Insight: What Is Interoception? The Hidden Sense That Helps You Navigate Stress and Build Calm
What is interoception — and why is it one of the most important skills for emotional regulation and resilience?Interoception is your body’s hidden sense: the ability to feel your heartbeat, breath, gut, tension, and internal shifts. It’s the quiet language of your inner world, and most of us have forgotten how to hear it.In this Learnfulness episode, Brad Hook explores the neuroscience of interoception and shows how strengthening this inner sense helps you navigate stress with greater clarity and calm. Interoception doesn’t remove stress — it helps you notice it earlier, regulate it more effectively, and respond with awareness instead of overwhelm.You’ll learn: • What interoception is and how it works • How the insula cortex links body signals to emotional awareness • Why stress disrupts inner listening • How interoceptive awareness improves self-regulation • Practical ways to train this sense through breathing, movement, and mindful attentionWhen you reconnect to your internal signals, you gain a clearer, more grounded experience of yourself — one that supports focus, well-being, and emotional intelligence in everyday life.⸻Connect with Brad HookInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/bradhook/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bradleyhook/Meet Brad: https://bradleyhook.com/Discover Your Core Values (Free Assessment)https://app.values.institute/
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Insecurity Isn’t a Feeling, It’s an Opinion You Can Change — Jaemin Frazer
I’d love you to check out the free Values Assessment (https://app.values.institute/). Find me on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/bradhook.In This Episode — Meet Jaemin Frazer 🔥Jaemin Frazer is an award-winning life coach, author, and founder of The Insecurity Project. Recognized as one of Australia’s leading personal development coaches and a global authority on personal insecurity, Jaemin brings an engineering mindset to human change—treating insecurity like a solvable systems problem. His work helps entrepreneurs, leaders, and creators eradicate insecurity so they can show up unhindered by doubt, fear, and self-limiting beliefs.Big Ideas🔎 Insecurity defined: not fear of failure or rejection per se—but fear that your worst opinion of yourself might be confirmed.🧠 Name it to tame it: “Named must your fear be…”—precision collapses vague monsters into solvable problems.🧒 Childhood origins: early, often tiny moments lead us to implicate ourselves and form limiting opinions before age seven.🧩 Opinion vs. reality: it’s not others’ words that wound—it’s the ones we agree with. Agreement is the mechanism.🚀 Rocket fuel (then drag): insecurity can drive elite performance in our 20s/30s, but becomes corrosive in midlife.🧭 The hero’s journey: courageously revisit the “first accusation,” review the data, and rewrite the verdict.🗝️ The moment of freedom: change happens in a moment when you see the old opinion was unfounded—and choose a new one.🛠️ Seven practices: a pragmatic path from managing insecurity to eradicating it (Jaemin’s Unhindered model).🧍♂️➡️🧑🤝🧑 Leadership upgrade: leading with nothing to prove increases clarity, boundaries, and trust.💞 Relationships: two insecure people exhaust each other; the best love flows from self-acceptance.🙅 People-pleasing decoded: a protection strategy to seem “good” when you doubt your own goodness.📻 The One Minute Coach: 365 concise, embodied ideas—short content with real-world integrity.🌐 Tech & comparison: insecurity is universal; platforms accelerate the feedback loop, but didn’t invent the fear.🏁 Finish well: unresolved insecurity in later life becomes a descent into madness; resolve it to return “home.”Connect with Jaemin FrazerWebsite: https://jaeminfrazer.com
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“I Ran 250km Across the Sahara Desert” — The Ultra Mindset with Jonathan Fors
At just 25, Jonathan Fors has already achieved what most consider impossible. From finishing 41st out of 1200 runners in the 2025 Marathon des Sables — a 250 km odyssey through the Moroccan Sahara Desert — to running 100-mile mountain races and living as a digital nomad since 19, Jonathan embodies the art of intentional discomfort.In this conversation, Jonathan shares how pushing his limits in the desert reshaped his understanding of resilience, discipline, and peace. We explore the mental frameworks that separate elite endurance athletes from the rest — and how anyone can apply the ultra mindset to everyday life. Whether it’s getting out the door for a run, facing burnout, or finding clarity in a chaotic world, Jonathan’s message is raw, practical, and deeply human.He also opens up about the mental health challenges facing young adults, and why modern comfort may be quietly eroding our capacity for fulfillment. His story is a reminder that the path to strength begins where comfort ends.🔥 The Marathon des Sables is more than a race — it’s a transformative journey through mind and body.💪 Mental resilience matters more than physical endurance.🌵 Discomfort is the gateway to growth and meaning.🤝 Community and connection amplify strength during hardship.🌿 Nature restores presence, humility, and peace.🏃♂️ Everyone starts somewhere — the first step is everything.🧘 Mindfulness and movement are essential for mental health.⚡ Redefining your breaking point reveals your true potential.✨ Connect with Jonathan ForsInstagram → https://www.instagram.com/jonathans.pov/
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Why You Can’t Sleep (and How to Fix It Without Pills) — Beatrix A. Schmidt
Sleep coach, speaker, and author Beatrix A. Schmidt joins me (https://www.instagram.com/bradhook) to reframe sleep as a trainable life skill. Drawing from fifteen years of coaching and her new book Sleep Skills for Life (2025), Beatrix explains why “tips and hacks” rarely solve persistent sleep problems—and how self-awareness, gentle intention, and practical evening design help high achievers move from “broken sleeper” to confident, consistent rest. We talk personality traits and why they matter at night, how to detach physically, emotionally, and mentally before bed, and what to do about those 3 a.m. wakeups. This is an empowering, compassionate guide to sleeping deeply without relying on shortcuts.Big Ideas🌙 Sleep is not luck—it’s a set of learnable “Sleep Skills” shaped by physical, emotional, and mental readiness.🧠 High performers value action and output by day; sleep requires non-action—mastering recovery without control.🧩 Online advice is too generic; start with self-awareness to map your unique sleep puzzle (what helps vs. hinders).🛠️ Build skills you can repeat at midnight: prepare before bed so relaxation is high when your head hits the pillow.🧭 Treat evenings as a transition: completely detach from the day so your body knows it’s no longer “daytime mode.”📵 Tech isn’t the enemy—unexamined behavior is; decide whether your phone is support, stimulation, or delay.🧘 Learn “doing nothing” in short daytime moments to normalize quiet; it reduces mental activation at night.⏱️ If you wake at 3 a.m., notice what’s activated (body fidgety = physical, looping thoughts = mental, strong feelings = emotional) and address that layer.🎯 Set a kind intention: nights are for rest and relaxation, not perfect scores—pressure undermines sleep.🧳 Resets (holidays) help some, but not all; work with the environment where problems actually occur.🥼 Consider an assessment to rule out medical issues and tailor behavioral solutions.📚 Future-proof sleep: consistent skills beat short-term aids (supplements, alcohol, or pills) and build long-term confidence.Connect with Beatrix A. SchmidtWebsite: https://www.beatrixaschmidt.comFree Chapter of Sleep Skills for Life: https://www.beatrixaschmidt.com/chapter-one
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Why Is Everybody So Angry? The Science of Outrage and the Search for Meaning
Why does the world feel so angry? From sleepless nights and outrage algorithms to polarization and the longing for struggle, this episode unpacks the roots of modern anger—and explores how we can transform it into connection, service, and purpose.Connect with me on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bradhook
Discover the Brad Hook Show: a place for the curious. Each episode offers deep dives with diverse guests—from academics demystifying theories to athletes discussing grit, authors revealing their thought processes, or storytellers enchanting with tales. It's a fusion of backgrounds and ideas, aiming to provide listeners with a kaleidoscope of inspiration, knowledge, and passion.
Brad is the author of Start With Values (Penguin), founder of the Values Institute, and founder of Surfd.com, an action sports magazine. He is head of the Resilience Lab at Resilience Institute.
New Zealand