Introducing Keith Martin-Smith and David Arrell's live course
Attunement Culture
What’s harder — changing the world, or yourself?
Only one of them really works.
You’re not burned out. You’re hungry for meaning.
We live in a culture that mistakes noise for truth, performance for presence, and attention for love.
A world that celebrates motion but forgets direction.
You’ve read the books. You’ve listened to the podcasts.
You’ve tried the mindfulness apps, the vision boards, the self-optimizing routines.
And still, something’s missing.
You’re not broken. You’re just misaligned.
This isn’t about fixing yourself — it’s about remembering what alignment feels like.
Pause and consider
Where do you go for information?
Where do you go for knowledge?
And where do you go for wisdom?
This course is about that last one.
Attainment vs. Attunement
We were raised inside Attainment Culture — where worth is measured in output, where attention is currency, and where “more” is the only acceptable direction.
It’s a system that rewards achievement but starves character.
That praises productivity yet punishes stillness.
That values recognition more than realization.
But there’s no dignity in that game.
Because dignity — unlike status or success — can’t be earned or lost. It’s something you recognize, in yourself and in others.
Attunement Culture begins there.
It asks a different question:
Not What can I get?
But Who am I becoming?
Attunement is about quality over quantity.
It’s the practice of coherence — aligning your thoughts, words, and actions so they move in the same direction.
It’s learning to listen deeply enough that your very presence becomes a form of influence.
This course is an invitation into that shift — from attainment to attunement, from self-improvement to self-alignment.
From Attainment to Dignity Culture
Our culture has split into two extremes — a victim culture and a bully culture, each defining itself in opposition to the other.
Both are trapped inside the same paradigm of power: one claims moral status through suffering, the other through domination.
But neither rests on real ground.
Dignity Culture offers that ground.
It begins with a radical act of recognition: every person, by virtue of being human, holds an equal claim to worth — not because of what they do or believe, but because they are.
Dignity is the antidote to both victimhood and domination.
It dissolves the false hierarchy that says one must win while another must lose.
From that shared ground, we can finally build higher ground — a place where respect can be earned, but dignity is never withdrawn.
When we orient from dignity, growth stops being a contest and becomes a collaboration.
We move from “winning” to becoming; from argument to alignment.
Attunement goals grow out of that soil.
They ask: How can I live in a way that increases dignity — in myself, in others, and in the world around me?
This course lives inside that question.
Course Overview
An eight-week, live, immersive journey with Keith Martin-Smith and David Arrell.
This isn’t another idea to add to your bookshelf.
It’s a lived practice — a shared exploration into how to become more whole, awake, and human in a world that keeps demanding more and more while giving less and less.
You’ll join a group of serious practitioners — not dabblers — to explore what it means to live from dignity, depth, and integration.
This is not content to consume.
It’s a container for transformation.
What You'll Learn
The Structure: A Path Through Time
Transformation doesn’t move in a straight line.
It unfolds across time — the past, the present, and the future — each one demanding a different kind of attention.
1. The Past → HEALTH
What still shapes you?
We all carry stories — inherited, absorbed, or self-created.
We all carry wounds — personal, ancestral, cultural.
Unless they’re seen, they continue to shape us from the shadows.
This module is about turning toward those stories with clarity and compassion — not to relive them, but to release their grip.
You’ll learn to recognize outdated roles, unspoken contracts, and the subtle emotional weight that lives beneath your reactions.
Drawing on tools from developmental psychology, shadow work, and somatic awareness, you’ll start to reclaim energy that’s been locked away in the past.
Healing is not about erasing what happened.
It’s about including it wisely — recovering the energy bound up in old identities and reactive tendencies, and re-integrating it into the present.
2. The Present → DEPTH
Where are you, really?
Not geographically, but existentially.
Are you living in the now, or in the echo chamber of your own reactivity?
Attainment Culture rewards performance.
Attunement Culture requires presence.
Here we cultivate the muscle of being — through breath, integrity, and embodied awareness.
You’ll learn to recognize when you’re posturing, performing, or people-pleasing, and to replace those habits with grounded authenticity.
Practices include:
- Breathwork and body grounding
- Integrity check-ins
- Relational attunement
- Meditation for real life, not retreat life
This is where character and virtue become lived practices — the place where the fruits of inner work ripen into the visible qualities of patience, steadiness, and care.
Wisdom is impossible without developing the capacity to focus your attention.
This is at the heart of every wisdom tradition. Attention is what steadies the mind, deepens perception, and allows insight to ripen into understanding.
Presence isn’t passive.
It’s the foundation of everything that endures.
3. The Future → GROWTH
This section explores how to orient your goals, values, and commitments from a place of coherence — so that your vision of “better” serves life, not just your ego.
We’ll work with questions like:
- What kind of human am I becoming?
- What kind of legacy am I creating in the people around me?
- What am I in service to?
Through the lens of adult developmental theory, we’ll see how motivation evolves — and how to harness that evolution consciously.
Ultimately, this work leads to alignment: linking your inner development to a larger field of value and culture, so that your growth supports not only your life, but the lives around you.
What You’ll Receive
- Eight live sessions — 75 minutes each, with real-time teaching, Q&A, and practice.
- Two seasoned guides — live each week, not hidden behind pre-recorded content.
- A framework for real transformation — integrating trauma-aware tools, developmental maps, and embodied practice.
- A private community — small, off-social-media, and designed for real dialogue.
- Session recordings for flexible access.
- Experiential practices every week: reflective prompts, breathwork, developmental exercises, and relational tools.
The Fruits of the Spirit
Transformation isn’t measured in milestones — it’s revealed through fruits.
As the ancient traditions teach, “You will know them by their fruits.”
When the conditions are right, the deeper self expresses naturally as love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.
These are the fruits of the Spirit — the natural outgrowth of a life lived in attunement.
They’re not given to you, and they’re not imposed. They emerge when alignment becomes your way of being.
This course gives you the soil, the light, and the structure to let those qualities take root.
This is not a lecture series. It’s a living lab.
Who This Is For
This course is for you if:
- You’re done chasing what doesn’t fulfill you.
- You sense that growth now means depth, not speed.
- You’re ready to meet yourself with honesty and curiosity.
- You want to integrate wisdom, not just collect insights.
It is not for you if:
- You want a quick fix or a passive download.
- You’re not ready to do your own work.
- You prefer identity over evolution.
This course won’t save you.
It will help you save yourself — by remembering who you are beneath the noise.
Your Guides
Keith Martin-Smith is an award-winning author, Zen priest, and Northern Kung Fu lineage holder who has trained and taught for more than 30 years. A master of Qi Gong and Integral coach, he brings literary precision, deep embodiment, and hard-won insight to the path of transformation. Keith’s work integrates shadow, development, and stillness — helping people grow without armoring their hearts or losing their depth.
David Arrell is a Leadership Coach, author, and cultural translator who bridges the practical with the philosophical. He works at the intersection of personal development, cultural evolution, and lived wisdom — translating complexity into coherence and care. With humor, clarity, and rigor, David helps people move from the quest for conquest to the quest for meaning.
Together, Keith and David offer a rare synthesis of clarity and embodiment — not to lead from a pedestal, but to walk beside you as you do the work.
Final Word
You’ve done the reading. You’ve listened to the podcasts.
You’ve performed presence. Now it’s time to live it.
This is your invitation to step into a different kind of growth — one rooted in dignity, coherence, and care.
You don’t need to change the world.
You need to become the kind of person who can.
Starts January 13, 2026.
Live on Zoom • Eight sessions • $550 USD
Enrollment limited.
About Keith Martin-Smith
Keith Martin-Smith is an award-winning author, writing coach, and Zen priest. He is passionate about human connection, creativity, and evolution.
His most recent book is "When the Buddha Needs Therapy" which was published by Integral Life Press (2022).
You can learn more about him and his work at http://www.keithmartinsmith.com
About David Arrell
David Arrell is an Executive Coach & Consultant with a background in Entrepreneurship and Leadership Development & Training. He is passionate about both personal and professional growth and supporting those making meaningful and positive change in the world.
www.catalystforchange.xyz
david@catalystforchange.xyz
Course Curriculum
There are no modules in this training course.Frequently Asked Questions
The program runs from January 13 to March 3. There are eight live sessions on Zoom every Tuesday at 11:30 MT. Each class is 75 minutes.
For more information, please visit our support page.
$550 $695
* Supporting members of Integral Life receive an additional 20% off the price above. Log in or sign up for your member discount.
- – January 13 - March 3; Tuesdays 11:30 MT, 75 minutes a class.
- – No tiers. No upsells. One commitment, all in.
- – Live on Zoom, eight sessions.
- – Enrollment is limited to preserve intimacy and connection.