What changes when you stop trying to think your way into calm and start working with the body?

In Episode 16 of the Emotional Fitness Gym Podcast, Brent Lindsay and Valerie Andrews are joined by Nicholas Blewett, Founder and Master Instructor of Qi Practice, for a grounded conversation about Qigong, breath, nervous system regulation, internal movement and learning how to come back to centre.

Nicholas is a Doctor of Chinese Medicine and Acupuncture with more than 23 years of clinical experience and over three decades practising Qigong, Taijiquan and the internal martial arts.

His work brings traditional Chinese practice together with movement, biomechanics, fascia, breath and nervous system awareness to help people better understand the connection between body, mind and internal state.

At the centre of this conversation is a simple idea:

Emotional regulation does not only happen in the mind.

The way we breathe, move, hold tension and organise ourselves physically can influence how available we are to respond rather than react.

This episode explores:

• What Qigong actually is and why it is much more than slow movement
• Why slowing down can be surprisingly difficult
• Qigong as emotional fitness in motion
• How breath, posture and movement influence our internal state
• The difference between being calm and being emotionally flexible
• Why Qigong can include both stillness and explosive movement
• Learning to move from intensity back to centre
• Nicholas’s concept of organisational capacity
• Why uncertainty and flow are built into internal movement
• The relationship between Qigong, Chinese Medicine and the Five Elements
• How embodiment can help us notice ourselves before reaction takes over
• Why stillness can reveal what constant movement allows us to avoid

🏋️ YOUR GYM REP — RIB BREATHING

Nicholas leaves listeners with a simple practice designed to bring attention back into the body.

Place your hands gently around your lower ribs.

As you breathe out, allow the ribs to comfortably contract.

Then release the effort and allow the inhale to arrive naturally as the ribs expand.

Rather than forcing the breath, simply notice the movement.

Nicholas describes these small practices as “kettle drills” — a few minutes to interrupt the rush, reconnect with the body and return to centre.

Breathe.
Feel.
Organise.
Return.

Because emotional fitness isn’t about remaining calm all the time.

It’s developing the capacity to move through different states without losing yourself inside them.

☯️ Connect with Nicholas Blewett & Qi Practice

🌿 Qi Practice
https://qipractice.com/

💼 LinkedIn
https://au.linkedin.com/in/nicholasblewetttheqigongguy

☯️ Free 5-Day Qigong Training
https://qipractice.com/

▶️ Watch the Emotional Fitness Gym Podcast on YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/@EmotionalFitnessGymPodcast

🍎 Listen on Apple Podcasts
https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/emotional-fitness-gym-podcast/id1892607601

🎧 Follow the show for grounded conversations on emotional fitness, identity, leadership, relationships and human behaviour.

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🤝 Connect With Us

🧭 Brent Lindsay
https://www.trilateraldynamics.com

✨ Valerie Andrews
https://www.ifeelawesome.org

🎙️ EFG Podcast Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/EmotionalFitnessGym

This podcast is an educational and coaching conversation, not therapy or individual medical advice. If something discussed raises a health concern for you, seek advice from an appropriately qualified health professional.

Sometimes men aren’t hiding the fact that they’re struggling.

They don’t realise they are.

In Episode 15 of the Emotional Fitness Gym Podcast, Brent Lindsay and Valerie Andrews sit down with Arran Macdougall, The Dad Coach, for a grounded conversation about fatherhood, pressure, male connection, emotional expression and what happens when we keep carrying more than we recognise.

Arran shares the personal turning point that changed his relationship with himself and fatherhood.

On paper, life looked good. He had a strong marriage, children, work, friends and responsibility.

But sitting in a car park one morning, unable to turn the ignition, his body finally made him stop.

“It’s not if you’re struggling. It’s how you’re struggling.”

That idea becomes the foundation for a much deeper conversation about the quiet pressure many fathers carry and what can happen when there is no language, space or support for what is happening internally.

We explore:

• Why men can struggle without recognising the signs
• The pressure of fatherhood, responsibility and providing
• Why male friendship and positive community matter
• Why men often connect differently when they are doing something side by side
• What happens when your partner becomes your only emotional outlet
• The difference between anger and the behaviour that follows anger
• How suppressed emotion can leak into relationships, parenting and everyday life
• Why anger can sometimes sit above sadness, grief or shame
• Emotional regulation, responsibility and repair
• What emotionally safe fatherhood can look like in practice

🏋️ YOUR GYM REP

Arran’s invitation is to begin becoming more aware of your relationship with anger.

Instead of automatically judging, suppressing or projecting it, create a safe and appropriate way to notice what is happening, regulate yourself and choose what happens next.

The goal isn’t to become more angry.

It is to develop enough emotional capacity that anger doesn’t have to control your behaviour.

Because emotional fitness isn’t about never feeling pressure.

It’s about recognising what is happening inside you and becoming more responsible for what you do with it.

This podcast is an educational and coaching conversation, not therapy. If something in this episode brings up more than you feel equipped to work through alone, consider reaching out to an appropriately qualified professional or trusted support.

👤 Connect with Arran Macdougall | The Dad Coach

📸 Instagram
https://www.instagram.com/thedadcoach_aus/

▶️ Watch the Emotional Fitness Gym Podcast on YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/@EmotionalFitnessGymPodcast

🍎 Listen on Apple Podcasts
https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/emotional-fitness-gym-podcast/id1892607601

🎧 Follow the show for grounded conversations on emotional fitness, identity, leadership, relationships and human behaviour.

🔔 Subscribe

📲 Turn on notifications

🏋️ Join us as we train emotional fitness, one conversation at a time.

🤝 Connect With Us

🧭 Brent Lindsay
https://www.trilateraldynamics.com

✨ Valerie Andrews
https://www.ifeelawesome.org

🎙️ EFG Podcast Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/EmotionalFitnessGym

What happens when a man looks successful, responsible and functional on the outside, but quietly feels disconnected from the inside?

In Episode 14 of the Emotional Fitness Gym Podcast, Brent Lindsay and Valerie Andrews are joined by Chris Kloppers, a life-of-purpose coach helping men, especially men in their 40s and beyond, reconnect with presence, purpose, pride and the spark that often gets buried under responsibility, pressure, routine and quiet disconnection.

Chris shares his own lived experience of moving countries, working as a tradie, carrying responsibility, pushing through discomfort, and eventually realising that pushing through does not always mean you are okay.

This conversation explores the inner world of men who have spent years getting on with life, showing up for work, supporting family and doing what needs to be done, while slowly losing connection with what still lights them up.

We explore:

• Why many men are trained to bottle things up and keep going
• How emotion can stack up until it erupts or shuts us down
• Why awareness is the first step back to emotional fitness
• How old emotional triggers draw from the past and project into the future
• Why there is often more life, purpose and adventure available than men realise
• What presence, purpose and pride mean in Chris’s work
• Why the dream, spark or passion inside a man does not have to die
• How small daily steps create momentum without overwhelming the whole life system
• Chris’s practical Gym Rep: Stop, Drop and Roll

Your Gym Rep:

Stop.
Drop.
Roll.

Stop what you are doing and create a gap before reacting.

Drop the story you have attached to the emotional trigger.

Roll the situation over and ask what else could be true or what can be done differently.

This is emotional fitness in practice.

It is not about pretending everything is fine.

It is about recognising what is happening inside, taking responsibility for your state, and choosing the next step with more presence and purpose.

Because emotional fitness is not calm.

It is capability.

And purpose often begins with noticing that the spark is still there.

🌱 Connect with Chris Kloppers
www.facebook.com/ckloppers

▶️ Watch on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/@EmotionalFitnessGymPodcast

🍎 Listen on Apple Podcasts:
https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/emotional-fitness-gym-podcast/id1892607601

🎧 Follow the show for grounded conversations on emotional fitness, identity, leadership, relationships, purpose and human behaviour.

🔔 Subscribe

📲 Turn on notifications

🏋️ Join us as we train emotional fitness, one conversation at a time.

🤝 Connect With Us

🧭 Brent Lindsay
https://www.trilateraldynamics.com

✨ Valerie Andrews
https://www.ifeelawesome.org

🎙️ EFG Podcast Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/EmotionalFitnessGym

Most people think relationships are built on communication.

But communication is only the surface.

Relationships are shaped by emotional fitness: the state you bring, the story you live inside, and the way you return to connection after disconnection.

In Episode 13 of the Emotional Fitness Gym Podcast, Brent Lindsay and Valerie Andrews explore three practical Gym Reps for building safer, more connected relationships.

These reps are simple:

Pause and notice your state.
Name the story that got activated.
Practise perspective.

This episode explores how emotional fitness shows up in romantic relationships, family, friendships, workplace conversations, and leadership.

Together, Brent and Valerie unpack why relationship breakdowns often happen in the small repeated moments where emotional fitness is missing: the defensive tone, the old identity story, the projection, the shutdown, the reaction, or the need to be right.

We explore:

• Why state communicates before words
• How identity stories shape behaviour under pressure
• Why projection makes relationships less safe
• How perspective widens possibility
• Why self-responsibility is not self-blame
• How emotional fitness supports repair, compassion, and connection
• Why love is not just a feeling, but a skill that can be trained

Your Gym Rep for the week:

Once a day, in one meaningful moment:

1. Pause and notice your state.
2. Name the story that got activated.
3. Practise perspective: past, present, and future.

Ask:

What am I bringing into this moment?
What story is running me right now?
What else could be true?

Because emotional fitness is not about perfection.

It is about presence.

One rep at a time.

▶️ Watch on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/@EmotionalFitnessGymPodcast

🍎 Listen on Apple Podcasts:
https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/emotional-fitness-gym-podcast/id1892607601

🎧 Follow the show for grounded conversations on emotional fitness, identity, leadership, relationships, and human behaviour.

🔔 Subscribe

📲 Turn on notifications

🏋️ Join us as we train emotional fitness, one conversation at a time.

🤝 Connect With Us

🧭 Brent Lindsay
https://www.trilateraldynamics.com

✨ Valerie Andrews
https://www.ifeelawesome.org

🎙️ EFG Podcast Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/EmotionalFitnessGym

📌 Want to go deeper with this episode? Download the show notes and episode workbook here 📌www.trilateraldynamics.com/podcast-workbooks

Three guests. Three Gym Reps. One deeper lesson about creating the space to choose.

In Episode 12 of the Emotional Fitness Gym Podcast, Brent Lindsay and Valerie Andrews reflect on the practical wisdom shared by Miranda Packer, Louise Cramond, and Laura Gutiérrez.

Miranda’s Gym Rep creates space in language:

“A part of me is feeling…”

Louise’s Gym Rep creates space in time:

Pause for Peace.

Laura’s Gym Rep creates space in the body:

Make your breath conscious.

Together, these three practices become a simple emotional fitness sequence:

Name it.
Pause.
Breathe.
Then choose.

This episode explores why emotions can become identities, why busyness can disconnect us from ourselves, and how conscious breath helps us regulate before we react.

We connect each Gym Rep to the Emotional Fitness Formula:

• Identity: separating who you are from what you are feeling
• Life Stages: creating stillness to hear what this season is asking of you
• Emotional Flexibility: using conscious breath to stay present under pressure
• Values and Perspective: choosing a response that protects both integrity and connection

Your Gym Rep for the week:

Use this four-step sequence once per day:

1. “A part of me is feeling…”

2. Pause for 60 seconds.

3. Notice your breath without forcing it.

4. Choose one values-aligned next step.

You are not trying to become perfect.

You are training the ability to return.

One rep at a time.

▶️ Watch the Emotional Fitness Gym Podcast on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/@EmotionalFitnessGymPodcast

🎧 Follow the show for grounded conversations on emotional fitness, identity, leadership, and human behaviour.

🔔 Subscribe

📲 Turn on notifications

🏋️ Join us as we train emotional fitness, one conversation at a time.

🤝 Connect With Us

🧭 Brent Lindsay
https://www.trilateraldynamics.com

✨ Valerie Andrews
https://www.ifeelawesome.org

🎙️ EFG Podcast Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/EmotionalFitnessGym

What changes when you stop treating breathing as automatic and begin using it consciously?

In Episode 11 of the Emotional Fitness Gym Podcast, Brent Lindsay and Valerie Andrews are joined by Laura Gutiérrez, founder of The Love Approach Project, for a grounded conversation about anxiety, breathwork, emotional regulation, self-understanding, and coming back to yourself.

Laura is an emotional fitness coach, breathwork facilitator, behavioural specialist and vibrational healer who supports people navigating stress, change, uncertainty, and emotional overwhelm.

Her journey began in 2010 when severe anxiety and panic attacks disrupted her ability to leave home, connect with friends and family, study, and work. Her search for another way forward led her through energetic healing, personal development, coaching, behavioural awareness, and eventually breathwork.

For Laura, breathwork became the missing piece.

She describes the breath as sitting at the intersection of the mind, body, emotions, and spirit. Through the breath, we can access the whole of ourselves and begin to regulate from within.

This episode explores:

• Laura’s journey through anxiety and panic attacks
• How personal healing became a path of service
• Why stress and uncertainty change our breathing patterns
• How breathwork supports emotional regulation
• Why conscious breathing creates agency
• The importance of breathing through the diaphragm
• How Extended DISC and Human Design help people understand themselves
• Why purpose can be found by asking, “What can I give?”
• How breath and journalling can support daily emotional fitness

Laura leaves listeners with a simple Gym Rep:

Make your breath conscious.

Pause and ask:

“Where is my breath right now?”

Notice its rhythm, pace, depth, and location in the body.

That one moment of awareness can become a bridge back to calm, clarity, and choice.

🌬️ Connect with Laura and The Love Approach Project

🤍 Website
https://theloveapproachproject.com

📸 Instagram
https://www.instagram.com/theloveapproachproject

▶️ YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/@theloveapproachproject

🎵 TikTok
https://www.tiktok.com/@theloveapproachproject

🎧 Follow the show for grounded conversations on emotional fitness, identity, leadership, and human behaviour.

🔔 Subscribe

📲 Turn on notifications

🏋️ Join us as we train emotional fitness, 1 conversation at a time.

🤝 Connect With Us

🧭 Brent Lindsay
https://www.trilateraldynamics.com

✨ Valerie Andrews
https://www.ifeelawesome.org

🎙️ EFG Podcast Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/EmotionalFitnessGym

What happens when you no longer feel like the woman you used to be?

In Episode 10 of the Emotional Fitness Gym Podcast, Brent Lindsay and Valerie Andrews are joined by Louise Cramond for a deeply human conversation about change, grief, identity, menopause, emotional awareness, and coming home to yourself.

Louise is a coach, holistic counsellor, Emotional Fitness Formula practitioner, and Extended DISC behavioural profiler who supports women, including women in business, to navigate change and growth without sacrificing their health and wellbeing.

Through her own journey of relationship breakdown, death, grief, motherhood, relocation, rebuilding, spiritual development, and years of client work, Louise came to understand that life’s difficult seasons are not always signs that something is wrong.

Sometimes they are invitations into transformation.

This episode explores what happens when women feel overwhelmed, disconnected, uncertain, or unlike themselves, and why these moments often ask for deeper self-awareness rather than self-judgement.

We explore:

• Why women may feel unlike themselves during major life transitions
• Menopause as transformation rather than decline
• How identity and values evolve through different life stages
• Why partners, families, and workplaces must learn to grow with women through change
• The role of grief, meditation, journalling, and spiritual practice
• How Emotional Fitness and Extended DISC support self-understanding
• Why healing often begins by returning to the love and wisdom already within you

Louise also leaves listeners with a simple Gym Rep: Pause for Peace.

Before awareness can emerge, we need to create enough stillness to notice what is happening within us.

Pause. Breathe. Listen.

That small moment can become the beginning of coming home to yourself.

🌸 Connect with Louise

🌿 The Sage Bloom
https://thesagebloom.com.au

au.linkedin.com/in/louise-cramond-52498319

https://www.instagram.com/the_sage_blooms

🎧 Follow the show for grounded conversations on emotional fitness, identity, leadership, and human behaviour.

🔔 Subscribe

📲 Turn on notifications

🏋️ Join us as we train emotional fitness, 1 conversation at a time.

🤝 Connect With Us

🧭 Brent Lindsay
https://www.trilateraldynamics.com

✨ Valerie Andrews
https://www.ifeelawesome.org

🎙️ EFG Podcast Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/EmotionalFitnessGym

It’s time to get your values off the wall and into behaviour.

In this episode of the Emotional Fitness Gym Podcast, Brent Lindsay and Valerie Andrews sit down with Miranda Packer to explore values, behaviour, team alignment, and the emotional capacity required to create healthier workplaces.

Miranda is a team alignment coach, behavioural profiler, facilitator, and founder of Miranda Packer Coaching. Through her TAC model, Team Alignment and Capacity, she helps organisations move their values from the wall into practical behaviours people can understand, embody, and sustain in everyday team culture.

This conversation opens up a grounded look at why so many workplaces struggle with values that sound good but are not truly lived. Miranda shares how values can become observable behaviours, how EDISC helps teams understand resistance and communication styles, and why leaders need to build behavioural flexibility if they want change to land.

We explore:

• Why values need to become visible behaviours• What happens when values are created but not embedded• How teams can move beyond blame, frustration, and misunderstanding• Why EDISC helps leaders understand how people respond to change• The role of perspective and meaning-making in emotional fitness• How self-leadership ripples into teams, families, and culture• Miranda’s simple gym rep: shifting from “I am frustrated” to “a part of me is feeling frustrated”

This episode is a practical and human conversation for leaders, teams, and high-achieving people who want to communicate better, build capacity, and create workplaces where people feel seen, heard, and understood.

👥 Connect with Miranda:
https://mirandapacker.com.au/home
https://wordbirdcopy.com.au/\

https://www.instagram.com/mirandapackercoach

Follow the show for grounded conversations on emotional fitness, identity, leadership, and human behaviour.

🔥 Subscribe

🔥 Turn on notifications

🔥 Join us as we train emotional fitness 1 conversation at a time

🧩 Connect With Us

Brent Lindsay - www.trilateraldynamics.com

Valerie Andrews - www.ifeelawesome.org

www.Facebook.com/EmotionalFitnessGym

📌 Want to go deeper with this episode? Download the show notes and episode workbook here 📌www.trilateraldynamics.com/podcast-workbooks

Three guests. Three gym reps. One deeper lesson about self-leadership.

In this episode, Brent Lindsay and Valerie Andrews reflect on what Melissa Duniam, Daniel Burgess, and Alicia Ann Wade each revealed about real change.

Melissa points us to state awareness and how we show up. Daniel brings us into identity and the stories people live inside until they question them. Alicia opens the door to grounded gratitude and perspective that includes the past, present, and future.

Together, these three conversations become a practical gym rep sequence: notice your state, question the story, and widen your perspective.

Brent and Valerie explore how these reps connect to emotional fitness, why they matter in leadership and relationships, and how self-leadership helps create psychologically safer environments for people to thrive.

This is a reflection episode designed to help you integrate what you’ve already heard and turn it into something you can actually practise.

Follow the show for grounded conversations on emotional fitness, identity, leadership, and human behaviour.

🔥 Subscribe for grounded conversations on emotional fitness, identity, leadership, and human behaviour.

🔥 Turn on notifications

🔥 Join us as we train emotional fitness, 1 conversation at a time

🧩 Connect With Us

Brent Lindsay - trilateraldynamics.com

Valerie Andrews - ifeelawesome.org

Facebook.com/EmotionalFitnessGym

Gratitude can be more than a feeling.

It can become the lens that changes how you see yourself, your challenges, and what’s possible next.

In this episode of the Emotional Fitness Gym Podcast, Brent Lindsay and Valerie Andrews sit down with Alicia Ann Wade to explore gratitude, confidence, and creating meaningful impact through lived experience.

Alicia shares how gratitude became more than a daily practice... it became a pathway to rebuild, grow, and help others do the same.

This conversation goes beyond surface-level positivity and into the real power of gratitude when it’s applied with honesty, intention, and action.

We explore:

• Why gratitude is often misunderstood

• How gratitude can strengthen confidence and wellbeing

• Turning pain into purpose and service

• Building a meaningful career aligned with your values

• Practical ways to shift perspective in everyday life

It’s not about ignoring what’s hard.

It’s about learning how to meet life with a different state.

Follow the show for grounded conversations on emotional fitness, identity, leadership, and human behaviour.

🙏 Connect with Alicia:

⁨https://thegratitudemethod.com  

https://linktr.ee/thegratitudemethod

https://www.facebook.com/alicia.a.wade

https://www.instagram.com/thegratitudemethodtm

🔥 Subscribe for grounded conversations 

🔥 Emotional fitness, identity, leadership, and human behaviour.

🔥 Turn on notifications

🔥 Join us as we train emotional fitness, 1 conversation at a time

🧩 Connect With Us

Brent Lindsay - www.trilateraldynamics.com

Valerie Andrews - www.ifeelawesome.org

www.Facebook.com/EmotionalFitnessGym