The Bearded Gents Podcast

Worthiness is a bit of a challenging concept to consider. The more important aspect of it is deciding if you are or aren't worthy, and how we go about managing that feeling state either way. Alway busy doing things, always fishing for compliments? Or doing what's valuable and feeling that value within ourselves?

What is Leadership and how is it different from management?  Why does it matter, what is it for and how does it become a thing we see in the world and within us?

Why do we experience it and how did it even become a thing for us? If we can say shame is effectively pain, where that pain comes from and how we choose to deal with that can make us even more shamed, or dramatically healthier.

What is the real difference between confidence and arrogance, really? is it words used, the energy they're said with, or the perspective it's seen from?

When we make a decision to move on from an old relationship, what goes on that this decision isn't as permanent as we intended? Old patterns, familiarities and comfort, insecurities and the concern that we won't find anyone else all play a role, but is knowing about these things enough to make sense of why we still go back to a situation that doesn't serve us?

What does hypermasculinity mean? The framing of us to ourselves, and how others interpret this, is core to how we make meaning. How we see us, the world, everyone else, wookies, is dependent on our frame of reference and how we apply it. So, how you see things and how you act accordingly are intrinsically linked.

When we consider our grown, we start to appreciate that we have realigned our priorities and what we value. Reflecting on how and why those things have changed, and what we look for when it comes to people and scenarios needs some reconsidering and realigning too. 

The idea of intuition can be a little difficult to explain, let alone experience on an understandable level. If you have felt it, describing it to those who haven't can be... weird. Why do some experience it and others don't? Are they special, or just more aligned to different things in different ways?

Today we talk with Liam, about his journey through not just his own challenging path, but how he stepped through someone else's too. How walking those paths all the way through made him stronger, strong enough to help others walk theirs.

How we see and experience ourselves is of the highest importance when it comes to mental health, but considering how other people perceive us is also valuable. Which is more important to us, and how much we lean one way or the other, has the capacity to trigger thoughts and feelings and consequences that can have huge impact our mental state.

Today we talk to Thommo about military service, what it was like to get out, where he was left when his career goals were left in tatters and why being cold helps with that.

When we have someone tell us that we are wrong to feel a certain way, what does that really mean? Where does that come from? What happens within us that we believe them? Maybe we've been taught to invalidate our own feelings and experiences. Or worse, don't know how to change that, let alone other people "allowing" us to.

Why are red flags red flags? What makes a behaviour a reg flag, and how different are those from person to person? Or better yet, what can be done about them? We only know they are red flags until we've experienced them before and have the opportunity to reflect on them, but maybe we can pay attention to ourselves and what we know we deserve BEFORE we find out the hard way.

When empathy is of such high value, can it be used in a practical way? Or is that cheapening its value? Or is empathy just empathy, its only the ends its use is aimed at that changes how we feel about and use it.

We get to talk Skye, a personal change worker, a survivor and a thriver, about healing and the paths that are open to us when we choose healing.

Why do we follow who we do, and what exactly is it that leads us to follow and believe one persons version of reality over another's? What do they reach within us that attracts us to them or repels us?

If we cane accept that the person isn't their behaviour, and the behaviour isn't the person, then maybe acceptance of ourselves and others isn't far behind. So maybe the reasons we do certain things, like cheating, can be seen for what they are before the behaviours become a thing.

If what we like and are drawn to tells us something about ourselves, does that also give us some hints about why our relationship with food is what it is? Or better yet, our relationship with ourselves?

We talk about navy life, how a system can really feel when you're trying to change it for the better from the inside, and where that conflict can lead a headspace in the long run.

When your family member is struggling with depression, what could you say to help? If you partner is buried in anxiety, how do you not say the "wrong" thing? If not quite as simple as right or wrong, but the maybe the intention towards the person struggling can help the wrong thing still make a difference.

Where do those thoughts that make us doubt ourselves, take us to places we know we don't want to be... Where do they come from? Why do they come back to us? What can we do about them? Sometimes knowing that they are supposed to be a part of you is not enough, especially when understanding them makes moving on from the that much easier.

When decisions become challenging, why do they become challenging and what can we do about them within ourselves to change that? With goats!!!

What is it called when we feel like there is never enough time in the day to get to what we want to get done? The simple equations are either making more money so we can afford to work less, or re-prioritising what we use our time on so we can make the adjustments within ourselves. Neither are simple, but both make differences in our outlook.

Is pain essential to growth? Or can it be considered a temporary element of accepting and assimilating old experiences that once caused pain? Maybe the continual pain of healing isn't because its necessary, but because of the resistance we have to letting go of old pains we are so used to they feel like who we are.

When looking at strategies to create discipline, using emotional investment is a keystone to that. But what happens when we don't trust emotions in general? Do they end up being an excuse to sabotage ourselves, even if we are acting on a more positive emotional value? Or is this is a sign that acknowledging the thoughts around the value of all emotion needs to be addressed first?