Welcoming a Celebrity Guest Speaker to Support Mental Wellbeing

Bauder understands that everyone faces difficult moments in their personal lives that require finding inner strength to overcome challenges faced and so our team of Mental Health First Aiders organised for celebrity guest and former special forces operative, Ollie Ollerton known to many from the television series SAS Who Dares Wins, to speak to the Bauder team about his own mental health breaking points and the lessons he learnt on his journey through life.

On the 6^th of September 2023, Ollie Ollerton, former operative in the Special Boat Service (SBS), the elite maritime counter-terrorism unit of the British Royal Navy, television personality and founder of BreakPoint visited the Bauder HQ in Ipswich to discuss the lessons he learnt through life and the tactics he employed to survive through his own phases of mental ill-health. This was also live streamed and recorded to involve all external and remote workers across the UK and Ireland.

Ollie’s incredible journey features, counterterrorism and humanitarian heroics, as well as solitary soul searching to find the inner strength to rebuild his life. He began his talk by explaining what drove him to join the Special Forces and addressed the imposter syndrome he experienced during the selection process, and how he borrowed his confidence from others. The driving force on being successful through the enduring and rigorous selection process, was by refusing to focus on the enormity of the overarching goal and engage a “Just do today” mindset so that each daily achievement was a manageable step that drew the goal closer.

Ollie then shared, after leaving the SBS, his inclusion in and success of a humanitarian campaign that involved saving Asian children from being trafficked and sold, and the mental impact that resulted from this.

“Hitting rock bottom is when I finally accepted how far I had fallen. I no longer blamed the external world for my failures. I surrendered to the responsibility of how I was and where I was. It was only when I was forced to look within, that I realised the answers were hidden within me all along.” – Ollie Ollerton.

During Ollie’s period of low mental health, he shared how he focused on three things: Mind, Body and Nutrition to work through his challenges. Incorporating daily disciplines including meditation and positive podcasts to reach a visualisation of what he wanted his life to ‘look like’. He knew that he wanted to help others, but before doing so, he had to help himself first.

Ollie launched BreakPoint, a globally recognised brand for the positive development growth of others. He explained how our minds are programmed for survival over success, as our subconscious is to be negative, our brains are constantly scanning for threats. Safety comes with familiarity and repetition. BreakPoint focuses on comfort ending for change to begin. Embracing and accepting discomfort to take you somewhere else.

Across Bauder, we amass a huge and personal thank you to Ollie for his impactful, uplifting and heartfelt speech to the entire team, and to our Mental Health First Aiders for organising such an incredible event. We are each of us stronger for his words and uplifted by his open approach to developing positive growth within everyone.
 
About our Mental Health First Aiders
Our team of qualified Mental Health First Aiders established a resource within Bauder for promoting the awareness of mental health across the company. The team’s headcount has grown from 10 members to a staggering 25 keen individuals sharing the same vision of reducing the stigma of mental health.

The team shared reasons why they became a mental health first aider:

“I chose to become a MHFA to continue to provide support to others when needed, as I strongly believe our mental health is as important as our physical and social health. Sometimes we all need someone to just listen or to be our light when things seem a little dark.”

“I’ve been a MHFA for several years, which has been enjoyable and rewarding, I am a very caring person and get great satisfaction from helping others. A biproduct of helping others has also made me more aware of my own mental health.”

“I found after several years working here learning and asking questions, that I was finally able to use that knowledge to give back and help others. That is why I wanted to be a MHFA, to help colleagues and friends and hopefully that helps them and perhaps they can pass that kindness on to others.”
 
Just remember self-care is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation.