Are we doing self improvement wrong? Steve March

Are we going about self development in the wrong way? That's the question tackled by our new film and course with the long time coach Steve March.

Steve's work, Aletheia Coaching, has been welcomed and embraced by the likes of John Vervaeke and others in what's been described as the Liminal Web, as it consciously addresses what's called the Meaning Crisis or Meta Crisis.

This film is released at the same time as a short course with Steve to learn the basics of the Unfolding method, which teaches a powerful new approach to development known as 'unfoldment'.

You'll learn:
- How to attune to yourself, others, and the world in a way that promotes deeper connection and purpose.
- Practices to help you deeply participate in your present-moment experience
- Techniques and practices to help you create unfolding partnerships with others

[jordanthornton]

I'm a full-time coach who specialises in trauma healing, and it's a pleasure to hear Steve sharing his professional development story from 10:23 onwards.

Full-spectrum therapy is revolutionary, but it's hard to find because it requires coaches to be aware of the many interwoven elements of an individual's interior depths in addition to their many ways of experiencing the world. We all have different degrees of physicality, emotionality and imaginal capacity - and it's important to be aware of these factors during coaching.

Multi-modality integration work is very exciting, and something which Ken Wilber has written about before. I appreciate this type of conversation, thank you!

[mcohen]

I can say from almost 2 decades experience that Steve is a brilliant and compassionate man. We met in 2001 at an Integral conference and Steve has been an close friend and important teacher since. I admire his intellectual curiosity, pragmatism, embodiment and ability to integrate so many teachings into a coherent meta-teaching (Altheia) that supports unfolding one's life in an organic way. He's been quite a blessing in my life.

[rememberingme]

There is nothing to improve. The only reason we feel not enough is because we were told that through so many means in a society that cares only for how it can advantage from us. The letting go of ideas of not being enough is not even an activity, it is the inactivity of not identifying with such ideas. Don't concern yourself with improvement, self-image, confidence, even outcome. Just naturally move with your inspiration, use your imagination to place yourself where you wish to be, and be that in the world without compromise.

[ArtemZen]

Just hosted Steve on my channel the other week. Integral thinker with a powerful framework 🙏

[claudiadommaschk]

We can only be as intimate with Life as we can be with ourselves and leaning into the Mystery, listening deeply for what we are called to do and then respond wisely will be necessary for navigating the turbulent currents of the Meaning Crisis. What a fitting conclusion to the Rebel Wisdom project! Thank you, David, Ali, and the entire Rebel Wisdom team.

[davidabheeru]

Steve is a great guy and a brilliant thinker and practitioner. I'm happy to see his work receive a wider audience. He also hits a mean tennis ball.

[martingifford]

Critiquing self-improvement is good. But why do we need to replace it with "unfoldment"? Acorns naturally grow into oak trees. Why are humans any different? Why do humans need Steve March's intervention? He says, "Everything [in the modern world] is pulling us away from ourselves, everything is fragmenting us." But why is that happening? Dig deeper. Turning the focus away from the world and back onto the individual just maintains the problem. Everyone wants a quick fix that avoids facing the real problem. The real problem is that we were born into a deluded social world.

[themysteriouscow]

I think that this philosophy describes a way of being that has spontaneously developed within me over the past couple of years. I’d really like to delve deeper and I’m considering the course in October

[marksmit]

Self improvement to better have more skills, knowledge. Great

[paulexander]

I can only give one thumbs up, which is not enough to reflect how enthusiastic I feel about this video.

[JeremyNathanielAkers]

08:15 that move from enact or explain to explore is fucking clutch

[karinkoppensteiner]

Sounds very good - specially for me as a long time practitioner of Vajrayana. Thank you for this short introduction.

[nova]

Nice interview. I see a spectrum between spiritualized therapy or spiritualized coaching on one hand, where therapy is used to contact the building blocks of experience; consciousness, presence, space, absence, love, etc. Versus spiritual paths like the diamond approach that use psychodynamic principles, but who's orientation, methodology and way of practicing supports the dissolution of the personality, the dissolution of who we take ourselves to be.

[sidiehla]

Very interesting! Steve's approach is very much how I work with my Zen students: Accepting who they are and creating the conditions for unfolding their true nature. I am glad this is coming into main stream.

[nichobee]

I've peaked down the self help rabbit hole and I think it creates more problems than solutions.

The problem with self help is that its 'practitioners' are doing it because they've compared themselves to more successful and well adjusted peers and think they're coming up short.

But the vast majority of these pedestalled peers have probably never touched a self help book. They just know what their strengths are and do the best with what they've got. Meanwhile you have struggling men thinking they need to read, highlight and underline Marcus Aurelius' Meditations 100 times to get themselves back on track. As they said in the video, it wears you down and distracts you from being present.

I think self help is useful for a little life tinkering, to augment some things, but it's not going to help you become confident and well adjusted in the long run, because it makes life seem far more complicated and formidable than it should be.

[psychedelatry]

I like that he doesn't use the word "Enlightenment". While what he teaches, "self-unfolding", is what used to be meant by that word, which now has so much baggage as to be exactly useless.

[jgarciajr]

The acorn analogy has to be enlightenment then. 🙏❤️

[carlosjb]

The 'self-improvement industry' has a potentially highly damaging effect on people that are often dissatisfied with who they are and it helps perpetuate that feeling. It isn't any different from any other industry, using emotions and feelings to target their customers. I agree with most of what Steve is saying. At the same time I am skeptical about some of Steve's comments as this video seems more of an advertisement than an open, honest discussion. I think it's both, therefore my doubts.

[NotReallyAEvilMorty]

There are some inherent problems with self-improvement
1) False knowledge - you think you know, but you don't have the experience - so there is no real wisdom.
2) Lack of individuality - It's often scientific, but science in most cases are mean averages of what works for the general population. The wisdom from books might not reflect your personal situation
3) Repetitive - The principles presented are often recycled in new modern formats, but the core is typically the same.

As with everything in life, the main thing is to take action - rather than blaming your ability to not take action on some external factor

[timmyhiggins]

Hi David. Not sure if you read the comments but here goes. In the context of self improvement and scam artists. I was having trouble attracting women, when I researched Johnny cassell, a dating coach. I signed up for his 7 day program for 5 grand. Such a waste of money. When I told him later that is was bs, he told me it's like a university course where you aren't guaranteed a job after.