Speaker 1: You're listening to I Choose Me with Jenny Garth. Hi, everyone,
Speaker 1: welcome to I Choose Me. This podcast is all about
Speaker 1: the choices we make and where they lead us. You know,
Speaker 1: on this podcast, I like to explore and I like
Speaker 1: to get to know different people that have maybe walked
Speaker 1: a different path than myself, because that's the way to
Speaker 1: learn from listening to others. Other people's journeys can really
Speaker 1: be enlightening and inspirational as we're all just navigating this
Speaker 1: life the best that we know how. We're all just
Speaker 1: doing our best. My guest today is an actor. You
Speaker 1: know him from his role in the hit movie That
Speaker 1: Thing You Do, and he stars in the TV show
Speaker 1: Blue Ridge On I insp he has had such a
Speaker 1: layered and fascinating life and you know what, I want
Speaker 1: to die right into it. Please welcome Jonathan Check to
Speaker 1: the I Choose Me Podcast. I'm really so glad that
Speaker 1: you're here.
Speaker 2: Well, I'm really grateful to be here.
Speaker 1: You have done something that I have always wanted to do.
Speaker 1: You got the hell out of Dodge. You moved out
Speaker 1: of the thunderdome and went to peaceful grounds. What has
Speaker 1: that been like for you? When did you do that
Speaker 1: and what has that experience been like for you.
Speaker 2: Well, when my son started looking at schools, we you know,
Speaker 2: we had to start looking at schools in Los Angeles
Speaker 2: and and that kind of opened up the whole idea
Speaker 2: of possibly moving out of Los Angeles. He's dyslexic, just
Speaker 2: like I am, and I didn't want him to struggle
Speaker 2: like I did. So schools in LA there were some
Speaker 2: great schools, but it was it wasn't gonna be easy
Speaker 2: to get into those schools. And it was kind of
Speaker 2: like this whole thing that I didn't want to have to
Speaker 2: live my life like. And so when we came out
Speaker 2: to Nashville, Tennessee, we visited a couple of schools. My
Speaker 2: wife is from Nashville, and by the time we left
Speaker 2: one of the schools there were like with Kim and
Speaker 2: like to come. I was like, yeah, that's yeah, he
Speaker 2: would love to come. So we moved out here Abound
Speaker 2: twenty eighteen, twenty nineteen. My wife's from here, so we
Speaker 2: got family here for the children. It's been it's been peaceful.
Speaker 2: It's a good word, very peaceful. I'm surrounded by horse
Speaker 2: farms where I live.
Speaker 1: Oh, I'm so jealous, right, Now I don't care about
Speaker 1: fancy bags or shoes. That that is what I care about.
Speaker 1: Peaceful nature, serenity. I love that. That is good. So
Speaker 1: you're saying I should do that, Just move get out
Speaker 1: of the.
Speaker 2: Really fit right in here. Here, Jason's here, he's down
Speaker 2: the street.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, you're yes right, your name papers with Jason,
Speaker 1: Jason Prisley. For everybody that doesn't know, that is amazing.
Speaker 1: I would love to be neighbors with Jason.
Speaker 2: And a plate studio.
Speaker 1: That she's building her own plate studio. It's amazing. Good
Speaker 1: for them, well, good for all of you.
Speaker 2: Wow, I know exactly.
Speaker 1: That was the very smart. Something that's very important to
Speaker 1: me and very important to our listeners is health and
Speaker 1: fitness and just living, trying to live our best life, right,
Speaker 1: And just one glance at your social media and I
Speaker 1: was caught by the fact that you're actually a bona
Speaker 1: fide bodybuilder, like a competitive bodybuilder. Now you can call
Speaker 1: yourself a competitive bodybuilder after the age of fifty. That
Speaker 1: is saying a lot.
Speaker 2: Wow. Yeah, well, I don't know about a bodybuilder, but
Speaker 2: come on, I trained really hard and last year before
Speaker 2: the strike, and I knew the strike was coming and
Speaker 2: I knew I was going to be just my brain
Speaker 2: was needed some help and some focus. So I asked
Speaker 2: a good friend of mine, Michael O'Hearn, and I know
Speaker 2: Michael for thirty years, but it was on my show
Speaker 2: Blue Ridge, and he said he would train me to
Speaker 2: be this further bodybuilding contest up the street here in Franklin.
Speaker 2: And for about six weeks, I trained and dieted just
Speaker 2: like a professional bodybuilder, and I went out there and
Speaker 2: I won the contest.
Speaker 1: It was extream come true.
Speaker 2: You know. It was like small town bodybuilding contest, were.
Speaker 1: You like all spray tnd and body oiled up exactly.
Speaker 2: I've never done anything like that before. It was so unique.
Speaker 2: The best part was having my two little ones out
Speaker 2: there screaming for me. That was hotly quite magnificent.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, that sounds like so much fun. I mean,
Speaker 1: you know our bodies. I mean as a woman, my
Speaker 1: body has changed so much after I turned fifty, and
Speaker 1: it continues to change. What it feels like daily as
Speaker 1: a man. What has your experience been with aging and
Speaker 1: your body?
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was harder to you know, lose that weight
Speaker 2: that I you don't want to have that I couldn't
Speaker 2: actually have, you know, for what I do for a
Speaker 2: living is you know, we have to look at it.
Speaker 2: So and I'm not going They're not going to hire
Speaker 2: me for any other reason. So I have to train
Speaker 2: and keep my body fit. And I'm going to my
Speaker 2: television show. I have to do a lot of stunts
Speaker 2: and a lot of action. So I trained myself like
Speaker 2: a professional athlete. At you know, I turned fifty five
Speaker 2: years old, so yeah, I know how important. We just
Speaker 2: got to keep going. There's no reason why we can't
Speaker 2: be better off now than we were then, since we're
Speaker 2: more motivated now.
Speaker 1: That's so true. It's the motivation now because you know,
Speaker 1: this is our second act as they call it, and
Speaker 1: we want it to be just as good as the
Speaker 1: first One's right, maybe better?
Speaker 2: Yeah, definitely want to be better.
Speaker 1: What is your healthy like your diet? How do you
Speaker 1: keep that in control? Because that's hard for me.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's difficult. I So what I what I learned
Speaker 2: through from the bodybuilding contest is that my body works
Speaker 2: really well with just proteins. So I eat five meals
Speaker 2: a day with enough protein to maintain and grow my
Speaker 2: muscle size. So I take supplements for everything else, and
Speaker 2: I try not to put anything else to my body.
Speaker 2: I'll go for it's amazing. I can go out for
Speaker 2: a dinner like anybody else, but I'll eat before we leave,
Speaker 2: and then I'll get a piece of salmon or chicken.
Speaker 2: I just eat pretty, leaning clean, leaning clean.
Speaker 1: How many grams of protein? I'm really curious about this
Speaker 1: protein topic. How many grams of protein are you shooting
Speaker 1: for a day?
Speaker 2: So five meals six ounces or more, six to six
Speaker 2: to seven ounces if I'm dieting hard, eight ounces if
Speaker 2: I'm not so. Forty eight ounces of protein.
Speaker 1: That's a lot of protein.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I do thing. I wake up in the morning
Speaker 2: and I do this pancake and it's awesome. I have
Speaker 2: protein powder, right, I put egg whites with protein powder
Speaker 2: and shake it up and I pour it on a
Speaker 2: plate and then I zap it in the microwave for
Speaker 2: like no, Yeah, I zap it rises up like a cake,
Speaker 2: comes back down, and then I'll eat that for my
Speaker 2: morning breakfast.
Speaker 1: Okay, that's that's a good tip, people.
Speaker 2: And I put zero sugar syrup on it, and I'm
Speaker 2: feel like I'm eating pancakes.
Speaker 1: You're so happy, everybody. I love that.
Speaker 2: I can't wait to wake up.
Speaker 1: Ten years ago, you made probably one of the biggest
Speaker 1: I Choose me decisions of a lifetime. You chose to
Speaker 1: get sober. What made you realize you were ready for that?
Speaker 2: You know, I had, I had tried numerous times to
Speaker 2: get sober. I go to meetings and wouldn't click. I
Speaker 2: couldn't I couldn't really respond. I wasn't responding to the
Speaker 2: what everyone was talking about in those meetings. I kept
Speaker 2: going back, and then I met my wife, Julie, and
Speaker 2: she was pregnant, and I kept looking in the mirror
Speaker 2: at myself, saying, who's this guy? You know? Like this?
Speaker 2: Am I going to continue doing the things that I've
Speaker 2: done in the past? And am I going to ruin
Speaker 2: this like I've ruined everything else in my life? And
Speaker 2: I just decided that I wasn't use any substance and
Speaker 2: I was gonna stop drinking alcohol completely out of my system.
Speaker 2: And then I started realizing how much poison it was
Speaker 2: and what I was doing. It was poisoned my body,
Speaker 2: and I just I was I just stopped. I quit
Speaker 2: and stopped meetings. I kept going to meetings, got a
Speaker 2: great sponsor, and I started to find what they call
Speaker 2: the miracle in the program.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's that's very admirable. I saw that you recently
Speaker 1: posted that your you have your ten year chip.
Speaker 2: You got my a ten year chip.
Speaker 1: That's a big deal, that's a decade.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yes, I went to a meeting here in Nashville.
Speaker 2: I hadn't gone to I had gone as an AA
Speaker 2: a couple of AA meetings, but I do. I do
Speaker 2: different programs, and I found other programs to be more
Speaker 2: beneficial for me. But I went to an AA one here.
Speaker 2: It's pretty popular here, and I wanted to collect my
Speaker 2: ten year chip. I thought it was powerful, you know,
Speaker 2: for me to go there and uh and I got
Speaker 2: there and they made the announcement, you know, and I
Speaker 2: would raise my hand. And I went out there to
Speaker 2: collected and everyone's plotting and everything. Didn't have a chip.
Speaker 2: They didn't have a ten year chip.
Speaker 1: What I know, I didn't have to have the chip.
Speaker 2: No physical ten year chip. And they were like, oh
Speaker 2: my god, I'm so sorry, you don't have to take
Speaker 2: a chip. I was like, okay, well, let's find that
Speaker 2: was that's how it's supposed to be. So my wife
Speaker 2: got me a ten year chip online.
Speaker 1: Oh I love that story. Yeah, speaking of your wife,
Speaker 1: she's been beautiful.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you would love my wife, I can tell.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I delved into her Instagram also. She seems like
Speaker 1: a really neat lady. Yeah, a really special person. You
Speaker 1: guys are so glad you found each other.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you guys are very similar.
Speaker 1: How did you meet? I'm curious.
Speaker 2: We met here at Nashville, Tennessee, at a Make a
Speaker 2: Wish charity foundation. So I used to always come back,
Speaker 2: I think only the Nashville over twenty years, and I
Speaker 2: became really good friends with Jada Marcus and he's in
Speaker 2: the band Rascal Flats and he has this him and
Speaker 2: Kevin Carter had this Make a Wish charity foundation. I
Speaker 2: don't always show up every it was like every April
Speaker 2: and I was with the boys from Rascal Flats and
Speaker 2: Julie was there and said hi and kind of clicked.
Speaker 1: And right away, right away it was just.
Speaker 2: Like she's she's a I kept thinking to myself, like
Speaker 2: she's out of my like she's.
Speaker 1: Better than me, she's out of your league.
Speaker 2: Out of my league, Yeah, out of my league. And
Speaker 2: then no fact, she kept wanting to be around me.
Speaker 2: So we made it official.
Speaker 1: And that's amazing. And was that around you said that
Speaker 1: was kind of around the same time that you was
Speaker 1: a few years later that you got sober. Was she
Speaker 1: an integral part of that.
Speaker 2: Yeah. In the first year that we were together, I
Speaker 2: was definitely abusing drugs and alcohol still like I was
Speaker 2: a young kid in Hollywood, thinking that that was the
Speaker 2: way to entice and this girl. But yeah, I started
Speaker 2: to be able to see that that wasn't the truth
Speaker 2: and it was wasn't becoming of me to be that
Speaker 2: individual anymore. And I wanted to be more than I
Speaker 2: wanted to be more for me me, first for her,
Speaker 2: and then turned out to be for our for our
Speaker 2: son and then our daughter, and I'm very grateful to
Speaker 2: be so we're still to this day.
Speaker 1: Oh it's like fate brought her to you just the
Speaker 1: right time when you are open and ready to make
Speaker 1: some big changes in your life.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, she definitely. She made me think that I
Speaker 2: was in the same league as her, and that it
Speaker 2: was worth fighting for the things that I always dreamed
Speaker 2: of and that God was still by my side, still
Speaker 2: with me. She proved it over time, not that God
Speaker 2: needs to be proven, but what good things happened to
Speaker 2: you and things. You know, you feel that you feel
Speaker 2: love in your life again, you know, you know, it's
Speaker 2: just not you in this world.
Speaker 1: It breaks down the walls that we've put up probably
Speaker 1: you know, and it sort of breaks down also the
Speaker 1: shame that we put on ourselves and we live life
Speaker 1: through that shame. Lens, like you said, like I'm not
Speaker 1: good enough for her, She's out of my league. Yeah,
Speaker 1: these things were never true.
Speaker 2: It's interesting. The shame was is what I've given up
Speaker 2: for the last seven years of my life. And I
Speaker 2: know I had a lot to do with like being
Speaker 2: married and thinking that by previous marriage is that it
Speaker 2: had to be a certain thing, and then when it
Speaker 2: didn't turn out to be the thing, I had so
Speaker 2: much shame around it. You know. In my first wedding,
Speaker 2: I had a Catholic priest marry us as well as
Speaker 2: Breva and Michael beck With from Agape, so they both
Speaker 2: were there, you know, but I was getting married in
Speaker 2: the Catholic faith, and you know, that's so much shame
Speaker 2: of associated to divorce and everything around it. So I yeah,
Speaker 2: that was that was a big part of that shame
Speaker 2: that I was carrying around for such a long time.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I can definitely relate. I had a long marriage
Speaker 1: and three beautiful children with a man, and then when
Speaker 1: we got divorced, I felt so shameful. I felt I
Speaker 1: carried around this shame, which manifested into you know, anger
Speaker 1: at myself, anger at other people. It manifested into insecurities,
Speaker 1: It manifested in so many unbeneficial characteristics. But I think
Speaker 1: that's that's at the root of so much of our unrest.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Absolutely, Well, she sounds like an angel.
Speaker 2: I think she is.
Speaker 1: I think she is too. Do you think that your
Speaker 1: addiction affected your career throughout the years.
Speaker 2: Absolutely. And I have to remind myself when things are
Speaker 2: going well, I only have myself to blame, you know,
Speaker 2: And I can point to things that caused my addiction,
Speaker 2: which I've been able to do since I've been sober
Speaker 2: figured out the whys. But I still take responsibility for
Speaker 2: being that individual that wasn't showing up when I needed
Speaker 2: to really show up. You know, these opportunities came up
Speaker 2: and I didn't. You know, So you can't say, like,
Speaker 2: I mean I didn't win the audition or something like that,
Speaker 2: like I wasn't present fully in my my genius to
Speaker 2: be able to get what I was supposed to get,
Speaker 2: you know, what was supposed to come to me. I
Speaker 2: wasn't open to being the most authentically true self that
Speaker 2: I could be.
Speaker 1: Right, it was like covering up your gifts, like the
Speaker 1: gifts that you were given of being able to emote
Speaker 1: and you know, touch people in the way that you
Speaker 1: have to be able to do as an actor.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I wasn't connected to the source.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and do you think I'm sorry, I'm getting real personal.
Speaker 1: Do you think your addiction played a role or a
Speaker 1: part in your relationships not working?
Speaker 2: Yeah? I think the shame had a bigger part of it.
Speaker 2: But the addictions, yeah, they're prevalent. They were prevalent. I
Speaker 2: was using in both relationships prior to previous relationships. They
Speaker 2: had a big part of it.
Speaker 1: Yeah. There are so many people out there that you
Speaker 1: know are struggling or know someone that they love who
Speaker 1: is struggling with addiction. I'm wondering, as a person who
Speaker 1: has been through it on the level that you have
Speaker 1: and changed your life in such a significant way, what
Speaker 1: would you say to a person who's struggling right now,
Speaker 1: like one of our listeners, even just one person who's
Speaker 1: listening like what would you want them to hear?
Speaker 2: So I didn't think I had a problem drinking, right,
Speaker 2: I thought I could stop drinking, Like I could stop
Speaker 2: for months, wasn't a big deal. What was going on
Speaker 2: was I would start to drink, not like a crazy
Speaker 2: person where I wake up every morning with a flask
Speaker 2: in my hand. What it was, it was numbing myself
Speaker 2: every time that I started getting closer to these whys.
Speaker 2: Why it wasn't my most authentic self, like the best
Speaker 2: version of me. And I was okay not being that
Speaker 2: version that you know, I was okay not being okay.
Speaker 2: So it really wasn't about the alcohol. But when I
Speaker 2: was able to get past it and give it time,
Speaker 2: I was able to understand why I was doing that.
Speaker 2: I was able to change to be more of who
Speaker 2: I really am.
Speaker 1: The person you want to be.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that I always wanted to be and always known
Speaker 2: that I was. And I identify my whys and when
Speaker 2: when we when I work with anyone in the program,
Speaker 2: I always want to get to these whys because unconsciously,
Speaker 2: these things are coming back up and taking us off
Speaker 2: of our path. You know, it's the alcohol is is
Speaker 2: like the cover up to us not being able to
Speaker 2: really look at ourselves and loving that part of ourselves
Speaker 2: that's shame h And that's you know, every tough guy
Speaker 2: out there is like, you know, oh, problem drinking. It's
Speaker 2: not really about the alcohol. If you're if you're continually
Speaker 2: ruining your.
Speaker 1: Life, you need to there's a why why? Yeah, And
Speaker 1: it's not just alcohol, it's drugs, it's sex, like whatever
Speaker 1: your addiction, food, whatever you default to to make yourself
Speaker 1: feel better or to hide that shame, or to mask
Speaker 1: what's really going on so that you don't have to
Speaker 1: be in it, because that's so uncomfortable to really look
Speaker 1: inside and ask yourself why. I think that's super powerful.
Speaker 1: You have kids. I have kids. You have young kids.
Speaker 1: That's got to keep you very active. Yeah, are a
Speaker 1: ten and four? I think is what you said.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I get a ten year old boy and a
Speaker 2: four year old little girl.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, I can tell you love being a dad.
Speaker 2: I'm very grateful to be a father.
Speaker 1: It just puts everything in perspective. It does, it is
Speaker 1: the why, like it becomes your why. Yeah.
Speaker 2: I'm so grateful that I'm present with my children and
Speaker 2: all that work that I did and get rid of
Speaker 2: all that chaos and all that poison I was putting
Speaker 2: in my body so that I could be present with
Speaker 2: my children. And I'm grateful to still be alive. If
Speaker 2: I want to continue down the path, I wouldn't be
Speaker 2: able to be here with them.
Speaker 1: I think at the end of the day. That's what
Speaker 1: it always comes back to is gratitude. Yeah, that acknowledging
Speaker 1: the things in your life that you are so grateful for.
Speaker 1: It just opens you up to a whole new world
Speaker 1: of your experience here. Oh my gosh, I love it
Speaker 1: that you got to be a dad. That's really great.
Speaker 1: I get this question all the time. Would you let
Speaker 1: your kids become actors or be in our industry if.
Speaker 2: They wanted to, well they really wanted to learn the
Speaker 2: craw aft, if they wanted to be artists m hmm yeah,
Speaker 2: and if they were willing to also learn the business
Speaker 2: our business. I would really encourage both of those mm hmm.
Speaker 2: You know this quick world that we live in social
Speaker 2: media and that's a different form of fame or you know,
Speaker 2: like we didn't we were actors. You know, we were
Speaker 2: striving to like tell the truth, you know, in our work,
Speaker 2: and that that I would encourage and I you know,
Speaker 2: I don't know if the business is safer than when
Speaker 2: we first started.
Speaker 1: But I like to hope, So I like to hope.
Speaker 2: So yeah, I think. I like to think that I
Speaker 2: I made it better than what I found it, So
Speaker 2: I would, I would encourage them. It's a great life,
Speaker 2: the start of living. So you're a great example. Look
Speaker 2: at you, how you live your life. It's awesome. You
Speaker 2: just NonStop. You just a fighter, man. I love it.
Speaker 2: You know, actor is an act that they just learn
Speaker 2: how to fight for themselves, some of them, not all
Speaker 2: of them.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's that moment when you're on camera and you're
Speaker 1: in a scene and you're in that character shoes and
Speaker 1: that connection with your co star. That's the moment that
Speaker 1: keeps me coming back.
Speaker 2: I know, you got to come out and do Blue
Speaker 2: Ridge with me.
Speaker 1: It sounds like a dream. Shoot.
Speaker 2: It's so much fun. We have a blast.
Speaker 1: I bet you do. Yeah, I want to skip ahead
Speaker 1: to that, but I'm going to come back to something else.
Speaker 1: I want to skip ahead to Blue Ridge for a second,
Speaker 1: because this is a role that you've played before in
Speaker 1: a movie, and you're now doing a series based on
Speaker 1: the movie. You're playing the same character. What is it
Speaker 1: about that character? What's the character's name, Sheriff Justin, Justin
Speaker 1: Justin Wise, that's a good character name. What is it
Speaker 1: about him that made you want want to come back?
Speaker 2: Yeah? So I'd never really explored a character like this before.
Speaker 2: I've never been a leading man of my own show, right,
Speaker 2: So when they brought it back to me and I
Speaker 2: was like, you know it, it is the first role
Speaker 2: that I had ever played where I did not walk
Speaker 2: away every day feeling a sense of shame.
Speaker 1: It was the first what do you mean shame?
Speaker 2: So I always from my previous experience in the film industry,
Speaker 2: I had a great deal of shame associated to performance,
Speaker 2: and I had done a lot of work on that.
Speaker 2: I did a lot of brain spotting, like it did
Speaker 2: a lot of therapy, did a lot of work on
Speaker 2: not not carrying that into my life, using my life
Speaker 2: for my art, but not like beating myself up afterwards.
Speaker 2: I would beat myself to tears. It was ridiculous. I
Speaker 2: thought it was part of the process.
Speaker 1: And just like those thoughts of like I'm not good enough,
Speaker 1: I shouldn't be doing this, it just.
Speaker 2: The weight of carrying that forward. It was just like,
Speaker 2: you know, I think at one point maybe it was
Speaker 2: a survival trait that I had gotten where I was
Speaker 2: trying to always make sure the next time I got
Speaker 2: out there, I performed really well. But I realized I
Speaker 2: didn't need to be that way anymore, and I left.
Speaker 2: I left Hollywood and literally moved to Nashville, and it
Speaker 2: was the first role that came to me, and I
Speaker 2: performed it and I had a great experience. I was
Speaker 2: very connected to the crew, my cast, and the experience
Speaker 2: and the character of Justin Wise, he's his old school.
Speaker 2: It's very much like my father, like I've become my
Speaker 2: father where I was born in the city police officer.
Speaker 2: Justin is that character that runs to the problem and
Speaker 2: there for others. I embraced it and I loved it.
Speaker 2: And when they came back and said they wanted to
Speaker 2: make it into a television series, I was first off
Speaker 2: was we make sure they wanted me, and they did,
Speaker 2: and then just checking checking, just shoot me want me
Speaker 2: to come back? And they were like everyone they said
Speaker 2: the network and everyone really loved what I did with
Speaker 2: Justin and it was the big success for their network
Speaker 2: and they wanted to continue to make it into a series,
Speaker 2: and so we did six episodes in season one and
Speaker 2: they're out right now every Sunday on itsp at nine pm.
Speaker 2: And I play the character Justimize that I've played before.
Speaker 2: So yeah, I get to play my dad.
Speaker 1: That's got to be so rewarding, especially now that you
Speaker 1: have this core of gratitude, like you appreciate it so
Speaker 1: much more now.
Speaker 2: I bet, yeah, I do. I appreciate I really appreciate
Speaker 2: it so much. But all the other chaos, all this
Speaker 2: stuff I can't control out. I don't bother with it
Speaker 2: it anymore. And if it starts to come up with me,
Speaker 2: I just I let it go. Okay with with with
Speaker 2: not knowing? Does it make sense? I'm okay with going
Speaker 2: into the unknown.
Speaker 1: That's true. What do you do to yourself in those
Speaker 1: moments when you need to squash those voices that you're
Speaker 1: so familiar with, those negative voices, Well.
Speaker 2: If I can't get rid of them, like through a
Speaker 2: workout mm hmm or we're talking to my wife, I'll
Speaker 2: call my sponsor m hm and talk talk. Yeah. My
Speaker 2: sponsor is great. He's a brain surgeon. Oh nice, I know,
Speaker 2: and he just kind of sets things very clear and quick.
Speaker 2: And I just realized, like that's where I am. That's
Speaker 2: what that's what I've done with my life. I've gotten
Speaker 2: to the place where I can actually reach out and
Speaker 2: not be alone, because that's probably the biggest problem with
Speaker 2: most addicts is there they fight these things alone. I
Speaker 2: work with a program. You get a bunch of people
Speaker 2: that are similar to you. You know, they may be
Speaker 2: completely different, but they're on the same path as you,
Speaker 2: and so you reach out to them and they're there
Speaker 2: for you, and they put you right in line, right
Speaker 2: back in place where you need to be. And he
Speaker 2: under understands shame so well he can set me. Like
Speaker 2: one time I had a I had an audition and
Speaker 2: I had to do it the next day, and I'm dyslexic.
Speaker 2: I cannot, from the life of me, like two things quick.
Speaker 2: It's probably been and I've learned that's never gonna happen.
Speaker 2: I'm never going to be good at it.
Speaker 1: And I'm like quick memorizing things.
Speaker 2: That quick thing like if it's tomorrow, you know, two
Speaker 2: page monologue, it's it's you know, it's gonna be really hard.
Speaker 2: I mean I could get through it. They have to
Speaker 2: be willing. And so I had this audition the next
Speaker 2: day and I just went absolutely mad. I don't know
Speaker 2: what it was, but there was something about this force
Speaker 2: to put having to put me in this audition spot, like,
Speaker 2: you know, without any time, and it felt like the
Speaker 2: whole world was against me again and how could they
Speaker 2: do this? And who I was just going nuts.
Speaker 1: It sounds like you were really regressing into that victim mentality.
Speaker 2: Yes, exactly, yeah, yeah. And I made a couple of
Speaker 2: phone calls and they they just they heard me. They
Speaker 2: said the right things. They you know, one of my
Speaker 2: I haven't more than one sponsor, but my main sponsor
Speaker 2: out here, I called my LA sponsor and he was great.
Speaker 2: He just said, well, that's not fair, you know, like
Speaker 2: why do they have to do that. They can give
Speaker 2: you more time. Just him saying that made me feel
Speaker 2: better enough to actually do the performance. And I did
Speaker 2: great job the next day, so I didn't carry any
Speaker 2: of that shame into that after I was saved by
Speaker 2: my fellows. As they say that.
Speaker 1: It was, Yeah, it was fighting to get in there,
Speaker 1: though I was really trying to mess you up and
Speaker 1: derail you.
Speaker 2: Exactly.
Speaker 1: That's so good when you have that personspective of the
Speaker 1: power of being able to talk back to those negative
Speaker 1: voices when you develop that power and that ability and
Speaker 1: just able to acknowledge those are just thoughts that aren't
Speaker 1: helpful to me anymore.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I wish I would have done that earlier. Right
Speaker 2: now and then with our children, I want to be
Speaker 2: able to be that boys. You realize it's so hard
Speaker 2: to get them to hear that at these young ages,
Speaker 2: and you know, they got to have their own experience
Speaker 2: to get there.
Speaker 1: I know, but they are at such a great advantage
Speaker 1: to have your wisdom that you've gained, because some people
Speaker 1: go through life and they don't ever get to the
Speaker 1: point where you are and your kids are. So I
Speaker 1: think this all the time too, like there are light
Speaker 1: years ahead of what I was able to do at
Speaker 1: that age, just because they have the support system and
Speaker 1: they have me wanting to share my knowledge and my
Speaker 1: experiences and my wisdoms with them. Whether they listen or not,
Speaker 1: whether I have to say it four hundred times or not,
Speaker 1: that's a different story. But yeah, they have to go
Speaker 1: and live their life. But I think that that the
Speaker 1: cornerstone of that support of a very present parent is
Speaker 1: they're just they're so much better off than we were.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, there's a The word in therapy is
Speaker 2: generational trauma. Might continue that the generational stuff that I
Speaker 2: was put that was placed upon me. I stopped that,
Speaker 2: and maybe I'm giving him new trauma. I don't know.
Speaker 1: Probably, Oh my god, it'll end up there'll be in
Speaker 1: therapy talking about us any minute as mine. Speaking of therapy,
Speaker 1: what you you mentioned that you did EMDR and brain spotting.
Speaker 1: I know what EMDR is, and I think it's such
Speaker 1: a valuable modality of that kind of therapy, really effective.
Speaker 1: If you guys don't know what EMDR is, definitely looking up.
Speaker 1: But you also said something about brain spotting and I'm
Speaker 1: not familiar with that. Can you you tell us what
Speaker 1: that is?
Speaker 2: You know, it's very similar like they they follow you
Speaker 2: fall like a stick and there's a guided meditation basically
Speaker 2: to bring you back to a certain point in your
Speaker 2: life that you need to address. And for me, I
Speaker 2: don't know if you listeners can handle this or not,
Speaker 2: but I was actually molested when I was twenty two
Speaker 2: years old on a screen test in Rome by director
Speaker 2: Franco Zefarelli. It just just screwed me up, like for
Speaker 2: a long time. So I was able to address it
Speaker 2: and the one way I was able to get to
Speaker 2: that experience and stand up to it again was brain spotting.
Speaker 2: So I had an incredible therapist that like guided me
Speaker 2: to the point of when you know I was violated
Speaker 2: and why I froze, and why I didn't stop him
Speaker 2: right like, I didn't.
Speaker 1: Kill him in that moment.
Speaker 2: In that moment, And that's that's what I did with
Speaker 2: brain spodies. So we found that where that was in
Speaker 2: my body and my soul basically, but really probably in
Speaker 2: my spotting. It in my brain, so the right brain
Speaker 2: and the left side it was. I can't remember exactly
Speaker 2: what that was, but that's what brain spotting is. So
Speaker 2: I was able to get to that place and heal
Speaker 2: that part of me and talk about it.
Speaker 1: Really, Oh my god, that work is not easy. So
Speaker 1: I really applaud you for seeking the help to go there.
Speaker 1: You know, that's that's it's not an easy decision. It's
Speaker 1: not an easy choice to make. It sucks, it's hard,
Speaker 1: it feels awful to go so deep into those traumas
Speaker 1: that have truly affected our whole lives.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I've spoke out about it, and I'm I'm a
Speaker 2: survivor and I speak out openly about it. So it's
Speaker 2: not like everyone needs to like, oh my god, poor Jonathan.
Speaker 2: I've worked really hard and I share that because I
Speaker 2: know there's probably one individual who's struggling with that and
Speaker 2: being male, being in a very masculine role on a
Speaker 2: television shore series where you don't want to mess with
Speaker 2: my character. You still don't want to mess with my character.
Speaker 2: But you know, being a man in this in that
Speaker 2: world is survival world. It's a difficult world, but you
Speaker 2: know you're stronger when you get to the other side
Speaker 2: of it, for sure.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, man, woman, I don't think it matters
Speaker 1: when you've been violated that way. It does really mess
Speaker 1: you up. Yeah, it does in so many like layered ways.
Speaker 1: I read that article. By the way, when you first
Speaker 1: decided to talk about it, how did you feel after
Speaker 1: you shared that story with the world.
Speaker 2: Well, I was frightened. It was really scared. I thought
Speaker 2: I would never work again, work for a long time.
Speaker 2: That's why I started making some phone calls to people
Speaker 2: and telling him like, you know, I think I just
Speaker 2: I don't think like everyone was like, oh god, you
Speaker 2: know what the age just share. I think it was
Speaker 2: more like it's just a competitive business, and everyone else
Speaker 2: was able to move their their bodies in front of it,
Speaker 2: like you're competing non stop. So I just wasn't getting
Speaker 2: the same opportunity as I was before, and I was
Speaker 2: frightened that no one was able to see me anymore.
Speaker 2: And I knew what I needed to do is to
Speaker 2: work harder on myself so that I could get more
Speaker 2: in the light, that I could be more open to
Speaker 2: what what I shared. And I did. I worked really
Speaker 2: hard on myself, stayed sober and worked really hard and
Speaker 2: got more and more in the light so that I
Speaker 2: could be seen. And that's how my show came about.
Speaker 2: You know, it was my parents was exactly what I did.
Speaker 2: He embraced it. He was like, this is my hero,
Speaker 2: this is this is what I want from my character
Speaker 2: and my show's hero, someone who's that strong, and I
Speaker 2: the same thing with the net work. They really supported
Speaker 2: me and brought me on bropping back for the series.
Speaker 2: You know exactly what I had shared, So it was empowering.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, that's got to feel so good. I mean,
Speaker 1: not only did you speak openly about it in order
Speaker 1: to help other people who it's maybe happened to to
Speaker 1: sort of connect and share and take the shame element
Speaker 1: out of it, but then to have your personal life
Speaker 1: and your work life flourish after you did that work. Yeah, yep,
Speaker 1: that is so inspirational.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, I did the work.
Speaker 1: So the work.
Speaker 2: I did the work and got through the dark, through
Speaker 2: the its a bit abyss, and I got out to
Speaker 2: the light, made that journey and carried the torch. Now
Speaker 2: I'm holding it strong for everyone else to see.
Speaker 1: And it's so nice to hear that your employers, if
Speaker 1: you will, like your producer, your boss, is your network
Speaker 1: that everybody has embraced it and they've expressed how proud
Speaker 1: of you they are and how much they support you.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: That kind of talking about stuff that we don't want
Speaker 1: to talk about or you know, I know what happened,
Speaker 1: but let's not discuss it. Like the act of actually
Speaker 1: just talking about that with people that you work with
Speaker 1: or that you care about or that you depend on,
Speaker 1: Like that's such a freeing feeling. And you're so lucky
Speaker 1: to have found those people to support you.
Speaker 2: I know it was. It was amazing. Like you ever
Speaker 2: study you ever read Brene Brown? Oh? Yeah, so she
Speaker 2: talks about going in the wilderness and I felt like
Speaker 2: I went into the wilderness and how it's in the
Speaker 2: you know, the thick of the trees and like the
Speaker 2: darkest places. After I shared my story and then I
Speaker 2: was able to find the path and get out. And
Speaker 2: I didn't do it alone. People helped me.
Speaker 1: It's so true. It's that connective tissue right that everybody's
Speaker 1: having the same human experience. We try to think where
Speaker 1: we tend to think that it's just me, I'm the
Speaker 1: only one that's going through this. Nobody has any understanding
Speaker 1: of what I'm going through dealing with, but in reality,
Speaker 1: we're all dealing with the same things, just in a
Speaker 1: different situation circumstances.
Speaker 2: I've shared human experience and the amount of people that
Speaker 2: reached out to me since then, it's been amazing. I've
Speaker 2: helped people like I could literally say that I helped
Speaker 2: people find the life.
Speaker 1: Yes, that's the best feeling. We were talking about like
Speaker 1: talking about stuff and being open and sharing like our
Speaker 1: darkest moments or our biggest challenges with people. I recently
Speaker 1: had my ex husband Peter on this podcast, and I
Speaker 1: went into it not knowing what was going to come
Speaker 1: out of it, and it was actually through us sitting
Speaker 1: down and talking with one another about the meat of
Speaker 1: it that it brought. It brought us so much closer.
Speaker 1: And then when our listeners and people in the world
Speaker 1: heard that story, I feel like, you know, because we
Speaker 1: really struggled as co parents all these years, and we
Speaker 1: really covered all of that up in the public's eye.
Speaker 1: But once we talked about it, and once we shared
Speaker 1: it with the community of listeners that we have here,
Speaker 1: it was it lifted something off of me, like that
Speaker 1: burden off my shoulders or that whatever I was carrying
Speaker 1: around that was making us be have that tension with
Speaker 1: one another.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, So you're leading by example also by just talking
Speaker 1: about things like this openly and if yeah, if you
Speaker 1: reach one person by sharing your story or your stories,
Speaker 1: that's the best feeling. Yeah, relationships are tricky. You've been
Speaker 1: married a few times. I've been married a few times.
Speaker 1: They're not easy. They're not easy. In the industry that
Speaker 1: we work in, there's so much time away from one another,
Speaker 1: and there's a lot of different things that you have
Speaker 1: to add in there. But I did hear that you.
Speaker 1: I know that you are remarried now to Julie, but
Speaker 1: Julie is best friends with your ex wife Jana also
Speaker 1: very confusing with the two j's. I gotta say, Janna,
Speaker 1: you could have picked a different letter. But okay, but
Speaker 1: they're best friends, Like, how does that? How did that
Speaker 1: happen for you? And how did that feel?
Speaker 2: You know? They met at the Maker with Charity Foundation,
Speaker 2: the same place Julie, So the two of them met.
Speaker 2: And my wife is just very open and loving and she,
Speaker 2: you know, she became friends with Jenna for a long
Speaker 2: period of time. We kinda moved out to Nashville, Tennessee.
Speaker 2: I think she remarried recently. But so we've lived these
Speaker 2: you know, lives, and it's all good.
Speaker 1: It does not feel good, Yeah.
Speaker 2: It's all good. I love it.
Speaker 1: It's all good. It's so much better than this is
Speaker 1: so hard, you know, Yeah, just the mindset change alone
Speaker 1: can change everything.
Speaker 2: My wife is just very open and loving, and you know,
Speaker 2: she's tough too. She's not a pushover. So she she
Speaker 2: sees the best in people and she's great at it.
Speaker 2: She brings the best out of people too.
Speaker 1: I love that. One of the things my husband told
Speaker 1: me once was that I make him want to be
Speaker 1: a better man. Yeah, and that as a wife and
Speaker 1: just as a friend, it made me feel so valuable
Speaker 1: to him that that carries me through and keeps me
Speaker 1: wanting to him to feel that way. You know.
Speaker 2: Yeah, my wife makes me want to be a better
Speaker 2: man as well.
Speaker 1: Hm, that's really good.
Speaker 2: And she she's the first person to say, like, you know,
Speaker 2: all this working down yourself is the most attractive thing
Speaker 2: about you.
Speaker 1: Right, yeah, it really is. As you get older, that
Speaker 1: whole like moody, mysterious, dangerous, you know, problematic guy is
Speaker 1: less and less appealing. So now you're just like to her,
Speaker 1: I'm sure that is so admirable. I mean to me,
Speaker 1: it's so admirable to everyone that's heard your story is
Speaker 1: what you've done, the way you've turned your life around,
Speaker 1: is truly admirable and inspiring. And I know that our
Speaker 1: listeners are going to well really hear that. And just
Speaker 1: the genuineness that you speak about it with. You're not
Speaker 1: talking about this so that you can be more famous
Speaker 1: or get more likes or whatever people talk about things for.
Speaker 1: You're talking about this because you have to talk about it,
Speaker 1: because it's who you are.
Speaker 2: That's what I told my, That's what I told Amy My.
Speaker 2: I hired a pblicist for Blue Ridge, and I was
Speaker 2: just like, I have to. Look, I want to help
Speaker 2: promote the show whatever I can, but I really need
Speaker 2: to tell my story. I have to. It's part of
Speaker 2: my DNA right now, like it's part of me. I
Speaker 2: have to share this because I know that it will
Speaker 2: open people up.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's that's what we want to do. We want
Speaker 1: to connect. And when when your fans or your viewers
Speaker 1: feel like they can connect to you and relate to
Speaker 1: you on that deeper level, it's so much more valuable.
Speaker 1: I know the relationship that I have with a lot
Speaker 1: of my long term fans and supporters like they feel
Speaker 1: like my family. And as much as I share what
Speaker 1: I do in hopes to inspire them, them acknowledging it
Speaker 1: and giving me their stories sharing their stories with me,
Speaker 1: it inspires me. So it's this beautiful, like cyclical exchange
Speaker 1: of just like good energy.
Speaker 2: Wow, that's beautiful. So you've you've had a relationship with
Speaker 2: fans for such a long time. Yeah, did a lot
Speaker 2: of people stick around all these years?
Speaker 1: I mean it's bananas. The super fans of the OG
Speaker 1: nine on two to zero from the nineties, I see
Speaker 1: them at all the time, and I correspond with them
Speaker 1: and I love connecting with them, like they feel like
Speaker 1: a part of me, and I'm so grateful to them.
Speaker 1: And like, I know, I would not have had the
Speaker 1: career that I've had. I wouldn't have this outlook that
Speaker 1: I have at this point in my life without that
Speaker 1: kind of love and support. So tap into that. You
Speaker 1: know you are doing You're you're doing great, and yeah,
Speaker 1: you have to promote your show because you want people
Speaker 1: to see it and enjoy it. You work really hard
Speaker 1: on it, but at the same time, that's not your
Speaker 1: only motive and that comes through, right, So you're doing great.
Speaker 2: The fan things so neat. I never really had that
Speaker 2: people like my movie, I've been in that thing you
Speaker 2: do fans, but we don't have like I think I
Speaker 2: wasn't on television for a period of time. Like I
Speaker 2: think people will find justin why is my character and
Speaker 2: really start to find him and me and see the
Speaker 2: connection and be able to share with me. I would
Speaker 2: love that that happened with my fans. I'll put that
Speaker 2: out there. I would love to do it that.
Speaker 1: Just keep connecting with them because they want to connect
Speaker 1: with you.
Speaker 2: I'm so used to I was. I've always been so
Speaker 2: scared of fans. I think why, you know, I had
Speaker 2: a stalker, so there was always about the looking at
Speaker 2: the mail and there were always horrible things that the
Speaker 2: stalker was doing. So yeah, I think I just always
Speaker 2: like didn't want to connect with these people because they
Speaker 2: was afraid that there was danger there.
Speaker 1: Well, you know, there are scary people out there, that
Speaker 1: is true.
Speaker 2: There's a loving people too, and I did. We don't
Speaker 2: have social back then. You know, socials are I do
Speaker 2: connect with people now. I do love the people that
Speaker 2: connect with me. And They've been there since socials at
Speaker 2: least when I started doing socials and I could see
Speaker 2: them and I'm like, hey, I got a series I'm doing. Now,
Speaker 2: Oh what's the series?
Speaker 1: You know, Yeah, it's the best. It's like your support
Speaker 1: group and you inspire them, and then by them loving
Speaker 1: you and sharing with you, they inspire you. It's the best.
Speaker 1: Just you're so on the right path. I'm so excited
Speaker 1: for you in your life. And you know, once again,
Speaker 1: it really really inspired by your story and your bravery
Speaker 1: to not only share those dark places, but to do
Speaker 1: the work that it takes to get out of them,
Speaker 1: because nothing changes if nothing changes. So kudos to you,
Speaker 1: my friend, I'm curious what this is a question I
Speaker 1: like to answer myself. But what is it when you
Speaker 1: lay your head down on the pillow at the end
Speaker 1: of your day. What is it that goes through your
Speaker 1: mind before you fall asleep.
Speaker 2: Well, if I start thinking about any of the things,
Speaker 2: I usually go through the Baltimore Orioles lineup.
Speaker 1: So that's your guy.
Speaker 2: I've just tried to do things that I have no
Speaker 2: control over and don't really matter. I will rest because
Speaker 2: if I think about sometimes, I'll go over the lines
Speaker 2: for the next day. Have you done that.
Speaker 1: I've slept with my my sides under my pillow every
Speaker 1: so many times. But it's like it's gonna it's gonna
Speaker 1: come magically into my brain if I just sleep on it.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, I've done that so many times. And I
Speaker 2: do that a lot more sane than I used to
Speaker 2: do trying to memorize lines. I could, you know. I
Speaker 2: used to think that I couldn't memorize them. When I
Speaker 2: realize it was not. I'm not that being anymore. I
Speaker 2: have to let them in me. Yeah. So yeah, I
Speaker 2: do definitely run my lines over in my head. And
Speaker 2: if I can't remember them, oh, sometimes I might get
Speaker 2: wake up and go, you know, look at them, turn
Speaker 2: the light on, try to see in the middle of
Speaker 2: the night, what was that line I was trying to memorize.
Speaker 1: Oh, the life of an actor.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's the one thing people always like that. One
Speaker 2: of the first things they always ask me is do
Speaker 2: you memorize your lines?
Speaker 1: Mm hmm.
Speaker 2: I'm like, well, that's a good question. It just becomes
Speaker 2: part of like just you have to do it, so
Speaker 2: you just start really start to get into that dialogue.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I think it's with like with most things, the
Speaker 1: more you use it, the better it gets that muscle
Speaker 1: whatever it is inside our brains for the memory of
Speaker 1: our lines. Like if you keep using it, it just
Speaker 1: it's like more automatic somehow.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you're good at it, aren't you. I am a
Speaker 2: quick You have a lot of You've always had a
Speaker 2: lot of lines.
Speaker 1: Yeah. But every time i'm it's like showtime, whatever it is,
Speaker 1: an interview, an appearance, a scene, whatever it is. I
Speaker 1: always panic inside and think, oh my god, I don't know,
Speaker 1: I can't do this, and just like you, I have
Speaker 1: to say, hey, shut it not helpful.
Speaker 2: And when your co star says their line, you know
Speaker 2: your line, it.
Speaker 1: Just comes if you're in the moment, if it's yeah.
Speaker 1: So I love that part. Okay. I always ask everybody
Speaker 1: this that comes on our podcast, Jonathan, what was your
Speaker 1: last I Choose Me moment?
Speaker 2: You know, I chose me when I hired my publicist.
Speaker 1: Mm hmmm.
Speaker 2: I know that it would be tough to get press
Speaker 2: during the summer and they were putting a show out
Speaker 2: and I really wanted people beyond just lurage to hear
Speaker 2: my story, and I choose I choose me moment was
Speaker 2: when I hired a publicist.
Speaker 1: That's a good one because at first it doesn't sound
Speaker 1: like that, like I choose me, but it's a big expense. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and you do have to be willing to put yourself
Speaker 1: out there like never before.
Speaker 2: And she's she's always been very special to me. She
Speaker 2: worked with my with Christina in the beginning of her career,
Speaker 2: and I would hear how she strategically would plan these
Speaker 2: things out and I never had anyone like do that
Speaker 2: with me. And I was like, well, I never had
Speaker 2: my own show like this. It was always short. It
Speaker 2: was always a movie, never like a long lead. Well,
Speaker 2: you know, you have to do it for the next season.
Speaker 2: All that stuff. So she and she moved out here
Speaker 2: in Nashville, Tennessee, and I thought, we are so in line.
Speaker 2: This is the right thing to do. And when it
Speaker 2: came down to doing it, I had to really choose
Speaker 2: me over everything else. So that's and also I get
Speaker 2: up every morning, go work out. That's to choose me
Speaker 2: moment as well.
Speaker 1: Every morning.
Speaker 2: What time, well I dumped my son off at school usually,
Speaker 2: and then I go train.
Speaker 1: Both very very admirable. I choose me moments. Thank you
Speaker 1: so much for taking the time to talk today to us,
Speaker 1: and wow, I really look forward to watching Blue Ridge.
Speaker 1: I had never heard about it until I started researching
Speaker 1: you and the clips that I've seen on your social
Speaker 1: It looks like my kind of show, and it looks good,
Speaker 1: you know, like it's good stuff.
Speaker 2: It is. It's you know. I can watch it with
Speaker 2: my ten year old and my eighty five year old
Speaker 2: father and everyone gets the hea a little bit of
Speaker 2: something in it. It's got romance, action, It's a good show.
Speaker 2: People really like it.
Speaker 1: It's God well, I like you.
Speaker 2: Thank you.
Speaker 1: You have a lot of heart too. I can tell
Speaker 1: all my best to you and your beautiful family.
Speaker 2: Say to you, thanks for having me.
Speaker 1: You're welcome. That conversation with Jonathan was very inspiring and interesting.
Speaker 1: It was really incredible to hear about his journey to sobriety.
Speaker 1: And I hope that anyone listening who might be struggling
Speaker 1: with that or knows someone who is struggling, takes away
Speaker 1: from this conversation that there is help out there and
Speaker 1: you do not have to do this alone. And the
Speaker 1: releasing of shame. Yeah, that was really key for me.
Speaker 1: As we continue to choose ourselves each week, I want
Speaker 1: you to think about gratitude. We talked a lot about
Speaker 1: that today in my conversation with Jonathan, about how important
Speaker 1: it is and how fulfilling life is for him now
Speaker 1: that he has that sense of profound gratitude due to
Speaker 1: him choosing to get sober. So I want to ask you,
Speaker 1: when was the last time you practice gratitude? For me?
Speaker 1: I practice gratitude every single night before I go to bed.
Speaker 1: It's like a ritual. I lay down, I close my eyes,
Speaker 1: and I ask myself, what are three things that you're
Speaker 1: grateful for? And I either say them in my mind,
Speaker 1: or I write them down, or I say them out
Speaker 1: loud to myself or to someone that I love, and
Speaker 1: then I go to sleep, and that sense, that awareness,
Speaker 1: that acknowledgment of gratitude really does sort of seep in
Speaker 1: to who you are and how you live your life.
Speaker 1: So I want you to try it. I want you
Speaker 1: to say it out loud, say it to yourself, say
Speaker 1: it to a friend, tell them how grateful you are
Speaker 1: that they are in your life, and watch how beautifully
Speaker 1: things unfold for you. Thanks for listening to I Choose Me.
Speaker 1: You can check out our social links and make sure
Speaker 1: to follow, rate, and review the podcast, and use the
Speaker 1: hashtag I Choose Me. I will be right here next week,
Speaker 1: and I hope you will choose to be here too,