There’s an immature version of love and a mature version of love.

The immature version of love is defined as that which I strongly prefer.

I love chocolate ice cream.
I hate vanilla ice cream.

I love classic rock music.
I hate jazz music.

I love the New York Yankees.
I hate the Boston Red Sox.

You get the idea, right?

This is my preference. I’m very attached to it. I’m identified with it. This means I love it.

There is, however, a mature version of love that we’re invited to step into.

In the Bible, it says, “God is love.” And “we are made in the image of God.”

This means then that we are also, in fact, made in the image of love.

We’ve been intelligently designed from the very beginning to grow into the fullness of love.

Love, in the fullness of its maturity, however, is not about preference.

It’s actually about something far deeper.

To love means to care.
To pay attention.
To be present.
To notice.
To respond with the utmost intelligence, aliveness, and creativity, regardless of the circumstances, challenges, or difficulties.

We are called to love whoever, and whatever, we come into contact with, moment by moment.

This does not mean that we like everyone, or like everything. It does not mean that we no longer have preferences, or use discernment.

What it does mean is that whoever and whatever we come into contact with, we give our utmost care, presence, and attention to.

Whether it’s our family, a pet, a plant, a tree, a community of friends, a garden, or our own physical, mental, emotional, spiritual development.

To become fully human is to become an embodied channel for divine love.

We come to live in the presence of God more deeply, not just by knowing love conceptually, but by committing to embodying it in the here and now.

- Brian Piergrossi

BrianPiergrossi.com

—-—-—-—-—-

Reach out to learn more about my personal coaching and schedule a time to chat.

Some friends have recently expressed surprise when I told them how excited I am to be celebrating the 250th anniversary of America this weekend.

One long-time friend asked: “Do you want to celebrate 250 years of a lie?”

I understand the cynicism and disappointment people feel in America not yet fully living up to its ideals.

I used to hate where I grew up in Pennsylvania. I hated everything about it. I hated the school. I hated the neighborhood. I hated my parents. I hated the weather. I hated the people. I left as soon as I could.

Then one day in my late twenties, a series of unexpected circumstances brought me back to my hometown.

I remember very clearly walking by myself through the neighborhood in a deeply contemplative state, and a powerful realization dawned upon me. A moment of profound transformation.

This is where I come from.

This is the place that shaped me.

These are my roots.

To hate this place is to hate myself.

And I don’t want to hate myself.

I want to learn to love myself, fully and completely.

🇺🇸

When I was 20 years old, I did a backpacking trip across Europe and met people from all over the world.

I remember quite vividly meeting a young man about my age from Uruguay, a place I didn’t know much about at the time.

“Do you like living in Uruguay?” I said.

I’ll never forget the look on his face. He seemed utterly shocked, almost confused by the question.

“Of course!!” he exclaimed. “That’s my home.”

🇺🇸

I’ve learned over the years to deeply love America in the same way I’ve learned to deeply love my body, my wife, my children, and the very life I’ve lived.

My body is not perfect.

My wife is not perfect.

My children are not perfect.

My life has certainly not been perfect.

And America is definitely not, and has never been, perfect!

And yet there’s something about accepting the imperfections of this world that makes me love it a hundred times more.

There’s a transcendent beauty that emerges in the practice of loving someone, or some place, amidst the imperfections.

It’s knowing that it’s your love, your care, your devoted participation in the relationship, that transforms both yourself and the one you love in the process.

To commit to love transforms both the loved and the lover at the same time.

As Walt Whitman once said:

“That the powerful play goes on, and you may contribute a verse.”

In the end, the reason I’ve come to love America so much is very simple.

It’s because I AM American.

I’ve been to every state in America except Alaska, done retreats & workshops, and met people all over this beautiful country for multiple decades. I know it very well.

This is the soil I was born out of.

I’m deeply grateful for the heartbeat of America and all it has brought into this world.

🇺🇸

I am grateful for baseball

And those short little jean shorts

Bob Dylan

& cowgirl boots

The banks of the Mississippi River in Memphis

Billy the Kid and Butch Cassidy

Buddy Holly

Walt Whitman, who sang America into mystic, ecstatic exaltation

Chuck Berry

The deep stillness of the gigantic redwood forests in Northern California

Muddy Waters proclaiming he’s a man

Jimi Hendrix lighting his guitar on fire

Elvis shaking his hips

Autumn sunsets in the Appalachian Mountains

Bonnie and Clyde

Wild spring flowers in the stunning Rocky Mountains of Colorado

Levi Strauss inventing blue jeans in old San Francisco

Cold pizza for breakfast on the subway in Brooklyn, NY

Amish country in Pennsylvania

A million shimmering stars in the huge evening sky above West Texas

Jack Kerouac somewhere out there still on the road, awakening & restless

Edward Abbey looking out from the mountaintop

Aretha Franklin just wants some RESPECT

Marilyn Monroe

Muhammad Ali floating like a butterfly

James Brown

Flannel shirts

Miles Davis

Janis Joplin

Laying in the bright green morning grass in the hills of Virginia

John Coltrane

Sunday morning church & football amidst the cornfields of Nebraska

John Cougar Mellencamp

Tom Petty

The bright lights of 1970s Las Vegas on a steamy summer night

Hunter S. Thompson

The Santa Monica Pier

Thousands of saguaro cactuses in Southern Arizona

The silence of Joshua Tree National Park at midnight

Lead Belly

Andy Warhol

Pine trees in North Carolina

Quentin Tarantino

Bourbon Street in New Orleans on a humid Friday night

James Dean

Beautiful old live oak trees in Savannah, Georgia

Marlon Brando

Babe Ruth calls his shot

Henry David Thoreau meditating on Walden Pond in idyllic, rural Massachusetts

The magical, otherworldly landscapes of Southern Utah, Arizona & New Mexico

The Snake River in the early spring

The steel mills of Northern Ohio

Dr. Richard Alpert becoming Ram Dass

The Summer of Love

The LA palm trees in the morning twilight on Hollywood Blvd.

The old cowboys riding underneath the big sky of Wyoming

Louis Armstrong thinking to himself it’s a wonderful world

Barbecue ribs in Kansas City

Broadway

James Taylor

Quiet Hopi elders with deep wisdom in their eyes

Clint Eastwood

Tacos in San Antonio

Purple Rain

The Badlands of South Dakota

Country roads taking me home in West Virginia

Late-night church revivals in rural Alabama

I’m grateful for the truckers

And the artists

And the working class

And the middle class

And the leisure class

And the billionaires

And the homeless

And every ethnicity, shade, and color

And every religion

And every sexual orientation

And every political persuasion

From the beaches of the Florida Keys

To the cold winter forests of Maine

From the surfers still riding the waves in San Diego

To the lush rain forests of Washington State

God bless America!

Are we still the land of the free and the home of the brave?

The answer is up to you.

—Brian Piergrossi

BrianPiergrossi.com

There’s a very interesting interwoven parallel journey between my wife and my greatest spiritual teacher.

I had already known Annie for at least six months before it suddenly hit me like a ton of bricks that she was the one.

Annie and I had known of our greatest spiritual teacher our entire lives before suddenly recognizing together that he was the ONE.

I was in a relationship with Annie for years, and yet there was an unconscious fear of entering into the commitment of marriage together.

It felt best to keep the options open and maintain some level of independence in case something went wrong.

I had resisted commitment in romantic relationships for much of my adult life, bouncing around whenever things got boring, mixing it up to keep things more exciting and titillating.

In a similar way, I was keeping my options open with other spiritual leaders and paths. Bouncing around to keep things exciting. The more exotic the spiritual path and teacher, the more I was enthralled.

Like a menu, I could pick and choose whatever I liked from each spiritual tradition that gave me pleasure and avoid anything that felt challenging, uncomfortable, or difficult.

This is very common in the New Age, “spiritual but not religious” scene. You take the stuff you like from each path, and you leave out anything that’s difficult to face.

I could sense moving into a more steadfast commitment on both levels would transform me in ways I could not imagine, the way a caterpillar cannot imagine how it is about to become a butterfly.

Yet it would require a much higher degree of discipline, focus, strength, and resiliency.

Most importantly, in both cases it would require becoming a more mature embodiment of love.

Amazingly, it was right after having the courage to commit my life to Christ that I was clearly guided to commit my life more deeply to Annie, asking her to marry me, moving to the country, and raising a child together.

And yet, that was just the beginning of the journey.

When we commit to deepening in intimacy with another, we often think the goal is to know them completely.

Gather all the data points and details. Observe their predictive patterns until we get to a point where we fully know them and the job is complete.

That is not how it actually works.

Here’s the most amazing thing:

To truly deepen in intimacy with another, one must engage in the mystical process of unknowing.

I love you.

I see you.

I don’t know you.

And I never will.

But I’m willing to discover you anew in each moment.

The more I commit to knowing Christ, the more I realize I cannot know him by just adding more data points and reading more Bible verses.

I only know him more by allowing myself to be re-formed into a new creation, physically, mentally, and spiritually, by his presence.

In a similar way, I find I can only know my wife more intimately, not by gathering more data, but by allowing myself to be continually transformed by her presence.

Intimacy is not the conquest of the mystery of the other. It is the willingness to move deeper and deeper inside that vast unknowability without any end or limit.

True love is not an information-gathering assignment.

True love is a transformative fire.

In my relationship with Christ, I’m becoming closer to my wife, and through my relationship with my wife, I’m becoming closer to Christ.

Through the relationship with both, I move more deeply into the fullness of who I truly am.

Commitment is the doorway to deeper revelation.

We begin to discover the infinite depths of what love is once we commit.

— Brian Piergrossi

BrianPiergrossi.com

After a severe, chronic illness, I first became very interested in yoga and meditation at twenty years old. I dedicated my life to transcending my own suffering and seeking spiritual enlightenment.

Spiritual sages like Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj, Ramana Maharshi, and J. Krishnamurti opened up incredible vistas inside me in my twenties.

This eventually led me to a deep immersion into the work of spiritual teachers like Eckhart Tolle, Adyashanti, and others in my thirties.

Books like the Tao Te Ching, The Way of Zen, The Power of Now, I Am That, Be Here Now, and The Way of Chuang Tzu were instrumental to me intuiting more clearly the nature of reality, who we really are, and why we’re here.

I also studied Tantric and Buddhist teachings, many developmental models of consciousness, and was greatly inspired by Sufi poets such as Rumi and Hafiz etc.

I worked with all the great nondual teachings, popular self-help, and law of attraction teachings, from every corner of the globe and eventually taught what I had realized to others.

This catalyzed a whole series of ecstatic spiritual experiences, gave me a great sense of inner peace and freedom, and dramatically transformed my consciousness, unlocking deeper patterns of wisdom.

Whatever I was experiencing in the moment felt like a fun, temporary illusion that could be laughed off like a momentary dream.

My consciousness became much more light, and present to the here and now. I became supremely skilled at knowing how to manifest situations and circumstances that gave me pleasure.

My presence became more magnetic and charismatic. I felt like I could manifest whatever I wanted and usually did.

I started dating the most beautiful women, visiting the most amazing exotic locations, all while being fully self-employed generating my income creating a business I absolutely loved. I was teaching and coaching others what I had learned. I led retreats and workshops all over the world, and had well over one-hundred thousand people following me across social media.

And yet something was missing.

Looking back, with a lot of introspection, I decoded three important patterns in this stage of my spiritual journey and the spiritual communities I was connected to.

Spiritual nihilism

Spiritual narcissism

Spiritual hedonism

From this worldview the purpose of life is to create your own reality. You can manifest whatever makes you feel good, and you can learn how to create more and more pleasurable experiences for yourself as you go.

I became outstanding at doing this yet I now felt called to something higher, truer, and deeper.

I was being called from:

From hedonism to service

From narcissism to sacrifice

From nihilism to eternal love

It wasn’t until my mid-forties that I was ready to meet my greatest teacher. (More on that another time.)

I had become free.

But I hadn’t yet become love.

I had become a spiritual being

But I hadn’t yet learned to become a fully human being.

The same presence that once laughed off the world as nothing but an illusion now began to learn how to weep, to sacrifice, to suffer, to sweat, to serve, and to truly love, for the good of the whole.

My inner prayers and intentions were no longer, “My will be done,” but, “Thy will be done… on Earth as it is in Heaven.”

I used to ask all my clients, students, and retreat attendees:

If anything is possible what do you want to create?

I now ask all my clients, students, and retreat attendees:

If anything is possible what are you called to create?

A subtle yet profound change in how one orients their inner attention and thus their life.

What are YOU called to create?

The more we follow the life God is calling us toward, the more we become an active participant in the eternal dance of love that forms all that is true, good, and beautiful.

========

Get in touch

About Me

Work With Me

In my last article about my new online community The Upper Room I wrote:

‘The intention of this community is to support each member to come into deeper communion with the Creator, each other, and all of creation.’

We can put that intention in different words that are even more simple and concise:

The intention is to go to Heaven.

Anything that distracts us from that focus is essentially the definition of sin.  It causes disconnection and thus suffering to ourselves and others.

This brings forward a few of life’s most important questions which sadly are rarely discussed.

Where is heaven?

What is heaven?

And how do we get there?

These are not questions we can merely answer verbally, or just by repeating a belief someone taught us to say.

The answers come through a continuing transformation and healing, of the mind, body, heart, and soul.

The answers come by being willing to let go more and more fully and allow God to make us a new creation.

The answers come through committing to the process of metanoia.

What is metanoia?

—————-

Metanoia (Greek: μετάνοια) is one of the most important words in the New Testament.

Most English Bibles translate it as “repentance,” but that translation is somewhat limited because modern people often hear repentance as:

Feeling guilty

Being sorry

Apologizing for sins

The original Greek is richer.

Meta = beyond, after, change

Nous = mind, intellect, perception, way of seeing

So metanoia literally means something like:

A transformation of mind, perception, consciousness, and orientation.

Not merely “I did something bad.”

Rather:

I now see reality differently.

This is why when Christ begins preaching:

“Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.” (Matthew 4:17)

The deeper sense is:

“Change the way you see. Awaken. Reorient your entire being because God’s Kingdom is present.”

Many modern scholars believe “undergo a radical change of heart and mind” is closer to the Greek than simply “repent.”

This is one reason the Desert Fathers, Gregory of Nyssa, Maximus the Confessor, and other Christian mystics viewed the Christian life as a lifelong metanoia. It wasn’t a one-time emotional conversion. It was an ongoing transformation of perception until one sees all things through God.

For St. Maximus especially, sin is fundamentally a misperception of reality. We become attached to created things as if they were ultimate. Metanoia is the healing of vision so that everything is seen in its proper relation to God.

In that sense, metanoia is not merely moral.

It is:

intellectual

psychological

spiritual

existential

A complete reordering of the person.

————————

May this space, and the core purpose of my work, hold a healing energy, intelligent insight, and compassionate guidance, that supports you in moving more fully through the  process of metanoia

May God bless you.

————————

About Me

Work With Me

At the end of 2022, a small group of friends began unexpectedly having a series of mystical encounters and spiritual experiences with God and Christ around the same time in the Western North Carolina region.

They began gathering for walks in the forests inquiring into the truth of life’s deepest questions and attempting to make sense of what they were experiencing.

This led to weekly discussion, prayer, and worship music together in each other's homes, recorded online calls together, and to this online community. A friend affectionately named this group of friends: “The God Squad” and the name stuck.

—————

Intention:

The intention of this community is to support each member to come into deeper communion with the Creator, each other, and all of creation.

As in the beginning, this  community continues to be a place where people are free and safe to ask questions about what they’re experiencing, or curious about, to better understand their spiritual journey. There are no heretical questions or topics.

————-

Who Belongs Here

Members of this community are welcome from whatever spiritual or religious path they are currently walking.

Healthy disagreements are more than welcome. However we’re generally more interested in finding common threads that point to the one & only truth rather than being stuck in the points of contention and egoic debate.

——————

The Story Behind ‘The Upper Room’

In scripture, The Upper Room was the space for several events and gatherings that changed the course of humanity.

🍞 The Last Supper:

The final meal Jesus shared with his apostles before his crucifixion, where he instituted the Eucharist (Communion).

🚪 Post-Resurrection Appearances:

The room where the disciples hid behind locked doors out of fear, and where the resurrected Jesus appeared to them, prompting "Doubting Thomas" to believe.

🙏 The Gathering of the Early Church:

Following the Ascension, the eleven apostles, along with Mary and other followers, used this room as a home base for prayer and operational decisions (like choosing Matthias to replace Judas).

🔥Pentecost:

The place where the Holy Spirit descended upon the disciples as "tongues of fire," marking the traditional launch of the Christian mission.

It was a place of communion, transformation, preparation, and spiritual awakening.

The phrase "upper room" is often used metaphorically to represent a place of deep prayer, intimacy with God, and spiritual preparation for shining our lights out into the world together.

——————--

The Upper Room: Invitation to Join the Online Community:

If this resonates with you you’re Invited to join the conversation HERE.

I see tremendous courage every day in the work that I do.

Not the courage of beating someone up in the ring or slaying someone on a battlefield.

Not the courage of performing in front of millions or risking it all in a business deal.

(Though I sometimes support clients in those areas as well.)

What I see people face is something that could perhaps be considered even scarier.

Every day, in personal sessions and group work, I see people having the courage to honestly and vulnerably look at the mistakes they’ve made in their life and communicate how they feel inspired to do better.

I see people facing their old self and committing toward a new self that is still unknown and often feels out of reach.

The only way to do this is to first acknowledge that we’ve made mistakes in the grand school of life.

It’s not a bad thing to make mistakes. In fact, I would argue it’s a good thing.

I don’t think I’ve ever met a person filled with genuine wisdom about the human experience who hasn’t made lots of mistakes in their life.

I’ve certainly made a lot of mistakes in my life and grown in wisdom each time because of it.

This is because the best, and perhaps the only way, to become truly great at something is by having the courage to make lots of mistakes and learn from them.

Michael Jordan has missed more shots than you have. That’s because he’s taken far more shots than you have. Each time he missed, he learned from the mistake and adjusted accordingly.

The path to deeper wisdom and genuine mastery is to make mistakes, acknowledge them by looking within, and continue learning from them. This requires courage.

=========

Reply to this email to learn more about the work I do with individuals, couples, and groups and how it may benefit you, or someone you love.

- Brian Piergrossi

Brianpiergrossi.com

There are many science-based strategies to support our healing. There are prescription drugs, vitamin supplements, and physical and psychological therapy practices.

They each have their place.

Yet perhaps the most powerful remedy to reset the mind, the heart, and the nervous system rarely gets mentioned.

You can’t commodify it or buy it in a pharmacy.

The great remedy is forgiveness.

Continued accumulation of resentments over a lifetime is a fundamental source of mental and physical illness, and dis-ease.

It clogs up the heart, debilitates the mind, and increasingly saps the vitality of the body.

I can say with conviction, working with so many people over twenty years, that often the most important person to forgive is oneself.

Sustained self-loathing creates a whole slew of destructive patterns.

On a metaphysical level forgiveness is a time-buster.
It’s the gateway to eternal life.

Forgiveness is uniquely foundational to the teachings and worldwide transmission of Jesus Christ.

Forgiveness restores us to our innocence consciousness. It returns us to the Garden of Eden. There’s a feeling of coming home to one’s true nature.

Christians so often forget that well before the ‘original sin’ entered the human timeline there was the original innocence we are perfectly designed for.

As we mature in our spiritual journey, we do not forgive in order to be nice to others.

We do not forgive because an outside authority told us we should.

We do not forgive in order to get something in return.

We forgive because we realize it aligns our hearts with the Infinite Truth, the Supreme Love and Divine Intelligence.

Forgiveness reintegrates us with the original blueprint at the heart of all creation.

We learn to forgive, and to repent for our sins, because it aligns us with Reality.

Forgiveness is the gateway to the freedom of our inherent birthright. The restoration of all things into their radiant Big Glow.

Forgiveness heals our long-held traumas and wounds and brings us further into the actualization of God’s inherent design for us.

One of the highest commitments we can make is to learn to how forgive.

Will you make that commitment?

====================

About

Work With Me

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New container for the 22nd season of my men’s mastermind group begins this Thursday, 6pm EST!

A couple spots still available to join me.

Reply to this email ASAP if interested in joining.

More details:

https://open.substack.com/pub/brianpiergrossi/p/an-invitation-to-men-and-the-woman

——-——

Personal & couples session packages also available for both men & women.

When I first started coaching people over twenty years ago, I would treat everyone as equal and the same in accordance with my post-modern university education and liberal sensibilities.

Through trial and error, with many individuals, I learned that was a big mistake.

I had to learn instead to face the timeless truth that there are two distinct paths to the full actualization of one’s life.

The masculine path and the feminine path.

These are the two opposing yet synergistically complementary paths of creation. The design is actually quite beautiful.

However, in our current world, we often fail to appreciate the value in the inherent design of these two distinct modes of being.

Trying to continually force a feminine path on a masculine man is destructive to his strength, confidence, inner compass and inspired direction, often leading to nihilistic apathy, superficial hedonism, and addictive coping patterns.

Trying to continually force a masculine path on a feminine woman creates chronic stress and anxiety, unconscious resentment, disconnection from her body, often leading to chronic physical pain and health disorders.

A masculine man needs something very different than a feminine woman needs to unlock his deepest potential.

He needs to be consistently challenged to grow in his strength.

He needs adversity to build his character.

He needs routine accountability to grow in integrity.

He needs to foster an inner-discipline to cultivate his gifts.

He needs clarity of purpose to harness his vitality and deepest life-force.

The mature man learns to find his highest purpose in self-sacrificing love.

He dedicates his time and energy to actualize his body, his mind and his emotional intelligence to be a stronger vessel of love and service to his family, his community, and his world.

He learns over time to surrender his personal will to God’s will so his life may be a benefit and a blessing to others.

=======

New container for the 22nd season of my men’s mastermind group begins this Thursday, 6pm EST!

A couple spots still available to join me.

Reply to this email ASAP if interested in joining.

More details:

https://open.substack.com/pub/brianpiergrossi/p/an-invitation-to-men-and-the-woman

——-——

Personal & couples session packages also available for both men & women.

There are two major things that are about to happen. I’m curious how both of these things converging at the same time will affect the world’s major religions, and our sense of meaning and purpose in general.

One is that all signs point to us being on the verge of major disclosure of alien life in contact with planet Earth. To me, a more accurate term is “interdimensional beings.”

The second is being on the verge of the explosion of agentic artificial intelligence right now and the massive changes ensuing.

The increasing difficulty of discerning what’s real and not real, the vast potential to manifest whatever projects and goals are desired in hours, or minutes, instead of years, the decreasing need for our fellow human beings, or even the decreasing need for ourselves.

What impact do these converging forces have on our sense of purpose, identity, social cohesion, and traditional narratives of collective meaning?

Thoughts?

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22nd Season of my Men’s Mastermind begins May 21st on Zoom. More info & next steps.

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Contact me for more information about my work: brianmichaelpiergrossi@gmail.com

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Work With Me

About Me

The moment of greatest uncertainty is also the moment of greatest opportunity.

=====

Men’s Mastermind with Brian Piergrossi

Season 22

Begins Thursday, May 21 | 6 PM EST | 16 Weeks | Limited to 10 Men

We are living in a time of major transition and uncertainty on multiple fronts.

For many people it can feel confusing, at times even overwhelming.

Yet the moment of greatest uncertainty is also the moment of greatest opportunity.

Accessing these opportunities requires:

• Self-honesty

• Clarity of intention

• Strategy

• Accountability

• Holistic integration

If you are reading this, you are a man I hold in high regard as being on a conscious path of self-mastery and accountability.

This will be my 22nd season leading my men’s mastermind group.

Our core group of men has been together for several years and shares a strong bond of support.

Our community is rooted in this foundational question:

If anything is possible, what are you called to create in these 10 areas?

• Physical

• Mental

• Emotional

• Spiritual

• Work / Purpose

• Financial

• Relationships

• Community

• Family

• Home

These ten pillars form the architecture of a deeply meaningful life.

Our meetings inspire greater focus, purpose, resilience, strength, and accountability to reach new levels of success beyond superficial gratification.

⸻

Who

The men who register for my mastermind groups are interested in a supportive community to inspire and hold them accountable in living their highest purpose.

They are committed to activating a deeper level of clarity, courage, discipline, and service to those they love.

They are entrepreneurs, leaders, fathers, creators, and men in transition who value honest reflection, practical support, and resonant community.

⸻

Some Common Questions

How many people?

This group is limited to only 10 men to maintain optimal intimacy, trust, and cohesion.

⸻

When?

We meet in a weekly Zoom call for approximately 60 minutes.

The Spring season is a 16-meeting commitment, May 21 – Sept. 3.

We meet Thursday evenings at 6 PM EST.

It’s OK if you can’t attend every single meeting.

⸻

What are the meetings like?

The meetings are held sacred as a life-enhancing priority. We begin promptly at the specified time regardless of who is present.

The meetings are fun, enriching, encouraging, supportive, focused, and beneficial to each individual and the group as a whole.

Each member shares ideas, support, information, and feedback honestly and vulnerably in ways that help advance individual and group goals.

All sessions are confidential. Nothing that transpires is shared publicly.

⸻

What is the format?

• Check-ins: How are you feeling right now in your mind, heart, spirit, and body?

• Each member reviews their intentions since the last meeting and whether they have accomplished their weekly goals outwardly and/or realized inwardly.

• Open forum where each member can ask for feedback on challenges, points of confusion, celebrate victories, and request support.

• Brian offers coaching and mentoring support, followed at times by suggested homework.

• Each member shares intentions/goals for the following week.

• Closing.

⸻

Can we stay in touch between meetings?

Definitely.

There is a private messaging thread to stay in touch, update one another, and support each other on homework, insights, and accountability between sessions.

This is, in fact, where a lot of the best stuff transpires.

⸻

Investment

$777 paid in full for the full 16-week season

or 3 installments of $290

Payment via PayPal or Venmo to thebigglow@gmail.com

⸻

It’s been an amazing six years thus far, with many stories of profound transformation among our members.

If you think you’d find value committing to a higher level of clarity, discipline, and purpose while journeying with this small community of committed men, message me this week and let’s schedule a conversation.

-Brian Piergrossi http://brianpiergrossi.com

⸻

Some previous examples of what our meetings are like:

Aug. 14, 2025

https://youtu.be/jYZBaykH7cQ

Dec. 18, 2025

https://youtu.be/1VFlrcQ8L-c

This Thursday at 6 PM EST, we’re opening up the final meeting of season 21. All are welcome to join us.

You’ll hear honest ‘check-ins’, stories of transformation, and an open forum where real challenges, lessons, and breakthroughs are shared.

If you’ve ever wondered what a men’s group can offer, this will give you a direct inside look.

Topics include:

• The breakthroughs that keep men coming back

• Why accountability and honesty are essential for growth

• The role of community in becoming the strongest version of yourself

This is a special invitation to witness the power of men coming together in truth, strength, and support.

—————

Season 22 begins May 21, Thursday, 6pm EST.

————-

Join Zoom Meeting this Thursday @ 6pm EST:

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86441154897

Meeting ID: 864 4115 4897

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About my work

About me

What is your purpose?

Last night, in my view, was one of the best meetings in the twenty-one seasons leading my men’s mastermind group.

The reliable structure was the same. The meeting began with each man checking in on how they are feeling in this moment right now.

I then moved forward to holding each member accountable for the actions he intended to accomplish this week.

We then moved to the open forum where each man is free to bring forward anything they are inquiring into.

Any challenges, difficulties, or points of confusion from the past week they would like reflection on from the rest of the group.

After a period of silence, the conversation quickly began to deepen in profound power and life-changing wisdom.

A courageous private and confidential conversation emerged about God, surrender, and trust, personal loss and pain, negative self-talk, the larger meaning in our lives, and what truly brings well-being and fulfillment.

Here is where the dialogue eventually landed:

Pain without purpose is suffering.

Pain with purpose is sacrifice.

Sacrifice is love.

Learning to love is the meaning of life.

Each man then shared his intentions and goals for the upcoming week, and we closed out the meeting in gratitude.

It’s unusual for a group of men in our society to have an intentional conversation about how to love.

And yet being consistently committed to learning how to love is the most mature masculine act there is. It requires bravery, strength, integrity, and sacrifice.

It’s only when a man’s highest intention is being of service to others that he is grounded in his most fulfilling purpose.

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The 22nd season of my men’s mastermind group begins Thursday May 21 at 6pm EST.

Contact me if you’re interested in learning more.

So many people I know are in drastic need of help right now yet unable to ask for it.

I get it. I used to be like that also. I remember clearly the turning point.

It was close to twenty-five years ago. It was twilight in the forest. Many of the best moments of my life have happened in the twilight of the forest.

It was summertime. She and I were engaged in a deep and intimate, heartfelt conversation as the air grew cooler, the crickets began to sing and the day slowly turned into night. I was telling this wise woman, with raw vulnerability, the things I wanted in my life, my passions, my inspirations, my desires, the deepest callings of my heart.

She looked at me with a deep presence and said something that changed the course of my life.

“If you want something, ask for it.”

It was a simple yet life-changing message I was open, available for, and ready to hear.

It struck me to my core, hitting me in a deep way that sent reverberations up and down my spine. It changed the direction of my life.

There’s a widespread perception I used to share that asking for help is a sign of failure, and that highly successful people don’t need to ask for help.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

The most successful people are the ones who have asked for and received the most support of all. In some cases, dozens or even hundreds of people whose job it is to support them in the areas of nutrition, physical fitness, mental and emotional health, spiritual practice/guidance, relationship counsel, business and financial consultants, etc.

The reason is that these people have a high degree of self-worth and self-love and are able to envision a brighter future. They are able to consistently invest their time, money and energy in committed devotion to a higher version of themselves, and their life.

Many people never ask for help not because they do not need it, but because fear, pride, shame, or old conditioning convinces them they have to do it alone. Yet asking for help is the very doorway through which a new life begins to blossom.

If you want something, ask for it.

You’re worth it.

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Contact me for more information about my work: brianmichaelpiergrossi@gmail.com

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Work With Me

About Me

I remember when I was eighteen years old I bought my first book at the Berkshire Mall in Pennsylvania after seeing a late-night infomercial from Tony Robbins.

It was summertime and I would read it in the backyard in the afternoon sun.

There was an exercise in the book that asked me to prioritize my values in order to become more self-aware of what’s important to me.

The answer was clear. My number one value, by far, was freedom.

I didn’t want anyone telling me what to do or how to do it. I would henceforth make my own rules and create my own life.

I was convinced I had the freedom to create my own reality and I would rebel against any system that tried to control me.

The narrative of a heroic rebel fighting for individual rights is the foundational basis of American culture: our novels, our movies, our history books.

Each person with the freedom to pursue their own individual happiness.

I would be a freedom fighter. I would rebel against any system trying to oppress my individual freedom.

I rebelled against the government, the school system, the religious institutions, the corporations, and most essentially, my own parents.

Why follow any of these institutions or listen to what they say? I saw them all as filled with corruption and hypocrisy. I would follow whatever was true inside me, and liberate myself from The Machine.

Then something quite amazing and perhaps unexpected happened.

Through a long series of profound spiritual experiences, soul-searching, psychological and theological study, a transformation slowly began to take root.

I encountered and deepened in relationship with a supreme, all-knowing, all-loving intelligence infinitely greater than myself.

In other words, I found God through the teachings, and the transmission, of Christ.

For the first time in my life, I found an absolute authority I could fully trust and wanted to give my obedience to.

Why should I follow someone like Deepak Chopra when I can follow Christ? It’s not much of a comparison.

Here’s the amazing paradox.

I discovered in this obedience to God lies a much greater and more profound freedom than I ever had before.

The mind becomes free from needing to figure it all out, from obsessively trying to control external circumstances, from old patterns of anxiety and fear.

The heart opens in a state of effortless forgiveness and loving compassion.

The nervous system resets. The physiology of the entire body drops into a profound place of deep safety, rest, and rejuvenation.

There’s a sense of becoming as scripture calls it, ‘a new creation’ deeply at home in the Now, with full trust in an unfolding plan that cannot be, and doesn’t need to be, comprehended by the mind.

Every challenge I face is an opportunity to continue to deepen that trust and faith in relationship with God.

In the same way that we can look for love in all the wrong places we can look for freedom in all the wrong places too.

The greatest freedom doesn’t come from having lots of choices. The greatest freedom actually comes from having no choice at all.

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Work With Me

About Me

Contact me for more information about my work: brianmichaelpiergrossi@gmail.com

An ongoing conversation my friend Michael Parisi & I have is around the question: What is the mind of Christ?

Or what is the mind of God?

I’ve been exclusively reading St. John of the Cross and finding great value in his ancient writings.

What’s becoming increasingly clear to me is that the overwhelming majority of our socially / culturally conditioned thoughts are a complete waste of time.

They do not lead us into a harmonious dance of trust with the mind of our Creator.

They are a waste of energy at best, a destructive pattern toward ourselves and others at worst.

The more one’s mind steps into communion with God, the more this excessive thinking—

*worry

*fear

*anxiety

*doubts

*addictions

*resentments

*jealousy

*revenge

*vanity

*hedonistic pursuits

starts to fade away as strength, confidence, and faith grow into the simple and repeated act of fully surrendering to God’s will, moment by moment.

This does not actually require more knowing. It requires an absolute unknowing. A process of subtraction.

With the continued emptying of the mind and the heart, we become much more open and available for God’s presence to fill us and illuminate us.

My sense is that, as we become increasingly purified on this path, the amount of overall content bouncing around in our head can be reduced by probably 75% to 80%.

Figures like Eckhart Tolle, Thich Nhat Hanh, & others who teach the value of stilling the mind are correct.

Yet, here’s the important thing: You can never still the mind by trying to do it for your own egoic benefit & gratification. It just creates more internal noise.

It happens as a byproduct of fully giving your life to God (the loving presence at the heart of all creation).

I believe this is what it means when Christ teaches us to be ‘poor in spirit.’

After an extended period of disorientation & now reorientation, I have found a most rooted and beautiful home for myself in the rich tradition of contemplative Christianity.

Particularly the Catholic / Orthodox tradition with its long list of great saints and absolute powerhouse mystics to draw pristine wisdom from.

The interesting thing is very few of the clients I work with have been, or are, Christian.

My clients have always spanned every category:  ‘spiritual, but not religious,’ Yogis, New Age, Buddhist, Muslim, Jewish, Christian, Pagan, Atheist.

No one has ever been asked to change who they are.

Everyone is, however, asked to consider the same question.

What are you thinking about each day?

If you look closely, the odds are most of what you’re thinking about is an unhealthy waste of time & energy.

The good news is, through clear intention, dedicated, committed practice, self-inquiry, discipline, grit, and grace, that can and will change.

I can attest to that from my own experience and the lives of those I’ve worked with.

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Contact me to have a conversation about my work.

Work With Me

About Me

A full day of personal sessions today with clients in Virginia, New York, Texas & North Carolina.

I love getting deep under the hood of someone’s mind over an extended period of time, working to uncover the patterns that are no longer serving them, and watching breakthroughs manifest in their life in doing so.

It feels like the work God has truly called me to, and I’m so deeply grateful for that.

It’s become increasingly clear to me what I’m not called to do is spend lots of time on social media.

Why do I say that?

The business model of social media platforms is to maximize profit by maximizing your time and engagement—because your attention is what’s sold to advertisers and used for data-driven targeting.

Simply put: the goal of social media is to make you addicted to social media, by any means necessary.

The algorithm has discovered these are the primary emotional levers that get people hooked on social media:

Rage

Fear

Insecurity

Anger

Anxiety

Worry

Jealousy (FOMO)

Lust

I’ve watched social media addiction make so many people I know overwhelmed, anxious, depressed, lost in information silos, mentally inflexible, turn against their own family and friends for ideological/political reasons, and increasingly detached from reality.

As the saying goes, these people need to “touch grass.”

But here’s the thing to understand.

If the goal of social media is to make you addicted to social media, then who is the enemy of social media companies?

Anything and anyone who takes your time and attention away from social media.

The enemy of social media companies is your life.

Your spouse (or potential spouse)

Your children

Your friends

Your gym

Your church (or potential church)

Your state park

Your books

Your inner silence

Your contemplation/prayer time

The greatest enemy of social media companies is you living a happy and healthy life.

In an age of such mass and intentional distraction, I help people stay focused on the key focal points that foster a truly meaningful life.

As St. Irenaeus once said: The glory of God is a man fully alive.

Cultivating the elite focus and accountability to transcend today’s distractions is the latent superpower we must unlock for us to thrive.

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Contact me for information on my work.

Work With Me

About Me:

Start Here: The 10 Keys to a Life Well-Lived.

We are living through a time of major transition and uncertainty. For many people it can feel confusing, at times even overwhelming.

Have you noticed this as well?

Many of the people who eventually reach out to work with me are already successful by most external measures. Yet internally they are beginning to sense that something deeper is missing — meaning, presence, fulfillment. A lack of alignment between the life they have built and the life they feel called to live.

At the beginning of working with someone I ask them one key, foundational question:

If anything were possible, what are you called to create in these ten areas of your life?

Physically

Mentally

Emotionally

Spiritually

Work / Purpose

Financially

Relationships

Community

Family

Home

These ten domains form the architecture of a life well-lived.

For over twenty years now I’ve worked with individuals around the world through private mentorship, retreats, workshops, online courses, and group programs.

Over the past two decades it has been deeply inspiring to watch many of the people I’ve worked deeply with for several years, make profound breakthroughs across these areas.

*A woman in her forties from North Carolina has lost more than 100 pounds and is now in the best shape of her life with a growing sense of inner confidence.

*A man in his thirties in Texas recently achieved his lifelong goal of becoming a multimillionaire, and becoming financially secure for the rest of his life.

*A man in his thirties from Ohio is now engaged to the woman of his dreams.

I’ve helped clients overcome depression, anxiety, panic attacks. Self-destructive habits such as junk food, pornography, alcohol, recreational drugs, video games, and gambling.

I support people to engineer the architecture of the life they are truly called to live, not just superficial gratification.

Results:

Inner Life (Spiritual Foundation)

This is the root of everything.

Most people are living from:

• Unconscious habits and conditioning

• Anxiety, stress, and mental noise

• A sense of disconnection—from themselves and from life

What changes:

• Inner stability not dependent on external conditions

• Clear sense of who you are beneath roles and identity

• Reduced anxiety and internal noise

• Consistent baseline of calm, clarity, and groundedness

• Deeper sense of meaning, inspired purpose, connection, and feeling internally at home.
  
  

How it’s developed:

• Direct self-honesty and self-awareness

• Guided practices may include breathing, meditation, and mindfulness exercises

• Reduction of internal noise and unconscious reactivity

• Alignment between insight and daily action

When this is in place:

All other domains strengthen.

Physical

• Consistent exercise routine

• Healthy diet

• Quality sleep

• Increased energy, strength, immune system

Mental + Emotional

• Reduced anxiety and mental noise

• Greater focus and control

• Increased internal stability, emotional intelligence & resliency

Work + Purpose + Direction

• Clear direction

• Work that feels aligned and inspired

• Decisive forward movement

Relationships + Family + Community

• More dynamic, healthy, loving, intimate relationship

• Deeper bonds with extended family, healing old trauma patterns and entering state of forgiveness

• More resonant network of deep, rich friendships

Financial

• Income abundantly aligned with direction

• Easing of financial stress and worry

• Money abundantly flowing as an optimized tool for well-being and contribution

Home

• Movement toward an optimal living environment that supports your life

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It is during the times of uncertainty that the greatest opportunities for transformation appear.

For the first time in several years, space has opened in my calendar to mentor two new private clients. This program has a six month minimum commitment with the option to renew.

It is for those who want to passionately commit to deep long-term transformation, internally and externally, to live the life they are truly called to live.

If you feel you are standing at a crossroads and are ready for a higher level of clarity, discipline, and purpose, send me a message. thebigglow@gmail.com

Tell me about about yourself in three to four sentences, and we’ll schedule a conversation to talk about working together.

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About Me

We’re in Pennsylvania, and the whole family has gathered to celebrate my father’s 80th birthday.

My father has lived in the same city his whole life.

He’s been married to the same woman his whole life.

He worked at the same job for close to thirty years until he was laid off.

He’s had the same friends and gone to the same church every Sunday for decades.

He’s walked with the same friends at the same mall, at the same time, six days a week, for years.

One time, my family played a game. We went around the circle, and everyone had a chance to answer the following question:

If you could live anywhere in the world, where would you live?

Everyone took turns harnessing the far reaches of their imagination to mention all kinds of exotic, luxurious, spectacular locations.

The question finally came around to my father, who said: “Berks County, Pennsylvania. Best place in the world.” The place he was born and lived his whole life.

Every time I ask my dad if he’s happy, including today, he immediately says yes.

When I work with clients, I work both on the external level and on the internal level.

Some clients need to make major external changes. End relationships. Change jobs or start a new business. Move to a new place they’ve always dreamed of living. Make big lifestyle changes. Break addictive habits.

And sometimes all that’s required is a change of perspective—finding the gratitude and appreciation for what one already has and what has been there all along.

The simple beauty of being alive is always here and now if we’re present enough to notice.

The way the big glow of the sun gently rises over the trees, the flowers smile with the new dawn, and the birds gently sing in the morning twilight.

Happy 80th, Pops!

We’re grateful for you.

-Brian Piergrossi

An Invitation:

If you’re in a season of reflection on your life, what matters, and how you want to live—I work privately and selectively with a small number of clients each year.

Sometimes the work is about making meaningful external changes.

And sometimes it’s about seeing clearly and learning to fully inhabit the life that’s already here.

Almost always, it’s both.

For the first time in several years, I have space available for new clients.

If you feel called to explore that, reply to this email and we’ll schedule a conversation.

I miss taking time to write. It’s one of my gifts and one of my joys. So I’ll be getting back to that soon.

For me, writing is like taking the time to observe, with awe and wonder, the handiwork of God, then jotting down what I observe in words to share with friends, known and unknown.

Heaven is a deeper dimension of Now that we are each invited to participate in.

Over the past couple of months, I’ve spent little to no time on social media, and I expect that trend to continue for the rest of the year, and probably longer.

Most of my quality time over the past couple of months has gone to the key areas that bring the greatest fulfillment to my distinct calling in this world, in this new chapter of my life:

• Being the best husband I can be.

• Being the best father I can be. (I’m loving seeing this world again for the first time through the eyes of my now almost two-year-old.)

• Being dedicated to supporting my clients and their continued positive transformation in the key areas of their lives.

• Being devoted to deepening my communion with God.

I’m aware there are all kinds of crazy, scary, anxiety-provoking things happening on many fronts in the news right now. My prayers go out to all those who are being affected.

And I also assure you, there’s a quiet, utterly still, and beautiful place of profound peace and freedom deep down inside each and every one of us, where there’s no news at all.

Here’s a reel with some snapshots from the past couple of months with friends and family.

Until next time ….

- Brian Piergrossi

#FindtheGlow

A Personal Invitation:

If you’re like so many right now, in a time of great transition and uncertainty, looking for clarity of purpose, discipline, accountability, and a coherent strategy to take your life to the next level of well-being and fulfillment while activating your true mission, I work privately, and selectively with a small number of people each year.

For the first time in several years, I have space available for new clients.

If you’re interested and ready for that conversation, email me:

thebigglow@gmail.com