Here are 11 things you might not know about me:
1. I lived in San Francisco on a shoestring budget for 7 years. Including on a Sailboat in Emeryville (East Bay) for a few years in my 30's. When the average rent was thousands of dollars, I always found opportunities to live at a fraction of that. Lesson: Sometimes you can hack a system. Never take someone's word for how 'impossible' something is.
2. I lived in a cabin for three years, in the redwood forest north of the bay area and wrote novels on a vintage typewriter: I also recorded an album and found a new level of peace. And saw clients in deep healing sessions. Lesson: Sometimes you need to disconnect to reconnect. Also, if you disconnect too far, you might have to rebuild momentum.
3. I had an awakening experience on (alongside) the Pacific Ocean in 2006. I 'remembered myself' and touched a piece of me that I knew would 'never die.' Lesson: life purpose: to facilitate this experience in others.
4. I broke my neck in the Pacific Ocean in 2008, second 'awakening' experience. Lesson: When you experience this piece of you that will 'never die', it might be tested. (Almost died).
5 . While I was in Holistic Healing School, one parent wound up in prison and one in the hospital for MS. Lesson: When you start the healing process, expect huge shifts and sometimes massive resistance. I had to drive 86 miles each way to even get to class.
6. I've played guitar since high school, after playing drums for a few years. Songwriting is a passion. I've published a few albums as Saint Milkweed on Pandora, etc. Lesson: sometimes you have a passion that just needs to play out, and doesn't need to be you career.
7. I have an MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute, which I earned in my early twenties. I painted abstract spiritual color field paintings, after a few years as a portrait artist. Lesson: wrestle with the ego, yes, but do it at a sustainable pace.
8. I write obsessively, sometimes on vintage typewriters. I run Classic Typewriter Co. as a labor of love. Lesson: technology is a balancing act. I've lived without a cell phone, with flip phones, with old phones, etc. Don't get carried away in either direction.
9. In 2005 or so, I did a 10 day water fast. It wiped out many of my fears about life (hunger, disease, isolation etc). Lesson: Sometimes, to heal, don't DO: Tao Te Ching: Practice 'not doing' and everything will fall into place.'
10. In 2018 I co-founded a compost toilet company for festivals. It 'failed', for now. There were so many moving pieces that I couldn't hold it all together. And then all world events ended for a time during covid. Lesson: don't try to do everything yourself, continually find and commune with people that are more skilled and knowledgeable than you.
11. Having a daughter in 2016 was the deepest transformational experience of my life. Before that, I had only grazed the human experience. Lesson: you can use whatever is in front of you as fuel for growth, or as an excuse to not grow.
Love and rapture,
Steven Budden Jr.
PS. You might like this. Bodily mapping traumas and relationship patterns.