Matt’s Substack

Just Because It’s True Doesn’t Mean It Needs to Be Said

Matt Simpson — Mon, 24 Aug 2026 14:10:39 GMT

“Be authentic!” “Share your truth.” “Be your true self!”

These are all feel-good directives that most all of us subscribe to. I know I try to live these to the best of my ability. But there is a more nuanced conversation here that might help us break free to the next level.

These words by prolific author Seth Godin hit hard and inspired this inquiry:

“I think authenticity is a crock… The problem with authenticity is it’s selfish”.

Godin further says: “The last time you were authentic, you were three months old, lying in diapers with poop in them, crying. Ever since then, you have done things with intent.”

I’ve given a lot of thought to this, especially considering that I, and many others, have suffered from repressing our thoughts and emotions. Let’s dive in!

Authenticity VS Emotional Dysregulation

There is a fine line between authenticity and emotional discharge. We feel intensity in the moment; it’s uncomfortable, and we are relieved when we discharge it. But does that serve us? Our goals?

There is a time and place to share our emotions.

I’ve lived by these two powerful mantras:

“Loose lips sink ships”.

“Just because it’s true, it doesn’t mean it needs to be said”.

I’ve learned discernment is key. Often, our authenticity and saying what is on our minds and hearts creates unnecessary drama. It can be completely counterproductive when we spend so much energy putting out fires that our words have started.

Our egos justify this as “I’m being real,” or “I’m speaking my truth.” But every action we take has potential consequences. As we cultivate deeper awareness, we can see how these actions might be sabotaging our big goals and dreams. And if we are completely honest with ourselves, we might realize our perpetual dramas are often self-inflicted.

The ego doesn’t calculate opportunity cost.

Brené Brown offers another supreme mantra: “I’m not here to be right, I’m here to get it right.”

Sometimes getting it right means speaking courageously. Sometimes it means listening. Sometimes it means realizing that the thing we desperately want to say doesn’t need to be said.

For the longest time, I’ve thought that vulnerability is a superpower. That is still true, but with a slight caveat: vulnerability with discernment is a superpower.

Affirm These for Freedom

I’ve journaled intently for the last decade, and “Loose lips sink ships” has been atop my affirmations. For the last few years, “Just cause it’s true, it doesn’t mean it needs to be said” has been my go-to. I’ve learned that discernment and grace are nearly synonymous. How often do we say something when the best course of action might be listening, witnessing the shared humanity in front of us, and having grace? Letting it go. Saving our energies for what matters, the tasks that actually move the needle.

Journaling it Out

Our journals are the most powerful integration tools. Period.

You, pen and paper, and your thoughts. Journaling is the go-to for emotional processing and for cultivating deeper self-awareness. Remembering feelings are information, not instructions.

Personally, I will let it go and err on the side of peace. But if I’m journaling about the same thing and seeing patterns, I’ll know it needs to be addressed.

We cultivate the awareness to see when it’s time to step up, and when it’s time to zip it and let things unfold in front of you.

This is why I’ve spent so much time exploring meditation, breathwork, microdosing, and other practices that cultivate self-awareness. The goal is to create enough awareness to consciously respond rather than unconsciously react. Be aware of the situation.

Thank you for reading. It’s been fun for me to ponder this nuanced angle. I hope this thought exercise inspires more clarity and impactful, aligned action.

Have an awesome week!

Love, peace & prosperity,

Matt

PS: The intersection of self-awareness, nervous system regulation, microdosing, and high-performance is at the heart of the work I’m doing right now. If you are navigating burnout, stress, or feeling stuck, and want to explore what working together might look like, reply to this email. I’d love to connect.

Your Brain Can Change. And That Can Change Everything.

Matt Simpson — Mon, 17 Aug 2026 19:37:06 GMT

Most people think their personality, patterns, anxiety, reactions, and even their baseline level of happiness, are fixed, that that is who they are.

But thankfully, this isn’t the truth.

Did you know your brain is constantly changing and rewiring itself?

Just like that wise unattributed saying: “You never step in the same river twice.”

Once you understand how to deliberately influence the rewiring process, an extraordinary possibility emerges:

You can become someone new. Maybe even your future self, going all out and living life to the fullest.

Your Brain Can Change. And That Can Change Everything.

Microdosing and psychedelics boost neuroplasticity: the brain’s capacity to change, adapt, and form new connections. Research suggests classic psychedelics such as psilocybin/LSD may promote pathways associated with BDNF (Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor), what scientists have dubbed “Miracle-Gro for the brain”—and increase markers of synaptic growth and remodeling.

They open the “Window of Neuroplasticity”: the period when the brain may become more receptive to new patterns, perspectives, behaviors, and ways of being.

The magic isn’t simply opening the window. It’s what we intentionally practice, learn, and reinforce while that window is open.

Psychedelics can profoundly boost mood and energy, and even shift our relationship with difficult emotions, interrupting rigid patterns of thinking and creating an opportunity to look differently at anxiety, depression, trauma, and the stories we tell ourselves.

Acute + Aggregate

Two things are happening here.

Acute: What happens on dose day and in the subsequent days—the potential shifts in mood, energy, awareness, creativity, connection, and perspective.

Aggregate: What happens through repeated intentional practice over time. We strengthen our capacity to navigate stress, regulate our nervous system, and respond to life with greater resilience rather than simply reacting from old conditioning.

The ultimate goal is not to need something external to feel whole.

We may choose to continue exploring these tools because we enjoy them, because they deepen our experience, or because we want to explore the upper limits of the human experience.

But the deeper work is moving beyond that aching, gnawing sense that something is wrong and that we need something outside ourselves to alleviate our discontent.

Not Interested in Psychedelics?

All good. Psychedelics are merely a tool—a potential plasticity catalyst. The foundations that repeatedly shape the brain are available to virtually everyone. Deepen into these practices, behaviors, and mindsets to take everything to another level:

Exercise: Especially aerobic exercise, which supports BDNF, brain health, and learning. Our bodies are meant to move.
Deep, consistent sleep: Essential for consolidating learning and strengthening important neural pathways. Master sleep, and you are well on your way to mastering neuroplasticity.
Meditation and mindfulness: Training attention, awareness, and our ability to respond rather than react.
Novel, challenging learning: New skills, languages, music, problem-solving, anything that requires the brain to adapt. Get curious; childlike wonder is great for neuroplasticity.
Rich experiences and human connection: Relationships, nature, travel, creativity, play, and emotionally meaningful experiences.

Psychedelics may be among the more powerful acute catalysts for neuroplasticity. Eli Lilly's purchase of a psychedelic company for $2.8 billion is evidence of this: Read Did Eli Lilly Just Buy the Future of Psychedelic Medicine? Here’s Why I’m Concerned…

But increased plasticity does not automatically create positive change.

Plasticity + intention + practice + recovery = transformation.

Psychedelics may open the window.

What you repeatedly do while that window is open determines what gets built.

Love, peace, and prosperity,

Matt

Microdosing Wasn’t a Thing Until 2011. Then Everything Changed.

Matt Simpson — Sat, 08 Aug 2026 18:41:51 GMT

In 2011, almost nobody was talking about microdosing. By 2025, an estimated 10 million Americans had tried it.

What happened in between is one of the more fascinating cultural shifts of our time.

It all started in 2011 when Dr. James Fadiman released The Psychedelic Explorer’s Guide.

If you’ve ever done a high-dose journey, you know why microdosing represents such a different approach. The peak psychedelic experience can be sensational, otherworldly, even mystical. Much of the inspiring clinical data comes from these high-dose journeys.

So why are people microdosing?

For healing and mental health, deepening spiritual connection, longevity, increased focus, enhanced performance, and more.

It’s an entirely different application of the same potent molecules.

The Psychedelic Edge: From Counterculture to High Performance

It was 2015 when Tim Ferriss featured Dr. Fadiman on his podcast, and the word got out that microdosing was all the buzz in Silicon Valley—CEOs, coders, using “micro” and small amounts of mushrooms or LSD to lock in and access the flow state.

Tim Ferriss hosts one of the biggest business podcasts in the world. He has been quoted as saying, “The billionaires I know, almost without exception, use hallucinogens [or psychedelics] on a regular basis to ask bold, disruptive questions.”

In 2019, Ayelet Waldman released the first book dedicated fully to the incredible potential in an intentional microdosing journey: A Really Good Day: How Microdosing Made a Mega Difference in My Mood, Marriage & Life.

The Goal: A Really Good Day

When we start having more really good days, our lives begin to shift, and we deepen into aligned behavioral change. Momentum and confidence become our baseline.

Dr. Fadiman and co-author Jordan Gruber upleveled the conversation around microdosing with his book Microdosing for Health, Healing & Enhanced Performance. It was a special honor interviewing psychedelic pioneer and the “Godfather of Microdosing,” Dr. Fadiman, on the Worth The Fight Podcast: Microdosing for Macro Results.

Now, this cultural phenomenon is mushrooming in our collective to meet our troubled world head-on. According to a recent RAND Corp report, an estimated 10,000,000 Americans microdosed at least once in 2025.

I’m a big believer in the therapeutic and spiritual benefits of high-dose journeys, but most of us maybe we should learn to drink from a straw before a firehose of inspiration/insight.

With the heaviness in the world—polarization, war, climate crisis, loneliness epidemic—there are a lot of factors contributing to our mental health crisis. The existing treatments barely beat the placebo, have horrible side effects, and have proven very addictive and hard to taper off.

The Hopeful Science

Microdosing and psychedelics in general boost neuroplasticity; they promote BDNF (Brain-Derived Neurotropic Factor), AKA “Miracle Gro for brains,” and promote a “Window of Neuroplasticity,” where we grow new cells, existing cells have more dendrites and richer complexity with more connections, which can result in elevated cognition and accelerated learning.

The hallmark of the experience is boosted mood and energy levels. And there’s emerging evidence that psychedelics may enhance sexual well-being, including desire, arousal, connection, and satisfaction.

Psilocybin can lift us out of our depression, quiet our anxious mind, and reveal the opportunity within our unprocessed traumas. LSD lights up our spirits and has been shown in recent Phase 3 Clinical Trials at Definium to have lasting benefits for both Anxiety & Depression up to 3 months. Woe.

Human Performance Evolved

Neuroplasticity isn’t unique to psychedelics. The top 5 most important neuroplasticity-promoting activities are exercise, breathwork, meditation, novelty (doing new things), and good sleep, which helps lock in the rewiring process.

How we get there doesn’t really matter.

What I’m most excited about is living and integrating the psychedelic principles of emotional processing, nervous system regulation, and the power of stillness into our world. And how they promote the spirit of kindness, collaboration, and conscious business.

There is a lot of buzz in our culture around AI. I am far more bullish on HI. That’s right: Human Intelligence.

With psychedelics just now entering the mainstream and being integrated into our collective in real time, we are just scratching the surface in the infancy stages of understanding what we are capable of when fully alive with enthusiasm and inspiration.

Curious about Microdosing? Curious about how holistic health strategies for vital energy, clarity & focus can level you up, and how an elevated mindset can prime prosperity pathways in your life? If so, I’ve got you.

I’m hosting a live masterclass Prosperity Catalyst 3-Day Challenge on Zoom next Thursday, Friday & Saturday from Noon-1pm EST. Buy your $47 challenge ticket here.

As Howard Thurman, mentor to Martin Luther King Jr., famously said:

“Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive—and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.”

Let’s go! Hope to see you there!

Love, peace & prosperity,
Matt

From Burnout to Fully Alive

Matt Simpson — Fri, 07 Aug 2026 20:16:51 GMT

If you’re feeling burned out, stressed, stuck, or simply know there’s gotta be a better way forward, this is your invitation.

Join me live for the Prosperity Catalyst 3-Day Challenge (Zoom) and walk away with actionable tools to cultivate greater vital energy, clarity, and focus—and a clear path forward that leaves you feeling energized, confident, and ready to take inspired action.

Space is limited. Reserve your spot today.

Thursday, August 13: 12:00–1:00 PM ET
Friday, August 14: 12:00–1:00 PM ET
Saturday, August 15: 12:00–1:00 PM ET

Know someone who’s feeling burned out, stuck, or ready for a reset? Please share this with them.

See you soon!

Love, peace & prosperity,
Matt

Prosperity Catalyst 3-Day Challenge: Activate Vital Energy, Clarity & Focus

Matt Simpson — Tue, 04 Aug 2026 20:57:09 GMT

Over the last seven years, I’ve coached thousands, and I’ve guided more than 200 clients to reclaim their energy, find clarity, rewire limiting beliefs, and create meaningful breakthroughs in their lives and work.

What if you could begin that transformation in just three days?

Next week, I’m opening the doors to a three-day intensive where we’ll do exactly that.

We’ll explore the incredible potential within a structured microdosing protocol. I’ll walk you through practices designed to unlock greater vitality, clarity, and resilience. And I’ll share the stories of people who went from stressed to resilient, from stuck to aligned, and from burnout to brilliant.

By day three, you’ll leave with a practical roadmap to reclaim your vital energy, gain greater clarity, sharpen your focus, and take your next step with unwavering confidence.

We’ll meet on Zoom:

Thursday, August 13: 12:00–1:00 PM ET
Friday, August 14: 12:00–1:00 PM ET
Saturday, August 15: 12:00–1:00 PM ET

See you soon!

Love, peace & prosperity,

Matt

Energy Over Effort: The Productivity Lie Behind Burnout

Matt Simpson — Mon, 03 Aug 2026 20:32:07 GMT

Most of what we’ve been taught about success is backward.

Work longer.
Hustle harder.
Sleep less.
Push through.

It’s also one of the biggest lies fueling burnout, broken relationships, and a lurking sense that something is very wrong here.

Energy, not time, is your most valuable asset.

Most people don't have a productivity problem. They have an energy problem

What if the path to greater impact, better health, and more prosperity isn’t working harder—but creating more space?

Let’s push back against BS Inc here.

Parkinson’s Law

In 1955, British historian Cyril Northcote Parkinson observed a fascinating pattern:

“Work expands to fill the time available for its completion.”

Give yourself all week to finish a task, and it often takes all week.

Give yourself two focused hours, and you’ll be amazed at what gets done.

Constraints create clarity.

The Four-Day Workweek

Recent four-day workweek experiments reached a similar conclusion. Prominent studies in Iceland and the United Kingdom tested reduced workweeks—and the results were remarkable.

Highlights included: Productivity remained the same or improved.

Burnout fell by 71%.

Stress declined by 39%.

Sick days dropped by 65%.

Employee turnover fell by 57%.

92% of participating UK companies chose to continue the shorter workweek.

Worker well-being and work-life balance improved significantly. (All data from the UK Four-Day Week Trial led by researchers from the University of Cambridge and Boston College). When people had less time, they became more intentional.

Meetings became shorter. Busywork disappeared. Priorities sharpened.

Less time. More focus. Better work.

The 80/20 Principle

Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto discovered that roughly 80% of results often come from 20% of efforts.

Not all tasks are created equal.

The question isn’t:

“How can I do more?”

It’s:

“What actually moves the needle?”

Sometimes the highest-leverage activity isn’t another hour at your desk.

Sometimes it’s stepping away. Taking a walk. Sitting quietly.

Give your mind enough space to connect dots that constant busyness never allows.

Creating Space

Turn your phone off. Leave it in another room. Work in deep, uninterrupted blocks. Then protect the time you’ve created.

Meditate.

Pray.

Journal.

Spend time in nature.

Play.

Connect deeply.

Fall in love again—with your work, your family, your life. These aren’t rewards after productivity; they’re the fuel for it.

Energy Over Effort

Try this out.

Let’s test this theory.

Push back against BS Inc.

Take Friday off.

Leave early.

Book the trip.

Create more space than feels comfortable.

Protect your mornings.

See what happens to your clarity, creativity, relationships, and income over the next 90 days.

You may discover that the life you’ve been chasing doesn’t require working harder.

It requires slowing down and better utilizing our energy over effort.

Why I Wrote This

Because I want to invite you into a different possibility.

A life where success doesn’t cost your health.

Where ambition and inner peace aren’t opposing forces.

Where your greatest impact comes not from doing more but from becoming fully alive.

Where Microdosing Fits In

Here’s what I’ve observed: Most people don’t burn out from a lack of knowledge. They burn out because they’re trapped in BS Inc. limiting belief scarcity programs/patterns they can’t seem to interrupt.

While this isn’t for everyone, it can be for most of us.

An Intentional microdosing journey can help create the psychological flexibility to pause... breathe... and ask a different question:

“What kind of life am I actually building?”

The real power isn’t the protocol and plasticity; It’s the lifestyle changes that often follow.

Better sleep.

More presence with family.

More time in nature.

Less compulsive busyness.

Clearer priorities.

More courageous conversations.

More meaningful work.

In my experience, these small, heartfelt course corrections often compound into something extraordinary:

Vibrant health. Renewed passion. A profound sense of possibility.

These molecules may open the door. But your daily choices are what carry you through it.

Burnout isn’t solved by finding another productivity hack. It’s solved by building a life your nervous system no longer has to recover from.

Love, peace, and prosperity,

Matt

Psychedelics, Spiritual Awakening & Inner Work of Healing

Matt Simpson — Mon, 27 Jul 2026 16:13:43 GMT

I had a great time pushing the edges with Susan the Sage on the SageFull Living Podcast.

Episode: Psychedelics, Spiritual Awakening & the Inner Work of Healing

We explored the transformative potential of ayahuasca, how our deepest traumas can become our greatest hidden strengths, the science and strategy behind intentional microdosing, and one of the most overlooked aspects of the psychedelic journey: Integration.

What if a psychedelic experience isn’t the end of your healing journey—but the beginning?

We discuss why lasting transformation doesn’t come from psychedelia alone. It comes from what you do afterward. Journaling, meditation, breathwork, nervous system regulation, and the courage to face yourself honestly are what help turn powerful insights into lasting change.

If you’re feeling burned out, overwhelmed, or stuck, this conversation offers a hopeful path toward greater energy, clarity, and possibility.

I’d love to hear what resonates with you after you listen.

Love, peace & prosperity,

Matt

Did Eli Lilly Just Buy the Future of Psychedelic Medicine? Here's Why I'm Concerned.

Matt Simpson — Tue, 21 Jul 2026 17:55:00 GMT

Eli Lilly Buys AtaiBeckley for $2.8 Billion (Potentially $3.8 Billion)

What does this mean?

Big Pharma wants in.

After decades on the fringe, psychedelics are rapidly moving toward the mainstream. If current clinical trials continue to deliver, the first wave of next-generation psychedelic medicines could arrive sooner than many expected.

The healing revolution has already begun.

And Big Pharma doesn’t want to miss it.

The makers of Prozac are back—this time with a new vocabulary. They aren’t calling these compounds psychedelics. They’re calling them “neuroplastigens,” emphasizing their ability to rapidly promote neuroplasticity while distancing themselves from the cultural baggage of the past.

The branding has changed.

The economic incentives haven’t.

Why did Eli Lilly buy AtaiBeckley?

Simple.

Because the pipeline is incredibly compelling.

Among the crown jewels is a synthetic form of 5-MeO-DMT—often called “The God Molecule.”

Early clinical data have been remarkable.

Rapid onset
Roughly 15–30 minute dosing session
Around two hours total in clinic
Approximately two-thirds of participants achieved a clinically meaningful antidepressant response lasting around 85 days

If these results continue to hold up, this could become one of the most disruptive advances in mental health in decades.

Compare that to the side effects commonly associated with SSRIs like Prozac:

Erectile dysfunction
Emotional blunting
Weight gain
Withdrawal symptoms

Versus what many participants describe after 5-MeO-DMT:

Ego dissolution
Mystical-type experiences
Profound interconnectedness
A renewed sense of meaning and purpose

My concern...

It’s wonderful that more people may gain access to these therapies.

Truly.

But I’m deeply concerned that the protocols will be optimized for profit rather than healing.

Big Pharma has a fiduciary responsibility to maximize shareholder value.

That isn’t inherently evil.

But it creates an unavoidable tension:

Healing asks:

“How do we help people flourish?”

Wall Street asks:

“How do we maximize recurring revenue?”

Those are not always the same conversation.

Imagine a future where someone receives a psychedelic treatment every three months like an oil change.

Walk into the clinic.

Receive the medicine.

Feel amazing.

Go home.

Repeat.

No discussion about purpose.

No integration.

No coaching.

No lifestyle changes.

No healing relationships.

No examination of the beliefs, habits, or unresolved wounds at the root that created the suffering in the first place.

Just...

“See you in ninety days.”

These molecules may open the door. But integration is what walks you through it.
The more I do this work, the more I believe the real medicine is the lifestyle changes that follow courageous inner work.

Outwitting BS Inc

We’ve seen this movie before. Johnson & Johnson modified the ketamine molecule just enough to patent Spravato, creating a premium-priced treatment around a medicine closely related to generic ketamine.

Today, analysts estimate Spravato generates billions in annual revenue.

I’ve spoken with hundreds of people over the past several years who’ve spent time on what I call the pharmaceutical ketamine hamster wheel.

They keep going back.

Another infusion.

Another temporary reset.

Another lift.

Yet very few were ever taught what I believe is the most important question:

What if the medicine isn’t the treatment... it’s the invitation?

Neuroplasticity creates a window. What you do during that window determines whether your life actually changes.

Integration isn’t an accessory. It’s the treatment.

I’m very suspicious of Pharma.

Not because these medicines don’t work.

Quite the opposite.

The real problem with psychedelics is...

They work.

People heal.

People wake up.

People become less dependent on BS Inc.

They often require fewer long-term interventions.

That’s wonderful for humanity.

It’s a much harder business model.

Time will tell how all of this unfolds.

A Better Way Forward: The Prosperous Path

In my book, Worth The Fight, I wrote about many of these predictable crossroads years before they arrived.

Now we’re watching them play out in real time.

This is why I created Prosperity Pathways: Vital Energy, Clarity & Focus.

High-performance business coaching meets intentional microdose mentorship and psychedelic integration.

Transformation doesn’t come from the molecule. It comes from the choices you make after the molecule expands what’s possible.

This is for the high-achiever who knows there’s another level waiting.

The entrepreneur.

The executive.

The founder.

The leader.

The person who has achieved success—but knows something essential is still missing.

Together, we cultivate:

Vital Energy
Clarity
Focus
Inner peace
Sustainable abundance
Meaningful impact

I don’t believe our current way of doing business is sustainable. I believe we’re ready for something better.

More conscious leadership.

More holistic health.

More collaboration.

More kindness.

More stewardship.

More courage.

Join a community of ambitious leaders building greater impact, income, and inner peace. Book your complimentary Prosperity Pathways Clarity Call and discover what's possible

Inviting Possibility

Just as Johns Hopkins has illuminated that psychedelics can rewire “dis”- “ease” into wellness these past few decades, I believe we can rewire scarcity into abundance.

When approached with deep reverence, intentionality, and integration, these medicines don’t simply alter consciousness.

They expand what’s possible. They remind us who we really are. They invite us to become the people we were always capable of becoming.

I’ve never been more hopeful for The More Beautiful World Our Hearts Know Is Possible.

The invitation isn’t merely to heal.

It’s to awaken.

To lead.

To prosper.

Together.

Love, peace & prosperity,

Matt

From Burnout & Brain Fog to $650,000: The Miracle I Still Can’t Fully Explain

Matt Simpson — Mon, 20 Jul 2026 17:08:42 GMT

I don’t use the “M”-word lightly.

But it was a miracle. I was raised Christian, but I’m not very religious now—this definitely was a miracle.

Chronic Stress Crushes Creativity

My client, Jerry, a 60-year-old man, was struggling with brain fog and burnout. His nervous system was cashed, crushed by chronic stress. He could barely afford my then $3K coaching fee. I sat on an old-fashioned check and had to wait for him to ping me to let me know there were funds before I could deposit.

Uncommon Abundance

I’ve recently confirmed these dates and details after getting an enthusiastic update that life is good and his impact is expanding. We started working together at the beginning of Q3 of 2025, and something extraordinary happened. He broke through his imaginary limits to soar to uncommon heights of abundance. He made $100K in the first half of the year (we didn’t work together then), and made $650K in the second half after… Woe.

Let’s break down what happened here.

Was it the microdosing? Maybe. Psilocybin is a powerful catalyst—but I don’t think that’s the whole story.

It’s more likely that he embraced lifestyle changes, prioritizing morning movement, his meditation/prayer practice, and journaling his thoughts.

I’m proud of the way he trusted the inside-out process. All the answers my clients seek are within them.

When we are in fight-or-flight survivor mode, crushed by cortisol, we can’t see the opportunities right in front of us. Meditation has been proven to reduce stress and increase focus in 1000s of scientific papers. Bravely journaling our thoughts and going to “that place” allows us to process heavy emotions that would otherwise continually tax our nervous system.

Burnout & Brainfog to Brilliance in 7 weeks?

In our work together, Jerry shifted his beliefs around what was possible—couragously leaning into the discomfort of heartfelt change. He had the tools to reduce stress and regulate his nervous system.

Jerry embraced the inner work. He had a spirit of I “Get” to do this, instead of I “Have” to do this. His growth mindset made the difference.

The Inside-Out Process

All the answers are within. Slow down, sit with it. It’s safe. Go to that place. Feel it still. Breathe. This too shall pass.

So often, our greatest creative insights come when we stop gripping so tightly and let things flow. As the Prosperous Coach Rich Litvin says, “Space is where miracles can happen”. We need downtime, rest, gaps (and naps) in our lives for the spaciousness, so we can separate the vital few insights from the sea of triviality—so we can catch the signal amid the noisy world of constant, fractured attention.

Inviting Possibility

When we do the brave inner work, we clear the energetic blockages that get in the way. We become lighter and more soulful. We create space where miracles can happen.

Jerry isn’t an exception. He’s a reminder of what’s possible when we do the inner work.

If you are interested in a similar transformational journey, I have the biggest, most impactful coaching initiative yet launching soon: Prosperity Pathways: Vital Energy, Clarity & Focus.

Reply “Let’s go!” or DM me if you’d like to connect for more details and explore if this group initiative is a good fit.

Love, peace & prosperity,
Matt

The Quiet Revolution That Will Change Everything

Matt Simpson — Mon, 13 Jul 2026 18:30:05 GMT

Something extraordinary is happening right beneath our feet.

While headlines compete for our attention with fear, division, and crisis, a quieter revolution is unfolding—one rooted in healing instead of hiding, awareness instead of distraction, and courage instead of comfort.

We are living through one of the most fascinating—and challenging—moments in history: a convergence of war, AI, environmental decline, political polarization, social injustice, and a worsening mental health crisis, with addiction, anxiety, depression, PTSD, and suicide all soaring.

It’s easy to get consumed by all this. To let the spirit of apathy win. To throw in the towel and say there is no point in trying.

I get it. I’ve been there.

But I’m hopeful. I know we can all do better. I know I can do better.

Years ago, I felt the heaviness of the world. This is me in 2010, melting down under the weight of it all. Unable to handle the stress, struggling without tools and practices to process thorny emotions and the childhood sexual trauma that garbled up my nervous system.

It crushed me. I was mired in self-abuse and gripped by alcohol. I drank to numb the anxiety, shame, and relentless inner critic.

It’s been a journey—I’ve since beaten my demons and found my way home to Self-Love.

A New Story Rooted in Truth & Transparency

As psychedelia enters the mainstream, we are still in the very infancy of this movement and paradigm shift from outside-in to inside-out. A few states have legalized psychedelic therapy, and a handful of major metropolises have decriminalized plant medicines.

If you sense there is another way, trust that. There is. In time, everyone wakes up. But psychedelics are merely a tool that helps us see things clearly, so we can make course corrections. Grace.

They are definitely not required. There are many ways we can access higher consciousness.

Get still. Connect to your breath. Tune out the noise and look inside. Get out in nature to remember your true nature—what we’ve forgotten along the way. Move your body. It houses infinite wisdom within.

My life’s greatest Joy. This past decade, I’ve guided over 200 clients and coached thousands back to the Path of Passion & Possibility: Harmonize addictions. Lift depression. Quiet anxiety. Heal trauma. Come home to Self-Love.

It’s worth the fight.

Love, peace & prosperity,
Matt

Nature Is the Most Underrated Performance Enhancer on Earth

Matt Simpson — Mon, 06 Jul 2026 14:15:09 GMT

Every morning, we wake with a full tank of attention. By afternoon, many of us are running on fumes.

Most of us want more energy, focus & attention to direct towards our goals, dreams, aspirations, etc.

Life is short—let’s live it fully!

And we all know that getting out in nature is good for us. Duh.

But why don’t we spend more time outside, enjoying nature’s bounty, awe, and wonder?

It’s estimated that we spend 90% of our lives indoors, with 7 hours of screen time per day.

Ugh. This doesn’t feel right.

It’s my earnest hope and prayer that this cutting-edge neuroscience will inspire you to rethink nature.

ART: Attention Restoration Theory

I’m rereading the book by University of Chicago professor Marc Bermann, PhD, “Nature and the Mind.” I am very inspired by his humanistic message and how he is quantifying our collective blind spot and presenting the antidote to what ails our modern life. Our cognitive faculties, attention, and focus are not fixed. This is a dynamic process in which we have more input than we might give ourselves credit.

Dr. Bermann has helped usher in a new branch of research called “Environmental Psychology,” and below is his protocol for restoring our attention.

Why Our Attention Fades:

Directed attention is finite. Every email, decision, meeting, notification, and temptation we resist draws from the same mental reservoir. As the day progresses, that reservoir gradually depletes, making us more distractible, mentally fatigued, impatient, and prone to poorer decisions. Nature appears to be one of the most effective (and overlooked) ways to restore that precious cognitive resource.

Prescribing Nature

Solo walks in nature, green spaces, parks, forests, beach, mountains, etc., for 20–30 minutes without our phone (Or our phone powered down in our bags, out of reach, creating friction when pulling it out). Let your attention wander, your nervous system settle, and your mind recalibrate without distraction.

Astounding Findings

The results are remarkable.

Participants with clinical depression experienced significant improvements in attention and working memory after a walk in nature. Healthy participants also benefited, averaging roughly a 20% improvement in directed attention, along with measurable gains in well-being.

Think about that for a moment.

Not from a pill.
Not from another productivity app.
Not from caffeine.

Just a walk immersed in the patterns, sounds, and sensory richness of the natural world.

Dr. Marc Bermann’s research suggests our brains rely on two different forms of attention. Directed attention—the effortful focus we use for work, studying, decision-making, and resisting distractions—is a finite resource that becomes fatigued throughout the day. Nature, however, gently engages our minds through what researchers call “soft fascination.”: Flowing water, rustling leaves, birdsong, clouds drifting overhead, and the intricate fractal patterns of trees effortlessly capture our awareness without demanding mental effort. This allows our overworked attentional system to recover and recharge.

The big takeaway?

Our capacity to focus isn’t fixed. It’s trainable, renewable, and profoundly influenced by the environments we choose to immerse ourselves in.

Researchers have found that exposure to nature may also help reduce attentional difficulties in people with ADHD; perhaps the doctors of the future will prescribe nature over pills.

While microdosing? Expect even deeper connection to nature and creative sparks—psychedelics amplify our sense of aliveness in the natural world.

Neuroscience of Nature: Nature Sounds + Habit Stacking
Just as nature appears to restore our visual attention, nature sounds seem to restore our auditory system. Research suggests they reduce sympathetic (”fight-or-flight”) activity, increase parasympathetic (”rest-and-digest”) activity, lower perceived stress, and help the brain shift into a calmer, more restorative state.

These findings validate a practice I’ve grown extremely fond of. Every day, I do 20-minutes of NSDR-style slow breathing after my short walk after lunch. It feels like the most restorative time of the day for me. I feel so good—recalibrated and energized afterward. Long, slow exhales help shift my nervous system toward parasympathetic dominance, while slow breathing has also been linked to improved emotional regulation and favorable changes in dopamine signaling.

Science suggests nature sounds amplify those benefits. Studies have found that birdsong, flowing streams, ocean waves, rainfall, and rustling leaves can reduce stress, improve mood, restore directed attention, and even enhance cognitive performance. I’ve stacked my slow breathing with nature sounds—thunderstorms, streams, ocean waves, and birds singing—and it’s become one of the highest-ROI 20-minute habits in my day.

Why am I so excited about this? This message of hope affirms our interconnectedness with the natural world.

We are all part of this big, beautiful planet. And if we can feel more of this. I think we’ll be more likely to narrow the gap of separation we feel between the Natural World and each other. We’ll be more likely to extend kindness and love to our fellow humans. We’ll be more likely to feel connected to our purpose, our work, and how we can best honor the interconnectedness we feel.

Prosperity Pathways

These are conditions for us to tap into Mother Nature’s Abundant Flow. Less ruminative, fearful scarcity, and more expansive loving goodness.

Pro tip: Take your journal with you on your next nature walk. Get ready to capture creative insights that will help you elevate your performance and take your service impact to the next level. Mother Nature can be a powerful strategy for expanding our capacity to direct attention and focus.

Maybe this is hippie-dippie idealism. But I’d like to remind you that this is rooted in rigorous science.

The participants who walked through the industrial/urban areas didn’t experience the same cognitive benefits. Their memory and focus were taxed by the misaligned stimuli.

Another interesting finding from Dr. Bermann’s laboratory is that you don’t have to enjoy the time in nature to get the benefits. Those who walked outside in Michigan in the teeth of winter didn’t enjoy the walks, but still expanded their directed attention.

Perhaps the greatest productivity hack isn’t another app, supplement, or AI tool. Perhaps it’s remembering we were never designed to spend 90% of our lives indoors, hypnotized by screens.

Nature isn’t an escape from life—it may be the very environment our minds require to become fully alive.

Thank you for reading my Monday Motivation: Prosperity Primer newsletter.

Hope this will inspire you to get outside more and integrate more of Mother Nature’s loving embrace into your life and workflow.

Have an awesome week!

Love, peace & prosperity,

Matt

PS: Want to learn more? Listen for yourself. Here is a short (20-minute) gem of a podcast where Dr. Marc Bermann shares his work and key points.

Fireworks for the Mind: Is LSD the Next Breakthrough for Depression?

Matt Simpson — Sat, 04 Jul 2026 18:01:05 GMT

One dose.

One 5–8 hour treatment session.

Benefits lasting up to three months.

That’s what a Phase 3 FDA clinical trial is now reporting for LSD in people with depression.

If these results continue to hold, we may be witnessing one of the most promising mental health breakthroughs in many decades.

Of late, I’ve been writing a lot about LSD and the remarkable results for Anxiety, and how it might just be the antidote for Generalized Anxiety Disorder.

But depression, too?

The Pain You Can't See: Humanity's Hidden Suffering

The executive quietly battling panic attacks.
The mother who can’t get out of bed.
The veteran reliving yesterday’s war.
The entrepreneur smiling on Instagram while drowning in depression.

More than 400 million people worldwide are living with depression. Roughly 1 in 12 Americans struggles with an anxiety disorder. Millions more carry the weight of unresolved trauma.

I have a lot of empathy for them because, years ago, that was me. I hid my insecurities with alcohol and ate them away with burgers, pizzas & burritos. I lived in Chicago, and the food scene was pretty incredible. But I was sick.

In my early 30s, I started experiencing horrible brain fog and memory gaffes and thought: this isn’t going to turn out well. The walls of truth were closing in on me, this forced me to take inventory of my lifestyle and decision-making and get serious about my health. I then found safe ways to access psychedelia, and my life has radically changed for the better.

You can pick up a copy of my book “Worth The Fight” HERE.

Back to LSD

We are seeing something extraordinary here.

Definium Therapeutics’ (Formerly MindMed) Phase 3 FDA clinical trials are producing astounding results.

The benefits appear to last for up to three months after treatment—a remarkably durable response—with a strong safety profile.

I’m not waiting for the government to approve. These medicines should never have been illegal to begin with.

The study administers a 100 mcg LSD orally disintegrating tablet. Participants put on eye shades, lie down, and go inward for approximately 5–8 hours. They are carefully supervised, but to my understanding, there is no formal psychotherapy—just kind, compassionate trip sitters ensuring safety while allowing the inner journey experience to unfold.

On average, the participants are released between 5 and 6 hours; none stayed longer than 8 hours.

For more on Definium’s inspiring work and Clinical Trials: https://definiumtx.com/

We’ve Been Here Before

Back in the 1950s and 1960s, LSD was being studied at leading universities and hospitals as a breakthrough medicine. Researchers published hundreds of scientific papers exploring its potential for alcoholism, depression, anxiety, end-of-life distress, and other mental health conditions. Many psychiatrists believed it could fundamentally reshape how we understood and treated the human mind.

Then LSD escaped the laboratory and entered the counterculture. Political backlash, cultural upheaval, and decades of fear-driven policy largely shut down legitimate research, burying one of the most promising areas of psychiatric science before it had the opportunity to fully mature.

Today, we’re watching that science re-emerge. Modern clinical trials, conducted under rigorous protocols, with pharmaceutical-grade dosing and FDA oversight, are revisiting many of the same questions researchers asked more than half a century ago. This time, the science is stronger, the methodology is more sophisticated, and the results are becoming increasingly difficult to ignore.

LSD and Flow State

We all know the iconic example of Steve Jobs crediting LSD for his breakthroughs with Apple and bold ambition to make a dent in the universe.

A lesser-known example: In one of the most striking studies ever conducted, Dr. James Fadiman — the “godfather of microdosing” — found that 84% of senior-level engineers who’d been stuck on complex work problems for months or years reached breakthrough solutions: They designed new medical devices, solved mathematical proofs, and created models that later became patents — in one afternoon.

This wasn’t magic; it was flow amplified.

Psychedelics quieted self-doubt, expanded pattern recognition, and allowed ideas to surface fully formed. No wonder the establishment panicked and research funding vanished for decades.

According to world-renowned Flow Science researcher Steven Kotler, author of Stealing Fire, flow is one of the most powerful performance states humans can access, producing massive boosts in productivity, learning, creativity, motivation, and innovation. Psychedelics appear capable of opening that doorway, quieting the inner critic, expanding pattern recognition, and allowing breakthrough ideas and elegant solutions to emerge.

LSD & Addiction?

I know firsthand that this medicine can work wonders for addiction. Personally, I drank 20-30 drinks a week before my psychedelic healing. That is what we did in Chicago. Now, on average, I’ll have 1-2 drinks per week, and will go months without even thinking about it.

Recently, I was in Zurich, and my friend Rick shared that after one profound LSD experience several years ago, he hasn’t had a single drop of alcohol since. Before, he was a heavy drinker and now credits his breakthrough with being a better husband and dad, and is now in great shape.

Just like that. Poof.

Older research suggested that roughly 65% of participants struggling with alcoholism achieved prolonged abstinence or sobriety following LSD-assisted treatment.

Those numbers deserve another serious look.

Fun fact: Bill Wilson, the co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous, credited a profound psychedelic experience—including LSD (and belladonna), with deepening his spiritual awakening and supporting his sobriety. He later advocated exploring LSD within AA, believing it could help catalyze similar transformative experiences, but most of his colleagues ultimately chose not to embrace the idea.

Fireworks for the Mind: LFG Energy

Personally, I’d rate an LSD experience I’ve had as one of the most profound of my entire life. Top 5 definitely.

In 2016, I went deep into the Rocky Mountains and had an epic solo journey from a small-town log cabin. It felt like a bolt of lightning shooting through my energy systems, and the clarity/objectivity was absolutely profound.

Over the past few years, I’ve microdosed LSD from time to time, and it’s the best I’ve ever felt outside of the jungles of Costa Rica.

What is happening here? Is LSD Natural?

Not exactly.

LSD is a synthesized molecule first discovered in 1943 by Swiss chemist Albert Hofmann.

Its origins, however, trace back to nature. It was developed from compounds found in ergot, a fungus that grows on rye and other grains. Nature still deserves some credit.

A Potential Blind Spot

I’ve seen this with ketamine. People keep going back. Some even get stuck on the pharma ketamine hamster wheel.

Ketamine’s benefits often appear to last a few weeks.

Psilocybin may extend that window to roughly 4–6 weeks.

Now we’re seeing LSD produce benefits lasting three months.

That’s difficult to ignore.

My hypothesis:

The deeper the experience, the longer the healing appears to last.

Greater psychological insight. Greater emotional processing. Greater neuroplasticity.

Potentially the optimal conditions for rewiring the brain and nervous system.

The Real Work Begins Afterward

The journey really begins when the journey is over. Integration is supremely important. When we feel lifted out of depression...

When our anxieties begin to melt away...That is precisely when we lean in and ask the difficult questions that don’t have clear answers.

Move your body.

Do hard things.

Repair relationships.

Create.

Rest.

Forgive.

When we capitalize on this window of heightened neuroplasticity, we have an extraordinary opportunity to wire in healthier habits, healthier beliefs, and the aligned behavioral change we all seek.

Don’t get distracted by the shiny object. Don’t stop at “Damn...I feel amazing.” Remember your intention and why you began the healing journey in the first place.

Get still. Breathe. Quiet the mind.

Reconnect with your heart.

That’s the best medicine of all.

Our deepest blocks to a higher frequency are frequently the very things standing between us and our next level.

There is so much to be hopeful for as we continue marching toward The More Beautiful World Our Hearts Know Is Possible. (I often end by saying this. For this post, it’s especially fitting, as this is the title of a prophetic book written on LSD or inspired by it. Charles Eisenstein has a beautiful vision of a world where we overcome what he calls “Separation,” and move to “Interbeing,” the collective recognition of our deep interconnectedness, wholeness, compassion, and shared humanity.

One breakthrough, one open heart, and one courageous conversation at a time.

Happy 4th!

Love, peace & prosperity,
Matt

8 Ways to Feel Amazing Before 8am

Matt Simpson — Mon, 29 Jun 2026 13:33:26 GMT

Most people lose the day before they’ve even gotten out of bed.

The phone. The news. Email. Social media. Stress. Within minutes, they’ve handed their attention—and their nervous system—to everyone else.

It doesn’t have to be that way.

Your first hour isn’t just the start of your day. It’s the foundation for everything that follows.

When we start the day in reactive mode, that will be our position for the rest of the day. We will be quagmired in the BS Inc limiting belief scarcity programs.

Instead, we have our mornings to prime and protect our energy. For intentionality, locking in our focus, why are we here—what is my plan for today, how can I best serve?

While doing all eight of these would surely be one special morning, the reality is that we have limited time, commitments, responsibilities, families, kids, etc.

Hopefully, these eight practices/mindset strategies will spark initiative and inspire you to rethink your mornings.

Morning Breathwork: Wim Hof Method:

Upon waking, I’ll hydrate with electrolytes or a pinch of Himalayan sea salt. Then I’m diving right into my breath. I had a great breathing session this morning that primed my energy for writing this post.

The Wim Hof Method has been one of the highest-ROI habits I’ve adopted. It reliably increases my energy, sharpens my focus, reduces stress, and leaves me feeling more resilient and alive. Research also suggests it may improve stress resilience, reduce inflammation, strengthen immune function, and help cultivate a calmer, more focused mind for the day ahead.

Get Morning Sunlight:

Stanford neuroscientist Dr. Andrew Huberman has called morning sunlight one of his most important daily health practices. Getting 5–15 minutes of outdoor light shortly after waking helps set your circadian rhythm, increases your morning cortisol pulse at the appropriate time, supports melatonin production later that evening for better sleep, and activates metabolic processes that influence energy, mood, focus, and hormone regulation throughout the day. It’s one of the simplest habits with one of the biggest returns.

Embracing Cold:

Cold shower or cold plunge, anyone? Why would anyone want to do that? Research suggests that gradual, deliberate cold exposure can boost dopamine (motivation) by 250% and norepinephrine (focus) by over 500%. Woe. Those are big numbers. Start with cold showers, even for 10-20 seconds, whilst your hot shower, and then do more.

No Tech for the first hour of the day.

A former client, Sherry, once said, “Reaching for the phone upon waking—jumping right on IG is the kiss of death”. Again, the first hour of the day is for priming and protecting our energies. For getting clear, intentional, why are we here—what is my work or game plan for the day?

It’s important that we, when possible, have slower mornings. We are in a theta brainwave state, where we are more creative and have access to the dreams from the night before. And yes, soulful “ahas” and creative vision feel amazing.

Morning Exercise:
Move your body. Stretch. Go for a short walk. As Dr. Mark Hyman says, “Our problems are solved at 3MPH”.

If you’re ambitious, get a sweat and watch everything in your life expand. It’s hard to exercise first thing. I don’t do it every day—usually it’s late morning—but the few days I get to the gym before 8 a.m. are amazing. Research suggests morning exercise increases dopamine, boosts Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor(the “Miracle-Gro” fertilizer for your brain), improves focus, elevates mood, and creates momentum that often carries through the rest of the day.

If you can’t make it to the gym, just getting outside in the early morning hours can be magical. Oh, how special it is to hear the birds singing their song before all the traffic, noise, construction, and sirens of the big city take effect. It’s amazing to feel Mother Nature’s peace.

Meditation/Mindful Moments:

Taking time for stillness or going for a mindful walk in nature. It doesn’t always feel good to meditate or practice mindfulness, but we almost always feel better after. Lean in, embrace the discomfort of the noisy mind.

Journaling: Prayer on Paper?

The peace and clarity that come from putting pen to paper are real. I love Robin Sharma’s frame journaling is like prayer on paper. We are taking time to declare our heartfelt intentions. Take inventory of the blessings in our lives. Process heavy emotions if needed. And gameplan the day. What are the most important activities for today? What moves the needle?

PM Ritual (night prior):

Limit blue light/screen time a few hours before slumber.

Screens before bed are a big problem. Be mindful. I know many, many good people who are convinced that their sleep problems, frequent waking up at all hours of the night, are just how they are wired. It couldn’t be further from the truth.

Raw Cacao: My Love.

Known as “Food of the Gods” in the Mayan Empire. While I used to intermittent fast, of late I’ve started to embrace my breakfast as fuel for fitness and the day. I often have raw cacao with berries, Greek yogurt, chia, flax, walnuts, raw honey, etc. Cacao is an underrated superfood, one of the most powerful mood-boosting plant medicines out there. It’s truly divine.

But First, Coffee:

Last but certainly not least, one of my favorite times of the day. Sitting with my first cup of coffee.

Feeling the polyphenols. The boost of dopamine, norepinephrine, and positive energy sharpening my thoughts. Maybe even put a microdose of 100/150 mg of psilocybin or 5-10 micrograms of LSD in your coffee or morning tea. I’ve found that it’s a nice way to combine the rituals. Remember, intentionality is the key.

Did I miss anything? What are your secret strategies for high-vibe morning energy?

Hope a couple of these tips help you feel amazing this week before 8 am—Go forth and conquer your week!

Love, peace & prosperity,
Matt

Synchronicities, Gratitude & Dolphins

Matt Simpson — Mon, 22 Jun 2026 18:36:39 GMT

It was a good omen. A timely signal from the Universe.

I’ve done that walk by the Biscayne Bay hundreds of times by now and haven’t seen any wildlife except for schools of fish from time to time.

In a stroll with a friend, there it was, a playful dolphin jumping out of the water, no less than 20 feet from me. I was surprised because I didn’t think the water was deep enough for such a majestic giant creature. It was a picturesque beach as you’d see on National Geographic.

While there may have been nothing there, to me, in that moment, it was a deeply meaningful synchronicity. I interpreted that as a signal from the Universe to be more playful—to lighten up a little bit. To take more time away from my computer to get out in nature, and enjoy more fully the paradise of Miami Beach, I’m lucky to call home.

One practice I recently borrowed from the neuroscientist and internet phenom, Emily McDonald, is writing down three wonders each day—small moments of awe, beauty, or gratitude.

Psychologists call it selective attention: what we consistently look for, our brains become more likely to notice.

Expanding Conscious Awareness:

Let’s get sciency. The numbers are staggering. Your brain is estimated to process roughly 11 million bits of information every second, yet your conscious awareness can only handle around 40–50 bits per second. The rest is filtered out automatically. In other words, your reticular activating system (RAS) is constantly selecting what deserves your attention.

You are a supercomputer. AI’s got nothing on you.

The same pattern shows up internally. Researchers estimate we experience tens of thousands of thoughts each day—often cited around 60,000-80,000, though the exact figure is contentiously debated—and neuroscience suggests that the vast majority of our behavior and mental processing operates outside conscious awareness. Some estimates place subconscious processing at 90–95% of what drives our daily actions.

That means we may have only around 3,000–5,000 conscious thoughts each day.

The exact numbers are debatable, but the takeaway is clear: cultivating self-awareness through practices like meditation, breathwork, and journaling can profoundly shape the quality of our attention and ultimately, our lives.

Gratitude Fuels Abundance:

I believe we can intentionally train our minds to search for beauty, kindness, opportunity, and grace. Effectively giving our brain a new set of instructions about what we value. And with practice, in time, we can very likely increase our conscious processing and capacity.

I started writing this post a few weeks back, but ran out of steam. Just yesterday I saw another dolphin in the same waters—maybe I have a new friend?

Either way, I smiled—and wrote it down as one of my three wonders.

It’s pretty simple. Take time to focus on the blessings you already have, and they’ll surely multiply. An easy way to start is to focus on 3 blessings (or wonders) from the day before going to bed.

We can train our brains to focus on gratitude, the blessings, all that is right with the world, and those blessings will multiply. The first hour of the day and the hour before bed are the most important. Our intentional morning rituals prime and protect our energies, while ending the day in gratitude keeps us in good graces.

Screens before bed are to be avoided not only because the blue light crushes your Deep + REM sleep, but because the toxic comparison game is horrible for us. Especially before nodding off into the dream world for slumber.

Neuroscientist of Nature: Seeing Through Illusion:

While you might not live near water and dolphins, the incredible benefits of getting out in nature are profound and quantified. Dr. Mark Berman, University of Chicago psychologist & neuroscientist and author of “Nature and the Mind,” prescribes this protocol for leveraging nature to harmonize our anxious, ruminative thoughts: get outside without our phones (Or have them powered off, tucked away in bag) for 20-30 minutes so we can have the spaciousness to wonder, ponder, process emotions, and thoughts.

Think of this as a free therapy session.

Our bodies are infinitely wise. Give our operating systems the right conditions, and our biology can work miracles.

Negativity bias: What we are up against?

I wrote about this in-depth last week here. I shared a staggering statistic that those who suffer from Generalized Anxiety Disorder experience upwards of 90% of their thoughts as fearful projections that aren’t grounded in truth and how LSD just might be the anxiety antidote working its way through our regulatory process in Phase 3 Clinical Trials with FDA.

Read the scientific journal paper here.

Practicing gratitude helps to balance out our negativity bias. Fear and gratitude can’t co-exist in the same moment. This can help to harmonize our anxious thoughts and free us from our self-imposed prisons.

Happy Father’s Day to all the dads out there:

I spent the weekend in a peaceful contemplative state, having planned the time for intentional reflection on my father, who passed on in November of ’24. Father’s Day and his birthday fell on the same weekend this year. I watched the US Open, his favorite golf tournament, and saw Wyndham Clark gut out a gritty victory we’d undoubtedly be taking in together if he were still here with us. He’s missed dearly. While the sadness still stings, it signals my why and motivates me toward right action to keep his legacy of romance and kindness alive.

That said, I’ll remind everyone we are in a dire crisis of connection, loneliness epidemic and further, what Dr. Scott Galloway calls a “Sex Recession,” where an alarming number of young men are swearing off romantic love in favor of screens, this feels existential and a worthy fight to engage. Dr. Galloway often cites a troubling statistic: 45% of men 18-25 have never approached a woman romantically in-person. What has Tech done to us?

Maybe this last part is a bit tangential, but it feels important to plug.

Let’s push back against BS Inc. Always remember: Abundance is your birthright, and gratitude is the state that fuels prosperity pathways.

I’ll be writing down my three wonders tonight. If you join me, let me know what made your list. You might be surprised by what your brain starts noticing tomorrow.

Practice this in earnest for a week, and please report back.

Thank you for reading my Monday Motivation Prosperity Primer Newsletter. I’m hoping my newly adopted dolphin spirit animal energy came through🐬

Love, peace & prosperity,
Matt

Your Mind Is Lying to You (Most of the Time)

Matt Simpson — Wed, 17 Jun 2026 17:27:37 GMT

What if I told you that the vast majority of the fears stealing your peace, sabotaging your potential, and keeping you from your dreams will never happen?

At the same time, if you aren’t feeling at least some anxiety from the heaviness of the world right now, you might not be paying much attention.

Lately, I’ve been enjoying Case Kenny’s New Mindset podcast (highly recommend it—he’s been dropping gems), and he recently shared a fascinating finding about anxiety, particularly among people with generalized anxiety disorder (GAD).

Groundbreaking research suggests that 91–93% of the fearful outcomes that anxious individuals anticipate never actually happen.

Think about that.

Evolutionary Mismatch

Our brains are prediction machines, and thanks to a deeply ingrained negativity bias, they naturally scan for danger. From an evolutionary perspective, that wiring wasn’t a flaw—it kept our ancestors alive long enough to pass on their genes.

But our ancient primordial nervous systems were built for a completely different world.

Today, those same threat-detection circuits often misfire. The amygdala, designed to protect us, can become overactive and imprison us with imagined catastrophes rather than real ones.

While these statistics come from people with severe anxiety, I suspect every one of us can relate. We all carry fearful projections, imagined disasters, and limiting stories that whisper, Don’t take the risk. Don’t speak up. Don’t go for it.

Friendly reminder: it’s 2026. None of us truly knows what the hell is going on.

We’re standing on a rock spinning at 1,000 miles per hour, orbiting the Sun at 67,000 miles per hour, while our solar system hurtles through the galaxy at over half a million miles per hour.

Maybe the voice in your head isn’t the all-knowing narrator it pretends to be.

Hold your opinions lightly. Hold your loved ones tightly. Most of us are improvising.

So live your life.

Start the business. Write the book. Tell someone you love them, how you truly feel. Apply for the job. Make the call. Book the flight. Chase the dream.

Because the greatest risk may not be failure. It may be letting fear write the story for you.

Life can be breathtakingly fragile, and tomorrow is promised to no one. Send it!

LSD: Anxiety Antidote?

We’re also living through fascinating times. LSD—the molecule once demonized and dismissed is now being rigorously studied in modern medicine, with Phase 3 clinical research underway for generalized anxiety disorder. Early clinical findings have shown meaningful and durable reductions in anxiety symptoms, with some participants maintaining improvements for many months after treatment.

Psychedelic-assisted therapy is poised to become one of the most significant advances in mental health in the last many decades.

Fear often feels enormous until it is examined with awareness. And, well, yes, psychedelics boost awareness, but how we integrate the insight is supremely important.

That’s why daily practices like meditation, journaling, contemplative walks, breathwork, and honest self-reflection matter so much. They help us create the spaciousness needed to separate reality from the stories our frightened minds invent.

We do the brave inner work so we can experience life as it truly is—not as a fearful prison, but as a vast, beautiful world overflowing with possibility, connection, and unexpected grace.

Every moment of self-awareness pushes back against the BS Inc. limiting beliefs and scarcity programs that convince us to play small.

Practical strategies for harmonizing anxious thoughts:

As Dr. Wendy Suzuki, a preeminent neuroscientist at NYU, wrote in her book Good Anxiety: Harnessing the Power of the Most Misunderstood Emotion, she illuminates the potential hidden power in our anxious thought energy. Dr. Suzuki shifts the frame, “Adapting our responses to the stress in our lives and using anxiety as a warning signal and opportunity to redirect that energy for good.”

Whenever I’m gripped by overwhelm and stuck in anxious thoughts, I’ll take her advice, walk it out, and almost always find a solution and feel better, clearer, and more peaceful. Or I’ll journal on the next actionable step. I’ll break down the daunting task, challenge, plight, and drama into bite-sized tasks. There is always something that can be done. It’s in the doing where we get out of our heads into embodied action.

The freer our inner world becomes, the more expansive our outer life becomes. Often, our greatest breakthroughs begin the moment we stop believing every fearful thought. And perhaps the most liberating realization of all is this: your mind can imagine a thousand disasters—but your life is still yours to create.

Love, peace & prosperity,

Matt

Natalie Moments

Matt Simpson — Mon, 15 Jun 2026 18:39:32 GMT

What if just 20% of your actions were responsible for 80% of your joy, impact, income, and growth?

We all get 168 hours each week to live life to the fullest. Probably the biggest, most important realization we can make is that not all time and activities are equally weighted.

On a recent interview on the Tim Ferriss Show, the legendary business success coach Jim Collins shared emphatically about what he calls “NATILIE MOMENTS,” the acronym stands for:

Not

All

Time

Life

Equal

And yes, Natalie is usually spelled with an “a” after the “t,” but this works as a strong reminder.

I love this. It makes us think hard about the 80/20 Rule, or Pareto Principle, which says that roughly 80% of outcomes stem from 20% of inputs. The invitation is simple: identify the few actions, relationships, and habits producing extraordinary results—and ruthlessly prioritize them while letting the rest go.

I think and ask myself: Where is the leverage? What activities create the most impact? What bold moves, move needle?

There is so much noise, triviality, what I affectionately call BS Inc., that we all have to sift through. Especially as the AI slop sorts itself out.

Personally, the 20% of activities that create 80% of outcomes are:

My weekly fast: 36 hours with only water or sometimes coffee/tea, no calories, makes everything easier for me.

Morning exercise, while challenging in the moment, gets me an extra 2-4 hours of energetic bandwidth. I never show up at an important meeting without moving my body first. There is compelling data from NYU neuroscientist Dr. Wendy Suzuki showing that exercise increases BDNF and improves our memory & focus.

There are many names for these critical tasks: Seth Godin calls them “Lynchpin Habits.” Habits that have leverage and can hold up many others.

Think deeply, take inventory: Where are your NATILIE Moments? What are your lynchpin habits? What activities make everything else better? Prioritize and protect them.

Why We Practice

Meditation can be annoying at times. We’d rather be busy doing things.

These aren’t just habits. Meditation, breathwork, and journaling are all scientifically proven to cultivate awareness from within.

But it’s what we do with that awareness that matters. How else would we know what aligns with our values, goals, and aspirations? In the interview, Jim Collins used the example of Eminem’s Lose Yourself. One of the best songs ever, illuminating how everything can change in a moment: “You only get one shot.” “This opportunity comes once in a lifetime.” “Lose yourself in the moment.”

Lean into the tension:

Approach that beautiful woman and tell her how you really feel, even though your heart is beating out of your chest.

Speak up during the business meeting when your palms are sweaty. Courage is often rewarded long before confidence arrives.

Have the difficult conversation you’ve been avoiding. Honesty creates more freedom than silence ever will.

Trust the impulses from within and back up with bold action.

Don’t hold back.

Life is short.

Not all time in life is equal. We practice so we can figure this out for ourselves. But this is far more about not doing than doing. It’s about seeing the sea of triviality and letting go of the BS, what isn’t in alignment. Again, being ruthless about cutting what doesn’t fit. This will clear energetic bandwidth for new blessings to come forth. Blessings that we’d very likely block if we were overloaded with BS Inc and didn’t have the capacity to receive.

Some clarifying questions to ponder:

What are the 20% of actions producing 80% of your results?
What habits consistently make every other part of your life easier?
What are you holding onto that no longer aligns with your values or future?
What one bold move, made this week, could change the trajectory of your life?
And just as importantly: what can you stop doing today to create space for something extraordinary tomorrow?

Join the conversation: What’s your biggest “NATILIE Moment”?

What’s the one habit, relationship, or decision that delivers disproportionate value in your life?

Drop it in the comments below. Your insight might inspire a future post or help another reader discover their own highest-leverage move.

Thank you for reading my Monday Motivation Prosperity Primer Newsletter. Have an awesome week!

Love, peace & prosperity,
Matt

For readers who want to go deeper, these are three books that have meaningfully shaped my thinking on leverage, focus, and the 80/20 Principle:

The 80/20 Principle by Richard Koch: The definitive modern guide to applying Pareto’s insights to business, productivity, and life.
Essentialism by Greg McKeown: A practical framework for eliminating the nonessential and focusing on what truly matters.
Deep Work by Cal Newport: A compelling case for cultivating distraction-free concentration in an increasingly noisy world.

The Hidden Incentive Keeping Millions Stuck in Therapy and Why Coaching Helps Turn Insight into Action

Matt Simpson — Mon, 08 Jun 2026 19:22:25 GMT

If your therapist successfully healed you, they’d lose a customer.

Let that sink in for a moment.

Most therapists are good-natured, well-meaning, and genuinely want to help people. But the system itself creates a strange incentive: the longer you stay, the more money it generates.

If you were fully healed, would you still need weekly sessions… or a therapist at all?

The business model of “endless talking” thrives on your wounds staying open.

Real healing disrupts dependency. Real healing liberates stuck energy and sets you free.

Maybe that’s why alternative pathways—psychedelic therapy, coaching, community, and integration practices like meditation with a deeper focus on spirituality are gaining momentum.

They’re designed to empower, not tether.

When our tools and understanding evolve, our entire model of healing must evolve—because different tools open the door to different possibilities.

Some big questions:

Do you want to heal, or do you just want to cope?

Are you here to just survive—or thrive?

It’s hard to see this because our Capitalist values have created an industry around talking about your problems ad nauseam.

Let me make this clear. There is a time and place for therapy. Acute crisis is a real thing, and opening up emotionally after a lifetime of suppression is a beautiful, brave thing. If the therapy is positively impacting your goals and intentions, then let it ride; the ROI is there.

Personally, I’ve benefited greatly from therapy. I remember those first big initial breakthroughs with Cheryl for which I’m eternally grateful. For the first time in my life, I felt safe going to “that place,” unearthing the childhood trauma that had my nervous system all garbled up; The old wounds I worked so hard to safeguard I could now access and break through the protective mechanisms that kept me safe. But there was a time when I’d outgrown our sessions. It was time for me to move on.

At a certain point, insight stopped being the bottleneck. Action became the bottleneck.

Therapy helped me understand my past. Coaching helped me create my future.

During a recent empowerment session, a client of mine referenced:

“The Empathy Gap”

My ears perked up. I’ve never heard it put just that way. You know, the feeling of disconnection you feel while listening to your therapist. That feeling of, Is she present right now—is he really here with me? Can she even hear me? Should I be taking advice from her? Has he done the work? Etc.

Our current model doesn’t require empathy. Here is your pill, or here is your thought exercise, or whatever.

Not sure where I am going with this, except to point out that we are shifting to a fully integrated model where one’s credentials won’t be enough. How does your therapist show up to life? How is their love life? Do they do what they are telling me to do?

How to Best Utilize Coaching:

Personally, I’ve spent over $75K on coaching this past decade. I’ve been coached by some of the best. I love having someone in my corner who believes in me and won’t buy into the limiting beliefs and stories I tell myself.

Some protips I’ve learned and integrated into my practice:

The weekly accountability is huge. I come prepared to my sessions with my struggles/curiosities, and always leave with action items: Velocity.

As I started my book, Worth The Fight, with: “The greatest distance in life is between knowing and doing.”

We all know what needs to be done. But getting into action is another story. We close this gap.

Priming Prosperity Pathways:

As a High-Performance Business Coach & Microdose Mentor, I have to perform and live the message, or my clients won’t renew with me. I love that pressure.

My approach is quite simple:

What do you want? Why don’t you have it? What is in the way?

Let’s craft a plan and start working towards it from the inside out. You are a limitless being with Infinite potential.

As Eckart Tolle wrote in A New Earth, our external reality is a projection of our inner world.

Do the brave inner work, and your life can radically shift for the better:

-Reduce stress, and watch your creative vision expand

-Process heavy emotions, and watch your connections deepen and become more soulful

-Regulate your nervous system and watch your capacity to be present expand.

You are so powerful. The world is shifting. Can you feel it?

There is so much opportunity to take your life & impact to the Next-Level.

I’ve never been more hopeful for The More Beautiful World Our Hearts Know Is Possible.

Thank you for reading my Monday Motivation—Have a wonderful week!

Love, peace & prosperity,

Matt

Why Psilocybin Will Lead the Charge

Matt Simpson — Mon, 01 Jun 2026 17:47:39 GMT

Last month, President Trump signed a long-overdue executive order directing federal agencies to accelerate research and regulatory review of psychedelic therapies.

It appears that psilocybin will lead the charge, as the FDA has granted priority review vouchers to Compass and Usona for major depression and treatment-resistant depression.

The science is compelling. The safety profile is impressive. The therapeutic applications keep expanding. And unlike many conventional treatments, people often walk away reporting not just symptom reduction—but a renewed sense of meaning, purpose, connection, and aliveness.

But why was our government, and the land of the free, ever scared of a playful little mushroom?

Let’s dive in.

Why Psilocybin?

In the modern psychedelic renaissance, psilocybin has been studied the most.

Led by Johns Hopkins researchers in 2006, the landmark study "Psilocybin Can Occasion Mystical-Type Experiences Having Substantial and Sustained Personal Meaning and Spiritual Significance" helped launch the modern psychedelic renaissance.

Let’s pause and take a deeper look at this wording.

This was not common scientific language. These are uncommon and often misunderstood molecules.

There is depth here—a lived experience of interconnectedness, transcendence, meaning, and connection to all living things.

To boot, the end-of-life anxiety studies at NYU suggest that psilocybin can dramatically reduce the fear of death. Which I believe is necessary to fully live.

Study after study, the depth of the mystical-type experience correlates strongly with the healing experienced.

We are, after all, physical and emotional beings who also have a spiritual dimension.

The Psychedelic Landscape

Every psychedelic appears to have a specialty. MDMA for trauma. LSD for anxiety. Ibogaine for addiction. 5-MeO for depression. Ayahuasca for spiritual exploration. Yet psilocybin continues to emerge as the most versatile, scalable, and clinically approachable option.”

LSD carries its own baggage. It unleashed the fury of rebellion during the 1960s psychedelic revolution, when ex-Harvard professor Timothy Leary was labeled by President Nixon as “the most dangerous man in America” after encouraging young people to tune in, turn on, and drop out. The counterculture ensued, and the anti-war movement was a real threat to the Industrial Military Complex. Yet as I wrote in last week’s newsletter, LSD has also been granted Breakthrough Therapy designation and appears poised to become a gold-standard treatment for Generalized Anxiety Disorder.

I can honestly say that microdosing LSD has produced some of the most exquisite states of consciousness I’ve experienced outside the jungles of Costa Rica. It’s lit.

Ibogaine may be the molecule that got psychedelics to the White House.

Texas has invested $100 million into ibogaine research for veterans because the “grandaddy of psychedelics” appears uniquely capable of interrupting severe addiction, PTSD, and traumatic brain injury.

I’ve never tried Iboga or Ibogaine. I remember sharing my plans to with my friend Amanda back in 2016, and she was very concerned about what I was describing. Instead, I trained with Wim Hof and Team Inner Fire in Poland—which may have been the most important week of my life—learning how to breathe and regulate my nervous system.

5-MeO-DMT has also received a breakthrough designation for major depression.

It continues making waves because of its astonishing speed: fifteen minutes, and many people report being blasted into another dimension. The therapeutic benefits are striking.

Ayahuasca is extraordinarily powerful but remains outside much of this discussion because it is deeply tied to indigenous traditions, group ceremonies, and methodologies that are far more difficult to standardize for Western medicine.

Why Psilocybin Continues to Lead

Psilocybin may ultimately win because it sits in the sweet spot.

It is powerful enough to create profound healing experiences, yet gentle enough to feel approachable.

In addition to major depression and treatment-resistant depression, psilocybin is showing immense promise for:

• Alcohol Use Disorder
• Addiction Recovery
• Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD)
• Tobacco Cessation
• End-of-Life Anxiety
• Existential Distress in Cancer Patients
• Eating Disorders
• Cluster Headaches

And perhaps most fascinating of all, emerging research from institutions including Emory and Baylor suggests that psilocybin may promote cellular resilience, reduce chronic inflammation, improve metabolic health, and potentially support healthy aging and longevity. The biohacking community is understandably fascinated.

Ultra-Fast

The week after Trump’s executive order, cannabis was moved from Schedule I—defined as having high abuse potential and no accepted medical value—to Schedule III, alongside medications that possess recognized therapeutic value and lower abuse potential. This is an obvious signal that things are moving quickly. The momentum behind cannabis rescheduling suggests that psychedelics may not be far behind.

The executive order also used language I had never heard before: “Ultra-fast.”

The comparison was to the AIDS crisis of the 1980s, when unprecedented cooperation accelerated potentially life-saving treatments through the regulatory process. Our mental health crisis is now being framed with similar urgency.

Hope & Safety

I healed my depression with psilocybin in 2015.

I went rogue and did six to eight solo journeys.

Some of the most beautiful experiences of my life happened while tripping at 1212 W. Roscoe in Chicago.

Long, deep meditations of self-exploration and unraveling a lifetime of pain, grief, fear, and repressed emotion.

It was strangely bizarre, yet there was an undeniable knowing from within that this was the path toward real healing and living my dream life.

I truly felt alive. Ecstatic.

I remember thinking: Why on Earth would something so freeing and heavenly be illegal?

Then I paused for a long time and thought: BS Inc.

If more people felt this connected, this alive, and this at peace, our world would be a very different place.

AI vs HI

There is a lot of fear in our culture right now surrounding AI: job displacements, rogue robots, and superintelligence.

But the truth is that the jury is still out.

AI may prove revolutionary.

It may simply be evolutionary.

I’m far more bullish on Human Intelligence.

We still know astonishingly little about consciousness, creativity, intuition, and the human mind itself. Modern neuroscience estimates that we have only scratched the surface of understanding the brain.

The real frontier isn’t artificial intelligence. It’s human consciousness. And we’re only beginning to discover what’s possible.

Micro vs Macro

I’m often asked: Should I microdose or do a peak journey?

It depends. We are all different. Our intentions, circumstances, goals, and risk tolerances vary greatly.

Whatever path you choose, do so with reverence and intentionality.

Put in the work during daily life.

Think: Stillness. Movement. Contemplation. Sleep. Community. Nature.

As I’ve said repeatedly, this is lifestyle medicine. Root-cause medicine.

The molecules do not heal us. They create a window.

What we do with that window determines the outcome.

The magic happens when insights are grounded and become aligned behavioral change. The breakthrough is a moment. The transformation is what follows.

Thank you for joining me for some Monday Motivation—Have an awesome week!

If this resonates, restack or share this dose of hope with a friend. The world could use a little more hope and inspiration right now.

Love, peace & prosperity,

Matt

Can Psychedelics Help us Reconnect?

Matt Simpson — Mon, 25 May 2026 19:53:47 GMT

Psychedelics don’t magically create connection.

They simply help us notice how disconnected we’ve become.

Albert Hofmann, the Swiss scientist who first synthesized LSD in 1943, once speculated that if all hell hadn’t broken loose during the 1960s Counterculture Psychedelic Revolution, microdosing psychedelics may have become the gold standard for mental health and emotional well-being instead of SSRIs/antidepressants.

But yes, the 1960s exploded, the backlash came, and we got many decades of suppression followed by the Prozac Nation.

Many conventional antidepressants dull libido, desire, and emotional range. Psychedelics appear to move in the opposite direction: more openness, embodiment, intimacy, self-acceptance, and connection.

Sex Recession

Recently on the Huberman Lab Podcast, NYU professor, Dr. Scott Galloway, asserted we are in a full-blown “Sex Recession,” sounding the alarm about our collective connection ails, citing: Tech, porn, remote work, isolation, loneliness, and the collapse of real-world connections that are leaving millions cut off, romantically disconnected, and spiritually starved.

Maybe psychedelics are hitting the mainstream in divine timing to meet this crisis head-on?

This Ain’t Viagra

Let’s have some fun speculating how this all works. Viagra specifically increases blood flow and works purely on a physical level. Psychedelics are holistic, working on the entire human organism. Again, they help us see what we value and what is important to us. They help us see where we are missing the mark and where we leak energy. They help us see where we are out of alignment with our goals and dreams.

The boosted awareness is grace. Soulful, objective data. When we back up the insight with bold action, incredible change can happen. Fast!

In good conscience, I’ll temper my exuberance: this works so much better when we work it!

What is the work? Meditation, movement, journaling, breathwork, time in nature, healthy eating, sleep hygiene, meaningful work, social connections, etc. Think intentionality. Think applying the ahas, insights & revelations into our daily lives for positive, aligned change.

LSD Phase 3 Clinical Trials

The molecule, once demonized and buried by the culture wars, is now advancing through FDA Phase 3 clinical trials for Generalized Anxiety Disorder. Strange how quickly “dangerous” becomes “medicine” once the data becomes undeniable.

And the numbers are compelling:

• Recent clinical trials with LSD showed clinically significant reductions in anxiety lasting up to 16 weeks after a single guided session.
• Researchers are also observing increases in emotional openness, connectedness, well-being, and psychological flexibility.
• In psychedelic research broadly, roughly 70% of participants in Johns Hopkins studies rated the experience among the most meaningful of their lives. Wow. Let that sink in.

BS INC Audit

Psychedelics aren’t a magic pill, but a mirror. A way to see how badly we’ve been duped by BS Inc. A way to remember that connection is not optional. It’s a biological imperative.

Even amid our precarious times, I’ve never been more hopeful for The More Beautiful World Our Hearts Know Is Possible.

Love, peace & prosperity,
Matt

PS: Fun article supporting this angle: “This hippie drug boosts sexual pleasure for months after it’s taken — and makes people happier with their looks too.”

Read NYPost article HERE.