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Jeff Boss Healing Warriors
Is therapy only for the weak?
Do you ever feel like it’s you against the universe?
And how can you tell if you’re a warfighter or a warrior?
Years ago, Navy SEAL Jeff Boss left the military and struggled to find his way as a civilian. Even after burying dozens of his friends, he believed healing was for the weak. Regardless of his elite mental strength training, he was fighting back the emotions with booze and women. Until he couldn’t do it anymore.
So how did he go from someone who thought therapy was for wimps to becoming a therapist himself? Today, Jeff takes us through his experience — from feeling lost and depressed to finding his calling as a healer.
In this interview:
- Having a tough transition after the SEAL teams
- No longer avoiding ourselves
- Alternative therapies
- Mental toughness is not emotional toughness
- Kundalini yoga, breathwork, and meditation
Plus:
- Gabor Maté: Attachment vs authenticity
- Imposter syndrome
- Self-love being repulsive
- Myth: love myself before I can love others
- Spirituality vs me against the universe
About Jeff Boss
Some of Jeff’s military awards:
- 4 Bronze Stars With Valor
- 2 Purple Hearts
- 6 Combat Action Ribbons
- 2 Presidential Unit Citations
I’m a bit of a walking Swiss army knife having been a Navy SEAL, management consultant, entrepreneur and leadership coach, author, training and exercises curriculum development specialist, and financial analyst.
Transitioning out of the military in 2013 after serving 13 years in special operations, I experienced depression, post-traumatic stress, grief, loss, challenges to my identity, feeling “rudderless” (i.e., lack of purpose), loneliness, and more.
These experiences subsequently led to negative self-talk, self-fulfilling prophecies, self-defeating behavior, and various other forms of bullshit that I was feeding myself.
And that’s exactly what all these “things” were: bullshit.
None of those things were me, but I couldn’t help feeling the way I did and didn’t know how to stop. Anybody who says “depression is a choice” has never been depressed, because it’s far deeper than that. I’m a very proactive individual, but no matter what I did I just felt stuck.
What I ultimately learned was that the hurt parts of me were preventing the other parts of me from healing. That’s why I couldn’t move forward no matter what I tried.
I was incapable of digging deep because I had repressed emotions for so long and didn’t know how to access them. I was trying to solve my issues with the same thinking that got me there, and it only led me further to nowhere.
