This Tree and Me

This episode begins with a blood vessel popping in Cory's left eye — and ends with five words that changed the ground for everything ahead.

This is a storytelling episode. Not a teaching episode. The teachings are inside the story.

The arc moves through:

A physical limitation that stripped every external support away and revealed the practice beneath it

The worthiness wound named for the first time — the difference between capability and deserving

A ceremonial weekend that released what months of journaling had been circling

A conversation with the parts of himself that built him

A young part told the one thing he needed to hear

A landing in wholeness, calm, and a clear direction

This is not coming from the other side of something.

It is coming from inside it.

This Tree & Me — hosted by Cory J Riggs.

This is where the pattern used to break.

The eye. The financial pressure. Every legitimate excuse available. And two journal entries anyway.

In this episode we go into the place where the bad habits come back, the excuses start, and everything around you is telling you to stop — and what finding a way actually looks like from inside it. Not from the other side.

This conversation covers:

Recognizing the pattern before you repeat it

The difference between a setback and a juncture

Why perfection is the wrong standard for the practice

Capability vs worthiness — and why worthiness is the harder question

The band-aids that keep us comfortable and small

The or — and why it never gets spoken out loud

This is not a motivational episode.

This is what the practice looks like on a hard day.

This Tree & Me — hosted by Cory J Riggs.

You've already proven the process works.

In this episode we break down why most people refuse to apply what they've already built — and what that resistance is actually about.

This conversation covers:

Proof vs confidence

Fear that stays but loses authority

Applying a proven process to new and scary arenas

LAF as an operating system, not a philosophy

This isn't about starting over.

This is about recognizing you've already done this — and building it again.

This Tree & Me — hosted by Cory J Riggs.

Do you believe you have to suffer to heal?

In this episode of This Tree & Me, Cory J Riggs explores the belief that pain and suffering are required for growth—and challenges the idea that holding onto your past is what proves you’ve changed.

This conversation breaks down the difference between feeling pain and living in it, and how identity can become tied to guilt, past actions, and self-imposed punishment.

You are not your past.

You are not required to live in suffering to prove your growth.

This episode invites you to question what you’re holding onto—and why.

In this episode of This Tree & Me, Cory J Riggs explores the role intention plays in personal growth and why many people feel stuck despite consistent effort.

The conversation shifts away from productivity and external results, focusing instead on internal alignment. Cory breaks down how ego-driven patterns—comparison, urgency, and outcome chasing—can create the illusion of progress while keeping you disconnected from real movement.

Through a grounded and reflective approach, this episode introduces the idea that change begins not with action alone, but with the intention behind it. When you reconnect with how you’re showing up each day, life begins to move differently.

This episode also touches on the foundational concept of Listen • Allow • Follow (LAF) as a way to engage with life from a place of awareness rather than control.

If you’ve been working toward something but feel like you’re not getting anywhere, this conversation offers a different perspective—one rooted in presence, clarity, and daily alignment.

You think you’re building a life.

But what if you’re not?

In this episode, Cory J Riggs explores a shift that reframes everything: life isn’t built in the future—it’s built in the present, one day at a time.

Drawing from real journal insights and lived experience, this conversation breaks down how ego-driven urgency for results pulls you out of the process, and why most people stay stuck in cycles of starting, stopping, and waiting for something to happen.

This episode explores:

• the difference between building and waiting

• how ego creates the “why try” narrative

• why daily patterns matter more than long-term goals

• the illusion of success without internal alignment

• how to begin building your life—today

The work is not in the outcome.

It’s in the day.

What if the parts of your life you thought were behind you… were never actually repaired?

In this episode, Cory J Riggs explores the difference between moving forward and truly healing.

Using the metaphor of a damaged road, he breaks down how most people learn to patch over pain, create detours around difficult experiences, and continue forward without ever addressing what’s underneath.

But what isn’t repaired doesn’t disappear.

It resurfaces.

This episode challenges the idea that progress means resolution and offers a deeper perspective:

Healing is not about avoiding damage.

It’s about learning how to rebuild.

Key Insights

• Why survival strategies are not the same as healing

• How avoidance shows up as progress

• The danger of “patching” emotional wounds

• What it means to “close the road” and rebuild

• Why healing builds the capacity to handle future challenges

• How to begin recognizing what still hasn’t been repaired

Closing Reflection

What in your life have you moved past… but never truly fixed?

Show Identity

This is This Tree & Me, a podcast exploring self-awareness, inner dialogue, and the ongoing process of becoming who you are.

Hosted by Cory J Riggs.

Reflective Opening

Inside every person there are moments when two voices seem to speak at once.

Both sound reasonable.

Both sound convincing.

One voice leads toward truth.

The other protects the ego.

Learning to recognize the difference is one of the most important practices in personal growth.

Episode Summary

In this episode of This Tree & Me, Cory J Riggs explores the subtle distinction between ego narrative and true inner guidance.

Many people believe growth eventually leads to permanent clarity — a place where doubt disappears and the mind becomes quiet.

But the ego does not disappear.

The voice of doubt continues to arise.

The deeper practice is learning to recognize where a thought is coming from.

Drawing from reflections in his morning journal and the philosophy behind the LAF Method (Listen, Allow, Follow), Cory explores how discernment becomes a daily practice rather than a destination.

Instead of eliminating the ego, we learn to recognize its patterns.

And once we see clearly, we simply begin following the voice that leads us forward.

Key Insights

• Growth does not eliminate the ego

• Doubt does not permanently disappear

• The same question can come from different sources

• Ego often disguises itself as logic or protection

• Alignment is something we practice continuously

• Discernment grows through awareness

Most people build their lives in survival mode.

Working harder.

Pushing faster.

Trying to prove something.

And for a while, that survival energy creates momentum.

It builds discipline.

It builds resilience.

It builds strength.

But survival was never meant to lead your life forever.

In this episode of This Tree and Me, Cory J Riggs explores the moment when survival must step back and clarity must take the lead.

Through personal reflection and the principles of the LAF Method, this conversation explores how healing the ego is not about destroying it — but about teaching it.

Survival becomes the engine.

Presence becomes the leader.

Because real leadership begins internally.

And when you finally stop living in survival mode, something changes.

Strength becomes steady.

Life will happen.

There will be pressure. There will be growth. There will be fear. There will be opportunity.

You cannot stop life from unfolding. But you can decide who leads when it does.

In this episode of This Tree & Me, Cory J Riggs explores what it means to live from the inside out — taking responsibility for your internal world so your external life reflects clarity, structure, and self-leadership.

This conversation dives into:

• Internal authority

• Emotional regulation

• Living from the inside out

• Why life does not control you — your response does

Find all episodes and platforms at:

CoryJRiggs.com/podcast