The Mental Health Engineer: Recent Episodes
The Mental Health Engineer
An ongoing, candid story of an engineer with a pen and journal to hand, pushed on by a curious mind. Trying to engineer a life of purpose and meaning from places that you'd never expect. I believe that our life experiences can be of benefit to others; to allow them the freedom to live their truths.
I like to unpick and share stories of insight and inspiration from places, ideas and people that can truly help us expand our understanding, covering concepts from acceptance to boundaries, compassion to denial, right down to what expectations we have of ourselves, and the world around us.
We spend so much time focussing on everything around us, as we try to live our lives through the lenses of others that we are forgetting who we are, and what we could do with ourselves - if we truly understood who we were, and why.
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Our perception of a mistake can enable us, or disable us. What we can learn from them can either take us towards our goals, or keep us in our comfort zones.
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Introducing The Daily Stand-Up; my new daily, bitesize episodes of practical advice and tips around self-development that can help you get to that better version of yourself. Just like flashcards, they are designed so that you can take something away, learn and apply it! Remaining consistent in anything is always a challenge, but we will explore the what, why, how and impact of remaining consistent and what it can do for you.
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Becoming involves being courageous. But where does that come from? Taking a small step is courage in itself, and such acts help us build confidence. Going out into the world completely as yourself is courage walking. But it's not an easy walk. However once on that path, you'll find other opportunities arising; arising from that courage to be.
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Seasonal depression was something that affected me over the years, as I was unable to cope with the shorter days and waning light. But in making several changes in the past months of which was summer, they seem to have benefited me massively in the winter this year. So I was left wondering.. have I beaten something that was beating me down?
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Becoming is a long personal journey, with many crossroads and roadblocks. It is a journey of courage that develops the confidence to go into the world as yourself, as you become an enabler of your own life that is lived on your values and beliefs.
I have spent a lot of time trying to understand who I was, who I had become during childhood and early adulthood. I had to give up my own life to adhere to the rules set by others. And now, with that awareness over the past 20 years, I realised that I am a completely different person that is now seeking the real, authentic version of me.
That does come with being open and aware as becoming is a life-long process to understanding who we really are - without any external influences. And once we start to understand ourselves better, we can then approach existing problems with fresh eyes, and new ways of thinking - some of them which were always there but we did not have the clarity and focus to realise it! We can also truly identify what is really important to use, and intentionally choose to focus on achieving those things.
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When was the last time you procrastinated, and put off something because you thought you needed more time, in order to be ready? Have you waited for things to align so that you could find the time, courage, strength to apply for that job you thought you didn't have the skills for, have that difficult conversation with someone close to you, or just get past those fears, doubts and perceptions holding you back?
I have been damaged by being not seen or heard growing into my own life, and I realised that long ago ready was not an option in many cases. The only option I had was to go. Because time is one thing we cannot make more of, or get back once it is gone.
We are in control of our lives, and in the end, life and time waits for no-one. There is never really a time when we will be ready for what we need to do, in order to attain the best version of ourselves. If you really want something for yourself, for an opportunity, then you need to make it happen.
Don't wait for the traffic lights to change, just understand you are in control of the switch.
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We should be aware of all the things we have done, become and overcome - especially as we end one year and look forward to the next. Celebrating ourselves and our achievements is a major part of getting ourselves motivated, confident and courageous. This way, we can always set ourselves up for success. Success to me this year started by living alone, coming out of myself and pushing past many barriers to discover my true, authentic self. It is always good to take some time to reflect on the last year, to understand what has changed and most importantly how and why. Because we have made those things happen through our own hard work and desire to change our lives for the better. If we are looking for inspiration for change, then understanding where we are can also help us plan for where we want to be. Progress is never a straight line and the wiser we get with time, the more we can do, become and definitely overcome.
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Welcome to the Reboot of what was The Mental Health Engineer podcast now called The Ash Luchmun Podcast; it is a bridging episode of what is now a new look podcast that has been renamed, reimagined, recategorized and realigned with my values and purpose. I'm setting the expectations from the outset on what I want to share and achieve here. I have undergone an overwhelming positive change in my life after catching Covid. I decided that change had to happen now, and that it was only going to happen once. I went from desperation to focus, consistency with courage. There is so much to learn and look forward to and this is what I am focussed on with my audience going forward. I look and sound completely different, as the difference lives and breathes within me and I am so excited to share that with all of you!
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There's several signs and symptoms that can lead us to understanding that we are burnt-out, a term used to describe a host of feelings and emotions that can slowly overwhelm us even before we know it. We develop habits in ourselves and in others, laying on expectations that can create negativity and cynicism. If we can identify those types of feelings, we can then start to deal with them. Being burnt-out is real; it is not a sign of failure but of strength to develop awareness around these signs that can quickly escalate if we don't pay attention to them.
It's that time of year where some of us are reflecting on our achievements at work. This year however, I approached it from a more personal point of view that took into account a lot which came from therapy and working with a coach.
Between yourself and your better self are two things - therapy and coaching. It might not be for everyone, but they are essentially They are the enablers, that can help you unlock many parts of your thoughts, emotions and feelings that could be holding you back. There is only so much you can hold back, before deciding that you have to just be, and live your authentic life. And that in part, is what coaching has enabled Ash to do.
Finding the 'why' to anything is a constant struggle for many of us. Why do we feel the way we do, why are we the way we are? If you've felt marginalised with no voice, then having an opportunity to express your thoughts, feelings and emotions can help not just you, but also it might show others that they can have the same courage, resilience and determination. A lot of this stems from awareness; by just being aware of what we live by, the 'truths' that suddenly become myths when we break the chains that hold us back. Once we've discovered our purpose and meaning by challenging the 'why', then we can start to look at the 'why nots'. Why not choose to share everything that we think is bad and negative, when we can only use that to discover so many positive aspects to our lives.
For 3 years in a row, Ash has suffered from SAD, otherwise known as seasonal affective disorder. And, at the time of recording this he was suffering from it. Ash shares his own experience, understanding and coping strategies to get through times where we cannot control what is happening around us, but to try and control what we can - the ways we need to accept ourselves, sleep better, eat better, remain active and social and be prepared for when these times come around. Disclaimer: please seek medical advice from a medical professional regarding the topic being discussed on this episode.
I'm not perfect by any means, but I know that I have made progress in the past year. It's all too easy to for us to think that we are still living the same lives as we did; yet a lot of us have made so many changes to our lives that have contributed to our progress.
Ash discusses what does progress mean, how to understand if you've made any and also how to carry on taking those vital steps forward to get to where you want to be.
From acceptance, acknowledgement to being able to act on thoughts and feelings, progress is something that we are all making, day by day, hour by hour. Once we can harness the power of where we are right now, in the knowledge of where we have been, we can take ourselves anywhere.
Life is like a set of episodes, full of drama in themselves. When we put them together they are just like seasons; which eventually come to an end - just like many of the intriguing TV series that leaves us hanging for more. Until the next season. Who can wait? Just like the changing seasons around us, as we also go into the fall we can take some inspiration from nature that nothing lasts forever anyway. But what happens when we get to the end of the episodes of our lives; do we think about where we actually are and where we need to go? Where do we go from here? All seasons aren't created equal. And neither are our situations or lifes for that matter. And that such seasons of our life was just that, a season. We can accept and move on to create better lives on the back of what we've learnt. In the end, we all get to choose who writes their own episodes, as we all get to direct and star in our own lives.
September is the month of change and transformation, whether it be starting school or just acknowledging that the season has started to change. For Ash, there was a week where a lot of helpful and unhelpful events occurred in this month, but over different years. These anniversaries reminded him of significant events that can occur in our lives. Some of them might even shape the direction of where we take ourselves. In this episode, he talks of these challenges, what he learnt from them and how self-reflection helps us realise that we are stronger than we give ourselves credit for.
What are the barriers we think we face, when we are faced with the prospect of going back to the office? In this episode, Ash talks about how he was surprised to learn what he did when he took his first trip - back to somewhere familiar yet all new at the same time. Reflecting on the past, and the current time in the same place made him realise some interesting things. The result was understanding three things - being kind, being open and being ourselves.
Feeling like we don't belong, that we are in the wrong place and surrounded by our own feelings of self- doubt drains us of our previous energy. Change is a force for good, it inspires us that new things are possible and that there are better ways of doing things. But as we turn into working on things we've not done before, are we out of our depth or are we afflicted by what is termed as 'impostor syndrome'? Ash reveals all about how he came to terms with it, and how acceptance helped him understand how to deal with it.
What do we think our truths are, are they to run away from when we cannot understand them? In this episode, I talk about the conversation I had at work and how that empowered me to understand why I was thinking something was true when it might not be. Sometimes we are conditioned to accept certain things in life to be our ultimate truths, yet they are not. It is just a perception that has hardened with time. Once that has happened, it can take forever to break those myths down, and replace them with new roots that give us new meanings of the truth.
A lot of the time, it's extremely hard to be honest when you're tied up in other situations, especially ones at work. But what did I realise when I decided to be honest about work?
Join me as I unpick and share stories of insight and inspiration from places, ideas and people that can truly help us expand our understanding, covering concepts from acceptance to boundaries, compassion to denial, right down to the expectations and failures of ourselves and others as we try and change the world around us, and within us. In the end, we all want something to change in our lives to make them better.