The Sun has set on half a decade of Causeway Living. In the warm glow before nightfall, I wanted to reflect on the past five years before looking to the next five, right Now in the present. When I started this venture five years ago today, I had no idea where it was going to take me, but in hindsight I can see the road was always leading back to myself. I discovered my ‘true’ self through the story of ‘myself’, and recognised that I am not my story. The closest story I have found to the Truth, is simply, “I am”, and anything added to the end of those two words creates limitation.
Are you aware of what a ‘causeway’ actually is? A clear path through difficult terrain or water; order amongst chaos. Causeway Living is life focused on the path rather than the destination, although that took me a long time to understand in an embodied way. I’m still learning to fully embody the philosophy of just ‘being’, rather than ‘doing’ for an expected outcome. Letting go of expectations in service to ‘love’ or ‘the expansion of consciousness’ or ‘God’ or however you choose to frame it, is hard from the point of view of ‘Scott’. The more I let go of the idea of Scott, the easier it becomes.
Take a moment to imagine a timeless, infinite light. Now place a box around that light. Trying to limit infinity makes for a tight, uncomfortable fit, just like the stories we create about ourselves. I started out with a really shitty box, and failed to maintain it until the point where it almost fell apart. My story was that of a physically and mentally ill, obese person, but thanks to life changing experiences in Peru, I realised there was a light inside the box. I used the light’s energy to fix my box: I created a better story for myself, but in the years that followed, I realised even a good story is still just a box.
Like most well-intentioned people in the health and fitness industry, Causeway Living was on some level about teaching people how to improve their box. ‘Check it out guys, I used to to have this horrible old box, but now my box is really fancy, and I can show you how to fix your box too’. This was an essential part of my journey to learn that I am not the box; I am the light, and so are you. Rather than teaching people methods and means to become leaner, stronger, do show-off elbow lever balances, whatever, I aim to live more as the light, and help others who wish to do the same.
On a practical level, I feel like many of the old things I used to teach like specific breathwork and cold water immersion, physical movement and more will still be a part of Causeway Living. The energy and intention behind what you do is far more important that the thing you ‘do’ itself. Take the example of a runner; is she running because she’s angry at how she looks and doing it to get thin? Maybe she’s already lean but running in fear, away from being overweight. Perhaps she’s running because she loves nature and moving her body. At once the same, but totally different.
Even though I still see myself getting people active and outdoors together, the sun has set on my old ways of doing so. The weekly Dash & Splash events came to what felt like a natural end after 150 Sundays, and thanks to the pandemic it’s been a long time since I’ve put anyone into an ice bath or cold mountain stream. The first taste of something more in alignment with where I’m at right now was my Academy program, and even though it was an incredible experience, it feels important to let that go for now too. A period of darkness follows the setting sun, and I need to honour that.
My plans for the coming months are to put all public Causeway Living events on hold. Team Dash & Splash continues without me as always intended, with members arranging swims and runs on their own accord. I want to save as much energy and drive, attention and focus as possible for my book. It’s a dream to have it completed in time to share for Christmas, but I hold that aim lightly and trust it to come at the right time as long as I put the work in. Between my ongoing 1-to-1 work with clients, and making time for family, friends and fun, my commitment will be to writing each day.
I’m so grateful that I didn’t rush my book out on the timescale intended, although maybe I’ll compile some of the unused chapters and put it out someday under the title, “How To Fix Your Box”. The book I aim to release now will still have my story with exciting adventures in the Peruvian Amazon and Polish mountain tops, but conclude on what I’ve come to understand about story itself. I hope the book makes clear that even though you are not your story, the only way to actually embody that knowledge is by going out and living your own story. This is my path too, I have more story to live.
After the darkness, follows the light. I’m looking forward to a new dawn for Causeway Living once the book is complete and out into the world. I’m not sure what that will look like, but one thing I’m certain of is launching The Causeway Living Podcast. I’ll still continue to work with individuals on a 1-to-1 basis, and as for anything else, we’ll see. Huge thanks to everyone I’ve connected with through Causeway Living over the past five years, and for the ongoing support, especially in upcoming months that I don’t expect to be very active online. For today, time to go celebrate my birthday…
Much love,
