What if the fastest way to feel calmer is to choose your stress on purpose? We sit down with Matt Sowell of Cold Club to map a clear, practical approach to training your nervous system using breathwork, cold and heat exposure, fasting, movement, and human connection. Matt’s story moves from a turbulent childhood to martial arts and into the science of adaptive stress, showing how targeted protocols can transform anxiety into focus, and reactivity into resilience.

We dig into why breath is the remote control for your state—and why one-size-fits-all routines fail. You’ll hear when high-metabolic breathing like Wim Hof unlocks energy and clarity, and when it backfires by spiking adrenaline and wrecking sleep. Matt shares nose-only strategies, extended exhales, and coherent breathing to downshift fast, plus a simple way to match your breathing to your current baseline so you don’t overload your system. We also break down safe, progressive cold exposure: why full submersion calms the mind faster than extremity-only dips, how to build tolerance in weeks, and the must-know safety rules for rivers, lakes, and at-home plunges.

From there, we explore the five adaptive stress pathways—thermogenic (cold and heat), fight or flight, fasting, connection, and breath—and how to train each for performance, recovery, and emotional stability. If you work with plant medicines, you’ll learn practical preparation and integration: anchor with the breath during peaks, use coherent breathing to re-center afterward, and build community so insights become habits, not just memories. Along the way, we share simple starting steps: a daily three-minute nasal cadence, short cold finishes, gentle movement, and one-line journaling to spot which stress circuit you’re in.

If you’re ready to turn discomfort into a teacher and make small, consistent inputs that compound into a steadier mind, this conversation is your playbook. Listen now, subscribe for more micro practices with macro impact, and leave a review with your biggest takeaway—what practice will you try this week?

For more information on the Cold Club visit https://www.coldclub.com/.

What if the one thing missing from your growth isn’t another tool—but a tribe? We dive into the power of community as the catalyst for real change, blending therapy, men’s work, plant medicine, and simple daily rituals that actually stick. Brian shares how brotherhood and ceremony transformed his path from isolated effort to collective momentum, while Josh—psychotherapist and facilitator—explains why group containers with clear intention and safety can compress years of incremental progress into days.

We get honest about the sequence that matters: inner work first, then outer fixes. You’ll hear practical ways to set a true north so breathwork, meditation, prayer, and movement become medicine instead of escape. Jeremy opens up about using music to confront self-doubt and find flow, and offers a powerful real-life example of pausing during a relationship trigger, asking for space, and returning with clarity. We unpack the protection vs. learning lens for every habit—running, food, psychedelics—and show how a simple question (“Am I running away or toward?”) changes the outcome.

You’ll also step inside the mechanics of great group work: create structure, then surrender when something more alive shows up. That’s where the magic happens and a new intelligence emerges—what we call the whole being greater than the sum of its parts. We challenge the myth that vulnerability is weakness, revealing how courage spreads in rooms where masks come off and truth is welcomed. And we share reset tools you can use right now: meditation to meet your parts, breathwork to shift state, journaling to translate emotion, surfing or running to come home to yourself, and prayer to reconnect with purpose.

If this conversation sparks something in you, subscribe, share it with a friend, and leave a review to help others find the show. Want to get involved or join our next circle or retreat? Reach out to Jeremy Wolf (jeremy@gnpcoopercity.com) or Brian Schwartz (brian.s.schwartz111@gmail.com).

Have you ever wondered why that gap between knowing what you need to do and actually doing it feels so impossibly wide? That frustrating truth sits at the heart of this episode, where we dive deep into the mechanisms of our own self-sabotage and the tools that can help us break through.

Joined by the remarkable Marilisa Lawless, founder of Hemp Del Sol and the Transformation Project, we explore the uncomfortable reality that growth requires pain. As Marilisa wisely shares, "When the pain of your pain is greater than the pain of change, you will change." This powerful insight sets the stage for our conversation about how early programming creates the subconscious blocks that keep us stuck in patterns that no longer serve us.

The discussion takes a fascinating turn as we examine how plant medicines—from CBD to cannabis to psilocybin—can serve as powerful allies in the healing journey. Brian shares his profound experience transitioning from multiple prescriptions to medical marijuana and eventually psilocybin, describing how these medicines allowed him to reconnect with his authentic self after years of emotional numbness. Marilisa offers compelling insights about CBD's potential to help people minimize pharmaceutical dependence, while emphasizing the importance of research and quality.

Perhaps most surprisingly, our conversation reveals the extraordinary power of crystals as energy tools for transformation. From tourmaline that physically shattered under intense stress to moldavite that opens all seven chakras simultaneously, these natural elements emerge as conscious allies in the healing process—when we're ready to work with them.

Throughout it all, one theme remains constant: the critical importance of community and connection in healing. As humans, we require support to navigate the uncomfortable terrain of growth. The isolation of modern life has separated us from the village wisdom that traditionally guided transformation, leaving many of us struggling alone with our pain.

Whether you're curious about alternative healing modalities or simply trying to understand why change feels so difficult, this episode offers profound insights into the human experience of transformation. Join us on this journey of discovery and perhaps find the tools that might help you bridge that gap between knowing and doing in your own life.