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Nov. 13, 2022

Discover Your Inner Hero: Overcoming Mental Health Challenges

Are you struggling with mental health challenges and feeling lost on your journey? In this episode, Michael Anthony shares his personal experience with mental health struggles and how he reframed his journey as a hero's journey. He dives into the power of storytelling...
See show notes at: https://www.thinkunbrokenpodcast.com/you-are-on-a-hero-journey-mental-health-podcast/#show-notes

Are you struggling with mental health challenges and feeling lost on your journey? In this episode, Michael Anthony shares his personal experience with mental health struggles and how he reframed his journey as a hero's journey. He dives into the power of storytelling and how it can help you see your challenges as opportunities for growth. You'll learn practical tips for reframing your mindset and building resilience, as well as strategies for embracing vulnerability and connecting with others. Tune in to this inspiring conversation and discover how you too can harness the power of your hero's journey to overcome mental health challenges and thrive in life.

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Learn how to heal and overcome childhood trauma, narcissistic abuse, ptsd, cptsd, higher ACE scores, anxiety, depression, and mental health issues and illness. Learn tools that therapists, trauma coaches, mindset leaders, neuroscientists, and researchers use to help people heal and recover from mental health problems. Discover real and practical advice and guidance for how to understand and overcome childhood trauma, abuse, and narc abuse mental trauma. Heal your body and mind, stop limiting beliefs, end self-sabotage, and become the HERO of your own story. 

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Transcript

I was watching Rocky, the original Sylvester Stallone movie for the 10000000th time the other day, it's funny because I actually tend to only watch the same movies over and over and over again, while on the rare occasion injecting a new movie into my life. The reason why I've mentioned this, I think probably before on this show, but it's hard for me to take in new information in terms of entertainment because I'm very much singularly focused on new information and business and personal development, coaching, mental health and trauma.

And so, I tend to move towards the same things like I tried to watch this new movie like it was about the Super pets, superhero dogs, something like that, it's got the rock in it and he's like, superman's dog or something like that. And I'm watching the first 25 minutes of it and like it could just be a bad movie and I don't know that cuz I didn't finish it. But 25 minutes in I was like, my brain cannot comprehend this, I'm putting on Rocky. And so, I put on Rocky, I'm watching it and it had me thinking about this life that we live and our hero’s journey, the journey that we are all are on as individuals and as a collective and as this community of the Unbroken Nation. And thinking about really looking at and watching, like how do you become the hero? Like if you were to lay this out in a linear pathway, what was that? What would that look like? And so much of it, I think, is just looking at who it is that we choose to be and moving towards that every single day like, who do you want to be today? Can you be that person? And even though you're afraid of it, be that person anyway? Can you show up and live life in the way that you want to show up and live life? Can you simply just acknowledge your power, your beauty, your grace, your ability to be the person that you are?

You know, when I wrote Think Unbroken, the first book, now three or almost four years ago what's wild about it is we feel like we're never gonna be the hero of our own story. And this takes courage, right? I'm gonna read you a line from the book that I wrote because I think it's relative to what we're talking about. And it says, I wrote;

“Are you putting yourself first? It is not cowardice or selfish to put yourself first in the healing process. In fact, choosing yourself over everyone else is the most courageous act you can do when you're doing so for the right reasons. Consider a time in your life when your back was against the wall. What did that look like? What did it feel like? What was it like to have to tap in your resources to accomplish a goal or change a situation in your life? When you succeed in different aspects of your life, or those successes for you or for someone else?”

And that's the journey, right? Our backs are gonna be against the wall. We're going to be in this place in which we get shoved down and knocked off, and when things are going well, we fuck it up like I am the king of that. I've done it a million times in my life, right. I've talk about all the time, the first four years after I had my mirror moment, like 26 to 30, like, yo, that shit was hard. I got goosebumps right now. I've been thinking it was hard. It was so difficult. I don't even know how I did it other than one thing that no excuses just results mentality. I said, I'm just gonna keep going forward.

And so, if you're in this place in your life where you're like, Man, I just fucking quit. I don't wanna keep going. I don't wanna keep doing this. Let me first say I get it. Like I know that place, like the back of my hand because 27, 28, 29 years old, I'm like, one step forward, two steps backwards. And once I hit 30, it started getting a little easier. I was able to understand things a bit better, but it wasn't really for, but while longer until it really solidified. And I was just like, just keep going, dude, no matter what. And for me, the motivation at that time was just, I felt like I was really in dark energy around that time. I was so relentless about my willingness to heal that I did whatever it took, that meant left leaving Indiana, leaving a relationship, leaving friends, leaving a career, closing a business down, packing everything that I own while I was in debt and moving across the country, selling all the rest that wouldn't fit into the car that I had to rent because my Cadillac broke down and I had to sell it. Landing in some weird house that I had to live in for a couple of months in Portland, Oregon and just being like, what the fuck am I doing. And in that moment, like knowing that the thing that I was doing was I was really becoming the hero. I was finally doing the thing that I said that I always gonna do. I was finally doing it and showing up and living life on my terms and facing the reality that I wanted to create. And so, I'm watching this movie, I'm watching Rocky, and he has this really, really fascinating moment in the film. Where he is lying in bed with Adrian, it's the night before he fights Apollo Creed for the championship and like, yo spoil alert. If you haven't seen Rocky, like what are you doing? Like come on, movie's fucking 40 years old. Actually, it might be older than that. I'm terrible at math, but my point is this. He's in bed, he's talking to Adrian. He's like, Adrian, I don't know what I'm doing. I'm not the guy for this. What is going on? And he's just like venting to her. Right. And I've mentioned this before, Rocky is a love story. It is not a sports movie. Watch Rocky. It's a beautiful love story. And he says something, and this is the frame that I was thinking about as I was in this journey in the beginning. This is the only thing that crossed my mind, like on a daily base. I was like, keep going. And Rocky says to Adrian, he goes, you know, nobody's ever taken creed out. He's a champion of the world. No one's ever gone the distance with him. Rocky says, the only thing I want to do is I want to go the distance. I wanna prove to myself that I'm capable of doing this. And that for me is what this whole journey has been, that for me is what Think Unbroken is, that for me is what coaching is, that for me is in those moments and trust me, there's a million of them where I'm like, I'm done. I want to quit. I don't want to do this anymore. I don't want to have to go to therapy. I don't wanna have to have a coach. I don't wanna have to learn another thing. I want to just go and exist in this bubble of nothing this. I would remind myself like, you can't quit. And that is this really intense sense of accountability because when you can't quit, when you refuse it, when you will not quit, when you will not throw in the tower, you cannot lose.

Now it might take you 30 years to get where you want to go, but you cannot lose. And that what I took away from watching Rocky again, even though I'd seen it a million times, I was like, Oh wait, no, this is exactly the way I was thinking. I'll never forget this. The first time I saw that movie, I was six years old and it was a Saturday and we were in this crap apartment like it was disgusting, it was so nasty, right? But you know, my mom was doing what she could, she hadn't yet married my stepdad, we weren't in a house yet, and we were just like in this dire situation, HUD housing, right? My mom, single mom, three kids, she's dealing with her alcoholism and anyway, I won't go down that path today. You guys know the story.

I'm lying on the floor in the bedroom with the TV on the ground, it was this little gray box, RCA TV, Channel four, like commercials every eight seconds. Watching Rocky for the first time as a little boy and being enamored like, just like, Oh my God, this is the greatest thing I've ever seen. And I remember at the end of it just being like whoa, that dude's like larger than life. He's this unstoppable.

And like kids all have whatever superhero or person in the world they look up to and for me it was Rocky for a long time. Well, it was also Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, but mainly Rocky. And I remember watching that and just time and time and time again and just thinking to myself, one day I'm gonna get out of this. One day I'm gonna get out of this. One day I'm gonna get out of this. And then that day came. And then you fast forward a whole lot of years, and here I am with you. 

This is interesting, every day; when I say every day, I mean literally every day. I get messages from people on social media and email to my text, voice notes, everything, and they're like, thank you for making this podcast.

Guys, I wanna be really clear about something. This podcast would not exist if I quit. It would not exist. It would not help hundreds of thousands of people, if not millions. It would not be this powerhouse of a thing that it is. It would not be changing lives if I quit, if I gave up, and I don't mean just like in my healing journey, but I mean, today it's 6:17 at night on a Friday. Here I am, you guys will not be listening to this on Friday, but context. Here I am, we're going on 11 hours of being in the office, creating content, working on events, writing, learning. I do my own personal development and education every single day, and we needed an episode for Sunday and I said, I gotta do this before I walk out the door today. I planned on walking out the door a long time ago, but I couldn't because that to me is quitting, that to me is giving up. And now after this we have to do on the backside, the team has to edit it, they have to chop it up, we have to get it posted, we have to create the social media content, we have to put it in the world so other people find it because somebody might find this one, and this is the cornerstone. This is their rocky when they're six years old. Right? You know what I'm saying? Does that make sense?

And so, everything about this journey, everything about this life, everything about what it is that you want to have is you knowing one truth, you're on a hero's journey and you will face obstacles and you will face setbacks and you will face pain and you will face all of the things that come along with this journey. But you have to just keep going ‘cause as long as you don't quit, you don't lose, and that's the thing. What are you willing to do? Right?

When you get into programs like I teach in coaching, when we do our weekly coaching sessions, when you come into events and mastermind, we go in the depth of it, right? We go into the science of it, we go in the research of it. We pinpoint and go through a lot. And as long as you keep going, there's always gonna be your next level. There's always something else to learn because the hero's journey like this isn't over until the end. And what's really interesting about the end is that's the rebirth, that's where you get to come back as the hero truly, authentically, and in its fullest sense.

So, my friends, two things.

One, if you haven't seen Rocky, go see it. Go buy it. It's like three bucks. It's probably the greatest personal development investment you'll ever make. Like, as I'm sitting here thinking about that, like, that feels really true to me. And also remember like where you're at today does not have to be where you are tomorrow, but you're have to make decisions and actions that push you forward.

So that said, my friends, thank you for being here. Make sure you register for Unbroken Con, that's unbrokencon.com. Please leave a review if this brought value to you in any capacity.

Remember that you sharing this, is you playing a role in ending generational trauma.

You leaving a review is you playing a role in ending generational trauma.

Don't talk about it. Be about it.

And Until Next Time.

My friends, Be Unbroken.

I'll see you.

Michael UnbrokenProfile Photo

Michael Unbroken

Coach

Michael is an entrepreneur, best-selling author, speaker, coach, and advocate for adult survivors of childhood trauma.