Bloom Where You’re Planted (Even When the World Is On Fire)
Mark Price answers the AGECRAFT After Dark questionnaire
Name: Mark Price
Pronouns: he/him
Age: 53
Bio: With over 25 years of experience as a coach and teacher, Mark is dedicated to helping individuals create lasting, sustainable change from the inside out. His work lives at the intersection of somatic practice, nervous system regulation, meditation, and social change.
Mark is a Vedic Meditation teacher and pulls from the modalities of traditional coaching, Somatic Experiencing, Inner Relationship Focusing, and Focalizing. He is the founder of Alchemy Collective, where he leads transformative programs for individuals, organizations, and communities. His work has extended globally, including workshops and trainings for corporations, universities, and executive health programs.
After experiencing PTSD and performance anxiety, Mark discovered Vedic Meditation and was profoundly impacted by its effects. This led him to complete an intensive 2 year teacher training, including study in Rishikesh, India, advanced coursework in Vedic knowledge, and ongoing mentorship with leading teachers in the field.
Through his work, Mark supports others in reconnecting with their inner resources, building resilience, and creating meaningful change in their lives and the world.
Please answer the following (each answer should be no more than 200 words):
What’s currently keeping you up at night (existential dread, grocery lists, life epiphanies, imaginary arguments, or all of the above…)?
I have great hope for where we’re headed, what we can do as a collective. But there is so much division right now, and what we have access to in terms of the information that’s coming out can really crash our nervous systems. We’re not designed to know what’s happening in every corner of the globe 24/7, we’re designed to be in community with each other, and I worry that people forget that change starts in their immediate circle of influence, their families, communities, co-workers, and geographical locations. Bloom where you’re planted is what I always say, but what I see in others and even in myself at times, is that we’re so fried by the firehose effect of events that we lose connection to possibility for what’s possible right here and now.
What valuable lessons have you learned and unlearned from your ancestors? (Family, cultural, chosen, or imagined.)
To feel it is to end the cycle. I come from a lineage of trauma, addictions, suicides, and generations of men that didn’t have language for what they felt, so the default is shame and “not enough.” I think of the men in my family in particular, and the conditioning away from this idea that there’s strength in softness. That to have connection to emotion is actual stability and to find someone to confide in and to share can be an unburdening. Now that I’m a father, my inner childhood wounds say hello in real time with every passing year as my son gets older, which is a phenomenon for a lot of parents. But I see clearly how this idea of “not enough” has creeped in like a virus over generations and eroded character. That ends with me, the work I continue to do, and the possibilities I can model for my son.
Where are you in the liminal space of age and/or identity right now?
I feel like I’m just getting started. I love getting older, I love the embodied wisdom, not caring what others think as much and the capacity for joy that I experience from simpler things. I love the potential for connection with myself and others that I didn’t have access to in my 30’s and 40’s. I have a background in the arts as a performer, so the amount of ambition, drive, hard work, and not being able to slow down in the gig economy as an artist is garbage. It’s been such a blessing to let that go and opt for more presence and connection.
From the eight questions below, select and answer FIVE (each answer should be no more than 200 words):
If you were a ghost, who would you haunt—and how would you let your presence be known (Smoke, rattling chains, moving furniture)?
I would haunt shitty casting directors and leave mysterious animal turds for them.
What’s a place, habit, or moment that reliably feels a little bit enchanted to you?
Nature. Always. Trees in particular. There’s a spot in a nature reserve nearby where there’s a circle of pine trees that stretch up to the sky, creating a canopy of leaves above and a spot with pine needles and a couple of tree logs for seats underneath-it’s a powerful spot, like a circle of the elders.
What did you believe you were “running out of time” for—and how do you see that differently now?
What are you learning to live alongside, rather than change or “fix”?
More compassion/acceptance, less of a need to crack any code or find any formula. I had a teacher recently who stated his practice was letting go. Daily. When I heard that, as a person who’s lost many people to various unexpected tragedies, I flinched, but when I really thought about it, that’s all we’re ever doing, which is letting go of who we think we are, of rigid attachment to outcome, of time, events, and space. That’s all in favor of creating space for the next moment, the next experience of vitality. It’s a beautiful practice when you think about it, and I think that’s what I strive for. The letting go and being present to what is.
When/Where have you (quietly or loudly-both count) refused the script you were handed?
The moment I was born, and the decision to have a child.
What brings you power, pleasure, or joy that once felt impractical, indulgent, or “too much”?
Stillness. Good coffee, high thread count, massages, travel and house plants.
What bodily investment do you spend time or money on that others might call “vain,” but you know is actually about visibility, ritual and power?
Here at AGECRAFT After Dark, we view aging as initiation and empowerment—but let’s be honest it’s not all glow-ups. What part of aging genuinely sucks for you right now?
Oh boy, the energy for sure. I miss that level 10. I think having a kid really puts that in check, but the inexhaustible source of energy that felt I could go on for days would be stellar. But that being said, I don’t understand people who feel like once they hit 50, they’re ready for retirement. As I mentioned before, I’m just getting started.