Run for your Life - Episode 103 - William Pullen

weMove Podcast

Hey there, welcome to the weMove podcast.

From day one we believed and still do that movement is perhaps the most important tool for self-discovery and becoming a better version of ourselves.

Whilst this idea is very easily commercialised and the meaning lost in favour of the latest colour of t-shirt. The importance of movement has never gone away.

When you move, you see the world in a different way. When you see the world in a different way, positive internal changes begin to happen. Problems that you had no longer seem to be front and center of your mind, and solutions that you needed somehow appear.

Now when you combine movement with an active pursuit to work through an issue or problem to make sense of it, that can feel like quite a powerful combination.

And that is where we pick up this week's podcast with a chap called William Pullen, a psychotherapist and author who specialises in depression, anxiety, self-confidence and “boarding school syndrome” who uses running as the vehicle for working through blocks, and barriers in life.

We pick up on a few points of interest.

The often used word ‘resilience’.

How you work through trauma, or the memory of things that have happened to you in the past.

And we talk about place that we both went to from young ages which was boarding school and how it can be it can be an unknowing experience of neglect.

So whilst this would seem to be a running therapy episode, it highlights a few common themes in our conversations

There's a whole bunch of stuff that we didn't know that happened to us growing up, that we compartmentalize and forget about which can and often does rear its ugly head. As we go through life, affecting not only our lives but also the decisions we make on a day to day basis, and the relationships we have with others,

It highlights the importance of talking about our experiences. Not to get sympathy, but to develop our ability to lead and live a more prosperous life without being affected by negative memories. And that movement and in this case running is quite possibly the best medium to do this with.

And we also touch on the importance of not just talking about the importance of mental health, or that we are suffering from poor mental health. But to foster and encourage an environment of proactively doing something about improving and strengthening our mental fitness. So that we can move on and live.

So we touch on a few things in this short episode that may well offer a route or path for someone who has something that they are struggling to find a way to resolve.

Also of note is that William is the author of ‘Running with mindfulness’, or ‘Run for your life’ in America. And you can find out more about William on his website. www.williampullenpsychotherapist.com on Twitter @pullentherapy.