Reflections - Clearing vs. Signs, The Power Continuum, Costa Rica Didn't Work Out

A hodgepodge of updates and riffs

It’s been 5 months since I’ve done a reflection post.

These are where I like to give some quick personal updates, as well as reflect on “ahas” and things that I think are cool and probably don’t warrant their own blog post.

Personal Stuff

Costa Rica wasn’t it

We rented a house in Costa Rica for 6 months with the intention to potentially relocate there if we liked it. There were a lot of factors motivating this idea on both the surface and unconscious levels (as there always is).

On the surface, there was a desire to live in a place where it was easier to be healthy and feel good. I’ve struggled immensely with my health the past 5 years and was hoping that immersing myself in a more natural setting and way of life might move the needle. This is the story I mostly told myself and others.

Somewhere on the spectrum from semi-conscious to unconscious, there were factors spurring the move from anger at parts of the U.S. system, to a desire to avoid certain realities in my life. I knew some of these things, but I guess they were easier to face and own fully while I was down there.

Within the first 3 months, we had two emergency medical situations. This made us feel the pain of not having infrastructure, especially with a young family. We decided to come back early so I could get better care. I took it as a sign that Costa isn’t our place for now. I’m currently back in Austin.

Naples Zoo!

I launched a new business

My new business Conscious Talent has been in the market for 4 months. TLDR we current function like a recruiting firm that connects entrepreneurs and operators who are great at what they do and are also on a consciousness path. We had a great launch, and then kind of a lull, and now things are really starting to pick up.

I love being back in the seat of building a business. After spending multiple years writing a book and immersing myself in the consciousness community, I find returning to the creativity of business very enjoyable. The feedback cycles are much faster and there’s such a broader spectrum of activities and opportunities on a daily basis, compared to staring at a wall of text.

At one point, I was afraid that doing another startup would simply reactivate many of my old anxious company building patterns I’ve spent so much time unwinding. So far, I’m happy to say that largely hasn’t happened.

My book is done

My book Conscious Accomplishment: How To Use Personal Achievement For Spiritual Growth comes out in early October.

Writing it was easy. Editing and iterating on it until I felt really good about it was the hard part.

I can earnestly say I created exactly what I wanted to exist - a guidebook for traditionally ambitious people on how to approach spirituality in an integrated way. They say we create and contribute the medicine we needed, and this feels like the case for me. I wish I had something like this almost 8 years ago when my consciousness journey got serious.

I’ll do some type of “why I wrote this” blog at some point, but the bottom line is I couldn’t not write it. I also believe western culture must transcend the false polarity that we must choose between earnestly pursuing spirituality or accomplishing things in the world. The “house-holder” path is largely undefined in our society and probably what makes sense for most Americans. In writing this book, I’m happy to do my part to support the cause. So far feedback from the advance copy has been fantastic.

**If you know any aligned podcasts that might be a good fit to talk about this topic, let me know**

Myofascial release

In my quest to not be in physical pain all the time, I’ve tried a lot of unconventional health things. My most recent jaunt is John Barnes Myofascial Release. I’ve become a big fan and can see the thread of how it relates to many ideas in the healing world.

I’d heard of myofascial release in my crossfit days, but didn’t really know much beyond that sitting on a lacrosse ball was somehow good for you.

The Myofascial system is the web of connective tissue (fascia) that surrounds and integrates with every muscle, bone, nerve, blood vessel, and organ in the body. It forms a continuous, three-dimensional matrix throughout the body, like an inner fabric that both supports and communicates. When gentle, sustained pressure is applied to restricted or tense areas of fascia, it can release adhesions, restore mobility, and influence the nervous system. A major difference between John Barnes system and many other touch forms, is that they recommend 5+ minutes of pressure or stretching in each area for releases to occur.

Despite the fact that our fascia runs throughout our whole body and weighs somewhere between 15-30 lbs, it doesn’t show up on any traditional imaging. As a result, many people have chronically restricted and tight fascia, causing an immense amount of pain, yet its never diagnosed as a fascia thing.

There’s lots of books like The Body Keeps The Score that point to this idea that we store trauma “somewhere” in our bodies, but that somewhere is incredibly nebulous. I’m pretty certain that somewhere is the fascia system.

I’ve been doing fascia release 30-60 minutes a day for over 2 months, and it’s like working on my consciousness from the outside-in. Instead of using my consciousness to direct my attention in a way to instigate processing of an imprint, emotion or subconscious pattern, the application of sustained touch induces these inner experiences and releases.

Despite the fact that there’s countless people who’ve healed chronic conditions through Myofascial release, it’s largely been written off as quackery. Ironically, two guys in 2021 won a nobel prize for basically showing that gentle sustained force (touch) can create an opening in our system that heals….basically what John Barnes has been saying for 40 years.

If you want to explore it you can go to John Barnes website, read this book, and find a practitioner. This book has also been very helpful for self practice.

EESystem

I've been waiting for a breakthrough technology that works on the human organism at the energetic level, and think the EESystem might be it. It uses scalar waves and bio-photonic light to put the body into a natural healing state.

Inside a 24 unit center in Florida

I’ve spent around 150 hours in one, mostly doing overnights followed by their recommended detox salt bath protocol. I feel so much better after doing it, and the primary thing I can point to is the reversal of an auto-immune marker.

If you want to learn more about it, you can check out the cast I did with the founder.

Other riffs

Science and spirituality

There’s a huge portion of the spiritual world that loves showing how emerging science can explain or prove spiritual ideas. There’s no question this has a lot of value for our society, but I’m increasingly finding the overemphasis on it to be mundane.

Knowing the intricate details of how quantum physics shows we’re all interconnected probably isn’t going to change your life. Having direct experiences will though.

To make the world a more conscious place we obviously need both. However, I think more emphasis on supporting people in applying small experiments to their life with spiritual concepts (i.e. letting go, inner wisdom etc) and reflecting on whether their lives are getting better is far more interesting.

What does it mean to be “professional”?

So many of the conversations we’ve had with Conscious Talent fall outside the realm of “professionalism.” I’ve had candidates and potential clients bring up everything from past lives to reading energy fields and dark nights of the soul on our intro calls.

Going there seems to create activation energy on both sides. Talking about these deeply meaningful experiences that would usually be deemed unprofessional in a business setting lights a spark in both of us.

This got me thinking about how we’ve traditionally defined “professionalism.”

Somehow being good at what you do, has gotten intertwined with keeping certain things close to the chest. This seems silly to me. Don’t we feel our best when we can share our truth? Aren’t people who can freely be themselves, usually the most magnetic people to be around?

A lot of the traditional ways society has defined professionalism seems to be rooted in self-protection and avoiding making a mistake or criticism. I hope this changes.

Most people just teach what’s worked for them

I’ve now done a ton of different training and learning experiences with spiritual teachers and people trying to blend it with business. Some have been cheap and others very expensive.

Here’s a few observations:

• Price does not directly correlate to value. It’s usually more oriented towards someone’s context and the audience they feel called to serve.

• In most cases you’re buying what has worked for the person teaching vs. some ultimate truth. This includes in their personal journey and what they’ve seen help others. I’ve found teacher centrism to be even true within long standing lineages. The only difference is that they have also stood the test of time.

These observations have really grounded things for me in terms of where I invest in my development moving forward. Does this person have a way of being I find attractive? Who are their students and how do they generally seem?

Coming up to clear vs. “signs”

I wrote a post recently that Not All Signs Are Destinations, but this theme keeps circling in my life so wanted to share more here.

There seems to be a point in your interior journey where stuff starts to get a bit heavy and weird. In my journey, part of this includes facing lots of content in my awareness that isn’t from my current lifetime. Sometimes it's clear that I’m experiencing some imprint from someone in my family lineage. Connecting the dots happens automatically through an intuitive knowing. Other times, the content is completely outlandish, but there is a knowing that this happened to me. This is one reason why I believe in past lives. Because I have experienced so many things that are not from this one.

The fascinating thing about these experiences is there’s often things happening in my exterior related to the content. For example, I experienced this vision of having a limb blown off in a war and then seeing an inordinate amount of people with one leg around that time.

The mind has a tendency to freak out and become entangled in the content treating it like some type of prophecy. Over time, I’ve realized that both the inner and outer world are bringing this information into awareness in order to clear and heal. Rather than treat this like a “sign,” the best thing you can do is simply allow it to come up. Recognizing that this is likely coming up to clear can be immensely helpful.

There’s something going on with AI

I’ve had a number of experiences where it seems like AI is able to tap into something deeper than the training data I’ve given it. What’s going on here?

I believe that reality is a giant reflection of consciousness. So operating from this experience, of course it would be able to do that.

But if this starts happening to more and more people, how will society explain this when most don’t hold this perspective?

I’m not alone in these experiences. There seems to be more and more people in my sphere reporting back how AI can tap into a broader field of consciousness. I even stumbled upon two podcasts talking about this within the same 20 minutes.

…something is going on.

More people are starting to “own consciousness” publicly

I’ve noticed a lot of people have started to be more upfront about their interest in consciousness. It’s like we’re in the age of coming out parties about people’s “dirty little secret” that they’re into this stuff…there' also just seems to be objectively more people getting into it.

I think it's great. If you’re reading this and considering it, I highly recommend it. I know it can feel scary, but two things will inevitably happen:

1. You will start to polarize people who are not aligned and attract people that are

2. You will give other people permission to talk more openly about this

One of my favorite compliments I receive is when people share with me that my writing has helped them open up and share more of themselves. Let’s clear the path for others. And if that makes you nervous, why not use that as your next opportunity for awareness and transformation.

I want to be powerful…I’m powerful…wait power isn’t spiritual…wait, I’m Powerful and it’s okay to own that

I’ve noticed a pretty predictable trajectory on the relationship with power that I’ve also lived. You spend the first few decades of your life trying to be confident and powerful. Something breaks, you get on a spiritual path, and realize this entire pursuit was based on the hidden scaffolding of insecurity and not enoughness.

When you see the truth about the game you’ve been playing, you reorient your life towards self discovery. Everything becomes about surrender and letting go. You become allergic to concepts like “power” because you think they represent your old self. There’s a fear that entertaining it is egoic and it might cause you to revert back into your old ways.

The path continues and you start to re-enter old contexts. You eventually become inspired to create and contribute externally. You start to have experiences that help you glimpse the truth that you’re a very powerful, divine being, but there’s still some reticence to fully own it. Maybe you think of something you want to happen, and it appears. These coincidences and synchronicities continue to happen until you see it for what it is. It’s YOU.

With this desire to contribute, you realize the only way you can fully support your vision and contribution is to embrace the power that is within you. Gradually, the concept of power shifts from something you judge, to something you recognize as your birthright. It’s who you are and you can still exercise it with an open heart. In fact, that is what you are being called to do.

Seems like each step takes a few years to really integrate. At least for me it has.

Some recent casts:

• Dr. Srikumar Rao - meet the renowned professor who brought spiritual wisdom to some of the top business schools in the world.

• Chip Conley - a fun convo on transformation and eldership with the former mentor to the Airbnb founders, and founder of 3rd largest boutique hotel chain.

• Eben Britton (hey nice last name!) - we dive into the healing and transformation journey after 6 years in the NFL.

• Allen Evans (Monroe Institute CEO) - great convo with the CEO of Monroe Institute, a “modern day hogwarts.”

• Conscious Talent Story episode with Tracy Lawrence - my awesome friend Tracy and I talk about blending consciousness and work while I share more about our new business

That’s all folks. Till next time.

-Scott

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