Written by Michal Ravid Vrabel, Lawyer & Life Coach Michal is a lawyer and a life coach. A former criminal defense attorney who spent the vast majority of her professional life in courtrooms, she has encountered all walks of life. The founder of Pathways Life Coaching, she now focuses extensively on success mindset coaching, personal and professional relationship coaching, and end-of-life coaching. No journey is identical to another, and just like an untamable ocean, forever in motion, stormy at times, with no guarantee of smooth sailing, so are life journeys. Throughout life, our unique journeys present volatile conditions in the form of challenges and changes in both our personal and professional spheres. We have all faced unexpected challenges and unforeseen changes that felt as though they threatened the trajectory of our journey, often in conjunction with a lingering, frightening feeling of losing control. These challenges and changes, while daunting, are our biggest tests to solve and obstacles to conquer. They also present opportunities, even in this rapidly evolving environment. They should serve as a great positive force in our life’s journey, a force that can promote self-development and growth, inner strength, and increased confidence. It is a force that we must take control of to positively enhance our present circumstances and bravely carve a path to a better future. Challenges and changes: An intertwined affair Challenges are part of life, and they often bring about changes that are either forced on us or required by us, and vice versa. Changes will often present challenges, since we will likely need to adapt, act, or react to them. Like many of you, I have faced various challenges and changes throughout my life journey. Some were forced on me, while others were my own choices. In both situations, one realization was certain. While different adjustments needed to be made, it was the same familiar feeling that lingered and threatened to take over me: a fear of change, a fear of the challenge, a fear of losing control, and a fear of what was ahead of me. Now, these challenges and changes can be overwhelming at times, but that is totally understandable. We are all human. We feel, we hurt, and we fear the unknown. As different as our journeys might be, we all share a common thread: we are creatures of habit. These changes and challenges threaten our routines and the path we thought was planned and secure. As always, the fear of the unknown contributes to the overwhelming feeling these challenges and changes create. One of the biggest inspirations in my life, when it came to dealing with challenges and changes, was, and still is, my dear father, who, at the young age of 19, was severely injured and lost his leg during his military service. From being an active and athletic young man who had played basketball his whole life, he had to deal with a life-changing, tragic event that threatened not only his physicality but also his emotional state of mind and well-being. I am proud to say that my father chose life and made the conscious and brave decision not to let this injury jeopardize his life’s trajectory, dreams, and goals. He recovered, learned to live with a prosthetic leg, built a family and a career, and, more than anything, taught me that, in life, despite the harshest hardships, there is a way forward. Hence, a life lesson I have carried with me since the day I was born is that the one thing we cannot do is freeze in the face of challenges, obstacles, or change. There is a way forward, and we have to find the strength within us. The force that is courage This is where courage comes into play: the courage not to give up on our journey, even if the circumstances have changed. This courage will help us embrace the challenge and adapt to change, leading to positive outcomes. We are stronger than we give ourselves credit for. As we face challenges and change, we will gain confidence, learn new skills, and evolve. In the words of Napoleon Bonaparte: “Courage is not having the strength to go on. It is going on when you do not have the strength.” Subsequently, the question arises: how do we find the courage necessary for dealing with challenges and changes? First and foremost, we should expect and embrace fear and realize that fearing the next steps is not a sign of weakness but rather a sign that we care and are ready to move in the right direction. We should learn to pause, breathe, and think clearly as we approach obstacles in our way. Let’s start by making a plan, taking small steps, and acknowledging our previous wins. Through each hardship we face, we become wiser and stronger. This is also an opportunity to connect with our core values and beliefs, a time when we should feel comfortable reaching out to our closest circle and loved ones, clearing our minds, and finding inner peace. All these factors will serve as the anchor for our rocking ship in stormy waters, an anchor that will not only prevent us from sinking into despair but also help us rise above with our newfound courage. We should embrace challenges and changes as opportunities to grow, develop, and take control of our destiny. Control: The perpetual battle Taking control of our destiny might be easier said than done, especially since some of the challenges and changes we face throughout our life journey are not of our own doing, but rather obstacles we could not have predicted in the first place. As we plan our life journey and walk different paths, most of us tend to embrace a sense of control, as it gives us power and confidence that we are in charge of our journey. Unfortunately, challenges and changes present the exact opposite of that: chaos, confusion, and disorder in our thoughts and emotions, which can lead to feelings of helplessness and powerlessness. Hence, it is important to realize that there are forces larger than us that we cannot realistically control. Furthermore, though improbable, we like to think we can control every aspect of our lives. In fact, this is not the case. As we dig deep to find the courage to move on and deal with challenges and changes, we should act in two very contradictory directions. On one hand, we need to understand that we are not in control of everything in our life’s journey, such as outside forces and others’ actions and behaviors. On the other hand, we should recognize the areas where we can gain control. We should work towards gaining control of our actions, reactions, next steps, and feelings to successfully conquer the challenges and changes ahead of us. The loss of control and the need to gain control act as two forces pulling us in opposite directions. Nevertheless, we can find the courage to take charge and influence only what we can control: our actions and reactions, our emotions, and our thoughts. I prefer to view the obstacles that arise in our life’s journey as puzzles we must solve. From that perspective, I believe we can change the balance of power in a way that gives us more control and more satisfaction, knowing that we didn’t give up but rather found the courage, strength, and resilience to deal with the most difficult situations. My husband, my hero, courageously facing his greatest battle I couldn’t end this article without mentioning my soulmate, my dearest and beloved husband, who has taught our beautiful children and me the greatest lesson about challenges, changes, control, and courage. As I mentioned in past articles, my husband was diagnosed with end-stage cancer two and a half years ago. This is not something any of us could have expected or even prepared for, and it has been, and still is, our biggest challenge and change as a family. My husband has taught me that, in the face of his early, inevitable death and despite the loss of control over life as he once knew it, there is still beauty and hope, as well as a way forward. He has made the conscious decision to take control of an uncontrollable diagnosis. He found the courage within himself not only to fight to live another day, but also to make the most of every single day, every single moment. His unimaginable power has inspired us all to do the same. He has taught us not to surrender to obstacles, challenges, or changes. He has taught us the value of every single moment, every single win, and that courage is within us all. We are stronger than we give ourselves credit for. We can and should find the courage within us to take control of our journey, and we should know that the sun will shine again after the storm. If you are going through challenges and changes, big or small, know that you are never alone and that there is a positive way forward. Should you feel the need for guidance, coaching, or just someone to share your journey with, you can contact me directly via email or book your consultation with me through my website. Follow me on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn for more info! Read more from Michal Ravid Vrabel Michal Ravid Vrabel, Lawyer & Life Coach Michal is a life coach with an integrated approach, guiding clients towards discovering their true, authentic self, including bringing their true inner strength and wisdom to fruition. The founder of Pathways Life Coaching, she has a professional background in criminal, public, and international law, with extensive experience as a criminal defense attorney. Michal's mission is to guide her clients into a successful path in their life's journey, thus creating a unique, tailored coaching plan for every client, from Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) of hedge funds and corporate group coaching, personal coaching, with a focus on success mindset, improving and enhancing personal and professional relationships, and end-of-life coaching, for terminally ill patients and caregivers.

Written by Ronald Harris, Founder and CEO Ron Harris, Master of Business Administration (MBA), Certified Financial Education Instructor (CFEI), and MBE, is the founder of Financial Literacy Group and the author of Hybrid Financial Arbitrage. He has spent more than two decades developing financial strategies for everyday Americans, and he is recognized as a leading voice on closing the wealth gap through structural financial education. Ask most Americans what life insurance is for, and they’ll give you the same answer: it pays your family when you die. That answer isn’t wrong, but it’s only half the story. For working and middle-class families trying to build wealth in a system that wasn’t designed for them, the other half of the story may be the more important one. The truth is that “life insurance” is not one product. The same legal chassis, a permanent life insurance contract, can be engineered in two fundamentally different ways for two fundamentally different jobs. One is built to deliver the largest possible check at death. The other is built to accumulate the largest possible pool of living, accessible, tax-advantaged cash while you’re alive. Understanding which one you own and which one you actually need is one of the most consequential financial literacy lessons I teach. The normal death benefit policy: Protection first A traditional death-benefit-focused policy is designed around a single question: how much money should arrive when I’m gone? The design logic follows from that question. The goal is to purchase the maximum death benefit for the minimum premium. Every dollar you pay is stretched to buy as much insurance coverage as possible. This is the policy most people picture. A parent buys $500,000 or $1 million of coverage so that if the unthinkable happens, the mortgage gets paid, the kids get through college, and the surviving spouse isn’t forced to sell the house. It is income replacement. It is legacy protection. It is, in the purest sense, insurance against a catastrophe. There is nothing wrong with this design for that job. If your primary concern is protecting your family against the loss of your income, a protection-first policy, or in many cases, simple term insurance, does exactly what it’s supposed to do at the lowest possible cost. But here’s what a protection-first permanent policy does poorly: build wealth you can use. Because the premium is minimized relative to the death benefit, most of what you pay goes toward the cost of insurance itself. The cash value that develops inside the policy grows slowly because the policy was never engineered to accumulate cash. It was engineered to pay a death claim. The cash accumulation policy: Wealth while you’re living A cash accumulation policy flips the design logic completely. Instead of asking, “How much death benefit can I buy for the least premium?” it asks, “How much premium can I put in for the least death benefit the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) will allow?” That inversion changes everything. In an accumulation design, the death benefit is deliberately compressed down to the minimum required to keep the contract classified as life insurance under the tax code. Why does that matter? Because the cost of insurance is what drags on growth. The smaller the insurance component relative to the money going in, the more of every premium dollar flows into the cash value account, where it can compound, remain protected from market losses in an indexed design, and grow tax-deferred. The IRS actually polices this line. Fund a policy too aggressively relative to its death benefit, and it becomes a Modified Endowment Contract (MEC), losing its favorable tax treatment on withdrawals and loans. A properly engineered accumulation policy is funded right up to that line, maximum allowable premium and minimum allowable death benefit, without crossing it. This is why design matters more than product. Two people can own the same indexed universal life product from the same carrier, and one has a wealth-building engine while the other has an expensive death benefit, purely based on how the policy was structured at issue. Why the difference matters: Access, taxes, and living benefits The real payoff of the accumulation design shows up in how you can use the money while you’re alive. Cash value in a properly structured policy can be accessed through policy loans, money you borrow against your own collateral, generally income-tax-free, with no credit check, no bank approval, and no requirement to ever “pay it back” on a lender’s schedule. Meanwhile, your full cash value can continue compounding as if you never touched it, depending on the loan design. For families who have been told their only path to retirement is locking money in a 401(k) until age 59½ and then paying taxes at whatever rates exist decades from now, this is a genuinely different paradigm: tax-advantaged accumulation, tax-free access, and no government-imposed timeline on your own money. A death-benefit-focused policy offers none of this in any meaningful way. There’s simply not enough cash inside it to access. Its value is realized by your beneficiaries, not by you. Which one do you need? Here’s the honest answer: many families need both jobs done, just not necessarily by the same policy. If you’re young, with dependents, a mortgage, and a modest budget, your first priority is protection, and inexpensive term coverage may handle that job beautifully. But if you have steady cash flow and you’re looking for a disciplined, tax-advantaged place to build wealth you can actually use, for opportunities, emergencies, or retirement income the IRS can’t touch, a maximum-funded cash accumulation policy deserves a serious look alongside your 401(k) and Individual Retirement Account (IRA), not instead of them. The mistake I see constantly is people owning the wrong tool for the job: a family that needed $1 million of protection holding an underfunded permanent policy with a fraction of that coverage, or a high-saver trying to build wealth inside a protection-first design that eats their premiums in insurance costs. The label on the policy won’t tell you which one you have. The engineering will. Before you buy, or before you assume the policy you already own is working for you, ask one question: was this contract designed to pay the largest check at my death, or to build the largest pool of accessible cash during my life? The answer determines whether your life insurance is only a promise to your family, or also a promise to yourself. Follow me on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn, and visit my website for more info! Read more from Ronald Harris Ronald Harris, Founder and CEO Ron Harris, MBA, CFEI, MBE, is the founder of Financial Literacy Group and the author of Hybrid Financial Arbitrage: A Real-World Guide for Working-Class Americans. A financial educator and Certified Financial Educator with more than twenty years of experience, Ron developed Hybrid Financial Arbitrage to give ordinary American families access to the kind of wealth-building structures that banks and corporations have used for over a century. He speaks and writes on financial literacy, retirement planning, and closing the wealth gap.

Written by Christina Giordano, Marketing & Manifesting Consultant Christina Giordano is the founder of the movement Soul'd™ and a pioneer in soul-led entrepreneurship. Her approach to marketing and manifesting is rooted in nothing but the essence of who you are, helping entrepreneurs build businesses with alignment, integrity, and authenticity. We have become very good at measuring business success. Revenue. Conversion rates. Audience growth. Reach. Impressions. Launch totals. Open rates. Clicks. These numbers tell us what happened. They can show us whether a strategy performed, whether an audience responded, and whether a business is growing. But there is another question those numbers cannot answer: Can the person building the business actually sustain the conditions required to create those results? That question has changed the way I think about success because a business can look successful from the outside while the person running it is exhausted, bracing for the next problem, relying on urgency to keep moving, or unable to maintain the pace that produced the result. If growth continually requires us to override ourselves, the result may be impressive, but it may not be sustainable. Performance is not the same as sustainability Traditional business metrics are useful, but they primarily measure activity and outcomes. They do not tell us whether those outcomes were created in a way that can continue. A revenue spike followed by burnout is different from steady revenue that can be maintained. A burst of visibility followed by months of withdrawal is different from consistent visibility that feels manageable. A launch fueled by adrenaline, sleeplessness, and constant urgency may produce an excellent number while simultaneously revealing a fragile operating model. This is why I have started paying attention to another layer of business performance: nervous system stability. I do not mean that every entrepreneur needs to feel calm all the time or that stress automatically means something is wrong. Business inevitably contains uncertainty, challenge, deadlines, risk, and periods of increased demand. The more useful question is whether success itself can be integrated without requiring chronic overextension. From spike-based success to stable success There is a meaningful difference between success built primarily through intensity and success built through continuity. Spike-based success often depends on urgency, fixation, pressure, fear of losing momentum, and a tremendous amount of short-term energy. Stable success can still involve ambition, effort, and meaningful growth, but the growth does not continually require the person creating it to operate at the edge of their capacity. The second version may actually feel less dramatic. That can be surprisingly difficult for people who have learned to associate intensity with progress. Calm can initially look like stagnation when we are accustomed to adrenaline being the evidence that something important is happening. But calm does not mean passive. It can coexist with increased income, greater visibility, deeper relationships, decisive action, and significant expansion. It simply means that stress is not the only fuel source available. What would we measure instead? If we broaden our definition of success beyond short-term performance, several practical indicators become worth watching. Continuity instead of repeated spikes. Are engagement, inquiries, revenue, and visibility becoming more consistent, or does every period of momentum require a recovery period afterward? Retention and return. Are clients staying, returning, referring others, and developing long-term relationships with the business? The amount of force required. Does maintaining momentum become more efficient as the business matures, or does every new level require even more pushing, urgency, and personal sacrifice? Your own stability while the business grows. Can you remain present, think clearly, make decisions, rest, and maintain a life outside the business as income and responsibility increase? The experience you create for customers. Does your marketing depend primarily on pressure and urgency, or does it also create clarity, trust, orientation, and genuine usefulness? None of these replace financial or marketing metrics. They add context to them. The goal is not to stop measuring performance. It is to ask whether the performance is being produced by a structure capable of holding it. The real question behind sustainable success For a long time, the central question in business has been: Can I create the result? Can I reach the revenue goal? Build the audience? Get the client? Grow the company? Create the opportunity? But after the result arrives, another question appears: Can I live here? Can this level of success exist in my actual life? Can I maintain the relationships, routines, health, creativity, and internal steadiness that allow me to continue? Can the business grow without my life becoming progressively less livable? That may be one of the most important questions we can ask about sustainable growth. A different definition of success Success does not have to be measured only by how quickly something grows. It can also be measured by how well that growth is held. Sometimes the strongest business is not the one producing the most dramatic spike. It is the one developing enough stability to continue. That means paying attention not only to revenue, reach, conversions, and output, but also to continuity, capacity, retention, efficiency, and the human experience underneath the numbers. The most meaningful form of success may not simply be proving that you can reach a new level. It may be building a business and a life in which you can actually stay there. Follow me on Instagram and visit my website for more info! Read more from Christina Giordano Christina Giordano, Marketing & Manifesting Consultant For over 15 years, Christina Giordano has helped soulpreneurs build their businesses with alignment and authenticity, leading the way. In 2020, she channeled her own methods of self-discovery, which act as soulful (yet practical) roadmaps for entrepreneurs to market and manifest with nothing but their essence. These methods are The Marketing Methods - The L.I.F.E. Method, The S.O.U.L. Method, and The L.O.V.E. Method, and The Manifesting Methods - The D.E.B.I.T. Method, The C.R.E.D.I.T. Method, and The R.O.S.E. Method. The methods represent the movement Christina has founded and trademarked as “Soul’d,” which empowers big-hearted business owners to show up, be seen, and shine in the way that is uniquely and wholeheartedly you.

Dr. Jack Stoltzfus is America’s Launch Coach™. He doesn’t teach people how to launch boats; rather, he teaches parents how to let go in love with their 18- to 29-year-old children. Today, according to some surveys, 48% to 50% of these young adults live with one or both parents. For those who have left home, there is a troubling trend: one in four young adults cuts off communication with their parents. Dr. Jack’s mission is to ensure that parents launch their adult children into self-sufficient and responsibly independent lives while maintaining a caring connection with them and avoiding the trend toward estrangement. Dr. Jack has spent much of his 40 years of service as a licensed psychologist working with families and has recently focused on the transition period for 18- to 29-year-olds. He is the author of *The Parent’s Launch Code: Loving and Letting Go of Our Adult Children* and provides counselling, education and resources through his website, parentslettinggo.com. John (Jack) Stoltzfus, America's Launch Coach What led you to become “America’s Launch Coach” and focus on parents navigating their children’s transition into adulthood? The backstory begins with my estrangement from my father during my young adult years and the reconciliation that followed. Fast-forward to fifteen years ago and my experience as a father of three young adults, who, I can thankfully say, have launched successfully. Alongside this two-pronged experience, I was unable to find professionals or resources serving this parent population. There is a hidden epidemic of parents struggling with the challenge of launching young adults in the era of the internet, gaming, pornography, job scarcity, college debt and the cost of housing. These challenges are different from those parents faced thirty or forty years ago, particularly when it comes to leaving home and how their parents handled this transition. The common refrain from parents of young adults today is one of frustration and helplessness, and the need for patience is greater than ever. I have identified six practices parents need to strengthen to successfully launch their young adults. You have identified four types of failure to launch. Which type do parents most often misunderstand? Let me answer by describing the most common, the most challenging and then the most heartbreaking. The most common is the “stalled” young adult. This is the young adult who is stuck at home, playing video games, not working or going to school and having no plan for the future. One twenty-five-year-old young adult told his parents he just wanted to be “a stay-at-home son.” The young adult with a serious substance use problem or mental illness presents one of the most challenging cases of failure to launch. My belief is that unless the mental illness is managed or the substance use is addressed, launching isn’t possible. Finally, the most heartbreaking failure to launch is the young adult who has cut off all contact with a parent and refuses to respond to any overtures from them to reconnect. As one parent experiencing this said, “It’s worse than if they were dead.” You have questioned whether “failure to launch” is even the right way to describe what young adults are experiencing today. What do you think we should understand differently? Beginning with millennials and continuing with Generation Z, we have seen a longer transition to adulthood. Jeffrey Arnett, who coined the term “emerging adulthood” for this stage of life, describes adulthood as: Accepting responsibility for oneself Making independent decisions Becoming financially independent These 18- to 29-year-olds in the emerging adult population are taking longer to achieve adulthood, especially in terms of traditional notions of adulthood, such as a career, marriage and financial independence. Most 18- to 29-year-olds change jobs seven times during their twenties and don’t settle into a career until the age of thirty-two. The age at first marriage today is 30 for males and 29 for females. This is in contrast to 50 years ago, when the age at first marriage was 23 for males and 21 for females. Today, over 60% of parents subsidise their young adults financially. There are many explanations for this trend, but it doesn’t necessarily suggest a failure to launch. College debt, job opportunities, the cost of living and housing costs are contributors. Parents need to adjust to this new reality and not assume that there is necessarily a problem or a failure to launch. You have observed significantly more young men than young women struggling to launch. What do you believe is contributing to this? Referrals to me as a coach for parents of young adults have averaged a ratio of three males to one female. A number of factors contribute to this trend. The job market is not as robust for more traditional male jobs, such as manufacturing and skilled trades. Males seem to be more comfortable at home and default to video gaming and pornography at a much higher rate than young women. Why risk rejection by asking a woman out when you can stay at home and use porn and a bot as your sex partners? Males are less socially adept and may be reluctant to apply or interview for jobs. Once discouraged by multiple job application rejections, males may have more difficulty rebounding. How can parents recognise when financial or practical support has shifted from helping their adult child to enabling dependence? Enabling has become a negative term, but it can apply to both enabling dependence and enabling independence. As a rule, parents shouldn’t do something for adult children that those children can do for themselves or, at a minimum, should only meet them halfway. I advise parents, when making decisions or taking action involving their adult children, to ask: Am I doing this out of love, fear, anxiety, guilt, frustration or anger? Is my decision or action in line with my values and principles? Will my decision or action contribute to greater dependence or independence? When an adult child shows little motivation to become independent, what can a parent change without trying to control or fix them? I think parents need to challenge adult children living at home to step up and participate as if they are roommates by cooking meals, doing laundry, cleaning their rooms, shopping for groceries and completing other tasks that they will need to learn and do when they move out. Beyond this, certain privileges may need to be withheld if they are not stepping up, such as the use of Wi-Fi, a car or a phone. Finally, I like to challenge parents to pull these kids out of the house rather than telling them to get out. Offer to do a volunteer activity together, go to the gym together, drive them to a job interview, shop for groceries together and so on. How has your experience of estrangement as a young adult influenced your belief that independence and a caring parent-child relationship should develop together? First, one of the fundamental practices parents need to employ or strengthen is reassuring their child, at any age, that they matter, that they are loved unconditionally and that nothing can break this bond. This love is not contingent on the young adult’s actions. Second, unless they have been perfect parents, parents need to apologise for things they said, did or failed to say or do that may have offended or hurt the young adult. This is one of the healing practices that helps parents let go of guilt and softens any resentment the young adult may harbour. Finally, parents need to manage the dynamic of caring, holding on and letting go. This is a fundamental dynamic that starts when the baby arrives. For older teenagers and young adults, too much holding on breeds dependency, but too much letting go risks abandonment and estrangement. What is the most important shift parents need to make as their relationship with their child moves from parenting a dependent to relating to an adult? Parents need to begin allowing more choices, decision-making and autonomy during the teenage years. This doesn’t mean simply stepping back and disengaging, an approach some parents adopt when their child turns 18. Rather, parents need to continue relating in a supportive way while shifting their focus toward supporting the young adult’s identity development and independence. Two skills addressed in *The Parent’s Launch Code* that support this shift are coaching and consulting. Coaching involves drawing out what the young adult wants, while consulting allows the parent to offer ideas or experience with the caveat that the decision belongs to the young adult. In this regard, I suggest parents use a sandwich approach: tell them it’s their decision, offer your advice, and then tell them again that it is their decision and that you won’t be mad if they don’t take your advice. You define a successful launch as more than simply moving out of the family home. What does a genuinely successful launch look like to you? First, to dispel a common misconception or bias, a successful launch is not dependent on whether the young adult lives at home or outside their parents’ home. The Western worldview that values independence often assumes it means living outside the family home. I recently appeared on a podcast with a podcaster from India, and I said that parents in this country start to panic when their twenty-five-year-old is living at home. He said that in India, if a twenty-five-year-old is living outside the home, that is a problem. Second, a successfully launched young adult, whether living at home or outside the home, is self-sufficient, capable of making important life decisions, financially self-supporting and either maintains an ongoing positive relationship with their parents or has resolved any resentment or conflict with them. Most developmental psychologists don’t include this last characteristic, and therapists who see young adults who are estranged from or have unresolved issues with their parents may inadvertently reinforce this stance by accepting only the young adult’s narrative. Follow me on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and visit my website for more info! Read more from John (Jack) Stoltzfus

Written by Charlotte Cheetham, Gut Health Coach Charlotte Cheetham is an expert coach in gut health for menopausal women. She is the founder of Lifeinsights and aims to help all menopausal women one by one to heal their symptoms, which are preventing them from living a normal life. She has also written articles for Healthieyoo magazine about gut health, menopause, and psychobiotics. The children are going back to school. The holidays are over. The diary is filling up again. Suddenly, September feels like the perfect time for a fresh start. New routines. Healthy eating. More exercise. Earlier nights. Less alcohol. More water. Finally getting organised. For many women over 40, September feels like January’s slightly more realistic sister. After the slower pace, disrupted routines and spontaneity of the summer, there is something comforting about the thought of getting “back to normal.” But there is a problem. Many women don’t actually need to get back to the routine they had before the summer. They need to create a better one. One that recognises that their body, energy, priorities and capacity may have changed. Because what often happens is that September starts with enthusiasm. The fridge is full of healthy food. The exercise classes are booked. The diary is colour-coded. The children are organised. The emails are under control. For the first week or two, everything seems to be going brilliantly. Then, somewhere around the middle of September, the wheels start to come off. Breakfast becomes a coffee grabbed on the way to work. Lunch gets pushed back because there is another meeting. Exercise gets cancelled because something needs doing at home. Sleep gets squeezed because there is still so much to finish. The afternoon brain fog arrives. The bloating returns. Energy disappears. That feeling of being permanently “behind” creeps back in. The problem isn’t that you lack discipline. The problem may be that you’ve created a routine based on everything you want to do rather than what you can realistically sustain. September doesn’t need to be another reset There is a tendency to think of September as the month to fix everything. But if you are already juggling work, family, relationships, household responsibilities and the mental load of keeping everything moving, adding another long list of health goals isn’t necessarily helpful. In fact, it can create another source of pressure. This is particularly important for women in their 40s and beyond. The years around perimenopause and menopause can bring changes in sleep, energy, mood, appetite and how the body responds to stress. That doesn’t mean every symptom is caused by hormones or that every woman will experience the same changes. But it does mean that the strategy that worked for you at 30 may not necessarily feel as effective at 45. This is where I believe women need to stop asking, “How can I fit everything in?” and start asking, “What actually needs to change so that I don’t have to keep running on empty?” The danger of the September “everything at once” approach Think about what happens when the children return to school. There are school runs. Work deadlines. Meetings. After-school activities. Shopping. Meal planning. Laundry. Appointments. Social commitments. Perhaps a career that has its own demands after a slower summer. Then we add: “I need to lose weight.” “I need to exercise five times a week.” “I need to stop eating sugar.” “I need to drink more water.” “I need to get eight hours of sleep.” “I need to meditate.” “I need to sort my gut out.” “I need to stop drinking.” “I need to get my life together.” It’s no wonder September can become overwhelming. Instead of creating momentum, we create pressure. Pressure rarely creates sustainable change. What if you approached September differently? Rather than trying to overhaul your entire life, imagine choosing a few simple foundations that support everything else. Think less perfection and more consistency. Less “all or nothing.” More “What can I realistically keep doing when life gets busy?” This is particularly important if bloating, brain fog or fatigue are already affecting your day. Because when you’re struggling with brain fog, you don’t need a 25-step morning routine. You need something simple enough to remember. When you’re exhausted, you don’t necessarily need another punishing workout. You need movement that supports your body without becoming another obligation. When you’re bloated, you don’t necessarily need to eliminate half the food in your kitchen. You need to understand what might be contributing to your symptoms rather than constantly reacting to them. So, as September approaches, here are seven ways to create momentum that lasts beyond the first couple of weeks. 1. Don’t try to change everything on September 1 This might be the most important rule. Choose one or two priorities. Not ten. Perhaps your first priority is getting your sleep routine back on track. Or eating a proper lunch during your working day. Or getting outside for a short walk. Or making breakfast something more substantial than coffee. Small changes can feel almost too simple. But that’s precisely why they can work. The goal isn’t to impress yourself for seven days. The goal is to create something you can still be doing in October. Ask yourself, “If September gets really busy, what is the one habit I would most like to have maintained?” Start there. 2. Stop using Monday as your rescue plan How many times have you thought, “I’ll start properly on Monday”? Monday becomes the day when everything changes. The healthy food starts. The diet begins. The exercise programme begins. The alcohol stops. The early nights begin. Then one thing doesn’t go according to plan. You have a stressful day. You eat something you hadn’t planned to eat. You miss your workout. You stay up late. Suddenly, you think, “I’ve blown it.” So you wait until next Monday. This is the all-or-nothing cycle. Instead, try a different approach. If Tuesday goes off track, Wednesday doesn’t need to become another Monday. You simply return to the next helpful choice. One meal doesn’t ruin your progress. One missed workout doesn’t mean you’ve failed. One late night doesn’t mean your routine has collapsed. Momentum is built by returning, not by being perfect. 3. Make breakfast and lunch easier One of the biggest problems busy women face isn’t necessarily a lack of nutritional knowledge. It’s a lack of time. When the morning is chaotic, convenience wins. When lunchtime arrives in the middle of a busy working day, whatever is easiest often wins again. So make your default choices easier. Think: Protein plus fibre plus colour. For example: Greek yoghurt, berries and seeds. Eggs with wholegrain toast and fruit. Chicken, salad and a wholegrain wrap. Soup with added chicken, beans or lentils. Tuna with a jacket potato and salad. Leftovers from dinner. You don’t need a different Instagram-worthy lunch every day. You need reliable options that you actually enjoy eating. If you’re experiencing persistent bloating or digestive symptoms, remember that there isn’t one universally “perfect” diet for everyone. Your individual symptoms, food choices, eating patterns and wider lifestyle all matter. 4. Don’t ignore the 3 p.m. brain fog For many professional women, the afternoon slump can be particularly frustrating. The morning started well. You were productive. You were answering emails. You were getting things done. Then suddenly, your concentration disappears. You reread the same sentence three times. You can’t remember what you were about to say in a meeting. The first thought is, “I need another coffee.” Before automatically reaching for caffeine, pause. Ask yourself: Have I eaten enough today? Have I had enough fluids? Have I been sitting at my desk for hours? How well did I sleep? How stressed am I? What has my morning actually looked like? Brain fog can have many possible contributors, so persistent or concerning symptoms shouldn’t simply be assumed to be “just hormones” or “just getting older.” But paying attention to patterns can give you useful information. Your afternoon slump may be telling you something about the way you’re fuelling, resting and managing your day. 5. Build movement into your life rather than trying to build your life around exercise You don’t need to spend an hour in the gym every day to become healthier. Movement counts in many forms. A walk after dinner. Walking during a phone call. Taking the stairs. A short strength session. A lunchtime walk around the block. Stretching between meetings. The key is to stop viewing exercise as something that only counts if you have changed into gym clothes and completed a formal workout. If you’re busy, make movement easier to access. Ask, “Where can I add ten minutes?” Ten minutes may not feel transformational. But ten minutes that actually happen are more valuable than an hour-long workout that repeatedly gets cancelled. 6. Protect your evenings The end of the summer holidays can bring an immediate increase in demands. The children are back. Work becomes busier. The diary fills up. Suddenly, your evenings disappear too. This is where sleep can suffer. When sleep suffers, everything else can feel harder. Rather than aiming for a perfect evening routine, create a small transition between work mode and rest mode. It could be a short walk. Reading. A shower or bath. Preparing tomorrow’s lunch. Ten minutes without your phone. Gentle stretching. Going to bed slightly earlier. You don’t need a complicated wellness ritual. You need a signal to your brain and body that the day is winding down. 7. Create a September routine that still works on September 20 This is the test I want every woman to use. Don’t ask, “Can I do this for the next seven days?” Ask, “Could I still do this when I’m stressed, tired and busy?” Because that’s when your routine matters most. Anyone can have a perfect health routine when life is calm. The real test is what happens when the school calendar gets busy, your inbox is overflowing and someone needs you to be somewhere at 6 p.m. Your routine needs a minimum version. For example, instead of, “I must exercise for 60 minutes,” try, “On busy days, I’ll walk for 10 minutes.” Instead of, “I must cook everything from scratch,” try, “I’ll keep three quick, nutritious meals in rotation.” Instead of, “I’ll never eat unhealthy food again,” try, “I’ll focus on balanced meals most of the time.” Instead of, “I have to meditate every morning,” try, “I’ll take two minutes to breathe before opening my emails.” The minimum version keeps the habit alive. That matters. The hidden benefit of a simpler September There is another reason I like this approach. It isn’t just about physical health. It’s about confidence. When you repeatedly tell yourself, “I’ll start Monday,” “I’ve failed again,” “I can’t stick to anything,” and “I don’t have enough willpower,” you gradually lose trust in yourself. But every time you keep a small promise to yourself, something changes. You begin to think, “Maybe I can do this.” Then, “I’m actually getting better at this.” And eventually, “I know how to look after myself even when life gets busy.” That is a very different mindset. It’s not perfection. It’s self-trust. For women who have spent years putting everyone else’s needs first, rebuilding that relationship with themselves can be incredibly powerful. Your September “non-negotiables” Before September gets busy, choose three things. Not ten. Just three. For example: I will eat a proper breakfast or lunch rather than relying on coffee and snacks. I will move my body every day, even if that means only ten minutes. I will protect my bedtime on most nights. Write them down. Put them somewhere you can see them. Then decide what your minimum version looks like. Because life will happen. There will be late meetings. School events. Unexpected problems. Bad nights. Busy days. That doesn’t mean your routine has failed. It means you’re living a normal life. If you’re still struggling with bloating and brain fog. This is where I would encourage women to stop endlessly adding things. If you’ve tried supplement after supplement, diet after diet, and you’re still experiencing persistent bloating, brain fog or fatigue, perhaps it’s time to step back and look at the bigger picture. Rather than asking, “What else can I cut out?” ask, “What could be contributing to how I’m feeling?” Look at the whole woman. Her food. Her gut health. Her sleep. Her stress. Her movement. Her lifestyle. Her changing hormones. Her working environment. Her mental load. Her habits. Importantly, her individual circumstances. This is one of the reasons my background in occupational health has been so valuable alongside my training in gut health, menopause, coaching and neuro-linguistic programming (NLP). For 20 years, I saw how closely health and working life can intersect. A woman doesn’t leave her stress at the office. She doesn’t necessarily leave her symptoms at home. She certainly can’t put her body on hold while she meets a deadline, manages a team, attends a school event and keeps a household running. Women’s health needs to fit into real life. September doesn’t have to be another failed reset So, as the summer holidays come to an end and the school bags come back out, resist the temptation to overhaul everything. You don’t need to become a completely new person by September 1. You don’t need a perfect routine. You don’t need another extreme diet. You don’t need to punish yourself for enjoying the summer. You don’t need to wait until January to start again if September doesn’t go perfectly. Instead, choose a few simple foundations. Make them realistic. Make them repeatable. Give yourself permission to have imperfect days. Because the goal isn’t to survive the first two weeks of September. The goal is to arrive at the end of the month and realise, “I’m still doing it.” That is momentum. Not the excitement of a new routine. Not a perfect week. Not another quick fix. Momentum is what happens when small, realistic choices become part of your life. Perhaps this September, instead of trying to get back to the woman you were before the summer, you can start building a routine that supports the woman you are becoming. One that gives you more energy. More clarity. More confidence. Perhaps, most importantly, a little more space to enjoy your own life. Because getting back to normal shouldn’t mean going back to running yourself into the ground. Follow me on Instagram, LinkedIn, and visit my website for more info! Read more from Charlotte Cheetham Charlotte Cheetham, Gut Health Coach Charlotte Cheetham is an expert Gut Coach for menopausal women. After suffering from an acute gut infection, she had to learn how to manage her gut health to prevent another massive flare-up. She has learned how to manage her nutritional needs to become healthy and happy during menopause. Her mission is to help as many women as possible manage their diet and lifestyle, so they can also learn how to become healthy and happy again.

Written by Edmund McKillop, Counsellor and Psychotherapist Edmund is a counsellor, psychotherapist, trainer, consultant, and founding director of Rosny House Limited. With over twenty years of experience in high school education, including leadership roles in pastoral care and subject management, he blends psychodynamics with business and education to deliver effective and positive change. It’s just turned two o’clock in the afternoon, and you’re meant to be working. Instead, you’re doomscrolling on your phone, wasting time until you must face that deadline. Life could be better, but it’s eat, sleep, work, repeat. Does this sound familiar? You’re not alone. Many people wonder if there is a purpose to their everyday lives beyond just going through the motions, and this is not a new challenge. In this article, we are going to explore five simple steps that will help you see each day in a different, purposeful light, leading to happiness and fulfilment. What is the point of all of this? When we are searching for happiness in our lives, the starting point is purpose. When we have a sense of meaning and purpose to work towards, then our days have direction rather than just being ends in themselves. Having a long-term goal can be a powerful focus, leading to ambition and striving for success. But what happens if life situations get in the way? What happens if we’re dealt a bad hand or are just unlucky? Humans have always wrestled with the question of purpose, and one of the most profound answers comes from an unexpected place, the life of a wounded soldier in 16th-century Spain named Ignatius of Loyola. Inigo de Loyola was born into a noble Spanish family in 1491. Like most Spanish nobles, his priorities in life were quite clear, become a great soldier, achieve riches and fame, build a strong reputation, and marry a beautiful woman, maybe a princess. This was all going according to plan until he was involved in the Battle of Pamplona against the French. During the battle, while defending the besieged town, he was badly injured by a cannonball. Who was Inigo? After the battle, he was taken home to recover from his permanent injuries. During that long convalescence, Inigo realised that his previous ambitions and goals were no longer achievable. At a time before modern entertainment and distractions, all he had to read was a book on the lives of the saints and of Christ. He would use his imagination to picture himself in biblical scenes and with saints. He realised that these daydreams brought him a sense of contentment and fulfilment, a sense of consolation and happiness. When he went back to daydreaming about being a powerful and successful nobleman, the sense of happiness was fleeting, leaving a sense of desolation. Over the next few years, still ambitious, Inigo wanted to become the best possible person he could be, striving to be the best Christian. After many trials and errors, he realised that happiness can be found through daily reflection on positive and negative interactions that occur during the day, consolation and desolation. This led to the formation of the Examen. What is the Examen? The Examen is a reflective meditation that is best experienced around midday. Although Inigo, later known as Ignatius of Loyola, became a Catholic priest and founded the Jesuit order, the Examen can be seen through both religious and secular eyes and has become a means of experiencing consolation and a daily sense of happiness for many people around the world. From a psychological perspective, the Examen functions as a daily emotional audit. It trains the mind to notice patterns, regulate emotional responses, and align behaviour with personal values, all of which are strongly associated with long-term wellbeing. Let’s look at the main sections of this process through a secular lens: 1. Gratitude For what am I grateful today? The first step to feeling happier is recognising the good things that we have in our lives right now. Our minds will naturally begin to focus on the positive aspects of our day, putting us in the right frame for thinking about effective change. 2. Settling and becoming present This is about taking a moment to slow down and become aware of the present moment. It is about noticing your breathing, your body, and your mental state. The aim is to create enough calm and focus to reflect honestly rather than reactively. Being in touch with how you feel in the moment is grounding. 3. What stands out? This is the main part of the Examen and is all about using your imagination to play back your day as if it has been recorded. By rewinding to the point of getting up that day, you can then notice the sensory experiences, the words spoken and heard, and the feelings during those moments from wake-up to the present moment. As you look back on the day, it is an opportunity to notice that which stands out, the experiences that bring consolation and a deeper sense of lasting happiness and fulfilment. These are positive, life-giving moments. It is helpful to notice the emotions felt at these times. This is also an opportunity to become aware of the moments when your responses didn’t align with your values or intentions. This may include avoidance, unhelpful coping strategies, or actions you regret. The emphasis is on understanding rather than self-criticism. Such moments perhaps leave you with an experience of desolation. 4. How can I be more committed? Having examined the day so far, and based on what you’ve noticed, this is a moment to reflect on what matters most to you. Consider how you might respond differently next time in similar situations. Set one or two realistic intentions for the near future. 5. Is everything balanced? The final step is a quick check-in on feelings. It is an opportunity to gauge how positive you are feeling and whether there is anything unbalanced. If there are imbalances, then it is a moment when constructive effort can be made to focus on moving forward by learning and improving. The goal is to leave the reflection feeling oriented, grounded, and forward-looking. Practice makes perfect: An example Like any reflective activity, practising this daily and making it part of your routine will increase its effectiveness in leading to a sense of peace and happiness. Many people use the Examen during lunch breaks or after work to reset their emotional state before entering the next part of their day. When I taught young people in high school, I would use the Examen as a reflective activity at the start of the first class right after the lunch break. I would get the young students to reflect upon their day so far while listening to some peaceful, gentle, and inspiring music. I include below a modified version of the kind of script that I use. 1. Gratitude Take a moment to relax. Listen to the music and be aware of the sounds in the room, made by yourself and others. As you become relaxed, think about what you are grateful for in your life right now. Perhaps it's family or friends, or something else. What are you grateful for right now? 2. Settling and becoming present Take a moment to slow down and become aware of your breathing. As you take a deep breath in, remind yourself of the life-giving oxygen that’s entering your lungs. As you breathe out, notice that the carbon dioxide is leaving your body. Continue to notice your breathing and imagine the positive feelings associated with breathing in and the negative feelings leaving you as you breathe out. Take a moment to feel the ground beneath your feet. What does it feel like through your shoes? Feel the weight of your body on the chair as it supports you. Notice this grounded and connected feeling. 3. What stands out? I invite you now to think back upon your day so far. How were you feeling when you got up? Were you looking forward to the day ahead? Were you worried about anything? What conversations did you have, if any? What were they like? What did you have for breakfast, if any? Did you stay at home or travel to work? If so, what was the journey like? What do you remember? What was your morning like? What kind of interactions did you have? How was lunchtime? Did you spend it alone or with others? As you reflect upon your day, what stands out as good experiences that brought a sense of peace and contentment? What made you feel good about yourself in a selfless way? What brought consolation? Similarly, were there any moments that were not so good? Perhaps someone said or did something that left you feeling down or angry. Did you perhaps say or do something that was not so good? Was there a selfish moment or a loss of control? Did anything leave you with a feeling of desolation? 4. How can I be more committed? Having thought about your day so far, how can you avoid the things that lead to you feeling down, negative, or angry? Perhaps you can interact with others differently. Perhaps you can make choices that are more selfless. What can you do differently that will lead to happiness? 5. Is everything balanced? Finally, is there anything still feeling unbalanced? What might this be? What can you say or do that will help to bring more balance and peace to your life? Perhaps you could reach out to others, either to heal or be healed. Moving forward As you practise this technique, you may find that you begin to notice patterns in your behaviour. This can be helpful in identifying potential barriers to daily happiness and is the first step in overcoming such hurdles. Sometimes these barriers can be related to our own defence mechanisms that are designed to keep our psyche safe but can sometimes become unhelpful as we progress through life. This is where counselling and psychotherapy can be helpful in learning more about ourselves and increasing self-empowerment. You can find out more about the work that I do in this area here. You can also find out more about the Examen at The Examen | Jesuits in Britain. Happiness isn’t found in grand achievements but in the small, daily moments of awareness that shape who we become. The Examen teaches us to notice those moments and to choose them intentionally. Follow me on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn for more info! Read more from Edmund McKillop Edmund McKillop, Counsellor and Psychotherapist After studying philosophy and theology, Edmund McKillop trained to be a high school teacher. Early in his career, he became curious about the emotional interactions in the classroom and their effect on the educational experience. This led to a study of psychodynamic counselling. Fast forward twenty years, and Edmund now runs his own successful private practice and consultation service, using his unique skills and experience to transform the lives of individuals and enhance business and education performance.

Written by Mayumi Beckers, Shamanic Practitioner, Shamans Directory Co-founder Mayumi Beckers is a Shamanic Practitioner devoted to guiding individuals on a path of transformation, empowerment, and soul remembrance. She offers private sessions, ceremonies, and sacred travels. She is also the Co-Founder of Shamans Directory, an online global platform dedicated to bringing shamanic earth-based services to the world's doorstep. As the modern world becomes increasingly fast-paced and disconnected, many people are turning toward ancient traditions in search of deeper meaning, healing, and spiritual grounding. This renewed interest in earth-based wisdom reveals a timeless truth, that some of the most profound guidance for navigating the future can be found in the sacred teachings of the past. A growing hunger for deeper wisdom We are living in a time where many people are seeking more than information. We are seeking meaning. Despite living in a world of endless knowledge, technology, and external connection, many still experience inner disconnection, from nature, community, purpose, and themselves. This is perhaps why there is a growing return to earth-based traditions, sacred teachings, and ancestral wisdom. Not because these traditions belong to the past, but because they continue to offer pathways to the future. Ancient traditions remind us that healing is not only physical. It can be emotional, energetic, spiritual, relational, and deeply connected to how we live in relationship with life itself. Learning as ceremony In many shamanic earth-based traditions, learning is not separate from life. It is ceremonial. It happens through observation, prayer, relationship, humility, and lived experience. Knowledge is transmitted not only through words, but direct connection with nature, ritual, symbols, elders, and energetic understanding. This differs greatly from many modern educational systems, which often emphasize analysis and accumulation. Earth-based traditions invite something more holistic, to learn with the mind, heart, body, and spirit, in combination with relationship and experience. Perhaps one of the greatest teachings that these traditions offer is that wisdom is not something we only study, it is something we embody. When learning is embodied, transformation occurs, and it becomes wisdom. Why shamanic wisdom still matters today Many of the challenges we face today are not only external. They are relational. Disconnection from Earth. Burnout and emotional exhaustion. Loss of ritual. Fragmentation of community. Over identification with productivity and intellect. A growing longing for spiritual grounding. Shamanic earth-based traditions approach life through relationship rather than separation. They remind us that we are in relationship with nature, with ancestors, with spirit, with one another, and with our own inner landscape. This perspective can bring healing, not because it offers quick answers, but because it teaches presence, reciprocity, awareness, and humility. Why courses can become sacred containers of learning One of the most beautiful ways we have seen people deepen their path is through shared learning and experiences. Courses, when held with integrity, can become sacred containers. They offer space for reflection, deeper study, practice, community, integration, personal growth, and dialogue with living traditions. These spaces allow people to learn directly from lineage based teachers, elders, ceremonialists, and wisdom keepers carrying lived traditions. They can support not only knowledge, but inner transformation. For many students, the greatest gift is not only what they learn. It is how they begin to relate differently to themselves and to life. Exploring divination, intuition, and spirit guidance One of our upcoming offerings reflects this beautifully: The Sacred Oracle of Mama Coca The Mysteries of Divination, Intuition & Spirit Guidance With Andean Medicine Man Alfredo Huayta Singona Begins 12 June 2026, 4 Week Session Whether through tarot, runes, oracle cards, dreams, signs in nature, or sacred plants, the art of divination invites us to listen more deeply, to track patterns, receive guidance, uncover hidden influences, and open pathways toward greater clarity and alignment. This intimate online course with Andean Medicine Man Alfredo Huayta Singona explores the sacred oracle of Mama Coca, long revered within Andean traditions as a guide for healing, offerings, prayer, divination, and connection with Spirit. Together, we will explore the dimensions of coca divination and learn the subtle language of Spirit through the leaves themselves. Their anatomy, forms, colors, textures, and patterns, the coca leaves reveal insights into the movement of energy, the past and future, and presence of harmonious or challenging influences within our lives. Whether you are already experienced in divination practices or simply feel called to deepen your intuitive connection with Spirit, this series is an invitation to begin or deepen your dialogue with Spirit. Read the full program here. Another profound offering explores sacred symbolism through Andean teachings: The Sacred Number Seven in Andean Cosmology With Pampamesayoq Wilbert Salas Atasi and Elder Don Mariano Quispe Flores Began 20 May 2026, 7 Sessions. It is not too late to join, recordings are available. In the Andean mystical traditions, the number seven holds profound sacred significance. Known as Qanchis in Quechua, this sacred number is reflected throughout both the natural and spiritual worlds, in stars, balance of masculine and feminine forces, mountains and waters, rainbow's rays, inner layers of Pachamama, musical tones, human energy centers, and cycle of seven days. This course journeys through teachings connected to: The seven energetic gates of the body The seven inner layers of Pachamama The seven sacred mountain spirits The seven Ñustas (goddesses) The sacred springs and lakes The seven healing days The seven stars of the Pleiades These teachings support both cosmological understanding and personal integration. They offer not only spiritual philosophy, but embodied wisdom that can enrich healing work, ceremony, self reflection, and deeper awareness. Read the full program here. A living invitation to learn At Shamans Directory, our course offerings are only one part of a wider mission of service. Alongside healings, practitioners, global community connections, live events, resources, and teachings, these learning spaces are designed to help people reconnect with ancestral wisdom in ways that feel grounded, respectful, and accessible. Whether someone is walking a healing path, deepening ceremonial practice, exploring earth-based spirituality, or simply feeling called to learn, there is space. Because true learning is not about becoming something new. It is often about remembering what has always been there. The wisdom of the Earth. Intelligence of relationship. Guidance of Spirit. Humility of service. Healing that happens when we listen deeply. Perhaps that is why ancient wisdom still matters and why so many people feel drawn to these teachings today. Not because it belongs behind us, but because it continues to illuminate the path ahead. They help restore something essential, our relationship with life itself. At Shamans Directory, we believe learning is part of healing and remembrance. Our online courses are one branch of a wider vision to make authentic earth-based and lineage-based wisdom teachings more accessible to the world. As we continue to grow, more sacred course offerings, live events, and opportunities for connection will unfold through our global community. We warmly invite you to walk with us and explore more here. Shamans Directory: More than a directory Shamans Directory, a global nonprofit 501(c)(3) platform devoted to bringing shamanic earth and lineage based wisdom and medicine traditions to the world's doorstep. What began as a vision has grown into a global community rooted in healing, reverence, relationship, integrity, education, accessibility, and collective transformation. Our vision is guided by One Fire, One Medicine, bringing original medicine holders and modern day lineage trained practitioners from around the world together as colleagues in a respectful relationship. At its heart, Shamans Directory is more than a listing of practitioners. It is a living bridge between ancient wisdom and the modern world, while continuing to grow as a global community grounded in healing, reverence, and relationship. Follow me on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and visit my website for more info! Follow Shamans Directory on Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, and LinkedIn! Read more from Mayumi Beckers Mayumi Beckers, Shamanic Practitioner, Shamans Directory Co-founder Mayumi Beckers is a Shamanic Practitioner based in the Netherlands, dedicated to supporting people on their path of healing, transformation, and empowerment. With a deep focus on helping others return to their natural alignment and essence, she facilitates reconnection with the true self and with nature, aspects often forgotten, suppressed, or fragmented through trauma, conditioning, and modern life experiences. Mayumi offers one-on-one sessions, both in person and remotely, as well as ceremonial healing work, group workshops, and sacred travel opportunities. She is also the Co-Founder of Shamans Directory, a global nonprofit platform committed to bringing shamanic earth-based services to the world’s doorstep.

Written by Michal Cohen, Psychotherapist Michal Cohen, LCSW, is a Columbia University-trained psychotherapist, mindfulness teacher, and psychedelic guide with over 20 years of experience. Her work explores trauma, nervous system healing, self-compassion, conscious cannabis use, and personal transformation. You know the behavior is not helping you. You have promised yourself you will stop. So why do you keep doing it? The answer may have less to do with willpower than you think. Understanding what a behavior is doing for you can open the door to something self-criticism rarely creates: genuine choice. Why knowing is not enough “I know better. Why do I keep doing this?” In more than twenty years as a psychotherapist, I have heard some version of this question countless times. Why do I keep shopping when I do not need anything? Why do I procrastinate when I know it makes me more anxious? Why do I keep reaching for something that gives me temporary relief? Why do I shame myself when I already know shame is not helpful? We often believe that if we understand a behavior intellectually, we should be able to stop it. When we cannot, we conclude that something must be wrong with us. Many of the people I work with are remarkably self-aware. They can identify their patterns. They know which behaviors are creating problems. They have read the books, listened to the podcasts, gone to therapy, and promised themselves countless times that tomorrow will be different. Yet the behavior returns. This is where judgment often enters. I should know better. Why am I doing this again? What is wrong with me? But meaningful change is difficult when we are at war with ourselves. Self-criticism can feel productive because it creates the illusion that we are holding ourselves accountable. Compassion, however, is not the same as giving ourselves permission to continue behaviors that are hurting us. In fact, research suggests something quite different. Studies on self-compassion have found that responding to our shortcomings with compassion can actually increase motivation for self-improvement. When we use less emotional energy attacking ourselves, we may have more capacity to look honestly at what is happening. What does it do for you? My thinking about behavior and addiction has been deeply influenced by Dr. Gabor Maté. One thing that affected me personally was his willingness to speak openly about his own compulsive shopping for classical music. His self-disclosure helped shift my question. Instead of asking, What is wrong with me? I began asking, What does this behavior do for me? That question has become central to the way I approach both my clinical work and my own life. When I ask clients what a behavior does for them, the answers are remarkably human. It gives me relief. It helps me escape. It gives me something to look forward to. It numbs me. It makes me feel in control. It quiets my mind. It gives me a dopamine hit. It helps me not feel so lonely. Suddenly, we are having a very different conversation. We are no longer simply talking about how to eliminate a behavior. We are becoming curious about the need the behavior is attempting to meet. This does not mean that every coping behavior should be labeled an addiction, nor does understanding a behavior mean ignoring its consequences. It means recognizing that behaviors that appear irrational from the outside often make much more sense when we understand what they provide on the inside. How coping gets learned Some of our coping strategies begin much earlier than we realize. Imagine a child growing up in a home with frequent conflict between their parents. The child cannot leave the environment. They may not yet have the emotional capacity or support to process what they are feeling. So they find ways to get away without actually going anywhere. Maybe they disappear into television, food, fantasy, games, or anything else that temporarily shifts their attention away from what is happening around them. Distraction works. Years later, the circumstances may be completely different. The child is now an adult who has choices, resources, and perhaps a safe home of their own. But when emotional pain arrives, that familiar impulse to distract may still appear. The behavior creating difficulty today may have roots in something that once helped us cope. Rather than immediately asking, How do I make myself stop? we can begin with, What is happening inside me right now, and what am I hoping this will give me? When grief met Temu Recently, I had an opportunity to practice this in my own life. My beloved Chihuahua, Solomon, died after almost seventeen years with me. It happened suddenly and was very traumatic. Anyone who has deeply loved an animal knows that losing them is not a small loss. Solomon had been woven into the fabric of my everyday life for nearly two decades. His absence was everywhere. Somewhere inside that grief, I noticed myself impulse-shopping more. On Temu, of all places. There was always another inexpensive shirt, another little item, another momentary spark of maybe I need this. Because of what I had learned through my own therapeutic work, mindfulness practice, and studies with Dr. Maté, I tried not to turn my shopping into another reason to criticize myself. Instead, I became curious. What was the shopping doing for me? The answer was not particularly complicated. It was distracting me from grief. For a few moments, I could search, choose, anticipate, and experience a little burst of pleasure instead of feeling the enormous ache of missing little Sol. So, when I caught myself eyeing another shirt, I began asking myself something like, Do you truly need this shirt, or would you like to take a moment and check in with yourself first? Sometimes I still bought the shirt. That matters. Mindfulness did not magically turn me into a person who never impulse shopped again. Compassion was not a trick I used to force myself into better behavior. Instead, awareness created a little more space. I could notice the impulse to shop and also notice the grief underneath it. Gradually, as I allowed myself to be more conscious of what I was actually feeling, the impulse shopping diminished. I did not shame myself out of the behavior. I understood what the behavior was trying to do for me. Compassion creates choice This is one reason I practice from a harm reduction perspective. We do not have to demand immediate perfection before change counts. Whether the behavior involves shopping, food, cannabis, alcohol, scrolling, procrastination, people pleasing, or another way of coping, understanding its purpose gives us information that shame cannot. The next time you find yourself doing something you promised yourself you would not do, pause before immediately trying to correct yourself. Notice what you are feeling. Then ask, "What is this behavior doing for me right now?" Is it offering relief? Escape? Comfort? Stimulation? Control? Connection? A moment when you do not have to feel lonely, anxious, overwhelmed, or sad? Once you understand the need underneath a behavior, you have more information about what you actually need. That does not mean you will always make a different choice. Sometimes you may still buy the shirt. But awareness gives you a little space between the feeling and the response. Inside that space, choice becomes possible. Begin with curiosity Perhaps the next time you hear yourself thinking, I know better. Why am I still doing this? Try asking a different question: What is this behavior doing for me? Listen carefully to the answer. A part of you may not be trying to sabotage your life at all. It may simply be using an old strategy to help you through something difficult. You can dislike a behavior without disliking the person doing it. Especially when that person is you. If you recognize yourself in these patterns and want to explore them with more curiosity and less judgment, learn more about my approach to therapy and working together through my website. Michal Cohen, LCSW, is a psychotherapist, mindfulness teacher, psychedelic guide, and creator of Notes to My Nervous System. Her work explores psychotherapy, mindfulness, harm reduction, conscious cannabis use, and nervous system healing. Follow me on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and visit my website for more info! Read more from Michal Cohen Michal Cohen, Psychotherapist Michal Cohen, LCSW, is a psychotherapist, mindfulness teacher, and psychedelic guide with more than 20 years of experience. A graduate of Columbia University School of Social Work, she helps people understand the patterns they judge themselves for through compassion, curiosity, and nervous system awareness. Her work explores trauma, anxiety, ADHD, self-compassion, conscious cannabis use, and psychedelic healing. She is also the creator of Notes to My Nervous System, an affirmation and practice card deck inspired by the belief that everyday life can become ceremony. Through her writing, Michal invites readers to slow down, listen within, and discover new ways of understanding themselves.

Written by Carla J. Hawkins, Founder & CEO of The YOU Network, LLC & Creator of The YOU Method™ Carla Hawkins, MBA, is the Founder & CEO of The YOU Network, LLC and creator of The YOU Method™. A leadership and professional development strategist, she helps people know who they are, own their value, and unlock what's next in their careers, leadership, and organizations. Have you ever found yourself asking, "What’s next for me?" Maybe you want the promotion. Maybe you’re ready to leave a career that no longer fits. Perhaps you’ve stepped into leadership and suddenly realize the skills that got you there aren’t necessarily the skills that will help you succeed there. Or maybe, from the outside, everything looks fine, but you know you’re capable of more. After more than 20 years of working across workforce development, education, leadership, and community engagement, I’ve seen people spend enormous amounts of energy searching for the next opportunity while overlooking the person who will have to step into it: you! I know this all too well because the traditional model instilled in me was to obtain the appropriate degree(s) that related to my career goals, seek a position at a reputable company, become an asset, get promoted, and retire after 30 years. It’s pretty safe to say now, after 20 years and several career pivots, the new model involves answering some deep questions and being more adaptable than ever before! That realization has shaped much of my work and the philosophy I often share. Before we connect you with the who, we have to develop the you. The right connection, employer, mentor, client, opportunity, or title can open a door. But what happens after that door opens depends largely on the person walking through it. That is where The YOU Method™ begins. Why professional growth has to start with YOU Career and leadership development are often approached from the outside in. We update the resume. Apply for another position. Attend a networking event. Earn another certification. Learn another leadership technique. Those things can absolutely matter. But tactics without clarity can lead to a lot of movement without meaningful progress. I have worked with professionals who possessed impressive experience but struggled to articulate their value. I’ve encountered emerging leaders who knew their jobs exceptionally well but were learning that managing work and leading people require different skills. I’ve seen talented people pursue opportunities simply because they were available, not because those opportunities aligned with where they actually wanted to go. Before asking, “What should I do next?” there is a more important question, “Who am I becoming next?” This is exactly what one of my clients, Kerri C, asked herself. She signed up for 1:1 career coaching here and realized her passion and purpose didn't align with her educational degrees and previous work experience. She became ready to evolve and adapt to something new and exciting. Kerri now works for a company closely aligned with her passion, and she enjoys every moment of it! Quick tip: If you don’t already have one, connect with a career coach to gain amazing perspective on whether you are truly aligned. Who you are becoming next is at the heart of The YOU Method™ 1. Your foundation: Know who you are Your next level should not begin with a job posting. It should begin with self-awareness. What are your strengths? What do you value? What environments allow you to thrive? What patterns continue to hold you back? What skills have you developed that you may be undervaluing? Most importantly, who are you now, and who do you need to become to reach your next level? This is important whether you’re pursuing a new career, preparing for leadership, building a business, or trying to become more effective in your current role. Before adding more to your resume, take inventory of the person behind it. 2. Own your value: Recognize it, communicate, demonstrate it Knowing your value privately isn’t enough. You must learn to communicate it. I frequently see experienced professionals struggle when someone asks a seemingly simple question, “Tell me about yourself.” They can explain everything they have done, but not necessarily the value they created. The same challenge appears in leadership. A title may establish authority, but it doesn’t automatically create influence, trust, executive presence, accountability, or effective communication. Owning your value means understanding what you bring to the table and developing the confidence and communication skills to consistently demonstrate it. Ask yourself, if I weren’t allowed to use my job title, how would I explain the value I bring? Quick tip: Your answer can reveal a great deal about how clearly you understand your professional identity. Take some time to determine your three superpowers or, simply put, your top three strengths. Know what you bring to the table and own it! 3. Unlock what’s next: Turn growth into action Clarity without action eventually becomes another good idea. Once you understand your foundation and can articulate your value, the next step is deciding what you will do with it. That could mean having the conversation you’ve been avoiding. Applying for the position you previously talked yourself out of. Building relationships before you need something from them. Developing a 90-day leadership plan. Setting boundaries. Finding a mentor. Learning a new competency. Changing industries. Or recognizing that your next level isn’t necessarily somewhere else, it may require showing up differently exactly where you are. This is where development becomes movement. The question becomes, "What will you do next with what you’ve learned about yourself?" Your next level may require a different version of you. It may be past time to take some online career assessments to gain clarity and resources for what and who to connect with next. That’s why I love doing what I do, connecting the dots with YOU! One of the biggest mistakes we can make is expecting the person we have been to automatically be equipped for everything we say we want next. Growth doesn’t mean abandoning who you are. It means becoming more intentional about who you are becoming. Your next opportunity may require stronger communication. Your next leadership role may require greater emotional intelligence. Your career pivot may require you to stop defining yourself by an old job title. Your next chapter may require the confidence to walk into rooms where no one already knows your name. Sometimes, unlocking what’s next requires acknowledging that something that once fit you no longer does. That’s not failure. That’s growth. Once you tackle this obstacle, the sky is the limit. Before you ask “Who can help me?” ask “Who am I becoming?” Relationships matter. Networks matter. Mentors matter. Sponsors matter. Opportunities matter. I built The YOU Network around that very belief: connecting you with the who. But something comes first. Developing the YOU. Know who you are. Own the value you bring. Then take intentional action toward what’s next. Because the goal isn’t simply to get another opportunity. The goal is to become prepared for the opportunity when it arrives and confident enough to recognize when it’s yours. Ready to discover what’s next? If you’re navigating a career transition, preparing for your next level of leadership, or looking for ways to strengthen your organization, start with these three questions: Who am I now and who do I need to become? What value do I bring, and can I communicate it clearly? What action am I willing to take next? Those three questions can change the direction of a career, a leader, a team, and sometimes an entire organization. Connect with my team today here or email us here and let us know you are ready! Know YOU. Own YOU. Unlock YOU.™ Follow me on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and visit my website for more info! Read more from Carla J. Hawkins Carla J. Hawkins, Founder & CEO of The YOU Network, LLC & Creator of The YOU Method™ Carla Hawkins, MBA, is a leadership and professional development strategist and Founder & CEO of The YOU Network, LLC. With more than 20 years of experience spanning workforce development, education, leadership, and community engagement, she helps individuals and organizations turn potential into purposeful action. Carla created The YOU Method™, a framework centered on knowing who you are, owning your value, and unlocking what’s next. Through coaching, consulting, training, and speaking, she develops confident professionals, stronger leaders, and more effective organizations. Her philosophy: before you connect YOU with the WHO, you must first develop the YOU.

Written by Geneva Martin, Executive Strategist, Leadership Consultant, Author, Speaker, and Co-Founder of The JITT Group Geneva Martin is an executive strategist, leadership consultant, author, and co-founder of The JITT Group. With a Master of Business Administration (MBA), senior leadership experience in technology, data, and Artificial Intelligence (AI) governance, and strategic planning, she helps leaders transform with clarity, resilience, and purpose. Artificial Intelligence (AI) decisions are being made every day in strategy, budgeting, product, vendor, and workforce conversations. If governance arrives only at the next committee meeting or quarterly review, it is already behind the business. After years of working in data and AI governance, I have come to believe many organizations aren't struggling because they lack frameworks. They are struggling because governance is often late. The charter may be approved. The committee may exist. Stewards may have been selected from across the business. Yet the decisions that shape AI risk are frequently being made somewhere else, in strategic planning, budget discussions, product reviews, vendor selections, workforce decisions, and conversations about what to automate next. By the time governance reaches the executive agenda, the organization may already be moving in a different direction. Organizations are trying to govern AI on top of data environments they never fully governed, using structures designed to report backward rather than influence forward. Data governance and AI governance are not the same Data governance is not limited to charters and policies. It establishes operational accountability for what data means, who owns it, whether it is fit for purpose, who may use it, how it moves, and how problems are corrected. AI governance is broader. It governs the purpose, model or vendor, permitted inputs and outputs, testing, monitoring, human oversight, and consequences of an AI capability. The overlap depends on the use case. A coding assistant may not use customer, billing, or other business datasets, so enterprise data quality may not be its primary risk. But its prompts, source code, repository context, documentation, and generated code still require decisions about access, protection, vendor handling, security, intellectual property, testing, and human review. Here, engineering and cybersecurity may be more prominent than traditional data quality governance. Data governance is one contributor to AI governance. AI governance connects the disciplines the decision requires. AI did not remove the data problem AI governance is broader than data governance. But when an AI capability depends on organizational data, unresolved data problems become AI governance risks. Most organizations began pursuing AI before they had fully resolved the work of governing their data. Definitions still differed across departments. Ownership was sometimes unclear. Data quality issues remained open. Critical business context still lived in the minds of experienced employees rather than in a system, standard, or model. When an AI use case depends on organizational data, a technically strong model cannot correct for data that is incomplete, poorly understood, biased, outdated, or disconnected from the decision it is meant to support. AI may produce an answer faster, but speed does not make that answer trustworthy. At the same time, many organizations are operating with fewer experienced subject matter experts, the people who often recognize that the data does not make sense even when the dashboard says that it does. When those human checkpoints disappear, unresolved data problems can move more quickly into automated decisions. What began as a data quality issue can become an operational, regulatory, compliance, or reputational risk. The governance loop I have watched governance teams do exactly what they were asked to do: develop the charter, establish the committee, identify stewards in each department, and form an enterprise governance team. Then the meetings became sporadic because everyone had a full-time role outside governance. A quarterly executive report was prepared, only to reveal that priorities, funding, technology plans, or business conditions had already changed. The team would revise the plan, update the charter or priorities, and begin again. It felt like a loop. The problem was not that people were unwilling to govern. The structure placed governance behind the organization. We built governance around committees and reporting calendars when we needed to build it around the decisions that were changing the business. Quarterly executive oversight still matters. But the quarterly meeting should confirm direction, examine patterns, and resolve major escalations. It should not be the first place governance learns that the organization has selected a new vendor, changed its AI priorities, reduced subject matter expertise, or entered a different risk environment. When the deadline arrives before the data is ready One incident has stayed with me. In a large federated organization, a substantial billing discrepancy surfaced that the organization had not identified internally. Billing and reconciliation across a complex operation still depended heavily on spreadsheets and manual inputs between customer, sales, billing, and accounting systems. Numbers could be missed, entered incorrectly, or lost during handoffs. These were not exotic technology failures. They were predictable human errors built into the operating process. When new data access, privacy, risk, and compliance requirements increased the urgency, timelines came down from legal and risk before anyone had fully assessed the condition of the data or the effort required to remediate it. An external consulting firm was brought in to help accelerate the work. Participation became mandatory, but executive support for governance remained inconsistent. The governance team was expected to move quickly without the funding, time, or authority required to correct the underlying data. At points, the work became more focused on mapping data flows, answering questions, and signing forms than on mastering and cleaning the data. The organization could document completion while manual reconciliations, unclear ownership, and data quality risks remained. Meanwhile, the pressure to deploy AI kept increasing. We were being asked to demonstrate that AI-supported decisions would be accurate, compliant, and secure while some of the source data was still being reconciled through spreadsheets. That experience also clarified something for me: when AI depends on organizational data, it does not stop functioning because the data has not been mastered or reconciled. It will still produce an answer, often faster and more efficiently, and with the appearance of precision. But speed and fluency cannot make unresolved data trustworthy. You cannot govern AI through an attestation when the data beneath it is still being reconciled. Govern AI decisions, not the calendar AI governance becomes real when it enters the forums where AI use cases are proposed, funded, designed, deployed, and monitored. That includes decisions about the purpose of the use case, the data or context it may use, the model or vendor selected, the people who may be affected, the level of human oversight required, and the evidence that would cause the organization to pause or stop. This does not mean placing an executive or governance specialist in every meeting. It means establishing clear decision rights, governance triggers, and escalation thresholds before urgency arrives. Executives do not need to sit in every governance meeting. AI governance needs to be present in the meetings where executives and business leaders are already deciding the future. Embedding AI governance into the operating rhythm does not mean creating more meetings. Much of the work can happen before the meeting through a structured decision queue. Each item should identify the accountable owner, recommendation, supporting evidence, AI risk level, required reviewers, and decision deadline, then route the issue to the appropriate data, AI, engineering, risk, compliance, cyber, legal, privacy, or business leader. Routine reviews can occur outside the meeting. The meeting agenda should focus on decisions that are pending, already made, unresolved, or ready for escalation. Leaders should enter the room prepared to decide, not spend the meeting discovering the issue for the first time. The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) AI Risk Management Framework treats governance as a cross-cutting function intended to inform the mapping, measurement, and management of AI risk. That reinforces a practical point: governance cannot be confined to one committee or one point in the AI lifecycle. AI governance must flow through the organization At the top, leaders establish the organization's AI ambition, risk tolerance, nonnegotiable boundaries, and accountability. They determine which AI decisions may be delegated and which require executive review. Business and functional leaders translate that direction into decisions about AI use cases, investments, data, models, vendors, products, customer impact, and workforce changes. The people closest to the work determine whether the relevant information and context are appropriate, evaluate how the model and its outputs behave, apply required safeguards, preserve human oversight, and monitor actual outcomes. AI direction and decision rights move down through the organization. Evidence about data quality, model performance, unintended consequences, and emerging risk must move back up. Federated does not mean fragmented Most federated governance models appoint departmental subject matter experts as stewards, add managers and directors as another layer, and then establish an enterprise council above them. The structure may look complete on an organization chart. But federation without connection becomes fragmentation. Business leaders understand strategy, customers, budgets, and operational pressure. Data, AI, and engineering teams understand lineage, quality, model behavior, and technical limitations. Risk and compliance understand obligations and control requirements. Cybersecurity sees attacks, vulnerabilities, and access concerns. Legal and privacy interpret changing laws, while executives know when economic conditions and organizational direction are shifting. No single group sees the entire AI decision. AI governance must be the place where those signals meet before a consequential decision is made. AI Governance Decision Flow. Original framework developed by Geneva Martin, 2026. Copyright 2026 Geneva Martin. All rights reserved. Authority moves down, evidence and emerging risk move up. A federated AI governance network, bringing together data, AI, engineering, risk, compliance, cyber, legal, privacy, business stewards, and subject matter experts, connects those levels. It provides expertise and consistency, but it does not replace executive accountability or the judgment of the people closest to the work. The flow must also respond to what is happening outside the organization. New regulations, changes to models and vendors, cyber threats, economic pressure, and marketplace expectations can alter the risk surrounding an AI use case long after its initial approval. Approval is not the end of governance AI systems do not remain static simply because they were approved. The data changes. The model may drift. A vendor may update its technology. The business may use the system in ways that were not part of the original decision. The population affected by the system may also change. Every material AI decision should leave a visible thread: what was approved, why it was approved, which risk was accepted, who owns the outcome, what will be monitored, and when the decision will be revisited. If those answers cannot be reconstructed after the meeting, the organization has governance activity, but not yet accountability. Repeated exceptions should also be treated as information. They may reveal that a policy no longer reflects how the business operates, that decision thresholds are unclear, or that teams lack a practical way to comply. Governance should not only constrain action. It should help the organization learn. Measure whether AI governance is improving decisions It is possible to count policies, committee meetings, completed assessments, and training participation while missing whether AI governance is improving decisions. Those measures show activity. They do not automatically show trust, clarity, or movement. Leaders should also ask whether AI use cases are reaching the right review at the right time, whether accountable owners are named, whether data and model issues are identified before deployment, and whether monitoring results actually change decisions when they should. The goal is not frictionless AI. Some friction is protective and necessary. The goal is purposeful friction, clear enough to protect the organization, proportionate enough to support responsible innovation, and visible enough that people know how to move forward. AI governance is leadership in practice AI governance may be coordinated by data, technology, risk, legal, security, or compliance teams, but it cannot be delegated away as a leadership responsibility. Leaders decide what the organization rewards, which tradeoffs it accepts, whose concerns are heard, and whether accountability remains intact when the pressure to move faster increases. As I discussed in my Brainz interview on thoughtful transformation, technology decisions cannot be separated from their human consequences. AI governance is one of the places where that leadership responsibility becomes visible. Governance taught me that leadership is stewardship, and that trust is the currency of AI, data, and people. Stewardship is not demonstrated by having the most comprehensive framework on paper. It is demonstrated by how consistently our values, responsibilities, data, and decisions stay connected as the business moves. The question for leaders is no longer only, “Do we have an AI governance framework?” It is this: If your organization made a consequential AI decision tomorrow, where would governance enter the conversation, and would it arrive before or after the decision? Before the next AI decision Identify the meeting where the decision will be made, the leader accountable for the outcome, the evidence that must be reviewed, and the threshold that would require the organization to pause. If those answers are unclear, that is where your AI governance work should begin. Follow me on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and visit my website for more info! Read more from Geneva Martin Geneva Martin, Executive Strategist, Leadership Consultant, Author, Speaker, and Co-Founder of The JITT Group Geneva Martin is an executive strategist, leadership consultant, author, and co-founder of The JITT Group. With an MBA and senior leadership experience across technology, data, and AI governance, strategic planning, and organizational transformation, she helps leaders turn complexity into clarity and purpose-driven action. She is the author of Surrendered in Silence: The God Who Stayed, a deeply personal work on faith, resilience, healing, and transformation. Geneva’s work blends executive insight, neuroscience-informed leadership, emotional intelligence, and faith-centered purpose. Through her writing, speaking, and consulting, she equips leaders and organizations to grow with wisdom, resilience, and intentional impact.

Written by Paul Sawyer, Conscious Becoming Coach & Teacher Paul Sawyer is the creator of Conscious Becoming, an approach to personal and spiritual transformation that helps people reconnect with their inner power, navigate life’s challenges, and consciously create the life they want to live. He is a coach, teacher, author, and meditation teacher with over 30 years’ experience. When relationships become difficult, money feels uncertain, or life simply does not go to plan, it is easy to lose confidence in ourselves along with our sense of inner stability. But alignment is not about creating a life in which nothing goes wrong. It is about recognising when we have lost our centre and discovering how to return to ourselves while life is still unfolding. What is inner alignment? It is relatively easy to feel peaceful when life is going well. The real challenge comes when plans unravel, relationships become difficult, money feels uncertain, or several problems arrive at once. In those moments, alignment can seem very far away. But what if alignment is not something we achieve when life finally behaves itself? What if it is something we learn to return to while life is happening? We often imagine alignment as a particular state: peaceful, positive, connected, perhaps even blissful. Of course, sometimes it feels exactly like that. There are moments when everything seems to flow, and we feel connected with ourselves, with other people, and with life itself. Our mind becomes quieter, our decisions seem clearer, and synchronicities appear. We stop trying so hard, and somehow things seem to work. Then something happens. A relationship becomes uncertain. A bill arrives. Someone says something that triggers us. Work does not go according to plan. Our body gives us something to worry about. Or perhaps nothing dramatic happens at all. We simply wake up one morning and do not feel like ourselves. Suddenly, all that beautiful spiritual understanding can seem to disappear. But this is where the real work begins: learning how to bring spiritual awakening into everyday life, including the days when life does not cooperate. For me, alignment does not mean arranging our lives so successfully that nothing ever disturbs us. It means developing such a relationship with ourselves, and with the deeper intelligence of life, that when we lose our centre, we begin to recognise it. Increasingly, we also know how to come back. This is at the heart of what I call Conscious Becoming. Notice the choice point When life seems to go wrong, our attention rapidly narrows around the problem. We replay the conversation. We check the bank account. We imagine what might happen next. We try to work out what somebody else is thinking. We construct possible futures and then emotionally experience those futures as though they were already happening. Before long, the external circumstance is not the only difficulty. We have also moved internally, perhaps from trust into fear, from abundance into scarcity, from presence into worry, from openness into defensiveness, or from connection into control. There is nothing wrong with this. It is profoundly human. Within that process is an important moment, what I sometimes think of as the choice point. It is the moment we become aware: Ah, I have moved. That awareness changes everything. Now I am not simply afraid. I am aware that fear is present. I am not simply lost in worry. I can see that my mind is worrying. A little space has appeared between who I am and what I am temporarily experiencing. Within that space, we can make a different choice from a place of authenticity and inner alignment. Bad days aren’t failure Spiritual and personal development can easily become another standard we use against ourselves. I meditate, so why am I feeling like this? I know all this, so why am I still getting triggered? I thought I had dealt with this. Why have I gone backward? I have experienced this myself. Recently, I went through a period in which I felt extraordinarily connected, deeply loving, open, and in tune with life. Then, suddenly, I experienced several days that felt significantly more challenging. The contrast was noticeable precisely because the previous state had been so expansive. But I have learned not to interpret that movement in the way I once might have done. I sometimes think of the sun and the clouds. A cloudy day does not mean the sun has disappeared. It means that, temporarily, we cannot see it. In the same way, thoughts, emotions, circumstances, and old patterns can obscure our connection with our true nature without destroying it. The spiritual journey is not necessarily about permanently removing every cloud. It is about remembering that the sun of our true nature remains present and, at the deepest level, is what we are. That changes our relationship with difficult periods. Instead of thinking that something has gone terribly wrong, we can begin asking: What is this showing me? What do I need right now? What would help me move a little closer to the way I want to feel? Reach for relief This is where Conscious Becoming becomes very practical. If you are deeply anxious, frightened, or overwhelmed, telling yourself to “think positively” may do very little. Sometimes it makes things worse because now we are anxious and frustrated with ourselves for being anxious. We do not need to make an enormous leap from fear to bliss. We need to find the next stage of what feels better, and that may begin simply with relief. Perhaps relief begins with putting the phone down and going for a walk. Remembering something we genuinely appreciate can help. So can sitting quietly, placing a hand over the centre of the chest, and allowing the body to settle. One simple practice I use is to take a slow breath in through the nose and gently sigh the breath out through the mouth. Then do it again before allowing the breath to find its natural rhythm. I call these changing breaths because that small interruption can sometimes be enough to help us change gear. Research into slow breathing and its psychological and physiological effects supports the broader value of conscious breathing practices, although different methods and individuals naturally produce different responses. During a busy day, try using changing breaths between activities: before moving from one meeting to another, from the telephone to the computer, or from work into home life. Stop for a few seconds. Breathe. Come back. Ask yourself: How am I right now? Not because your current state is wrong, but because awareness gives you choice. When emotions take over I have watched this process unfold beautifully with someone I have been working with through Conscious Becoming, whom I will call Hannah. When we first met, she was overwhelmed and exhausted, carrying considerable fear and worry. We began working together one-to-one, not by trying to fix every circumstance in her life, but by helping her reconnect with herself, become more aware of the patterns she had been living through, and experience a greater sense of inner alignment. What happened next is perhaps best expressed in her own words: “This has given me an inner strength, being able to deal with life’s ups and downs without the fear and worry I used to carry.” What interests me most is not the idea that everything in Hannah’s life suddenly became perfect. It did not. The deeper change was in her relationship with what happened. During one of our conversations, she described experiencing another emotional “blip.” Fear began appearing again, but this time something was different: she noticed it. Previously, the emotion might simply have taken over. Now there was awareness. She recognised that she had moved away from the state she wanted to inhabit and was able to find her way back more quickly. That, to me, is transformation. It is not creating a life in which nothing difficult ever happens. It is becoming increasingly conscious of who we are being while it happens. Often, that return begins very simply, through a pause, a breath, or a moment of self-awareness. Begin from within One of the greatest reversals in our understanding can occur when we stop making our inner wellbeing entirely dependent upon external circumstances. Most of us have been trained to approach life in the opposite direction: when the money situation improves, I will relax, when this relationship is secure. I will feel safe when my business succeeds. I will trust myself when this problem disappears, I will be happy. Understandably, we keep rearranging the outside in an attempt to create peace inside. But what if we begin from within? This does not mean ignoring problems. The bills still need paying, and decisions still need making. Sometimes decisive action is exactly what is required, but the state from which we take that action matters. Fear sees different possibilities from trust, and desperation makes different decisions from clarity. An unsettled nervous system responds differently from a settled one. When we reconnect with ourselves first, we often discover that we can meet exactly the same circumstances in an entirely different way. From fear to trust Hannah has expressed that difficulties have not completely stopped appearing. What has changed is the weight she gives them. She described previously holding everything very tightly, worrying about people, trying to anticipate outcomes, and feeling responsible for situations that were not necessarily hers to control. Gradually, that grip softened. She began to experience trust, and with trust came freedom. In one of our conversations, she described realising that unconditional love did not require her to carry everybody else’s life at her own expense. She could love people while allowing them their own journey. That is a profound shift, and it points towards something much larger than positive thinking. When we are deeply connected with ourselves and our true nature, we begin to discover an inner stability that does not require everything outside us to remain stable. Alignment means returning Perhaps this is the most important thing I have learned: we do not “achieve” alignment once and remain there forever. We return, again and again. We notice when we have become caught in fear, and we return. We notice when we are trying to control everything, and we return. We notice that we have spent the last three hours mentally living in an imagined future, and we return. Every return strengthens something within us. Eventually, awareness begins happening earlier, and we catch ourselves before the momentum becomes so strong. What once consumed us for three days may occupy us for three hours, and what once occupied three hours may eventually pass through in twenty minutes. Not because we have learned to suppress our humanity, but because we have stopped mistaking every passing state for who we are. We have placed the clouds and the sky back into perspective. That return does not need to be dramatic. It may be one breath, one walk, one honest acknowledgement, or one moment of appreciation. Each small return helps us reconnect with ourselves and remember who we really are. I will explore this process more fully in my next article, 7 Ways to Reconnect With Yourself and Remember Who You Really Are. This is Conscious Becoming Conscious Becoming begins with a simple recognition: we are participating in who we become. Our circumstances matter, but so does the state from which we meet them. Our attention, thoughts, and expectations matter. And our relationship with that deeper part of ourselves, whether we call it our Inner Being, higher self, God, the Divine, or simply our deepest nature, matters most of all. For me, the aim is not to become spiritually perfect. It is to become increasingly conscious and aware, to recognise when we have moved away from ourselves and out of alignment, and to choose reconnection rather than remaining lost in struggle. That does not guarantee a particular external outcome, but it gives something different the opportunity to emerge through us. Life does not have to be perfect for us to feel held by it. The clouds can gather, and we can still remember the sun. The waves can rise, and we can learn to trust the ocean beneath them. Things can appear to be going wrong and, somewhere underneath the noise, we can still know: I am here. I am connected. I can choose what I bring to what happens next. That is alignment. Every time we return to it, we are consciously becoming. Return to greater alignment If you recognise yourself in this article and would like support finding your way back to greater alignment, a one-to-one Conscious Becoming session offers a space to reconnect with yourself, move beyond patterns of fear and worry, and create change from the inside out. You can explore Conscious Becoming and book a one-to-one session. Follow me on Facebook, Instagram, and visit my website for more info! Read more from Paul Sawyer Paul Sawyer, Conscious Becoming Coach & Teacher Paul Sawyer is a Conscious Becoming Coach & Teacher with over 30 years’ experience in meditation, spiritual development, and personal transformation. He is the creator of Conscious Becoming, an approach that helps people reconnect with who they truly are, align with and embody their deeper nature, and bring spiritual awareness into everyday life. Drawing on meditation, the Law of Attraction and conscious creation, Paul empowers people to navigate life’s challenges, reconnect with their inner power and become conscious participants in creating the lives they want to live.

Written by Monsieur Chase Estevez, Founder & CEO of Estevez Clothing Co. Monsieur Chase Estevez is the founder and owner of Estevez Clothing Co. He is well known for using his 15+ years of experience in the tailoring industry, image consulting, and personal presence coaching to serve clients all around the world. His mission is to help others align their appearance and presence, bringing out their ultimate confidence. Before a single word leaves your mouth, your image has already delivered a speech. In a world that moves fast, people make quick judgments. They say never to judge a book by its cover, but let’s be real, we all judge a book by its cover, figuratively speaking, of course, for the literal folks. We absolutely will look at someone and give compliments or turn our noses up in disgust. The truth is, in less than seven seconds, the human brain registers who you are, what you stand for, and whether you command respect. Questions you have to ask yourself about your appearance include, "How do I want the world to view me? What do I want my appearance to say? What do I wear when I’m feeling my best and when I’m feeling my worst?" How do I want the world to view me? What if I told you that, in today’s society, you are only as good as your last look? How much effort would you put into your appearance? Would that change how you stepped out of your front door? I think it most definitely would. Now, this does not mean you have to step out in a blue pinstripe, double-breasted Estevez Clothing Co. suit every day, but if you do, I ain’t mad at you for that. This is just to get you thinking about yourself and how you are viewed. People will give you respect and courtesy just by the way you look and carry yourself. Once every two weeks, dress up nicely and get the pleasant looks you deserve. A smile and a compliment cost nothing. What do I want my appearance to say? Smooth, elegant, flashy, dainty, sleek, powerful. These are just a few adjectives that can describe a person’s look. There is nothing wrong with wearing a tuxedo shirt to a board meeting. I’m joking, okay! Your appearance should reflect who you are or who you are trying to become. Everyone goes through transitions in life. You have to ask yourself where you are in your life. If you are at a level where your career is upper echelon, there is no reason for you not to be in a tailor-made suit every day. You want your appearance to speak volumes and make a statement, but more than anything, you want it to speak for you. You can look exactly how you want to look, but there is a time and place for everything. Define who you are and amplify it to the max. What do I wear when I’m feeling my best and when I’m feeling my worst? There was a woman in Mississippi who always dressed nicely, no matter where she was or what the occasion was. She always looked good. She told my mom, “When you are feeling your worst, that is when you need to dress your best.” When you are feeling good, dress your best. When you are feeling great, dress your best. When you feel like the world is against you, dress your best. When you are down to your last dollar, dress your best. The psychological effect of seeing yourself looking good helps build your confidence. It’s amazing what the human brain does for us. At the end of the day, you have to be satisfied with yourself. Welcome to Top5. Follow me on Instagram, LinkedIn, and visit my website for more info! Read more from Monsieur Chase Estevez Monsieur Chase Estevez, Founder & CEO of Estevez Clothing Co. Monsieur Chase Estevez built his life around a profound belief: Make people feel good. He is the founder and owner of Estevez Clothing Co., a bespoke tailoring company focused on custom-fitted garments and refined wardrobe solutions for men and women. Beyond apparel, his work focuses on aligning personal appearance and inner confidence so every client steps out looking and feeling unstoppable. He shares insights on style, dating, lifestyle, success, and the subtle mechanics of presence to help you live your best life.