Pamina Mullins Interview Part 2

Welcome everyone to another great week of the Writer's Revolution.  I am your host, the author of The Phoenix Blade, Andrew Hess.  This week we have an intriguing and inspirational guest, the author of Why Me, Pamina Mullins

Time for some fun.

If you could only bring three items with you to a deserted island (non-writing items or people) what would they be and why?

A hammock, a good book and a fishing rod :-)

Hopefully it’s an island that has a lot of fish and that the book is a great read.

The world is going to end tomorrow.  How do you live out your remaining time?

Pack as much laughter and love and sunshine and beauty and meaningful connections in as possible…

At least you can go out laughing.

Someone wants to make a movie based on your life.  Who would you pick to play you?

Ellen Degeneres

Alive or dead, who is the one person you would want to interview and why?

A woman of courage and integrity—and there are so many! I am currently reading Aayan Hirsi Ali’s autobiography Infidel. She is just one who fits this profile. Oh, and Jeremy Clarkson who in my opinion should be patented as a substitute for Prozac!

Okay, crystal ball time.  Where do you see yourself in 5-10 years?

Aaaah, (did you hear that sigh?) living  in a sprawling, thatched house, overlooking the sea, with the love of my life, surrounded by the people I love and writing for the sheer joy of it—rather than economic necessity or deadlines.

Any questions you would like to ask me?

Not about this interview (other than the technicalities of how it’s going to happen) but I’d love to hear YOUR story….

I don’t think we have enough time on the blog to write that J.  Some of it I have put on earlier posts on this blog, some are written in two of my books which are free verse poetry, Chamber of Souls, and Hall of the Forgotten.  I’m sure we can connect to discuss it at length another time.  But for now, our readers will have to keep tuning it to learn more about me J

Any final words for our readers?

Get a copy of Why Me? You’ll enjoy the ride, laugh and gain valuable insights.

Where can we find you?

www.paminamullins.com

email:    pam@paminamullins.com

or            pamina27@zim.co.zw

Pamina Mullins Interview Part 1

Welcome everyone to another great week of the Writer's Revolution.  I am your host, the author of The Phoenix Blade, Andrew Hess.  This week we have an intriguing and inspirational guest, the author of Why Me, Pamina Mullins

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. 

Pamina Mullins: Excerpt

Welcome everyone to another great week of the Writer's Revolution.  I am your host, the author of The Phoenix Blade, Andrew Hess.  This week we have an intriguing and inspirational guest, the author of Why Me, Pamina Mullins.

Failure is Feedback

Does that F word bring on a panic attack? Are you success fixated; terrified of being ridiculed if you slip off the A list? Well your chances of evading failure in life are as good as Bill Gates being homeless.  Every new experience, relationship or project you embark on is pregnant with potential for failure! And it’s just as well, or you’d never learn to walk. All inventors, entrepreneurs or achievers fail numerous times before tasting success. It’s a sign that you’re making progress. Failure is feedback and there is no success without risk—only inaction. Like remaining in a relationship that resembles a Stephen King plot, instead of admitting your judgment was out of whack or you bet on a loser. Like staying in a job that gives you as much satisfaction as trimming your toenails with your teeth, rather than risk paving the way for working with passion.

If you’re not making mistakes, you're not learning. When did you last take on a new project, learn a new skill, go somewhere you’ve never been or play a sport you’ve never played? Instead of bayoneting yourself with embarrassment if it fails, evaluate what you’ve gained; valuable knowledge and experience, how to do it better, that you’re timing was out, you didn’t do your homework, or that it’s a simply a stepping-stone to ultimate success. Maybe you’ll make useful contacts or acquire new skills along the way. We all do dumb things while we’re wearing “L” plates—but it’s more constructive than being anchored in a comfort zone so long, that your sense of adventure atrophies.

Failure can be fun! Laugh at yourself when you do a metaphorical belly flop. Tell your children funny stories about mistakes you’ve made and what you learned from them. React calmly when your children make mistakes; your attitude will have a major impact on how they handle them in future. Instead of threatening them with a parental firing squad, seek creative solutions together. Explore ways to turn the experience into an asset. Teach them by example that mistakes don’t define who you are; they expand who you are. 

Eric came to see me because he just couldn’t shrug off the dead weight of failure. He went into minute detail about how the company had shafted him in the past (they had), how his efforts to seek justice had backfired (it did), and how he was still a marked man; the personal vendetta was continuing (it was.) He analyzed the state of the economy, the specialized industry he worked in, his age and pointed out that there was no light at the end of the tunnel—he was destined to be flypaper for failure forever. He explained lucidly, in detail and with clear insights about his past failures in relationships and work experiences. Through constant repetition of these lopsided facts he’d convinced himself that the past would always ambush him and sabotage any chance he had of success. Failure was inevitable and irreversible—he’d been there before…knew what would happen. 

While I admired the honesty of his emotional striptease, it was clear why he wasn’t a towering success! So I laid down some ground rules—he was only to talk about himself, only in the positive and only in the present. In the last year Eric’s life has changed beyond recognition. He’s lost weight, regained his sharp sense of humor, made new friends, been paid out by his ex employers, had the confidence and freed up the finances to upgrade his pilot’s license, been offered a lucrative position, taken the first holiday he’s had for years and won a canoeing trip down the Zambezi. This is the kind of thing that can happen when we reframe our lives, allowing us to see the whole picture and get things into perspective; when we give ourselves credit for our successes, believe in ourselves and habitually focus on the positive potential in our lives instead of dwelling on the pitfalls.

Instead of tormenting yourself with your failures until you’re a walking advertisement for retrenchment, accept that circumstances areconstantly shuffled and reshuffled and there are always variables involved. Instead of haemorrhaging with humiliation, admit your fears. Accept that you may lose your job, possessions or relationship, but you need not lose confidence and hope. Study, explore, network and visualize the outcome you want. Practice flexibility and resilience. Security comes from the knowledge, skills and lessons you’ve learned, which keep you ahead of the pack. Keep expanding, diversifying or upgrading your skills so that you’re always in demand.

It’s not difficult to be excited and motivated by success. But rather than being a fugitive from failure or letting a failure expectation define your future, learn how to work with it, make it your ally. Being handcuffed to fear of failure prevents you from getting smarter and stronger. If you already have gaping cracks in your confidence, get professional help (as Eric did). Don’t allow your potential to be prematurely aborted—or stillborn.

Stress busting prescription: What are you afraid of right now? What is preventing you moving forward or doing something you’d really like to do? Now go out there and risk a failure today.

Week 8 Preview: Pamina Mullins

Welcome everyone to another great week of the Writer's Revolution.  I am your host, the author of The Phoenix Blade, Andrew Hess.  This week we have an intriguing and inspirational guest, the author of Why Me, Pamina Mullins.

Pamina Mullins was born in Zambia and has lived in Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Tanzania and the U.K. Her personal experiences as well as those of her stress management, life coaching and hypnotherapy clients inspired her to write Why Me? The Energy Dynamics of Stress. Prior to this, Pamina was a contributing author to the best selling Modern-Day Miracles by Louise L Hay and Friends. Stress Free You! What's Stopping You and How to Reclaim Your Life written in her uniquely expressive, entertaining and infectious style offers an entertaining and powerful antidote to the stress, confusion and despair we all face from time to time.

Pamina, who by her own admission could have written a thousand page thesis on how to sabotage yourself effortlessly, and has dug herself out of many of life's major and minor potholes, while living in a country where resilience, resourcefulness and a well honed sense of humor are essential survival tools, delivers laughter and hope with liberal dollops of self deprecating humor.