We consider mental health in everything we do at Mr Feelgood. It’s impossible to get to the bottom of what makes our profile subjects tick, or figure out what appeals to us about a new film, book, or trend, without thinking about what is going on in our minds.
A large part of our mission is bringing our favorite stars of the personal development industry to the fore, in the hope their wisdom can help our community. There’s certainly a lot of woo-woo and opportunism in the self-help business that can be off-putting, but there are also many engaging experts who are driven by a desire to serve, and whose guidance is grounded in pragmatism. These charismatic rock stars of the wellness world are delivering their material with tenacity, clarity, and swagger.
So to mark Mental Health Awareness Month, here are some wise words from a Fab Four of personal growth professionals who are singing from our song sheet, and links to dive deeper into their work.
Gary John Bishop
Gary John Bishop // 📸 : Alex Loucas
A recent subject of our ‘Who the F*** Are You?’ profile, AC/DC fan Gary John Bishop is a true rock star of the wellness world.
Born and raised in working class Glasgow, Scotland, Gary puts the grit in integrity, using a tough love approach to encourage his community to take responsibility for their actions, and treat their promises to themselves like they mean something.
“With the tens of thousands of people that I’ve now coached, the people who are drawn to me don’t want a cuddle,” he told us in our recent chat. “They want me to tell them the truth.
“I have a lot of time for people. I have tremendous passion for people. But at the same time, I don’t want to dwell in people’s shit as much as they do. I’m the anti self-help guy in some ways. But at the same time, people can help themselves, they really can. But you’ve got to take the courageous route.”
Gary has written six books, including the New York Times bestseller ‘Unf*ck Yourself’, and offers personal coaching to clients. Find out more about all his resources on his site.
Rich Roll
Rich Roll // 📸 : Kurt Iswarienko
Rich Roll can talk the talk because he’s walked the walk, emerging from alcoholism to become one of the world’s leading vegan endurance athletes.
His podcast is one of the biggest in the wellness world, with more than 200 million downloads, and he uses the platform to share long-form interviews with thought leaders in health and fitness, adding his own experience and insight to the conversations which contain wisdom for us all.
During our enlightening profile interview with Rich, he told us his favorite saying, and it’s one that has stuck with us ever since.
“Mood follows action,” he said. “It was something that was said to me very early in sobriety. Rather than sitting around and waiting for inspiration to strike, or feeling like you’re in the mood to do something, the change in state that you seek is only a result of taking actions.”
Rich is the author of a series of successful books, including his memoir ‘Finding Ultra’ and the vegan cookbook ‘The Plantpower Way’. To find more about his other resources to help us lead healthy lives inside and out, go to his site.
Mo Gawdat
Mo Gawdat
As a high-flying Silicon Valley executive, Mo Gawdat was chief business officer at Google X, the top-secret “moonshot factory” where he led a team of the world’s most dynamic engineers attempting to make the stuff of science fiction — from driverless cars to autonomous robots — a reality.
But after his son Ali died during a routine appendectomy operation in 2014, aged just 21, he decided to dedicate his life to studying what makes us happy, and sharing his findings with the world.
As well as writing books including the ‘Solve for Happy: Engineering Your Path to Joy’, Mo also hosts the popular podcast ‘Slo Mo’ where he examines how to find happiness and purpose in life through conversations with inspiring guests, who have often overcome adversity in their lives.
Mo told Mr Feelgood during our interview, “I think many of the learnings from my podcast revolve around one thing – taking charge. Whether it’s Edith Eger, who was taken to Auschwitz when she was 16 and managed to get through that horrific experience and come out of it as an angel, teaching people amazing things. Or Sophie Elwes, who fell from a balcony at a party and is paralyzed from the chest down, an inspiring young lady who is now playing sports for national teams.
“You start to ask yourself, ‘What is it that I’m not taking charge of?’ And that to me is really eye-opening.”
The Angry Therapist
John Kim
John Kim was a screenwriter before going through a divorce at 35 and realizing he was, well, pretty angry with the world.
So he retrained as a counselor, and The Angry Therapist was born. And over the last 12 years, he has embraced new technology to build an online empire where he offers guidance to his community via his Instagram and Facebook pages, and offers online courses via his website.
During our interview with John, he explained, “I was angry because I wasn’t happy. I was chasing shiny things, and didn’t have a sense of self. I grew up in LA, and in my 20s, my definition of success was the house in the hills, the Range Rover and Porsche combo.
“I try not to tie my worth or happiness to external things anymore. But back then, the whole image of success was very commercialized, and because I didn’t have those things, I didn’t allow myself to be happy. So I would just grind, spend 13 hours a day at Starbucks trying to write clever dialogue and trying to sell the screenplay, hoping that that would make me happy, and none of it did.
“I learned that I had a crack in my life container, I learned that I was disconnected with self. I tell people that self-betterment is more about a reunion than anything else. So I thought, ‘What does it look like to connect back to me?’”
