Please Blow My Mind

“If the mind is agitated the body is agitated. So if you are telling yourself negative things - it has a physiological consequence.” — Dave Wood   Dave Wood is a former intensive care paramedic turned Performance coach. Dave has a deep understanding of the human body with a specific focus on stress management, the ability to remain calm under pressure and peak performance training.   Dave's clients include UFC Middleweight Champion, Israel Adesanya and in this podcast, Dave joins us to talk about his story as somebody who found a a way back from dealing with debilitating chronic pain. Dave's story is relatable and all scientifically supported.    Thank you so much for taking the time to listen to my podcast featuring the powerful Dave Wood - you blow my mind! Follow Dave Wood here: wmw.co.nz To support this podcast on Patreon please follow this link: www.patreon.com/pleaseblowmymind

Guy Pigden is a Writer/Director/Editor/Producer who recently completed his second feature film 'Older' currently available through Amazon Prime. Guy also wrote and directed the feature film 'I Survived A Zombie Holocaust' (funded by the NZFC through the Escalator initiative). Recently, Guy has been focusing on building a new YouTube channel about pro filmmaking. You can find him by searching 'The Savage Filmmaker' on YouTube. This is a deep chat about the power of narrative and how to harness it! 

Bruce Howat has lived a life! In fact, Bruce's life is so filled with living that this podcast of 1 hour and 30 mins only covers his story up until the age of about 20 years old. The story you may be familiar with regarding Bruce is when he got stabbed when he was a police dod handler. This conversation pre-dates that horrific moment starting with where Bruce grew up and the building blocks of his journey growing up. On a personal note, this podcast dives into my own journey of wrestling with meaning - from trying to understand the idea of miracles in our modern world and what it means to trust your gut - even though algorithms seem to control a lot of our feelings and urges in modern life. I hope this podcast is interesting for you on your own journey. I value your support as I continue to bring you my deep conversations about life, meaning and whatever we are trying to articulate with the idea of 'the beyond'.

Ryan O'Connor is a PODCASTER, HUNTER & OPTOMETRIST and joins us in this week's podcast (recorded pre-lockdown) to ponder the meaning of life through deep conversation and deep connection with ourselves and others. The really crazy thing is this the 2nd time I've chatted to Ryan the week before a lockdown and I am not sure what to make that of that fact apart from the fact that life certainly is a box of chocolates - you never know what you going to get! Enjoy pondering life with us and thank you ALL for blowing my mind! If you enjoy the convent I produce and share, please consider a small monthly donation to my Patreon page by following the link here: www.patreon.com/pleaseblowmymind or searching 'Please Blow My Mind' on www.patreon.com

David Laumatia is a retired Senior Sergeant for the NZ Police who now uses art to inspire and encourage people to find a bigger meaning in life. David shares his story about being a cop and the cruel realities of living in the zone of 'fight or flight' and how a dream sent him down a path of poetry and art and a bigger meaning in life. 

Where are you on your own journey of faith? For me, the honest answer is - I am not sure, and if asked what do I mean - my answer goes something like this: "It sure feels like there are bigger things at play." But to be honest, I am just not sure what it is that even means so I've decided to filter my wrestle with meaning through my podcast and have invited Cameron Surrey to sit down and do some pondering with me. Cameron's background is in philosophy and theology and mine is in Rugby and Superman movies so we are sure to have one heck of a deep conversation. Thanks, everyone for joining me - you blow my mind! 

Roko Babich has had the big lights of city living with the demanding job and never-ending deadline to the still oceans and peaceful background noise of nature in the far north of New Zealand. These two 'zones' of living are a great way to frame up this podcast chat with a deeper question to ponder: can we learn the skills and tools to thrive in both 'zones' in the modern world? One 'zone' seems to burn us out while the other 'zone' seems to leave us wanting more - so what is the balance in life we seek? Roko is on his own journey to find out. 

Brian Mackenzie is an innovator in human performance on stress adaptation and a pioneer in the development and application of custom protocols to optimize human health and performance. His work harnesses and integrates respiratory, movement, strength, conditioning and endurance-based training approaches to elicit unprecedented positive results. His protocols have been used to accelerate and raise both mental and physical performance in world-class Olympic and professional athletes, top executives, and elite military operators, as well as to improve the health for people suffering from various chronic and pathological issues.

What does it take to be mentally fit? That's the question that Dr Paul Wood and I dive deeply into in this weeks podcast. Paul has been a friend of the podcast for years and joins us again to delve into the mind, body and beyond. Please consider checking out Paul's new book, Mental Fittness - available now!

At 10.37am on June 19 2020, Police Constable Matthew Hunt (28) was shot and killed in the line of duty after trying to carry out a routine traffic stop. Matt's best friend, Regan was left behind to mourn his death and joins us on the podcast to honor Matt's memory wanting Matt to be remembered not for how he died, but for how he lived. This is a deep discussion about the life and the burden we lift to carry the memories of our loved ones into the future.

I'm not sure how to write an intro in words that will do this podcast with Slavko Martinov justice. The best I can do is WOW! My mind in blown by so many things in this conversation that it's probably best just to hit play and enjoy the merging of ideas and the energy of hope that this created. This podcast hints at my previous conversation with Slavko about the amazing film he made called Propaganda which is an anti-western film, as told from a North Korean perspective. Enjoy the podcast and as an added feature to help bring you back from the voyage that Slavko and I take you on - I've added in the full theme song to my podcast at the end, enjoy. Here is a link to our previous conversation on my old podcast, My Kiwi Life:  https://www.podcasts.nz/my-kiwi-life-podcast-17-slavko-martinov-the-north-korean-propaganda-film/

Professor Julia J Rucklidge has been investigating the role of micronutrients in the expression of mental illness, specifically ADHD, Bipolar Disorder, anxiety and more recently, stress and PTSD associated with the Canterbury earthquakes. Julia joins us in this podcast for a deeper conversation about the developing story of the role of nutrition in mental health.

Art Green joins us for a deep dive podcast into how he reconnects with nature to keep his mind and body strong especially in a time of social media overconsumption felt by many people in the western world. We talk family, living out of Auckland and making sense of the rapidly changing times we live in and how going back to basics - supports us on the deepest of deep levels.  This podcast is proudly supported by BePure's best selling range of high strength, high quality, bioavailable products supporting your nutritional needs, including multivitamins, omega 3 fish oil, gut health probiotics, vitamin c, adrenal support and more. Take your next wellness step and visit www.bepure.co.nz

Talk about a life well lived! Ben Warren is one interesting cat and he joins us on the podcast. From professional golfer to leading nutritionist, this conversation has it all. We revisit the missed golf putt that would have put Ben on a trajectory of being a mega-star instead Ben's hero journey has seen him travelled deep within the Human body - right down to the cellular level where the science of wellness is being discovered. This podcast is produced supported by the team at BePure - so please do check out the amazing products that really do fuel us from the inside, out.  This podcast is also sponsored by MYOTAPE from Manava Breathing which is tape that goes around the mouth to gently restore functional breathing for better sleep, better health and better quality of life for you and your family!

Sir Ray Avery is a former street kid Ray went on to become a scientist and entrepreneur. Sir Ray's shares a bit about his childhood of neglect to needing to be loved to learning how to love. Sir Ray was The New Zealander of the Year in 2010 and the recipient of the Sir Peter Blake Medal for Leadership 2010, and was knighted in 2011. This podcast is proudly supported by MYOTAPE from Manava Breathing and BePure (bepure.co.nz) - Creating wellbeing for your whole being through diet, lifestyle and the power of nutrition.

Grant Schofield is a Professor in public health, specialising in the prevention and treatment of chronic disease. In this episode, Grant digs a bit deeper into the science of science and why understanding the question 'is it even true?' needs to be asked a bit more in a 'Fake News' era.

In this presentation - we dive deep into acute and chronic stress and why we need one and should avoid the other at all costs. I'm joined in this presentation by Professor Grant Schofield who is mentoring me through my academic journey to explore the ancient breathing techniques that have been forgotten in our overstimulated and overwhelmingly busy world.

Ryan O'Connor makes his day to day living as an optometrist - looking through our portal to the soul a.k.a our eyes. Outside of his what he does for money, Ryan also hosts his own podcast called: The Stag Roar podcast, where he explores what it takes to live a life less ordinary. Featuring guests from all walks of life with topics ranging from the outdoors and hunting to creativity, business, fitness, mental health and more.

John Loau joins me on the podcast NOT to share his specialist experience in developing pathways to military, law enforcement, and police training programs NOR to talk about being a serial entrepreneur & NZ business owner, holding Directorships & business advisor to many startups and SME’s. In this podcast, John Loau joins us to go deeper. We delve deep into his upbringing and uprooting from Samoa, Auckland and The United States of America. This is a conversation that helps us see just how interwoven life is - the ins and the outs of how we all fit together.

Most of us know Richie Barnett from his professional rugby league career and representative New Zealand Rugby League, playing in 27 tests, and captaining New Zealand on 10 occasions during his career.  What many people don't know is that Richie recovered from Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and in doing so learned huge amounts of patience, resilience and the mental and emotional roller coaster ride that led to the light at the end of the tunnel. Richie says that "even when things were looking grim, I never gave up on getting my physical and mental wellbeing back, by taking one important step at a time and not looking back." In this podcast, we go deep with Richie Barnett and explore the tools he used to find his way back to the light and how you can as well.