About Paul Parry

 
Friends call me Pazza or Yaffles. I’m a middle-aged bald bloke who works in sport (basically, I’m very similar to Pep Guardiola when you think about it, and I’ve been to Barcelona, Munich and Manchester). I used to work in telly as a transmission controller.

Later, and as a freelance writer and internet marketer, I built and hosted websites, blogged or wrote content for SEO. I engaged in a lot of just-in-case learning (rather than just-in-time learning) and slowly built my business. Like lots of us, I’ve done a few things over the years to pay the bills, and those are just a few of them.

These days, I’m a sub-editor, an operations manager, and I’m one of the three partners behind Amp Media, the world’s greatest content agency, working primarily with international sports organisations. That’s a lot of sport, which I love just as much as I love music, and probably why sport and sportsmen and sportswomen feature quite heavily in the book.

The Peace of Mind Playlist is my fourth self-published book. The others are Pazzabaijan (2015), Mr Lizard (2017), and Working Remotely – How to promote your internet-based business (2020).

Why listen to me?

 
Like Scott Johnson, I’m a bloke trying to break the stigma of men’s mental health by encouraging conversation on this topic. And, like Kate Lamb, I want to say things on public platforms that will hopefully reach and help people who sometimes struggle with what’s going on inside their heads.

I’m not a doctor. I’m not qualified in these things. But I have been quite good at tying myself in mental knots, worrying unnecessarily and overthinking my overthinking. And in the two years following the Beijing 2022 winter Olympics, I learned how to identify, understand and manage this kind of thinking and improve my life with much more peace of mind.

In the process of producing The Peace of Mind Playlist, I reckon I’ve reduced my negative or unhelpful thinking by as much as 90%.

I’d like nothing more now than to help other people – you, maybe – to do something similar, to enjoy more peace of mind by using a proven set of strategies and a hand-picked playlist. Press play for peace of mind – but remember: you can’t silence your inner critic merely by turning up the volume.

The songs in that playlist can help in isolation but are best served in combination with their corresponding strategies in the book. Read or listen to the book (an audio version will be available only to a select bunch – and you’re virtually in already), and enjoy the playlist as the songs remind you of a particular story or strategy or scientific fact.

Finally, I must emphasise that the information presented in this book should not be treated as a substitute for qualified medical advice. If you’re in the UK and you or someone else is in danger, call 999 or go to A&E now. If you need help urgently for your mental health, but it’s not an emergency, call the NHS on 111 or visit 111.nhs.uk. Your mental health is as important as your physical health. You will not be wasting anyone’s time.

• The Peace of Mind Playlist is the result of two years of focused research and about 17 years of casual research – books and blog posts I’ve read, podcasts I’ve listened to, therapy sessions I’ve babbled my way through and so on.

• If you like books such as The Chimp Paradox, Why Has Nobody Told Me This Before? or Think Like A Monk, you might enjoy The Peace of Mind Playlist. 

• No need to carry the book around with you for backup – The Peace of Mind Playlist via Spotify on your phone will do just fine.

• So, are you in?

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Cheers!
Pazza