Dan Karaty If I'm Being Honest

Meet Katie Wood.  You're welcome.  She is awesome!  Katie and I spent the majority of our conversation discussing gratitude - practicing, showing, teaching gratitude.  She hit me with this one: "It's impossible to be angry and grateful at the same time.  Gratitude helped me find peace, it helped me center myself."  Our conversation took off from there and covered all the ways gratitude, and sometimes lack of it, has played a role in our lives.  Katie's incredible  book, A Simple Seed, which is a journal, is a road map for kids and their parents to explore gratitude together.  It teaches kids how to set the tone for their day, and how to live with this wonderfully positive, growth mindset.  The work in the book also guides children and their parents into deeper, more meaningful conversations and offers the opportunity to build a greater bond and understanding.  I could go on for days, so just listen!  This is an important one!

https://simpleseedjournal.com

Sometimes I feel like we are just scratching the surface in treating people for addiction, trauma and beyond.  And quite often, I get frustrated with what I would call the big Pharma, and dare I say, unethical approach to treatment.  Ibogaine may be the future in treatment for addiction, PTSD, trauma, depression and more.  The use of psychedelics in general continues to advance and grow, and with ibogaine in particular, based on its success rate in treatment, deserves more attention and merit.  Tom Feegel's ibogaine treatment clinic, Beond, is at the forefront of medical and ethical psychedelic-assisted and behavioral therapy.  Tom shares his personal story of recovery, and his path to discovering ibogaine and building Beond. 

https://www.beond.us/

https://instagram.com/beond.us?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

My book, my full story, If I'm Being Honest, is in stores and available for all to read, and it's a little scary.  It's the one place you can learn about and follow my entire journey, be in my hotel room, sitting at the bar next to me, in my home, and understand what happened.  The writing of the book began in rehab as I started to put some pieces of my life together, and continued as the puzzle took shape in the months afterward.  I dug through my past, my childhood and family, my career both behind the stars and on camera, my relationships, and ultimately into my years as a husband and father, and what role my addiction played throughout.  The writing of this book was a form of therapy for me, and I hope reading it will help others too. 

My nephew, Ty, is BACK and ready to discuss our favorite time of year - FALL!  Yes, we love the weather and the leaves changing colors, but what we're really ready for is FOOTBALL!  The question is, at what point did I allow my love of the game to be taken over by my obsession with drinking?  We all have sports, hobbies, and/or habits that we associate with different times of the year and ritualistic actions, but why did I start associating a favorite sport of mine with boozing?  And why did Ty allow an unhealthy desire to gamble to steal the joy of the game from him?  

Whether you love football, futbol, or another sport or hobby, what did you associate it with when growing up?  What about now?  Why?

It's conversations like this one that remind me how lucky I am to connect with people through this podcast.  Charlie is an incredible human with a powerful recovery journey to share, but he's so much more than that.  Our time spent talking covered life's interesting paths, humility, character, and the fact that we don't need to get rid of our addictive nature, we need to treat it as the superpower that it is and point it in the right direction.  Charlie really let me in and got personal, and offered so much experience and wisdom toward living.  What happens to us is far less important than what we do about it.

https://instagram.com/charlieengle?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

Imagine your son is going blind from an incurable disease.  You're literally racing the clock in hopes of finding a cure, and at the same time, giving him every experience imaginable while he can still see.  Steve Johnston is a man on a mission, still working to make a living, fundraising for a clinical trial, being a Dad, and taking on challenges like an IRONMAN to raise money and be an example to his son.  This is adversity.  This is a Dad vs. Blindness.

https://araceagainstblindness.org

Steve Johnston, MD | Man on a mission (@dad.vs.blindness) • Instagram photos and videos

Alcoholism and addiction DO NOT DISCRIMINATE!  Yankees pitcher, Domingo German, was just placed in an inpatient facility for alcohol abuse.  Surprising?  Yes.  Especially considering he just threw a perfect game a few weeks earlier.  A Perfect Game!  It's a not so subtle reminder that alcoholism and addiction are not only suffered by the down on his luck guy brown bagging it on the corner.  It affects our moms and dads, our neighbors, "successful" business people, and stars on television.  

Dr. Robb's passion and energy for recovery is undeniable, and his refusal to sugar coat his thoughts on what alcoholics and addicts must deal with to recover is refreshing while in your face.  The depths of his own battle with alcohol will shock and sadden you. His flexing, both literally and figuratively, on what he has uncovered and accomplished will at least make you think, at most make some changes.  Dr. Robb Kelly's treatment center has a 97% success rate...97%!  You may or may not agree with everything you hear from Robb, but you must be willing to listen, then decide.

 https://robbkelly.com/
https://theneuroheroconference.com/
https://instagram.com/neurohero2023?igshid=MzNlNGNkZWQ4Mg==
https://m.facebook.com/groups/1027987721911526/?ref=share&mibextid=NSMWBT
https://www.linkedin.com/in/the-neuro-hero-conference-90a7b0284
https://twitter.com/neuro_hero

With 16 years of sobriety under her belt, but only recently being more open about it, Hilary has a tremendous amount of experience to share with all who are ready to listen. At 15 years sober, she decided she "no longer had the luxury to stay silent" and started telling people, especially women, that it's okay to ask for help and be vulnerable.  Rarely is a conversation so easy and comfortable with someone, but I felt like Hilary and I were old friends by the time we finished speaking.  She is smart, honest, unashamed, and willing to open up on the good and bad.  We are all benefitting by Hilary sharing her story.

https://instagram.com/hilaryphelps_?igshid=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ==

https://instagram.com/ashleytreatment?igshid=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ==

I absolutely love having high expectations for someone and they still manage to exceed them.  That was my experience with this week's guest, Niall Breslin.  After following Niall on social media because of his tireless work as a mental health advocate, months later I realized he's an accomplished athlete, musician, and former coach on The Voice of Ireland.  When someone's work for a good cause precedes their success in business, you know they're doing something right.  My conversation with Niall, and his infectious passion and energy when discussing his charity work and desire for better mental health services around the world, left me wanting to do more.

https://www.niallbreslin.com/

https://instagram.com/bressie?igshid=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ==

https://instagram.com/a_lust_for_life?igshid=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ==