The Epidemic of Disconnect

Last week was my first full week back in Ericeira.
There was Hyrox training. Coaching calls. Sunshine. Walking. Great food.

But the highlight was Saturday … a full-day, in-person session with two amazing clients, Dougie and Marty, who flew in from Northern Ireland to spend the day together.

It’s part of my year-long coaching offer now … clients who commit for a year also get to spend a full day with me in person. We get to go deep … to sit in the conversation about what really matters, what’s getting in the way, and what’s possible.

We talked business. We talked life. We talked truth.
We walked the coastline. We laughed, shared stories, broke bread.
We watched the sun go down with Jules and ended the day in an unforgettable local fish restaurant.

It was a day of connection. Deep, real connection.
A perfect day.

Then everything changed.

That night, I got sick.
At first, I thought it was food poisoning … but it turned out to be a stomach bug that left me nauseous, flat, and completely out of energy.

On Sunday I tried to walk … and had to sit down after 200 metres. I barely ate for two days. Even my Oura ring sounded the alarm. I had to switch it to rest mode.

Then Jules got sick too.

We were both down. No training. No travel. No energy.
Just two days of lying still … hydrating, resting, waiting.

We were together … but not.
Each caught in our own discomfort.
Each inhabiting the separate world of our own physical limitation … our own human frailty.

And I felt it … the disconnect.

Not just from her … but from me. From who I really am.
From my document. From the world. From everything.

Even though Jules and I were never more than a few feet apart, yet I felt alone. Small. Scared.

I went inward … but not in the good way. I wasn’t in presence. I was in ego. In fear. In separation.

But slowly, the tide turned.

By Wednesday, we were back on our feet.
We walked further. Got groceries.
Shared time with an inspiring Swedish couple we’d met the week before.
I even made it to the barber.

Today, I coached a few brilliant clients.
I’m 80% back. Booked in for the gym tomorrow.
And excited to fly to Delhi for a good friend’s wedding.

And something else came back too.
Not just my energy.
My connection.

My appetite for food returned … but so did my appetite for life.
My appetite for connection with myself. With Jules. With the world I’m part of.
With the field of possibility that’s always there, whether I’m tapped in or not.

In the words of Alan Watts, I no longer feel like “this poor little stranger and afraid in a world it never made.”

Because I know that was the real pain.
Not the nausea. Not the tiredness.
The real pain was the illusion of disconnection … of believing the lie that I was alone.

And it got me wondering…

What if the greatest pain many of us carry isn’t physical at all … but the ache of apparent disconnection?

Disconnection from ourselves. From each other.
From the aliveness that’s always available when we come home to who we are.

What if the real epidemic is this belief that we’re separate … that we’re out here doing life alone?

But what if we’re not?

What if we are always connected … to our true selves, to each other, to something infinitely wise and alive?

And what if that’s where real power comes from …
Not from hustle … not from proving …
But from coming alive through connection.

What becomes possible when we remember that?
What could we create if we lived from that place?

What could your life, your leadership, your business look like if you stopped operating like a “poor little stranger” … and started building from the wholeness, the completeness that’s already inside you?

Because the truth is …
You’re not alone.
You’ve never been alone.
And the real you has always been right there … waiting for you to reconnect.

Much love,

Peter

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