Entrepreneur turned spiritual author Jamie Michael Gregory reveals why he made the brave decision to walk away from a thriving business empire to heal lifelong trauma.
There was a time in my life where just remaining alive would have seemed like a miracle.
The devastation caused in my early childhood through living with my father, who was involved in a life of crime, caused my world to become one of pain violence, and secrecy.
My upbringing consisted of violent beatings, neglect, and torture. After turning 15 years of age, my dad introduced me to smoking crack cocaine, and I became an addict, committing crime to fund my addiction.
After my father was killed when I was 17, I became homeless, sleeping in a bus stop, stealing food out of shops to survive. By the time I had reached 23 years of age I had been arrested over 30 times, and the pain I inherently felt was projected out into my environment; this then caused volatile situations, destruction, and chaos. The adversity I had been subjected to could have sent me further down a different path, and although I could be forgiven for what happened to me as a child, failing to work through my issues when I became an adult meant that I was no longer a victim and I needed to face my horrors.
Fast forward and if you had told me that I would one day get myself to a place of owning a company which redeveloped hotels for the second largest hotel chain in the world, with me earning £50,000 some months, I would have said that you were the one taking drugs!
Yet despite dragging myself up from the huge obstacles I faced in my childhood, I could not understand why my external progression did not bring me the happiness I so desperately yearned for. The result was that I felt seriously confused.
Only through hypnotherapy was I able to see that the biggest problem I had was the emotional addiction I was unconsciously repeating, attaching myself to destructive individuals similar to those familiar in my childhood. Growing up around guns, drugs, and a life of crime, and having a father involved in that world, exposed my brain to a world of secrecy, violence, and distortion when my brain was going through the maturation stage. This is, then, what I unconsciously sought out as I grew into an adult. Although I developed physically, I never grew emotionally due to the consistent damage my brain was subjected to in my childhood.
It would eventually require me to walk away from a thriving business, finish writing my book, The Talking Universe, and focus all my energy on healing myself internally to give me the answers I had always been searching for.
The only way for me to heal was to create solitude in my life and listen to my internal voice by allowing it to surface. Only then could I navigate my way down a path by believing in something greater than myself by trusting in the unknown.
Healing afforded me a greater level of clarity, and this eventually showed me that I had spent the entirety of my life trying to heal through inverted means: external validation. My bank balance never provided me with that feeling of visceral safety, and this was only found through healing from my trauma by trusting myself and the decisions I was making.
Finally, I have found my purpose, and that is to share my journey and the wisdom I have gained along the way; this is my gift to the world.
Suppressed trauma does not vanish into thin air, unfortunately. Instead, it manifests like the worst plague imaginable as it infiltrates every aspect of a person’s life.
True success comes from healing trauma by creating solitude and entering into our own world. Life is a mirror of each person’s internal state, so embracing the darkness within is the key towards true spiritual transformation.
The Talking Universe by Jamie Michael Gregory is out now in paperback, hardcover, eBook, and audiobook formats, priced £9.99, £14.99, £3.99, and £6.99 respectively. For more information, visit www.jamiemichaelgregory.com or follow Jamie at @Jamiemichaelgregory on Instagram and TikTok.
Q&A Interview with Jamie Michael Gregory
Entrepreneur turned spiritual author and healer Jamie Michael Gregory explains why success should be measured by internal rather than external yardsticks, why being selfish is vital to healing, and why the UK’s attitude towards trauma needs significant reform, among other things.
Q. As you relate in The Talking Universe, you see unresolved trauma as causing major social issues. How do you think institutions such as GPs, hospitals, the police, and the courts are failing those with trauma, and what are the consequences?
A. Everything, we see in society is upside down. The education system teaches a person what to think instead of how to think. GPs and hospitals operate according to Newtonian principles as they are trained to view the body only as a physical machine, yet we live in a quantum universe. The police and courts focus the majority of their efforts on punishing people when more of a budget should be made available for helping people to reform. Again, an inversion.
The consequence to these inverted systems is the world we see today: a sick, destructive, and primitive society. Year on year obesity levels, anxiety, depression, and suicide are breaking records. We are turning into a species that will not only kill ourselves, but one that will wipe everything out that we come into contact with, including this planet.
Q. You call for mental health, trauma, and self-love to be taught in schools. How should these topics be introduced to children, and why do you think it will bring long-term social benefits?
A. In a structured, well-thought-out manner. Training individuals who have empathy, compassion, and a will to help others is a must. The second layer is that these people must have previous life experience in these subject matters and a holistic background. These fundamental and crucial subjects need to be wired into a child’s brain at the earliest opportunity, so they become a child’s default programming. Once this structure is inbuilt into their foundation, they will then have a reference point to relate back to when things go off course.
The long-term benefits of introducing this education would start the process in healing this diseased society we all live in today. People would become more resilient by enforcing boundaries to protect themselves, and they would learn how to deal correctly with their emotions through release rather than suppression, which causes unhealthy manifestations of addiction and severe behavioural patterns. People would become more willing to help, more empathetic, more sensitive and nurturing. The list is endless.
Q. How much support do you think businesses should provide to staff working through trauma and mental health issues?
A. As much as possible because a business that invests in its employees would see a significant change in their performance levels. An individual will have more access to energy to put towards constructive purposes because when we are not healing, energy unconsciously goes towards blockages and creating barriers.
Q. What are boundaries, what benefits can we get from setting boundaries, and how can a professional set these in place without causing offence?
A. By setting boundaries, a person can ensure self-care measures are put into place, and this in turn develops healthier relationships with others.
Boundaries can and will cause offence; there is no way around it. People in your life who become angry or offended by boundaries set are the exact same people you need to set these boundaries for. These people will threaten you into changing or bending those boundaries to satisfy their selfish needs. Boundaries that are continuously violated at work, such as in my case, will only worsen over time the more you tolerate them. Being criticised, bullied, and shamed into doing things we inherently do not want to do is where the line becomes crossed. Basing how we internally feel by the way others treat us, begins to affect our emotions and the perception we have of ourselves.
Q. Your journey has seen you experiencing significant spiritual growth. Why would you recommend that all professionals look to do the same?
A. It is my belief system that we are here to spiritually transform, yet we are living in times where lots of people have become lost, and they believe the purpose of their lives is to progress externally. The gift of transforming spiritually is not physical; it’s of an ethereal nature. The more you transform, the more clarity you are afforded to make better decisions, and this is when you become aligned with your higher self. When we leave this plane of existence, we will not be measured by our bank account or how big our house was. You cannot take any of your material items with you. What you will be measured on is how much you transformed, how many people you helped, and what you gave back to the world instead of what you took. Understanding this makes a person more compassionate, more sensitive, and more empathetic, which in turn will benefit everyone as a collective whole.
Q. How much of a say should gut instinct have in the decision process?
A. The question is not how much our gut instincts should have a say on our decisions but, instead, how do we get access to read beyond the five senses. Unfortunately, due to pollution, genetically modified food, and the unnatural lifestyles the majority of people live, a lot of people have lost access to some of the superpowers which exist in all of us.
Q. You ultimately chose to close your business for the sake of your mental health. Walking away from any project can bring feelings of shame and guilt. How can businesspeople know when it is right to walk away, and what advice would you give to help them reframe their opinions of themselves after doing so?
A. I experienced shame, guilt, and apathy. My unhealed self-saw my physical reality crumble and turn to ashes. Only as time passed, and I began to focus on my healing journey, was I able to see that in order to be successful in anything, I had to make my healing a priority. Life all starts inwardly and then projects outwardly. Life is a mirror with the outside reflecting your internal state back at you – every second of every day. Your inherent beliefs, thought processes, and unhealed trauma is the projection you see.
Understanding the above meant that I had to walk away for the betterment of myself. In time, with hard work, and lots of solitude, that brave decision to put myself first, was repaid when I began to heal the damaged parts of myself. If you are looking outside of yourself to solve problems or blame others, then nothing will ever change.
I was lucky enough to be in a financially secure position at the time to enable me to walk away. Safety plays a crucial part in this because a person must feel secure enough to not allow fear to alter their direction. Otherwise, the resulting consequence will potentially cause even more shame, grief, and shortcuts.
Q. Most entrepreneurs and professionals are time hungry. What one practice can they easily incorporate into their daily routines that will reap personal and professional dividends?
A. Practice being present. This helps alleviate stress, it gives a person more energy and concentration to focus on the task in hand, it helps to stabilise moods, and it brings a greater level of consistency to life in general. The more I began practising being present, the more I noticed the simple pleasures that I missed when I was distracted and unconscious.
Q. How can visualisation help professionals achieve goals?
A. This is a real big one. I have created a short video that I have narrated, and I watch this to get my mind and body prepared for what I want to experience. Making an emotional connection is imperative to be able to manifest what you desire into your physical reality. It all comes down to energy, vibration, & frequency.
Q. If your book The Talking Universe achieves only one thing, what you like that to be?
A. To give people who are in desperate need, like I was, a structure and methods that will impact positively on their life. Being able to help, gives to others, and share wisdom is now my purpose in life. Embracing the darkness and transmuting dark into light will eventually free this world.
