Taking charge of your mind and body

Five minutes in the company of Skip Archimedes and, I’ll admit, I want what he’s having.

While I sit opposite him, about as knackered and jaded as it’s possible to be in an organic vegan cafe, he is buff and buzzing with an energy that seems on a different frequency from mine.

He is telling me about ‘supercharging my life’ which all sounds incredibly uplifting… if only I can find my socket. And figure out how to plug myself in.

“When you’re in flow it’s like your life takes you on the most amazing journey,” says Skip. “If you’ve got passion, your whole being is going to be electrified. We’ve forgotten how to live in the 21st century – we’re drowning in information. I’m passionate about helping people reprogram – to feel rather than think their way through life, with incredible results .”

Skip, 42, is a ‘naked health detective’ and transformational coach who has lived between Wallingford (he also has a factory here, producing health supplements), London and King’s Lynn for the last four years.

A motivational guru and friend to the rich and famous (Tony Robbins and Sir Richard Branson among them), Skip’s London event – Supercharge Your Life – lands in Covent Garden next weekend, after touring Asia and promises levels of health and vitality not to be sniffed at. Do I want to lose weight, feel joyful, fend off disease and rid myself of toxic relationships? ‘Yes’, ‘yes’, ‘yes’ and ‘hell yes!’, I want to shout.

This weekend will involve motivational and nutritional advice as well as ‘a full-body orgasm’ (more of which later) among other delights, but specifics are frustratingly hard to grasp. “Just come along and you won’t regret it!” says Skip, teasingly.

Now, you might well roll your eyes at the ‘New Age’ enthusiasm he is pitching, but Skip is a thoroughly engaging and genuine advocate of his own Ten Commandments For Living. His boundless energy, testified by filmed clips from speakers such as Joel Bauer and everyday worn-out muggles like me, show that he is most certainly on to something.

Skip also caught the attention of Lisa Treacher, 45, owner of Lifestyles Gym & Rehab Centre in Wallingford.

The mum of one met Skip last summer and much of his motivational message about overcoming challenges chimed with her own work as a rehab specialist helping people of all ages and abilities get fitter and healthier. Lisa has devised her own interpretation of Skip’s principles with a Transition To Triumph workshop which takes place at her gym tomorrow.

Wisdom on offer includes nutritional advice – with a chief target being to quit sugar, to which we’re all damagingly addicted since childhood – along with breathing exercises, meditation and motivation. “I too found Skip very energised and wanted some of that buzz when I met him!” says Lisa.

“A lot of his values chimed with me – I too value a whole-life approach towards improving your life. It’s not just about exercise or some mad diet — it’s about the whole picture.”

Lisa Treacher

I take the opportunity to ask Lisa – who has been on one of Skip’s motivational weekends – about the intriguing ‘full-body orgasm’ Skip mentioned.

She says: “Yes, my husband was very worried about that!

“In actual fact, it was non-sexual – there was some guided meditation with tribal music and it was like a limitless energy flooded my whole body. I couldn’t explain it.

“I’ve had energised feelings before through meditation, but this blew the minds of all the people on the weekend.” I’m in.

And if you’re not, Skip’s life story is pretty inspiring.

Twenty years ago, his life took a painful twist when he snapped his spine doing gymnastics (he was British Gymnastics Champion at this point) and he was told by six medical experts that he’d never walk again.

“I was in traction, in a darkened room, for four months,” says Skip, “and those were the darkest four months I’ve ever lived.”

A friend visited his hospital bedside with a book on the martial artist Bruce Lee who damaged his sacral nerve in 1970 and recovered fighting fit thanks, in part, to positive thinking.

Something “clicked” in Skip’s brain. “It’s hard to believe at the time, but your biggest challenges are actually your biggest blessings,” he says.

“That injury woke me up and put me on a different path.”

After determination and lots of physio, Skip was not only walking again but practising gymnastics. Within 18 months, he had become British Gymnastics Champion for the second time.

From then on, he started exploring various alternative paths, including a trip to the Amazon and spending time with Shamans, on a mission to help other people harness health and vitality.

As I’m very open-minded and always interested in other people’s spirituality (especially lately, when I feel exhausted, poorly and at a very low ebb), I beg Skip for more detail about his discoveries and beliefs. Some of his journey down the spiritual rabbithole at this point might seem very ‘out there’ to you if I repeated it, so I won’t, but I am fully engaged.

“If I heard myself saying all this right now, and I didn’t know me, I’d think, ‘who is this fruitcake?’” concedes Skip.

But there is no doubting his sincerity and passion for helping others. And if there’s a chance of harnessing any of that energy in my own life, I want it.

Skip’s Ten Commandments (there is a book if you care to indulge) involve very simple rules for living your life, including feeling the sunshine on your skin every day, breathing consciously and eating a simple vegan diet.

There is, quite simply, no harm in trying this out and I proceed, feeling lighter, less desperate for a fag and a drink and less stressed after a day, and somewhat enlightened after a week. In addition, Lisa has been extolling the virtues of trampolining before bed, to drain the lymphatic system and get the heart going, and this lulls me into a sweet babylike sleep every evening.

I am, hopefully, one step closer to Supercharging My Life. Bring it on.

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