20250514 - Third Step Prayer broken down20250514 - Third Step Prayer broken down
Love Your Life, with Randy Mermell
Randy Mermell is an international coach, speaker, and podcaster. Randy helps people live happy and purposeful lives. Drawing from his own experience from 20 years of happy marriage, raising two daughters, and his success as an entrepreneur, he has helped others get through all types of professional and personal challenges, including love, marriage, children, jobs, and finding passion in everything we do. With over 28 years of sobriety, and success in his own life overcoming low self-esteem, addictions to alcohol, drugs, cigarettes, and coffee Randy draws on his real-life experience to lead meditation and recovery retreats internationally.
44:36•1 Jun 2026
Third Step Prayer, One Breath at a Time
Episode Overview
- The Third Step Prayer can be practised slowly, with pauses between each line to actually experience what is being asked.
- Alcoholism is described as a constant mental condition that speaks in one’s own voice and focuses on what is wrong.
- Shifting attention from self to a higher power is compared to changing radio stations, with peace found on the "God channel."
- Meditation offers a safe space to notice self-centred thoughts and gently return to the present moment.
- Many participants stress that relief comes from repeated, ongoing contact with a higher power rather than self-reliance or over-analysis.
“The disease manifests every single day as an unsatisfiable, fault-finding, opinionated mind that's always in a hurry, easily frustrated, and can't stand the word no.”
He talks about starting with a simple call to a higher power – "God, higher power, infinite intelligence, whatever you want to call it" – and honestly asking, "Do I really offer myself to my higher power right here, right now?" The focus is less on reciting words and more on feeling what life might be like with "no bondage of self, no old ideas, no opinions, no story, just a quiet, open mind." From there, Randy shares his own view of alcoholism as "a disease that centres in my mind" and sounds just like his own inner voice.
What are the common struggles and victories in addiction recovery? This session with "Love Your Life" host Randy Mermell drops you right into a live meditation-based AA meeting, centred around the classic Third Step Prayer and what it actually looks like in daily sober living. Randy slowly walks the group through the prayer line by line, pausing for breaths and reflection.
He compares it to tuning between two stations: the noisy "alcoholism channel" and the "God channel" where "all the peace and all the joy and all the bliss" sit. His practical examples – like catching himself hating other drivers and asking, "Could you help me to be a good driver, God?" – make spiritual ideas feel very down-to-earth.
Group members such as Scott, Rick, Matt, Bodhi and dj add their experiences of mental health, therapy, atheism, old resentments and learning not to obsess over what others think. A common thread runs through every share: the relief that comes when they stop arguing with life and repeatedly turn back to a higher power, one breath and one moment at a time.
If you’re curious how the Third Step Prayer can become a living, breathing practice rather than just a page in a book, this meeting-style episode might give you a fresh angle on your own sobriety. How often are you changing the channel from self to something greater?
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