About me

 It's such a pleasure to welcome you to my space and thank you for your interest. I'm Paul McNeill, 54 years young, married to Lois for 30 years and blessed with two beautiful kids, Lynsey who is 25 and Meg who is 22. We live in a small tranquil village in Midlothian, south of Edinburgh in Bonnie Scotland. Our home is also shared with our young black labrador Luca, and two cats, Gus & Noah.

After a very loving upbringing and a relatively successful education, I left school at 16 to join the Financial Services Industry and worked my way over the years into a number of senior management positions with various large financial companies. I am football mad playing from a very young age right up until my early 30's semi-professionally before hanging up the boots due to injury. However, I found I could maintain a reasonable level of fitness running half marathons and walking most days with my dog Luca. Other passions include walking in nature, reading, eating nice food, enjoying wine, malt whisky and more recently mindfulness, life coaching and spirituality.

Up until the summer of 2020, I thought I was content enough with a fulfilling life, but it was becoming apparent something was missing. Something had been slowly eating away at me for some time but didn't realise until I broke down that summer. Here was I, one of the luckiest guys in the world, and broken. It didn't make sense. I can't really put into words why or what reasons, perhaps an accumulation of small things but I was diagnosed with anxiety and depression. I was off my work for 2 months, prescribed medication and was experiencing the lowest point in my life. I had suicidal thoughts, wanted to be on my own, cried frequently and didn't know why. We all have mental health and as time progressed, I was becoming more aware of the challenges with this illness. Everyone has their breaking point. I don't know where I would be now without the support of my wife, family and my closest pals through the darkness. This is when by chance, or I now believe there are no coincidences in this life, I came across a life coach on social media that got me intrigued by her passion, her words, her direction, her humility and vulnerability. Within days we had chatted, I joined a life coaching group and was starting to get introduced to mindfulness, meditation, self-help exercises, talking openly without fear of judgement and spirituality, a ripple effect began taking place. As I started to get acquainted with other amazing souls, who spoke this new language I was starting to understand. I was healing from the inside out. This new journey, which was exciting yet scary at the same time, was pulling me on to a new life path and I was enjoying the ride.
I continue to invest in my self-development, attending more courses enhancing my skills as a Mental Health First Aider & Facilitator, reading many books, getting into more exploration of self, human behaviours, the soul and spirituality. So I decided to enrol on an amazing course to study to become a life coach. After much deliberation, I left my corporate job after 34 years in the industry to take a career break to evaluate my life direction and have the quality time to become a fully accredited Life Coach for which I graduated in July 2021. I am also qualified as a Reiki Practitioner, a Pellowah Practitioner and continue investing in spiritual work. Quite a transformation, don't you think?

I feel vulnerable now writing this but know now that's ok, I feel good doing so, with no shame or fear of judgement. I have grown in confidence as a person and the reason I have shared this is that I want people to know I am human, I make mistakes, I am vulnerable but I am me, I am authentic and real. I speak my truth and it is liberating. I have a new inner feeling of calm and aspire to share my lessons and newfound abilities with as many people as I can. I have a more Peaceful Mind. I would like to help heal and hopefully, just maybe that might be you or someone you know.

Sending you Blessings, with love & light
Paul x🙏