Author name: Michael Stenhagen

  THE OUTSIDE-IN TRAP If you need validation, you are living outside-in. You open a dating app to see if a cute woman will like you. You ask AI how well you are doing. You compare yourself to other men. You fill every silent moment with noise. All of it is the same thing — […]

What does it actually mean to take care of yourself? Most people think self-care is a list of things they should do. Meditation. Gym. Cold plunge. Eat clean. Sleep eight hours. I used to think that too. Now I teach something different. Fun first. Always. Not the logical thing. Not the productive thing. The thing

The Inner Child Nobody Talks About When Distance Feels Like Safety In the summer of 2023, I didn’t call my mother. My dad had died three years earlier. She just wanted to know I was safe when I travelled. I took it as intrusive. Karen Davis — my coach — saw it clearly before I

The Man Who Isn’t Waiting This morning I pulled up on my scooter and a girl parked next to me. She said hi, big smile — how are you doing? I said great, how are you? I heard her accent. Irish. We had one of those instant connections. She asked for my Instagram before I

The Alpha Male Myth (And What Sovereignty Actually Looks Like) Most men who perform alpha are running on empty. The loud guy in the room. The one who dominates conversations, projects aggression, needs everyone to know he’s in charge. Watch him closely and you’ll see it — he’s working hard. Every move calculated for effect.

What If The Party Was Already Inside You? I don’t drink. I’m in Canggu, Bali — one of the most social places on earth. And I have more fun at a party than most people who are three drinks in. That’s not a flex. It’s a question worth sitting with. Here’s what I’ve noticed. Most

The Man Who Needs Nothing From You By Michael Stenhagen — The Freedom Architect There’s a version of me that had it together one to one. I came from sales. Reading people, finding my footing fast, knowing what to say — that was never the problem. In a room with one person, or twenty at

Life after the Hoffman Process so far I decided to do the Hoffman Process because I believed it would help me resolve deep, unresolved issues in my life, even if I couldn’t fully identify them. My coach, Karen Davis, had found it transformative for her own relationships, particularly with her father, and while she never

Sharing my insights and struggles along the way as a coach is key to building a thriving, sustainable coaching practice. I haven’t written in a while, and I want to write posts more consistently and share my challenges and wins along the way. Doing this work as a life and business coach for almost 12

How to find clients When I travel and meet people, I often get asked how I find clients and what a business and life coach is. The truth is I connect with people, even travellers. I listen to the challenges they have, and sometimes I offer them a complimentary coaching session. I want my offering

It is not always easy to open up as a man. We tend to hold things inside of us and not be transparent with what’s going on. In my men’s immersion, I focus on opening up the men and teaching them meditation as well as opening heart exercises. I get a lot of inspiration from

  Become a diamond inside I help men become diamonds inside my men’s immersions. My coach taught me to focus on the inside of myself more than my appearance. We were born with this look, and we can’t do much about it except exercise, eat healthy, sleep, and have some great styling and good relationships,