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...

In this episode you will hear an interview with Faraaz Ali, who is a high-performance coach working with parents and leaders. You will hear a deep conversation about how sabotage can affect health and well-being, along with Faraaz experience of travelling to multiple countries for nine months – with his partner and his three-month-old daughter.

You will also hear lots of practical hints and tips around how to overcome self-sabotage, how to align with your values and how structure and systems that we can create play such an important role in our ability to manage stress and improve emotional stability. You will also hear about mindset and how awareness plays such a critical part to overcoming sabotaging thoughts, emotions and behaviour. Many of the examples and personal stories shared help to associate the pressure of everyday behaviour and expectations of socio-economic environment on sabotage.

Enjoy.

Notes: You will find the books mentioned in the Podcast are available on Amazon: Deep Work by Cal Newport, Atomic Habits by James Clear, Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl

You can book a 15 Minute Discovery Call with Damian here: BOOK A 15 MINUTE CONFIDENTIAL CALL WITH DAMIAN

You can reach Faraaz here:

www.instagram.com/faraaz4real

www.Facebook.com/faraaz4real

www.linkedin.com/in/faraaz4real

Join me in this revealing interview with Alicia Withey - where I am in the hot seat and answering questions about self-sabotage. The content includes: why your unconscious detaches you and hear my story of how emotional eating started. You will also hear about how to deal with self-sabotage, particularly if you have been triggered by recent lockdown behaviour. 

We talk about how mental fitness helps to alleviate the reptilian response - which is almost uncontrollable at times of stress, worry, anxiety, fear and sadness. The negative voices inside your head are you unconscious response - but you have a choice. You will hear my explanation of your Judge saboteur and how to understand and have awareness to your own saboteurs.  You will hear how to quieten the 'monkey-mind' and how the work of Carl Jung is so relevant to understanding yourself and the steps of your pattern of sabotage.

I struggled with multiple addictions and was wallowing in my own self-pity and sadness. Learn how I was able to pivot my mindset to change my thinking...

If you are affected by any of the topics and need to discuss your own situation, please feel free to arrange a complimentary 15 minute Discovery Call using this link: Book a 15 Minute Discovery Call with Damian 

In this episode you will hear the conversation with Faye Blake who helps people to feel at home in their own skin, trust their intuition and connect with their purpose in this life. You will hear about our common experiences and personal escapism through alcohol and binge eating to combat depression.

You will hear about the impact this had on relationships with loved ones and the fear of being judged. Faye talks about how the escapism made her feel like she was not good enough, like she always needed to be more or do more. You will hear how this led her to feeling like she was out of control or broken and at times like it was never ending.

You will also hear our conversation about the suffering, which led to a lack of trust and lack of self-love. We talk about the need for something external to “fix” us and that the escapism is a way of numbing out.

What you will learn from listening is that you are enough exactly as you are. The only person that you need validation and acceptance from is yourself.

Faye shares how she learnt to live in and love her body, so that she could feel safe again in her own skin. We talk about how everyone needs to understand themselves at a deeper level. This can be achieved through a whole host of methods of self-inquiry which are revealed in the episode….

You can use this link to book a 15 minute discovery call to discuss any topic with Damian: BOOK A 15 MINUTE CALL WITH DAMIAN

You can connect with Faye and visit her website here: www.fayeblake.co.uk

In this episode you will hear my interview with Jody Bartholomew a kundalini yoga instructor with a degree in psychology. Jody grew up in Hawaii, then moved to California and she loves travelling. She has a Bachelors in Psychology and loves learning. You will hear how Jody moved to Germany and started teaching English. She became a Job Coach for people with disabilities and later began working with male refugees from Middle East. Jody is now living in Dortmund, Germany and she trained in Kundalini Yoga to overcome personal issues.

You will hear our discussion around relationships which caused Jody to create a lack of self-worth, leading to feelings of jealousy. She talks about how she became aggressive and controlling – building up a sense of mistrust and how she found reasons to leave relationships. She also attracted the wrong type of partners and was not willing to see the truth, but instead she was seeking to fix others.

Jody shares her personal story of the impact this had on herself and others, including self-hatred, biting her cheeks, aggression towards self and even tension in her jaw. She discovered all of this through her own Hero’s Journey, learning about spirituality, relationship sabotage and her depression. The healing came from her study and practice of kundalini yoga…

Thank you to Jody for sharing with such vulnerability and for the courage to talk about these experiences. The Self-Sabotage Show has been created with the hope that sharing these difficult topics and life experiences will enable others to have the courage and freedom to also face their own sabotage.

If you are affected by any of the topics in this episode or if you wish to discuss the impact sabotage has had on your life, you can book a complimentary Discovery Call with Damian using this link: BOOK A 15 MINUTE CALL WITH DAMIAN

In this episode you will hear my interview with writing coach Rusti Lehay, who is an empathic editor. Rusti has been teaching creative writing for over a decade and is published in literary journals. She is based in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. You can find Rusti's profile if you click here.

During our interview you will hear us chat about self-sabotage in particular the topics of food, relationships, career and education.  We go deep into the topic of expressing emotions and communicating anger in an effective loving way. We talk about how there are better ways to deal with anger that are mutually life-giving. You will also hear us in conversation about the fact there is nothing wrong with any emotion - it is how we deal with them that causes us suffering or to sabotage our relationships.

You will also hear us chat about the Pleaser saboteur and how the underlying belief of not allowed to be capable causes frustration, rage and conflict - even though you might have the intention to please other people and be the peacemaker!

Enjoy....

PS - If you would like to book a 15 minute discovery call to chat to me directly about anything to do with the above topics, you can use this link: BOOK A 15 MINUTE DISCOVERY CALL