458- Gary B - "My Name is Gary B – Part 1"

458- Gary B - "My Name is Gary B – Part 1"

What drives someone to seek a life that’s calmer, kinder, and actually peaceful in sobriety? This conversation between host John M and returning guest Gary B from Charlotte, North Carolina, leans hard into that question through meditation, Step 11, and gratitude. Gary shares how his meditation journey grew straight out of Alcoholics Anonymous: from leading meditations at retreats, to guiding live sessions in AA meetings, to creating his own guided tracks.

He talks about being asked to lead at a meditation meeting where “most people bring in a recording,” and how he instead wrote his own. “They loved it. And that’s kind of where that journey started,” he says.

If you’re curious about practical spiritual tools, you’ll hear Gary break down how he builds visual meditations – like taking people to “a cabana, and you lay in a hammock, and you watch the sunset, and you watch the stars come out and fall asleep to the ocean” – while subtly weaving in AA ideas like the nightly Step 10 questions.

His sleep meditation series and his “art gallery of gratitude” piece show how recovery, creativity, and engineering brain can all sit at the same table. Gratitude gets a big spotlight too.

Gary describes sending a daily gratitude text to a growing group and how it’s changed his mornings: instead of waking up thinking “what do I have to do today?”, he now starts with “what am I grateful for?” He also talks about being a self-described introvert who finds connection through texts, meditation groups, and teaching a small in-person class.

The tone is warm, relaxed, and a bit geeky in the best way, especially when they get into microphones, audio software, and sleep tracks. If you’ve ever wondered how meditation and gratitude can deepen your recovery past just not drinking, this chat might spark a few ideas of your own. What would your gratitude list look like tomorrow morning?