 what is up everybody it's chris from the rewired soul where we talk about the problem but focus on the solution have you missed me i've missed all of you guys but anyway a lot of you who follow me on like instagram and twitter you know i haven't gone anywhere i've been i've been here and i've mentioned it before by the way for now following me make sure you follow me and also before we get started my little backdrop might like be doing some wavy stuff because i'm a ceiling fan on because i'm in los vegas where i live and it's like oh over 110 degrees all right but anyways i don't know how long this video is going to be you'll know because when i post it has a little thing but i just want to tell you uh kind of what's been going on if you haven't been keeping up and uh what my plan for the youtube channel is i think all right um i have something set in stone but the other part i'm not sure yet but anyways sit down relax if you need to pause it go get yourself a cup of coffee or an iced tea just relax and let's talk for a little bit uh but yeah anyways anyways um i i love making content like i just i can't stop i can't just sit still and not you know write or make videos or uh do uh you know podcast or you know whatever it is so anyways this year i kind of um planned on focusing on my writing and some of you know i've written some uh i've self published some like uh mental health books addiction recovery books my experience with everything that happened in 2019 and all that stuff um but yeah i was going to focus on my writing but yeah i've been reading an insane amount of books and and yeah i'll i'll get to kind of what i started doing with that in a second but anyways for those of you who have been around for a while like you know uh i'm in recovery right i've struggled with depression and anxiety for most of my life and yeah uh as long as i stay sober until next wednesday june 23rd i will be celebrating nine years sober no snort nothing no drinking nothing none of that stuff and i'll also be turning 36 on that day it's my birthday so yeah what i what i wanted to really discuss in this video uh in the future of this channel is like i've been thinking about this a lot i've been planning on making this video forever i'm just like how do i put this into words but anyways mental health and my recovery is still my number one priority all right for anybody who's in you know uh sobriety like you know like it has to be like our top priority like i have to make sure i stay sober or i lose my job i lose my son i lose my beautiful girlfriend tristan i lose all these things so yeah even though i'm not making content and i haven't been fully focused on like mental health content mental health is my top priority but anyways something i've been thinking about like doing some content around is since i've stepped back from like mental health content and things like that something i noticed and this is just me personally me personally just chris you might be able to relate or you might you know want to take a look at stuff going on but uh as you probably already know right now i'm not your therapist or anything like that it's just something i've reflected on but anyways i for years now have been 1000% 1000% in mental health and addiction recovery right and part of it is uh a lot of us when we get sober and we go uh you know i got sober through 12-step programs and stuff like that it's uh it's you don't forget about this or you are going to start going down you know a path towards relapse which i've seen happen a million times and everything like that but i'm a guy who goes to the extremes and like i don't i don't want to relapse like i almost died you know nine years ago before i got sober i had like you know a 10% chance of living i had congestive heart failure i'm still going to the cardiologist because my my heart is still healing nine years later from all the drugs and alcohol i was doing right so the last thing i want to do is go back down that road and relapse so i i made mental health and addiction recovery my my everything right you know i worked in treatment every book that i read was on mental health all i did was you know talk with people about mental health i was the guy that everybody would come to you know uh if a friend or family member was struggling with an addiction or if people are struggling with depression and anxiety and i still love doing that but something i kind of noticed you know during the pandemic i wasn't able to like go to in-person meetings as much um you know uh talking with my therapist and everything like that i just started reflecting and i'm like i was wondering i'm like wow i'm like i'm feeling almost better than i have in a while even though i'm making my mental health a priority i'm not making it like 99 of my day right so i'm not constantly reading books on anxiety depression addiction suicide all these other things right like it's still there and it's still something i'm taking care of with myself but i'm not consuming that content i'm not watching you know uh all these like documentaries on like you know uh mental health and addiction and you know uh watching a bunch of mental health youtubers and everything like that and i still watch those things like don't get me wrong i still watch those things i still read studies and uh keep up to date with like mental health statistics and treatment and everything like that but i've i've rebalanced it a bit and personally i think it's it's been helping my mental health because i haven't been 1000% in it and i hope that makes sense i don't know if any of you can relate to that you know what i mean but sometimes we you know when i think i think this is just my theory after like reflecting on this stuff is just with so much of my uh time and focus dedicated on mental health everything was being seen through that lens right so for example if you if you do nothing but read books articles and watch you know youtubers or whatever and it's all about depression right you're going to start seeing everything through the lens of depression your entire bubble is depression like how am i not depressed everything i'm consuming is about depression so you start believing that you know this is that thing right and trust me like i still have my ups and downs like you know i have like my off days where i just don't want to do anything and i gotta you know uh do the things that help me get out of that funk and like get to work and stuff like that or spend time with my son and my girlfriend or whatever but anyways since i step back i'm not seeing everything through that that lens right like something that you know i i know i've struggled with in the past is sometimes it's just difficult to just be okay right not everything is you know this mental health catastrophe you know and sense then like i can't even i can't even explain it but this you know this is this will go into you know my next topic i guess of the future of the youtube channel like i might do some more mental health content because i i haven't been feeling uh anxious in a while and i have a generalized anxiety disorder that was one of the main reasons i drank and used opioids was to calm myself down and my anxiety has been like really really under control like it's been under control like you know somewhat you know for a while since like developing different practices and taking my freaking mental health medications and doing therapy and meditating and all that but i've noticed in recent months it's been even better and um you know depression it's always something that just comes and goes and you know how you know how crazy depression be but anyways i've noticed i've been feeling better so i'm thinking about doing some more content around that i don't know if it's like youtube videos i've been doing blogs every now and then on my website the rewiredsole.com if you guys aren't checking that out um but it's just on different topics but anyways so i'm trying to figure out what kind of youtube videos i'm i'm gonna be making so one type of video that's gonna be coming out some of you might love it some of you might hate it some of you might leave or whatever but like i i built this thing over like you know two or three years i don't want to just let it sit here and i'm still actively making content so uh if you leave i will miss you but i'd like if you stayed and check some stuff out because uh like i've mentioned like i read hundreds of nonfiction books a year i'm constantly constantly reading and educating myself and one reason is because it has been one of the most beneficial things for my mental health and here's why i think that is so some of you have seen videos i've made in the past on like uh rebt rational emotive behavioral therapy right and it's about looking at your thoughts right like rationally so for example uh you know there's just a very like dumbed-down version of it but my brain uh my depression is telling me uh christ you're no good you're not good at anything right everybody hates you and then i like i i kind of debate with that voice and like okay well you know i am good at this i i do have a job i everybody can't hate me because you know my girlfriend loves me my son loves me my family love you know what i mean you kind of have this debate so that's that's kind of what rational emotive behavioral therapy does when you work on it with a therapist or like anxiety you know how anxiety is like oh if this happens it's gonna be the end of the world i'm gonna die and that it's like well you know if this happens it'll suck but i'm not gonna die well anyways it's really about taking a step back and reflecting on your thoughts analyzing them and kind of having these debates uh some cognitive behavioral therapy is about changing these thought patterns well anyways for the last couple of years since uh since the the the whole thing happened with my youtube channel uh as some of you know who've been around here for a while um i've been really trying to understand people and human behavior and you know uh our cognitive biases and the thinking errors and that's the the main thing that i like to read about i like to read and understand like uh you know through psychology and philosophy and other things like why do we why do we think the things we think why do we do the things we do why right and that's what i love reading books on and what i've noticed is is that's helped me out with my mental health a ton because going back to r e b t it helps me sit back and kind of reflect on my thoughts and really think about things and i've i've slowed down so so so much like i used to be constantly go go go go go go go go especially like in my you know addiction and then when i got sober i was still go go go some of you remember like i used to make two to three videos a day right and uh and yeah i've been slowing down so much more uh i've enjoyed books on like analyzing like risk and things like that so like before i make like a big decision i sit back and i really think through it you know um some things that got me in trouble in the past was just sitting down and making content with the first thing that's on my mind you know what i mean but now uh for the first time in my life i've slowed down and really started thinking about it um something else i i've i've done this year in case you haven't noticed but um at the beginning of this year i i made it a goal to exercise every day eat better and stuff like that and i'm down over 40 pounds this year all right and i'm pretty proud of myself um we're halfway through june and i have literally exercised every single day i haven't missed one day my apple watch is like you are killing it chris but i've been reading books about you know uh uh you know just not not i don't want to say dieting right but just like books on you know the body and how food uh you know affects us and different things that affect like calorie burning and stuff like that something else that i've started to do for the first time in my life is manage my money i have been terrible with my money my whole life i could do a whole separate video on that but my my mission has never changed which is to be of service to others that is the primary thing that helps me with my mental health and helps me stay sober so i want to continue helping people and you know uh do that through sharing this knowledge because like i know a lot of people don't sit down and read all these books that i'm reading so i like to take it and teach people what i've learned right like that's what my my youtube channel's kind of always always been about it reference like different scientific studies and everything because i like to learn about that so anyways anyways i won't keep it too much longer don't worry what i've done is uh a couple months ago back in like april i sat there and i was like chris you are reading hundreds of books you you are connecting with all these amazing authors and like i don't even like like their authors like they're they're great amazing authors but i almost feel like that takes away from like the work that they do like a lot of the authors who i talk to they're also like professors all right uh you know um they are researchers they're experts in their field they're great thinkers they're people who you know have a ton of experience in whatever their their niche is um and one thing that helped me get sober and stay sober was learning from people who are a lot smarter than me so while reading all these books i started connecting with these authors and i'm like i i get so many questions and i know some people don't want to read all these books i'm like what if i started talking to these authors so for those of you who haven't been following me on social media and this is your next reminder follow me at the rewired soul on instagram and twitter all right and my dms are open like i still talk to a lot of you uh but yeah follow me because i always post when i have new podcast episodes but like check it out check it out i don't know maybe i'll put it up on the screen but um i've been doing the podcast for about a month and a half now and we're covering so many crazy topics like great topics like the first episode i did was with stewart richey and this how to spot bad science which is so important right now when we're talking about covid vaccines and like we don't even realize how many scientific studies we come across on a daily basis telling us what to eat what medications to take what therapies to do you know so many things revolve around science and there's a way to kind of uh look at things with skepticism while also trusting it right um i also talked to jillian york uh she has been a social media activist and she wrote an amazing book called silicon values and i got to talk with her i talked with an expert when it comes to debunking conspiracy theories his name is mic west and recently he's been doing a lot of content around debunking all the ufo stuff that's been going on he was on my podcast i talked to michelle walker uh she is uh she she does a lot of content and writes books on assessing risk and that's really helped me with my anxiety i talked to a duke professor named chris bail who wrote a book breaking the social media prism i talked to brian portnoy about uh the psychology around investing and saving i've talked to so many cool people that that is only like the first four or five episodes and i've been doing two two episodes a week lately because i i talked to so many authors but anyways yeah i just try to ask them you know questions that i think people can benefit from you know and and they're all such important topics so i hope you guys enjoy that but what i was getting at one of the reasons i'm making this video is i'm going to start posting the podcast on here so check it out check it out i know three minutes ago i said it wasn't going to be much longer i promise i promise i will let you get back to your life in just a minute so anyways here's what i'm going to do i'm going to start uploading the podcast episodes here and uh i don't know if i want to give away my secret sauce of how i've been recording these but anyways um a lot of them will be audio uh just straight up audio so like i know i've i've listened to podcasts on youtube sometimes so some of you who want to do that um there are a few there are a few podcasts i've recorded where we do have video too so in those cases like uh brian portnoy i also um interviewed another professor and philosopher named uh andy norman that was video so i might upload a few videos but a lot of it's just going to be straight up audio but again i just want to get content like i'm doing a lot of content i want to get here on the youtube channel i might sprinkle in some other content in between um so if any of you have uh any suggestions or anything you guys want me to talk about when it comes to my mental health when it comes to you know me you know losing weight or when it comes to learning how to manage my money at 36 years old i'm teaching my son now he's only 12 because i don't want him to run into the same situations as i did but if there's anything you want me to cover like i just like learning things and teaching others that's just the cycle i learn i teach others i learn i teach others i want other people who are curious about just everything curiosity is just so interesting and there's always stuff to do and yeah i read a ton of books interview a lot cool people so stay tuned that's it um yeah i just want i just had to do this i've been thinking about doing this video for weeks now had to sit down and do it and if you made it until the end of this video you're amazing and i probably haven't told you that lately but anyways that's all i got for this video make sure you're following me on social media at the rewired soul if you have any video suggestions in between um you know like i don't go crazy with editing so i can knock out videos sometimes i want to sit down and write a blog and then i don't you know so maybe a video would be easier but there's so many things like you know that i learn about and it makes me think and question and you know i want to talk about them or things that are helping me in my life so anyways anything just leave comments let's let's chat or connect with me on social media my dms are open uh and i'll link you know the podcast and everything like that down in the description below but like uh if you're new for some reason and came across this subscribe that'd be pretty dope and yeah uh i'm not sure when i'm going to upload the first podcast episode i'm not sure if i'm going to do it like daily just get caught up anyways just stay tuned and follow me on social media you won't miss it glad to be back baby anyways thanks again for watching i'll see y'all real soon