There comes a moment on every soul journey when the map has burned, the compass spins, and the stories we’ve told ourselves no longer hold.

This is The Descent. Not the ache of knowing change is needed, nor the resistance to it, but the cold, quiet wilderness that follows after the letting go. A space of sacred unravelling where identity dissolves and something new waits to be born.

In this deeply personal episode, Mike Brcic shares the raw terrain of his own descent: from the collapse of his marriage to the soul-rattling quiet of post-divorce life.

With vulnerability and poetic insight, he walks us through the disorientation and grace of not-knowing.

Alongside this, we climb the flanks of Ecuador’s Cotopaxi, where physical ascent mirrors inner transformation, and descent reveals the deeper truth.

If you are standing in the ruins of what once was, unsure, aching, undone, this episode is a reminder: you are not broken. You are breaking open. And there is wisdom in the fall.

PROMPTS
Spend some time with these questions and your journal, ideally in the quiet morning hours:

• What in your life is breaking or dissolving?
• What are you grieving that no one sees?
• What is trying to be born through the wreckage?

EXERCISE
Allow yourself fifteen quiet minutes today. No fixing. No input. Just stillness.
Turn off the noise. Sit or lie down comfortably. Close your eyes.
Breathe deeply and feel into your body. Let whatever emotions arise move through you.
Notice the sensations, the whispers, the ache. Give them your full, loving attention.
You don’t need to change anything. Just be present.
This is how you begin to come home to yourself.

Continue the journey:

✴️ Join a Wayfinders Adventure → way-finders.com/adventures

Step away from the noise and into the wild. Wayfinders Adventures are soul-stirring retreats for entrepreneurs and leaders ready to reconnect with their deeper selves and others walking the same path.

✴️ Subscribe to my Substack → wayfinders.substack.com

For reflections, stories, and soul prompts between episodes, join me on Substack for regular inspiration and updates on what’s unfolding behind the scenes.

✴️ Join a live Soultalks call → https://lu.ma/soultalks

Each month, we gather for a soulful online conversation: a space to slow down, reflect, and connect with others navigating the same questions. Subscribe to the calendar and come as you are.