Hello Reader,

This is coming a bit late, but—Happy New Year. It feels like this year is going to be about returning to the foundations, at least for me.

Coming Full Circle

I set an intention to run in-person events in 2026, but I wasn't sure how to go about it, because building something from scratch takes time. As luck would have it, five new men found their way to my men's group since the last one before Christmas, mostly through mutual friends and my former mentor. The one I hosted this Friday was the best we've had at my home so far, based on the feedback I received.

I experimented with more structure than the usual loose format. I added playful banter to complement the inner work we do. The purpose is threefold: building capacity to handle tension, feeling through the insecurities that arise rather than avoiding them, and becoming more spontaneous. It brought me back to how this all started first—both my own inner work journey and my coaching practice.

When you're building an online coaching business, you spend a lot of time figuring out not just what you want to do but what you can actually help people with and what the people drawn to your work actually need. You narrow your focus to get clear.

The deeper I go with this work, the more I see the same patterns showing up everywhere, just wearing different costumes. Clarity isn't about narrowing forever, it's about finding the common thread. Whether it's men struggling with Nice Guy patterns or entrepreneurs paralyzed by self-doubt, the root cause is the same: suppressed emotions fueling limiting beliefs, leading to passivity.

My long-term vision has always been to work with a diversity of people with different struggles, not just one narrow niche. That's still true. For now, I'm focused on going deep rather than wide to get clear and refine how I communicate it.

The Year of Letting Go

The past year for me was about letting go. One thing I had to let go of was going to the gym. When my pregnant wife couldn't handle our then-10-month-old at the end of her second pregnancy, I became a full-time dad this time last year. That meant no gym.

For 13 years, going to the gym was a big part of my life. So was the recovery side: nutrition, fasting, biohacking, and sleep optimization. But when my son was born almost two years ago, and especially since January last year, I had to adapt. I had to let go of my sleep rhythm, my morning routine, my exercise routine, and later even my eating habits.

I swung from a balanced approach, taking care of both body and mind, to focusing only on the mind. But in 2026, I'm slowly getting back on track. Starting with nutrition, then exercise, and hopefully, as our 9-month-old's sleep improves, my sleep and recovery will follow.

Coming Back to the Body

Body, mind, and soul are not separate parts, but one unfolding process, each new layer transcends the last and still includes it. A strong, healthy body makes it easier to relax the mind (ego), open the heart, and remember yourself as soul. That's the real Integral approach, not just inner work, but the interplay of body, mind, and soul.

I decided to incorporate the physical foundations into my coaching program this year as well. I noticed many clients don't have these basics in place, and with more than a decade of experience in nutrition, training, and recovery (including my fitness trainer certification and a few friends as coaching clients in that niche years ago), it would be a missed opportunity not to share what I know. When the physical side isn't addressed, it shows up in energy levels, focus, and capacity to handle stress.

Recommendation

Speaking of foundations, my friend Nicolas has a newsletter that aligns with this. He developed a free sleep and recovery protocol that might be useful if you've been neglecting that side of things, like I was. If you like deep dives with actual research backing them up, you'll enjoy Nicolas's approach. He has a Master's in Sports Science and references studies throughout his work.

If you struggle to maintain mental energy throughout the day, it often starts with sleep and recovery.

Nicolas's OptiMindInsights offers science-backed strategies to help you master both.

His newly developed 7-Day Sleep and Recovery Program is a practical guide to managing sleep and recovery across the entire 24-hour cycle.

You can subscribe and access the program here.

Building in Public

As for the YouTube channel, I haven't posted since the first video. It still doesn't come naturally. I bought a new mic, recorded a video, only to find the sound was unusable. with a strong echo. So I've been studying how to actually make good videos. Still learning, but I'm committed to figuring it out this year. I was finally able to record a new one, though. It's a release meditation on fear of failure. I'll be uploading it today, so if you haven't subscribed, I encourage you to subscribe here.

Looking Ahead

Last year was about letting go—and I resisted it at first. But that resistance taught me something. I stopped rushing and started going deeper with my own practice.

This year will be about expansion. Personal connection. Community. More on that soon.

Sometimes you have to lose something to know its value.

Talk soon,

Bo