Written by Jenna Nye, Resolution Specialist and Founder of Jentle Jenna Nye is the founder of Jentle and a nervous system resolution specialist. Her work focuses on resolving emotional and physiological activation at the source, particularly where insight and understanding alone have not created change. The injury healed. The scans are clear. The consultant cannot find anything wrong. The pain is still there. Or the range never returned fully. Or your gut still reacts to things it should have made peace with years ago. You have done everything you were told to do, and something is still running. This is not in your head, and it is not something you have to accept. There is a reason it persists, and there is a way it can resolve. What if something can be medically healed, psychologically understood, and yet not be finished in the body? Pain the body remembers So, when you see a consultant, they may tell you there is nothing wrong. Or, yes, there is scar tissue, but nothing that should account for the pain you are experiencing. Or: “We can’t find anything.” Then we start to question ourselves. Is my pain even real? Are they telling me it’s all in my head? The question is not whether the pain is real. It absolutely is. Pain is physical. All pain is physical if we include the electrical and chemical impulses involved, which we do. The more useful question is, "What is driving or maintaining it?" We tend to assume pain means damage. When the damage heals and the pain remains, we assume something has been missed. Sometimes it has. But there is a third possibility that is rarely offered: the tissue has healed, and the nervous system has not stood down. The nervous system learned something during the original event. It learned that this shoulder, this movement, this part of you, means something, and usually it is a variation of danger. That learning does not automatically expire when the tissue repairs. The alarm keeps sounding because, from the nervous system's perspective, the threat was never marked as over. That threat does not have to be obvious. In fact, often it is not connected at all. It can be based on an upcoming empty nest. It can be based on an overload of responsibility. It could be based on something yet to happen. Anticipatory stress is very real to the system, and if it is present when you injure yourself, it can get connected. The relevant threat may have surprisingly little to do with the injury itself. This is what I work with, and it is what my current research programme was built to document. I will come back to that. Not only injuries The wound is not always a physical one. A body can reignite the residue of an experience that was never allowed to complete. A loss. A shock. A period of life spent braced, shut down or in dread. The nervous system can learn protective responses around emotional threat just as it can around physical threat: something happened, the system responded, and sometimes that response continues long after the event itself has passed. That protection can show up somatically. The stomach that has dropped since a particular year of your life. The chest that tightens in rooms that resemble a room you once could not leave. The jaw. The pelvic floor. The breath that never quite drops below the collarbone. You may have long since made sense of the original experience. Understanding it, unfortunately, is not the same as your body finishing with it. Insight explains the reaction. It does not always end it. Where good care reaches its edge None of this means the care you received was wrong. Physiotherapy resolves structural problems, and it does so well. Medical investigation rules out what must be ruled out, and that step always comes first. Talking therapy allows expression and validation. It builds understanding, perspective, language and knowledge that matters. Each of these does its own job. The gap appears when the pain is not being generated by structure, and the response is not being driven by a lack of understanding. Then you can complete excellent treatment, comply fully, do everything right, and still be left with the thing itself. That is not failure. Yours or theirs. It is a category difference. What remains is held in the nervous system, so the nervous system is where it resolves. What I see in this work I am a resolution specialist. My work is supporting the nervous system to complete what never finished, so the response ends. Emotional or physical. I have watched a shoulder that scanned clear for a year, painful and restricted the entire time, return to full range after the stored activation behind it resolved. I have watched digestive symptoms that had shaped someone's diet and travel and confidence for a decade settle, following work with an event their system was still responding to. I have watched grief that lived as a physical weight in the chest peel away from the trauma of the loss and resolve, making way for the love and the sadness the person wanted to keep. I choose the word resolved deliberately. Not managed. Not reduced. Not coped with more gracefully. When the nervous system recognises that what it was protecting against is over, the response it was producing stops. There is nothing left to manage. Resolution is often quieter than people expect. There is no fireworks moment. You reach for the top shelf without thinking. You order the meal without checking the menu for safety. You tell the story and notice, afterwards, that your chest stayed soft. The neutrality is the freedom. Signs the nervous system may be part of the picture Not all persistent pain works this way. Some pain is structural, and structural care resolves it. That said, certain patterns suggest the nervous system is generating or maintaining what you feel. The pain is experienced more intensely than expected. How we feel emotionally and what we think about the pain can make it louder, so even current structural damage can be quietened noticeably with these practices. The scans are clear, but the symptom is not. Investigation finds nothing, or finds changes too minor to explain what you experience. It began around, or after, a significant life period. An accident, a loss, an illness, a stretch of sustained pressure. The timeline of the symptom shadows the timeline of your life. It moves, or it recruits. The pain migrates. New symptoms join it. It behaves less like a lesion and more like a pattern. It tracks your state. Worse under pressure, before difficult conversations, in certain company. Quieter on holiday. This correlation is information, not imagination. It outlasted its cause. The injury healed. The situation ended. The symptoms stayed. None of these proves anything on its own. They are signals worth taking seriously, alongside, and never instead of, medical care. Anything new, worsening or unexplained belongs with your GP first. Why I am studying this Because I see these resolutions in my practice, and because I believe work like this should be accountable, I run the Autosomatic Resolution Programme, a preregistered observational study documenting outcomes of this work using validated measures, with follow-up at one, six and twelve months. It is registered in advance and committed to publishing whatever the data shows, including null results. I am not asking anyone to take my word for what I see in sessions. That is the point of measuring it properly. The study will say what it says. I am studying it because resolution is testable. If these changes are meaningful and durable, they should still be visible at follow-up. If they are not, the data should show that too. I have seen enough in the room to want that on the record. What resolution actually is Resolution, as I use the term, is not learning to live with it. It is not managing your state so the symptom becomes more bearable. Those approaches have real value, and they are not this. Resolution work asks whether a response that once made sense is still generating in the present, and whether the system can update what it is responding to. We meet the stored event through the body in conditions of genuine safety, and often playfulness, allowing something that previously registered as a threat to be experienced differently. When that change is complete, what I see is not simply better coping. The response itself stops. This is not mind over matter, and it is not spiritual. It is how nervous systems work. They learn threat through experience. Given the right conditions, they unlearn it the same way. If this is you If the wound is gone and something is still here, you do not have to conclude that this is your body now. Or perhaps you are injured or healing, and the response you experience is louder than you might have intuited it would be. Never underestimate the power of fear on the pain signal. The first step is not a technique. It is a distinction: is what you carry structural, held in the nervous system, or both? A symptom persisting after its original cause has gone does not make it imaginary. The question is not whether the body is telling the truth. It is what kind of truth the body is telling. Whatever you decide, keep your medical care in place. This work sits alongside it, never in place of it. Follow me on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and visit my website for more info! Read more from Jenna Nye Jenna Nye, Resolution Specialist and Founder of Jentle Jenna Nye is a nervous system resolution specialist and the founder of Jentle. She works at the intersection of neuroscience-informed practice, somatic resolution, belief change, and trauma-aware human technology. Her work supports individuals and practitioners to resolve emotional and physiological activation rather than manage symptoms through insight alone. Jenna is known for precise, contained approaches that restore clarity, capacity, and choice. Her writing explores nervous system patterns, perception, belief, and embodied change.

Written by Katalin Fligg, Trance Evidential Medium & Consciousness Educator Katalin Fligg is an international consciousness educator, evidential and trance medium, and spiritual teacher who helps people develop intuition, resilience, and self-awareness. Through her writing, she explores the practical connection between consciousness, personal growth, and spiritual development. “I can’t meditate. My mind won’t stop.” This is probably one of the most common things I hear when people tell me why they have never really started meditating. They imagine that meditation requires them to sit perfectly still, completely calm, with an empty mind and no thoughts whatsoever. That is exactly where many people get stuck, because meditation is not about having no thoughts. It is about changing your relationship with your thoughts. You don't have to stop thinking Your mind is designed to think. Thoughts will arise whether you are meditating or not. So when you sit down to meditate and suddenly remember the shopping list, an unfinished email, something someone said yesterday, or what you need to do tomorrow, you haven't failed. You have simply noticed your mind, and that noticing is part of the practice. Instead of following every thought, you can learn to observe it, There is a thought. There is a feeling. There is a sensation in my body. Then you gently return your attention to your breath, your body, or simply the experience of being present. Research supports the idea that meditation is not about eliminating thoughts completely. A systematic review of mindfulness meditation found that practitioners become more familiar with observing spontaneous thoughts while maintaining openness and equanimity, and that longer-term mindfulness practice can reduce mind-wandering and its disruptive effects.[1] In other words, the goal isn't necessarily to have a completely empty mind. It is to become less controlled by everything that passes through it. You don't have to feel calm before you begin Another misconception is that you need to be relaxed before you meditate. What if meditation is actually one of the ways you learn to become more regulated? You can begin with something incredibly simple, your breathing. Sit comfortably. You don't even need to sit cross-legged. You can sit on a chair, lie down, or stand if that is what feels right for you. Then begin to slow your breathing gently. There is no need to force a huge breath. Simply allow the inhale to become comfortable and let your exhale become a little slower and longer. Slow breathing has been extensively studied in relation to the autonomic nervous system. A systematic review and meta-analysis found that voluntary slow breathing was associated with increases in vagally mediated heart rate variability during breathing and in some periods following practice.[2] The vagus nerve is a major component of the parasympathetic nervous system and plays an important role in communication between the brain and organs throughout the body. So your meditation does not have to begin with a perfectly peaceful mind. It can begin with your body, with your breath, and with a simple invitation to your nervous system. Slow down. Be here. Don't meditate with an expectation One of my favourite ways to begin a meditation is not to decide what must happen. Instead, I give the meditation a gentle direction. Perhaps, "What do I need today?" or, "What energy would support me this morning?" or, in the evening, "What can I release from today so that I can rest?" Then I become quiet and observe. I don't try to manufacture an answer. I don't decide beforehand what I am supposed to see, hear, or feel. I simply create a space for something to arise. This is an important distinction. Meditation isn't necessarily about producing a particular experience. It is about becoming receptive enough to notice what is already there. Meditation is not switching off, it is turning on This is where meditation becomes particularly fascinating to me. When we continually live in mental noise, physical tension, and constant external stimulation, it can be difficult to notice the subtler layers of our experience. But when we become quieter, we may begin to notice sensations, emotions, impulses, images, memories, intuitive impressions, or subtle changes in our inner state. I often describe this as turning ourselves on. Scientifically, the human body is a living, breathing electrical circuit. Cells maintain electrical potentials across their membranes, and electrical activity in organs such as the heart and brain produces measurable magnetic fields. Biomagnetism research, for example, measures the weak magnetic fields produced by the heart, brain, nerves, and muscles.[3] The heart produces the strongest measurable biomagnetic signal in the body, while brain activity can also be measured magnetically through techniques such as magnetoencephalography.[4] This provides a fascinating scientific foundation for discussing the body's electrical and electromagnetic activity, but there is an important distinction. Science can measure these physiological electromagnetic signals. It has not established that meditation increases or expands a person's electromagnetic field in the spiritual sense. For me, however, the language of “turning on” is also an experiential and spiritual one. It describes becoming more consciously aware of our whole presence, including body, breath, mind, emotions, attention, and what I experience as our energetic field. We are not switching ourselves off. We are connecting more deeply with who we are. From meditation to trance: Becoming receptive So, what do I mean by trance? The word trance can mean different things in different traditions. For the purposes of this article, I use it broadly to describe an altered state of consciousness in which our ordinary, analytical mode of awareness changes and we become more receptive to deeper levels of experience. Meditation is one way to reach these states. While the science is still in its early stages, studies show that these deep experiences can change our breathing, relax our muscles, and alter our brain waves.[5] However, I wouldn’t look at trance as just reaching a certain brainwave pattern, like theta. Brain activity is dynamic, and different meditative and altered states can involve different patterns of neural activity. There is no single brainwave frequency that scientifically defines every form of trance. What interests me much more is the shift in conscious control. In ordinary meditation, we may simply observe our thoughts, sensations, and inner experiences without trying to control them. In deeper trance work, we can become increasingly receptive to what emerges from beyond our usual conscious intention. Different traditions understand this differently. Some schools of trance mediumship understand trance as a state in which a spirit communicator works through or takes control of aspects of the medium's expression. Other approaches understand trance more broadly, as a state in which the person's own deeper consciousness, subconscious mind, higher self, or soul becomes more influential than the everyday conscious mind. I see these as different interpretations of what can happen within an altered state of consciousness rather than necessarily opposing ideas. What matters is the shift from consciously controlling the experience to becoming receptive to what emerges. Sometimes this may be experienced as an intuitive impulse, a feeling, a spontaneous image, or a word. In deeper trance work, it may develop into a distinct experience of communication or expression that feels as though it is coming from beyond the ordinary conscious mind. Whether someone understands that source psychologically, as the subconscious or deeper aspects of their own consciousness, or spiritually, as the soul, higher self, or a spirit communicator, the experience begins with a similar fundamental skill, learning to enter an altered state of consciousness and become receptive rather than controlling. So how can meditation become a foundation for trance mediumship? It can begin with something remarkably simple. You breathe, settle, become aware of your body, notice your thoughts without chasing them, connect with an intention, become aware of your presence and your energetic experience, allow the mind to soften, and then become receptive. This is why I believe meditation can be such a beautiful foundation for trance mediumship. You first learn to become aware. Then you learn to become still. Then you learn to become receptive. Eventually, you can learn what it feels like to allow something beyond your ordinary conscious intention to emerge. You don't have to force it. You learn to notice it. Start with five minutes If sitting still feels difficult, don't start with thirty minutes. Start with five. Sit somewhere comfortable. Close your eyes if that feels safe and comfortable, or simply soften your gaze. Take several slow, comfortable breaths. Notice your body and your thoughts. Don't fight them or follow them. Simply observe. Then ask yourself one simple question, "What do I need today?" And wait. Maybe nothing happens. Maybe a thought appears. Maybe you feel something in your body. Maybe an image comes. Maybe you simply experience five minutes of breathing. All of those are valid. The goal isn't to have a spectacular meditation. The goal is to begin building a relationship with your own inner world. With practice, those five minutes can become a doorway into deeper awareness, intuition, altered states of consciousness, and perhaps, eventually, trance. Curious about trance mediumship? If you feel drawn to explore what can happen when meditation, altered states of consciousness, and mediumship come together, I invite you to join my masterclass, "How to Become a Trance Medium." I will take you through the foundations of entering trance, developing awareness, working with your energy, and learning to recognise the subtle shifts that can occur when you move beyond ordinary conscious control. You don't have to know how to meditate perfectly. You don't have to empty your mind. You simply have to be willing to become curious about what is possible when you become quiet enough to listen. Follow me on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and visit my website for more info! Read more from Katalin Fligg Katalin Fligg, Trance Evidential Medium & Consciousness Educator Katalin Fligg is an international consciousness educator, evidential & trance medium, spiritual healer, and teacher. She teaches across Europe, including Germany, Austria, and England, as well as online, helping people develop intuition, expand consciousness, and explore their spiritual potential. Her journey began during a challenging time in her life when a close family member experienced severe depression. Through meditation, she discovered expanded states of awareness and spiritual connection that transformed her own life. Today, Katalin is dedicated to empowering others through consciousness, intuition, and personal growth. References: [1] ScienceDirect [2] PubMed [3] PubMed Central (PMC) [4] PubMed Central (PMC) [5] PubMed

Written by Rev. Betty King, Christian Leader, Pastor, and Visionary Rev. Betty King is a highly respected and internationally recognized Christian leader, pastor, visionary, author, entrepreneur, mentor, and host of The Cry TV show on GODTV. She leads a globally recognized ministry that focuses on bringing biblical, real-world, lasting impact that truly reflects the heart of God into every sphere of influence. Hello to everyone reading Brainz Magazine. In this second part of talking about what it takes to birth the authentic, I wanted to continue sharing some of the keys I believe modern-day leaders need to know to build a legacy that lasts. If you haven’t had a chance already, please take the time to go and read Part 1 of this article, and I pray you’ll be blessed! In this article, I wanted to focus on what it takes to preserve and keep your vision authentic. I also wanted to be very real about some of the key issues, actions, and people that can come to destroy good legacies before they grow well and, importantly, talk about what we can do as leaders to understand them and how to deal with them well to build an authentic legacy. Spotting what deforms your vision As a leader, you may have experienced something like this already, but at some point, you will come across people who, if you are not careful, will deform what you have set out to build. I believe that God calls people and places people to accomplish and build different purposes, and whether you believe this or not, I’m sure you can agree that any great legacy is bigger than the person who leaves it. I believe God uses people to do good like this. You can tell when such people come around you. The things they do and the things they tell you may initially seem on the right track with you. Still, when you examine the outcome of the relationship, they actually slow you down and get you to deform the original vision and purpose you set out for. This often happens because of their own personal agendas and limitations. Such people will influence you to scale down your vision and work within the means of what you have now, rather than reaching towards the God who can do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think (Ephesians 3:20). They will devalue your authentic vision, through which you would partner with God to achieve something unprecedented, and get you to replace it with something you can manage without God’s supernatural help. I think that anyone who has built much and achieved much knows that everyone needs help. No one does it by themselves; there are always people they work with, and this happens beyond ministry settings and in corporate ones too. This is why having the right people around us is so crucial. The people who deform our vision feel that they are promoting the right agenda or the company's agenda when, in fact, they are holding onto a warped vision that has been shaped and formed by their own shortcomings. They aspire to achieve great things but haven’t taken the right road to greatness and are looking for shortcuts and freebies. They themselves have not built what they feel they should have, and rather than pursuing this authentically, they look at what you have built and try to take over or piggyback on it for their own fulfilment. They may come to you as well-wishers, enthusiastic about what you are doing and full of ideas and offers. Still, their underlying motives are to reshape what you are building into what they have failed to build and so live through your ministry vicariously on terms that they are comfortable with. One of the key signs of this is that their eyes and ears are trained to catch what you don’t have and where the gaps and obstacles are so that they can offer you help, when what they are really after is a way in so that they can gain a foothold in what you are doing and redirect it. Make sure that you’re secure Therefore, my first point for leaders and visionaries is to make sure that you’re secure. Because these people may appear to be motivated by godly or good reasons and have a knowledge of God, or even of business and what it is to be called and work in a certain position, you may welcome them because they appear to add strength and capacity. However, halfway through whatever it is that you plan to do with them, due to the unresolved issues in their hearts, they leave and part ways. It may be for the tragic reason that they are not able to gain control or influence you in the way that they wanted to, or it may be that you are not willing to make them the centre of your plans. Unfortunately, this is not what they will say on their way out. Rather, they will refer to the list of shortcomings that they identified to get leverage over you, or even fabricate some new ones. So, if you are not strong, their words and actions can cause you to doubt what God has called you to do, especially because you see them as godly. If you are not rooted and grounded in the reality of God’s direction for your life, this can be an entry point for the blurring of the vision, compromise, watering down, and altering of your aims, which literally kills the seed of purpose in the Deoxyribonucleic Acid (DNA) of what is being birthed. Make sure you are strong; deal with any insecurity around your leadership in a healthy way, and be grounded and secure in your vision. Similarly, some come around you because of something unique about your gifting or some opportunity that they perceive, but unfortunately, they do so for their own benefit. They may perceive you as having a platform that they feel they should be standing on, or see you as someone they can use for their own self-elevation. I personally know that for such people, especially within Christian settings in both ministry and business, unless they encounter the Spirit of God or the Lord intervenes, one way or another, they will not last. If they don’t get what they want from you, they will leave and take it out on others, as if what you are doing is disappointing and dissatisfying. Furthermore, if they do get what they want, they will still leave, but only after causing damage. The sincere but undiscerning people who built relationships with them, including key people in your structures, then suddenly realise that they were not authentic. Some also arrive with a false sense of authority, seemingly carrying themselves as someone of influence, with a few people on their tails who start to share your space. Because they have brought people with them, it can feel at first like they are enabling growth, but you then find yourself contending with a spirit of entitlement and division. Rather than helping the people who come with them to align with the authentic structure and leadership of your environment, they position themselves as a second head on the body, so that while you are leading and giving out instructions, people are looking to them and not you. You will find that when things begin to work out for those who are aligned with and submitted to the house, but not for them, they begin to contend and compete. This is a situation with two camps, and unity must be restored at all costs. It is important that you are able to identify these signs and symptoms and not grow angry or fearful, but rather know what you can do to address this successfully. The good news is that there is a way to do this The difficult conversations must be had. Find out if they intend to stay. If they do, then require them and their people to submit. If not, then let them transition out swiftly. Be sure to act before it all becomes too much of a distraction and takes up too much of your time and commitment to the vision. For Christian leaders, I encourage you to deal with these situations quickly so they don't get to a point where they take up all your prayer time when you should be praying for God’s will and purpose in your vision. Don’t worry about losing some of the numbers. The space they create when they go will make life better for those meant to be there and allow you to invest more in those who will build unity for the future. Managing the emotional dimensions is also important. Where you have given generously and openly to people like these and then are hurt, it can turn your heart away from generosity, which is an important component of why you can work for the vision in the first place. Especially for Christian leaders, generosity is an expression of God’s love in your heart and an important element of an authentic spirit. When you are in such a situation, turn it on its head. The sense of entitlement that makes someone think they can come into another person's business, corporation, or ministry process and take control is a sign of their woundedness and immaturity. Be intentional, confident, and decisive without relying on them, because then they will see that control is not an option and can decide whether to support the vision or move on. They will soon show their true colours. This will ensure that you are not polluted and that the DNA of the vision is not limited because of them. Inauthenticity is different from immaturity But in light of this, there is another key principle you need to understand. Inauthenticity is different from immaturity. Often, the people who are genuinely called to help you have the right heart but are not yet ready for the work. You must learn to work with them and have patience, as they are not yet what they will be, but they do have the right DNA. I’ll give you one example that you need to know. You may have heard the names Peter and John among Jesus’ disciples as some of the most famous names. Peter is especially renowned as one of the earliest leaders of the Church. But what you may not know is that when Jesus, our Lord and Saviour, came to earth, He needed people who would work with His vision. Those who were meant to help Him further the Gospel, His disciples, were far from ready when He brought them to His side. Peter was brash, insecure, spoke at the wrong times, cut off someone’s ear with a sword, and denied Jesus three times. But even Jesus, who was Lord, had to be with them and help them grow, and there were times when it was very frustrating for Him. I want you to understand that this is much more than just simple Christian charity that God has in the Bible for us, and it is more than Jesus setting a good example of being nice and kind. This was about knowing the person's value and destiny. Jesus knew every single one of them and how to deal with their individual personalities and characteristics. He helped John overcome anger issues so that he could become John the Beloved, one of Jesus’ trusted disciples, traditionally identified with the beloved disciple entrusted with the care of Jesus’ mother, Mary, as He hung on the cross. Christian tradition also identifies John the Apostle as the author of the Book of Revelation. He coached Peter out of the frailty that surfaced when he denied Him so that he could later stand up and be one of the leaders and pillars of the early Church. Before Peter even knew that he had it in him, Jesus said, “Upon this rock I will build my church,” referring to Peter (Matthew 16:18). God saw who they were and knew how to build them up. This is the leadership that God shows us and teaches us to demonstrate when building a legacy. He trained each of them so that they could play their part in the vision of the Gospel, salvation for souls, and lives transformed. Similarly, in his day, King David was surrounded by people with all sorts of issues, and he was able to lead them as they became mighty men of valour who helped him establish his kingdom. Whatever your gifting is, God has called you to build authentically, and this should bring transformation to those around you. Authenticity is a shield for your destiny. Being authentic doesn’t mean that everyone who is around you will necessarily be authentic. However, being discerning and acting to preserve what God has given you will make sure that you are never derailed! I believe that for those birthing legacies that will bless the world and the people in it, God will fight for you, support you, and protect what He has given you to birth. Your authenticity is a shield for your destiny, protecting what God has given you. Be bold and courageous, and defend what is pure! For more insights into these principles, come and grab my book, Birthing the Authentic. If you would like to get in touch or know more, you can contact Rev. Betty King and BKIM (Betty King International Ministries) at this website and email. Donate today at The House of David Football Academy. Follow me on Facebook and Instagram for more info! Read more from Rev. Betty King Rev. Betty King, Christian Leader, Pastor, and Visionary Rev. Betty King is a leader, as a pastor of Truthvine Church, Visionary of Betty King International Ministries (BKIM) & a real-estate mogul whose influence spans continents, sectors, and generations. She has served in leadership across global ministries worldwide and currently hosts a prime-time weekly television programme, The Cry, which airs every Wednesday on GODTV, the United Kingdom’s largest Christian television network. Her wider ministry is deeply committed to practical and sustainable impact, including the building of a football academy for vulnerable young men focused on restoration, healing, rehabilitation, and helping individuals rebuild their lives, as well as working with churches and other sectors across the world.

Written by Anastasiya Zalyubovska, Hypnotherapist & Life Coach Anastasiya Zalyubovska is a certified hypnotherapist specialising in subconscious work focused on vision and visual function. Through her practice, she explores how internal states, emotional experiences, and subconscious patterns may relate to the way people experience vision. Vision is often thought of as a purely physical process. We think about the eyes, lenses, glasses, diagnoses, and medical procedures. But through my own life experience and my work as a hypnotherapist, I have arrived at a question that has become central to my professional journey: Can what happens within us, such as stress, emotional states, beliefs, and deeper subconscious processes, influence our subjective experience of vision? I did not arrive at this question through theory. I encountered it first through my own experience. When vision became personal I was 21 when, following a diagnosis, I began receiving treatment that included injections directly into my eyes. During that period, I experienced a complete loss of vision. At a certain point, I decided to stop the treatment. At the time, I knew nothing about hypnotherapy professionally. I had no training in the field and none of the tools I have today. Yet something happened that I would understand very differently many years later. I withdrew from the outside world and began instinctively working with my internal state. I did not call it hypnosis or subconscious work. I simply did what I intuitively felt I needed to do. Within approximately one month, my vision returned. For many years afterwards, vision was not a problem for me. During a period of my life connected with the US military system, I underwent regular health assessments, including vision testing. I could have left that experience in the past. But decades later, vision entered my life again. When vision changed again During a period of significant stress, I began noticing changes in my vision. I was prescribed glasses. My visual difficulties continued to progress. I experienced blurring, double vision, and a sensation like a veil. Eventually, I found it difficult to see as I had before, even while wearing glasses. But this time, there was one enormous difference. I was no longer 21. I was now a professionally trained hypnotherapist. Instead of looking only at what was happening to my vision, I began asking another question: What was happening to me? What was happening emotionally? How much stress was I carrying? What beliefs were operating within my subconscious? What internal limitations or resistance might be present? Those questions gradually changed the direction of my professional work. Do we see only with our eyes? The eyes are, of course, essential to vision. Eye diseases and visual impairment require appropriate professional assessment, and hypnotherapy should not be considered a substitute for ophthalmological diagnosis or necessary medical care. My professional field, however, is not ophthalmology. It is the subconscious. I work with the person and their subconscious experience. In my practice, I pay attention to stress, emotional responses, limiting beliefs, internal resistance, past experiences, and subconscious associations that emerge during deeper therapeutic work. I do not assume that every visual problem has a psychological cause. That would be an unjustified generalisation. My question is different, "What can happen to an individual's subjective experience of vision when their internal state begins to change?" The power of beliefs One area I pay particular attention to is a person's belief system. We can carry beliefs for years without consciously recognising them. Some originate in childhood. Some develop following emotionally difficult or traumatic experiences. Others become so familiar that we stop recognising them as beliefs at all. They simply become our perceived reality. During deeper subconscious work, I pay attention to the limitations and internal patterns that emerge for the individual and work with them as they appear. This is why my work is not simply a standard hypnosis script. I cannot know in advance everything that a person's subconscious may reveal. I follow the individual. When she opened the book One experience that significantly influenced my decision to explore this area more deeply involved a client who was 15 years old. According to her family, her vision had been progressively deteriorating over the years. Before the session, there was a book beside her. I asked how much of it she could read. Her answer was: nothing. Not one word. After the session, she opened her eyes. Her mother entered the room and began recording what happened. The girl picked up the book. And she started reading. She read text from a distance and then proceeded to read smaller print. What was particularly important to me was that this experience did not remain simply my memory of what happened during a session. Her mother recorded it and gave permission for the video and her daughter's experience to be shared. I do not claim that one individual case proves a universal treatment for visual impairment. It does not. But as a practising hypnotherapist, it left me with a question I could not simply ignore: What happened? Three sessions, new experiences One of the most profound cases I am currently working with involves a blind client who is also a medical professional. He has given me permission to discuss our work, his experience, and relevant supporting material. With him, I decided to work at a much deeper level rather than conduct a short, standardised session. Our work involves the subconscious, stress, emotional state, internal limitations, and beliefs as they emerge during the process. After our first session, the most significant change he initially described was internal. He spoke about a shift in his relationship with the possibility of seeing, a growing desire to see, and a subjective sense that his visual experience was opening. After the second session, he identified the colours of objects around him, including a red cushion, a blue cushion, and a blue curtain. Following the third session, he reported that his visual experience had become considerably clearer and that the “whiteness” he had previously experienced had diminished. When his young daughter approached him, he described seeing her silhouette and identified her hair as very dark, almost black. But visual experience was not the only thing he described as changing. He also reported a profound shift in his overall internal state. Following our work, he began speaking about his experience with other blind people and asked whether he could share my contact details with those who wanted to speak with me. Our work is continuing. It is extremely important not to turn this experience into a claim that three hypnosis sessions “cure blindness.” That is not what I am claiming. I am describing what one individual has reported during our work together. For me, this is not a reason to stop asking questions. It is a reason to ask better ones. My work is individual My work focused on vision today is considerably deeper than when I first began exploring this area. I start with a consultation and consider the person's individual circumstances, including whether hypnosis is appropriate for them. If we decide to work together, I do not take the person through one predetermined script. I work with what emerges. This may include limiting beliefs, emotional responses, stress, internal resistance, or other subconscious associations. A separate component of my sessions is energy clearing. I do not present energy clearing as the mechanism responsible for changes in vision. For me, it is a distinct part of my practice that I use in relation to the person's overall state. In my own practice, clients frequently report feeling better following this part of a session. Within this aspect of my work, I also draw on techniques from John Hartland's Medical and Dental Hypnosis. My subconscious work focused on vision and energy clearing can both be incorporated within a session, but I regard them as distinct processes. Why I don't promise results When someone experiences a significant change following a session, it is easy to turn that story into a dramatic promise. I consciously choose not to do that. Two people may arrive with apparently similar visual difficulties yet have completely different medical histories, emotional experiences, beliefs, and subconscious responses. I therefore cannot promise a particular outcome in advance. Nor do I ask people to discontinue appropriate medical monitoring or necessary treatment. At the same time, I do not want to dismiss what I am observing in my practice simply because it does not fit the conventional image of what a hypnotherapist is expected to work with. My responsibility is to continue exploring, working, observing, documenting, and asking questions. Ask a different question I am becoming less interested in asking, “Can hypnosis correct vision?” For me, that question is too simplistic for what I am observing. The question that interests me much more is: “What role might a person's internal state play in their experience of vision, and what may become possible when we work with that state at a deeper subconscious level?” I do not believe we have all the answers to that question yet. But I do know that I want to dedicate a significant part of my future professional work to exploring it. Sometimes the most interesting discoveries do not begin when we announce that we already know the answer. They begin when an unexpected result gives us the courage to ask a question we had not considered before. Explore your own experience If you are experiencing changes in vision and are curious about exploring stress, emotional responses, limiting beliefs, and subconscious patterns alongside appropriate medical care, the first step is a private consultation. My work is individual, and I work internationally through online sessions. Follow me on Instagram for more info! Read more from Anastasiya Zalyubovska Anastasiya Zalyubovska, Hypnotherapist & Life Coach Anastasiya Zalyubovska is a certified hypnotherapist specialising in deep subconscious work focused on vision and visual function. Her approach works with a person’s internal state, emotional experiences, and subconscious patterns in relation to vision. After observing significant changes in visual function through her work, Anastasiya chose to make vision the central focus of her professional practice. Her work is highly individualised, exploring each person’s unique subconscious experience rather than applying a one-size-fits-all approach. Her mission is to deepen the understanding of what may become possible when we work with the subconscious mind in relation to vision.

Written by Stefania Leone, Jyotishi, Vedic Astrologer and Advisor Stefania Leone is a Jyotishi and Vedic Astrologer with 40+ years of experience, blending deep spiritual insight with practical business acumen. She interprets birth charts as sacred maps of karma and dharma, guiding leaders and visionaries to align with purpose, clarity, and conscious growth. Solar eclipses have long captured the human imagination. In Jyotisha, the traditional system of Indian astrology, they are understood not only as astronomical events, but also as symbolic moments that can bring hidden dynamics to the surface. The solar eclipse on August 12, 2026, takes place in Cancer, highlighting themes of emotional security, family, home, power and collective stability. In this article, the author explains why sidereal calculations are central to her practice of Jyotisha and offers her interpretation of the eclipse’s possible global and personal significance. As with all astrological interpretations, these ideas are offered as a symbolic framework for reflection rather than as scientifically established predictions. Getting the facts straight Astrology, or Jyotisha, as it is properly known in the Indian tradition, is a language based on astronomy and mathematical calculation. Constructing a chart requires determining the exact locations of the planets in relation to the fixed stars. For this reason, Jyotisha uses sidereal calculations based on the stars. Western astrology, by contrast, generally uses a tropical zodiac based on the relationship between the Earth and the seasons. The two systems therefore produce different planetary positions. These differences can lead to conflicting reports about the location and meaning of celestial events. For someone who has spent a lifetime studying this ancient language, it can be difficult to watch inaccurate or sensationalized information circulate, particularly when celestial events are presented through narratives designed to grab attention. I received my diploma in Western astrology in 1987. Nearly a decade later, after further study, I changed my approach and began working with Vedic astrology. This experience taught me the importance of understanding the distinction between the tropical and sidereal systems. Jyotisha emerged from the Vedic tradition of India and is far older than the modern calendar. The choice of zodiac system matters because an astrological chart depends on precise planetary positions. The two systems use different reference points, which is why the same planet can be assigned different zodiac positions within each system. Planetary lineup for August 12, 2026 According to the sidereal calculations used in this interpretation, the planetary positions are: Moon: 25°48′ Cancer Sun: 25°48′ Cancer Jupiter: 15°19′ Cancer Mercury: 10°52′ Cancer The Sun and Moon are together, creating a New Moon solar eclipse in Cancer. What could it mean globally? Eclipses are among the most significant celestial events in astrology. They are often viewed as symbolic portals, brief periods when hidden matters may come to light. They can also intensify situations, making it more difficult to distinguish clearly between perception and reality. This eclipse is influenced by Ketu, the South Node of the Moon. In Jyotisha, Ketu is associated with release, loss, surrender and detachment. In this case, Ketu is connected with Magha, a nakshatra associated with authority, ancestry and power. Symbolically, this combination may point to shifts in power or challenges to established authority. When powerful individuals or nations feel that their influence is weakening, the resulting fear can produce reactive or irrational behavior. The eclipse occurs near 26 degrees of Cancer, within the area associated with Ashlesha, a nakshatra traditionally linked with intensity, emotional complexity and the exposure of concealed motives. Because Jupiter and Mercury are also involved, this period may bring heightened debate, misinformation or escalation surrounding existing unrest in different parts of the world. At the same time, Jupiter and Mercury are placed in Pushya, a nakshatra associated with nourishment, protection and support. This suggests that those working toward peace may have an opportunity to influence events, although the path to resolution may be difficult. Because Cancer is a water sign, themes related to water may also become prominent, whether through emotional symbolism, environmental concerns or literal events involving water. From this perspective, the eclipse may also be relevant to the United States. These interpretations should be approached thoughtfully rather than as fixed predictions. Astrology can offer a symbolic lens through which to consider collective patterns, but it cannot determine precisely what will happen. What could it mean personally? One of the most useful ways to work with an eclipse is to become familiar with your Vedic birth chart. Understanding your chart can help you reflect on how changing planetary patterns may relate to your emotional life, relationships and decision-making. Cancer focuses attention on emotional stability, home, family and the environments in which we seek security. This eclipse may therefore encourage people to examine how they process feelings and how they respond when they feel vulnerable or threatened. The most important guidance is simple: do not act from fear. When the body is dysregulated, managing strong emotions becomes much more difficult. Not everyone will experience this eclipse in the same way. Those with relatively little water influence in their charts may not feel especially emotional, while those with a strong water emphasis may need additional time to process their responses. Emotional digestion takes time. Strong feelings can affect the body, including the stomach and the solar plexus, the area traditionally associated with personal power and confidence. Grounding practices, rest, mindful breathing and honest self-reflection may help during an emotionally intense period. There is also a constructive side to this eclipse. It may mark the beginning of new ways of expressing feelings, strengthening family bonds or creating new forms of emotional belonging. With passion running high, intimate relationships may also deepen when approached with mutual respect, consent and care. Pay attention to what is revealed. Hidden information, unresolved emotions or unspoken family dynamics may surface. Rather than reacting immediately, consider using this period to build a stronger relationship with integrity, self-awareness and personal responsibility. Staying grounded We are all connected through visible and invisible networks of communication, culture and shared emotion. During times of global upheaval, it is easy to absorb the fear and distress of others. If you are fortunate enough to be safe and supported, use that stability constructively. Take time to care for yourself, extend compassion to others and contribute positive energy to your community. In this way, the eclipse can become not only a period of intensity, but also an opportunity for reflection, healing and renewal. Follow me on Instagram or visit my website for more info! Read more from Stefania Leone Stefania Leone, Jyotishi, Vedic Astrologer and Advisor After a lonely, traumatic spiritual awakening at the age of 7, Stefania began what has amounted to a lifetime of study in the areas of consciousness, metaphysics, and holistic healing. The most profound and useful answers came through Jyotisha, the original and most accurate and true source of Astrology. Her mission is to bring Jyotisha mainstream in the West.

Written by Arian Guedes, Registered Psychologist Arian Guedes is a Registered Psychologist, Clinical Director, and Founder of NewVista Psychology & Counseling Services. Arian is a trauma-focused therapist with years of experience. She is also a speaker, workplace well-being and burnout expert. Sarah has been a nurse for fifteen years. She has held countless hands and comforted countless families. But during the pandemic, she was ordered to keep a dying man's wife from entering his room. She followed the policy, and she has never forgiven herself. Sarah is a fictional composite created to illustrate moral injury. This is not simply burnout. It may overlap with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), but it reflects another kind of suffering: moral injury. Moral injury is the lasting distress that can occur when an event violates who we believe ourselves to be. The wound does not arise only from what happened, but from what the experience seems to say about our values, our choices, or the people and institutions we trusted. What is moral injury? Moral injury can occur when someone perpetrates, fails to prevent, or witnesses actions that deeply conflict with their moral or ethical beliefs, or experiences betrayal by trusted individuals or institutions. It is not a formal psychiatric diagnosis. Rather, it is a psychological, social, and sometimes spiritual wound often marked by guilt, shame, anger, loss of trust, and a diminished sense of meaning or purpose. Moral injury and PTSD are distinct but can overlap. PTSD can follow exposure to death, serious injury, or sexual violence and may involve intrusive memories, avoidance, hyperarousal, and changes in mood and beliefs. Moral injury centres more specifically on moral conflict, guilt, shame, or betrayal. A person may experience either one or both. How common is it? Although moral injury was first studied extensively in military populations, it is increasingly recognised among healthcare workers, first responders, and others in high-stakes roles. A recent U.S. study found that more than 40 percent of combat veterans, healthcare workers, and first responders reported exposure to a potentially morally injurious event. A smaller but meaningful proportion reported clinically significant symptoms. The Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic brought this issue into sharper focus. Among surveyed Veterans Affairs (VA) healthcare workers, 39 percent reported morally distressing experiences and 30 percent felt betrayed by healthcare leaders, coworkers, or others. In a British Medical Association survey, 78.4 percent of responding doctors said moral distress resonated with their experience at work, and 51.1 percent said the same of moral injury. Moral injury in everyday life “The wound hurts because the values are real.” Moral injury is not confined to the battlefield. It can emerge whenever people care deeply but feel unable to act in accordance with their values: The healthcare worker: A nurse required to isolate critically ill patients from their families under policies that conflict with her values. The first responder: A paramedic unable to save a child because of inadequate equipment or staffing. The teacher: An educator who watches a student be failed by a broken system despite her efforts to intervene. The parent: A mother who cannot provide for her children as she believes a good parent should during a financial crisis. These are not necessarily failures of character. They are often moments when a person's ability to uphold their values is exceeded by the constraints around them. Yet guilt and shame may persist long after the event. Signs to watch for Common experiences may include: Persistent guilt or shame Withdrawal from loved ones or loss of trust in others Feeling betrayed by leaders or institutions Loss of meaning or purpose in work or life Difficulty forgiving oneself A different kind of healing Moral injury calls for care that addresses guilt, shame, responsibility, betrayal, and meaning. Treatment may include approaches such as Cognitive Processing Therapy and Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), particularly when PTSD is also present, tailored to the individual and the nature of the morally injurious experience. Healing often involves examining perceived responsibility more fairly, processing painful memories, reconnecting with values, and learning to hold accountability without turning it into permanent self-condemnation. Understanding our limitations Even the best therapy cannot fully heal a wound that is continually reopened by impossible expectations. One of the most powerful steps is accepting our human limits. People who experience moral injury are often deeply caring. They hold themselves to high standards and feel devastated when they believe they have fallen short. The wound hurts because the values are real. Healing requires moving beyond the belief that we can fix everything. A doctor cannot save every patient. A soldier cannot prevent every casualty. A first responder cannot be everywhere at once. Recognising these limits is not complacency. It means separating our worth from outcomes we did not create and could not fully control. This is radical self-compassion: carrying responsibility without allowing it to crush us, remaining accountable while also forgiving ourselves for being human. Understanding our limitations does not excuse broken systems. Organisations must address understaffing, inadequate resources, and cultures that silence ethical concerns. Individual healing and systemic change must go hand in hand. A commitment to nuanced care At NewVista Psychology, we recognise that moral injury may involve psychological and existential pain that cannot be reduced to a single diagnosis. Healing is not about silencing guilt or erasing the past. It is about placing responsibility in context, rebuilding trust and meaning, and reclaiming the future. Even in the face of profound moral pain, the capacity for connection, self-compassion, and purposeful action remains. Follow me on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn for more info! Read more from Arian Guedes Arian Guedes, Registered Psychologist Arian Guedes is a Registered Psychologist, Clinical Director, and Founder of NewVista Psychology & Counseling Services. Arian is a trauma-focused therapist with years of experience. She is also a speaker, workplace well-being and burnout expert. She serves as a part-time Professor of Ethics for the City University of Seattle in Calgary, Alberta.

Written by Joseph Patrick Fair, Author, Coach, TV Host, and Thought Leader Joseph Patrick Fair is an author, coach, TV host, and thought leader in clarity, transformation, and aligned success. He draws on 25 years of public safety experience to help individuals overcome adversity and unlock their highest potential. Every profession has a moment when the manual goes silent. Procedures preserve hard lessons, create discipline, and protect lives. But reality does not arrive in chapters. It arrives all at once, with incomplete information, competing priorities, limited time, and consequences that may become irreversible before certainty appears. That is the moment when knowledge is no longer enough. That is the moment judgment begins. Across twenty-five years in police, fire, and emergency medical services, I learned that the hardest decisions arrived as fragments: a change in someone’s voice, smoke moving unexpectedly, evidence that did not fit the story, or a routine call that suddenly stopped being routine. You seldom possess the whole picture, yet you must act inside it. Judgment is not a feeling We often describe judgment as instinct, intuition, or a gut feeling. Those words capture its speed but conceal the machinery beneath it. Sound judgment is not confidence, seniority, or speed. A person can be decisive and disastrously wrong. Someone can repeat the same year twenty times and become more certain without becoming more accurate. Real expertise requires meaningful patterns, honest feedback, reflection, correction, and accountability. This is what I call consequence-tested judgment, experience forced to answer to reality. The outcome returns as evidence. Did the plan work? What was missed? Who was protected? Who carried the cost? Over time, those answers form an internal library. A small irregularity becomes visible because it resembles something previously learned. The mind recognizes a pattern before it can produce a complete explanation. What outsiders call instinct may actually be memory moving faster than language. What experienced firefighters revealed In the 1980s, cognitive psychologist Gary Klein and his colleagues studied how experienced fireground commanders made decisions under extreme time pressure, uncertainty, and risk to life and property. Their published account examined 26 veteran commanders with an average of twenty-three years of experience. Researchers identified 156 decision points and looked for comparisons among multiple alternatives. They found comparisons in fewer than 12 percent of those decisions. In more than 80 percent, commanders recognized a familiar pattern, generated one plausible response, and mentally tested whether it would work. Klein called this the Recognition Primed Decision model. Recognition produces the candidate. Mental simulation tests it. Action generates new information. The decision maker adjusts as reality answers back. Expert intuition may look effortless because observers see the final seconds, not the years that made those seconds possible. Speed is not always the absence of thought. Sometimes, it is thought organized by experience. When intuition deserves trust Daniel Kahneman showed how easily judgment can be distorted by bias. Klein studied experts whose rapid judgments often succeeded. One warned about intuition. The other revealed its power. Together, they found substantial common ground. Their paper, Conditions for Intuitive Expertise, concluded that professional intuition can be remarkable or deeply flawed. Certainty does not reveal which one we are experiencing. Trustworthy intuition requires an environment with patterns stable enough to learn, as well as meaningful opportunities to practice and receive feedback. Where feedback is delayed, inconsistent, or hidden, experience can increase confidence faster than competence. Therefore, “trust your gut” is not serious guidance. Mature judgment asks: Have I learned reliable patterns in this environment? Have previous decisions produced clear and honest feedback? Am I recognizing the present, or forcing it to resemble the past? What is different this time? What evidence would prove my first interpretation wrong? These questions do not weaken intuition. They discipline it. Capability is not accountability Artificial intelligence makes this distinction urgent. AI can process extraordinary amounts of information, reveal missed connections, challenge assumptions, and simulate outcomes. Used wisely, it can strengthen human judgment. But a machine does not stand before the family affected by its recommendation or carry the memory of a life altered by a mistake. It can generate an answer without assuming the human meaning of the consequence. The greater danger is not merely that machines will make decisions for us. It is that human beings will use machines to create distance from decisions they no longer want to own. During my years in public safety, tasks could be delegated. Responsibility could not. The principle remains: we may delegate calculation, search, prediction, and simulation. We must not delegate conscience. Meaningful oversight requires someone who understands the system’s limits, can challenge its output, has time to think, and holds genuine authority to stop or reverse the decision. The European Union’s AI Act warns about automation bias and requires human overseers of high-risk systems to be able to interpret, disregard, reverse, or halt outputs. The United States National Institute of Standards and Technology likewise emphasizes clear human and AI roles, continued monitoring, and stronger accountability when life or liberty is at stake. Both point toward the same principle: the greater the consequence, the more visible human responsibility must become. A stronger human and AI partnership Consequence-tested judgment offers a practical model: AI expands the field of vision by finding patterns and generating alternatives. Human judgment defines the stakes, including the values, context, priorities, and moral boundaries. Simulation tests the response for failure, unintended harm, and second-order effects. Named human authority makes the decision and accepts responsibility. Consequences return as feedback, correcting both the technology and the people using it. This carries Recognition Primed Decision making into the AI age. Technology can accelerate recognition and strengthen simulation. Human beings must still decide what deserves protection and what price should never be optimized away. Final thought The debate over artificial intelligence is often framed as a contest between humans and machines. That is the wrong contest. The real contest is between responsible judgment and unaccountable power. The strongest future is partnership: AI supplying reach, speed, and analytical force, human judgment supplying context, conscience, restraint, and responsibility. Consequence-tested judgment is not instinct alone. It is experience corrected by reality, disciplined by humility, and made answerable to others. Artificial intelligence may help us see farther than ever before. It must never become the place where we hide from the responsibility to see clearly. An answer can be generated. Judgment must be earned. Responsibility must be carried. Follow me on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn for more info! Read more from Joseph Patrick Fair Joseph Patrick Fair, Author, Coach, TV Host, and Thought Leader Joseph Patrick Fair is an author, coach, TV host, and thought leader in clarity, transformation, and aligned success. With over 25 years of frontline experience in public safety, he brings real-world resilience and leadership insights to the personal development space. Through his television program Spotlight Community Service, he amplifies the voices of changemakers across the nation. His writing blends storytelling, strategy, and psychology to help people turn adversity into personal power. Joseph’s mission is to guide others toward authentic growth and meaningful impact. Research sources: • Gary Klein, Roberta Calderwood, and Anne Clinton Cirocco, Rapid Decision Making on the Fire Ground: The Original Study Plus a Postscript. • Daniel Kahneman and Gary Klein, Conditions for Intuitive Expertise: A Failure to Disagree. • National Institute of Standards and Technology, AI Risk Management Framework Playbook: Govern. • European Union, Regulation (EU) 2024/1689, Article 14: Human Oversight.

Written by Amy Noyes, Autistic and ADHD Coach and Advocate Amy Noyes is a Neurodivergent-Affirming Coach and Consultant, specializing in late-identified Autistic and ADHD adults who are struggling with unmasking, burnout, and self-advocacy. Amy is passionate about creating consent-based space to guide clients in reconnecting with their needs, autonomy, and true selves. A psychologist called an autistic therapist about a client they shared. The psychologist was conducting an autism assessment and wanted to know whether the client met the criteria. The questions came fast and clinical. Did the client lack reciprocity? Did they struggle with a typical back-and-forth conversation? Were there differences in eye contact and body language? The therapist paused. They knew this client well. Their sessions were warm and easy. There was no failed conversation or missing reciprocity. There was a person who felt safe enough to be exactly who they were. So, the therapist said so. The client did not appear to have difficulties in those areas. Then, because it felt honest, the therapist mentioned that they were autistic too. Afterward, they worried. Had they just cost the client a diagnosis? But the more they sat with it, the clearer it became. The client’s communication was not impaired in their sessions. The client simply shared a communication style with the therapist. Their sessions felt good because no one was being asked to mask. The person who appeared to struggle to connect during that phone call, the one who lacked warmth, curiosity, and conversational reciprocity, was not the autistic client. It was the assessor. I think about this scenario a lot because it turns the usual story inside out. We are told that autistic people are the ones who cannot communicate. What if that was never the whole truth? Not a deficit, but a mismatch in communication style Autism is clinically defined, in part, by persistent differences or deficits in social communication and social interaction. That language is embedded in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, commonly known as the DSM, and it shapes how everyone, from teachers and doctors to family members, interprets an autistic person’s behaviour. When something goes wrong in a conversation, the autistic person is often assumed to be the source of the problem. But there is another way to understand it, and it has a name. British autism researcher Damian Milton called it the double empathy problem. The idea is simple, and it changes everything. Communication breakdowns between autistic and nonautistic people may not always be caused by a one-sided deficit. They may result from a mismatch. Two people with very different ways of processing and experiencing the world are trying to understand each other, and both may struggle. The difficulty can run in both directions. For years, this was primarily a theory. There is now research supporting important parts of it. Researchers led by Catherine Crompton at the University of Edinburgh conducted a study using a method similar to the game of telephone. A story was passed from one person to the next, and the researchers measured how much information survived the chain. They tested three types of chains: autistic chains, nonautistic chains, and mixed chains containing autistic and nonautistic participants. The autistic chains transferred information as effectively as the nonautistic chains. The mixed chains experienced greater difficulty maintaining information across the chain. Read that again because it supports the central argument. Autistic people can communicate effectively with one another. In this study, they transferred information just as effectively as nonautistic participants did with other nonautistic participants. Greater difficulty appeared when communication crossed between different neurotypes. Related research found that people generally reported stronger rapport during interactions with others of the same neurotype. Autistic participants also reported feeling more like themselves when interacting with other autistic people. The difficulty was not located entirely within one person. It emerged, at least in part, in the space between two different ways of being. The labour no one sees If the breakdown is mutual, you might expect the effort to be mutual too. Often, it is not. Autistic and ADHD people are frequently the ones asked to change. Learn to make eye contact. Manage your tone. Make small talk. Read body language. Suppress the stim. Build executive function strategies to meet social expectations that were never designed for you. We become fluent in a second language, the neurotypical one, and we speak it all day. That fluency seldom runs the other way. Nonautistic people are rarely asked to learn our language. The bridge gets built from one side. Building it costs something. Masking is not free. When you spend years sensing that your natural self is not welcome and rearranging yourself to make other people comfortable, the cost may emerge as anxiety, exhaustion, autistic burnout, and a quiet, corrosive sense of shame. Jim Sinclair wrote about how autistic people may feel, from a young age, that the world around them wishes they were different. You carry that. It can become isolation. It can become self-doubt. For many autistic people, it can become internalized ableism, the belief that the problem really is you. It is not simply you. It was never simply you. It was a mismatch between neurotypes, but only one person was repeatedly asked to fix it. Advocacy is how you stop bridging alone This is where self-advocacy comes in, and I want to be precise about what it means. Self advocacy is not being difficult. It is asking for what you need. It is setting a boundary that you can maintain. It is naming an access need. It is telling the truth about how you communicate instead of performing a version of yourself that drains you. It carries real risks. You might be judged. You might be dismissed. You might be called too sensitive or told that you simply need to try harder socially. Those responses may reflect the mismatch. They are not a verdict on you. Advocacy is how you place the responsibility for building the bridge back where it belongs, in the middle, where both people can meet. Here are a few places to start. Use clear scripts. You do not owe anyone a performance. “I process information better in writing, so I will follow up on this conversation with an email.” “I need a minute before I answer that.” “Direct feedback works best for me. You can be straightforward.” Ask for accommodations without apologizing for them. Written agendas. Cameras turned off. A quieter room. Additional time. These are not merely favours. They may be the conditions you need to do good work and maintain healthy relationships. Choose authenticity over masking where it is safe to do so. Not everywhere and not all at once. Safety matters, and you get to decide. Every space where you can safely unmask is a space that may demand less of your energy. What the other side of the bridge can do If you are reading this and you are not neurodivergent, the double empathy problem is good news because it means you may be holding half of something you once thought belonged to us alone. You can learn how we communicate instead of judging it. When directness sounds rude to you, consider that it may reflect honesty rather than disrespect. When someone’s sensory needs or communication style confuse you, become curious instead of reaching an immediate conclusion. Ask open questions. Assume difference before you assume deficit. Practise the flexibility you may have been expecting from us all along. None of this is charity. Mutual understanding is better for everyone in the room. The bridge holds more weight when it is built from both sides. Meeting in the middle Here is what I want you to take from the game of telephone. If you are neurodivergent, you have the right to be heard without becoming someone else first. Your way of communicating is not inherently broken. It is a language. It is valid, and the people worth knowing will make an effort to learn some of it. If you are not neurodivergent, understanding begins with humility. It begins with listening. It begins with being willing to consider that you may have been wrong about where the problem was located. We were not necessarily speaking incorrectly. We were speaking a different language in a world that often asked only us to learn theirs. That can change. It changes the moment we stop expecting one side to do all the crossing and start meeting in the middle instead. We can do it together Here at ND Friendly Life, we can explore this together. Instead of carrying the weight of every misunderstanding as though it were yours alone, you can explore the double empathy problem in a safe coaching environment. We can help you recognize that a communication breakdown does not automatically represent a deficit within you. It may reflect a mismatch, and you may have been expected to take responsibility for resolving all of it. We can do this together. We specialize in supporting autistic and ADHD adults who were diagnosed or began identifying as neurodivergent later in life and who recognize these patterns of communication breakdown in their own experiences. Through individual coaching, couples and family coaching, and supported self-assessment, we help you understand your neurodivergent experiences and build a life and career that work with your needs rather than against them. All sessions are offered online, serving clients in Vermont and worldwide. Want to learn more? Damian Milton’s original paper on the double empathy problem, “On the Ontological Status of Autism: The Double Empathy Problem,” published in 2012. Catherine Crompton and colleagues’ research on information sharing between autistic peers, “Autistic Peer to Peer Information Transfer Is Highly Effective,” published in 2020. Nick Walker’s “Throw Away the Master’s Tools: Liberating Ourselves from the Pathology Paradigm,” which explores the neurodiversity paradigm and the idea that there is no single correct kind of mind. Curious to learn more? Whenever you're ready, you can learn more or book a free consultation on our website. Read more from Amy Noyes Amy Noyes, Autistic and ADHD Coach and Advocate Amy Noyes is a late-identified Autistic, ADHD, and PDA individual with a deep commitment to helping others discover and embrace their authentic selves. They understand how living in environments not designed for neurodivergent ways of being can lead to internalized ableism. Amy believes that uncovering one’s neurodivergence can unlock self-understanding, self-acceptance, and the ability to create spaces that truly support our brains. With degrees and professional experience in Autism Studies, Transpersonal Psychology, and Social Work, Amy has dedicated their life to supporting anyone who wants to better understand their true self.

Written by Dr. Jackie "JP" Phillips, Business Strategist Dr. Jackie "JP" Phillips is an entrepreneur, strategic project leader, and Founder of The Unheard Empire. She writes about leadership, entrepreneurship, ownership, innovation, and the discipline required to build opportunities where others see barriers. Welcome to The Discipline to Build! What happens when the people who have spent their lives being overlooked stop waiting for permission? They build companies. They build communities. They build opportunities. They build industries. Eventually, they build tables where “others” no longer have to ask for a seat. I know, because that’s exactly what happened to me. For most of my professional career, I walked into rooms where I wasn’t expected to lead. Sometimes I was the only Black person. Many times, I was the only Black woman. There were times I was the only woman, period. Those experiences didn’t discourage me; they educated me. Every boardroom, work site, government meeting, technology discussion, investment conversation, and media opportunity taught me the same lesson: talent is everywhere, but opportunity is not. I met brilliant people whose ideas never reached the decision-makers. I met entrepreneurs who lacked access to the right relationships. I met young people who had never been exposed to industries that could change their lives. I met professionals who had the skills to lead but not the platform to be seen. The industries were different. The problem was always the same: people were going unheard. At first, I thought the answer was to earn my own seat at the table. Over time, I realized something more important. A seat wasn’t enough. If I wanted lasting change, I needed to build the table. That realization became the foundation of my life’s work and eventually became The Unheard Empire. People often ask me why I created seven companies. My answer surprises them: I didn’t build seven companies because I wanted seven businesses. I built seven companies because I kept running into the same problem. The same people were being overlooked. The same voices were being ignored. The same communities lacked access. The same barriers appeared in media, technology, workforce development, project management, energy, agriculture, logistics, investing, and entrepreneurship. So instead of solving one piece of the problem, I built an ecosystem designed to attack it from every angle. One company amplifies voices. Another develops leaders. Others prepare people for meaningful careers, teach business ownership, open doors to investing, introduce opportunities in energy, and create pathways through logistics and operational excellence. Seven companies, one mighty mission: to create opportunities where none exist. Throughout my career, I’ve learned that opportunity is rarely withheld because people lack talent. More often, it’s withheld because they lack access to information, access to relationships, access to education, access to capital, access to someone willing to say, “You belong here.” I’ve spent decades working in project management, technology, media, workforce development, entrepreneurship, government contracting, and business strategy. People often assume those worlds have little in common. I see them differently. Every one of them is about solving problems and building systems that help people succeed. Every one of them has reinforced one truth: the people closest to the problem often have the best solutions. They simply haven’t been heard. That belief has shaped every decision I’ve made. It has also shaped the discipline required to keep moving forward because building isn’t glamorous. Businesses don’t build themselves. Communities don’t transform overnight. Vision doesn’t eliminate fear. Dreams don’t pay invoices. Persistence doesn’t guarantee applause. There are seasons when discipline must carry you because motivation has already left the room. Those seasons reveal who we are. I learn more about myself as my discipline grows. I have come to appreciate discipline more than inspiration. Discipline studies after everyone else has gone home, prepares before opportunities arrive, and keeps showing up long after recognition has faded, even when there is no recognition at all. Discipline understands that the work matters long before the world notices. People often celebrate results; few appreciate the repetitions that create them. The older I become, the less interested I am in proving people wrong. I’m far more interested in proving what is possible, especially for those in my community who have spent their lives believing they needed someone else’s permission to begin. Here’s what I’ve discovered: there are several gaps in life, such as the wealth gap, the education gap, the opportunity gap, and the visibility gap. Every day, extraordinary people go unseen, not because they lack talent, but because no one has taken the time to recognize it. My life’s work is helping close those gaps. That’s why I continue to build. I build businesses. I build leaders. I build partnerships. I build platforms. Most of all, I build environments where people discover that their voice, their experiences, and their skills have value. This column is not simply an opportunity for you to get to know me. It’s an invitation. Over the coming months, I’ll take you inside the lessons that have shaped my journey, not just the victories, but the failures, the difficult conversations, the moments I questioned everything, and the principles that helped me build an ecosystem of businesses united by one purpose. We’ll explore leadership, entrepreneurship, project management, ownership, workforce development, business strategy, innovation, resilience, and the discipline required to build something that outlives us. Before we meet again next month, I want to leave you with the belief that has shaped my life and every organization I’ve built. At The Unheard Empire, we have one guiding principle: We don’t complain; we create. We create opportunities where none exist. We create solutions where others see obstacles. We create businesses instead of waiting for jobs. We create leaders instead of followers. We create communities that invest in one another. We create space for voices that have been overlooked, underestimated, or unheard. Each month, my goal isn’t simply to inspire you; it’s to challenge you to think, lead, build, and collaborate differently. I hope you’ll leave reading this with a new perspective, one practical strategy, and one action you can take to build the future instead of waiting for it. Because greatness isn’t reserved for the fortunate. It belongs to those willing to do the work, remain disciplined when no one is watching, and continue building long after others have stopped believing. This is only the beginning of our conversation. Welcome to The Discipline to Build. Welcome to The Unheard Empire. The unheard have never lacked talent. Sometimes they’ve simply lacked a platform. Together, let’s change that. Keep building. Keep creating. Never let someone else decide how loud your voice deserves to be. Visit my website for more info! Read more from Dr. Jackie "JP" Phillips Dr. Jackie "JP" Phillips, Business Strategist Dr. Jackie "JP" Phillips is an entrepreneur, strategic business leader, project management executive, and the Founder and CEO of The Unheard Empire, a multi-company organization committed to expanding opportunity through business ownership, workforce development, media, energy, agriculture, investments, logistics, and sports management. With more than two decades of entrepreneurial experience and an accomplished career leading enterprise initiatives across multiple industries, she has built a reputation for transforming complex ideas into practical, scalable solutions.

Ben Miller is the founder of Zen with Ben and the Zen with Ben Sound Academy, where he teaches sound bath facilitation through musicianship, practical music theory and intentional sound design. Drawing on a lifelong background in music and a degree in Music Production, he developed the Zen with Ben Method to make concepts such as rhythm, harmony, intervals, dynamics and structure practical and accessible, even for people with no previous musical training. In this interview, Ben explains why he believes sound baths should be approached as music, how musical understanding can give intuition something to work with, and why the participant’s experience should remain at the centre of every musical decision. Ben Miller, Sound Bath Educator What inspired you to approach sound bath facilitation through musical structure rather than relying on intuition alone? Music is a form of expression, and to me, a sound bath is fundamentally a form of live ambient music. Yet when I entered the sound bath world, much of the teaching I encountered focused on intention, energy or symbolic associations, with relatively little emphasis on the musical relationships between the sounds being created. I’ve since worked with many practitioners who tell me they were taught how to strike and circle their bowls but were never given a basic understanding of rhythm, intervals, chords or how to structure a musical journey. Some had even learned their bowls primarily through chakra associations rather than being taught the actual note names and the musical relationships between them. I don’t think intuition is a bad thing, but intuition needs something to draw upon. Without musical foundations, “playing intuitively” can easily become guesswork. That’s why the Zen with Ben Method deliberately teaches structure: opening sequences, harmonic pairings, major and minor journeys, how to gradually build layers, and how to reduce them again towards resolution. Those structures aren’t there to restrict creativity. They give practitioners a musical framework from which creativity can develop. Structure creates freedom. Musical understanding gives intuition something to work with. What is the Zen with Ben Method, and what makes it different from more conventional approaches to sound bath training? The Zen with Ben Method teaches facilitators how to create musical journeys using sound bath instruments. That is what makes it different. Much of the conventional sound bath training I’ve encountered is built around chakras, energy, intention or other metaphysical frameworks. I don’t teach any of those things. I teach the instruments as musical instruments. We use harmony, rhythm, dynamics, pacing, texture and structure to understand how to build a soundscape, how to introduce sounds, layer them, create movement, tension and release, and gradually bring the journey back towards resolution. Ultimately, I’m teaching people how to use the instruments they have in front of them to create a coherent musical experience that supports relaxation. How has your background in music production, performance and soundscape design shaped the way you developed the Zen with Ben Method? I tend to approach a sound bath much more like a composer or sound designer than someone simply playing a collection of instruments. My background in music production taught me to think about the whole sonic picture: harmony, dynamics, frequency range, timbre, texture, space and how different sounds interact. The room itself also becomes part of the instrument. A crystal bowl behaves differently in a small studio than it does in a large church or hall. The natural reverberation changes how long sounds remain present, how much density the space can carry and how quickly you need to introduce the next sound. I’m also interested in acoustic phenomena such as beating between closely tuned tones and how those textures can be used intentionally rather than appearing accidentally. Ultimately, I think in terms of soundscape design. I’m constantly asking what is already present, what the next sound contributes, whether the sound needs more density or less, and how each musical decision affects the journey as a whole. What musical principle do you think has the biggest impact on the quality of a sound bath but is often overlooked? If I had to choose one, I would say harmony. I often hear people say that crystal bowls and Tibetan or Himalayan bowls shouldn’t be played together. My response is always: why not? Saying you can’t combine those instruments is a little like saying you can’t combine a trumpet with a violin. Of course you can. What matters is understanding the musical relationship between the sounds. The notes, tuning, register, dynamics and timbre all affect how those instruments sit together. A pair of bowls might create a broad, spacious interval, while another combination might create much stronger tension. Neither is automatically right or wrong, but you should understand what you are introducing into the soundscape. Rhythm and pacing are equally important. Even a sound bath without an obvious beat still has rhythm. How quickly sounds arrive, how long they bloom and how much space you allow between changes all influence the participant’s experience. Musical knowledge turns those decisions from accident into intention. Why do you think the sound bath industry would benefit from a stronger understanding of rhythm, harmony and musical structure? Currently, it’s possible to train in sound bath facilitation while receiving very little or no musical education, and that feels like a significant gap to me. I regularly hear from people who have completed training but then go on to say that they were not taught anything about notes, chords, intervals or rhythm. Once you know how to strike and circle a bowl, those musical relationships become the next step, an incredibly important step at that! There are also many different spiritual traditions and modern interpretations associated with singing bowls, so I prefer not to use fixed chakra or frequency mappings as the musical basis for my teaching. Instead, I ask, "What can we actually hear?" Music is extraordinarily powerful in shaping expectation, tension, emotion and atmosphere. A facilitator may be working with people arriving stressed, grieving, exhausted or simply needing space from everyday life. Understanding dynamics, pacing, harmony and dissonance therefore matters. For me, the industry doesn’t need less meaning. It needs more musical understanding alongside the meaning people already bring to the experience. Do people need a musical background to understand the Zen with Ben Method? How do you make concepts such as intervals, chords and rhythm practical and accessible to beginners? Absolutely not. The Method is designed to start from the ground up. We begin with something very simple: the seven notes of the C major scale. Once somebody knows the order, C, D, E, F, G, A, B, we can start exploring the relationships between them. Count from C to E and you have a third. C to G gives you a fifth. Instead of making students memorise abstract theory, we immediately play those combinations and listen to how their character changes. We do the same with rhythm. A metronome at 60 bpm gives students a simple framework for practising activation, sustain and decay while developing an internal sense of pacing. Then we gradually move into chords and harmonic journeys. My approach is very practical: learn it, hear it, play it, repeat it. Eventually, that knowledge becomes internalised, and the student can become more intuitive. I often say that musical understanding gives intuition something to work with. Without any underlying framework, intuition can easily become guesswork. How do you balance a grounded, evidence-aware approach with the personal or spiritual experiences that many people associate with sound baths? I don’t think a grounded approach and a personal or spiritual experience have to be in conflict. Music can influence emotion, attention, memory and our sense of calm or tension. A sound bath can sit alongside other forms of support and give somebody valuable space for rest, reflection, processing or simply a break from what is happening in their life. Where I become cautious is when that becomes a promise of healing. Someone going through grief, illness, anxiety or another challenging period may understandably be searching for relief, and I think practitioners have a responsibility to be honest about what we can and cannot promise. A crystal singing bowl is not, by itself, a treatment. My role is to create a carefully considered musical environment that can support relaxation and reflection. I’m interested in what we can actually explore through sound: rhythm, sustained tones, drones, harmony, dynamics, acoustic beating and musical structure. Understanding those things doesn’t take away the personal experience. For me, it gives us a more responsible foundation from which to create it. How do you help students move away from memorised sequences and develop the confidence to make their own intentional musical decisions? I give students the tools and the ingredients, but I don’t want every person leaving my training to create the same sound bath. We might begin with structured exercises: learning the C major scale, practising intervals, building the seven fundamental chords, using a metronome and following simple harmonic journeys. That structure is important because it develops coordination and gives the ear something to recognise. But the destination is freedom. Once somebody understands which notes form a chord, which intervals tend to create more tension or openness, how decay can carry one sound into another and how dynamics affect density, they can start designing their own journeys. The room will change. The instruments will change. The participants will change. The facilitator will also bring their own personality and creativity. One of the principles behind the Method is that structure creates freedom. The aim is not memorisation. It is to build enough musical understanding that practitioners can respond creatively while still understanding the consequences of the choices they make. If every sound bath facilitator took one idea from the Zen with Ben Method, what would you want it to be? I would want them to remember that sound bathing is music. The bowls, gongs and other instruments do not exist separately from musical principles simply because they are being used in a wellbeing setting. Rhythm matters. Harmony matters. Dynamics matter. Timbre matters. Structure matters. Most importantly, those choices affect the person listening. You don’t need a music degree, perfect pitch or years of instrumental training. But even a basic understanding of the musical relationships behind the sounds you create can completely change the way you facilitate. For me, intention is important, but intention needs tools. If you understand why you are pairing particular notes, why you are building or reducing intensity, why you are creating tension and when you are resolving it, then your intuition has something meaningful to draw upon. That is really the heart of the Zen with Ben Method, "Understand the sound. Understand the relationship. Then make the choice intentionally." Follow me on Instagram and visit my website for more info! Read more from Ben Miller

Written by Mica Armstrong, Integrative Transformation Coach Mica Armstrong is a multidisciplinary health professional with a BSc in European Public Health and an MSc in Health Education and Promotion. She explores the intersection of behavioural science, brain health, and holistic wellbeing to advance a more integrated future for human and planetary health. How well do we really know our own brains? As a health professional who has spent years exploring my own patterns, behaviours and personal experiences, I thought I knew mine pretty well. I recognised when I was stressed, tired or needed to slow down, and I knew how to respond. But I was relying on what I could consciously perceive. What if there was another story unfolding beneath the surface? My experience with the Cognitive Clarity Scan gave me an unexpected opportunity to find out. How well do we really know our own brains? Even after years of analysing my own patterns through research, education, reflection and implementation, I knew my personal development still had a long way to go. The difficulty was not recognising that change was needed, but seeing the staircase of actionable steps that could take me there. More often than not, those steps seemed to reveal themselves gradually, shaped by new experiences, challenges and discoveries along the way. I began to realise that my understanding of my own brain was inherently limited. I could reflect deeply, but those reflections were influenced by my environment, my experiences, and the information and perspectives I had been exposed to. Even when I looked inward, I was still working within the boundaries of what I could consciously recognise and interpret. I could analyse what I knew about myself, but how could I account for what I didn't yet know to look for? What is the Cognitive Clarity Scan? The Cognitive Clarity Scan, developed by Brain Health Analytics, is a research-informed assessment designed to identify behavioural patterns and blind spots related to areas such as stress, emotional regulation, decision-making and performance under pressure. Completed in around 30 minutes, the Cognitive Clarity Scan offers a starting point for exploring patterns that may otherwise take a long time to uncover through conversation and reflection alone. Brain Health Analytics describes its methodology as “measure, map and rewire.” Rather than viewing patterns in isolation, its framework considers how they overlap and interact before using the results to guide behavioural change. Rescanning then provides a way to observe how those patterns shift over time. Coming from a research background, I wanted to understand what evidence had informed the development of the Cognitive Clarity Scan. Exploring the foundations of the scan introduced me to the range of research informing its questionnaire and framework. This was particularly important to me: understanding how that data had been generated and how responsibly it could be interpreted. What interested me was not a tool that claims to provide all the answers, but one capable of providing an informed pathway towards change. The Cognitive Clarity Scan offers another lens alongside conscious reflection, helping make less visible patterns easier to explore. What does the Cognitive Clarity Scan measure? The Cognitive Clarity Scan translates responses to a detailed questionnaire into a personalised dashboard, creating a snapshot of your cognitive and behavioural patterns at that moment in time. The results include three burnout indicators and one depression indicator, alongside a visual representation of subconscious patterns and the degree to which they are currently presenting. The dashboard also provides insights into personality, communication style and problem-solving mind, offering multiple perspectives from which to explore how you think, respond and behave. The results reflect a present state measurement rather than a fixed identity. Repeating the scan over time can therefore provide a consistent reference point for observing change. What did my Cognitive Clarity Scan reveal? My first scan was confronting. It wasn't the number of significant patterns that bothered me most, but my highest scoring one. It didn't fit how I saw myself, and I didn't want to be associated with it. Entitlement was my highest scoring pattern at 0.83, alongside elevated punitiveness towards others, vulnerability to harm, self-sacrifice, social isolation, mistrust and emotional deprivation. Collectively, the results told a story I recognised. Through the context of my experiences with trauma and PTSD, I could see how my brain had developed certain expectations of myself, other people and the world around me. Importantly, I learned not to view these patterns as simply “good” or “bad.” Each has a functional flipside: self-sacrifice can reflect generosity, for example, but become restrictive when our own needs are consistently neglected. The goal isn't necessarily to eliminate subconscious patterns, but to understand and balance them so that the qualities within them can support rather than limit our growth. I came to understand how even the most uncomfortable pattern, entitlement, had found its place in my brain. My most recent scan showed just how much that landscape had changed. Many previously elevated patterns had reduced substantially, leaving me with just one significant pattern: self-sacrifice. For me, seeing change and persistence side by side was powerful. The scan gave me both evidence of how far I had come and a clearer indication of where I could go next. From participant to Brain Health Analytics coach Becoming a Brain Health Analytics coach felt like a natural next step. In coaching and personal development, where progress can be difficult to quantify, having a tool that provides measurable and informative data can offer a valuable additional perspective. Part of the training involves undergoing the scan yourself and actively participating in the personal development process, allowing you to experience firsthand what your clients will undergo. Moving from participant to practitioner also taught me to look beyond individual scores. Each person’s results paint a unique picture of both the visible and less visible parts of themselves, while collectively helping us understand how different subconscious patterns may interact and influence one another. With each scan, that bigger picture becomes richer. The same pattern may present differently depending on what accompanies it, reinforcing the importance of understanding the individual rather than interpreting a score in isolation. For me, this is where things get exciting. The scan provides quantitative information; coaching provides qualitative context. The scan provides a map, but the coaching conversation gives that map context and direction. What have my clients taught me about cognitive clarity? Working with clients has shown me how much meaning can sit behind the numbers when they are explored in context. Results can also provide additional context when explored alongside a client's existing experiences of neurodivergence or mental health, without the scan itself being used diagnostically. They can also open conversations around patterns shaped during childhood or following significant experiences, offering clues as to where particular expectations or responses may have developed. Equally, a result that appears insignificant on its own can become meaningful when considered alongside a client's history, environment and other patterns. Overall, I’ve learned that the same score does not necessarily tell the same story. The numbers become meaningful when we understand the person behind them. Data doesn't create change. People do. Information alone does not create successful behaviour change. As explored previously, knowing what needs to change and actually changing it are two very different processes. The real work begins with interpreting the results in context and framing them in a way that creates opportunities for growth rather than simply attaching labels to ourselves. Take the emotional deprivation pattern, for example. Recognising a tendency to expect that our emotional needs will not be met is only the starting point. Working with the pattern might involve noticing when that expectation appears, questioning whether it reflects the present situation, communicating needs more openly, developing realistic expectations of others and practicing self-compassion. Over time, repeated experiences that challenge the existing expectation can help reinforce a more balanced response. The scan can show us where to look; meaningful change comes from what we repeatedly choose to do with that information. Five things brain health data has taught me Self-awareness has limits Our own perception isn't the only subjective one. Feedback from other people is also shaped by their experiences, beliefs and interpretations, making complete objectivity difficult to achieve. The Cognitive Clarity Scan adds a standardised reference point. Its results still require professional judgement and personal context, but they can be explored alongside self-reflection and external feedback. Brain Health Analytics also encourages peer feedback when working with significant patterns, helping explore where those patterns may be visible to others. But awareness also requires compassion. Discovering an uncomfortable pattern can easily become another reason to criticise ourselves, particularly when the language used to describe it feels confronting. How we talk to ourselves about what we uncover matters. Replacing “What is wrong with me?” with “Why might I have learned to respond this way?” creates space for curiosity rather than judgement and makes self-awareness something we can use for growth rather than against ourselves. Feeling fine doesn't always tell the whole story One of the biggest lessons I have taken from Brain Health Analytics is that feeling fine and functioning optimally are not always the same thing. We adapt to our circumstances, often accepting our current state as normal simply because it is familiar. As a result, we may not recognise that another way of thinking, feeling or functioning is even possible. The same principle applies to burnout. You may feel perfectly well today while carrying patterns that could increase your vulnerability during future periods of prolonged stress. Equally, someone who has experienced burnout previously may have recovered completely, but without understanding the patterns and circumstances that contributed to it, those same pathways can quietly reemerge. Looking beyond how we feel in the present allows us to ask a more valuable question: what can I learn now that protects my future self? Prevention starts before we reach our limits The Cognitive Clarity Scan is not reserved for people who are already struggling. Whether someone is thriving, recovering from burnout or simply curious about their own development, the results provide an opportunity to reflect before problems become crises. One client I worked with had experienced burnout several years previously. Their scan showed no significantly elevated patterns, which could easily have been interpreted as "nothing to work on." Instead, we used the results as a starting point for prevention. Together, we reflected on what had contributed to their previous burnout, which subconscious patterns may have been activated at the time, and what environmental or lifestyle changes might cause those patterns to reappear in the future. Rather than waiting for warning signs, we developed a personalised action plan to reduce that risk. Prevention, after all, is rarely about reacting. It is about recognising the conditions that allow problems to develop long before they reach the surface. Measurement can create awareness, not answers Awareness creates a starting point, not an answer. A dashboard can indicate where a pattern may be presenting, but it cannot determine exactly what a balanced response should look like in every situation. Setting healthier boundaries, for example, still requires us to explore where those boundaries belong, how firmly they should be held and how they affect the people around us. The same principle applies when comparing scans over time. A change in score tells us that something has shifted, but not necessarily why. Understanding the experiences, behaviours and environmental changes behind that movement remains part of the reflective process. Measurement gives us evidence of change; context helps us understand its meaning. Sustainable brain health is built through everyday behaviour Perhaps the most important lesson I have learned is that meaningful change is rarely dramatic. It is built through the small decisions we make every day: the conversations we have, the boundaries we set, the habits we reinforce and the way we respond when life inevitably becomes challenging. Progress is rarely linear. Patterns may resurface under stress, while others take considerable time to shift. Sustainable brain health therefore requires patience, self-compassion and a willingness to return to the behaviours that support us after setbacks. So, how well do I know my brain now? Six months later, the greatest difference isn't simply that my significant patterns have reduced from eight to one. It's that I can now recognise the remaining pattern, self-sacrifice, far earlier when it appears. Perhaps the greatest gift the scan has given me is not the results themselves, but the ability to continually measure my own development. Knowing I can revisit the assessment during more challenging periods provides a consistent point of reflection, helping me understand how my patterns evolve over time and identify where I may need to refocus my attention. Personal growth is rarely linear, but having a consistent way to measure it makes the journey far more intentional. Curious about what your own brain might reveal? Whether you're navigating stress, recovering from burnout, looking to enhance your performance, or simply curious about the subconscious patterns shaping your daily life, the Cognitive Clarity Scan offers a unique starting point for self-discovery. As a certified Brain Health Analytics coach, I offer both the Cognitive Clarity Scan and personalised coaching to help you understand and apply your results. I also provide access to the platform for individuals and organisations looking to integrate brain health insights into personal or workplace wellbeing. Sometimes the most meaningful change begins with seeing yourself from a perspective you never knew existed. Follow me on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn for more info! Read more from Mica Armstrong Mica Armstrong, Integrative Transformation Coach Mica Armstrong is a multidisciplinary health professional with a BSc in European Public Health and an MSc in Health Education and Promotion. Combining expertise in behavioural science, brain health coaching, and holistic wellbeing, she explores evidence-informed approaches to lasting health and sustainable behaviour change. Through her writing, coaching, and educational work, she advocates for a more integrated future where human and planetary health are recognised as deeply interconnected. Her mission is to empower individuals and communities to create meaningful, lasting transformation.

Written by Nassim Ebrahimi, Developmental Psychologist, Mental Performance Coach, Author, and Speaker Coach Nassim Ebrahimi, PhD, is the founder of Becoming My Stronger Me, LLC. As a developmental psychologist, mental performance coach, podcaster, and author, she empowers athletes, coaches, and parents to unlock confidence, mental resilience, and peak performance through evidence-based strategies grounded in sport psychology and human development. When someone is struggling to develop or perform consistently, we often look first at the individual. We question their confidence, motivation, discipline, resilience, or willingness to work. In many organizations, the assumption is that if the person changes enough, better performance will follow. There is value in helping individuals strengthen these skills, but that perspective is incomplete. As a developmental psychologist and mental performance coach, I have spent years observing leaders, employees, teams, families, athletes, and other high-performance environments. One pattern continues to stand out: people do not develop in isolation. They develop through an ongoing interaction with the environments around them. A capable employee can begin questioning their ability in a workplace where mistakes consistently lead to criticism. A motivated team member can gradually stop contributing ideas when speaking up carries social risk. A high-performing executive can become increasingly hesitant when every decision is scrutinized, but little meaningful support is provided. At home, even confident people may begin withholding parts of themselves when relationships repeatedly communicate that vulnerability, uncertainty, or disagreement are unsafe. In each situation, focusing only on the individual misses an important part of what is happening. If we want to understand growth and performance, we also have to understand the environment in which people are developing. Development does not happen in isolation Developmental psychology has long recognized the importance of context. Urie Bronfenbrenner's ecological perspective emphasized that human development occurs through interactions between individuals and the environments and systems surrounding them. This challenges the idea that growth is simply the product of individual effort. People absolutely influence their own development. Their choices, behaviors, motivation, beliefs, effort, and willingness to practice all matter. At the same time, the environments in which those behaviors occur continually provide information about what is valued, what is safe, what is possible, and what happens when someone struggles. This is particularly important in professional environments. Leaders establish more than expectations. Managers provide more than feedback. Teams create more than workflows. Families provide more than support. Each contributes to an environment in which another person is learning what challenge, failure, progress, belonging, and success mean. So the question cannot only be, “What does this person need to change?” We also need to ask, “What is this environment teaching them?” Every environment influences development An environment does not have to be intentionally developmental to influence development. Everyday interactions continually provide information about what is expected and what is possible. Consider what happens within the environments you influence: How does a manager respond after a mistake? What happens when an employee disagrees with a senior leader? Who receives visibility and opportunity? What behaviors are rewarded? What happens when someone takes a thoughtful risk and it does not work? How are concerns, uncertainty, or disagreement handled? Over time, experiences like these shape how people approach challenge. An employee who learns that mistakes can be examined without humiliation may become more willing to experiment, speak honestly, and learn quickly. Someone who experiences every mistake as a threat to reputation, opportunity, or belonging may become increasingly cautious, even when innovation requires greater freedom. The same dynamic exists at home. A family member who learns that uncertainty can be expressed without judgment may be more likely to communicate openly. Someone who learns that vulnerability will be dismissed, criticized, or used against them may begin withholding what they think or feel. The environment is influencing development in both situations. The lesson is simply different. Challenge and support need each other Creating a supportive environment does not mean removing difficulty. Development requires challenge. The important distinction is whether people perceive themselves as having sufficient resources to engage with the demands in front of them. Research on challenge and threat states helps explain why similar demands can produce very different responses. Perceptions of self-efficacy, control, and available resources influence whether a demanding situation is more likely to be experienced as a challenge or a threat. This matters in leadership. Giving someone a stretch assignment can accelerate development when the challenge is meaningful and the individual believes they have the resources and support to engage with it. The same assignment can become threatening when expectations are unclear, failure feels unsafe, or the person believes they have been placed in a situation they cannot realistically navigate. This does not mean effective leaders should make every experience comfortable. Growth regularly involves discomfort, uncertainty, frustration, and struggle. The goal is not to eliminate those experiences, but to create conditions in which people can engage with them productively. Effective developmental environments communicate two things simultaneously, "This will challenge you. Growth is possible." Challenge without sufficient support can become overwhelming. Support without meaningful challenge can limit development. Growth often occurs in the interaction between the two. Belief changes what people are willing to attempt Albert Bandura's work on self-efficacy demonstrated that people's beliefs about their capabilities influence their choices, effort, persistence, and responses to difficulty, making belief much more than positive thinking. When people believe progress is possible, they are more likely to attempt difficult tasks, invest effort, seek feedback, and continue after setbacks. When they stop believing their actions can meaningfully influence progress, their behavior often changes. They may begin avoiding difficult situations, protecting themselves from risk, withdrawing, or disengaging altogether. This is why describing someone as “unmotivated” can sometimes prevent us from asking a more useful question: Do they still believe they can make progress? An employee who consistently receives correction without meaningful acknowledgment of improvement may eventually question whether their effort matters. A team member who repeatedly takes initiative but remains excluded from decisions may reach a similar conclusion. An executive who is held accountable for outcomes without adequate authority or support may gradually stop taking thoughtful risks. What appears to be a motivation problem may partly be a belief problem, and that belief does not develop separately from the environment. Motivation is not entirely internal We also tend to speak about motivation as though people either possess it or they do not. Self-Determination Theory offers a different perspective. Research by Edward Deci and Richard Ryan suggests that environments supporting autonomy, competence, and relatedness are more likely to promote higher quality, self-directed motivation. People benefit from experiencing: Autonomy: I have some ownership. Belonging: I feel connected and supported. Competence: I can develop the ability to do this. These needs help explain why the same person can appear highly motivated in one environment and disengaged in another. The individual has not necessarily changed. The conditions may have. A leader cannot manufacture intrinsic motivation inside another person. What leaders can do is create conditions that make meaningful engagement and ownership more likely. At home, the same principle applies. People are more likely to invest in relationships and responsibilities when they experience some agency, feel capable of contributing, and believe they matter within the environment. Recognizing progress helps sustain development One of the most important developmental conditions may also be one of the easiest to overlook. People need meaningful evidence that progress is occurring. Professional environments naturally emphasize outcomes because outcomes are visible. Revenue, promotions, deadlines, performance ratings, targets, and project completion all provide useful information, but they cannot tell the entire developmental story. A leader can make a thoughtful decision that ultimately produces an unfavorable result. An employee can improve communication, judgment, or collaboration even if the business outcome does not immediately reflect it. A team can make significant progress in trust and decision-making before those gains show up in quarterly metrics. The important question is not simply whether we can measure more than outcomes, but what happens when people can recognize meaningful evidence of their own development. Evidence of growth might include: A manager handling a difficult conversation more effectively. A team member raising a concern earlier instead of waiting until a problem becomes serious. An executive delegating more effectively rather than controlling every decision. An employee asking for clarification instead of pretending to understand. A parent responding with more curiosity and less reactivity during a tense conversation at home. These moments may never appear on a dashboard, but they matter. Recognizing progress provides information about capability. It helps people see that their actions can produce change. That evidence can strengthen belief, reinforce motivation, clarify what is working, and increase willingness to engage with the next challenge. Progress does more than tell people where they have been. It can influence where they believe they are capable of going. Development should increase agency Ultimately, development should not create permanent dependence on the person leading it. The goal is not to create employees who always need a manager to direct them, leaders who continually need external validation, or family members who depend on someone else to solve every problem. Development should gradually increase agency. Over time, can the person recognize what is happening, reflect on the experience, identify what they need, and recognize strengths they already possess? Can they make an intentional adjustment, determine what they want to practice next, and carry that learning into another environment? This is where development becomes transferable. A leader who learns to regulate their response during conflict is developing more than a workplace skill. That same capacity may improve how they navigate tension at home, uncertainty in a boardroom, difficult client conversations, or high-stakes decisions. The environment changes. The capacity travels with the person. Development is never finished Development is rarely a straight path. People encounter confidence, belonging, emotional regulation, identity, discipline, motivation, and pressure repeatedly across their lives. A capacity that feels strong in one environment can be tested again by a promotion, a new organization, a difficult boss, a leadership opportunity, a business setback, a family transition, or a different level of responsibility. These moments do not necessarily mean previous development has disappeared. They provide a new environment in which familiar capacities must be applied differently. This is why I increasingly think of development as a spiral rather than a straight line. We may return to familiar challenges, but we do not return as the same person. We bring previous experiences, skills, relationships, reflection, and perspective with us. The challenge may look familiar. The person engaging with it has changed. Rethinking the responsibility of leaders None of this removes personal accountability. Individual effort matters. Preparation matters. Standards matter. Choices matter. Acknowledging the role of the environment broadens accountability rather than eliminating it. When someone is struggling, we can still ask what skills that person needs to develop. We should also examine the conditions in which we are asking that development to occur. Consider: Does this person believe progress is possible? Are expectations challenging without becoming chronically overwhelming? Does the environment make room for learning from mistakes? Does the person experience meaningful ownership over their development? Do they feel connected and supported? Can they recognize evidence that they are improving? Are we evaluating only outcomes, or are we paying attention to development? These questions shift the role of leadership. A leader is not simply setting expectations. A manager is not simply assigning work. A team is not simply completing tasks. A family is not simply managing responsibilities. Each is helping create developmental conditions. Those conditions influence what another person learns to believe about challenge, progress, mistakes, and themselves. Final thoughts We spend considerable time trying to develop stronger, more confident, resilient, disciplined, motivated, and capable people. We should spend just as much time examining the environments in which we are asking them to become those things. Individual effort matters. Skills matter. Standards matter. Performance matters. But growth is never just about the individual. People develop through an ongoing interaction between who they are, what they believe, what they experience, and the environments around them. The most effective developmental environments do not remove challenge. They help people develop the capacity and belief to meet it. They create space to practice, struggle, reflect, adjust, recognize progress, and gradually take greater ownership of their own development. Consider an environment you currently influence, whether as a leader, executive, manager, parent, colleague, or mentor. Instead of asking only what the people around you need to improve, ask, "What is this environment teaching people about who they are capable of becoming?" The answer may reveal as much about their future development as anything you are explicitly teaching them. Follow me on Instagram, LinkedIn, and visit my website for more info! Read more from Nassim Ebrahimi Nassim Ebrahimi, Developmental Psychologist, Mental Performance Coach, Author, and Speaker Coach Nassim Ebrahimi, PhD, is the founder of Becoming My Stronger Me, LLC. As a developmental psychologist, mental performance coach, podcaster (Becoming My Stronger Me podcast), author (The Stronger Mind and Baller Goals), and speaker, she empowers athletes, coaches, and parents to unlock mental resilience and peak performance under pressure through evidence-based strategies grounded in sport psychology and human development. She holds a PhD in Developmental Psychology from The Pennsylvania State University. Through her work, she supports individuals and teams in developing the mental skills needed to thrive in sport and life. Her mission is to help people train their minds with the same intention they train their bodies. References: Bandura, A. (1997). Self-efficacy: The exercise of control. W. H. Freeman. Deci, E. L., and Ryan, R. M. (2000). The “what” and “why” of goal pursuits: Human needs and the self-determination of behaviour. Psychological Inquiry, 11(4), 227 to 268. Dweck, C. S. (2006). Mindset: The new psychology of success. Random House. Ryff, C. D. (1989). Happiness is everything, or is it? Explorations on the meaning of psychological wellbeing. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 57(6), 1069 to 1081. Brown, B. (2010). The gifts of imperfection. Hazelden Publishing.