This Is Where I Normally Quit

Belief is Built

You can do all the work and still not get there. Not because of effort. Not because of discipline. Because of the gap. This episode names what lives in that gap — and how to fill it. Belief is not something you think into existence. It is not borrowed from someone else's excitement when you announce what you are building. It is proven. To yourself. By yourself. Through the accumulation of evidence you cannot argue with. This conversation covers: The gap between doing and arriving — and what actually fills it Why announcing what you are building creates more anxiety than doing it quietly How to look back for belief and forward for direction without confusing the two What the foundation work is actually producing — and why the result is not next What happens when the belief starts to thin — and the self-leadership response The honest question underneath all of it: what are you actually building toward This Tree & Me — hosted by Cory J Riggs. Keywords: belief, self leadership, personal growth, foundation, inner work, ego, self awareness, building confidence, LAF method, self development, worthiness, mindset, proving yourself, emotional growth

The Work Nobody Sees

Most people are building in the wrong order. The visible work gets done. The invisible work gets skipped. And eventually everything built on that unfinished ground falls — and the cycle starts again. This episode is about the foundation. What it actually is. Why most people skip it. And what it costs when they do. This conversation covers: Why doing alone is not enough — and what the gap actually is The house metaphor — foundation before walls, structure before aesthetics What your foundation actually consists of — the three layers that have to be solid first The practice vs the story — the difference between talking about self-leadership and living it Prove it to yourself before you prove it to anyone else The mirror principle — everything is a lesson about you This is the work that happens before anything visible gets built. This Tree & Me — hosted by Cory J Riggs.

This Is The Handoff

This episode is coming from inside the middle of something real. A life purge underway. The candles burning out one by one — Compassion first, Love next, Coach after, the ceremony candle last. A meditation mantra arriving and returning all morning: it takes all of us. This conversation covers: What a real purge looks like — not a closet cleanout, leaving the entire life that built you The difference between feel and look when making the hardest decisions What it means when all the parts — wounded and healed, scared and certain — are required together Witnessing the handoff from one version of yourself to the next — from the inside, in real time, without running Every transition before this one happened without being seen. This one is being witnessed while it occurs. That is the whole arc. That is the episode. This Tree & Me — hosted by Cory J Riggs.

Feel vs Look

What happens when you realize you've been trying to perform a feeling instead of actually feeling it? In this episode of This Tree and Me, Cory J Riggs explores the distinction between “feel” and “look” — not intellectually, but through lived experience. The conversation moves through: how the ego manufactures appearance why genuine feeling cannot be forced the body as the authority over what is real returning to the breath during fear and emotional static giving wounded parts what they actually needed spaciousness vs emotional containment self leadership through honesty rather than performance This is an episode about learning the difference between aesthetics and truth. Not what life looks like. What life actually feels like. 🎙 This Tree and Me — hosted by Cory J Riggs

I Know What I'm Worth

This episode begins with a blood vessel popping in Cory's left eye — and ends with five words that changed the ground for everything ahead. This is a storytelling episode. Not a teaching episode. The teachings are inside the story. The arc moves through: A physical limitation that stripped every external support away and revealed the practice beneath it The worthiness wound named for the first time — the difference between capability and deserving A ceremonial weekend that released what months of journaling had been circling A conversation with the parts of himself that built him A young part told the one thing he needed to hear A landing in wholeness, calm, and a clear direction This is not coming from the other side of something. It is coming from inside it. This Tree & Me — hosted by Cory J Riggs.