My Mission

I believe that we all extraordinary.

Every single one of us has lived a special portion of time on this planet and we are all valuable and worthy of knowing just how special we each are.
My mission is to make everyone know just how extraordinary they are!

No one else has lived their life the way you have. No one knows how we think and interpret the world around us. Even those who know ‘everything about us’ don’t know everything.
We’ve all experienced highs and lows in our life. These do not define us or hold us back. They provide the best platform to live today as the extraordinary being that we are.
I believe that Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) is the best starting point to help us understand who we and give us the capability to resist negative thoughts from others, and more pertinently, ourselves.

Want to join me?

Our brain is remarkable. Yet we barely know how it works.

Our brains function is to keep us alive. It does this by reading external and internal signals and making sure that we are as safe as can be.

Back in the day, and I mean way back, the brains primary function was to gather food and keep predators at bay. You wouldn’t want to get caught with your loin clothe by your ankles with a bear around the corner.

As a result, humans developed caution, and more advanced, pattern recognition and vision.
All of a sudden we could predict and visualise things, plan and think about our little hunter gatherer family. But should danger strike, our whole body could change and we’d be alert to either run away or stand and fight.

These instincts still live in us today. We don’t have the same dangers we had before on a regular basis such as being eaten alive. But we do have bullies, bosses, other people around who could all be threats if we perceive them to be.

Social media, for some of us, has us on high alert all of the time, worrying about comparison and how unfunny or not pretty we are to others. This constant stream of stress is not letting us rest so our bodies are always in flight or fright mode when we no longer have a meaningful use for it.

We need to carve some time out to properly relax. Get the balance of hormones correct in our system and save the flight or fright for a real life terrifying situation, which hopefully won’t be running away from bears! 🐻

Getting Back on Your Feet

Three years ago I was doing really well. I had a job, a girlfriend, a cheap rented house, nice car, gadgets to film my future career on.

All of them, except the car (although it did get broken into), disappeared in the space of three months.

Things were hard and I was in a low place. A few things kept me going and picked me back up:

  • My Family
  • Football

When my car got broken into the first thing I did was finish the gig I was playing. Then I went home, packed a suitcase and left. I rang my manager and said I wasn’t coming in. This was the final straw of a calamitous three month period and I wanted out of whatever it was I was holding onto.

I wouldn’t return for a further 3 months.

That period of time was gentle and peaceful on the most part. It was odd being ‘home’ not having had one for over a month. It was odd seeing so much of my family too having moved away five years before.

It’s odd being off work when you’re physically able. I’d never taken a prolonged leave of absence but I knew I couldn’t be there. I started thinking about my future, and more accurately my lack of future.

I returned to my old football club who finally had a 2nds team. If you read my previous post, you’ll see I was a later developer when it comes to sports, and started training with my brother. Something I missed from the old days. Most of the boys I trained with from years before were not in that team so I kind of blended in as best as I could. Even my nephew was playing and one of my favourite images of that time is the three of us when we played together.

I ended up getting quite good and solidifying the right back position, much to the managers bemusement remembering me from years before.

Being outdoors and using my body was great, but I also felt tremendous guilt that I was doing something that wasn’t work. I had to dig deep and rationalise that what I was doing was essentially rehab.

The rehab was the best rehab and I eventually gained strength in myself to start thinking about life and work again. A post had come up in work that my experiences perfectly ran with. I nearly didn’t apply for it because it meant having to go back.

I’m so glad I did go back. I ran my own service. Guided 30 volunteers, performed in shows again, won a volunteer award and helped over 300 people come to terms with their cancer diagnosis, reducing their anxiety and depression and increasing their overall wellbeing.

Imagine if I said no to that opportunity? I would overcome that challenge too.