Nik McEwan

***Apologies in advance for the mismatched sound levels - I figured out how to fix it so will re-edit and re-upload at a later date***

On this episode of Strongmamamoves Presents I bring you Expeditioner and undeniably cheeky Nik McEwan.

This isn’t for the easily offended or sensitive of heart. Right away I dropped an F-bomb after our 10-minute pre-briefing had turned into an hour and Boris’ announcement of UK Lockdown threw us a bit.

In light of the confusing mass change of circumstances, I think it’s safe to say the confusion reflects in this recording - It was great fun and a good way to shift focus away from gloom.

The lovely Nik McEwan writes content and articles, tenders for education companies and is known for his expeditions like his walk from Portsmouth to Edinburgh; amassing over 700miles.  Nik’s  32k LinkedIn following supported his trip with some connections meeting him along the way and others sponsoring and checking in on his efforts; again showing that LinkedIn is a pretty good spot for building a support network and following while you follow your passions and career.

Most recently Nik was on a trip to Uganda to visit a hospital he is a patron for, to support his fund-raising and checking it out what things are really like on the ground - to learn a bit about the Country.

Nik says he was just a normal bloke; a  site manager on a building site when his life fell apart saying he lost everything: relationship, home, work…

What got him back on his feet was getting back to routine… He started on LinkedIn building his network and arranging charity work and holding events. It was a massive vehicle back to where he wanted his course of life to take… 

We go deep and naturally touch on the COVID-19 situ gripping the world right now, Nik is feeling positive.

Enjoy :)

Nik McEwan LinkedIn

Nik McEwan Instagram

Lea Turner, fabulous Director of Stereo-Type appears as the very first guest of the Strongmamamoves Presents Podcast
On this episode of Strongmamamoves Presents, I welcome LinkedIn Legend Lea Turner. Lea is taking the online platform of LinkedIn by storm with her infectious personality and wit. Standing up for herself and others against trolls and DM lurkers as she goes.

She has owned and run an audio transcription company, Stereo-Type, for eight years. Running a talented team producing exceptionally high-quality transcripts.

Her company was born of her love of travel; and on returning from Thailand she set up shop, now employing staff to handle the volume of work headed their way. 

4 years ago she welcomed her son Dexter and was straight back to work as a solo mum; proving that anything can be done as a mother, and a solo mother (a woman after my own heart as an also solomumprenuer!)

Listen to be inspired by Lea's zest for life and fierce love of her son that motivates her to provide the best life they can share!!! What a woman!

For business enquiries you can contact Lea on her super-cool page

Check Out The Podcast List Here

Ok, that's not a huge deal for the seasoned podcasters out there but for this little lady here, it's a big deal.

1 year ago I decided to launch a podcast as an alternative to just my blog and just winged it.

A couple thousand listens later and I'm ready to take it a little more seriously.

I didn't expect huge amounts of listens because I've been sporadic, but after some thoughts and planning, I decided to up the ante, get a microphone, play with a bit of editing and music and see what I could do...

Not only that, but I'm set to change the podcast to an interview format so I can share with you the people that I find inspiring and interesting. I always said I wanted to share my journey and what has helped me to recover in my healing journey - a big part of that has been other people; other people's words and pictures; lives and musings.

So, I'm really excited.

Here's hoping I can start a chain of gratitude by asking guests to invite someone who inspires them on... And keep going from there :)

I'd love to hear from you on your thoughts!

You can follow me and you can sponsor the blog :)

To keep in the loop of any podcasts and articles I write, hop on and subscribe to my newsletter :) Plenty to keep you busy, I can assure you :)

All links to newsletter etc live here

jingle - The Stylish Traveller - Martin Landstöm

I say in the podcast that the first episode will happen next week, EDIT:
My anxiety has been so mad since starting therapy sessions that I'm going to record the entire series before putting it up. This gives me time to collect, perfect and edit much better as well as giving myself the rest that I need at this time.

I've a terrible habit of taking on far too much, I just want to do my best, but putting self-care on the back burner isn't self-care!

It probably seems like there have been far too many changes and plot twists along the course of this podcast, which is almost a year old now and had far too many gaps.

I'm afraid it reflects how mad life has been in the last year.

I've decided the ball keeps being dropped on the podcast because I'm just not excited about it, quite simply.

At the beginning of the week I appeared in the When Losing Means Winning Podcast and you know what I realised?! I wanna do that.

In all honesty I wanted to do it before but just didn't feel tech savvy enough to make it happen.

The invites are going out for guests and I'm going to embark on it very soon.

For more from me keep up with my Medium blog page.
and you can hop on Instagram or LinkedIn

Season 2, Episode 1

Welcome back!
Ruby and I are back from our travels; I'm ready and raring to go with my blogging and podcasting wares.
After some heavy and unhappy news of another suicide in the mainstream which really touched a nerve with myself, as well as many others, I took to my podcast to talk about some feels, thoughts and ideas that run in my mind.
You may agree, you may not.
Exploring self-awareness has been one of the most powerful things I have embarked on in the last year. In the questioning of whether social media and mainstream are to blame for the spike in mental health battles and other issues within society, I look at the idea of our self-awareness and what I do to protect myself in use of social media and other platforms where trolls, ideals and comparison lie.
As always, I'd love to hear your feedback and if you'd like to support the podcast please become a Patron on my Patreon link :) Thank you for listening!

Disclaimer And Trigger Warning: My Podcast is purely for entertainment purposes and is in no way meant to replace the advice that comes from relevant health professionals. In this space I share my perspective, views and experience of my own healing journey; what works for me is not guaranteed to work for anyone else and changes made in relation to your mental and physical wellbeing is always recommended only under the supervision of your health practitioner.
Some of my content describes my experience with trauma, emotions and how I've handled it; some of which you may find triggering. 
If you're in need of support please contact your GP, if you feel your life is in danger please contact 999 
There are always people available to help and you always matter.
Ps I probably drop a couple of swears, cos, I just do.

A little update to life as a risk taker.

oh my poor podcast has been somewhat  neglected.

As winter draws in, it is a little harder to keep motivation, so what better way to raise it than to challenge myself?

This isn’t always easy, as when roadblocks come along, things get a little stressful. 

But fear not.

There’s always a plan.

Now, this is what I call 'It's Not All Doom And Gloom'

Finally, A podcast with some of the fun stuff.

Well, I mean, it's how you look at it isn't it. I think looking into other peoples dating life is always a bit of fun. Thinking about how you would react, enjoying when things go well, wincing when it's just awful.

I've been on the not-so-great-at-dating scale for a while and it's largely my attitude to dating that is the problem... That, and that I am still learning what I truly consider my new found self worth. 

I've been dating to what I think I deserve vs what I actually deserve...

I didn't know boundaries and was drawn into what was familiar to me; emotional abuse, insecurity and pain... Truth be told, this brings out in me very similar.

I'm pretty sure i'm not alone here when I say I've asked myself, Am I Toxic?...

And this is where I have enjoyed parts of healing and digging into that particular nook.

As a whole, no. But when i've been stuck in my cycle of abuse, I ended up reflecting behaviours.  In exhaustion and frustration becoming blamey and negative. If you're immersed in it, it's impossible not to.

So, I took the leap and left and I don't fall into that trap as often.

This is the same with dating.  

I face the accusing question of 'so why are you single then?' a lot... or on the other spectrum 'you're the reasdon you're single', a favourite of those who don't like me; thinking that this will hurt me.

I mean, it has...

But now, no.

Yes, I am the reason I am single. I go into this in the podcast.

But, as long as I am met with people who don't look like they are going to compliment my life, i'm ok to wait for the right one to pop along and sweep me off my feet... So to speak..
But like anything, I need to keep practising the craft.

Watch what you're telling yourself. Look at each each statement... See what rings familiar....

I HATE Tinder, it's awful

I'm just not any good at dating

I feel like I've missed the boat on the whole dating thing

There's no one out there, they're all bellends

I just don't have the time

I think there must be something wrong with me

I keep on meeting the same kind of person, I don't understand it

I'm just not ready

If you're genuinely wanting to date someone, meet someone nice, it's these thing you are telling yourself you need to look at (which I am doing right now, it takes a wee bit of grasp to change the internal chatter, but with persistence and consistence it works).

Change these statements to what you want them to be and practise them. Write them on post its and . stick them on your bathroom mirror or bedroom door (I LOVE a PostIt - I promise i'm going to do a PostIt tour of my house for YouTube, for all those that wonder how hard I go on affirmations).

They might look something like this.

I HATE Tinder, it's awful - Tinder is a platform, I actually know plenty of people who have met long term loves from it; I just haven't found mine yet, they might be there or I might meet them on the go, who know? How exciting!

I'm just not any good at dating - I'm great at dating, I just haven't met the one i'm compatible with yet

I feel like I've missed the boat on the whole dating thing - There are plenty of damn boats, i'll catch the next one when i'm ready ta, oh look, there's the boat now... go go go

There's no one out there, they're all bellends -  Well that's a generalisation. Have you met ALL the people? I didn't think so. Off you pop, he/she looks nice... If it bombs, doesn't matter, that one over there looks/sounds nice too

I just don't have the time - Time is an illusion and

Trigger Warning: Swearing And Emotionally Triggering Material.

In this podcast I throw back to last year and the battles I faced as a single mum of a then 7 month old Ruby. 

Struggling hard with insomnia leaving me 2hours of sleep a night most nights from the sheer emotional pain of being emotionally abandoned through my struggles. 
The lack of sleep left me accident prone and feeling weak and vulnerable and knew that if I could only get past this I could be everything I knew I was, but desperately wanting care and love from those that didn’t want to give it to me.

It’s a pretty emotional and sweaty raw journey I’m afraid, but there’s good news. A year on and I’m worlds away from the girl who didn’t think she would make it through.

We’re both happy, healthy and chasing the dream life.

Warning: If you don't like swears, you won't like this..

I couldn't decide between, shit man, you ok? and shit Amanda, you ok? So I did both.

Though I know it's going to conjure up Friends throwbacks, or playground ones... Let's go with it..

In this podcast I am summarising what has been a pretty big week, in a big month of a big year..

With all the positives of healing work, there comes some pretty nasty side effects that I have to push past.  These are often the ones that make me want to stop in my tracks; but in knowing my body and mind I know that it's my anxiety trying to keep me safe from 'harm' aka stuff that isn't actually harmful but because of conditioning I have come to believe they are.

If I stood up for myself or chased success and goals; I was told I was selfish or treated like I was conceited.. So self sabotage has been huge in my life.

Where I have been capable of achieving lots that I have wanted to and have always fallen short, it has been for the most part, me tripping myself up so I can still feel loved.

Bullshit..

The right people will not want you to shrink.

I talk about the week i've been sharing on Instagram that has been getting a lot of interaction.. However, forgot to put in the being cancelled on by a faulty Tinder date experience...

I have posted this on my Instagram today, will IGTV and YouTube it AND Podcast for good measure lovelies.

Long story short.  I'm doing grand thanks, physical pain effects of CPTSD response aside, I am feeling happy.

A couple rocky self doubt days were welcomed in, felt, rationalised and moved on.

I'm learning babes.

If you love the Pod, share away and hit the blog here >> https://www.strongmamamoves.com

Feel free to drop me a message too :)

Amanda

Disclaimer: this is a blog and meant for entertainment purposes only and shouldn’t replace advice from medical health professionals. 
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Do you?

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I know I do..

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Emm what am I on about?...

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That bad day.. That shitty situation.. Things I couldn’t change...

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Blaming other people for stuff.. Yes, some people have been poopy, but it’s my choice to carry it with me or to leave it behind me... 

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I’ve had to give myself plenty of time to heal before getting tough love on myself and I forgive myself. I am kind to myself. I have bad days and weeks, but as long as I honour those feelings I can get moving again much quicker than if I pretend I’m ok.

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One of the biggest, biggest things I get frustrated with myself is moaning. 

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There are times, it’s ok, I’ve had a pretty rough deal and shit has been REALLY fucking tough.

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But...

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In adversity I’ve done some pretty incredible things. 

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But conditioning has led me to believe that I can’t or shouldn’t...

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I’ve linked success and doing well with selfishness, being a dick and being unloved.

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I CALL BULLSHIT.

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Now that I can see it... I’m working on bulldozing some pretty heavy limiting beliefs and fears..

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Those shitty days and epic lows I’ve been getting have been rooted in fear of changing so many things I’ve held true for a long time..

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Wanna hear what I’m doing?

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PODCAST NOW! GO GO GO!

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🙃😝😎

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Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/strongmamamoves)