 Yeah, there are people out there that will always try to chance their arm and really try to ramp up and squeeze every last Bit out of you, but ultimately the experience that you can deliver is being diluted If you're trying to work out if it's friend or foe someone's new, you know, you just go right. What's he do? What's he done? What's he about? Okay box boxed him off. Yeah, he's Nick Marine Nick's or an awful lot of action in Afghanistan four tours of Afghanistan What you're looking at there is the result of bubble one bubble two Nick, how are you brother? Hey Chris? Very well. Thank you. Thanks for having me back friends at home Absolutely delighted to have Nick Goldsmith back on the show fellow Royal Marines commando Nick's or an awful lot of action in Afghanistan four tours of Afghanistan following which surfaced a lot of trauma and Nick worked through it by getting into the great outdoors hence why I believe it's called the great outdoors Nick founded hidden valley bushcraft and they have a particular program the wounded the woodland warrior program aim to help struggling forces people or veterans And also I believe someone's just got a book out Nick and I believe that book is called Rewild your mind There we go, look straight in with a plug Filthy filthy book plug. Thank you for that Chris. It's very good. No, it's a mate having written a few books in my time It's one hell of an achievement. So congratulations. Yeah. Thank you I mean, I'd never thought in a thousand years that I'd be Somebody who would write a book to be honest It wasn't on the list on the top of my my agenda at the time In fact, the top of my agenda was just spending time the outdoors doing more of what works unless what didn't because of the way I was feeling at the time Obviously as times change that Organically led into starting hidden valley bushcraft which led to the woodland warrior program And here we are in a book and what's the reception been like? So you've got the hard back out in the Kindle, which is generally what publishers do Yeah, how's the reception been? fantastic of all credit to well back so this is published by well back and I'm very fortunate to get forward from from foxy mr. Jason Fox, which is I suspect greatly aided things It went to a bestseller status on Amazon within the first 24 hours of it going out So we managed to get that that little accolade that everybody so badly wants to get we managed to get that in in a couple of different genres It's probably not there anymore, but it got there So I'm super super pleased the overall feedback has been nothing short of incredible and It exactly reaffirms to myself why I spent so long tucked away in a little coffee shop scribbling away in a little leather bound book much like this one and Then and then Getting that all typed up and one of the transcribed transcribed been learning big words And then and then kind of you know trying to get that put into sections Which unlike unlike a sort of book you may imagine someone writes a book and you'd have to give an element of your life story So in the first 13 pages of this book There is the trials and tribulations and trauma essentially in there the gritty reading, but this is a self-help book this isn't You know, there's no picture of me on the front here This is a sort of a hopefully a timeless book that people can use for years to come so you quite literally I'll read off the Used nature as your guide to a healthier and happier life. So the whole thing is set out and aimed at I guess If someone's living in a 20-story tower block in London This still has massive relevance to you and you should be able to sit down typically for your bloke on the toilet on any page open up that page and Put put into play readily whatever's on that page. That was my challenge It's broken into three sections. So the first bit is purely to contextualize where I was at and how I arrived at that point That I felt so low They didn't want to be here anymore and then What that turned around how that took place? What did I do about it? Or what was happening as a byproduct of me spending time in the right environment? Using that analogy, you don't put fully fishing dirty water Put it in the cleanest environment that it can be in. Yes, it's an analogy. I funny enough I use a lot for diet teaching people Haven't got my pH strips hand. Oh, there they are teaching people that your body has a pH level just like a fish tank And if you pollute it with toxic You see we used to call it Western diet, but now it's just global diet Everybody eating this abundance of unnatural carbs and huge amounts of animal proteins and then wonder wondering why We're sick like all the time And it's really Nick is just really hard for me because I see people that I really love or I've developed a Relationship with over the internet that you know, they big up everything I do and I and and the various You know people come become very special to you, don't they and then I see them in the next one They've got like the big C or they're having their struggling and and it's Like no one has ever sat them down and Talked about the basics of health like we like we just said the fish tank You know your body if if you pollute the environment You are gonna get sick and you are there was a time in the 90s where talking about diet It started to surface and people it was a lot of bullshit It was like eat whole grain bread as if eating any like abundance of unnatural carbs can be good for you But at least people would discuss in it. Then they had this five a day veg and fruit I'll call it nonsense because they include like a strawberries in syrup That's literally about 80 spoons of sugar in a can of strawberries in Anyway, I digress but there's a lot of conversations that we're not having as a species and Of course another big one is why Why have we got this so spectacularly wrong? Why do we live in a concrete jungle that's making everybody desperately unhappy and yet the second like I had the absolute pleasure of doing last weekend With nige-kerno from forest roots adventures folks if you want to get in touch with nige It's up there in staff staff a chair my point Nick is like we went in the nature As always we brave the rain so most people would have gone now not not not not doing it But we just whacked up a tart so we could have our fire underneath cooking So this is your mate's have gone to Dartmoor and you've gone Yeah, this was a Subscriber a watcher of the podcast that contacted me when he saw me try and make fire by friction Yeah, and spectacularly fail Dear nige drove all the way down from up north and we went out to should we say a secret place on Dartmoor and Where we were able to have a a fire Okay, and he taught me fire by friction and I did it like with proper guidance first go But he said one thing Nick He said Chris when people come out here with me on my bushcraft courses. They say Wow Life is just so great when you're in the nature Yes, and and and he has to say to him no, this is the normal. This is how life should be It's it's living in a concrete jungle and doing the nine to five that that's the you know That's like the unnatural that I don't know if I just made sense there nige puts it a lot more eloquently I think there's many ways to screen a cat and does it feel right to you first and foremost If it feels right do more artworks a letter what doesn't we spend so much of our time trying to label everything and put it into boxes and and create these kind of Cool responses to stuff and we know that our bodies respond Extremely well to being in the great outdoors Because it's the environment from whence we've came. We know that people like wild swimming. We know that people like Nature bathing, we know you know, whatever you want to call it cooking in the outdoors like everything and again stuff I've written about and You couldn't you can scream to the top of your lungs on every social media platform that you can get about why we should be doing this But until someone's really ready until they've reached that point Then they're looking and their eyes are open and they're searching for the answer Quite often then only then when that person's actually ready You know, they'll they'll find a way until that point People can't see so I had something described to me People can't see the way they are in the way the fish can't see the water it swims in was like a really good analogy Someone described to me once about a certain subject and I've taken that and thought yeah, that's that's quite accurate actually Say save your own energy sometimes you've got save your own energy for yourself and go and enjoy it Can you Nick? Can you tell us some horror stories because I think people will find that interesting? Have you have you had people rock up on your courses and they're just I think I'm very lucky because I Filter we have Louise so Louise so if you want to come on one of my courses You're gonna have to go past Louise and or to book me to be a speaker or something like that You're gonna go through someone like Tracy On those two parts of sort of what I do and so for the most part, you know, you you kind of have that Three business chat where you're working out what someone's about what they want and can you can you meet that kind of standard? I have had some clients that have had some very exacting standards if that's what you're asking, you know, for instance, I wish to walk through High canopy woodland like I did when I was in a child as a child Well, I don't know what their childhood was like, but okay I can facilitate a whole day of navigating around specifically high canopy woodland. I wish to Wild swim with my family in the water. Okay, right. So with them we get back from there I've got to build this package, right? I want to cook over campfire with my family I wish to do to sleep out in the woods under a tarp not a tent. I wish to so you build this whole package Using the landscape you've got in front of you. How are you going to get from me to be? What's the med plan? What's all this stuff? And you deliver this incredible package for this Very affluent individual and his family to have this incredible weekend And sometimes sometimes you just need to know After you've been in business for a few years, what what is achievable and what is hang on a minute This person just keeps moving the gold quest as you're getting closer to the gig It's like well, can we just what we'd like to also we've got two more members of our group coming and you've already agreed on a price So, you know in business that that's something separate But yeah, there are people out there that will always try to chance their arm and really try to ramp up and squeeze Every last bit out of you, but ultimately the experience that you can deliver is Being diluted or you know because you're stretching yourself out to be able to spin all these plates So sometimes less is more and it's hard to explain that to people Occasionally, but but you appreciate from an empath empathetic point of view. They're coming at this They've not been on this experience. They when you're telling them you've got this incredible Faulty nacre site of just a carpet of bluebells semi-h woodland 400 years, blah, blah, blah And you've got this like a spring running through the middle and they can do all these amazing things there They can't see that you can see it because you live and breathe it, but they can't see that So that's why they're really pushing to oh and can we just can we also that can be tricky at times But again, you learn to navigate that stuff Like any other business. I'm thinking more of the psychology Nick of I don't tend to get shall we call it people Who aren't really ready for? Yeah, okay, you know because I guess the people aren't really ready ready are doing other things with their weekends It's only like I said when they sort of Maybe experience it somewhere Maybe they just go to a barbecue and realize that it was just an amazing experience With all these lovely people in the garden sharing food and they're like that's the fire, you know The barbecue and they just went oh my god. I want to do more of this and that leads down that path And could be something as simple as that but Generally if somebody's lifestyle is geared up towards big nights out big There's kind of big euphoric highs and big crashes and they just live for the weekend and they're on that kind of cycle That's not what we're about, you know, I'm not I'm not going out of my way to deliberately send people white water rafting we'll have huge massive exhilaration jumping out of hot air balloons and stuff because You're chasing that buzz within yourself again And what goes up must come down so it's great to have a great experience. They leave me with a fantastic review life It's fantastic. What I don't want them for that person or on a moral Integrals, you know kind of levels. I don't want them to then leave my course have be like, oh my god. It's amazing amazing and then Crash really hard, which is typically what we see What do you want do you want people to come on your course and and really get in touch with themselves? Um, so I want them to learn I want them to learn I want them to open their mind I want to be able to introduce them to and this is a Roger Phillips classic, which I'm busy. I'm constantly back in the books like I never I never take the foot off the pace So all of this stuff here, you know, all the floor and fauna of the UK and the trees I'm a strong believer that we should all be able to recognize 10 basic types of tree in the UK and be able to not only recognize them But understand what they've given us or what they can give us still today. That's that's kind of keeping in touch With the past I'm sat at the top of a wooden table with wooden chairs all the way around me Now these were probably Realistically if there anything like the sort of oak furniture land, it's Polish oak. It's not British oak anymore We quite frankly don't have the tree crop for that and haven't done for many many years So one of the things I teach on my courses is the history of British tree crop right away from sort of Henry eights right the way through to today So when you look at a piece of landscape, what you're looking at there is the result of what will one what will two Politicians doing the easiest and best thing in the 50s and 60s, which was just get it in from the Empire hence on the antiques roadshow we always see Mahogany Iroco drinks chests and things like that and then as we moved into the 70s and 80s 90s There was a real panic on like oh god, we don't have any tree crop We don't have any furniture industry what we're going to do Easiest thing again was plants just pay subsidies to smash in on every available bit of land Scott's pine Douglas fir European Larch wherever possible and so you see These three types of essentially failed tree crop on most little Pockey little slopes and sides of woodland and land couldn't be farmed or wasn't didn't have a sort of monetary worth By today's standards and now the best thing we can do with a lot of these is just maintain Maintain them use them to enhance habitat these bird boxes bat boxes That's kind of thing I specialize in day-to-day Until comes that point where I'm gonna guess in the next between now and the next 10 years that the pine wood block I own on a slope there'll be an almighty storm and they'll go over at the same time because they'll reach the same height The same level of spindleness where they've they've all ripped the nutrients out the ground compete with each other They've all been put in too close I'll have to go through and spend a lot of time and money. But in the meantime, I'm encouraging That understory. So if we think about our four components of woodland shrub herb understory canopy That doesn't just happen broadleaf canopy To come through and take over so when I'm a little all great What's it with mystic and that that pine wood block will be returned to broadleaf? Hopefully So it's about trying to try to do do do Britain a good turn and leave it in a better state that we found it And obviously we can't help what happens in times of war. It was a necessity. We needed duck boarding We needed Forestry had to be cut down furnaces needed to be kept going people needed heat in their homes boilers You know, there was a huge demand But all of those workers straight into the guns Usually typically at that time in history father-to-son lost generations of knowledge lost a lot of the country estates fell to rack and ruin Nobody's managing the woodlands We prioritized those big single straight trees the ones with the sheets of veneer inside, you know And now they get they kind of got left as standards everything else got cleared out I was a sort of quite sort of Victorian model so to be able to take a group of people it could be anyone from any walk of life For them to walk into my woodland cut a little branch off leave having made a spoon, but then be really empowered as to How to sustainably harvest stuff why we cop this the whole history of British woodlands All I should have all tied into one day Wrapped up with the usual mental health song and dance that I weave into the day That's kind of my my sort of my it's not just a spoon carving courses I guess what I'm trying to say you do rule out realize two bootnecks sat here discussing Britain's wild We're never gonna live this down Do you know it's good you say that in fact that's probably important point to touch on do you think like being military you get So indoctrinated into the troop mentality and pigeon-holed by others So to some valley are forever being Nick the Marine Because that's all you mean it's just easier if you're trying to work out if it's friend or foe if someone's new You know you just go right what what's he do? What's he done? What's he about? Okay? Box boxed him off. Yeah, he's Nick the Marine not Nick the ethnobotanist the conservationist the presenter the Resilient speaker that now author that all that gets out the window It's just bomb was a marine once the one chapter of his lifetime So therefore that's it forever more and of course that's not necessarily the pinnacle of my life Doesn't have to be I'm 37 years of age. I've still got a load of stuff in front of me I'm pretty happy with where things are now internally because I've worked on just solely that for like the last eight ten years and I guess When you kind of reach that doesn't mean I still have horrendous bad days Yeah, I definitely still feel things but For the most part Yeah, life life is good because I've chosen to focus on making that my goal as opposed to chasing pots of money or whatever else And the irony inside of that is when you absolutely love love what you do And and it's it's it's an all-encompassing not just a passion It's a lifestyle for you then you get to a degree good at what you do And then you can come on the price and then people recognize that and then the money comes at the end of it Anyway, um, it is what I'm learning. So and almost like the the the less I chase chase it or I'm interested in it the more People kind of recognize Elements of noble intent and that person not just me other people and then they want to give you more to do more And then it just it carries on like that So quite interesting, isn't it? So the proof is always in the pudding expressions like that, you know Get banded around but that's what I've learned so far Um, and there are always going to be people out there who want to tag along on the back end of that Or want to try and replicate what you literally copy word for word what you do, but they're still not you So if you're watching this and you've got an idea and you want to go out and do something Make it happen Still a minority, but but a significant minority are doing that nick, aren't they I call it stepping out the matrix The worm is turning and people are waking up for sure 100 A lot of people are reconditioning school buses and Living in them and you know driving across the usa and rejecting I don't even want to call it tradition. I just think it's all fabric Fabricated to destroy us rhetoric rhetoric, yeah Fear fear must be a big one that people stay in the matrix Uh, well, I mean it's obviously to a degree. You've got to remember that fear sells fear sells So if you can create a fear you drive the market Whichever direction you want it to go But you know an element of that How much of that is actually true in whatever given situation? We're being shown or sold The percentage is all up in there, which is where that obscurity is created And that's what you know that is off that back of that Amygdala hook your survival center in the back of your brain is what keeps you watching the news all the time because There's a I might need to know something that's coming on the news is going to be pertinent to my immediate survival in the next 10 minutes And necessarily actually if you break it down half the time, they'll say This morning at eight o'clock this morning. You're eating your cornflakes a busload of kids went off a mountainside in chili and they're all died Fantastic politicians have lied to you again. There'll be some sort of a classic story on whatever and then they'll say We're at the brink of war And then there'll be a journalist there using the word nuclear as many times as humanly possible Saying does this mean nuclear war? Is this nuclear war? How close is it to nuclear? What is it likely we'll go to nuclear what I'm just like shut up turn the tv off I get to a point where I'm literally done with it personally And a lot of it's all for speculation. It's thought that later today The pit prime minister will announce Okay, what time is the announcement? Eight o'clock it's nine o'clock in the morning. Am I going to stew myself up? stressing and stressing taking that stress on my drive to work imparting that on everyone else in road rage and just That fear that all-encompassing anxiety raising fear is chasing me around for the whole day until eight o'clock But tune in I get the message whatever it is. There's going to be less of this or more of that or whatever I might as well just go okay announcement at eight o'clock done. Don't watch anything else to the end of the day Hear what the man's got to say from the horse's mouth. Okay fine all women. Yeah done That's it The rest of it's all just speculative and it might be it might not what would this mean? What would this mean, you know, and of course everybody's given their 10 pence and For instance the military stuff they'll get loads of old ex-generals who aren't in the mix anymore You know, what does this mean? I get the general to say something and of course he's saying it freely knowing that There's nothing coming back on him It's that sort of thing, isn't it um, but but very rarely do you hear that You know in two towns away Five-year-old girl saved her seven-year-old brother from a house fire There's loads of really good positive stuff that's happened in the world We don't get shown that because that doesn't tick the box that doesn't flick the switch of your your your fear sensor And so if you think about it, it's not your fault your predisposed seek out danger to try and mitigate it Or learn from that to improve your survival. So of course we're fed a narrative It keeps us on the hook But actually if you look at the long-term effects swallowing down this kind of stuff Really negative So one of the things I did about four years ago was just stop watching the news Now I know I say that having appeared in The telegraph dating out things have been happening to me recently and that's exciting And more often than not that has always been a feel-good story So I've been the I've been the the one percent that gets fettled in there for a bit of a feel good But that's probably now I think because people are so many people as you say are switching off are switching off That they're now like, oh, we need we need to get people back How do we get people back because not many people are reading newspapers anymore? Everything's digital And not the digital online stuff. Do you really want to be doom-scrolling? Mate, do you want to see what I got shoehorned into? Or at least the podcast Let's see it. What are we doing? Soldier magazine Have you become that expert that they've brought it to talk about? Well, to be honest, you know for someone who's anti-war and You know, there's a lot I could say about how our military has been deployed this last 20 years, but they um They spoke very highly of the podcast. They basically said it's what we already know folks It's the best best podcast out there But uh, no, it was very kind of them. They talked about the wealth of knowledge that comes up on this podcast They talked about the incredible guests Um, like I'm talking to now Um, they like the format that it's just a chat between oppos nothing, you know, we're not we're not trying to Expose people all trying to get anywhere and they put me at me and lofty on can you believe it? That's awesome. Yeah, I think he's got more copies sold than the bible Yeah, of his uh, sas survival guide It's like you said it's live your dream, isn't it? Did I ever think I'll be sat here being mates With lofty wiseman who was all just our childhood hero. Did you think you'd be here about to go on the mds? Oh the marathon disable is yes. Thank you for mentioning it. That's really kind of you Um Yeah, I should I tell you how I got into it after I ran the length for the country To raise awareness of the veteran suicide problem I started to get this guy contact to me a foreign legionaire And he was a Or a foreign legionaire veteran who now owns a big or what was I think a big company before The last three years wiped all this nonsense, you know the the nonsense of the last three years I should say folks wiped everyone's businesses out But anyway, he said chris We march or die So I said, okay Marshall Chris Yeah He said don't you want to know like where I said well Not really but he says marathon disablers You and me We march or die. I said, yeah, okay You're you are paying for this right because you know, it's it's five grand to get in and then it's 2000 pound for equipment I had no idea. Yeah. Yeah. So I'm seven This this will make sense where I'm going with this nick that I'm seven grand into this now, right? um and anyway, so He said, yeah, do you want to know like, you know something about me and do you want my resume? I'm like, no, just I'll see you at the start line If you're shit, I'll leave you behind On your terms very well done. I'm joking. I'm joking folks, you know, I love buddying up with people But yeah, I'm like no dude if you're gonna pay for me to enter the marathon the sands Uh Yeah, of course, I'll do it with you. Secondly. Do you know it's a three year waiting list? So just out of interest I contacted the race nick and um Spoke to a woman called sarah who runs the kind of English side of things and she said listen, we've got two spaces That that because of all the lockdown people people are just having to drop out Yeah, and I said, right. Oh, I'll take them and so I went back to our our um Our mature and I said, look, I've got us two places And I never heard from him again Oh no By which point I'm locked. I'm locked into this aren't I you know, as someone who loves doing challenges I've managed to get two spaces for what is usually a three year waiting list uh And so I let's just say I I um Someone very kindly gave me the money net because I can't afford that sort of shit, you know um Somebody somebody died and left left me Left somebody some money and they said chris they would have wanted you to have this five grand um, so I've just paid for the equipment and um Yes, it's uh is in about a week's time, mate So friends who are wondering what we're talking about. It's a 250 mile Ultramarathon across the Sahara desert Yeah in morocco carrying all your own self-sustaining equipment And sleeping under like a Bedouin tent each night um, I think 2021 Out of the 1200 people that started I think 80 finished It was an unusually tough tough year but Just just highlighting how tough it can be and how excellent I am and uh No, I know I'm I'm going to be running uh in aid of my friends Uh child and dog rescue center in Tanzania, and I don't I'm not taking a mick when I say that he literally Rescues children uh with learning disability from the witch doctors um You we're going to come on and talk about african it but you know there's some horrible stuff goes can can go on in tribal africa Well, some horrible stuff can go on in Plymouth, but I think I know what you're referring to. Yes I've been around certain areas where certain um practices which are abhorrent Take place uh with beliefs driven behind them which are completely um Completely wrong on every level unscientific Beyond yeah Yes, and he also rescues dogs, which I seem to remember from Mozambique They get a particularly hard time in in um tribal africa um So, uh, yeah, so i'm running and and the chap who runs the charity is called john st. Julian He's an incredibly popular youtuber and I started to watch john about five years ago when I was Doing some gardening And he started to talk about the the scriptures In a way that I'd never heard anybody Uh talk about certainly never heard anyone in church explained to me what what they actually mean not what Not what people think they mean eternity um Yeah, and it sent me on a journey nick that uh, it's been priceless It's Yeah, it's been might even have been a lifesaver for all I know um for someone Someone with my history so so yes That's it. Were you uh, were you ever a speed? What do we call them a speed snake a racing snake? Racing snake. I was a I was a rare breed creature So I was uh a bit more of your troop donkey could yonk forever with everything on would be the gpmg gunner or the light light shing gunner Um, but no, I had that ability to run a bft in uh fastest I ever run it was a sort of 750 something in boots, you know around the camp either at pool or uh up at four five I had that ability to run like a horse um, and Never really struck athleticism was and strength was kind of my my uh my forte for the for the most part of my formative career in the core and then as time went on it all became all about that um using language skills and other interesting stuff took over so uh gesticulation communication without Non-verbal communication and stuff like that so being able to just get dropped in and work with other cultures and places and countries and yeah More more interesting work. Yeah. Okay. What tell me what this means then hang on Yeah run like hell godzilla Hey mate, you're not far off It's um run like there's a bear behind you. Okay. Okay Do as you know is just elbow to the face of the fat america next to you and out out run them That's our brothers and sisters across the pond Uh, I saw that was uh one of our brothers chap called uh scunner Or nicknamed scunner in nor in where we're doing some sign language in norway I think it was or we were we're in a briefing and it's right right what sign language are we going to use Hey I love it. I love it. Yes. So um mate, I just wrote down the the the The the premise of your book or the sections relax and rejuvenate That's really rediscover Yeah, and reconnect. Can you just talk us through what that philosophy is meant meant to mean So when I started the woodland warrior program, I used to say Uh recuperate recalibrate re-engage so people would come to me disengaged Uh, the first thing you need to do is just recoup just spend some time in the environment soaking all that up Get the head into the right mind space to have those all important conversations learn some new skills realize They're a team member. So that's that recalibration phase happening and then Ultimately once they leave the course, they're ready to re-engage with the world and uh and and make a change and I don't know if they need to whatever they need to do go and go on to some other talking services go and get some nlp emdr cpt Go and focus on Doing a job that you don't really want to do for a short period of time with the game plan of getting your car wheels back on the road, which then leads the job you want to do because of Whatever everyone's got sort of an individual recovery pathway and everything is um It's centered around each individual individually centered course Although they're coming together as a group, you know, it's it's focused on each individual and everyone needs something different Right, so that's kind of how that works. So when we move over to the book I've changed the word slightly to relax and rejuvenate which is basically recuperate Uh rediscover so rediscover yourself that recalibration and then reconnect reengaging So i've used that model from the woodland warrior to help kind of break the book down If you look at the chapters here, so part one is all about forest bathing going wild every day That's talking about your 15 minute minimum headspace walk on your lunch break Whatever it is Even in the depths of british winter put your coat on leave the office and walk around the block feel the breeze on your face You know get outdoors Bringing nature into your home. So lots of top tips for Uh any any home, um, I mean i'm very fortunate. I'm looking at a wood burner in this room There's a wood burner in the other room on the shelves. There's quite often those big Corsican pines Pine cones, they look like they've got frosted tops on them. You always see them in the Coffee shop windows around christmas time. They look like they've been dipped in sugar There is driftwood in the downstairs toilet with some shells and some stones from xmouth beach from a nice day out on the harbour Bringing the outdoors indoors. Okay, that's what that kind is about And surrounding the subject to fire candles scented candles incense sticks all that kind of stuff There's a whole heap of stuff you could do to make your house or your apartment smell Like cedarwood sandalwood With those kind of notes and tones which we associate the the kind of old gray matter the dinosaur part your brain Associates with safety serenity being in a big woodland all that kind of good stuff um, so and then so Wild swimming Whole section on that rediscover we're talking about making world cups of tea Getting out sleeping under the moon and stars foraging carving creating actually hands-on bushcrafty type stuff Um how to hold a knife. There's some different techniques for stuff Dips and bits and in part three Very importantly is about reconnecting around the fire and I've I've gone into depths to to write about not just like Not to make a fire. So that's in there and different types of fire for different purposes But how to facilitate those conversations because as I've written in the book And I alluded to the barbecue earlier getting family members I'm using family because nine times out of ten you choose your friends not your family in this life and as we get older People often say nothing separates a family like money or or taxes. It was taxes and death I can't remember what the expression is about that but Um, you know and you see it more and more where families are divided and cousins aren't talking to each other and blood and sister fallen out and parents aren't talking because they're not doing with the money what They envisaged that they were going to do and everybody like ends up a bit fractured and speaking their minds Well, a family barbecue can be the ideal place to kind of rekindle that and it also has the space because it's often outdoors If somebody needs to take a phone call and walk off Save a bit of face instead of being in a confrontation or in a small room environment where somebody Storms off and knocks over the chair and walks out and that's it. We're not talking for another two months It's that whole kind of thing, right? So reconnecting around the fire how to have those conversations Uh, and it's kind of focusing on on the the secret source the ecu the soft skills um So it's not just about why it's good to be outdoors and The chemical compounds released by trees Fightersides, you know what they do for our immune system immune boosting. You're looking at someone that just doesn't get ill That wasn't Very very very rarely. You're gonna see me with a snotty nose and I'm outdoors Hands in the muck manure all source all day every single day and those biomes You know, my body's biologically designed if my immune system's at top form Okay, and I've not got loads of load and stress on my cns I can fight off just about everything The only when you suddenly go into town where millions of people are living on top of each other in a concrete jungle When you touch a handrail that you get some horrendous disease that no one's ever seen before And then you can get quite poorly then Um, I digress so you've got then you got your final thoughts a bit more about the author further reading and acknowledgment So it's not massive book. You know, it's uh, how many pages did I put the missing to? 214 the pages Fairly big sort of size decent text You're not going to be like trying to read it and I opted for the Hardback because I think that's quite a good classy thing and we found a lovely lovely Illustrator to to help us with bring this to life And I wanted some elements from here in the valley so the two valley lake and You've got both pine and broadleaf in the picture here and somebody who's about to go on a journey So this was this was all kind of very much thought of and then obviously at the top of the title rewild your mind I'm not sure I could have done A collaboratively with it with well back much more of a job to really try to And if you look really carefully you'll even see a heron down here Um, and I don't know if you believe in this sort of thing but the heron is the guardian is the guardian is the vessel between two between two like transition represents transition and change and um It wasn't the guardian for my Monan's goldfish It bloody ate them Yes, I think that heron thought he was on to an easy meal just uh, they are straight up savage if you've got a koi carp pond And they put that netting over the top praying that that'll foul it but the beak is like this long Just punches through The incredible incredible birds own it when you see them in in a nature they I like heron Uh, nut hatch Any kind any kind of woodpecker is always amazing Amazing to see we got peregrine falcons not not far from me Yeah, yeah, they are making a real comeback. There are some on the edge of Bristol in up in some of the buildings There's um, they really are coming back. It's fantastic to see Yeah right So a couple of things so What's your thoughts on uh bushcraft knives and what if if someone wanted to invest in one as a sort of A special thing to kick off their bushcraft career um, what would you recommend? Personally having been right around the houses now to the point to the point where hang on Let me see what's in my pocket. Let me see what my everyday carry is So one more set of keys There's a good old classic officers, uh, victorian ox Um, they're nice Three inches unlockable in my pocket. There's a little victorian ox case. This is what I tend to carry every day there's a lighter And I think this model is called the walker because it's got a little pruning saw on there And a main blade and and and maybe something for opening bottles not much more So it's ideal for when you're out walking and whatnot This is where it comes down to um How personalized do you want to go because you can get knives that are individually serialized that have got all sorts of You can choose the colors of the liners that go between the steel if it's a full plate You can choose iron roco iron woods carbon fiber my carter all kinds of rosewood silver birch Yeah Every steel under the sun it just goes on right or You could also get a little knife that last you your whole life as long as you're not What's it with it and you can pass it down to yourself irrespective of that for about 40 quid which will do Any environment on the planet? And we'll we'll get we'll see you through and so what i'm talking about there are your sort of mid-range It let's let's take the models Let's take the swedish model mora mora knives right been reinvented And remember that the knife has been reinvented more times than any other tool since it was just a piece of polished Greenstone handaxe. It's been reinvented so There are some fantastic steels out there now I went on a personal journey a couple of years ago to create a knife that journey's come to an end It was amazing a prototype. We we field tested we developed We found this steel called nylox plus. It's now shipping and fishing industry steel in all of the scotland It outperforms stainless by 400 percent. It's got vandium and loads of like like hardening All the all the good bits of a high carbon blade with All the best bits and better of a stainless blade. Why would you not make it out of that quite frankly? That's now hitting the markets. Lots of people are following that trend It's a pig to work with because um any blacksmiths on here will know you've got like When you're going through the hardening process, you've got to wrap it up in like foil and it's got all these extra things that go with it um But in terms of a no-nonsense never need to wipe it like wipe it over once in a blue moon It you could just leave it in a bucket of seawater. Nothing's going to happen to it. It's absolutely bombers You sell them Nick Are you stupid used to yeah, uh, we sold 23 they were all individually serialized So that's the sort of thing i'm on about that's your really really high end highest end knife you could possibly get Uh, I can't get it for less than 350 and it comes in its box and all the rest of it So by the time I need to mark up my price sell it to the to the uh, whoever it is It's got to go postage packaging. I'm barely turning 100 quid But i'm putting turnover on my business of nearly 500 quid these things are 475 So i'm putting all this turnover on Um, and i'm not actually making a very good percentage out of that. So it was more a passion project Um, and i'm very proud and so in circulation there are people that have these knives But that journey's now come to an end So i'm leaving that for now. I am about to have some very serious talks with a couple of uh companies Uh coming months. I can't say too much about branding and hitmally bushcraft and some other stuff, which is exciting Um, but a number of things on my little journey have come to an end. So hidden valley bushcraft youtube channel That's done. I stepped away from that Uh, I took that time out to focus on growing myself into the resilient speaking and all the other bits and pieces Get this done get this out Which has happened Um, and now i've returned to youtube. I've got a teeny tiny little page Um, it's nothing it's not i'm not i'm not going at it hammer and tongs. I'm not filming every single week Spending tons of fuel through the landy and buying kit and equipment gear reviews coming out my ears What I am doing is uh putting on all of the knowledge that I've accrued behind the scenes all the shorts showing my Uh off-grid homestead that we have here how i'm collecting tons of water off the roof Making sure that that's filtered using that all the kind of I guess behind the scenes sort of knowledgeable stuff. Um, and then there's going to be a handful of like high-end videos that go on there about 20 minutes long max showing uh, either the sort of things that i'm talking about when i'm resilient speaking or trips to South africa, lisuto into really really remote little locations. Um, one I did a couple years back Um working with some orphans out there on a humanitarian project Where british armed forces veterans were going out there I was there in sort of a staff capacity to help oversee them Making a big turnaround to that area and we're talking about a place Which is four hours by land cruiser through the mountains from the nearest town So the nearest hospital nearest anything is four hours away through the mountains On a immaculately built chinese road and where the chinese road stops You've then got a dirt track and they're a bit further up. They've got a handful of little buildings It's at altitude For those who don't know lisuto is like a little uh, it it sits in the pocket of south africa, but it's not south africa. It's its own principality It's well known for having diamond mines and other interesting points of interest on the mineral side of things. Um, but the reason we were there Working on behalf of a charity was to give back To prove to ourselves as british veterans that our skill sets are still viable We can work as a team and we are can do resilient people. So we were out there for about three weeks building guttering Clearing out an old creepy old hospital. It was like something out of a horror movie That area had been struck really hard by hiv Um to get a hares on a back of my neck going up thinking about it. There was a morgue You could see in the morgue. They were stacking people 10 high in this giant refrigerated morgue And they'd had to buy in external units and They had to buy in extra units there the chapel of rest was still as it was with a table With a big drain going out the back in the concrete proper creepy very religious people lots of uh christian writing all over the walls of the hospital lots of Psalms and extracts from the bible Uh, I mean just just think about sort of one of those computer games or horror movies with the zombies and you're walking through There's no lights on and in every room. There's just x-ray machines just left in status nothing happening with them So we were dragging these massive lumps of cast iron out dragging them all out into the uh The sort of foyer area and then out to the top of the hospital All the ceiling was coming down anyway, so we were there with masks on and whatever we could I had my hood and my coat on I was trying to to take down hundreds of years of Skin cells and all sorts of stuff coming out from in there Removing all the urinals the bath all the stuff proper nasty gritty Hard work Um to create a light airy skills college where these young shepherd boys who in their culture Women uh, the young ladies are given an education and go to work And the boys as young as six sent off to become shepherd boys in the hills So no reading no writing. They're incredibly intelligent. They're incredibly quick to learn They don't spend all day long going to Siri. How do I so they have to figure it out? So if you show them something once they've got it And so the video I recently put up on this new youtube channel is uh, it's uh, if you type in just nick goldsmith Rewild your mind it should come up with the channel Maybe or maybe not the algorithm doesn't even know I exist at 600 subscribers So you'll have to look for it But if you find it, I'm just gonna stop you there and say that you don't have to be humble mate. Well, it's It's early day bushcraft bushcraft channels do incredibly well Well, hopefully hopefully gets picked up eventually and also a bushcraft channel hosted by a by a former commando is That's a good recipe for for a successful youtube channel mate Well, we'll we'll see what happens. I mean, it's a very busy, uh platform There's a lot of noise on there. There's a lot more New people out there right now. So I'm just happy to be contributing good quality content That's hopefully going to teach people um The big takeaway from this this little video that you'll see Uh, the recent one is that I could not find a single person to teach me and I was really excited about learning Um the secrets of hand drill out there or maybe fire plow or you know fire thong like something else that that maybe I don't Specialise in because I tend to always lean towards being in the climate. We're in Uh using the mechanical advantage of a bow bow drill method seems to be the best one to work for me I have the most experience. I'm most comfortable teaching although I can do the others It's epic sometimes in different environments. So I'm really excited. I asked the lads I say, can you you know the interpreter When you tell me about making fire? Do they know have they been shown? And out came the answer matches matches and they've got these little chinese books of matches And they've just been completely reliable matches. So I said go find me the oldest person in this village and this little old lady turned up with no tea And uh, same question was asked matches. I was like, ah So we reverse engineered it. We found uh, I recognize what looked like a willow down by the river Um, and I wanted to teach them anyway because they were they were jumping up and down and ripping all the branches off In this in the winter months to take the branches off to burn to keep warm About sustainably harvesting so they get more branches, etc Rather than just putting the tree into um into into some sort of state of shock and then it dies It's not exactly a lot of trees around there as it is Any woodland are owned by the government and they don't have rights to access them And so the other wood I managed to harvest for them were all of the there was apples And what looked like some sort of an apricot tree with a very dark dark dark bark And that's probably how it's reacted to dealing with the african sun And I had a Nordic pocket chainsaw and I was doing all the chainsaw work around the outside of these trees That were growing into the hospital roof So they had we had some firewood to play with I used the willow I made a fire by friction set as you'll see in the video I've done the voiceover and showed them how to do it Here I decided to go for it I made myself a full set for fire by friction using the bow drill method And attempted to make a fire in front of them I gave up one of my shoelaces made a bow a drill A half board and a bearing block Watch as we create heat embers and eventually fire Found some sort of a bush that was very similar to gauze. It looked like gauze It was like a tumbleweed you see rolling around everywhere It obviously had some strong volatile oils running through it because when it does go I mean, I've burned holes in my shirt. Um, because I knew there was a camera crew on me I was I was like just just that you know at all like it'd be fine, but I'm probably on fire Um, and I was buzzing because I've never done it before it was all shot in one take It's as real as it gets I've not Had time to prepare the camera crew were rolling around the site talking to different people and capturing One of the veterans was doing a load of plumbing work reconnecting all the plumbing and stuff is all push fit out there Um, because the well used to run dry almost almost daily towards the end of the day There'd be not much water left for everyone Uh, because we're at altitude and we're adding strain to that So our team were out there drinking six liters of water a day that makes the difference sometimes on on a finely balanced system Um electricity the generator used to cut out and so you'd only have power till like eight o'clock at night or ten of it would die Uh, so it was a it was a real thing and the camera crew were going around filming all the different Sections that the veterans were doing so one of the guys there was a carpenter I was teaching these boys how to make tables and bits and pieces from the available timber Some of which was repurposed. Um, you know those military benches with the fold out legs with the three They look like death traps Well, they were weren't they you sit on them and you either fly back or the legs would fold in or yeah So they had some of those in the hospital We used some of the broken ones to make shuttering to then knock up concrete by hand to make a plinth For a huge water plastic water bowser to come once we'd finished reconnecting all the guttering To catch water on the roof so that they have more water like additional grey water for washing in and things like that And typical example so the camera crew will be up there Suddenly they appear at my bit and i'm teaching them how to use a knife and how to use a knife and a saw how to be safe because The responsibility it dawned on me if i'm going to show These chaps how to do this And some of them are really young Once i'm gone Four hours to the nearest hospital. What are you going to do if you end up with a catastrophic bleed? So that's serious or if you end up very poorly So um so there was that Did you see any um? Did you see any puff adders? While you were there didn't see any puff adders. I saw a sh1t load of wild dogs and at nighttime when I was in my So I chose to sleep outside the accommodation accommodation was tiny and we were all crammed in so I took one of the adventure tents And I set it up outside and there was a row of stones So I made a fire pit and I I lit a fire every night and I sat out there and I think there's one little bit of footage I've got which I'll try and get in the next video where I'm talking about my leaving thoughts before I left and how it's affected me that that trip and you see fire pit and I'm walking I'm like I'm walking back to the penthouse. It's just a green vango tent But I was counting the dogs going around against the flames. You could see the silhouettes of the dogs at night time walking past Uh, so yeah, I slept with my knife in my boots by my head inside the sleeping bag But I didn't get you know, I didn't get bothered by them. They were all right they're um The people that haven't got what we would call a lot. They're remarkably happy aren't they and they're marking be resilient Incredible incredible story resilience. I mean age six years old Our altitude sent out in the mountains, which are cold at night and you've got to keep a herd of 40 sheep alive You've got to stop other shepherd boys from pinching your sheep and Rear them get them all ready to go to go to market pick up another lot do it again pretty brutal by our standards a brutal existence But that's what they know. So they all they have a like an interesting dress code where they wear wellington boots A massive woolen overcoat That they like they have different ways of pinning it a bit like a spartan sort of cloak And a full face balaclava. So it's a hat by day and it's a full face balaclava by night You've got a visitor Yeah, I'm just looking at the map map here now and um, are they Do they carry sling shots and have they got like lions to contend with? Why they call it that they have a stick a big Stick that's wrapped with like copper or lead or and they do stick the stick fighting Have you ever seen that african stick fighting? Savage and so every shepherd boy has a they have like, um, it was we did ask them about it And they were so secretive. They have their version of like a joining run And it's it's a secretive initiation to become a Shepherd boy and then you get given your stick and and your cloak and you know, and that's it. You're in the gang then And so we were teaching them english and maths Admittedly, I'm not fantastic at maths And I was not surprised to learn that they were asking me questions and I was like, uh, I think he's on about long division um someone else Wanted me to show them how to set out the long division. So I'm like when was the last time I wrote down long division Moons ago But everything else by day I I do my sort of brand of survival-y stuff with them and foraging or whatever else and and then I jump back into the matrix of working like A machine In the african sun and then they'd hand over to one of the other guys would do carpentry One of the other guys would show them how all the connections go From the tap to get to wherever and how you can build pressure for using different sized pipe and you know all that kind of stuff Very clever. I loved it. Um I did promise louise I wouldn't go on any other hair brained adventures any other gallivanting until fin was at school Finn is going to school in september people So hence I am now just starting by the time this has gone out getting ready to leap into appearing in other bits and pieces So it's exciting But I've I've stuck to my word. I've not gone anywhere for fin was three months old when I did that trip and he's now really full So I've been UK based since then Nick the last thing I wanted to ask you about um is Wild swimming has become incredibly popular hasn't it anything to do with cold water It has it has imagine The whole chapter on that. Hang on a minute. I mean we're through see I'm trying to remind myself so that I don't say something that's not in the book But it should be in the book There are it has become so popular and there are Such a number of things to consider I guess. I mean you you do a lot of swimming. I know you do so Do you swim alone? um Yeah, I'm a bit of a I'm one of these people do what I say don't do what I do Right, okay. No, um, um, um, well the pictures of me swimming in the river chew on myself but on my own Uh, I'm taking we're all taking a risk right when we do that. Just go with someone else. It's just easier there is a Percentage chance That your heart might stop and not start again when you immerse yourself in cold water But There are breathing techniques There are a number of things you can do to prepare your body physiologically for getting into water But there's also a number of other sneaky hidden dangers and I think i've written So my swimming advice so on every page you've got like this gray section Which gives you your breakdowns and then at the end you'll have like a recap So your rewilding reminder at the end of every chapter. There's a rewilding reminder So the rewilding reminder here is that if you want to feel alive spend a few minutes in cold wild water It will instantly change your mood. You'll get out the river see your lake feeling incredible You'll feel exhilarated energized freer and lighter, which I think is kind of how I feel when I get out of wild water I just feel like a yeah Beware of britain's most poisonous plant. I never see this being talked about enough. So hemlock water drop water There's a picture of it there It's a very benign looking plant with a parsley like leaf with a celery type stem Umbrella for us head. Um, think of the word umbella for umbrella Uh carols parsley is the first one that always comes to mind white umbella for us head, right that stuff is so Bad for you. It's not funny. It's got about nine different types of alkaloid in there Which your body's renal system does not recognize does not have an answer for there is no cure for And it's uh, it's not a way good way to go Start to finish could be as little as three hours if it's ingested or if it goes in through a cut through the sap in your eye There's a number of ways of of in you know interact with this stuff and I have seen people firsthand here in the valley Desperate to do some wild swimming Especially through lockdown they appeared in their thousands Throwing beach towels over it crossing it all down and that sat going into their towels and probably wondering why they get home While they're burning or we're talking about something in the same family as the giant hogweed Um also in the same families things that we can eat parsley Sweet sissli angelica the parsnip the carrot. It's all in that carrot family, right? But then there's also some big nasties in there The biggest thing about this Uh hemlock water drop wart is that it's in almost all our ditches and waterways You're not going to get rid of it. It is it is there to stay We've lived alongside it for a number of years But now what's happening is more and more of us are interacting in in wild spaces In little corners and crooks and bits and places anywhere where you've got enough to just cover yourself with water You'll find someone in it nowadays wild swimming or You know cold water immersion And so the the percentage likelihood of you running into this stuff has now gone up much higher Which is why I've highlighted it. I'm not Hoopooing wild swimming. I'm not trying to say don't wild swim because this you know, you're all going to die I'm saying that there is a likelihood that you may Be using it the swathes of it to get up out of the river And you don't know what you're pulling pulling off in your hands You've only got lick your hands or get like say rub your eye or something And you're in a bad way learn to recognize your flora and fauna in your immediate space Um go and be happy and safe. Enjoy wild swimming while you can get out there There's lots of wild swimming groups. There's quarries opening up all over the place who are having like approved You couldn't you can pay to spend a certain amount of time there if you want to go down that sort of approved route There are tons of little Pockets in our our waterways Um, but just always in the back of your mind be mindful of that That's one whole argument You then got the fisherman there are fishermen watching this channel right now going I need not talking about the damage to the gravel beds and the trout can't spawn because everyone's stepping all over it Well, that's also got to be thought about right so there's a balance to these things It's okay. You go wild swimming But if you and 50 other people or your wild swimming spot gets put up on a dog walker's uk wild swimming spot uk website That site is about to get descended upon especially on a hot summer's day And of course that changes your river ecology that changes your your consummation piece least of all Do you know your ph levels in your water? So because of the farming model that we've had here in the valley for quite a long time When the when the water was last recorded in the river too. It was 10 times the amounts of nitrates that there should be And remember that you're going to absorb Potentially 10 times the nitrogen that you should be so if you end up with a skin irritation or something going on We've all got to share this wonderful space called nature. So we've all got to just be that little bit more savvy about what we're doing So i'll leave you with that parting thought Hopefully that's a balance Yeah, I mean you're saying what you've got to say but it's um I'm all for it. I'm all for it. It's Yeah The same with the wild wild camping, isn't it mate like one or two people go and have a little wild camping experience amazing 30 000 people descend over the course of 365 days in the same area That is going to start to leave a mark. It's going to start to show it's going to start to degrade And damage the environment that we're in So, yeah Yes to the other side of the coin. We're in such a Controlled nanny state that you you can't even take your kid out legally and make a fire Yeah, I would just you know, I wouldn't say this folks because i'm a podcast host But i'm sure my mate steve would tell everyone to ignore that So long as it's not so long as you exercise steve would recommend like exercising caution You don't want to you know, you don't want to set fire to the peat Um, and you don't you don't eat and cold deposits any land where coal has been mined previously If one of our areas 12 inches under the soil, there is a coal seam running through So I cannot I cannot have a fire on there whatsoever You set fire to a coal seam Three weeks later your 13th century church on the other side of the village drops into a massive Yeah, there you go and also during the summer you've got to be incredibly obviously when everything's tinned to dry but Yeah, yeah, it's um There there are risks that but there's risks to everything and we're now just It's not just risk adverse. I think these Measures are put in place just to turn people into sissies risk aware not risk adverse That's the model we're doing with with fin with parenting. That's why he's having a tree house That i'm building right now and he's climbing all over it. I haven't even got the deck down But he's you know, his dexterity is there. He's coming through. He might have a bump I'm on hand But uh, what i'm not doing is going. Oh, don't touch that. Oh, don't do this. Oh god Because he's it was he ever gonna how was he ever gonna navigate this thing called life Nick, do you swim all year round? I do. Yeah, I got dragged out with uh, another great veteran Simon Harmer, he's got a youtube channel called the amputee swimmer Simon was was was um, most unfortunately lost both his legs in the conflict in afghanistan having served all around the world From the congo to all sorts army by ethalon He was a quite the athlete at the time Um, and he has found himself again Feeling free feeling no, you know No further above or below anyone else once he's in the water It's in his in his own mind and he absolutely loves wild swimming and the man is basically part human part seal We went down to the river chew and it was not warm. My hands were going down. I was like, mate. I've got to get out And he's like, yeah fine. It's on his back He can be in the water for like 40 minutes at a time I'm also wading in doing the breathing stuff and get ready to get my head, you know get straight into it He sort of obviously once he's taking his legs off kind of shuffles himself up to the bank and it throws himself straight in and Wana It's pretty impressive. I've swam Leave them as well the marine lake up there uh in in bristol and again Just a phenomenal individual um and a real inspiration for me because I was like, uh, if he can do it, I can do it So getting out all year round Buy yourself a decent I don't want to name a company but a big overthrow Rope thing you can put on afterwards. There's lots of companies doing them out there Some of them are way more expensive than others and when you actually look at what they're made of It's the same thing. So yeah, go go find yourself a decent little routine To get nice and dry and warm afterwards while you're having that exhilaration that lighter feeling going on Because I can tell you taking an old dog towel down to the river chew Stucks you're like that you're like And i'm looking over him and he's got this massive rope on and he's like, what's up with you? And i'm like, so i'm freezing So yeah, I learned some lessons from him. Yes Yes, it's interesting. I um I was in cold water for Must have been the best part of 10 minutes this morning, which is that's good. That's the most the most i've done but Yeah, the thing is I will hold my hand and say, you know, I was in the sauna for three quarters of an hour Friends at home if you're gonna do running in the sauna Make sure you got someone sat outside Checking up on you in case you have a wobble Make sure you check with your gp first not really necessary to do unless I'm doing it because of the marathon in the in the desert next week um But after three quarters an hour of well, I was doing step-up snick, which just felt just the same after three quarters an hour felt just just as the Knackering is running and and then it was You know, then I'm okay to get in the plunge pool and I like I said just sat in there for 10 minutes, which is unusual for me because I usually like in the winter Especially when it's you have to break the ice on it. I mean I'll go I always go straight under And then I might I might do 30 seconds down and right sod that for a game of soldiers. It's too hard Honestly, but that is strong. I've got plates and screws in my face Hold them There's a story for another day, but I've been a bit of a bully in my life And along with the cauliflower missing teeth, etc. But the cold does not do me any everywhere. I've broken a bone It starts to feel it I definitely start but there's some people out there that just swim all year round in in just a bathing suit yeah, and I mean even if I went I mean I've thrown myself it down here in the sea in in February when it's bitter, right bitter Yeah, but like I say, I'm in I might swim five or six strokes under water And then I'm out again Nick. I'm out. Oh, yeah You've got what you've got what you needed. You've reset that whole body system. You've got that brown fat activated You've got all that goodness all the heart rates gone through the roof It's the elation is happening the endorphins are released all that good stuff is happening for the body You don't need to spend half an hour in there and give yourself a cold weather injury No, but some people do though, and I'm I think they're carrying a bit more timber than me. Can we say like tim crossing the cold dip commando? Yeah, watch watch up. I've been following his journey. Yeah, nice bloke. He's overcome a lot to be doing You know, he's still not very well, Nick. Um, yeah, bless him. He's uh, you know remission or whatever you call it or recovery Yeah, um Mission it takes Anything is how long are you in remission for it takes years and they've got to go for the checkups and they end up living the fear you end up living between Just sort of like all right Or mum was and then it builds and builds and builds and builds and builds and then it's she's really difficult to be with Sometimes and then then she has another okay, right? We're okay Then all the pressure's gone. You know, she's fine again And it builds to the next scan. Yeah Ah This is this is this is why I talk about this almost like literally every every day Okay, learn ph folks Don't put yourself in that position in the first place, you know burgers are lovely. I I like a good burger I like steak and I don't eat it every day Like vegetables, you know, and then I run a thousand miles non-stop. So I must be doing doing something, right? You know Yeah Nick look It's been an absolute pleasure It's nice just to bounce stuff off each other because I've I've always got a million questions in this area I hope I've asked you everything that our Our friends at home would have wanted me to we could have gone up. We could go on for another hour, but Yeah, but people just don't have time to watch Long-form podcasts anymore and that's true. That's true. I don't know where we're at You're under now Yeah, but listen, we're gonna put a link for rewild your mind below the podcast folks to grab yourself a copy I'm really looking forward to my copy turning up any any day any day now I I can tell you now. I've got 50 books on my shelf that I've been sent to chris We There we go. There we go But that is one that I really do look forward to reading because I I consider that part of my personal journey Nick, so thank you ever so much for what you've done for me and what what you're doing for For everybody else. It's like life's a spiral You're either putting out a good energy and taking everybody in the planet up with you or or yeah, just Yeah, you know, I mean, it's really The people the people that have taken the time to like bung me a fiver for what I'm doing next week It's like there Or or share a post if they haven't got a five just share one of my posts or tag a mate in it like They're taking humanity up, but at the same time you've got you've got this kind of Way of being now of just sitting surf in the internet Look at that now, and I'm gonna support that right. What's me next? What's my next? You know in in dolphin kick. Oh, it's monkey riding a pig. Yeah, I watched You know I'll watch that I won't even give the channel a like or leave a nice comment No, because I'm you know and we can all learn from you, Nick You know and we can all do a lot better and we can I'm only human I don't confess who have ever had been the greatest best human being there ever was Royal Marines are just human I am now working on being a better version and yeah, hopefully like as you say the forwards together I say I keep saying forwards together to people because We're all in this together on me We are mate. We are we are Nick much much love to you and yours I can't wait to our next chat all the best with a book link below folks Massive love to you all too if you can like and subscribe would really appreciate it Click the notification bell and and I'll can't wait to see you again soon Right all the best with the MDS mate Yes, by then but take care. All right. Good Nick go steady I'm going to go out of this because I'm straight into another one, but thank you ever so much, mate Take care, mate. Bye. Bye. Cheers