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Biohacking Masculinity | Ep #55
42 Plays1 year ago
In this episode, you'll learn:
- What's all the buzz about when it comes to biohacking?
- How do biohacking fit into masculinity?
- What's the connection between your biology and spirit?
- Why you need a gameplan
Host: Josh Cearbaugh
https://www.instagram.com/joshcearbaugh/
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Transcript
Introduction to Biohacking Masculinity
00:00:00
Speaker
Biohacking masculinity. What the fuck does that mean? Well, we're going to get into that today. And not so much the conversation and the nuances and the details and the science of biohacking specifically. I may touch on some of that, but more so
00:00:15
Speaker
how understanding your biology is correlated with and connected to your masculinity. More specifically, how that affects the way that you see yourself, how that affects the way that you show up in life, and how that impacts every other aspect of your life. This is just one facet of healthy masculinity, of well-rounded masculinity.
Listener Engagement and Feedback
00:00:39
Speaker
And today we're going to dive into that because I'm fresh off of a conference and have all kinds of ideas swirling for myself as well as some ideas I thought I'd pass along to you. So if you haven't already I would encourage you to subscribe. Please leave your reviews or comments feedback. I read every single one of those and as we continue on these
00:01:02
Speaker
episodes down the road, then I use what you guys offer as ideas, as inspiration for things to talk
Complexities of Masculinity
00:01:10
Speaker
about. But let's dive into biohacking masculinity. Men, we are not simple, chest-thumping, rock-smashing, fire-starting barbarians.
00:01:21
Speaker
We have depth. We intensely feel. We are scared yet brave. We love to have fun. We're imperfect and make mistakes. We're compassionate and loving. We are multifaceted.
Personal Insights on Longevity and Health
00:01:38
Speaker
Let's explore the reality of masculinity together.
00:01:42
Speaker
All right, today's topic, I can honestly say that I have been experimenting with for years, even as far back as when I was in the Marine Corps, started with taking personality tests. And you may not say that that's biohacking specifically, because it's not working with your biology, but it's
00:02:03
Speaker
this deep-seated desire to better understand myself. For me, I fit that into a biohacking category because my own definition of biohacking is just maximizing your life and maximizing your life that's oversimplifying a very nuanced and detailed topic
00:02:26
Speaker
But it's either maximizing the longevity of your life. I have said that I'm going to live to be 127. I may make it to 130. I may make it to 90. But I personally believe that my goal is to live my life today in a way that is going to set me up to live to be over 100 years old and actually enjoy that life, not be in a wheelchair for the last 25 years of my life.
Enhancing Life Quality through Biohacking
00:02:52
Speaker
So biohacking has been an intricate part of that because I'm wanting to maximize that longevity of life. Now, the other side of biohacking is improving the quality of the life that you have. So let's say that you only live to 55, heaven forbid, or 75, whatever it may be, it's maximizing your life. So it's maximizing the longevity, but also maximizing the quality
Depression, Testosterone, and Health
00:03:20
Speaker
of the life that you have however long that may be and you may be asking okay that sounds great but how does that tie into masculinity. I can give you one of probably fifty examples for my own personal life and that is that of years ago is probably about.
00:03:41
Speaker
five to seven years ago, somewhere in that window, I was dealing with depression. There was a lot of stress going on in my life and my marriage at the time wasn't good and I was deeply, deeply depressed. And anyone who knows about depression, the downward spiral of depression where you're feeling low or you're feeling down and so when you're feeling that way,
00:04:06
Speaker
you want to run to coping mechanisms or you want to run to unhealthy food that just tastes good in the moment but actually isn't ultimately good for your body or the list goes on and on as far as the things that you may run to when you're feeling depressed. The other side of that is
00:04:22
Speaker
You're not working out. You're not, you're, I was very lethargic and not moving and not being physically active. And that had me at a really bad mental state, but physically what was happening was.
00:04:37
Speaker
If you've ever explored testosterone or trt replacement therapy. Then you know that the level of testosterone that both women and men have you need it you also need us men we need healthy levels of estrogen which i can get into in a little bit but.
00:04:57
Speaker
For me at the time, my testosterone was ridiculously low. It was in the low 200s. And so for me, what it meant was not only was I feeling overwhelmed, not only was my cortisol shot, my adrenal gland shot,
00:05:15
Speaker
I was just at a really, really low place. And at the time, because my testosterone was so low, I didn't have drive. I didn't have that thing that kind of pushed me over the edge to get outside of this funk that I had been in and what I needed at the time was some help. So I went ahead and got on some testosterone just temporarily to bring my testosterone up.
00:05:41
Speaker
And that wasn't the end all be all cure all for where I was
Personalized Biohacking Approaches
00:05:46
Speaker
at. I still had my stressors, but what I also had was a, my hormone that helped fuel this area of drive and just being able to go after things and being physically active.
00:06:02
Speaker
that regulated up enough to be able to help me begin to do healthier things. Now, that said, I was still on antidepressants and a bunch of other things, and I still had unhealthy habits that I had formed while I was depressed, that I had to confront and work through. I still had challenges in my marriage. It wasn't the end all, be all, cure all. And I think that's an important point to
00:06:28
Speaker
to stress when it comes to biohacking, sometimes people are looking for that magic pill or that magic solution that will just make their life better, which that is admirable in and of itself. But you have to be aware of that tendency or that desire to find that easy route or that one thing that fits everybody. What I love about the biohacking community as more and more science and technology gets wrapped into this
00:06:56
Speaker
is that if you work with somebody who knows what they're doing, they're working with you specifically and the subtle nuances and the details that are specific to you, what you may need to get dialed in and feel better may be completely different or counterintuitive or negative for me.
00:07:16
Speaker
And so it's important to see what you're working with for you. And there's a variety of blood tests and hormone tests and a variety of things that you can explore. I just went to a conference this weekend on biohacking and
00:07:32
Speaker
a company that I heard present was the DNA company. And this isn't 23andMe, you were born in, or your ancestors came from mostly Europe, but some in Africa, et cetera. It's actually getting into the subtle nuances of your specific DNA and then things that you can do to help refine that or improve weak points that you have.
00:07:58
Speaker
And I have not taken the test yet. I plan on it. I absolutely love looking at tests when it comes to biohacking because what it does is it removes the guesswork for you. You can say that I'm feeling off, but unless you know what's driving that feeling of feeling off, you're just guessing and you may be able to take some standard things to be able to improve how you're feeling.
Testosterone and Self-Perception
00:08:23
Speaker
But when you get a test, those those numbers don't care about your feelings. They just report exactly what's going on in your body and give you a baseline of where you're at and then what you can do to improve.
00:08:36
Speaker
Now you may be asking, how the hell does all of this tie into masculinity? Well, like I said, with feeling off or when I was feeling depressed, I was not feeling strong. I was not feeling confident. I was questioning myself. I was questioning my masculinity, my role as a dad, as a husband. All of those things were cascading from
00:09:03
Speaker
the testosterone that I had that was really low at the time, and that was just one factor, there were other factors. And when you have something that's off in your body, then trying to do this work, whether it be meditation or going to church or getting involved in community, doing those things can feel like you're trying to run a marathon through a swamp.
00:09:31
Speaker
And the goal really with biohacking connecting to masculinity and how you feel on the inside is really to understand the physical side of things and better understand them and put together a game plan where you can help yourself.
Importance of Personalized Health Plans
00:09:50
Speaker
And maybe that is partly being involved in community or doing these other things. But if, if you're doing those things while there are certain markers that are off in your body,
00:10:01
Speaker
you're making your process harder than it needs to be. And I don't know about you, but me being connected to my true self, me being connected to my inner king, walking out my strengths, that in and of itself already is a challenge because
00:10:18
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I have these distractions that I can check out to or run to. We've got society that says I should be doing X, Y, or Z. Or I've got still unhealthy coping mechanisms that in the moment seem like they're much more attractive to just dive into and check out. Or maybe I have an avoidance tendency or an anxious tendency
00:10:39
Speaker
Working through those to find a healthier balance inside is much harder when you don't have your body dialed in. It's important to understand the numbers that are specific for you so that you can then approach it in a way that is more scientific
Managing Seasonal Affective Disorder
00:11:01
Speaker
I'm big in science, but I'm also big into the other things. If you've listened to any of my other podcast episodes, I'm hugely a proponent of understanding your inner world and working with your inner child and connecting to your inner king and being involved in community and doing things like that that give you a rich life. But if you're trying to do those things and
00:11:26
Speaker
you're trying to do them while your testosterone's low, your estrogen's low, your adrenals are shot, whatever it may be, it's just significantly harder. And I think an example that may be relevant for a lot of us now
00:11:41
Speaker
when when this is coming out, it's in the beginning of January and If you're like a lot of people you've kind of got those seasonal blues and there is you know one side of the argument, which is
00:11:57
Speaker
to kind of go with the seasons and understand that during the winter time things slow down if you look at nature the leaves fall off the tree and and fruit doesn't produce and you kind of go with that season but there's also the side where you may be having those winter blues
00:12:15
Speaker
Um, I know someone that they have seasonal depression and every winter they go into a funk, they tend to eat more food and unhealthy food than they should. They isolate, they do all these things that even though they kind of know it's coming.
00:12:34
Speaker
because they don't have a game plan in place, they inevitably fall into those winter blues and then springtime rolls around and they kind of bounce back. It's not to say that you can completely override the winter cold and shorter days and cloudy skies, etc., but you can with biohacking
00:12:55
Speaker
you can have a game plan, whether that be light therapy or saunas or cold plunges or getting, making sure that when you're feeling good, you have a membership at a gym that's set up. You can do things to help set you up for success when those inevitable winter blues do come. And so staying ahead of
00:13:19
Speaker
certain cycles that you might find yourself in is important to do because then this person I'm thinking of, you know, inevitably they, when, when they're eating unhealthy and they're in those winter blues,
00:13:35
Speaker
Then they beat themselves up and they go into a shame spiral and they kind of cower back when it comes to advancing in life. And then they play catch up and they oscillate between those winter blues and the summer where life is going great. And for some people, if the circumstances fit, it may be that you need to move to a warmer client. I mean, depending on how drastic you need to take things,
00:14:01
Speaker
You are ultimately responsible for your life and what that looks like. If moving to another state or across the country isn't practical for you, then maybe what is practical is around August, October, November, sometime around there,
Biohacking for Life Quality and Longevity
00:14:20
Speaker
You get blood work done and you get tests done. You find out what's low. You understand the cycles that you personally fall into when it comes into the winter months. And then you become proactive while you're still feeling good with a game plan to help biohack your masculinity, to help set you up so that through those winter months, you're still showing up in life.
00:14:47
Speaker
You're not checking out or tapering back or falling back and then having to play catch up again. And the biggest thing that I would say in all of this is when it comes to biohacking, and I know that's kind of a trendy phrase lately, don't get caught up in the phrase itself, but really see it as an invitation and an opportunity because of
00:15:10
Speaker
where we are in as a society when it comes to technology we have tests we have things that are available that you can now better understand your body in a way that helps you bio hack hack your biology in a way.
00:15:29
Speaker
that helps you just live a better life to feel more connected. It's not going to take away from hard times. It's not going to stop you from feeling grief if you're grieving. It's not gonna be a supplement to just pop the metaphorical pill and all of a sudden feel amazing at all times. But what it does do is
00:15:54
Speaker
twofold. Like I said in the very beginning, it sets you up for being able to live a longer life because if you're being conscious about removing foods that aren't good for you, or you're adding certain supplements that are good for you, or you're making sure you're exercising, those kinds of things, it's setting you up to live a longer life. But I would argue maybe even more importantly,
00:16:18
Speaker
is it's setting you up to be able to enjoy the life that you have, no matter how long that is. And that is the ultimate goal when it comes to biohacking, is to really use the things that are available to help you maximize your life.
Biohacking and Personal Development
00:16:38
Speaker
It's oversimplifying, like I said, a very complex industry, but I would encourage you to be willing to, quote unquote, get outside your comfort zone
00:16:48
Speaker
and be willing to start to explore and lean into what are some things for you that, whether it be science has come out and is showing that this is beneficial, or if you know that you have a tendency or a family history of something, begin to get curious about your biology and hack it and begin to
00:17:12
Speaker
lean into solutions because when you find those solutions, you feel empowered, you feel capable and able to tackle things that maybe those things feel overwhelming if you're not dialed in. So I have been doing this for years when it comes to just better understanding my own life, the emotional side, but I haven't really
00:17:38
Speaker
in my podcast at least talked about the importance of the biology side of things. And so hopefully today, this is a short and sweet episode, but today I just want to challenge you and encourage you to begin to get curious and be willing to begin to explore what does it mean to biohack my masculinity? What are those things that I can do? Is it breath work that helps me recenter and realign
00:18:07
Speaker
oxygen is a massive biohack in and of itself if you choose to consume it in the right way or is it getting blood work done or a urine sample done etc getting those tests done being willing to find out what is exactly happening inside your body
00:18:25
Speaker
that maybe the way that you're seeing yourself has less to do with your childhood trauma or less to do with your bad habits and more to do with the fact that you're just low on something or your gut isn't healthy or whatever it may be. And as you lean into almost pausing the self-development loop of trying to lean into all of these emotional side of things, which again, I'm a massive, massive proponent for.
Empowerment through Biological Understanding
00:18:55
Speaker
But maybe it's just for a period of time, you need to hit pause on those things and begin to explore the physical side because it will create a domino effect where if you can get your physical side of things more dialed in, better optimized, then in turn, you can begin to confront some of those childhood traumas or some of those bad habits. You feel more empowered and able to.
00:19:25
Speaker
So again, this is just a quick short episode to kind of touch base on that. I'm fresh off the conference and pretty fired up about it myself. I've been doing a lot of tests myself and finding out that, you know, my estrogen was low. My testosterone wasn't dangerously low, but it's low again. And doesn't mean I jump right on to testosterone therapy. It's actually, there's some things that you can take as precursors to help me uptick and upregulate my testosterone.
00:19:54
Speaker
So being proactive in that, I'm not having to play catch up as much and as aggressively and kind of letting more of a natural path be able to be the solution. What is it for you? What is it internally for you when it comes to your physical health?
00:20:13
Speaker
that may be holding you back, that may be stopping you from connecting to your strength. Be willing to look at that, be willing to explore that and you might just be surprised at what you find.