Eat The Strawberry

Dearest Strawberry Eaters!I come back from a couple weeks hiatus from publishing here with delight and a rewed vigor. I am so grateful for you all, and for the opporutnity to publish my thoughts straight into the world.I decided last week to take a long break from social media, and specifically Instagram. I felt that the content I was sharing there was too valuable and not well-enough received by the general populous, because of the culture of the app… So, I’m going to be re-directing my creation energy here, and into more long-form projects like books and other fun things.With that out of the way, enjoy today’s episode. I felt myself get passionate on this one, and the words flowed. I’m SO curious to hear your thoughts, if you have any.As a fun bonus, here is a photo of the cemetery I was in today.May your breaths come easily and feel full in your body. May you treasure your life, knowing that it will surely end. And may you meet each moment with the reverence it deserves.Blessings,FaolanIf you know someone who might find value in these words, consider sending it their way—it means more than you know.Here are a few ways you can support my work and stay connected:* 🍓 Become a paid subscriber to get access to exclusive meditations and group calls.* 🌀 Book a 1:1 coaching discovery call* 📚 Read my book Why Live? The Beautiful and Painful Mess of Learning to Love Life* 💬 Invite me to speak or facilitate at your event or organizationTo explore more, visit www.faolan.com This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.eatthestrawberry.com/subscribe

Hello wonderful humans!Enjoy this episode of ETS. I hope that you learn something. And, if you do, please share with someone you love.Blessings and joy in the great journey from death to death!Faolan This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.eatthestrawberry.com/subscribe

On this episode, I talk about the transformational journey, and how difficult it can be to stay present while on it. Enjoy! This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.eatthestrawberry.com/subscribe

On today’s episode of Eat The Strawberry, Faolan dives into the often tumultuous “No” word, and how to use it well. Saying no has never been easy for me. It often brings up this fear of what will happen to a relationship. Will I damage the relationship if I speak what’s real for me? Will I break it? Will I get hurt because I’m claiming what’s true?These questions have been coming up a lot for me lately, as I focus more and more on what feels like it’s most important in my life. Focusing has required me to start saying no to more and more.This episode is my exploration of that process.Enjoy, and as always, blessings,Faolan. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.eatthestrawberry.com/subscribe

The more life I live, coaching I do, and people I help, the more I realize that all of living well comes down to having a regulated and relatable—as in we’re in relation to it—nervous system.On this episode of ETS, I go deep into explaining how to regulate a nervous system, and why it’s important. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.eatthestrawberry.com/subscribe

Tonight, I came across this note card. I was excited, because this is from a time years ago when I first felt inspired to write and create this blog/podcast space. I flipped it over and it read:When I read that, I was inspired to make what I thought would be a silly podcast about itching, but what became a rather inspired exploration of consciousness and morality.I hope you enjoy the travails of my mind!All my love and blessings,Faolan This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.eatthestrawberry.com/subscribe

Hi dear ETS listeners!On this week’s podcast, I’m sharing about a difficult and humbling experience yesterday while learning to paraglide.Humility and Patience are two virtues which continue to be hard for me, and which I continue to lean into.Thanks for listening, and as always, blessings,FaolanHere are a few ways you can support my work and stay connected:* 🍓 Become a paid subscriber to get access to exclusive meditations and group calls.* 🌀 Book a 1:1 coaching discovery call* 🌍 Join an upcoming retreat (next one is Sept 2025 in Massachusetts)* 📚 Read my book Why Live? The Beautiful and Painful Mess of Learning to Love Life* 💬 Invite me to speak or facilitate at your event or organizationTo explore more, visit www.faolan.com This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.eatthestrawberry.com/subscribe

Inner child healing is at the core of everything we struggle with. When we’re feeling held back, almost always, our inner child and their adaptive coping mechanisms, which are no longer working are at fault. Those protective mechanisms worked for a long time, but don’t anymore.And to reintegrate into a whole you, who isn’t compulsively or unconsciously continued to enact unconscious patterns, it’s important to re-unite and heal the relationship with the inner child.So, I wanted to make a special ETS blog specifically for this!If you want more like this, let me know in the comments.Blessings on your journey,FaolanThank you for taking the time to be here with me.Did something in this piece move you? I’d genuinely love to hear what landed. Feel free to share your reflections in the comments or reply directly.If you know someone who might find value in these words, consider sending it their way—it means more than you know.Here are a few ways you can support my work and stay connected:* 🍓 Become a paid subscriber to get access to exclusive meditations and group calls.* 🌀 Book a 1:1 coaching discovery call* 🌍 Join an upcoming retreat (next one is Sept 2025 in Massachusetts)* 📚 Read my book Why Live? The Beautiful and Painful Mess of Learning to Love Life* 💬 Invite me to speak or facilitate at your event or organizationTo explore more, visit www.faolan.com This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.eatthestrawberry.com/subscribe

Hello dearest listeners! On this podcast, I do two deep dives into the future of my work and what it means to have a “vision” and how we can relate to those visions.If this podcast resonates with you, take a moment to consider why. What is it touching in you that feels like medicine in your soul? And, then ask yourself what you’d like to do with that medicine.Please enjoy! It means the world to me that you are finding my work valuable for your transformation.All my blessings,FaolanPS. If you found this valuable, share with with a friend or loved one! This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.eatthestrawberry.com/subscribe

Hey all!I had this podcast rumble out of me last night, and wanted to share it with you all. I’m sorry for the mic switch in the middle! Not sure what happened there.I’m still learning the balance between releasing imperfect content and making it excellent to consume. Patience is welcome!Blessings,Faolan This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.eatthestrawberry.com/subscribe

This episode was a lot of fun to make. In it, I dove into various approaches to how to learn presence when our trauma activates our nervous system, and presence becomes challenging to access.This is especially helpful for those people who feel like they can never stop moving, who are always looking for the next thing to do, or who don’t know how to “turn off their brains.”Leave a comment letting me know what you learned and if you have any questions!Until next Sunday,Faolan This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.eatthestrawberry.com/subscribe

For most of my life, I believed the lie.The lie that said I needed to achieve more, become more, strive harder to be worthy. That happiness was always just over the next horizon, that success would finally make me feel whole.So I chased.I coached Fortune 100 CEOs, worked with the top minds in business, dined at Michelin-star restaurants in London, traveled across six continents, backpacked through jungles, and jumped off mountains. I lived the dream that society sells—the one that whispers, “Just keep going, and one day, you’ll feel like enough.”But no matter what I accomplished, it was never enough.Until one day, I stopped chasing.I stopped believing the world’s script and started listening to what was real.And what I found was revolutionary.The truth isn’t in the next goal, the next relationship, or the next peak experience. It’s here. Right now. In this moment.Nothing to prove. Nothing to fix. Nothing to strive for.I don’t coach people to “get somewhere” anymore. I don’t sell the illusion of “one day.”I’m here to burn that lie to the ground.My work is about awakening people to what’s already true: you are whole. You are enough. And the moment you stop running, you’ll realize that everything you’ve been searching for has been here all along.This is more than coaching. This is a counterculture movement. A revolution against the never-ending cycle of striving, fixing, and seeking.So if you’re ready to wake up, to stop looking outside yourself for permission to feel alive—welcome.This is it. This is your life.Let’s live it. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.eatthestrawberry.com/subscribe

For a long time, I leaned on the women in my life. The tricky part was that I wasn’t aware I was doing it. This truth was one of the gifts my former partner left me at the end of our relationship. When I look back, I was relying on her for my stability—emotionally, spiritually, and logistically. When I look back even further, I see that I’ve always done this, with all my past partners, and since I was born into a life of enmeshment with my mom.I learned recently that I had unconsciously defined “safety” for myself as “the availability of and attachment to the feminine.” Whether that was the literal presence of my mom, grandma, or girlfriend, the more ephemeral internal attachment to or obsession with a crush, or my reliance on porn, in each case I gave my safety away. My ex helped me to realize just how much this was undermining my capacity to be in right relationship to myself, my work, and to the women in my life.For the last six months, I’ve been sitting with the uncomfortable reality that I’ve never fully taken ownership of my own life. When things have gotten hard, I’ve always collapsed into the women around me, into sex or relationship, into being held by ‘mother.’ It hasn’t been an easy truth to accept, but in finally owning it, it’s like I’m being released from a lifetime of self-induced suffering. I’m finally earning my masculinity.To explain, I’ll paraphrase a line from a book I’ve been listening to, The Path of the Warrior Mystic, by Angel Millar; he writes essentially that ‘women have natural initiation processes built into their bodies. When they receive their periods or when they carry and give birth to children or go through menopause, there are hormonal initiations happening. For boys, we need to earn our man bodies through carrying water and chopping wood, through hard work at the gym.’I haven’t been able to get the idea out of my head. When I first heard it, I was resistant. As I’ve let it sit, and I’ve gone to the gym more and increased my capacity for discipline, it’s felt more and more true. I do need to earn my manhood, and it is hard.Last year, I was made aware of a chronically repressed, and thus fragile and frail part of myself; my Warrior. John Wineland, a tantra teacher and men’s work practitioner, speaks about warrior consciousness. In one of his teachings, he asked: “What would you die for? What does it feel like to embody that primal masculine capacity to die for that which you love?” The first time I heard him say that, I was in London still. I breathed into it, felt a tiny glimpse of power and rightness, and then felt myself immediately break under the weight. I couldn’t ‘hang with’ the question. It made me feel small and incapable. I buckled and almost cried.My collapse was a recognition that were a lion, tiger, bear, or bad person to attack me or those who I love, I wouldn’t be able to fight back; or, I wouldn’t be able to win. There was a lack in me, and I don’t use that word without extreme intentionality. I literally hadn’t earned my strength yet, and I knew it. I knew that I couldn’t live up to my inner capacity for warrior-ship, and in the event of danger, I would likely let harm come to myself and my loved ones. It felt terrible, but I wasn’t ready to confront it yet.In my relationship with my ex, this was a point of tension. Looking back, I think that she wanted that capacity from me, as any woman would when discerning if a man is the right one to father children with. I’ve learned that women respect a man who has the capacity to ‘kill,’ and chooses not to. It makes them feel safe. I would want that too. I would want a man who could protect my children, or me, in the event of danger. Six months ago, the concept intimidated the heck out of me. Now, it just feels true.When my ex first introduced a concept she called “Edge” to me, it brought up that same sensation of lack and collapse. She spoke of something that martial artists have, but I never really got it. I knew it was important, and asked her lots of questions, but all the while felt myself get smaller and smaller. The more we talked about it, the less it made sense, and the more insecure I felt. Today, after months of contemplation and practice, I’ve earned a working definition for myself: * Edge is the capacity to not only sacrifice one’s life for what is right, but to make that sacrifice matter. There are a few pieces of this that are important to define further.* “Capacity” - Edge is not the act itself, but the ability to choose that act. It is not the choice, but the will to make it. Sure, the choice and act matter, but they’re more like reps in a workout that lead to a muscled body—the muscled body is the Edge, not the lifting of the weight.* “Sacrifice one’s life” - One could argue that it would be better as ‘give one’s life’ or even ‘live for,’ and while these are beautiful intentions, it is the death process inherent in sacrifice that makes it valuable. Without the will to die, the will to live is weak a

Last night, I sat by a river tending fire.The moon was bright in the starry sky, and crickets played background music.I watched the fire burn, coals a deep red under the lighter flame. Sparks climbed upward into the sky. I watched… And, I felt myself itching to do something. I picked up a stick to move the logs around, and then caught myself and said, “No, this would be rushing.” It had occurred to me that the fire didn’t need me to move logs around, and that I felt like adjusting the fire only for my own benefit, but not because it would benefit the fire.It was important realization for me. When I live life, sometimes this is how I interact with people I’m relationship with or with work that I’m doing; I adjust the fire even when it doesn’t need it.This comes from two lacks:* A lack of trust that everything is and always will work our just as it’s meant to, and* A lack of capacity in me to simply let myself enjoy whatever is happening; to be.These two lacks have driven much of my action in life. They’ve made me into a do-er instead of a be-er. I think that both lacks are fairly common in our world. At least, I notice both often in the worlds of my clients.As I sat by the fire, I felt over and over again this urge to move, to change, to adjust. Anyone who has ever meditated will understand this. It’s an unconscious discomfort that’s looking to be eased. Almost a little internal voice that says: ‘This isn’t good enough. Change something.’But, what if nothing has to change?And, rationally, it clicked. While I was tending fire last night, in my brain, I got it. “Ah, this is perfectly well right now, always. I’m okay. Nothing is wrong. I can just be here.”But this is where this idea of Truth Resistance comes in. As I was talking to ChatGPT tonight, it gave me this phrase to describe when our brain rationally knows something but our body is caught in an old trauma response or subconscious belief system. There’s an acknowledgement of the real thing, but it can’t land, almost like it slips off one’s deeper awareness.I had a client describe to me recently that she had been complimented by her loved ones, but was unable to actually let herself receive those compliments. I imagine each compliment streaming toward her, like bullets toward Neo in The Matrix, only for her to unintentionally dodge them all. This is Truth Resistance. It’s the subconsciously driven inability to let what is true land in our nervous systems.Trauma-informed approaches to somatics talk about how our body perceives change from familiarity as unsafe, even if it’s “better” or “safer” for us in reality. When we’ve experienced something difficult in our younger years, we will often create deeply unconscious patterns of behavior to protect ourselves from perceived threats. The key here is that the threats are usually only perceived, not real.So, to come back to the fire. What do we do when we’re in Truth Resistance mode? Perhaps the answer is the same as with the fire: Usually, nothing. Perhaps there’s nothing to do… Or rather, perhaps, we could actively choose to not do anything. There’s a subtle different. Doing nothing is often perceived as lazy or not worthwhile. Whereas “choosing to not do” is actually incredibly powerful, especially when one’s nervous system is yelling: “This isn’t safe or comfortable! Do something to change it! Anything! Please!” And, breathe. Even when our nervous systems are yelling at us that we’re not safe. We can breathe. We can enter into that natural moving stillness, where breath fills us and leaves us and our consciousness witnesses this. We can find safety in the normalcy of our own existence. We can ground ourselves even when we feel “Groundless.”In “When Things Fall Apart,” by Pema Chodron, she writes of this idea of Groundlessness. It’s the experience of our stability falling out from underneath us. She says that feelings like loneliness or fear are forms of Groundlessness, and even boredom. It’s a fundamental rejection of our current state. Some part of us is saying: “This isn’t okay. Something needs to change.” But, maybe, like with the fire, it’s all okay. Maybe we can trust ourselves to keep living the same way the fire will keep burning. Maybe we’re okay. Maybe nothing needs to change. Maybe all that is needed is less doing, more being, more presence, more noticing, more curiosity, more allowing what is.I’ll leave you with a short poem, this fine evening.With trellises of blooms there is naught to do but admire. As the cool breeze flows on a hot day, need anything be done? Peace is not in the doing. Peace is in the being. Do the crickets sing from a place of lack? Does the moon shine to unburden itself of desire? No, the world turns simply because it turns. The truth is in the way we receive to all.Blessings dear readers,FaolanPS. If you like what I write, let me know! I love hearing your reactions PPS. Another thought I had just now (immediately pre publishing) is that the time that fires need the most care

Interviewing Mariana was such a joy! She is amazing. I hope you enjoy this episode! Thanks for listening. If you like it, share with someone who might also like it :)Her company is called Oblique Beauty, which you can learn about here!Her Instagram is here.(I’m sorry about her video getting really low quality around 15 minutes in. It was my bad! An opportunity for me to learn new tools.)Mariana’a Bio:After completing her undergraduate and post graduate studies at the Estonian Business School and the prestigious MGIMO in Moscow, Mariana jump-started her career in the early 2000’s heading up sales, marketing and PR functions as Commercial Director at Marc & Andre Paris – helping to grow the business from a small factory to a leading fashion house selling close to 1 million pieces of under-and-swimming garments in Russia, CIS and Turkey.In her mid-20s in parallel with her Marc&Andre duties, Mariana was intimately involved with the World Fashion Channel as special advisor to the CEO and coordinated the entire PR strategy for WFC, which has a reach in excess of 250 million viewers in Russia, CIS and other parts of the Russian-speaking world.In 2016, Mariana saw an opportunity in the UK beauty sector and acquired a local nail salon and launched the brand Oblique Nails / Beauty. Today Oblique has three locations, several industry awards, over ten thousand clients, and expansion plan now in development. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.eatthestrawberry.com/subscribe

On this episode, I dive into my experience of trying to be someone who has “answers” instead of allowing myself to just be human and in the journey. In typical me fashion, I talk about love, mushrooms, God, and all of life. It was really fun to do this, and I’m excited to do more solo episodes in the future.If you have any feedback, please leave a comment! I would also love to hear what you think about the Rilke quote.Here it is if you want to read it again:“Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves, like locked rooms and like books that are now written in a very foreign tongue. Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer.”Much love,Faolan This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.eatthestrawberry.com/subscribe

Hi all! This is the first episode of my new podcast, Eat The Strawberry!Below is the transcript for this episode. If you enjoy, please follow and rate my podcast on your preferred streaming platform! (Spotify, Apple.)—Faolan Sugarman-Lash: On this episode, I interview a friend of mine named Matthew. And he is an entrepreneur and a world traveler and philosopher, I would say. And in this episode, we dive into love and trauma and making the most of life, which is the whole point of this podcast. And it's just such a beautiful conversation. It was a joy to interview Matthew he's one of the most articulate and. Wise and grounded people. I know. And so. Yeah, I hope you enjoy. This episode number one of eat the strawberry, the podcast. Thanks for being here. Mathew Hebert: Hello, sir. Faolan Sugarman-Lash: Thank you for being here. [00:01:00] It's Mathew Hebert: truly my pleasure. Faolan Sugarman-Lash: I'm glad because that's the whole point of the show. Um, I was thinking about who in my life I'd want to interview first for a show about making the most of life. And, uh, yeah, in my, my life, in my circles, you're, you know, a person who came to mind about who I really look up to in terms of your capacity to live in integrity with yourself, to fill your life with joy, to speak words in a really intentional way. And yeah, so I'm super excited you're here and grateful to have the chance to explore this together. Mathew Hebert: Thank you, brother. Thank you for the kind words. the honor is truly all mine. And, I'm humbled and, can echo the same sentiments about you as well. So thank you for having me on. Faolan Sugarman-Lash: You're welcome. And thanks for being here. So, I would love to start by just telling the audience a little bit about how we met, [00:02:00] because I think that that will funnel us into, uh, Making life an awesome adventure. So I met Matthew at the airport in Costa Rica, at this little shop and I was standing behind you in line. And I remember you had a really cool necklace on and I immediately got just totally a vibrational hit of like, I need to talk to this guy. And so I just said, Hey, cool necklace, I think. And yeah, the rest is history. We both were going to the same music festival envision, and then paths kept crossing there. And Now we've seen each other all over the world And yeah, so it's been such an adventure even in the last, what, year and a half of knowing you. And yeah, would love to hear a little bit about what brought you to that festival, what you remember of, meeting, and yeah. Mathew Hebert: Sure. So I, distinctly remember that interaction [00:03:00] as well at the airport. And I believe we even took it one step further and took the bus ride together which was about a three to four hour ride. Uh, Journey from San Jose to a beautiful Pacific coastal area of Costa Rica called Uvita, where this festival Envision was taking place, and I think that Bus ride really solidified our opportunity to get to spend a lot of time and space together as I got to know you pretty intimately on that ride alone and also felt The similar vibrational connection where I thought, okay, this is a human being that I would love to have in my life and spend some more time with and get to know deeper. And as [00:04:00] you alluded to our time at the festival was extraordinary and crisscrossed paths a tremendous amount, spent a lot of sacred moments together, and that's allowed our relationship to have become this really expansive abundance, of friendship over the past year and a half. And we'll shortly be coming up on our two year anniversary soon. And the genesis of me attending that festival was extremely spontaneous. Very spur of the moment. It was loosely on my radar, and I was down in the country of Colombia, and a friend of mine called me named Heidi, and I had met her camping at Burning Man at a wonderful camp called Ashram Galactica in 2019.[00:05:00] And she reached out to me out of the blue and said we need a little extra help with our build team and offered me a ticket in exchange for my physical services and I immediately accepted. The flight from Colombia to San Jose is very short. There's direct flights, and I saw it as a wonderful opportunity to continue to put myself in situations around this planet, energetic vortexes, where the best. People exist like yourself. And so almost right before the festival, I accepted this wonderful invitation and went to help build these structures four to five days. Prior to Envision, which would become these extravagant balanis style eco [00:06:00] VIP cabanas and that was my foot in the door for Envision and there were so there was such an abundance of wonderful humanity to come out of that for me. Such an energy, such a beautiful, energetic space. And certainly the reason we're sitting here today. Faolan Sugarman-Lash: Totally forgot about the bus ride, but you're right. That was where it all started. And one of the things that happened on that bus ri