Written by Jamie Coscia, Mindset Coach Jamie Coscia, LCSW-R, combines nearly 30 years of clinical experience with mindset coaching and Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT) Tapping. She is the creator of the Reset Method and founder of Time to Heal Coaching and the Freeze to Forward program. So many high-achieving women know exactly what it feels like to look like they have it all together to everyone around them. What people rarely see is the pressure underneath it, or the bouts of anxiety and depression they move through quietly while still showing up, still delivering, still being the one people count on. It is hard to be yourself and put yourself out there in big ways, even when you have so much to offer. 1. Why she always looks fine (and may not be) People see the woman who has it handled. The one who shows up for everyone else. She is the person others call when something falls apart because she is the one who is perceived to be able to handle it. Her follow-through is real. From the outside, it looks like confidence, like ease, like a woman who was simply built this way. What people rarely see is the cost of being that reliable and responsible for that long. 2. The anxiety no one sees She can be mid-panic and still send the email on time. She can be running on almost nothing and still remember to ask how someone else's day went. None of that is performance. It is what she learned to do over the years because she was always “strong,” and being perceived as anything less would be unacceptable. It is hard to be yourself and put yourself out there in big ways, even when you have so much to offer. Not because you lack ability but because putting the real, unpolished version of yourself out there has never felt safe. 3. When capable becomes a trap The better a woman gets at holding it together, the less room anyone leaves for the version of her that can't. People stop asking if she's okay because she never looks like she's not. They stop checking in because she never seems to need it. It isn't that anyone decided not to see her. It's that she became so good at being the version of herself that didn’t need anything that the rest of her quietly stopped being invited into the room. That's the box she repeatedly finds herself in. It is a familiar role she got so good at playing that stepping out of it, even for a moment, feels like it might cost her everything she built. 4. The childhood root of people-pleasing For a lot of high-achieving women, this didn't start in adulthood. It started in a house where the roles got reversed early, where you learned to read a room before you learned to read a book, and being needed felt safer than being little. Maybe you were managing someone else's moods before you understood your own. Maybe peace in the house depended on what you could smooth over, fix, or carry. Whatever the exact shape of it, the lesson underneath was the same, your worth showed up in what you could give or do. Clinicians call this parentification, a role reversal in which a child takes on responsibilities that were really meant for an adult. That's not something a child decides. It's something a child adapts to. When love and safety are tied to being useful, a kid doesn't have the luxury of just being a kid, she becomes the manager, the peacekeeper, the one who's fine, long before she's old enough to know what any of that costs her. People-pleasing isn't a personality trait she picked up later. It's the operating system she was raised inside of, built one small survival decision at a time. Part of that operating system is learning to co-regulate everyone around you before anyone ever regulates you. You read the temperature of a room and adjust yourself to it. You calm the people who should have been calming you. You fix what's breaking instead of being allowed to break a little yourself. You got so good at holding everyone else steady, being misunderstood becomes the norm, not the exception, nobody sees the weight of what you're carrying because you never let it show. At some point, without ever deciding it consciously, you find the way out, you achieve your way out. You perform your way out. If worth is what you can do for everyone else, then becoming responsible, capable, and reliable isn't just a personality trait, it's an exit strategy. It's the version of yourself that finally gets to leave, get praised, get somewhere. So, you build a life on being the one who has it handled because that's the only version of you that ever got to move forward. And it works. It gets you out. It gets you the career, the reputation, the life that looks, from the outside, like everything is fine, but it comes with a quiet cost, no one asks how you're doing anymore because everyone assumes you already have it figured out. The very thing that got you out of that world becomes the thing that keeps you unseen inside the next one. That's why "just stop people-pleasing" never works. You can't unlearn an operating system with a mindset shift. It was built for a reason, and it worked. It kept you safe, kept the peace, kept you loved in the only way love was available. The problem is it never came with an off switch. 5. The trauma response nobody names For a lot of high-achieving women, the parts that got sent underground weren't random. Somewhere in childhood, or in a relationship that asked too much of her, a woman learns which parts of herself were welcome and which parts made people pull away. The competent, easygoing, low-maintenance version of her gets love, gets praise, gets to stay. The parts that needed too much, felt too much, or asked for too much learn to go quiet. Psychologist Dana Jack calls this self-silencing, the practice of quietly editing yourself to keep a relationship, a role, or an image intact. It isn't dishonest. It's a survival skill that worked so well, most women forget they're still using it. 6. How to finally give yourself grace Many high-achieving women spend most of their lives being harder on themselves than anyone else ever was or could be because that's what they learned. Hardness felt normal. It felt like holding yourself to good standards. It felt productive. It felt like the only way to operate. Grace wasn't in the curriculum. Nobody hands a child a script for how to be gentle with herself because no one even knows or cares about what she is handling. Hardness is the script young women get to practice from day one. What starts to shift, slowly and imperfectly, is the realization that giving yourself grace isn't the opposite of everything you built. It's what lets you keep any of it without it costing you everything. Grace looks like letting a day be enough without needing to justify it. It looks like noticing when the old harshness shows up and not immediately believing it. It looks like getting to know the woman underneath all the doing, not the version who performs, manages, and holds it together, but the one who's been waiting, patiently, to be truly understood. This isn't a switch anyone flips. It's a relationship a woman rebuilds with herself, in the same slow way she'd rebuild trust with anyone she'd spent years keeping at arm's length. The woman on the other side of that isn't someone new. She's who you were before you learned that being useful was the only way to be loved. Being seen as capable was never the problem. The problem is spending years being seen without ever being truly understood or known, without the anxiety, the exhaustion, the parts that doubt everything at 2 a.m. ever getting to exist out loud. You can be both remarkable and human. You do not have to keep choosing which one people get to see. If this is landing for you, this is exactly the work we do inside Freeze to Forward, my coaching program for high-achieving women who are ready to stop carrying it all alone. It brings trauma processing, energy alignment, and nervous system regulation together, so the parts of you that have been quietly holding it together finally get somewhere to put it down. Come work with me at Time to Heal Coaching, because you deserve to be known, not just seen. Follow me on Facebook, Instagram, and visit my website for more info! Read more from Jamie Coscia Jamie Coscia, Mindset Coach Jamie Coscia, LCSW-R, is a licensed clinical social worker, a mindset coach, and founder of Time to Heal Coaching. For nearly 30 years, she has helped individuals heal from anxiety, trauma, and the emotional patterns that keep them feeling stuck. Through her coaching practice, Jamie specializes in helping high-achieving women in midlife who seem to have it all together on the outside but privately struggle with self-doubt, perfectionism, overthinking, and self-sabotage as they prepare for the next chapter of their lives. By integrating nervous system regulation, trauma-informed healing and energy alignment, she guides women to confidently step into their next chapter without the weight of "What if?"

Renée Ambarees, founder of Yoga4Face®, developed her four-step method after a career transition and a period of significant personal loss led her to examine the connection between posture, breath, and facial wellness. Her approach reframes facial aging as a reflection of the body's broader state rather than an isolated concern, and has since been referenced in a 2026 clinical trial on facial training published in Frontiers in Psychiatry. In this interview, Ambarees discusses the origins of Yoga4Face®, the philosophy behind it, and her broader vision for natural beauty and conscious aging through her Smile Revolution initiative. Renée Ambarees Isermann, Embodied Leadership Mentor What inspired you to create Yoga4Face®? I didn't build this to make anyone look younger. I built it because at 42 I stood in front of the mirror and couldn't look at myself. It wasn't about wrinkles. It was about the woman looking back. I had given up a great deal for the life I thought I was supposed to have. For a marriage. For children. I made myself smaller and quieter more times than I can count, because I believed that was the price. What I got in return was standing at the altar alone, twice. The children I carried, I lost. The family I had pictured never came, and none of it stayed private. The invitations had gone out. People knew. That was what my face was showing me that morning. Not the years. The life. Every disappointment, every silence I had kept, everything I had swallowed to keep the peace. In my family that had a name nobody said out loud: shame, guilt, disgrace. What will people think. Generations carried it, and that morning I decided I was not going to carry it any further. I knew what rebuilding a body takes, because I had done it once before. At 31, muscle by muscle, after twenty-two years in competitive sport had taken mine apart. Fifteen years in a corporation taught me the rest: what constant performance does to a person. So I asked a simple question. The face has 42 muscles of its own. Why would it be the one part of the body that can't be trained? That question became Yoga4Face®. Over nine years it grew past facial training into what it is now, a four-step method that works with posture, breath, voice, the nervous system and the face together. And the space I couldn't give the children I lost, I give to the adults who come to me instead. What surprised me is why they come. Almost nobody arrives wanting a different face. They arrive wanting to feel like themselves again. The face is simply where the body starts telling the. What makes Yoga4Face® different from traditional beauty treatments, and why now? Most beauty treatments ask how we can change the way we look. My work starts one question earlier: why do we look the way we do? That is a different conversation, and it leads somewhere else. I don't treat the face as a separate part. Posture, breathing, voice, the nervous system, the patterns we carry emotionally, all of it shows up there. I trained with Fumiko Takatsu, who brought face yoga into the West, and built my own method from there over nine years, because the exercises alone were never going to be the whole answer. After 40, a face tells you something about how a person has lived, not only how long. Years of held tension, of performing, of putting yourself last, leave traces. They are not flaws to be judged. They are a reason to get curious. I think this work is getting attention now because people are tired. Tired of performing, and tired of fixes that stop at the surface. In 2026 a randomised controlled trial on facial training for depression, led by Prof. Axel Wollmer and published in Frontiers in Psychiatry, named me in its acknowledgments for my professional perspective on facial training, aesthetics and face embodiment. That mattered to me because it came out of a conversation that started years earlier. Axel had read my book and wanted to know how I had found my way back to lightness. When we looked at his training programme together, I told him what I expected: it would move the psyche, but it would not make anyone prettier. That is what the study found. A real effect on depression, no measurable change in appearance. We both had a good laugh when the results came in. What interests me is not the recognition. It is that research is starting to ask questions practitioners have been living with for years. Renée Ambarees Isermann, Embodied Leadership Mentor How does the face reflect our emotions, lifestyle and wellbeing? Your face is your most honest business card. Long before you say anything, people read your expression, your posture, the way you take up space. It reflects thousands of small things. How you breathe. Whether you recover from stress or carry it. Whether you feel safe. Whether your jaw has been clenched for years without you noticing. None of that is about perfection. It is about congruence, about whether the outside matches what is going on inside. The face has never been the problem in my work. It is usually the messenger. That is also why Leadership4Presence grew out of this. When people reconnect with themselves, they don't only look different. They breathe differently, they speak differently, they decide differently. Leadership doesn't start when you walk into the room. It starts with the relationship you have with yourself long before anyone sees you. What do people gain from practising consistently? The biggest change is not the one they can see. People start expecting a different face and end up with a different relationship to themselves. They breathe deeper. The jaw lets go. The voice gets calmer. They stop apologising for taking up space, and they decide faster, because they are no longer arguing with themselves about every choice. For me the moment came at 50, with the best photoshoot of my life. Not because of the photographer. Because after years of daily practice I recognised the woman in the pictures. Now, at 52, I am not chasing youth. I am choosing presence. Consistency doesn't only change how you look. It changes how you show up. Why can aging be met with confidence rather than fear? I don't think most people are afraid of getting older. I think they are afraid of losing themselves. We are taught to fight time. I would rather build a relationship with it. Every year leaves something behind. Some of it expands you, some of it costs you. The traces are there either way. The only real question is whether you meet them with resistance or with acceptance. Aging became freedom for me the moment I stopped trying to look like someone else and started becoming more myself. Your face is not your enemy. It is your history, and it can become the record of your healing too. I had to learn what self-love even means. It wasn't something I was given growing up, and I learned it late, through my own family. The person who taught me most was my grandmother. I'm told I am carved from her face. Her pain was never spoken about, and that is the pattern in so many families. What will people think, what will the neighbours say. Guilt and shame handed down until they feel almost cellular. Unless you have walked in someone's shoes you don't get to judge, and often the wisest thing is to stay quiet. I talk about her because someone has to stand up for her, and I will. Nine years in, aging is not something I fight. It is something I shape, every day. That is not fear. That is freedom. What are the most common mistakes? Believing the face works on its own. It doesn't. Leave out posture, breath, voice and the nervous system and you are working on one small piece and wondering why nothing holds. The second mistake is the quick fix. We are surrounded by promises of instant results, but presence isn't built overnight, and neither is confidence. Botox is fast. Real change adds up slowly, and most people stop just before it would have started to show. That is why I built the 4 Magic Moves™ the way I did. Not as another beauty routine, but as a few minutes each morning to come back to yourself before the day starts asking things of you. How do facial exercises, mindfulness and self-connection fit together? They can't be separated, and I have never taught them separately. Yoga4Face® is four steps, head to toe: posture, breath and voice, the facial muscles, and a reset stage where I work with plant-based essential oils, so a change doesn't stay an idea but lands in the body where it can be used. I say it often to my clients: get out of your head, your body has work to do. We spend so long thinking about change that we forget the body has to experience it. Every session comes back to the same question. Who are you underneath what you have been performing? That is why a few deliberate minutes a day can shift not only how someone looks, but how they speak, decide and lead. Presence isn't something you perform. It is something you inhabit. Renée Ambarees Isermann, Embodied Leadership Mentor What have you learned from training other teachers? That the method works because it is bigger than me. Uschi Hock, certified since 2022, built her own practice around it while carrying a great deal of guilt and shame about raising a child with severe disabilities. Watching her build a new relationship with herself through this work, and hearing her describe it as finally jumping into her own life, moves me every time I think about it. Every teacher brings a different personality, but the intention is the same: helping someone move from judging themselves to being connected to themselves. So we are not really teaching exercises. We are teaching attention, consistency and self-compassion. The techniques matter. What matters more is whether you create enough safety for someone to stop performing. You can't train that into a person. Either they bring it, or the work stays on the surface. What is your vision for facial wellness and conscious aging? I want this to be a movement, not something people do quietly on their own. That is the Smile Revolution, and it isn't a slogan. It is four free exercises that I have brought into schools in Pakistan and Zimbabwe at no cost, because children should learn this early. The goal is a million people who understand smiling differently. Alongside that, Leadership4Presence takes the work into rooms where people lead, sell and have to be visible. Companies book my keynote "Your Face, Your Business Card", particularly in direct sales, and the Wirtschaftskammer in Vienna has taken up the subject. We invest years in careers and expertise, and almost no time in presence, which is usually what people remember long after they have forgotten what we said. What I want in the end is simple. Emotional hygiene should be as ordinary as brushing your teeth. That is what the books are for, and what the daily practice is for. How can people experience the method? Start with the 4 Magic Moves™ at 4magicmoves.com. They are free, they take a few minutes, and they are the same exercises we bring into schools. From there, my programmes run fully online, wherever you are, and there is in-person work with me in the Dominican Republic, where I spend part of the year. Professionals can train as certified Yoga4Face® practitioners and take the method into their own businesses and communities. Organisations bring me in for keynotes and workshops, and I speak at events like the Mindstyle Festival. I have reached more than 10,000 people so far through my books, courses and talks. Whichever way someone finds their way in, the invitation is the same: come home to yourself. Follow Renée on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and visit my website for more info! Read more from Renée Ambarees Isermann

Dr. Stacey Lamar is a seasoned nurse practitioner, award-winning entrepreneur, and author. Her book, Starseed, published in 2021, shares deeply personal stories of childhood abuse, mental illness, poverty, and what she speaks of as the "shadows" she had to overcome over time to become the "light" she now is. Dr. Stacey is an open book about past experiences and believes that many credible healers are put through tests by the universe to prepare them for future work with others. Dr. Stacey Lamar, Nurse Practitioner & Healer Who is Dr. Stacey Lamar? Dr. Stacey Lamar is a nurse, entrepreneur, author, mentor, and advocate for holistic healing whose life and career reflect a powerful intersection of healthcare, leadership, resilience, and spirituality. With a background in nursing and community health, she has dedicated her work to serving others while creating innovative spaces that support both physical and emotional well-being. She is the author of Starseed and The Forgiveness Factor, a deeply personal exploration of trauma, transformation, forgiveness, and healing. Through her professional work and spiritual teachings, Dr. Lamar encourages others to move beyond their past, reconnect with their inner strength, and embrace the possibility of a more empowered life. What inspired you to open The Source NY and become the expert you are today? It was through deep pain and a complete emotional breakdown from repetitive personal traumas that I was forced into the dark void. I spent a few years in this void, broken and clinging to threads of hope. Climbing out of the void was profound, as I became more aligned with my spiritual gifts and closer to myself. Opened in 2017, The Source NY is a sacred space that offers all the healing modalities that I worked with throughout my healing journey and continue to use today. How would you describe your core approach to healing and transformation in one sentence? My core approach to healing and transformation comes from my resolute knowing that I am more than just human. Which clients will experience the most meaningful results from working with you? Those who know, deep down, that they are alive because of a higher purpose will connect with my messaging. Often, they are seeking guidance or mentorship as they reclaim their personal power. What is the biggest misconception people have about your field, and how do you debunk it? People who follow a specific organized religion may not be comfortable with the concept of spirituality because they have been conditioned to give their power to authority figures within their faith. Energy-based practices considered nontraditional are often labeled “ungodly.” I don’t try to change the minds of those who aren’t aligned with this messaging. I am not here to change nonbelievers. I am here to empower those who are. Can you walk us through a typical first session and what a client can expect by the end? The first step is assessment. I listen to the client and create a service plan based on the individual’s needs. In-person and virtual sessions are tailored to the person and their goals. As a healthcare provider, my training is in traditional medical science. As a spiritual practitioner, I am connected to the energetic guides around us who want to assist us on our life’s journey. My work blends science and spirituality. Which problem or challenge do you most frequently help your clients overcome? Trusting in their personal power. I am not seeking followers. It is my responsibility to help others regain their personal power and confidence in their choices. What makes your method uniquely effective compared to other integrative or energy-healing practices? My practice is tailored to the individual client, and I offer what I use every day. The modalities that healed me. I do not consider them unique or superior to others. I firmly believe that clients choose based on where their inner voice leads them. Helping others trust their inner voice and the power within them is transformative magic. How do you measure success or progress with your clients, and what signs indicate real change? Success is measured when they no longer need my services, when they trust themselves, let me know that they appreciate me, and are stronger than when we met. It’s very satisfying. What is one transformation story that illustrates the power of your work? I recall a journalist coming to my studio a few years ago to learn more about my work for an article. I offered her an Aura-Soma reading so she could experience the living energies in her life. As with many others, she was moved to tears and couldn’t believe the details of her personal life that I revealed without knowing her history. Soon after this reading, she moved forward with profound, life-changing choices: getting a divorce and reclaiming her power. Many years later, she still reaches out to me in awe of this life-changing moment. For someone sitting on the fence about reaching out, what’s your message to them? Trust your little voice. If it feels right, then do it. I am always happy to answer an email or take a brief call. What’s the next step you’d like a potential client to take if they’re ready to work with you? Breathe and go with the flow. Let go of expectations and trust in the Divine within and around them. It won’t let them down. Follow me on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn for more info! Read more from Dr. Stacey Lamar

Written by Dr. Karen Farhat, Body and Mind Consultancy Dr. Karen Farhat is an integrative psychotherapist and intercultural expert, and founder of Body & Mind Consultancy. Her work explores intercultural psychology, identity, emotional well-being, and the psychology of belonging in an increasingly interconnected world. A satirical confession about addiction, aristocracy, and the gladiator arena hiding inside your local sports club. It started innocently. A friend proposed, “Come play padel. It’s fun. Very social. Easy to pick up.” Fun. Social. Easy. Three lies hidden in beautiful wrapping paper. The gateway The first hit is free, or close to it. Someone lends you a racket. You chase a ball around a glass box. You laugh at yourself. You sweat. You think: This is nice. I should do this more often. Good exercise. Fresh air. Friendly people. You have no idea what you’ve just walked into. Within weeks, you own two rackets. Then three. You tell yourself they’re “for different conditions.” You don’t know what that means. Neither does your bank account. The descent Yes, you get hooked, and then sleep sometimes becomes a dark, foreboding option. Not because you’re playing, but because you’re replaying it again and again. That volley you missed terribly. That lob that went long and you couldn’t catch! Why? Because you were too slow. That moment you moved left when every atom in the universe was screaming, move right. You lie awake at 2 a.m., tossing and turning, prosecuting yourself for a shot you missed at 7 p.m. The jury is the ceiling. The verdict is always guilty. YouTube tutorials at midnight. Grip adjustments and small practice movements as you walk through your living room. Footwork drills to check if you’ve still got it. You watch professionals in slow motion and think: Yes, this is what I was missing. You weren’t missing anything. You were just bad. You’re still bad. But now you’re bad with theoretical knowledge, which is worse. The aristocracy of the court Here’s what no one tells you: Padel has a caste system. Your score is your title. Your Lordship 4.5. Her Ladyship 3.2. God help you if you’re a 1-point-something, because the nobility does not mingle with the peasants. You see it in the WhatsApp groups. The glances when you walk into the club. The furtive whispers. Who’s that? What’s their level? Should we acknowledge them? Are they “worth it”? Someone asks about you. You see the look exchanged between those who’ve seen you play. The slight grimace. The diplomatic pause before: “They’re enthusiastic.” Enthusiastic. The padel word for “peasant.” If your number is low, you’re not just bad at a sport. You’re socially invisible. People who laughed with you at dinner won’t make eye contact on the court. Players you thought were friends suddenly have “scheduling conflicts” that last for months. If you’re bigger? If your body doesn’t fit the mould? They’ve already decided your ranking before you’ve hit a ball. The judgment comes preloaded. You have to win twice as hard just to be seen as half as good. The targeting Here’s where the gladiators enter. A doubles game is a democracy for exactly thirty seconds, until someone identifies the weak link. Then it becomes an execution. Every ball comes to you, every smash aimed at your feet. Your partner’s silence grows louder with each point you lose. You’re not playing together anymore. You’re just the wounded animal the lions have separated from the herd. The viewers, sorry, the people “waiting for the next court,” aren’t watching the game. They’re watching you, calculating, judging, and filing away little mental notes for the WhatsApp tribunal later. They sum up your value as an asset or a liability. Am I playing for the Olympics? you think. Is there prize money I don’t know about? Did I miss a memo about life-or-death stakes? The partner problem Win, and you’re a great team. Lose, and you’re a defendant. Then comes the silence after a lost game. Suddenly, the message never appears. The next invitation goes to someone else, and you feel it in your gut. Your partner doesn’t break up with you. No, they just stop choosing you. They don’t want to play with you anymore, as if you are a 6-year-old. You find out through the algorithm. Through the booking app. Through the group chat you’re suddenly seeing less of. Or worse: They stay, but they stop speaking. A “tsk” after your bad shot. Or a “puhhh.” Do you know how intimidating that tiny sound can feel? A grimace you catch in your peripheral vision. The energy shifts. You can feel the disappointment radiating off them like heat from asphalt. They’re physically present and emotionally in divorce proceedings. You start apologising pre-emptively. “Sorry,” you say before the point even starts. You’re sorry for existing on their side of the net. The primal sounds The women, I say this as an observation, not an accusation, can be even more terrifying. The men shout. The men swear. The men blame. The men are obvious. But the women? The women have sounds. A sharp exhale. A click of the tongue. A “tsk” that could shatter the glass walls it bounces off. Or an icy comment that drips with menacing undertones, said in a “feminine voice.” No words needed. The grimace says everything. The energy shifts like the weather. One moment, you’re partners. The next, you’re standing in an arctic front, wondering what you did. These are not learned behaviours. These are ancient. Primal. Something unlocked from deep in the brainstem, where competition lived before language existed. Let the games begin Then come the tournaments. The Americano. The Mexicano. The Any-Other-Ano. Let the games begin. You could play the Game of Thrones theme as people walk onto the court, and it wouldn’t feel out of place. Alliances form. Alliances shatter. Your partner from Round 1 is your opponent in Round 3, and suddenly you’re both pretending the last hour didn’t happen. I don’t know who invented the rankings, but they shift dramatically in real time. You watch yourself fall on the leaderboard, it’s all you can think of, like a stock price during a market crash. Someone you beat twenty minutes ago is now above you because mathematics is also your enemy. They clap. But do they mean it, or are they trying to make you feel better? The Americano is particularly cruel. Rotating partners means rotating judgments. Everyone plays with everyone, which means everyone has an opinion about everyone. By the end, the WhatsApp groups are burning with hot takes. Reputations are made and destroyed over three hours on a Sunday. The addiction Here’s the confession: I know all of this. I see it clearly. The absurdity. The social theatre. The sleep deprivation. The money spent on rackets I don’t need and coaching I forget immediately. The heart palpitations, the high when you win and your ranking goes up, and the low when you lose and the dreaded lower ranking is posted. Your life depends on that moment. It’s a short-lived second that determines the rest of your day or week. I check the booking app like it’s a slot machine. I feel genuine stress when I hear about good players joining my club. I have opinions about overgrips. Strong opinions. Opinions I would defend with my life. Fun? I don’t remember what fun feels like. This is something else. This is survival of the fittest. This is proving something to people I didn’t know existed two years ago and whose opinions should not matter, yet somehow do. Everything you have accomplished or studied for in life doesn’t matter compared to that “padel game.” The underworld Padel reveals people. Really, it does. The charming dinner guest who screams at line calls. The generous friend who suddenly can’t see that the ball was in, argues with you, and points again and again to force their opinion. The colleague who talks about teamwork at the office and then blames their partner for everything on the court. The sport doesn’t create these people. It just removes the mask. Under pressure, with a score on the line and people watching, you see who someone really is: friend or foe. Maybe that’s why it’s addictive. Not the game itself. But the unmasking. An anthropological study happening in real time inside a glass box. Or maybe I’m just justifying my own descent. No resolution I should end this with wisdom. With a lesson learned. With “I quit and found peace” or “I accepted my level, and now I play for fun.” But I’d be lying. Truthfully, I have three WhatsApp groups open. There’s a game tomorrow that I’m already nervous about, and I’m thinking about whether I should back off, but that’s a “sin” in padel and another story for another day. I bought a new racket last week because someone said it had “better control” and that they started playing better. I believed them because I’ll believe anything now. The aristocracy still doesn’t see me. My score is my shame. I replay my mistakes at night and optimise my grip in the morning. This is the underworld. This is Hades’ world. This is what the beautiful ad didn’t mention. If you’ll excuse me, someone just posted a court slot for Thursday, and I need to book it before the nobles do. They said it was just a sport. They lied. Follow me on Facebook, Instagram, and visit my website for more info! Read more from Dr. Karen Farhat Dr. Karen Farhat, Body and Mind Consultancy Dr. Karen Farhat is an integrative psychotherapist, relationship expert, and intercultural specialist, and the founder of Body & Mind Consultancy, an online and in-person practice serving clients in Cyprus and worldwide. She is recognised as a pioneering voice in integrative psychotherapy and works with expats, people living between countries and cultures, and intercultural couples on identity, emotional wellbeing, relationships, and the psychology of belonging across cultures. In 2025, she received a Global Recognition Award for mentoring and leadership in mental health and wellbeing and a Bronze Stevie Award for Female Entrepreneur of the Year, recognising her impact as a purpose-driven founder in the wellbeing space.

Written by: Tori Johnson, Wellness Educator & Consultant For many years, my professional work has been guided by one fundamental question: What allows a person not simply to recover, but to truly thrive? My journey began in education and evolved into clinical psychotherapy, private practice, and continued exploration of integrative approaches to human well-being. Over time, I became increasingly aware that human beings cannot be understood through isolated symptoms, diagnoses, or behaviors alone. We are shaped by our experiences, relationships, environment, habits, beliefs, physical health, and sense of meaning, with each dimension influencing the way we experience ourselves and the world around us. This understanding has shaped my professional philosophy: meaningful and sustainable transformation requires us to look beyond what is wrong and explore what has happened, what influences the individual today, what gives life meaning, and what conditions allow a person to flourish. This is where the Japanese concept of Ikigai becomes an important part of the conversation. Moving beyond symptom management toward meaning Modern healthcare has made remarkable progress in understanding illness and developing effective approaches to treatment. However, many of the challenges people experience cannot be fully understood by looking at one area of life alone. Stress, emotional patterns, lifestyle choices, relationships, identity shifts, and questions of meaning are often interconnected. A person may improve their sleep, nutrition, movement, or stress management and still feel that something deeper is missing. At some point, many people begin asking themselves questions they may not have considered before: Is the life I have created still aligned with who I am becoming? What truly matters to me now? What direction do I want to move toward? These questions often emerge during times of transition. A career changes, a relationship shifts, children leave home, retirement approaches, or unexpected circumstances reshape the future someone had imagined. In my work, I have seen that these moments are not always signs that something is wrong. Sometimes they represent an invitation to pause, reflect, and reconsider what the next chapter of life could look like. Understanding Ikigai beyond the simplified formula Ikigai is often introduced in Western wellness culture through a simplified model involving passion, profession, mission, and vocation. While this interpretation can provide a useful starting point, the broader Japanese meaning is more nuanced. Ikigai refers to that which makes life feel worthwhile: the people, activities, responsibilities, experiences, and contributions that give a person a reason to engage with life. Rather than being a destination that someone reaches once and completes forever, Ikigai can be understood as an ongoing exploration of what creates meaning and connection. Within my work, Ikigai is not presented as a formula that provides one perfect answer. Instead, it is a reflective framework that encourages individuals to explore deeper questions about themselves and the life they want to create. What gives my life meaning? What strengths remain available to me? Where do I experience connection? What am I curious about? What can I contribute? What kind of life am I intentionally creating? Exploring these questions allows individuals to reconnect with their values, recognize their strengths, and create a greater sense of alignment between who they are and how they choose to live. Purpose as a dimension of wellness Purpose is one of the most important, yet sometimes overlooked, dimensions of well-being. Many conversations about health focus on what can be measured: habits, routines, physical health, productivity, and performance. These areas matter, but they do not always answer the deeper human need for meaning and direction. A person may know exactly what changes they want to make, yet still struggle to sustain them if those changes feel disconnected from who they are and what they value. Purpose influences the choices we make, the relationships we build, and the way we understand our own lives. When people feel connected to what matters to them, creating sustainable change often becomes more natural. This is why a whole-person approach asks not only: “What is wrong? but also: “What allows this person to grow, connect, and live more intentionally?” By expanding the question, we move beyond simply managing problems and begin understanding the person behind them. Alchemy as a framework for transformation Alongside Ikigai, I use alchemy as a metaphor for human transformation. Historically, alchemy represented the process of transforming one substance into another. In a psychological and philosophical sense, it provides a powerful image for how individuals can work with their experiences and create something meaningful from them. Transformation does not require becoming someone entirely different. It does not require rejecting the past or pretending that difficult experiences never happened. Instead, transformation asks us to consider what can be created from everything we have lived through. Our challenges, losses, relationships, successes, and periods of uncertainty all become part of the material from which we continue to grow. This does not mean romanticizing adversity. Pain does not automatically create growth, and difficult experiences should not be viewed as valuable simply because they happened. Transformation requires awareness and intention. It involves examining our experiences, understanding their impact, integrating what we have learned, and choosing how we want to move forward. Alchemy becomes the movement from experience to understanding, from understanding to intention, and from intention to purposeful action. Creating space for reflection through Pure Alchemy These ideas are not only concepts explored through my professional work and writing. They are also the foundation behind Pure Alchemy, a vision that brings together education, reflection, nature, purpose, and integrative wellness. Developed in the mountains and tropical landscape of Costa Rica, Pure Alchemy is designed as a space where individuals can step away from everyday demands and reconnect with themselves through learning, reflection, and intentional experiences. The purpose is not to create an escape from life, but to create space to understand life differently. Pure Alchemy is not intended to replace medical or mental health care. Instead, it exists in the space between traditional treatment and ordinary tourism, offering opportunities for education, personal development, professional renewal, creativity, and meaningful reflection. Many people arrive at transition points not because something is necessarily broken, but because the life they have created no longer fully reflects the life they want to live. Through guided reflection, journaling, education, discussion, and intentional time away from everyday routines, individuals can begin exploring deeper questions: What am I carrying that I no longer need? What has this chapter of my life taught me? What deserves my energy next? How do I want to intentionally shape the life ahead of me? In this setting, nature is not simply a beautiful backdrop. It becomes part of the reflective process. Time away from familiar routines can create the space people need to slow down, reconnect, and listen to what matters. Creating a life where wellness has somewhere meaningful to lead Ultimately, wellness is not simply about feeling better. It is about creating a life where our health, values, relationships, behaviors, environment, and sense of purpose support one another. When these areas become disconnected, even positive changes can become difficult to maintain. Health can become another collection of goals to achieve, while purpose without attention to overall well-being may become difficult to sustain. A meaningful life requires more than insight alone. It requires reflection, action, and choices that align with what matters most. When we begin viewing ourselves as whole human beings rather than collections of problems to solve, we create opportunities for deeper understanding, meaningful change, and purposeful living. The question is not simply: How do we help people feel better? It is: How do we help people build lives in which wellness has somewhere meaningful to lead? From philosophy to experience: Pure Alchemy The ideas behind Ikigai, purpose, and whole-person wellness are also shaping the development of Pure Alchemy, an educational and retreat environment being created in the mountains and tropical landscape of Costa Rica. The vision behind Pure Alchemy is to create a space where reflection, learning, nature, and personal growth can come together. Rather than offering an escape from everyday life, the intention is to create an environment where individuals can step away from familiar routines, reconnect with themselves, and explore the questions that often emerge during times of transition. Through educational experiences, purpose-focused programs, guided reflection, and intentional time in nature, Pure Alchemy aims to bring the principles of whole-person wellness into a tangible experience. At its core, Pure Alchemy represents the same philosophy that guides my professional work: that meaningful transformation begins when people have the space to understand their experiences, reconnect with what matters, and intentionally shape the life they want to create. If you would like to get in contact with Tori, please email: Mindwisecounsel@gmail.com About Tori Johnson Tori Johnson, MS, is an Integrative Wellness Educator and Consultant whose work explores the connection between psychology, neuroscience, mindfulness, purpose, nutrition, and whole-person wellness. Her professional journey began in education and evolved into clinical psychotherapy, private practice, and continued exploration of integrative approaches to human well-being. Her work examines how experiences, relationships, lifestyle factors, environment, and meaning influence the way individuals understand themselves and create meaningful change. She is the founder of Pure Alchemy, an educational and wellness initiative in Costa Rica focused on reflection, learning, nature, and purposeful living. Through her writing, programs, and professional work, Tori helps individuals navigate life transitions, reconnect with their values, and explore new possibilities for intentional living. Her philosophy is rooted in the belief that transformation does not require becoming someone entirely different. Instead, it involves understanding the experiences that have shaped us, discovering what matters most, and creating the conditions that allow human potential to continue unfolding.

Dubai, UAE – September 9, 2026 – GAIA Culture, a cultural-technology platform, has marked its UAE entry by unveiling contemporary visual artist Noor Bahjat as the first pioneer in the Middle East to adopt a tokenized brand-equity financing model. The initiative stems from a three-party collaboration between Bahjat, GAIA Culture, and creative consultancy Zein Zone, aimed at building a sustainable ecosystem for emerging talent in the region through innovative financing, brand strategy, investor access, partnerships, and public engagement. Transforming culture into capital GAIA Culture utilizes Artificial Intelligence (AI) and blockchain technology to convert artists’ brand equity into an investable asset class. By enabling patrons to acquire fractional shares in an artist’s career trajectory, the platform provides early-stage capital while delivering transparent, lasting alignment between creators and investors. Selected for the European Institute of Innovation and Technology’s (EIT) Culture and Creativity Accelerator and having structured over €3.8 million during its proof of concept, GAIA Culture is now establishing its footprint in the Middle East, with the long-term vision of partnering with local financial institutions to make investing in regional talent as simple as buying traditional stocks through digital banking apps. “While GAIA Culture originated in Europe, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) is the ultimate launchpad for the next phase of our international growth. The country’s forward-thinking framework for digital assets, combined with its thriving creative economy and appetite for financial innovation, makes it the ideal environment to scale our vision,” said Patricia Paulina Karrer, Founder of GAIA Culture. “Partnering with Zein Zone and an exceptional talent like Noor Bahjat allows us to transform how artists are financed, turning cultural impact into long-term capital while offering investors a tangible stake in the future of Middle Eastern art.” Turning artists into assets As the flagship artist for this Middle East rollout, UAE-based Syrian artist and art educator Noor Bahjat brings a powerful creative legacy. A Damascus University honors graduate, her surrealist, expressionist self-portraits challenge traditional perspective to explore human connection, female empowerment, and nature. Her works reside in major collections across Europe, Asia, and the Middle East, bolstered by milestones including the Ayyam Gallery residency and representing Syria at Expo 2020 Dubai. “Art has always been my medium for questioning the human condition and championing female empowerment,” said Noor Bahjat. “Traditionally, artists are expected to rely on sporadic, one-off sales to sustain their careers. Embracing tokenized brand equity changes that dynamic completely, giving me the financial stability and creative freedom to shape meaningful collaborations, and continue mentoring the next generation of regional talent while pushing my visual practice into new realms." Creating a sustainable cultural ecosystem Facilitated by Zein Zone, this venture merges financial innovation, creative strategy, and cultural impact. Backed by two decades of founder-led regional and international expertise in strategic communications and cultural management, Zein Zone bridged the collaboration to ensure artists receive not only capital, but the brand architecture, partnerships, and engagement experiences required to thrive and drive social impact. “True cultural growth requires an ecosystem where creativity, capital, and brand strategy align,” said Zaina Kourki, Founder of Zein Zone. “By uniting Noor’s artistic voice with GAIA Culture’s financial infrastructure, we are helping build the narrative depth and regional cultural intelligence needed to bring this collaboration to life. Together, we are pioneering a sustainable model for the region's creative economy, placing Arab culture and regional talent at the center of global innovation.” Building on the strategic alliance established between GAIA Culture and Zein Zone in February 2026, the collaboration with Bahjat will be highlighted as part of panel discussions at the Al Quoz Creative Entrepreneurship Forum, organized by Dubai Culture. This precedes the official release of Bahjat’s tokens in the fourth quarter (Q4) 2026, to be followed by interactive public activations, brand partnerships, and community events. About Noor Bahjat Noor Bahjat is a Syrian contemporary visual artist and art educator. Graduating with honors from Damascus University, she presents distinct surrealist-expressionist works featuring figurative self-portraits and atmospheric canvases. Using a recurring female protagonist within narrative-driven compositions, her art incorporates vibrant palettes and elements of nature to explore the subconscious, human connections, and the intricacies of life. Her acclaimed work is featured in prestigious global collections. Learn more here. About GAIA Culture GAIA Culture is a cultural-technology platform building the infrastructure to make artists’ brand equity investable at scale. The platform tokenizes an artist’s long-term cultural brand equity through an AI-driven valuation system and blockchain technology, unlocking new financing models for artists and transparent participation for patrons and investors. GAIA Culture enables early-stage financing, long-term value generation, and measurable alignment between an artist’s career trajectory and stakeholder participation. Learn more here. About Zein Zone Shaped by a vision where culture inspires connection, Zein Zone is a creative consultancy helping brands and cultural organizations grow their reach and impact through strategic communications, partnerships, and experiences. Rooted in the Middle East and backed by two decades of founder-led global expertise, we partner with ambitious founders, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs), and corporates across sectors to build regional presence, bridge public-private collaborations, and drive social impact. Learn more here. Media contact Email: info@zeinzone.com

Richard Bennett of Calibre Performance Coaching is a Strength & Conditioning Coach and Personal Trainer delivering sessions from Athena Performance, Redditch. He has over 15 years' experience and has trained people of all backgrounds, from professionals looking to improve their health & fitness to pro athletes, including Dylan Norman, Simon Ibekwe & Jay Van Gelder, who all added Strength and Conditioning (S&C) to improve their performance inside the boxing ring. Whilst many fitness coaches follow fads and sell aesthetics, Rich believes in sustainable performance-related training to get long-term benefits. In this interview, Rich breaks down his approach to fitness, what people misunderstand about strength training, and the practical skills anyone can use to get results more efficiently. Richard Bennett, Personal Trainer, Strength & Conditioning Coach What led you from combat sports into building a career in strength and conditioning and personal training? I started training in the gym when I was kickboxing and boxing. I first went to develop my strength and add power to my strikes, and then added fitness and conditioning into my training too. Although I was certainly not training optimally at the time, I enjoyed the benefits that I felt both in my sport and outside in day-to-day life. My strength & fitness improved, and so, after passing my boxing coaching qualification, I pursued further qualifications in the fitness industry, primarily to add to my knowledge. This later led me down the path of continued development until my role became a Personal Trainer (PT) and Strength and Conditioning (S&C) coach. Following on from my Personal Training qualification, I completed my Level 4 Strength & Conditioning Qualification and completed many other vocational qualifications and mentorships. Academically, I continued my development by studying a Diploma of Higher Education (DipHE) in Sport & Fitness. I am currently finishing a Bachelor of Science (BSc) in Strength, Conditioning & Sports Nutrition. I now get to see the application of years of study and practice through coaching my many clients and athletes, including professional fighters, helping them with goals both similar to and different from my own previous goals. After more than 15 years of coaching, what has most changed the way you assess and programme for a client? Early on, I leaned heavily on what I’d learned on courses and applied fairly standard programming based on this. Over time, and especially through mentorships and networking with elite coaches, I moved away from generic commercial gym PT programs and bodybuilding-style plans towards programming that follows key principles rooted in science, looking at how someone actually moves, what their life outside the gym demands of them, and what their body can currently tolerate, rather than what everyone else is doing at the gym. Performance testing and objective data, such as velocity-based training, have also changed things. I can now combine this with autoregulation and track how a client or athlete is actually responding in real time and adjust things, rather than simply guessing. Another shift has been recognising that someone's life outside the gym matters as much as anything I put on them in a session. Stress levels and poor recovery can have a huge impact. Any programme that ignores this isn’t as effective, no matter how good it looks on paper. How does coaching everyone from complete beginners to professional boxers influence the way you think about effective training? The diversity of my current and previous clients keeps me honest about what actually matters. Coaching beginners has forced me to base sessions on the fundamentals and have a deep conviction about why any exercise prescribed has earned its place. At the other end of the spectrum, the professional boxers I work with (Dylan Norman, Simon Ibekwe & Jay Van Gelder) need more precision. Their sport already demands huge training volumes, so anything I add in the gym has to reap rewards without costing them much-needed recovery for their sport-specific sessions. I learnt from mentors that "the methods are many, but the principles are few." When coaching at both ends of the spectrum, the underlying principles don’t actually change, only the scale and context do. Progressive overload, key movement patterns, adequate recovery, periodisation, and an understanding of clients' needs are key when training anybody. If anything, working with elite athletes has taught me to strip things back to basics further. This is because the margins are smaller and there is less room for wasted effort. That translates directly into simpler, more effective programming for everyone I work with. Why do you favour minimal effective doses over the idea that more training automatically produces better results? The ability for anyone to recover is finite, and for most of my clients, training is one part of a much bigger life. They all have a lot to manage: a job, a business, family & partners. Other stresses have an impact. Piling on more and more volume until someone hits a point they can't actually recover from doesn’t yield better results; it produces burnout, injury, and people quitting. I see this also with the athletes I work with. Their sport already demands hours and hours of training, so my job as their S&C coach is to stimulate, not annihilate. I need to add enough to get the specific stimulus we are looking for to improve their performance without causing overtraining. This same logic actually applies to a busy professional client: give them the right dose they can manage consistently, and they get real, lasting results without their life having to revolve around the gym. Going against the grain of many people in the fitness industry here, but more isn’t better – better is better. That’s a key principle I programme around, whether I’m working with a beginner or a fighter heading into a big fight. What do you think the fitness industry gets wrong when it prioritises trends, aesthetics, and novelty over performance and quality of life? Training for aesthetics or bodybuilding often prioritises short-sighted vanity gains at any cost and ignores long-term health. This can lead to many issues: poor self-image, unrealistic expectations, disordered eating, and Performance Enhancing Drug (P.E.D.) use. My approach is to focus on performance and then, by default, as well as moving better and feeling better; when training is combined with sustainable, healthier lifestyle choices, they will look better too. Novelty for its own sake is a big problem in the fitness sphere. Exercises are often chosen because they’re impressive on film rather than because they serve an actual outcome that meets a goal. I build programmes around repetition and progression of key movements, and I use strength and conditioning programming to improve how someone moves, in sport or in life, and how they feel day to day. This holds up over months and years, and still lets them enjoy their training rather than dread smashing their bodies. This is a far better return than any "transformation programme" built to impress by malnourishing someone for six weeks. What does an efficient training programme look like for a busy professional who wants meaningful results without living in the gym? The most important decision I ask a client to make upfront is a realistic commitment to the frequency of training. To start, we often build a programme with only a couple of sessions a week. A client can actually sustain this, rather than asking for too much on an idealised schedule they won't adhere to. Compound movements make up the "skeleton" of any good programme, and when time is a factor, we strip things back to these movements: Push, Pull, Hinge, Squat, Rotate, etc. These movements will carry over into real-life strength. A great tool is supersets, where exercises share a rest, as they are a great way to get more exercises into an hour of lifting. I then sprinkle in efficient conditioning that is appropriate for the client's starting fitness level for heart health and day-to-day fitness. Enjoyment comes into this too, as it can increase adherence and buy-in to the process. Some clients enjoy boxing pad work, so I offer this as a service too. I track a small number of metrics rather than overcomplicating things with loads of data, and then I factor in what’s happening outside the gym because that determines how much a client can actually do. Efficient does not mean lazy training. Efficient means everything that's in the session has a justification, and the plan fits someone’s life rather than life having to fit around the gym. How do you decide which exercises and training methods genuinely deserve a place in a client’s programme? After assessing if they have any existing injuries or medical conditions that may inform me of movements to avoid, I assess their current movement quality on lifts whilst being conservative with load and using Rate of Perceived Exertion (RPE) to adjust the load. From there, I can regress or progress movements as required to find the best option for the client in front of me. Thinking on my feet is part of the initial process, as I assess as we go and adapt appropriately. Another quote from a S&C mentor of mine, "train the adaptation, not the exercise," is insightful here. Exercises are selected for what they will do for the person in front of me, with a clear rationale to address something specific, not because it is trending or looks impressive. The exercises selected must sustainably fit into that person’s long-term plan, not just this week’s session. Whether it's a strength exercise, a conditioning plan, or a boxing drill, this should always be the case in my opinion. If I can’t explain clearly why something is in a programme, it won't go in the plan. There is no such thing as a bad exercise; however, not every exercise deserves a space in anyone's programme. Context is key. What does training for performance and quality of life mean to you personally as a coach? This links back to the first question. I started in the gym to improve my performance in combat sports. This then led to me feeling better in everyday life: more resilience, more energy, and feeling capable rather than focusing on simple vanity measures about looking a certain way. That is what I want for my clients too, wherever they started and wherever they are on their journey. For a professional boxer, performance is obvious; it’s visible in the ring. But for a general population client, whilst less visible, it's just as real: being strong enough for whatever life throws at them, recovering well, and not being limited by their own body. Coaching people towards that, rather than towards a short-term aesthetic goal, is what makes this work meaningful to me. Watching a client carry that strength and capability into the rest of their life is a far bigger reward than any before-and-after photo. If someone is choosing a coach for long-term results, what should they look for beyond qualifications and impressive workouts? Solid credentials matter, but they only ever tell you half the story. Letters after your name may demonstrate knowledge but don't show application, adaptability or a person-centred approach. A deeper understanding of the principles of training and awareness of scaling exercises to your body and your goals would be best. A coach or personal trainer should be able to explain their process and how things will progress along the journey, focusing on the long-term results with realistic commitment. I would advise people to avoid "transformation coaches' with large client turnovers and a focus on quick, Instagrammable results, as well as any trainers not staying in their lane and acting like nutritionists, life coaches, or gurus in anything they are inadequately qualified or experienced in. An ongoing coaching relationship matters more than how tough a solitary session is if you want results that endure. If that sounds like what you’re looking for, you can find me for 1-1 coaching at Calibre Performance Coaching, or at Athena Performance if group personal training suits you better. Follow me on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn for more info! Read more from Richard Bennett

Written by Simon Adair, Founder of Crisis Pathway Consultancy Simon Adair has spent his career in environments where getting it wrong wasn't an option, from covert intelligence operations to leading crisis response for one of the world's best-known broadcasters. As the founder of Crisis Pathway Consultancy, he helps leaders bridge the gap between perceived and actual preparedness. I like to ask any corporate board: if a major disruption hit tomorrow, do you truly know which activities and processes you must protect to remain viable? Not everything, not every system, just the absolute minimum your organisation cannot afford to lose. In my experience, many large organisations struggle to answer that question confidently. Not because they lack capable people, but because they rarely frame the question in a way that yields a clear, enterprise-wide answer. The world is becoming increasingly unpredictable: geopolitical tensions, cyberattacks, supply chain fragility, power outages, and third-party failures are now routine features of the operating environment. For organisations with vast international portfolios, the scale of risk can feel overwhelming. Awareness and preparedness help, but only when grounded in the right foundations. Too often, resilience still begins with a familiar ritual: "Let's run a scenario and see how we respond." It's usually intended to reassure the organisation, not to test it. But that's the wrong place to start, and it's often too early in the journey to ask the right questions or spend money wisely. Here's why. A simulation isn't resilience, it simply tests whether people know the plan and how they respond to a scenario. But without first clarifying what matters across the whole enterprise, you have no basis for judging whether the response was good enough. You're testing reflexes without knowing what they're supposed to protect. Critical means something different Every part of the organisation has its own view of what's "critical", but as the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 22301 confirm, consistent thresholds matter. In a large company, each department has its own essential tasks. Finance has many, so do Operations and Technology. Every team believes its list is crucial, though each reflects its own perspective. The Board's job isn't to collect those lists, it's to ask the harder question underneath them: Critical to whom, and critical enough to protect with genuinely limited resources when the organisation is in a systemic crisis, not a departmental one? I've been in the room where those lists converge, where Technology's vital systems, Operations' key processes, and Finance's essential controls compete for scarce recovery resources in the first few hours of a real event. Without a clear, organisation-wide understanding of the true Minimum Viable Product (MVP), the loudest voices often win, not those the business actually needs. Crown jewels, MVP, and the dependency chain beneath them If you haven't identified your organisation's ‘Crown Jewels’ (the handful of things whose loss would be existential rather than merely damaging), what exactly are your resilience investments protecting? If you don't know your MVP, how do you know what must keep running when everything else is triaged away? If you haven't mapped the dependencies of that MVP, including the people, technology, data, suppliers, facilities, and third parties involved, and what they depend on, how would you ever find your real vulnerabilities? In a large organisation, that dependency chain is rarely a tidy org chart. It runs through outsourced IT, a single data centre serving three continents, and a supplier that depends on another supplier nobody in the room has ever heard of. Mapping it properly at enterprise scale is hard work, and it's the only way the MVP becomes meaningful in practice, not just a slide in a governance pack. Business continuity and resilience are not the same This is why large organisations need to rethink the relationship between business continuity and resilience. Business continuity asks: How do we maintain or restore our critical activities when things go wrong? It's a necessary discipline, and most corporates have invested heavily in it. Resilience poses a bigger question: Can we absorb disruption, adapt to what we didn't anticipate, and still deliver what matters most, even when the disruption doesn't align with the continuity plans? At enterprise scale, that difference isn't academic. A continuity plan built on known scenarios and predefined critical activities can appear comprehensive, yet still leave the organisation exposed if its assumptions haven't been stress-tested against a genuinely novel, cross-functional event. So instead of asking, "What scenario should we practise next?" I'd put these questions to your Board: What must we protect if almost everything else fails, and how long could we survive without it? What would actually stop us delivering it? Where are our single points of failure, including those buried three tiers down in the supply chain? Which assumptions in our continuity plans have quietly stopped being true as the business has grown or restructured? The hardest one: If tomorrow's disruption looked nothing like anything we've trained for, would we actually know what to do? Resilience is never about predicting the next crisis. It's about knowing what matters when everything goes off script. In a large organisation, "everything" covers far more ground than any single scenario can rehearse. The real question is risk appetite Answer those questions properly, and something shifts: you stop talking about resilience in the abstract and start looking at the real, measurable gap between what you can currently sustain and what full resilience would require. I've seen that gap once it's properly measured. In one case, we began with more than 500 supposed critical processes and ended with sixty – the difference between what the business assumed was essential and what was actually essential. Once visible, that gap is what the Board is really deciding on. Closing that gap entirely is possible, in theory, if you're willing to invest enough time, effort, and money. Most Boards don't actually want that: wanting to be resilient in everything is itself a decision, and a very low risk appetite dressed up as a virtue that rarely survives the next budget cycle. The honest question isn't "Are we resilient?" It's "How much of this gap are we choosing to close, and how much are we choosing to accept?" That's a risk appetite decision, not a technical one, and it belongs with the Board because only the Board can weigh cost against what it's willing to live with. The harder job: Prioritising the gaps Even that decision doesn't settle it. A list of sixty or six hundred gaps doesn't arrive one at a time, each with its own cost, timeframe, and owner, all competing for the same limited budget. Saying yes to resilience in principle is easy. Deciding which gaps to fund this year, which to partially address, and which to accept as risk is the real work: not "should we be resilient" but "where does the effort go first, and who decides?" Get that wrong, and the organisation ends up resilient wherever it is shouted loudest in the boardroom, not where it matters most when disruption hits. At Crisis Pathway, we help clients uncover the real strength within complex organisations: their critical activities, their MVP, and the dependencies beneath them, and then turn that picture into a risk appetite and investment conversation, not a slide in a governance pack. Don't start with the scenario. Start with what you cannot afford to lose, then deliberately decide what you can. Follow me on Instagram, LinkedIn, and visit my website for more info! Read more from Simon Adair Simon Adair, Founder of Crisis Pathway Consultancy Simon Adair is a crisis leadership specialist, executive coach, and founder of Crisis Pathway Consultancy. His career spans the Royal Marines, British Intelligence, British Telecommunications (BT), the National Basketball Association (NBA), and the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), where he led the corporate crisis response. He holds an Executive Master of Business Administration (MBA) and is a Chartered Manager Fellow. Through Crisis Pathway, he partners with organisations to strengthen crisis preparedness, leadership resilience, and organisational readiness.

Written by Samantha Roach, Integrative Counsellor Samantha Roach is an Integrative Counsellor, author, speaker, and founder of Beauty for Ashes Ministry and Brokenness to Hope CIC (Community Interest Company). Through counselling, workshops, and community programmes, she helps individuals move from trauma, grief, and emotional pain toward healing, hope, and personal transformation. Have you ever looked back at a relationship and wondered, Why did I stay? Why did I accept that? Why didn't I believe I deserved better? I have. For a long time, I didn't understand that some of the choices I made in adulthood were connected to wounds that began much earlier in my life. When you grow up experiencing trauma, rejection, abuse, or a lack of emotional safety, it can affect more than your childhood. It can shape what you believe love looks like, what you tolerate from others and, perhaps most importantly, what you believe you deserve. This became an important part of my own journey from brokenness to hope. Healing helped me understand something I wish I had known much earlier: Sometimes we don't choose what is healthy. We choose what feels familiar. Here are seven ways childhood wounds can quietly influence our adult relationships: 1. Unhealthy love can feel familiar As children, our earliest experiences help shape our understanding of relationships. If love was mixed with fear, rejection, inconsistency, or pain, those experiences can become familiar. Then, as adults, we may find ourselves drawn towards relationships that recreate similar emotional patterns, not because we consciously want to be hurt, but because familiarity can sometimes be mistaken for connection. For me, understanding this was an important part of healing. I began to recognise that familiar didn't necessarily mean healthy. 2. You may believe you have to earn love When love, attention, or affection felt conditional growing up, you may enter adulthood believing you have to work for love. You become the giver. The fixer. The one who keeps everyone happy. You may constantly put other people's needs before your own because, somewhere inside, you believe: If I do enough, maybe they won't leave. But healthy love shouldn't require you to lose yourself in order to keep someone else. 3. Rejection can feel bigger than the moment A delayed message, disagreement, or change in someone's behaviour might seem small to another person, but when you carry a wound of rejection, it can feel much bigger. The present situation can awaken something from the past. You aren't necessarily responding only to what is happening now. An old wound may also be speaking. Part of healing is learning to recognise the difference between what is happening now and what happened then. That awareness can change the way we respond. 4. You can ignore red flags because you've survived worse When you have experienced difficult things in childhood, your tolerance for unhealthy behaviour can become very high. You may tell yourself: "It's not that bad." "I can handle it." "They'll change." "I've been through worse." I understand what it means to survive difficult experiences, but healing taught me that being able to endure something doesn't mean I should have to accept it. Strength isn't only about what you can survive. Sometimes strength is recognising what you no longer need to tolerate. 5. Boundaries can feel like rejection For someone who fears abandonment, setting boundaries can feel frightening. You may worry that saying no will make someone angry, disappoint them, or cause them to leave. So you say yes when you really want to say no. You remain silent when something hurts. You keep giving when you are emotionally exhausted. Healing helped me understand that boundaries aren't about punishing or rejecting people. Healthy boundaries help us recognise where our responsibility ends, and another person's begins. You can love someone and still have boundaries. 6. You may lose yourself in relationships When you've spent years trying to feel accepted, it can become easy to shape yourself around other people. Their needs become your needs. Their happiness becomes your responsibility. Their opinion begins to determine how you feel about yourself. Before long, you can lose sight of your own voice. One of the most important parts of my healing journey has been rediscovering who I am, not simply in relation to other people, but as a woman with my own identity, value, voice, and purpose. For me, my faith has also been central to that journey. I began to understand that my identity is in Christ and that my worth wasn't something another person could give me or take away. 7. You may struggle to receive healthy love Sometimes we talk so much about leaving unhealthy relationships that we forget another part of healing: learning how to receive healthy love. When you've been hurt, genuine kindness can feel unfamiliar. Consistency can feel strange. Being treated with respect may even make you question someone's motives. Healing requires us not only to recognise unhealthy patterns but also to learn that safe, respectful, and consistent love is something we are worthy of receiving. That has been an important lesson in my own life. Healing changes what you accept As I began writing my memoir, From Brokenness to Hope, I could see more clearly how different chapters of my life were connected. The childhood wounds, silence, rejection, relationships, and survival. Eventually, the healing. There were times when I accepted things because I didn't yet recognise my own value. Today, I can look back at that woman with compassion rather than judgement. She made decisions based on what she understood at the time. Healing gave her something different. A voice. Boundaries. Self-awareness. Faith. A deeper understanding of her worth. Three questions to ask yourself If any part of this article resonates with you, consider these questions: What did my childhood teach me about love? Are there behaviours I tolerate because they feel familiar rather than healthy? What would my relationships look like if I truly believed I deserved love, respect, and emotional safety? Don't rush your answers. Sometimes the questions we find most difficult to answer reveal the places that still need our compassion and attention. You don't have to repeat what you experienced One of the greatest lessons I've learned is that understanding where our patterns come from gives us an opportunity to change them. Our childhood may influence us, but it doesn't have to dictate the rest of our lives. We can learn new ways of relating. We can develop boundaries. We can rediscover our voice. We can challenge beliefs that tell us we're not enough. We can learn to recognise healthy love. My journey from brokenness to hope has taught me that healing isn't about pretending the past didn't happen. It's about refusing to allow what happened to you to determine what you believe you deserve today. Your past may have shaped your understanding of love, but healing can teach you a new way to receive it. Follow me on Instagram, LinkedIn, and visit my website for more info! Read more from Samantha Roach Samantha Roach, Integrative Counsellor Samantha Roach is an ACC-registered Integrative Counsellor, author of From Brokenness to Hope, speaker, and founder of Beauty for Ashes Ministry and Brokenness to Hope CIC (Community Interest Company). Having overcome childhood abuse, addiction, trauma, and profound personal loss, she is passionate about helping others find healing and restoration. With over 1,000 counselling hours and extensive experience supporting individuals, couples, and trauma survivors, Samantha combines professional expertise with lived experience to inspire lasting transformation. Through her counselling practice, workshops, and community programmes, she helps people discover hope, healing, and purpose beyond their pain.

Written by Aide Roxanna Reyes, CEO & Founder, Mental Health Counselor Aide Reyes, LLC Aide Roxanna Reyes is a Licensed Mental Health Clinician, LMHC-D, MSEd. She is the Founder and CEO of Mental Health Counselor Aide Reyes, LLC. Aide Roxanna Reyes is the author of the book "I Am Who I Think I Am" and the host of the podcast Mental Health Counselor Aide Reyes. Our beliefs influence the meaning we assign to our experiences. When we learn to examine those beliefs with truth, compassion, faith, and action, we create room for growth. This article explores the inspiration behind I Am Who I Think I Am and offers practical ways to help children and adults replace limiting beliefs with healthier thoughts, purposeful choices, and renewed hope. Why I wrote I Am Who I Think I Am The words children repeatedly hear, and the words they learn to say to themselves, can become part of the inner voice they carry into adulthood. I wrote my children’s book, I Am Who I Think I Am, because I wanted children to understand early that their thoughts matter, their identity has value, and their present struggles do not have to become permanent definitions of who they are. As a Licensed Mental Health Counselor, I have witnessed how deeply held beliefs can shape emotional well-being, relationships, choices, and confidence. Many adults enter therapy carrying conclusions they formed in childhood: “I am not good enough,” “I cannot do difficult things,” “My voice does not matter,” or “I have to be perfect to be loved.” These beliefs may feel like facts, yet they are often interpretations created through painful experiences, criticism, rejection, comparison, fear, or repeated messages from important people. I Am Who I Think I Am was created to interrupt that cycle. It gives children language for positive inner dialogue and invites families, educators, and helping professionals to nurture confidence, emotional awareness, resilience, self-compassion, and hope. Its central message is simple and memorable: “You are who you think you are, so make sure it’s a wonderful person.” The book does not teach children to deny hard emotions or pretend that everything is perfect. Instead, it encourages them to recognize their strengths, challenge unhelpful conclusions, and understand that they can learn, grow, ask for help, and choose thoughts that support healthy action. “Your thoughts may introduce the story, but they do not have to write the ending. When you renew your mind, speak truth to yourself, and take purposeful action, you become the co-author of a transformed life.” – Aide R. Reyes, LMHC-D, MSEd What the book is about I Am Who I Think I Am is a children’s book about the power of positive inner dialogue, healthy identity, and intentional thinking. Through accessible language and affirming messages, it helps children notice how they speak to themselves and replace limiting conclusions with constructive, truthful beliefs. The story supports conversations about self-esteem, confidence, coping, emotional resilience, authenticity, and the courage to keep learning. It is also an invitation for caring adults to model the language they want children to internalize. What psychological research tells us Psychological science helps explain why this message matters. Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) focuses on the relationship among thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. When people learn to notice inaccurate or unhelpful thinking, examine evidence, and practice more balanced responses, they can improve their coping and functioning. This does not mean that every painful circumstance can be “thought away.” It means that the way we interpret an experience can influence what we feel, what we expect, and what we do next. Developmental research also shows that beliefs operate within a context. Hecht, Yeager, Dweck, and Murphy (2021) explain that beliefs shape how adolescents interpret difficulty and choose their responses, while emphasizing that supportive classrooms, families, and communities help adaptive beliefs take root. In other words, we should never place the entire burden of change on a child. Children need encouraging language and environments that provide safety, opportunity, guidance, and reinforcement. Research on growth mindset suggests that teaching young people that abilities can develop through effective effort, sound strategies, feedback, and support can encourage more adaptive responses to challenges. A 2024 meta-analysis of 144 experimental studies in educational settings found a small positive average effect for self-affirmation interventions, with outcomes varying by factors such as age, identity threat, and the way the intervention was delivered.[1] A broader 2025 meta-analysis likewise reported small but significant benefits of self-affirmation for several aspects of well-being in nonclinical populations.[2] These findings are promising, but they also remind us that affirmations are tools, not magic formulas. They are most useful when they are believable, value-based, repeated consistently, and paired with behavior, relationships, and appropriate support. Research takeaway: Healthy transformation is most likely when a person combines balanced thinking with repeated practice, supportive relationships, effective strategies, and concrete action. A biblical foundation for renewing the mind The book’s message also reflects a biblical theme that has guided my work: renewal begins within. Romans 12:2 teaches transformation through the renewing of the mind. Philippians 4:8 directs believers to give attention to what is true, honorable, just, pure, lovely, commendable, excellent, and worthy of praise. Proverbs 4:23 calls us to guard the heart because the course of life flows from it, while 2 Corinthians 10:5 uses the language of taking thoughts captive. These passages are spiritual teachings rather than psychological experiments, and they should not be presented as clinical proof. Yet they offer a meaningful faith-based framework: pay attention to what fills the mind, examine thoughts rather than automatically obeying them, and intentionally orient the inner life toward truth. Psychological practice and biblical reflection meet here in a practical invitation: to become aware of our thoughts, test them carefully, and choose responses aligned with truth, wisdom, purpose, and love. 10 practical ways to release limiting beliefs and transform your life 1. Name the limiting belief You cannot change a belief you have not identified. Listen for absolute statements such as “I always fail,” “Nobody will accept me,” or “I am not capable.” Write the exact sentence down. For a child, gently ask, “What did your mind tell you when that happened?” Naming the thought creates distance between the person and the belief. 2. Ask where the belief came from Explore when you first remember feeling this way and whose voice the belief resembles. A painful comment, family pattern, school experience, cultural expectation, or repeated comparison may have shaped it. Understanding the origin is not about assigning blame; it helps you recognize that a learned belief is not automatically an objective truth. 3. Separate facts from interpretations Create two columns: “What happened” and “What I told myself it meant.” For example, “I made a mistake on the test” is a fact; “I am unintelligent” is an interpretation. This CBT-informed exercise reduces overgeneralization and helps the mind develop a more accurate story. 4. Challenge the belief with evidence Ask: What evidence supports this thought? What evidence does not support it? Am I using words such as always, never, everyone, or no one? What would I say to someone I love? The goal is not forced positivity; it is balanced, compassionate, reality-based thinking. 5. Create a believable replacement thought Replace the limiting belief with language your mind can practice honestly. Instead of “I am perfect at everything,” try, “I am learning, and I can improve with practice and support.” Instead of “I am fearless,” try, “I can feel afraid and still take one safe, courageous step.” Credible statements are easier to internalize than exaggerated ones. 6. Practice supportive self-talk consistently Repetition helps a new response become more accessible. Say the replacement thought aloud, place it where you will see it, journal it, or pair it with a daily routine. With children, use short phrases such as “I can learn,” “My feelings matter,” “Mistakes help me grow,” and “I can ask for help.” Affirmations should reinforce dignity and possibility, never pressure a child to hide sadness, fear, or anger. 7. Pair the new thought with one small action Beliefs become more convincing when lived experience supports them. If your new thought is “My voice matters,” contribute one idea in a meeting. If it is “I can learn difficult things,” practice for ten focused minutes or request help. Small, repeatable actions create evidence that challenges the old belief. 8. Choose environments that reinforce growth Thought work is harder in settings that repeatedly shame, threaten, or undermine you. Seek relationships, classrooms, faith communities, and professional spaces where accountability and encouragement coexist. For children, adults must address bullying, unrealistic expectations, discrimination, or unsafe dynamics rather than asking the child to think positively through harm. 9. Use setbacks as information, not identity A setback is an event, not a verdict. Ask: What can this teach me? Which strategy needs to change? What support is missing? This approach reflects a genuine growth mindset: development involves effective effort, feedback, new strategies, rest, and assistance, not simply trying harder without limits. 10. Seek professional support when beliefs feel deeply rooted Some limiting beliefs are connected to trauma, anxiety, depression, abuse, grief, or chronic invalidation. A qualified mental health professional can help identify patterns, build coping skills, and develop an individualized treatment plan. Faith practices may be meaningful sources of strength, but they should not be used to shame someone for symptoms or replace needed medical or mental health care. One thought, one choice, one new direction Transformation is rarely one dramatic moment. It is often the result of noticing one thought, choosing one truer response, and taking one aligned action again and again. That is why I wrote I Am Who I Think I Am. I want children to develop an inner voice that reminds them they are worthy, capable of growth, and created with purpose. I also want adults who read with them to examine the beliefs they have been carrying and decide which ones no longer deserve authority over their lives. We are influenced by our histories, but we are not required to remain imprisoned by every conclusion we formed there. With awareness, compassionate truth, supportive relationships, faith, evidence-based tools, and consistent action, old mental patterns can be challenged and new possibilities can emerge. "I am who I think I am. I can examine what I believe, renew my mind, and choose thoughts and actions that reflect truth, growth, and purpose." Where to purchase the book The children’s book I Am Who I Think I Am by Aide Roxanna Reyes, LMHC-D, MSEd, is currently available in Spanish. The English edition will be available soon. Please see the purchasing information below. Follow me on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and visit my website for more info! Read more from Aide Roxanna Reyes Aide Roxanna Reyes, CEO & Founder, Mental Health Counselor Aide Reyes, LLC Aide Roxanna Reyes is a licensed mental health counselor who has implemented RTT in her therapy sessions to help her patients reprogram their thinking and heal their childhood traumas and adult traumas. Aide Roxanna Reyes helps her patients heal from their traumas, reprogram their thinking, and help them create their best versions of themselves by using CBT (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy), hypnotherapy, etc. References: [1] Escobar-Soler, C., Berrios, R., Peñaloza-Díaz, G., Melis-Rivera, C., Caqueo-Urízar, A., Ponce-Correa, F., & Flores, J. (2024). Effectiveness of self-affirmation interventions in educational settings: A meta-analysis. Healthcare, 12(1), 3. [2] Zhang, Y., Chen, B., Hu, X., & Wang, M. (2025). The impact of self-affirmation interventions on well-being: A meta-analysis. American Psychologist. Advance online publication. [3] American Psychological Association. (n.d.). What is cognitive behavioral therapy? [4] Hecht, C. A., Yeager, D. S., Dweck, C. S., & Murphy, M. C. (2021). Beliefs, affordances, and adolescent development: Lessons from a decade of growth mindset interventions. Advances in Child Development and Behavior, 61, 169-197. [5] Sweeney, A. M., & Moyer, A. (2015). Self-affirmation and responses to health messages: A meta-analysis on intentions and behavior. Health Psychology, 34(2), 149-159. [6] The Holy Bible, New International Version. (2011). Zondervan. (Romans 12:2; Philippians 4:8; Proverbs 4:23; 2 Corinthians 10:5).

Written by Dr. Lonna Gordon, Founder of The KNOBS LLC Dr. Lonna Gordon is a board-certified adolescent medicine physician and Enneagram-informed coach who believes every teen is navigating a threshold moment. She blends clinical expertise with the Enneagram to help young people and the adults who love them know their voice matters, and they're enough to become who they're meant to be. You bring your whole self into every room you work in. This includes the parts of your personality you've never examined. The Enneagram isn't a personality quiz; it's a map of your core motivation, the thing driving your behavior underneath the behavior. Where a strengths assessment tells you what you're good at, the Enneagram tells you what you're afraid of and what you unconsciously do to manage that fear. In a room with a teen who's struggling, understanding what you are afraid of and how you manage that fear matters way more. For youth-serving professionals, knowing your own pattern changes how you connect and where you're most prone to disconnect. It also explains something most of us have felt but never named: why the same training or technique lands easily for one colleague and feels completely unnatural for another. It's not that one of you is better at this work. You're running different core motivations, which means your blind spots live in different places. Here's a glimpse across the nine types. If you don't know your number yet, notice which one makes you a little uncomfortable to read. That's usually the one. Type 1: The reformer shows up with high standards for teens and can mistake correction or advice for connection. Type 2: The helper overgives to be needed and can miss when a teen needs space instead of more support. Type 3: The achiever measures success in outcomes and can rush past the teen who needs to be witnessed, not fixed. Type 4: The individualist connects deeply with teens in pain and can unintentionally make a teen's story about their own experiences. Type 5: The investigator offers calm and competence and can retreat into information, assuming that more information will solve the problem or change the choice. Type 6: The loyalist is the professional teens trust to show up consistently, but they can project their own worry onto a teen who isn't actually in danger. Type 7: The enthusiast brings energy that teens are drawn to and can avoid sitting with a teen's harder feelings by redirecting to something lighter. Type 8: The challenger leads with directness that teens respect but can experience as intensity or pressure to prove themselves before trust is built. Type 9: The peacemaker offers steadiness teens lean on and can avoid the conflict a teen actually needs someone to name and fight for them on. Here's why this matters just as much as professional development. You can learn every technique in the world, but you'll still default to your type's blind spot under stress. Training gives you new tools, but it rarely tells you which of your existing instincts will quietly override those tools without you noticing the moment things get hard. Knowing your number doesn't just describe you; it gives you something more valuable, a specific, actionable edge to watch for in your highest-stakes moments with teens. It turns a vague sense of "I should probably handle that differently next time" into something concrete. You understand why this exact moment gets under your skin, and it gives you a precise menu of alternative moves to shift your behavior. That specificity is what actually changes behavior and leads to the outcomes you desire. It takes self-awareness from the abstract to the practical. Individual coaching maps your Enneagram type directly onto your professional instincts, including exactly where your type's blind spot shows up with the teens you serve. I can guide you on that journey. Learn more here. Follow me on Instagram and LinkedIn for more info! Read more from Dr. Lonna Gordon Dr. Lonna Gordon, Founder of The KNOBS LLC Dr. Lonna Gordon is a board-certified adolescent medicine physician with 15 years of clinical experience and leadership roles across academic institutions. She is also the founder of The KNOBS LLC, a coaching, speaking, and workshop practice for parents, teens, and the professionals who support them. Drawing on the Enneagram and her clinical background, she helps young people and the adults who love them navigate the threshold moments of growing up. She also hosts Tweens, Teens & Everything Between, a podcast exploring identity and connection during the teen years. Her mission is simple: to help every young person know their voice matters, their experience makes sense, and they are enough to become who they're meant to be.

Written by Brendon Kawondera, Personal Coach Brendon Kawondera is a London-based personal trainer and educator on a mission to elevate the fitness industry. With a thriving in-person business, he helps trainers master their craft and build successful careers. Passionate about real-world coaching over online trends, he focuses on skill, confidence, and professionalism to set trainers apart. The personal trainers who thrive in the next decade won’t be the ones who fear artificial intelligence (AI). They’ll be the ones who learn how to use it to become better professionals. Personal training has changed dramatically. The days of simply standing beside a client, counting repetitions, and writing a workout on a piece of paper are disappearing. Clients are more informed. Competition is greater. Technology is moving faster. Social media has changed how personal trainers attract business, and AI is beginning to change how professionals work. For some personal trainers, that creates fear. For others, it creates an opportunity. The biggest mistake a personal trainer can make right now is to see AI as something that is coming to replace them. It isn’t. But a personal trainer who refuses to evolve could eventually find themselves competing against someone who knows how to use it. That distinction matters. The future of personal training isn’t about becoming less human. It’s about becoming more professional. That is exactly why I created the Personal Trainer Growth Academy and the Personal Trainer Accelerator to help trainers develop the skills that go far beyond simply knowing how to write a workout. Personal training is a profession, not just a qualification Getting your Level 3 qualification is an important milestone. But it is not the finish line. It is the beginning. One of the biggest lessons I have learned throughout my career is that knowing how to train someone and knowing how to build a career as a personal trainer are two very different things. A successful personal trainer (PT) needs to understand the client experience from beginning to end. How do you carry yourself? How do you communicate? How do you start conversations naturally? How do you conduct a consultation? How do you understand what a client actually wants? How do you sell without feeling like you’re selling? How do you deliver consistently great sessions? How do you retain clients? How do you build your reputation? Ultimately, how do you build a stable income from your profession? These are the questions that inspired the framework behind the Personal Trainer Growth Academy. Confidence doesn’t come before action One of the biggest challenges facing new personal trainers is confidence. Many trainers experience imposter syndrome. They wonder whether they know enough. They compare themselves to experienced trainers on the gym floor. They worry about approaching potential clients. They worry about saying the wrong thing. But confidence isn’t something you wait for. Confidence is built through action. You become more confident through conversation. By coaching people. By making mistakes. By learning from experienced trainers. By attending classes. By training people with different goals and different personalities. By putting yourself in situations where you have to become better. The professional PT doesn’t necessarily know everything. They know how to keep learning. The consultation is where great coaching begins A great personal trainer doesn’t begin with a workout. They begin with a conversation. The consultation is one of the most important parts of the client journey because it allows the trainer to understand the person behind the goal. What does the client actually want? Why do they want it? What has stopped them from achieving it before? What does success look like to them? What are their expectations? What are their barriers? Perhaps most importantly, are the client’s goals and the coach’s goals actually aligned? A consultation isn’t an interrogation. It’s the beginning of a professional relationship. When you learn how to listen properly, ask better questions, and understand what matters to your client, your coaching immediately becomes more valuable. You’re not selling sessions, you’re selling value This is one of the biggest mindset shifts a personal trainer can make. Many new trainers are uncomfortable with sales. They think they’re asking someone to buy a product. But personal training isn’t really about selling a 60-minute session. You’re selling expertise. You’re selling accountability. You’re selling confidence. You’re selling structure. You’re selling someone the opportunity to make a meaningful change in their life. You’re helping someone invest in their health. Once you understand that, sales becomes less about persuasion and more about communication. The question changes from, “How do I convince this person to buy PT?” to, “Can I genuinely help this person, and can I communicate that value clearly?” That is a completely different approach. The gym floor is still one of your greatest marketing opportunities Social media is powerful. Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube can help personal trainers build audiences far beyond their local gym. But sometimes we overlook the most obvious marketing opportunity sitting directly in front of us: the gym floor. The people training around you are potential clients. But approaching people doesn’t have to mean aggressively pitching personal training. It can be as simple as becoming visible. Make eye contact. Smile. Say hello. Ask a genuine question. Give someone useful advice when appropriate. Become the trainer people recognise. Become the trainer people trust. Then, when someone eventually needs help, you’re no longer a stranger. You’re the professional they already know. Great trainers understand people, not just programmes Programming matters. Exercise selection matters. Technique matters. But people aren’t spreadsheets. Every client walks into the gym with a different personality, history, motivation, confidence level, and set of expectations. Understanding personality can make you a better coach. Understanding how different people communicate can make you a better coach. Understanding how to listen can make you a better coach. Understanding when to push and when to pull back can make you a better coach. The best personal trainers don’t simply deliver information. They learn how to deliver information to the individual in front of them. That’s a completely different skill. Delivering a great session is only part of the job A great session doesn’t begin when the client walks through the door. It starts before they arrive. Preparation matters. Knowing what you’re going to coach matters. Knowing the client’s history matters. Remembering their previous performance matters. Understanding what they are trying to achieve matters. The experience doesn’t finish when the final repetition is completed. What happens afterwards matters too. Did you record their progress? Did you give them something to work on? Did you check in? Did you make them feel that their time, money, and effort were worthwhile? Clients don’t just remember exercises. They remember how you made them feel. That is why professionalism becomes such a powerful competitive advantage. Client retention is built on trust Getting a client is one achievement. Keeping them is another. The best personal training businesses aren’t built entirely on constantly finding new customers. They’re built on relationships. Progress needs to be measured. Wins need to be recognised. Expectations need to be managed. Communication needs to remain consistent. Clients need to feel that you genuinely care about their journey. The first few days and weeks of a new client relationship can be particularly important because this is when trust begins to form. You aren’t simply building programmes. You’re building trust. Trust is one of the most valuable assets a personal trainer can have. Your reputation now extends beyond the gym The modern personal trainer has more opportunities than ever to build visibility. Google. Instagram. YouTube. TikTok. LinkedIn. Your website. Your reviews. Your content. Your conversations. All of these contribute to your professional reputation. You don’t need to become an influencer. You need to become visible to the right people. Your online presence should reinforce what someone experiences when they meet you in person: professional, knowledgeable, approachable, consistent, and trustworthy. Your digital reputation is increasingly part of your professional reputation. Then there is AI This brings us back to the question that many personal trainers are asking, “Is AI going to replace personal trainers?” I don’t believe it will replace great personal trainers. But I do believe it will change the profession. AI can help trainers research ideas, organise information, generate content, brainstorm programmes, analyse information, and improve productivity. But it cannot replace the human relationship at the centre of personal training. It cannot genuinely celebrate a client’s first pain-free movement after months of frustration. It cannot replace the trust built between coach and client. It cannot completely understand the emotional reasons why someone keeps starting and stopping. It cannot look a nervous beginner in the eye and give them confidence. That’s where the human professional becomes even more valuable. The opportunity isn’t to compete with AI. The opportunity is to become a personal trainer who knows how to use AI while becoming even better at the things AI cannot replicate. Think about the possibilities. A trainer who is excellent at coaching and understands technology. A trainer who can deliver an exceptional session and create valuable educational content. A trainer who understands clients and knows how to use modern tools to save time. A trainer who builds relationships and develops a professional digital presence. That’s the future I’m preparing trainers for. Don’t be scared of AI, be scared of standing still Technology will continue to change. The platforms will change. The algorithms will change. The way people consume information will change. AI will become more capable. But the fundamentals of great personal training will remain remarkably consistent. Communicate well. Listen properly. Understand people. Coach professionally. Deliver value. Build relationships. Keep learning. Then use the technology available to you to amplify those abilities. That is the philosophy behind the Personal Trainer Growth Academy. It is the foundation of the Personal Trainer Accelerator, my self-paced online programme designed to help personal trainers develop the professional, business, and coaching skills required to build a sustainable career. You don’t need to have everything figured out. You don’t need to be the most experienced trainer in the gym. You don’t need thousands of followers. But you do need to be willing to improve. Because the next generation of personal trainers won’t simply be exercise professionals. They’ll be coaches. Communicators. Educators. Entrepreneurs. Content creators. Problem solvers. Increasingly, they’ll be professionals who know how to use technology rather than fear it. The question isn’t whether AI is coming. The question is whether you’ll be ready for it. If you’re a personal trainer who wants to develop beyond the basics, understand the business side of the profession, and prepare yourself for the future of personal training, join the waiting list for the Personal Trainer Accelerator. You’ll get access to information about the programme, future updates, and the opportunity to develop the skills that can help you move from simply being qualified to becoming a confident, professional, and commercially capable personal trainer. Don’t compete with the future. Prepare for it. Visit kawonderatraining.co.uk and join the waiting list for the Personal Trainer Accelerator. Follow me on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and visit my website for more info! Read more from Brendon Kawondera Brendon Kawondera, Personal Coach Brendon Kawondera is a London-based personal trainer, educator, and entrepreneur committed to raising the standard of the fitness industry. With years of hands-on coaching experience, he has built a thriving in-person business by focusing on real results rather than trends. He helps personal trainers develop the skills, confidence, and professionalism needed to excel in their careers. Unlike many industry voices pushing online coaching, he believes the gym floor is where great trainers are made. Through his coaching, courses, and educational content, he empowers trainers to refine their craft and build sustainable, high-value businesses.