Overview: In this episode (ep 134), Adam Williams takes a positive life practice from David Choe and his Choe Show podcast. 5-3-1 … That’s five gratitudes, three things to work on today, and one positive thing about yourself. (Released on podcast on Feb. 5, 2023)
Also on Apple, Spotify, Pandora, Stitcher, YouTube, Google and other players.
EP 134 SHOW NOTES, LINKS & TRANSCRIPT
Connect with Adam Williams
Humanitou on Instagram: @humanitou
About Adam
Artwork
Podcast cover art & art below: Adam Williams
Music
“Old Rope” by Joe Johnson | joejohnsonsings.com
Original Written Version
I’ve been looking around for new and more podcasts to listen to. I most often gravitate toward conversational podcasts like the ones I host – Humanitou and We Are Chaffee: Looking Upstream – but I want to liven up the lineup, inject some inspiration from new angles.
There are so many podcasts and creators out there, doing it in all the ways of creating audio and sharing it. So I’m hunting. If you have podcasts you love to recommend, DM me on Instagram @humanitou or send me an email [ adam at humanitou.com ].
Today, I checked out artist David Choe’s podcast, “Choe Show.” I’ve watched some of his series on Hulu, “The Choe Show.” The dude is raw. He thinks, creates and lives differently than me. I’m curious.
His podcast episodes are short, like the solo episodes I’ve been putting out lately on Humanitou. Some are only a few minutes long, quick hits. (Listen to podcast episodes on this site, or via your player, e.g. Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google)
I started with “5 3 1,” a four-minute audio capture of Choe’s thoughts and sharing with us a life practice he’s trying to kick up while he’s skateboarding somewhere in Mississippi, on a trip away from his hometown Los Angeles.
5-3-1 is a practice of gratitude that Choe spells out this way:
5 – things you’re grateful for. Be specific.
3 – things you’re going to work on today. They can be small.
1 – positive fact about yourself.
“5-3-1” by Adam Williams
He goes through his 5-3-1 while he’s clearly groovin’ down the street on his skateboard. He’s puffing through it and you can hear the skateboard wheels on the pavement.
Along the way, Choe shares that one of the five things he’s grateful for today is “my mental illness and everything that messes me up, so that I can find the beauty in the darkness.”
That especially grabbed me today.
I’ve been doing a lot of thinking, researching, journaling and processing around my own neurodivergence, stories and history. I’ve hesitated to define my experience as neurodivergent, even to myself, and I’m only now starting to talk about it beyond my own household.
I didn’t want to take away from anyone else’s experience that is “officially” diagnosed as fitting one or more neurodivergent terms, or is more challenging for them to navigate than mine is for me.
With Choe acknowledging what he blanket names as “mental illness,” which a quick Google search shows he’s been open about in the media for many years, it gave me a shine of light on my own things.
To be clear, I am not referring to neurodivergence as mental illness. That’s not the thing. I’m just saying that whatever we each carry and view as our challenges or darkness, our individual particularities, also are part of our paths to light.
I’m saying that I agree with Choe, that even those relative darknesses often are deserving of gratitude, because they are part of the ingredients that give us our gifts, too.
My 5-3-1 today …
5 things I’m grateful for:
- Fresh mountain air and views
- My wife, Becca, has a cup of coffee ready for me every morning when I get out of bed.
- After a couple months recovering from injury, I’m getting closer to starting running again.
- Writing
- Two new podcast episodes came out today, one on Humanitou and one on Looking Upstream.
3 things I’m going to work on today:
- Setting boundaries with others, compassionately
- Meditation
- Being kind to myself
1 positive fact about myself:
- I’m good at the creative things I do.
What do you got? 5-3-1 … Choe!
