The Most Important Skill No One Ever Taught You
This entire letter is based on one central idea:
Consciousness exploration has been suppressed by an archaic, systematic, philosophically-misaligned theory of ‘mental disorder’ and individuals have never been more incentivized to explore themselves and their place in the world on a deeper level in order to transform their behavioural, emotional and spiritual health.
Our existing mental health system, built on a framework that often pathologizes our experiences, and prioritizes medication over understanding, has inadvertently limited our ability to deeply explore our own consciousness.
This outdated philosophy, to me, is at the core of what keeps us stuck in the default patterns of behaviour that influence our mental-emotional health and limit our growth and potential.
But it’s also the very thing that we need to overcome in order to transform.
Learning how to go beyond your default mode is the most important skill that no one ever taught you, because until recently, we didn’t know how.
Our current healthcare support systems are mostly designed as band-aid solutions for our most vulnerable and sick.
They aren’t really supportive mechanism for the functioning well that desire to know more about who they truly are.
We’ve come to the point where we can no longer rely on the old ways of doing things.
We must become accountable for ourselves and our future.
But the way beyond is not through laying blame on any single system, person or environmental influence.
It’s about taking ownership over your behaviour, adopting an exploratory mindset and engaging with tools, activities and resources that help you to explore yourself on a deeper level.
That’s what I want to share more with you about today.
Let’s start with consciousness
Consciousness, from my experience, is your inherent ability to be aware of yourself and your surroundings.
It’s your capacity to recognize your thoughts emotions and experiences as part of your unique identity.
It involves the integration of sensory information, cognitive processes and self-reflection, allowing you to perceive the world and yourself as a coherent whole.
At its core, consciousness is what allows you to know yourself and to explore the depths of your inner world.
It is what creates your subjective experience of being alive, aware and capable of introspection.
I’ve said this before, and I’ll say it again: consciousness exploration is as innate to the human experience as having sex and eating food.
But our modern society has for far too long, prioritized external achievement over inner exploration and self awareness.
As a result, the deep exploratory journey has been lost, limiting our ability to fully engage with our inner selves, leaving many of us disconnected from the profound understanding and growth that comes from conscious self exploration.
This is important.
But because it is guiding us through life based on past experiences, societal norms and unconscious conditioning, it can keep us stuck in autopilot, unable to evolve.
Our default mode of thinking and behaving acts as a barrier, keeping us from fully engaging with and understanding the deeper layers of our consciousness and our fuller selves.
When we move beyond our default mode, we start to understand ourselves better, we notice destructive patterns, we begin to respond differently to the world, and we are given an opportunity to create change.
6 Strategies To Build The Skill
Moving beyond the default mode isn’t just a mental exercise.
It requires practical tools and intentional actions.
Here are a few strategies and practices that I like to use to shut off autopilot and step into a more conscious way of being.
Tummo Breathwork
Elevate your energy through a deep, focused breathing technique.
Helps to break automatic patterns by focusing on the rhythm of your breath.
Activates your body’s energy centres to enhance awareness.
Shadow Work
Explore your consciousness with the intention to integrate all aspects of yourself.
Helps to uncover subconscious patterns that dictate your default behaviours and reactions to life.
Assists in transforming default limiting beliefs into growth opportunities.
Microdosing
Enhance creativity and mood with sub-perceptual doses of psychedelics to support self awareness.
Disrupts default patterns with subtle shifts in perception.
Increases introspection and emotional resilience with consistent practice.
Brainwave Entrainment
Synchronizing brainwave patterns using audio frequencies to access different mental states.
Shift from default mode to heightened focus or relaxation.
Supports deeper cognitive exploration through brainwave optimization
Flow State Activation
Engage in intentional activities that fully immerse you into the present moment.
Override the default mode with total activity absorption.
Increase exploration by turning down the connection to your sense of self, opening you up to heightened levels awareness.
This is my favourite strategy - and I’m sharing more about it in my new (free) Flow State Incubator in a couple weeks. If you’re interested click here to send me an email.
A Moment To Pause
If you have a moment now. Give yourself a second to pause and notice a habit, behaviour pattern, or reaction that you think might be in your way.
How can you take ownership of that behaviour today?
Not as a way to fully change it necessarily, but just as a way to explore it, get curious about it.
Reflect on one thing from this email that stood out to you and resonated.
How can you benefit from going beyond the default mode?