Trent Dolman - Acupuncture, Coaching & Mental Health

14/05/2026

Don’t let life gaslight you into forgetting who you are.

You are not the worst thing that happened to you.

Not the pain or pressure.Not the season where you struggled to hold yourself together while still showing up for everyone else.

Some of you became so focused on surviving that you forgot to look back at the person who kept getting up anyway.

The one who carried people while bleeding quietly. The one who stayed kind when it would’ve been easier to become cruel.

Remember who you are, Dad.

The man your kids run to.

The person who still answers the phone.

The one who keeps trying even when nobody claps for it.

People project their own chaos onto you. But your character is built in the small moments nobody sees.

Don’t let temporary pain rewrite your identity.

You’ve survived too much to forget the man you’ve worked to become.

Here to help.

12/05/2026

We are a collection of the small things more than the big ones.

On my lunch break today, I found myself going through the 1,450 posts I’ve made on this account since 2017.

A lot of good memories.
A lot of lessons.
People who left, people I let go of, and people who simply drifted into different seasons of life.

I watched videos of myself carrying 160kg up and down a car park four years ago. Now I’m laying under a heat lamp with cups and needles in my legs because some days the pain from standing feels nearly unbearable.

Funny how life moves.

But my heart is safer now.
My mind is stronger.
And when I look back properly, it’s not the massive painful moments that define everything. It’s the small ones.

The coffees.
The laughs.
The random conversations.
The people who checked in.
The quiet wins no one saw.

Life shifts whether we want it to or not.
You can fight every wave that comes, or you can learn how to sail them.

I’m still figuring out what that looks like for me right now.

But I know the same kid from Prep at St David’s Primary School is still in here somewhere. The one running around the playground with the Superman theme in his head, looking for someone to help.

And I think, no matter what changes, I’ll keep trying to do my part to leave more than I take.

I’m here to help

23/04/2026

(The last slide is what we should listen too)

You don’t forget things like this.

They sit in the back of your head.
They replay when you’re tired.
They get loud when things slow down.

And if you’re not careful, you start asking a dangerous question:

“What if they’re right?”

It is where I have almost lost myself

It isn’t because of the words.
It was because I started to believe them

I’ve had moments with it.
But I’ve also had something stronger.

Friends, family, community and coaches.

I made a decision.

I don’t give equal weight to every voice.

Anyone can criticise.
Anyone can tear down.

I choose to listen to people who are building.
People who show up.
People who actually know me.

The rest?

They can talk.

99% of your life will be good, neutral, or irrelevant.

Don’t let the 1% take everything from you.

Not every opinion deserves access to your identity.

Build something bigger than their opinion.

I’m here to help.

31/03/2026

Memoir Monday.

A day late.

Accountability for your outcomes.

Working in health and fitness, you see both ends.

One end
People who try to do everything alone. They grind and grind away.
Sometimes it works. Most of the time it doesn’t. You can’t outwork a bad environment or blind spots you can’t see.

Other end
People chasing shortcuts.
Surgery over rehab. Peptides over sleep, food, and movement.
Looking for a silver bullet instead of building a system.

Both are choices. You’re allowed to choose your path.
But you’re also responsible for where it leads.

I’ve lived both.

First
I stayed in an environment that was making me sick.
I thought I was the problem.
So I worked harder. Trained harder. Pushed more. Said nothing.
No one knew. No support. No outside perspective.
I crashed.

It wasn’t until I stepped back, got educated, spoke to people, and changed my environment that things shifted.
Truth is, I was never getting better there.
And I wouldn’t have figured that out alone.

Second
Golf. Nearly a year of trying to figure it out myself.
Videos. Tips. Range sessions.
Small wins with bu**er all progress.

Three lessons in
Broke 100
+10mph club speed
Carry within 5–10 of my target

Same effort. Different approach.

One end
I did nothing and avoided help. Crashed.

Other end
I tried to do everything myself. Went nowhere.

Same outcome
No progress.

The shift was simple
Getting the right help.

Sometimes you don’t need more effort.
You need better input.

We don’t grow by isolating or outsourcing everything.
We grow by knowing when to step in, and when to let someone else guide.

So check yourself

Where are you right now
Avoiding help
Or avoiding responsibility

Be honest

Then adjust

Tuesday check-in
How are you really doing?

25/03/2026

Wellness Wednesday

I was in the sauna Sunday with a mate I’ve had for 22 years.

We were joking around and I started talking about future plans. Where my partner and I want to retire. Even the idea of taking a gap year and doing nothing.

He laughed. Told me I don’t know how to do nothing.

He’s probably right.

I used to stack my plate. All the time. And a lot of it wasn’t even for me.

We jumped back into the ice bath for 10 minutes and it hit me how much that’s changed over the last few years.

I don’t work 7 days anymore
I finish work around my girls
I can sit in silence without needing something on
I walk most days
I barely game, TV is more just when I’m cooked or watching stuff with the girls
Slowing down actually feels better
Home feels calm, not something I need to get away from

Wednesdays now are built around my own wellness.

Start work at 2pm
Take Maddie to the range
Drop the girls off
Go for a walk
Coffee with Azzerdeen
Sit, think, ice bath

This used to feel unproductive.

Now it feels like the point.

Doing less can give you more.

Not less effort. Not being lazy.

Just less noise
Less obligation
Less living for everyone else

More time doing what actually matters to you

If I had to keep it simple, this is what I’d stick to:

Wake up early
Get some sunlight. Helps your sleep, helps your energy.

Walk daily
Not just one hit of 30 minutes. Move more across the day.

Eat real food
High protein. Mostly whole foods. Eat slow.

Do something for yourself
Do something for someone else
Let someone show up for you too

Be grateful
Properly. Your bad day is still someone else’s goal.

Sit in silence for 10 minutes
No phone, no music. Just sit there and let your head catch up.

It’s not perfect. It’s not exciting. But it works.

Here to help
Trent

24/03/2026

Memoir Monday

Azzerdeen and I started using an app late last year called Minutiae.

It’s a global, real-time photo app. Once a day, at a random minute, everyone gets notified at the same time. You have a short window to respond, and once you open it, you get 5 seconds to take a photo of whatever is directly in front of you. No retakes. No edits. Just the moment as it is.

No time for curated poses, makeup, or good lighting. Just real life, caught off guard, doing the best you can.

Sometimes you’re asleep. Sometimes it’s a black screen. Sometimes it’s your feet because you’re on the toilet.

But we both try to catch these minutes across a 24-hour window.

The goal is to build a full day over time. A collage of your life.

We mostly get paired with people in Asian countries. Sometimes the US and Canada. Once or twice in Australia. You get a minute to scroll through your matches’ photos.

One thing stood out.

How many photos, at different hours, across different days and countries, were just TVs or computers.

Hundreds of them.

We have access to knowledge, freedom, and experiences people before us could only dream of.

Yet we spend more time watching things we don’t even enjoy, instead of doing things we’d actually miss if we experienced them.

I cancelled all my streaming services last year. As 40 creeps in, I’ve had a few hard reflections. I’ll share them another time.

But one that stuck was this.

How much I consumed things I didn’t even want to watch. And still did it anyway.

How many minutes could you choose to actually experience life, instead of sitting on the couch, phone in hand, show on in the background, not even talking to the person you chose to do life with.

Here’s to choosing better moments.

Moments worth remembering.

Here to help

19/03/2026

I think about it often.

What would it be like to wake up at 18 again,
with the brain I have now?
What would I change?

It’s a light reflection.
I don’t spiral into regret.

But then I read something:

Pretend you’re 95
and you wake up today at your current age.
What would you do?

That’s a better way to think.

It takes the question of regret at 95
and turns it into action right now.

16/03/2026

It’s checkin Tuesday,

On Tuesday I like to checkin and see how you are going.

So, how are you?

Are you okay?

If you are not okay please reach out.

If what you need help with is out of my scope of practice there will be someone in my professional or personal circle that will be able to help you, please reach out.

I invite you to check in on the people around you.

Your loved ones, your co-workers, your baristas, your uber driver, ask them, are you okay?

A small sentence can go a long way, you never know who made need that from you today and please remember if you are not okay the people around you, want to be there for you!

My name is Trent
I’m here to help

03/03/2026

Sometimes we hear random facts and we don’t know if they are true or just the opinions of the mouth from which they came.

Evidence can change, and case to case can vary.

A random bunch of facts from my book.

Here to help

02/12/2025