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The January Hero Arc series closes with a powerful message inspired by Teddy Roosevelt’s iconic “Man in the Arena” quote. This is the episode for anyone who’s tired of watching life pass by, tired of waiting for “the perfect moment,” and ready to finally step into the arena of their own life.

Shae walks through the difference between:

• people who observe
• people who criticize
• and people who actually live

and makes the case that 2026 is the year you stop sitting in the stands and start taking meaningful action toward the life you actually want.

Through personal stories, philosophy, psychology, and the tools from Episodes 1–8, this episode is your final push to become the person your future demands.

⭐ WHAT YOU’LL LEARN IN THIS EPISODE

1. The Power of the “Man in the Arena” Mindset

Why stepping into the arena matters more than perfection, approval, or comfort and why the critic never counts.

2. Fear of Judgment & Failure is Natural; Do It Anyway

Shae talks openly about his own struggles and fears.
 And why the only thing worse than failing is living with regret.

3. The Two Hard Lives

• Building a life you’re proud of is hard.
• Living a life you regret is way harder.
  You choose your hard.

8. The Final Challenge

As soon as the episode ends, take one meaningful action you’ve been avoiding:

• Make the call
• Clean your car
• Message the client
• Sign up
• Start the thing

Action is the separator.

Support the show

👉 If this episode hit home, please leave a 5-star review, share it with someone who needs it, and subscribe so you don’t miss future life-changing conversations.

For any and all of your high quality supplement needs check out our store on Thorne Supplements

Until next time, go get uncomfortable.

Schedule a free strategy call with us at EnlightenedAthlete.com to learn how we can help you build the best version of yourself through exercise & movement programs, stress management, breathwork, and nutrition coaching!

Connect with us or send in your story submissions by shooting us an email at [email protected]

Find Shae on Facebook HERE

Follow us on Instagram HERE

Send us a text

In Episode 8 of The Hero Arc Series, Shae teaches one of the most practical and transformative skills in the entire arc: daily presence.

Most people live on autopilot; reactive, distracted, emotionally unstable, waiting for someone else to tell them what to do. Presence breaks that cycle. This episode gives you a simple, one-minute practice that shifts you from unconscious reactivity to intentional action.

Shae walks you through a complete presence protocol you can use any time during the day to:

• Slow your heart rate
• Regulate your nervous system
• Make better decisions
• Stay grounded in your identity and purpose
• Override emotional impulses
• Show up intentionally for the people who matter

This is a small practice with massive returns.

⭐ WHAT YOU’LL LEARN

1. Why most adults are living like children in adult bodies

Running patterns, avoiding responsibility, and hoping someone else will save them.

2. Presence = power

When you're present, you stop reacting and start choosing.

3. Calm is a physiological skill

You can train your nervous system to stay stable under stress — it’s not just a personality trait.

4. Strengthening your prefrontal cortex

Every time you return your attention to the moment, you literally build the circuits for emotional regulation and impulse control.

5. Tim Ferriss’ fear-setting principle

Suffering is often imagined. Reality is usually a “2 or 3 out of 10,” not a “10.”

6. The complete Presence Practice

A daily protocol you can run in 60–90 seconds:

STEP 1: The Physiological Sigh
A fast way to relax the body and clear the mind.

STEP 2: Body Scan
Tune into tension, intuition, and your body's signals.

STEP 3: Name It, Blame It, Tame It (from Paul Chek)
Identify the emotional pattern, acknowledge it, and release its control.

STEP 4: Set Your Direction
Not goals: state.
Decide how you want to show up for the next hour, conversation, workout, or moment.

⭐ CHALLENGE OF THE WEEK

For the next 7 days, run the presence practice once per day.
It takes one minute.
The goal: practice intention, not perfection.

• Breathe
• Scan
• Name it, blame it, tame it
• Choose your state

Small reps build massive emotional strength.

Support the show

👉 If this episode hit home, please leave a 5-star review, share it with someone who needs it, and subscribe so you don’t miss future life-changing conversations.

For any and all of your high quality supplement needs check out our store on Thorne Supplements

Until next time, go get uncomfortable.

Schedule a free strategy call with us at EnlightenedAthlete.com to learn how we can help you build the best version of yourself through exercise & movement programs, stress management, breathwork, and nutrition coaching!

Connect with us or send in your story submissions by shooting us an email at [email protected]

Find Shae on Facebook HERE

Follow us on Instagram HERE

Send us a text

In this episode of The Hero Arc Series, Shae guides you through one of the most powerful ideas in the entire arc: building your personal code, your operating system, the way the samurai built their Bushido.

Most people drift through life like an empty can blowing down the street; reactive, overwhelmed, and shaped by forces they don’t even notice. Today, you learn how to take your power back.

Shae breaks down:

• Why you must consciously choose your values or the world will choose them for you
• How modern algorithms and media deliberately program your emotional responses
• How to design your own ethical framework: your personal Bushido
• How living by a code strengthens the anterior cingulate cortex (your “override” mechanism during hard effort)
• How to course-correct instantly when you act out of alignment
• Shae’s own values map created in a performance coaching session
• The seven virtues of Bushido and how to adapt each into modern life
• How the Saiyans (DBZ) illustrate resilience, adaptation, and growth under stress
• Why struggle, setbacks, and discomfort are feedback, not failure

This episode is about identity, discipline, honor, integrity, and turning yourself into a person who can handle anything.

⭐ KEY TAKEAWAYS

1. Without a personal code, you become programmable

Algorithms, advertising, politics, and culture shape you if you don’t shape yourself. Awareness = sovereignty.

2. A code builds predictable behavior under chaos

Your values become the filter you run actions through. “What would the best version of me do here?”

3. Your brain has a built-in override system

Strengthening your anterior cingulate cortex helps you override fear, hesitation, and self-doubt.

4. Bushido offers a blueprint:

• Rectitude / Integrity — Chooses right action even under pressure
• Courage — Acts with fear, not without it
• Benevolence — Strength used in service of others
• Respect — Discipline toward self & environment
• Honesty — Radical truth with self and others
• Honor — Loyalty to your own principles
• Loyalty — Commitment to mission and people

5. Saiyan philosophy = stress + adaptation = growth

⭐ THE CHALLENGE OF THE WEEK

Over the next 3–7 days, spend 10 minutes per day writing:

1. What values already guide your life?
2. What values should guide your life to reach your potential?
3. What behaviors or habits are holding you back?

By the end of the

Support the show

👉 If this episode hit home, please leave a 5-star review, share it with someone who needs it, and subscribe so you don’t miss future life-changing conversations.

For any and all of your high quality supplement needs check out our store on Thorne Supplements

Until next time, go get uncomfortable.

Schedule a free strategy call with us at EnlightenedAthlete.com to learn how we can help you build the best version of yourself through exercise & movement programs, stress management, breathwork, and nutrition coaching!

Connect with us or send in your story submissions by shooting us an email at [email protected]

Find Shae on Facebook HERE

Follow us on Instagram HERE

Send us a text

In this episode of Get Uncomfortable, Shae teaches two tools that will radically change your ability to execute: The Power List and a simple, research-backed gratitude practice that rewires your brain for resilience, presence, and confidence.

Most people obsess over 1-year, 5-year, and 10-year goals… but they don’t even know what they need to get done tomorrow. Today’s episode is about bringing your focus back to the 24-hour game, the only game that actually matters.

If you're struggling with discipline, consistency, or direction, this is the episode you need.

📌 What You’ll Learn

1. Why Execution Fails Without Direction

If you don’t know exactly where you're going each day, you can’t win the day. Big goals don’t happen by accident, they require structure and daily intention.

2. The Power List (Andy Frisella)

A simple system of five critical tasks that move you directly toward your goals.
Not chores. Not busywork.
Actual needle-moving tasks.

You’ll learn:

• How to choose critical tasks
• How to grade your wins and losses
• What it means to “win the day” and build unstoppable momentum

3. Reducing Limbic Friction

Simple ways to make taking action easier:

• Set your workout gear out the night before
• Prep your workspace
• Remove one layer of friction to increase follow-through

4. Categories for Your Daily Tasks

Use these buckets to build a balanced life:

• Personal development
• Business / career
• Health & fitness
• Family & relationships

5. The Neuroscience of Gratitude

A gratitude practice is not fluff, it’s physiology.

Shae explains how gratitude:

• Activates the prefrontal cortex
• Reduces amygdala-driven fear and stress
• Improves sleep
• Increases dopamine and serotonin
• Enhances emotional regulation
• Boosts resilience
• Improves cardiovascular health

6. How to Practice Gratitude Properly

It’s not just writing words. It’s:

• Visualizing what you’re grateful for
• Feeling it in your body
• Letting that feeling expand
• Sending out loving-kindness energy to others

Practicing this even 2–3 times per week changes your emotional baseline.

🔥 Episode Challenge

For tomorrow:

1. Create your Power List (five critical tasks).
2. Execute all five, no excuses.
3. Write down three things you’re grateful for and actually feel them.

Repeat.
 Stack wins.
 Become the kind of person who

Support the show

👉 If this episode hit home, please leave a 5-star review, share it with someone who needs it, and subscribe so you don’t miss future life-changing conversations.

For any and all of your high quality supplement needs check out our store on Thorne Supplements

Until next time, go get uncomfortable.

Schedule a free strategy call with us at EnlightenedAthlete.com to learn how we can help you build the best version of yourself through exercise & movement programs, stress management, breathwork, and nutrition coaching!

Connect with us or send in your story submissions by shooting us an email at [email protected]

Find Shae on Facebook HERE

Follow us on Instagram HERE

Send us a text

In this fifth installment of the January Hero Arc, Shae breaks down one of the most important principles for becoming the hero of your own life: the body and mind are inseparable  and training your body is one of the fastest ways to rewire your brain for discipline, confidence, and momentum.

This episode goes deep into the science and the application of physical mastery. If you want to understand why training makes you mentally stronger and how to build a training week that actually supports your goals this one is essential.

🔥 Key Topics Covered

• Limbic Friction & the Science of Discipline

• What limbic friction is and why it makes you want to quit
• How repeated reps teach your brain to override avoidance

• The Anterior Cingulate Cortex (ACC)

• The brain region responsible for discipline & effort
• How it activates during hard physical effort
• Why pushing through discomfort literally rewires your brain
• Shae’s personal story running 400m repeats and overriding the “bitch voice”

• Foundations of Proper Physical Training

What your training MUST include if you want long-term performance, energy, and injury prevention:

1. Flexibility & Mobility
2. Energizing Exercises (Paul Chek’s Zone Exercises)
3. Real Core Training (McGill Big 3, Locke 5)
4. The 7 Primal Movement Patterns

• A Suggested Week of Training

• The Hidden Consequences of Avoidance

Avoiding physical challenge bleeds into every part of life:

• Lower confidence
• Poor stress tolerance
• More illness and fragility
• Missed opportunities
• Reduced respect and perceived capability

The Challenge: SET THE STANDARD

For the next 7 days:
Commit to 3 training sessions not for calories or metrics but for the mental win.

 This is how you build momentum and become someone who follows through.

Resources Mentioned in This Episode

• Dr. Andrew Huberman: Limbic Friction (podcast search)
• Dr. Stuart McGill: McGill Big 3
• Dr. Andrew Locke: The Locke 5
• Paul Chek: Zone Exercises
  (You can Google each for guided protocols and videos.)

Thorne Supplement Dispensary

For the same foundational supplements I personally use and recommend, visit our Enlightened Athlete Thorne Dispensary

 Purchasing through this link supports the show, my family, and the mission of helping more people set a higher sta

Support the show

👉 If this episode hit home, please leave a 5-star review, share it with someone who needs it, and subscribe so you don’t miss future life-changing conversations.

For any and all of your high quality supplement needs check out our store on Thorne Supplements

Until next time, go get uncomfortable.

Schedule a free strategy call with us at EnlightenedAthlete.com to learn how we can help you build the best version of yourself through exercise & movement programs, stress management, breathwork, and nutrition coaching!

Connect with us or send in your story submissions by shooting us an email at [email protected]

Find Shae on Facebook HERE

Follow us on Instagram HERE

Send us a text

In today’s episode of Get Uncomfortable, Shae breaks down one of the most overlooked abilities in modern life: the skill of downregulation. Most people know how to ramp their nervous system up… but almost nobody knows how to bring it back down. Chronic sympathetic overdrive leads to burnout, anxiety, poor recovery, and feeling disconnected from your body’s signals. This episode teaches you powerful breath-based tools to train calm, reset your system, and return to baseline.

Check out our 12 week holistic stress reduction program, Stronger Than Stress, to gain physical fitness & health, learn meditation & breathwork, many healthy recipes, build resilience in life, travel nutrition & workouts guide.

📌 What You’ll Learn Today

• Why most people live in perpetual stress
• What chronic sympathetic activation does to your health
• Why calm is a trainable skill, not a personality trait
• How breath can be used to instantly shift your state
• Four practical downregulation protocols you can use anytime

🧘‍♂️ Downregulation Protocols Covered

1. Dr. Andrew Weil’s 4-6-8 (or 4-7-8) Breath

• Inhale 4 seconds → Hold 6–7 → Exhale 8
• Powerful for anxiety, overwhelm, and falling asleep
• Deep parasympathetic activation

2. Box Breathing

• Inhale 4 → Hold 4 → Exhale 4 → Hold 4
• Navy SEAL–tested for focus and emotional stability
• Great for transitions, tough conversations, and grounding

3. Body Scan Meditation

• Slow belly breathing paired with guided awareness throughout the body
• Helps you move out of the mind and into physical intuition
• Based on Jon Kabat-Zinn’s Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction model
• Excellent for deep relaxation, clarity, and sleep

4. Post-Workout Recovery Breath (from PJ Nestler, XPT)

• Inhale 4 → Exhale 8 for 2–5 minutes
• Performed lying down with legs elevated
• Quickly brings heart rate and nervous system back to baseline

📝 This Week’s Challenge

Choose ONE of the four protocols above.
Set a timer for 5 minutes.
Practice daily.

🔗 Resources Mentioned

• Jon Kabat-Zinn - MBSR & meditation teacher
• PJ Nestler (XPT Performance Breathing) - On Get Uncomfortable

Support the show

👉 If this episode hit home, please leave a 5-star review, share it with someone who needs it, and subscribe so you don’t miss future life-changing conversations.

For any and all of your high quality supplement needs check out our store on Thorne Supplements

Until next time, go get uncomfortable.

Schedule a free strategy call with us at EnlightenedAthlete.com to learn how we can help you build the best version of yourself through exercise & movement programs, stress management, breathwork, and nutrition coaching!

Connect with us or send in your story submissions by shooting us an email at [email protected]

Find Shae on Facebook HERE

Follow us on Instagram HERE

Send us a text

In this episode of Get Uncomfortable, Shae breaks down one of the most important skills in modern life: how to understand, manage, and build capacity for stress. Most people think stress is the enemy  but the truth is, uncontrolled, unrelenting stress with no recovery is the real problem. When you learn how stress works, how it affects your physiology, and how to train your response to it, you become someone who can carry far more responsibility, influence, and impact.

Shae also reveals the four key tools he personally uses to become stronger than stress and closes with the first public announcement of his new 12-week training and lifestyle program, Stronger Than Stress.

📌 What You’ll Learn in This Episode

• Why stress itself is not the enemy
• How stress activates the sympathetic & parasympathetic branches of the nervous system
• The six types of stress from Paul Chek’s How to Eat, Move, and Be Healthy
• Why stress is summative and funnels into one “bucket”
• What chronic sympathetic overdrive does to your health, sleep, recovery, hormones, and mood
• The physiology of catabolic vs. anabolic hormone states
• The difference between avoidance, maladaptation, and true stress capacity building

🔧 Four Tools to Become “Stronger Than Stress”

1️⃣ Affirmations & Thought Reframing

2️⃣ Breathwork

3️⃣ Low-Stakes Stress Practice

4️⃣ Community

🔥 Introducing the 12-Week Program: Stronger Than Stress

Shae reveals the program he built during one of the hardest phases of his life. It includes:

• 12-week strength & conditioning program
• Daily workout logs
• Breathwork & meditation audio tracks
• Enlightened Athlete Nutrition Protocol
• High-protein recipe guide
• Restaurant/Travel survival guide
• Travel workouts
• Educational podcast on stress science
• Daily journal & tracking sheets
• Morning & evening breathing routines
• Daily “mood boosters” (cold exposure, meditation, sunlight)
• Clear daily tasks to create progress and momentum

“One clear program, one clear path forward — and a system that helps you win most days of the week.”

Available now at: EnlightenedAthlete.com 

📝 Episode Challenge

Identify ONE primary stressor in your life this week.
 Then create a simple, actionable plan to begin reducing or solving it.

Support the show

👉 If this episode hit home, please leave a 5-star review, share it with someone who needs it, and subscribe so you don’t miss future life-changing conversations.

For any and all of your high quality supplement needs check out our store on Thorne Supplements

Until next time, go get uncomfortable.

Schedule a free strategy call with us at EnlightenedAthlete.com to learn how we can help you build the best version of yourself through exercise & movement programs, stress management, breathwork, and nutrition coaching!

Connect with us or send in your story submissions by shooting us an email at [email protected]

Find Shae on Facebook HERE

Follow us on Instagram HERE

Send us a text

In Episode 2, Shae teaches a powerful breathwork protocol designed to help you regulate your nervous system, reset your internal state, and transition into the next part of your day with clarity and presence.

If you’ve ever come home stressed, walked into a meeting unfocused, or tried to work while anxious, this is the episode for you. Breathwork is one of the most ancient tools for regulating your internal environment—and today, Shae walks you step-by-step through a guided session you can follow anytime you need to shift your state fast.

This practice takes 5 minutes and instantly helps you feel more grounded, calmer, and more capable of executing at a higher level.

WHAT YOU’LL LEARN

• How stress overload destroys focus, presence, and emotional control
• How winners don’t avoid stress, they manage it better
• Science of breath affecting the vagus nerve, heart rate, and emotional regulation
• Samurai & Saiyan analogies for presence under pressure
• The exact breathwork routine Shae uses before work, meetings, workouts, or coming home
• How regulating your internal state helps you become the person your future demands

THE BREATHWORK ROUTINE (SHOW NOTES RESOURCE)

Use this routine during transitions:
• Before work
• Before going home
• Before a meeting
• Before studying
• Before creative work
• Anytime your state is slipping

1️⃣ 4–6–8 Breathing (4 rounds)

• Inhale: 4 seconds
• Hold: 6 seconds
• Exhale: 8 seconds (controlled, slow, through the mouth)

This calms the nervous system and lowers physiological arousal.

2️⃣ Triangle Breathing (5 rounds)

All nasal breathing.

• Inhale: 4 seconds
• Hold: 4 seconds
• Exhale: 4 seconds

This promotes focus and stabilizes the breath.

3️⃣ Superventilations (2 rounds)

25 breaths per round.

• Strong inhale through the nose
• Strong exhale through the mouth
• Faster tempo
• On the 25th breath → Big inhale → Hold for 30 seconds

During the hold:
Visualize yourself:

• Executing your task
• Being calm
• Being present
• Showing up with confidence
• Letting go of stress

Repeat for two cycles.

4️⃣ Breathing Form Notes

• Breathe with your diaphragm, belly expands, shoulders do NOT rise
• Triangle breathing = all nose
• Superventilation = nose inhale, mouth exhale

Support the show

👉 If this episode hit home, please leave a 5-star review, share it with someone who needs it, and subscribe so you don’t miss future life-changing conversations.

For any and all of your high quality supplement needs check out our store on Thorne Supplements

Until next time, go get uncomfortable.

Schedule a free strategy call with us at EnlightenedAthlete.com to learn how we can help you build the best version of yourself through exercise & movement programs, stress management, breathwork, and nutrition coaching!

Connect with us or send in your story submissions by shooting us an email at [email protected]

Find Shae on Facebook HERE

Follow us on Instagram HERE

Send us a text

In this kickoff episode of the Hero Arc Series, Shae reveals the foundational principle behind all lasting change: identity precedes action, and action precedes results. This episode is a deep dive into how your current identity has been shaped by conditioning, past failures, limiting beliefs, and external influences and why staying tied to an outdated identity keeps you stuck.

Shae breaks down the exact process he used to rebuild his identity after a massive setback, sharing the Florida story, the breakdown, the turning point, and the rise that followed. You’ll learn how to audit your current identity, create a new one, identify contradictory habits, and replace identity anchors that keep you tied to who you used to be.

WHAT YOU’LL LEARN

• Why people fail when their identity is tied to an outdated or conditioned version of themselves
• The truth about identity: it isn’t found, it’s forged
• Why you must believe you are the person before you take the actions
• How your habits, rituals, and environment act as “blacksmith tools” for identity
• How setbacks contain seeds of opportunity and what Shae learned from his hardest year
• How to set a new standard for your life

THE IDENTITY AUDIT

Use these three questions to understand who you’ve been and who you must become.

1. Who have I been acting like?

2. Who does my future require me to become?

3. What is one behavior that contradicts my new identity?

THIS WEEK’S CHALLENGE

Write Your 2026 Identity Statement

Write it as if it is already true:

• Who are you becoming?
• What does that person do daily?
• Why are you becoming them?
• What standards does that person live by?

Revisit it weekly or daily until you’re living it.

You can send yours to Shae

LINKS & RESOURCES

• Stronger Than Stress Program (Early Cohort): A complete system for rebuilding identity, strength, recovery, and discipline. 

Support the show

👉 If this episode hit home, please leave a 5-star review, share it with someone who needs it, and subscribe so you don’t miss future life-changing conversations.

For any and all of your high quality supplement needs check out our store on Thorne Supplements

Until next time, go get uncomfortable.

Schedule a free strategy call with us at EnlightenedAthlete.com to learn how we can help you build the best version of yourself through exercise & movement programs, stress management, breathwork, and nutrition coaching!

Connect with us or send in your story submissions by shooting us an email at [email protected]

Find Shae on Facebook HERE

Follow us on Instagram HERE

Send us a text

What if your anxiety, low energy, and constant pressure weren’t personal flaws—but signals you’ve been building your life on the wrong blueprint?

In this episode, Shae gets interviewed by Isaac, a training and education manager of a large wireless dealer and shares the six foundational principles that create real health, resilience, and clarity—without burnout, medication, or giving up what you love. 

High performance in all areas of life is what we at Get Uncomfortable strive for, and that comes with pressure, a lot of it. 

Sometimes it can feel overwhelming and make you question your goals. To avoid burnout you need balance and a strong foundation. If you're in your 30s, 40s, or 50s and want to finally feel strong, calm, and clear-headed again, this is your playbook.

Support the show

👉 If this episode hit home, please leave a 5-star review, share it with someone who needs it, and subscribe so you don’t miss future life-changing conversations.

For any and all of your high quality supplement needs check out our store on Thorne Supplements

Until next time, go get uncomfortable.

Schedule a free strategy call with us at EnlightenedAthlete.com to learn how we can help you build the best version of yourself through exercise & movement programs, stress management, breathwork, and nutrition coaching!

Connect with us or send in your story submissions by shooting us an email at [email protected]

Find Shae on Facebook HERE

Follow us on Instagram HERE