Conscious Living - Sobriety in the Midst of A Wasted Society

All right, well, it's another Saturday, and let's see, what are we doing today? If I were to say it's chilly in Los Angeles, I mean, it's 60, so I don't. I don't think that counts as chilly, but yeah, so this is week four. That means we're talking about consciousness living. And so what I wrote about in the description of the live stream was like, specifically sobriety, Right. What do you do about being sober in a world that is wasted? Of course, not everybody's wasted. So people get on me for that and say, oh, what are you talking about?

Not everybody does drugs. No. Not everybody drinks alcohol. No. But a large percentage of people do. A very large percentage of people drink alcohol, and a large percentage of people use other drugs. And a large percentage of people drink to excess. Right? I mean, when we say large, I mean, if you can say something that 10 to 15% of the population is actually addicted, that doesn't even take into consideration the number of people who actually get drunk or inebriated or use other drugs to excess a number of times a month, but wouldn't necessarily qualify for addiction.

Okay, so let's just say there's a lot of it. I'm sober, I don't care. I'm sober a long time, I don't care. Do what you're going to do. But, you know, do we celebrate sobriety in this society? Not necessarily. But, like, what does that have to do with conscious living? Well, conscious living, right. It's a lot easier to do conscious living sober than it is, you know. You know, because there's this whole movement of like, oh, well, I become more conscious when I take my mushrooms. I become more conscious, you know, when I smoke a little pot.

Okay, great. You're actually not conscious, right? You're altering your brain. And you're also, you're altering your ability to connect to the present moment. If you take something that is mind altering, that is by definition what that means. Now, some people would say, but my mind expands and I. I see things I could have never have seen. That actually, that actually may be true. I don't know. Who knows? I mean, I know that LSD and, you know, psilocybin and other things can unlock, you know, certain things.

But for me, what conscious living is about, right, we talk about conscious masculinity, conscious fatherhood, conscious coupling. But conscious conscious living is like, I'm. I'm aware. I'm as aware as I can be on a daily basis about my life. So I went to the Fish Concert last night, right? Yeah, you could say there were some people who were using various substances to excess. Now, here's the cool thing. An oasis in that. Well, here's some interesting things. One, it almost. Well, it's interesting that the lead singer of Fish, Trey Anastasio, is sober, has been sober a long time.

He's very open about his recovery. He's very committed to his recovery. It changed his life. It saved his life. He's. He's talks about that, right? I don't think he would say that. He experiences the music, like, less. In a less satisfying way. In fact, I've heard him say it's more fulfilling than it's ever been. All right, so there's that. So the band is not really about people getting high and messed up and all that sort of stuff. Not anymore, but people still do. And people still associate the music and the subculture with that.

So there's that. But then an Oasis in a Fish concert is this thing called Fellowship, right? Kind of. It's not. I don't think it's only 12 step, but it's kind of 12 step based. They spell fellowship pH, just like fish is spelled pH. So if you want to check in with people who are sober, you go there, and people who follow Fish, you know, they see each other and they're like, oh, I remember I saw you two years ago. Hey, man, how you doing? You're still sober, but, like, there was a guy there who was.

It was his first Sober Fish concert. There's a guy who was celebrating a year of sobriety, and he, like, remembered the Fish show from last year and where he was at. And so, like, sobriety is all about us learning how to live the way that is best for us in a world that may or may not reinforce it, support it, celebrate it, honor it, whatever. Now you might say, hey, I've been. I'm pretty conscious. And I've consciously decided that mushrooms are a great thing for me. Okay, great. I've consciously decided that getting high on marijuana on a daily basis is good for me.

Okay, fine. You know what? That's. Then that's. Then that's your. If you have decided that, that's great. The. The catch is it's not just about what's good for me, because it's also about what might be impacting other people. You know, maybe that partner, maybe those kids, maybe that job. And so conscious living for me. Does it have to be substance free? No, absolutely not. I would never, ever, ever, ever, ever suggest that somebody has to be substance free or abstinent from all chemicals in order to have a conscious life.

But I would say that if you want to live consciously, you have to be willing to be in contact with reality on somewhat regular basis, ideally an increasingly regular basis. And the way that we truly get in touch with reality is by being present and the way we are present. The only way I truly know how to be, like deeply present, is with a clear mind, a body that is grounded, and a heart and spirit that are open. And that, to me, that's conscious living, right? Nobody does it perfectly. Nobody does it all the time.

Nobody. No, there's no right or wrong, there's no A plus plus, and there's no F. It's just we're all doing the best that we can and ideally we're in it together. So that's what had me thinking this week when I was thinking of conscious living. I was surrounded last night by people doing apparently now, nitrous oxide balloons called Ice Cold. I didn't know that. They're selling it on the street as we're walking up to the concert. People smoking DMT and other right next to us, tons of alcohol. That's their journey, that's their choice, that's their experience of this concert and what they get to have.

And I don't need to have any thoughts or judgments about it. And they don't need to have any thoughts about or judgments about my commitment to experiencing it in a sober way. So for me, conscious living is about being deliberate in our choices. Conscious living is about really reflecting on who I want to be and challenging myself to be that person the best I can every day. So hope you all have a wonderful weekend and wish you the very best. Take care. Namaste.