I needed help.
I’d needed it for a long time; but like so many men in their middle age I simply put my head down and got on with it. Head meet sand; troubles meet the underside of the carpet. You get the idea: nothing to see here. Move on, please.
But then one day moving on wasn’t an option anymore and I came to a shuddering halt. I’d lived with my miserable self for so long that I honestly believed that, at heart, I was a sad man destined to be so for the remaining years of my life. Except it wasn’t even really a life; it was a flimsily constructed façade that passed for one, with each day punctuated by the relentless belief that I was a fraud. My confusion was made worse by the fact that on paper I had everything that society trains us will bring happiness. What did I have to be miserable about?
Long story short: I asked for help. I needed it. Loads of it.
The podcast is born out of the fact that I learned how to be happy. I did the work: the thinking, the listening, the submitting myself to another way of living. I got honest. I gave up on the old and allowed the strength of the new to seep in. I helped others whenever I could. I got out of myself, my thoughts, my beliefs, my stories. They were old, out dated, and no longer served me. I started running. I carried on running. I started to sleep without dreams of being buried alive. I learned how to breathe, and somewhere along the way I remembered that life is worth living. Most of all I saw hope in the eyes of my children.
So I’m passing it on. Giving it away. There’s no secret to reveal; nothing to be sold. I’m just a bloke who has slowly put right the sadness that was once the defining characteristic of his life.
The Happy Teacher Podcast. Best understood as a space where I review the literature of happiness and pass on a useful mental strategy in each episode. My belief: we can all be happier. If I am, you can be too.
Listen and subscribe through the links below or steam through this website.
