About
MFA Graduate Creative Writing
Published Poet / Songwriter
Stoic & Zen Philosophy Student
Danzan Ryu Jujitsu Sensei (Hawaiian Style)
Podcast Consumer
Manchester United Fan
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What is Purple Island?
TL;DR | Short Version
Purple Island is symbolic of who you see yourself becoming in the life you feel you’re meant to live.
The island you’re on now has kept you the same.
You know it and feel it.
It’s safe. It practically sustains you, and it’s just enough to keep you from going completely crazy.
And out there, you see a dot on the horizon, the Purple Island, that self and that life that is filled with adventure, purpose, and peace.
I’m certain it’s been countless times when you felt compelled to leap off the cliffs, but you simply lack the courage.
I’m here to help you jump in open waters and begin swimming.
Long Version
Hi, I’m Jeff.
I’m a recovering codependent, people pleaser, and over-thinker.
I’ve navigated the depths of clinical depression, anxiety, and addiction.
I believed the lies of degrading religious ideas.
I believed the lies of consumerism and the social constructs of who I’m supposed to be as a man in Western society.
I’ve reached out for what I was told to reach out for, the superficial, and it only served to leave me in existential, relational, and financial debt.
In a word, I felt completely powerless, and knew I needed help.
During my healing journey, I sought many helpers.
Many were effective, and most opted to sit in my past with aim to help me make sense of my present.
This is an effective approach, but not what I needed.
I then encountered a helper who focused more on where I was going, which was trivial, because I felt I was always going nowhere.
In one memorable session, they held up a green post-it pad, pointed to it, and said this was where I’d been—this was Green Island.
For me, Green Island was an odd combination of feeling both comfortable and desperate. It was a life of pure compromise.
It was a life of accepting how shitty things were and thinking I’ll just try and “make the most of it”.
I’ll just get life to a place where it’s tolerable.
They then held up a purple post-it pad and said this is where you want to be and who you want to become.
This was Purple Island.
And it may seem simple, and a bit obvious, but it had a profound impact on me.
It’s as if all at once, life didn’t just feel like compromise, but collaboration, a partnership with myself and my purpose.
It wasn’t about waiting for someone or something telling me what to do, how to feel, or keeping me from feeling.
This is was empowerment incarnate.
And as much as I wanted to point the finger at everyone and everything else,
I kept myself in paralysis because whether I liked it or not,
whether I was aware of it or not, I chose to stay on Green Island.
I chose to suffer and believe all the wrong things about this beautiful life filled with beautiful mystery.
I could see Purple Island and the ocean that separated me from it.
So I jumped in and haven’t looked back.