Good Neighbor Podcast: Union
Bringing Together Local Businesses and Residents of Northern Kentucky! Based in Union, KY....The Good Neighbor Podcast helps the residents of Northern Kentucky get to know local business owners as people. We allow the business owners and influencers in NKY to tell the stories of how they started their business and why. We hear about their families, their personal interests and why they love living in and serving resident of Northern Kentucky!
Good Neighbor Podcast: Union
Transforming Through Pain: A Healer's Voyage
What happens when a former adult film star and cocaine addict transforms into a spiritual healer? Chris Albaugh's extraordinary journey reveals powerful lessons about human potential and the path to authentic living.
As founder of "Enhancing Your World," Chris has created a holistic wellness community that bridges the gap between where people are and where they want to be—mentally, emotionally, and physically. His approach weaves together scientific understanding with indigenous wisdom, Eastern philosophy, and practical healing modalities like Reiki, breathwork, and meditation.
Chris doesn't shy away from the darker chapters of his past. From attempting suicide to working in the adult entertainment industry alongside his now ex-wife, his story includes rock-bottom moments that ultimately became the foundation for profound transformation. Through his own healing journey, he developed the GAUGE method—Gratitude, Awareness, Unity, Growth, and Energy—universal principles he now shares with others seeking recovery and renewal.
What makes Chris's perspective unique is his emphasis on accepting people exactly as they are. Rather than trying to "fix" others or tell them who they should be, he creates space for authentic empowerment. "The only true healing," he explains, "begins with healing yourself." This philosophy extends to his understanding of addiction as a coping mechanism that once served a purpose but eventually reveals its limitations.
The conversation takes unexpected turns, from confrontations with angry neighbors to the Eagle-Condor prophecy of indigenous traditions. Throughout, Chris maintains that our challenges aren't random suffering but opportunities to discover our true nature—a process he describes as "remembering rather than conditioning."
Ready to enhance your world? Visit enhancingforyourworld.com to connect with Chris and a community of holistic practitioners dedicated to supporting your unique journey toward wholeness.
This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Mike Murphy.
Mike Murphy:Yes, thank you, charlie. I am Mike Murphy, host of the Good Neighbor Podcast, a podcast that is intended to help you get to know local business owners, influencers, movers, shakers, just people in the community that are doing the good work of helping the community move forward in many different ways. One of the people I have with me today is Chris Alba, and Chris is the owner of Enhancing your World, and there's a lot to Enhancing your World, and every time I try to explain I screw it up. So I said, chris, get your butt into the studio here and we'll just we'll do this together and just have a nice organic conversation about everything that you're doing in the community. So, without further ado, chris, welcome to the show. Tell us about Enhancing your World.
Chris Albaugh:Well, thank you for the opportunity to meet with you and speak about this. You know, enhancing your world is really like you said, it's very multifaceted, but it's really a container. It's a movement to um. The very subtle separations um between us and our true nature are um. So it's, you know, our holistic wellness, um.
Chris Albaugh:You know, on an energetic level, you know, depending on the tradition or the teachings, there's all these discernments and different ways to look at energies, but you know, we really try to stay within the Holy Trinity of mind, body, spirit, or you can even call that emotion right, the thing that connects the formless to the form.
Chris Albaugh:And so it's a wellness community where we and platform for holistic wellness practitioners to help enhance their message, get their message out there, as well as a business platform and allow us humans to learn from different lineages of thought, of different lineages of practice, you know, really focusing on unconditional love and realizing that everything that has created us to this moment has been teaching us something about ourselves and the true nature of the greater cosmos, if you will. You know, and walking a path. My personal path has been one of many different lifetimes within this one lifetime, but as far as my knowledge and education. It comes from both the science you know lens as well as the spiritual lens and working with indigenous cultures to you know Eastern philosophies and you know doing all those various different things too, and so that's, that's kind of the the what is enhancing your world. It's basically a bridge to help you get from where you are to where you desire to be mentally, emotionally and physically, within all your relationships, within yourself and, of course, then beyond, how that reflects onto our collective planet.
Mike Murphy:Okay, that seems like a lot. That's like taking a drink out of a fire hose Right. But when I look at your website, you know you do a good job of breaking it down, thanks, and so I think you know. Something else that I've thought about is people will find you when they're ready to find you.
Mike Murphy:you know, usually People will find you when they're ready to find you. Usually, I think an old Zen philosophy that I've heard is when the student is ready, the master will appear, and so that's kind of like. When I'm looking through your website, I'm like, okay, I could see people who are just kind of organically searching for this. They come across your site and this is going to make sense to them. So there's a large offering to people that are seeking these holistic wellness therapies on whatever journey they happen to be. On Words I've written down customized nutrition and detox, healing touch therapy, movement practices like yoga, tai chi.
Chris Albaugh:Breathing meditation.
Mike Murphy:People know these things Reprogram your mindset, crystal therapy, visualizations, nature retreats, things like that. There's a lot there, and so I just I wrote those down as at least you know, categories, buzzwords that people can hear and say, okay, now I kind of get where he's going with this. And so when somebody asks you about what you do, I mean you just kind of given us kind of an overview, but what's the? Is there a typical person that you're helping or somebody that you're looking for? How do you, how do you find people? Do you count on them to find?
Chris Albaugh:you they do. I mean, it's been. It's that's why I say you know you get. We're spiritual beings having a human experience right, because when we really step back and look at wholeness, look at you know duality of pain and pleasure, you know of service to self, others, you know those types of things it creates.
Chris Albaugh:All these different pathways and I guess the ultimate, and who I typically work with, are the people that are looking to find their true self. They're wanting to let go of the past stories of whatever it was they went through, the abuse. They want to heal their relationships with their family, their parents, their lover, whatever it is. You know they have a substance or an addiction issue and what we are bringing to light through these coping mechanisms is the root of where we don't feel worthy enough, where we don't feel valued, we don't feel seen and unfortunately or fortunately, however you choose to perceive we have a lot of information out there that tells us who we're supposed to be, without asking who it is that we are and how is it that we're supposed to walk and some of the blessings that I've received by walking with some of these wisdom keepers of these indigenous tribes, which I just wrote a big article today about Mama Lorenzo and you know my time with him and what I've learned from him about. You know purifying your heart and you know the work that is just around that. You know what, if that was the daily practice of looking at challenge and strife and this stuff as a, there's nothing wrong but it's a little dirty because we all come into this world in the human form pure. You know, as a baby now, science and you know various different things say we come in with. You know um past trauma passed down, trauma from generational. You know things such as the grandmother effect or you know different, different indigenous teachings generational. You know things such as the grandmother effect or you know different, different indigenous teachings on. You know healing our ancestral lineage and the things that they had to endure so we could be here having this existence that we have today. So it gives us purpose and it's a purpose beyond being a cog in the societal wheel, however you choose to look at it. There's no judgment there.
Chris Albaugh:But you know, for a long time I had issues with authoritarians, with police. I had a rough childhood growing up and you know I've been arrested and beaten by the police and you know all that stuff. So I could have that story in my head which you know I've been arrested and beaten by the police and you know all that stuff. So I could have that story in my head which you know, when I would get pulled over as a in my early twenties, if I got pulled over by a police officer this is just a story I would shake, you know, I'd go into those what you know, maybe PTSD type symptoms, and you know I'd be all nervous and anxiety, you know, and just because I was, I was holding on to this energetic trauma within my nervous system and the story wrapped around it was I'm not safe.
Chris Albaugh:Yeah, you know I'm in day, you know, and being able to go back into you know and working with that stuff and that kind of stuff. Now, when I get pulled over, the last time I got pulled over, I mean I was, I knew I was getting a ticket, I should have got a ticket. I was, I was, I was really speeding and the cop said I wish I didn't have to do this, like he had so much empathy and and it wasn't that I did anything, but just the energy and the conversation and you know how we interacted was so much different.
Mike Murphy:Okay. So I think that a lot of people that come to you, maybe something that's part of their past, something that might be part of their present, would be addiction, substance abuse or I don't know. There's all sorts of addictions that you would know more about that than me. But I think you have a kind of a unique perspective on addiction recovery. You've kind of covered some of it through our conversation thus far. But there's the gauge, your life method, that you spoke about to me before, like in the pre-interview. So what is that and how does that relate to recovery?
Chris Albaugh:Okay, well, gage is was a dream or a vision that I had in 2017, when I was going through a transition myself, of going from like personal development leadership, where you're trying to like to improve your character, right that, whatever that archetype is that you have in your mind of yourself, you're trying to, you know, make it look better, make it look healthier, whatever that is to like a deeper, profound of healing, and that really came through. I was a mindset coach and business coach and I had a client ask me for some help with some marketing and they introduced me to Reiki and crystal healing. I was just modeling for their website and when I got off the table, I was so high I just lost like 30 pounds. I mean, I was so high, like I just lost like 30 pounds. I mean I was blown away. And so that led to this profound shift in me where I was really trying to detach myself from perspective and perception and mindset development, like I had been trained, and really start practicing a deeper embodiment. And that goes into the gauge method, because there are five universal principles that I've found present in most religions, spiritualities or even business, and those universal principles are gratitude, awareness, unity, growth and energy, and so this helped me put together, not necessarily a framework where it was rigid, but it's pliable, it's more customizable to that moment and you know, I was talking about that conversation with Mama and that's just made a very interesting connection today and I feel like that's why I keep bringing it up.
Chris Albaugh:But he gave me a gauge and the story of that was he came to me in a dream and when we were sitting together in this year's Sintada, I asked them about it. And not only did he consciously was aware that he came to visit me with these other mamas to test my heart, and you know like he was giving me details of the dream that I didn't share with him, which was really wild. But at the same time, when I asked them well, did I pass the initiation? Because that's our Western world, right? What's our, what's our check mark? You know where, you know what's our, you know, have we got that initiation? Where's that, you know, line in the sand, or consciousness, or certification, or whatever it was and did I pass him and the answer he gave me was a gauge. He didn't tell me yes or no, he didn't tell me this is what you have to do, just when you no longer have, you know, anger in your heart or your parents or your partners, or you know for for for humanity, then you'll know, okay. And so that really opened my eyes to various different things.
Chris Albaugh:But in my own addiction struggles and the ones that I've gotten to help, um, you know, my, my substance of choice was cocaine. Um, I um struggled with low self-esteem and wanting to prove myself and things like that. So cocaine was great for me because I could work a lot, I could go go go super social, you know all that stuff. So it was the drug that helped me live the lifestyle that I ultimately wanted to live. The challenge being with that was just like any pendulum swing what works for a little bit will also have a dark side to it.
Chris Albaugh:And same thing with diets. You know what's the right diet? What's the right diet, you know ever we talked about nutrition? Well, you know, the thing is is supplements are supposed to be supplements. You're only supposed to take them for a short period of time.
Chris Albaugh:Same thing with mindset. Same thing with you know all these different things. We're supposed to use them as signposts.
Chris Albaugh:A lot of teachers of presence talk about words and labels and concepts as signposts. They will point you towards the truth, but we can only experience truth in the moment, of point you towards the truth, but we can only experience truth in the moment. So, when it comes to addiction recovery, there's usually, there's usually the reason there's the addiction is it's a coping mechanism that served us for a certain period of time. Now the challenge being is how do we let go of that identity and realize that we don't need that anymore? And a lot, of, a lot of that can come through presence, mindfulness, embodiment, practices, those types of things to where you know, even touch. You know, I tell people when they're feeling overwhelmed or whatever, to, you know, put their hand on their heart and just breathe and feel the temperature in your chest, you know, between your fingers, and things like that, because that's bringing you into the here and now. And as long as you're not being threatened in your physical environment, your nervous system is going to be aware of those observations, so it's going to regulate itself. So we're not having to come up with projections, we're not having to come up with excuses. We're not having to come up with excuses or alibis of why this didn't work or why this relapse happened. And then we have to get over the shame and the guilt of it.
Chris Albaugh:Or you know those types of things and working with a lot of medicine people from around the world, a lot of the medicines that they use to help heal mental, emotional and physical disease would be what would be considered plant medicine.
Chris Albaugh:You know different types of hallucinogens or tobacco or things that in our culture right now are kind of like they're not, they're bad things. You know, or you know a lot of people are now starting to praise them as the saviors and their tools, like sitting with ayahuasca or psilocybin or you know these different, these different plant medicines. They'll help give us access to things, but we actually have to do the work in our life, just like anything else. There's a lot of compensation we have to give before work in our life, just like anything else, there's a law of compensation. We have to give before we can receive. We have to, you know, before we can sow those types of things. Those are universal truths that ring true beyond anyone's you know identity of, you know their, you know this religion or you know no, we're all human beings and we practice different ways of being human, which is the beautiful thing, just like any snowflake is unique in itself. It's how they stick together that makes them so impactful.
Mike Murphy:Well, I can tell you've learned a lot since your days of addiction and all that stuff. So you're a natural teacher. I mean mean, you've kind of got the knowledge that you're still learning, I'm sure, oh yeah, always you're, but you've got the passion, you've got the will to help people. Um, you were once upon a time in the entertainment business, correct? All right, what was that specifically and how long ago was that?
Chris Albaugh:well, um, so that that started. Um, believe it or not, um, in my teenage years, I, I tried to, you know, I modeled and did some things here and there, um acted and and did some small things. And then, um, you know, I had to, um, um, I committed suicide and um, or attempted. Yeah, someone found me and brought me back, okay, so you, were.
Mike Murphy:You were clinically gone.
Chris Albaugh:Yeah, um and um. I came back with this, this whole new, this whole new thing, um, and I'd be happy to deepen that story if necessary. But needless to say, it ended me up in the financial services because I wanted to make a difference in people's lives and I know a lot of. I attributed a lot of the abuse that I received as a child because of scarcity, mindset and people not having enough resources, and you know those types of things and at the time, most of you know those types of things and at the time, most of you know, 50 of divorces ended in because of finances. Oh, I'm gonna change the world.
Chris Albaugh:And then 9 11 happened, uh, so found myself, you know, as a um GED, you know holder. But I dropped out at the junior year of high school to get away from abusive environment in my family structure and go into business and sales and you know, you know, get into the real world, as they would say. And so I found myself like in the situation of like I didn't know where I was going to go, like this, I thought this, this, this opportunity in finance, was going to be my thing and with the industry and the tanker, I had to look for other alternative things dancing and working in the adult industry alongside of my wife, which eventually led us into the adult film industry and so we did that for a few years and learned a lot about ourselves, learned a lot about life and other people, and I was very grateful for those opportunities to really get to see all the things that I've gotten to experience and meet people on the levels that I've gotten to meet them on. And so I was in the adult industry and also nightclubs, and you know all that. You know all the hedonistic stuff, you know the drinking, the drugs, the. You know partying with, you know rock stars and you know I mean it was that lifestyle that so many people want, whether they admit it or not. They want to at least have that experience right, like what would it be like to party with Motley Crue for one night, you know, or whatever it is right. And you know I got to live those experiences, so I'm grateful to have those.
Chris Albaugh:But yeah, as I said, I developed a cocaine habit, okay, and my house was robbed and you know, luckily my wife wasn't hurt, but they literally robbed us within an hour window of her and her friend being there and us coming back. So they were like either in the house or they were watching the house when she was there. And you know we had weapons, we had guns out on the you know that were left at the house. It was about the only thing that they didn't steal and totally wiped us out.
Chris Albaugh:And he was like what do you mean? I was like I'm not living in my highest potential. You know my heart's in the right place. I'm trying to help people. You know we're making money, we're doing all these things, but we're also, you know, destroying ourselves in the process. So there has to be a different way. And so that allowed me to to then go into mainstream entertainment, um, and work with, you know, comedians and musicians and models and actors um, you know I've acted. You know, um, I've got the opportunity to work with zach afron and a few other folks through the years. So you know, we got to do a lot of that cool stuff and that allowed me to learn about what others called success. But I felt really hollow inside.
Chris Albaugh:And then a business redirectionction I partnered with a guy who was embezzling money from his financial firm and you lived an interesting life yeah, yeah, I mean the fbi called me and you know the whole, the whole, the whole crazy game of the things left me in a redirection where all the things I had ever worked for you, you know all the material wealth, all the things were taken away Cars, repo, the driveway, all the things. And it was like rock bottom again, right, like, oh, my God, I've been here so many times Like I've done all these things, I've helped make people, you know, like the ego just was screaming like why me? Like I've done all this good and I've helped these people and they've made money and they live their dreams. And you know I'm suffering, why me? And in those, those dark moments, you know, a few key things showed up for me. One I heard that voice that everyone talks about, right, and you know, spirituality.
Charlie McDermott:Well, I didn't know what that meant.
Chris Albaugh:You know I was taught to be of service. That was spirituality. You know my book, my Bible of service, that was spirituality. You know my book, my Bible of choice at that time was thinking grow rich by Napoleon Hill. You know like that was. You know what I was trained to do. You know I came from a lineage of successful people in whatever they did. So like that was, that was the part that I knew how to play, and I didn't know what spirituality meant. I knew what religious meant. I knew that one wasn't for me because it was no room for questions, and so, anyway, I learned about meditation and I started doing these different things and, um, as, as life unfolded for me, I again got some opportunities to test my growth, not based on what I thought or who I thought I was or whatever, but true life experience, when there was a life on the line or there was something going on. Um, you know, um, how did I respond versus how did I react? Or how did I react but then was able to have enough presence to pull myself back from that reaction.
Chris Albaugh:You know, the story that is wanting to bubble up is my neighbor was a preacher and he caught something on fire and someone called the fire department. He blamed it on me and he was a troublemaker in the neighborhood, but he had money and he was. You know, he was a bully. So as soon as I go in the house he's banging at the door wanting to fight me. I got a two-year-old freaking out, hiding under his bed because of what's going on. At this point I had never yelled in front of my son. So the fact that I was yelling at this guy, you know, out of fear and out of trying to protect my family, I'm traumatizing my son. And my wife was there and I handed her my cell phone and you know I was. I was raised in the darkness, I was raised in violence. So that was a natural response for me to meet violence with violence, and through my experiences I've learned that doesn't work. You never change anyone's mind or heart with a fist, but at the same time, you know you got to protect your family and so I handed my phone to my wife and I said, okay, hit record in a second. And she said why? I said because I'm going to open the store up. He's going to come in this door and I need the evidence to clear my name, that he was a threat to me, and what I did was in self-defense, even though I had the clarity that this is what's going to happen and let's plan this out to make sure I've got a case when I go to court. Because I'm going to court, I'm going to get arrested. This is how it's going to go down. And she looked at me and she said do you really think that's the best way to do it, with Damien here, my son, and immediately that changed everything for me.
Chris Albaugh:But anyway, you know, all these experiences that I'm sharing with the audience and yourself and you know reminding myself of, you know, are, are there, there pebbles that helped me remember that I've always tried to walk this earth with a pure heart and what helped and what has helped other people in this journey is the willingness and the openness to accept people for where they are, where they've been and where they desire to go. You know, as I've shared here today, like there's not anything that I could really judge anybody on, because it's probably I've already, probably done it myself. Right, sounds like you've done just about everything, pretty much, you know, and I don't say that in a pride thing, but I say that more and I'm like, yeah, that that's if you were to look at the spiritual journey or the hero's journey or you know any of those things. They have to. We have to battle through these things to come to our authentic self and then really realize.
Chris Albaugh:It's like more of a remembering than it is a conditioning, which is kind of contrary to what we've been taught in modern times. Sometimes in the indigenous cultures they have a prophecy called the Eagle Condor prophecy way it's been translated to me is when the heart of the south because south america is known for their heart, their hospitality, their love, their family, you know those types of things with the, with the north, which is the mind, which is the technology, which is the masculine, but you know, so you have the masculine and the feminine again, you know, coming together as one and birthing a new earth, and that would be united in tantric teachings and you know all the various different things. And that's where it helps to take a wider view of what we've been taught and question why do we think that's true?
Mike Murphy:okay, if that makes sense well, a lot of it does make sense. You've you've done a good job of explaining certain concepts to me. There's a lot within that that I don't quite understand, okay, um, but you know you've piqued a lot of curiosity today. One thing I can say you know you have in terms of being on a journey and being able to heal from that and then being able to transition into a teacher, somebody who can help heal others. You know, being a healer yourself, you've built a ton of street cred.
Chris Albaugh:I got certifications too.
Charlie McDermott:I got certifications too.
Mike Murphy:It's not just, you know, street cred, but yeah, it's the official stuff, the certification stuff.
Mike Murphy:So I want to make sure that, before we sign off, that people understand, okay, you know you've been through all this stuff and you can kind of as you've helped yourself and you have had others, other healers, help you you can do the same for others, and so your website is a place where people can go to kind of start learning and understanding more about who you are, what you do.
Mike Murphy:I know that that website is being redeveloped right now. There is some portions of it that are still under state of construction right now, but, having said that, there's a lot there still, and so I don't want to dissuade people from going to the website as it exists right now, knowing that it's just going to get better and better and better, which is pretty cool because, like I said, there's already a lot there, and I want people to visit the site and kind of help connect the dots on where you've been, like everything you just described and I know that's just a sliver of what you've been through and connect the dots on all the uh, the, I guess, the, the healing principles, the wellness solutions, right, you can offer. So what's the name of the website where you want them to go to?
Chris Albaugh:it's enhancingyourworldcom and you know, just to hit on a couple key features, um, it of it is to be a place of holistic wellness. So we want to invite practitioners of other modalities, of other skill sets and things like that, because everybody is on a unique journey and even though you know I'm a Reiki master and, let's say you were a Reiki master, our energies are going to be different at different times. So that is, there's no competition. You know it's more about cooperation, finding unity and things. So there's a platform for practitioners to help with their, with their, you know, attracting clients. And then there's a social media function to where everybody can drop in and just be a human and say this is what I'm going through. You know, anyone have any insights or you know any practices or anything that I could do to help me through this moment of temporary challenge where maybe they don't have access to a healer, or you know, or or whatever might be available, because a lot of times I've gotten a lot of help just by having a conversation with somebody, not necessarily hiring them to be a healer per se, but, you know, allowing us to realize that the only true healing and this is why I loved, uh, loved and it was attracted to Reiki in the very beginning is when I was taught it.
Chris Albaugh:The first thing you did was you healed yourself for at least a year before you met anybody, before you called yourself a healer, before you took on clients or anything else. You worked on yourself every day. You know on your healing protocols, so you know the concept being is you know we might have heard this before in social media mean land, hurt people, hurt people and heal people heal people, and the only thing that differentiates that is who you're going to choose to be. If you're going to go around calling yourself help, you know help and then you're hurting people because you don't have the capacity to accept them as they are and you're trying to fix them or tell them who they need to be or that type of thing, that's some unnecessary karma that both the healer and the person looking to gain the healing are going to have to grow through, because we're all natural beings and healing happens naturally and not necessarily through force.
Chris Albaugh:If you've ever had to be forced to lose weight or to quit a bad habit, it's really hard, but when we shift that paradigm a little bit and just say this no longer serves us anymore. And now let me focus that energy on who I want to be, how I want to feel, how I want to relate to myself, how I want to relate to my friends and family, how I want to relate to the planet and family, how I want to relate to the planet, it comes from a place of authentic empowerment and not an artificial control over another out of a fear or insecurity or a way of wanting to protect oneself. Okay, like I said, sometimes I fall down rabbit holes I'm not sure.
Mike Murphy:sure we're not going to go down this rabbit hole, but I'm sure there was a moment that you might be able to identify that you were at your rock bottom.
Chris Albaugh:Many times, but the thing about rock bottom is that's the only place to build a solid foundation.
Mike Murphy:Okay, so I'm all about storytelling and education. Okay, you've done a great job of storytelling today. Education part will be ongoing, but I think what I'm encouraging people to do is to go to your website and just kind of see what it is you're offering, and I know they can book a consultation with you there as well, correct?
Chris Albaugh:Absolutely, and that's the idea you know I can't give. If, if you and I were going somewhere, I'd have to know where you are first before I give you proper directions. Yeah, so I don't want to give too much out and say this is the way because I don't know the way yet, because I don't know where you are, what you're wanting, where you're wanting to go.
Chris Albaugh:That's why we have the consultations, that's why we do energy work, we have the consultations, that's why we do energy work, that's why we do teach breath work, because that is something that we're always doing. You know, breath in itself is the only thing that you can do, consciously and unconsciously. It's a bridge. So breathing techniques and those types of things will help work through that nervous system so it soothes itself and then, when the nervous system isn't so amped up or anxious, then the thoughts and everything they calm down and they change the quality, and that's the idea behind it.
Mike Murphy:Well, I'll make sure that people also have your other contact information too, when I post this, cool, but I think, before we go, there are people out there who probably are wondering, just like I am. Um you, hopefully this isn't a sensitive, touchy subject but where where is your ex-wife jessica, and your son, damien, I believe? Yeah, where where are they now? Um?
Chris Albaugh:um, so actually, um, my ex-wife is actually getting married this weekend, um, but they moved to Louisville.
Chris Albaugh:I actually have my son, um, um, we have shared custody, um, so we, you know, we still co -parent and you know all those things, um, but, uh, yeah, we had gotten to that point, um, in our relationship where the most loving thing we could do is choose to walk a different path.
Chris Albaugh:She wanted to live a certain way and I was, you know, exploring, you know, the cosmos and consciousness and you know all these various different things, and I wasn't able to provide the security that she was needing at that time, that she was needing at that time and I wasn't being supported in the ways that I felt like I needed to, as I was trying to let go of the karmic past and and not having the relationship that I had with, like, we just had this talk.
Chris Albaugh:I'm glad you brought this up. We just had this talk the other day, you know, as I was apologizing if I caused abandonment or betrayal between us. I hope she understood that wasn't the intention. The intention was not to continue to hurt each other and we both agreed we didn't want to have the relationship that my parents had. As far as the quality, now my parents have the longevity they were just celebrated their 50-year anniversary but we wanted to have a true partnership where we were walking with each other and we weren't really doing that. She was living as a nurse, I was living as a holistic healer. They were kind of at the end.
Mike Murphy:The spectrum was wide there between the two.
Chris Albaugh:Yeah, and I didn't have enough experience in it yet to have more trust in it, so it was more intellectual. So I was trying to, like, why can't you just trust me that organic food is the way to go? Why can't you just trust me that these supplements are the way to go? Why can't you just trust me that you know these supplements are good for us? Or you know, like, why do you have to push back? And so that was a healing in itself and I'm very grateful for our relationship and that she's found someone to walk with in the way that she wants to.
Chris Albaugh:You know, and you know, my son's happy with that circumstance down there, from what he tells me, and I'm very grateful. How old is Damien now? He's 14. Okay, yeah, so he's. He's starting high school this year. So you know, I'm very, we're very, blessed to have such a wonderful kid and I tease him all the him, all the time. Uh, you know I'm I don't know how I got so lucky because my, at his age I was stealing cars. And this kid that you know, he's just so chilled and laid back, he's just, you know, um, super lovey, lovey, dovey and just wants to. You know, hang out, um, you know, didn't didn't have any of those things going on in his life yet. So I'm very blessed that I haven't been tested with those tests yet. But at the same time, as they say in a lot of the philosophies, if we heal those things, then our kids won't have to deal with them.
Mike Murphy:Yeah, they say the sins of the father are visited upon the son. Right, it's a far cry from when he was two years old in that house and daddy was packing heat and about to go out on the front porch and change everyone's life forever. That's right. Good on you for making those choices. It sounds like, although 14 is the age where he's just going to start getting into a lot of you know stuff himself, right, sounds like you've got a lot of great tools and skills and perspective now to to help him, so so good for you. Thank you All right. Well, you warned me before we started this that you could talk. Thank you All right.
Mike Murphy:Well, you warned me before we started this that you could talk and if we had the time I could get another hour out of you, I'm sure. Oh we could do it all day. Yeah, well, but for now, so that's. That's the latest episode of the Good Neighbor podcast. Thank you, chris Alba, for coming in and sharing your perspectives on healing and and letting us know all about enhancing your world. Good luck with the website. We'll all be kind of keeping tabs on that, and if you ever need to come back and storytell again, the seat's yours.
Chris Albaugh:All right.
Mike Murphy:Thanks, Mark no problem.
Chris Albaugh:Watch out, we might start a new podcast series. You've got a history of podcasting.
Mike Murphy:I know, I've seen some of yours. So yeah, someday, I think it's like everybody will be forced to have a podcast. I think it'll be mandatory like car insurance.
Chris Albaugh:You've got to have a podcast. It'd be like chatting with chat GPT. You know, tell me what I'm supposed to do, because I don't want to have to make the decision myself. Right, yeah, that's where we're headed All right.
Mike Murphy:Chris, thanks for joining us today and you listeners thanks for tuning in, and this is the Good Neighbor Podcast. So we always sign off by saying everybody out there till we visit with you next time. Everyone be good to your neighbor. So long, everyone, bye-bye.
Charlie McDermott:Thanks for listening to the Good Neighbor Podcast Union. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to GNPUnioncom. That's GNPUnioncom, or call us at 859-651-8330.