‘Life Remixed’ is the debut book from ‘The Health and Happiness Coach’ Mark Wilkinson, due to be published in February 2021. It tells Mark’s story of how his hedonistic lifestyle as an international DJ – including a residency at London Superclub Ministry of Sound, playing in 65 countries across the world and a UK Top 10 hit – was turned upside down when, at the age of 33, he collapsed in pain and was then unable to walk for 18 months. He was diagnosed with an incurable rheumatic disease which resulted in him being in constant agony and living on hundreds of painkillers. These challenges eventually led to depression, loneliness, bankruptcy and suicidal thoughts. At rock bottom, Mark had a decision to make and chose to ‘remix his life’ after discovering the 2006 film ‘The Secret’ by Rhonda Byrne which opened his mind to new ways of thinking, feeling and being. He began to study philosophy and personal development with Bob Proctor and Tony Robbins to detoxify and cure his body, eventually completing four marathons and living pain-free. Here, Mark tells DMCWORLD his intriguing story in another incredible world exclusive…
Hi Mark! Congrats on the upcoming release of your debut book ‘Life Remixed’. Can you tell us what the book is about?
Hi Dan! Thanks so much, I’m so happy and grateful that Life Remixed is finally coming out, it’s been a decade in the making! Long story short is it’s about how much fun I (and we all) had back in the early days of house music in the UK, then how bad it got for me when I was diagnosed with an incurable dis-ease and suffered a bankruptcy off the back of it. The main driver of the book is then all the strategies I used to fix it, so the purpose of Life Remixed is to help others to avoid, survive or recover from a crisis. It’s full of useful strategies that anyone can use to remix their own lives for the better. I’m hoping it helps a lot of people come out of this Covid-19 time and make positive changes to live a life they truly deserve.
The book includes a foreword from the legendary Danny Rampling. What’s your relationship with him like?
You’re right about Danny being a legend, what a guy, one of the ‘famous four’ (Oakenfold, Rampling, Nicky Holloway & Johnny Walker) who brought the Balearic house sound of Ibiza back to London for the Summer of Love in 1988! I was 18 back then and right in the thick of it. Danny was running Shoom in London and playing some wonderful music which he continues to do to this day. We’ve become good friends over the years, we’ve both been through plenty of ups and downs and also both on a wonderful personal development journey of continuous improvement, so we’ve grown and bonded on that, so I naturally asked Danny if he would be so kind as to write his part of the foreword of Life Remixed for me and he graciously did so. I’m looking forward to us helping more people through music and Life Remixed events.
Taking it back to your DJ days, what were your proudest moments?
I love this question, thank you for asking! I absolutely LOVED the first time I played Ministry of Sound Bar and shortly after became resident at the club and played regularly in The Box. It was wonderful playing there week in week out for a good few years, similarly travelling all over the world to 65 countries and playing my favourite tunes for almost 20 years throughout the UK and beyond. It was an incredible way for a young man to earn a living. DJing at Pacha Ibiza on many occasions for both MoS and Subliminal nights, I remember one particular night playing the Global Room for 8 hours with Kelvin Andrews, that was a special one! Nights in Ibiza, Hong Kong, Singapore, Russia, Switzerland, Portugal, Brazil and Miami all stand out too!
And the lows?
I think the low of DJing for me was when I started to feel I was more like a human jukebox. I was just playing more poppy tracks to largely unappreciative and sometimes even abusive crowds. I felt sad then as I knew that the party wasn’t going to last forever.
Since then, you’ve built up a new career and now work as a Health and Happiness Coach. What moment pushed you to remix your life?
The real lows for me were the physical collapse I suffered which was followed by an 18 month build up of unbearable pain, leading to struggling to walk, suicidal thoughts and then losing everything in a bankruptcy. I had to make a decision then, jump off a bridge or to start all over again at 39 years of age. All of this and more I talk about in a lot more detail in the book.
I’m happy to say that 12 years on from the bankruptcy, I’ve been successful at remixing my life. Bob Proctor (who was one of the stars of ‘The Secret’) woke me up when he said “a dis-ease is 2 words, and you cannot have a dis-ease when you’re at ease.” He also said to me “Your way isn’t working, try mine”. I had nothing to lose so I said “OK”. I’m so happy and grateful that I did! There’s loads more in the book.
What advice would you give to those who are struggling with their mental health during lockdown?
Through my experiences my belief now is that in every crisis there is an opportunity. I learned the most in my life by going through these challenging personal crises, and now the world is going through this strange time, however there will be good things to come from it and we need to look for them in order to seize the day and go again.
A line from ’The Science of Getting Rich’ by Wallace Wattles on gratitude: “the entire process of mental adjustment and atonement can be summed up in one word – gratitude.”. I sorted out my own mental health challenges when I found myself with absolutely nothing to show for a 20 year DJ career. I started making gratitude lists daily and then started to attract more positive things into my life.
Here’s a few top tips to navigate your way through a global crisis (or any crisis):
- Be your own security
- Create multiple sources of income
- Find your purpose
- Put your own mental and physical health at the forefront
- Calm down, speed up
There will be more detail in the book and events we have planned (online for the book launch in February and in person when we’re allowed).
And how has your own lockdown experience been?
I honestly haven’t been locked down once. After the 2008 financial crash and the bankruptcy I trained with Tony Robbins and Bob Proctor and decided I would create multiple sources of income. It would be my insurance plan against any future crisis (and its worked perfectly). This included multiple companies with as many clients as I could handle. So as soon as Boris said “stay at home and (if you can) then work from home” all of a sudden my construction consultancy (Hillmont Associates) went through the roof! Companies needed Consultants to cover work so I found myself on Regent Street at 10am on Monday March 24th and I was literally the only person there, not one car not one person! it was like the end of the world! Really crazy times! I took some photos as I’ll never see anything like that again!
Aside from that I’ve been completing Life Remixed book writing & now of course publishing it. We’ve also bought more buy to let properties for cashflow, and as well as Health & Happiness Coaching I’ve also continued Business and Wealth Coaching for Kevin Green (KGW), Kevin is a multi-millionaire and my business coach and mentor.
The only real difference for me this year is that we haven’t had a holiday or even had a day off this year (yes I know, world’s small violins out! First World problems and all that), so when we can travel further afield and hit the beach again in Dubai or Phuket, I’ll be very happy!
Which artists or records do you listen to when you need uplifting?
I love House, Disco, Soul, anything from the 60’s up to now, basically ‘it don’t mean a thing if it ain’t got that swing’. I’ve also been putting a series of Life Remixed DJ mixes together, they’re full of positive songs to support the upcoming release of the book, you can listen to them here:
https://www.mixcloud.com/markwilkinsonofficial/
Aside from music, what else do you do to stay motivated?
I live to my purpose every day. There are 2 important days in your life, the day you’re born and the day you decide why you were born, so once I decided on my purpose of bringing ‘joy, knowledge, inspiring and creating’ I bounce out of bed every day and live and love my life. I highly recommend it.
I also study, read, and then test out and apply the knowledge that I learn, much of my life is now practice makes permanent, the more we think, feel, say and do things the better we get at them. The kicker is if we allow the negative thoughts to win it leads to life’s challenges. I let that happen as a younger man and it lead to pain, however the pain led to change which I’m forever grateful for. I also know that thinking positively can lead to a wonderful existence, trust me on it, I prove it in Life Remixed.
Aside from that I’m always planning my next moves and loving everyone and everything, including myself!
Finally, what do you hope 2021 brings?
I expect more love, joy, gratitude, success and happiness and I wish the same for everyone who reads this. I also hope Life Remixed helps a lot of people when it’s released in February 2021. Big love, Mark x
Mark Wilkinson’s debut book ‘Life Remixed’ will be published in February 2021. For more information please visit http://www.liferemixed.co.uk/
