20250709 - What is my only problem20250709 - What is my only problem
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.
54:44•23 Jul 2026
My Only Problem: Separation, Sobriety and a Golden Ball of Energy
Episode Overview
- Alcoholism is described as a mental disease expressed through a restless, fault-finding, opinionated mind that creates emotional pain.
- Randy identifies his central problem as the belief that he is separate from his higher power, even though that separation is a story, not reality.
- The AA steps are presented as a practical path from self-reliance to a quieter mind and guidance from a higher power.
- A visualisation of a golden ball of energy in the chest and conscious breathing are used as simple tools to connect with that inner power.
- Group meditation, shared experience and large gatherings of sober people are shown as powerful support for feeling connected rather than alone.
“"My problem is, is that I believe that I am a separate entity called Randy, and that I'm separate from my higher power."”
What drives someone to seek a life without alcohol? In this meeting-style episode of *Love Your Life*, international recovery coach Randy Mermell leads a group through meditation, prayer, and a deep look at what he calls his "only problem". You’ll hear Randy guide a 20‑minute meditation into a line‑by‑line practice of the third step prayer, using a vivid image of a "golden ball of energy" in the chest as a way to connect with a higher power.
He describes alcoholism as a "disease that manifests in my mind" as an "unsatisfiable, fault-finding, opinionated mind that's always in a hurry, easily frustrated, and can't stand the word no", and explains how that restless mind used alcohol to treat emotional pain until drinking became impossible. The heart of the episode is Randy’s realisation that his core problem is the belief that he’s separate from his higher power: "I can't be separate from that which I am.
I can just make up a story." From there, he walks through how the AA steps help shift from self-reliance to reliance on a higher power, with step three being the key decision to turn thoughts and actions over to that care. Group members Brian, Michael, Helle, Oleg, Elizabeth and Annie share how the meditation, breath, and convention experiences support that inner connection.
Brian describes thousands of sober people dancing together and feeling "we are always all connected"; Helle talks about the breath as "a connector to my higher power"; Annie reflects on peace as anything but dull. This episode blends practical spiritual tools, AA experience, and honest confessions of ego, hustle and exhaustion, all with a gentle humour and warmth.
If you’ve ever wondered whether your biggest problem might simply be the story your mind is telling, this conversation might be the pause you’ve been needing.
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