In this episode of the Taming Thumos, I’m joined by my friend Jake “Choccy” Norton (no, he is not a UFC fighter). Choc is a podcaster and holistic health coach based in Sydney. He uses Chek principles and knowledge from The Master’s Way to help his clients reconnect with their intuitive higher Self to live a more fulfilling life.

In this conversation, we reflect on our personal growth journey, vulnerability, and navigating the transition from a traditional masculine environment into a holistic, intuitive approach to life. We discuss the power of speaking your truth, the “lonely chapter”, and how ancient energetic principles (chakras) align with modern human needs and attachment patterns. As well as somatic tools such as breathwork to recalibrate and re-center.

Scroll down if you’d like to watch the conversation or if you’re listening on Spotify please visit the Substack page here.

Key themes from the episode

The Power of Speaking Your Truth

Jake reflects on advice from a past mentor about how speaking your truth, even when it feels uncomfortable, can serve as a powerful ripple effect to change someone else’s life.

The “Lonely Chapter”

Jake details his shift from working as a plumber to entering the health space. He spent two years feeling deeply conflicted—studying wellness while working a trade job that he didn’t align with energetically. A difficult crossing point between an old lifestyle program and a new one. Jake credits taking action, changing his social circle to inspiring people, and studying his ego/shadow aspects for allowing him to transition out of a victim mentality.

Understanding Chakras and Attachment Patterns

Jake maps the basic human energy centers (chakras) to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, noting that humans frequently get trapped in the bottom three “survival” chakras—worrying about money, belonging, tribal safety, and self-image.

Recalibration and Re-centering

We discuss how somatic practices like breathwork act as a powerful tool to pull individuals out of their mental loops, helping to regulate the nervous system and clear out trauma stored in body tissues.

Returning to Faith

We talk about a rising trend of people looking past the current socio-political structures and returning to a higher power or deep spiritual connection for direction and a sense of belonging.

"When you're limited by the “Buddhist cage:” or your beliefs and thoughts and everything's perfectly organized, you miss out on the beauty of what actually life's trying to teach you."

I hope you enjoyed that conversation, I know I did! Please feel free to share your thoughts in the comments, I love hearing about what people take away from these conversations!

Learn more

If you’d like to know more about Choccy’s work and The Intuitive Human Project; a map designed to help people unpack their mental blocks and step past protective ego mechanisms, visit his website here and be sure to follow him on Instagram, where you can sign up for his thought provoking newsletter. AND be sure to listen into his educational and entertaining podcast Chats with Choccy!

Support the cause

If you’re enjoying the podcast, and would like to support men’s mental health, consider leaving a 5 star review on Spotify and follow Taming Thumos on Instagram or better still, sharing the episode on your social media!

Stay up-to-date

Never miss an episode by subscribing to Taming Thumos on Substack, it’s free! Every new episode and article is sent directly to your email inbox. Or if you’re listening on Spotify hit the notification bell to stay up to date with future episodes!

Go deeper

If you’re enjoying the vulnerability of the podcast and appreciate introspective, thought provoking content, consider checking out my personal publication Musings On Life and Such Things here.

Much love

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit tamingthumos.substack.com

Today I’m joined by Rich Johnson. Rich is a wellness practitioner and co-founder of Sacred Humans, a platform dedicated to emotional calibration and self-healing through sound frequency work. Having met over a decade ago in the London CrossFit community, our parallel paths eventually crossed again on the other side of the world, on Gubbi Gubbi Country. As Rich approaches his 50th birthday, he reflects on the challenges and breakthroughs of maintaining personal authenticity within relationships. Rich talks about transitioning away from “people-pleasing,” navigating relationships through personal evolution, and processing deep-seated childhood experiences through introspection, plant medicine and sound frequency work.

Scroll down if you’d like to watch the conversation or if you’re listening on Spotify please visit the Substack page here.

Key themes from the episode

The Evolution of Relationships

Rich discusses re-framing his past relationships from failures to essential chapters of learning, realizing he was the common denominator in his relationship patterns. Allowing him to shift from the “nice guy” persona and anxious attachment styles to building healthier, more grounded boundaries.

Life Milestones as Wake-Up Calls

How the passing of his father at age 60 and his brother’s early-onset Parkinson’s diagnosis served as profound catalysts for prioritizing personal wellness, lifestyle alignment, and longevity.

The Healing Journey (Somatic and Spiritual)

Rich details his 11-year journey with plant medicine, the somatic processing of grief and childhood trauma, and finding a space of deep forgiveness and unconditional love. He shares the daily tools he uses for ongoing self-care, including Yin practices, Qigong, and the science behind the sound frequency work offered through Sacred Humans.

“I feel so secure now that if those relationships move on, I’m fine. That is not who makes me. My identity isn’t a direct reflection of how much the other person is there for me or not there for me. If I’m fully in my power, it doesn’t matter.”

I hope you enjoyed that conversation, I know I did! Please feel free to share your thoughts in the comments, I love hearing about what people take away from these conversations!

If you’d like to know more about Rich and the work that he offers through Sacred Humans, . Visit the website or on Instagram.

Support the cause

If you’re enjoying the podcast, and would like to support men’s mental health, consider leaving a 5 star review on Spotify and follow Taming Thumos on Instagram or better still, sharing the episode on your social media!

Stay up-to-date

Never miss an episode by subscribing to Taming Thumos on Substack, it’s free! Every new episode and article is sent directly to your email inbox. Or if you’re listening on Spotify hit the notification bell to stay up to date with future episodes!

Go deeper

If you’re enjoying the vulnerability of the podcast and appreciate introspective, thought provoking content, consider checking out my personal publication Musings On Life and Such Things here.

Much love

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit tamingthumos.substack.com

In this episode, Brett and I catch up to discuss his background in the military, physical training and reflect on what he has learned over an extensive 20-year coaching career. We dive deep into the philosophy of physical training, how Brett’s coaching style has evolved from being rigid to a more supportive mentor role, and the connection between physical fitness, mental resilience, and spiritual health.

Scroll down if you’d like to watch the conversation or if you’re listening on Spotify please visit the Substack page here.

Key themes from the episode

Lessons from 20 Years of Coaching

Brett notes that a primary lesson from his decades of coaching is realizing you don’t know everything, even when you think you do.

Self-reflection vs External Validation

We discuss the the importance of self-reflection as well as external validation to orient ourselves in the world. Specifically, how the rigorous nature of the CrossFit seminar staff internship process shifted me from a place of blaming outside factors to deeply auditing my own professional capacity and self-reliance.

Self-Talk During Training

The two of us contrast our internal monologues during intense physical workouts. How I tend to be driven by internal high standards and pushing to absolute physical limits, often blocking out external noise to grind through the hurt. Whereas Brett’s Style is more calculated, logical, and structured. Brett admits he handles training “softly” compared to high-intensity outliers, focusing on pacing and doing what is sub-maximally sustainable.

The Connection Between Fitness and Faith

Finally, Brett draws a strong parallel between physical fitness and his recent return to Catholicism. He equates fitness to physical health and faith/spirituality to internal, spiritual health. Rather than strictly focusing on granular, rigid rules (micro-rules), Brett highlights the overriding “meta-rules” of both practices. Where in fitness, “something is better than nothing,” and in faith, the guiding principle is love and self-reflection.

“One must imagine Sisyphus happy... [Life] is a punishment, and it relates to the human condition because we are the rats in the wheel, and the existential dilemma is: what’s the point of this? ...The trick is to enjoy every moment, be grateful for the things you have.”

I hope you enjoyed that conversation, I know I did! Please feel free to share your thoughts in the comments, I love hearing about what people take away from these conversations!

Support the cause

If you’re enjoying the podcast, and would like to support men’s mental health, consider leaving a 5 star review on Spotify and sharing the episode on your social media!

Stay up-to-date

Never miss an episode by subscribing to Taming Thumos on Substack, it’s free! Every new episode and article is sent directly to your email inbox. Or if you’re listening on Spotify hit the notification bell to stay up to date with future episodes!

Go deeper

If you’re enjoying the vulnerability of the podcast and appreciate introspective, thought provoking content, consider checking out my personal publication Musings On Life and Such Things here.

Much love

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit tamingthumos.substack.com

In this episode, I am joined by Andrew Boniface, a former emergency helicopter pilot turned corporate consultant and men’s group facilitator. Andy shares his profound personal transformation following the breakdown of his marriage. He discusses how hitting rock bottom led him to processing and taking responsibility for his own trauma. Which in turn, allowed him to become a more present and regulated father to his twin daughters. He is now giving back by facilitating dad’s groups and helping corporate organizations foster human-first cultures.

Scroll down if you’d like to watch the conversation or if you’re listening on Spotify please visit the Substack page here.

Key themes from the episode

The Analogy of the Feather, the Brick, and the Truck

Andy introduces a powerful framework for how life communicates lessons to us through subtle and not so subtle means. Starting with the feather, a gentle, subtle tickle or indicator (e.g., minor arguments or coming home with the wrong mindset) that we often ignore. Which then turns into the brick: A more severe, tangible warning sign. And if we ignore that, the truck! Usually, a catastrophic event or rock bottom that forces an ego death and complete awakening.

Squeezing the Lemon: Facing Generational Patterns

Andy notes that it isn’t until we are squeezed like a lemon under intense stress that our deepest unaddressed issues emerge. Having previously avoided long-term relationship tests, the immense stress of sleep deprivation and raising twin daughters caused him to default to the critical, judgmental habits of his own father—habits he had sworn he would never replicate. Recognizing this allowed him to step out of a victim mindset and take absolute responsibility for his actions.

The Power of Emotional Responsibility and Self-Forgiveness

Andy talks about learning the difference between blame and responsibility. We discuss how losing oneself in shame becomes self-loathing rather than focusing on repair. And how self-forgiveness must take place to stop whipping yourself and truly take responsibility.

Andy explains how he grew up believing anger was inherently “wrong” because of his father’s short temper, leading him to suppress it. Through men’s work, he learned that responsibly expressing anger is necessary.

Moving from Left-Brain Logic to Right-Brain Feeling

Andy shares how his self-development was purely left-brained, focused on structured logic, reading classic corporate psychology books, and physical fitness. Referencing Steve Bidoff’s book Wild Creature Mind, Andy discusses how men frequently suppress emotions with logic. True healing required him to get back into his body and actively feel the suppressed emotions.

"For every new level, the same devil will be there... we can never outrun the humanity. I've got to love the humanity because that will always be there. I can never outrun it by fixing myself."

I hope you enjoyed that conversation, I know I did! Please feel free to share your thoughts in the comments, I love hearing about what people take away from these conversations!

To learn more about Andy’s corporate offering, Altitude Initiative, visit his website and Instagram.

Support the cause

If you’re enjoying the podcast, and would like to support men’s mental health, consider leaving a 5 star review on Spotify and sharing the episode on your social media!

Stay up-to-date

Never miss an episode by subscribing to Taming Thumos on Substack, it’s free! Every new episode and article is sent directly to your email inbox. Or if you’re listening on Spotify hit the notification bell to stay up to date with future episodes!

Go deeper

If you’re enjoying the vulnerability of the podcast and appreciate introspective, thought provoking content, consider checking out my personal publication Musings On Life and Such Things here.

Much love

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit tamingthumos.substack.com

This episode features a deep and moving conversation with my friend and former colleague Lachlan Learg. Lachlan is a CrossFit Seminar Lead Instructor and gym owner. The conversation centers around his journey navigating immense personal loss while balancing the heavy responsibilities of business and family.

Scroll down if you’d like to watch the conversation or if you’re listening on Spotify please visit the Substack page here.

Key points from the episode

The Weight of Responsibility

Lachlan reflects on the “psychological reality” that while responsibility is a positive force, it can also become a burden that requires difficult choices.

He shares how facing the arrival of his third child and a promotion to Flowmaster, he realised he was juggling too much and winging his professional preparation. And to be more present for his family, he made the difficult decision to sell his original CrossFit affiliate in Dubbo, which he had run for a decade.

Lachlan also shares his views on work as not only as a means to provide, but as a way to model being a productive member of society for his children.

Navigating Sudden Grief

A significant portion of the conversation focuses on the sudden loss of Lachlan’s twin brother, Tavis, in a car accident in France in 2023.

Lachlan describes the unique difficulty of losing a twin with whom he shared every life stage and interest. He shares how his therapist helped him understand and prepare for the oscillating nature of grief. And how he found CrossFit training to be vital outlet, noting that a particularly grueling workout felt like it accelerated his grieving process. Not to mention the strength he found through his CrossFit gym community, who shared their own stories of miscarriage, stillbirth, and loss, creating a sense of solidarity that made his own pain easier to bear.

Finding Closure and Meaning

Lachlan shares extraordinary experiences that helped him process his brother’s passing, such as the repatriation journey where he traveled to France to bring Tavis’s ashes home, retracing his brother’s final travel steps, which provided a necessary sense of closure.

He also shares with us a series of vivid, lucid dreams where he communicated with Tavis. And how these dreams, which several close family members also experienced, helped him accept his brother’s death.

“The goal of life isn’t to avoid struggle, but to struggle well”

I hope you enjoyed that conversation, I know I did! Please feel free to share your thoughts in the comments, I love hearing about what people take away from these conversations!

Support the cause

If you’re enjoying the podcast, and would like to support men’s mental health, consider leaving a 5 star review on Spotify and sharing the episode on your social media!

Stay up-to-date

Never miss an episode by subscribing to Taming Thumos on Substack, it’s free! Every new episode and article is sent directly to your email inbox. Or if you’re listening on Spotify hit the notification bell to stay up to date with future episodes!

Go deeper

If you’re enjoying the vulnerability of the podcast and appreciate introspective, thought provoking content, consider checking out my personal publication Musings On Life and Such Things here.

Much love

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit tamingthumos.substack.com

Hello and welcome to another episode of Taming Thumos!

My guest for this episode is Rich Burrows. Rich is a high performance coach, former intelligence officer and father. Rich has trained a range of people from world champion ultra endurance athletes to corporate CEOs and tech entrepreneurs. This conversation centres around stress and ways that we can often find ourselves like a frog in boiling water; incrementally becoming burned out by modern western living and the various micro-stressors we face on a daily basis. And most importantly, ways that we can manage and develop tolerance for stress rather than avoiding it.

Scroll down if you’d like to watch the conversation or if you’re listening on Spotify please visit the Substack page here.

Expect to hear how Rich uses tools such as breathwork, cold water exposure as well as pool training to help his clients transcend the limits of their own resistance and fear. He emphasises the importance of building range rather than just calm to handle life’s stressors. Focussing on controlling the controllables, nervous system regulation and movement and environment. As well as training for acute stress vs. living in chronic stress.

We also dive into finding balance between logic and emotional regulation. Rich shares how marriage and parenting have been great teachers for him to learn how to see the emotional experience alongside the rational.

Finally, we touch on the pillar of health often missed, the spiritual one. For Rich, spiritual health is tied to purpose; what one wants to leave behind for their family and community. Value Alignment; stepping back for a “thousand-yard view” to ensure daily behaviors align with core values. And transcendence; moving from self-improvement to responsibility for others, such as the gift of shaping a child’s life.

Learn more about Rich’s work with The Resistance Lab here, focusing on meeting the resistance of cold exposure and expanding one’s window of tolerance. He is planning on hosting another Range Workshop on the Sunshine Coast following the success of the last workshop in Melbourne, collaborating with former AFL player Troy Simmonds to explore how movement informs performance and well-being. Stay tuned by following him on Instagram!

"We're not about building calm, we're about building range. You want to actually widen the scope of what's available to you to feel, to experience, to activate without it causing you to completely flip your lid or shut down."

I hope you enjoyed that conversation with Rich. As always, please leave your thoughts on the episode in the comments section on Substack. Pssst… this is where you can watch the video version of this episode!

Support the cause

If you’re enjoying the podcast, and would like to support men’s mental health, consider leaving a 5 star review on Spotify and sharing the episode on your social media!

Stay up-to-date

Never miss an episode by subscribing to Taming Thumos on Substack, it’s free! Every new episode and article is sent directly to your email inbox. Or if you’re listening on Spotify hit the notification bell to stay up to date with future episodes!

Go deeper

If you’re enjoying the vulnerability of the podcast and appreciate introspective, thought provoking content, consider checking out my personal publication Musings On Life and Such Things here.

Much love

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit tamingthumos.substack.com

My guest for this episode is JP. He and I go way back! We served in Afghanistan together in 2008, as young Royal Marines Commandos. JP went on to work in Maritime security during the piracy surge in the late 2000s around West Africa (you may recall the film Captain Philips with Tom Hanks…). He then went on to test himself in the private security world, working with prestigious families in Hong Kong and eventually becoming the physical security manager for a leading tech company.

Scroll down if you’d like to watch the conversation or if you’re listening on Spotify please visit the Substack page here.

Key points from the episode

* We talk about the essential roles many men occupy that keep society operational, but don’t get the credit like some of the more front facing roles.

* The conversation also touches on how having a tangible purpose, whether in the military or a high-responsibility civilian role, positively impacts men’s mental health and sense of identity.

* We discuss how the “flat structure” and culture of the Royal Marines, where Marines acknowledged Sergeants on first name terms and visa versa, built a foundation of trust and competence. JP explains how he uses those same principles today to empower his teams and identify individual strengths.

* We reflect on our time in Helmand Province, Afghanistan. Where you go from patrolling through poppy fields one minute, to realizing you’re caught in an ambush.

* The level playing field of war and how it has it’s way of showing you who you really are.

* We also remember the real heroes, specifically discussing the incredible courage of fellow Marine Cousie Jones, who earned the Military Cross for his actions under fire.

Listen out for “Bootneck” Slang:

As two former Marines, the conversation is peppered with jargon! You might hear terms like:

* Dit: A story (a “genuine dit” is a true one).

* Green Lid: The iconic Commando green beret.

* Threaders: Extremely annoyed or fed up.

* Scran: Food.

Houston, we have a problem…

Unfortunately, due to technical difficulties some of the conversation was cut short. However, I still wanted to share what we did record of the conversation because I think it will give some insight into the realities of war, which many people think only existed 100 years ago.

I hope you enjoyed that episode with JP, I know I did! Please feel free to share your thoughts in the comments.

Support the cause

If you’re enjoying the podcast, and would like to support men’s mental health, consider leaving a 5 star review on Spotify and sharing the episode on your social media!

Stay up-to-date

Never miss an episode by subscribing to Taming Thumos on Substack, it’s free! Every new episode and article is sent directly to your email inbox. Or if you’re listening on Spotify hit the notification bell to stay up to date with future episodes!

Go deeper

If you’re enjoying the vulnerability of the podcast and appreciate introspective, thought provoking content, consider checking out my personal publication Musings On Life and Such Things here.

Much love

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit tamingthumos.substack.com

My guest for this episode is Alain Sauvage. I first met Alain through a men’s group I co-facilitated here on the Sunshine Coast. He is a former school teacher and principal, and today, he serves as a grandfather and mentor. At 70, he is an avid surfer and active member of the community.

Scroll down if you’d like to watch the conversation or if you’re listening on Spotify please visit the Substack page here.

Key points from the episode

Alain recounts his early childhood in Kenya, living in a house of local materials where lions and hippos were part of the neighborhood. Despite the idyllic memories of an African nanny and camping under the stars, his family’s move to Perth in the 1960s sparked a lifelong struggle with belonging. As a "third culture" immigrant with French parents who didn't quite fit the Anglo-Saxon mold nor the Italian "wog" groups at school, Alain often felt like an outsider.

The conversation dives deep into Alain’s evolving understanding of masculinity and faith. He describes a spiritual journey that moved from traditional Catholic belief to a mystical, “Desert Father” style of prayer centered on the silence between thoughts. For Alain, spirituality is not a Sunday activity but a “unitive experience” that connects him to the earth, with all beings and the Aboriginal spirit.

A central theme of the episode is Alain’s experience with rheumatoid arthritis. He offers a powerful metaphor for dealing with debilitating pain: instead of fighting it, he invites the “devil” in for tea. Alain argues that the language of “fighting” illness is unhelpful because it targets a part of oneself.

“I started then to make peace with my body and to say… have a cup of tea with my pain and say, 'oh, you’re going to hang around today, aren't you? All right, how are we going to dance? Let's dance together.”

Now serving as a grandfather and mentor, Alain reflects on the transition from the “cocky 30-year-old” who thought he knew everything to a community elder who realizes he knows less now than ever. He shares the gentle advice he gives his grandchildren: persist, believe in your own beauty, and don’t let the hooks of social media get under your skin.

Alain’s story is a reminder that while we cannot control the upheaval of life or the limitations of our bodies, we can choose how we dance with them.

I hope you enjoyed that episode with Alain! Please feel free to share your thoughts in the comments.

Support the cause

If you’re enjoying the podcast, and would like to support men’s mental health, consider leaving a 5 star review on Spotify and sharing the episode on your social media!

Stay up-to-date

Never miss an episode by subscribing to Taming Thumos on Substack, it’s free! Every new episode and article is sent directly to your email inbox. Or if you’re listening on Spotify hit the notification bell to stay up to date with future episodes!

Go deeper

If you’re enjoying the vulnerability of the podcast and appreciate introspective, thought provoking content, consider checking out my personal publication Musings On Life and Such Things here.

Much love

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit tamingthumos.substack.com

In this episode, I talk to Pat Barber, who I know from my work with CrossFit. He is a father of 4, CrossFit Seminar lead instructor and founder of the Father’s guild, a practical training initiative for fathers who want to be more present and impactful at home. We discuss how Pat’s coaching has gone from the gym floor to the personal development space. We also talk about the importance of emotional regulation, the journey of self-discovery, the balance between reflection and action, and unconditional love

Scroll down if you’d like to watch the conversation or if you’re listening on Spotify please visit the Substack page here.

Key points from the episode

* Emotional regulation and the transformative power of manual journaling for slowing down to accurately form thoughts and assess your emotional state.

* Navigating the disconnect between a “logical” mind and a “visceral” body response during a personal mental breakdown centered around attachment.

* Our experience with “Parts” therapy, where Pat shares how he discovered a version of himself that felt profoundly lonely despite a seemingly happy exterior.

* Spiritual Bypassing vs. Action, how another 10-day ayahuasca trip isn’t always the answer and the importance of taking physical action in the material world.

* The Foundation of Unconditional Love: Why feeling loved at a core level is a prerequisite for being “steady” and how to find that “divine guidance” if it wasn’t provided by earthly parents.

* The “Ready” Myth of Fatherhood: Pat’s refreshing take on why you are never truly “ready” to be a dad, but why it remains the most purposeful “job” one can ever have.

“You’re crazy if you think you know what it’s like to have a kid before you have a kid... but don’t wait to be ready for it, because that s**t’s not going to happen.”

Connect with Pat

I hope you enjoyed that episode with Pat! Please feel free to share your thoughts in the comments.

Visit thefathersguild.com to learn more about The Father’s Guild retreat.

Follow Pat on Instagram and YouTube and check out The Father’s Guild Podcast

Support the cause

If you’re enjoying the podcast, and would like to support men’s mental health, consider leaving a 5 star review on Spotify and sharing the episode on your social media!

Stay up-to-date

Never miss an episode by subscribing to Taming Thumos on Substack, it’s free! Every new episode and article is sent directly to your email inbox. Or if you’re listening on Spotify hit the notification bell to stay up to date with future episodes!

Go deeper

If you’re enjoying the vulnerability of the podcast and appreciate introspective, thought provoking content, consider checking out my personal publication Musings On Life and Such Things here.

Much love

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit tamingthumos.substack.com

In this episode of Taming Thumos, I sit down with Dafydd (Davs) Dennis, a former Royal Marine, 15 year CrossFit gym owner and CrossFit Seminar Flow Master, to discuss the importance of physical training for your mental health, trust and the transition from military to civilian life. We also talk about the grueling upcoming charity challenge for our mutual friend, McCoy Turner, whose passing serves as the catalyst for raising awareness about the “silent epidemic” of male suicide.

Scroll down if you’d like to watch the conversation or if you’re listening on Spotify please visit the Substack page here.

The Power of “Shared Suffering”

Davs and I explore why CrossFit gyms and military service create such unbreakable bonds. Davs explains that communities forged through shared physical suffering—whether in the Marines or a CrossFit box—create a “safety network” and mental stability that is difficult to find in typical civilian life or in “globo gyms”.

Transitioning from the Military

We talk about how joining the Royal Marines at age 16, significantly shaped our lives, for better and for worse. Difficulty trusting people in “Civvy Street,” where in the Marines you were about to trust people with your life. I reflect on my early desire to shed my “Marine” identity to fit into civilian life, while Davs discusses the initial embarrassment—and eventual pride—associated with his service.

Remembering McCoy

We share memories of our friend McCoy, the “perfect actor” who could lead seminars with high energy while privately struggling with complex PTSD and depression. We discuss the isolation trap and how McCoy’s move to Bali may have contributed to his struggles by removing the “structure and community” that had previously kept him grounded.

The 3 Peaks 10k

To honor McCoy’s life and support his family, Davs, Rob Lawson and Dave Palfreman are participating in an extreme version of the UK Three Peaks Challenge. Where they will climb the UK’s three highest peaks with 35kg Rogue Echo rowers strapped to their backs. At the summit of each mountain, they will row 10km before descending and driving straight onto the next mountain. All with the intent of raising funds for McCoy’s two sons, Brodie and Tommy, and to raise awareness of men’s mental health and the silent epidemic of male suicide.

“Every single step will be f*****g god-awful... but it’s not as bad as what he went through.” — Davs Dennis

Support the Cause

I hope you enjoyed the conversation with Davs! Please share your “take aways” in the comment section below and consider sharing the episode with your friends and family.

You can support the 3 Peaks 10K challenge and McCoy’s family by donating to their JustGiving page here. You can also follow the progress of the team on Davs’ Instagram here.

Also…

If you’re struggling with your mental health and experiencing suicidal ideation, do not hesitate to contact your local mental health crisis service:

Australia: Lifeline 13 11 14

UK: 111 or 116 123 for the Samaritans or text SHOUT 85258 to contact the Shout Crisis Text Line, or text "YM" if you're under 19

Stay up-to-date

Support this work, and never miss an episode with a subscription—every new episode and article is sent directly to your email inbox.

Go deeper

If you’re enjoying the vulnerability of the podcast and appreciate introspective, thought provoking content, consider checking out my personal publication Musings On Life and Such Things here.

Much love

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit tamingthumos.substack.com