Stronger After The Storm

Episode 38 Helping Others Without Losing Yourself In this episode I talk about something that crept up on me without me realising it — the weight of carrying other people's struggles when you've been open about your own. When you've been honest about what you've been through, people start opening up to you. That's a good thing. But I found myself pouring out more than I wa...

Episode 37 - Saying Goodbye To The Life Before There's a part of recovery nobody really talks about. For me, it looked a lot like grief — but nobody had died. This week I talk about saying goodbye to the life I had before the heart attack. Not just the man I was on the inside, but the shape of my days. The pace I kept. The quiet assumptions about how it was all going to go. There's even...

Episode 36 | The Gap Between Knowing and Doing After everything I'd been through — the heart attack, the recovery, the lessons — you'd think I'd be the first to stop when my body told me to. This week I wasn't. And it caught me out. In this episode I talk about something every man who's been through a cardiac event wrestles with. The gap between what you know you should do...

Episode 35 - You're Not The Same Man After A Heart Attack — Here's Why That's Okay You survived the heart attack. You did the rehab. You went back to work. But something underneath has changed — and nobody warned you about that part. In this episode I talk about what it really feels like when you start to realise you're not the same man you were before. The shift in how you thi...

  It took me 11 years to talk about this.  After my heart attack, I didn’t just carry the physical recovery — I carried everything that came after it.  The fear.  The silence.  The questions I didn’t know how to answer.  Tonight, I want to tell you why.  This isn’t a polished version of the story.  It’s the honest one — the part that took years to say out loud.  If you’ve been through something si...

Episode 33 Telling Your Story When You’re Finally Ready A lot of men go through something life-changing… and then stay quiet about it for years. Not because they’ve forgotten it.  Not because it didn’t matter. But because sometimes it takes time to process what really happened. In this episode of Stronger After The Storm , I talk about why many men stay silent after a heart attack, why there is no...

Episode 32 - The day I Felt Normal Again - Moments of Calm That show How Far You've Come. After a heart attack, you wait for a big moment that tells you you're getting better. A clear sign. A obvious marker. Something you'll recognise immediately. But it doesn't come like that. In this episode of Stronger After The Storm, I talk about the morning I sat in my garden with a quiet...

Episode 31 — Getting Older Without Fear -  Making peace with aging after a heart attack After a heart attack, aging stops feeling like something in the distance. It moves closer. It becomes something you think about on quiet mornings, looking at photos of your family, wondering things you never used to wonder. In this episode of Stronger After The Storm, I talk about the quiet fear that crept in a...

Episode 30 — Music, Memory, and Healing After a Heart Attack After a heart attack, music doesn’t always feel the same. Songs you’ve heard for years can suddenly hit differently.  They bring memories.  Emotions.  Moments you haven’t thought about in a long time. In this episode of Stronger After The Storm , I talk about how music became part of my recovery — not as a distraction, but as something t...

Episode 29 —Small Wins: How I Measure Progress After a Heart Attack    After a heart attack, progress doesn’t always look the way you expect it to.  There are no big milestones.  No dramatic breakthroughs.  Just small wins… every day.  In this episode of Stronger After The Storm , I share how my understanding of progress changed during recovery — and why the small, often unnoticed moments became t...

Episode 28 —The First Holiday After a Heart Attack The first holiday after a heart attack doesn’t feel the way you expect it to. What used to feel relaxing can suddenly feel uncertain.  New surroundings.  Different routines.  And that quiet awareness that something has changed. In this episode of Stronger After The Storm , I reflect on what it was like going away for the first time after my heart...

  After a heart attack, recovery doesn’t just change your health.  It quietly changes your relationships too.  Some friendships grow stronger.  Others slowly drift away.  In this episode of Stronger After The Storm , Dougie reflects on the friendships that changed after his heart attack, why this happens during recovery, and why it’s sometimes a natural part of rebuilding life.  Serious illness ca...

 Episode 26 — Going Out for a Drink Again. Finding Your Limits After a Heart Attack Returning to everyday life after a heart attack happens gradually.  For many men, one of the first social milestones is going out again — meeting friends, sharing a drink, and feeling a little closer to normal life.  In Episode 26 of Stronger After the Storm, Dougie reflects on the first times he went out after his...

 Episode 25 – Mind Over Heart: A Simple Toolkit for the Head Noise   After a heart attack, your body can look fine — but your mind may still be on high alert.  In this episode of Stronger After the Storm, I talk about the simple tools that helped steady the head noise in the early weeks of recovery.  Not to silence it. Not to control it. But to stop it running the show.  I share:  • The difference...

Episode 24 Heart Attack Myths vs. Reality: Why the “Hollywood Heart Attack” Can Delay Recognition and Increase Anxiety What does a heart attack actually feel like? In the movies, it’s sudden collapse and dramatic chest-clutching. In reality, for many men over 50, it can be a quiet storm of pressure, fatigue, nausea, or confusion — symptoms that are easy to dismiss. In Episode 24 of Stronger After...

Episode 23 - Was It Wise To Get A Puppy So Soon? — The Journey From Heart To Heart  Two weeks into recovery, I brought home a puppy. I was living alone in a cottage in the country. My body was weak. My head was louder than I liked to admit. And I knew I was going to be in that house for a long time. People thought getting a puppy so soon was a challenge. They weren’t wrong. In this episode, I talk...

Episode 22 — When You Realise You Were Never in Control Driving, awareness, and ordinary life after survival After a heart attack, it’s not the big moments that always hit hardest — it’s the ordinary ones. In this episode, I talk about getting back behind the wheel about a month after my heart attack, and what driving quietly revealed to me about control, awareness, and responsibility. This isn’t...

Episode 21-Finally Some Steady Ground, The 7-Day Mind Reset Plan The first seven days after everything changes can feel mentally relentless. Your body may be steady, but your mind can feel anything but. In this episode, I share the 7-Day Mind Reset Plan that helped me find some steady ground again — not by forcing positivity, but by calming the noise, slowing my thoughts, and giving myself somethi...

Episode 20 - A Mind Reset — The First 7 Days After a Heart Attack What really happens in your head after survival — and why it makes sense The first week after a heart attack doesn’t feel like recovery.  It feels like shock. Your body might be stabilising — but your head often isn’t. The thoughts are loud, the fear is constant, and nothing feels settled yet. In this episode of Stronger After the S...

🎧 Episode 19 — Understanding Limitations How a Heart Attack Affects Your Body and Mind After a heart attack, you don’t just lose fitness — you lose confidence in your own body. And what’s strange is… nobody really prepares you for that part. In this episode of Stronger After the Storm , I talk about limitations — not just the physical ones, but the mental ones too. The constant scanning. The inne...

🎧 Episode 18 — Meeting Yourself Where You Are Letting go of pressure and finding steadier ground After a heart attack, a lot of pressure can quietly build — pressure to recover properly, to sound positive, and to cope in ways that don’t always match how you’re really feeling. In this episode of Stronger After the Storm , I reflect on a shift I didn’t expect: what it was like to stop fighting myse...

Episode 17 — The Voice Inside Your Head Finding a Gentler Way to Talk to Yourself After a Heart Attack After a heart attack, the noise around you often fades — and the voice inside your head becomes harder to ignore. In this episode of Stronger After the Storm , I reflect on the inner critic that grew louder during recovery, the pressure it created, and what began to change when I stopped fighting...

Episode 16 Embracing These Early Changes After a Heart Attack- Adapting to a New Lifestyle. After a heart attack, the early changes don’t always arrive loudly or clearly. Often, they show up quietly — in how you move, how you feel, and how you begin to listen to yourself differently. In this episode of Stronger After the Storm , I reflect on those early shifts after survival. The physical adjustme...

EPISODE 15 — Building a Life Worth Living What a “second chance” really means — and why this time, it’s personal After a heart attack, people love to say things like “You’ve been given a second chance.” But what does that actually mean when you’re the one waking up every day trying to piece your life back together? A second chance isn’t about becoming some perfect version of yourself.  It’s not ab...

EPISODE 14 — Gratitude Isn’t Weakness How thankfulness turns survival into strength A lot of men hear the word “gratitude” and think, Aye right… that’s no’ for me. It can feel soft, forced, or completely out of place after a heart attack. But real gratitude isn’t weakness — it’s awareness.  It shows up quietly in the small moments you used to rush past: a steady breath, a warm voice, a cup of tea...