My dad and I walking the Camino de Santiago in 2022.
Hey, my name is
Andrew Lang!
If you met me eight years ago, you would have found someone moving quickly toward burnout. In 2016, I was teaching high school history, serving as a building representative for our union, volunteering my weekend hours for political campaigns, and spending my nights leading church-basement workshops on contemplative practices and organizational change. Every day was filled with meaning – but it was all in the hopes of “fixing the world.”
And then I realized I couldn’t “fix” myself.
In 2018, in the midst of a merger between two schools, my relationship with my then-fiancée began to break down. I struggled to maintain “the norm” at work and then went home each night walking on tiptoes, trying to not say or do the “wrong thing” – trying desperately to duct tape our relationship back together. It felt like living between two mountains of the absolutely unsolvable.
You can hear me share this story here:
I decided to make some changes.
Questioning my sense of identity and purpose, I enrolled in the Living School for Action and Contemplation and spent two years studying with modern mystics like Richard Rohr, Cynthia Bourgeault, Barbara Holmes, Brian McLaren, and James Finley. I began training with and using the tools of somatic experiencing and internal family systems, bringing them together with my experience with community organizing and activism. I sought out powerful spaces of processing and support, both by myself in therapy, and alongside community through workshops and storytelling events. It was from this experience that I wrote my first book Unmasking the Inner Critic: Lessons for Living an Unconstricted Life.
Since then, and as an ongoing emergence of my own inner work, I’ve supported folks navigating the transitions of midlife through a blend of somatic experiencing, IFS, shadow work, introspective examination and journaling, contemplative spirituality, solidarity and activism, and a primary focus on shifting how we experience and show up in our communities.
And here’s what I’ve heard from these spaces:
In a culture and society that incentivizes mindless consumption, never-ending production, and a commitment to “climbing the ladder” in all aspects of life, folks are wanting to experience more meaning, presence, and connection.
Which means less apathy, less burnout, and less “skimming the surface of the depths of our lives” as James Finley puts it.
If this connects with you – and if my story and experience resonates with your own – I invite you to check out the Inner Work Cohort and join our small community of folks working toward healing and aliveness.
Subscribe to The Wednesday 1-2-3 and receive weekly, bite-sized teachings + resources for your inner work.
Every Wednesday morning, I share:
1 embodied teaching,
2 introspective questions, and
3 resources to help you go deeper in your inner work.
Previous teachings from Thich Nhat Hanh, Mary Oliver, Mirabai Starr, Richard Rohr, Pema Chödrön, angel Kyodo williams, and more.