Life After Autopilot

Trauma and conditioning shape our lives, but they don’t get to finish our story.

Austen LeTourneau

Speaker & Host of The Everything Experiment™

Where The Cycle Begins

Early life dramatically shapes the future we build. When we’re impacted by certain trauma, conditioning, or wounding, it creates the subconscious program, aka autopilot, that runs the show:

  • We drift into inauthentic paths

  • We act in opposition with our true desires

  • Our circumstances reflect a life with tension

  • And we believe that we are choosing these things

But the truth is, the paths we enter because of our wounds are better understood as survival adaptations: places where our programming has taught us to feel “safe.”

The Adaptations

When coping with trauma via survival adaptations, we go through seasons of identity changes:

  • A career path that felt like the right move

  • A creative outlet that seemed honest

  • A relationship we swore was “the one”

And the longer we remain in these adaptations, the further we get from a truly authentic life.

This is also known as reinforcement. We teach ourselves that these things are “who we are.”

From Reinforcement to Distortion

As we continue to move through our lives, deepening our connection to these adaptations, we move from reinforcing the behaviors, into a distorted view of our own reality.

We now firmly believe that the choices we’re making are honest, authentic, and fully aware.

When we operate here for too long, it often leads to a life event that does one of two things, it either:

  • Forces us to examine ourselves

  • Or keeps us stuck in the cycle

This is known as The Rupture

How The Rupture Can Look

Maybe a relationship ends abruptly. Maybe a health scare reveals unhealthy choices. Or maybe your anger is uncovering a deeper misalignment. The list is endless, but they all share one thing in common:

They give us the power to break the cycle.

The Cycle In Summary

The Rupture becomes the inflection point. Either we look inward, or the cycle repeats.

The Wound Wheel™

Interrupting The Cycle

Through live conversations and audience experiences, Austen explores the patterns that shape how we live, and what becomes possible when we finally start paying attention.

These are honest discussions about curiosity, presence, identity, change, and the tension between the life we inherit and the life we actually want to live.

More Than a Podcast. A Way of Life.

A podcast exploring life after autopilot.

This is a show about what comes next.

Through conversations and real-world experiences, Austen explores how life looks and feels on the other side of trauma and conditioning.

Part exploration, part reflection, and part reminder that there’s more to life than drifting through it subconsciously.

A New Way Forward

Stay Curious

Notice how things make you feel, and always ask why. The answers continue to free you.

Explore New Things

Put yourself out there and discover what lights you up. The only way to know, is to try.

Build the Life You Love

Rebuild trust in your intuition and continue to curate a life that genuinely excites you.