Hi. I'm Geoff. This is my story...

Before anxiety entered my life, I was free.

In my twenties, the world felt wide open. I chased adventure across continents - sailing in the South Pacific; surfing warm waves around the world; running my own English school in Japan; months skiing waist-deep powder in Canada. Life was exploration and movement. I trusted my body. I trusted my mind. I trusted that more unforgettable experiences would always be just over the horizon.

I had no language for panic. No concept of anxiety.

Shortly after my thirtieth birthday, that carefree world imploded...

Without warning, a surge of terror ripped through my body. My heart raced. My chest tightened. Reality felt thin and unreal. I thought I was losing my mind.

Then it happened again. And again.

Panic attacks began marching through my life, claiming more ground each time.

I had no idea what was happening. This was the late 1990s—no internet forums, no shared vocabulary, no space for men’s emotions.. I tried to ignore it. I tried to push through. I told no one. To admit what was happening would make it real—and if it was real, it might never leave.

My inner world was shattered, even as I pretended everything was fine. Within months, I had to quit my job at a heli-skiing company and move home with my parents.

My life - once expansive and adventurous - collapsed into a small existence governed by fear. After a year and a half of relentless anxiety, I was empty. Exhausted. Hopeless. Running on fumes. Desperate, I bought a stack of self-help books. One suggested surrendering to a higher power. I rejected the idea immediately. I didn’t want God. I didn’t want religion. I didn’t want surrender.

I just wanted my life back.

But I was terrified, broken, and out of options. So believing in nothing but my own desperation, I dropped to my knees and - unconvinced and unbelieving - whispered words I had just read: “Thy will, not mine.”

Instantly, the panic vanished. A deep calm flooded in. After a year and a half of torment, I was at peace.

That moment set me firmly on a spiritual path I never intended to walk—and one that I committed to navigating as bravely and truthfully as I could going forward.

Over time, that peace faded and anxiety occasionally returned—but I wasn’t lost anymore. I had tools. Yoga. Meditation. Therapy. Inner work. I studied my mind. I sat with my breath.

My anxiety eased. Inner peace deepened.

And then - years later - came Covid…

As an asthmatic, I was high risk - an invisible foe was everywhere. Fueled by fear and vulnerability, a tsunami of anxiety I hadn’t felt since before my awakening so long ago surged again - raw and overwhelming - shattering my inner peace. After all these years. After all this work. What the hell?

It was almost as if I was thirty years old all over again. Although this time, there were no panic attacks - they had ceased being an issue long ago - just an intense anxiety that engulfed me.

I practiced everything I knew. Still, it burned uncontrollably. That’s when I realized something unsettling: mindfulness alone wasn’t enough. The map I had trusted had run out of roads.

The stakes became clear: Was lasting peace actually possible? Or would overwhelming anxiety always return?

And then, a couple years later - a breakthrough.

As Covid passed, so did my anxiety. I signed up for a silent meditation retreat - looking to deepen the peace that had returned to my life. Just days before it began, I developed a painful dental abscess. Once in silence, the pain intensified. Fear exploded. I came face to face once again with overwhelming anxiety - something I hadn’t experienced since the pandemic.

I was alone in silence with all of it - and nowhere to hide.

And then - during one intense bout of pain and fear—clarity.

I finally understood what had kept me caged with anxiety all those years: beneath my mindfulness was a deep, hidden resistance, keeping me trapped. I realized that I wasn’t just suffering from anxiety, I was participating in it. I was contributing to it. In that moment, I saw that anxiety doesn’t dissolve through observation alone. It softens when we introduce safety and compassion into the body. When we welcome it.

My inner world began to open. In my heart, I knew: this was the path to freedom.

A year later, that knowing profoundly deepened during a six-week silent retreat I entered while completely heartbroken over a long-term relationship ending. The pain was unbearable. I could barely stand. And then, on top of it, old childhood wounds—abandonment, trauma, grief— rose to the surface.

For weeks, I was on fire. I was in hell. But I persevered - committed to doing what I had learned on that earlier retreat.

Instead of tightening, I infused my body with ease.

Instead of armoring against the fear, I began meeting it with compassion.

Instead of resisting it, I held it - as if comforting a frightened child—my inner child.

And by doing that, I realized something life-altering: we have the power to create an entirely new inner world - one of peace, spaciousness, and quiet power - that not only heals our anxiety, but can become our new reality. An inner world that anxiety may have buried, but never erased.

That realization changed my life.

I no longer wait for peace to arrive. I know how to create it - to infuse my inner world with it. And having continued to do so, I’m honestly amazed at the deepening stillness, presence, and inner strength it has brought me.

Today, anxiety still arises occasionally, as do all human emotions, but now it is right sized - just one thread in the rich tapestry of a life anchored in deeper presence… This path has brought me much more deeply into the here and now - and into the richness that can only be found there.

A long time ago, I searched the world for new experiences. Now I find them in every moment.

From the depths of my own healing, my life’s work emerged. Today, I teach others how to transform their anxiety and build an inner world rooted in safety, strength, and compassion - without having to endure the years of suffering I did.

I help them realize that anxiety is not an obstacle to inner peace, but the doorway to it…

My work is informed not only by what I learned on those retreats, but also by over twenty-five years of study, training, and practice. After a nine-month residency at the Kripalu Center for Yoga & Health studying yogic traditions in 1999, I completed the MBSR Teacher Training program at the Center for Mindfulness at UMass Medical School in 2001. I have also studied trauma-informed healing techniques and Nonviolent Communication. I am certified at the professional level through the International Mindfulness Teachers Association and have authored two books on mindful living. My mindfulness teachings have been used by the US Department of Veterans Affairs, and my course Anxious No More has supported more than 2,000 people in transforming their relationship with anxiety.

Originally from Canada, I’ve called Western Massachusetts home for the past twenty-five years. I’m also an artist - drawn to painting, photography, and creating art from natural materials. And I love playing in nature: skating on frozen lakes, mountain biking, and going barefoot whenever I can.