Welcome to Proper Mental episode 16!

My guest today is Tasha Danvers!

Tasha Danvers is a coach, painter, singer and public speaker.  She is also a 2-time Olympian who won a bronze medal at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing.

Her story is incredible!  At the height of her career in sport, and whilst training for her second Olympics, Tasha fell pregnant and received an insane amount of backlash and scrutiny from people in and around athletics.

Seven months after giving birth to her son, Tasha returned to top flight competition.  She won a silver medal at the 2006 Commonwealth Games and won a place in the final the following year at the World Championships.

She faced more scrutiny after being selected for the 2008 Olympic squad as some people felt she should not have been chosen.

In 2008, she overcame a series of injuries and the media backlash, to run the fastest race of her life and take Olympic bronze in Beijing.

The scrutiny she faced during this period alongside personal issues and the pressure of an upcoming Olympics in London in 2012 led Tasha in to a period of depression which eventually came to ahead when she attempted to take her own life in 2011.

This story is an incredible series of highs and lows and Tasha takes me through her journey with an openness that is truly inspiring!  Her mindset is an inspiration in itself and her way of looking at depression and mental health is brilliant!

We chat about the loneliness of track sport, the importance of gratitude, the pressure of a games on home soil and the importance of asking for help.

Tasha was just great to chat to!  She is funny and engaging and a lovely, lovely person.  I really enjoyed talking to her and I hope you enjoy listening!

You can connect with Tasha via Instagram @tashatheolympian or Twitter @tashadanvers or via her website www.tashadanvers.com.

Here is the link for her 2008 medal winning run – prepare for goose bumps!

2008 Beijing Olympic Games Womens 400m Hurdles Final - YouTube

While you’re on YouTube you can subscribe to the podcast channel here:

Proper Mental Podcast - YouTube

And here is an article written in 2013 about Tasha:

Tasha Danvers on motherhood, sacrifice and feeling suicidal - BBC Sport

You can connect with me on all social media platforms @propermentalpodcast.  Please leave a review if you have a minute and as always, let me know what you think!

Thanks for listening!  Enjoy!

Welcome to Proper Mental Episode 15!

My guest this week is Alex Manzi!

Alex Manzi is the host of In the Moment podcast and author of The Search for Clarity.  He is also a coach and works with all sorts of different people to help them to define their goals, be happier, be more present in their lives and feel more fulfilled.

His podcast, In the Moment, is a platform for Alex to dive deep to hear stories and tips from some of the most inspirational people in the world to help inspire you to make a positive change in your life.  He has put out well over 200 episodes and I highly recommend giving it a listen!

In ‘The Search for Clarity’, published in 2020, Alex shares his learnings and experiences of living from a negative headspace to now living from a place of happiness and clarity.

I’ve enjoyed Alex’s podcast for some time and he was on my podcast “want list” from day one so it was awesome to get to sit down with him via Zoom and chat about his work.  He genuinely wants to help people and that compassion and generosity really comes across in how he talks and the things he talks about.  He’s a lovely guy!

We chat about compassion, about all aspects of health and why they are equality important, we talk about his coaching process and Alex shares his own personal experiences with Depression and Anxiety and how he uses that experience to live a happy, fulfilled life and helps others to do the same.

I really enjoyed this one!  We cover a lot of different topics in a relatively short space of time and I really got a lot from it.  Alex was incredibly generous with his knowledge and there is a lot of actionable advice in this conversation for anyone that needs it.

You can connect with Alex on social media @iamalexmanzi or vis his website www.thedreamersdisease.co.uk and his website is the best place to go to purchase his book or learn more about his coaching process.

In the Moment with Alex Manzi is available on all podcast platforms.

If you’d like to connect with Proper Mental via social media, you can get me on @propermentalpodcast on all platforms.

Thanks for listening!  Enjoy!

Welcome to Proper Mental Episode 14!

This week my guest is Shareefa J!

Shareefa J is a presenter, model and mental health campaigner.  She is at the forefront of promoting body positivity and race diversity in the fashion and advertising space.

A couple of years ago, Shareefa used the hashtag #UOKHUN to connect with her followers and encourage them to speak up about how they were feeling and the overwhelming response to this led her to contact CALM and eventually become one of their mental health ambassadors.

She is also a huge advocate for the power of running and does a lot of work to encourage everyone who wants to be a runner to give it a go regardless of gender, size or any other reason that puts people off going for a run.  She has featured on the cover of several running magazines to spread this message.

Shareefa and I chat about the need for a mental health A&E, the good and the bad bits of social media, emotional maintenance and the long-term side effects of the pandemic on mental health.

Shareefa’s positivity about everything is really infectious and it was a lot of fun to chat to her!  We cover an amazing number of topics during the conversation and it was great for me to learn a bit about the body positivity movement and the modelling industry as neither of these things were previously on my radar.

You can connect with Shareefa via Instagram @shareefa_J and @shine4diversity.

You can also connect with CALM via social media @calmzone or read about their work with Shareefa at this link:

Meet Shareefa: CALM’s newest ambassador and body positivity champion  - Campaign Against Living Miserably (thecalmzone.net)

You can connect with me and the podcast @propermentalpodcast and I’d love to hear what you thought of this, or any other episodes!  I’m always happy to chat.

Thanks for listening!  Enjoy!