20251015 - Because my sponsor lived it, he could guide me20251015 - Because my sponsor lived it, he could guide me
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.
27:58•15 Oct 2026
Because My Sponsor Lived It: Letting Go of Old Ideas and Trusting a Higher Power
Episode Overview
- Alcoholism cannot provide real solutions, so guidance has to come from a power greater than alcoholism within oneself.
- The 12 steps are presented as a way of life that builds a relationship with a higher power and teaches turning away from destructive thinking.
- Sponsors can share their experience and direction, but each person must make their own decisions and take their own actions in light of their circumstances.
- Prayer and meditation are described as essential tools for reconnecting to the present moment and remembering "I am as God created me".
- Letting go of old ideas and mental stories about the past and future is stressed as vital, since relying on them leads back to fear and dissatisfaction.
“Because my sponsor had lived this program and was living it, he could guide me how to do it. But he couldn't make me do it and he couldn't do it for me.”
What drives someone to seek a life without alcohol? This meeting-style episode of *Love Your Life, with Randy Mermell* drops you straight into an all-inclusive 12-step gathering, where sobriety, spirituality, and everyday struggle are talked about with disarming honesty and a bit of humour.
Randy kicks things off by talking about alcoholism as an inner force that cannot be trusted for solutions: "Alcoholism obviously is not the right place to turn for a solution to any problem." He explains how the 12 steps become a way of life that helps build a relationship with a higher power inside, rather than relying on old thinking or addictive patterns.
You’ll hear him reflect on the idea, "I am as God created me," and how his mind pushes back with fear, stories of a broken world, and a terrible future—until meditation brings him back to the present moment where, "I am perfect, whole, and complete." The episode doesn’t stay theoretical. Randy’s key line, "Because my sponsor had lived this program and was living it, he could guide me how to do it.
But he couldn't make me do it," sums up the tone: support is vital, but each person has to make their own choice to turn towards a higher power, pause instead of destruction, and let go of old ideas. Shares from Joseph, Steve, Annie, Holly, and Matt add texture.
You’ll hear about cross-addiction, digital detox from endless scrolling, the pull of sloth and fear around work, long-term sobriety and major weight loss, driving cross-country in a camper van with family, battling a noisy mind during AA readings, and the ache of living alone in a big quiet house. Across all of it runs a common thread: awareness, acceptance, and using prayer and meditation as a "life raft" when the mind goes off the deep end.
If you’re curious how people lean on a higher power while wrestling with addiction, fear, and everyday life, this honest group conversation might be exactly what you need today.
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