Michael Chernow

I wake up somewhere between five and 5.15.

My wife does not wake up between five and 5.15.

um she has banned me from our bathroom i have to sneak out and go downstairs to the guest bathroom and so i sneak out i go downstairs to the to the kitchen first and i fill up a 30 ounce jug of water with a bunch of supplements that i put in there just to kind of kick off my my hydration i get into the bathroom i brush my teeth i floss my teeth i rinse my mouth scrape my tongue take a piss

I put cold water on my face, I put on my contact lenses, and then I hit my knees.

And so this part of my morning routine is something that I've been doing for a little over 21 years.

And when I first got sober, I've been in recovery for that long, a little over 21 years.

The first guy I met that introduced me to this new world of freedom from addiction specifically, he wrote a whole plan for me, but he told me that I would have to pray if I wanted to work with him.

And I didn't grow up in a religious household.

I didn't really know much about prayer, but he said, you know, all you got to do is get on your knees and ask for help.

That's all I'm asking you to do.

In a humble, humble position on your knees in the morning, just connect with God.

That's it.

Ask for help.

It could just be help, right?

And so obviously my prayers have evolved over the years.

But so I pray for about five minutes.

And most recently I've changed a few things in my prayers where I used to ask God to remove certain things that I didn't like about my life or certain things that could potentially present as hurdles, fear, insecurity, character defects, character assassinations.

I mean, basically I would say every morning, you know, God, please help to remove my fears, my insecurities, my character defects, my character assassinations, my wrong thinking and my rationalizing.

And then I would finish with, please allow me to be of service today.

And more recently, in the last probably six months, I was having a conversation with a buddy.