Bouncing Back with James Middleton

Over the past several years, our attention to sleep and its importance to our overall health has become much more mainstream. This is great. Yet there are still so many of us who struggle to either fall asleep or stay asleep throughout the night. Ensuring your evening routine is setting you up for a great sleep can be fundamental in improving the duration and quality of it. Many of us aren't doing the right things, but I run through some of the best actions you can take today which will improve your sleep considerably.

We are often so focused on developing new habits when it comes to achieving progress in life, whatever our goals may be, that we often forget about eliminating the bad habits. Doing this can actually be just as beneficial and quite often, bad habits are the real things that are holding us back to becoming better people. Here I discuss 7 of the most common bad habits I believe to be holding us back and how we can remove them from our lives.

Being healthy has become so complicated in today's world and to be quite honest I'm tired of it (as you might be too). It's confusing and demoralising, but in reality it really doesn't need to be this way. The answer to living a healthier, more fulfilled life is going back to basics. The fitness world doesn't make money off "basics" though but I'm here to tell you some of the easiest and naturally available things you implement in your life today that will make you healthier than most people.

Season 2 is here! And it begins with my journey over the past year which has led me on a path of discovering how we can lead healthier lives whilst navigating the toxicities of modern living. I scratch beneath the surface to see how we can all benefit from going back to basics whilst becoming more aware of what's around us in order to truly maximise living every day.

Cold water therapy has suddenly become the new health craze...why you may be wondering? Because what it does to you is quite something, and I'm fully on board with it. I'm currently in a pretty militant routine but have never felt happier and cold exposure is a part of that routine, every single morning. I discuss how I got into cold water therapy, the best way of starting, the unbelievable physical and mental benefits around it and a few other top tips worth knowing before you turn that shower cold or dive into an ice bath.

"Alcohol is the only drug you have to justify not using"...having spent the large part of the last 14 years drinking alcohol, 6 months ago I decided to become sober curious and significantly cut down the amount of alcohol I consumed, to now hardly any. Today I feel the best I have ever felt in my life for it. I take you through my relationship with alcohol growing up as a high level rugby player and the pressures of drinking working in the city in my mid 20s. I discuss the physiological effects that drinking alcohol has on the brain and body and run through the pros vs the cons of drinking. The aim of this episode is to encourage people to make informed decisions about their alcohol consumption in order to benefit their physical and mental health, and to open people's eyes up to becoming more sober curious.

Social media is everywhere. You can't escape it. It's how we connect with people, follow our idols, retrieve information, stalk our ex's and show off the best bits of our own lives. But is it becoming all consuming? Is it taking away from our own reality? Are we living vicariously through others without even realising? Should we be using it more intentionally? How can we use it more intentionally? What are the positives? Listen in and explore the depths of it all with me in this episode.

The world of pornography is huge and it's more readily available than ever. But do you know the implications it can have on you in a number of different ways? I discuss how watching porn can impact our mood, sex life and relationships and how it can be detrimental on the developing brain. I also discuss what good sex is and isn't, and how it can be influenced by porn. Strap in for this one, it's a good'un.

When someone asks "What is happiness?" I don't believe there is a single definition. It's different for everyone. But I do believe there are methods we can apply and definitions we can explore to open up our minds as to what happiness is and isn't. I take a look at some key components of happiness: what being in a flow state is, having inner peace, why being fully present is fundamental and also why things are only perfect or imperfect based on what we desire.

I am a firm believer that we are most happiest when we are our true selves. Living on our own terms, doing things we want to do not because someone else says we should and being true to ourselves. I explore why self-acceptance is a crucial component of achieving this. I discuss why embracing death can be liberating and give our life meaning and I finish with why prioritising your physical health creates so many opportunities in other areas of life, including that of which is being yourself.

A huge part of feeling comfortable with yourself and not relying on external factors for your own self-worth is the love you show yourself without anyone else around. I delve into why self-love is so important and some of the things we can do to grow it. I also discuss how it links into codependency, what that is and how to identify if you are codependent or not and solutions to resolving it if you are.

In this episode I discuss decision making, what decision fatigue is and how it affects us and how we can manage making better decisions in our life. I talk through how it impacts our impulse control and why it leads to procrastinating and how we can prevent this. I finish by addressing the importance of structure, routine and habits in our life to allow for better decision making and what cognitive ease is and how it influences us on a daily basis.

I discuss some of the key ways and reasons why I believe so many people fall short in their own personal development. From factors such as thinking about things for too long rather than doing, to asking for too many people's opinions, to blaming everything and everyone around you to being scared of failure.

I look into some of the best methods which I have found to be proven useful when it comes to dealing with anxiety, based on personal experience and from my own research that I have done. I also discuss how things like alcohol, caffeine and social media can be anxiety inducing and why simple things like getting enough sleep and fresh air can help alleviate feelings of anxiousness.

There are so many things to consider when finding true love and knowing what to look for and what not to look for. What makes a good relationship? Does this change as we grow older? Is the right timing more important than finding the right person? Is arguing a key part of growing a relationship? Are openness and honesty fundamental for a relationship to last? I explore all of these topics and more...

The top 10 things I believe you need to know when it comes to fitness. I reveal some of the key truths within the fitness industry and expose some of the nonsense that gets seen and heard on a daily basis.

What is self-confidence? Is it something we can develop or is it inherent? If we can develop it, how so? And why is it so important? All of these questions I address in this episode alongside why building resilience plays a key role in self-confidence too. I finish by looking at 4 key psychological assets that I believe resilient people have and how we can apply them to our own lives.

In this this episode I discuss the dos and the donts of dating, dating apps, how long you should wait until having sex, red flags, game playing and why you can never lose out if you're always yourself.

Some of the most valuable lessons I have learnt so far in my life, career, relationships and as a coach which I hope prove valuable and applicable to you and your own life.

In this episode I explore some of the ways in which we can harness that inner voice and use it to our advantage, why what we repeat to ourself really matters, becoming the person we want to become and why removing any thorns attached to us can free up our life.

In a world as complex as ours, the term "success" is often overly generalised with no middle ground or alternative. In this episode I speak about some of the wider values and degrees of the word and explore some of the many games in which we can potentially "succeed" at.

In this episode I discuss the power of action, why intention is nothing without it, handling boredom, alive time vs dead time and why the biggest poison in us is regret.

I talk about the benefits of being single and why it can be really valuable to finding the right person for you. I also discuss relationships, attachment and some of the things necessary to build a good relationship. This episode finishes with the topic of sex – the benefits, its importance but also things to be mindful of around it.

Everything we do in life is about priorities. Fixing them to not only benefit us but also serve us well is easier said than done however. In this episode I explore the real impact our priorities have and how the choices we make affect our life more than you may ever know.

This episode isn't some wishy-washy bullshit trying to answer this question. Instead, I take you through my own thoughts on some fundamentals that I believe contribute to having a meaningful life, from practising gratitude all the way to trying to care less about things that happen to us.

I discuss why understanding our ego and how to use it effectively can be so beneficial. I also delve into the power of being open and vulnerable and why, in particular men, need to embrace it more.

On this episode I discuss why the journey is far more important than the destination. I also tap into the benefits of having a growth mindset, focusing on building good systems and what you want vs who you become.

In this episode I talk about why challenges, discomfort, self-discipline and doing the hard things are so important for our personal growth.

An introduction to the podcast: I talk about my journey so far from downing pints of beer naked at university to becoming a global fitness coach running a successful business and why I've started this podcast.