David Smith, better known as The Mindset Soldier, has spent years telling men to face the things they would rather run from.

But that message comes from a life where David spent years running from his own pain.

Taken into the care system as a young child, David experienced sexual abuse, instability and trauma that would follow him long into adulthood. He later joined the Grenadier Guards, served in Afghanistan and became a decorated soldier. He was the man others could rely on when things went wrong.

But when the fighting stopped, a very different battle began.

David talks openly about PTSD, terrifying night terrors and being scared to sleep. About cocaine, ketamine and alcohol. About violence, self-harm, suicide attempts and reaching a point where, in his own words, he simply needed “a break from being me.”

And he talks about what happened when he finally stopped running.

This conversation goes far beyond David’s military career.

We talk about childhood sexual abuse and the confusion it created around his identity. The reality of coming home from Afghanistan with nobody waiting for him. Losing his sister. Becoming a father and realising that his voice will become the inner voice his children carry through life.

David also shares the unexpected turns his search for belonging and meaning has taken. Being homeless. Finding community after converting to Islam as a teenager. And later discovering Christianity and a faith in Jesus that he says changed his life.

Today, David is an NLP coach and the man behind The Mindset Soldier, using everything he has lived through to help others change the way they see themselves and the situations they face.

But this isn’t a story about pretending the past didn’t happen.

It’s about responsibility.

About recognising the difference between what happened to you and what you choose to do next.

About changing the people and environments keeping you stuck.

About gratitude, journaling, movement, faith and learning to sit with difficult emotions instead of constantly trying to escape them.

And above all, it’s about what can happen when someone who once couldn’t see a way forward survives long enough to become that person for somebody else.

This is David Smith. The Mindset Soldier.

One of the most raw and wide-ranging conversations we’ve had on Mental Reset.

If something in David’s story makes you think of somebody, send them this episode. You never know when hearing someone else speak openly might be exactly what they need.

Mental Reset exists because we believe these conversations matter. Sharing what we’ve been through can make somebody else feel a little less alone.

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