HIGHLIGHTS

• Leaning on spirituality for police work 
• Can spirituality fill the gap between police officers and the community?
• Quitting the police force and ruminations on use of force 
• Surfing as a way to decompress for service personnel
• Bridging the gap between community and police through surfing
• Making waves and reaching more communities 

QUOTES

Robert: "Spirituality is just a thread you're constantly trying to reel, in to keep yourself grounded and whatever that might be, so that you can remain good, and you can remain of service and not look at the world through this kind of, jaded lens."

Robert: "You really need to lean in to your values and spirituality in order to hold on to that humanity. Far too often, people in that profession, and you often see that in veterans as well, just put up this wall where they just can't take anymore and they just become a robot. And, they have no emotion. They can't be empathetic to people. And that's when you get the bad outcome." 

Scott: "Spirituality at least, arguably, connects us to something larger. But, I would be utterly remiss, particularly in this day and age, if I didn't point out that in many communities, there is a profound disconnect between the officers that are serving the communities, and the members of the communities themselves." 

Robert: "Police, fire, veterans, military, they are constantly in a state of hypervigilance, right? Always looking over their shoulder, whether it's for physical violence, or safety, or to help  somebody. They always wanna radio. Some of them carry a weapon. We're constantly scanning, and worrying and then guess what, your family is there and they're pinging you."

Robert: "I want to continue for SWEL to be, and it says in our strategic plan that we're stewards of the community. We're providing inclusive opportunities for other communities to experience this and maybe experience this with a service man or woman as well. Really, my vision is to scale and to continue to make trips and perhaps even have dedicated spot at the beach to where we have everything lined up."  

To find out more about Robert, please see the links below.

• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rob-sanderson-44419b1a9/
• Website: https://www.theswel.org/
• Facebook: https://web.facebook.com/TheSWELmission/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theswelmission/

To hear more of Scott Mason and the Purpose Highway™ podcast, join our community at https://purposehighway.com/ and subscribe to get notified when new episodes go live.