RR 216: Embrace Your Past and Win Your Future with Mark CrandallRR 216: Embrace Your Past and Win Your Future with Mark Crandall
The SHAIR Recovery Podcast
Mark Crandall shares his journey from a traumatic childhood, heroin addiction and prison to a life built on spirituality, coaching and service. Omar Pinto and Mark talk candidly about using recovery as a base for bigger growth, self-investment and living without regret.
1:20:25•2 Apr 2019
From Heroin and Prison to Purpose: Mark Crandall on Owning Your Story
Episode Overview
- Spiritual practices such as short daily silence and intuitive journalling can provide guidance and calm that drugs once falsely promised.
- The 12 steps can be a solid foundation, but further growth often comes from mentorship, coaching and ongoing personal development.
- Investing time and money in yourself is less about the programme and more about recognising that you are worth the investment.
- Big life shifts may require burning the boats – leaving safe but misaligned jobs or roles to pursue work that matches your purpose.
- Asking whether you will regret your life on your deathbed can be a powerful compass for decisions made in sobriety.
“When on my deathbed, am I going to regret the life I lived? … What actions could I take in this life to change the way that I felt about the life that I lived?”
What drives someone to seek a life without numbing out, even after years of chaos and self-destruction? This episode of The SHAIR Recovery Podcast follows Mark Crandall’s raw journey from foster care and heroin addiction to becoming an author, coach and speaker who helps people use their past as fuel. Omar Pinto keeps the tone relaxed and funny – think prison-yard wisdom meets CrossFit banter – while still holding space for some heavy truths.
Mark talks openly about being taken from his crack-addicted mother at three, growing up in foster care, and the deep self-hatred that fed his violence and drug use. He recalls the first time heroin hit: sitting cross-legged in a church car park, puking and thinking, “I had arrived.” The turning point comes in a New Hampshire prison library, where a random pull of a Dalai Lama book leads to his first meditation and a different kind of high.
From there, he leans into spiritual practice, one-on-one coaching and radical honesty. His simple daily routine – “five minutes of silence and then intuitive journalling” – becomes a powerful way to ask the universe questions like, “What’s next for me?” and actually listen for an answer.
This episode speaks directly to people in recovery who feel stuck on a plateau of meetings and slogans, wondering, “Is this it?” Mark and Omar talk about using the 12 steps as a foundation, then building on it with personal development, mentorship, fitness and big, scary goals.
If you’ve ever questioned whether you’re worth investing in, or felt that quiet nudge that life could be bigger than it is now, this conversation might be the spark that pushes you to ask: what would you change today so that, on your deathbed, you’re not living with regret?
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