The Drift: When Practice Becomes Product

Audio file on YouTube: https://youtu.be/D_uNLevtQ2Y

I was watching The Shawn Ryan Show the other day.

Nathan Apffel was the guest.

They were talking about megachurches
how spiritual conviction becomes infrastructure
how faith becomes product.

And I couldn’t stop thinking:

This isn’t just about religion.
It’s happening in the wellness world too.
In the space I enjoy being in.
The space I’ve trusted.
The space I’ve offered from.
The space many turn to when nothing else makes sense.

Because what Apffel described
the slow shift from something sacred to something sellable
feels hauntingly familiar.

It starts with presence.
A practice.
An offering that feels too alive to monetize.

Then money enters.

At first, it’s simple.
A way to pay for the website.
To value your time.
To make the work sustainable.

But slowly
almost imperceptibly
the work becomes a product.

And the product needs a brand.
And the brand needs consistency.
And consistency kills the parts of you still becoming.

You start editing your presence.
You soften your questions.
You polish the raw edges.

Because now there’s something to protect.

And the deeper the offering once was
the more easily it gets flattened into something consumable.

But here’s the thing

This drift isn’t just a risk for the practitioners.
It affects those who participate too.

Because if you enter a space that performs presence
instead of embodying it
you feel it.
Even if you can’t name it.

You start to confuse calm with connection.
Regulation with awakening.
Aesthetic with depth.

You look for answers where there should be inquiry.
You look for a fix where there should be space.

This isn’t a takedown.
It’s a reckoning.

A call to question what's behind the practice.

Whether you're offering it
or receiving it.

Because this industry is full of brilliant branding
Trauma-informed language
Nervous system science
Ceremony. Coaching. Care.

But none of it means anything
if it’s not honest.

So this is an invitation

To notice when the work starts performing.
To ask what’s being sold beneath the surface.
To wonder what kind of presence would exist
if no one was watching.
If no one was paying.

This isn’t about the money.
It’s about the motive.

So for those of us still willing to tell the truth

What part of you still speaks when money starts talking?
And what part goes silent?

This is The Cognitive Dissidents.

We’re not here to brand mindfulness.
We’re here to remember it.

Not as content.
But as contact.

Not as peace.
But as presence
raw, imperfect, unprofitable.

Still breathing.
Still refusing.
Still here.

Question everything.

If something in this spoke to you, feel free to share it.
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This space will still be here.

Until next time,
Always remember to... Just Breathe.

-The Unscripted Mind