A man’s capacity to follow through on what he says and only say what he intends to follow through on reveals a lot about his spiritual evolution. And I’m not talking about spiritual evolution that’s disconnected from the physical world—where you’re just fucking around dissociated in the astral realm. I’m talking about spiritual evolution that reveals itself through the body, that actually shows up in the physical world.

It’s quite sad how American culture—and by that I mean the subculture I experienced in California and New York—has gotten to this point where there are so many cultural norms that support the distancing between a man’s words and his actions. And these norms get reinforced through humor.

You’ve probably seen those skits about how Americans say things like “let’s grab dinner sometime” as a way to say goodbye—with no actual intention of following through. That took me a while to get used to when I moved here. And yeah, those skits often contrast that with the Germanic way of pulling out your calendar right then and there, which is its own kind of robotic disembodiment. My sense is that’s probably rooted in some unprocessed shame from World War II. But still—there’s something to be said for only saying something out loud if you actually mean it. Only saying “let’s go for a walk” if you intend to do it. Because that reflects your awareness of your capacity for connection. And it shows that you’re not leaking intentional words out into the world without honoring them.

When you speak a desire or relational intention—like “let’s do this”—the cosmos starts moving to make it happen. And then when you don’t follow through, those mechanisms that had already kicked into motion are like, what the fuck? I’m obviously anthropomorphizing them, I don’t know their experience—but they feel disrespected. And over time, when you really want something and don’t get it, you might wonder why. And it might be because you’ve screwed up your relationship with those subtle mechanisms that support the bridging of intention into action.

So yeah—it’s critical to speak only what you intend to follow through on, and then to follow through. That’s integrity. And it’s something I’ve found to be really missing in the American subcultures I’ve been part of. Not that I haven’t met humans who value this—there are some—but they’re few.

Before I started living this way, so many of my issues were coming from energetic leakiness. One example: when a man is energetically leaky, just in the course of going about life, he can end up gathering erotic energy that’s not his to hold. It floats in, gets absorbed, and shows up in the form of random hard-ons that then “need” to be released through masturbation, usually to pornography. And yeah, if you periodically feel horny and that horniness feels unmanageable—if it builds to a point where you feel like you need release—chances are your energetic boundaries aren’t very crisp. You’re leaky. And a simple, foundational way to start closing those leaks is to bring more alignment between your speech and your actions.

One thing I did early on was this: when I had the impulse to say something that didn’t feel fully rooted in my intention, I’d just say it silently in my head. I wouldn’t let it come out of my mouth. And over time, that built space. I’d do this in conversation too—watching which words faded away with one instance of not speaking them, and which ones kept insisting on being spoken aloud. That practice brought more silence into my life. Like, pleasant silence. Spaciousness in connection.

And I had been afraid of that before. I was afraid silence in conversation would be awkward, or make people feel uncomfortable. But I’ve been surprised—people often appreciate it. They feel it. When I bring silence gently into a conversation and hold it, it does something.

The more I practiced that, the more I noticed physical shifts. (And this is why I’m so insistent that spiritual work has to show up in the physical.) Over time, the tip of my tongue started resting naturally on the roof of my mouth. If you’ve explored any Taoist alchemy or even basic Neo-Tantra, you’ll know this is significant—there’s an energetic circuit that completes when the tongue touches the roof of the mouth. And in my experience, the more that circuit is complete, the less energy pools in areas of my body (hint: loins) where it needs release. It just flows.

There are tantric exercises that train this—sometimes called the microcosmic orbit—but funnily enough, I’ve never practiced them. I just landed here through alignment. And even more oddly, there’s a whole corner of the internet fitness world called looksmaxing, focused on improving physical attractiveness. One of the exercises they teach is called mewing—which is literally just practicing bringing your tongue to the roof of your mouth. If you search it on YouTube, you’ll find people showing significant shifts in jaw structure just from that one practice. And to me, it reveals something deep. That by worshiping Venus—not in some superficial way, but in the body, in the exterior that reflects the interior—you can actually initiate profound spiritual evolution. So if you’re walking a spiritual path, consider starting here: aligning your words with your actions. Not just for the sake of discipline, but to restore the sacred circuitry that lets your energy move clearly, cleanly, through your life.

This alignment between speech and action isn’t just something that exists in the personal or spiritual realm—it shows up at every level of life. You can live it in your individual habits. You can live it in your relational life. You can live it in community. And you can live it at the global scale.

At the individual level, it might look like deciding to floss before bed and actually doing it. At the relational level, it could be only offering to meet up with someone if you genuinely intend to. At the community level, it’s about not offering your energy or support unless you can actually follow through—or being honest if something no longer feels aligned. That’s critical. Because a lot of people who experience this gap between speech and action are speaking from a people-pleasing part. That part says something just to feel approval or appreciation. And once that hit is received, there’s no energy left to act on it.

And then there’s the global scale. And this is where I feel truly astonished and inspired by President Trump. Because in terms of following through on what he sets out to do—at a planetary level—his track record is incredible. The man says what he intends, and then he moves mountains to make it happen. That kind of alignment is rare, and it’s something I recognize because I’ve spent years cultivating it in myself.

And maybe this will feel jarring or unexpected—especially if you came here hoping for something more apolitical, more “spiritual.” But for me, merging spirituality and politics is necessary. Especially now. Especially with President Trump. Because the traits I see in him—the integrity in follow-through, the capacity to move from intention to action—are invisible to many. And I think that invisibility comes from a scrambled inner world.

If you’re someone who considers President Trump to be lacking integrity, I invite you to pause and ask yourself—what is integrity to you? Do you even know what it feels like in your body? Do you know the taste of alignment between your speech and your action?

How good are you at cultivating habits you said you would cultivate?

How good are you at taking care of your physical body and home?

How good are you at working your way out of addictive behavior patterns that don’t serve you?

How good are you at following through on commitments you make to people in your life?

How often do you allow words to come out of your mouth that you don’t intend to follow through on?

What habits do you practice when no one is watching—habits you’d be afraid for the world to know about?