A grounded space for Black and Brown men to slow down, soften, and come home to themselves.
Lifted Conversations is built on presence, nature, and embodied truth. No pressure. No performance. Just breath, honest dialogue, and a guide who lives what he teaches.
The land as teacher and nervous system medicine.
Softness as strength, practiced together.
Feel, name, and interrupt the loop.
Meet Charles Collins
Founder, Somatic Life Coach-Trauma-Informed Healer, Experienced Cannabis Cultivator, Nature Guide
FOUNDER’S STORY
Softening the Armor
The grounded life, lived wisdom, and healing work of Charles Collins.
The Story
Charles Collins is a somatic life coach, trauma and resilience guide, cannabis educator, cultivator, and nature-based healer whose work lives at the intersection of body wisdom, emotional truth, and the quiet intelligence of the natural world.
Born and raised on the South Side of Chicago, Charles came of age in an environment where vigilance was necessary and vulnerability was rarely safe. Like many Black men shaped by inner-city survival, he learned early how to armor himself. How to stay alert. How to endure. How to carry weight silently.
Those survival skills kept him alive. Over time, they also created distance from his body, his breath, and his deeper emotional truth.
His healing did not begin in a classroom or a clinic. It began outdoors. In the woods. On trails. Beside fires. In snow-covered silence. Nature became the first place where his nervous system could exhale.
When the body feels safe, the heart can speak.
A Life in Relationship With Nature
Charles is an outdoorsman, bushcrafter, forager, and self-taught naturalist who lives in relationship with the land.
The woods taught him how to slow down without quitting. How to listen without fixing. How to be present without performing. Whether hiking, carving wood, snowshoeing, or cooking over open fire, nature became his teacher.
For Charles, presence did not come from silence. It came from attention.
The Plant as Ally
Alongside his devotion to nature, Charles brings decades of experience as a cannabis cultivator and educator.
In his work, cannabis is never positioned as an escape. It is treated as an intentional ally. A way to soften the nervous system, slow the mind, and help people notice what the body has been communicating for years.
Clear boundaries, education, choice, and self-awareness are central. The plant supports presence. It never replaces it.
Somatic Healing and Emotional Literacy
Charles specializes in helping Black and Brown men reconnect with their bodies, emotions, and capacity for presence.
Many arrive disconnected from sensation and vulnerability because those disconnections once kept them safe. Charles honors that reality without pathologizing it.
Through breathwork, body awareness, mindful slowing down, and grounded conversation, he helps clients recognize familiar emotional loops. Trigger. Activation. Story. Reaction.
The work is not about forcing change. It is about creating enough safety for truth to emerge.
The ‘Charles Makes Me Smile’ YouTube Channel
This work is not separate from Charles’s life. It is an extension of it.
Through his ongoing video series, Charles Makes Me Smile, he shares unscripted moments in nature. Walking in the snow. Cooking over fire. Laughing, reflecting, paying attention.
These moments are not content. They are lived expressions of the same presence that guides the work.
A Gentle Invitation
If you feel resonance here, you are welcome to explore the work further.
If you do not, trust that as well.
This space honors choice, timing, and readiness.
What’s going to make you smile today?
A NOTE FROM CHARLES
Before you read further, I want to name something clearly. This work did not come from books alone. It came from living. From surviving when I needed to. From learning how to listen when my body finally asked me to slow down.
Softening the Armor is not about becoming someone new. It is about remembering what had to be set aside in order to make it through. This page is an invitation to move slowly, to notice what stirs in you as you read, and to trust your own timing.
If something here resonates, you are welcome to continue. If it does not, that matters too. There is no right way to arrive.
— Charles
CHARLES MAKES ME SMILE - YouTube Channel
The woods aren’t content. They’re medicine.
A curated set of moments that reveal Charles’s nature, humor, stillness, and joy. These videos are part of the story and part of the practice.
Snow Meditation
A winter walk. A nervous system exhale. A reminder to find your why.
It’s all about Nature
Foraging, humor, and the simple joy of paying attention.
Salmon Over the Fire
Life gives renovations. We learn to make it better. Bushcraft style.
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The woods do not rush you. In the circle, we practice the same. Slowing down gives the body a chance to tell the truth.
How nature translates to the work…
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You do not fight fire. You tend it. Emotional activation is treated the same. We learn to hold it with skill.
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Before we analyze, we notice. Jaw, breath, shoulders, heat. Somatics becomes a language for what has been carried.
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A trail teaches you by repetition. So does healing. We return weekly to breath, awareness, and honest dialogue.
YouTube Channel link
Explore more moments from the trail, the fire, the snow, and the quiet joy that fuels this work.
CHARLES MAKES ME SMILE
THE WORK
Lifted Conversations
A somatic, culturally resonant healing space for Black and Brown men. Cannabis is treated as an ally for presence, not an escape.
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Lifted Conversations is a healing space for Black and Brown men to come home to themselves. Our mission is to create intentional containers where breath, body awareness, and conscious cannabis use support emotional honesty, grounded presence, and the courage to live with open hearts.
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We envision a future where healing is normalized, vulnerability is strength, and Black and Brown men are deeply connected to their bodies, emotions, and ancestral wisdom. Lifted Conversations aims to restore intentional relationship with self, community, and plant medicine so men can move through the world more whole, regulated, and alive.
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We return to breath, sensation, and the signals the body has been sending for years.
What we practice
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Naming what is present without shame. Expanding the range beyond anger, silence, or shutdown.
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Trigger, activation, story, reaction. We learn the pattern so we can interrupt it with care.
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A circle where men can be honest without performing toughness. A space built for safety.
Cannabis in this space
Clear boundaries build trust.
BYO medicine
Cannabis is never provided. Participants bring their own, if they choose to consume.
Presence, not escape
We use cannabis intentionally to arrive. To notice patterns. To practice softness and awareness.
Education built in
Dosing, onset time, strain and terpene basics, and self-awareness cues are woven in simply.
OFFERINGS
Ways to walk with Charles
GROUP “DROP-IN” SESSION
90-Min - A steady group-based entry point
A welcoming 90-minute circle for Black and Brown men (21+) to slow down, breathe, and reconnect with themselves. These drop-in sessions blend somatic grounding, intentional cannabis education, and honest conversation to help participants notice emotional patterns and respond with more clarity and presence.
“SOFTENING THE ARMOR” PROGRAM
8-Week - The core journey
Softening the Armor is an 8-week, small-group healing journey for Black and Brown men (21+) ready to explore their emotional patterns, communication, and relationships more deeply. Through weekly 90-minute sessions, participants build somatic awareness, learn to interrupt reactive loops, and practice vulnerability and intentional cannabis use in a supportive, culturally resonant community.
1:1 CANNABIS-INTEGRATED SOMATIC COACHING
90-Min - Personalized. Deeply tailored.
A private, 90-minute cannabis-integrated somatic coaching experience for Black and Brown men (21+) ready to explore their emotional patterns, communication, and relationships more deeply. These sessions offer personalized support to slow reactivity, understand your emotional “loop,” and use intentional cannabis practices to cultivate clarity, regulation, and embodied presence.
Accessibility note
If finances are a barrier, reach out anyway. We will find a way that honors both dignity and sustainability.
CONTACT
Reach out
A simple way to connect. No pressure. Just a note.