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bubbanicholson

@bubbanicholson

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An almost half decent human being
🌿 Partner-Contingency Consulting
🔧 Creator-Back Pocket Protocol™
📖 Author-Blue Collar Breathwork
✨ 5+ yrs sober

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This is 50.

If I’m being honest, I lived until my mid-40s believing I’d never see this day. In the back of my mind, my life was always going to end with a “50-cent solution.”

It wasn’t a constant, looming urge to end it. It was just a quiet, weird confidence in knowing, since I was a kid, that if things ever got too tough or the money completely ran out, I’d just take off into the bush and disappear.

#Sobriety changed my relationship with mortality. A few months in, a massive clarity hit me: I actually want to live. I want to feel all the feelings, stand in the uncomfortability, and figure out how to keep this machine running forever.

I began waking up and filling my heart with all that I have, leaving no room for the ‘Have Nots’ to sneak in and cripple me.

I started making small changes…When I got comfortable…I challenged myself to move from that place:
The Walks: Used to fill the exact time blocks where I used to drink. It dropped the weight, kept me mobile, and let me sit in my thoughts.
The Workouts: The boys @thegrindhousech got me back into the gym lifting. The data shows you have to be strong going into your 50s for a healthy, mobile life as you age.
The Community: Transitioning into @hyroxca with my @epcburlington family to push the boundaries that kept me back for so long.
I began waking up and filling my heart with all that I have, leaving no room for the ‘Have Nots’ and ‘Poor Me’s’ to sneak in and cripple me.

49 has been an exercise in therapy, forcing myself to live in uncomfortability. I took a deeper control of my nervous system, honed my practice, created my BackPocket Breathwork™, and Wrote a Book...
Blue Collar Breathwork, which drops this fall.

I woke up this morning and wanted to see what 50 looks like. I took a picture, challenging myself to sit in an uncomfortable minute of self recognition of this accomplishment..to be proud of myself…

To keep in the loop with my book release, taking back your nervous system, any of my breathwork or other ‘woo woo’ Bull$h!t… hit follow @bluecollarbreathwork by @bubbanicholson

MINDIN’ MY BUSINESS
I don’t often talk about my sobriety here, but today, I woke up to an outpouring of love from some of my dearest friends. Not one message mentioned my #Soberversary, just kindness & love flowing at me on a random Saturday.
It wasn’t until I asked a friend if they were okay…that they essentially said, “F*ck off, dude, I’m just trying to celebrate your accomplishments without making you uncomfortable.”
At that moment, a few powerful things hit me:

1. It’s Now Just Life
I hadn’t even remembered that today marked five years. It made me realize that sobriety is no longer a mission; it’s just a part of my life—like breathing or sleeping. I still wake up acknowledging it every day and counting my blessings, but it now runs seamlessly in the background.

2. The Power of Unpacking
As stagnant as progress has felt this year at times, I’m still moving forward. I finally took a crucial step with therapy to deal with my past that contributed to my active addiction. What I hod from for decades is now something I look forward to weekly. It’s allowing me to unpack and organize boxes that have been on the floor of my mind for many years—and it feels amazing having a spot for them.

3. Nothing is impossible with Community
The power of community shone through in spades this year, especially after so many years of being and feeling alone. Looking back at white-knuckling my sobriety on the road, I wish I had known the strength found in connection.
I’m surrounded by love every day thanks to the communities who have welcomed me with open arms.
chrishowe thank you for (@twelvemilerecovery @refugerecovery)
@acorry2268 & @fit_mel_e you’ve made such an impact on so many of us with #HYROX and our team @epcburlington
I also couldn’t be more blessed for the beautiful #recovery community we’ve fostered at @trinitysauna.

My Ask For You?
If you are struggling today, please know that the freedom I’ve found came not from strength but from vulnerability and asking for help. If you need someone, reach out. I wouldn’t be looking at Year 6 if I wasn’t standing on the shoulders of giants.
@tristanamor @benny_shields #jackdonnelly 🙏

Cheers to being addicted to living. ❤️ by @bubbanicholson

It wasn’t the race or the finish line…It was the love, passion and community that surrounded it.

I spent months focused on training for HYROX Toronto: looking for some sort of a grand sense of accomplishment, a confidence boost for my professional life and self while approaching my nearly 5-year #sobrietymilestone

While all of those things rang true….they were completely eclipsed by something else: the raw, undeniable power of community.

I essentially cried all weekend watching it unfold. 😭

I saw partners grinding through pain, only to instantly set it aside to meet their teammate’s need. I watched judges and volunteers become coaches, walking alongside strangers, helping them unlock the final drive they didn’t know they still had inside. The @hyroxca community isn’t a competition—it’s a furious, collective heartbeat of empathy and sacrifice.

I never would have dreamt of seeing it all unfold if it wasn’t for my @epcburlington community and team mates…I’m overflowing by with gratitude towards my amazing coaches @fit_mel_e & @acorry2268 who have built something soooo beautiful over this past year and I’m truly blessed to be a part of it.

Without my running coaches @katwoodrun and @saramac37 @eliteperformancerunners I wouldn’t have made it out of the gate. The care and effort they put in their programming for each individual is unheard of.

Shout out to @totalhealthlink for bringing me back to life after an injury just two weeks out!

The lesson? Success is built on genuine support and shared struggle. Always.

Thank you to everyone who made last weekend electric. 🖤

#HYROX #HYROXToronto #CommunityOverCompetition #FitnessMotivation #GritAndGrace #SupportSystem #SoberLife #Physio #TrainingPartners #FindYourTribe by @bubbanicholson

I saw a video of some guy getting a facial on my feed the other day. He looked masculine as shit, and he looked entirely too blissful to ignore.

It got me thinking: why the hell don’t more guys do this…why don’t i do this?

I mean I change the oil and detail my bike and trucks as preventative maintenance all the time and don’t think twice about it. When did I decide that “masculine” meant ignoring maintenance until the engine completely blows?

I guess…when I think about it, taking care of your health, your body, and your skin without giving a S*!t what other people think or say about it is maybe about as masculine as it gets.

Enter my friend @ginie.jade . She literally does this for a living and has for over 20yrs. After a questionable text thread exhausting every bad joke humanly possible just to ask a friend for a facial, I got booked in.

Steamy steamy, scrubby scrubby, washy washy, some mysterious oils, a questionable mask (she assured me it wasn’t animal sperm), and a neck massage that genuinely rearranged my week.

Came out glowing…even the homies @peach_coffee_co noticed.

For all my guys out there: routine maintenance isn’t just lifting heavy, freezing your D off in ice tubs, and eating clean. Sometimes that engine just needs a proper detail and polish. #masculinity #skincareroutine #selflove by @bubbanicholson

If asking for help makes you feel like you're bothering people, you need to hear this conversation.
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In this live coaching session, we sat down with strategic consultant and breathwork coach Bubba Nicholson, who's coached more than 2,000 people through his own methodology. He came in with one topic: why it's so hard for him to ask for help.
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What we found underneath was a belief, decades old, that he's an inconvenience. We named the voice behind that belief Charles. And once Bubba could see Charles clearly, something shifted. He wasn't fighting himself anymore. He was in conversation with a part of himself that had been trying to protect him the whole time.
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In this episode, you'll learn:
--How to identify your own saboteur and understand what it's actually trying to protect
--Why the inability to ask for help is often rooted in fear of being a burden, not pride
--A practical reframe for catching self-sabotaging thoughts in real time
--How generational patterns show up in the way we relate to support and community
--Why naming your inner critic is the first step to working with it instead of being run by it
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This is what right relationship with your own inner critic looks like and not silencing it. Understanding what it's guarding, and choosing, consciously, when to let it drive.
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If you lead people, build things, or carry more responsibility than support, we encourage you to listen with this question in mind: what's your version of Charles been protecting you from?
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Catch the latest episode now through the Linktree in our bio. by @bubbanicholson

Why Is It So Hard to Ask for Help?
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On Wednesday’s episode of The UpLevel Podcast, entrepreneur and breathwork coach Ben ‘Bubba’ Nicholson sits down for a live coaching session on something most high-achieving people carry silently: the inability to ask for help.
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Bubba built the Black Pocket Breathwork Protocol, and he's coached more than 2,000 people. But he still couldn't bring himself to ask his own friends for support on the project that means the most to him.
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Listen in as we gave the voice behind that pattern a name: Charles. A generational middle name that's been with Bubba for almost 50 years.
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Charles doesn't come from arrogance, but he comes from protection. "You haven't talked to them in months." "They're too busy." "You're an inconvenience." All in service of keeping Bubba safe from getting hurt.
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This episode walks through how to name your own Charles, understand what he's protecting you from, and build a new way to interact with him so he stops driving. Be sure to subscribe so you remember this episode is dropping on Wednesday. Let’s uplevel now!
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Comment “podcast,” and we’ll send the link for you to bookmark.
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#UpLevelPodcast #CoachingCulture #Resilience #RightRelationships by @bubbanicholson

Turning 50 for me isn’t only about celebrating how good the engine feels. It means taking responsibility for the parts you can’t see.

Colorectal cancer is one of the most preventable, treatable cancers out there…if you catch it early.

The guidelines dropped regular screening to age 45 for a reason: by the time you actually notice symptoms…the problem is already miles down the road.

Even w my years of working @movember.usa and spending every day driving a narrative for men to get checked… I’m still 5yrs behind on this one.

We spend thousands of hours and dollars on gym memberships, cold plunges, clean nutrition, and peptide protocols…But preventative maintenance isn’t just doing the stuff that looks good on our Instagram reels.

Routine maintenance means changing the oil before the engine starts to struggle.

The prep is annoying, the drink tastes like regret…and nobody wants to spend a Monday morning face down a$$ up getting scoped.

But a 30-minute procedure every 5 to 10 years completely changes the odds for your future.

Don’t wait for a warning light on the dashboard. If you’re 45 or older or you have a family history…talk to your doctor, schedule the appointment, and get yourself checked out.

Do it for yourself, or do it for the people who count on you every day… but just do it.

Find out more at any one of these accounts
@coloncanada
@colorectalcanceralliance by @bubbanicholson

I ate a lot of chicken hearts as a kid.

Back then…to me…they were extravagant! They were exquisite. It felt like I was eating escargot or oysters Rockefeller. Nobody else at school was eating chicken hearts.

It wasn’t until I got older and walked into a grocery store on my own that the truth hit me: chicken hearts were just the cheapest protein money could buy.

My mom never let me feel that.

She took what little we had in hard times and made it feel like a cause for celebration every single night. I really do love her for that.

Whenever I need to get grounded, run a quick audit on where I’m at, or just take a breath and appreciate the road behind me…I go right back to these chicken hearts.

It’s my way of checking in with that kid and letting him know: “We’re doing alright, buddy. We’re sitting over here eating extravagant meals, having the time of our lives.”

We did okay.

Did you have a humble meal that felt like a feast growing up? Share it below! 👇

#gratitude #perspective by @bubbanicholson

The back-to-school anxiety is real… no matter how old I get or how far away from school I am. There’s something about September that is just fucking hard.

This summer, I got a little off track 🤡 and yesterday, the idea of staying in the cold plunge seemed impossible.

I showed up @sanasana.ca because I wanted to prove to myself I could get back on the horse 🏇 but i mostly showed up because my friend @bubbanicholson inspires me….and I kind of want him to think im as strong as he is 🤓 competition is my love language 🤡

Doing the difficult thing isn’t about proving how tough you are (well, it kind of is 🤪). It’s about building the capacity for when things get uncomfortable. To prepare the nervous system for the harder work of life. To breathe when every part of you wants tighten up and freeze.

Bubba brought me back to my breath yesterday. That’s where I need to start again. Let’s rename September “Back to Breathe” instead of back to school 🦋

@bluecollarbreathwork for life 🙌

#bluecollarbreathwork #coldplunge #coldtherapy #sauna #breathe by @bubbanicholson

Life doesn’t give you timeouts. You have to create them.

For almost 5 years, my reality was living out of a suitcase… 300+ nights a year on the road, running on empty between flights, towns, hotel rooms, and meetings.

When you spend your life red-lining, the world will gladly sit back and let you keep running until the wheels fall off.

You can’t “think” your way out of that level of physical , mental and emotional depletion. When the nervous system is overwhelmed… all logic goes out the window. You need a physical reset.

And That’s why you need to force a pause.

I was so blessed to find @hideoutsaunaclub down here in Connecticut for just those occasions. What a space… what a team.

Stepping into a container where my phone, my inbox, and all the external demands can’t touch me…even if only for 15min at a time… is all I need to supercharge my battery. (I toats see the irony in the fact I had my phone in the Sauna).

For me…Taking 20 minutes to let the heat and cold strip away the noise isn’t a luxury….It’s just routine maintenance on the machine. A quick oil change to make sure I can keep the engine running for another 3,000 miles.

Create the space, find the time, flip the glass, and refill the oil before you step back onto the road.

Tell me your favorite way to reset below 👇
#coldplunge #contrasttherapy #nervoussystemregulation by @bubbanicholson

WOMEN SHOULDN’T COLD PLUNGE!!!

I seem to hear that all day… in the studio, on the street and online in my feed and DMs.

Context matters when reading physiological data.

An acute spike in cortisol is not an inherent flaw…it is a standard survival reflex to an extreme environment.

Let’s be clear about what is says on the biology:
Yes, stepping into cold water causes an acute, temporary rise in stress hormones.

Do you know what else spikes your cortisol?
* A heavy set of deadlifts.
* A tense meeting in a boardroom.
* Dodging a distracted driver while crossing the street.

The human body is built to handle acute stressors

I would argue if you are carrying physical soreness, mental brain fog, or stress from a brutal week, the trade-off of a short-term hormonal response for sustained dopamine, vascular flush, and mental clarity might just be a net win.

Resilience isn’t about avoiding stress. It’s about having the tools to regulate it.

Follow @bluecollarbreathwork to learn how to use those tools…you’ve got em…we were all born with them.
#bluecollarbreathwork #coldplunge #hormesis #realtalk by @bubbanicholson

Today was a heavy morning…

An endless wall of calls…tough conversations…and racing against deadlines

Then came the hardest part of the day:
Telling the sweet man at my favorite little French Café @saisonssucrees that I couldn’t eat the fresh cookie he put on top of my coffee…even though I ate one yesterday.

If I’m being honest, the wheels have been a bit loose this past week. The diet slipped, the food noise crept in, and old habits started knocking.

Historically , I would’ve told myself, “Well, this week is already a write off, I’ll start fresh next Monday.”

That’s a trap…. And I fall for it still…too often… “Tomorrow” is an excuse to keep drifting…it never comes.

Real change doesn’t happen in a massive life overhaul…it happens in the millisecond.

When stress spikes at work, you have a split-second to choose:
Get pissed, stressed and spiral, or stay calm and handle the problem.

When that cookie lands on your cup, you have a split-second to choose:
Feed the comfort habit…or hold the line for your health.

You don’t need a new week to turn the truck around. You just need to win that very next millisecond.

You feel me?

Comment below 👇 And tell me the next millisecond you need to own… #habits #discipline #recovery by @bubbanicholson