The Value of Wilderness-Based Rites of Passage with Brooks Barron
Curious Humans with Jonny Miller
Finding Meaning and Aliveness Through Nature and Instinct
The speaker realized that pushing themselves to meet societal expectations was leading to burnout, prompting them to seek answers in nature. This led to a profound and life-changing experience, causing them to prioritize following a feeling of aliveness over optimizing their impact. After a multi-year journey of inner conflicts, they ultimately found their way to the work they do now, which combines wilderness leadership and coaching.
Brooks Barron is an experienced leadership coach specializing in nature-based initiations and rites of passage — to help the leaders he works with explore their vulnerability, find their inner wisdom, and surrender to the flow of what wants to come through them.
In this conversation, you can expect to learn:
- Brooks' definition of wholeness as a human being
- The difference between the desire to make an impact in the world from above the line vs. below the line.
- How he shifted out of victim consciousness and took 100% responsibility for his life.
- The dynamics of being nice versus being kind
- The importance of vulnerability and healing
- The benefits he sees in going through a vision quest or wilderness-based rite of passage
- How this enables us to transition into psychological adulthood.
Timestamps
[00:04:07] Positive impact, burning out, seeking purpose, profound change
[00:09:22] Embrace all aspects, shift from fear to love.
[00:14:04] Curious about the good versus bad dynamic.
[00:22:06] Struggling with climate change; personal healing journey.
[00:23:57] Driven by impact, trust, acceptance, and growth.
[00:30:34] Vision quest: therapy vs. transformation, death and rebirth, shift into trust.
[00:37:51] Unfamiliarity pushes people to embrace change and growth.
[00:42:42] Sacred wound: discomfort that creates beauty.
[00:51:45] Struggling to balance passion, responsibility, and self-care.
[00:54:01] Ego keeps me from acknowledging my needs.
[01:01:09] Importance of fitting in while embracing uniqueness.
[01:04:44] "Awakening experiences lead to divine connection, but require rigor."
Official Links
💬 Follow Brooks on LinkedIn
📝 Read Brooks' latest Substack writing
✨ Apply for the Power Awakening Leadership Program
🙋♂️ Learn more about Brooks's upcoming leadership training + coaching
Connect + Follow Jonny:
🐦 Follow on Twitter @jonnym1ller
💌 Subscribe to the Curious Humans Newsletter
🫁 Learn more about Nervous System Mastery
🙋♂️ Join Five to Thrive — a zero-cost educational email series.
Episode Sponsors
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🫁 Nervous System Mastery — this is my flagship 5-week boot camp designed to equip you with evidence-backed protocols to cultivate calm and emotional regulation. Our fifth cohort will be running in April 2024 ~ and applications are currently open. My sense is that if this conversation resonates with you, then you'd likely be a great fit for our upcoming cohort. This curriculum represents my attempt to distill everything that I've learned in recent years about how to create the conditions for our nervous system's flourishing. It's run in an intensive cohort-based way since this is, in my experience, the most efficient way to embody and practice the protocols. Previous students have shared how partaking not only improved their sleep and quality of relationships but also tapped into deeper states of joy, clarity, and confidence in their lives. We've had over 750 students have completed this training, and many have said that it has been the most impactful thing they've ever done for their personal growth — so if you're intrigued at all, you can find more details and apply to join this year's cohort over at nsmastery.com
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