• This is the final part of a short series introducing three archetypes that underpin our work as entrepreneurs, freelancers and professionals—The Artist, the Merchant and the Seeker. (They are also the subject of my book, coming out in June.)

    In part one I talked about the Artist, and how so many of us have our inner creativity trained out of us through our schooling, culture and resulting wounding.

    In part two I wrote about the dilemma of the Merchant. How can we bring our offerings boldly to the marketplace without selling out our depth or authenticity?

    This article is about the third archetype. The Seeker.

    Together, these three—The Artist, Merchant and Seeker—make up a triad that sits at the heart of our work. No matter the specialism, if you’re an entrepreneur in the modern marketplace, you’re standing upon the foundations of these archetypes.

    Examining them, and how they sit inside you, can be most helpful to the work at hand. In fact, I’ve found it most illuminating to myself and clients I’ve worked with. So much so that I’ve spent about 1000 hours writing a book about it!

    Our culture teaches us that we have to compartmentalise ourselves, that we can’t bring our full range and depth to our work.

    This is not only a false narrative (the marketplace has in fact already moved on) but holds us back from the greater transformation we’re all a part of.

    When we learn to integrate these dimensions of ourselves, in our own unique way, we’re able to find richer success in what we do, and deeper peace in who we are.

    And so in this article I want to speak about the Seeker in you, and the fundamental perspective it holds inside your work. We’ve been afraid to truly own this one for quite some time now. Yet it holds the key to our future.

    The Archetype of the Seeker

    The Seeker is the part of you that searches for truth in all its forms. The quintessential explorer on the path—they seek to discover the hidden secrets of this world.

    Whether it is the rational observation of the natural sciences or a mystical inquiry into the nature of your own mind, it is the Seeker that drives your quest for truth.

    This is a core dimension of our humanity. We cannot help but ask the big questions.

    “What is this world? Why are we here? Who am I?”

    Since time immemorial the Seeker was a natural and present part of our lives. Life was spiritual. Because we’d never considered the alternative. Our lives were spent in constant relationship to the gods and the spirits.

    One of the earliest professions we know about—the shaman—is a deep Seeker, able to traverse the pathways of reality bringing back knowledge and understanding. This is how we lived for most of our existence.

    It’s only in the last couple of centuries that we took an unprecedented turn as a people. We killed God and became rational-secularists.

    It’s this dissociation of mysticism and science that has both accelerated our amazing technological progress, and hamstrung the awakening of our greater consciousness. We’ve got into a twist, where rational science and spiritual mysticism are seen as contradictory, rather than two dimensions of the same seeking.

    Awakening to our True Nature

    My own path of seeking has taken me into extraordinary places over the last 10 years. I’ve explored things I never would have imagined, and realised truths I had attributed only to genuine spiritual authorities.

    But as each new expansion occurs, the whole thing feels simpler.

    “Oh yes. I remember now.”

    I remember some of why I came here this time. Which of course means I remember being here other times too. This has been quite a revelation to me, and helped calm an enormously confused part of me.

    In 2023 I had a series of awakening experiences. Even though I’m perturbed by the ease with which the term awakening can be thrown around nowadays, there really is no other way to say it. And I think it’s time we speak more of these things.

    One of the truths I awakened to was that spirit, and spirits, are very real.

    Consciousness really isn’t based in the physical world. When we die, we don’t cease to be. In fact, we return to and remember who we really are.

    This means there are beings who don’t have bodies. In fact, this is the true nature of all beings. Physicality is but one of our possible dimensions.

    So what we call “non-physical beings” are in fact real. And we can talk to them—if we’ve found the methods, and healed enough of our fucked-up nervous systems to do so.

    I wrote about some of these experiences in Meetings with Spirit Guides.

    It is quite a strange and wonderful revelation to discover that there are non-physical beings who we can communicate with, and who can wisely help guide us along our path. This is something that I would have called myself deluded for believing 10 years ago.

    For my birthday in 2023 they told me they had a present to offer me. They “spoke” as they always do, inside my own head, as though they were my own thoughts. But now I can (mostly) tell the difference.

    That night they spoke loud and clear through my heart that was cracked and open.

    “Would you like to hear about what is in your soul contract?”

    I felt amazed. And absolutely leapt at the chance! I’ve been fascinated by my purpose ever since I can remember thinking about life…why am I here? What’s my role?

    It felt like the most wonderful gift.

    They gave me a small list of things. Many to do with my intentions, and the challenges I came here to face. They dropped right into my core, and have shaped things ever since.

    One of the things they told me is not just personal to me. It’s also true for a great many of us.

    I came here in this life at Mother Earth’s invitation, to help with her great project.

    Project Earth: Collective Awakening

    There is widely shared prophecy, if you know where to look. We’re going through an enormous shift as a species and as a planet.

    But while the details are all being worked out in real time, and the future undetermined, there is a bigger plan.

    Earth herself (for she is also a being) has decided it’s time to awaken to a fuller/higher dimension herself. And that means us (the humans) waking up to who we really are. For we are the apex species—her most complex children—and so her awakening happens through our own.

    This is a remembering—something we used to know, but have forgotten. And it’s also an unprecedented evolution. For we’ve come such a long way since those early days.

    And we’re at a critical juncture. Right now. This phase we’re all living through is the meat in the sandwich.

    She invited enormous numbers of souls to come and help with this collective awakening process. There are hundreds of millions who volunteered to come and help. I am one. I suspect you are too.

    It can feel like an amazing idea before you’ve started. And then you get in the thick of it and wonder why on earth you agreed to do it. I often feel this way. When the challenges mount, and the whole thing feels hard as fuck.

    This is now a collective experience. We’re in the thick of the game, trying to resolve paradigmatic issues, in a world gone crazy.

    It is the archetype of the Seeker that plays a central role in this unfolding, and shows you the way through the swamp of confusion.

    How do we now walk the path of truth, given all the complexity and paradox we now take as given?

    What does the spiritual path look like? We can’t walk our ancestral one, for we’ve forgotten it, and the world is completely different, and our minds too smart. We can’t follow the traditional religious paths, because that’s what got us into the mess in the first place, and required us to “kill god” and start anew.

    We have to find new paths. Ones that help us integrate all we already know. And allow us to choose the way.

    Part of this new path, I believe, winds its way through our work. Not simply something confined to the monastery or temple, but as an explicit part of who we are and what we offer in the marketplace.

    The Seeker in our Work

    I remember when I first started creating businesses, we had to be careful with our revelation of the Seeker. Even in “progressive” circles anything too spiritually “out there” would see markedly smaller responses.

    In the early days my friends and business partners would talk about “trojan-horsing” it. Rather than leading with the spiritual/consciousness stuff, we had to smuggle it in.

    I became good at it, but I also resented having to do so.  

    This has already changed a great deal. Even in the last 5 years, I’ve watched the Seeker emerge boldly into our mainstream reality more. I’ve lost count of the number of prominent people I’ve heard speak about direct and profound spiritual truths on mainstream podcasts. People who would never have spoken about such things in public before, are unashamedly describing their deep spiritual experiences and their existential worldviews.

    I find this tremendously encouraging. For I hold a deep belief…

    It’s part of our work to discover the truth of our nature. To be a Seeker. And to share our discoveries with those on a similar path.

    This is not an adjunct to your job—something you do on the side or as a secret hobby. It’s a core dimension of your work, and the business you run.

    At its heart I feel this is about us truly owning our spirituality. No matter the content.

    This is still uncomfortable for many of us. There are real risks in the marketplace.

    Telling everyone you talk to mystical aliens could quickly erode trust you’ve built up. Even if it happens to be true. Because some stuff is still pretty fucking far out there.

    And yet, I think we’re all still running on old stories—ones that urgently tell us that it’s dangerous to reveal our spirituality and mysticism.

    It’s not surprising. Our ancestors were literally hunted down and killed for outwardly practicing the mystical arts—burned at the stake or tortured by the inquisition. These memories are still embodied in us, as forms of trans-generational trauma.

    But damn, if there’s ever been a time in recent history when it is safe to fully reveal our spiritual selves, it is now.

    This is an edge I am leaning into. And in this very article too!

    Because I think it’s one of the great invitations of our time.

    It’s part of Project Awakening. And it’s part of our work.

    Each time we reveal the true spiritual seeker in us, we make it easier for another to do the same.

    And each step takes us a little closer to the remembering of who we are, and what we’re doing here.

    If you liked this article, my book: Artist, Merchant, Seeker will be published in June. Get on my mailing list if you’d like to receive a free copy.

    Ewan Townhead

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  • Nestled between the stress of overwhelm, and the safety of comfort, lies a sweet spot.

    A place where you’re stretched just enough that you must evolve beyond yourself, but not so much that you break under the pressure.

    An acorn knows how it works—it requires just the right blend of support and challenge to grow into an oak. Without the support of enough water and nutrients, it cannot survive. But without the challenge to ascend into the sunlight, it will also fail to reach the height of its maturity.

    The problem is, we’re more complicated than acorns. And so we must learn to recognize and navigate the stress zone and the comfort zone, learning how to settle into the sweet spot in between.

    The Stress Zone

    Running Coaches Rising I was not short on challenge. Leading a small business through its own growing pains is painful for the leaders and the people inside.

    After several years of consistent growth, Covid happened. It was amazing and terrible for us. We grew like crazy as everyone sheltered in place and discovered zoom. Then we contracted as the market saturated, and things started to go wrong. We had to steer the company through a new market. We no longer had the place to ourselves, we had to adapt. Alongside this, we needed to professionalise. Too many of our processes were based on people keeping stuff in their heads, and not enough was written down.

    The upheaval led to one of my business partners and co-founders leaving the business. Which upped the challenge levels immeasurably.

    Running such a business threw challenges at me on a daily basis. I not only had my own responsibilities and projects, but I was also helping our team with all theirs.

    I reached a place that’s common to entrepreneurs, where my endless to-do list produced the experience of being a hamster in a wheel, with never enough time to take stock and find my centre.

    I began to rely on the challenges coming at me, rather than seeking them out and choosing the trials I faced. And I became a good servant leader, working myself into the ground for the good of the cause.

    This is a masculine wound. The warrior who does not have the wisdom to stop, and wind down from the battle and actually feel himself.

    I became so used to being out of my comfort zone that at some point I just let go, and let the storm reshape me. It was messy at times, and yet it forced me to mature in profound ways.

    But it had a cost.

    The pressure was relentless and gave me no room or ground from which to use my inbuilt gifts—my artistry, creativity and transformational wisdom. And so, I “put them away for another day, when I had time.”

    Until my body stepped in and closed the whole thing down. I was forced to look at what I’d been ignoring.

    This is an example of too much challenge. Which results in overshooting the growth zone.

    The stress of responsibility, combined with the burying of my deeper gifts left me dry, tight and uninspired. I didn’t know how to find enough support for myself, and my growth stagnated.

    This is the stress zone.

    The Comfort Zone

    The opposite of the stress zone is the comfort zone. Something we all know intimately.

    This is where there is not enough challenge (and too much support).

    It’s a strategic form of threat aversion. You bed down where it feels safe, do all the things that you know are ok, and don’t take any risks. It’s like an antelope hiding out in the bush after a near thing with a lion.

    If the antelope had our “sophisticated” neocortex, it would spin all kinds of stories about the world, get stuck in its trauma, and become afraid to do anything that risks the lion finding it again.

    Real antelopes don’t do this. When their senses tell them it’s safe once more, they get up, hop off and continue on with their life.

    The comfort zone is a result of trying to create safety, by sticking to what you know. It feels like you’re being smart and responsible, not putting too much pressure on yourself. But like too much stress and challenge, it also misses the sweet spot.

    I have ingenious ways of staying in the comfort zone. When the goals and challenges feel big, I like to “calm myself down”, spending hours doing spiritual practice so I feel better. Or concocting more detailed plans and strategies that I hope will nullify the fear and insecurity.

    When stuck in the comfort zone, I stay where I am, like the antelope in the bush, waiting for a moment it feels safe to emerge. I diligently do things that I think make me feel safer.

    But the result isn’t real safety. It’s a particular brand of anxiety that doesn’t abate. It can seem like I’m supporting myself and taking care of myself, but really I’m hiding. Perhaps you recognize your own version of this.

    The incessant quest to create safety results in an experience that feels anything but safe, because it’s predicated on a mistaken belief. That one day it will be safe.

    This is the comfort zone. Which is a strange name for it. Because underneath all the strategizing, it’s anything but safe.

    Between these two zones of stress and comfort lies a third place—the growth zone.

    The Magic of the Growth Zone

    On the inside, the growth zone feels like the result of having taken a series of steps far enough outside of known territory, that I don’t even fully understand how I got here, or what’s going on. And yet it’s thrilling. The courage has made me do things that seem risky to the antelope in the bush, but as I do them, I start to feel more like the lion.

    I sit writing this having finished the manuscript for my book. I’ve dreamed of reaching this stage. And now I’m here, it feels so totally weird. I’m proud, and excited. And yet it all feels so unfamiliar. Like I’ve wandered out of the town I know so well, and I find myself in a place I’ve never been before. One I didn’t even know existed.

    I got here by following the call deep inside. The one that said “you must finish this book”. I knew it was true, though I had no idea how to do it.

    I did it by committing completely to the goal. And then every day, showing up to work on it no matter my mood. The inner voices were unequivocal in their caution. “How can you think you can do this Ewan? You have no track record.”

    Which is exactly the point. I had to grow to be able to finish it. The one that started the book was not the same one that finished it. And in order to become that person, I had to choose very carefully who I was going to listen to.

    “Don’t go that way!” Says the antelope.

    But in the magic of the growth-zone, resistance works like a signpost, pointing the way.

    One form of resistance is to be trusted (a genuine indication to head another direction). It’s your heart not wanting to go that way, but your mind thinking you have to. This is a kind of deadening resistance. It makes your heart sink, and your energy drop.

    The other kind of resistance makes your pulse quicken and your energy activate. It feels like fear, but is also excitement (if you can alchemize the sensations). Because it’s actually both—life force energy activating as the path lights up. This kind of resistance is like a neon sign over the doorway.

    “Scared as fuck? Step right through.”

    This is the feeling of being in the growth zone—working outside of known reality, risking all the things that keep you comfortable and seemingly safe.

    And in this way, do we grow, as the tree grows, becoming ever bigger and wider. The acorn fulfils its contract to become the oak. You and I fulfil the mission we came here with. To grow into the big and beautiful being we’re asked to become.

    Where is your resistance pointing you? What is the magic that is calling you inside the growth zone?

    Ewan Townhead

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