Written by: Amanda Rose, Executive Contributor Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise. As a sales expert for over a decade, and a full-time entrepreneur in the online space since 2013, I can tell you that no matter your sales medium, there’s one key element that radically boosts your sales: LEVERAGE! lev·er·age /ˈlev(ə)rij,ˈlēv(ə)rij verb Use (something) to maximum advantage. "the organization needs to leverage its key resources." Leverage is essentially a reason why your prospect should take action now. A sense of urgency is what’s required; not to be confused with pressuring, pushing, or rushing the potential client. Many entrepreneurs confuse these, so let’s clarify: PUSHING/PRESSURING/RUSHING We DO NOT want to push, rush, or pressure a prospect. I always say, “If you’re pushing a sale, you’re pushing the prospect away.” Rushing or pressuring someone into making an immediate decision doesn’t feel good for you or the prospect, and even if you close sales, you’ll find your refund rates go way up due to buyers’ remorse. Example: “If you don’t sign up right now, you’ll never get the results you want.” URGENCY We DO want to utilize urgency in our sales conversations. Urgency lets the prospect know the deadlines or availability so that they understand they need to take time to consider the offer if they truly do want it. Example: “We get started next week, and we’re down to our last five spots.” In business, sales are your lifeblood because, without sales, you do not have any business. So, what's the easiest way to get sales? By utilizing leverage. This is why the new product or service releases, launches, and discount sales, rack up a high-profit margin in a very short time period when implemented properly and effectively. Think about when new movies come out, trailers and teasers precede a new film coming to movie theatres, typically for 6-to-12-Months before it comes out! They constantly remind us that it's coming, creating desire so that when it's finally available, we clamor for tickets. Launches for new products and services create a powerful source of leverage for businesses; often promoting early sign-up discounts or bonuses, limited quantities, and/or a deadline by which to purchase, hence driving up sales within that timeframe. Despite the fact that leveraging has been proven time and time again to offer the best solution for driving up sales, many entrepreneurs still avoid implementing them. They complain that it’s stressful, they don’t know how to do it correctly, and they desire an “easier path” to sales. I want to clear this up once and for all: Launches ARE the easier path to sales! You already have to build the offer, create the sales page and/or checkout, write the sales copy, market your offer, and have sales conversations to actually sell your offer; all launching does is add leverage, AKA urgency that encourages your prospect to make a decision now! Launching is about amplifying everything you already need to do to sell your offers. Launching is about giving you leverage so that you can close sales faster with much more ease. It helps you to close those sales in bulk right now instead of over the next couple of years. It gives you a legitimate reason to follow up and to help your prospects to make up their mind either way. Ready to use Launching effectively to grow your business and make sales? Sign up for LAUNCH CODES and get 90% OFF when you use coupon code ROI at the checkout by December 31st, 2022! Learn More: https://amanda-rose.mykajabi.com/launch-codes For more information, visit my website and follow me on Facebook! Read more from Amanda! Amanda Rose, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine Amanda Rose is the founder & director of The Infinite Power of You Inc., a multi-published multi-genre author, business, wealth, & mindset coach, actor, motivational speaker, and online course creator. She is a multi-passionate entrepreneur who has been in the online space since 2013 and has been a sales expert for over 10 years. It's her passion to help her clients build lives of freedom and joy, and thriving businesses with multiple revenue sources, through strategies combined with mindset mastery. Amanda's mission is to shift human consciousness to create soulful abundance through mindset practices.

Written by: Kristi Peck, Executive Contributor Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise. Many years ago, I woke early one morning and felt very excited. I lay there basking in the sunlight of my waking life as remnants of a dream world sizzled in my awareness. My body felt warm and juicy with this flirtatious notion of a gigantic bee, an enormous beehive, and honey dripping everywhere. As I laid there, I remembered thinking for a moment, “Did I dream about this, or did I see this somewhere?” Dreams are personal. They invite us into an opening that most often we are not conditioned to accept or regard with the utmost respect. “It is an insult to your Self to be born, live, and die without knowing the answer to the mystery of why you were sent here as a human being in the first place.” ‒ Paramahansa Yogananda Dreams are the language of the soul. They are also a sweetly orchestrated oracle for that which you are ready to know about yourself. To interpret your nightly dreams is an adventure. The remnants and pieces of our dreams puzzle us as our dream language is unlike our conscious aptitude for words and meaning. In our waking life, we have been organized into mastery for making meaning. That is exactly the function of the brain and the mind itself. To process images, sounds, words, and so on for the message being sent from another party. Dreams hold no mastery. Instead, they are a playground for the messy, understated, and often inconspicuous. Dreams are a stage for us to witness that have rough edges and extended textures that far reach into symbolism and metaphors, myths and fantasy, as well as contrasting polarization. They baffle us until we awaken to their significance for our everyday advancement and potential. My dream about honey, bees, and a ginormous beehive was not meant to display a truth I already understood, yet to excavate an unconscious treasure to be captured. The hunt for truth within the dream guides us to solve challenges in our current situations, commits us to an inner knowing and our autonomy to choose, and resolve a collective conflict surpassing current relevance. Dream interpretation is not for the faint of heart, for one must be willing to open the shades on what is unknown, rejected, and denied of the hidden self. If you are ready to extend your adventurous foreplay into your own psychic cave, here are five questions to help you enter into the unknown and uncover the expressive realm of your unconscious mind. These are the heartbeat of a dream: What does it mean in relation to my outer life/ my waking life? Who do the characters/things in the dream represent to me? For me? What needs to happen in my outer life/my waking life? What changes am I being invited to make? What about me do I need to see in a new way, or is it something I am not acknowledging? How can I serve a broader capacity to the consciousness of who I am? The value of your dreams is in no association with the value of your true and authentic self. Our dreams are merely thresholds for us to captivate a deeper understanding of who we are. They are fun and colorful modes of communication as they pass information about you to you and are always for you. Follow me on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and visit my website for more info! Read more from Kristi! Kristi Peck, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine Kristi Peck is an intuitive life coach, a spiritual mentor, author of Coming Home – A Love Story, and a podcast host of Living the Liminal: Finding Joy in the Pauses of Life. Kristi is an engaging storyteller who inspires your heart and soul to take adventurous leaps, thus making choices that are aligned to who you are and your deep purpose. Kristi has a wealth of transformational life experiences and 30+ years as a resource for others. She has coaching certification in Jungian Psychology, Eastern Spirituality, and Social Neuroscience with extensive training in the currency of relationships, channeling, mediumship, and energy healing. Kristi’s warmth and vulnerability have been described as a “soft-toughness” as she leads by example and creates a safe haven for you to open your heart to courageous choice-making and a conscious lifestyle. Kristi has compassion for change and a deep understanding of the human dynamic, which makes her a sustainable source for learning."

Written by: Sara Loureiro, Executive Contributor Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise. Income goals can feel so energizing and appealing in business especially when we think of what we can do with more money in our pockets. But they often get too much attention. By overly focusing on how much money a business makes we often overlook other aspects that arguably matter even more in terms of how successful a business really is. Here are 3 other important metrics to consider the next time you’re writing down new goals to hit for your business. Time Freedom I know that the 6 and 7-figure businesses look very glamorous online but none of us really know what’s going on on the back end of that business. I’ve been interviewed by top 7 figure entrepreneurs that have jam-packed 40-60 hour/week schedules and I know that for myself I wouldn’t want to be at my desk for that many hours a week. I also know really successful entrepreneurs that work 3 hours a day and spend the rest of their time at the beach. Only you will know how much time YOU want to spend working. Spending your free time doing exactly what you want to be doing is just as important, if not more, than any arbitrary income goals. Profits You can spend 6 figures to make 6 figures, or you can spend much less and have a 5k/month business. While the bigger numbers look more appealing, they don’t mean much if you’re not taking the majority of that money home with you. None of us fully know how much each of our competitors are spending in their businesses to create the successful businesses they own so it’s important not to compare yourself and your business numbers to others. Instead, aim to have a healthy profit margin so that you’re able to actually enjoy the income you’re making. Fulfillment I’d argue that most people who read this magazine are looking for a fulfilling career that not only gives them a great income but that truly makes them feel that they’re changing lives. Income goals won’t mean anything if you’re not doing the work that lights you up. While making money and hitting new income heights can be exhilarating, make sure it’s not at the expense of having an aligned business that makes you happy you got started in your industry in the first place. Follow me on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, or visit my website for more info! Read more from Sara! Sara Loureiro, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine Sara is a Soulful Business Coach who specializes in helping online service-based entrepreneurs sign-on higher-paying clients and hit 6-7 figures through a combination of strategic marketing, neurolinguistic programming, and energetic work. After bringing her own business to 6 figures and quitting her 9-5 to move from Toronto to sunny and tropical Nicaragua, she isn't shy about walking the talk and living a freedom-based life. She is the CEO of sarajloureiro.com and has inspired thousands of women all over the world to quit their 9-5s, step into their leadership, and do purpose-driven work while getting paid abundantly for it through her numerous free training, extensive social media presence, and her work as the host of "The Uplevel Your Online Business Show" podcast. Her mission: to inspire women to take up space, make more money and step into their fullest potential.

Written by: Rozanna Wyatt, Senior Level Executive Contributor Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise. “You can motivate yourself without self-criticism.” Let that settle in for a moment. In my private psychotherapy practice, I have the privilege of working with ambitious, high-achieving women. And while their achievements, experiences, and stories are uniquely theirs, many share this one thing in common. They motivate themselves with self-criticism. There’s no denying they’ve achieved more than the average person or overcome adversities you’d never imagine from their outer appearances, so why change the inner critic that’s been their biggest cheerleader for some, the vast majority of their life? The truth is that a negative voice cheering you on is anything but motivating. It’s debilitating and self-destructive in so many ways. It’s the silent killer of your motivation, self-esteem, and ability to lead and perform at your best. Self-criticism makes pursuing your goals more difficult. Instead of focusing on what’s possible and what you’re capable of, your brain focuses on everything you didn’t do or thinks about what could go wrong. This fuels the fear of failure, which distracts you from executing essential tasks. Self-criticism puts you at risk of general and performance anxiety, impacting your ability to focus, set goals, and lead others effectively. And over time, self-criticism erodes your self-esteem and confidence because despite what you might be able to achieve, you still never feel good enough and thus never perform at your best. I understand you might be concerned that if you no longer use self-criticism to motivate yourself, you might become complacent, but I’m here to tell you that is the opposite of the truth. Instead, when you motivate yourself from a place of self-compassion, it shifts the brain from a state of negativity and over-arousal (i.e., fight-fright-freeze response) to calm confidence, clarity, and increased resilience. And these are essential to a leader’s performance. Here are four ways to motivate yourself from a place of self-compassion so you can feel and perform at your best. Reflect Outward Then Inward When the inner critic starts to roar, it’s time to change your negative self-talk because your thinking drives how you feel and how you feel impacts how you behave (aka perform). You can do so by asking yourself, “What advice would I give to a friend or colleague in this situation?” Say that advice out loud or write it down, and then give that same advice to yourself. Release The Mask Of Super Competence And Over Achievement If you’re like many of my clients, you might spend little time acknowledging what you’ve achieved and instead quickly set and strive to accomplish the next big goal. But unfortunately, the never-ending pattern of hustle and grind has become for many an unconscious need for recognition from others to fill the void of never feeling good enough. One antidote is to turn inward and identify with the traits and skills that make you uniquely you instead of identifying with external achievements and accolades. Another remedy is to practice self-kindness by recognizing everyone has setbacks and ebbs and flows in motivation and reminding yourself no human being can be “on” at all times. Rearrange The Things That Matter When self-criticism is used as a motivational tool, it can result in a perpetual sense of emptiness and a lack of fulfillment in one’s life due to a lack of alignment with what someone’s externally achieving and what really matters to them. To experience more fulfillment requires someone to stop running away from something. Instead, you want to run toward something because it ignites a stronger and more sustainable internal desire, given what you’re running towards matters to you versus the world around you. This will help keep you motivated when bringing goals to fruition takes longer than you desire. Resolve The Inner Critic Root The fear of failure often appears on the surface to be the obstacle many high-achievers are struggling with. However, having worked with hundreds of clients over the years, the real problem is often the sense of not being good enough in the absence of x, y, and z. Until a conscious or unconscious negative cognition such as “I’m not good enough” is resolved, little will change because it’s what’s driving someone’s internal operating system. Working with a therapist with advanced training in a treatment modality such as EMDR therapy can assist in rewiring the brain to eliminate the negative beliefs and fears (i.e., fear of failure or fear of rejection) that coincide. Ultimately, EMDR therapy resolves the root of the unconscious and debilitating impact of believing you’re not good enough, transforming your abilities as a leader from the inside out. If you’re ready to experience real change to feel and perform at your best in all areas of your life, book a complimentary consultation at www.rozannawyatt.com, and learn how an EMDR Therapy Intensive can resolve your blocks in as little as three days. Follow me on LinkedIn, Instagram and visit my website for more info. Read more from Rozanna! Rozanna Wyatt, Senior Level Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine Rozanna Wyatt is a Licensed Therapist and highly sought Global Coach who specializes in helping ambitious, high-achieving women confidently go after what they want in business and life. Drawing from her sixteen years of experience working those who have done the unimaginable (we're talking murder), entrepreneurs, athletes, professionals and corporate leaders, she enables her clients to experience mindset breakthroughs that allow them to turn their lives around, resolve years of emotional pain, be happy, 10x their business, win national awards, and more. Rozanna has a master’s degree in social work, as well as specialized training in leadership and high performance. Rozanna’s expertise has been featured in the media in Forbes, Addicted2Succcess, Thrive Global, and Authority Magazine. When she’s not keeping up on the latest research around positive psychology and human behavior, you can find her playing with her furbaby or sipping vanilla lattes in her favorite coffee shops in Canada.

Written by: Samantha Redd , Executive Contributor Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise. Ok, you have made it this far when dealing with your narcissist; you are getting or have gotten your divorce settlement and are now working on how best to protect your children from their toxic parent. Unfortunately, you will have to mediate with the other parent when all you know is that they are out for revenge. Their desire to make you “pay” for leaving them is their ultimate goal. Mediation is your best chance to decide how you want your custody to go. However, it is crucial to negotiate smartly to get an outcome you can live with. The first thing you should do is gather your list of realistic non-negotiables. This list will be your guiding force, and when proposals are offered, you will know what you can bend on and what is a show stopper. It is essential to be realistic with your non-negotiables because creating your dream list will set you up for disappointment in the negotiating process. You most likely will not get your dream list if you end up in court. You’ll be at the mercy of the judge. Non-negotiables let you know where your wiggle room is and where your boundaries start. The second step is to know what you are up against, and you must now profile your ex. Does your ex know what motivates you, because if your ex does, they will be throwing everything at you to keep you off guard and frustrated. You’ve already created your list of non-negotiables so the attacks won’t affect your negotiating, but now you need to figure out what motivates them. Does your ex love holding onto his money while spending yours, or is looking like the perfect parent their motivation? Knowing what they hold onto dearly and factoring that into your non-negotiables is two parts of the three-part solution. The last part is to breathe! Hopefully, no one has a gun to your head, and you can go into your mediation session with a clear head and a calm heart. I’ve noticed a common theme of someone in the mediation room putting pressure on you to negotiate and come up with an agreement. That person could be your ex, your lawyer, their lawyer, or even the mediator. DO NOT FEEL PRESSURED! While it is in your best interests to negotiate and come up with an agreement you can live with, I often see bad agreements made because you succumb to the pressure and want to be done. You are working on a contract that you and your children have to live with, so do your part to have a team that supports you before, during, and after the mediation like a therapist, a lawyer, and a high conflict divorce coach like me. Follow me on Facebook , Youtube , or visit my website for more info! Read more from Samantha! Samantha Redd, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine Samantha Redd is an expert in trauma recovery through using shadow work and her death doula training. She works with moms who are domestic violence survivors in high conflict divorce by using a mix of real-world experience and a unique view of spirituality to educate, heal, inspire, protect, and rebuild her clients and help them find their purpose. Samantha has a Ph.D. in Chemistry and uses her expertise in that field to help her clients understand the link between stress and sickness. In addition, she has dedicated her life to helping people recover from loss and find their way back to their true selves as a way of honoring the growth that comes with that loss. She is also the CEO of Decoding the System and has been helping people with grief for 20 years. Samantha is also a high conflict divorce survivor and wears a mask and pen name because she can only be present and a light for others by hiding in the darkness.

Written by: Brent Lowe, Executive Contributor Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise. Wanting teams to show more ownership is a regular topic of conversation amongst founders and CEOs. Why? It's exhausting for a leader to feel they need to keep their eye on every ball all the time. The fatigue comes from fear and frustration. If no one else acts with the same level of accountability as me, I need to do it all. Having everyone act like an owner is a worthy, and sometimes unrealistic goal. This is true even in teams where every member is a shareholder. It's the ownership mentality that sets founders and CEOs apart. That said, taking purposeful steps in boosting team accountability is worth the effort. Like a flywheel, it will take time and effort to get things moving. Once the accountability wheel picks up speed, cultural momentum takes over. From shifting your own mindset to introducing repeatable actions, improvement is possible. Pick one or two or three of the following tips. Experiment and watch accountability across your team increase. Champion the concept of radical responsibility Author Fleet Maull defines radical responsibility as “the voluntary choice to assume or embrace 100 percent ownership for each and every circumstance we face in life." How do your words and actions champion radical responsibility across your team? Start by asking yourself the following questions: "How often do I talk about radical responsibility (or accountability or ownership)?" "How do my actions encourage and discourage others to embrace accountability?" "What could radical responsibility look like for our team?" Not sure how to answer these questions? Ask your colleagues for their input. Ask rather than tell Think about the taking of responsibility as the act of stepping in. We can ask someone to step in. We can hope they choose to step in. We can even nudge them in a direction. But only the individual can will themselves to move. We all desire to be treated as adults. When we tell our colleagues what to do, we're drifting into adult-child territory. Ask rather than tell. What's the worst that can happen? A "no can do" response will let us know where we stand. Clarity, clarity, clarity We each risk falling for a dangerous belief: how we perceive the world around us is how others perceive it too. To you, a situation and path forward is clear. Others must see it that way too! This overestimation of agreement is at the heart of miscommunication. Miscommunication is at the heart of accountability failures. The chance of misunderstandings in the commitment-making process is high. To reduce miscommunication, experiment with your own version of these three R habits: REFLECT back: Take time at the end of a conversation to share back with each other. What did you each hear and agree to? RECAP by email: Ask your colleague to send a quick email recapping conversation highlights. RECORD live: Pop open a shared document and record the important parts of your conversation live. Increase visibility We are communal creatures. When commitments become visible, a sense of peer pressure kicks in. The team is now watching. Rely on the sense of responsibility inherent in daily stand-ups, open presentations and regular company meetings. To keep accountability alive, ritualize it. One of my clients found that team members weren’t tracking project time. They decided it would be helpful to post-completion rates for all team members monthly. Within two months, tracking rose significantly. Another team incorporated a massive whiteboard metrics wall into their space. Team stand-ups take place in front of the metrics wall and it’s a stop on all office tours. What rituals could boost shared accountability for your team? Use checklists and agendas Even the most committed forget. Experiment with adding an accountability checklist within an existing meeting. Make it a standing agenda item. Our team gets so busy we forget to publish our newsletter. To help keep it on our radar, we've added it to the checklist section of our team meeting. If we're on track, great! If not, we get a helpful reminder every two weeks. Handle the misses Team culture is set by the worst behaviours allowed to continue.Commitments will get missed. If those misses don’t get called out, a culture of regular commitment-breaking emerges. Responding to misses is tough. Our automatic reactions tend to be silence (passive-aggressively ignoring the issue), punishment (attacking and blaming) or making excuses. None of these approaches solve the problem. Instead, they diminish trust and rob your colleagues of a valuable development opportunity. Relationships get strengthened through honest, respectful and timely conversations about missed commitments. Own it Let's circle back to the idea of championing radical responsibility. What happens when you fail to deliver on one of your accountabilities? Be honest, it happens. To build a culture of accountability, acknowledge when you fall short. Share what you will do next time. Encourage your colleagues to hold you accountable. Respect them when they do. Until others can call you out your misses, a healthy culture of accountability will elude you. Now it’s time to break some unhelpful habits and create new accountability patterns. Choose something from the above list and experiment. If you get stuck, email me at brent@brentlowe.com and tell me about your unique situation. I help Founder CEOs of companies between 5 & 40 people experiencing early-stage success and ready to scale — especially those wanting to build shared responsibility and accountability within their teams. Ready to take the next step on your scaling journey? Start by completing the Scale Together Scorecard. It takes less than two minutes and provides you with a personalized report for your organization along with suggestions to improve your score. Follow me on Facebook, LinkedIn, and visit my website for more info! Brent Lowe, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine Brent is a leading performance coach helping founders show up as their best selves within thriving, purpose-driven teams. As the Scale Coach for Founder CEOs, Brent works with entrepreneurs and leaders who are growing the size and impact of their businesses to tackle local and global challenges. He is also the lead coach at BASE Associates, a premiere provider of support to early-stage businesses, and co-author of Lead Together: The bold, brave and intentional path to scaling your business. Brent's purpose is to accelerate positive progress in the world, one leader, one conversation, one aspiration at a time.

Written by: Kylie Feller, Executive Contributor Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise. As humans, we will go through some type of trauma or difficult experience that can impact our sense of self and the world. We can develop certain survival strategies such as caretaking, people-pleasing, perfectionism. shutting down, avoidance, inner criticism, etc. when younger to help us navigate our environment in a way that keeps us safe. These survival strategies though when extreme often do not serve us when we get older and lead to feelings of unworthiness, disconnection, anxiety, depression, and traumatic re-enactment. These survival strategies can be healed in a way that we do not demonize these responses but instead help these parts of us out of their extreme roles. What is Trauma? Trauma is a broad concept and encompasses a number of different experiences one can have. It is also safe to say that every person has experienced trauma in their life just in different degrees and frequencies. I would also argue that it is trauma that underlies most mental health struggles. The responses we have or the symptoms of trauma make sense when you look at them in the context of when they developed. To look at this we have to get very curious about different parts of us, rather than trying to get rid of them we get curious and seek to understand through compassion. What is traumatic can be personal and affect different people differently as it is linked to how it makes you feel and the impact it can have on yourself and beliefs about the world. We can also suffer from trauma and have it negatively impact our life without it being at the level of a disorder. The symptoms make sense, there is nothing wrong with you you just have unprocessed experiences. There are people who are very high achievers and successful who suffer from a lot of trauma and thus may never feel worthy of their achievement or connected to those around them. Trauma can include experiences that result in you feeling: Rejected Humiliated Physically or mentally hurt Frightened Under Threat/ Walking on Eggshells Abandonment Unsafe Unsupported Emotionally Unsafe Trapped Ashamed Powerless Neglected Trauma can also be related to your identity including your race or sexual orientation. If you are being bullied, discriminated against, or harassed. Adverse Childhood Experiences ACE Study There was a large study down known as the ACE studies that looked at how Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) which as difficult or stressful experiences in childhood, including physical, sexual or emotional neglect or abuse. ACEs come in many forms but include: Experiencing violence, neglect and abuse Witnessing violence Having a family member attempt or die by suicide. Substance use problems in the home environment Parents with Mental health problems Parental separation or divorce Family members incarceration The research shows a link between these types of experiences and later physical and mental health challenges, including the development of addictions, future violence victimization and perpetration and opportunity in life. What you experience in your childhood can really impact your future experiences, especially when it is not acknowledged and treated. What is the difference Between Trauma, PTSD and Complex PTSD? As talked about above we all experience trauma in life. Just being born can be traumatic and then we have the rest of our lives to encounter experiences that can make us feel hurt, afraid, less than etc. Trauma is very individual in this way different people may respond to experiences very differently some we can easily brush off and for other people, they stick resulting in survival strategies and limiting beliefs about the world and ourselves to keep us safe moving forward. Not everyone who goes through trauma will develop PTSD or post-trauma symptoms this only develops when the brain and body are unable to process the trauma or series of traumatic events. When PTSD develops parts of us can continue to relieve the trauma unable to escape those moments. You often only have PTSD if you cannot function in life, if you can function then it's trauma symptoms, not a disorder. What is PTSD? Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is a server response to trauma that is characterized by these three main symptoms: Re-experiencing the event Avoiding any reminders of the event or feeling emotionally numb Hyper-arousal which is a very sensitive starlet response and hypervigilance The brain and body get overwhelmed by the trauma in a way that makes it hard for regulation and emotional processing. For trauma to develop into PTSD it also has to be distressing enough to severely impacts one’s ability to function in different domains of life. PTSD is generally related to a single event or a series of events in a short period of time. PTSD does not adequality account for those who have experienced chronic trauma that occurs over an extended period of time. Therefore, there has been growing support for an additional disorder known as Complex PTSD for those who have lived through consistent traumatic experiences which can make it harder for them to identify as trauma but results in them living in a constant state of anxiety or numbness. What is C-PTSD? In recent years there has been a call to have another trauma diagnosis that is not PTSD that encompasses the compact effect of small and large T traumas over time, this is known as Complex PTSD (C- PTSD). There are many overlaps between PTSD and C-PTSD. Many people who have C-PTSD get misdiagnosed with other disorders that fail to see the root of the traumatic past leading to anxiety disorders, depression, bipolar, psychotic breaks, and borderline personality disorder. This can be challenging for people as your diagnosis really dictates your path to treatment and healing. When C-PTSD is wrongly diagnosed then they don’t get trauma treatment and for a number of other disorders they are chronic and many just rely on medication. C-PTSD is therefore different than PTSD although there are many overlapping symptoms C-PTSD can be more pervasive and difficult to recognize. When you experience so much trauma in your life it becomes normal and really impacts your sense of self and beliefs in the world. You can also have a number of traumas that have a negative impact on your life but again you do not have a disorder you are just responding appropriately to painful life experiences Complex trauma can stem from traumas such as: Experiencing childhood neglect Experiencing physical or sexual abuse at an early age Frequent changes in caregivers such as growing up in the foster care system or being adopted Domestic Violence Being bullied or targeted by multiple predators Those who struggle with Complex PTSD will suffer similar symptoms to those with PTSD but will also include: Negative Self-View They may struggle with self-compassion or seeing themselves in a positive light. They may feel a lot of shame, guilt, worthless and helplessness. They often feel disconnected from others and like others cannot understand them. This is a survival strategy keeping them away from other people as it is often people who caused the trauma therefore others are triggering and dangerous, even when one is safe now. Difficulty Controlling Emotions It is common for those with C-PTSD to not feel comfortable with processing their emotions and often do not know how to. They may experience explosive anger, persistent sadness, depression, intense anxiety, and suicidal thoughts. Suicide often comes in as an option when the system just feels so overwhelmed with pain, a part of them gives them a way out but often just does not know there is also an option for healing. Difficulty With Relationships There is often a distrust in others and a negative view of themselves which can make it hard to have healthy relationships. They may be attracted to people who have a similar energy to the people who originally hurt them, this is due to traumatic re-enactment. Parts of us want a do-over but they just end up causing the same pain over and over again. Parts of us may say, "If I can get them to love me then it means I am lovable", but it just confirms feelings of not being loveable as the people they are attracted to do not have the ability to show up for them in ways they need. Chaos may also feel more familiar in relationships and thus why may be more drawn to this than a secure relationship that would feel unfamiliar or boring. They often struggle with an insecure attachment system which impacts their ability to communicate and feel safe in intimacy and connection even when it may be safe. Attached is a great book to learn more about this. Loss of Meaning This can include losing one's core values, beliefs, faith or hope in the world and in others including in themselves. When we feel worthless and like we do not belong it can be hard to feel like life has meaning or purpose. Reconnecting to one's internal sense of worth is an important part of healing. Detachment From the Trauma Parts of them may suppress their trauma through depersonalization where they disconnect from themselves and the world around them. Feeling numb and disconnected is common. The system numbs the pain and then numbs all the other emotions as well. What is First Responder PTSD? First responders or people who are exposed to and witness a lot of trauma like firefighters, paramedics, nurses and counsellors can over time also develop PTSD. When you get exposed to traumatic incidents either firsthand or hear about them the cases add up and compact, we can only hold so much until it overflows. When this happens, it can feel like all the difficult experiences flood the system at once, all the cases are open and the mind and body gets overwhelmed. One can experience flashbacks, memories, and sensations connected to the trauma. When this happens, it can be difficult to function and work, even going outside can be too activating for the system as it feels like all the past trauma is now happening now. This also puts people in these occupations at greater risk of suicide as they do not know how to escape the pain from the trauma that hijacks their whole system. So, trauma symptoms or PTSD can develop after one incident such as assault, car accident, traumatic loss etc. but also for people like first responders it can develop over time as the brain and body reaches their limits with exposure to trauma. Cultural Misunderstanding of Trauma I feel like our culture does not teach us how to heal trauma but instead gives us tools to cope with it. How to survive our trauma but not thrive and flourish. So many people get disappointed when they try regular talk therapy or CBT and work on their self-care like exercising, eating well, mediation etc. and yet it does not get to the root and thus they might feel okay, but something still feels off. It makes sense these approaches are not working they are not made to heal trauma. Your self-care and taking care of your mental, emotional, and physical health are everyday things we all need to do but they are not built to help you heal trauma. Many people with trauma try regular therapy and it does not work as it is not built to. The Universities that train counsellors also do not give them the tools and skills needed to help people heal trauma and so many counsellors have no idea the work that is needed to help heal trauma. Thus, people go and although it might help a bit it does not get to the root of it. They may feel like either counselling does not work, or something is wrong with them and give up, maybe just going on medications with the belief there is something really wrong with them biologically. When really, they are having a normal response to the trauma that is not healed in the system. We are so quick to diagnose mental health disorders, but many disorders are just a cluster of survival responses based on what the person when through. They make sense based on what the person has gone through. There is nothing actually wrong with the person other than they have not healed the trauma inside of them and thus have these fear-based responses and protective responses to the world like anxiety, unworthiness, depression, panic, addiction etc they all make sense when you sit with the person and get the root of where these parts originated and what they are trying to do for the person. Our systems are designed to help us and it has no intention of hurting us but if left unhealed it often does. If you are struggling know there are solutions, there are ways out, and you can heal and become You again, maybe even for the first time in your life. You can access inner safety and self-compassion at any age. There is a built-in healing force in everyone. You can do a lot of this journey on your own but then it's important to let a professional help you. Trauma happens through relationship and thus it heals through relationship. Here are some resources though that can get you going on your journey. 5 Resources To Help You Begin Healing Trauma 1. The Book Keeps The Score by Bessel Van Der Kolk This book explains how trauma can impact the mind and body over time. It dives into what is known as Complex Trauma or C-PTSD which is becoming more understood. It is different than PTSD as it involves a number of smaller and/or larger traumas over time. When you experience a lot of traumas such as neglect when younger or parents struggle with their mental health it impacts your sense of self and beliefs about the world. Since this book is dense, I suggest listening to it on Audible and then trying out some of the different therapies that he suggests as most effective at healing trauma, it often takes a holistic approach to heal the mind, body and soul. 2. Internal Family Systems One approach The Body Keeps The Score quotes as an effective treatment of trauma is Internal Family Systems (IFS) which was developed by Richard Schwartz. This is a recently developed therapeutic model although a lot of the components have been seen in many other theories and approaches. This approach understands that we have multiple parts or subpersonalities inside us. Whatever you are struggling with it seems this as a part of you stuck in a survival strategy, some common ones are inner critics, anxiety, depression, procrastination, lack of motivation, disconnection, numbness, etc. Then it helps us to go and understand these parts from our inner self or True self which is an inner healing force that is defined by the 8Cs compassion, curiosity, calmness, clarity, connection, creativity, courage, and confidence. Everyone has a Self, even if you cannot feel it right now, it just means it's buried. In this theory, there is an understanding that all parts of us are good but sometimes get stuck in roles that cause us more harm than good, but they are doing it to try and protect us. Parts of us can get stuck in survival roles that might have made sense in the past but do not in the current situation. They are protecting the younger versions of us stuck in time reliving the worst moments of our life. When we are safe, we can go inside and through understanding and connection to the Self they can unburden these inner children and then the protective parts and go back to their original roles and work collaboratively with the Self-leading. If you are interested in knowing more, I have some IFS exercises on my insight timer page, Richard Schwartz does as well. He also wrote a great book called No Bad Parts, I suggest listening to it on Audible as he takes you on guided exercises in each chapter. I also talk more about this approach on my podcast, Your Best Chance. The IFS website also has a lot of resources and a way to find a counsellor who is trained in this modality, it is really nice to be led in this approach, especially in the beginning. Parts will resist change, as they took up their protection roles when you were not safe, and it can take a bit to help them know you are safe now. 3. Insight Timer Another great resource to help you begin healing your trauma and understanding is the free app Insight Timer. This app has so many resources including programs to help with any area of your life, trauma, stress, motivation, healing the body and mind etc. Having it as part of your daily routine can help expose you to new ways of thinking and being. Getting in the habit of exploring this app can really help you, just push play first thing in the morning or when you feel you just need a little rest. Listening to Insight Timer is a lot better self-care for you than Netflix or scrolling on your phone. Add a listen to in between those things if you can. 4.Somatic Work Trauma is stored in the body and therefore it helps to do work with the body. Also, everything we like, or dislike starts with a sensation in the body. Trauma can dysregulate the nervous system making things not feel good. Understanding the body and the nervous system will help you heal and reach optimal health. Depending on the nature and level of trauma the body cannot feel safe, it is connected to how we feel and when things do not feel great, we can leave the body, numb out and begin living more in our minds. This is a survival strategy, but life is very dull or overwhelming when we are not connected to our bodies. It is also dangerous to not be able to really feel, what feels good and what does not, a key element of boundaries and communication. There are many different somatic practices that can help you in healing trauma. Here are a few of them and links to learn more. Somatic Experiencing by Peter Levine Somatic Internal Family Systems by Susan McConnel. Trauma-Informed Yoga Breathwork Trauma Releasing Exercises (TRE) 5. Yoga Nidra Also known as dream yoga or sleep yoga is a form of guided meditation. It is very powerful as it is designed to put your mind and body to sleep while your consciousness stays awake. This means that your brain waves will move through beta (awake) through alpha, theta, and delta (deep sleep) but you will be conscious. When this happens, your body and mind gets deep rest and is able to heal and reset. Our bodies want to heal. The practice also helps with emotional processing and can help move out stuck emotions. Research has shown it is effective at treating anxiety, depression and helping to boost well-being and happiness. Richard Miller also created a form of Yoga Nidra called iRest that is designed to heal trauma and PTSD. His book is amazing and guided meditations on insight timer. Tanis Fisherman and my page Kylie Feller also often great yoga Nidra's for healing. Follow me on Facebook, Instagram, Linkedin, and visit my website for more info! Read more from Kylie! Kylie Feller, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine Kylie Feller, M.A., is a registered clinical counsellor and life coach. She specializes in helping people understand and heal trauma while connecting them to their own innate healing force, their True Self. She believes that there is nothing people cannot heal and that all individuals can thrive and flourish if given the right formula. She has also launched an online program to help individuals navigate dating in a way that promotes greater growth and healing called, Swipe Right into Loving Yourself. She is a trained Internal Family Systems therapist, Empowerment Coach, Akashic Record Coach, Reiki Healer, and Yoga Teacher. She works with individuals one-on-one online helping them to access inner transformation so they can truly succeed in all levels of life. References: http://aceresponse.org/who_we_are/ACE-Study_43_pg.htm https://www.amazon.ca/Attached-Science-Attachment-Find-Keep/dp/1585429139 https://www.amazon.ca/Body-Keeps-Score-Healing-Trauma/dp/0670785938 https://www.amazon.ca/No-Bad-Parts-Restoring-Wholeness/dp/1683646681 https://insighttimer.com/kyliefeller https://insighttimer.com/drrichardschwartz https://traumahealing.org/ https://www.amazon.ca/Practitioners-Guide-Somatic-IFS-Therapy/dp/1623174880/ref=asc_df_1623174880/?tag=googleshopc0c-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=459345252856&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=3928505543760870022&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9001498&hvtargid=pla-928942282540&psc=1 https://www.goodtherapy.org/learn-about-therapy/types/breathwork https://insighttimer.com/richardmiller https://insighttimer.com/tanisfishman

Written by: Eszter Zsiray , Executive Contributor Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise. When I was a young adult, I knew nothing about self-care, I partied too much, I never picked well my boyfriends, and then I spent way too much time feeling sorry for myself. I had a lot of conflicts with my parents, but I had no tools to work on them. I was hard on myself and didn’t believe in myself. Time passed, I moved abroad, I learned a lot about myself and who I wanted to be, and I started to understand better what self-care is and what things I could do for my self-care. But then I had a family, and even though I was a completely different person, a way more mature one, I was a new mum, and I forgot self-care once again completely. I stopped prioritizing myself, and it had an enormous toll on my mental health on my stress level. So what are the things that we all can do for our self-care? 1. You deserve it The first thing to start with is that we all deserve self-care, and there is always a way to express it. It doesn’t matter if you have a newborn baby to take care of or you are a CEO of a company, or you are busy with one million different projects in your life, you need to stop for a second and acknowledge that you do not only need self-care, but you deserve it. Too often, we just ignore our own needs by saying that we don’t have the time for that, which is a complete bulls*it. There is always a way to find some time for yourself, to prioritize yourself every day. If you have a newborn baby, you can ignore your messy apartment, the phone calls, and chats to return for 10 minutes every day and do something for yourself, maybe have a warm shower or meditate or do a 10-minute-long yoga. Or just do nothing, literally. If you are a busy businessman, you can make the decision of keeping 60 minutes every day for yourself when you can recharge your batteries with physical exercise or listening to music. Very often we tell ourselves that we don’t have the time for self-care because deep inside, we don’t deserve it. We say that our self-worth depends on what we achieve and not who we are. Coaching tip: if you listen to your inner thoughts, what is the story you are telling yourself? Why don’t you have some time to take care of yourself? What would you need to prioritize yourself? For example, I had a client, who is a busy mum of two kids, and she was always busier than anyone else I know. She always HAD TO do so many things for her family and her friends, she always needed to work so much at home, cooking and cleaning, that she was always stressed out and dealing with anxiety. She told herself the story that having a clean home, responding to her kid`s needs, and cooking every day were the most important priorities throughout the day and these years. And while all these might be important, the real reason for not prioritizing herself simply believed that she didn’t deserve it, that her worth was equal to the completed tasks. When she realized this, she could make the first steps to value herself and block some time for herself every day without feeling guilty about it. 2. Pampering or go-karting? It is very important to define what self-care is for you. For some, it means running a 10K, while for others dancing and partying is the key to disconnect. Don’t let yourself be pressured by culture and society even for a moment about what self-care is for you. If you prefer staying at home and reading a book alone with a glass of wine while all your friends are calling you to go out with them, just listen to your own needs and do what is best for you. Coaching tip: being an introvert or extravert not only defines how you connect to your environment but also how you get back your energy level. Introverts need to be alone and do some solitary activities, while extroverts can feel energized again after a great dinner with friends. So what are the activities that you could build into your daily routine to take care of yourself? Write down a list of things that you could apply when you have 10 minutes or when you have an hour or more to make sure that you have options for every day. One day you might do a 10-minute yoga class online or just quickly call your friend, while other days, you might have the luxury to have a walk in nature or play volleyball with your friends. 3. Explore your boundaries So when your friends are trying to convince you to go out with them, how difficult it is for you to say no? We all are different, and we all have different needs. The people who matter in your life don’t love you because of doing always what is expected from you, they love you because of who you are. They will love you and value you equally even if you say no or you express your opposite opinion. As fresh mums, we often think that we need to prioritize all the roles in our life, be the perfect mum, partner, sister, or friend, while in the end, there is simply no capacity for ourselves. Wishing to be alone for half an hour won’t make us bad mums or partners, it is a basic desire. Learning to communicate your own needs is the key, as your environment might not know what you are going through and what are your necessities, pardon them but they don’t always read your mind. So be firm and kind and say no or ask for help to get the time for self-care. Coaching tip: what are the things that stop you currently to prioritise yourself and what are the things that you need to start taking care of yourself? When you have clarity about what could you change to be able to take care of yourself more, the next step is to communicate this to all the people who are impacted. I had a client who dedicated himself to his project for six months so that he could build his career, and he simply told his friends that he wouldn’t be available to meet up on weekdays anymore as he was dedicating that time to his project. Surprisingly, the world didn’t stop spinning, and no one blamed him, but they respected him for devoting himself to his goal. 4. The devil is in the details Finding time for self-care is great, you realize how relaxed you are after the swimming pool and sauna combination. So you decide to make it a habit, and you join the gym, pay the fee, and you never go even close to the gym. Does it sound familiar? To build self-care into your daily routine, you need to create the habit every single day as if you were building muscle every single day for months. Don’t expect that muscle to just be there overnight, take the time to establish that new habit. Coaching tip: plan and follow up. Plan how and when will you practice self-care, and build it into your calendar with a reminder. Then as if it were a work project, inform all impacted parties so that they can support your new habit. Tell your husband that, as of now, you will ask him to pick up the kids twice a week or inform your colleagues that you won’t be available at a specific time and switch off your work phone. Follow up on your progress, let yourself be human if one day you can`t stick to the new habit but acknowledge all the positive changes you have made in the past weeks in your lifestyle and take the time to count what you have won due to the change, how your life has improved. 5. Advanced level Finally, when you get into the habit of taking care of and prioritizing yourself, gradually, a brand new world opens up for you. In this new dimension, you managed to reach something very important: find inner peace and happiness through self-love. Self-care is the gateway to self-love, and be careful, your whole world might change! What if you could live a life that is authentic to your real personality, where your top priority is to live true to yourself and be kind and gentle to yourself? Where you not only give permission to yourself to get 10 minutes every day, but you seek more, you want a job that you fully enjoy, a partner who values you, and friends who like you as you are and not as they expect you to be? Be aware that self-care might have the side-effect of loving yourself more and creating an authentic life for yourself. Coaching tip: go for the side-effect, get a coach if needed to work on yourself, prioritize yourself , build healthy boundaries, communicate better your needs and create not a perfect life but an authentic one. Don’t compromise before you reach the advanced level. You deserve it. Follow me on Facebook , Instagram , and visit my website for more info! Read more from Eszter! Eszter Zsiray, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine Eszter Zsiray is a Certified Life Coach, author, blogger, and creator of the program VELL©, supporting her clients on three continents to successfully transform their lives. With 17+ years of leadership experience, she is passionate about human potential and growth. Her research areas are ownership & responsibility, self-sabotaging behaviors, the positive impact of confidence and empowerment, growth mindset, and healthy habits for mental and physical wellbeing. As a mother herself, she is committed to serving women and mums, and she created a special program for new mothers to adjust to the new life challenges and a program for women entrepreneurs to shift into the proper mindset and to thrive in their professional and personal lives.

Written by: Sandy Hardikar, Executive Contributor Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise. Human beings have been heading towards a collision course with nature for quite a while now. But, in present day, our world is changing for the worse. Climate change, societal challenges, protectionism, geopolitical conflicts and many such issues plague us. All of this can change by leveraging Deep Tech (technological solutions like Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality, Blockchain, Robotics). Before we look at how Deep Tech can help us in bringing the change through innovation, I would like to direct your attention toward 3 areas we need to focus on: 1. “Change The Society” - Today’s world needs more social, education and financial inclusion. We should help business enterprises and governments around the world to bring about this social change. 2. “Fight Climate Change” - Beating climate change will demand a wide variety of innovations. The majority of society has to play a part in it. When each one of us strives to play a vital role in finding, funding, and growing companies, that create innovative solutions to otherwise unmanageable problems. 3. "Change the Business” - 95% of business enterprises focus on ‘Run the business’ i.e., “keeping the lights on” kind of model. Traditional automation results in efficiency benefits of 5% and, maybe, 2% of productivity gains. But, big and fast change needs deeper ‘Innovation.’ Sadly, only a handful of firms across the globe have their focus on innovation at a deeper level. So, where does Deep Tech come into this picture and how can it help bring in the required change? Deep Tech has the ability to solve big societal, industrial and environmental challenges, and potentially impact everyday life. Essentially, it harnesses state-of-the-art technologies to create tangible shifts in society Some examples of Deep Tech innovations that I have personally witnessed are: Predicting the “Ability to Pay” of borrowers for a Vehicle Finance Company leading to empathy during debt collection process. Providing real-time visibility for Scope 1, 2 and 3 for EU’s largest 3PL company – helping measure and control Carbon Emissions. Providing remote assistance for windmill maintenance staff using Augmented Reality for Asia’s largest Renewable Energy Company. Identifying Digital Assets exposed on Dark Web in real-time for social media firm – helping the company reduce damage to their reputation and data. Implementing a Zero-Trust Architecture for user & device access for aircraft manufacturers leveraging Blockchain – helping the company to reduce unauthorised access. This, however, is just the tip of the iceberg. The wheels of change are already in motion. And I would like to take this opportunity to call upon everyone to participate in this change with all their heart. At Network Science, we shall be happy to collaborate with anyone who believes in this purpose and is ready to contribute toward meaningful change. Follow me on LinkedIn, and visit my website for more info! Sandy Hardikar, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine Not afraid of change, Sandy believes in what Ram Charan said “World belongs to those who create change”. He has always pushed himself out of the ordinary & is happy in the courage zone. A strong believer in Deep Tech & Commercial Innovation, Sandy has 20+ years of x–functional experience with specialisation in Business & Geo expansion. With focus on Outcomes for clients, he has always strived to connect the dots, assemble seemingly disparate facts into a cohesive & long term business case. As the CEO & co-Founder of Network Science, he is collaborating with Global Enterprises in "Changing the World with Deep Tech Innovation"

Written by: Lana Walsh, Executive Contributor Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise. Stress is the number one reason people have trouble sleeping. Even if you don’t normally have a problem sleeping, high-stress days or events can keep you from getting your much-needed ZZ’s. Here are 10 ways to help you reduce your stress and get some sleep. How does stress keep you from sleeping? Most of the stress today is caused by psychological threats. These threats are things like a fight with your partner, getting a poor performance review from your boss, or being jealous of your friends who are posting their accomplishments on social media. Your conscious brain makes you believe that the stress is over. You make up with your partner, you put an action plan in place for work, you congratulate your friends, and tell yourself that one day you will have and do the same things. However, your subconscious brain doesn’t understand when the threat is over like it does for a physical threat. When you slay the tiger or survived a car accident, your brain easily connects that the threat is over. But a psychological threat doesn’t have the same distinct ending and the subconscious doesn’t understand that the stress has ended. This keeps the stress hormones, cortisol and adrenaline, elevated in preparation for fighting or fleeing. These hormones are designed to prepare you for action by increasing heart rate, blood pressure, muscle tension, and brain waves, so you can think quickly and move with speed, agility, and strength. Combined, all these things lead to reduced deep sleep, making your sleep lighter and more easily disrupted. And if you have a propensity to relive situations, the constant replay of the events will make it more difficult to go to sleep or back to sleep if you’ve woken during the night. 10 Methods for Reducing Stress 1. Exercise Exercise is a great stress reliever. It produces endorphins, which act as a natural pain reliever, and reduces cortisol and adrenaline. Not only does the physical exertion help you to forget what is bothering you while you work out, but your brain makes up for physical stress by increasing deep sleep allowing you to sleep more soundly through the night. 2. Journaling Journaling is a great way to help your brain process the feelings and emotions that arise when under psychological stress. This helps the brain move past the perceived threat allowing your body to reduce your cortisol level resulting in a more natural sleep cycle with proper deep sleep. 3. Meditation Meditation, like journaling, is a good way to help your brain process the psychological stressors that keep you awake at night. Studies show that meditation can help the brain respond to stress rather than react to it. This helps you to better deal with the stressors as they occur and reduce the automatic physical reaction of the stress response. 4. Deep Breathing Stress tends to make you breathe shallowly with your chest or even hold your breath. This leads to an inefficiency in the body’s ability to exchange oxygen and carbon dioxide which adds stress to the body. Breathing into the abdomen allows better oxygen and carbon dioxide exchange, reducing stress on the body which helps calm the body and allows you to relax. 5. Watch a Laugh Out Loud Comedy Laughing is a great stress reliever. Not only does it help you change your focus from the stressful situation, but it also helps you to breathe deeper into your lungs. Who can have a big belly laugh without breathing deeply? 6. Get Some More Sunshine Research shows that no matter when you live in the world, you only get about an hour of sunlight per day. And with so many companies switching to work from home, I would guess it’s even less than that. Sunlight helps to regulate your sleep-wake cycle and can improve mental health. For those who live somewhere where the sunrise and sunset vary greatly depending on the time of year, you’ll know that the winter months can be more difficult. Likewise for areas that see long stretches of gloomy, dreary, rainy weather. Opening the blinds as soon as you get up and keeping them open until the sun sets, sitting in an east-facing window with your coffee in the morning, or a west-facing window an hour before sunset will help you to get more sunlight. If the sun doesn’t shine much during certain times of the year, investing in a SAD (seasonal affective disorder) light can also help you get enough bright light to keep your sleep cycle regular. 7. Spend Time with Family or Friends Nothing helps reduce stress more than being around the people who love and support you. Sharing your challenges, reaching out for help, and receiving love are all good ways to reduce stress. It’s a bonus if they can help you laugh out loud. 8. Learn Something New Research shows that exercising your brain is just as important as your body in helping you sleep. When you’re under stress, taking the time to engage your brain in an activity that requires focus on an interesting topic can help you build confidence as well as reduce your tendency to ruminate on the stressor. Pair this with a new hobby, like learning to play an instrument or how to dance the tango and you can have a little fun too. 9. Pick Up a Hobby Change your focus from your stress to something you enjoy. It’s hard to be stressed when you’re having fun. Better yet, combine your hobby with any of the other suggestions here. Golf adds exercise, sunshine, and fun times with friends and family. Painting can be meditative. Learn something new while you read or write. 10. Try Tapping Tapping (aka emotional freedom techniques) is a self-help energy psychology that removes the associated negative emotions from a memory, thus freeing the individual from paralyzing fear, stress, anxiety, and other emotional traps. This involves using your fingers to tap on acupressure points on your face and body while thinking about a stressful event or situation to calm your nervous system. The first step to sleeping soundly through the night is to find a way to reduce your stress and anxiety. Not just when you think you’re stressed, but every day. Download my Daily Stressors Exercise to help recognize the psychological stressors that may keep you up at night. Follow me on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and visit my website for more info! Read more from Lana! Lana Walsh, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine Lana Walsh is a Sleep Coach who helps people overcome insomnia so that they wake up feeling rested and refreshed. After a decade of dealing with undiagnosed restless leg syndrome (RLS), Lana developed chronic insomnia. For 30 years, she struggled to find the answer to her sleep, trying “literally everything” without relief. When Lana was introduced to the stress-busting process of emotional freedom techniques (EFT, AKA tapping), she started sleeping better. Determined to continue this path, she began researching sleep where she finally found the answer to fixing her insomnia. She is passionate about sharing the secrets to overcoming insomnia and helping people get the same results that have transformed her life. Lana is a co-author of the Amazon Bestseller, "Creating Impact, The Ultimate Guide for Purpose-Driven Entrepreneurs," Founder of "Upgrade Your Sleep: A Powerful Method to Overcoming Sleeplessness," registered CBT-i coach, and Conscious EFT Level 1-2 practitioner.

Written by: Louise Siwicki, Executive Contributor Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise. It almost always stems back to "I am not worthy” or your lack of self-worth. What does this mean exactly? What is the “IT” I am referring to? Let me explain… Have you ever stopped to think about how you really view yourself? If you were to look at yourself in the mirror, what would you see? What would you say to yourself about you? You've probably not actually ever really stopped to think about how you truly see yourself and how these views could be affecting your reality – am I right? Well, that is because your opinion of yourself and what you deserve (self-worth) is formulated at the unconscious level at a very young age. This view of you is then solidified throughout the course of your life through different events, by the people you surround yourself with and your perception of the world. At least 99% of the population have issues around low self-worth to some extent. How this presents varies from person to person. You will create many limiting beliefs in your mind around what you believe your self-worth to be. This in turn creates blocks in life. It will block your ability to succeed in a personal or professional sense, to truly find happiness. I am not worthy of making money I am not worthy of love I am not worthy of success I am not worthy of happiness I am not worthy unless I look a certain way I am not worthy of conceiving a child or carrying a child to full term Do any of these resonate with you? Most of the time you actually have no idea about this programming. It’s not until you start to feel stuck in life, unhappy or perhaps find yourself in a terrible relationship, a horrible workplace or it could present as physical issues in the body such a disease or illness. I specialise in working with clients suffering infertility issues and this limiting belief is one of the major factors affecting most of my clients if not all. It is a massive issue in our society and a lot of people consciously are not even aware of it. It takes a life crisis for someone to stop and start to unpack what is really happening. Once you can reprogram these negative emotions at the unconscious level then and only then can you truly find the happiness and health you so desperately desire. What is Self-worth? Self-worth is the internal sense of being good enough and worthy of love and belonging from others. People with high self-worth tend to have higher respect, confidence, and values. People with low self-worth might suffer from low confidence and feel bad about themselves Self-esteem is often confused with self-worth Self-esteem is often used interchangeably with self-worth; however, self-esteem can be defined as “feeling” good and confident about oneself. The big difference here is that self-esteem is often a fleeting feeling—it can be raised through external factors like receiving nice compliments or buying a new pair of shoes. But self-esteem doesn’t last. Think of it like this: self-esteem is like a floating cloud in the sky. It can come and go—and it most certainly will — and people with high self-esteem might need constant mood boosters to “feel” good about themselves. But true self-worth is more than that. It’s the permanent, grounded “knowing” that you have worth. And unlike a cloud, self-worth is more like the earth. It’s an unmovable, grounded belief that is “rooted” in confidence — and a snide remark or unfortunate circumstance won’t completely destroy your self-worth. So how can I increase my self-worth? To truly get to the bottom of why you have low self-worth in the first place will require you to unpack what has been going on unconsciously change that programming into a positive Hypnosis and Time Line Therapy are amazing modalities to create this change. I work with both daily and the change that I see in my clients in a relatively short period of time is unbelievable. However, there are some simple exercises you can also do in your own time to start the process as well. Write down three things your love about yourself. Three things that you have achieved in life you are proud of. Think of a time in your life when you were truly happy. You laughed so hard your whole body shook. How did you feel in that moment? Truly feel that feeling of happiness within yourself. Now look at yourself in the mirror and note down your feelings. What do you see, feel and think about yourself? Chances are you have a lot of negative thoughts and judgements about yourself, am I right? I challenge you for a week to recognise every time you have a negative thought about yourself and consciously swap this negative thought for a positive one. Did you know it is impossible for your mind to think of a negative and positive thought at the same time? By consciously reframing your thoughts to positive ones you will automatically stop the negative thought in its tracks! It won’t be easy in the beginning because chances are you have a lot of negative thoughts about yourself however as times goes on it gets easier and easier. If you keep at this, you will eventually find your negative thoughts start to disappear completely. You are reprograming your thought process at the unconscious level. Your thoughts become feelings... Feelings become beliefs... And your beliefs become your reality... Think how your negative thoughts could be affecting your reality, the position you find yourself in today. How has your perception of your self-worth created the issues you are currently battling today? Follow me on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and visit my website for more info! Read more from Louise! Louise Siwicki, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine Louise Siwicki, is a specialist in the fields of Neuro Linguistic Programming, Time Line Therapy®, Hypnotherapy and a Fertility Coaching expert. She offers specialised programs for both woman and men suffering infertility issues, through pregnancy and early parenthood. She uses different practical processes and techniques to rewire the brain of her clients and build new neural pathways. This eliminates and heals the root cause of stress and anxiety, the negative emotions and limiting beliefs holding them back from achieving the success and happiness they desire in life. After suffering though 6 years of infertility issues herself she has since dedicated her life to supporting woman and men through this very challenging time in their lives. She is the founder and CEO of “Louise Siwicki Coaching”, author of ""The Secret to Getting Pregnant is not Just in Your Body but in Your Mind"" and a public speaker. Her mission: To help everyone understand the importance of the mind, body connection. If you don’t master your mind, your mind will master you.

Written by: Dr. Charryse Johnson, Executive Contributor Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise. On Tuesday, May 24, 2022, a gunman killed at least 19 children and two adults at Texas elementary school. No, this isn’t the first or potentially the last tragedy of this kind. The world has endured and witnessed a constant stream of crisis, grief, and loss. A stream that will flow differently through each individual and, in some cases, flow into an ocean of overwhelming. When share video is turned on and the doors of the office open, we must resist the temptation to return to “business as usual.” Resilience is often defined as the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties. Recovering quickly is a myth. The human system is neurobiologically wired to remember and protect against future threats. Quick is not the answer. When something traumatic happens and people are going through major life stressors, resources may need to be mobilized to help boost or increase their ability to move forward. Adults spend a significant proportion of time in the workplace, and hence, this is another call to action for organizations and leaders at every level and every size. One of the essential elements for achieving a healthy workplace is supporting the well-being of workers. Productivity and policies have a purpose, but the highest call will always be to people. It starts at the top. Leaders and business owners who feel ill-prepared to manage the magnitude and intensity of employees’ emotional responses are more likely to be distant and avoidant. As a result, organizations may overlook silent symptoms of rupture such as absenteeism, anger, decreased productivity, and isolation. Employers can promote awareness. The workplace can be a key location for activities designed to improve well-being among adults. Workplace wellness programs can identify those at risk and connect them to treatment, and put in place supports to help people reduce and manage stress. This call to action is not designed to shift into an unsolicited exchange of pain. It is an opportunity to improve, implement, or create a corporate culture of health in both theory and practice. Action steps that show support and concern: Give verbal and non-verbal messages of care and support. Inform employees about the forms of help available. Consider hiring a trained mental health professional to offer in-house/online support. Don’t speak in generalizations or make assumptions about how others feel. Invite individuals to discreetly share any accommodations that would help them manage the aftermath. Refrain from offering unsolicited advice. Create and maintain dedicated, quiet spaces for relaxation or encourage at-home professionals to create a small space of their own. Public tragedies often fuel the resurgence of private pain. Leaders and organizations must abandon mindsets rooted in the separation between mental health and workplace culture. Behind every sharp suit, great haircut, and wide smile, there are silent battles being fought. This is no longer business as usual. Follow me on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and visit my website for more info! Read more from Dr. Charryse! Dr. Charryse Johnson, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine Dr. Charryse Johnson is an author, speaker, and mental health consultant whose work focuses on the intersection of integrative wellness, neuroscience, and mental health. She is the founder of Jade Integrative Counseling and Wellness, an integrative therapy practice where personal values, the search for meaning, and the power of choice are the central focus. Dr.Johnson works with clients and organizations across the nation and has an extensive background and training in education, crisis and trauma, neuroscience, and identity development.