Inspiration Station - Why Real Strength Means Feeling, Showing Up, And Asking For Help

Welcome back to Inspiration Station — the space where clarity meets conviction, and everyday people step into their edge.

This episode is more than a listen. It's an invitation.

If you've been searching for a community where authenticity isn't just a buzzword — where real people show up with real conversations, real growth, and real support — then what I'm about to share is for you.

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Until next time — stay sharp, stay grounded, and keep living on the Everyday Edge.

— Mista Yu

Tired of pretending unshakable equals unbreakable? We go straight at three stubborn myths that keep men exhausted, isolated, and misunderstood—then trade them for a better blueprint: feel fully, show up consistently, and stand shoulder to shoulder with brothers who tell you the truth. Subscribe, share this with a father, husband, brother, or son who needs it, and leave a review to help more men find their footing.

Transcript

Welcome And Global Shoutouts

SPEAKER_00 0:37

Wherever you are and however you're listening to the Inspiration Station, thanks for making us part of your week. Welcome to the Inspiration Station. I'm your host, Mr. U. Glad to be back here in the box with you today. You know, this show is really near and dear to my heart because it's probably one of the few options that we have where I can really just speak to you guys directly, speak to the family, speak to our listeners who are spanning the entire globe, which I'm really really grateful for. In countries that I can't even pronounce, they're listening to our show. So I'm very grateful for this. Thanks for being here.

Today’s Focus: Speaking To Men

SPEAKER_00 1:16

This is your very first time listening to our show or even watching any of our content on YouTube and Facebook. Thanks again for making us part of your day. Please subscribe to the YouTube channel, youtube.com at they call me Mr. U, M-I-S-T-A-Y-U. And if you're listening to us, please follow us on Apple Podcasts, subscribe to the show there, download the episodes that appeal to you so you can kind of get a glimpse of what we do here and what may be of benefit to you. Thank you again for investing your time with us. I'm grateful to be a part of this. I am really excited about what I want to talk to you about today, not because I haven't talked about it before, but because I really believe this is going to strike a chord. And today I'm really focusing on the men today, the fathers, the husbands, the brothers and the sons. I don't want wives and mothers and sisters and daughters to be excluded, but if you're watching and listening to our show on a regular basis, please, by all means, share this with the significant others in your life, the fathers, the husbands, the brothers, and the sons.

The Three Misconceptions Preview

SPEAKER_00 2:26

There is uh three misconceptions that people have about men. As a matter of fact, there's three misconceptions that we sometimes have about ourselves, but mainly people who have fathers, brothers, husbands, and sons, which are all of us, we get the impression that these three things are what it's about and what it should be. But I want to dispel these myths today because I really believe that in the day and age that we're in, if we don't get a hold of what the truth is about who we are as men, we're gonna be in a big, big hole that we can't dig ourselves out of. I believe overall, society wants men to be weak, wants men to be displaced. And this is not a man versus woman or gender argument. I'm just saying overall, there are certain things that have been taught to us from elementary school and even maybe even sooner than that, up until adult age, things that we see societally through the media, whether it be books in print or television shows, movies, we see this even on commercials. We see the uh I would call this the uh the best way to describe it is I feel like it's the neutering of man taking place. I use that term with all respect, uh, where it's due, but I see that, and these three misconceptions are areas that I believe if we can get a hold of these and not walk into the the common trappings regarding these three misconceptions. I believe that we are stronger as men, fathers, husbands, brothers, and sons included there, and we're stronger as a community, we're stronger as a nation, and we're stronger as a world. When men recognize that these three misconceptions, although we've been taught these probably our entire lives, they probably span from generations before us. None of the 3Ds are true. Spoiler alert, I'm not advocating any of the 3Ds because they're all incorrect, they're all false, and they all should have no place in our life. So let's get into those while we have time on this episode today of your inspiration station.

Strength Misconception: Emotions Are Weakness

SPEAKER_00 4:52

So, the first one is what I call the strength misconception. What's that mean? Well, the idea behind that is that real men don't show emotions. How many times have you seen? I don't care if it's an old western that you enjoy watching on TV or if it's a mindset your father had or his father before him had, real men don't show emotions. If a man cries, he's he's vilified for it. If a man shows his emotions publicly, it's weaponized against him. If uh a man shows too much of that emotion, he's considered a sissy or a whip. But I believe that strength is in silence, it's in sincerity. Strength isn't silence, it's sincerity. Somewhere along the way, not quite sure when it happened exactly, but men were taught that emotions equal weaknesses. To be strong means being unshaken or unbothered, even not feeling things. I think that's incorrect. I think the strength is sometimes in not saying anything. Sometimes the strength is not giving in to the mindset that we have to hold everything in. I think that shows strength. But in reality, when we do the opposite, it's not strength at all, it's suppression. We're suppressing, it's just almost like envision the image of a pressure cooker. When that bad boy is heated up to top level, it's kicking, it's bumping, the pressure cooker is shaking side to side, it's steaming. You know, if you open that bad boy, it's gonna be boom, because all that steam is just sitting there waiting for a place to go. As men, we were those kind of pressure cookers. Kept everything in, kept it all bottled up until one day, boom, the floodgates open, and we have chaos, calamity, even destruction because we suppressed these feelings that we should have been comfortable with all these years, and now it's loose, sometimes with damaging results. What am I saying? Real men are supposed to show emotion. There is a limit, there is a doing so within reason, but we're supposed to show emotion. We're emotional beings. We are created to feel, to perceive, to discern. That's how we were made. I'm not comparing us to the female gender, I'm just saying that we should have access to our emotion. We should be in touch with who we are. We shouldn't be ashamed to have tears fall from our eyes when a loved one dies. We shouldn't be ashamed if we see a touching commercial about a father and a son and it makes us weep. We shouldn't be ashamed when we're in touch with our emotions like that. We had a recent men's table Men's Roundtable Series podcast where we talk about maybe Thursday at 7 o'clock p.m. EST, we talk about things like this: where and how men should show emotion. We're actually in the series about it right now, so you're able to catch that uh hopefully on our YouTube channel or wherever you get your podcast from. And we talk about that. And why not? I know that there are many of you out here right now. If you're honest, your hands in the air right now. How many of you cried during

Pressure Cookers And Honest Grief

SPEAKER_00 8:40

Avengers Endgame? How many of you cried when Iron Man died? Or when Gamora died from Guardians of the Galaxy? How many of you cried? Be honest. There is nothing wrong with being in touch with your emotions, it doesn't make you weak. It's strong that you're in touch with those. That makes for stronger sons and a stronger lineage because we recognize that we're not letting our emotions control us, but we're not afraid of them. We're not suppressing them and bringing about chaos and turmoil in our households because we can't communicate, we can't function. Think about Jesus, the Son of God now. John 11 and 35 is the shortest passage of scripture in the entire Bible in all 66 books. John 11 and 35 says two words. Jesus wept. Two words might be the most profound scripture that there is, especially when it pertains to men. It said, Jesus wept. One of his good friends died and he wept. He didn't have a tear that dropped out of his eye, his eye didn't leak, he wept. The son of God wept. What is the message there? What's that saying to you, men? If the Son of God wept, how is it possible that his creation, that God's creation, refuses to weep, refuses to be in touch with himself enough that he can weep in circumstances that require grieving, that require an emotional outpouring. If he could cry, why can't we? Honestly, there's just too many men out here. I don't know if you're one of them or not, but there's too many men out here that are bleeding emotionally but doing it in private because they were told that healing isn't a masculine trait. That crying isn't a masculine trait. Vulnerability should be a superpower, it should be lauded and applauded, not hidden like some kind of disease or sickness. It's not a liability to men. We've been taught that, but we've been taught wrong. We can't use the ideas that came from the 1800s and try to apply those into 2026. Different set of circumstances, different deficiencies, different dysfunctions,

Scripture Anchors For Emotional Truth

SPEAKER_00 11:16

different era, different circumstances. This is an anchor in scripture that I love that I want to help you with today by sharing this with you. Psalms 34 and 18. It says, The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit. I'm gonna say it again because I need you to hear what scripture is saying about you. Psalms 34, verse 18. The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those. If you're brokenhearted, if you're crushed in spirit, there's no way that you're not weeping. There's no way that you're not emotionally in touch with that process, whether it be grief or some kind of agony. Strength isn't how much you can hold in, it's how willing you are to open up and let healing in. That's one misconception, the strength misconception that real men don't show emotion. Let's move to the next

Provision Misconception: Worth Equals Income

SPEAKER_00 12:19

one. The next one is the provision misconception. This is a crazy one because the whole world seems to run on this misconception and it's so misguided. So many men are falling because of this one. So many men are standing on bridges ready to jump or take pills or slip their wrists because of this one. And it's a tragedy and it has to stop. The provision misconception. That man's value is in what he provides. And I want to just shout out all of the women who don't take this and weaponize it against their husbands, who don't tell him that he's not a man because he doesn't make enough money to satisfy her. Shout out to all the wives who don't do that. Shout out to all the daughters and sisters and mothers who don't do that. The misconception here is that a man's value is in what he provides. Your worth isn't what brings you into home, what you bring home, gentlemen. It's in what you bring to the room. Who are you? The holidays are really tough for men. I know we just got through that particular season. But it's rough because men feel like they haven't given enough. They kind of feel like their worth is measured in their income and what kind of gifts they can give, what kind of career moves they can make. But your family, your friends, your community, they're never gonna need your money as much as they're gonna need you. I know we live in a fallen world, and the world is decaying at a rapid rate. People are taking things that are considered evil and trying to make them into be, into, into being good. And they often take or make provision a priority more than the presence of the person who they should be loving and honoring and respecting. There is a place in scripture for work. There's a place in our world for work and the integrity of work. I'm not against that. What I'm talking about is how we treat people, men especially, when we are looked at more about what we bring to the table and less about who we are, the value we bring to our households, to our children, to our children's children, to our spouses. If you look at scripture and you look at the very beginning when God dealt with Adam, first off, he think about this, he gave Adam responsibility and stewardship over a garden. I talk about that a lot on our show because we basically 10 years into an incredibly evolving garden in our backyard. And I believe that God never really called Adam to make a living. Sin and the eating of the forbidden fruit brought that about. He called him to cultivate, to nurture, and to care for what was in the garden, to develop what was in the garden. Not just the animals, but the fruit, the vegetables. You can be the richest man in the world, and we've seen this happen to people on public stages. Where they are rich, but their family is emotionally bankrupt. I believe that your presence, man, is what defines you, not your paycheck. I know it's hard to hear because you've been taught this for so long. Matthew 6 and 21 is a great anchor for this particular misconception. Matthew 6 and 21 reads, For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. If you're focused on what you can provide, you may have a divided heart. If you know God to be your provider, you're in the right spot. I believe that the best gift you can give to your family is not the one that's wrapped, it's the one that's been hidden in shame and turmoil and inner conflict. That's the gift that we can give to our family. Us. Our vulnerability, our presence.

Presence Over Paychecks

SPEAKER_00 17:01

If you ever known anybody who was such a hard worker that they barely spent time with their wife and barely spent time with their kids, tell me. Tell me how the kids are doing. Tell me how they're adjusting. Tell me how they're growing and what that process looks like. I guarantee you there's challenges there. Because a son, especially, a daughter is well. Honestly, I'm a girl dad. I got three adult daughters, and I know that my presence made a difference in their life. I did work a lot, but I tried to invest time with them as much as possible. I tried to be really intentional about that because I recognized that it was going to shape and form things in their life and in their adulthood that's going to matter down the line, even for their children and their children's children. Your being present is really, really important. I'm not saying be a bone. I'm not saying not do anything to better yourself and to grow yourself and to invest in your family. I'm not talking about that. All I'm saying is that your presence is more important than what you can provide. I think most children, if you ask them honestly, they'll agree. And the last misconception for today this one is the independence misconception. It's really a weird one. But I think it's one of the biggest challenges. That's why I say the for last. Maybe more so than the others, perhaps. The idea that men don't need help. We can do it ourselves. Now, full transparency, man. I don't mind putting myself out there. I'm just being honest. I'm a different kind of father, I'm a different kind of dad. I'm a different kind of man. I don't know how to build a house. I don't know how to put up drywall. Not really. A little bit. I don't know how to fix a car. But I invest in other ways. Probably more on the creative side, more on the on the thinking side. But I don't know how to do those things. I'm not an engineer. I'm not a carpenter or a handyman. I don't know those things. I'm not a mechanic. But when I need help, I recognize that you know what? I have to ask for help. That's not always easy, especially in my upbringing. It wasn't easy for me to do that. But I learned now that you know what?

Fatherhood, Legacy, And Time

SPEAKER_00 19:25

Men do need help. And we gotta be open and honest about asking for it. On our men's roundtable series podcast, we talk about this on a weekly basis. Men not only needing help, but recognize that every strong man needs stronger brothers around him. We need community, we can't avoid it, we can't get around it. It's beneficial for us to grow and be who we need to be. We've been taught really early, and it's not a great lesson at all. We've been taught really early, handle it yourself. Don't depend on anybody, don't show weakness. But isolation is a deadly trap for a man's soul. It's one of the most dangerous places that we could ever put ourselves. Isolation. Moses had Aaron, David had Jonathan, Jesus had Peter, James, and John. This is all evidence for me that isolation needs to be avoided at all costs. Tell me a story of a lone wolf that was able to survive a long time. Rarely ever happened, if ever. Lions move in pride. They live longer in comparison. Speaking to the men today, real strength is found in brotherhood. Real strength is found in clarity and accountability. Real strength is found in having somebody who checks on you when the world just assumes you're fine, you're okay. You didn't say anything, so you must be good. Real strength is found in having somebody to be accountable to. Ecclesiastes 4, 9, and 10 is a great passage for this misconception. It says, two are better than one. If either of them falls, one can help the other up. I'm gonna say it again. Ecclesiastes 4, 9 through 10. Two are

Independence Misconception: Men Don’t Need Help

SPEAKER_00 21:31

better than one. If either of them falls, one can help the other up. How do you help yourself up if you're alone? You think you can help by yourself, but honestly, that is an example and a scenario of a truth that we as men seem to forget sometimes. And we can't always figure it out by ourselves. We can't always have the right answers. If we could, why do we need brotherhood? Why do we need God? Why do we need anybody? And those are the saddest people to watch walk through life. They're the saddest. Because they don't even realize that they failed. They don't even realize that they have put themselves as a crab in a bucket. They don't realize that they're a fair game for the enemy. They don't realize that they've already lost the battle because they've forsaken all of the tools and the resources and availability of those tools and resources to help them to be the person they need to be. There's a scripture in Proverbs that says iron sharpens iron. That's why you hear it so often in today's vernacular because we recognize that we need each other. And we can't do this thing without each other. We can't do this life thing without someone to sharpen us, to correct us, to inspire us. A man who hides his struggle forfeits his strength. We got to be honest about where we are and say, you know what? I know I need help. One of the reasons why I started our coaching practice, everyday edge coaching, the reason why I started it, it wasn't because I wanted to get paying clients. I'm taking care of that part. That's not the reason why I'm doing this. The reason why I started doing this is because I recognized myself, in myself first, before I started reaching out to anybody else, in myself, I realized that if I didn't have accountability and clarity in relationship with other men, I wasn't gonna make it. As a father, husband, a brother, and a son, I wasn't gonna make it. It wasn't gonna happen for me. Honestly. I know I needed it. And I realized that this is one of those situations where I really feel like if I could extend myself and be that for other men, that it would not only help them, but it will also help me. It would not only heal them, it would also heal me. It would not only inspire them and encourage them, but also

Brotherhood, Accountability, And Wisdom

SPEAKER_00 24:05

inspire and encourage me. So I need everyday edge coaching as much as much as a client does by being a part of this journey together. You're not meant, man, to carry it all alone. You're meant to carry it with someone. Please understand that. Thank you for watching and listening. Well, listening today. This is your inspiration station, and I'm your host, Mr. You, wherever you are and how you're listening to our show. Thanks again for making us a part of your week. Please subscribe to our YouTube channel, youtube.com at the callmeister you and Apple

Closing And Subscribe

SPEAKER_00 24:46

Podcasts. Follow on the describe show. Subscribe to our show. Thank you. Good night.