Where I am coming from
In my previous article, We-Flow, Part 1: How to Work with More Joy and Effectiveness, I described my first We-Flow immersion in Amsterdam last September: what the practice is, where it came from, and why it caught my attention.
This piece (Part 2) is a follow-up, written three months later, after living with the aftershocks of that immersion and completing a second We-Flow experience: a virtual immersion six weeks ago that triggered another wave of deep change.
“Effortless Manifestation” Is a Dangerous Phrase
I am now registered for the first weekend of the We-Flow Stewardship course, beginning in Amsterdam in late January of 2026.
But why a dangerous phrase? because “effortless manifestation” sounds inflated at best, delusional at worst. Three months ago, I would have rolled my eyes at it.
And yet, I’m forced into an uncomfortable position: my lived experience over the last quarter simply does not fit my previous models of how effort, struggle, and results are supposed to relate. Something has changed. Dramatically.
Do I know for certain that We-Flow caused it? No. Is this guaranteed to work for everyone? Absolutely not.
What is clear, however, is this: at minimum, I am an unusually good We-Flow case study. Even if my results are a “fluke” (not reproducible), I feel that this is a story worth telling.
So here is the story of my transformation through two We-Flow immersions. In just three months.
We-Flow in Hindsight
When I revisit the core principles of We-Flow practice with the benefit of hindsight, I do see a coherence that wasn’t visible before.
However, I am not accustomed to this level of success and happiness. On top of that I am a [self-diagnosed] bipolar, and therefore quite suspicious of high states. For the last six years, my life has been—there’s no poetic way to say this—a shit-show. Chronic financial stress. A longing to see some tangible results towards my purpose, a purpose which Charles Eisenstein named so well in “that beautiful world which our hearts know is possible”. What I got instead was: relational turbulence, at best. A definite ambivalence about the rest of the human race (“you can’t live with them, you can’t live without them”). Feeling not-seen, misunderstood and dumped upon on a regular basis. I never quit (thank God), but part of me was beginning to wonder whether there was something seriously wrong with me.
That pattern only truly began to break when I met (and later married) Sophie, about sixteen months ago. A miracle. Perhaps the Lord Jesus Christ finally had mercy on me, a sinner. But my life remained quite turbulent.
Before We-Flow: Where I Actually Was
Anyway: when I arrived at my first We-Flow immersion in Amsterdam, I wasn’t inspired or expansive. I was tired, sad, lonely, overwhelmed. I was also in serious financial trouble, questioning whether a professional writing career was still viable, or whether it was time to give it up and get a “real job.” This was problematic, by the way, as I don’t have any marketable skills besides writing. I tried to start an AI Agency, but failed. My heart wasn’t in it. Or maybe I am just too old for that.
But something happened early the next morning, after the first day of the We-Flow immersion. I sat down and wrote a piece that felt like it came through me rather than from me: When I Was a Child, I Was Happy: 40 Years of Life in 600 Words. The article emerged from flow. It really made no sense at all to continue investing in autobiographical writings on my substack platform. But when flow happens, I don’t argue. I obey.
The piece landed and received strong feedback. More importantly, it changed me. I knew something had moved, but I didn’t yet trust it. I filed the experience away and returned to my otherwise chaotic life.
The Second Crack in the Old Pattern
The weekend of my second We-Flow immersion, a virtual event this time which I attended from Berlin, I was in worse shape than before. Sophie and I were in the process of breaking up. Emotionally raw. Financially strained. Unstable. I later wrote about this in The Bipolar Writer’s Life: Notes from the Berlin Underground. That article also landed. I know when I have written a good piece because something moves inside me. The best I can describe it, is as a felt-sense of “quality”. I am internally at peace. Momentarily happy.
And then, improbably, something else happened.
Sophie and I sold out our Authentic Relating in Community (ARC) program for the first time ever: 12 people, nearly $3,000 in revenue. That income arrived exactly when it was needed.
The next week, our relationship was hanging by a thread, but we made it. “There is still life in these old bones”, I said to myself.
At the time, it felt like a fluke. It wasn’t.
Momentum Without Forcing
What I didn’t realize then was that something fundamental had shifted, and that the next six weeks would reorder my life.
I won’t unpack the full chain of events here, but here are the highlights:
I decided to write a Circling Guide 3rd Edition as an anthology, completed my own contributions using existing material, recruited 15 influential leaders in the Authentic Relating movement to contribute articles, and launched a crowdfunding campaign that reached 40% of its $3,000 goal in a single week.
We completed the ARC cohort, and it was a genuine home run.
Our Thursday night in-person Authentic Relating and Circling events in Berlin suddenly took off—strong attendance every week, consistently deep impact.
I also came face-to-face with a quieter truth: despite being partnered, I was lonely. I needed deeper friendships beyond my marriage—and I began taking concrete steps in that direction.
Resources and opportunities began appearing, seemingly by accident. One example: I happened to check my email promotions folder, and found a marketing education program uncannily matched to my goals for the coming year, at a price that made saying yes easy.
Other things happened too. My turbulent marriage settled down. I found myself deeply in love with my wife again, happy, more loving and surrendered to her than before. And very sexual. This last event is quite new, it occurred towards the end of those brilliant 3 months.
I was and continue very-very high, obviously. And at first all I could think was: God, that great sadist, is fucking with me. Three months to accomplish all of this? You gotta be kidding me. I will wake up one morning and the whole house of cards will fall down around me.
What I am looking at now — what I hope to achieve in the month prior to the We-Flow Stewardship course — is more “Fundamental Well-Being” (FWB). This is from Jeffery Martin’s ground-breaking book. I will say more about FWB in a later post. I equate it with what I call “somatic stabilization”.
So what exactly is the We-Flow Stewardship program?
What is it actually training people to do?
Continue reading at We-Flow, Part 3: What is the Stewardship Program (or click the image below)
