In this Strength Month conversation, Leslie and Alex sit down with Nick Bell to explore the quiet strength it takes to keep showing up after loss and addiction. Nick shares his journey through grief, years of substance dependence, and the long road of rebuilding a life rooted in balance and responsibility. He speaks honestly about recovery, accountability, and the daily persistence required to choose stability over escape. Mushrooms played a meaningful role in helping Nick reconnect with awareness, reflection, and a more sustainable way of living. This episode is a grounded reminder that strength is not always loud or dramatic, but often lives in consistency, humility, and the decision to keep trying even when it’s hard.

In this Strength Month conversation, Leslie and Alex sit down with Emily Cochran Stiff to explore what strength really looks like after survival. Emily shares her journey through childhood trauma and years shaped by addiction in different forms, including time spent in sex work, and how those experiences influenced the way she learned to protect herself. She speaks openly about recovery, the unraveling of labels that once defined her, and the courage it took to choose healing over self destruction. Now deeply engaged in spiritual and integration work, Emily reflects on forgiveness, accountability, and learning to meet herself with compassion. This episode is a powerful reminder that true strength is not about fighting or enduring more, but about choosing softness, rest, and peace as an act of self trust.

To open Strength Month, Leslie and Alex begin by reflecting on what strength has meant in their own lives and how that understanding has evolved over time. Together, they explore the difference between surviving and truly living, and how pain, misalignment, and struggle can become teachers rather than definitions.

Moving through nervous system awareness, human design, and lived experience, this conversation reframes strength as discernment, self compassion, and the courage to choose differently, one step at a time. This episode is an invitation to pause, listen inward, and consider that strength may not be what carried you through your hardest moments, but what now allows you to soften, realign, and choose joy.

Explore more and connect with us:

Don’t Trip on Your Cape
https://www.donttriponyourcape.com

Can We Grok?
https://www.donttriponyourcape.com/can-we-grok

Aligned Living & Leadership
https://www.alignedlivingandleadership.com

Mush Love
https://www.mushlove.com

A Human BEing With Love
https://www.ahumanbeingwithlove.com