Why June Matters Here

SPEAKER_01 0:13

All right, Mr. Teacher, thank you so much for joining me today on speaking with Sandra L, the patient experience. I so gratefully to say thank you very much for coming on today to speak about something that we need to speak about in the month in which we need to speak about it. What month is that? That's June. And why is it important? Well, it's important for two reasons. One, we celebrate Juneteenth. And Juneteenth to me means respecting and honoring our entire community, remembering our ancestors as well as remembering those who are still with us in their lives and how important it is for them to know that we are all in this together. We each of us love one each other. If each of us love one each other, we can continue to move forward together. And with that being also June as the men's month, I was like, what man can I get this year to brace our lovely stage to bring forth a message that our men need to hear. They might not want to hear it, but they need to hear it.

SPEAKER_00 1:23

Yes, yes, definitely. I understand.

SPEAKER_01 1:25

And you know what? And I'm like, and it has to be a man. It has to be someone that cares about men in order to actually deliver the message the way we want them to deliver it so that they actually men can hear it, understand it. And if they need to speak to someone, they can contact Coach TH and say, hey, Coach TH, or hey teacher, could you please help me? Because I'm struggling. And men and ladies that are listening to this video, if you have a man in your life, whether it's your brother, your father, your uncle, your son, whoever, and you know that they need to hear from a man and they need to hear that male perspective, please direct them to Coach TH, which we have. I asked him how does he say his name? And I said, I'm going to say it at least three times. Coach TH, teacher, thank you so much for joining us today and blessing us with your presence on this 2026, 1, Juneteenth, 2, Men's Health Month. Thank you so much for gracing us and with that beautiful smile of yours. I'm so appreciated.

SPEAKER_00 2:41

Thanks for having me. I really appreciate it.

Defining Stillness Beyond Silence

SPEAKER_01 2:44

My first question to you is this you often say stillness is strength. What does stillness look like for black men who have been taught to stay in survival mode? And not only black men who have been taught to stay in survival mode, but what about those black young men and those black boys who are being, you know, coming up under the men and hearing them say, hey, you know what? Stillness is strength. How do you explain it to them? What does it look like for the boy, for the young man, and for the men? What does that look like?

SPEAKER_00 3:23

So basically, when I say stillness, it's about strength. I'm not talking about always sitting in silence and pretending like life isn't happening because we know life is always happening. I'm talking about like giving yourself permission to pause in the world that is always constantly, you know, having black men need to be pushing, producing, surviving, and protecting. So a lot of times for many of us, it's survival mode starts early for us. So if you know anything about men and even teenage boys, it starts out early. We're taught to stay alert, to solve problems, and to carry responsibilities without showing emotion. So a lot of times, because we're felt taught that you know you're not supposed to uh let anybody know that you're dealing with anything, you should let people know that you're dealing with things, you know. Eventually, you know, that has become our norm for us. You know, that's how we think see things as normal. We see this as a norm because we see us carrying the problems, taking care of the problems ourselves, and that's not something that we should always see as a normal, but we do. Uh, we don't even realize sometimes that we're exhausted because we're even we've been living that way for so long. So a lot of times we've been living this way for many years, from being a child to adulthood, you're taught to kind of again internalize your problems, you don't talk about them, you just kind of take it as a man and you just kind of deal with it. So, stillness is choosing to interrupt that cycle. So, basically, it's like taking five minutes to breathe before reacting because we know a lot of times, for even for young boys, even to a teenage to adults, we react to things in a wrong way because of the fact that we've been dealing with so many different things at one point in time. So, it's checking in with yourself and asking, How am I really doing today? Um, it's about recognizing that resting doesn't make you weak. You know, you can relax, you can rest, you need to rest, and you know, and it just prepares us to lead our families, our careers, our community from a healthier place. Um, I believe strength a lot of times isn't measured by how much pain you can carry in silence. Real strength is having the courage to stop, reflect, heal, and keep moving forward with clarity instead of constantly operating from survival mode. Now, again, this applies to young men as well as adult men because of the fact that until we get to that point we're willing to sit down with ourselves and say, okay, how again, how am I doing today? How am I feeling today? How am I going to take care of myself because myself matters? What I'm dealing with matters. You don't become a better man by not dealing with what's happening. And if that means getting together in a group of guys, or talking to a therapist, or talking to somebody like me, in case you need to, it definitely is a way to deal with things that are stressing you out and causing you pain in your life.

SPEAKER_01 6:09

Thank you so much for that information. Certainly appreciate it. And I'm certainly hoping once again that men, as well as the young ladies in their lives, and the ladies in their lives, we're all listening and we're all hearing that because it is so very true what you said about, you know, a stillness isn't about sitting still. It's about taking that time to do deep do a deep reflection within yourself. Right? Sit back for a second, reflect, like slow down. Even though people tell you keep you need to keep going, you need to work, you need to overpush yourself, right? It's important for our men to actually take the time to take some deep breaths, do some woo-saw moments, right? Exactly. And think and see, okay, so this is what's going on, and I'm not liking or I am liking it. And there's help, there's someone that I can go to and I can I can talk to. It doesn't, you know, I I it reminds me of my husband because my husband doesn't like to see male doctors.

SPEAKER_00 7:11

Yeah. Right?

SPEAKER_01 7:13

And he wants to see a female doctor. And I'm like, yeah, but you won't tell a female exactly what's going on because you feel better talking to a man. And I see it in action with him, him feeling more comfortable, physically wise, talking to a female. But when it comes down to actually talking and saying what's on his mind, actually sharing that information with the man, and it's okay. I get it, it's okay, and allow him that space. And he gives himself that space. So thank you so much for what you just

The Moment He Had To Change

SPEAKER_01 7:46

said. And I want to go to question number two, which is you founded Serenity Pathways Mediation to create space for men to breathe and reset. What moment of experience made you realize that this work is important and is required if we want to see our men succeed?

SPEAKER_00 8:08

So I think what a moment that happened for me was that I got really upset at my wife one time. Now she made a mistake, which is honestly something we all do. We all make mistakes, things happen. It's just kind of how we learn how to become better people. But I got so much into my emotions and so overworked by it that I lashed out at her for no reason that I shouldn't have lashed out at her. So I had to apologize to her because I knew that that was not the way to go. And I realized then that that's one of those moments where I definitely need to reflect on who I am and what I'm doing. And that's kind of like the turning point, uh, you know, which was one that was a dramatic moment for me. You know, it was like, you know, for me, it's like years of watching people, especially men, you know, carrying emotional weights without having any anywhere safe to put it. So, in other words, you know, I have been building up so much anger myself over the years that I haven't been able to release it. And because I've always been taught to kind of internalize things, I wasn't able to internalize it. So I internalized everything, and I didn't release all that type of negative energy and a negative feel. So, you know, throughout my life, I've seen men, you know, who were successful on the outside but struggling internally. They were providers, fathers, leaders, and mentors, but they are rarely taught about stress, anxiety, grief, or burnout. And times, many times they believe that that you had to figure it out everything out on yourself by themselves. And you can't always do that, you can't always figure everything out by yourself. Sometimes you need a group of guys that will step in and say, Hey, we need to get together, we need to speak about what's going on, we need to figure out how we can become better men. And then I also looked at my own journey. You know, I faced again setbacks, uh, self-doubt. The moments were also didn't didn't go according to the plan that I thought would go the way I thought it would go. Uh, what helped me wasn't pretending everything was okay. Basically, it was like learning how to slow down, breathe, reflect, and reconnect with those who I was beyond my these were that beyond my my circumstances. And then that's why I created Ceremony Pathways Meditation. I wanted to build more than a meditation program. I wanted to create a space where men could feel seen, supported, and reminded that they don't have to carry every burden by themselves. And if I can help one man realize it's okay to ask for help because it reaches his breaking point, then his work, then my work is doing exactly what it was created to do, which is help men and make them become better men.

SPEAKER_01 10:32

You know, and I thank you for that response as well. And this is why I thank you, because you hit your head up against the brick wall so much because you thought life was perfect, right?

SPEAKER_00 10:43

Yeah, yeah. I thought life was perfect. You know, I thought that I could handle it with you.

SPEAKER_01 10:48

Right. And you just like, I I, you know what? Life is supposed to be like this, it's supposed to run like this, and it's not running like this. And you not only did you, you know, you stopped and you realized that hey, I'm putting pressure on myself, and then I had my wife those asking me 101 questions. We do it. I'm guilty, we do it, right? I'm asking me 101 questions because she's not understanding what I'm going through, but we can't understand it if you don't tell us. And you're so correct in the fact that men don't tell us because they're told. You're supposed to carry that weight. That's your job, that's your responsibility. And then when you you get in a relationship, you know, whether it's girlfriend, boyfriend, or whether it's husband and wife, and you're like trying to, you know, learn each other, right? It's still hard to break it down to speak to that other person, right?

SPEAKER_00 11:47

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 11:48

Until you hit your head one final time against that wall, your white meat starts to show, and you start to understand that okay, life is not gonna be perfect, and it's okay. I have a help meet here who's trying to help me, who's trying to see me grow. She doesn't want anything from me. She's not asking me of any for anything other than for me to be myself. Exactly. So I'm thankful that you, you know, that you just expressed that and that you took the what you went through, that path that you went through, and said, I know I'm not the only one that's going here. I know I'm not the only one that's taking I'm the only man that's taken myself through these changes and is, you know, getting sick, being stressed out, having, you know, bad patient experiences because they're going to the doctor, they're not opening up their mouth, they're keeping it all in. You've mentioned therapy and they don't need no therapy. They take a back seat to it, right?

SPEAKER_00 12:50

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:51

If you say, you know what? I hit my head, I busted it wide open, I've learned my lesson. I know there are other men out here that need to have this type of relationship set up with someone like myself. So let me stop talking and saying what they need and being there as a solution, but a problem that they're having, so that we can all move forward. So thank you so much for taking that and growing that into Serenity Pathways Meditation. I certainly appreciate it.

Breathwork Against Generational Cycles

SPEAKER_01 13:25

Um, now next question to you is this many men struggle with the emotional expression of generational patterns. We've heard it over and over again: generational trauma, generational wealth, generational health issues. We've heard that word generational so many times. How can breath work and mindfulness help break these cycles of generation after generation? Well, your father did it, so you're gonna do it too. Or you know, how can we break through that? How can we use um breath work and mindfulness to break through that?

SPEAKER_00 13:59

So many of us, as you all know, of course, know, we're taught to kind of man up, don't cry, handle yourself. But those messages, like you said before, are tasked on from generation to generation. Uh, of course, they start out with good intentions, but they're kind of basically survival instincts that we're kind of taught. But understanding that survival isn't the same as healing. Survival is not the same thing as healing. So breathwork creates something many men have never experienced a pause between their feeling and how they react. So, again, men sometimes react right after how something how they feel, and that doesn't always build well for them. So, when I slow, when I when we talk about slow, slow breathing, it like triggers our nervous system to begin to calm down. So, your nervous system is like at working at a high rate when you're when you're you're riled up, when you're angry, when you're feeling some type of way, but then when you take a dual breath work, it tells your system to kind of slow down and not to be so agitated and not feeling some type of way. So suddenly we're able to think instead of reacting. Because a lot of times, a lot of guys will as soon as they feel something, they're gonna react a certain way. So we want them to get back to the thinking mode where they're thinking about what they're doing, and then mindfulness helps us just notice what's happening inside without judging ourselves. Uh, instead of saying I'm weak because I'm stressed, we begin asking, What is stress trying to tell me about myself? And that's how we kind of cycle through, beginning to change. We become more aware, we communicate better, we show up differently for our children, our partners, and our communities. And we gotta understand healing doesn't erase the past, it changes what we pass on to the next generation. So, again, what we learn to do is we learn how to understand that again, you know, dealing with stress, dealing with breath work, and dealing with ways to understand how we function as a person that way when we when we do have these moments, we start to think, we start to do our breath work, and we start to understand that we don't have to react a certain way.

SPEAKER_01 15:59

Thank you so much for that.

Helping Men Move Past “I’m Okay”

SPEAKER_01 16:01

Now, my next my next question to you is this when you're working with men who come to you, they're emotionally stressed, even though they might say you might ask them how you doing, and they'll say okay, right? And most people don't realize this. And I try my best to encourage people all the time. I'm like, when someone tells you they're okay, dig a little deeper. What does okay look like to you? What do you mean when you say okay? Like, don't ask them close-ended questions, but when they come to you and you ask them how they're doing and they give you a close-ended question, and they just say, Hey, I'm okay. And you, you know, or they're feeling overwhelmed or they're depressed or they're just disconnected from the world, and they're just like, I'm just man, I'm just tired. I'm just tired. Um, how do you guide them towards a healing journey? And does this change according to the age of the man?

SPEAKER_00 16:58

So I wouldn't say it really changes towards the age of the man, but I really tell people to do this. The first thing, you know, is always creating a safety space, a safe space for them to be in, a space where there's no judgment, people cannot make them feel some type of way, and that they can honestly look at themselves and say, no, before we talk about solutions, we want to talk about, you know, their their space, uh, where they're doing have to perform, or not having all the answers, you know, you won't actually necessarily have all the answers. Uh, we want to keep it simple. So ask them like, what have you been carrying that nobody knows about? That's a good question to ask people. What have you been carrying that nobody knows about? Um, that one question opens the door to many other questions. From there, we can focus on breathing, learning how to do our breath work. Not because breathing magically solves everything, but because it slows that down, slows the body down enough for the mind to catch up. Uh, once someone is calmer, they're able to think more clearly about what's really happening. Uh, the approach changes depending again on the age. Sometimes, you know, I say it can work one way, but it may change because it depends on the person. Uh, with younger men and teenagers, we often talk about identity, peer pressure, school, social media, and learning healthy emotional habits before unhealthy ones become permanent. So, with adult men, it's more conversation, usually revolve around work, finances, marriage, fatherhood, caregiving, and the pressure of every everything that's from everyone else. So, again, it changes from from one age to another. So, I should go back and say I do have to change my answer because understanding a child versus an adult, because again, the child, of course, is dealing with peer pressure, school, social media learning from school, learning from habits from school, and of course, you know, as an adult male, you have your finances, your marriage, you know, fatherhood, caregiving. So, those things can add up. So, again, it's all about creating a safe space for men uh to open up and ask them that question. What have you been carrying that nobody else knows about? Starting there, and that way they open up to you, and then we can go into more deeper things and also work on our breathwork.

SPEAKER_01 19:02

Thank you so much for answering that question, and thank you so much for including it.

Teen Stress Versus Adult Pressure

SPEAKER_01 19:07

I do want you to dig a little bit deeper for me, and does in the response to this, does this change dependent on a person's age on a man's age? Does that change? It does change as how so.

SPEAKER_00 19:20

So basically it changed because of the fact that when you're going from a teenager to an adult, you you your your priorities change. So, say for instance, when you're a kid, you know, you're a teenager, you're more concerned about what your peers think of you, you're more into school, you want to video games, you want all that stuff that's you know, not really, you know, as as as going to stay, stay with you as long as when you become adult. Because once you become adult, you now you get a job, now you gotta you know take care of your finances, you gotta have a place to stay. Yeah, you know, if you get a girlfriend, boyfriend, whatever you have, then you gotta take care of that person. That's learning how to deal with them and their what they bring to the table. Because not all the time people bring bring peace to your your circle all the time. So you have to learn what dealing with those things. So understanding that, you know, again, with child, you got a little little less, but you still got the pressure, but you don't have to pressure the adult because once you become married and once you get a job, you have to learn how to maintain those things for the rest of your life. Because you know, your your childhood only survives from you know one up to about 18. 18 years old, that's your kind of your your childhood, your teenage years, and things are kind of you know going to go on its own pace. But then once you get over 18, now you have to build that constant repertoire of things happening over and over again. Where it's not like you know, everything when you're a kid, it's like every day is a new day. You get like new new things to do, new things to try out, kind of go from there. But as an adult, you have responsibility. So now I gotta go to work, which could be repetitive work, and then of course you married, you have somebody coming in who's gonna be giving you information and things to check out and things to do, and then of course, you know, um finances, you know, you're gonna have to learn how to pay bills, and that's gonna be putting stress on you as well. So just learn how to deal with those things.

SPEAKER_01 20:56

You know what, and it's funny you say that because I used to tell my son when he started in his teens, I will always remind him, hey, you're closer to 18 than you are to five. Like instilling that seed in him, you know, to actually watch and you know, see so that he could get himself prepared. Um, and I must say I was fortunate and blessed to have, you know, his dad in a home with him and doing the things that he needed to do to show him this is what you as you continue to grow, these are some of the things that we, you know, as men that we that we do and that we're responsible for. So he got a little a bit uh understanding about it. Um and then when he got to be 26 and he was like, I'm out of here. We was like, okay, fly.

SPEAKER_00 21:46

Yeah, yeah. But it's kind of funny because you know, uh, my mom always used to tell me, don't be in a rush to be grown up. Because, you know, once you leave this age, it's not gonna come back again. You're not gonna be able to have that same time, you're not gonna have the same type of lack of responsibility that you do in this adult. But she was completely right, you know, about that. You know, as an adult, things change and you know, even if I did say that I didn't want uh the rest of grow up and I wanted to say a child, I still would end up being an adult eventually. So it's like you know, it's like you know, you you she I think she was more along the line just telling me about savoring understanding being a child and then because once you get to the adulthood it's a new level that you're dealing with things.

Why “Coach” Can Open Doors

SPEAKER_01 22:26

Right. And it was important for you to address that and here here's the thing why right in our community a lot of our young men are growing up without male figures in their lives. Heck a lot of our young ladies are growing up without a female figure in their lives. You know it seasons changed you know we had COVID COVID changed a lot of household you know the way a household looked um due to COVID. And so here we are yet again at another standing point another men's health month as it regards to men and we're talking and we're saying these things we're saying hey men need to you know there's an outlet for them there's someone that they can talk to I give you credit once again because you don't have TH Scott mental health therapist. You have coach TH Scott. So it talks to I mean and it's mental health built into what you do but it speaks to the way you have your name written and your information written speaks to a number of factors that very often we don't take into consideration. So when we see our children you know our young people acting out or acting up and it's girls too but we're talking about men this month. But when we see them acting up we have to stop as adults we have to stop and say okay so there's really something going on and maybe he won't go see a therapist if it's called if the person is called a therapist not to take anything away from therapists because I love them all I've had to see therapists myself um so I love them all. But when we look at men and we look at we always seem to come to this question well how can we get a man to go to the doctor's office? How can we get a man to speak to a therapist?

SPEAKER_00 24:25

You might actually have to change the way you're addressing that therapist especially if you're talking to young people to get them to see hey you're really not going to

Make Men’s Health A Lifestyle

SPEAKER_00 24:35

a therapist you're going to a coach so that they can grasp that idea they can come in with the idea well you ain't no therapist you're a coach you know and they really haven't wrapped their minds yet around what a coach is even some men haven't wrapped their minds around what a coach is but I thank you for that because it gives us the opportunity to reach out to the young men and the men as well and say hey there's this coach you want to go talk to him he does meditation he you know does my uh breathing techniques he does all of this he does mind techniques you want to go talk to him just to see how it goes and you know we've opened the door and so here you are right exactly so thank you for that my last question to you well actually my next to last question to you is as we come to the close of men's health 2026 what message do you want men and the people who love them to carry forward about healing rest and emotional clarity for the male so my message is simple don't let June be the only month we talk about men's health um healing isn't an event it's a lifestyle to every man listening you don't have to wait until burnout to take care of yourself rest isn't quitting asking for help isn't failure taking five minutes to breathe isn't wasting time it's investing yourself and to the spouses parents children friends and communities who love the men in your lives keep creating spaces where they can speak honestly without fear of being judged or dismissed sometimes the greatest gift you can give someone is simply listening. At Serenity Pathways Meditation we believe every man deserves the opportunity to discover who he is at his best and because when one man heals families become stronger communities become healthier and generations are changed.

How To Reach Serenity Pathways

SPEAKER_01 26:47

And that's why you know we're always committed to helping and building the future so with that being said what I do want to ask you is this yes can you go ahead and repeat to everyone how they can contact you whether it's by phone whether it's by email if you can go ahead and do that that would certainly be great and everyone as you're listening to this whether you're listening to it through the audio or whether you're watching it through the video visual um know this that if you still need Coach Tritt information please reach out to me and say hey Sandra you know what I want to actually reach the guy that you had on your show I like to interview him I like to have him on my own podcast how can I reach out to him I do know this he's open to it I do know this that this is a I don't want to say new path for him but I am so proud of him because I'm so used to seeing him next to and supporting his lovely wife Dr. Samika Cozy of the Cozy project to see him say Sandra you know what when I asked him he said yes because I'm trying to get out here and do my own I'm still gonna be there for my wife but I'm trying to get out there and I'm trying to do my own thing and bring my own information so that it doesn't continue to be hidden behind the awesome work that she's doing. So I know he's open to it. I know he's looking forward to the opportunity to share to spread to empower educate and engage men in their health journey so if you can go ahead and reach out to me or reach out to him and say hey I heard you on and speaking with Sandra L, the patient experience would love to have you please do that. I would so appreciate it and I'm certain he would appreciate it we deserve and we need to encourage our men to keep rising for the stars. So Coach TH, could you please give us your information?

SPEAKER_00 28:49

Sure so you can always follow me uh on my all my social Serenity Pathways Meditation uh might be just Serenity dot pathways I know they weren't they allow me to do a lot of long ones so it could be Serenity Path dot pathways or just Serenity Pathways Meditation on my social media. I also have a website www dot Serenitypathwaysmeditation dot org. I also do have an email which is uh Serenity Pathways Meditation at gmail dot com so I do have that one as well so feel free to reach out to me thank you so much for you know giving me that great great great welcome and I love the speech that you just gave me about you know working on me and working on the business because again this is a new venture for me and I understand that it's not going to be a simple uphill journey it's gonna be a journey that's gonna be you know learning about myself growing becoming better and you only get better once you realize that everything is not going to line up exactly the way you planned it to and I was telling people all the time you learn a lot more from your failures than you do from your

Be Kind Always, Closing Thoughts

SPEAKER_00 29:47

success. So keep on failing but keep on trying because you'll keep getting better and that's of course what we want to get get from guys we want guys to understand that you can get better. There is nothing that you can accomplish if you really want to and a lot of times we want to make sure guys understand that we have spaces that are available to us you just have to be willing to reach out to us let us know that you need that help we are here to help you because we do not need another black man or another man dead or in jail because they overreacted to a situation that was only temporary we need guys to understand that there's better ways to deal with situations that are bothering you. We understand that you're stressed we understand that you're angry and we understand that all these things are around you happening that we can't control but we need to learn how to control ourselves and the better we're able to control ourselves the better we become as men husbands we become brothers we can become uncles we can become and we just want to make sure that we build the broad to be a better place for both men and women so that's my message and I always want to put that out there for people I thank you so much and what I say at the end of each of my videos I will say it again be kind always you never know who you're coming against you never know you know maybe you're meeting someone and they're not as friendly as you would like them to be we don't know what the other person is dealing with and what the other person is going through.

SPEAKER_01 31:14

So if you have it in you to be kind be kind always you can be kind and move away and say hey I was kind I say hi say hey I say good morning whatever and walk away but you as an individual who has it in them to be kind and being kind is free it doesn't cost you a penny. Exactly please remember to be kind always we're in a state of being in a state of where we have to be kind if we're to make it through to the next day we have to be kind so please be kind and continue to be kind thanks so much teacher and thank you so much and I think I said it wrong treachery thanks so much treacher aka coach thy I so appreciate you and Chums Matty House Foundation appreciates you thank you so much for having me I really appreciate it