It took me a long time to lean into self-expression. When I was a younger gay guy, I was obsessed with blending in, not stirring the pot, not making waves. As I got older though, I definitely experienced a sort of suppression by feeling like I wanted to have a little bit more fun with my clothes sometimes. This may sound silly but it can feel incredibly suffocating to feel as though if you do anything perceived as feminine, it’s a problem.
It started with just wearing some brighter colors and eventually evolved into wearing very fun and even slightly feminine clothes to music festivals. This always felt incredibly freeing - rocking wild patterns and silly colors. The experience of just not really giving a fuck was delightful and what I realized is that most people applauded me for having a little fun and going outside my comfort zone. Now, I don’t wear these clothes every day and I still don’t! But sometimes, I like to have a little pop of color and I’m unashamed of that! I get my toe nails painted because why the fuck not? I wear bright colors that are sometimes very tight because I think I look good. It brings a little smile to my face that I’m honoring who I want to be and no one else.
Self-expression is important for all men, regardless of sexually, I hasten to add. Straight guys have an inner child too. And allowing the inner child to play by wearing fun things that other people might consider strange or weird still feels incredibly fulfilling. No matter what kind of guy you are, I think it’s critical to just let the inner child out sometimes. Fuck what people think. Life is too short. Enjoy yourself, live, and have a good time.
Keep Thriving,
Greg
Thinking about self-limiting beliefs today. Are there limiting beliefs that you’ve held in the past that have kept you stuck? How did you move past them?
This is the perfect place to build your tribe! Feel free to authentically and boldly share what’s going on with you, relevant parts of your health and wellness journey or any helpful information you might come across.
NOTE: This is a community for men. Women are wonderful, but if they are found in the community, they will respectfully be asked to leave.
Keep Thriving,
Coach Greg
One sentiment that is, in my opinion, easily identifiable in our modern culture is the concept of “Safetyism.” When I say this word, I mean an obsession with safety, being risk averse to the point of being pathological. The increase in fear in our consciousness is very apparent, so what could be driving this heightening fear? I think the truth of the matter is that people have a perception that things are more dangerous than they are because they have been informed by a less than credible internet source or their perception is skewed by their feed. As an example, many people believe there’s more violent crime being committed now than some years ago. Meanwhile, FBI data illustrates a different picture of this, showing that since the 1990s, crime is overall on a downswing. What could be the reason for this stark contrast? I would posit that it relates to the availability of information through the internet and social media. It’s much easier for violent crimes and atrocities to come into ...
When I was a younger man, I discovered a community and a whole world within dance music. When I started to fall in love with this scene, I began going to events where people danced until sunrise, were obsessed beyond measure with niche artists that no one’s heard of (but we gag over), and made fast friends with the strangers standing next to you. When going to events, the thing that I probably loved the most was how connected to people I felt. I felt as though I had permission to say hi to the strangers next to me and ask them about themselves. Some of my closest friends to this day came from these sort of interactions - probably because if a person is at that sort of event, you can ascertain that you have things in common.
Experiences like this are healing. Most of the time, we walk around judging each other as if we’re high and mighty, everyone is in our way as we indulge our egos and try to get through our respective days. But in these moments, we can mostly let that go and connect to ...
I’ve been reflecting about the concept of rest and why it appears to be very difficult for many of us in the current state of affairs. When I say rest, I mean both physically and mentally…but especially mentally. I don’t think it’s a stretch to say that we’re all very overstimulated and I think because of this, our ability to push the “off” button has become…suspect, at best.
We are existing at the corner of hustle culture and an attention economy (social media, instagram, etc.) that has made it seemingly difficult to unplug and just be. I often find that if I’m honest with myself, a lot of time that I’m “resting” I’m not even rested, nor relaxed because I’m consuming two or three forms of media at once. This is not relaxing….it might be relaxing if we’re just intentionally allowing ourselves to scroll but the thing about a living, breathing algorithm is that we don’t even know what we’re going to get sometimes. We could be trying to relax and in pops a ...
