From Sports Editor to healer, writer and actor, Michael Lee travelled the world to find the answers he was looking for. He’s been on an amazing voyage of self-discovery and you can read his inspirational story here…
1. How are you leading a life ‘doing what you love’?
By ‘Sharing my truth’ through the Body Mirror System of healing. At our deepest level we know what is out of balance in our bodies and in our lives so it’s a joy to help people find clarity and to see healing manifest physically for them. We can become accustomed to feeling totally powerless when it comes to our health but the answers are all out there somewhere. Only we can choose whether to trust ourselves, to journey within and to open our heart to the many gifts the world presents to us.
For me healing is a guide I live by and I want to help as many people as I can. When I asked myself ‘how can I become the invisible healer?’ the answer was to share my truth through the power of words. So today, in this moment, I write song lyrics and poetry and I act. They are all ways of achieving my life purpose: to inspire, to share and to heal.
2. What did you do before you discovered healing?
I studied sports management at University and worked in sports development. My first job was with a non-profit organisation supporting disadvantaged young people. I was promoted after eight months but I never really felt satisfied. I believed in myself professionally but at the same time I felt deeply insecure and fearful of the world. I hid it well but I was restless, depressed and living with a permanent knot in my stomach.
I was ready for a new challenge and I was adventurous but when a great job in Ayers Rock came up I didn’t pursue it because my mum had fallen ill and I didn’t want to seem like I was running away. Looking back I realise that I simply didn’t honour the opportunity that came my way. I was young, egotistical and I lacked humility. It taught me a valuable lesson: that if you don’t respect yourself it’s very hard for others to respect you.
Instead I took a job closer to home and in my spare time wrote a weekly newspaper column to promote the local cricket club. I had some media experience and after a few months the paper asks if I’d be their Sports Editor. Writing and overseeing two regional papers was fresh, new and challenging but I didn’t believe I was good enough to do it. I did the job for a year and then I moved to England.
Coaching cricket in Rajasthan, India in 2008
3. What inspired you to change your life in such a big way?
I was looking for an answer. Initially that answer manifested as people. I thought others could solve all my problems, but really I needed to look inwards at myself. I was suppressing my emotions and hiding my true self away. Everything was about work and about making a difference to other people’s lives. I had also been in love but it was an intense, controlling form of love which I believed would fix everything, and of course it didn’t. I was happy on the outside and dark on the inside. From a healing point of view, all the emotional tension I was holding was creating the symptoms I was experiencing and shaping my beliefs about love. I realised that what I wanted most was to love myself and others with an open heart and to feel confident in my own skin. I wanted to be a man. I manifested amazing people who guided me to healing, who loved me and supported me in every way possible and I honour them every day.
4. How did your time in England enrich your life?
I felt free, like I could do anything, and that slowly the answers were coming. Everything seemed accessible; just simple things like exploring London and enjoying gigs and shows without having to live there. For the first time I was open to new life experiences and loving it. I did my first healing course here and it changed my life immediately. The blocked energy I carried around in my stomach released, my weight increased by four kilograms in just 24 hours and my lazy left eye became the same size as my right.
I lived in England for 18 months before moving to New Zealand to take a job that combined rehab work with media and IT training. Although I knew what I wanted to be doing I felt I should do a ‘normal’ job because that’s what you’re supposed to do in life. In truth I was dreaming of freedom and adventure: climbing, abseiling and exploring the snow capped mountains of the South Island on my bike.
Ice climbing at Franz Josef, New Zealand
5. Why did you move to Canada?
Time in New Zealand made me focus on making choices that were aligned with my truth. I’d applied for my work visa in England, because I heard that Vancouver were hosting the 2010 Winter Olympics and I thought I’d try and get some work. In the meantime I chose to explore. I embraced all the new opportunities that came my way, like Wwoofing (volunteering to live and learn on an organic farm) at Carmanah on Vancouver Island where the only access was by boat from a tiny town called Port Renfrew. I did gardening, general construction work and helped out in Chez Monique, the camp kitchen. I felt at home straight away, meeting new friends from all over the world and learning from them. I had found a home – and it was right on the beach!
After the Olympics I moved to Victoria to focus on living at the level of the throat chakra – abundant, intuitive, trusting in my journey… and flowing free. It was this that unlocked the door to my creativity. One night, I saw an alternative health column in a newspaper which invited readers to write in and share their own experience with a therapy. So I did! Although the column wasn’t written in my style, in an ‘a-ha’ moment I realised that if I let go of my old thought patterns I could ‘choose’ to like it. So I decided to see it as perfect and I wrote to the columnist to thank her.
The article published in Monday Magazine, Canada, that helped me manifest a new career
A few months later she contacted me to say the paper was casting for Australian male voice actors… and that she thought I’d be great. I got the (paid!) gig, the director loved my work and I left feeling inspired to audition for a film. Before my first audition I let the casting crew know that I’m Australian, very similar to the character they’re creating and that rather than learn lines I’d chosen to do what I’m good at: developing ideas about the character. In the audition I felt we all connected and I got the job! They re-worked the script and I acted in my first feature film.
6. Tell us more about your passions in life and the impact they’ve had on your life?
My healing work: this has guided me home to my true self. It’s empowered me to take responsibility for all areas of my life and stop living in a ‘victim’ mentality. The Body Mirror System uses a light touch in the area of each chakra. So much in life can be aggressive so it’s so nice when you realise that the answers are simple and that you really don’t have to fight for everything. I don’t think I’d be here today if healing hadn’t found me. I’m currently developing my new website, ThatHealingGuy, to help open the hearts of men. It’s fun and interesting breaking down the barriers that men have to understanding and accessing alternative health options.
Article from Peninsula Living Magazine, Sydney
My writing: My style is always developing. I used to ask ‘what does my heart want to say right now?’ but now, especially with song writing, I ask ‘what can I create for this person?’. One day I heard a song called Let It Be Me and the lyrics really took me on an amazing journey. I was so inspired to write a song I wrote to a friend to tell her and then let it go. A few days later the words flooded in. The first two lines: Seeing your reflection everywhere, your heart prints on every line of my face… and 20 minutes later, the rest. Before I knew it I’d recorded my lyrics, The Light In Me, with my talented mate David Christopher. Since then I’ve had songs read by Aussie rock legend, Dave Tice of Buffalo which pushed me to write some of my best lyrics over the last six months. With writing, nothing makes perfect, it’s all about expression and seeing where the words take you. I’m now editing my first eBook, Pieces of We.
My acting: The acting world opened up to me when I was blessed to attract a wonderfully supportive management company, Gilchrist Management. They understood what I was going through as a person first, and then as a performer. As I’m not a trained actor I never really felt like I fitted in. I realised that I’d created this pattern of thinking myself and that if I was ever going to follow my dream and succeed, I had to change my way of thinking and instead start focussing on my intent: to collaborate with people. As soon as I opened myself up to being vulnerable the stars aligned and I met Bobby Galinsky, an award winning writer and film producer. It changed my life because I began to take real responsibility for my career. I started creating projects rather than waiting for them to come to me. I’m now working on two feature films and I’m producing a film for the People for Peace Film Festival here in Sydney.
7. How do you live your life now?
I do my best to live my life without barriers. I’m open to anything at any time. I’ve shaken all that seriousness off. Playfulness is not possible with too many rules. It’s hard to be playful when you live life in black and white. Self-imposed rules are your own personal fun-police. We must let go in order to fly.
On top of the world! Carros Village, France after Level 1 Intensive training in the Body Mirror System
8. What makes you really happy?
Creating something from nothing is what makes my heart sing. Passion is an important part of my life. I’m passionate about food, about romance and about my fiancé Tania.
9. Who or what inspires you most in life?
Beautiful women like my Nan Rose, my mum Jeanette and my courageous little Pixie lady Tania. They help keep my heart opened to the wonders of the world.
10. What is your wish for the world?
That as individuals, we go inside of ourselves to change the injustices, the hurt, and the pain that we see in the outer world.
11. What does the future hold for you?
I’ll be doing my moments’ best to create an abundant life for my family on a nice piece of land, open, free and limitless.
12. What advice would you give someone who wants to change their life and do what they love but doesn’t know how?
Sometimes the hardest part is finding what you actually love. It takes time to discover your truth so quiet your mind and stop looking. It will come in that moment of silence. And once you find it my advice is to trust, trust, trust. Be kind to yourself and remember it’s your own personal journey and it’s ok to change track half way through. Trusting your inner voice takes you a million little steps closer to your dream.
Born to be free: camping trip in Victoria, Australia
Visit Michael’s website here.
