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198. He Lost Everything… Now He’s Helping Men Heal | Larren Gerard Bridgers
64 Plays13 days ago
Men’s mental health is the focus of today’s episode of Spiritual Fitness Podcast. Eric Bigger is joined by Larren Gerard Bridgers to share how he turned deep grief, trauma, and loss into purpose, healing, and legacy. If you’re ready to release what’s been weighing on you, elevate your mindset, and step into a more aligned, powerful version of yourself, this conversation is here to meet you and move you forward.
About The Guest:
Larren Gerard Bridgers is a business consultant and executive leader with 25+ years of experience driving strategy and transformation at a high level. He is also the founder of Brothers Ascend: The Mountain Within, a movement focused on healing, mental health, and personal growth for Black men.
After experiencing the devastating loss of his sister and mother within a short period, Gerard turned his pain into purpose, creating safe spaces for men to heal, reconnect, and grow. Today, his mission is to help men strengthen their emotional wellness, rediscover purpose, and build a lasting legacy beyond success.
Be part of the First Men’s Retreat Brothers Ascend: The Mountain Within:
https://www.brothersascend.com/
https://www.instagram.com/brothersascend/
Ready to deepen your spiritual fitness? Join Eric’s Sacred Momentum program and start raising your frequency today: https://www.ericbigger.com/offers/zTSMQAWT/checkout
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Work with me: https://www.ericbigger.com/workwithme?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=work_with_m...
Connect with Simplified Impact: https://hubs.ly/Q02vvMJ90
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Transcript
Introduction to Spiritual Fitness Podcast
00:00:05
Speaker
Welcome to the Spiritual Fitness Podcast. I'm your host, Eric Bigger. And each week, we will explore powerful practices, inspiring stories, and expert insights to guide you on your path to holistic health.
00:00:18
Speaker
By blending spirituality and physical wellness, we support you in strengthening your body and soul. Whether you're a seasoned spiritual seeker or just beginning your journey, the Spiritual Fitness Podcast is here to help you unlock your inner potential and live your most vibrant, purposeful life.
00:00:35
Speaker
It's miracle season.
Content Warning: Trauma and Violence
00:00:41
Speaker
Content advisory. The following program contains detailed descriptions of violence, domestic tragedy, and profound trauma. This content may be distressing for some audiences. Viewer discretion is strongly advised.
00:00:56
Speaker
Spiritual Fitness, Spiritual Fitness Podcast. We're back again. I'm your host, Eric Bigger. And today, I got a good episode for all of you men and women that is going to inspire you to be your best self. It can also open up your ears, open up your heart for you to receive this medicine.
Meet Gerard Bridgers and His Mission
00:01:13
Speaker
He's a great friend now, but I got Gerard Bridgers. Father, husband, business consultant, Christian, changing lives through his company. Brothers extend the mountain within. But Gerard, welcome to Spiritual Fitness. How are you? Happy to have you.
00:01:29
Speaker
I'm thankful for the opportunity, thank for the platform to be able to speak because I want, I want to help. Yeah. you know, I want people to help me help them. So that's what I'm here for. And i hope by sharing my story and what I'm trying to do, it helps everybody.
00:01:43
Speaker
Who is Gerard, you know, and what are you becoming? And tell us a little bit about you personally. So we can get into the context of that. You speaking about your pain and what I'm doing now is trying to turn my pain into progress. But the pain I've had yeah in the last year and a half,
00:02:03
Speaker
or two years is like a mix. And now I'm just trying to transmute that, like you said, into and like a bigger purpose. I feel like I'm called to do something. But yet you're here today speaking on it because you want to change something within yourself to change others. And I think the fact that you're here moving through that pain It says a lot about where you're going and who you are.
00:02:28
Speaker
But if you feel free, how much you want to express it, you could kind of share that two year journey for you as a man, as a father, as a husband, as a soul. What was that like for you?
00:02:38
Speaker
Just the whole context of what you've been through. Just to set the framework, because but you and I talked about this and. Not just you, but lots of people are like, how are you able to articulate and actually speak to what you've been through? Now, Therica said um there are people who are five years removed from something that's half of what you've been through. They can't even speak the names of their loved ones that have gone on.
00:03:01
Speaker
So, you know. I think that's God's gift to what I'm doing. You know, peace is not the absence of problems. Peace is the presence of God. You know what saying? So my wife, my kids, we're normal life living here in Charlotte, North Carolina.
00:03:16
Speaker
I have a, so Oh, I had an older sister. Um, you know, we grew up together. We've tight November 24.
Family Tragedy and Personal Struggle
00:03:22
Speaker
i get a call from my sister's boyfriend at the time. And I'm not going to go into the gory tea details, but my nephew, my sister's son,
00:03:34
Speaker
killed my sister, his girlfriend, and took his own life. um November 24. um And it was devastating. You know, it was, it's what you think it would be is devastating. You know, we're, we still have PTSD, you know, from phone calls and and in the afternoon. So ah my therapist, you know, had a couple of therapists theyre working with me on that.
00:03:57
Speaker
um Not too shortly after that, my mom was in the hospital At the time of my sister's tragic death, my mom passed two months after that.
00:04:10
Speaker
a You know, from, you know, natural causes. But nonetheless, yeah the the weight of that situation was enough for me to be flat on my face. And I was in a dark place for a long time, couple months, you know. so But I realize I have.
00:04:26
Speaker
these two kids. i have my wife, I have our support system who were there for me through the whole time. My dad, cause he's going through it with me. You know, he, he's lost the same thing I've lost and the weight of it was heavy, but I was like, I'm i'm looking at all these kids, they looking at me every day. They're like, I gotta to get up out of this place. Yeah. and coupled with the mental health,
00:04:52
Speaker
thing for my nephew who did this, yeah you know, heinous app, you know, the mental health aspect. So thinking about that, even though he was much younger. And then I started having conversations with about four different circles. Like, man, after everything I gone through, like, man, we need, we just need to get together. I started having a conversation and I start thinking about the concept of a
Men's Retreat for Healing and Connection
00:05:16
Speaker
men's retreat. We just need to get together and really heal and really think about the things that we've thrown on inside. And I came up with the concept, Brothers Ascend.
00:05:27
Speaker
The mountain within. And the mountain within is all the stuff that we just st throw in inside and we never deal with. Even back to childhood stuff, we just kind of throw it in like we push through. You're a man.
00:05:40
Speaker
You're taught to put a black man. You got to push through. You know what saying? And, you know, the stigma with therapy when we were growing up. We don't get therapy. We just freak. Yeah, we just go drink. Right. So I'm breathe. I'm going to let you digest that for a second. Yeah, so, mean, there's several things that come up. ah Thank you for sharing the story. And I want to know, take me back to who Gerard was and his body, his mind, his life before that call came in. I was in a good space, you know, um working.
00:06:10
Speaker
you know, decent job, um, and you know, come fairly comfortable. I'm not, you know, yeah saying, but good life, good wife, good, great kids, you know, great wife, great family, great support system. You know, I'm, I'm, I'm comfortable in where I am, you know, I'm, Nothing in your life that because I want to speak on your nephew.
00:06:30
Speaker
Was he in a different space? Because you said something about mental health and I do a lot of work on um mental health advocacy. You know, there's things that go on within people that we don't know. They carry that we're not aware of that might cause certain things to happen physically. Where was he at for this to trigger within him or he was just down a different role?
00:06:50
Speaker
He wasn't a problematic... He didn't have a problematic life. He wasn't a problematic kid. He wasn't necessarily in, like, no, trouble. yeah that's That's the word. He wasn't trouble. He was, like, a little antisocial, um you know...
00:07:05
Speaker
and didn't necessarily connect you know with you all the time. But he wasn't a troubled kid, but from what we understand, it was drugs. He started dealing with marijuana and manufactured marijuana.
00:07:22
Speaker
With that being said, you're living a good life, wife, kids, and then that happens. What has been your grieving process? And what was the moment that you say you wanted to start the men's retreat? Was it like right after you kind of went through a process of a year or maybe a few months? Started, you know, the idea came to me like shortly thereafter, after I said i had a conversation with my lawn brothers.
00:07:45
Speaker
my my larger friend group and but like two different circles about need to get that we're overdue as men to get together because we just push through. And then, so I'm gonna tell you about the third blow that happened um last year July. So I had put some loose stuff down on paper about the retreat and what I wanted to do in the vision. The vision had come to me. It was plain.
00:08:11
Speaker
The vision was playing and I had written it down and started building on it. And then on top of everything that I had been through November, 24, January, 25, with my mom, July of 25, I got laid off from my job who on top of all that.
00:08:29
Speaker
And I'm thinking I've been like Joel right now, right? I'm feeling like Joel, right? um I mean, I'm not comparing myself to that, but I'm just saying like it, the hits keep on coming.
00:08:41
Speaker
But it actually was a blessing in disguise. And I had no clue at the time because I'm like scrambling and stressing, but it gave me a chance to reset myself yeah from the pain and the grief that I would not agree goes away, but it gave me a chance to reset and kind of just, okay, let me think about what the rest of my life looks like for me post trauma.
00:09:08
Speaker
And then it also gave me some time and some space to work on the retreat. idea So I really dug into that and really got that moving during that period. And then um two months later, I was gainfully employed again.
00:09:23
Speaker
So, um you know, that wasn't an issue, but it like it was a blessing in disguise. I needed that reset to focus on the retreat because now my mission is my my therapist says the way you deal with the grief and the periods of sadness is to focus on something that you're looking forward to.
00:09:43
Speaker
Wow. Yeah. And I think that's what happened over the pandemic, where people were so isolated for so long. The reason they was freaking out or going through a crisis or whatever, is they didn't have anything to look forward to.
00:09:54
Speaker
Right. Right. And i think what's is what's the Tracy Morgan has said on Breakfast Club but years ago? You said the greatest joy in life is not how much money you make. It's not what you become. But the greatest blessing is to have something to look forward to. you And I think to have something like Brothers Ascend to pull your energy and time and and purpose into and to create from, you know, root level is giving you life.
00:10:23
Speaker
It absolutely is. Opening you up to receive a different part of you. Opening you up to receive the God in you. Opening you to receive to meet new people that can help you raise your frequency into where you're becoming and where you're going. But also to put this message out in the world and say, look,
00:10:39
Speaker
I've been through this, but this is not my definition of self or life, but this is my purpose to bring it out of view because I know you might be going through something as well and I want to help. And I think as men, like you said, we don't do enough of this because we haven't been programmed or conditioned how to meet up, how to hold space, how to not judge, how to be in the spaces with men to feel safe and to be who you really are and not who you think you should be.
00:11:07
Speaker
And I think when I think about it and take you guys back to the beginning when I was acknowledging him, I met him through someone that I don't know as long or as much. Right. But it doesn't matter. And this is why I tell people you never know who God is going to bring into your life and why. But if we're always on a defense, I think black people, we're we've known for that. We don't try to, you know, we always, you can never be open to receive what's for you because you're looking at quality of time, quantity of time. What does this person do? Who are they? Who they connected to? And it's like, if you got God in your life, you ain't got to question that, Right.
00:11:42
Speaker
So meeting you opened up a space in me. This is how I see life and this is why I trust life. And I call it God intelligence. But I said to say nothing is by accident.
00:11:55
Speaker
I had already spoke up. I still retreat. Man, so February 9th is when I started my men's degree. Man Monday. was Yeah. And we're April. We're talking about a retreat space. It's whole space for men to feel safe, to hike, right? To k connect, right?
00:12:09
Speaker
to move our bodies, to ground, to learn, and to receive love, light, and healing from other men. Just to jump in on that, when I started building out the plan for this retreat and I started kind of benchmarking what was out there,
00:12:24
Speaker
I saw different, I saw some men's retreats out there. I saw some black men's retreats, but they were they were de men they were like semi-dimensional, like one dimensional. But I want to treat every dimension of black male identity, yeah the mind, body, soul, and legacy. want to treat the whole thing.
00:12:42
Speaker
So that's how we that's how we came to this. you know Yeah. and And the thing is, beyond that, the social construct, because I think that's what impacts
Perception, Self-Awareness, and Goals
00:12:50
Speaker
all those. Right. How we're feared or how we're viewed or the perception of a black man or our perception. Jay-Z did interview not too long ago and a young man was black. And he said, how do we allow ourselves? And Jay-Z said, you don't allow.
00:13:05
Speaker
no one is allowing us. We have free will to do as we please. But the fact that that young man had that in his consciousness shows you the level of awareness of perception he believes. Right. Right. Because how you see yourself is how you receive yourself and how you receive yourself is what you're going to see in life. And I think, you know, the paradigm of black men hiking. Right. Because I don't know a black man that's hiked. Right. I mean, plant medicine, I judge plant medicine, but I was called to it.
00:13:32
Speaker
It wasn't like I followed someone. And then to actually hike a mountain, you know how people say, I'll meet you at the mountaintop. It changed, you know, my DNA, changing my frequency to be where I'm ah where i'm at today, to be in your space, to understand, like, I know how to hold heavy things like me.
00:13:50
Speaker
And I think that's what this retreat is going to be. How do we hold the heaviness within our life, within our bodies, within our psyches? How do we hold it lightly to transmit the pain into power to find a purpose? Because our purpose is more than making money. It's more than, you know, taking care and providing for the family. It's more than looking good, feeling good. It's about our legacy is our integrity. Our integrity is our legacy.
00:14:14
Speaker
And the more we go within and the more we ascend that mountain, right, and we don't stay stuck in that distorted mountain, the more we can allow more other brothers, other men, and other people to grow with us.
00:14:28
Speaker
But it has to start somewhere. So I want to ask you real quick, when you got the idea, was it like a complete, certainly like no matter what I'm doing it, or was just like, okay. Maybe. And who brought you the idea? Did it just come to you? Was it like spirit led? Did your wife put it in your mind? Like, how did this even all come about? Or was just like, it just came to and you like, I'm in.
00:14:48
Speaker
Well, the word, the word of sin spoke in my spirit. It felt me a God would place that in my spirit. And I think, um, Actually, i was working with my wife on it because initially, I think I came up with the Ascend Collective.
00:15:04
Speaker
And we'll ah we'll deal with that a little bit later, right? And then, you know, she and I worked with it and we came up with Brothers Ascend. And then the Mountain Within... it just kind of landed in my spirit too.
00:15:15
Speaker
yeah You know what I mean? And the so some the symbolic part of what we're going to do when we go on this retreat, the mask that we wear at the top of the mountain, I want to throw those off.
00:15:28
Speaker
I want to cast those off. Like the these masks that we think we have to wear, you it throw those over the side of the mountain, you know, because we've ascended to a new place and we don't need those anymore.
00:15:39
Speaker
Right. And that's the thing. I think we love a good story or a good lie to keep us in the unnecessary, the misery of our lives because we've been constantly conditioned that way. Oh, you're this. Oh, you're that. Oh, you're this. It's like, no, no, I don't have to believe that. I don't have to accept that. I can actually go and create something within myself, become, you know, spiritually fit to connect with other brothers and help them win and evolve because we don't have to stay the same.
00:16:05
Speaker
Everything happens. It's 4-Hour High is good, even if it's pain, even if it's something that we don't understand in a moment. I feel like tough moments build great people, right?
00:16:16
Speaker
And great people bring up great men, great families, great leaders. And I think you in this space, especially for the retreat, the intentions is beyond ascending, right? And becoming is how can we be in our greatness together?
00:16:32
Speaker
But can you give us the details other retreat, the intentions behind it, where is it going to be located and how can we know more about it? Because I want my community, I want my audience and I want people to be a part this. And then we can talk about my insertion of the retreat.
00:16:49
Speaker
My desire is to Have professional black men um come and speak to every part of their dimension. Yeah. The retreat is September 10th through the 13th, Chattanooga, Tennessee.
Details of the Brothers Ascend Retreat
00:17:03
Speaker
We're going to have an agenda. i Got six speakers working on. Possibly more speakers there. we we got We got pastors. We got therapists.
00:17:14
Speaker
We got ah fitness motivational guys. We got a meditation meditation guy. We got financial planners. um we We got the, like, we're just going to treat the whole male body. We have an agenda where we're um going to be, you know,
00:17:31
Speaker
a large classroom, and then we're going some breakout sessions because we really want to get into in intimacy. Our goal is for a black men to come unmasked, connect, heal, and build legacy.
00:17:46
Speaker
Those are the outcomes. of And we want these men to go back to their communities, to their household, and the effects of what they've been through ripples through their communities.
00:17:59
Speaker
oh That's deep. So there's two questions. When you think of legacy, can you break down the context from your paradigm? And two, when you say ripple through their communities, how does this how does that look in your mind when you when you think about that? The legacy is not just about money.
00:18:18
Speaker
Right, right. Legacy is about the love and the life that you lead and how your family, children, the people that knew you will remember you once you're gone. What aspects of your being are left with different people who are still here once you're gone?
00:18:42
Speaker
er I love that. um And then we're talking about rippling through communities. When the men go back, we want them to be vulnerable. And then when they go back to where they are, wherever in the nation,
00:18:57
Speaker
When somebody growing up in their community, in their environment sees that they're transparent and vulnerable, they're like, hey, this is a strong black man in this space.
00:19:08
Speaker
And he's transparent about what he's going through. It's OK for me to do that. And then that just spirals and continues to build, man. We don't want toxic masculinity to keep going.
00:19:20
Speaker
being pervasive through different cycles. you know what saying? We want to break that cycle, man. We are okay with being vulnerable with ourselves. Yeah, and and I think, you know, what's great about this and we're speaking about it is that I think we have a hard time being vulnerable because we don't feel safe in our vulnerability.
00:19:40
Speaker
And there's not enough creative spaces where we feel safe, right? And so I think that's what you're doing, one. And two, I think men don't cry enough. Like we don't cry enough. That's the real ripple. When you cry, more things open up, more things break down and you have a breakthrough. When other powerful men are in leadership or just in their profession and they're able to emote, able to express and able to be themselves with no resistance. That opens up your resistance that you might be holding in your body if you're in the audience on where you want to come to the retreat and he'd be free as well. And then we're free together. And then we close that energy up and then we bring that ripple into the world. Because I can't remember the quote, but there's a quote that goes, if one or two or more people are in a certain level of vibration, you can change the world.
00:20:29
Speaker
It's amazing the synergy that I feel when I'm talking to you about this subject. Yeah, because you're right on. and just We just talked for the first time last week. So it's like a line. yeah But there were this retreat in September, it's just a starting point. mean i And then after the first retreat, of course, we're going to have multiple retreats.
00:20:48
Speaker
But the people that were at the first retreat, we're going to do post-mortems. like We're going to stay connected. We're going to, hey, man, we're going to be on the phone and have a prayer call. love you know Hey, what job what have you been through? like What are you struggling with?
00:21:02
Speaker
What are you looking forward to? It's just not stop at that one retreat, man.
Logistics and Support for the Retreat
00:21:06
Speaker
So www.brothersofsin.com, man. We'll put the links, IGs, everything's Brothers of Sin. The Facebook IG, brothersofsin.com.
00:21:17
Speaker
And then um the... The website has everything. It has the donations. It has the registration. It has everything on the website. The donations are to get this thing off the ground because I probably should have started with them. We're basically starting a grassroots effort.
00:21:30
Speaker
This is a proof of concept, right? It hasn't been out there, but it's needed. And I know I'm called to do it finish this, to go across the finish line. um So donations are for like, you know, sponsors, donors who want to contribute to black male wholeness.
00:21:46
Speaker
If you want to contribute to black male holders, donate to the call. Even men, women, I mean, whoever you want to donate is there. And then the registration link is out there. So I just wanted to be clear about the registration.
00:21:58
Speaker
Registration covers the hotel stay, your three night hotel stay, all your food. And of course the agenda and, you know, the brothers with Dan retreat. So. Yeah, and it's beautiful because i know from investing in myself and investing in spaces like this has changed
Personal Growth and Safe Spaces for Men
00:22:15
Speaker
my life. So I went from a pain point in 2023 to experience a high in 2024 because I went on a retreat and I went outside of my comfort zone. I'm afraid of heights. I took a 12-hour flight to Peru and I was with 19 people.
00:22:30
Speaker
We hiked mountains. i was there for 11 days. Uncomfortable. but I was willing to grow to become. And then God brought me a woman into my life that has just changed my life since then. and so men listening, brothers listening, take this chance and this opportunity to go to the website, click the link,
00:22:49
Speaker
It's gonna be on the show notes, everything. It's gonna be on my page. i'm gonna be I'm gonna be at the retreat, right? I'm gonna be doing my thing. And on top of that, you know we're gonna have, like you said, post calls. We have integration and we have revelation, we have clarity. So this is not just a one-off, which what we're trying know. We're actually doing this because this is where the world is going. And I think, especially black men, we need this more than anything. It's more than just a retreat. It's an experience to change the collective of a man. And that's the way, the way you take care of family and you scale the family is yeah you pour into the men of the family to to keep them safe. Because I feel like the world doesn't feel safe because men don't feel safe.
00:23:28
Speaker
Right. And if men don't feel safe, women don't feel safe, kids don't feel safe. So we got to go do the work as men. We got to lead ourselves like you're leading us to our highest mountain within. Yeah.
00:23:40
Speaker
Yeah. So in closing remarks, closing words, is there anything you want to share, anything you want to add before we get off so we know? Or just, you know, motivation, inspiration. you can drop the website, whatever you feel. I just want to give you the space.
00:23:52
Speaker
um One thing that came to my head, i didn't want to be the face of this. And my social media manager, she was like, you know, we need, you know, we need you to do it. And I'm like, I don't want to be the face. You know, I want i want to do the work.
00:24:06
Speaker
I don't want to be the face. She said, and my wife said it too, You have to tell your story. yeah Yeah. It starts with your story. It doesn't connect for everybody until you hear your story. And then once you tell your story, you can build everything else out there. So I had to tell my story. Like I said, I don't want to be up here on video, but, you know, it gave me a chance to be on the platform with you. And I appreciate, you know, this opportunity and this exposure, but I want help me.
00:24:34
Speaker
to help you. So go out to the website, register for the retreat, um see all the information there because this is a movement. It's not just ah a one-time thing. This is a movement.
00:24:45
Speaker
I don't have the answers. I actually created this because I don't have the answers. Right. So and we're going to see, we're going to get those answers together. So man, I appreciate you Eric. I appreciate the time. Man, this this is amazing. Brothers are saying go to the website, ah follow the Instagram, all the socials. I'll have it in the show notes. And there's a great book by Peter Gerber called Tell Your Story to Win. If you want to win in life, tell your story. So thank you for telling your story today. Guys, look him up on all the socials. And ah men, I need you in the space. We're going to be promoting this more and you'll hear and see it in a social standing sooner than later. but other than that, be great. Stay Spursely Fit. Subscribe, share, and listen to this over and over until it resonates with your soul and people who can relate to it. I'm out. Peace.
00:25:30
Speaker
Thank you for joining us on the Spiritual Fitness Podcast. We hope today's episode has inspired you and provided valuable insights for your holistic health journey. By blended spirituality and physical wellness, you can strengthen your body, mind, and soul.
00:25:45
Speaker
If you enjoyed today's episode, please subscribe, rate, and leave a review. Until next time, stay strong, stay inspired, and remember, it's miracle season.