Nick Bracks - Move Your Mind

It also taught me to never judge, to always listen and never compare two situations. Everyone has their own story, and everyone's suffering is relevant under their given circumstances. The key is taking action before things become bigger and bigger problems.

As part of my healing, I enrolled in a Business and Entrepreneurship course at RMIT University. After so long out of university and not working, I needed some purpose and something to focus on. The psychologist was instilling in me the importance of taking baby steps forward, so I liked the sound of starting my own business. But there was a hurdle: I was expected to do 15 oral presentations in the first semester as part of the assessment.

I was still too shy to speak in front of even one person, and couldn't look people in the eye, so I completely panicked. I couldn't sleep, was sick to my stomach and tried to pull out of the course due to my fear of public speaking. I would have quit too had I not had the support of my mum, the psychologist and my friend. They knew, as I did, that pulling out would not only waste more time, but would also lead to having no purpose again and putting myself in life-threatening situations.

I turned up for the first of the presentations. They were often in front of just five people, as it was a small course. Nonetheless, I was in a state of sheer panic. So much so that I vomited in the bathroom beforehand.

When it came time to deliver the presentation, I read what I had written word for word and stood there, staring at the floor and mumbling the words. No-one would have understood anything that I said. As horrendous as I felt, nothing bad happened. Sure, I'd made a terrible job of that first speech, but I'd kept going and got through it, even when I stuffed up.

I did many more like that and they taught me an invaluable lesson: not to listen to all the stories that your mind tells you . My mind would say, ‘Nick, you're not good enough’, ‘You are pathetic’, ‘You have nothing good to say’ and ‘You don't deserve to be here’ to the point where I would throw up beforehand. We can’t stop our mind from thinking, but we can choose which thoughts we give power to.

As well as not listening to the stories your mind tells you, it also taught me something I apply to this day: not to give credit to everything your mind tells you . It taught me that even when I did an average job, people were supportive. It taught me that it's okay to try new things and that it's okay to not be the best. The only way anyone gets good at anything is by taking that first step. I use this mindfulness technique to this day.

By the end of that course at university, I was comfortable speaking in front of groups of people and had made major progress in my mental health. I had also started to develop a passion for mental health and helping others, which sowed the first seeds of my work in this area.

Around this time, I had been approached by modelling agencies and was regularly appearing in the media, social circuit and getting booked for modelling jobs. I think this gave people the idea that I was someone I was not. While I had made some self-improvement, the reality was that I was still scared and insecure and had no self-love. I was afraid of being myself and was desperately hoping for more attention, fame or admiration to justify my existence. It wasn't until my late 20s that I finally experienced a relationship. I had so desperately wanted it for so long but had never allowed it to happen. I always told myself no-one was good enough, but the reality was that I didn't feel like I was good enough.

Then one day, I was invited to appear on the reality show Dancing with the Stars . Immediately, my competitive side kicked in and I said yes, also thinking that I could raise awareness and money for a charity I believed in (I wanted to help in mental health).

But I woke up the next morning in a cold sweat thinking, ‘What the f*ck have I just said yes to!?’ I couldn't even dance when I was out with a group of friends, let alone in front of a live audience on live television broadcast around the country to more than three million people. I panicked and tried to pull out, before reminding myself of my experience with public speaking, and how it changed my life. I thought if I could get through that, then maybe this was possible too, and that I may learn something about myself along the way.

To this day, I was more nervous than I have ever been in my life on the first episode of that show. I was probably one of the worst dancers in the history of the show, but I survived it, and ended up staying in until week seven of 10. I was also able to speak out about my own mental health publicly for the first time. More importantly, it was this that led me to being invited to speak in schools and share my story. Had I not overcome my fear of public speaking I wouldn't have been able to do the show and I would have missed the opportunity that changed my life.

In those first school talks, I quickly saw the impact of simply speaking openly and authentically. Kids would come up and tell me it led to them getting help for the first time. It sparked something in me, and in the years since I have spoken more than 1000 times both in Australia and overseas, at schools, universities, companies, in the media, even doing two TEDx talks. It led to working with behaviour-change companies, charities, individuals and eventually starting my own seminar company and producing video and audio programs around mental wellbeing. My goal is simple: to make global change in mental health by whatever means are available to me.

Following Dancing with the Stars , I launched my first business, an underwear label called underBRACKS. At the time, I was booking a lot of underwear modelling work, had just finished my degree and wanted to start my own business. After all the media attention from being on television, people joked that I should start my own underwear label. Eventually I thought, why not? I did it on a whim and learned and made mistakes as I went along. We sold them online and eventually did a deal with retailer Myer. It was a really valuable first foray into the business world. Since then, I've opened a café in Melbourne's CBD called The Lobby 601, co-founded a nutrition company, started a wellness app called Happy Waves, and launched the Move Your Mind organisation and podcast, of which I'm very proud.

I moved into acting following the reality shows (I was also on a show called Celebrity Splash ) with a completely misguided idea in my mind that I could become famous. Once I started attending acting classes, that thought was quickly dispelled and I ended up falling in love with the process of simply doing it.

I did years of classes, at one point full time, and slowly began to grow more self-love and self-awareness as well as developing a clear focus and goal in my life. My goal to make global change in mental health was joined by another one: to land acting work. To be a good actor, you must understand yourself, get over your ego and have an open mind as to why people behave as they do. You have to learn not to judge and really understand what drove someone to become the person they are. It all resonated so clearly with me and I think acting is one of the best things you can do for personal development. It certainly has become something that continues to ground me and keep me focused on my work.

As a result, I was lucky enough to land a role on the iconic Australian television program Neighbours on and off for two years. I have since been cast in an Australian feature film and moved to Vancouver and the United States to audition for American roles. Regardless of whether it takes off as a career, I know I'll always act for myself. It's become a passion and I really believe that purpose and passion are two of the most important things for your mental health. If you have a daily purpose and are doing things you are passionate about, then the end goal doesn't matter. The only thing you can ever control is what you do right now, so not enjoying the process amounts to not enjoying life. All you ever have is right now.