Tell me a little about yourself.
I am a writer, speaker, stress buster, life coach, problem
solver, people empowerer, laughter lover, dedicated saboteur disarmer, hypnotherapist, inspiration
generator, insight seeker and genius finder, with an incurable sense of humor
and love for life. I have walked every step of my talk, which lends empathy and
authenticity to my writing and coaching. I have lived an interesting and
eventful life—most of it in Africa, which has by necessity instilled
compassion, resilience, resourcefulness and a love for sunshine and wide open
spaces in every cell. I am passionate about helping people to empower
themselves through adapting their belief frames.
Wow, that was a mouthful. Quite a few interesting adjectives/occupations
listed there. Before we go into the
writing, I would like to touch upon a couple of them; mostly the life coach,
hypnotherapist, and living in Africa.
Can you shed some light on those?
I have lived in Zambia, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Tanzania and
South Africa (as well as the UK) at various times. I came relatively late to my
“calling.” I had been a single parent for many years when my 16 year old
daughter died—and my stress levels understandably, went ballistic. I urgently
needed to find a way to cope, and that’s how I stumbled upon stress management.
It enabled me to not only heal myself but others too. The profound impact of this
so impressed me that I went on to become a life coach. Life coaching principles
integrate well and add power to stress management strategies. Looking for ever
more powerful, effective healing tools then led me to hypnotherapy, which has
the capacity to change all manner of self defeating beliefs and habits.
Although the concept of coaching and hypnotherapy were almost
unknown in Zimbabwe at the time, my strengths were the fact that I walked the
talk and my ability to adapt these principles so they were relevant to this
environment—one in which the annual inflation rate in 2008 was a record
breaking 231million percent! No, that is not a typo. Add to this no social
security system whatsoever, a chronically overloaded and under resourced health
delivery system, fuel and food shortages, a notoriously inefficient and
unreliable communications system, frequent power outages, lengthy disruptions
in water supply, and driving conditions that would make the Dalai Lama
incoherent with anxiety, to name but a few, and you might begin to understand
the relevance of stress management training.
The ripple effect continues to have a profound impact on
people’s lives in a multitude of ways. For many the logistics of daily life can
seem like climbing Everest on a daily basis—trying to keep your head above
water, your business afloat, your kids in school and your sanity relatively intact!
Some words (like pension or retirement for instance) simply don’t exist here….
What inspired you to write? What type of genre do you write?
Having experienced the awesome sense of freedom and
achievement that come from making profound paradigm shifts, writing was the
obvious way to share this with a wider audience. Writing for me started as
therapy and snowballed from there. I write about personal growth and coaching
topics with liberal doses of self-deprecating humor. I have read so many
wonderful books that have helped me so much on my journey, but found that there
weren’t many in this genre that used humor to deliver their message. My
experiences and those of my coaching clients, combined with an irreverent sense
of humor, drive me to write in this way. The ridiculous habits and reactions
and coping strategies we all exhibit when stressed are tailor made for humor. I
also find humor a fast track to personal change. If we feel we are being
criticized or judged, we instinctively build walls. If we’re laughing together
at how silly we’re being, the changes come voluntarily and naturally.
I never thought about it like
that. I think humor is the best way to
cope with life and bad situations, but never thought of it as a way to make
change happen easier.
Tell us about your book.
Why Me? is a powerful, humorous roller coaster of a book
that blows the assumption that stress essentially bad—or inevitable out of the
water and offers explanations and prescriptions (with the help of case
histories) for:
- putting
a stop to energy bankruptcy
- making
peace with your body
- turning
the stress response into a laughter impulse
- starting
a love affair with wealth and success
- building
personal boundaries
- transforming
relationships
- employing
anger productively
- dumping
beliefs that have passed their sell by date
- embracing
change
- becoming
immune to the chaos around you and
- BEING
the change you want to see - at any age!
I think there are many out there that
could benefit from learning these techniques.
I can see a few in there about myself as well.
Is your book based on anyone
specifically?
The themes rather than characters are built on my
experiences and those of all the people I’ve worked with over the past 15
years. I am heavily influenced by the tumultuous history of my homeland and its
people. The way they adapt to dealing daily with the kind of challenges that
would make others catatonic with stress are a constant inspiration.
What inspired you to write this book?
To honor my own journey of discovery and those of the
people I work with, many of whom live and work under truly extraordinary
circumstances in a unique environment. And I felt there was a need to approach
this subject in a simple, entertaining way to make even those who would
ordinarily resist reading personal growth books, want to read it—even if just
for the entertainment value. The insights are then absorbed unconsciously while
being entertained.
I can safely say your description of,
Why Me?, has my attention.
What other books or blogs have you
written?
Please see http://www.paminamullins.com/publications.phpas well as guest blogs, short stories and articles
Were your other books self-published
or traditionally published?
The publications page (link above) explains this
Who is your greatest writing
inspiration?
My reading tastes are eclectic and I have been a bookworm
all my life; so I draw inspiration from a multitude of sources. I am endlessly
fascinated by the many faces of the human condition, particularly under
pressure—our resilience, courage in adversity and the complex behavior patterns
and beliefs that drive these; our ability to love and learn, adapt and survive,
and find something of value in the most extraordinary experiences.
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