Healthy Masculinity | Ep. 26
[00:00:00]
[00:00:46] I'm your host, Brandon Ward back with another episode of order within episode 26, keeping it rolling.
[00:00:57] Today, we're gonna be talking about healthy masculinity. What it is, what it isn't. And how can we cultivate it in our lives? To find balance and strength in ourselves.
[00:01:14] This is a topic. I think of a lot of importance for many people, for many different reasons. There's a huge emphasis on toxic masculinity in our society. And I think there's a lot of valid reasons for that. When you look at the history in centuries of past. There has been so much. Corruption and manipulation being done by men that have created a lot of unnecessary suffering in our world.
[00:01:44] And the counter to all that is exposing the toxic masculinity. So that we can understand those characteristics, but what's happened. At least what I've seen happening is we've thrown the baby out with the bath water. There's now no clear. Vision. Or example of what healthy masculinity looks like. There's not even, it's very unclear.
[00:02:08] And, and what I'm seeing, particularly with young men. In schools today and how they're being spoken to and treated.
[00:02:20] They're being very much misled. And there's a lot of self hatred that's happening now. I think for men and young men in particular. I carried this same concept within myself for years. I wasn't even aware of it until my early thirties. And I began to uncover and think about what masculinity means to me.
[00:02:42] Why it matters to me.
[00:02:45] And so I began to develop my own idea. Of what masculinity means and how I can apply to my life, leveraging what I was learning and seeing in the world. Other thought leaders. Looking at examples of men and cinema and things of that nature, reading books and novels. Looking at characters. And so a few of the things that.
[00:03:08] We're going to talk about in today's episode is going to be discussing healthy masculinity. The characteristics of masculinity, healthy masculinity. Giving some examples in cinema. And then toxic masculinitywhat that looks like giving examples in cinema as well. And then also unpacking how we can activate our healthy, masculine.
[00:03:27] The activities. That we can. Partake in to help expand and grow a healthy relationship with our masculine side. Now as I've talked about in episodes before.
[00:03:42] There is an element of feminine and masculinity and all of us. And we're all going to have our own balance and makeup of what that energetic dynamic looks like, whether you're more masculine or feminine from an energetic perspective.
[00:03:57] I'll link to the past episode there. Around. Masculine and feminine energy.
[00:04:04] And this will give you an idea of what that looks like from all perspectives. But now looking at really healthy masculinity. And what that looks like for us. As men, I think in particular, as we find a new way forward in a world that is hell bent on creating nothing but chaos and pain for everyone on the planet.
[00:04:25] So let's look at some of these characteristics. So when I think about healthy masculine men and masculinity in general, I see strength, not only physically, but emotionally, internally. There's a logical approach to life. There's a depth that exists there. You may not be able to pinpoint what it is, but it's something that you can feel you experience when you're around them. There's the component of thinking about things very deeply.
[00:04:52] They're intentional about the way they move they're purposeful. So they have something that's meaningful to them. Something that matters, something that they would be willing to give their lives for. That is the purpose, the meaning driven aspect of that. They're loyal, loyal to those they care about loyal to those.
[00:05:09] Those values that they hold dearly, loyal to their missions, their, their purpose, loyal to one, another loyal to God, loyal to the planet. Now you don't have to be a faith oriented person, but again, loyalty is a component from my perspective of what I see in these characteristics. There's a fierceness.
[00:05:28] There's a fire. That exists within them because they carry a flame of eternity that they have connected with that goes beyond this world. And there's a power that they hold that comes from that fierceness. It's palpable. It honestly, it's, I've talked a little bit about this on Twitter. It can sometimes feel like a wild animal that could be potentially let loose, but they are not. I'm going to talk a little bit more about that later in the episode.
[00:05:54] Healthy masculinity is hardworking. They work hard. They get after it. Now this isn't a trait again, like I said, this is something that we can all apply in our lives. But working hard. Dedicating ourselves to something. Persisting through challenges, growing, learning, pushing ourselves. These are components that I see is healthy masculinity to work for and work through challenges. And we embrace challenges in that sense. We look for.
[00:06:20] Hard things to do to overcome, to solve. Healthy masculine men carry burdens of their own kind throughout history. Men's role in life has been to carry burdens of. Our own kind, which is often. Before we created this modern world, men would go out into the world, hunt, kill, protect their families.
[00:06:42] Their tribes. That was a burden having to go out and find and hunt and kill food, protect their families, their communities, their tribes. These are burdens that they carry. In the modern world. A lot of that comes back to being productive, producing income, providing for your family. That doesn't mean you're the sole provider for your family, but you're carrying those burdens. You're understanding the financial responsibility that comes with being a family. Man, you're understanding the burdens that we carry when we have missions in our life that is counter to what our culture is pushing us to do.
[00:07:14] So there are burdens that we carry both physically, mentally, physically. I've already said physically, but emotionally and spiritually as well. So we embrace the opportunity to carry burdens. Often our burdens are our blessings because they give us purpose and meaning in life. As we learn to embrace carrying those loads.
[00:07:33] There's a power to them. Both physically, mentally and emotionally that you feel so there's force within them. This ties to that fierceness, but there's a powerful force that lives within them. That you resonate with, that we connect with when you tap into that healthy masculinity. Now it's also counterintuitive because there's a gentleness to them. There's a softness to them. There is emotional depth to them as well. There's compassion that exists there. You can't be purposeful and meaningful and loyal.
[00:08:02] If you value nothing, if you're not connected to your heart. You can't be a logical emotionless being and be a healthy masculine man. You must have both. The power is maintaining and commanding that emotional sense, embracing it, leaning into it, not running away, not turning away from our feelings, but commanding them, embracing them, understanding the power and strength that they hold. So it's the balance of the logical with the emotional.
[00:08:29] That allows us to create compassion for those that we care about for the loyalty that we find and feel in the world for those around us, that we want to be close to.
[00:08:39] So this ties into protecting the weak, protecting those who are less than us. Looking out. And the whole notion of women and children first, right? Like the sacrificing element of masculinity is real. Throughout time man's role was to protect and provide for the family that meant sometimes giving up our own lives so that our families could move forward. That meant women and children were prioritized in situations. And.
[00:09:10] Places that we find ourselves in where life is in question. So therefore men sacrifice themselves. There's a reason that men have gone off to wars and fought for centuries. It's the role that we carry. It's part of our genetic makeup. It's part of our universal purpose on earth is to play this role. So we protect the weak.
[00:09:33] That's a, a component of being a healthy masculine man not bullying. Not tyrannizing those who are weaker than us. But protecting them, lifting them up. Guarding against tyrants and bullies.
[00:09:47] And the last couple is, is there stability in all this? There's a stability to that, a stability to their presence, a stability to their personality. Uh, stability to the way they operate. You can rely on their actions. You're can rely on them as a human, you know, that they're going to show up every day and be there for you.
[00:10:06] And when they have rough moments, they're honest about it. So that creates a stability because there's a communication of truth. That's happening in those moments. And then finally. Healthy masculinity is proactive. It's active in going after what we want. It's proactive in pursuing the vision that we have for life. The goals that we have, the challenges that we face. It's going out and making things happen pressing forward. Pressing the boundaries exploring the unknown.
[00:10:39] It is always moving forward and growing because if we are stagnant, we are dying. Therefore the proactive approach is a component that we are, that we need. To ensure that we are expanding and growing in our lives.
[00:10:54] So a few examples in cinema that I want to share, it's mostly modern movies. Um, this is something that I'm going to do more of too. I'm planning to write. Some deeper, I'm building my blog right now I just got my WordPress stuff rolling. I'm in the process of building that. So that's going to be fun, but I'm going to dive into some more concepts around this, just characters throughout cinema books and things of that nature. But.
[00:11:16] I have three for each of these sections. So right now the first one is, is going to be Geralt of Riviera from the Witcher. I think he's a prime example of. That power, the balance of power and sensitivity. If you haven't seen that show or play that game? I never played the game, actually just watched the show and it's been great.
[00:11:36] He is fiercely intense. Strong powerful. He's a destroyer of monsters. He literally kills monsters. That's what the Witcher is they're a group of people that. Destroy and protect civilization from these monsters. He takes that. Much further in the sense that he is deeply compassionate towards those around him, that he cares about. He protects the weak and innocent. He takes great pride in this, and he sacrifices himself in many ways to do that.
[00:12:08] And there's honor in that. There's power in that. And because of that, he leads by example. He allows that safety, that stability to permeate out of him so that people can relax and feel at ease and know that they are safe, that they are protected, that someone around them cares about their wellbeing and that they are willing to give up their life to ensure that those around them survive.
[00:12:33] That's an incredible characteristic. Now it's obviously a fictional show. But it's an example of what we can do when we carry that combination of strength and sensitivity, because he's a deeply compassionate person in this show, his character, I should say. And the way that he cares about the people around him and the relationships that he has, but he also holds people accountable.
[00:12:55] He draws boundaries and he does not sacrifice on his values, the things that he holds dear. And he is consistent throughout the whole show. And I think that consistency of behavior and expression of self is a crucial component to healthy masculinity. So the next up, the next character that I'm going to point to here is Snape in Harry Potter. Now this may seem, if you haven't seen it, most people have though, but Snape is the ultimate burden carrier in this show in this movie.
[00:13:24] He carries this burden for years. And he plays the game. Of pretending to be on the dark side, but within the light side, Exposing. Uh, the enemy, but ultimately he betrays the dark side. To give his own life. So that. They can carry on so that the good can win out so that Harry can continue on his mission so that Dumbledore can continue on the work that he had to do. It was all a deception to.
[00:14:01] Mislead.
[00:14:03] Voldemort and his team. To make them believe he was working with them, betraying Harry Potter and Dumbledore in those. So it's the ultimate burden carrier. He is the ultimate burden carrier in the sense that he was living a lie effectively for the greater good of the purpose there. And he led with compassion.
[00:14:23] His whole driving force, because you find out that it's actually him protecting Harry throughout And it was his love for his mother. That he had early on for Harry's mother. That carried on this burden that allowed him to carry this burden. It was driven by the love that he felt for his mother. And though he was not his child. He still protected Harry, even though it meant giving up his own life.
[00:14:48] And the perception that he was a
[00:14:52] It wasn't only until the very end that we discover he betrays the dark side in order to help. The good that to me is the ultimate characteristic of a healthy man. Of masculinity of one who is willing to sacrifice themselves to carry burdens for the greater Of humanity and for others, for those that they care about, not just a general broad sense of greater good.
[00:15:16] But truly defeating a powerful force that was attempting to enslave humanity through dark forces. There's no greater call to action from that perspective. And then this last one might be a little counterintuitive. But. It's the Terminator from Terminator two. And I know he's a machine. But the evolution that he goes through in that movie, as he learns.
[00:15:44] Emotions as he learns sensitivity, as he learns the needs of a child. Of a young John Connor is beautiful. He clearly, I know, again, he's a machine, these are movies, right? We're talking about concepts, ideas that we can look to learn from not actually becoming machines, but how we can apply these learnings in our lives. That's the whole point of this movies and cinema and books are simply reflections of life so that we can learn and grow from them.
[00:16:11] It's not meant to take them literally per se. So he's a machine, but he sent back in time to protect John Connor. He does that extremely well.
[00:16:21] He's strong. He's fierceful fierce and powerful. But he becomes gentle over time. He protects John Connor. He protects Sarah Connor. He starts understanding and learning, maybe killing everyone. Isn't the best way. Right. He starts doing more of the wounding, like those two guys that he injures and he's like, well I didn't kill them?
[00:16:41] But he learns over time. And that the very end of the movie. When John's crying and he wipes away that tear, he understands why we cry. He understands the depth of emotion and he gives his life to protect future generations from this happening again, though it doesn't work, but. The principle is there. So it's interesting that he starts out extremely logical, strong.
[00:17:09] Dominant powerful, but without the emotional depth, without the compassion. Without the gentleness. He's an incomplete being that he develops through the movie. And at the end of that movie, he is culminated in his purpose by giving up his life, to save Sarah and John Connor so that they can continue on with their mission to defeat these machines and destroy the ultimate enemy.
[00:17:34] If you will. So it's the journey that he goes through from logical machine. Purely rational too. The emotional, nurturing, compassionate component Healthy masculine men have both strength and sensitivity. That's something that I've learned and realized over time. I was very sensitive when I was young.
[00:17:56] But I didn't understand why I was. I resisted it. And it wasn't until I combined my logic with my sensitivity, that I really became functioning at a high level, at a fulfilled level that felt aligned with who I was. And that changed me for the better. And so I thought that that was a great example to show the journey that we can sometimes go through. When we think about the initial ideas that we assume are strong males, but realize it's about the balance to the compassion and the strength, the logic, and the emotion that we carry that allows us to be healthy, masculine men.
[00:18:34] All right. So now we're going to talk about toxic masculinity. Let's talk about some of the characteristics passive they're waiting. They're not doing anything. They're expecting everything to be given to them. They're waiting for solutions to happen. They discount anything that's new. That could Uh, a possible solution because simply they're rejecting what is because they're seeing the world as it is, and they don't want to move to do anything about it. They want to stay and react and get pushed along by life. They're dishonest. They're not truthful about their needs, their desires, what they want with life.
[00:19:07] They're not honest about what they need from other people. They're not honest about their boundaries, about their true feelings they can seal and hold within so much. And they deceive others. About how they really feel. They're not courageous enough to share their truth. So they hide it because they're fearful of what would happen, which creates selfishness. This is the whole concept of the nice guy finishing last. A nice guy is pretending to be nice so he can win the girl.
[00:19:38] He really wants companionship sex. And relationship with the female that he's pursuing. But he's doing that under the guise of caring and nurturing and, oh, I'm not like the big mean man who abused you or not abused you, who used you for sex and went away. And isn't honest with you. No, no, no. I, I care about you. I really care. I'll listen to you. I'll hear you out, but really.
[00:20:02] They're also being deceptive. They're just not being as Frank about it, which I find I've. And I've been in this place myself. I've been in this place myself.
[00:20:12] It's not an honest place to live and it's selfish actually, because you're deceiving the person to get something that you want, pretending that it's something else you're doing. That's a very selfish and dishonest position to be And it's often driven because from a needy place, And that neediness is driven by our lack of.
[00:20:33] Nurture within our lack of relationship within ourselves, we have to cultivate and learn to love ourselves for who we are and what we do and how we live in the world so that we can. Be honest about our needs, realize that it's our responsibility to take care of those needs. And then to communicate them outwardly to people around us who are close to on what we need. And if people aren't willing to give us what we need or aren't honoring what we need, then we leave.
[00:21:00] That's the proactive component again, not the passive side. But this weakness. This complaining. This misery. This. Man.
[00:21:15] There's a weakness in there. This driven that's that permeates out of them. And it's the deception, because again, the weakness, it all ties together. It's by not being forceful and truthful about who we are. It creates a weakness in us because we're living scared cowardly. And that's actually what I have next well over emotional and cowardly. So we are too much in our emotions. There's this whole concept that, which I was like this too. I feel deeply I'm sensitive. I'm a different man. I remember like this when I was in my twenties, this was something
[00:21:48] Bragging about, but I was miserable. And I wasn't honest. But I was overly emotional. I wasn't using my logical mind. And I was claiming that my sensitivity made me more of a man, which it does when it's balanced. But when it's, when we're using that as a manipulation, as a means to make people feel guilty or wrong or basically emotionally manipulate people, that's where that emote over emotionality is problematic, which happens a lot in toxic masculinity.
[00:22:21] There's a cowardice to it. There's a fear-driven way of living. It's always. Retreating inward away, running away from things that are hard running away from things that are scary running away from things that we don't know. It's a fear cowardly way to live. Anytime an opportunity presents itself to do the right thing or to stand up for what's right. Or protect
[00:22:44] We cower, we turn away. We run away.
[00:22:47] We seek to guard ourselves. And. Let, whatever bad thing is happening to other people, because we're only looking out for ourselves. We're selfish, we're weak. We're internally like It's small minded too this is the next thing. When they're small minded, we can't envision life outside of what it is.
[00:23:08] We're stuck in old ways, we refuse to consider new opportunities, new options, new ways of doing things. We won't even open ourselves to the possibility of that. So it creates a very small mindedness. It's very contrarian about everything. There's a negative man. Very Eeyore, like component. And it's just very unattractive to be around, not just from a partner perspective, but even from a friendship.
[00:23:32] I've had friends like this, that I've had to cut loose because they complain and cry about everything, but they're willing to do nothing to change It's one thing to recognize problems, but if you're only going to complain and do nothing about it, then I'm out. After a certain point I'm done. I can't tolerate people that only whine and complain and do nothing to make a change when we all have the ability to do that.
[00:23:56] And sometimes that means first accepting that we're broken, we're depressed, we're miserable and embracing that we're at rock bottom. That's the first step. Almost always.
[00:24:09] And then the last bit here is there's no purpose or no meaning to life. There's no.
[00:24:16] There's no driving force behind us, behind our existence. That's pulling us forward. We're just living to consume. To be. To not connect, to not provide value, to not help. One another. To not create something that means anything beyond our lives, we're simply existing and consuming.
[00:24:38] It's why one of the big reasons I'm so opposed to all this nihilistic thinking because it's very, it's a very cowardly way of living. And it's a great scapegoat. A great excuse to not do anything with life, to just chalk it all up as a loss.
[00:24:56] And without purpose and meaning without things that we're willing to literally give up our lives for. Life is going to be. Pretty unfulfilled. It's one of the things that's really changed for me is having a family now.
[00:25:10] I have so much to work for and support the love and care that my family provides me. I have so much to live for now, and I also have a lot of reasons too. To, I would potentially give my life for my family. And for the people that I care about.
[00:25:28] Because of the beliefs that I hold. And the purpose that I find in my life and the spiritual components to existence that I've found within myself, that I know exists within all of us. That faith, that purpose. Without that it's very hard to live a meaningful and fulfilled life. And we're often just miserable.
[00:25:49] Naysayers.
[00:25:51] Let's look at some examples in cinema now. So I think one of the biggest ones that stands out most to me is Wolf of wall street, Jordan Belfort. Prime example of the endless grow do make money at all costs. Be dishonest. Drug abuse, not loyal to your wife, deceiving people, only interested in yourself.
[00:26:12] Lying, all the things that we talked about now, he was very active though. This is the thing you can take pieces out of healthy masculinity, but when it's, if the overwhelming qualities are toxic, then it only becomes more of a force for toxic masculinity. He's a prime example of that. He was extremely ambitious and extremely dishonest and selfish.
[00:26:36] And there was so much suffering that was created by that. The thing that happens so much. Is suffering is amplified when we live this way. It doesn't just affect us. It impacts the world around us, the people around us. There are consequences to our actions. And when we live like shitheads, it makes shit all around
[00:26:57] So. He's a prime example of that. Ideally, we're trying to avoid that. I don't know what Jordan's like today. Supposedly he had some sort of transformation, no idea. I haven't really followed his stuff or anything like that since then, the movie was very interesting. It's very telling to me. It's. It's a prime example of toxic hustle culture.
[00:27:17] That illuminates that. The next one on here is. Daniel Plainview. Which was played by Daniel Day Lewis in there will be blood. This guy, this movie's brilliant, too. But this guy is a ruthless tyrant. No feelings. Incredibly selfish only cares about money and materialism and power. He is brutal. Abusive physical.
[00:27:47] And does not care about the people around him. He's only interested in getting what he wants at any cost. And he destroys a lot of lives around him. He creates a lot of pain around Now he started very young with a brutal life and that created brutality, Hitler, Stalin. There's a lot of, a lot of brutal tyrants throughout history who had very.
[00:28:10] Graphic brutal upbringings. And they simply went on to project that and push that onto the world instead of overcoming what was their own experiences? They just did the same thing and repeated Until we break those cycles, we just repeat them. And that to me is what Daniel plain views care his character in that movie.
[00:28:32] I'm sorry. Daniel Day Lewis' character Daniel Plainview. Illustrates that incredibly well, just the, what has happened when we become ruthless tyrants and the consequences of that. When we grow up in these brutal situations, if we don't nurture ourselves, we don't learn to heal and get help when we need it.
[00:28:50] We go out and we create brutality in the world.
[00:28:55] I think another one here is Patrick Bateman from American psycho. Again, these are kind of easy. I wanted to think now that I'm thinking about it. He's pretty obvious, right? He's a literal sociopath. He's murdering people. He's obsessed with himself. He wants he's. He's got the image down.
[00:29:13] But really he's miserable. He's terrified. He's. Deeply insecure. And this is his way of going about doing it. And so. The reflection, his character is. The epitome of toxic masculinity in all ways that he's living. And he's literally a murderer in that sense, as he goes around and brutally kills people for his own pleasure.
[00:29:35] The, this is an extreme version But. This type of thing happens more frequently in men because of the power, the force, that animalistic nature that we carry in ourselves. If we don't embrace that, if we don't honor that aspect of ourselves, it can rule And so what ends up becoming is this like personality that takes over.
[00:29:57] And he's a prime example of that. It's a murderous, psychopathic personality that takes over when we suppress all those things within us and then they have to get out. So it's that suppression of self that's. Why living passively. And stuffing down our true feelings. Ends up creating these horrible situations.
[00:30:19] another real world example. Is a guy by the name of Chris Watts. He annihilated his whole family. In 2018. He was actually a guy here in the Charlotte, North Carolina area. But it's a prime example of what happens when we suppress our truth. We never express what we're feeling from within. We're never honest about our feelings. We're never honest about the life that we've created.
[00:30:51] And we're not sharing these things with the partner, with our partner in our life.
[00:30:57] And he was such an extreme example because he suppressed all of his truth. And he had this fantasy that he could escape the family life that he had created. And run away with his mistress. So I'm going to link. To this story because there's a lot more to it, but I think it's a prime example of what happens when we don't honor ourselves. When we don't speak our truth, he suppressed all this stuff down deep within himself, his life he grew up in a very oppressive, Southern Baptist and so he had a lot of things inside of him that he was never honest about and he wanted a life that he was not living.
[00:31:32] And he ends up killing his whole family. He murders wife. I strangled her.
[00:31:40] To strangle someone is a brutal way to kill them. That's so you have to have a lot of pain inside of you to be able to impact that on someone else. But he was passive. He was never honest about it. And he, all this stuff built up over time, eventually erupted to where he eliminated his whole family.
[00:31:56] In this fantasy that he was going to be able to run away with his mistress and start a whole new life without kids. And his wife, and to have this new identity as a free man. But that's what happens when we're not honest and we don't speak our truth and we don't deal with the things that we feel inside. We literally can become brutal murderers. That's the capacity that men carry within us. It's that animal side that we have to manage and navigate or.
[00:32:24] We become. Animals ourselves. I'm going to link to that story because I mess his name up, but it's very fascinating. So you can dig into that if you want, if you'd like to learn a little bit more about it. And I'm I may end up doing more episodes in the future, deeper around these topics, but for now I think that's a good, a good high level overview of each.
[00:32:44] The positive masculinity and toxic masculinity. So now let's look at looking at connecting with your masculine And one of the things that for me was very helpful is when I started reflecting on what I enjoyed, the things that I really enjoyed. Activities that I had kind of pushed away because I felt ashamed of them based on the fact that as I grew up, I grew up with a single mom and I was raised by a woman and mostly around women. I internalize this hatred for men of myself. And so.
[00:33:15] I was denying a lot of the things that I was interested in. Like the fact that I've always been very much into physicality and lifting weights, I love physical activity. I've actually always been very much into guns and shooting and building things, tinkering things with my hands, learning. And fighting.
[00:33:33] Punching hitting like that stuff to me has always been interesting, but I suppressed it for a very long time. So my point is explore interests that you may have suppressed, explore interests that are maybe taboo. Maybe it's a little taboo to be. Uh, getting into MMA, maybe it's taboo to go get a hand gun and start shooting at a gun range.
[00:33:55] Maybe it's taboo to learn survival skills, but if you're interested in that, And it's cultivating a strength, a challenge to you. That's going to push you out of your comfort zone, get out there and do it. Learn it, explore it, whatever that may be.
[00:34:10] Reflect inward and think about things that you've been interested in that you have not pursued. And allow yourself to pursue them, to explore them. Learn and do. Learn and do learn and do learn and do so exploratory aspect. As how we go about learning and creating. And developing these skills. So.
[00:34:34] Find things that you're interested in and get out and just start doing it. Building tables, whatever it is, furniture. Home projects. Working on your yard. Like there's a lot of things that I've discovered as an older man. That I've realized there are a lot of fun that I really enjoy. And it's only through that exploratory process that that becomes possible. Finding meaning in our lives.
[00:35:01] It's finding the things that we would be willing to give our life up. I would honestly ask yourself that question. What would you be willing to die for? What would you be willing to give your life for? And the answers to that question will most likely be tied up in your purpose and your meaning. Because it has to be that visceral. It has to be that deep in you that you would be willing to give up everything that you have to ensure that that thing continues on.
[00:35:28] Maybe it's a value system. Christ is a prime example of that. He gave his life, sacrificed his life because of the beliefs that he held. For the love that he felt for humanity, he gave his life. To carry on that mission to carry on that truth, to speak the truth to humanity, that we are all children of God. And that eternity awaits us. If we only accept.
[00:35:52] The fact that we are created, that we are in this infinite world. That's a prime example. He gave his life for his values and mission in life. His, his purpose in life.
[00:36:04] And so in order to live courageously. Live courageously.
[00:36:13] We find an explore and get into doing hard things. Get out into the wilderness, get into doing hard things, whatever that is, lift heavy things. This is the beast within us understand that there is a fire, that there is an animal nature that lives within all of us. This primal animalistic nature is true for all of us. We are both animal and souls. Tapping into that animal nature, allowing it allow that fierce and force to rise experiencing it. Tasting it, understanding what it is and leaning into it. So you can know what that looks like. So you can know. How that power resonates so you can know.
[00:36:57] What that looks like and play with it. Understand your sexuality ties into this. I've got another episode where I'm going to talk a lot more about this, but your sexuality ties into this. There's a lot to unpack around taming the beast and activating that beast in a meaningful and controlled But I'm going to get more into that in another episode, tying around the sexuality in that energetic component.
[00:37:18] But. This is a topic that I feel very strongly about, and I hope you found value in it. I hope that we can create more healthy masculine men in our world because we need it desperately right now.
[00:37:31] All right. So with that being said, I'm going to wrap the episode. I'm excited to keep going. Y'all hopefully you're enjoying it. Let me know if you have any questions, thoughts, comments. I'm here for you. So until next time y'all.
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