All About...

We've written a few blog posts now so I thought it was about time I properly introduced one half of Knixter - me, James!

Born to Patricia and Micheal in Wordsley hospital, I spent the first 5 years of my life living in Halesowen - a town in Dudley, just outside Birmingham, UK.

In some ways I guess you could say that I had a turbulent childhood, at times. I don't have many memories of my childhood, especially my early years. My father struggled for many years after both of his parents died in relatively close succession. He became drunk and abusive and eventually lost the battle, dying at the age of 41 when I was just 7 years old.

My mother had met a man called Peter by this point, and their friendship blossomed into a loving relationship and eventual marriage. Peter has become a dear Father to me over the years.

At secondary school I was sociable and friendly, I got on well with most people and I could bounce between different friendship groups, though I found it hard to forge real, long lasting friendships, never quite managing to have 'best' friends.

School trips to Risoul in France for a skiing holiday and Moscow/Saint Petersburg in Russia for a culture and history tour began my love of travel at quite an early age, and as a family we mostly went on holiday to Devon, Cornwall and Wales.

It was during the later years of my schooling that I became interested in matters of the soul, and I started to explore my faith. Eventually, and not surprisingly being as Peter is an Anglican priest, I found Christianity, and for a few years I was very content with everything it had to offer, especially the more reflective aspects of worship such as Taizé prayer, which focuses on meditative prayer and mantras, something which I feel is very much reflected in the beliefs and practices I hold to this day. I made a lot of great friends and I truly had some very spiritual experiences. My beliefs in the way that the world works changed over the years and I started to find out about and research different religions and faiths and what they taught - Buddhism and Paganism being big influences, and I started to feel a greater connection to myself and to the world around me.

After leaving school I got a job in a supermarket and as I entered my 20's I started on a path of partying - the next decade was one of drinking, dancing, raves, drugs - I made lots of friends and partied very hard. It was also during this time that I discovered aspects of my spirituality that I still hold on to to this day - I started working in a spiritual shop that sold crystals, incense, herbs for healing and health and offered a huge variety of complementary therapies and readings. The few years I spent working there set the groundwork on which most of my beliefs, spirituality and practise are built today, having discovered reiki and meditation in a big way.

However, as can often happen in life, with the good times came the bad times and due to some unresolved issues in my past, I was caught in a spiral of lying, cheating, stealing - I let down friends, family and places that I worked at with my behavioural issues.

It took me a long time, lots of therapy and healing and much soul-searching to get to the point where these actions were understood and resolved so I could move on and live my life with more integrity and honesty.

Onto my 30's and the next decade saw the arrival of a family - my (now) wife Nikki and her 2 wonderful sons - Matthew and Kieran - into my life. Not too long afterwards we welcomed the birth of our beautiful daughter Freya into our lives and it's fair to say that parenting has been one of my biggest challenges, my biggest teacher and my biggest source of joy!

My 40's has brought with it a desire to get in the best physical and mental shape of my life - I have cemented my spiritual beliefs and offer training and teaching to those that desire it.

Life continues to present its challenges, but with the experiences of my past and the work that I have done over the years, I am in a better place than ever, equipped with the right toolkit through the knowledge and understanding of my values, beliefs, boundaries and daily non-negotiables.

Most of all, if I could offer one piece of advice, it would be to do the work. Whatever it may be that you want out of life - get off your butt and make it happen!

Showing up every day is the best way to build routines and really get to know yourself on a deeper level.