Emotional Fitness Gym

Emotional Fitness Gym The EFG Podcast explores the inner world shaping how we love, lead, and live and how we can make emotional fitness a trainable skill.

We turn awareness into responsibility, insight into regulation, and measure growth by integrity over performance. We empower entrepreneurs & business owners with clarity, confidence & purpose to navigate uncertainty in life & business

29/09/2026

🏋️ TRY A “KETTLE DRILL”

Nicholas Blewett has a simple name for short Qigong practices you can use throughout the day:

Kettle drills.

Exercises that take roughly the time it takes to boil the kettle.

Five minutes.

Hands on your ribs.

Breathe.

Bring your attention back into your body.

Notice the contraction.

Notice the release.

Then reset.

Nicholas suggests using them when you feel:

• Scattered
• Emotional
• Confused
• Erratic
• Distracted
• Or like you’ve simply lost your centre

Think of it like clearing the tabs in your browser.

Not solving your entire life.

Just creating enough space to come back into yourself before you continue.

Pause.
Breathe.
Reset.
Go again.

🎙️ Watch the full Episode 16 conversation with Nicholas Blewett | Qi Practice on the Emotional Fitness Gym Podcast.

27/09/2026

🏋️ YOU DON’T ALWAYS HAVE TO THINK YOUR WAY OUT OF A STATE

Some days our thoughts aren’t great.

Some days our emotions aren’t either.

Nicholas Blewett’s point in this clip is simple:

Sometimes the place to begin is with the body.

Through Qigong breathing, Nicholas encourages people to stop forcing the breath and instead pay attention to the natural movement of the ribs and diaphragm.

Exhale.

Allow the body to contract.

Release.

Let the body soften open again.

Then notice the movement.

Frame by frame.

That attention itself becomes part of the practice.

Because emotional fitness isn’t always about changing what you think.

Sometimes it is about developing enough awareness to notice what is happening physically before reaction takes over.

Slow down.
Feel the movement.
Return to centre.

🎙️ Watch the full conversation with Nicholas Blewett | Qi Practice on the Emotional Fitness Gym Podcast.

25/09/2026

🏋️ CAN YOU LET THE BREATH COME BACK ON ITS OWN?

In this practical moment from Episode 16, Nicholas Blewett guides Brent and Valerie through Qigong rib breathing.

The practice is simple:

Gently allow the ribs to contract as you breathe out.

Release the effort.

Then notice the inhale return.

No big breath.

No forcing.

No trying to get it perfect.

Just paying attention to what the body is doing.

Nicholas uses practices like this to help people bring awareness back into the body and notice how breath, tension and internal state interact.

And there is an important emotional fitness principle inside it:

Before you can change your state, you first have to notice it.

Slow down.

Feel.

Observe.

Then choose what happens next.

🎙️ Watch the full conversation with Nicholas Blewett | Qi Practice on the Emotional Fitness Gym Podcast.

Keep the breathing comfortable. If you feel dizzy, strained or unwell, stop and return to normal breathing.

23/09/2026

🏋️ EMOTIONAL FITNESS LIVES IN THE BODY TOO

Our posture, breath, movement and attention all influence how we experience pressure.

When we are tense, rushed or reactive, the body often knows before we have found the words.

Internal practices like Qigong give us another place to train.

Not to eliminate emotion.

But to soften unnecessary tension, return to centre and create more capacity to respond consciously.

Grounded instead of scattered.
Centred instead of reactive.
Responsive instead of pushed around by pressure.

That is emotional fitness in motion.

🎙️ Watch the full Episode 16 conversation with Nicholas Blewett | Qi Practice on the Emotional Fitness Gym Podcast.

20/09/2026

🏋️ WHAT COULD 15–20 MINUTES A DAY CHANGE?

Nicholas Blewett believes something as foundational as Qigong natural breathing can become a powerful daily practice.

The breath happens automatically.

But learning to bring awareness to the diaphragm, the ribs and the movement of the body creates something different:

A moment to slow down.

A moment to reconnect.

A moment to notice your state before automatically reacting from it.

That’s why Nicholas talks about a Qigong revolution — making simple practices like these accessible to more people.

Because emotional fitness isn’t always built through a huge breakthrough.

Sometimes it’s built through small, repeated reps.

Your breath.
Your body.
Your attention.
Every day.

🎙️ Watch the full Episode 16 conversation with Nicholas Blewett | Qi Practice on the Emotional Fitness Gym Podcast.

18/09/2026

🎙️ NEW EPISODE | COME BACK TO CENTRE

What if emotional regulation isn’t only something that happens in the mind?

What if the body is part of the training?

This week, Brent Lindsay and Valerie Andrews are joined by Nicholas Blewett, Founder and Master Instructor of Qi Practice, for a fascinating conversation about Qigong, breath, internal movement, nervous-system flexibility and learning how to return to centre.

Nicholas has spent more than three decades practising Qigong, Taijiquan and the internal martial arts, alongside more than 23 years working in Chinese Medicine and Acupuncture.

But this episode isn’t simply about Qigong.

It’s about something central to emotional fitness:

Can you notice what is happening inside you early enough to choose what happens next?

We explore:

☯️ Why slowing down can be harder than speeding up
☯️ Qigong as emotional fitness in motion
☯️ Breath, posture and embodied awareness
☯️ Moving between intensity and stillness
☯️ Nervous-system flexibility
☯️ Holding your centre under pressure
☯️ Developing greater internal capacity
☯️ Why Qigong isn’t always slow
☯️ Stillness, movement and learning to be with yourself

🏋️ THIS WEEK’S GYM REP — RIB BREATHING

Place your hands gently around your lower ribs.

Allow the ribs to comfortably contract as you breathe out.

Release the effort and allow the inhale to arrive.

Then simply notice the movement.

A few minutes can become an interruption to the rush of the day.

A chance to come back into the body.

Breathe.
Feel.
Organise.
Return to centre.

🎧 Episode 16 is available now.

▶️ YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/

🎧 Spotify
https://open.spotify.com/show/4nMyD07H0vwLFyyNKS4cdN

🍎 Apple Podcasts
https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/emotional-fitness-gym-podcast/id1892607601

☯️ Connect with Nicholas / Qi Practice
https://qipractice.com/

If someone in your world spends a lot of time pushing, performing or running at full speed, share this conversation with them.

11/09/2026

Arran Macdougall speaks about the practical impact of emotional mastery in relationships.

When a man starts doing the emotional work, the change does not stay inside him.

It affects how he communicates.
How he repairs.
How he handles conflict.
How he reconnects with his partner.
How his children experience him.
How the whole home responds.

One of the most powerful things Arran shares is the feedback men often receive:

“My wife and kids are reacting completely differently to me now.”

That is emotional fitness in action.

Not because everyone else changed first.

Because one person started showing up differently.

More regulated.
More aware.
More emotionally available.
More willing to do the work.

🎙️Episode 15 of the Emotional Fitness Gym podcast with Arran Macdougall out now.

▶️ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/
🎧 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4nMyD07H0vwLFyyNKS4cdN
🍎 Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/emotional-fitness-gym-podcast/id1892607601

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07/09/2026

Arran Macdougall speaks to an important evolution in how men understand their role.

Providing is important.

Protecting is important.

But in modern relationships and families, there is a third part that matters deeply:

Presence.

Arran names this as the emotional mastery piece.

The ability to be grounded.
The ability to regulate yourself.
The ability to stay emotionally available.
The ability to be with your partner and children without checking out, shutting down or reacting from old conditioning.

This is not about removing the provider or protector role.

It is about expanding it.

Because a family does not only need what a man can do.

They also need who he is able to be.

That is emotional fitness in fatherhood, partnership and modern masculinity.

🎙️ Episode 15 of the Emotional Fitness Gym podcast with Arran Macdougall out now.

▶️ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/
🎧 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4nMyD07H0vwLFyyNKS4cdN
🍎 Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/emotional-fitness-gym-podcast/id1892607601

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06/09/2026

This Father’s Day, we are sharing a clip that speaks to one of the most meaningful parts of fatherhood.

Being a calm, safe place for our children.

The Dad Coach Arran Macdougall talks about the moment a child feels anxious.

The old response often comes from love:

“You’ll be okay.”
“You’ll be fine.”
“It’ll be great when you get there.”

But sometimes our children need something before reassurance.

They need validation.

They need to know the feeling is allowed.

They need us to hold space, ask what is happening, offer connection, and help them regulate through our own steadiness.

This is co-regulation.

It is one of the quiet gifts fathers can give their children.

A father does not need to have every answer.

But when he can slow down, breathe, listen, and stay emotionally present, he teaches his child something powerful:

Your feelings are safe here.

You are not too much.

You can move through this.

That is emotional fitness in fatherhood.

🎙️ Full episode with Arran Macdougall out now:

▶️ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/
🎧 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4nMyD07H0vwLFyyNKS4cdN
🍎 Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/emotional-fitness-gym-podcast/id1892607601

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05/09/2026

Arran Macdougall speaks directly to one of the biggest misunderstandings around men and emotion.

Many men have been taught that showing emotion is weakness.

But emotional expression and emotional reactivity are not the same thing.

The goal is not to be controlled by emotion.

The goal is to train the capacity to feel, express, regulate and respond with more awareness.

Arran compares it to physical strength.

If you want to lift heavier weight, you have to train with weight.

You do not get stronger by avoiding it.

Emotional fitness works the same way.

If we want to become emotionally stronger, we need to do the reps.

Not just when life is easy.

When it matters.

In marriage.
In fatherhood.
In friendship.
In leadership.
In pressure.

This is not weakness.

It is what makes a man more capable.

🎙️ Full episode with Arran Macdougall out now.

▶️ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/
🎧 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4nMyD07H0vwLFyyNKS4cdN
🍎 Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/emotional-fitness-gym-podcast/id1892607601

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