girl goes inside. So I thought, okay, well, the boy's getting excited, whatever. And a few minutes go by, and I look over, and then the girls back out, and they're out there doing push ups.

They're sprinting, they're doing jumps. They're trying to mimic some of the things I'm doing. And it just occurred to me then that, again, it's like we. One of the reasons, one of the things with integrity is that we're doing the right thing and that we're setting good examples even when no one's watching. And I didn't realize that they would be watching. But here you go. You've got these two kids now. They're watching someone do a workout, and they're trying to mimic it and create these healthy habits.

And I don't know what kind of family they're from. But the point was, because I kept my agreement and I kept my word, and I did make a trip down to do this workout. That was one thing. That was one piece of integrity. And lo and behold, here are these two kids who, I don't know if they've done push ups. I don't know what they do for fun. I don't know what kind of state they're in, what their family was. But there they were doing push ups and sit ups, and I just thought, we just don't know when people are watching and what they're watching.

And, yes, Sherry, people are always watching. There's always somebody watching. There's a good chance somebody who's coming in and out of this lot here is watching me do this. And so we just don't know. And I think it's just such a good example of why integrity matters and why we continue to show up and do the right thing and how doing some of that may have a ripple effect. Because who knows? If I was over there smoking cigarettes, getting high, would they follow that? Would they mimic that? Would they start to think about those things?

So it's really important. And, yes, thank you for that, Jules. It's lead by example. It's just there are so many people watching us, and we just never know how that impacts people. I've had people in my life that have made such a difference for me, and they don't even know they didn't realize it. They don't know it. And I've had people, as I've spoken, as I've shared and as I've done the work that I get to do in this industry, I've had so many examples of people that come up and say, you have no idea what kind of difference this made.

And that was my, I mean, that was the reason I stayed in recovery, because I listened to the people who were saying, this is what my life was like. They didn't know they would be changing my life, but they were speaking, they were people of faith, of integrity. And, you know, they set examples. So we're always taking in examples from other people and we're always leading, we're always putting these examples out there, and that's for good or bad. So that really is up to us. And that's a responsibility of ours to take and do something good with that.

And again, when I can stay in that state of integrity in my own world, then certainly that starts to ripple out and other people see that. It's exactly why I do things like this and why I talk and get so passionate about this kind of topic, because it just is. We are constantly watching people and people are constantly watching us and we learn from each other. Hopefully, you learn from me, I learn from you all in our conversations. And that's the beauty of this world. But we have to be at that level, state of whole and complete, as I said last week, to be able to truly operate at the highest level and set those examples anyhow, I just thought that was a really neat story.

Eight and nine year old brother and sister, it looked like. Who knows? Maybe they're still doing push ups and sit ups a month later. I'd never seen them. I don't know if I'll see them again. But I know that because I was keeping my agreement with myself to get the number of workouts in that I do each week. I walked over to this park, and I know that because I was creating and performing and carrying out healthy habits and behaviors, it at least impacted this little boy and girl for the one day. And, you know, again, we'll never know how far that goes.

And maybe what that conversation was like in their family. And maybe they're still doing push ups. I would love it if they were still doing push ups. Maybe next time I go over there, I'll see them again and maybe invite them over to do some other exercises. So hope you are all having a wonderful start to your Sunday. It's been good to hear from some of you, Jules, Sherry, love when you guys are on and interacting, and everyone else would love to have you interact. This is what I do talk a lot about integrity, passion, purpose, aligning with who we really are as people, because I believe that that was the core of the issue that kept me sick for so long was I was so far out of alignment with the person that I knew I could have been, maybe would have been, and maybe should have been, and that the only way to deal with that sickness is to perpetuate the cycle by doing more things that I'm not really proud of and things that bring shame and guilt and remorse.

So it's a cycle, but we can flip it the other way. And as we start to do the things that we say we're going to do, and we show up in ways that we say we're going to, life is really a beautiful thing, and we get to have a lot of interactions like this, and, you know, we get to tell stories about the little kids who are over there watching exercise and physical fitness that maybe they otherwise wouldn't see in their lives. So integrity is a big deal. I hope it is to you. I hope you've gotten some value here today.

I'm going to let you go because I'm going into the store, and then I'm making a long four hour, maybe four hour trip to Boston to catch some of this game. It's gonna be a fun day. Thank you for your flexibility. I will be in the middle of that game when I would usually be speaking to you. So thanks again. Look forward to being with you all again next week and continuing this journey. And remember, you never know who's watching. So what kind of example are you gonna set? Have a good week, everyone.

We will talk to you next Sunday. Go Celtics.