Dr. Dan Engle

This is scary, and you want me to lean in?

My mind is telling me that all of this is happening to me and that life is just too big, so all I can do is withdraw and disengage.

We all have this victim archetype in us, so this is not a make-wrong. There is a point, however, in the soul’s journey, when a shift happens and we go from being a victim of our lives to a participant in our lives.

We go from life happening to us, to life happening for us.

Leaning into the fear and the most uncomfortable experiences consistently can bring us into a space of faith, where we recognize that we are held in our journey.

Colombia is a special place. To be in communion with these mountains, over an hour away from the nearest road.. wow. Talk about plugging in. Shoutout to the donkey friends for helping us out. 🫏

Grit (noun): firmness of mind or spirit; unyielding courage

Grit does not come naturally; it is a characteristic that is forged in the fires of challenge and strife, refined through resolve.

Grit is the unyielding impetus behind human initiative, driving personal metamorphosis, collective transformation, social revolution, and human evolution.

Fear-based media capitalizes on our primitive instincts to track danger, using misinformation and disinformation to capture our attention, direct our interests, and mold our opinions.

Our minds are manipulated into agreement in the absence of critical thought, creating a barren land of complacency where grit cannot grow.

How can we as a people recover truth and cultivate resilience to nourish the conditions for grit to prosper once again?

How can we revive and enliven our landscape to nourish us all?

In courageously exploring the shadows of ourselves, we can shine a light on the stories we tell that dictate our attitudes and actions, to our benefit or detriment.

Happy Mother’s Day to all the mamas out there, and let’s not forget our Great Earth Mother - Gaia 🌎

We are the narrators, which means we get to create, destroy, or rewrite our stories whenever and however we want.

We can be defeated by our villains, or we can step up and be the victorious hero.

Life can either happen to you or for you.

Herein lies our greatest power of all: the power of choice.

You can choose to let go of old, pessimistic stories and replace them with optimistic ones.

You can choose to release what no longer serves you to allow in what does.

Ocean time is good for my soul. 🌊

Many uncomfortable human emotions are the result of the stories we tell ourselves.

Depression can stem from self-stories of defeat, unworthiness, and hopelessness.

Anxiety can branch off from stories involving assumptions about the future, fear of the unknown, and one’s inner insecurities, such as inadequacy or uncertainty.

For example, the imposter syndrome is the feeling of being unqualified or undeserving of an achievement or position despite evidence to the contrary, and is the result of a negative internal belief system around one’s abilities.

Because there is often no factual proof to support the feelings elicited by the imposter syndrome, it is nothing more than a self-story.

So, what stories are you telling yourself?

Getting out of the small self and connecting to a greater Self.

Getting out of a small, myopic, ego-centric process to something more expanded and more fulfilling.

That’s this process of initiation, and it’s a grand process.

Spring in Texas is pure magic
earth

There’s a Greek word, “metanoia”, which describes a process of transformation. And that transformation is of mind, heart, and soul.

It’s essentially how we experience ourselves in life, how we experience life itself.

Most traditional cultures I’ve studied have some kind of initiation in their practices, particularly in the arena of rites of passage which tend to mark someone’s phases of development as they age.

A process of initiation, however, doesn’t need to be attributed to a specific chronological development in one’s life.

It can happen anytime, and it tends to be a large process.

It can be catalyzed by a circumstance that *shocks* your system so deeply and blows the walls off your previously boxed-in reality.

It’s possible that many of us right now are experiencing some level of shock to our system, calling us to expand, grow, alchemize shadow, and shed layers of self-limitation. This is initiating us into something larger, more epic, more beautiful, and more loving.

HD & Gene Keys peeps- reminder that the sun is currently in the gate of shock (51) and will be there for the eclipse on Monday.

The 51st shadow is agitation, so maybe set aside some time to identify where you’re feeling strong agitation inside, and experiment with sitting in the discomfort until it lessens or dissolves bit by bit. Look right at it.

We take initiative (same root as initiation) to alchemize this agitation into awakening. We say “yes” to the initiation process, allowing and accepting the discomfort as the necessary friction for growth.

Sending you all lots of love 🌅

Some quality hang time with my bros in Austin 🌅

This whole process of initiation is about reclaiming an appreciation and an understanding of faith.

Faith is what gets turned on when we can’t find evidence.

When the ego tries to figure it out so much, “Just give me the data.”

Some of the most core aspects of our being can’t be proven, we can’t prove our experience.

This is part of what gets turned on when we go through an initiation and a reclamation.

Because initiations bring us current. Everything from the past, current. So we can move forward clean, empowered.

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We’re all born from unconditional love and will return back to it after we die, yet we seek it here in life, too, in this school. We’re born to bond, and the expectations of others can drastically change and distort our expression, our sense of self.

Often at a young age our parents, doing the best they know how to do, will create conditions for love and acceptance that embed themselves in our subconscious minds as programming.

Until we actually put in the effort to look behind the curtain and identify these programs that are running in the background, we are stuck. We’re stuck living a reflection of what was projected onto us in order to hopefully receive some kind love.

We have an opportunity now to investigate our subconscious programming and beliefs in order to release or replace any that are no longer in alignment with who we’re becoming, that radically authentic version of our unique selves.

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How can you feel more empowered today than you felt yesterday?

In what ways can you write a bolder, more beautiful story for yourself?

📖 A Dose of Hope 📖 - link in bio

If it was a calling at the ego level, it would be more like, “hey that looks cool, I’m going to go on that journey.”

It comes from a deeper place than that. And it’s inevitable if we’re to shed our smallness to become our individuated selves.

If we can self-regulate, then we can be more masterful at orienting our minds toward the positive self-empowerment beliefs and the reflections that we choose.

For me, the best self-regulation practice is breathwork, or pranayama.

The breath is the most available and immediate resource for calming our nervous systems and centering our minds.

A simple and effective breathing technique is 🟨 box breathing 🟨 where we:

🔹inhale for 4 seconds
🔹hold the breath in for 4 seconds
🔹exhale for 4 seconds
🔹hold the breath out for 4 seconds

We’ll want to repeat this for several repetitions or several minutes daily so that we develop competence in this skill.

Do you want to be right? Or do you want to be happy? In some cases, “being right” is a defense we use to hold on to our often very justifiable anger.

Being right means we get to be angry, but being angry only hurts us. Another way to say it is that when we cling to anger, we are clinging to what separates us from our own happiness.

Jesus was particularly known for this teaching here. It is not pacifism, not at all. Jesus was a fighter, in his own spiritual way. He had a very sophisticated understanding of human psychology. He knew that if you hold anger towards another, then you are the one bearing the cost of that emotion.

Letting go of this anger means not only releasing the person who has wronged us, but releasing ourselves from the anger, and making space for ourselves and our joy. This opens up a place inside of us that we can fill with love, instead of anger.

📖 My latest book, A Dose of Hope, is available in all formats. Just click the link belolow.

https://www.amazon.com/Dose-Hope-Story-MDMA-Assisted-Psychotherapy-ebook/dp/B098KNR1RM?tag=scribemedia-20&geniuslink=true

Caption this photo…! 😎

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As these medicines continue to reach more and more people, it’s important that we set proper expectations.

These medicines can certainly help us in our process, but they aren’t a panacea or silver bullet.

They can help show us the way, illuminate our blind spots, and uncover buried pieces of ourselves.

But then we have to do the work.

And it’s not easy work.

To quote Morpheus, “There is a difference between knowing the path and walking the path.”

Ibogaine is best known for its astounding efficacy in treating addiction, though it’s looking promising for TBI as well.

Lots more research to conduct, of course, but I’ll be following this closely.

From the article:
“…the first of those studies, conducted with 30 male U.S. special operations forces veterans who received ibogaine treatment in Mexico, was published this week in Nature Medicine.

Immediately following treatment, all of the participants experienced significant reductions in measures of TBI-associated disability, PTSD, depression and anxiety. And one month later most participants’ scores had improved even more.”

Getting intimate with our soul implies the willingness to go into our shadow and to be in the trenches of our own healing process.

Opening up this aspect of intimacy with ourselves asks us to get current and bring all of our parts home, including the shame, guilt, trauma, grief, loss, fear, and regret. Anything from our past, any fears of the future. All of it.

Intimacy with this deep part of our authentic self takes courage and the understanding that this is allowing us to be more whole, more fully realized, and thus in a state of self-celebration.

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