SPEAKER_01 0:00

It's funny because a lot of men put on this mask of like, I'm fine, everything's good, I'll figure it out. But the irony is like when you pretend or you fake it and you are really stressed and your body actually needs healing and rest, your cortisol is going up more. When your cortisol goes up, your testosterone goes down. It's literally the antithesis to testosterone. There was probably like four separate times where I legitimately considered taking medication for antidepressants, and that would have been okay if I did. It was two years into the holistic health space at that point. It wasn't because I, you know, was too prideful or my ego was loud or like I'm too cool for you know Western medicine. It was like I just genuinely didn't think it was the solution. Depression turns into depression. And this is what Jim Carrey says. He says, you know, I realized I was depressed because I needed deep rest.

SPEAKER_00 0:47

Welcome to the Inner Edge Podcast. Today's guest is Mike Schmidt. He is a holistic nutrition and hormone health coach. Welcome, Mike.

SPEAKER_01 0:58

Thanks so much for having me.

SPEAKER_00 0:59

Pumped to be here. Absolutely. Glad to have you. Uh so tell us who you are and what you do.

SPEAKER_01 1:05

Yeah, my name is Mike Schmidt. I'm originally from Boston, Massachusetts. Uh, moved out to San Diego about seven years ago to really dive deep into the wellness space. And essentially, you said it perfect. I'm a nutrition and hormone health coach, and I help people beat burnout and heal their relationship with food through nervous system regulation and the gut-brain connection. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 1:30

That's quite a quite a few different things in there. Nice.

SPEAKER_01 1:34

It's a holistic approach.

SPEAKER_00 1:35

Yeah, I love it. And so what is it that let's just say hypothetically, like if you were to work with someone, like what does that look like?

SPEAKER_01 1:44

Yeah, so recently I've switched to primarily group coaching because of how much I've realized that we are meant to co-regulate and heal in community. And the main phases of the program are the brain, the body, and the being. So the first being the brain is where we really dig into the root cause of your relationship with food and where that really stems from. Um, because at the end of the day, I can tell people all day long what to eat, you know, when to sleep, to not doom scroll on their phone. But all these things are interconnected, right? Because if you're not sleeping well, then you're not going to be motivated to work out or you're not going to be motivated to eat uh healthy. And so um, yeah, that's where the first phase is getting deep on the mindset in the brain. And then the being is uh at the end and in the middle is the body. So that's where we really learn more about like the physical body and nutrition and how nutrition affects your gut and your brain and how those two things are interconnected. And then that last phase of being is really just helping people put it all together and really embody what it means to be a superhuman and actually manifest that and put it into action and genuinely start changing your life because information without action is just you know mere entertainment. Absolutely good words. Yes.

SPEAKER_00 3:07

Yeah. Uh yeah, good words. Um, can you say that again? I think that was that's an important piece where yeah.

SPEAKER_01 3:18

Um knowledge without action is just mere entertainment.

SPEAKER_00 3:21

Yeah, so it's like the idea behind gaining knowledge, just theory theory. I think that's one of the reasons why I am so excited about this sort of type of podcast that I imagined for myself, whether it's gonna go anywhere or not. It was just a vision of like, I don't want people to just keep learning. I want the guest to offer an exercise so they can embody stuff instead of just always like, yeah, I'm gonna learn, I'm gonna learn, learn, I'm gonna learn. Okay, cool. Learning is one piece. What are you gonna do about it? So great. Thank you for the work that you do. I think it's amazing. Um, so before we dive into deeper as to like how this can help men and why men could benefit from the work that you do, how did you get here yourself?

SPEAKER_01 4:05

I love that question because it just zooms you in at the present moment and really helps you reflect on how you got here. And uh it all really started just growing up as an athlete. And I kind of just always had this burn it off mentality where it doesn't matter what I ate as long as I like looked skinny or if I wasn't gaining weight, like it was fine. I would just burn it off, right? Um, you know, go do a 20-mile bike ride or you know, five-mile run, like it's all good. And you know, in college, like most college kids, I was binge drinking like multiple nights uh throughout the week. And then I would just like exercise and quote sweat it out. Um, but you know, pretty much starting in like middle school and through high school and through college, and then even after in the in the corporate world, I suffered from chronic acne. Um and I was on like the proactive, I was on um the tretinoin cream, the topical cream, I was on um, I almost took Accutane. I took an antibiotic at one point because this is what the doctors were telling me to do. And I was just like, yeah, chomping at the bit for an answer and trying everything, but just really couldn't figure it out. And then um essentially I started getting into calisthenics. I don't know if you know Ito Portal's work. Um, he does a lot of like, you know, animalistic type movement and like gymnastics and kind of combines like spinal work and just all this like really cool uh fascia related stuff. And um I became obsessed with like muscle ups and handstands, and I essentially uh tore my labrum in my left shoulder, um, which sucked, but it was the biggest silver lining of my life because I started studying the human body that started getting me into nutrition, and then I started shopping at Whole Foods, and I realized like all the best food was coming from California, like looking at all the labels. And then uh yeah, I did a golf trip in January of 2019 with my brother, and just like within the first 10 hours of getting to San Diego, I was like, I need to move here. And I'd kind of known it was sort of like, you know, the holy grail for all health and wellness. So I moved out here, like not really knowing like what would happen, when, where, or why. But the good thing that happened to me moving out to San Diego was the pandemic. It was really the first time in my life I was able to slow down and reflect on what I genuinely actually wanted in my life. And um yeah, as we started working from home, I just yeah, was like, all right, like what am I actually passionate about? Like, what can I start on the side? And uh I got introduced to like this nutrition supplement company. And then I started, I was like, all right, I've never like tried to always been passionate about like nutrition, but I've never actually like made a step in like the right direction to maybe make it a career. So I did kind of this like multi-level marketing thing, um, which you know many of us know how that might go. And uh I was like telling my friend back home about it, and then she introduced me to a company called um IIN, which is the Institute for Integrative Nutrition. And uh it was a certification course. And literally within the first five weeks of joining that course, I totally eradicated all my chronic hemorrhoids, all my chronic acne. And it was just like this massive awakening. Like, how come nobody ever told me this? I struggled for 10 straight years, and the dermatologist all they would ever say is like drink more water and eat more fiber without any real direction.

SPEAKER_02 7:15

Right.

SPEAKER_01 7:15

And uh, you know, I had a family history of cancer and autoimmune disease. And then my roommate at the time was actually going through as a 26-year-old um outpatient chemotherapy for non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and like witnessing that firsthand, just like kind of kept getting all these pings from the universe, being like, Okay, like you have all this knowledge now, like like we just talked about before, like put it into action. Um because I kind of felt guilty for not sharing it with people, and then basically started an Instagram page, and then the rest is history.

SPEAKER_00 7:42

That's phenomenal. And so this is how long now?

SPEAKER_01 7:45

That was in, yeah, that was I think I officially launched the Instagram page in January of 2021.

SPEAKER_00 7:52

Congratulations. Thank you. Yeah, that's that's amazing. Okay, so you've had your own challenges to get to where you are. What was it in 2021 where you launched the Instagram page where you're like, okay, I want to teach people, I want to offer this to people now.

SPEAKER_01 8:09

Well, it's funny, I feel like the start is what stops most people. And I was just lucky because I had a friend from college who started his own uh fitness page, and I was talking to him over the phone. He kind of became this like quasi-mentor. And uh he was like, dude, just start the page. He's like, I was because I was like, I have all this knowledge, like it's really exciting. And he's like, dude, just like start it. I was like, well, what are my high school friends gonna think? What are my coworkers gonna think? What are my parents gonna think? And then I even like I tried, I think I like tried to set it on like something private or whatever, and then somehow I had like high school friends saying that it showed up as like their suggested page or whatever. And I was like, wait, how'd you find me? How'd you follow me? And they're like, No, I think it's awesome, like you should keep doing this. I was like, Oh, okay, cool. So, like people would start sending me like pictures of their breakfast or like their dinner meals, or like, hey, I had a good smoothie today, like thought of you, or I was at the grocery store and like I'm reading ingredients. And and so that's when I was like, oh, okay, like people actually are gaining some serious value from this. Like maybe I should start taking this more seriously. And as I went through my nutrition cert, they definitely helped set me up with um kind of how to launch the business, but it was a little bit more surface level and kind of basic. So I was like sitting there and I was like, okay, I know a lot about nutrition, I know a lot about health and sleep and hormones and stuff. But like if I'm gonna do this, like I got to do this the right way. Like I can try to set up my website and do all this stuff, but like I have no idea what I'm doing. And so fortunately, I because I started my Instagram page, right? The benefit of putting yourself out in the universe, like law of attraction. I think it was my fourth ever post. And I basically made this like um mock-up of what my what my program would look like. And then uh a business coach commented on it, was like, this looks awesome, like keep up the great work. And then I went onto his profile, went down this like massive rabbit hole, and there I was like going back to like you know, knowledge without action, just mere entertainment. I was like writing notes on his like Instagram reels. I was like, okay, like this is cool, but this is so overwhelming. And so I booked a call with him, and you know, it was a serious investment, obviously, but um, you know, I knew it would come back and it it did literally within like the first couple months because I signed my first three clients. Um, but yeah, I think it was just getting that feedback from other people that, like, wow, like what you're doing is actually really important. Right.

SPEAKER_00 10:18

Yes, yeah. So you you supported people right from the get-go, like you without you even realizing where people were like looking at your stuff and like actually sending you. That's amazing. Like how cool that is. Yeah, way to go. Thank you. So let's go a little bit about now. How does this specifically men? We want to talk about men because this is specific for men, like, what are some of the things that you've seen men go through that this could benefit them? Like, like, what are they, if they were to be like, oh, this is me, like what are some of the things that you could tell? Like, so they can be like, oh yeah, sure, I need this.

SPEAKER_01 10:52

Thank you for that question. I think the thing that just popped in my mind was uh one of my clients who played college football and D1 college football, right? He was an athlete, just like me, former athlete. Um, kind of always had this burner off mentality. And I think a lot of athletes have that innate mindset of like, I'm I'm different, like I just I need growth. Like, I know there's something more out there for me. And he was one of those types of people, right? And so um he went through my program like two or three years ago, and he had told me, like, you know, my football coach basically was just like, yeah, calories in, calories out. Like, as long as you do that, you're good.

SPEAKER_02 11:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 11:28

And, you know, I think he realized, like, maybe even during college and then post-college, once you hit the real world, you keep those same habits, right? Whether you're eating subway or you're eating fast food or like soda or whatever it might be. And I think the world is starting to wake up to that more that people don't do that as much. But there's so much greenwashing. It's like, what is actually healthy and what's actually good for me? If it's gluten-free or keto or vegan, like, you know, it doesn't always mean it's healthy. And so my point is like a lot of people have focused on yeah, just calories in, calories out. But my whole thing is that gut-brain connection is like, how does food affect your energy? How does it affect your brain? How does it affect your gut where 90% of your serotonin, your happiness hormone is in there, 70% of your immune system is in there, 90% of your neurotransmitters go from your gut up to your brain and not the other way around. And so um, he came to me because he was like, dude, I just feel like like I'm off, you know, I feel like there's something more out there for me. I want to like lose weight, I just want to feel more energy, I just want to feel better, I want to sleep better. And like what I'm doing just isn't working. And so he went through my program. And, you know, this isn't really like what I, you know, market myself as. Like, yeah, I think obviously a lot of people go through my program and they naturally, as a byproduct of like lowering inflammation and just feeling better and sleeping better and being happier, they literally just, you know, kind of automatically lose weight. Um, but he went through it and like, you know, lost like 16 pounds, um, you know, because as a former college athlete, you see a lot of guys kind of like lose themselves, right? Because they don't have the discipline or they don't have the structure. And then like the corporate world gets the best of them and you get really stressed and you don't sleep as well, and like you just get so overwhelmed from the modern day world. And um, yeah, I think I just remember his testimonial just basically being like, yeah, if you know that you want more and you want to feel better, but you don't know where to start, like this program is great for you. And so um, I think if anyone is out there maybe doing like HIT workouts or you know, doing the calorie thing, or even just like you already are eating ingredients and you feel like you are already healthy, but you still feel like crap. Um, I think my program is perfect because someone can tell you what to eat all day long. Um, but because I approach things so holistically around the hormones and like our emotional health and emotional regulation in the nervous system, I really help people understand like why they're actually even eating the food to begin with. It's not like, oh, should I or should I not have this? It's like, why am I even craving this to begin with? Right. And so it's like getting the answers to the math test when you count calories. It's like, all right, like, you know, you can kind of do it, but you didn't really know how you got there. And so that's why most nutrition programs and you know, health programs don't last for people because they don't actually know why they're doing it. And so I approach things from a more like, yeah, embodied, deeper um version because that's what creates the lasting change. And then like my goal is like, okay, my clients don't need me anymore because they're their own sovereign being. So yeah, I feel like that's ultimately what I teach is um I'm I'm the guide for these people, right? I'm a guide for these former athletes because I'm I can't, you know, eat the food for them. I can't, you know, tell them when well, I can tell them when to go to bed, right? But it's like they're making these decisions for themselves. So I really help provide that safe space for people to really actually understand what they really want and then you know, basically take an action on that versus someone just like telling them what to do. And so, yeah, even as I'm speaking now, too, thinking of a different client um who played at the professional level. Um, you know, same deal. Like he just like when he got to college, they put him on like a 5,000 calorie diet. And he was eating when he wasn't hungry, he was eating crappy food he didn't really want to eat, and you know, he gained the weight and he got m strong and muscular and stuff, but it caused a lot of gut issues for him. And that's like why he ended up working with me, you know, a couple of years later. And uh now he knows like what actual healthy food is and how to yeah, really heal your relationship with food and get yourself to a point where you uh feel empowered and you actually want to eat healthy versus like it feeling restrictive or you have to do it.

SPEAKER_00 15:35

And when when it when you said the words like sovereign being, uh I'm assuming that for each person that you work with, like the food intake and it's sort of different, right? Like what they eat and what they should eat, it's a different protocol. Is that correct?

SPEAKER_01 15:49

Yeah, yeah. That's one of my biggest concepts. Um is this term bioindividuality, right? One person's food could be another person's poison. And then the other big philosophy and concept is primary food versus secondary food. So primary food is everything that's off of your plate that affects your secondary food, which is everything that goes onto your plate, right? Because it's like I hear it all the time, I know what I need to do, but for some reason I don't do it. Yes. And it's like, okay, well, that's interesting. Like, I wonder why is that happening? Like, how's your stress? How's your sleep? How are your relationships? How is your social life? Are you getting into nature? Because when your body and your hormones and your nervous system is hijacked, like it doesn't care how much you want to be disciplined, or it doesn't care how much you think you might have willpower. All it cares is getting back to safety. And sometimes that safety is using comfort food, or it's using something to really take your mind off of you know, the pain that your nervous system is in. And so teaching people grace, you know, it's like, all right, you shame yourself a lot for not eating well, but it's like, dude, you're stressed out. Like, and I went through this when I went through my burnout, which we can talk more about, but yeah, it's uh that's why like approaching it from that deep mindset is really important, like healing a relationship with food. You look at all the GLP ones and stuff, it's like, you know, people are just gonna end up right back where they started. Um, or even if they don't, like it's you know, there's a potential, you know, a lot of side effects to that. And so it's like, I don't know, from a spiritual perspective, it doesn't seem like there's really many cheat codes in life. And so it's just like another thing. And um, so if you're not addressing the mindset that got that person there in the first place, like what are we doing?

SPEAKER_00 17:23

Yeah. You mentioned two athletes. So is that primarily who you work with?

SPEAKER_01 17:28

Or yeah, I would say former athletes is really the main type of people I work with, you know, which I would consider myself a former athlete, meaning like I grew up as an athlete. I played basketball, I played lacrosse. Um, you know, I still run, I still bike, I surf, I hike. Like, so I'm still an athlete, but I think from like this identity perspective of like high school or college or professional, um, a lot of people kind of resonate with that. Yeah, like I'm a former athlete, and then I hit the corporate world and I got really stressed and I kind of let myself go and I don't know what happened. And it's like, hello, stress. You know, that's why we approach it holistically.

SPEAKER_00 18:00

And your program, how long, how long is it? What does it look like?

SPEAKER_01 18:05

Yeah, it's typically um around three months. The the one I've kind of uh changed recently is is right around 15 weeks. So it's very particular on like the week by week of like what exactly we're doing. I think there's a lot of programs that are like you know, three, six, twelve months, which is cool. But like when I create my programs, I'm like, okay, like what does this person need? And then therefore, that depicts how long the program is gonna be based on like what they're gonna need when I work with them.

SPEAKER_00 18:32

Okay, and so the three-month is one-on-one, but you also said you do a group or is that the group?

SPEAKER_01 18:36

Okay, yeah, yeah. Yeah, I've been been doing more group work just because that really healed me when I went through my burnout, and I just realized the power of safe space, and especially for men, you know, it's like the male suicide rate's four times higher than it is for women, and just imagine if more men just simply had space to express themselves, and it's like yeah, while we're on the topic, it's interesting because when I went through my burnout journey, my testosterone totally tanked. Um I just knew it because of how burnt out I was and I was having these like afternoon energy crashes and gut health issues, but then I actually I got it tested and I was down to like 300. Um, and then when I got out of the burnout, I went back up to like 800. But it's funny because you know, a lot of men put on this mask of like, I'm fine, everything's good, like I'll figure it out. But the irony is like when you pretend or you fake it uh and you are really stressed and your body actually needs healing and rest, your cortisol is going up more. And so when your cortisol when your cortisol goes up, your testosterone goes down. It's literally the antithesis to testosterone. And this is why I said that example. It's like when I went through burnout, that's exactly what happened. My cortisol was so high, I was so stressed out. I was in a tough relationship, I was doing my corporate job and my own business. Um, you know, I was like doing all the right things. I was fasting, I was meditating, I was reading books, I was eating healthy. So I was like two years into the nutrition game at that point, but I still felt like crap. That's because I was so freaking stressed out and I wasn't, you know, I didn't have an outlet. Um, and so it's just wild how like there's kind of that, it's kind of like a catch-22 and kind of um an interesting dichotomy. It's like, yeah, the more you rest and the more you like actually self-express, the more testosterone you're gonna have because your nervous system feels safe versus it feeling like it's surviving and running away from a lion or tiger and cortisol and adrenalines cranking all day long. So it's like I think you know, organically I've been able to kind of embody this different uh definition of masculinity. I'm not here to define that, but for me, it's like if you want to feel good and be happy and have more energy than like just talking about what you're going through and expressing that in a safe space. Like that's where my business has kind of like changed, I've kind of like almost changed the name of you know superfood superhuman to like superfood super human, like all emphasis on human because it's like we all have gone through stuff, especially in the modern day world, like gut issues and bowel stuff and hormones and skin health. It's like, dude, you're just a human at the end of the day. And uh so yeah, it's it's interesting how how that all works and is connected.

SPEAKER_00 21:15

When it comes to to managing managing stress, what's some for the guys out there, what's some sort of like tools or ideas or perspectives besides joining your program that you can offer them?

SPEAKER_01 21:30

Sounds simple, but the breath, I mean, yeah, I'm like the nutrition guy, but I think that the breath has probably been the number one most foundational tool for me um when it comes to managing stress because I won't go into too much detail, but when I went through my burnout, yeah, I got myself to a very dark place, and there was probably like four separate times where I legitimately considered like taking medication or antidepressants, and that would have been okay if I did, but I just since I was two years into the holistic health space at that point, and it wasn't because I, you know. Was too prideful or my ego was loud, or like I'm too cool for you know Western medicine. It was like I just genuinely didn't think it was the solution. Um and so I'm grateful because I I did have you know breath work as a tool, but you know, too much of anything sometimes is never good, even even healing, right? And being obsessed with fixing yourself. So um, but when it comes to like real-time tools, yeah, I think like using humans, human connection, using your breath as medicine, using nature as medicine, using real food as a grounding healing mechanism. Um, but for me, like I think the breath is amazing because you can take it anywhere. I mean, it's obviously with you all the time. And so just some something as simple as like breathing in through your nose and exhaling through your mouth and making sure your exhales are longer than your inhales, that flips on the parasympathetic nervous system, which means like, you know, your body feels safe and everything's okay because our brain in the modern day world like just gets so loud and so busy. And it's like we come up with these like worst-case scenarios, and it's like it's really not that bad. We just have to breathe through it. And uh most people, because we're so stressed, we breathe from our chest. And we're stressed out, right? Because what happens when people have a panic attack? Like they can't breathe because they're they're like literally trying to breathe through their mouth and through their chest. But when you breathe through your nose and from your diaphragm and your stomach, that immediately resets you. And it seems really simple, it almost seems too simple, but it really is the answer. Like if you could do that five times in a row, maybe ten times in a row before you go into a podcast, you go into a meeting before you go into something that's giving you anxiety, like even just a social event. Like, just take a couple breaths and then take action. And that's kind of the um framework I use is like regulate, realize, release. And it's like, okay, regulate your body before you're about to go into whatever you're gonna go into. Realize the reality of like what's actually happening, that you are okay and you are safe, and then you know, release that tension in your body and in your brain by breathing.

SPEAKER_00 24:20

And so I'm glad you brought those three things up. That's part of the exercise that you want to offer. Why don't you go ahead and explain like a little bit about each one a little bit more? Yeah, and what the exercise is.

SPEAKER_01 24:32

Sure. Yeah, so like I said, it's a three-step process. Um, I really like frameworks because they help you come back to um yeah, that structure when things are crazy. It's like, what do I do? Like, I'm so stressed out, what's gonna happen? Like, oh my god, where do I even start? So the three-step phase is the regulate, the realize, and the release. So the regulation is literally getting out of your head and into your body. And depending on where you're at in your healing journey, like that might sound ethereal or it might sound weird, or it might not even just make any sense. But again, like because the modern day world stresses us out so much, we're just like our adrenaline's cranking, our cortisol's cranking, so we're literally like up here all the time instead of like being in our heart and being in our gut and our soul. So um something I like to do is to physically get into the body. Um, like I use like a massage gun at home, or I'll use a foam roller, or sometimes I'll do something like this where you're literally like um pressing your muscles and you're kind of like you know, punching your own body to get into the body to be like, okay, like wake up, like I'm here, like reminding myself that like I'm on this earth, I'm grounded. And so that's where we start is doing the um yeah, regulation and then the realization is through um yeah, grounding and meditation. So I basically just this is what I do with all my clients in a group call before I start the call, is um really just getting them into the present moment and helping them practice silence, honestly. That's really what it comes down to. It's like even sometimes it's five minutes, it's it's always just organic, so it depends on how long it will go. But like sometimes it's five minutes, sometimes it's ten minutes. And uh it's all just like kind of organic for what I feel like the space needs. And um, so that's where we just kind of yeah, practice the unraveling of our brain and let that kind of come through. And then uh the release is through the breath. So something I've been doing recently. Um if people are familiar with Jules Horn, he's like a facial specialist, and I have a deviated septum from playing basketball. I got bobbed in the nose. And so um, yeah, I I unfortunately tend to mouth breathe at night, which is not great. And it's been a thing on my to-do list for a long time to try to heal that. And so he has this program where you can basically like organically heal your um nose and your nasal pathway, like holistically, like your facial structure. And so um he says that if you breathe in through your nose and out through your mouth um for four seconds at the top and at the bottom, and you do that for 10 minutes twice a day, you can basically totally change how your body and your nervous system like breathes. And when it comes to everyday life, that's amazing. When it comes to sleep, that'll make your sleep so much better. And so, yeah, it's four four seconds inhale, four seconds exhale. I don't remember if I'd mentioned it, but it's gonna be inhale through the nose and exhale through the nose. So inhale for four. Exhale. And that's basically just telling your body that you're in the parasympathetic. And the way I remember, parasympathetic is like paradise, like I'm on the beach, like I'm in paradise, I'm calm, I'm digesting healthy food, I'm resting, whereas your sympathetic is kind of that stress mode. It's the up in your brain, it's the adrenaline, it's the cortisol. Um, so doing that gets you very quickly into the parasympathetic. So to kind of recap and review, it's the regulate, the realize, and the release. So the regulate is physically getting into your body, and then the second phase is the realize. We'll do a grounding meditation, and then the release is the breath work.

SPEAKER_00 28:21

This is great. This is a good snapshot for you guys out there who are like, ah, I don't have any time to do anything. Like, uh, well, here it is. It's like a quick reset for you to get into your body, to you know, tune in and to really get grounded to whatever it is you want to do, right? So why don't you go ahead and lead us through the exercise?

SPEAKER_01 28:41

Welcome into the gut brain connection reset. You can find a nice, comfortable position. If you're not driving, you can stand up for this first portion, or you can stay seated, whatever feels best for you. Really start to feel just grounded into the earth, your feet on the ground, letting the weight of your hips and your knees and your feet make you feel planted on the ground. Just honoring yourself for showing up to this exercise. The first thing we're gonna do is regulate. And we're going to start by taking your right hand into a fist and simply just start tapping on the top of your forearm. It's maybe gonna feel a little bit weird or awkward, but that's totally fine. It's exactly how it's supposed to be. You're just reminding your body that everything is okay, that you're safe. You can even imagine yourself going through a stressful time. Maybe you actually are right now, and just just kind of forgetting about it and getting into your body. Start on your left arm, and then we can switch over to the right. I actually do this at the beach a lot. And I got a lot of lear a weird a lot of weird looks. But what I always say to my clients is the weird stuff works. You can start tapping your chest a little bit, either oscillating it or going at the same time. Really, the whole point is just to feel into your body. And you can move down to your rib cage, hang out here for a couple seconds, just really thinking about the whole idea of how we really are oftentimes in the modern day world, so, so in our head. Just reminding our body that we're here. Keep on the ribs, and then you can kind of go down to your hips, just the top of your hips, maybe the side of your hips as well. And then yeah, slowly start moving down the side of your legs, up and down, start on the top of your thighs, quads. I actually did some legris. If nobody's familiar with that, it's essentially Pilates, and they get all the micro muscles in your hips, and I don't know, especially for men. A little stigma out there that Pilates is only for women, but I challenge you to go do that because I bet it'll kick your butt. And then you can start down maybe the calves and just the side of your legs. Just feeling into the body fully. Get the front of the shins, and then we'll get to the other side, the side of the knees. You see, with this type of exercise, maybe your mind's still running, and that's okay if it is, but it really just gets you present. All you're doing is just hitting your body, reminding yourself that you're here, you're safe, you're awake, you're alive on this planet. Top of your knees. You could even tap the top of your feet if you want to. This is why when you do a massage, you feel really good afterwards. You feel like you kind of melt into the table. I always recommend to my clients foam roll or do a massage gun 20 minutes before bed because you get your body into the parasympathetic. And if you don't have a massage gun, you can do something like this. So we could just wrap up here and then yeah, even just taking a second to let that land before we move into the next exercise. Just asking yourself how that felt to just take care of yourself. And stepping outside of your comfort zone, maybe doing something that feels weird or different. But like I said, the weird stuff works. And not giving a crap what other people think is a skill that I highly recommend. If you do this at the beach, that'd be a good challenge for you. The next step is the realize. So I'm gonna lead you guys. This is one of my favorite things to do. And I do this before all my group coaching calls. So we're just gonna close our eyes together. And don't need to overcomplicate it, but just getting us into the parasympathetic nervous system by breathing in through the nose. This time we'll exhale through the mouth. In through the nose, exhale through the mouth. One more time, we'll hold at the top. Take a little sip if you can. And release. And almost imagine that last breath as an airplane landing on the tarmac. Just before the wheels hit the ground, where it's floating right before you land. See the thing about an airplane landing on the tarmac or a car coming off the highway going 75 miles an hour. It doesn't just go from 75 to zero. It slowly and gradually slows down. So I want you to kind of imagine, even from the top of your head, your foot hitting the brakes, just planting your body into the ground. We can go back to back to back-to-back meetings. And that's just normal. But the truth is most of us are living in direct opposition to how our hardwired biology is designed. And so just honoring this slow, slowdown. If your mind is still racing, that's okay. Know that mindfulness and meditation is truly a skill. You can even think of a ball of yarn just slowly unwinding. You're rolling it out on the floor. Truth is, there's no such thing as good or bad. It's all just feedback. So no matter what's going through your mind, it's perfect. I promise you don't have ADHD. You don't have anxiety, you don't have depression, you don't have any diagnosis that a doctor has decided to label and slap onto you. Although it might feel validating and it might feel true and real. So even just sitting in this silence could it be. Sometimes it actually feels a lot harder to do nothing than it is to do something. Sometimes that something is that doom scrolling or procrastinating or eating when you're not actually hungry. Or vaping. Just something to get your mind off of. What needs to be felt. You cannot heal what you cannot feel. The world of duality, there is no joy without pain. So allow yourself to feel the pain so that you can feel the joy. And the last thing before we get into release the light breath work is to just scan your body. Ask yourself where you feel something. Could be in your right trapezoid, your left trapezoid, your rhomboid, your spine, your knees, maybe your stomach, maybe your throat. Doesn't have to be good or bad, you don't have to judge it. Where do you feel something? For me, I've been working quite a bit. Probably because my overemphasized masculine energy gets the best of me as an entrepreneur. Where is it for you? Or do you feel something? And if you had to give a sensation to that feeling, what would it be? Maybe it's tightness, tension, numb. Maybe you don't feel anything. That's okay. And that's also feedback. That's telling you to get into your body or you can feel. Lastly, if you had to give a name to wherever you feel that something, what would it be? Maybe it's frustration, anger, you're just pissed off, sad. Maybe it's even something like loneliness. Or heck, maybe you came to this podcast feeling really good and you feel giddiness in your throat and you actually feel great. It feels like joy. But whatever it is for you, I want you to recognize it, feel it, name it. Don't blame it. Don't shame it, but just name it. And then we're going to release it through the breath in this next phase. Alright. Trust that you've got that now. And if you're still confused, you can't feel anything, that's okay too. Just work through this breath. So what we're gonna do is we're going to inhale through the nose and exhale through the nose for four seconds for each at the top and at the bottom. So before we get started, I'll give you an example. So inhaling through the nose. Four release through the nose. One, two, three, four. And this is just going to retrain your body and your nervous system to feel calm. So I'll guide you the first couple breaths and then we'll get into it for about three to four minutes. So again, into the nose. One, two, three, four. Out through the nose, one, two, three, four. In through the nose, one, two, three, four. Out through the nose, one, two, three, four. Again, in through the nose, one, two, three, four. Exhale, one, two, three, four. And if you're listening to this, you may hear silence, but just continue. If you're watching, obviously you can see it, but obviously, I recommend you close your eyes. Just let time go. I'm gonna start doing it myself with you all. And through the nose. If you'd like to reset and come to my cadence, you can do that. Or if you've already got yourself in a good groove, you can keep going. I'm going to start in three, two, one. In through the nose. Out through the nose. Out through the nose. Out of the nose. Into the nose. Out of the nose. I'm going to stop talking and continue with you all. Try to breathe through your stomach and your diaphragm. Less from your chest and more from your stomach. You might start to feel tension in your chest, and that's okay. You've got this, stay strong. Sometimes we don't realize how much we're reading through our mouth, so this feels different to the body, but you're retraining it. Keep going. There's no wrong way to do it. Just go at your own pace. Don't have to do it in exact cadence with me, just do it wherever you're at. Just releasing whatever came up for you. Got about a minute left, finish drawing into the nose, out to the nose. Alkalizing your body. We got twenty seconds left. Keep going. You might feel it in your ribs and your chest. It's releasing. Fifteen more seconds. Inhale, hold at the top after the four seconds. And release through the nose. And hold at the bottom. Fully exhale and hold at the bottom. Got this. Body is alkalizing. You're healing your body at a cellular level. No rush at all, but just release whenever you feel called. Take a nice inhale. Just begin to do whatever your body feels called to do. Through the breath, out through the mouth if you need to. And like I said, like a car coming off the highway, just coming back into the moment slowly and gradually. Maybe moving your spine, your shoulders. Maybe opening up your sternum, opening up your chest, putting both hands to the side. If you need to, you can take a big gulp through the mouth or whatever feels good to you. Start to land. In the next 30 seconds, we'll open our eyes. No rush. Take your time. And before we exit, I'm just gonna invite you to take a nice inhale through the nose again. This time through the mouth. Exhale. More time through the nose. Exhale through the mouth. Return to normal breath. And then lastly, right before we open our eyes, we're just gonna do some humming. We're gonna stimulate the vagus nerve, which is the very thing that connects the gut to the brain. This is why you might hear all the fancy meditators and monks hum. Some people gargle water to stimulate the vagus nerve. So we're literally just going to inhale through the nose and exhale through your mouth and just let it out. Inhale through the nose. Can be as loud as you want, however, it feels good. Exhale through the mouth and just um go one more time. We'll close it up. Before we close it out, just want to say thank you for joining us today. Thank you for respecting yourself enough to do this, to take time. Whether it was the 15, the 20 minutes. Just thinking about how infrequently most of us do that. I wonder how much more that would change your life if you just did that even just once a day. Thank you for joining us in this beautiful session.

SPEAKER_00 50:52

That was great. Yeah, I want to go through sort of each step that you did. So first one was regulate. Uh the the pounding and tapping. Uh I definitely noticed my my body was starting to vibrate, which I really enjoyed. I was like, oh yeah, hey, what's up, buddy? Like, there you are. So that was really good. Definitely felt a lot of sensation in my legs, actually. I think that was the most I felt. Um yeah, waking up was in my legs. Uh yeah. And then the second one is realise. No, realize ground meditation. So yeah, that was really, really nice to allow me to slow down. And there's moments where I was like, I could literally fall asleep. Like I was so relaxed and so calm. Uh tuning into my body, feeling the sensations, uh, allowing myself to notice uh both pain, like physical pain and pleasure, like in the sense of like what parts are feeling good, what part parts are feeling bad. And uh the words that came up were uh annoyed and feeling stupid. Uh and then on the other sort of like uh positive side, I guess you could say, was like joyful, relaxed, like peaceful. So I had both uh when I was like exploring my body. Um and then the uh the third is third is release, release, release, release, yeah, the breath. That was I I got dizzy. I definitely got dizzy. You did it right. Yeah, so I got it definitely got dizzy, and I I'm noticing uh there's not much chatter in my head. So is that what release does? It sort of like release it stops the chatter.

SPEAKER_01 52:44

Is that yeah, all three of those combined. That's that's the whole point. It's get it get into the body as much as you can. And yeah, I'm glad to hear that. Thank you for sharing your feedback so honestly and vulnerably. It's beautiful. And uh we're all humans, we all feel things. And so uh I know other people can definitely relate to what you just said, and uh I'm glad you almost fell asleep because I've had multiple clients tell me that too. And that's that's the whole point. That means your body's regulating, your nervous system's slowing down, and um, yeah, that that simple breath, right? You could do that anywhere, anytime. You could even do it for a minute and you feel something.

SPEAKER_00 53:16

Yeah. How long? I don't I don't remember how long was it for? Do you remember?

SPEAKER_01 53:19

I think we started, I think that was right around maybe 15 minutes. But it's funny because when I lead my group calls, like they're 90-minute calls. Yeah, we go deep, and um, sometimes they're five minutes, sometimes they're 15, sometimes I genuinely lose track of time. It feels like literally 40 minutes. And I was like, oh, that was only 10 minutes. Right. I was like, wait, I I better close this out because it's been too long. But um, no, that's the whole point. It's that people lose literally track of time, and that's that's oneness, that's stillness. That's that's uh that's as close as we can get to the divine, right? Right from the physical plane.

SPEAKER_00 53:56

And I loved, I loved uh some of the some throughout the uh exercise, some of the things you said made me giggle, which I loved. You're like, yeah, do it on the beach, be weird. I was like, fuck yeah.

SPEAKER_01 54:07

Yeah. I was doing some fascia work earlier where you like literally put your shoulder or your hand on your shoulder and your other hand like underneath your um. I was thinking about doing that today, but if people are interested, we can put this in the show notes or something. But uh Jewels Horn has this 30-day reset, and it's supposed to like really be good for your spine and just remove your tension and your fascia, which a lot of stored trauma is in there. Um, because I do a lot of like stretching, but I never feel like it really gets me where I'm trying to go. Um, so I'm like doing this and I'm like looking this way, and then breathing through the nose, out to the mouth, and I'm like just on the beach, and there's like tons of people, and like I actually don't even know if they're looking at me because I don't really care. I'm just so focused. But you know, I've done qigong on the beach, I've done breath work on the beach. And it's like you can practice the irony and the meta lesson of that of like if you can do it on your own in your room where you feel safe and nobody's watching you, and then you can do it at the beach, that's like a whole nother level of like, I don't give a shit about what people think of me. Like I'm doing I'm doing me. And the beauty of that is the ripple effect is like, I don't know what that guy's doing, but like looks like he's taking care of himself, you know, right? And that is, I believe, how we can spread the ripple effect is through pure embodiment.

SPEAKER_00 55:12

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Being being weird and doing things outside of the box. Uh yes, there might be some people who are like, what is this guy? What is this weirdo doing? And then there's other people that let it go by and be like, man, I wish I was dedicated. Or oh man, I should get into my body, or oh, I wonder what he's doing. Exactly like you said, like, oh, I should do that. And then they'll hopefully go find uh, you know, or they'll come up to him and be like, yo, what are you doing, man?

SPEAKER_01 55:37

Chat GPT at this point, you can take a video of me and be like, what the hell is this guy doing?

SPEAKER_00 55:43

Yeah, absolutely. Great. Uh so let's let's I think we might have talked about this, but I want I want a little emphasis on like how why does this how does this exercise help men? Why does this help men?

SPEAKER_01 56:00

Create safety, create safety in the body, create safety in the mind, and you know men's health is a pretty hot topic these days, and for good reason, because we mentioned it before, but the male suicide rate is four times higher than it is for women. And to me, that just screams ego, ego, ego, and that people would literally rather save their own ego than save their own life. And it breaks my heart because I know I I think probably four or five people that were either a direct connection or a secondary of connection, someone's dad, someone's friend who is a male that committed suicide, and it just doesn't need to happen. And like when I went through my burnout journey, I considered medication like four different times. And I got myself to a really dark place, and that's why I considered it. And so, you know, everyone has their own path, their own journey, and I'm not here to give any medical advice, you gotta do what's best for you. But at the end of the day, when people ask me like how I got through that without medication, I just I just trusted myself. And I kept putting one foot in front of the other, and I believe faith is believing in what you can't see. And it's like, you know, when you're driving your car at night and you have your headlights on, you can see what, I don't know, thirty yards in front of you, if that. And for some reason you just trust that through that darkness, it's just gonna, you know, the road's gonna keep going. How do you know there's not a cliff there? Sounds ridiculous, but it's like, you know, maybe there's something there, maybe there's a deer, maybe there's a I don't know, person. Like and so that's what faith really is, is believing in what you can't see. And so um, I think this type of exercise will really help men because I feel like I've just been in direct connection with too many men that either have taken their own life or they're going through something and they're not being honest about it. And I can kind of tell because I've done a lot of energy work and you can kind of read people. And um I know that the main reason that they're struggling is because they don't have anywhere to put these emotions that are literally stuck in their body. And most men either have too much pride or too much ego to be vulnerable and let the walls down. And this is like one of my big concepts is like humanize yourself, like superhuman, like humanize yourself. Like we're all going through something. And again, I'm not here to define the definition of masculinity, but I'm telling you, when you suppress, that turns into depress, right? Suppression turns into depression. And this is what Jim Carrey says. He says, uh, you know, I realized I was depressed because I needed deep rest. And that's exactly what happened to me when I went from corporate to entrepreneurship. Like it was the first time besides the pandemic where it was just like, all right, like I have all this free space in my calendar. I don't know what to do with it. Like it was funny because I quit my corporate job to have more time to work on my business. Yet then I found myself procrastinating. I was said I had ADHD, I had depression, anxiety, like my brain was on fire as I was so out of my body. And so these practices really help people get into their body. And I think especially that second phase of like realize, like, there really is. And I didn't really understand this when I was, you know, maybe earlier on in my healing journey, like there's no good or bad. Like, even when it comes to food, like I don't really like to say that. I'd definitely still guilty of it for sure. But there really isn't like this thought that's coming through, or I'm like shaming myself for procrastinating or having this ADHD, is like, oh, that's just feedback. It's saying, hey, Mike, the way you're living your life isn't fucking working anymore. Like you're burning yourself out, you're not building boundaries, you're people pleasing, you're overextending yourself. And so um I just am really passionate about like Eastern medicine and holistic practices, not because I'm in the space or it's the only way, or I'm cooler, or have pride around it. I just genuinely feel like it's actually the solution, and there's a lot of truth being revealed, right? I think like trust in Western medicine objectively is kind of at an all-time low. And um like you can take whatever route you want, but I've just seen people go through stuff who have now created their own Instagram pages because they've gone through so much pain, they were on antidepressants, and how it really messed them up and it was really hard to come off. And so, again, I'm not here to give medical advice, but I'm just saying like you can use the breath, you can sit in silence and meditation, you can pound your body to get into it into your body. Um you can go to the beach, you can get in nature, you can eat real food. And so those things really, I believe, are the things that move the needle forward. And I'll wrap all this up by saying that yeah, getting vulnerable is fucking scary. Or you have a tough conversation with someone that you know you need to have, but you just keep avoiding it, whether that's with someone else or usually starts with yourself. Um that is the number one gateway to change and to heal. And um 99.9% of the time when you open up to a human who is safe and knows how to hold safe space within themselves, you will be received extremely well. You're not gonna get stones thrown at you, you're not gonna be less than, you're not gonna be emasculated, you're actually gonna be welcomed more. And I do it all the time. Organically, people compliment me on my vulnerability, but I just tell them my story, like without shame, really. So it's like this is what I did, this is the pain I went through, and this is how I got through it. And one of the biggest things that got me through a lot of my stuff was vulnerability. And uh it's just so stigmatized, right? Men's mental health in today's world. And so uh I just hope people find the courage to step through the fear, even if they're feeling that. And so, like, I've had people reach out to me on Instagram. Oh, I've been following you for like two years. I literally have been wanting to work with you for over two years, but I've just I haven't had the balls to reach out, or I haven't had the ovaries to reach out. And uh, you know, I hold safe space for men and women because I think that we're all designed to co-regulate, and um, I'm really passionate about that because I think there's a big masculine wound in the world right now for all genders and all people. Um and it's damaging a lot of humans, and it's really sad. And it sounds simple, it sounds crazy, maybe it sounds hipster or hippie to people, but like if we literally just held space for each other, the world would be a lot different.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:52

Absolutely. Oh, yeah. Thanks for speaking into that. I think it's so important. Uh, you know, I've gone through my own journey of wanting to commit suicide and been down that rabbit hole. And for me, when it comes to antidepressants or any kind of medication, you know, these days it's I do ceremonies, right? Like I think the point of it is the doing it to then it support you, not for it to be the thing. I think that's the ch that's what I'm seeing in today's society. It's like, I just want the pill. I don't want to do the work, I don't want to do the effort, I don't want to put the time into it. So it's like, great, you you think that you might need antidepressants, go for it, go to the doctor, make sure you take care of yourself. Just know that that's not the solution. That's just the support system to get you out of the you know, mental state that you're in, to then go find tools, hire Mike, like find other practitioners that can support you the Eastern way or holistic way to get you out of it. Because medication isn't something that is necessary long term unless you have like deep, deep, deep depression, which is a very different sort of like topic altogether. So amazing. Appreciate you. I appreciate that the work that you're doing. Uh the topic of vulnerability is such a that's a whole nother conversation as well, in terms of like, how do we help men be more vulnerable? Where so it isn't so scary because it isn't. Once you start like touching it, you're like, oh, really? That's it. Like I got a bunch of guys that I can share this kind of stuff with. It's not that hard, but it just they got to start somewhere, right? So uh where can they find your work? So you know you've been saying social media, Instagram, like what is it? What's your handle?

SPEAKER_01 1:04:40

Yeah, my main platform is definitely Instagram. Um, it's just at superfood, superhuman, all singular, all one word, superfood to superhuman. Um, I recently launched a new website uh a couple months ago. It's just superfoodsuperhuman.com, where you can um yeah, get access to learning more about my coaching. I've also got um a brand new organic cotton merch line, um, which I'm excited about. This one says trust your gut. There's other ones that say like eat eat real food, food is medicine. People have been resonating that with that a lot in the wellness space. Um, and then I've got even like some of my featured podcasts on my website as well. So uh if you want to check out any others, um, but yeah, mainly Instagram. I'm on TikTok, Facebook, LinkedIn, pretty much all of them, Substack too, actually. Um, but Instagram's kind of the main portal for it all.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:27

Okay, great. So you'll, you know, I like the guests to say it, but at the same time, it's gonna be in the description, all the links. And then you'll see him in the Inter Edge community as well to do something longer and some QA for you guys. Leave him with a final remarks.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:49

There's nothing wrong with you. The modern-day world has totally stripped your dopamine and is essentially designed in exact opposition to how your biology is wired. So I just invite you to not blame yourself, not shame yourself, not convince yourself there's something wrong with you, or you're the only one struggling with your depression or anxiety, or you're the only one going through your gut health issues, or your bowel issues, or your cancer, or your autoimmune disease, or a relationship breakup, like we're all humans on this planet doing this thing for the first time, as far as we know. And uh one of the most toxic cycles you can get yourself in is thinking it's your fault. It's not. It's not your fault. It is your responsibility, but it is not your fault. And so start with grace, start with that self-love, and take extreme ownership of your nutritional health, your emotional health, and quite frankly, your life's purpose so that the world can finally heal.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:54

Awesome. Thanks for joining me. Thanks for tuning in until next time.