What is the value of spiraling from high performing professional to madman through to coach and comedian?

So I’m finally progressing the rewriting of my memoir, revamping of my website www.calmercoaching.com and a number of other little projects on the sidelines relating to mental health advocacy, coaching and demystifying mental illness and bipolar disorder specifically.

The biggest issue imho is mental health and mental illness stigma.

Correct me if I am wrong.

But it was not until my diagnosis in 2011 at the age of 43 that I had any idea that I had this sleeping bomb within me about to explode.

It has been an interesting ten years and it has been well worth the experiences of psychosis and depression to release what was not me and allow what is me to emerge.

I could not have done without NLP or neuro-linguistic programming co-created by Richard Bandler and John Grinder along with mBIT and mBraining – the work of Grant Soosalu and Marvin Oka.

So here’s a mini-interview where I interview myself in a covid-safe situation – ie in my office with my cat taking notes (joke).

Enjoy.

Interview

1. What did you learn from attending the mBIT Coach training?

I learned that I could heal and recover from my diagnosis of bipolar (it’s not a disorder).

I learned that the heart heals.

I learned that the gut brain courage offers safety and guidance through its intuition and gut instinct.

I learned that my path prior to the mBIT Coach Cert has been driven by head brain creativity and gut brain courage to push through a deep-seated anxiety and unease around my self-worth imprinted during my childhood but also likely inherited from my ancestors as evidenced from subsequent research into my family trees of my mother and father.

More intriguingly I had one big question that I was seeking an answer to.

And that question was answered during the mBIT Coach cert.

This to me was enough to convince me that mBIT and mBraining was my path.

Having invested twenty years of my life working in audit office environments both in UK and in Australia, I have a deep desire for evidence.

To explore the evidence and the science underpinning mBIT and mBraining opened my eyes like they have never been opened before.

Using your multiple brains to do cool stuff by Grant Soosalu and Marvin Oka has offered me a bridge from a life of chaos and near-death experiences to a life of bliss.

It has taken me ten years to rewire my head brain creativity, my heart brain compassion and my gut brain courage.

It has taken me ten years to rebalance head, heart, gut.

It has taken me ten years to calm my autonomic nervous system.

I had a chaotic childhood in some respect, and I’ve reconfigured many childhood memories, experiences and learned behaviours.

I suspect I’ve also healed inter-generational family trauma my ancestors experienced during World Wars One and Two – experiences that neither my mother or father ever talked about.

And having in a way healed myself, I hope to help others navigate any misalignments or complexities they may be experience or that may be knowingly or unknowingly be influencing their behaviours.

Based on personal experience, the calmer we become internally, the calmer we experience flow in our daily life and as we progress along our path, we experience a lighter energy and a more vibrant experience as we flow up our own internal and external spiral (reference: spiral dynamics).

2. What value-add did you experience from learning about the work of Grant and Marvin?

Having waffled a bit in question 1, I’ll keep my answer to question 2 short – it saved my life.

3. What values did you connect with when being in the presence of those modelling excellence?

I’m a huge fan of facts and the meaning of life.

The past ten years have woken me up to the fact I was living through the wrong set of values.

That has been the biggest wake-up call from the diagnosis of bipolar to now.

My life prior to my diagnosis was high-achieving but also exhausting energetically.

I was living a lie even though it was an enjoyable lie in some respects – travelling the world and working in places I never expected to work.

Now my highest values are freedom, empowerment and passion.

I’ve let go of the need and focus on the joy.

I’ve let go the old perfectionist and live more in the now.

And how my life has transformed – from exhaustion to elation.

4. Did you know what you wanted in attending the training?

Yes, I had one question answered.

It was answered.

5. And if you knew what you wanted – was that want met?

Yes.

6. And what next?

My Chapter 9 is a tad ambitious.

However, in some ways my work is done – on myself.

Hereon in I just need to be – me.

I’m more energised because I’m more calm.

That’s the healing and the alignment that Grant and Marvin’s work offers –

• Avoiding the Enemies of Happiness
• Loving Your Life
• Using Your Multiple Brains to do Cool Stuff

Letting go of what is not me.

Recalibrating my internal engineering to align to my true authentic self through allow my heart to cohere.

Chapter 9’ing through a more attuned self.

7. Are you passionate about what you learned?

Given it saved my life – yes.

8. Are you passionate about mBIT and mBraining?

As 7.

9. If so, how are you showing up in the world?

2022 will be laying the foundations.

From then on the real work and fun begins.

Community is about teamwork.

Co-courage’ing, co-compassioning, co-creating – is not about one single individual, one coach, one trainer, one group of people.

Grant’s vision was about the world and the value we could bring in sharing mBIT and mBraining with humanity.

Marvin’s presence and his focus on mindfulness and his almost zen energy.

So with Grant and Marvin’s models – what co-excellence’ing are you co-passion’ing in 2022 and beyond?

For more information about mBIT and mBraining and the latest research go to:

https://www.mbraining-global.com/

For more information about NLP or neuro-linguistic programming and the latest research go to:

https://richardbandler.com/

For more informed about spiral dynamics go to:

http://spiraldynamics.org/