This episode is shaped by my own experience — losing my mum —

an unexpected loss that shook everything I thought I understood about strength, control, and coping.

But this conversation isn’t just about my story.

You know something I’ve learned about grief? It doesn’t end, It changes shape. Nobody really prepares you for that part.

If you’re carrying pain you don’t have words for — you’re not weak.

You’re human.

This episode isn’t about facts or figures.

It’s not about diagnoses.

It’s not about telling you how you should feel.

Today we’re talking about emotional openness — not as a trend,

not as therapy language,

but as a mental health necessity for men.

If you don’t know what you feel — you can’t name the problem. Certainly for myself after my mother passed away unexpectedly I didn’t have words and I didn’t understand the feelings and emotions that I was feeling.

We weren’t born emotionally closed—someone taught us to be.

In this episode, we unpack where men learned to suppress their feelings, how emotional shutdown became “strength,” and why that lesson is costing us more than we realize.

In Who Taught Us to Bottle It Up?, Mind Before Muscle takes a hard, honest look at the origins of male emotional suppression. From childhood phrases like “boys don’t cry” to cultural expectations around toughness, productivity, and silence, this episode explores how men’s mental health has been shaped—often unintentionally—by family, school, sport, work, and society at large.

We dive into how bottling emotions affects men’s mental health, emotional regulation, relationships, self-worth, and stress levels. We examine why anger often becomes the only “acceptable” emotion, how suppressed feelings show up as burnout, anxiety, depression, and isolation, and why so many men struggle to talk—even when they desperately want to. This isn’t about blame; it’s about awareness, understanding, and breaking cycles that no longer serve us.