The First Step Is Not Out There — Extended Anthem

A sacred moment of reflection for anyone beginning to turn inward.
This is the Extended Anthem version of my original “First Step” piece — expanded after a listener asked for more time, and kept true to the original spine.

This isn’t a track to guide you somewhere else. It’s a reminder that what you’re looking for has always lived inside you.
Spoken with real honesty and layered with quiet ambiance, this is both personal and foundational — the kind of teaching you don’t learn from books, you learn from surviving.

This recording uses my regular voice (not my usual studio voice profile).
Listen with headphones. Listen with presence.

Transcript

The first step is not out there,

It's not in a book,

It's not in a temple,

It's not in some whisper from the sky telling you you're ready.

The first step is here,

Right here,

In your chest,

In your breath,

In the broken pieces you've been avoiding for too long.

In the nights you said,

I'm fine,

And you weren't.

In the days you kept moving,

Because if you stopped,

Everything might catch up.

I wasn't born on a cushion.

I was born in the fire,

Where silence wasn't peaceful,

It was protection,

Where stillness wasn't trendy,

It was survival,

Where even your breath was a prayer and a warning,

Half survival,

Half surrender,

Where you learn to laugh with your back against a wall,

Where you learn to read a room before you read a book,

Where you say you're okay,

So nobody asks questions you don't have answers for,

And still,

Something in me refused to die.

There was a whisper beneath the chaos,

A flicker of light beneath the fight,

A truth too stubborn to stay silent.

That's the voice I speak from now,

Not from a mountaintop,

From a kitchen sink,

From a bus stop,

From the spaces between paychecks and panic attacks.

I'm not here to impress you,

I'm not here to preach,

I'm here to remind you,

You don't need to be perfect,

You need to be present,

You don't need a platform,

You need a place to sit and feel again,

You don't need applause,

You need quiet and courage and breath,

You don't need to fix your whole life in one meditation,

You just need to stop running for the length of one honest inhale,

One honest exhale.

Monk Mode Society is not a brand,

It's a path,

It's sacred discipline,

For the ones who've been hurt,

But never surrendered,

For the ones who carry stories,

They don't tell at dinner,

For the ones who are tired of breaking,

The same way every year,

For the ones who want to love,

Without losing themselves,

Without losing their soul.

Monk Mode Society is for the single parent,

Counting dollars in prayers,

At a kitchen table past midnight,

For the veteran who wakes up to wars nobody else can see,

For the artist who refuses to lie,

Just to be liked,

For anyone who's ever thought there has to be another way to live than this,

So breathe with me,

Right here,

Right now,

Not to escape,

But to return,

Return to the body,

You learned to leave,

Return to the truth that kept glowing in you,

Even when everything else went dark,

First step is not out there,

It's this moment,

This breath.

Reviews

Been following you since the beginning, keep doing what you do.

Amazing track! It speaks as if from the depths of my own soul: "Something in me refused to die. A whisper beneath the chaos. A truth too stubborn to stay silent." Thank you for creating this wonderful track, it speaks to me so deeply 🤗❤️