Some people don’t change because they’re inspired. They change because the old version of them can’t survive anymore.

In this episode of the Choose Yourself Channel, I sit down with Chris Spruill - founder of Start Over Fitness - whose transformation didn’t begin with discipline or fitness. It began when he was hit by a truck. Chris describes that moment as the death of the version of him that was living in darkness. “I was dark and now I’m light. I was dead and now I’m alive. It was the death of the flesh, and it birthed the spirit.”

That experience forced him into isolation, reflection, and responsibility and reshaped how he approaches life, training, and purpose.

Chris shares how life gave him repeated warnings before it finally stopped him. “I had like twelve trigger points before I finally turned one into a turning point.” We talk about why pain repeats until it’s acknowledged, how relationships act as mirrors, and why trigger points aren’t punishments .. they’re invitations.

As he evolved, familiar environments no longer fit. “My spirit guides me away from places I no longer fit… I’m interested in growth, morals, values, substance, and purpose.” We unpack why outgrowing people and spaces isn’t betrayal - it’s alignment - and how old environments can resurrect old identities if you’re not intentional.

Discipline shows up throughout this conversation, but not as restriction. Chris reframes it as protection. “Kill yourself daily. We’re built to be consumers ... kill that. Be a producer.” We explore routine, fasting, solitude, controlled struggle, and why training discomfort on purpose strengthens the space between emotion and action .. the space where choice lives.

Rather than extremes, Chris emphasizes small, repeatable systems. “One habit. One adjustment. One month at a time.” Motivation fades. Systems compound. Healing turns into leadership when ownership replaces avoidance.

This isn’t a fitness episode. It’s a conversation about choosing intention over default, alignment over comfort, and responsibility over excuses.

If you’ve felt stuck in cycles or tired of repeating the same lessons, this episode will meet you honestly and challenge you directly.

Grow With Me ⬇️

🐬 CYC Zoom (Tuesdays 10 a.m.) ❤️‍🩹 Choose Yourself, Heal Your Gut Webinar 🏝️ Costa Rica Retreat 📖 Choose Yourself to Be Chosen (book) 🎙️ Choose Yourself Channel

#CYC #chooseyourself #motivation #love #accountability #mindset #selfmastery #transformation

Some people don’t change until the old version of them dies

💪🏾In this preview episode, I set the tone for my conversation with Chris, founder of Start Over Fitness, a trainer, a spiritual thinker, and someone who didn’t wake up one day and decide to change.. life forced it. Chris was literally hit by a truck, and according to him, that version of him didn’t survive. What followed wasn’t just recovery, it was a rebirth. We talk about what happens when pain stops being something you run from and starts becoming the thing that redirects your entire life.

💥Most people say they want change but they don’t want the death that comes before it. They don’t want to let go of the addictions, the old friends, the environments, or the identity that feels familiar even when it’s killing them. In this preview, I break down how trigger points repeat until you stop numbing and start listening, why relationships expose what you haven’t healed, and how environments don’t just influence behavior... they resurrect old versions of you if you’re not intentional.

🌟Triggers aren’t punishments, they’re instructions. Growth requires burial before it brings resurrection. If you keep planting yourself in the same soil, don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

∞This episode sets up a deeper conversation about discipline, fasting, controlled struggle, solitude, and building identity through routine instead of extremes. We get into why discipline isn’t restriction, it’s protection, why consumption loops keep people spiritually and emotionally weak, and how small systems practiced daily build self-trust over time. This isn’t fitness talk — it’s a masterclass on choosing intention over emotion, even when your environment, habits, and history are pulling you backward.

If this preview hits, the full episode goes much deeper. It challenges you to ask whether you’re actually changing… or just coping better while hoping life doesn’t force the lesson again.

Grow With Me ⬇️

🐬 CYC Zoom (Tuesdays 10 a.m.) ❤️‍🩹 Choose Yourself, Heal Your Gut Webinar 🏝️ Costa Rica Retreat 📖 Choose Yourself to Be Chosen (book) 🎙️ Choose Yourself Channel

Healing before dating, nervous system regulation, and choosing alignment over chemistry — a conversation with Chelsko Nellie

🌱 Chelsko’s story didn’t start with coaching or clarity, it started with repetition. Back-to-back abusive relationships forced her to confront a hard truth: she wasn’t unlucky, she was unhealed. Instead of blaming partners, she turned inward and asked why her nervous system kept choosing the same dynamics in different bodies. That question became the doorway to solitude, self-honesty, and the deep work that would later shape her mission.

🌍 Through seasons of stepping away from dating, cutting off external validation, and traveling the world, Chelsko learned that attention can feel like love when you’ve been deprived of safety. She shares how choosing to be alone... truly alone... helped her break patterns rooted in abandonment, fear of intimacy, and the need to be chosen. What began as personal healing evolved into a blueprint she now teaches others: you don’t attract better by trying harder, you attract better by becoming regulated.

❤️ In this conversation, she opens up about faith, discipline, and why relationships don’t heal wounds, they expose them. She explains how many people feel “healed” in isolation, only to unravel once intimacy activates old trauma. Rather than running from that activation, Chelsko teaches how to prepare for it through nervous system regulation, boundaries, and consistent self-investment.

🧠 Together, we explore why trauma is often mistaken for chemistry, why chaos feels exciting while calm feels suspicious, and how modern overstimulation keeps people addicted to intensity instead of intimacy. From breathwork and exercise to solitude and sobriety from validation, this episode connects emotional healing to practical systems that support long-term alignment.

✨ What you’ll take from this episode:

• How unhealed patterns repeat until they’re addressed
• Why familiar chaos feels safer than unfamiliar peace
• The difference between chemistry and nervous system conditioning
• Why distance isn’t betrayal — it’s alignment
• How faith, values, and discipline stabilize relationships when emotions fluctuate

🛠️ Systems and practices discussed:

• Stepping away from dating to regulate your nervous system
• Journaling to separate feelings from facts
• Breathwork and somatic practices to release stored trauma
• Building routines that create psychological safety
• Evaluating values early instead of years into a relationship
• Using solitude to strengthen identity before intimacy

🌊 At its core, this episode reflects the Choose Yourself process : recognizing trigger points, evaluating your environment, building a foundation in solitude, investing in yourself consistently, and creating relationships from overflow instead of need. Chelsko’s story is a reminder that love doesn’t ask you to abandon yourself .. it asks you to meet yourself first.

🔥 If peace feels boring, you’re not healed, you’re conditioned and if you don’t choose yourself first, you’ll keep asking others to do it for you.

Grow With Me ⬇️

🐬 CYC Zoom (Tuesdays 10 a.m.) ❤️‍🩹 Choose Yourself, Heal Your Gut Webinar 🏝️ Costa Rica Retreat 📖 Choose Yourself to Be Chosen (book) 🎙️ Choose Yourself Channel

💫If chaos feels exciting and peace feels boring, that’s not chemistry, it’s conditioning.

💓In this preview episode, I open the door to a conversation with Chelsko Nellie that challenges the way most people think about attraction, healing, and relationships. We talk about how trauma bonds light up dopamine and cortisol at the same time, why your nervous system keeps pulling you toward what feels familiar even when it hurts, and how repeating the same pattern with different people isn’t bad luck.. it’s unhealed wiring. When you haven’t regulated your system, you don’t choose partners, your nervous system does.

♻️You’re not attracted, you’re conditioned. If neglect feels normal, consistency feels suspicious. If chaos feels familiar, peace feels boring.

🧬This preview sets the tone for the full episode, where we go deeper into healing before dating, balancing masculine and feminine polarity, and why discipline, structure, and solitude aren’t punishments... they’re what create emotional safety. We unpack how vices, overstimulation, and “just one night out” quietly reset your nervous system backward, and why choosing yourself first isn’t selfish, it’s the only way to stop bleeding on people who didn’t cut you.

🏡If this hits close to home, that’s the invitation. Not to isolate, not to numb, not to jump into another connection hoping it fixes the ache but to slow down, build a foundation, and become the version of you that can actually sustain the love you say you want.

Grow With the CYC ⬇️

🐬 CYC Zoom (Tuesdays 10 a.m.) ❤️‍🩹 Choose Yourself, Heal Your Gut Webinar 🏝️ Costa Rica Retreat 📖 Choose Yourself to Be Chosen (book) 🎙️ Choose Yourself Channel

What happens when strength isn’t enough and survival demands something deeper?

In this episode of the Choose Yourself Channel, I sit down with Cordero Stewart - personal trainer, entrepreneur, and living proof that resilience isn’t built in comfort. After facing a serious health crisis that forced him to slow down, strip back identity, and rebuild from the inside out, Cordero shares what most people never train for: who you become when performance is taken away.

We talk about the moment the body sends a signal you can’t ignore, how isolation reveals whether your confidence is internal or borrowed, and why a real foundation isn’t about motivation..it’s about systems that hold when life collapses. This conversation isn’t about medical details. It’s about discipline without dopamine, faith before feedback, and choosing yourself when there’s no applause.

This episode is for anyone who’s been humbled, reset, or forced to rebuild and is ready to turn survival into purpose.

Because the ones who make it through aren’t luckier. They’re structured.

Grow With the CYC ⬇️

🔥 CYC Zoom (Tuesdays 10 a.m.)

🔥 Choose Yourself Heal Your Gut Webinar

🔥 Costa Rica Retreat

🔥 Choose Yourself to Be Chosen (book)

🔥 Choose Yourself Channel

In this preview, we introduce Cordero’s story at a high level multiple surgeries back-to-back, not feeling like himself, and moments where the body was weak but faith, family, and mindset carried the weight. This isn’t the full breakdown yet. It’s a window into what happens when everything familiar is stripped away and the only thing left is who’s standing with you and what you’ve built internally.

The next full episode goes deeper into resiliency, perseverance, and how having family in your corner can become the difference between giving up and getting through. It’s about surviving the surgeries, rebuilding identity, and learning how foundation.. not motivation.. keeps you moving when life doesn’t feel the same anymore.

If you’ve ever wondered how much pressure you could really handle, this episode will answer it.

Grow With Me ⬇️

🐬 CYC Zoom (Tuesdays 10 a.m.)

❤️‍🩹 Choose Yourself, Heal Your Gut Webinar

🏝️ Costa Rica Retreat

📖 Choose Yourself to Be Chosen

🎙️ Choose Yourself Channel

Money exposes mindset faster than motivation.

In this episode on the Choose Yourself Channel, I sit down with Mrs. Cashflow to talk about what really happens when expectations collapse, plans fall apart, and life forces you to grow up : financially, emotionally, and spiritually.

This isn’t a “get rich quick” conversation. It’s a get honest quick one.

We talk about:

• Why money problems are rarely just about money
• How expectations create disappointment and how accountability creates direction
• What happens when life doesn’t go your way… repeatedly
• How being finessed, failing, or coming up short becomes curriculum, not condemnation
• Why financial literacy without identity work still keeps people stuck

Mrs. Cashflow shares real stories around trial, error, humility, and rebuilding, and we break down how financial evolution mirrors personal evolution: You expect one outcome. Life gives you another. You either blame ... or you build. You choose.

This episode ties money, mindset, and maturity back into the Choose Yourself process: Recognizing the moment things go wrong Evaluating your environment and decisions Rebuilding your foundation Investing differently ... with clarity instead of emotion And eventually contributing what you learned so others don’t repeat your mistakes

If you’ve ever:

• Trusted the wrong situation
• Made financial decisions from pressure instead of principle
• Confused movement with progress
• Or realized “nobody is coming to save me”

This conversation will hit.

No shame. No fluff. Just accountability, perspective, and growth.. the kind that actually compounds!

🎧 Listen fully. 🧠 Reflect honestly. 🔥 Choose yourself .. especially when it’s uncomfortable.

⭐️ Grow With Me! ⬇️

🐬CYC Zoom (Tuesdays 10 a.m.)

❤️‍🩹Choose Yourself, Heal Your Gut Webinar Zoom

🏝️Costa Rica Retreat

📖 Choose Yourself to Be Chosen (book)

🎙️Choose Yourself Channel

#CYC #chooseyourself #motivation #love #accountability #mindset #selfmastery #transformation

Everybody wants the bag… until it’s time to build the discipline to keep it.

In this 10-minute preview, I sit down with Mrs. Cash Flows to crack open the real conversation most people avoid: Why money problems aren’t just financial.. they’re emotional, habitual, and environmental.

We touch on:

• Growing up around money but never learning how to respect it
• Retail therapy, saving your way to nowhere, and why “looking rich” is expensive
• Why credit is a tool, not a flex
• How habits, health, and mindset quietly sabotage your finances

This preview sets the tone for a powerful full episode about structure over status, discipline over dopamine, and why money only multiplies when you do first.

If you’ve ever said “I make money but don’t feel secure,” this conversation is for you.

🎙️ Full episode drops next and it goes way deeper.

⭐️ Grow With Me! ⬇️

🐬CYC Zoom (Tuesdays 10 a.m.)

❤️‍🩹Choose Yourself, Heal Your Gut Webinar Zoom

🏝️Costa Rica Retreat

📖Choose Yourself to Be Chosen (book)

🎙️Choose Yourself Channel

In this episode, Big Dream Hakeem sits down with Kasia - clinic owner, keynote speaker, breathwork specialist, heart-coherence Jedi, and living proof that your nervous system can glow up too.

We dive straight into the wisdom of the heart, the honesty of the breath, and the beautiful chaos of becoming the person your past self was scared to meet.

Kasia doesn’t just talk healing.. she lived through comparison, control, a concussion that scrambled her brain like weekend brunch, heartbreak, losing her best friend, and still found a way to turn her nervous system from “hamster on Red Bull” to “monk with WiFi.”

She gives raw truth, uncomfortable gems, and practical tools you can use TODAY.

🔥 What We Cover

• The moment her life split into “before” and “after” and why the universe sometimes humbles you publicly

• How opening a clinic at 20 taught her courage, chaos, and community (and why the town newspaper nearly ended her career) • The brain-gut-heart connection and how your emotions literally rewire your body

• Why heart coherence is the “Bluetooth connection between God and your nervous system”

• How movement, gratitude, and boundaries saved her from anxiety, burnout, and self-abandonment • Why grief is love in disguise and how losing her best friend gave her the wildest fuel for living fully

• How to stop reacting like a triggered toddler and start responding like someone who did the inner work

• The difference between walls vs. boundaries, and how your relationships expose your foundation • Why you should never shrink your light to keep someone comfortable in their shadows

🎙️ Why You NEED This Episode

If you've been living in your head, reacting before thinking, ignoring your triggers, burning yourself out, or trying to “out-hustle” your trauma… this conversation will feel like a hard truth, a warm hug, and a spiritual slap in one.

Kasia’s wisdom bridges science, soul, psychology, and real-life heartbreak with that CYC-level accountability you know and love.

📚 Tap Into Your Evolution

Kasia’s retreats and upcoming heart-coherence book are on the way.. and you already know I’m putting it in the CYC library the second it drops.

🌱 Keep Growing with Kasia on IG

🔗 Tap in to her services and resources

Want more episodes like this?

👉 Join the Choose Yourself Community (CYC) — weekly calls, resources, accountability 👉 Get the Choose Yourself Book — learn the full TEFIC process

👉 Join the Foundation Programs — 30-day and 90-day transformations

👉 Tap into the weekly webinars — gut repair, mindset, and balance

Your foundation is your future. Choose yourself today so life doesn’t choose the lesson for you tomorrow.

🎧 PREVIEW — Kasia on Heart Coherence & Healing the Reactive Self

This 10-minute previews set the stage for one of the deepest, funniest, and most emotionally intelligent conversations we’ve had all year. Hakeem breaks down what’s coming in the full episode with Kasia : a woman who built two businesses before 25, survived dark nights of the soul, healed her nervous system, and now teaches heart coherence like it’s an Olympic sport.

Get ready for:

• Why your heart is your spiritual WiFi
• How grief becomes your greatest teacher
• Why boundaries save relationships (and sanity)
• The moment she stood face-to-face with the woman who tried to sabotage her career — 25 years later on a hiking trail
• And how TEFIC shaped her transformation from chaos → coherence → creation

This preview gives you the emotional appetizer before the full meal drops.

🐬 Tap in, grow your mind, and don’t skip the foundation. Full episode coming soon.