What if you smiled more? What if you laughed more? What if you revelled in the feeling of a good exhale? The kind where your shoulders just drop and a grin creeps across your face? 

That is what doing "the work" brings, and it's what happens spontaneously while you're putting in the effort...

“I’m good thanks”.....nope, not even close.

I took this picture of Mati almost 4 years ago after a friend from the first men’s group I was a part of gave me this advice: “The next time someone asks you how you’re doing......tell them”.

I didn’t...

The Nine8 Program page is now updated. On it you will find a detailed description of what each of the 8 weeks will entail and what you can expect to gain from them!

The 8 weekly modules include: 

• Foundation
• Awareness
• Mindset
• Vitality
• Masculinity
• Relationship
• Building Your Stress Defence
• ...

What's your relationship with anger? 

Are you overwhelmed by it? Fearful of it? Maybe even shameful of it? Your chosen adjective might be different, but the vast majority of men and women have a standard agreement with themselves that when anger begins to churn, they will stuff it down...

"Shout, shout, let it all out

These are the things I can do without

Come on, I'm talking to you, come on"

It turns out the lyrics of Tears For Fears, 1985 single, "Shout" are a pretty accurate representation of a significant challenge that cops and all first responders face on a regular...

Jan 27 is set to conclude the first Nine8 group. Needless to say it was motivating as hell to see a few of you step up and dive into some work that you weren't familiar with, and the results are clear as day (even though some might not admit it just yet). 

I'm not 100% clear on...

How often do you take one?

I'm a big proponent of daily intentional breathing (call it "breathwork" if you want, but I know certain combinations of words like that tend to scare a lot of you fellas away). Aside from the more instantly gratifying results from combining that with a meditation...

What does it mean to be “healthy” to you? For some reason a lot of us, especially in the first responder world, have identified health as being primarily physical. How we look, how much we can lift, or how far we can run takes precedence over the rest. Those things are great,...

After what I would consider to be a pretty full on month, I've begun to really play around with (that was intentional) the idea of "play". Not just with the kids, but when I'm on my own, and with the intention to shift my energy/perspective behind it. 

When I refer to the word "play"...

Unintentionaly, the initial vision for this started to drift into what felt like a business, and for it to work, that I had to market myself somehow. Not only is that awkward, but it is incredibly far from what I want, or even have the bandwidth to do. I've got my own shit to deal with just...

First I want to clarify that without question some of us will find ourselves in situations that no matter how sovereign we are, or supportive our employer is, we can't just work ourselves out of. That's expected, and there is nothing wrong with that whatsoever. I sincerely hope that anyone who...

Last month was rough, no story required.

It was rough enough to make me shut off a lot of the things I consider most important, and left me taking care of little more than what I would call my foundation (family, work, etc). 

We all have those chunks of time. They are inevitable and a part...