Have you been curious about feeling your emotions safely? This conversation is an invitation to transform how you meet yourself and others.

Join Steve and Reuvain Bacal, a coach and men’s group leader from Boulder, CO for a conversation about regulating yourself so you can be in control of your emotions and building relationships rooted in honesty instead of armor.

What You’ll Learn (Key Takeaways)

• How to begin feeling your emotions
• Why suffering exists and how to end it
• What creates peace even in difficult circumstances.
• The two things required to safely process emotions
• When to know if you should join a men’s group
• The key to building trust, respect, and authentic connection.
• The key indicator of a healthy partnership.

Connect with Steve and The Neuro’s Journey

Follow Steve on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheNeurosJourney

Follow Steve on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/steve-sapourn-642215118/

Follow Steve on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theneurosjourney/

Connect with Reuvain Bacal:

Follow Reuvain on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/reuvain.bacal/

Check out Reuvain’s Website: https://www.reuvainbacal.com/

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This conversation is a blueprint for understanding how trauma lives in the body and how to finally change it. Dr. Naomi Rusk, a clinical neuropsychologist and trauma psychotherapist with 35 years of experience, breaks down the science of why behavior change feels impossible when your nervous system is stuck in survival mode.The core message is liberating: trauma is a brain injury, not a moral failure. Your struggles with stillness, sleep, and self-sabotage aren't character flaws—they're predictable responses from a nervous system that learned danger early. The path forward isn't willpower. It's rewiring: subtraction over addition, curiosity over force, and small daily inputs that slowly overwhelm the old programming.What You'll Learn (Key Takeaways)

Trauma is a brain injury, not a character flaw. When you see your brain on a QEEG scan, healing becomes a map—not a moral mountain to climb.

Stillness feels dangerous for a reason. If your childhood taught you that quiet meant threat, your body will resist rest. That's not weakness—it's wiring.

The "addict's body" is a nervous system state. That constant need to change your state isn't about substances—it's about a system that never learned safety.

Sleep begins in the morning. How you rest at night is a mirror for how regulated you were during the day. Night problems require daytime solutions.

Subtraction beats addition. Healing isn't about adding more practices. It's about removing what blocks the real you from emerging.

Choice is the medicine for trauma. When you didn't have choice as a child, reclaiming agency through conscious breath, movement, and awareness becomes the antidote.Leadership Soundbites (Pull Quotes)"The fire alarms are off. That's what healing actually felt like.""Trauma is a brain injury, not a moral failure. Once I saw my brain on a scan, it became fixable.""I heard a voice—and it wasn't mine. It said, 'You're a bad person and no one should ever love you.' That program had been running my entire life.""Stillness is an extremely uncomfortable experience if you have cues of danger inside.""If I'm gonna heal, I have to forgive my father. I need to give him what he couldn't give me.""Choice is the medicine for trauma. Because we didn't have a lot of choice."Conversation Highlights (Chapters / Beats)The switch that changed everything: After 10 years of work, Steve's nervous system finally calmed—and a whole new way of being opened up.Why stillness feels threatening: Dr. Rusk explains how trauma makes rest feel dangerous, and why meditation can backfire for people with anxiety.The "addict's body" explained: Understanding substance use as nervous system regulation, not moral weakness.Sleep as the last hurrah: Why sleep problems are often daytime regulation problems, and practical strategies that actually work.The voice that wasn't his: Steve discovers the underlying program ("you're bad, no one should love you") that had been running his entire life.Forgiving the unforgivable: Why forgiving his sexual abuser was easier than forgiving his father—and what that revealed about generational trauma.Trauma as brain injury: How seeing a QEEG scan shifted Steve's relationship with his own healing from shame to science.Breathwork as agency: Dr. Rusk teaches coherence breathing—the simplest way to reclaim choice over your nervous system.The real you underneath: Healing as subtraction, not addition. Removing the programming to reveal what was always there.Who This Episode Is ForMen who've done "all the work" but still feel like something's off underneathAnyone who struggles with stillness, sleep, or an inability to just bePeople who've used substances, distraction, or achievement to regulate their nervous system Leaders and entrepreneurs who've built from fear and want to build from purpose insteadAnyone ready to stop seeing their struggles as character flaws and start seeing them as fixable wiring

This conversation is a lived exploration of how trauma shapes the nervous system and how healing actually happens over time. Steve sits down with nervous system coach and breathwork facilitator Kristin Weitzel for an unfiltered conversation about vulnerability, survival, addiction, grief and what it really takes to change your life.

They met at the Heartland Gathering and connected instantly through honesty and openness. That moment of shared vulnerability became the foundation for a conversation that moves far beyond theory.

This episode explores nervous system regulation, orienting, neurofeedback, breathwork, cold exposure, men’s work, psychedelic medicine and integration. But beneath all of it is a simple and powerful truth. Nothing about you is broken. Your nervous system learns to survive and it can learn something new.

What You Will Learn & Key Takeaways:

• Vulnerability shifts rooms and acts as a filter for safe connection

• Trauma responses are adaptations, not personal failures

• The goal is not constant calm, but the ability to come back down

• Orienting is a simple, discreet tool to signal safety anywhere

• Shame often lives in the nervous system, not the mind

• Addiction is a survival strategy rooted in dysregulation

• Somatic practices can reach places talk therapy alone cannot

• Cold exposure and breathwork build real life resilience

• Neurofeedback offers visible data that helps remove shame

• Psychedelic medicine opens a door, but integration is where change happens

• Forgiveness can free the body even when harm was real

• Generational trauma can end with you

• Nothing about you is broken. Your system adapted to protect you

Leadership Soundbites & Pull Quotes:

“Vulnerability shifts rooms and shows you who is safe.”

“The goal is not calm. The goal is regulation and the ability to come back.”

“I lived my life like the world was dangerous. Then I realized everything that happened was for me.”

“I had an addict’s body long after I stopped using substances.”

“Forgiveness was easier for my abuser than for my father.”

“Nothing about us is broken. Our nervous systems learned to survive.”

Conversation Highlights & Chapters and Beats:

• How instant vulnerability created trust at the Heartland Gathering

• Why leading with honesty filters safe community

• The abandoned interview at Psychedelic Science and nervous system triggers

• Disappointment, heartbreak, and abandonment as somatic experiences

• The psychedelic moment that changed Steve’s life at a concert

• Childhood trauma, sexual abuse, violence, and nervous system wiring

• Addiction and success as parallel survival strategies

• Neurofeedback and seeing trauma on a brain scan

• Shame, airports, and everyday dysregulation

• Orienting as a powerful regulation tool

• Cold exposure and breathwork as resilience training

• Parasympathetic rebound and emotional regulation

• Men’s work, being seen, and breaking generational cycles

• Forgiveness, grief, and reclaiming life force

• Identity, worth, and unlearning the belief of being broken

• Advice to younger selves and reclaiming curiosity and wonder

Who This Episode Is For:

• Anyone who feels like they have done the work but still feel dysregulated

• People who struggle with shame, triggers, or emotional overwhelm

• Those navigating addiction recovery or an addict’s body

• Individuals curious about nervous system healing beyond talk therapy

• Men learning how to be seen and vulnerable

• Anyone ready to stop seeing themselves as broken