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In a world that has gone crazy in the last year and a half, the thing that blows me away is that so many people seem to have lost the ability to question everything, or maybe they never did. To blindly trust, accept and go along with what the government, mainstream media and society in general says, without questioning it, is madness in my eyes.
Regardless of the pandemic and the chaos going on right now, to let other people dictate to you how you should live and what you should think is never going to lead to YOU living a happy life so whether it's current affairs, health and fitness, music, business or whatever don't rely on ONE source of information and don't assume that you or anyone else is right 100% of the time. And don't let them form YOUR opinion for you!
This blog is simply my opinion and I'm writing it in the hope that it will make a few people think about things a little differently perhaps, and to anyone who disagrees with my opinions that's cool too. I can still be friends with people who have different opinions and don't try to be an asshole and force people into believing the same things. Can you?
When anyone tries to aggressively force their opinion down your throat, whether it's a veganism, religion, politics or music, it just pisses me off and it makes me not want to be near them, take them serious or listen to them even if they HAVE some good points.
BORN 2 BLEED is first, and foremost, about motivating, inspiring and encouraging ROCKERS and METALHEADS and like-minded people to overcome their struggles, believe in themselves, live fucking life their way and to NEVER GIVE UP on themselves!
I want it to be a movement where heavy music fans realise their potential, push themselves to be the best they can be and lift each other up regardless of political, musical and personal opinions. As humans, we always have more in common than we realise no matter what your views, race, creed or culture.
Advice is one thing but NO-ONE has the right to tell you how to live your life. What you wear, the music listen to, who you can be friends with, when you can visit your family, who you can be in a relationship with, what you should do for a living and what you put in your body are all things you have a right to decide for yourself.
It's called FREEDOM!
A lot of people are all for freedom of speech until someone says something they disagree with and it doesn't work that way. You're either for it or not!
One of the biggest problems the world has is people's lack of ability to AGREE to DISAGREE, to understand that it's OK to have different opinions with others and that you don't have to stomp on them or put them down and be seen as being RIGHT! You can still disagree with someone and still be FRIENDS! ...Really! It's good to hear different perspectives and question everything. (including your OWN views!)
It's also OK to be wrong about things and just because you're right about something doesn't mean you're better person than someone else!
People are more easily controlled when they are living in fear and divided and history shows this has been a tactic that has been used for years by governments, regimes, gangsters and paramilitary organisations the world over.
FREEDOM is something most of us take for granted in the Western World but if we're not careful it's going to slip away under the guise of keep us “safe” and doing what's best for us.
To disagree and push back against EVERYTHING just for the sake of it is not ideal either. As with everything in life, balance is key.
As a teenager growing up as a Protestant in Northern Ireland in the 90s, the first thing I REALLY started to question was religion. When I was a child I briefly remember being afraid of going to Hell because of things I was taught in Sunday School but a lot of things didn't make sense to me and as I got older I really didn't like the way they used fear to make you believe in what they were teaching.
The thing that made me question things the most was how people preached certain things but their actions didn't back it up. Not all, but the majority of them were HYPOCRITES.
The Bible says that you shouldn't JUDGE other people but yet all these “Christians” seemed to be the MOST judgemental people! Very few, in fact I can only think of 1, that I knew were genuine, nice, decent people who practiced what they preached without judging others.
The other thing was they taught “Love Thy Neighbour...” but yet a lot of “religious” Protestants and Catholics stirred up hatred against each other during 30 years of The Troubles where surely they should've been doing more to make peace and bring people together at a time when shootings and bombings were a daily/weekly event!?
When I got into rock, punk and metal music I realised there were other people who questioned religion and a lot of things that society tell you and this made it appeal to me even more!
I began to notice more and more how so many people just liked and did whatever everyone else did and those who strayed outside the box were made fun of or ridiculed.
The amount of times I was told liking heavy metal was just a phase that I would grow out of lol... well here I am at 40 and love it more than ever!
Motley Crue and Pantera set me on a journey that I'm still on! In some ways, I was like everyone else and wanted to fit in and be liked, but fashions and trends just never interested me and I refused to pretend to like what others did as it would've been a lie.
As the years went by, and I got older, I started to question other things as I seen people conforming and afraid to be different in every way. The whole go to school, go to university, learn a trade, get a shitty job, get married by a certain age, buy a house, have 2.4 children, keep up with the 'Joneses' thing never appealed to me as I seen so many people do all this shit and still be miserable because it's not really the life they wanted.
All these things are fine if that's what you really want but so many people get stuck and don't really question it all, it's just “what you do, everyone's like that” and they don't attempt to make changes, choosing to quietly suffer instead or constantly complain without doing anything about it.
I had to work shitty jobs that I hated but I wanted to at least TRY my best to do what I really wanted to do and after almost dying in a motorbike accident and breaking my back I was determined to bounce back and throw all my energy into creating and playing music in a metal band which I did for over 10 years with the aim of “making it” and playing music and travelling for a living.
You can read about that in more detail in my blog “THAT DAY I BROKE MY BACK”
"...Just cuz you don't like it don't mean it ain't no good!.." - Mike Muir (SUICIDAL TENDENCIES)
Another thing that I could never understand and questioned was why so many people spend so much time and energy criticising other people and putting them down instead of focusing on solving their own problems and improving their own lives.
Why the fuck people get caught up trolling, gossiping and putting down people they know, celebrities and others while they're doing fucking nothing worthwhile with their own life astounds me.
As much as I love metal and so much about the metal community I could never understand why so many people spend so much time putting down other local bands, big bands and fans of different bands or types of metal that they didn't like.
I was always pleased for other bands doing well, even if I didn't like their music, and paid attention to see if I could learn anything from them.
If you don't like a certain band or type of music just don't fuckin' listen to it! Problem solved!
In 2015 when I was fucking miserable, depressed and hit rock bottom after struggling with chronic knee pain for a few years I got to the point where I knew something needed to change. ME!
The way I was thinking and what I was doing was not working so I needed to completely change my MINDSET and look at things in a different way.
I had to open my mind and be willing to do whatever it takes. If you want to read about how I healed myself and overcame that struggle check my blog “CHANGE YOUR MINDSET – CHANGE YOU LIFE.”
In my journey to heal myself I not only started questioning my own beliefs, habits and behaviour but EVERYTHING! I started to realise more and more that everything is not the way it seems in ALL aspects of life, not what we're lead to believe and just because someone is well educated or an expert in a certain field does not mean they know everything.
I realised that training myself to focus more on what I CAN do and what I WANT to achieve was crucial. Cutting out all the negative shit in my life like watching the news, reading newspapers, being around negative people too much and developing a POSITIVE MENTAL ATTITUDE was the way forward.
I watched many videos and listened to many podcasts all about the mindset, habits and stories of successful people who overcame struggle to achieve great things as well as stories of people who overcame health issues after being told by doctors it was not possible.
One of the specialists I went to about my chronic knee pain didn't seem to give a fuck and said my knee pain may or may not be coming from my old back injury and that there was nothing that could be done as there was no visible damage so they couldn't operate.
It was something I would just have to put up with the rest of my life.
No other suggestions, just prescribed some drugs which might help with the pain but had serious fucking side effects, worse than the fuckin' knee pain. Fuck that!
The more I researched and listened to stories of others who healed themselves the more I realised these doctors and specialists don't know everything about health.
Western medicine has done amazing things and our emergency services and care is brilliant in a lot of ways, which I was so grateful for when they put me back together after breaking my back and arm with metal rods, plates and pins back in 2000.
The surgeon did an awesome job as did the nurses who took care of me and I am SUPER fucking grateful to them all. However, when it comes to chronic pain and illnesses they are trained to prescribe drugs to manage the symptoms instead of getting to the root of the problem and curing it. These drugs have their place but consuming them long term is not good for your health. Even read the fuckin' information that comes with them (in very small print of course!)
No-one knows everything about everything and that's fine, but it's not fucking right when people are told there's nothing that can be done except take medication to get by for the rest of their lives or even worse they only have a few weeks/months to live when in so many cases the Doctors don't KNOW that's the truth and thankfully many people have defied them, changed their mindset and lifestyle and healed themselves.
An awesome example is this guy called Arthur who healed himself using DDP YOGA and switched to a super healthy diet recommended by former WCW pro-wrestler DIAMOND DALLAS PAGE. This video inspired me and gave me hope when I was struggling, maybe it can do the same for you!
The information and nutrition guide with the DDP YOGA workout program opened my eyes to how toxic so much of our food is and how important REAL food is to your health and how fucked up the food industry is and how we're literally poisioning ourselves with processed and GMO food!
Check out documentaries like FORKS OVER KNIVES, FOOD INC, GMO OMG and GENETIC ROULETTE recommended by Diamond Dallas Page to make people aware of what their eating.
When you lose hope, you stop living and until the lid is closed (coffin/casket) there is ALWAYS hope! No-one has the right to take hope away from you. That doesn't mean they should tell you everything's fine when it's not but if they don't KNOW for sure they shouldn't tell you there's nothing that can be done or give you a death sentence.
From MY OWN EXPERIENCE, talking to others in person with various health problems and listening to stories of many, many people online and researching health and well-being it became more and more clear that the pharmaceutical industry is a MASSIVE money-making machine first and foremost and the people at the top don't want everyone to get healthy.
I don't believe everyone who is part of the pharmaceutical industry and healthcare system has bad intentions, in fact the opposite is most likely true but the majority it seems won't think outside of the box (what they were taught) or consider recommending natural treatments that have worked for many.
If everyone got healthy the industry would lose A LOT of money! This is a fuckin' multi-billion/trillion dollar industry and through the years we've been conditioned to believe there's a pill for every ill and that the natural remedies and eating actual healthy, natural foods is crazy!
I realised the medical system is set up to have people trained to identify symptoms/problems and either operate and/or prescribe drugs and to completely disregard holistic medicine and natural methods of healing commonly still used on the Eastern side of the planet.
ON THE PLUS SIDE I discovered that many people all over the world, including people I know personally have healed themselves from conditions and health problems by changing their diet and lifestyle. A great example is Scott Riley who healed his Rheumatoid Arthritis completely through Jason Vale's 28 DAY SUPER JUICE ME plan.
Read Scott's incredible story here in #STORIES-2-INSPIRE #12 - If you're struggling with health issues this WILL inspire you!
You have the ability to heal yourself but it's something that so many don't realise (or don't want to hear it seems). The majority of chronic illness and health conditions could be healed by a change in lifestyle by those who are willing to put in the effort. No, it won't be easy!
I always questioned the media. From the news on TV and radio to the tabloid newspapers, magazines and now the internet. They are out to make money, which is fine, but they will spew out bullshit, fear and controversy whether it's true or not – whatever gets the viewers, listeners or clicks because that equals MONEY!
Whether it's celebrities like pop stars, rock stars, footballers, actors or whoever, they will praise them one day and tear them apart the next and they don't care whose lives they ruin and unfortunately a lot of people consume and believe what they say.
Now the big thing is to discredit every person who questions who speaks out against the mainstream narrative and opinions of the Pandemic.
Watching or listening to the constant negative shit on the news on TV, radio and online every day is not helping you stay informed. It's giving you one-sided views of events and even when they tell the truth they usually don't portray in a way that gives an accurate account of what's REALLY happening overall.
It is also bringing you down, forming your beliefs and affecting you your mental health more than you realise. I didn't think when I cut it out of my life a few years back that it would make much difference but it REALLY did.
After a few weeks I noticed actually feeling better mentally and overall.
Try it out – cut the news out for a week and see how you feel!
"The more self destruction, the more control they have on us today!" Josh Todd (BUCKCHERRY)
If you made it to the end thanks for taking the time to read my blog. Hopefully it has made you question things more even if you don't agree with my opinion. Steve
TO BE CONTINUED... (Check out PART 2 where I'll be sharing what I've questioned about the Pandemic.
Check out STORIES-2-INSPIRE here and read about how BORN 2 BLEED customers/followers made positive changes to their health and mindset and improved their lives - METALHEADS who SURVIVE, THRIVE and INSPIRE!
