Michael Unbroken is an entrepreneur, coach, podcast host, award-winning speaker, best-selling author, and advocate for adult survivors of childhood trauma. Not so long ago, Michael Unbroken was down and out. One day made the decision to live a new life where he would treat himself with self-love and choose to be the hero of his own story. At his lowest, he was depressed, obese, a drunk, a drug-infused time bomb, a terrible partner, a poor communicator, selfish, and worst of all scared. He was terrified of what it would feel like to be happy and was trapped in a mindset of fear that he had created. His thoughts were irrational and irresponsible but something he was born into and too frightened to turn away from. Now Michael devotes his life to help trauma survivors get unstuck, learn to love themselves, and heal!

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Contact Info

• Website: www.ThinkUnbroken.com
• Podcast: Think Unbroken Podcast
• Book: Think Unbroken: Understanding and Overcoming Childhood Trauma by Michael Anthony
  

Most Influential Person

• Mr.Bush , Senior year Business Teacher

Effect on Emotions

• Above all, if I feel anxious, angry, lustful, too happy to adulated, right, knowing that there's this push and pull when you come from this traumatic experience. I need to regulate for a moment, I'm not running from joy or happiness. I'm not running from anger or sadness.
• But it can spiral out of control on either side of the spectrum. And so sitting down, breathing, closing my eyes for three minutes, getting present again, if I have to do grabbing a journal or typing myself a note in my texts, like that helps so much. Because when you come from a place of dysregulation, being regulated is one of the most important things that you can do when it comes to your emotional capacity.

Thoughts on Breathing

• First, I didn't know that there was a way to breathe wrong. Right? I didn't know that diaphragmatic breathing, as opposed to chest breathing or stomach breathing or filling your lungs fully. I was having 5 time a day anxiety attacks all the time.
• At one point, my diaphragm was literally stuck from stress. I was going to massage therapists I was going to body workers, all this stuff. And no joke. It was not until I started forcing my body to take normal breaths. Did that go away? That is to say, breathing is everything like I sit down every day when I put my earbuds in I play like nature sounds or music or storm or whatever. I just breathe for like 10 minutes. That's how to be unbroken.

Suggested Resources

• Book: Radical Acceptance: Embracing Your Life With the Heart of a Buddha By Tara Brach
• App: Calm

Bullying Story

• First, I am bullied as a kid. Second, my stepfather bullied me. Lastly, from my mother. In addition, the kids at school bullied me because I am the poorest kid in the school, my brothers and I had that experience too.
• I work clothes from Goodwill from Washington founds sometimes, like I would still food to survive, I wet the bed, my hygiene was so bad as at times as a child, because our water got turned off, our heat would get turned off, our electricity would get turned off.
• After that, we got evicted more times than I can even count. I stayed with over 30 different families as a kid,I understand bowling better than most people. Like one time this kid dragged me across this carpet until I had second degree burns on my back like I know bullying man.I know that experience.
• That changed when I became six foot four, I promise you that. But I am super violent as a kid.As a result, I think that, because I always experienced bullying I in turn bullied. And that was a love language of communication. Right? You see that happen all the time.
• I think that a couple of things come to mind. First, we live in a very different world. This isn't the 80s anymore. You know what I mean? Yeah, and I have a lot of appreciation for the kids who stepped up and don't allow that to happen and ask how to be unbroken.
• First and foremost, like, I want to acknowledge that because I think it's really powerful. But I think mindfulness may have played a role for me as a child just to like, circumvent that violence. Because it was there all the time. Likewise, I've been in hundreds of fights in my life have broken my hands on people's faces. You know, I've run from the cops getting shot up, because you know, because like crazy stuff I am doing.
• Meanwhile, I am so dissociated as a kid, like even pain, I remember times where I just wouldn't even feel pain, I broke my hand one time in a fight. And for four days, it was swollen, the size of like a watermelon, right, I couldn't even fill it because my brain was so removed from my body.
• Certainly, I think that mindfulness at that age at really, any age, would have just helped me be able to not be so not necessarily angry, but like to make meaning of what was happening to have awareness around my body, but also to not move through the world. I'll give you a perfect example. Bruce, this might actually this really apply to you.
• For instance, I did hypnosis hypnotherapy around hyper vigilance. Probably all seven years ago. And up into that point, I'm a dude, I'm a big guy. When I'm walking down the street, 6 footer nobody is gonna mess with me. I get that from a rational perspective.
• You know, the tattoos helped me right. After that, I walked down the street with a pocket knife in my hand, or my keys between my knuckles everywhere I went every single day, hyper vigilant, like, dramatically so and in ways in which it was impacting my life so negatively.
• However, there were periods of time, I wouldn't go outside at night. You know what I mean? Because it felt so dangerous to me. And I did a couple of hypnotherapy sessions. As a result, I never do that anymore.
• To sum it up, the navigating the subconscious and changing your thought patterns and your behavioral patterns around the past is just carries so much weight. And I just don't know how you do that without mindfulness. I don't know how to be unbroken and do that without getting your brain and your body reconnected and re associated. I don't know how you do that without massive awareness.

Related Episodes

• Fear Traps and The Triggers That Keep You Stuck; Nancy Stella
• Making a Ruckus In Education; Daniel Bauer
• Feel Better in Five Minutes; Amanda Hainline

Special Offer

Are you experiencing anxiety & stress? Peace is within your grasp. I’m Bruce Langford, a practicing coach and hypnotist helping fast-track people just like you to shed their inner bully and move forward with confidence. Book a Free Coaching Session to get you on the road to a more satisfying life, feeling grounded and focused. Send me an email at bruce@mindfulnessmode.com with ‘Coaching Session' in the subject line. We'll set up a zoom call and talk about how you can move forward to a better life. Please read the above overview: How to be unbroken.