Slow down and go within
Mental Illness: The War Within
My challenges with mental illness began at an early age, and I have always fought an internal war to live or die. I studied kinesiology for a few years, and collected degrees related to physical education. So, theoretically I understand the relationship between...
Lessons From the Storm
Every storm in life has two purposes: To destroy what isn’t solid, and to reveal what is. Pain shows up in a variety of ways, but I don't believe that it comes to ruin us. Pain is a powerful teacher that allows us to remove what is no longer needed. And, when the...
Hope is Real
I was not in a good place when I first met Tanya. I was battling mental illness and addiction - just trying to stay alive. Tanya believed in me more than I believed in myself, and gave me a life that I never dreamed possible. Today, we celebrate our 15th wedding...
Celebrating My Sobriety
Celebrating my sobriety birthday is as equally important as celebrating the day I was born. Sobriety gave me another chance to live. This morning, I sat and reflected on 5 of the lessons I have learned. 1. The goal of sobriety isn't to stop drinking. The goal is to...
Without Sobriety I Have Nothing
As a speaker, my schedule typically looks like the following: Uber - Airport - Uber - Hotel - Speak - Uber - Airport - Repeat But, when I went to New York City a few days ago, I wanted to break the cycle and take time for me. With my wife's encouragement and a great...
My Greatest Strength
In a recent podcast interview, I was asked what my greatest strength is. It's not my degrees. It’s not the books I’ve written, and it’s not standing on stages across the globe. My greatest strength is my ability to connect - with vulnerability, honesty, and heart....
Divine Intervention
During some of my darkest days, I learned that help comes in different forms. Sometimes it was through the warm smile of a stranger, and other days it was through a check-in from a good friend. While working as a seasonal laborer with the City of Saskatoon, I was...
You Are Worthy
I have been fortunate to have free airport lounge access for years, and yet never before have I walked through the doors. Why? I have struggled with feeling valued and worthy my entire life. My mind said that this privilege was for the ‘important’ people. (Even as I...
Project Semicolon
In 2013, Amy Bleuel went to social media and asked anyone who had struggled with a mental illness to draw a semicolon on their wrist and post a photo. A semicolon symbolized that a sentence wasn’t over yet, and neither was their life. Just like that, Project Semicolon...
Listen Don’t Fix
Anytime that I speak at an event in Winnipeg, I try to connect with my Uncle Ray. When he first found out that I was struggling with mental illness, he was upset that he had not known sooner. He believed that these were the very issues that a family needed to discuss...
“What’s stronger than a broken man who has the courage to rebuild himself? It’s time to redefine what it means to be strong.”
– Allan Kehler
