Michael Abdallah’s
remarkable journey to authentic wellness
Michael Abdallah had the world at his feet as a young man, but chronic pain brought him to his knees.
“About 20 years ago, I saw a specialist for chronic arthritis in my knee. I was a fit guy in my early twenties, and here I was with this debilitating condition,” says Michael, a successful Australian educator, healer, coach, author, and the mastermind of Project You.
“All I could think was, what will it be like in 10, 20, or 30 years if my knee feels this bad now?”
At the time, Michael was completing a degree in health sciences and exercise physiology. He was educated about his body and knowledgeable about his options. He trusted expert medical opinion.
Specialists assessed Michael and diagnosed severe arthritis in both knees. The outlook was grim—the recommended course of action was invasive surgery. Michael refused to accept this was the only solution.
“I was treated like a number. It was like the doctor ticked a set of boxes, and those boxes became the total of my condition and who I am. The summary prognosis was invasive surgery. I believed there had to be a better way.”
Instead of going under the knife, Michael explored the alternatives. That decision sparked the start of a meaningful journey of physical healing and spiritual discovery, which has led him to where he is today.
Beating chronic pain
Having grown up on the tough streets of Sydney, Michael was not afraid of a challenge. Academically talented with an IQ that puts him in the top 3% globally, he left high school early to pursue a successful and lucrative career in property development. After achieving some financial success, he turned his attention to his passion for physical health and mental wellbeing.
Motivated by the pain of chronic arthritis and driven by intellectual curiosity, he embarked on a dedicated journey to uncover a deeper understanding of health and wellbeing.
The university study he was completing had only partly satisfied his more profound need for understanding and answers. The nuts and bolts of physiology made sense, but his personal experience told him there was more to treating chronic pain than a purely mechanical approach. An individual was more than the sum of their parts, he thought.
Michael obsessively studied broader aspects of holistic health such as nutrition, exercise physiology, rehabilitation, neuro-linguistic programming, behavioural psychology, and mindfulness and Qigong.
“I became a sponge for knowledge about the human body,” he says. “Each discovery felt like switching on a light in a dark room, only to discover another door to walk through, another light to switch on, and more things to learn. I started to appreciate the remarkable complexity of the human body and the deep connection between body and mind.”
Michael says he could see the puzzle pieces coming together on his journey with each new nugget of knowledge he acquired. He strived for an approach to health and wellbeing that could make sense of these strands of wisdom and unite them with clarity.
“I began to develop a holistic approach to helping people attain health and wellbeing, but more than that, empowering them to do it for themselves. Giving people the knowledge and tools to make better choices and to make sustainable change in their lives.”
Successfully overcoming his battle with chronic pain, he turned his attention to helping others. At first, he started with those around him, family and friends. The results were nothing short of startling.
These early successes led to Michael working with the ‘Innovative Scientific Research and Development Programme’, allowing him to dedicate the next 15 years to in-depth research and experimentation with different methods that empower optimal living.
Having met the initial goal of proving his doctors wrong, he now uses his experience and research as a basis for a transformative program that changes people’s lives. His core focus is to give people the tools and knowledge to maximise their growth and experience their best life.
“It’s about improving their condition – mentally, physically, emotionally, and spiritually.”
Spiritual awakening
Michael’s journey has embraced many different learning modes, from traditional through to contemporary medicine and psychology and spirituality. Significantly, he tapped into his personal experience of spirituality.
Michael realised he was quite different from his friends and family at a very early age. He had a capacity for empathy and premonition, where he felt things before it happened. It was not something he was always comfortable with as a young person. He didn’t understand these feelings and found them unsettling.
Subsequently, he felt a powerful connection to meditation and Buddhism and developed an intense interest in Shaolin temples. Exploring these philosophies gave him greater insight into how the mind works and its enormous potential for physical and mental healing. He was searching for answers and understanding.
By his late thirties, he felt he had come to peace with his spiritual and philosophical quest and began to explore helping and healing people who were very ill and were struggling. Between his scientific knowledge and spiritual journey, he has cultivated and developed a remarkable system for healing.
“As a young person, you can easily dismiss or be frightened by the power of the mind, by ideas like spiritual healing. I struggled with it for many years because I was not raised in a culture that values such thinking. As a culture, we look for quick-fix solutions. We treat our bodies like machines. Mechanical parts we can perform surgery on. But we are so much more than that. We are heart and mind, body and soul.”
Project You
Word of Michael’s phenomenal success in improving peoples mental, physical and emotional health gradually spread. Reports from friends and family who Michael had mentored and helped soon reached others.
His unique approach and deep passion for wellness were apparent to all those he helped. An abiding principle for Michael in all he does is that every person is special, unique and deserving of respect.
“I never want people to feel they are just another number. I remember feeling that way, and it is a sign of disrespect. It also creates an immediate barrier to genuinely seeing a person for who they are and how I can help them.”
Project You is the culmination of Michael’s physical, intellectual and spiritual journey. His laser focus and purpose of liberating and empowering people created Project You, a holistic program set to revolutionise health and wellbeing for the 21st Century.
Project You is a whole health philosophy and encompasses six pillars of health: Movement, Nutrition, Breathing, Hydration, Mindfulness and Sleep. Michael believes these core pillars are the catalyst for personal change once followed consistently by individuals. That individually they are ok but collectively and at the right ratios will create the most profound transformative experiences
Using his widely acknowledged understanding and expertise in this area, Michael understands it is essential to use the collective knowledge of experts in each area related to health to impact each individual he serves.
“We are turning a person’s moment of agitation into exhilaration through showing understanding and providing a different perspective and solutions. The process focuses on expressing people’s strength through vulnerability.”
Project You can be further understood within the Project You book, audiobook, or implemented by using the Project You App as a daily habit companion to pursue a better life.
You can watch Project You in action on the same-named TV Show, which follows the story of eight people from different backgrounds. Each person on the show is dealing with their authentic, unique struggles. By following the guidance of the Project You program with Michael and a team of experts, they find real change in their lives.
Michael reflects on his nearly 20-year journey. He marvels at where he is now. He says at his lowest point with chronic knee pain, he imagined himself in a wheelchair by the time he was 40.
“Life can take many strange turns. I’m not saying that I never thought about quitting or that I may not have been seduced by the temptation of quick money and short-term success or that I almost believed all the people who wanted me to fail. I just knew I didn’t have any other option but to keep going. Project You is the result of that journey and something I am extremely proud of.”
