Michael569

A Life of Purpose

246 posts in this topic

I've never lead a journal in my life and been postponing starting one online but it feels like the right thing to keep myself accountable and share a journey as so many others are doing. I love reading what other people are going through. So I am turning on my fav soundtrack from my fav movie and cracking on with the writing. 

My journey has started after coming to London from Slovakia, my home country. I was always lead to believe that having a good education, university and good grades was important. My dad works in business and is doing well for himself so naturally, I never saw any other way. I studied at business university and accepted that I'll just be clocking my hours for the rest of my life for some company that I have no passion or ambition at just because this is the "normal life". 

All changed when I found Leo through "how to stop caring what other people think about you". The more I listened to these videos the more it made sense to me. I started to realise how out of balance I was. A materialistic Eastern European with zero passion, zero motivation and no fulfilment. Somehow I convinced myself I was doing the right thing and was becoming "successful". Lol, if I had a dollar every time I hear this word..... I become a corporate rat, sucking up to my boss and depending on other people to tell me what to do. 

 It took me 2 years to muster the willpower to make the next step and to buy the LP course which opened up a new dimension for me. I've always been interested in health, fitness and that side of life but never saw it as more than a hobby really. The course convinced me that I should pursue this passion and create a purpose out of it. I took 5 months of additional life-coaching after the course and by the time it ended, my journey was quite clear -> I wanted to lead a life where I would help other people get well and to stop suffering. I kinda assume it would involve some area of alternative medicine but wasn't really sure. 

Sometime later I discovered a post from College of Naturopathic Medicine in London and at that day they happened to have an Open Door day and the last opportunity to sign up for the new semester (starting in 4 weeks!!). To this day, I think this was a sign from the universe...or just google being really smart with adds :D ..either way, the moment I walked in I knew I found my temple of knowledge and that I was meant to be here. An hour later I was walking away with a prospect and a bill for the sign-up fee for 3 year course of Naturopathic nutrition. That was Summer 2017. 

Year 1 was all about anatomy. Endless revision of bones, muscles, organs, tissues and cells. English & Latin both. I seriously have massive admiration and respect for medics. We did not go into the depth they do but man.....I don't know how someone can remember thousands of Latin words and location of every single bone and muscle on the human body. Somehow my enthusiasm lasted the whole year which made learning easy but I lost a lot of it now. 

Years 2 and 3 were more into nutrition, biochem & pharmacology but also herbal med, Chinese med and most of all therapeutics. For the first time, I came face to face with real client which was an extremely terrifying experience but at the same time, it felt like the right thing. My very first client in the school clinic was a young finance manager. Burned out, depressed, stressed, overworked, overexercised, asthmatic and allergic. I could see myself in him couple years back. I was that superachiever, exercising 7 days a week doing Crossfit and always living on the run. During this time my asthma & allergies were the worst they've ever been so I had to slow down. I explained the same to him and 4 weeks later he came to his follow up with pretty amazing results. 

I realised that the modern epidemic is not really some sort of infection and fancy diseases but it is stress. I saw that in all my other school clients. Stressed, burned out, unhappy and overworked. The modern epidemic especially in cities like London. 

I am now in my final days of the naturopathic college pretty much just awaiting the diploma. Everything has been submitted but that's just the beginning of it. Marketing, accounting, taxes, Webdesign and all the other stuff comes next and it's giving me a lot of headaches. 

I'll be documenting the next steps of the journey on here. 

 


“If you find yourself acting to impress others, or avoiding action out of fear of what they might think, you have left the path.” ― Epictetus

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You know, i have seen you give alot of advice, that takes some effort, not only advice, but informed advice. I think you are really valuable to this forum dude. Not easy to push trough med school and then look at the alternative clues, spending time to validate it for yourself despite all the contrast of opinions. In the important topic of health, the most important thing everyone takes for granted. I am eating chocholate as i am writing this.

 Then taking the courage to share it. Facing the opinions of other autoritarian medical professionals and who knows what else! Damn, i feel the struggle! Dude, i want to thank you on behalf of all the people you helped with advice. Cheers, may your future endevours succeed!

I know a classmate who goes on university for medicine for 6 years. I would be dead by that time... :D

Edited by Applegarden

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@Applegarden thanks man ☺️


“If you find yourself acting to impress others, or avoiding action out of fear of what they might think, you have left the path.” ― Epictetus

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There is something they don't teach you in schools, they don't teach you how to deal with things that they didn't teach you O.o 
Most of my education in the final year turned around how to apply different protocols to different conditions, understanding various imbalanced, biochemistry etc but nobody taught us about the psyche, and the whole mental game. 

This is THE most crucial element of health recovery I found. People have their own believes and ideas and if those are not aligned with what I am trying to teach them, the therapy will fail in 90% of cases. There is a bunch of emotional baggage people carry that is usually missed and no amount of magnesium or any of the "miraculous" powders can fix that. People have traumas in their lives and need to conduct a lot of deep work to get over this. We were never trained to work on this even though I see it as a crucial obstacle to healing. 

Hence I've come to realise that nutrition therapy on its own is not sufficient enough in most cases to produce sustainable results. People need to be coached, mentored and guided with a vision & love rather than just given some sort of plan. I am currently pondering what will my next move be. Considering a 1 years course in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy to add on the top of nutrition or to finish off with Masters in Nutritional Sciences which would involve 2 more years. Herbal medicine is an attractive option as well and so is Functional medicine. Wondering if I really need them or if its just my insecurities needing more fuel -> keeping different options open for now 


“If you find yourself acting to impress others, or avoiding action out of fear of what they might think, you have left the path.” ― Epictetus

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Journaling changed my life so far :)

I hope it will serve you good as well! 

Good start! I also listened to the soundtrack while reading this :)

 

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47 minutes ago, BlackMaze said:

I also listened to the soundtrack while reading this

That was the idea :D . Thanks man, hope you're keeping well yourself. Been keeping an eye on your updates. 


“If you find yourself acting to impress others, or avoiding action out of fear of what they might think, you have left the path.” ― Epictetus

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Currently working on my organisation skills. This has been a weakness of mine for as long as I can remember. Always forgetting meetings, missing entries in calendar. If I am to see clients in the future I need to be 100% organised and on the top of my schedule. Got great help from a member of this forum. We have started coaching each other in different things, very excited with the plan I got from her. 

reading This is Marketing by Seth Godin. Marketing is the part of my future practice that I disliked the most because I thought it can only be toxic and shady but Seth has convinced me that there is something like conscious marketing to really excited about these ideas. I can resonate with so much what he says


“If you find yourself acting to impress others, or avoiding action out of fear of what they might think, you have left the path.” ― Epictetus

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Today was all about registering as Sole Trader with Uk Government, figuring essential steps, learning about tax return, insurance, revenue, expenses etc... Also realised I'll need to work with an accountant at some point. Slowly different bits are falling in place. Website is around 80% ready. There are so many things I still don't know how to do but funny enough it's not giving me so much anxieties anymore....either I've adapted or the letting go of worries & fears is starting to pay off. David Hawkins' books has been so helpful. 

Still no word from school, it's been 6 weeks since I submitted everything, was hoping to be certified by end of September but....oh well in the grand scheme of things it does not matter at all. I'm so blessed to have an actual income still, so many people I know lost their jobs. It is not a passion but I feel grateful every single day for having this despite all the headaches I've got working for the company over the years....I can already see the way out, very very slowly the light at the end of the tunnel is becoming visible.  Like to think of it as Andy digging his tunnel out of Shawshank with pocket stone hammer. One chip at a time. 

Enough keyboard-jogging, time to hit the iron


“If you find yourself acting to impress others, or avoiding action out of fear of what they might think, you have left the path.” ― Epictetus

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A recent study in Frontiers of Nutrition found (among other) that strength training stimulates neuroplasticity and BDNF function and formation. We knew that strength training is good for keeping a healthier physical body but knowing that it actually strengthens your synaptic connections is freaking fascinating!!! Seems that there is this mini-competition when the muscle & the brain actually compete for energy during hard workouts and this pushes both to adapt and improve. Cool stuff


“If you find yourself acting to impress others, or avoiding action out of fear of what they might think, you have left the path.” ― Epictetus

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One of my earliest clients from the school clinic reached out saying she would like to continue where we left of 8 months ago, didn't think I'd hear from her ever again. The poor girl is so traumatised, stressed and unwell on so many levels. When she told us her story for the first time, few people ended-up wiping their tears away throughout the session. Bullied at school, traumatised by a psychotic mother, depressed and physically ill for decades. I suspect she has a massive undiagnosed endocrinological issue as well that nobody ever bothered to investigate. Not sure how much difference can I make in her case but will do my best to work with what we got. Put on antidepressants and painkillers after 5 minutes in the doctor's office. I reckon it will take at least 4-6 hours of conversations to really get closer to the root cause and then possibly 12-18 months of therapy to make some progress. Western medicine (at least here in UK) is failing on so many levels. 


“If you find yourself acting to impress others, or avoiding action out of fear of what they might think, you have left the path.” ― Epictetus

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On 9/23/2020 at 0:46 PM, Michael569 said:

I can already see the way out, very very slowly the light at the end of the tunnel is becoming visible.  Like to think of it as Andy digging his tunnel out of Shawshank with pocket stone hammer. One chip at a time. 

Ooooo, I love that. What a powerful visualization.

Can't forget about Edmond Dantes:

Also, I love that Last Samurai soundtrack.

Good stuff, man! I believe in your journey. 


“Feeling is the antithesis of pain."

—Arthur Janov

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@jjer94 Nice, never seen this movie but heard about it a bit. 

This one is awesome as well from Warrior 

Thanks for your kind words  ^_^


“If you find yourself acting to impress others, or avoiding action out of fear of what they might think, you have left the path.” ― Epictetus

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How could I have ever lived without Youtube premium?? Is it carefully orchestrated and manipulated online media to pressure viewers into gettick sick of adds and sign up for premium? YES!  Is it toxic? YES. Am I contributing to massive IT company that is tracking my data & usage? Yes.... Is it worthy it? YES!! The thought of not having to go through another toxic add that is destroying my brain cells and the ability to mute screen and download all these awesome playlists make selling a bunch of my data (that google already owns anyway) makes it so worth. 

Learning about accounting this week. I used to loath and hate accounting so so much in the Uni and now I wish I had paid more attention. The good thing is that there are actually softwares to do that stuff for you and they can be connected with the biz bank account which is awesome. Scheduled a session with an accountant and I'll probably talk to him once a month just to make sure I'm lining up my expenses right in case of audit....:D but guess it is good to get it in place rather than be fined later....wonder how many more hoops to jump over are there that I don't know about yet...GDPR might be next on the list after this (Leo, we need the green vomiting emoticon:S)

Finally got some feedback from school on everything I've submitted. A schoolmate of mine even got her Diploma already, first of the entire year, kudos to her...so close now to getting it all done!!

 


“If you find yourself acting to impress others, or avoiding action out of fear of what they might think, you have left the path.” ― Epictetus

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Started following a new training programme. Feels good to be back in the gym after 6 months of covid bodyweight on the grass. A lot of people are bashing on Jeff Cavaliere, the Athlean X but I think he is absolutely brilliant and his programs are top of the class. Bought his BeastX one and so far I'm really loving it. This is not a paid advertising :ph34r: although if Jeff paid me 50$ for everytime I helped him sell one of the programs, I could have left my wage slave job by now. 

Sometimes I wonder why do I put myself through all these physical training self-tortures, I like to justify it to myself by saying that clients judge the way you look and as a health professional I'll need to look the part but maybe I'm clinging to parts of Orange that I haven't outgrown yet and all of this is just serving the ego masked in some sort of life purpose mambo jumbo. 


“If you find yourself acting to impress others, or avoiding action out of fear of what they might think, you have left the path.” ― Epictetus

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Hey! That's great! His videos are very informative and i was really close one time to buy one of his programs. But do you have to be a gym regural for years to follow them or is it possible to tailor them for a beginer to weight lifting? Yeah people are saying that the weights on his videos are fake and i think that what he eats is disgusting (i mean those egg whites in a carton that he microwaves). But the fact is that he knows his stuff and his videos are great.

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@BlackMaze i would say that it helps to have some gym experience however he does have beginner stuff as well. I absolutely don't agree with his diet advice thou. He is brilliant in explaining you the mechanics of your muscles and how to do lifts properly he is not good at seeing how destructive his nutrition advice can be. Also heard about fake weights..yeah well what can I say, lot of pressure on him to be on the top


“If you find yourself acting to impress others, or avoiding action out of fear of what they might think, you have left the path.” ― Epictetus

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10 hours ago, Michael569 said:

he is not good at seeing how destructive his nutrition advice can be.

Could you elaborate on that? 

Is it perhaps the whipped creme with every meal he eats? xD 

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4 hours ago, fridjonk said:

Could you elaborate on that? 

Is it perhaps the whipped creme with every meal he eats?

His diet advice is all about protein basically. He is not afraid of carbohydrates like many other people in the fitness but he has spoken against fruit in the past that it "hides your abs" and things like that. But I get that that most guys who follow him don't have the sort of long-term health consequence conflict with this advice. I didn't in my early days of the orange lifter.His nutrition plan is based on eating meat 3-4 times a day, I have huge conflict with that but he is not a nutritionist so I get where he is coming from.  It will get you more gains that's for sure :D 


“If you find yourself acting to impress others, or avoiding action out of fear of what they might think, you have left the path.” ― Epictetus

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