El Cruce Smackdown - The Initiation

El Cruce was a three-day initiation into a deeper way of meeting life.
An initiation rooted in willingness — to meet whatever arose without resistance.

After 27 weeks of training, El Cruce wasn’t something Jess needed to survive or conquer. She had earned her place on that starting line. Not because she knew how it would unfold — but because she trusted how she would meet it.

In this episode, she shares what it was like to step into Patagonia immersed in Argentinian culture, surrounded by energy, rhythm, and language she didn’t understand — and how that language barrier became a gift. A quiet. A witnessing. A rare inner stillness in the middle of so much movement.

We talk about fear — the kind that keeps you alive, and the kind that keeps you from living — and how willingness becomes the antidote to overwhelm. We walk through her race strategy across each stage, the mantras that anchored her, and the mindset that allowed the experience to stay fluid rather than forceful.

This conversation also goes into the practical pieces: nutrition, recovery, daily routines, and camp life — and why integration matters just as much as effort. Training doesn’t end at the finish line. It reveals who you’ve become.

This isn’t a hype episode.
It’s an honest look at what it means to meet the unknown without collapsing or controlling — and how that way of meeting life is available to all of us.