58/ rebirth: meeting your true self
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if the truth can be told so as to be understood, it will be believed. — terence mckenna
how truly free are you? in spite of all the money and success, do you feel overworked, stressed, exhausted, anxious, worried, low or even depressed? do you find yourself always busy, always running, always clamouring for the next big whatever, always competing to be ahead of whatever trend or technology, always thinking about your next move, always working on becoming more successful, wealthy, important, loved or valued and never ever feeling you have arrived?
after seven years on the investment banking floor and six years in brazil as a founder and ceo battling with startup life including a co-founder breakup, i thought there must be a better, more peaceful, more joyful and more fulfilling way of living. so in 2015, i set out to find it.
on this journey i striped naked literally and metaphorically, i let go of everything, i made and lost a fortune, had a panic attack and thoughts of going insane, explored altered states of consciousness (ayahuasca, breathwork, meditation, mushrooms, ketamine, dmt, …), no longer knew who i was, pushed my body to its limits, was in complete silence for weeks, stopped drinking, stopped partying, stopped socialising, stopped having sex, became a hermit and lived in seclusion and even got punched by a friend in the process, … all in the search for finding the answer, the truth about life.
what can i tell you? there truly is a place of continuous peace, serenity and being in love with life. and it is available to every one of us. as humans we are designed to discover and evolve into it. so much emphasis is put on finding “the answer” but only in the journey we discover our own process of returning to our innate peaceful center. it’s a beautiful process. it’s the process of waking up.
rebirth: meeting your true self
your vision will become clear only when you can look into your own heart. who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes. — carl jung
this summer, i’m inviting eight people on a journey to explore the depth of their being, the meaning of their life and to do the work to come into complete harmony with their existence.
in leadership it is said “the work of the one is the work of the many”. we will journey together as a group as well as individually one on one. we will work across body, mind and soul. this is the most powerful, beautiful and profound work there is. it is sacred work. it is why we are here.
this journey will encompass the breadth and depth of what i have learnt, experienced and experimented with during my eight years of seeking compressed into a six-month experience — minus all the snake oil i came across; and there’s quite a bit of that out there. i know of no other program that comes even close to its comprehensiveness, depth, impact and level of transformation. it’s the program i have been looking for and the culmination of all my work.
in any given moment we have two options: to step forward into growth or to step back into safety. — abraham maslow
will you have to strip naked? i don’t think so, except if that is what you want. you yourself will discover and choose what it is you need to do to get to where you want to be. you alone decide how far you want to venture and how deep you want to explore your being and the secrets of life. it’s a beautiful and empowering process. and you are the pilot of it. we, as your team of guides, will provide you with a challenging yet safe, loving and supportive playground to meet and explore your true nature and self.
being happy, authentic and in harmony is your birthright and the most natural way of being. that is, after you have stripped off all the layers you are not, the layers you have taken on unconsciously over the decades of playing a role rather than authentically expressing yourself. think of every time you said or did something just to please others. being you is not a process of becoming but one of chipping away at what you are not.
we cannot solve our problems with the same thinking that created them. — albert einstein
moving through life without a nagging mind is possible. never-ending thinking, strategising and mental exhaustion will give way to feeling the ever-present flow and beauty of life. expressing who you are fully and unconditionally allows you to become the best version of yourself leaving a legacy more beautiful than you could ever have imagined and without needing to change who you are on the outside: banker, founder, ceo or whatever you are.
when all of your facets come together and are expressed as the one true you, everything changes. you will recognise how you are the creator of everything in your life, the great, the good and the ugly. and from that place of complete ownership, you can create whatever life you want free from the shackles of what you thought you needed to do or be.
when you are in full alignment authentically expressed, you enter a room, no word needs to be spoken and everybody knows who you are. — my coach
my journey has taught me there’s nothing more liberating than being free to be who i was always meant to be thereby moving from ordinary to being extraordinary. this is your birthright. we are meant to evolve. that’s why you are here. and then that nagging will cease to be.
you will start 2024 as a new human being, one that is closer to your truth than you have ever been. you will be more blissful, happy and grateful than you have ever been. you will be present with life, in peace with what is and do your greatest work with clarity and courage. and you will touch and change the lives of everyone around you.
if this is you and you are a leader or person of influence, please reply to this email and i will connect with you in person.
not me but…
due to the high-touch nature of this program, i can only take eight on this journey this year. i am therefore focused on empowering those whose work touches many others.
if this is not you (yet) but you would like to participate, please let me know and i will put you on top of the list for the experiences in 2024.
if this is not you but you know someone who could be a great fit, please reach out to me. as a thank you, you will receive a generous referral award if he or she ends up participating in this or next year’s program. more details in person.
last but not least
this is not a marketing email. this is an invitation. this program is not for the faint of heart. we will go to the edge of your understanding of self and beyond. but what awaits the brave, the explorers willing to venture beyond where most people go is the freedom to finally be yourself. to be a version of you you did not know existed but that was waiting, nagging to come to life all your life.
the two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why. — mark twain
this journey is for those that want to experience nothing less than the full magnificence of life and are willing to go to great lengths to find it. as with all (inner) work, you get out of it what you put in. this is for those of you that want to go all-in, no backdoors, support each other in the process and reap the priceless rewards of this work.
and if you do, i promise you from the bottom of my heart that nothing you have experienced in life so far will even come close to it. no matter what you have done or explored before, this will be another level. there is no other program like this one.
to clarify: yes, this program will involve psychoactive substances which will allow you to access places that would otherwise require a lifetime of work. however, the biggest part of this program is the integration of these experiences into your daily life. i have witnessed countless people doing endlessly medicine work without being able to make meaningful changes to their lives and therefore miss out on the well-being, happiness and fulfilment that the insights were meant to provide them with.
you can only meet others as deeply as you’ve met yourself. — my adaption of a quote by matt kahn
meaningful integration work is lacking in nearly all experiences and that will be the focus of this program: how to bring what you have learnt back into your day-to-day life. how you show up minute by minute with your partner, spouse, co-workers and co-founders, friends, children, parents and yourself defines how you feel and experience life. this is the Great Work. and the work that few choose to do.
how congruent are you and can you express it authentically 24/7 365? together we will hold each other accountable and thereby empower the greatest results. this is why this journey is not for everybody but for those that are peak performers already and are truly committed to go to the next level.
a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. — from the tao te ching
this journey is not about me teaching you. i don’t have your answers. this is an invitation to a journey where you will find your own answers. answers that you did not know existed within you. this is an academy for the pure-hearted. until you clean up your inner environment and pursue purity, you will not be able to embody and reap the benefits of the highest version of yourself — it’s a dividing line.
this is what integration means: can you live your truth from moment to moment? you will become familiar with the tools and techniques to empower your greatest self. and the group, i and the other guides will hold a powerful mirror to each of us in this process. this is what makes this program different than any other.
will you have to go to the jungle or drink ayahuasca? no. will you have to travel? yes. while the majority of the program will take place online, you will have to travel twice to a european location later this summer.
all of humanity’s problems stem from man’s inability to sit quietly in a room alone. ― blaise pascal
besides all the inner work, we will be exploring adjacent topics that touch our earthly existence including physical health, wealth/money/finance, artificial intelligence and societal developments amongst others. always with the question in mind: what is my role and duty in this world, where do i want to take it to and who do i need to be as a leader?
now, if you’ve made it this far, here’s a song for you that captures this work:
i am deeply humbled to journey with some of you this year.
with gratitude, love and excitement for what is to come,
vincent
the universe is not outside of you. look inside yourself; everything that you want, you already are. — rumi
want to learn more about me and my work?
who i am and the genesis story of this work
what it means to be human — podcast
what i am learning — newsletter
what i am building — neoslife
what i am offering — coaching
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