The Great Updraft

Learn about the sneaky snares of Spiral Dynamics that blindside most people. Yes, believe it or not, Spiral Dynamics can TRAP you and make you slide backwards in your self-transformation journey. I want to show you the traps you may be falling into as you learn and apply Spiral Dynamics. Learn very practical solutions for these pernicious problems so that learning this framework helps you rather t...

The wonderful thing about Integral Consciousness (stages Teal and Turquoise in Integral Theory) is that we realise we are continually evolving individuals in a continually evolving world. As such, we can consciously participate in our own growth. We make conscious the unconscious process of stage development as it unfolds decade to decade, year to year, week to week, and moment to moment. From thi...

Every society unwittingly programmes newborns with ideas, beliefs, values and norms, to the extent that we can get an idea of a person’s personality just based on their nationality. What ideas are we programmed with as 21st-century westerners living in modern society? What are the most limiting ideas we have? How does this jeopardise our self-transformation efforts? In this video we'll explore all...

Have you ever heard the terms “natural ability” or “God-given talent”? Have you ever been told you're inherently incapable and should give up trying? Have you ever told this to yourself? The talent obsession abounds in education, media and our mind. Not only is it hogwash, it seriously jeopardises our learning. The idea that ability for a certain sport or pursuit is inbuilt and determines our chan...

Let's learn about magical thinking, carefully tease it apart from deep psychological insight, and discuss how to healthily integrate it. Know that we all pass through a Magical period in our early childhood, the Magic stage of development, and come out the other end at age 4 or 5.From then, all the way through adult life, our relationship to magical thinking can go one of two ways: we become compl...

A crucial part of learning how to learn is becoming acutely aware of the obstacles that block our path to excellence. Here we look at three dysfunctional characters – the Dabbler, the Hack, and the Obsessive. These are the three learner profiles you want to avoid. Together they’ll give you a spookily accurate assessment of how you prevent yourself reaching true competence and expertise. And in my...

The connection between mindfulness meditation and life purpose might not be apparent, but when it comes to aligning our career with our authentic passions and desires, we need the tools of mindfulness both to get started and see us through the process. I teamed up with Grace for a chat on Instagram Live. Grace and I discussed our career journeys, how to become more aware of what’s going on in our...

I've had some pretty traumatic moments as a member of various spiritual communities, and it's inspired me to share my experiences and expose the dark side of spiritual communities. I hope to shine a light on these issues so that we can clean up spiritual communities. Budding meditators or yogis can spot these toxic aspects in advance, the perpetrators can realise what they've done wrong and grow a...

Often we talk about Spiral Dynamics from an external point of view, as though observing it in the world and those around us. But here I want to turn the tables – how are our personal lives actually impacted by living at Spiral Dynamics Stage Yellow? I reached out to experts in the field and Spiral Dynamics enthusiasts to tell me their stories, and they shared some excellent insights with me. In th...

Today we’re going to look at the good and the bad of Spiral Dynamics Stage Green in our personal lives. This is a super practical video packed with insights from my own life, my engagement with the Spiral Dynamics community, and my observations of the successes and failures of friends at this stage. My intention is to help you skillfully embody Stage Green – incorporating the healthy and construct...

"All of this is God."In this episode I speak with my partner and best friend, Inés Isern, about spirituality, God, spiritual awakening, and her amazing sacred gardens. And yes, we talk candidly about our experiences of spirituality, how it has developed, and how it currently impacts our life. Inés tells us what inspires her to create her unique spaces and how she makes the spiritual manifest in he...

Let’s look have a comprehensive look at James Fowler’s 7 Stages of Faith Development, which describe how we satisfy our basic need for meaning in ever more elaborate ways as we grow and mature. Learning what James Fowler discovered can seriously alter how you view yourself, others and human culture. One of James Fowler’s greatest contributions was to show us that faith is not necessarily religious...

If you want to reach high performance in your pursuits, you'd do very well to apply the 10,000-hour rule ASAP.What is the 10,000-hour rule? How can we use it to get really damn good in our pursuits? And what are some the common pitfalls involved with this way of looking at excellence? We cover all these questions in this episode. The four learner types Master your learning mentality My article on...

It's time to debunk these four damaging meditation myths once and for all. These aren't just cute little cultural myths that have no real impact on meditators – they will stop you dead in your tracks as you attempt to build a daily meditation practice. In fact, they will prevent you reaching deep territory with this practice, leaving you stuck and frustrated, believing that you simply aren't up to...

A crucial part of learning how to learn is becoming acutely aware of the obstacles that block our path to excellence. Here we look at three dysfunctional characters – the Dabbler, the Hack, and the Obsessive. These are the three learner profiles you want to avoid. Together they’ll give you a spookily accurate assessment of how you prevent yourself reaching true competence and expertise. And in my...

It's time to debunk these four damaging meditation myths once and for all. These aren't just cute little cultural myths that have no real impact on meditators – they will stop you dead in your tracks as you attempt to build a daily meditation practice. In fact, they will prevent you reaching deep territory with this practice, leaving you stuck and frustrated, believing that you simply aren't up to...

A crucial part of learning how to learn is becoming acutely aware of the obstacles that block our path to excellence. Here we look at the Beginner's Hump – the early period in the learning journey when we feel clumsy and incompetent. Our new pursuit seems impossible, and we wonder how we'll ever get there. Know that this is temporary. You will get through it, and we'll look at some tried-and-teste...

In this video, we’re going to look at practical habits for maintaining a healthy mind and cover incredible insights into how the mind works. In watching this, you’re becoming a student of your own mind! These cover some of the best tips you’ll find out there from the best teachers. AND I have a tonne of case studies. I reached to folks on social media and they shared their wonderful stories of the...

If you're a newbie meditator, this breathing meditation is a great practice. That said, this technique works wherever you are in the journey, and it has endless depth for advanced meditators. Before you do the meditation:– Setup: It's best you find a quiet spot so you can hear the instructions and fully focus on the exercise.– Mouth Position: keep the mouth relaxed, with the lips gently touching....

What is the ego? Is it real or illusory? If it is illusory, how does it perpetuate itself? We'll explore these questions and more as I take you on a whirlwind tour of your ego's biggest self-deception mechanisms. These make you inauthentic, obnoxious and forever unfulfilled. We also cover very practical solutions you can begin to implement right now to free yourself from the ego's seductive grip,...

Spiral Dynamics is a simple but powerful theory describing how human beings evolve through eight major stages, both historically, individually, and collectively. Learning this theory has permanently changed how I view and treat myself, others, and the world at large. What really is Spiral Dynamics? What levels of human development does it propose? How do we skillfully apply it to our lives? We loo...

This is an introduction to the AQAL framework from Ken Wilber in the context of self-transformation. We cover the four quadrants, lines, levels, states and types, along with how my work fits into this model. This is the most holistic model of reality and human psychology I know of. Learn the pillars of Wilber's AQAL framework from Integral Theory and how you can use it to boost your self-improveme...

Let’s talk about the subjective benefits of meditation. What I mean is the kind of benefits we can see in our lives, rather than the neurological benefits, although they are really two sides of the same coin. I’ve met dozens of people who say that meditation has transformed their lives. And there is mounting gold-standard scientific evidence that confirms their reports. I too have experienced dram...

Could the conservative side of you be preventing you from taking action? Do you believe that growth is possible or that you’re bound to be a certain way forever? In this article, we’ll unpack a crucial concept for self-mastery: that of the growth mindset and fixed mindset. These two mentalities are archetypes guiding how we view ourselves and our abilities. Knowledge of them will help you identify...