Sharing the story of watching a man burn to death in front of me as a 10 year-old boy was an unlikely route to wellbeing for me. Yet, it was by telling this story and how it led me on my path to gain some of the key insights in my life that managed to get me into the final 20 of an International speaking and writing competition.

The Messenger Network invited speakers and authors from all over the world to share their story with their network and get as much support as they could. I entered this to stretch my comfort zone and get myself out into the world in a bigger way.

In my next round entry I have told how an incident on a bus as a 14 year-old was enough to motivate me to lose weight and keep it off. 26 years later I am still in pretty good shape as the rest of my family battle with weight issues and have done for most of their lives. Key lesson: leave my family alone, stop preaching and accept the path that they are on!

Through being encouraged to share my story as part of the competition it suddenly dawned on me what a tale of lunacy that my life has been. Growing up within the grounds of a psychiatric hospital, where my mum and dad worked as nurses, provided me with an interesting insight into life.

I was teased at school for being mad and fat for most of my childhood and it was the patients in the hospital that provided me with most of the help in dealing with this. In particular, an old man who would sit down with me and my sister and listen better than anyone I have ever met. I always left feeling better and heard. He provided some of the sharpest insight that I have ever heard.

It was years later that I found out that this man was a World War 2 double agent who had been sectioned for shooting his wife in the head! Such is the fine line between sanity and lunacy.

For me, I am filled with gratitude for the lessons that I learned from people who were commonly known as lunatics as I grew up. They helped me to make sense of my life, feel better and lose weight.

Life has taught me that madness manifests in many different ways and that most of the people who I met that had a heart attack or serious illness had an element of insanity going on in their lives. Being in jobs or relationships that they did not love for years at a time is one of the most common symptoms of all.

Author's Bio: 

Adam Shaw, aka The Heart Guy is a speaker and author who helps men to avoid heart attacks. His unique approach to reversing the early warning symptoms, like hypertension and weight gain are proving to be increasingly popular. He is currently the last UK entry left in The Next Greatest Speaker Competition, where he talks about his personal journey and why most diets don't work http://eat2.us/AdamShaw