Is Stress Actually Good For You? The Truth About Intensity with Nico Verresen

Catherine Llewellyn welcomes Nico Verresen, former Muay Thai champion, psychologist and founder of Burnout Boxing Experience. Nico explores his lifelong relationship with intensity and how a passion that took him to the top of combat sports eventually led him to a very different mission: helping people embrace intensity rather than automatically seeing stress as something harmful. After years of fighting, Nico's body finally forced him to stop when severe eye injuries ended his competitive career. The experience helped him recognise that intensity itself wasn't the problem—it was how we related to it. He now works with people to understand their nervous systems, embrace challenging experiences and develop the presence to choose how they respond. They explore stress as an adaptive system, the difference between stress and suffering, why our beliefs about stress can influence how we experience it, and how challenge can become the “spice” that makes life more alive. Nico also shares how his relationship with intimacy and intensity has evolved, and why emotions such as stress, anger and anxiety can be understood as messages rather than problems to suppress.   #Intensity #NervousSystem #TruthAndTranscendence   ================== Where our conversation went: 01:18 Nico's lifelong attraction to intensity and where it began 04:00 Discovering Muay Thai and becoming deeply immersed in combat sports 05:54 The medical diagnosis that ended Nico's fighting career 07:47 Recognising the parallels between his father's work ethic and his own drive 08:47 Why suffering your way to the top is a losing game 09:09 Nico's new mission: helping people embrace intensity and stress as part of adaptation 09:48 Learning to notice bodily sensations, thoughts, emotions and impulses—and choose how to respond 11:18 Why many people may need to “turn up the volume” rather than reduce intensity 12:00 Why humans are built to handle intense challenges 14:09 What happens in the body when we experience stress 15:13 How secondary stress—our thoughts and judgements about stress—can make things worse 17:20 How extreme pressure can create intense presence and focus 19:25 Reframing fear and stress as excitement and preparation 20:04 Why our beliefs about stress can affect how we experience it 20:46 Research exploring how different beliefs about stress affect performance and physiology 24:07 The difference between wanted and unwanted intensity—and why people can fear intensity 25:09 Why getting older doesn't necessarily mean having less intensity in life 26:01 How embracing intensity can improve sleep, performance and enjoyment 27:17 The transformative power of challenge and rites of passage 29:19 What we may have lost by becoming disconnected from healthy forms of challenge and intensity 30:22 Experiencing intense presence without danger or suffering 32:05 Finding intensity after giving up competitive fighting 32:31 How heartbreak, relationships and fear of intimacy shaped Nico's relationship with intensity 33:50 Realising that his deepest way of relating is to go fully and deeply into what he loves 34:00 Reassessing his work and finding new sources of intensity 40:54 Learning to experience emotions as messages rather than problems 41:25 Recognising sensitivity and emotional intensity as a potential strength 41:47 Stress, anger and anxiety as signals from the nervous system—and learning to listen   #podmatch #StressMastery #Aliveness #PersonalTransformation   Where to find Nico Verresen: https://burnoutboxingexperience.com   ========================= ✦ Stepping more deeply into your Calling? Book a Clarity Call with Catherine: https://beingspace.world/clarity 🤝 Join our Being Space Community ✦ Podcast: https://truthandtranscendence.com ✦ Podcast: https://www.podpage.com/different-points-podcast/ ✦ Website: https://www.beingspace.world ✦ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@BEINGSPACEcatherinellewellyn ✦ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/beingspace.world/ ✦ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BeingSpaceWorld ✦ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@beingspace.world Support the podcast: https://truthandtranscendence.com/donate