In this episode Marcus Smith, founder of InnerFight, tells us about the accident he suffered back in February 2018  which left him fighting for his life.  In May, just three months after the crash, he took part in the 42.2km trail race on the Volvic Volcano in France. A month later, he did 50km cycle, 50km run, 50km swim at Al Qudra in Dubai. In July, he ran 195km across the island of Corsica, at 13,000 meters above sea level, in five days. And he culminated that year with 30 marathons in 30 days. He has also run Marathon Des Sables, a 250km run across the Sahara - the world’s toughest footrace. These are some of the accomplishments that really need a strong body but above all a strong mind and that is what we talk about in this episode

The highlights of these episode:

So, what I realized, I think I knew this before but what I really realized in that situation is the mind has to tune in with the body in this situation, and it has to listen to it. It has to be present with it.

And I started to develop more of this mindset of, okay what can I do right now to make the situation better, which I’d had for a while before but until you really get into the situation and admit the situation that you're in and out of this state of denial, you can't move forward.

There's four stages to this:

The first is to admit you've got a problem, get out of denial. 

The second is to reject that that problem is going to stop you from continuing to live your life and create happiness. 

The third is for relaxation, which is super tough.  it's like, okay you've got seven broken ribs, a broken shoulder and a split lung, how do you relax? 

And the fourth point is, okay what do I do now? What can I do now to make this situation a little bit better?

this is why the connection between the mind and the body is so important. You feel that that is just not taking you forward. You feel that it's going back because mentally, we're always told we've got to do things, all the time, exactly to get better. But, if you've gone a little bit laterally and you've just been able to relax about things then your chances of moving forward tomorrow, or the next week are increased.

The problem that I see and this might hopefully give people some something to think about the problem is that a lot of solutions are offered externally now when actually it's all within us. 

What you have to do is sort of create some awareness around it and spend some time internally to try and figure out, okay, is there a disconnection between my mind, my body, my soul, spirit, emotion, and how can I put it back together? And I think if people spend time doing that and not as much time thinking about ads that they're getting sprayed through social media through various channels then, because those things won't help you. You know, like this seven day detox, that will not take 15 kilos off you. 

So, the reason that you behave like you do now is because that's the way you were taught to behave when you were younger. If you were given a lot of love when you were younger, you know how to give love now. If you weren't, you don't. And this is one of the biggest things to go and not undo but try and understand previous programming to try to release them and allow them to live awake and conscious and free. 

The ultimate thing that we can be to each other and it's not just as a coach, it's a human to a human, is to try and put ourselves in their shoes without judgment.