In this episode you will hear the delightfully entertaining interview with American musical theatre composer Dana Rowe. His works have been performed internationally with productions in London’s West End, much of his work has been written with lyricist John Dempsey.

Dana wrote the music for: Zombie Prom, The Fix (directed by Sam Mendes) and The Witches of Eastwick. Dana was nominated for the Olivier Award for his contribution to The Fix and The Witches of Eastwick, both of which were produced in London by Cameron Mackintosh. Dana also composed the score for The Ballad of Bonnie and Clyde. In 2011, he collaborated with Maribeth Graham on See Jane Run!

Despite all his success and fame, Dana admits he had become an “Unintentional Maestro of self-destruction” and he grew up wanting to please others. Through his early work he tried to apply and channel his energy and mindset, but the creativity was blocked and unsustainable. Dana describes his personal journey as riding a “Bobsled to hell” going down the path of self-destruct. He experienced relationship breakdowns, health issues and his work suffered. Eventually he found his way to the 12 steps to recovery programme – focusing on his spiritually and connecting with a community to support him to make a full holistic recovery.

Dana and I met through our mutual learning journey, both of us are discovering the techniques and skills of applying mental fitness with the organisation Positive Intelligence. You will hear us chat about the saboteurs and how to strengthen mental muscles.

Thank you to Dana for being so open and vulnerable to share his story and thank you for your interest in this topic.

In this episode you will hear all about Sylvia’s experience as a digital nomad, she is a Soul vision coach – who helps people find their purpose. Sylvia generously shares her story about how she gave all her belongings away and began travelling to experience a new gateway to new life. She had been working in a stressful environment as an Art Director in a big advertising agency in Cologne in Germany. Suffering with her inner voice trying to tell her she was not good enough and that she could not do the work, she would experience the saboteurs of procrastination and talking herself out of stuff! This self-critical, judgemental inner conflict showed up as issues in her work, sadness and isolation and a passive anger that bubbled under the surface.

Now Sylvia lives in Montemore, Portugal and you will hear how she transitioned from an Art Director to helping people connect with their purpose.

During this interview you will learn about the Hero’s Journey created by Joseph Campbell as we chat about co-living. You will also hear us talk about co-dependent relationships and how to shift into interdependent relationships – learning to deepen your connection with yourself. You will discover more about how the experience of sabotage can be a valuable lesson and a necessary journey that is needed for you own development.

If you wish to discuss any topic related to self-sabotage or the content of the podcast, you can book a call with Damian here: BOOK A 1:1 WITH DAMIAN

Enjoy…

In this episode you will hear an interview with Leah Bateman, an Artificial Intelligence entrepreneur – focused on health and fitness. She is a qualified Pilates instructor and Reiki Healer– having overcome her own pain, physical disability and illness which had been caused by work-related stress.

Leah’s journey with self-sabotage is around perfectionism – an insidious form of sabotage. Convincing yourself that you care and want to do things well, this can be subsuming and energy draining – becoming more and more anxious and less confident. The self-judgement and perfection may be intrinsic motivators to perform better, but the great intentions can become quite toxic – leading to sickness and burnout.

You lose objectivity and become obsessed with your perfection – affecting work life balance, not being able to switch off and relax. Drawing into the dark playground – a nefarious place where you are not able to enjoy the present moment, distracted by the inner voices reminding you of the perfectionism trap – an energetic drain. You distract yourself, avoiding and procrastinating – triggered into ineffective activity, unfulfilling behaviour and emptiness. Draining energy and leaving you feeling apathy and depression.

You will also learn about how ‘thinking about’ a task or project can convince you that you are doing something about the outcome – even though there is nothing progressing! You will hear about Solomon’s Paradox – the more emotionally close we are to a situation, the less wisdom we have available to resolve our own pain or problems.

The answer to overcome the sabotage – listen to the podcast to learn some tips and hints! You will hear how breathing techniques and visceral scanning of your physical body shifts your focus, which switches off the sabotage mind. Using breathing for alignment and balance, including touch and voice to connect to the present moment. You will also hear about how important it is to incorporate physical fitness in to your life on a daily basis to help yourself on all levels.

Emotional pain is akin to physical pain, so rather than continue with our stress or ruminating over the stress that is triggered – remove yourself from that pattern of sabotage. Being compassionate with yourself and incorporating movement can take time to integrate – the more this can be used to build your self-command to have more control over your mental and emotional health.

You can always book a 15 minute discovery call with me using this link: BOOK A CALL WITH DAMIAN 

You can follow me on Instagram @damianculhane

You can follow Leah on Instagram @leahthehearthealer

Enjoy the episode...