Episode Details

In this episode of Mind Over Masculinity, host Avik sits down with author and guide Philip Saparov, who walked away from a “successful” life in New York and rebuilt everything from scratch across Ukraine, Thailand and beyond. This is not a hype story about quitting your job on a whim. It is a clear breakdown of what happens when a man finally stops outsourcing his life to expectations and starts listening to his own inner intelligence.

Philip unpacks the exact moment on June 3rd 2019 when an inner command told him to “drop everything and get on a plane,” how chronic stress and rising blood pressure forced an honest audit of his life, and why he believes every man needs a daily inner work practice. He explains his AIM Wheel framework. Awareness, Insight, Manifesting. As a practical blueprint for combining meditation, intuition, and grounded action so you are not just chasing goals but actually aligned with your nervous system, values and purpose.

If you are stuck in a job or identity that looks good on paper but feels like a slow leak to your soul. This conversation will hit home.

About the Guest :

Philip Saparov is an author, guide, and creator of Awakened Entrepreneurship. After leaving a draining six figure life in New York with only a few weeks of savings and no safety net, he rebuilt his work as a location independent freelancer, world traveler, and eventually a published author. Philip blends spiritual practice, meditation, and psychology into practical tools men can use to escape “unjust imprisonment” in careers, roles and expectations that no longer fit. His AIM Wheel method helps men align inner work with outer moves instead of faking it through burnout.

Key Takeaways:

• Most men wait for a breakdown before they change. Philip chose to move from conscious clarity instead of collapse, leaving New York when his body and intuition made it clear the current path was not sustainable.

• High income does not equal emotional wealth. Despite earning close to six figures, rising expenses and chronic stress meant his energy was collapsing and his health markers like blood pressure became early warning signals that something deeper was off.

• Philip describes receiving an “imperative” during meditation. A command level insight that told him to drop everything and travel. He frames this not as fantasy but as the result of a consistent inner work practice that built trust with his subconscious mind.

• Men are heavily conditioned to trust logic and dismiss intuition. Philip argues that masculine intuition can be trained like a muscle through daily silence, solitude and ritual time in what he calls the “Temple of You.”

• His AIM Wheel framework has three segments. Awareness. Surrendering to the present moment through meditation. Insight. Proactively eliciting answers from the subconscious instead of waiting for random inspiration. Manifesting. Taking aligned action toward goals that actually match your unique wiring.

• He calls out two situations where action is non negotiable. When you are physically ill and when you are in a form of “unjust imprisonment” . a job, relationship or system that violates your integrity. In those cases, your first responsibility is to get out and get well.

• Philip stresses that many men live inside identities handed to them by parents, culture and employers. Maturity means outgrowing that naivety, questioning inherited s