Make a promise to your readers (and yourself), show them what it takes to get there, and keep your promise

Keen interest in human body mechanics as well as skin science have been the main reasons for her to pursue

Written by: John Starling, Executive Contributor Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise. Artificial intelligence (AI) tools continue to appear and morph at an unprecedented pace, driving deep uncertainty about AI’s future roles and consequences for workers and the global economy. On one side are pundits assuring us that AI for business, like the technological leaps that preceded it, will drive job creation and growth. Other pundits predict global turmoil and societal unrest due to widespread unemployment caused by rapid AI adoption. With so much unknown and undetermined, the best chance for success lies in positioning the businesses and organizations we lead to respond to whichever future develops, be it sunny, dark, or somewhere in between. Wise leaders will ensure they are nurturing a solid leadership team equipped with the skills to steer through uncertainty and transform it into clarity and focus. Times of upheaval and change call for strategic thinking, clear communication and delegation, resilience, emotional intelligence, and more. The time to develop and reinforce those skills is now. Focus on adaptability As the speed of technological change has outpaced the ability to predict where the future is leading, the companies that will survive and thrive will be the ones that are engineered to recognize trends and adjust to take advantage of opportunities that present themselves. A wait-and-see approach won’t work when governments are still scrambling to stay abreast of the AI revolution and the AI trailblazers are facing lawsuits around privacy and intellectual property that may change the products they provide. Adaptable firms are able to navigate the unknown because its people are focused on the challenge and brought into the mission. Their decision-makers have the bandwidth to think strategically as well as the internal processes that enable the organization to pivot quickly to take advantage of new opportunities and avoid new risks. Leaders will need to bolster their teams’ risk assessment and management capabilities to navigate this fast-changing landscape in which AI trailblazers are facing lawsuits alleging intellectual property and privacy violations, and governments are increasing efforts to establish regulations around AI. Shape the future Equally crucial is our responsibility as business leaders to each do our part to positively influence the future of employment by focusing on three key Rs: refraining, retaining, and retraining. Refraining from making significant staffing moves based on hopes or fears about what AI portends. And focusing on retaining and retraining the people who have made our organizations successful. The AI revolution is being perceived by many as an opportunity for massive cost-cutting driven by staff reductions. This is short-sighted on multiple fronts. Economies are ecosystems, and AI is the product of a knowledge economy. Rapid wholesale adoption of AI as a human replacement rather than a human accelerator could negatively impact the long period of peace and prosperity that fueled its development in the first place. Beyond that, it would be a mistake to assume without full testing and quality control that AI can replace people to the degree its evangelists promise. Instead, we can leverage AI to increase the productivity and capabilities of an organization’s people. AI should be thought of as a tool to remove the mundane tasks and sharpen the analysis performed by your employees, focusing them on the critical thinking tasks that create your company’s competitive advantage. AI will be crucial in automating much of the digital assembly line that knowledge workers have been tied to as Big Data changed the face of business over the past decades. By strategically adopting AI tools to give our people more time to engage in inherently human activities like innovation, novel insight, and problem-solving, we will be able to help create a future world we want to see. With the right intention AI can turn writers into editors and programmers into analysts and solution architects. We can free up knowledge workers to tackle the most pressing problems facing our planet, such as those caused by a changing climate, resource scarcity and human conflict. Bet on people If we want a better, safer, and more people-centric world, we must help it come into being. The strategies suggested here can position businesses for competitive advantage, help make AI development a positive societal development, and enable us to best serve the people we have the privilege to lead. David Hickey, CEO of Alirrium, and Chuck Faughnan of Personam.ai contributed to this article. Follow me on LinkedIn, and visit my website for more info! Read more from John! John Starling, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine For over 20 years John Starling built and led management consulting firms focused on growth strategy and personal development. He advised, trained, and consulted hundreds of companies around the world (from start-ups to members of the Fortune 50) and has professionally coached countless individuals. In 2019 he founded Pietential – "The Life Balance and Population Wellbeing Realization System". Pietential is a real-time emotional Index of the people you lead and serve. For Enterprise companies, SMBs, NGOs, NPOs and Advisors, Pietential is a wellbeing benchmarking, monitoring and improvement platform that also allows you to prove the efficacy of your internal internal programs. It provides organizations with an Administrative Dashboard displaying aggregated (and anonymized unless shared by the User) comparative data visualizations of the emotional wellbeing of the different segments of the populations you lead and serve allowing you to better understand you – and how your people are doing. Dedicated to the communities in which he's lived, John has also founded two youth programs: a mentoring & martial arts school for at-risk young people in Baltimore, Maryland (The School of the Way) and a girls soccer club in South Korea (Pride Girls Soccer). He is also the author of an illustrated rhyming children's book "Flight of the Platypus –– a story of self-discovery". John's life philosophy is "If you can see it you can be it" and he's dedicated to helping others visualize and improve their wellbeing through Pietential.

In these situations we rather choose to use our power for change for keeping the status quo, or making Patti Johnson identifies in her book Make waves (2014:18) five common obstacles that keep us from being It keeps happening. The process of changing can start if you accept it or not. reflection of the new you and what you’re creating that awakens and strengthens the inner power to keep Keep peeling off till you come to ‘this is my crystal-clear why, and it’s done’.

Written by: Maria Rosa De Zilva, Executive Contributor Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise. It's becoming increasingly difficult to deal with the feeling of being unmotivated and uninspired to move forward. Our minds prioritise our circumstances over our emotions, making it more complex to embrace this feeling. Due to their unhealthy assumptions about themselves, many individuals allow negative situations or events to dismiss their positivity and overlook the opportunities ahead of them. Motivation is crucial in enhancing our well-being, achieving success, and our full potential. We are responsible for embracing this healthy state of mind in every aspect of our lives with faith and determination. Did you know that each of us has the power to change our reality for the better? I will show you four ways to improve your motivation and drive toward a fulfilling life. Our unconscious mind needs our help I used to focus on my circumstances and negative thoughts for many years, which led to a lack of motivation. I was unaware and didn't reflect on it. At one point, I even believed that there was nothing I could do to change my situation. However, embracing healthy habits can stimulate our minds and lead to positive actions. People in similar situations should develop healthy habits to improve their lives. Create a list of ten events that bring you joy and excitement. This list will help you effectively enhance your vitality. You can include memories of past accomplishments, things you enjoy doing, things you would like to do in the future, or your vision and purpose. By envisioning these events or habits regularly, you can improve your motivation tremendously. Self-reflection It is crucial to release negative emotions by using positive affirmations. Throughout the day, I will focus on myself and my emotions. I am responsible for how I feel, and I have the power to shift any negative feelings. I am committed to improving my mental state. Even though I lack motivation, my determination to prepare for any task or challenge remains strong. I will follow a step-by-step process to shift to a positive mindset. Do not take your circumstances personally You can shift to a positive state of mind means, that the circumstances holding you back are not part of this new journey you are embarking on. You are focused, determined to stop taking them personally and live with joy and excitement. Be grateful and boost your motivation daily By starting your day with gratitude, you acknowledge your awareness and commitment to bringing out the best in you with a clear sense of purpose and actions ahead. If you feel unmotivated, shift from your current situation to your attitudes and emotions. Maintaining a healthy emotional state can act as fuel to help you face challenges with faith and determination. Remember that you are embarking on any journey in life, regardless of the circumstances. Follow me on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn for more info! Read more from Maria Rosa! Maria Rosa De Zilva, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine Maria is an internationally accredited Mindset Coach, NLP Practitioner, trainer, and Motivational Speaker. Who guides and empowers women to reclaim their self-worth, conquer their limiting beliefs, and embrace authenticity, self-confidence, and full potential. Maria struggles with introversion and dyslexia. Still, her unwavering self-confidence helped her to overcome their limiting beliefs, become the best version of herself, embrace a great vision, and change people's lives. Her philosophy is reflected in this Chinese adage which emphasizes action and self-confidence for success: “Be not afraid of growing slowly, be afraid only standing still.”

Written by Kelly Greenslade, Sports Nutritionist & Physique Coach Kelly Greenslade is an elite coach It bent, adjusted, and flexed around real life while keeping the end goal in focus. Read more from Kelly Greenslade Kelly Greenslade, Sports Nutritionist & Physique Coach Kelly Greenslade Kelly runs a successful coaching business from the Sunshine Coast and online, empowering women to reclaim

I always tell clients: you don’t need a perfect week—you just need to keep showing up.

Written by: Dawn Kennedy, Executive Contributor Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise. I have only really become aware of the “other side” of running a business over the last 21 months. The side of the business is a mix of intangibles such as energetics, alignment, and intuition. We’ve all heard of the CEO with the good “business sense” or “gut” but did you know that all of us actually have this power? I don’t remember anyone taking the time to describe the intangibles in business until I hired a coach. Over the last while, I have observed business growth experts that sit on one side of the strategy or alignment divide or the other. The mechanics or the magic, if you will. Depending on who you want to work with, you can get a business coach who focuses on manifesting and mindset, but not much in the way of growth strategy and process. They aren’t about to get into your margins and help you figure out why you are losing profit this quarter. On the flip side, you can find many a business coach who is all about the numbers, looking at the systems and supply chain, which isn’t really going to support you with manifesting. The truth is, it is time that businesses began to focus on both sides of the spectrum. I have a background in project management and strategic planning. I am a “map that thing out” kind of girl. But for all of the ideas in my head or the strategies I planned, when I am disconnected from the intangibles in business, my efforts seem to fall short or downright fail. I’ve become a student of the Universal Laws and energy, and I am finally getting it embodied. Being cerebral is my thing, so it takes a while to take what I know and turn it into what I “KNOW.” But it has made all the difference in my life and business. Alignment and Intuition The thing about being in alignment and the following intuition is that it makes business easier. You make decisions easier. The anxiety is lessened because there is a, pardon the cliché, “a feeling in your gut” that you made the right call, even if it doesn’t seem obvious or involves some risk. A recent example had to do with purchasing a commercial coffee grinder for our coffee roasting business back in May. We are a start-up, and at the time, Convoy Road Coffee Roasters was only four months old. Up until that point, we had made about $1800.00 in our top revenue month. While it is true that we were doubling in revenue every month, that commercial grinder was $1,000.00, which is a lot of money. That “intuitive” decision to purchase the grinder was made in an instant on a Tuesday afternoon. We were getting ready for a local festival event, and we would never have finished the production we needed to do without it. We had been filling bags of coffee to that point with small home use grinders we bought at a local Walmart. We made over $2,000.00 over that two-day event. We added over 100 new customers as well, so the business growth absolutely required the equipment. The thing is that the numbers didn’t quite make sense on paper at that moment. I was expecting to have to make some decisions about moving to commercial equipment later in the year. In fact, that was planned for the fourth quarter. If I had stuck to my plan and only looked at the numbers as they were to that point, I wouldn’t have made the right decision, and we would have missed a huge opportunity for business magic. Growing our customer list by a third over a weekend. The reorders that have come from that event have helped sustain the growth we have made. Trusting intuition isn’t easy, but developing it for business can allow for amazing things to happen in your business. Strategy and Planning So, what about the planning side of things? I believe that winging it to your business will generate very inconsistent results. You need a map of where you are going- but the “how” the “route” isn’t always going to go exactly according to your plan. The strategy must be there, but the execution has to be flexible. I have another recent example. We planned all of our summer events for the coffee business back in April. We sat down and planned as much as we knew, and we started to create this map to guide our business decisions. This included festivals and farmers' markets, as well as a four-day event called the 127-yard sale. Now, the “127-yard sale” is 690 miles long and runs up “Route 127” from Alabama all the way to Michigan. It is a huge event and draws people from all over the place. We happen to be on the corner of 127. How cool is that? We decided that during the sale, we would offer brewed hot or iced coffee for sale. We don’t generally offer anything but samples, and only on our designated “Retail Days,” but we figured, why not? What a cool little additional line of revenue. The problem is that we didn’t have the equipment for serving volumes of coffee. We only had the little 100-ounce “airpots” that caterers use because we only offered samples before that weekend. Undeterred, we decided that we were moving forward, and we just might have to brew coffee every half hour to meet demand. Well. Three days before the event, somehow, two 1 ½ gallon Bunn coffee servers, with the warming platform, became available to us for about 75% off what we would have paid for the new. BOOM. The Universe knows what it is doing, and that was just another confirmation of our being in business alignment. Also, the equipment showed up exactly on time. Not before we needed it, not after. But we planned for this event. We planned all of our events. It was a part of our overall strategy for the quarter and the growth strategy for 2021. We are executing according to plan. This equipment just makes it easier and less complicated to offer this new line of revenue. These servers will be great for an event we have in September and one in October. Plus, each of these planned events has to be carefully planned out and managed to ensure there’s enough product on hand, the roasting is done, etc. When you stay in alignment, the strategy is executed with more ease and flow. Not that there aren’t issues. I had to drive 45 minutes to another town in Ohio the day before the yard sale began to exchange the lids for the cold cups because I grabbed the wrong ones. Not having any strategy at all just makes things confusing and inconsistent. Strategy in alignment is the goal. Follow me on Facebook , Instagram , and visit my website for more info! Dawn Kennedy, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine Dawn Kennedy is an attorney, business consultant and mentor, author, and CEO of Convoy Road Coffee Roasters. She has an extensive background in program management and strategic planning, working for the U.S. Army and for companies in both government and private sectors. Dawn began business consulting in 2011 and, since 2017, has focused on small business growth and profitability. She works in a variety of industries, including attorneys, coaches, spas, restaurants, retail boutiques, and e-commerce businesses. She is the CEO of Convoy Road Coffee Roasters, a company she started with her husband in January of 2021 and has grown over 3500% by the end of July. Dawn is the author of "The Profit Accelerator for Small Business" and hosts the Profit Accelerator podcast. She believes above all else that all entrepreneurs have a unique gift to bring to the world, and they should be profitable doing it.

He is the CEO of Team HH online and runs it with his wife and business partner Elly Hodgson.

Written by Chris Harris, Keynote Speaker & Executive Coach Chris Harris is an international keynote speaker and executive coach who focuses on helping others transform their mindset to improve their performance in sales, leadership, and life. He has trained hundreds of companies from over 60 countries, authored eight books, and has been inducted into the Martial Arts Hall of Fame. In an age of rapid technological advancement, political polarization, and cultural fragmentation, it can be easy to lose sight of one simple truth, America has always needed heroes. Heroes are more than figures of admiration, they are the living and enduring proof that courage, sacrifice, and integrity remain at the heart of the American spirit.  Today, as younger generations navigate a world saturated by fleeting influencers and short-lived role models, the urgency of preserving authentic heroism could not be greater. Heroism reminds us that even in moments of uncertainty, valor can prevail, and service can define greatness more than status or wealth ever could. Why heroes matter in America From the earliest days of the republic, Americans have turned to heroes for guidance and inspiration. George Washington’s leadership through the birth of the nation, Abraham Lincoln’s moral resolve during its most significant test, and Rosa Parks’ quiet courage in the civil rights struggle are all reminders that progress is shaped by individuals who choose principle over comfort. But the role of heroes is not only historical, it is deeply psychological and cultural. Heroes: Anchor values: In a culture where trends change overnight, heroes provide timeless reminders of loyalty, bravery, and service. Inspire resilience: They show us that even in impossible circumstances, courage can turn the tide. Unite communities: Heroes bridge divides. Regardless of politics, race, or creed, acts of valor are universally respected. Model sacrifice: Heroes teach us that the most meaningful lives are lived in service to others. The Medal of Honor: America’s highest standard of valor No group of heroes illustrates this more vividly than recipients of the Medal of Honor, the nation’s highest military award for valor. Since the medal was first awarded during the Civil War, fewer than 3,600 service members have received it. Each citation tells a story of extraordinary courage, a soldier shielding comrades from enemy fire, a sailor saving shipmates at the cost of his own life, a Marine charging forward against impossible odds. What separates Medal of Honor recipients from others is not just their bravery, but their selflessness. They acted not for recognition but because, in the moment of decision, they placed the lives of others and the ideals of freedom above their own survival. In honoring them, America honors the very best of itself. Why America needs to preserve these stories The challenge is that, over time, fewer Americans have a direct connection to military service. Fewer than one percent of the U.S. population currently serves in uniform. For many young people, the idea of valor and sacrifice is more likely to come from a Hollywood film than from real human experience. This is why preserving the legacy of heroes is not optional, it is essential. If we fail to pass on their stories, we risk raising generations disconnected from the values that have sustained America through its greatest trials. In an age of division, cynicism, and constant digital noise, stories of true valor can cut through and remind us what really matters. The National Medal of Honor Museum Foundation The National Medal of Honor Museum Foundation  is tackling this challenge head-on. Based in Arlington, Texas, and with a memorial on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., the Foundation exists not just to preserve history but to shape the future. Its initiatives include: The National Medal of Honor Museum: A state-of-the-art institution dedicated to telling the stories of Medal of Honor recipients through immersive exhibits and educational programming. The Medal of Honor Leadership Institute: A program designed to translate the values of courage, integrity, commitment, and sacrifice into lessons for business leaders, educators, and young people. The Medal of Honor Monument: Located in the nation’s capital, this national landmark ensures that visitors from around the world encounter America’s highest expression of valor. Lessons for business and leadership What can leaders, entrepreneurs, and executives learn from America’s heroes? The answer is simple, almost everything. Courage in decision-makin g: Medal of Honor recipients acted decisively under unimaginable pressure. In business, leaders face different stakes but the same truth, hesitation in the face of crisis often proves more costly than decisive, values-based action. Service before s elf: Heroes demonstrate that the most enduring leadership is grounded in serving others, not self-interest. The most admired business leaders are those who put employees, customers, and stakeholders first. Resilience in adversity: Just as heroes find strength in the face of overwhelming odds, businesses must cultivate resilience when markets collapse or disruptions hit. In spiration through ex ample: Like battlefield leaders, corporate leaders inspire not by words alone but by action, modeling the standards they expect of their teams. The Medal of Honor’s legacy is not confined to the battlefield. Its lessons belong in boardrooms, classrooms, and communities. A call to action for America As former Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis stated at a Medal of Honor Hall of Heroes Ceremony, “ We will not deprive the rising generation of this vision of valor. For in the fullness of time, they will give us the heroes we hold up for them to be, for life .” At a time when cynicism threatens to replace optimism, and division threatens to overshadow unity, America’s heroes stand as luminous examples of what we can achieve together.  Conclusion: Heroes for the next generation Every generation of Americans has faced challenges that seemed insurmountable, and today’s challenges are no less daunting. If we are to meet them, we need the same qualities of courage, selflessness, and perseverance that defined those who came before us. That is why America needs heroes, and why we need institutions like the National Medal of Honor Museum Foundation to preserve their stories. Heroes are not simply the property of history, they are guides for the future. In honoring our valiant veterans, we are not just remembering the past, we are equipping America for the challenges and opportunities of tomorrow. Visit my website for more info! Read more from Chris Harris Chris Harris, Keynote Speaker & Executive Coach After overcoming a tumultuous childhood and through his countless experiences teaching close-quarters combat to elite warriors, Chris Harris has witnessed firsthand the transformational power of having a healthy mindset and choosing the proper perspective. As a captivating keynote speaker, he uses his life stories of enduring homelessness, overcoming adversity, and achieving fulfillment and success to inspire, encourage, and challenge his audience to obtain the life they want by using the tools they already possess.

Sue Siebens, an Emotional Health Coach and Author, has just released an expanded edition of her book Get Unstuck Naturally. Available March 1, 2025, and published by KDP Amazon, this book introduces Emotional Resolution® (EmRes®), a groundbreaking approach to emotional wellness that empowers you to take control of emotional triggers. By practicing emotional hygiene, you can eliminate disruptive emotions like anger, fear, and sadness. This second edition teaches Self-EmRes, a simple, step-by-step method to resolve emotions on your own. Whether practicing Self-EmRes or working with a certified EmRes Practitioner, you’ll gain the tools for lasting emotional freedom. Through relatable stories and real client experiences, Sue Siebens reveals how emotions are formed, why they persist, and how EmRes permanently clears emotional triggers. Discover your body’s natural ability to release high-stress imprints, bringing clarity, calm, and contentment. Take charge of your emotional well-being and start living the balanced, joyful life you deserve. Emotional Resolution® gives you the tools to stop coping and start resolving your emotions. Get Unstuck Naturally is available in paperback and eBook on Amazon Paperback: Click here Ebook: Click here About the author: Sue Siebens Sue Siebens uses Emotional Resolution (EmRes) to work at a fundamental level, where the roots of illness, fear, and pain can be accessed and resolved. Sue teaches and writes to raise awareness about this new technology so that as many people as possible can find relief and peace in their lives. She is based in Ft. Worth, TX, USA, and offers online sessions to reach everyone. Media contact Sue Siebens Emotional Health Coach and Author 214-437-2737 NaturalEmotionalWellness.com  / NewWebContact7@gmail.com

Written by: Clive Rooney, Executive Contributor Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise. Over the next few months, I will be delighted to share with you some common presenting mental health issues that typically befall us all by virtue of the fact our brains have been designed for us, not by us through evolution and how our earliest experiences have shaped our day to day struggles in relationships, work, life, and functioning. I will provide a typical case vignette that will depict how an amalgam of childhood experiences, early learning, internalization processes, and current unhealthy perceptual appraisals of normal psychological and neural brain mechanisms serve to perpetuate interpersonal, relational, and emotional distress. I will use a pseudonym to protect the confidentiality of the clients, the principal emphasis will be placed on the commonality of human experiences, normalizing the 'abnormal' and learning, to help us all understand, grow and develop self-compassion for ourselves and those that matter for us. So now let us begin with a short vignette and the CliveCare feedback and response. November Care time Problem: Peter is 45 years old and works as a mechanical engineer. he has two small daughters and a wife of 15 years. Peter has no history of mental health problems and was very encouraged to find out more about the particular worry that had been perturbing him for the last year. Peter's wife, Vicky, worked as a sales representative for a multinational company. As part of Vicky's work schedule, she gets to travel to various countries. On one such occasion, Vicky was on a work assignment in Saudi Arabia. Peter had described in sessions that he had spent a lot of time by himself when his children were in school during the day pursuing his own interests and recreational pursuits. In a session, Peter had informed me of a burgeoning, and to him, unsettling emotional feeling that he had been experiencing since Vicky had left. Peter had disclosed that he was having 'unusual' urges, and fantasies, both sexual and deviant impulses to 'hook up' with other women whom he had observed n the local bar which he had been frequenting a lot with Vicky for dinner and casual socializing. Peter had described himself as a stoical and religious man, a man who had good values and ethical principles which had led him to pursue interests and goals congruent with his value system in life. Peter had difficulties, and subsequent physical and emotional stress with reconciling what he coined ' abnormal, deviant desires' with his core value principle and ethics about being a good, faithful, and nurturing husband and caring devoted father. Peter would spend hours every day ruminating on why such 'blasphemous' desires and thoughts were occupying and residing in his mental real estate. Such rumination led to social withdrawal, resulting in avoidance of previously enjoyed activities and interaction with friends whom he felt 'bad ' about and 'unworthy' of being in their company as he perceives them as sharing the same value-based goals and principles as himself. " I don't like myself anymore". " Why am I like this", and " How could I betray Vicki like this" were typical chants from Peter as he having considerable difficulty not just in understanding himself and his thought processes but also in the concomitant resulting social emotions of embarrassment, shame, and despondency. Clivecare Feedback and Therapeutic Response 1. Normalizing the Abnormal: Peter was engaged in a common human tendency called Emotional Perfectionism outlined by Leahy (2015). This is a rigid self-representation of always being good, pure, and nice and striving for decency, morality, and thinking and acting in a 'proper' way. Unfortunately, striving for such a univalent ideal would be akin to expecting yourself to turn base metal into gold! Every one of us by virtue of the fact that we are part of the human race and exist has contradictory or ambivalent thoughts and feelings. Evolution has bestowed onto us a genetic code, a brain that contains millions of electo events passing through our neural pathways. Our minds have their own neural activity that is very noisy, chaotic, and imperfect. Due to this imperfection, our brains can shift us in a moment from nice, pleasant thoughts or images to distasteful, perturbing, and often bizarre thoughts or images that pass like an immediate electro current in the blink of an eye. This neural automatic process will also produce in all a panoply of momentary urges, desires, resentments, and impulses for retaliation, discomfort and disappointment that none of us are alive are so good that we will not experience even in close intimate relationships. In therapy, we replaced this misguided and unattainable Emotional Perfectionism with the more realistic and authentic emotional flexibility in mindfully tolerating these brief, moment-by-moment internal events without judgment or self-devaluation. If you are alive, this is the given, allow yourself to 'be' with them as part of you. 2. Owning your emotions In therapy, through Mindful Observation of these natural inner events as what Plato described as 'The Fluttering of the Soul" I assisted Peter in owing and using these temporary, passing givens of human nature and putting them into the perspective of his whole life and his valued based self-direction. Several value-based exercises where we focused more on what was really important, meaningful, and worthwhile allowed Peter to build a life that was big enough to take in these temporary human flutterings and choose to respond with greater flexibility with the notion that he cannot be defined by moments that come and go but by choosing to pursue a complete life that can expand on them with enough experiences based on his values in life. 3. Thought-Action Fusion Another human psychological process that Leahy (2015) describes is Thought-Action Fusion. This is a tendency for us to fuse our inner psychological events with our behavior and the fear that we will automatically act on these neural-driven events. One of Peter's fears was that he was going to 'inevitably' one of the days 'act' on his sexual impulses and have an extramarital encounter. Therapy focused on separating once again the phenomenon of thoughts of such infidelity which is beyond the scope of human control to choosing NOT to act on this thought given that we all can control our behavior and our actions. When such urges, images or thoughts come into Peter's mind we used metacognitive mindful detachment to see this normal phenomenon as passing pebbles that were skimmed along the lake until eventually dropping. This created a psychological mind space to gently focus his attention on receiving and welcoming other emotional experiences from rewarding activities. This process allowed Peter to function more effectively in parallel with this ' mental/neural noise' and use acceptance of the human condition as his motivation, and not to be caught up or entangled in his thoughts and urges. Once again Peter was guided to see himself as part of the human universe which is complex, contradictory, and capable of experiencing everything. 4. Value-added choice Therapy allowed Peter to see his urges and sexual fantasies of other women to enrich and improve his closeness and marital bond with Vicki. The process of differentiating and separating the urge/thought/impulse from choosing not to act on it underscored for Peter his value system of exercising self-control and self-discipline in the service of resisting the passing temporary neural induced moments that is part of living a healthy richer and complete life. When we consider morality and living according to your values in life, then we must consider that having the urge, impulse, fantasy, or sensation is NOT an immoral act, as what Peter was guided to consider, but that a conscious moral choice to not engage or act on the temptation represents the moral character, and it is this which all of us have a choice over. In Peter's case, these 'tests' can be welcomed, embraced, tolerated, and even appreciated instead of employing problematic experiential avoidance strategies that lead to greater suffering. When we accept the existence and ubiquity of such temptations, then we can willingly pursue in life what really matters to us. Spend some time this month to care for yourself. Feel free to visit my website for more info! Read more from Clive! Clive Rooney, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine Clive Rooney is a leading mental health psychotherapist, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy practitioner, and owner of CliveCare. Clive's philosophy of positive mental health maintenance has been influenced by his time spent with courageous and inspiring people who overcame mental health suffering. From his earliest beginnings, he was driven by an insatiable desire to remove the obstacles that prevent sufferers from achieving inner contentment and peace in their minds and hearts. Currently working for the Health Service Executive In Rep of Ireland and owner of CliveCare Psychotherapy mental health services, Clive is a member of the IACP ( Irish Association of Counselling & Psychotherapy) ‒ Build a Compassionate Mind. Reference: Leahy, R, L. (2015) Emotional Schema Therapy. The Guilford Press.