The Happiness Algorithm

My guest today is a psychologist, author, and fellow podcast host. She has spent her career working with some of the world’s most successful business leaders and prominent individuals from across many different industries and platforms.

More recently she has combined this experience with a focus on sharing psychological principles with a broader population.  She is on a mission to use her knowledge and expertise to make our lives just a bit better, easier, and healthier.

My guest believes passionately that psychology can be an invaluable resource – part of an everyday toolkit that we have available to help us understand our own and others’ behaviour and how we can positively influence it.

She launched the podcast ‘Dot-to-Dot, Behind the Person’ as a body dedicated to this work and you can listen back to previous episodes on all good podcast platforms.

Not only does my guest positively shift and cultivate a better world for us all to live in, she has even found the time to document her knowledge and write two exceptional books:

Defining you

and

Mirror Thinking: Why Role Models Make Us Human

To explore and delve into that wonderful brain if hers a little more

I was delighted to welcome to the show, Fiona Murden

My guest today is a mental health blogger from Hampshire.  She’s also a qualified mental health nurse and runs a successful Etsy shop selling small items designed to reduce the stigma around mental health problems, promote self care, body positivity and feminism.

She has struggled with anorexia on and off, for about 17 years and it was 5 years ago she was also diagnosed with bipolar disorder.  After long periods of depression she started to experience bursts of mania. It was not long after this she started to blog.   Her excellently written blog shares her journey from being a newly qualified mental health nurse (who has mental illnesses), to now talking about her career, personal recovery journey and experiences, alongside discussing general mental health and wellbeing.

It was last year when tragedy struck again and my guest was again diagnosed with anorexia, after a very quick and severe relapse.  Her blog has again captured the subsequent recovery journey through day patient to outpatient. 

She is passionate about raising awareness and speaking on these two very misunderstood illnesses.  She hopes that her platform will contribute to a growing understanding giving others the confidence to access help and not feel so isolated.

I was delighted to welcome to the show Cara Lisette.

On today’s show we explored all things breath.  I was joined by a leading figure and evangelist for Breathwork; believed to be the next revolution in health and wellness. My guest is a Breathwork coach, author and speaker and it’s his mission to spread the life changing possibilities of Breathwork to this world.

Having worn many hats, from a corporate management consultant to digital entrepreneur, Breathwork came into my guest’s life almost by accident when his father was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis (MS). When researching ways to help his father, he discovered the Wim Hof Method, a self-healing technique involving specific breathing techniques and cold exposure. After experiencing the incredible effects of this method in a week long training in Poland, he became obsessed with discovering what was possible just by breathing.

My guest then spent years traveling across five continents learning from many of the modern day masters of Breathwork and continuously witnessed the transformative effects of when people became aware of their breathing and started to use it as a tool to create physical, mental and emotional benefits for themselves. This free medicine is available to everyone and it's my guests mission to remind the world how to breathe with purpose.

I was delighted to share a conversation and welcome to the show Richie Bostock - THE BREATH GUY 

On today's show we discussed all things resilience and hope.  Sadly, every year around 55,000 women and 370 men are diagnosed with breast cancer in the UK.  Breast cancer is now the most common cancer with one woman diagnosed every 10 minutes.

It’s a sad a worrying statistic that one in seven women in the UK will develop breast cancer in their lifetime.

Research continues to fight this vicious disease and in turn helping many recover.  One of those in recovery was my guest today; NHS worker, radio presenter  and soon to be published author, with her very first book… ‘Bald, Brave and Bloody Beautiful’ I was delighted to welcome to the show Danielle McDermott.

My guest today, Dr Harun Thomas, is a surgeon. One of the first surgeons in the United Kingdom to successfully complete both the Masters in Oncoplastic Breast Surgery (Europe's highest qualification in Oncoplastic breast surgery) and the prestigious UK National TIG Oncoplastic fellowship. My guest specialises exclusively in breast surgery covering all aspects of breast care including breast cancer, benign breast diseases, family history of breast cancer, risk reducing mastectomy, breast reconstruction and implant based breast surgery. His special interest is therapeutic mammaplasty. His research interest is on using ultrasound during surgery to improve breast cancer outcomes and patient experience.

Today we discussed all things surgery, his career, how he handles the pressure and of course… all things mental health, emotional well-being and what he does to make himself that little bit happier.

My guest today was Hope Virgo. She is an author, public speaker and campaigner for mental health. What led her to this path was a battle she fought for over four years

Joining me in the studio again was the incredible George Bullard.  This is concluding part of my conversation with the world record breaking explorer, endurance athlete and speaker. He believes that through the outdoors we can change lives. His mission is to ‘rewild’ humans.

To date, he has covered almost 2,000 miles on foot in the polar regions, spending more than 26,000 hours in isolation. If you believe Gladwell’s 10,000 hour rule, that makes him a master of remote, hostile environments.

At 14 years old, George was part of a team that swam the English Channel. Before turning 17, he’d swum the length of Lake Zurich,&circumnavigated Barbados and New York’s Manhattan Island. During this time George was also ranked #1 in the UK for Tetrathlon.

At the age of 19 George completed the world’s longest fully unsupported polar journey, 1374 miles on foot. A feat described by Sir Ranulph Fiennes, the world’s greatest living explorer, as “genuinely ground breaking”. Since then, George’s expeditions have included the

archipelago of Antarctica, cycling across Europe, climbing unnamed peaks, driving North West Africa and sailing the Southern, Atlantic and Pacific oceans. George has guided over 350 people of all ages in the Amazon rainforest, the Indian subcontinent, Greenland Icecap and Svalbard.

September 2016 saw George complete a second world first`66 days in a kayak crossing the ferocious North Atlantic Ocean from Greenland to Scotland. The purpose? To test the theory that Inuits may have made the same journey in AD1700.

George’s next project demands a return to sub -40°C temperatures for The Dark Ice&Project.

A pivotal barometer to the health of our planet, more is known about the surface of the moon than the Arctic Ocean in winter. Decisions affecting our planet’s future rely on new data collected first hand by George and his team while surviving in a sunless, Arctic winter.

The gathering of original evidence and the opportunity to share his own experience, motivates George to inspires others to embrace our natural world. Not everyone needs to tackle the worlds most hostile environments for an adventure. Everyone has their own Everest. George hopes to encourage people to understand that adventures will give them something that nobody else can.

I was joined on today show by George Bullard.  A world record breaking explorer, endurance athlete and speaker. He

believes that through the outdoors we can change lives.  His mission is to 'rewild' humans.

To date, he has covered almost 2,000 miles on foot in the polar regions, spending more than 26,000 hours in isolation.  If you believe Gladwell’s 10,000 hour rule, that makes him a master of remote, hostile environments.

At 14 years old, George was part of a team that swam the English Channel. Before turning 17, he’d swum the length of Lake Zurich,&circumnavigated Barbados and New York’s Manhattan Island. During this time George was also ranked #1 in the UK for Tetrathlon.

At the age of 19 George completed the world’s longest fully unsupported polar journey, 1374 miles on foot.  A feat described by Sir Ranulph Fiennes, the world’s greatest living explorer, as “genuinely ground breaking”.  Since then, George’s expeditions have included the 

archipelago of Antarctica, cycling across Europe, climbing unnamed peaks, driving North West Africa and sailing the Southern, Atlantic and Pacific oceans.  George has guided over 350 people of all ages in the Amazon rainforest, the Indian subcontinent, Greenland Icecap and Svalbard.  

September 2016 saw George complete a second world first`66 days in a kayak crossing the ferocious North Atlantic Ocean from Greenland to Scotland.  The purpose? To test the theory that Inuits may have made the same journey in AD1700.  

George’s next project demands a return to sub -40°C temperatures for The Dark Ice&Project.

A pivotal barometer to the health of our planet, more is known about the surface of the moon than the Arctic Ocean in winter.  Decisions affecting our planet’s future rely on new data collected first hand by George and his team while surviving in a sunless, Arctic winter. 

The gathering of original evidence and the opportunity to share his own experience, motivates George to inspires others to embrace our natural world.  Not everyone needs to tackle the worlds most hostile environments for an adventure. Everyone has their own Everest. George hopes to encourage people to understand that adventures will give them something that nobody else can.

My guest today has created an award-winning production studio, a pioneer of live video streaming from some of the largest music festivals.  He’s also the co-founder of branded entertainment agency Byte Entertainment.

His back story, however, starts quite tragically.  My guest lost his father to suicide as a teenager and soon after starting his first job he was sectioned and admitted to hospital suffering stress and depression. Unlike his Dad, my guest was able to get the help he needed, including support from his employer, which enabled him to return to a new job the following year.

However, my guest decided not to tell anyone for nearly 20 years that he had suffered with his mental health due to the stigma.

It was after the suicide of a close friend due to postnatal depression in 2016 that my guest decided he had to speak out.

He couldn’t have picked a more public platform to do so when he was asked to speak alongside the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, as well as Prince Harry, at the launch of the Heads Together mental health campaign – not even his family or friends knew he was going to do this!

My guest continues to speak openly about the importance of better mental health awareness and how talking can not only reduce the stigma but save many, many lives.

I was delighted to welcome to the show, Jon Salmon.

My guest today is described as ‘the mental health spokesperson of our generation’.  He’s a 'fashionpreneur', public speaker and mental health campaigner.  He’s a young man who is known for his incredible honesty and no-filter approach to opening up and discussing his suffering. 

In 2014 he founded the award-winning fashion brand 'Maison de Choup' out of his severe anxiety and OCD struggles. The brand has been recognised by the likes of Vanity Fair which referred to Maison de Choup as 'The Fashion Brand with a Mental Health Cause at its Heart'. It also won the British Fashion Start-up Award for such an inspiring story. 

Since launching Maison de Choup, my guest has gone on to give public speeches and provide workshops in schools, colleges and universities.  Sharing his story about how he started his fashion brand from such a dark, dark place.   He tells the story of his battle with severe Anxiety and OCD, not being able to leave his bedroom for 3 years and washing his hands up to 50 times a day.  All this, to now running a successful fashion brand. 

My guest is incredibly honest about his suffering and urges us all to be more open about our mental health - especially young men.

Today, I was lucky enough to hear about his journey in more detail and share with you what he has learnt along the way.

I was delighted to welcome to the show, George David Hodgson.