Meditation for Recovery with Chuck Schad

  This weeks podcast guest is Chuck Schad who is the founder of the Inner Theater – which offers mindfulness and meditation programs. He is passionate about meditation which enabled him to stop drinking and change his life. Chuck shares his story with us and he ends our conversation with a five minute meditation which will enable you to breathe and take a pause if you get triggered to drink. In this Episode Chuck and his wife came of age in the late 60’s when he began to dabble in meditation – he even studied it with a Vietnamese Monk But then life got in the way – 2 kids and 2 busy careers meant that meditation got shelved for a while A difficult period in his life led Chuck to step up his drinking The combination of a business failure and a son with a drug problem sent him to AA for help with his alcohol dependence AA wasn’t the right fit for him and he sometimes had a beer on the way home to calm his nerves! He was feeling totally strung out so went to his doctor who prescribed Benzos for the anxiety Chuck then became addicted to Benzos – and had to go to hospital for help to stop The combination of alcohol and Benzos is not a good one – as we heard on last weeks podcast interview with Janet D Chuck began reading about Eastern meditation and then began to meditate daily with Sadhguru He began to feel so much better that he began to give talks about meditation at local libraries His passion for meditation grew and he was offered a job running sessions at an Inner City Clinic Meditation changed everything for Chuck – it gave him distance and made him realise he didn’t need external help for his problems – he had the answers within You’ll hear Chuck explain that we have between 20,000 and 70,000 individual thoughts every 24 hours but meditation enables us to flip the coin and watch these thoughts – to be the witness and break the spell! It enables us to take a step back, to settle ourselves down and to learn how to “self soothe” Chuck and I talk about the demands of corporate life – and the fact that some progressive organisations are hiring him to run meditation sessions for their employees He talks about using of meditation in recovery and we discuss the value of reframing – just as we say at Tribe Sober that “getting sober is an opportunity to change your life” – he says that “Recovery is an Invitation” You can find Chuck at the innertheater.com and his Facebook page is Chuck Schad Our conversation will end with Chuck doing a meditation which can enable you to PAUSE if you get triggered and feel like having a drink So even if you’ve never meditated before please give the meditation a try – it’s just 5 minutes but if you close your eyes, get comfortable and listen to Chucks soothing voice you’ll be in a different state afterwards and may well be able to resist any cravings to drink Keep this podcast handy on your phone so that you can quickly tune into the last 5 minutes and do the meditation whenever you need it More Info Subscription membership – you can join up HERE. To access our website, click HERE. If you would like a free copy of our “Annual Tracker” or our e-book 66 Days to Sobriety, please email [email protected]. If you would like to come to our Saturday afternoon Zoom Cafe as a guest and meet our community, just email [email protected]. Episode Sponsor This episode is sponsored by the Tribe Sober Membership Program.  If you want to change your relationship with alcohol then sign up today Read more about our program and subscribe HERE Help us to Spread the Word! We made this podcast so that we can reach more people who need our help.  Please subscribe and share. If you enjoyed the podcast, then please leave us a 5-star review on Apple podcasts. Take a screenshot of your review, and DM it to Tribe Sober’s Instagram page – see PS below for instructions. We’ll send you something special to say thank you! We release a podcast episode every Saturday morning. You can follow Tribe Sober on Facebook, Twitter, TikTok and Instagram. You can join our private Facebook group HERE. PS: How to Leave a Rating/Review in Apple Podcasts (on an iOS Device) Open the Podcasts app. EASY. Choose “Search” from the bottom row of icons and enter the name of the show (e.g. Recover Like a Mother) into the search field. Select the show under Shows (not under Episodes). Scroll down past the first few episodes until you see Ratings & Reviews. Click Write a Review underneath the displayed reviews from other listeners. You’ll then have the option to rate the show on a 5-star scale and write a review (you can rate without writing too but it’s always good to read your experience).