So much insight here, Daniel! I feel you really touching into the root of the matter. I so appreciate your asking us to grapple with the intersection of capitalism and healing...Pointing out that a healer working in true integrity will aim to "be put out of their job." I've been wondering if healing is something our bodies know how to do, but that our culture just needs to reminded. Resonating w your proposal that it would be helpful to find more common (root) language across modalities. I love your framing of the difference bt awakening and liberation. Thank you for collecting and synthesizing many of the inquiries I've had on the subject)
I wrote an essay about the modern coaching industry becoming obsolete, and a vision for how that can look, which touches on a lot of the same territory in Daniel’s great piece ♥️
Ah, yes, read your piece and this same vision seems to be shining through. Feeling grateful for what y'all are seeing, both about the current state of affairs and the possibilities for a different way. I can feel it too, already here, out ahead...May it be so)
I too really appreciate the juxtaposition of “awakening” and “liberation.” It feels to me to have a parallel in “falling in love” and “loving.” I wonder: you mentioned in a previous post personal breakdown and rebuilding. In light of both articles: in our spirals of evolution, isn’t falling in love (awakening and reawakening) the antidote to breakdown (disintegration) and also the impetus or spark (hope, courage, grace) which helps us actively loving (integration)? If I fall in love over and over, it doesn’t automatically follow that I’m bypassing the loving (which includes loving the sludge). It means I’m recharging my capacity for loving and liberating.
Daniel, thank you for shouting this truth from the rooftops: safety and attuned love are the two most essential ingredients in any true psychological healing process. It’s remarkable how often this core truth gets lost beneath layers of complexity and performance.
And your reminder that safety is simply the presence of welcome allowing, and that attunement is less technique and more essence is spot on. I’m still learning how to embody these truths more fully myself (especially in parenting, where I find it’s needed most), but this reminder helps stay on the path.
Thank you for articulating this so clearly and generously. It’s a critical message, and I’m grateful you’re helping make it more visible.
Daniel, this is an excellent piece of writing. It is profoundly true and resonates with my lived experience and understanding. I adore the notion of loving presence and look forward to further instalments.
This is AA in a nutshell, especially Steps 4 & 5. Safety and Love. The Fellowship, the Sponsor/Sponsee relationship. The spiritual psychic changes that come over us is a healing phenomenon. 🙏
I have followed your work for many years now and it is profoundly reassuring to me that you have arrived (via a very different path) to these same realisations that I have. It gives me hope that perhaps this is emerging for many people now through many different modalities. And I agree with what you say about “recognizing their common essence and developing shared language that can transcend specific modalities.”
What you are speaking to in providing safety and attunement to all parts is exactly what Aware Parenting gives us practical tools to support our children with from birth! It’s radically beyond *just* attachment style parenting, although that forms the basis of the paradigm.
You say, “There's an innate intelligence in our being that knows exactly how to heal when the conditions are right. “ and “Healing isn't rocket science. In fact, it’s is our birthright—a fundamental human capacity … actually as natural to us as breathing and digestion“ YESSSSSS!!!!! This is exactly the foundations of Aware Parenting, trust in the innate wisdom of babies and children. Babies and children innately know what they need and how to heal!
To illustrate: when my second son was born, at home with just me and my partner (and older son sleeping), he immediately cried after he was born, I knew that in that moment he had no immediate physical needs, he simply needed to express his feelings about the huge experience he had just had - being born!, I held him in my arms and listened to him cry.
‘Listening to feelings’ as we call it, among other things including attunement to needs, attachment style parenting, particular kinds of attachment play, and non-punitive discipline, is how we are helping our children to feel fully welcome in the world.
And through this there is also the profound opportunity for reparenting ourselves.
Ps. “Liberation, however, is the slow, patient work of bringing that loving awareness into attuned right relationship with all the cast-off parts of our interior. It's the gradual refactoring of our entire psyche to align with our fundamental nature.”
Literally this morning, before I had seen this article, I had the urge to re-listen to your convo with Soryu ‘Manufactured Awakenings’ it’s an old favourite, haven’t listened in years and it seems in some ways that these ideas have spiralled back around to something that was already awakening (at least for me) in that conversation.
P.ps I have been wanting to link an aware parenting podcast episode for you to dip your toes into (if you feel drawn to of course!) and the one finally came to me “crying, grief, and loving presence”
This is a really beautiful distillation Daniel. Well done and thank you.
A small note/question - I was surprised to see the phrase 'second simplicity' associated with Hegel. I've seen the phrase many times, but never in connection to him, and I am not sure it comes from him. If you have a citation or something I'd be curious to have that confirmed, but no worries if this is not worth following up on...
sometimes is not just those negative things that get shoved away for safety's sake. Sometimes an over-enthusiastic love can get squashed, or a sense of achievement. (Also some more questionable traits, like a sense of superiority or entitlement).
Endless bangers... whatever creative veins you're tapping into, keep going 💥
So much insight here, Daniel! I feel you really touching into the root of the matter. I so appreciate your asking us to grapple with the intersection of capitalism and healing...Pointing out that a healer working in true integrity will aim to "be put out of their job." I've been wondering if healing is something our bodies know how to do, but that our culture just needs to reminded. Resonating w your proposal that it would be helpful to find more common (root) language across modalities. I love your framing of the difference bt awakening and liberation. Thank you for collecting and synthesizing many of the inquiries I've had on the subject)
I wrote an essay about the modern coaching industry becoming obsolete, and a vision for how that can look, which touches on a lot of the same territory in Daniel’s great piece ♥️
https://open.substack.com/pub/tuckerwalsh/p/the-end-of-coaching-e61495a65a11?r=a9syk&utm_medium=ios
Ah, yes, read your piece and this same vision seems to be shining through. Feeling grateful for what y'all are seeing, both about the current state of affairs and the possibilities for a different way. I can feel it too, already here, out ahead...May it be so)
I too really appreciate the juxtaposition of “awakening” and “liberation.” It feels to me to have a parallel in “falling in love” and “loving.” I wonder: you mentioned in a previous post personal breakdown and rebuilding. In light of both articles: in our spirals of evolution, isn’t falling in love (awakening and reawakening) the antidote to breakdown (disintegration) and also the impetus or spark (hope, courage, grace) which helps us actively loving (integration)? If I fall in love over and over, it doesn’t automatically follow that I’m bypassing the loving (which includes loving the sludge). It means I’m recharging my capacity for loving and liberating.
Daniel, thank you for shouting this truth from the rooftops: safety and attuned love are the two most essential ingredients in any true psychological healing process. It’s remarkable how often this core truth gets lost beneath layers of complexity and performance.
And your reminder that safety is simply the presence of welcome allowing, and that attunement is less technique and more essence is spot on. I’m still learning how to embody these truths more fully myself (especially in parenting, where I find it’s needed most), but this reminder helps stay on the path.
Thank you for articulating this so clearly and generously. It’s a critical message, and I’m grateful you’re helping make it more visible.
Daniel, this is an excellent piece of writing. It is profoundly true and resonates with my lived experience and understanding. I adore the notion of loving presence and look forward to further instalments.
This is AA in a nutshell, especially Steps 4 & 5. Safety and Love. The Fellowship, the Sponsor/Sponsee relationship. The spiritual psychic changes that come over us is a healing phenomenon. 🙏
I feel so excited reading this.
I have followed your work for many years now and it is profoundly reassuring to me that you have arrived (via a very different path) to these same realisations that I have. It gives me hope that perhaps this is emerging for many people now through many different modalities. And I agree with what you say about “recognizing their common essence and developing shared language that can transcend specific modalities.”
What you are speaking to in providing safety and attunement to all parts is exactly what Aware Parenting gives us practical tools to support our children with from birth! It’s radically beyond *just* attachment style parenting, although that forms the basis of the paradigm.
You say, “There's an innate intelligence in our being that knows exactly how to heal when the conditions are right. “ and “Healing isn't rocket science. In fact, it’s is our birthright—a fundamental human capacity … actually as natural to us as breathing and digestion“ YESSSSSS!!!!! This is exactly the foundations of Aware Parenting, trust in the innate wisdom of babies and children. Babies and children innately know what they need and how to heal!
To illustrate: when my second son was born, at home with just me and my partner (and older son sleeping), he immediately cried after he was born, I knew that in that moment he had no immediate physical needs, he simply needed to express his feelings about the huge experience he had just had - being born!, I held him in my arms and listened to him cry.
‘Listening to feelings’ as we call it, among other things including attunement to needs, attachment style parenting, particular kinds of attachment play, and non-punitive discipline, is how we are helping our children to feel fully welcome in the world.
And through this there is also the profound opportunity for reparenting ourselves.
Ps. “Liberation, however, is the slow, patient work of bringing that loving awareness into attuned right relationship with all the cast-off parts of our interior. It's the gradual refactoring of our entire psyche to align with our fundamental nature.”
Literally this morning, before I had seen this article, I had the urge to re-listen to your convo with Soryu ‘Manufactured Awakenings’ it’s an old favourite, haven’t listened in years and it seems in some ways that these ideas have spiralled back around to something that was already awakening (at least for me) in that conversation.
P.ps I have been wanting to link an aware parenting podcast episode for you to dip your toes into (if you feel drawn to of course!) and the one finally came to me “crying, grief, and loving presence”
https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/the-aware-parenting-podcast/id1455772681?i=1000678816863
Thank you Katie! You are stoking my excitement to be a father... :)
I just downloaded the podcast, thanks for the recommendation. <3
What a sublime piece of writing. Thank you.
Suffering occurs when some 'movement of reality fails to receive the loving attunement it requires to be integrated with the whole.'
Such a beautiful framing.
This is a really beautiful distillation Daniel. Well done and thank you.
A small note/question - I was surprised to see the phrase 'second simplicity' associated with Hegel. I've seen the phrase many times, but never in connection to him, and I am not sure it comes from him. If you have a citation or something I'd be curious to have that confirmed, but no worries if this is not worth following up on...
a big hug & a deep bow
Just a thought-
sometimes is not just those negative things that get shoved away for safety's sake. Sometimes an over-enthusiastic love can get squashed, or a sense of achievement. (Also some more questionable traits, like a sense of superiority or entitlement).
Welp, time to double down on metta and learn the jhanas.