The SHN #99: The Self-Help Trap and Personal Evolution

Welcome Back to The Synergetic Health Newsletter! 

Thursday, April 17th, 2025. Greetings again from the island of Phu Quoc! My 90-day visa expires this week and I’ll be on the move again. I’m almost a month clear of the beginning of my neurological reorganization, and I’m happy with my progress. I feel new muscles and new movement patterns emerging and an updated map of my body being installed.

In today’s newsletter, I discuss how I've been re-evaluating the way I consume information—questioning what value I actually derive from this consumption. What I share started as a reaction to the absurdity of my podcast feed.

Then I write about the three stages of personal evolution, a concept I picked up from Paul Leendertse. What stage are you in?

🧠 The Self-Help Trap

One glance at my podcast player reveals the nature of the modern self-help industry:

"How to Own the Week Before It Owns You"
"Harnessing the People Around Us to Feel Better"
"Butyrate: The Gut's Hidden Fuel Source"
"Transform Your Health with Tiny Habits: A Proven Formula for Sustainable Change"
"Lose Weight, Reduce Inflammation, & Increase Your Lifespan with the Power of Fermented Foods"
"Cutting Edge Peptides for Fat Loss & Muscle Building"
"How to Learn Anything 10x Faster Than Anyone With AI"

All real episodes dropped in the last 24 hours (as of this writing). All feeding the same hungry ghost.

What unites them? They're precision engineered for people like me— people convinced they need upgrading, optimizing, fine-tuning. I’ve bought into the lie that I’m incomplete as I exist right now.

Honestly, not one of these podcasts will transform a damn thing about my life. They may deliver some surface-level wins—a new morning routine, a gut supplement that reduces bloating, a productivity hack. But the foundation remains untouched. My “little self” (ego, persona, character) might feel briefly satisfied. Then tomorrow brings fresh episodes, dangling new carrots just out of reach: "This one secret technique will finally make me whole."

I know I’m not alone in this— many of us fall for the self-improvement hamster wheel.

The embarrassing truth? I’ll probably still listen to one or two of those podcasts. But I've started to see the game for what it is: Nothing out there can do more than tweak the surface—my Joe character, the body, the mask. It won’t unearth real truth or shake the ground under my feet. Knowing this allows me to consume not from a sense of lack but just simple curiosity, for entertainment.

The endless stream of self-help content isn't designed to liberate us, it's engineered to keep us docile in the belief that we’re limited creatures desperately needing constant upgrades. This cycle continues indefinitely until we can finally slam on the brakes and declare, "Aha! I can see through this!"

The self-help marketplace is a masterful psyop. It keeps us imprisoned within the boundaries of our physical form, a body that's perpetually flawed, always under renovation. It's built to convince us that we're just one biohack away from perfection. The ideal life. The ultimate success. The happiness that never fades.

Here's what they don't tell us: Those things can never be achieved while identifying as the little self. The ego, the persona, the roles we play are structurally incapable of completion. It's built to hunger for more, by design.

The path to genuine peace, fulfillment, and truth isn't hidden in Atomic Habits or the latest longevity protocol. It's not waiting in our podcast queues or trapped in a productivity framework. It exists only in the ruthless investigation of our true nature. It emerges in the recognition that we are not the small self—we are the awareness in which that self appears.

The truth is we don't need endless fixing. We don't need optimization. We just need to remember what we already are.

And that revelation ain’t coming through our headphones.

*A caveat: it’s not necessary to shun all of it. I still listen to podcasts, read books, watch YouTube videos— it’s just helpful to know that it’s for entertainment purposes first and foremost. Unless it’s technical or mechanical instruction, it’s likely mostly ineffectual in my life— that doesn’t mean I have to avoid it, but I know there’s very little meat on those bones.

📈 The Three Stages of Personal Evolution

Stage 1: Childhood Into the World

We enter the world as blank slates, shaped by the environment and beliefs handed down to us. At this point, we don’t see ourselves as responsible for our health or symptoms. When something goes wrong—whether it’s a physical ailment or an emotional struggle—we look outside ourselves for answers.

We’re taught that our problems stem from external forces, like genetics, or that they require external fixes, like pharmaceutical drugs. This is a time of disconnection: we’re unaware of our bodies, our emotions, and our true needs.

Society reinforces this disconnection. We grow up believing alcohol is a normal part of celebrating life, that the sun is harmful, and that only doctors can heal us.

Our caregivers, often unintentionally, pass down these distortions because they, too, were raised in a world that didn’t prioritize self-awareness or holistic care. This often stems from generational patterns of emotional neglect.

In this stage, we’re vulnerable and open to being “fixed” from the outside. We search for cures—pills, quick remedies, anything to mask the symptoms—without questioning the root causes. We’re not invested in understanding what’s really happening beneath the surface because we haven’t yet learned to take responsibility for ourselves.

Pain becomes the wake-up call. Whether it’s physical suffering, emotional turmoil, or a nagging sense that something’s off, this discomfort is the catalyst that pushes us toward the next stage.

Stage 2: Awareness – Taking Responsibility

The second stage begins when pain or dissatisfaction forces us to question the assumptions we’ve inherited. We realize we’ve misplaced our trust—in caregivers, in systems, in the stories we’ve been told.

“Something is wrong,” we think, and we start to dig deeper. This is the stage of self-education, where we step outside the indoctrination of conventional thinking and take responsibility for our own health and lives.

We begin to see through the illusions: the overuse of pharmaceuticals, the censorship of alternative perspectives, the hidden dangers of vaccines, EMF’s, and so much more. We shift our habits—improving our diet, exercising, meditating, and cutting out binge drinking.

We rediscover the sun and the earth. We invest in real food and natural lifestyles. This is a move toward taking agency for our minds and bodies rather than outsourcing our well-being.

Yet, this stage comes with challenges. As we uncover truths—corporate greed, environmental harm, the unloving systems chasing profit—we feel compelled to share what we’ve learned (🙋‍♂️).

But often, those still in Stage 1 resist. They’re not ready to hear it, weighed down by their own emotional pain and fear of judgment.

They may feel controlled or threatened by our newfound clarity, reflecting the same denial we once carried.

A common trap in Stage 2 is fear. As we peel back the layers of the world’s misalignments—how unhealthy our food system is, how pervasive toxins and pesticides are, how damaging EMFs can be, and how incentives are skewed toward profit over well-being—we can become overwhelmed.

The sheer scale of these “horrible things” can spark a fear-based energy that dominates our focus.

We might fixate on the external problems, pouring our attention into outrage or anxiety rather than channeling that energy inward. This keeps us stuck, tethered to the physical realm of symptoms and solutions, unable to devote the dedication needed for the emotional and spiritual growth that lies ahead.

In Stage 2, we start to see symptoms as physical, tied to tangible causes like diet or toxins. But if we let fear take the wheel, we fail to move beyond this awareness.

To progress, we must take responsibility not just for our present selves, but for the wounds and subconscious programming from our past. This means letting go of the fear-driven obsession with external threats and turning inward, setting the stage for the emotional and spiritual work to come.

Stage 3: Emotional and Spiritual Mastery

The third stage is where exponential growth occurs. Here, we take full responsibility for our emotional and spiritual reality—the unseen forces that shape our health and our world. This is the hardest part because emotions are tender. But it’s also the most potent stage, where permanent healing becomes possible.

We come to understand that our physical symptoms are not just physical—they’re rooted in emotional and spiritual imbalances. Stress, unresolved trauma, and limiting beliefs take a toll on our bodies, manifesting as disease.

At this stage, we become our own doctors. We don’t need external fixes for everyday symptoms because we’ve learned to listen to our bodies. We rely on medical professionals for emergencies, while building trust in our own healing process.

This requires dedication: exploring the energy field of the body, facing the depths of our emotions, and dismantling the subconscious beliefs we’ve carried since childhood. We heal not just for ourselves, but to break the cycle of pain passed down through generations.

When we reach Stage 3, we unlock our creative potential and align with a higher purpose. We see that disease is a signal, a call to answer. If it’s true that emotional suppression and spiritual disconnection are root causes for disease, this newfound awareness can deal with them before they manifest.

These three stages—unconsciousness, awakening, and mastery—form a roadmap for holistic health. We move from being misled and disconnected, to questioning and taking charge, to finally embracing the full spectrum of our being.

Each stage builds on the last, and while the journey is personal, its ripple effects are felt far and wide. Pain is a spark, awareness fuels the growth, and emotional-spiritual integration brings lasting peace.

What stage do you see yourself in now?

*Inspired by lectures given by Paul Leendertse

𝕏 Thread of the Week

🩸 The Great Blood Pressure Scam: This article reveals that 25% of high blood pressure diagnoses stem from inaccurate measurements. It argues that elevated blood pressure is typically a symptom of damaged blood vessels and poor circulation rather than their cause. The evidence presented in the article suggests that blood pressure guidelines have become increasingly strict without scientific justification, resulting in millions of unnecessary prescriptions and harmful side effects while delivering minimal benefits for most patients.

Alternative perspectives on hypertension, including zeta potential (electrical charges affecting blood flow) and Chinese medicine approaches, offer different treatment frameworks that address underlying causes rather than symptoms. The pharmaceutical-driven push for lower blood pressure thresholds appears more about selling medications than improving health outcomes, as studies show that moderate hypertension poses little risk until specific age-dependent thresholds are crossed.

🧠 Internet Brain Is Making Us All Dumber: This post from Brad Stulberg discusses how the internet and smartphones are reshaping our cognition, fragmenting attention, and driving compulsive behaviors akin to addiction. The allure lies in the intermittent rewards of likes, notifications, and messages that stimulate dopamine release, reinforcing compulsive checking. This disrupts focus, memory, and emotional regulation while fostering stress and anxiety.

🦠 Living Without Antibiotics: In this article, Brooke Keefer shares her journey of avoiding antibiotics after experiencing severe side effects. She offers remedies for sinus infections, bronchitis, strep throat, ear infections, tooth abscesses, and UTIs using natural solutions like garlic, apple cider vinegar, cayenne pepper, probiotics, and Manuka honey. Her holistic approach aims to minimize antibiotic use while addressing common illnesses effectively and safely.

🔗 One Hitters

💬 "Unprocessed trauma is an energy drain... it's like trying to drive down the highway with the e-brake on." (Video)

🐄 Eating animal based on a budget (Video for the Costco shoppers)

🎥 "The focus on religion, philosophy, and science is a cognitive pacifier keeping humans from asking more important questions about existence." (Video)

💆🏻‍♀️ Nervous system educator Irene Lyon’s free resources page (Link)

✔️ That’s it for this week! I hope you found something valuable here. Have questions, feedback, or topics you want to dive into? Reply to this email— I’d love to hear from you.

🔗 If you know someone interested in these topics, please share this newsletter with them!

📰 Read all past newsletters here.