Finding Peace Of Mind & Smart Wisdom Through Adversity With Jonathan Kemp

Today, I sit down with a guest from across the world- Jonathan Kemp, author of Finding Peace of Mind and creator of Smart Wisdom, to explore the true meaning of mental health resilience. Mr. Kemp’s story is one of endurance, discovery, and self-awareness — a journey through undiagnosed dyslexia, addiction, bipolar disorder, and depression that spans decades. 

Mr. Kemp shares how growing up with undiagnosed dyslexia led him to believe he was “stupid,” a painful misconception that followed him into adulthood until he finally received his diagnosis at 49. He also discusses his years as a police officer in London — balancing duty, pressure, and personal turmoil — and the coping mechanisms that helped him function in a career filled with chaos and risk. After years of resisting therapy, he eventually sought professional help, discovering that medical intervention, combined with self-education, brought him peace.

We discuss his invention of Smart Wisdom, a system that improves focus, note-taking, and memory retention — originally developed to help him overcome his learning struggles but now used by companies, universities, and professionals worldwide. Mr. Kemp also opens up about his memoir Finding Peace of Mind, written over two years as both a reflection and a gift to others struggling with mental illness. He explains how he’s donating all profits from the book’s first year to mental health charities and shares details about his upcoming seven-month charity walk across the UK and Ireland to raise awareness and funds for mental health causes.

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Transcript

 Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to another episode of Couples. As always, I'm your host, Mr. Whiskey. And in a recent episode, I had the dyslexia Professor of America come on the show and we did some myth busting and it turns out dyslexia is much more complicated than I thought. I was one of those people that thought it was just when letters rearrange yourself, but it turns out your entire brain works differently and it's much more than just that.

And so imagine a life with dyslexia, compounded with addiction, depression, bipolars, right? Today we're gonna talk about mental illness isn't always what it you think it looks like and what you think it does, and part of that is because of the social media and mainstream narratives pushing very specific images of mental illness, but it can look like a very different thing in everyone's life.

I always put forward this message, we are all unique, whether it's addiction. Fitness, health, business, whatever it is, the way we interact with things, the way we receive things, the way things affect us are completely different. Right. And I love the analogy given on my show the other day. If there's two little girls skipping down the road and they both fall, one of them scrapes their knee and the other doesn't.

It is a totally different experience. They had the same experience quote, but only one of them left with quote trauma. So I think it's important in life. We know that we're affected differently by everything. And I say that all in pre-con of today's guest, Mr. Jonathan Kemp, who has been through quite a bit a lot of what I just mentioned was part of his life.

And so we're gonna unpack that now along with finding peace of mind, his new memoir. So, Mr. Kim, so great to have you here. And could you please tell us a little bit about yourself? Yeah. Well, Mr. Whiskey, thank you very much for having me. It's greatly appreciated. And actually I think your introduction describes mental health really well, and dyslexia for that matter.

But particularly with mental health, even if you have 10 people with BI say, bipolar disorder, how it affects each one of them you hit the nail on their head. It can be very, very different experience. And in terms of finding things and finding solutions, particularly medication, what works for one person won't necessarily work for anybody else.

So, that's one of the frustrating things about mental health and particularly medication, is that it is a little bit trial and error. A little bit about myself. So I had about 20 years where I refused to see a doctor or a therapist, and I wanted to. Solve everything myself because I saw, going to see a therapist, psychiatrist as a actually as a weakness.

And it was only after I'd sort of run out of all ideas and all options that I could think of to try and sort my brain out that I eventually sought medical help and for another 20 years. Sometimes I followed advice, sometimes I didn't. But that sort of brought me to where I am today. Yeah. And so I wanna talk about, we talked about how mental illness is kind of, or are different for everyone.

For you personally in your journey, how did dyslexia manifest? Was it something you discovered early on in childhood, you were struggling with reading and writing and, and different types of thinking? Or how did you notice it, if at all? So, very good question. So in terms of dyslexia I've always had it, I wasn't actually diagnosed with it until I was 49.

Wow. So that, yeah, so that's when I got a formal diagnosis. And so I went through a boarding school system here in the uk and all I knew was that I wasn't very good at studying. My exam results were usually poor, and so I sort of came to about three conclusions. Either I was stupid or I just didn't understand certain subjects, or I said three, so stupid didn't understand.

I can't remember what the third one is. Maybe just wasn't interested. But the reality was that I had real problems studying and learning and memorizing information. And I, and I put it down to those two things, and in fact, the feeling of being stupid did not leave me until my early fifties.

So it stuck with me for another 30 years after leaving school. Yeah, I remember actually, I. We had a gentleman on the show, he was the oldest person that ever joined the Australian Special Forces, and he said it was something like so I had dyslexia back in the sixties. Back then, the diagnosis was, you're stupid.

And that's exactly what he said, because people didn't have the understanding at that time. And yeah, unfortunately a lot of people from, from, the prior generations and eras, they just didn't get the, the help they needed. I think. On one side, I will say I think a lot of people don't have a DHD, and a lot of my generation is faking it or using it as an excuse to be lazy and inefficient.

But there's also a lot of people now who are getting help for A DHD and stuff like that. Who in the prior generations didn't, and they, they thought like, why can't you just work? Or Why are you struggling? And it was actually an undiagnosed medical condition. So we unfortunately live in day and age where there's a lot of, as the military calls it, malingering, faking illness to, to justify laziness and to not have to work and stuff.

But at the same time, I am glad that a lot of people who. Normal laly would basically be deemed stupid or lazy or something wrong with them or actually getting the proper diagnosis. And, and with that, that's the first step in getting proper treatment. I know a lot of us, like you said, want to want to deal with it on our own, and I, I definitely get that, but sometimes you, you need another opinion and I think.

My thing with doctors and, and all those professionals, right? It's, it's a medical opinion, right? So you can always see more than one doctor, right? And you don't have to do what they say. I'm not saying go against medical advice, but I'm saying you can only make educated decisions when you're educated, when you have the full knowledge, right?

So do your research if you're having a medical issue. Sure. If you wanna do on your own, just make sure you're hitting the books and you're consulting with people, not to put them in charge of your health or situation, but to get all the knowledge needed to make an educated decision.

Yeah, no, I very much agree with that. Knowing, I think certainly for myself, knowing so, so with the dyslexia, I wasn't diagnosed while I was 49, but. I literally had no idea at all, I think in my thirties. So I actually went, I never went to university after school, and then I was, I did various things. I was a cowboy in Australia for about a year, and then I was a police officer in London for about 12 years.

And after being in the metropolitan Police, I then went to university and for two years. And I had no idea I had dyslexia. All I knew was that I had to study time and a half to double time that everyone else did to be able to absorb information. Mm. But once I started sort of set up my own business, then some of the clients who then became friends said, actually, the way you write things sometimes the way you speak, have you thought you might be dyslexic?

And it sort of made sense. And then in terms of like the mental health issues, for me, the addictions were quite obvious, so I actually stopped drinking and taking drugs when I was 21, I think because, and I haven't had anything since then. And because I knew the line between sanity and insanity was like finer than a piece of hair, and if I took drink or other substances, I crossed over.

But in terms of the bipolar disorder and the depression. Again, I had no idea what the problem was and I wasn't diagnosed until my early forties. I want to go back to actually, you mentioned wanting to do it on your own for so long, and then finally getting professional help. What was that turning point?

Why did you finally decide to seek help? Because I think that might be helpful for some of the listeners who have kind of been resistant to help. I mean, what was, was it outside influence? Was it an internal decision? What kind of led into that? It was a route that I wouldn't really recommend to others.

So basically because I didn't know or understand what was happening, I associated everything that was going on with in my brain with something that I was doing externally or not doing. So for example, maybe if I change my job. That could make a difference. Maybe if I made lots of money, that could make a difference.

Maybe if I got a university master's degree that could make a difference. Maybe if I, joined this self-help group and really, really worked that program, maybe that could make a difference. And I, so I, or maybe a radical diet or radical exercise re regime. Hmm. Because anything I did, I never did it sort of half-hearted.

It was either. Zero or a hundred percent. And and I just reached a point where I knew I tried absolutely everything and I had another downturn and I was just on my last legs and, I was on that fork of the road that either I tried something new or I, or I'd call it a day. So how would you describe, I know you were.

Working in law enforcement. I mean, the balance between that and the issues we're always already facing with your mental health. How were you able to balance all of that? Was your life miserable? Were you able to live a functioning and healthy life? Or would you say most days you were struggling with facing adversity?

I would say it was a mixture. Yeah, I would say it was a mixture. The reason it was a mixture was, some aspects of the work that I did, I really enjoyed. So I was particularly interested in criminal offenses and yeah, and, some of the work, I got immense satisfaction from, as a sergeant, I particularly enjoyed helping younger people, younger officers coming in, showing them how to do things, showing them sort of better ways of doing things.

And I'd learned by that point that helping others actually helped me to feel better. Hmm. I mean, I enjoyed doing this anyway, but there was this additional benefit. The more I sort of focused on others, the, the better I felt. So I guess from that point of view, I'd started developing coping strategies.

And I was very sort of, metic had a very meticulous step-by-step process that I would focus on when doing anything. And again, that sort of very much hyper focus was another coping strategy. And I was always getting distracted. So I mean, I was, while I was working as a constable, I was also developing properties on the side.

So, I'd do eight hours police work and then I'd go back to this building site. Hmm. Carry on, sort of renovating a property. And then I decided that wasn't quick enough wave to make money. So then I got involved in the stock market where I took enormous risks. But I would, all the time I was driven with an end objective.

And again, that hyper sort of focus, hyper drive helps me to sort of function. But there were times where, it was really tough just putting one foot in front of the other was a real effort. And on those occasions particularly if I was on like general police duties. I would just book out a radio, just go out on my own and then literally just sort of one foot in front of the other.

If, if I had to answer calls, I'd do that. But it was being on my own and having that option to be on my own helped me in those sort of moments. For sure. And you talk about keeping busy and I wanna mention something we didn't mention in the very beginning, which is you are the creator of Smart Wisdom.

Could you tell us about that? Yes, by all means. So part of the drive for going to university, so I was in my mid thirties when I went, or early thirties rather, was specifically. There were two drivers. One was to prove to myself that I wasn't stupid and the second driver was that I thought that somehow that, having higher education would help me with my, what was going on in my head.

Yeah. But I also knew if I studied the way that I studied at school, no chance. So I, I spent about a year just learning about learning techniques, reading techniques, note-taking techniques, and one of the note-taking techniques I learned was a way of mapping information. And I started using it ripe the moment I went into on the first university course, and I didn't know if it would work, but by the end of the year, I realized it helped me.

Plan out essays and it also helped me recall information during exams. And it also actually helped me with concentrating during lectures. So one of the things that I found was really difficult, and I think it was partly due to the dyslexia and partly due to the mental health, was concentrating.

Right. Being able to just to focus and listen and this technique enabled me to do that. And so I started to evolve it and develop it. And it eventually became a technique that I call smart wisdom and actually became my business so that I've going to like law, law firms, consultancies banks, and I would train people to use it more often, not it'd be for meetings.

Or, co if people were doing coaching, but also for people, I've worked quite a lot with project managers, so they would use it to help them plan through their projects. And and actually what I've done, because I couldn't, when writing the memoir about my experience with mental health, I couldn't really not write about smart wisdom.

And equally, I didn't want it to feel like a sales pitch for smart wisdom. Yeah. So what I've done in the book is I've given people free access to the Online Smart Wisdom course because I know a lot of people with mental health issues. Focusing on concentration is a real struggle and this makes it much, much easier.

So that's why I've given people free access. Yeah, no, that's amazing. And. Let's go ahead and get into finding peace of mind, your memoir. Why did you decide to write it? And from my understanding, this is relatively new. So when did you start and when did you finish? Yeah, really good question. So the reason I decided to write it was one of my drivers has always been this this idea of accumulating or making wealth and it's, it's.

Driven me. I was about to say, use the word bonkers, which might not be particularly politically polite, but yeah, it, it driven me bonkers. And and I only realized that it was a driver because I had a new psychiatrist and he, he said to me, do you realize, this is driving you? And and I didn't.

But the more I thought about it. Yeah, I could see that it was, it was a driving force and I thought to myself, well, I got to a point where I, I was thinking, well actually, what have I got in my life that has a sort of wealth to it? And I was thinking, in reality, it's actually my knowledge about, one of, one of the things is my knowledge about mental health.

I've got this 40 years experience of 20 years trying to do it myself. 20 years following medical advice and that's a huge wealth of knowledge. And and so I thought, right, okay. If I could, at the time I was this was during COVID, I had quite a rough period during COVID. I then got some new medical help and then things changed enormously.

And once I reached a point of sort of sustained mental wellbeing I thought, right, I'm gonna write a book about my experience. Part of it will be a memoir. Then part of it will be in my analysis of, over those 40 years of what works, what doesn't work, what were the reasons I didn't get mental health, and how do I see these things now?

So that was the reason I wrote it. And the second part to the equation was I've always had this thing about success as well. And so I decided right, success for me. Is putting my knowledge and my experience into the public sphere to benefit other people. Right? And so it took me two years to write the book.

I also got professional help, with the editing from a male editor, female editor, and then a, a male copy editor which made a huge difference. And, it's taken about the last sort of eight months just to get it ready to publish. But another decision I've made is I've decided, and it's a bit similar to smart Wisdom, that I didn't want people to think, oh, he's any, doing whatever he is doing just to try and make money for, so actually what I've decided to do is from the date of publication, which is on the 10th of October.

For one year, all profits will go to four mental health charities. That's beautiful. And I truly believe that every book has a piece of knowledge for everyone. I don't believe you could ever read something and just not get a different perspective at minimum. So obviously everyone should read your book, but who would you say it would benefit the most?

What is the ideal audience for that book? So there's a number of different audiences. One is people who have mental health illnesses and want to understand the experience of someone else who's been in and is in a similar situation, but also within that people who want to read a book. Which shows that it's possible to still have a life and a full life, even if you have mental health issues.

I mean, I've been, blessed in that it's never actually prevented me from working. I've found ways of around so that there is, when I, I was saying I was really keen on when I wrote the book would be that there would be no self-pity, no resentment. Mm. At, at all. So it's quite an uplifting book.

In addition to that, I'd say family members, friends, colleagues who want to understand what it's like with mental health issues or neurodiversity. And then the, the third group are professionals in the field who want to unders who, who are interested in people's lived experience. So it's three groups in total, right?

Right. Because it's like doctors could. Take from your story and, and apply it to their patients and stuff like that. For sure. They could learn about kind of what you've been through. I want to go more with the, the law enforcement, because at least here in America, law enforcement, they have a very high stress rate.

A high suicide rate, a high addiction rate. You mentioned having a pretty good experience. You, you, I mean, you definitely spoke about the days that were one foot in front of the other, but. Overall, having an impact of leadership and mentorship was, a great drive for you. Were there days though, like, did the job itself ever take a toll on you?

Did you witness things as a law enforcement that kind of just really filled you with negativity and, and how did you cope with that? Besides just your, your work drive? Like, what would be your advice for, young law enforcement people, or even the people who have been in for a while, who are, the job's taken a toll on them.

An interesting question. So I think what I did was I would deal with situations in a way that was comfortable for me and respected the way that I deal with the world and see the world. Hmm. So I think, so for example, I, I don't have a big physical build, so somebody is like threatening. I'm not going to go into a fight with them to try and res, I mean, if I have to, I will to restrain them.

But if I don't have to, I won't. And so I sort of developed my skills of just being able to talk people down. And to be able to get calm people down to a point where we could then take the next step. And that was very much a sort of learned and developed technique in terms of seeing things and, being involved in things which were difficult to deal with, even though I was in there for 12 years.

I was relatively lucky, I think I mean, colleagues of mine were involved in bombing situations in riots where they genuinely thought they were gonna lose their lives. And I, although I was in the police at the same time, I just didn't happen to come across these. I mean, I was involved in, big industrial disputes where I knew that if.

If it involved like a fight, a fight, or a riot, I stood absolutely zero chance of, coming out unscathed. I once arrested someone for murder who was carrying a 12 inch knife and was covered in blood. Wow. And I was on my own. I was off duty. And in situations like that. I would just go into like automatic professional mode, so I chased after him.

I kept a reasonable distance because I didn't know what, where the knife was, and eventually I managed to pin him against a car call, members of the public to get the police call for help. But, it could have been really nasty. Right. And actually I, I took, sometimes I took huge risks, which I think partly.

We're connected with mental health in that, in, in in some ways, and I can't think of a polite way without swearing slightly, I just didn't give a shit. If I live, I live and if I die, I die, so be it. Right. But I wouldn't really rec recommend that as a strategy. Right, right. Of course. So I think for, I think the key for law enforcement is.

And this is just me personally, is try and treat people with respect and try and treat people with the way that you would like to be treated. And, and I think the most important thing, and particularly in policing, is to do what you feel in your gut comfortable doing. I mean, policings changed a lot and I think, it's a different paradigm now with mobile phones and everything, but.

Certainly prior to mobile phones where people can now take pictures and videos, a lot of stuff was done off the books that, you would never admit to in a court or anything else. And the way I found of dealing with all of that was to do what I found I was comfortable with. And I could walk away, and I could book off duty and I could live with it comfortably.

Yeah. And so you're now at the end of this writing journey. Do you think this is gonna be, do you plan on any future projects that you're working on right now? Or is, right now your big focus is just getting this book out there and, and getting the message out? So. That's my focus at the moment. But in January starting on January the first, I'm actually going to do a seven month walk, charity walk.

So I'm gonna start in the north of Scotland, so I'll be a little bit chilly to say the least. Right. And I'll be walking all the way through Scotland and then England, Wales, Northern Ireland, and then Southern Ireland. Over a seven month period and in some of the major towns and cities, I'll stop for like two days with the aim of doing talks on mental health, either to charities or organizations.

And I'll be RA again. I'll be raising money for four mental health charities, the Scottish one, English and Welsh one, and then two Irish charities. Wow, that is such a big commitment. Seven months of, of walking. That's I'm just very impressed by that and I, I, I do think that's very beautiful. Like you said, that it's all for charity and so I really appreciate, what you've shared there.

And as we wrap up this episode, what would, what do you want the one big takeaway to be that people listening to, whether they're dealing with mental illness or not, what would you want them to know and to reflect on today? So I think the key thing that I've learned is a couple of things, but it's all interrelated and connected, is that knowledge is, and it's something you said actually it's knowledge is power.

So if you find, living is a struggle or what's going on in your brain is a struggle. Personally, I would recommend if you can, seeing a qualified medical practitioner to get your situation assessed. And as you say, if, if you are uncertain about what's going on, get a second opinion.

'cause certainly for myself having a label meant that I could do more research, I could do more reading, I could, join peer support groups, which all of which have made a big difference. And then the other takeaway is to treat the brain as you would the rest of your body, which is what I didn't do.

Mm. So I was prepared to, see a eye doctor, nose doctor, ear doctor, throat doctor, and from anything here down, right, I would go and seek, get medical help. I was a bit slow off the. Mark, like some a lot of men are, but eventually I'd go and get medical help. But for some reason, my brain, I expected myself to think it, well, I didn't expect myself to think, well, my dislocated arms or my chest pains, and so the big lesson I've learned is the brain is just another part of the body.

It just happens to be a lot more complex, and so things aren't going well. To treat the brain as one would treat the rest of one's body and go and get professional medical help. I agree. I agree a hundred percent. You can't face what's unknown because it's unknown. So you know, once it is known, like you said, you had that label, now you can make an attack plan.

You can strategize, you can research and find out how to. Maybe cure it, how to mitigate and manage it if it's something that can't be cured and how to live a more. Abundant life, not of survival, but of, of survival, of thriving. And so, ladies and gentlemen, finding peace of mind. I think that's really important because that's what we all want at the end of the day, is, is peace, right?

But you can have peace in your life with your marriage, with your kids, with your job, with everything else. But still not have peace in your mind. And so I think that's really important that you honestly start there, have peace there and work on everything external. Because if you need both, you need the external and the internal.

And like you said, so many of us focus on the external and we neglect the internal. So I appreciate you, writing your book, finding peace of Mind, and then also just guesting on shows and, and doing these talks. And I'm gonna have you back on the show. Seven months after January to talk about that whole walk experience because I think that is really unique.

I think that you're gonna cultivate a lot of life lessons along the way. You'll probably meet some interesting individuals along the way. Oh, definitely. And, learn plenty. So I definitely want to have you back on the show after that to kind of go over that whole walk. So we'll be cheering for you and wait.

Looking forward to that time. Thank you very much. Greatly appreciated.