Hiya...
First of all, as this is my first blog post going out for the year, I just wanted to wish you a happy new year! I hope you were able to take some time out and do some things that you love!
I took a few days off to spend with my family to recharge in between running sessions for our fitness community! 
Anyways, I wanted to share something pretty vulnerable with you today, so I totally understand if you want to close this blog, delete it and wait for one of my educational or event blogs.
I understand that this could trigger some emotions for some if you have personally been impacted by mental health, suicide, and life's big challenges, and I want to warn you before you read on.
Please take this as a trigger warning... Exit if you prefer.
This time of the year when I am writing this, Christmas, Holidays and the New Year can be quite challenging for a lot of people, and I most certainly understand that to be the case for many.
A Facebook memory popped up on my profile from this month 10 years ago, and it still brings chills to my spine!
10 years ago, I was in a very dark place, a place that I would not wish on anyone! It was a place I had taken myself to... A place that was the culmination of about 15 years of burying my feelings, not dealing with the grief of losing my nana and my older brother within a couple years of each other, masking who I was, making some STUPID and REGRETFUL decisions, and finding many methods to hide from the life that I was leading at the time!
10 years ago this month, I was at absolute rock bottom and I had hit breaking point!
I thought:
I was stuck in a toxic relationship...
I was stuck in a toxic job...
I was stuck in toxic friendship circles...
I was stuck in the same cycle, week in week out of not dealing with my shit and self destructing...
Something had to break!
It was me that had to break, and the lifestyle that I was living in the lead-up to this point had to break too, or else I could not see any way out that was going to be sustainable...
At the time, I thought I had 1 choice as I couldn't see any light at the end of the tunnel for any other choice, so that indeed was a very dark choice!
I was on the brink of ending it all, taking my own life, and leaving the toxic world that I had created and that I couldn't see any other way out of!
Thankfully, after almost 2 days of locking myself away from the world in darkness (I was literally in our walk-in robe), something clicked for me in those moments of darkness... I was able to start thinking about my family and the people that it would impact...
I thought about my mum and how much losing her mother and her other son had impacted her, and if she had to go through that again with losing me, I couldn't do that to her! 
Finally, after much deliberation, I could see a different choice, a different path, and I could see that there was more to life! I saw that I still could create the opportunity to see what was possible before ending it because I wanted to finally make my mum proud, my family proud, and most of all, myself proud of who I was!
So, it came down to making the decision! The decision to change the way I thought about myself, change the way I lived, change the environment I was in, change the people that were in my life and change the way I viewed the world! 
Once I had made the decision to change things, I started to finally see that getting different results and a different experience, were finally possible!
I was finally seeing that there were way more possibilities in my life than I had ever thought possible! It was like starting a jigsaw puzzle and finding all these pieces to the puzzle that opened up a completely new viewpoint for me!
With each new piece of the puzzle, I was able to feel a little more clarity and sense of purpose.
Have I completed the puzzle yet? Hell no! There are still pieces I am picking up and finding places for, that will be a forever thing!
It was on the other side of rock bottom, I found my first personal trainer to help me learn how I could improve my own health & fitness, and use exercise to help me work through my challenges.
I completed my first city-to-bay running event, I completed my first of many obstacle events, and I was starting to feel like I was me, not wearing a mask and trying to be someone else I thought I had to be, just to fit in!
I made peace with those who I could find from my past.
I found my first mentor/coach to help me make sense of the new direction I was heading, I attended personal development events, I connected with new people and made new circles of friends!
I learned something new every single day and I loved it! (not bad for someone who hated school and flunked out)
I felt younger than I ever had! Everyone around me said that I started reverse aging when I made the changes to my lifestyle and my mindset! 
So why am I writing this to you?
I am writing this to you to remind you that anything really is possible! 
I am writing this to you to remind you that even when you may be feeling like life is hitting you around the head and that it's all hard as hell, there are options and there are people that can help you through it!
I am writing this to you to remind you that I understand, we are all human, we all go through our own personal struggles, and we all go through shit in life.
We will always go through challenges in life, we will all fail in life and we will all get knocked down time and time again!
We will all make decisions we are not proud of, we will all suffer from the decisions that we make and we will all hurt people at some stage in life, unintentionally and maybe intentionally!
This is your reminder, things can get better if you put in the work. It won't be easy, there will be times that you want to give up, but it sure as hell will be worth it in the end! 
From the support on a Facebook post (when I shared my 10-year memory of being at rock bottom on my profile) and the touching messages of just how much impact I have had on other's lives in the last 10 years, it blows me away that I have been able to help sooo many people since making 1 decision to change myself before I ended it all! 
If you or someone you know is struggling, please don't hold back.
ASK FOR HELP!
I thought there was no one that I could turn to for help and that I was all alone in my darkest days, but boy was I wrong!
All I had to do was...
ASK FOR HELP!
If it's not yourself that you ask, ask the next random person that you see, ask your family, your friends, your networks, or anyone else that you may come across! 
Just remember, you are not burdening someone else with your problems...
ASK FOR HELP!
Over these past 12 months in 2022, I have had my own struggles mentally, physically and emotionally. Without the support of the community I have built and the family that I have now, this year could have broken me numerous times through various challenges that popped up!
I am extremely sorry for the mistakes I made in the past, and I am extremely grateful for the lessons I have learned along the way!
So on that note, I would like to thank you for reading this far, I would like to reassure you that I have made some shitty decisions in the past that I didn't learn from till there was so much pain internally...
Do I still make shitty decisions...? Yes, I certainly do! 
Do I learn from those shitty decisions these days though...? Yes, I certainly do! 
That has been the biggest difference between who I am now to who I was before my breaking point.
It seems like a whole different life that I was living prior to the breaking point!
I am now here to help others live their best life possible and help them along their own journey!
If you or someone you know could do with a chat, please reach out and simply ask me or someone else in your network.
For all the major mental health support services, please click this link for their contact details.
https://www.sa.gov.au/topics/e...
Much Love
Glen :-)
Comments