This Tree and Me

What is more scary: letting go, or becoming?
​In this year-end finale, Cory J Riggs explores the irrationality of the human ego—the part of us that would rather stay in a familiar hell than risk an unknown heaven. Drawing from his own 45-year journey back to the "little dude" he left behind in the 5th grade, Cory challenges the idea that staying guarded is the safe path.
​As we stand on the edge of 2026 and the "Industrial Arc," we discuss why keeping humanity at the center of our lives is the only way to navigate a world dominated by AI and technology.
​Turn the mirror around. Look with empathy. Let’s start the work.
​Season 2 of "The Tree and Me" begins this Sunday.
​#TheRiskOfHappiness #IndustrialArc #HumanityFirst #MentalHealth #SelfImprovement #Storytelling

The bill always comes due.
​We tell ourselves that staying in that relationship is "safe." We tell ourselves that shrinking down to make others comfortable is just being "polite." But the cost isn't just your peace—it is your heart.
​In the Season 1 Finale of The Tree and Me, Cory J Riggs takes a hard look at the "ledger" of our lives. We discuss the "Hollow Man" syndrome, the exhausting price of toxic positivity, and the raw accountability required to stop waging war against yourself.
​Key Takeaways:
​The Invisible Debt: What are you buying with your silence?
​The Empty Cup: You cannot feed others when you haven't eaten in years.
​The Harvest: The quiet, steady strength of finally standing in your own truth.
​Looking Ahead: Stick around until the very end for a special announcement regarding the "Industrial Arc" coming in Season 2 (2026).
​You can watch or listen to this wherever you get your podcasts.
🔗 Website: https://coryjriggs.com

This episode isn’t just about looking back at 2025—it’s about what 2025 taught me: how to look within.

The hardest work isn’t what happens out there—it’s what happens inside. It’s facing the questions you’ve avoided, the truths you’ve buried, and the patterns that keep you stuck.

Looking within is uncomfortable. It’s messy. It’s humbling. But it’s also where the real change begins.

And here’s the beauty: when you choose to look within, you uncover your calling. You discover the path you were meant to walk. You let the light inside finally shine, and you begin to live the life you were created for.

Website: https://CoryJRiggs.com
🎙️ This Tree and Me — available wherever you watch or listen to podcasts.

There’s a moment in growth where movement feels like momentum—where improvement feels like transformation—yet something inside knows we’re still capable of more.

This episode explores that tension:
• the comfort of “better”
• the plateau disguised as progress
• the voice that says “good enough”
• and the quiet intuition that says “not yet”

This is not a message of shame.
It’s a message of potential.

Recognizing the illusion of progress isn’t failure.
It’s the first step toward deeper, truer, more intentional growth.

Website: https://CoryJRiggs.com  
This Tree and Me is available wherever you watch or listen to your podcasts.

This Blessed & Grateful Wednesday honors the season of my life known as Coach Cory—where discipline, humility, and growth were forged on the sidelines long before podcasting, wellness, or spirituality ever entered the frame. 

This episode explores:
• how coaching shaped the man I became
• why humility was the turning point
• the cultures and people who changed me
• and the moment I knew it was time to let go

Some stories end not because they’re broken—but because the lesson is complete.

All socials: @coryjriggs  
This Tree and Me is available wherever you watch or listen to your podcasts.

#spiritualgrowth #healingjourney #wellnesscoach #mindfulness #selfawareness #lifelessons #growthmindset #genx #humility #coachlife #transformation

Listen and Follow is not about listening to someone else.
And it’s not about following an external path.

It’s about learning how to listen inward —
and having the courage to follow what’s already been trying to guide you.

In this episode, I share a deeply personal reflection on what happens when life feels misaligned.
Not broken.
Not chaotic.
Just… off.

I talk about the difference between performing the work and living it.
About how pushing, managing, and forcing clarity can disconnect us from ourselves.
And how listening — real listening — becomes an active, embodied practice.

This episode explores:
• Why effort stops working when alignment is missing  
• How listening is awareness, not passivity  
• Why following doesn’t mean giving up agency — it means choosing truth  
• What happens when we stop leading with force and start responding with attention  

This isn’t advice.
It’s an invitation.

An invitation to slow down long enough to hear what’s already been speaking.
And to trust yourself enough to follow it.

I’m Cory J. Riggs — wellness coach, storyteller, and host of This Tree and Me.
Thank you for being here. Thank you for listening.

Tonight’s episode is a soft one. A vulnerable one. A necessary one.

Blessed & Grateful Wednesday brings us into the quiet room where healing actually begins — 
the room where our inner child still sits, still waits, still leads.

For me, that child is Lil Riggo.
He’s been whispering truths my entire life, long before I was ready to hear them.

This episode explores:
— how comfort became food  
— how food became safety  
— how safety became silence  
— and how silence became the weight I carried for decades  

When my gut was off, my life was off — and I didn’t understand why.
Only now do I see that gut health wasn’t just about diet…  
it was the condition of the house where my child-self lives.

When the house is unsettled, he is unsettled.
When the house is cared for, he rises and leads.

Tonight, I share how:
• August 1st, 2022 changed everything  
• clarity arrived through discipline and devotion  
• spirituality woke up in the same place my pain once lived  
• and how every step forward has come through listening to the child within  

This episode is an offering —  
for anyone who has forgotten the small, brave voice inside them,
the one who still knows the truth,
the one who still remembers who you were before the world got loud.

Your inner child is not behind you.
They’re ahead of you.
Still leading you home.

Thank you for being here.
Thank you for listening.

Stay connected:
YouTube Podcast Playlist (direct)
TikTok | Instagram | CoryJRiggs.com

Streaming:
YouTube Podcast • Spotify • Apple • iHeart • Amazon • Buzzsprout RSS

In this episode of *This Tree AND Me*, Cory J Riggs opens the door to one of the most profound and vulnerable stories of his life — the long, winding path of addiction, and all of the faces it wore before he ever touched a substance.

Addiction is never just drugs or alcohol.

Sometimes it looks like food.
Sometimes anger.
Sometimes approval.
Sometimes escaping into work or relationships.
Sometimes it’s running toward pleasure.
Sometimes it’s running from pain.
And sometimes… it’s the silence we hide inside when we don’t know where else to put our hurt.

In this episode, Cory traces addiction through every stage of his life, beginning long before anyone recognized it — and long before he understood what was happening internally.

He revisits childhood moments that shaped him, the emotional fractures that formed in silence, and the ways those early patterns grew into the behaviors that eventually brought him to treatment at nineteen. With honesty and compassion, Cory walks through the complicated years of adolescence, the rupture with his father, the fear of not belonging, and the pain that had no language yet.

But the journey didn’t end in treatment.

Cory also shares the lesser-talked-about truth: addiction can change form even after substances are gone. Through adulthood, parenting, marriage, divorce, work, chasing success, self-abandonment, and trying to find worth in external things — addiction continued to mirror the places inside him that had not yet healed.

And then, the turning.

Through grief, spiritual awakening, discipline, writing, the Tree, and the quiet inner work of the past few years, Cory discovered the deeper truth:

Addiction is not a disease.
It is a mental-health struggle rooted in trauma, fear, unmet emotional needs, and the parts of our story we were never taught to tend to.

You don’t “catch” addiction.
It forms when a part of you goes unanswered for too long.

This episode is not about shame.
It is not about judgment.
It is about honesty — and the courage to look inward with compassion.

Cory offers this story so that listeners might understand their own journey more clearly. Whether addiction has touched your life through substances or through patterns of avoidance, soothing, escaping, or over-functioning, this episode meets you exactly where you are.

And if you are struggling with anything that feels bigger than you:
Please reach out.
Ask for help.
You are not meant to carry all of this alone.

Thank you for listening to a story that took a lifetime to understand. 
This is *This Tree AND Me.*

Today’s Blessed & Grateful Wednesday is about writing — as a guide, a teacher, and the place where every answer arrives.

I start with an excerpt from today’s journal entry, where writing gave me clarity and direction the moment I began. Then I read a journal entry from a year ago — a simple record of the day — and reflect on how much my writing has transformed.

Over this past year, especially after my spiritual retreat, writing has become my connection to God, my truest self, and the deeper wisdom that moves through my life. It shows me the meaning behind every experience. It teaches me. It grounds me. It reveals truth.

Writing is my light, my compass, and my calm.

If writing is part of your journey — or if you're learning to trust your own voice — this episode is for you.

Stay connected and walk this path with me.

In this episode of *This Tree & Me*, we explore the power of intentions —  
not as vague hopes, but as real tools for alignment, clarity, and purpose.

Your intentions shape your decisions.  
Your core values shape your path.  
And everything in your life should align with the foundation you set from within.

I share my own intentions — love, grace, and compassion —  
and how living through them has already changed my life.  
I also talk about evaluating your choices, relationships, goals, and opportunities  
through the lens of your core intentions… and re-centering when things drift.

When you strengthen your intentions, your life strengthens with them.  
May this episode help you find clarity, alignment, and a sense of direction in your own journey.

Wellness Coach • Storyteller  
This Tree & Me