¶ Introduction and Setting the Scene
Andrew Tate and the psychologist that interviewed him and got into his brain. David Sutcliffe joins me on today's episode. We're going to talk Tate. We're going to talk modern masculinity and the challenges that men are facing right now. Enjoy the episode, chaps. It's got some gold in it. David, welcome into the podcast, mate. How you doing I'm? Good, happy to be here. Good. So you're all the way in Mexico City? I'm all the way in London. We were just discussing that.
It's nice and grey here and you've got a bit of sun over. There it is sunny in Mexico, although where I am it, it's been raining. It's the rainy season. It rains every night, which is just delightful because you wake up and everything feels refreshed and and then sleeping in the rain is just incredible. So have it all here.
Amazing, mate. Let's let's jump in because I want to talk about at least I'll start with the interview with, with Tate. So that's a popular interview is 6/6 and a half, 6.7 something like million views. And I've watched that interview twice, once recently and once when you first released it. Super, super interesting. And I, and I feel for the first time with Andrew that you pulled out some more of his vulnerable sides and more of his playful
side. And there were some really interesting points that you pulled out of them there. But here's one that I get a lot. And I actually get like when, particularly with ladies, when they, they see the work that that we do guys. And Oh, you, you like Andrew Tate then. And I'm like with Gov and I'm like, no, not really. But I mean, Andrew's got a lot
of good, good points about him. But my question and, or, or my thoughts that I'd love to hear from you is when guys, whether they're in their 20s or in their 30s or 40s and they're engaging with polarizing figures like Tate, how do they do that but without losing their own sense of direction? That's, that's a great question. Listen, I don't think anybody should adopt another man as their guru. I think it's important to take information from all kinds of
people. And Tate certainly has a lot of very interesting things to say. He has a powerful message and he's got his own perspective, his own, his own point of view that may not be right for for everybody. So I think it's important to listen to yourself. I mean, ultimately, all self development should be about learning to trust yourself, about learning to know yourself, understanding what you want, how you relate to the world, what it is that you want to give, where you're oriented.
If you're following some protocol, some somebody else's thing. Like even with Andrew Huberman and all the information that he comes, this is the optimal
¶ Engaging with Polarizing Figures
morning routine. You know, I, I think, and I say this to all my clients, that you, you have to find your own way. I mean, that's what we're what empowerment truly is like. You have to find your own way of, to navigate it for yourself. So it's important to take information from all kinds of people, but ultimately develop your own thing. So that's a hard thing to do when you're young and you're vulnerable and you don't know what the hell is going on. And maybe you grew up without a
father. And then you see somebody like take come along and he's got such a powerful message and he's so emphatic about it and, and persuasive. It's, it's easy to get hooked into that. And there's some danger in that certainly. And I think that's why people are are critical of tape. I don't, but I don't, I don't think you should follow anybody blindly. And that that's the message that I'm trying to articulate to people. Even, you know, when I'm working with them, it's like, here's
what I have to say. Take her to leave it, take what's useful, throw away the rest. So, yeah, I mean, that's all I would say about that, I think. Yeah, I mean, because there are there are a lot of young guys that are idolizing Andrew and, and, and are following him And what why do you think that is? Well, I think that he men have been demoralized by the culture. I don't, I don't think that that this, you know, the war against men. I, I think that that's real toxic masculinity.
This, this phrase, this ubiquitous phrase, you know, which they claim doesn't mean that masculinity is toxic, but that's how it sounds. That's how it feels to people. And especially if you're a young person, that's, that's the message you get. There's something wrong with you being wanting to be, you know, aggressive or dominant, wanting to win, wanting to accumulate money and, and have cars and,
and all of that. And, and, and of course there's a shadow to all of it. But I think because men have felt, yeah, demoralized, they felt shamed, excluded, made bad. And I think Tate speaks to that take, stands up and says this is what I think, this is what I believe, this is what it is to be a man. And I think that resonates for a lot of people because it makes them. It makes them feel empowered in a place where they've been otherwise shamed. Yeah, yeah.
And a lot of the guys that we work with within right man Workman, probably like 90% of the guys are mid 30s, mid 40s that, that, that sort of range. So it isn't just young guys, but there is a big confusion as to what it, what it means to be a man like into the like now. And, and a lot of guys are very, I want to say scared, but they're definitely like, they're treading on the lines of caution as to what do I, you know, do I assert my needs? Do do, do I speak up?
Like and if I do that do I come across as toxic? What the fuck? Yeah.
¶ The Confusion of Masculinity Today
Am I being too feminine? Am I being too masculine? I fucking don't know what to do so I won't do anything. Yeah, yeah. And again, I, I understand that it is confusing times. You know, if you think about whatever 50 years ago and beyond, men's role in the culture in the family was really clear and obvious, provide and protect and that was it. Loving your wife and children was kind of optional in the sense because, because we were just trying to survive and get by.
And now that we're in a different phase of, of development, different evolution of, of society and you know, women are out in the workforce and taking their place. I, I think a lot of men and myself included, just like, what, what am I doing? What, what's, what is my role if I'm not providing and protecting for my woman, for my family? What, what am I actually doing here? And I think it becomes very confusing.
And, and I think the, as I said, I think there's been a lot of negative pushback against men and, and listen, in some ways for good reason, you know, men have abused their power. But I think that the patriarchy, quote UN quote, the patriarchy is just the natural order of things. And people don't like to talk about that. They don't want to admit that. But I, I don't know too many women that don't truly want to be led by a man. That's where they, most of them at all feel most comfortable,
most relaxed, most free. And, you know, obviously the dynamics have changed, but I think it's important for men to hold on to the goodness of what that is. I mean, patriarchy's got a, a, a bad rap. But really at its core, what are you there to do? You know, you create the structure, you create the boundaries, you provide the safety and you provide and you protect. Well, that's a noble thing, if you think about it now it, it can become distorted and become
tyrannical. And it has and that's why the pushback. But at its core, at its root, it's, it's, it's divine and it's good. And so reminding men of that, that really what what is their role is to be of service and from that place and that there's a responsibility that they have to lead. Even if you are not seen, understood, appreciated, you have to continue to lead. Excuse me in in your way. Also, I think it there is an evolution happening where where
¶ The Role of Men in Modern Society
men do need to come more in touch with their feelings to understand themselves emotionally in a deeper way. That's what I was trying to get to with Tate, that understanding yourself emotionally is an asset. It gives you more power because you're more present. And the more present you can be, the more of service that you can be. And if you're repressing your emotions, you're going to act out in distorted and destructive
ways. So I think men are in a in a process of, of learning how to do that. And I think unfortunately, a lot of the psychothera psychotherapeutic community, for better for worse, is it's dominated by women. I mean, that's just a fact, right? Eighty, 7080% of psychologists are, are women. And so there's a, a bias that's inherent. I went through that in my training and I confronted it. I confronted the, the school. I said, hey, there's a, there's a female bias here.
You guys, you don't really understand men. And there was a lot of pushback against that. People were upset and felt attacked and, but in the end, they, they started to understand that, that I was actually right, that I, that I had a point. And of course, of course, any, if you have a, you know, if one industry is dominated by men, there's going to be a masculine bias and an industry that's dominated by women, there's going to be a, a feminine bias. That's just, you know, that's fine.
But so I think it's important that more and more men like yourself are, are getting involved in these spaces and, and bringing their perspective forward and, and sharing, sharing that and, and, and also claiming their authority. Like it's, it's important that all of us should claim our authority. I don't mean authority over, but I mean your, your personal authority and that that you know something and there there's impulses and instincts that you have and they're there for a reason.
And it's important that you obey them, Listen to them. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And what, what you, what you said earlier about more, more guys embodying their femininity and, and, and embodying feeling the feelings and being OK with that. Because I and I go through this with, with, with so many men that, that we work with, it's, it's like, don't, I don't know how to get in touch with the feelings. I've kind of suppressed them for
a long time. My father or father's very emotionally detached, didn't, didn't allow us or show us how to feel our feelings. I was like, how, how do we do that without coming across way too feminine and going way too far the other way? And then we're in an emotional mess with our, with our partners telling them everything.
¶ Emotional Expression and Vulnerability
So is there is there a bit of a medium here? Yeah, yeah, I mean, the pendulum always swings, right? And so there may be a period of time where men overshare, they become too emotional because there was so much repression. But and that's a that's a necessary part of it. And then you come back to balance. I mean, I did that when I first started doing this work. I I share, I wanted to share everything all the time.
And it was in my feminine and, and bringing all of this to my woman, thinking that it, I was being vulnerable. And it wasn't until later that I realized that that's not, that's not the right place to share. That's my my feelings and emotions that I need to do that with, with other men. And I think it's important that we stay present with our our woman, but we have to be discerning about what what it is that we share and when. So I think that's just a natural
process. And it's, it's a refinement and it's learning to be discerning. But in general, I think it's really important that men have spaces where they can express themselves. And because there's a little boy inside every man who was hurt, who was afraid, who was, who was angry because of the circumstances, we all got to some degree wounded or traumatized through a childhood.
That's just the nature of life. And it's important that those feelings are acknowledged, known within us, and not shame, not judged, not made bad or weak. They're just there. They're neutral. And so having a place where you can go and express them, explore them, be witnessed, be seen, see that other men feel the same way, I think is very liberating
and comforting for men. And then in that process, I think they can learn to be more they they become more integrated, become more whole, and then they can be more discerning out in the world about how and what to share. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And that, that, that I, I have, I have found that the guys that come into our world, they, it takes them quite some time to, to actually come in and go all right, I'm going to, I'm going to talk to a bunch of guys about
my shit. They, they most, most guys. But on the outside are going now that looks like sometimes it's like a fucking cult that don't, don't want to get involved with that. I'll just, I'll just keep it
¶ The Importance of Anger and Rage
locked up. But actually once they are in, it's it, it all comes out. There's, there's loads and loads of sharing there, There's, there's 2030 plus years of shame and guilt and fear and all all the stuff that comes. Up Yeah, yeah, I mean men and women, but we're talking about men are all of us are walking around with all the things you just said, shame and and fear and rage.
And that's that's rage is probably, well, shame, shame is really at the core of all of it. But when I'm working with men, usually the place I start is with their anger, with their rage to give them a space to be able to express that fully, which is usually sometimes it's righteous rage and but sometimes it's, you know, it's masking their pain, masking their fear and allowing themselves to express that fully in a room full of men where there's a container for it.
What can be held because I think a lot of people feel myself included when I started with this work, you know, if I, if I let out everything that's inside me, I don't know, I could burn down a city block like it, it can't be contained. It's so big where, where it might destroy me. I I don't know what I could do. I'll lose control. I'll, I'll do something harmful. I'll, I'll, I'll, you know, spin into madness. Some, something terrible will
happen. And so it's important for men to realize that their anger and their rage can be held. It can be contained. And that actually when it's expressed in a, in a way that's grounded and present, it actually brings more aliveness into the space. And, and I think once men go through that process, they're better able to express their, their anger and their aggression in healthy ways, because anger is not, is necessary. There's a reason that we are wired that way for anger.
Sometimes anger is an absolutely appropriate response to what's happening in the environment. But you want to be able to express that anger cleanly with intention and, and integrated and grounded and that in that place, it, it can, it can land. But if it's mixed up with all of our our shame and our resentment and our pain, that's where it does harm.
Yeah, when when you're talking about expressing anger in a container or expressing rage, you talk, are you, are you talking more on on the long lines of like somatic embodiment practices within therapy? Yes, I, I'm a somatic
¶ Somatic Practices in Therapy
practitioner trained in core energetics and we use different tools to help people express things physically because you know, exactly what you said earlier, it's like, how the hell do I feel my feelings? You know, they're still stuck in there forever. And so using movement really expediates the process. So we have like big foam blocks and Batacas that we hit with or, or you know, boxing gloves and punching pads and all, all different kinds of things.
Or we create different psychodramas so that people can get these feelings out. Because it's hard to just stand there and, and feel your anger. But it's, but once you start hitting something, the, the movement of the body releases energy and it becomes harder to control the feelings, which is the intention of it. It's, it's you want you. When you begin to feel, you have to lose control. There's no way, there's no way around it. You, there's, you cannot heal. You cannot feel without losing
control. You have to surrender. And if you spend a lifetime repressing your feelings, judging your feelings, shaming your feelings, that that's going to be a real edge. And so these physical tools, they help expediate the process and, and it, it works. It works every, all the men who come to my workshop, it's like they all want to get up and hit the block. I mean, they're terrified too, but they, they can feel the goodness and the rightness of it.
And, and once it starts flowing, it just, it just keeps going. And, and what inevitably happens is if they go all the way into it, right? And that that energy is discharged, then it takes them to their pain and. And just for just for clarification for for the guys listening earlier on, you talked about the psychotherapist movement, 80% of it being female. And so the modalities are very feminine. And what you're talking about here this more like somatic
energetic. Would you say that's more that's this is more of a masculine way to practice therapy? No, I'm not. Women have just as much aggression as men and they just, they're carrying just as much rage. So the, the, the, the work that I do is, is equally suitable for men and for women. I I think it's. Men are really drawn to it because of the physical. That's why I was drawn to it because of the physical nature of it.
I mean, talking about your feelings, you know, mapping your consciousness, understanding, oh, this is what happened to me in my childhood And that's why I am the way that I am and why I'm struggling in relationship and, and all of that, like mapping that is, is really important and that, but really is, I think the, the purpose of, of most psychotherapy. But intuitively, I think we know until we unlock our repressed
¶ Surrendering Control in Life
feelings, not much is going to change. And for men who are less interested in talking about their feelings and more interested in just getting into the expression of it, I think this work is, is very, very attractive to them. I know that when I have and I'm a, a room full of men, there's going to be much less talking than if I have a room full of women. And that's not to judge or compare. It's just that men and women process emotions differently.
And so there's a liberation when men can get into a space with just men and allow themselves to, to feel the all of this, you know, shadow material and which they may not do in the presence of, of women. It doesn't feel safe for them to express that in in the presence of women. Yeah, yeah. And I can, I can, yeah. Talk about somatic work and embodiment work and energetic works. I too, I've gone through plenty of that and found it extremely beneficial.
Like the, the, the talking side has been good, like you said, just to, to map and understand, but to actually get the, get it out of my body. The, the, yeah, the somatic work like very, very good for me. And what you said earlier about control and letting go, and I see this with a lot of guys and this, this has probably been my biggest work this year,
actually. It's just surrendering more to life, not, not just not just in somatic work, but just life as a whole, the surrendering to what's what's going on, right And and just not trying to control everything, including the the shit, whether that's it that we've got in London, right. What would you say to because actually what Tate talks about it going back to his interview, he does talk about control that it like it seems as though he's a very control.
He likes to control a lot. He likes that certainty of I am in control. But what what we're talking about here is also the element of surrender and let go like is, is there a happy medium there? Well. He's not in control, is he? Well, no, it's it's. An illusion. It's an illusion. Yeah, it's it's an illusion. And it, it's a powerful one when you have a lot of skills to be able to control and manipulate the world, certainly. And but it's, it's, it's not real. We're we're not in control,
right? Life is in control. And our work is to surrender to that. And once you, once you learn to truly surrender that, that's actually when you, you, you have more control because you're in
¶ The Illusion of Control
the truth of, of what life actually is. And then you can shape and navigate and, and with the power of your intention, begin to direct reality. But you cannot impose your will on life. It's just not a thing that you can do. Listen. And the reason that I know that is because I tried for a long, long time and it doesn't work. And it left me with, you know, addiction and frustration and body pain. I didn't know any other way. And so, you know, exactly what you're talking about.
Is, is, is what I'm also practicing. Am I willing to surrender to life? Am I willing to understand that there's a, a greater intelligence at work here and that my own mind is not entirely reliable, that I tend to rationalize and it, that if I can let go of that and give over to this greater force, this greater energy, this greater intelligence, God, whatever you want to call it, that there's a, a relief and a, and a
satisfaction in that. And from that place I, I can actually get more of what I want. Now, that is generally not the message that is propagated in the culture, but if you look at every spiritual teaching from the beginning of time, that's essentially what it says. So I'm gonna, I'm gonna go with that. As opposed to the the gurus in the culture telling me that I need to go through this protocol.
And once I go through this protocol and do all of these things, I'm gonna, I'm gonna get what I want. There's, there's value and utility in that. But if you think you're gonna impose your will on life, it's not. It's not happening. Yeah, for me personally, over the course of this year, this, this has been my probably my deepest practice this year.
This has been the year where I've had probably the most inner peace and arguably probably the most like chaos that's also gone through like I got divorced this year. Like I'm, I'm, I'm, I moved, I moved into a completely different location. I moved house so and like, so there's been loads of chaos, yet I've had the most inner peace And I, I absolutely put that down to the just surrendering to whatever's going to go on and just let go of that rather than
control. Absolutely I've got intent. Like there's, there's intention to where I want to go and and, and I will point towards that, but. But where does that intention come from, right? That's the question. Like what? Like why do I want to do what I want to do? Where does that come from? I don't know. I don't know why I want to do what I want to do. I make up reasons for it. Oh, it's because of this and this and this, but I actually don't know truly.
¶ The Mystery of Intent
And if I am I willing to give over to that, Am I willing to give over over to the mystery? If I'm, I'm willing to give over that my ideas and my impulses that want to come through me in the direction I want to go into my life is actually it's something else, something greater than me. And I can surrender to that as opposed to surrendering to my own mind and my own ego. You know, my intentions, you know, I want them to be aligned with the deepest part of myself,
not with my ego. And I feel like when they are, then I'm, I'm, I'm in the flow, right? I'm aligned and then things just happen magically. I mean, this is, this is the feminine imperative. Like, you know, just do it. OK, that's good. I get it, you know, it's, it feels good. I'm going to get up, I'm going to go work out. I'm going to push myself. That's necessary. The masculine is important. But what if I just allow what if
I let it come to me? Because if I'm honest with myself, almost all, yes, the discipline that I've shown in my life and, and, you know, taking care of myself and doing all the things that that's, that's a part of it. But if I'm honest with myself, all the good things in my life somehow came to me. This, you know, I got an e-mail out of nowhere or this when I was an actor, this audition and just at the right time that there's a magic to life if we
surrender. Yeah. You know, I'd never thought about that before what you just said a minute ago about, yes, you have intent, but where's the intent coming from? Never. It's like the net. It's like just going a little bit deeper on on that intent that. Yeah, absolutely. That is the magic. Because I hadn't thought about where that intent is coming from. Yeah, that's the mystery. Yeah, it's all a mystery. We don't know. We don't know anything. We don't know why we're here.
We don't know what this is. We think we know. And, you know, we have science and philosophy in a, in a way to try to understand life. But they're, they're all just stories. They're all narratives that, that, that we use to comfort us. And they, and I'm not saying that they're not true, they're directionally true. But it's, you know, we live in the, you know, for lack of a better term, you know, we live in the simulation, right? We live in the narrative, but there's something underneath
that's driving all this, right? There's a, there's a, a kind of like, as I said earlier, intelligence and energy that's beyond us. And, and we've, we touch into it at different moments, you know, like, you know, the, the point I made to take the interview, it's like when you're boxing, when you're totally dissolved into the moment, there's a kind of intelligence that wakes up inside you and you, you, you know what to do. You know, you miss the punch,
you know, by just a, a fraction of a, of an inch, but you don't know why. You don't know where that instinct is coming from and, and that, that, that intelligence of, of the body of the spirit is available to us at all time. And so really my, my work and where I'm at now, it's about that, like, how do I connect to that?
How do I connect to, to flow? How do I surrender my own mind and fear and the, and the control mechanisms and the need to understand, the need to know everything and let go into the mystery and, and, and, and let that mystery unfold?
¶ The Rise of Spiritual Awareness
It's also it's, it's isn't, doesn't that sound more interesting? It doesn't sound more exciting. Like, you know, for me, for me, it's scarier, definitely scarier. But to me, it's more exciting and more interesting to live that. David, you're the, you're the, yeah, she's, you're the second person that I've spoken to today. I did another podcast interview earlier. We're a very similar sort of conversation actually.
And I'm, and I'm thinking, is it just that because I'm on that this, this I'm gearing into more of a spiritual journey and more of a journey of, of letting go. And is it that I am just attracting those sorts of guys into my life like me and you are having a conversation now and other conversation earlier with another guy or, or is it that that is the way that the world is gearing to that and it's becoming a bit more popular. What do you think? It's probably both.
I think people are waking up to these ideas again, these ideas have been around forever. But I also think, you know, the Enlightenment we in science and rationality, which was great, which was important. I think we threw out a lot of of this more feminine way of existing. Yeah. We threw out the intuition and, and God really, I mean, more and more people are coming back to God in some, in some way, you know, wanting to connect to their spirituality. Why?
Because they can do just like your story. They, they feel unfulfilled, right? They're a slave to their own ego. And and then they hit a roadblock. They get what they want, they get the ego gratification, they get the money cars, they get the the nice girl, all of that. But then they're still unfulfilled and they go searching for something else. So I think it's an epidemic in
the culture. We've reached peak materialism and you realize it doesn't, it doesn't matter, you know, billion trillion dollars, 10 Ferraris, none of that matters if I don't have inner peace. So where do I find that? Well, you're only going to find it by connecting to God, to spirit, to something greater than yourself. And so I think that's why so many people are are talking about this right now and that we can see in the world what happens when you are disconnected from spirit.
¶ Understanding Fear and Its Roots
You are a slave to your ego, and that ego ultimately will seek to destroy and control and manipulate out of fear. Yeah, yeah, Is where where's fear useful for us like as guys? I mean, obviously we have a, an instinct for fear. You know, you see a, a lion and that fear response kicks in and you have a physiological response and you can run faster and are stronger and your reflexes become attuned. All of that is, is really, really good.
So I, you know, I think we should pay attention to our fear always, but we want to be discerning about, you know, the where it's coming from. You know, I mean, for me, fear is at the root of all our self-destructive tendencies because again, we tend to underestimate the impact that our childhood had on us. It's very hard to take ourselves back as men and remember what it was like to be a young, vulnerable, open, helpless little boy. Most of us have had to cut off from all of that.
And most of us did not get the nurturance, attention, care, protection, understanding that we need it. And so many of us cut off from those vulnerable feelings. And when your father say is not present for you, whether that's physically or otherwise, you can't feel the father, well, you're not going to feel safe. And I think a lot of a lot of us grow up. I know I did, with a lot of fear. I was scared all the fucking time. And I had to obviously there was
what could I do with that fear? I had to disassociate from it, right? I can't, I can't live in that perpetual state. But the the truth is, I think most men are afraid a lot of the time. I mean, that was the first thing that that happened in the Tate interview. You know, it's just I really pressed him. He's like, I'm having these nightmares. And that's fear. It's like, yeah, it's fear. And he landed in that.
Like he admitted that he was fear and then he immediately turned it into, well, fear is good. I use fear and I want to be afraid. You know, which was OK, You know that he's very good at rationalizing everything. But the truth is what he admitted is that he's afraid. It was jail was fucking scary. That growing up with a father, that the kind of father he had was scary. And what I was trying to demonstrate to him is that, hey, man, that fear may be still
¶ Facing Fears and Taking Action
locked in your body and may be influencing the way that you see the world in a way that's not useful. For you, Yeah, because it's like Tate is very good at self deluding himself. And most of us are. Yeah, yeah. Oh, for sure. Oh. Yeah, I know I am. Yeah. I know, I know. I am he's. Just very, he's just very persuasive. He's, he's, you know, master of, of, of language. Yeah, but, but also, yeah,
absolutely. And but him like using his fear in a in a way that increases his capabilities, sure. Whereas I thought, I think for a lot of guys it will diminish capabilities. Yeah, well, listen, what if your if your fear is repressed, if you're not aware of it, if you're not willing to make contact with it, if or if you shame it in some way, what happens is you end up taking actions in the world to unconsciously avoid situations where that fear may be provoked. Yeah.
And so you are limiting yourself. You don't know that you're doing that because you, the mind will rationalize. This goes back to intention. Well, this is what I want. Well, why do you want that? That's a, that's a very powerful question to ask somebody like really at the root, why do you want that? And so fear causes us to move forward certain things and move away from other things that is not always in our best interest. And so I think we want to hop to our fear.
I mean, anxiety and self sabotage. I just reframe it with my clients. It's like, OK, it's just fear. Forget about, forget about the story, forget about the, the, you know, the diagnosis of it. Like you have fear. That's why you're self sabotaging. You know, you're procrastinating because you're afraid. What are you afraid of and why? And does that point to something back in your childhood, was there a moment that where you got shamed or humiliated or, or
you weren't seen? And, and are you afraid of putting yourself out there in some way? You're afraid of what other people are going to see. And, and those fears are very, they're irrational, of course. So we, we tend to minimize them, but they're not irrational to the, the little boy who had to repress those feelings.
And until we make contact with that scared little boy and, and take his hand and with, with an incredible amount of patience and compassion and sort of lead him back into reality, into the world and show him that, hey, you know, you don't have to be scared anymore. You're not a little boy. I'm with you. I'm an adult. I can handle this. We're OK. Whatever you're afraid of is you're, you're going to survive it. It's going to be OK. But that, that is not how they feel.
So it's it, you know, from, yeah, getting in touch, making contact with our fear, acknowledging it is crucial. It's absolutely crucial. Otherwise we're going to, we're
¶ The Journey of Self-Discovery
stuck. We're going to act out. We're going to delude ourselves. Yeah, there's there's there's no way you're actualizing your potential with so much fear. OK, out out of get in touch with our fear because it's because it's because it's like I, yeah, I think about this in my own in my in my own reality, even just as simple as go and go and talk to a go and talk to a hot girl intent go and do that. And then something comes up. No, don't go and do that.
Yeah, can you make her a reason or she's probably a bitch. She's got a boyfriend. Yeah, we'll do it. We'll do it tomorrow. Yeah. Right. But it but actually at its core it's because of some form of fear rejection, rejection because of afraid of X and so on. So this this happens in in every walk of life. How do we get in touch with it? Well, you have to acknowledge it, you know, so you have to stop rationalizing. You have to, you have to notice your mind's ability to
rationalize. You know exactly what we talked about. There's a pretty girl. I want to talk to her. And then immediately when I have that impulse, my mind can go to, well, she's, you know, high girls usually bitches or she's got a boyfriend or I'm gonna, you know, but it's really just a fear of rejection, right? And we have to understand that we're that's that's what we're afraid of. And we have to ask yourself the question why we have to keep asking questions, right?
And without rationalizing, like, OK, I don't want to talk to that girl because I'm afraid that she's going to reject me. Fair enough. Hey, rejection doesn't feel good. But what's going to happen if I'm rejected? Well, nothing's going to fucking happen but. You know what I mean?
It's just like, but but the fear is it touches into this place where if I'm rejected, I'll feel like I'm nothing or I'll it'll it'll touch into the place that I have shame about myself worth or a feeling that I'm not enough. That's the thing we're actually afraid to touch into. So we have to get to the deep root of our unconscious beliefs about ourself and come to terms with the fact that most of us
have insecurities. Most of us have questions about our self worth and you know you could take it even deeper. Most of us have questions about our right to even exist, to just be here as I am. OK?
¶ The Power of Vulnerability in Relationships
Most of us have shame about our desire, desires and impulses, right? And so we want to really get in touch with all of that. And it's, it's, it's, it's not easy, it's deep, it's deep work and it's confronting. And it doesn't, again, it doesn't make sense to the rational mind, which is why in some sense you have to bypass, I don't really catch how you, how you rationalize.
And then once you understand that, right, really, really understand the deep emotional root of your fear, you can create a little separation between you and the fear. And once you have a little separation, you, you, you, you're no longer identified with it. You see the distortion, you see the lie or you see where it came from, from your childhood and how it got twisted. And from that place you can begin to take new action. And, and it's in that place where you, you, because you
can't. I'd much rather if I'm going to go off into some battle, right, I'm in the army, much more trusting of the man beside me who says I'm fucking scared shitless, man, This is this is insane. We might get killed, but they're going to do it anyway. They're going to go all in. As opposed to the guy like, Nah, fuck this, I'm into it, we're going to fuck in.
You know, they override it. Yeah, that guy is a little scary and it's useful, I get it. But the person you know who's more grounded in it is actually more reliable and it is probably going to make better decisions in the moment because they're more connected to what's actually going on inside them, which which in fact, being afraid in that situation is a completely rational reaction. Yeah, yeah.
And, and just back in back into the fear and understanding the the root, ultimately the root cause of the fear, not just the symptoms of the fear, symptoms of the fear is that I'm not going to go and ask the hot girl for a number. But the root, the root cause of the fear is that actually it's, it's rejection, back off rejection. It's it's around that I don't feel that I'm good enough. Yeah, if you, if you get rejected, what what's going to
happen if you get rejected? Like what's the fear? Yeah. What's what's actually there? Because it's not about the girl, it's not about the rejection. There's something that the rejection means to you and that's that's what you want to get to. And where did that come from? When did that start? And that's important to to go and understand that to be able to get over it. I think so, yeah, Because it
makes you more present, right? You're in the reality of what's what's going on. And once you understand the mechanisms of your mind and and can be present with it and have awareness around it, it's it's much easier to take action.
¶ Conclusion and Final Thoughts
Yeah. And so that's the so, so then once you've built the separation between yourself and this, the, the reason for the fear as a separation there, it's then the next step is we'll then go and, you know, improve. Yeah, you have to, I mean, you got to get your reps in, you got to practice, right? That's, that's really where, where the change happens, right? So you can, you can have all the awareness and that's great. It's important. It's a part of it. But then you have to go do the
thing. And what'll happen is, you know, if you do the thing over and over and over again, This is why these, you know, pick up artist guys. And I think it's great. They go, OK, here's to get a group of guys together. Your day in the city, you got to go out and you got to, you know, you got to get 10 phone numbers. So they, you know, they have to talk to 100 girls. And by the end of that day, they're just, they're over it. It's like, OK, yeah, I got rejections 99% of the time.
But you know, I got, I got a number, I got 10 numbers and, and, and everything's fine. So yeah, the practice of is is is crucial. Yeah, yeah, because, because actually sitting too much in the awareness. So you're thinking, thinking, thinking, sitting way too much in the awareness. You're actually sat. Am I right in saying you sat way too much in your feminine rather than leaning back into? That's right. That's right. Yeah, that's another. That's another trick. Oh, I I understand myself.
Therefore I'm good. Oh, no, no, no, no, no. Now you got to take action. Like you have an awareness of what your fear is about, right? You have compassion for yourself there. You have understanding, but now you have to go out in the world and, and, and confront it and everybody knows. It's like the greatest satisfaction that we we have in our lives is, is when we do things that were scary for us and and we come out the other
side. That that for me, that's all of the I feel the most proud of in my in my life, the things that I did, even though I was terrified. Yeah. Is that in in your work with guys, where would you say do you see the most like breakthroughs from, from a guy that's that's that's come to see you? And then he gets he gets a big transformation. Is it in the he's facing a fear. He proves to himself that he can face it. Yeah.
I think that's a big one. I mean, what comes to mind right now currently is what we were talking about earlier is in, in relationship with women, that men have a lot of distortion about how to be in relationship with women. And they tend to defer, make themselves small, not say what's true for them, you know, give over to their needs and their preferences. And then they wonder why they're not having success with women. Well, that's a turn off for
women. Women like assertive men, not Dicks. While they do like assholes, there's a reason for that, you know, because they're assertive and they're sort of women. I mean, listen on a, on a, you know, physiological, biological, evolutionary level, women are turned on by dominant men. They, they want to be taken. It's erotic. They feel plain.
So allowing that part of men to come through, reclaim the goodness of it and to see that that women are longing for that, even if they're afraid of it. Yeah, Even if they're afraid of it, that's OK Let them be afraid. If you can stay present and trust the goodness of that, then you're not going to act out in, in, in weird, you know, manipulative ways, which is why women are so scared of men right
now or, or turned off by men. It's, I don't believe it's because of the Andrew Tate's of the world, because how, how, but he's, he's, he's completely transparent. You can take it or leave it, but he's completely transparent about who he is and what he wants and how he operates in, in masculine, feminine dynamics. But I think there's a lot of men who they repress their instinct and then present a quote, UN quote, you know, a good guy image, but they're really hiding
their aggression. And if they're hiding it, it's going to come out in, in, in weird ways. And women can feel that, and they don't trust it. Yeah, yeah, it can be passive aggressive and controlling in its own ways. Right. Yeah, yeah, that, that, yeah, I think that makes a lot of sense. I, I I could probably mimic the same thing.
And the guys that come into our world is the, when they start, even if it's just setting a couple of boundaries that they, they just grow in their masculinity and, and they get a lot from that. Yeah. It's like, hey dude, it's OK. It's OK to say no. It's OK, man. You can, you can, you can say no and it's cool. Yeah, you can. You can have, you know, have, have all of yourself be fully expressed, you know, let it, let it let it out.
And you know, for me, you know, like even in my own relationship, but in any relationship, the, the, what's the word? I want the, the problems occur when people are holding. Back so a little Internet
¶ Introduction and Welcome
connection. Welcome to Mexico. Welcome. Yeah, yeah. David, thank you so much for coming on man. I, I appreciate your thoughts and your insights, especially the ones that just on the on fear there like there was some, there was some good insights there for me personally. Appreciate that mate. Yeah, no, thanks for having me.
¶ Insights on Fear and Personal Growth
I I really appreciate the conversation. Great, great questions and glad you're doing the work that you're you're doing. And I'm I'm sure you're helping a lot of men. Yeah, yeah. Thank you. Thank you, man. And I I know the guys listening to it will get a lot out of it. Fantastic. Yes, David, Cheers.
¶ Introduction and Call to Action
Team before you go, if you're not following us already, can you give us a follow on Instagram? The handle is at heroic man official two things on there number one, the link in our bio has all the information on our next meetups, next events and there's a number of trainings in it too. The second thing is, if you give us a follow, then shoot us a message, we will send you a free training on the four core archetypes that every man must master to succeed in this modern Western world.
¶ Core Archetypes for Success
That's it for me. I'll see you on the next episode after you've given us a follow. Cheers man, see you then.
