Written by: Trina Joy Lucas, Executive Contributor Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise. In this article, I have 5 essential points to share with you on past lives and their relevance to your life purpose right now! Do you find yourself asking what’s life’s purpose? What if you could go back in time and learn from your past lives? Tap into your old soul wisdom? Would you be happier, healthier and more aligned with your authentic self? Discover the truth about past lives and the connection to your present life. How do past lives show up in the present? It’s France. 1800’s. A small country road is winding to a château. A carriage carrying passengers is turned on its side. The driver is badly injured... My client Mary’s body is transmitting clear images to me of this past life memory, a carriage accident, during a psychic spiritual healing session. Mary’s soul reveals that the anxiety bordering on terror she experiences in her current life is actually due to this carriage accident in 1800's France. Her body asks for support to process and release the residual trauma. Regression to past lives: How your current life mirrors aspects of your past lives. Many people seeking meditation for past life regression end up in a treatment session with me, Trina, a medical intuitive, receiving an online or in-person psychic spiritual healing. In regression to past lives therapy sessions, I prefer to know nothing about a client prior to treatment. Instead, I tune into their body with my psychic senses and allow their body to tell me their story. This way I make sure the body has a chance to communicate its perspective of events including the wisdom it holds of its priority of needs. I knew nothing about Mary before I began her session, and I remember thinking… What will Mary think when I reveal details of this past life to her? Will it make sense to her? As it happened, when I disclosed the carriage accident, Mary told me she had always had extreme anxiety in general and especially when it came to driving a car. She had never been able to get her driver’s licence. What I saw with my psychic senses, and what Mary’s body revealed to me, made total sense to Mary. Her intense anxiety around driving had always been one of those behavioural patterns that defied her logical understanding. Want to overcome obstacles and challenges in the present? Knowing ‘who was I in my past lives’ can help! Past life regression therapy enabled Mary to extract the wisdom her soul was seeking from the carriage accident and release the trauma her psyche had been holding onto. Mary now drives a car with ease and confidence. The intense anxiety that generally plagued her life, for seemingly no reason, is no longer an issue. 5 essential points on past lives and their relevance to your life purpose right now! 1. As part of your soul purpose, your body may seek to clear past life trauma. Your soul may decide, as part of your soul purpose, it is time to process certain difficulties and challenges it is still holding onto from past lives. In such cases, your body, in the present, will start to mirror circumstances from past lives. I clearly remember a client I treated with past life regression therapy who had a prior incarnation where they were shackled around their ankles and wrists. They were locked in a dark room. I revealed to the client the past life trauma details shown to me by their body. The client explained they had distressing pain in their ankles and wrists in the here and now. They also experienced intense light sensitivity. Following a series of psychic spiritual healing sessions these symptoms significantly reduced. Remember the example of Mary and her carriage accident? Mary had tried many conventional therapies to treat her anxiety. Working through the past life trauma mirrored in the here and now enabled Mary to release a stuck behavioural pattern and progress forward with fulfilling part of her soul purpose. 2. You have gifts and abilities honed in past incarnations. Past life versions of you show up to deliver useful ‘old soul’ wisdom in the here and now. This is exactly what happened to me! I have witnessed the same phenomenon for countless other people too. Many clients attribute my spiritual healing skills, and my ability to receive detailed information from the body, mind and soul, to my being an “old soul”. The truth is far more interesting. I have met with many past life versions of myself and they have contributed to me developing the skills and abilities I have as a spiritual healer today. It was part of my soul purpose to do so! In my current life, I completed an honours degree in Traditional Chinese Medicine. When I started practising Chinese Medicine, clients kept turning up with deep soul-based patterns to heal. Aligning to my life purpose required me to meet with and integrate skill sets from past life versions of my soul. Past life versions of me presented in spiritual healing sessions. They offered me an energy exchange that enabled me to gain knowledge about the soul and spirit anatomy of the body. This empowered me to build a relationship with a team of healing spirits. To this day I work day in and day out with this team to transform the life and body of my clients. Skills downloaded from past lives support me to shift the underlying consciousness of the body bringing about sustained physical, mental and emotional change. Reawakening past incarnation abilities and skills enabled me to level up. I am certain I would never have had enough time in this life to truly embody and refine with training the skills I needed to be the soul-based holistic medicine practitioner I am today. You also have past life versions of you waiting and wanting to mentor you to deepen your unique capacity to offer transformational change to others. To help you grow into an expression of your authentic self. 3. The patterns you are struggling with physically, mentally or emotionally COULD be related to a past life. Have you ever wondered ‘ is this pattern I am struggling with related to a past life? ‘Here I am – again – reacting and behaving in a manner that I know does not serve me. That I know is not reflective of my deeper authentic self.’ Nonetheless, you may find the behavioural pattern appears to have momentum all of its own! This may indicate you are experiencing the influence of past live trauma in your current struggles. Here are 3 tips to help you know if your behavioural patterns are past life related. The symptoms you experience are disproportionate to the situation you find yourself in. For example, Mary and her carriage accident, where trepidation and fear about driving a car became mystifyingly paralysing anxiety. You keep finding yourself in similar challenging circumstances. Over and over. Regardless of effort and toil. Again, drawing on Mary’s experience, you may have tried numerous therapies to consciously and subconsciously address a physical, mental or emotional struggle. You can’t seem to get the traction of change you instinctively know is possible for you. Your body has the signs and symptoms of significant trauma. Yet you cannot pinpoint an actual trauma that has occurred in this life. This is a very common sign of past life involvement. I see this clinically in my spiritual healing practice frequently. 4. You CAN learn about who you were in past lives. I bet you’re now wondering ‘who was I in my past lives?’ Aside from searching for ‘spiritual healing near me’ and trying your hand at therapy for regression to past lives, here are my top 6 tips to learn more about your own past lives. Make a clear wholehearted decision you would like to know more about your past lives. Make the decision! Being clear this is what you want is the best way to align your intent, in a purposeful way, to meet a past life version of your soul. Place your hands on your heart. Hold a clear and earnest focus of your intent. Ask your soul to reveal one or more of your past lives. I strongly suggest you ask to connect to a past life that holds value for you when it comes to living out your life purpose. Your soul has the capacity to drop this requested information to you in a variety of ways. Now it is time to remain open and curious. Messages of information will trickle in through a variety of mysterious and or mundane ways. It may be a dream. A snippet in a book. A tv show on Netflix. A documentary grabs your attention. You may be inexplicably drawn to a particular country or time period in history. An everyday mundane conversation has a message that registers as significant. Do not decide how the information will come through. Remain open. Each day reaffirm your request with focused intent. I suggest doing this just as you wake up or just as you go to sleep. Or both, twice a day! Believe in yourself. Trust the process. The information may take days, weeks, or months to make its way to you. The process has its own logic. Trust it. You may discover hints regarding your past lives in your chosen career and hobbies. Perhaps you are a passionate gardener because you were a farmer in your former life. You may spend your free time advocating for human rights due to past life persecution. Finally, please know that most of your past lives were not flashy. Grandiose past lives are the exception rather than the rule! Despite this, all lives are significant and have wisdom and growth opportunities to offer 5. What’s life’s purpose? What is an incarnation? Your soul yearns for growth through the experience of many human lives! Each time you incarnate you are a different unique person in your own right. There are differences in geographical location, social and cultural context, the epoch of time, alignment of the stars and the list goes on and on. These changes in circumstances from life to life are seen as opportunities for your soul to grow through the experience of being human. Growth fuels your life purpose. Discovering more about your past lives can help you uncover a highly nuanced understanding of your soul purpose. It can support the unravelling of mysterious symptoms and unlock your journey of personal growth! Change has many challenges inherent in it. It is common wisdom that change can be the bearer of great learning. Remember past lives are real! Past lives may not always be easy to remember. This is mainly due to an occurrence known as spiritual amnesia. This is another fascinating topic I will delve into at another time. For the present please know that asking the question ‘who was I in my past lives’ is definitely worth pursuing. Would you like to discover more about the ‘old soul’ magical gifts you have deep in your authentic self to offer the world? Take my ‘what is your spiritual gift quiz’ by clicking here. This intuitive quiz will offer you valuable insight into your soul gifts and how to nourish them. A special offer to download forever my meditation for past life regression. Ready to jump right in and start discovering who was I in my past lives? Then click here to purchase my online meditation for past life regression. This is a specially designed guided meditation to introduce you to a past life version of yourself and receive an energy exchange of healing and gifts from them. Use the code ‘BrainzSpecial’ to receive 50% off the purchase price. Apply HERE for an opportunity to join my community called The Spiritual Healing Sanctuary. Deepen your connection to your spirit, discover the spiritual roots of your health, and unlock your personal growth. Receive essential knowledge, a powerful bi-monthly spiritual healing and learn spiritual tools to support your transformation from the inside out. Reach out to me and let me know you’ve read my article. I’d love to hear from you. With love and respect for your unique path through life. Trina xx. Follow me on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, and Facebook and visit my website for inspiring content on the spiritual roots of health and personal growth to transform your life. Read more from Trina! Trina Joy Lucas, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine Trina Joy Lucas is a Psychic Spiritual Healer and international expert on the spiritual roots of health with over 26 years and 27000 hours of clinical experience. Trina grew up isolated with a myriad of health issues that defied conventional treatments. A Bachelor of Health Science with Honours in Traditional Chinese Medicine coupled with Trina awakening psychic talents to communicate with a team of Healing Spirits resulted in a deep understanding of the broader spiritual underpinnings of the human body and psyche. Trina is a grounded and practical teacher, writer and speaker who empowers people to (1) understand and heal their symptoms while gaining insight into their purpose and meaning and (2) develop their personal soul-based gifts and abilities. It is Trina’s mission to use her expertise to educate the world on the science of spiritual healing, bringing a holistic approach to medicine to focus on exceptional outcomes for clients. Trina runs courses, a membership-based group, The Spiritual Healing Sanctuary, and offers one-to-one spiritual healing and mentor sessions. Trina’s message is simple: “Your spirit is a powerful agent of change. Be the gift to self and others the world needs – body, mind and soul.”

Over the last 15 years or so, social media platforms have become an integral part of modern life. Both individuals and businesses use them on an almost daily basis to connect and engage with each other. Now that social media is ubiquitous; it's more common than ever for brands and businesses to utilize these platforms for marketing purposes. However, many smaller companies still struggle with using them effectively. Fortunately, we're here to show you five unique ways to use social media to grow your business and build a strong following. Here's everything you need to know. Increase Brand Awareness One of the best ways to leverage social platforms for your business is to promote your brand as much as possible. The larger your audience, the greater your outreach and the easier it is to increase brand awareness. Some easy ways to generate buzz on social media include: Contests and Giveaways - Everyone likes free stuff, so hosting a contest or giveaway promotion is a quick way to get people talking about your brand. Just make sure the prizes are worthwhile and make it so people have to follow and share your profile to qualify to win. High-Quality Video Content - While it's hard to make your content go viral, it's always possible to make waves with a well-executed video. Also, remember that you don't need high production values for a clip to spread quickly - it just has to strike a chord with audiences. Influencer Partnerships - If you're a new business, you likely won't be able to connect with high-profile influencers with hundreds of thousands of followers. However, you can start with moderate influencers and move up as you build a bigger audience. Over time, influencers may reach out to you for partnerships. Also, don't forget that your company's logo will go a long way toward building brand awareness and recognition. Your logo should be on all your posts and featured prominently in all promotions. If you need help designing a logo, you can use logo creator programs to generate ideas and refine the ones you like most. Introduce New Products Product launches are an essential part of running any business, and they're a reliable marketing strategy. Social media allows you to promote new products quickly and easily across different platforms. Just follow these tips when introducing new items to your followers: Focus on the Product's Value - Show off your new item and how it can improve users' lives. Action photos and videos are far more persuasive than static images of the product itself. Create a Story Around It - Ideally, you can share stories from real people who have used the product in their lives. Alternatively, you can weave generic story threads into your copywriting. Highlight the Advantages Over the Competition - If other companies sell similar items, be sure to promote how yours is better and more distinctive. Reach New Audiences As you're probably aware, each social media platform appeals to a different demographic. For example, Facebook is more popular with middle-aged and older individuals, while TikTok and Snapchat are favorites among younger generations. Even within social media apps are different groups and niches. Thankfully, it's super easy to find these groups and reach out with your marketing and promotional materials. However, you must be careful when reaching out to new audiences on different social apps. Typically, users are wary of branded content and official representatives within their social media circles. So, instead of blasting everyone with ads and sales pitches, it's better to promote materials that add value to users' lives. For example, if you're a cosmetic company, you can host a live makeup tutorial on social media. While the goal is ultimately to sell products, users can see the value of learning how to incorporate these items into their regular beauty routine. Also, you can have sales reps use these groups to conduct market research and discover what your target demographics value the most. Drive Traffic to Your Website Social channels are also integral to generating more traffic for your website. There are several ways to do this, including: Blog Posts and Content Sharing - Content creation should be a central component of your marketing strategy already, so you can merge it with social media advertising. Sharing links to helpful and informative blog posts can help bring many new people back to your website. Live Sessions - Many platforms allow you to go live, which is helpful when you're hosting an event or something like a Q&A session. During the live stream, be sure to shout out your website and provide links to specific landing pages. For example, if you're promoting a new product, you can include a link to its page so people can purchase it directly. Paid Ads - One of the primary benefits of advertising on social media is that you can easily target specific demographics. Because these platforms cultivate so much user information, you can deliver hyper-specific ads that appeal to different audiences. Plus, using a pay-per-click model usually offers a decent return. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) - Even if you have a website, your social profiles may appear in search results above your web pages. So, it makes sense to optimize these profiles with high-volume keywords whenever possible. In some cases, your website and social media pages may show up in the same batch of results. Get New Leads Overall, there are two primary reasons to incorporate social media apps into your marketing strategy. First, you want to build an audience of loyal customers who pay attention to the content you produce and the products you sell. Second, you should use social media to generate sales leads. Lead generation is pretty easy to do with methods like: Lead Generation Ads - You can use paid advertising on social media for many things, including lead generation. In this case, the goal is to get a user to click a link and visit a landing page. From there, visitors can submit their contact information and join your subscriber list. Or, they can request information from the sales team and start their journey along your sales funnel. User Testimonials - Reviews and referrals are essential for building your brand's authenticity in the minds of new leads. Fortunately, it's easy to cultivate these reviews from your social pages. You can screenshot examples of positive comments on different social posts or look at posts where users tagged your business. These testimonials will help convince more people to check out your brand and see what you have to offer. Lead Generation Events - We've already mentioned how live sessions can boost your brand awareness or expand your outreach. However, these events can also help you capture more leads, especially if the session is super valuable for your target audience. Also, it's easy to remind viewers to click a link or visit a landing page throughout the event. As long as you're providing value, you can generate many leads from a single session. Giveaways - Contests are an excellent form of lead generation because people are more willing to give you their contact information in exchange for a chance to win. However, for this tactic to work more effectively, you should offer prizes that are valuable to your target demographic. This way, you're more likely to close sales with those who don't win because they're already interested in what you're selling. Overall, social media platforms are excellent opportunities for growth and prosperity. That said, managing your social profiles can be a full-time job, especially because you need to engage with your audience and stay active on these sites. However, you can use social media scheduling tools to help you with that. Keep in mind that the more resources you put into social media marketing, the better your return.

Written by: Cassandra Wiley, Senior Level Executive Contributor Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise. Each year, the American Cancer Society projects the number of new cancer cases and deaths. For 2022, the projection is 1,918,030 new cancer cases and 609,360 cancer deaths in the United States. Recent statistics note that breast cancer is the most common. Next is prostate and lung cancer. There are an estimated 18.1 million cancer survivors in the United States. Cancer is a chronic illness. In the initial stages, there are treatment options. However, it can also reoccur later. Depending on the person, cancer treatments are in the later stages. For others, it may be too late. Cancer occurs when abnormal cells divide and destroy the surrounding tissue anywhere in the body. We each know someone that fits each category: they are cancer survivors, died of cancer, or are currently fighting it. There are cases in which people are dealing with multiple cancers. What causes cancer? Family history. Having a family history of cancer does increase your chances; however, it does not mean there will be a definite diagnosis. Smoking. Smoking is associated with thirteen types of cancer and is linked to 80 percent of cancer deaths worldwide. Chemicals. It is not only for those that work around chemicals; using household cleaners can harm the body. An abundance of household cleaners, personal care products, and even air fresheners contain chemicals like acids, alcohol, and phthalates that are carcinogenic. Sedentary lifestyle. A lack of physical activity increases the risk of several types of cancers. Diet. Processed foods, alcohol, genetically modified foods (GMOs), and artificial sweeteners can increase cancer risks. How do you practice preventive measures? Yearly screenings. Yearly screenings like mammograms and getting physical exams are forms of prevention. As mentioned previously, early detection can save your life. Eat a healthy diet. Everything is in moderation. Reducing or cutting out processed foods, alcohol, GMOs, and certain meats (red meat, pork) are preventive measures. Not only for cancer but for heart health as well. There is the belief that an alkaline diet will also help. If you would like more information, please see the Alkaline and Acid Food Chart - Herbal Health Review. No smoking. Increase physical activity. Increasing your physical activity can decrease your cancer risks. Ditch and switch. The exchange of a toxic household cleaner for a holistic alternative can make a difference in your health. For more information, visit lifestepseo.com/ Learn more from Cassandra by visiting her website. Read more from Cassandra! Cassandra Wiley, Senior Level Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine Cassandra Wiley is a health coach and founder of Have Faith and Live Well with Chasadah LLC. She focuses primarily on chronic illnesses such as pre-diabetes, high cholesterol, and obesity. Her mission is to empower individuals to lose weight and teach a new healthier approach to food to live better lives. She was successful in reversing her pre-diabetes and high cholesterol diagnoses naturally. The weight loss was an added benefit. She has helped clients change their diets and “have faith” in themselves to meet their health and wellness goals.

Written by: Mira Taylor , Executive Contributor Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise. Whether or not you grew up in a spiritual or faith-based household, the truth is that we have all grown up in (and therefore have been consciously and unconsciously influenced by) environments that have, themselves, been heavily influenced and shaped by faith, religion, and spirituality through the eyes of culture, politics, and government over many centuries. Our awareness of the spiritual (and sometimes “non” spiritual) belief systems we hold to be true for our Self, other individuals, communities, societies, and the world at large play a substantial and influential role in our mental health through our personal and shared psychology and the perceptions we approach life with. Most of us don’t give our mind and imagination credit as the amazing tools that they are. Many folks mindlessly approach most days and consume loads of narratives, programming, information, and belief structures without a real conscious appreciation for how these things affect us through the time, energy, and attention they take up within us and our psyche. Therefore, awareness is always an important first step in our ability to understand and take stock of the belief systems we have accepted as “truths”: It’s from a place of present and unbiased awareness that we can mindfully approach these beliefs with a sense of conscious responsibility for how they have been and are shaping our reality – shared and personal. When we experience belief through our thoughts it requires us to utilize a combination of our individual mind and imagination. It might seem somewhat silly, trivial, and even “esoteric” to believe that belief could possibly have such a powerful role in our life when you look at it on the surface. But if you look are willing to look at belief through a deeper lens of modern scientific understanding – specifically through the sciences of human psychology, quantum mechanics(physics) and studies of consciousness – you begin to appreciate just how truly powerful your beliefs and mind truly are. So, what’s so scientific about “belief”? Recent studies show that our beliefs make up the majority of what is referred to as the “internal reality” or personal perception and that it is our personal and individual perception that shapes the way we experience reality on a daily basis. It is also scientifically attached through the studies of physics where modern research and scientific study clearly prove a connection between our thought patterns and the energetic frequencies (wavelengths and resonances) they create, exist in and what they subsequently attract and project for each of us. To learn more about the connections between Science & Spirituality visit my article “The intersection: Science & Faith” . It's important to understand that our personal beliefs are more built out of more than just concepts of religiosity. In laymen’s terms – something as simple as believing that you “aren’t enough”, that you are “unintelligent” or that you exist on earth as a “punishment” or to “suffer” is now being scientifically proven to shape and create that reality for you. For many who have followed some of the ancient wisdom teachings this is a concept that is referred to as “As Above, So Below” or Cosmic Resonance Theory. It is a reference to the idea that whatever you think and believe in is what you are constantly attracting into your life and, according to our modern scientific understandings, this has always been true! For more in-depth information on this topic please visit my article “The Universe as A Mirror of the Mind”. When you truly begin to believe in how powerful your ability to believe is – more realistically how powerful your mind and imagination are – one can’t help but pause and think to themselves “with great power comes great responsibility”. Knowing the truth of your choices in the ways in which you use your mind and imagination is usually a huge wake-up call for many – you have even heard some call it an “awakening”. It is referred to this way because once you receive and accept this knowledge, you inevitably begin seeing the world and your interactions with it through new eyes. Owning the truth of “how it all works” means owning that you have a lot more responsibility for your life than most people want to take on and that many of the things you have accepted a “victim” relationship with can no longer exist in that view through your new perception. You begin to understand the managing your life is about managing your mind and that it is both that simple and that difficult. This is where the role of “conscious responsibility” comes into play so that you can begin to understand and own your relationship with spirituality, personal belief systems and practices as alchemical choices and not “rites of requirement” or “procedures for acceptance”. Becoming fully internally aware of and taking responsibility for your thoughts and beliefs will help you understand that there is no need for you to practice any one structured or dictated belief system to be “worthy” – aside from cultivating an internal belief system that you already are. All this said, you might now be wondering to your Self “what exactly is Conscious Responsibility”? Conscious Responsibility: “The concept of holding oneself accountable for one’s thoughts, beliefs and views of Self and others – with the understanding that these shape and directly influence one’s psyche (mental and spiritual wellness) and the daily reality you experience.” The process of becoming Consciously Responsible for your thoughts, actions, and beliefs –and(or) becoming a “mindful mental consumer” – is necessary for you to be able to identify and disassociate from beliefs that are having a detrimental or limiting influence in your life. This process is conceptually simple but can be mentally complex depending on the individual. It also requires a certain amount of forgiveness, compassion and non-judgement of oneself for your previous state of “unawareness”. Remember, as you begin the journey of self-understanding and start to proverbially turn over the stones and uproot the weeds that dwell in the garden of your consciousness that you can only… “Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better.” – Maya Angelou. It’s also important to remember that it is not only your spiritual beliefs which can be adversely affecting your life. As stated previously in this article, even a conscious (or subconscious) choice to believe in something as simple as the idea that you aren’t“successful” or “enough” in the present moment will hold real and weighty implications for how you experience life and how others perceive you also. Below are some questions I hope will help readers of this article begin to identify and become aware of their existing belief systems and start making choices with their beliefs in a way which feels beneficial, purposeful, and constructive to them. Self-Guided Questions for Becoming Mindfully Aware of Your Spiritual Belief Systems When was the last time you reflected on and analyzed the belief systems you hold to be “truths” for you? Do you feel like you are “allowed” to safely question your spiritual beliefs/practices? Does your relationship with spirituality and the belief system it promotes within you cage you (and others) in or free you? Does it silence your inner-voice or strengthen it? Do your spiritual practices and beliefs help you see the best or worst in others? Do they shape a positive view of humanity and our collective future? What do you see as the role or “purpose” for belief and spirituality/ spiritual practices in your life? Is it fulfilling that role or purpose? Is that role or purpose loving/beneficial or controlling/ limiting? Self-Guided Questions for Identifying ExistingBelief Systems (Spiritual and Non-Spiritual) Is there something you feel or belief about yourself that has held you back in your life? How would you describe it? What is it that you would like to be/do/have that this belief has kept you from being/doing/having? What do you think is the root cause of this belief that has held you back in life? What makes this a belief, and it’s impacts on your life a “problem” for you? At what point in your life (approx.) did you decide to belief this about yourself. What or who made you really “buy in” to and apply this belief to yourself? What has this belief meant to you? How has it shaped your life choices? What has it stopped you from doing/ being or having? What has it given you? Think about and describe the version of yourself you see without this Self-belief? How is this version of you different? What is their life like? What do you want to do about this Self-belief you have had right now? What major consequences have you experienced in your life because of this Self-belief? Describe the actions you took because of this Self-belief? Did you have an awareness of these consequences when you took the action? If the answer is yes, why did you believe that you deserved to experience a life that involves “consequences”? How would you see your past self differently if you viewed these moments of your life as necessary lessons for healing your soul in multiple lifetimes/ realities INSTEAD of viewing them as punishments? How have these lessons made you a better person? How have they shaped who you are today? Would you be who you are today without these experiences? Questions for Identifying and Affirming Positive Self Belief What is a positive self-belief you have? Describe how this belief makes you feel. Do you have a negative or limiting self-belief stopped or suppressed your ability to connect with and live this positive self-belief? Why do you think you chose to listen to the negative self-belief instead of the positive self-belief? How would your life be different today if you had chosen the positive self-belief over the negative self believe at major points of your life? Give an example. When you see the future, you want for yourself. What role does this positive self-belief play in it? Why is this self-belief important to the core of who you are? How will this positive self-belief positively impact or change your relationships? Follow me on Instagram, LinkedIn, and visit my website for more info! Read more from Mira! Mira Taylor, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine Mira Taylor is an Integrative Therapist, Subconscious Medium & Organizational Wellness Consultant who focuses on guiding clientele toward total wellness by combining concepts of psychology, spirituality, philosophy, and sustainable life practices. Mira is a member of the International Association of Therapists and master certified in Modern Applied Psychology, Cognitive Remodeling Therapy, Subconscious Integration Therapy, Mind-Body-Spirit Wellness, Wellness Linguistics, and Archetypal Psychology.

Written by: Shona Hirons, Executive Contributor Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise. Do you know how many times I’ve hit burnout? Not once, but twice. How the hell could I hit burnout when I spent my teenage years swimming at a high level for my country? Before a big event, I would train for two hours, twice a day, six days per week, and although I worked hard, I didn’t once burn out. How? I had a good leader that’s how. His name was Colin and he showed me that it was hugely important for both my physical and mental health to take a break. He taught me that it was important to get off the hamster wheel, otherwise I was setting myself up for failure from an early age. By taking the foot off the gas, I was less likely to burn out, suffer an injury and fall out of love with the sport. Colin was right! I witnessed other swimmers with different coaches who were training more than me, but their performance wasn’t as good as mine. Some also suffered injuries that stopped their swimming careers there and then, all because they didn’t rest. For many of them, they stopped doing sport altogether and got into bad habits and trouble. I didn’t believe Colin at first, because my mindset was to always keep pushing myself, even if it did mean me being emotionally and physically drained. What was this mindset teaching me? Unfortunately, I lost track of this mindset for over 20 years when I left my swimming career and focused on my career as a Lawyer. I guess, being at the top of my game in swimming, I had developed a typical Type A personality, which made me super competitive. This was the downside of being at my level. I wanted to win at everything and I felt the only way to win in my career was to work the hardest, but this didn’t always involve being the smartest. It didn’t help that the company I worked for, awarded their staff who worked the longest hours a badge of honour. I lost control of my boundaries, I felt like I was working around the clock, and I would even go a whole week without washing my hair, because I just didn’t have time. What changed? I now realise that it was my relationship with time that was wrong. It had to take a life-changing accident in 2017 for me to slow down and reflect on the wisdom that Colin had taught me all those years ago. I won’t forget this again. Now I run my own business and I do work hard, but I work smarter. I take regular breaks throughout the day, which I like to call ‘Movement Snacks’. I always take a ‘fake commute’ before and after work, as I work from home and it is important to start my day off with the mindset of leaving the house to come back to the office, and at the end of the day to leave the office and come back to the house. Every day, I schedule five must-do work related tasks into my calendar and five must-do things to do for myself into my calendar. I call this my ‘Achievement List’. I am much happier these days, I am far more productive, my performance is better and I feel younger than I did 10 years ago. Scientific evidence that taking breaks improves your focus and performance Microsoft recently carried our research on people who had four video calls back to back without taking breaks, compared to those who took a 5-10 minute break in between each call. The results clearly show that the ones who took no breaks, were unable to concentrate and focus as well as the ones who did take a few minutes out to recharge. Even though breaks were taken, those who took them were a lot less stressed and thus able to focus and perform better, so they actually got more done. It is also important to take the right type of breaks. Some breaks can increase fatigue, such as drinking caffeine, snacking on unhealthy snacks and online shopping. When you take your breaks, do something completely different. Move away from your desk and do something that’s fun. I like to put a favourite song on and dance and sing around the room for a few minutes, or play with my dog. When you do something you enjoy, you will feel happier and increase blood flow to the parts of the brain that need to focus. Does this resonate with you? If you’re constantly working into your social time and on the weekends, and you’ve stopped doing the things that make you happy, take stock and let me be your Colin. Believe me, you won’t get to the end of your life and wish that you’d worked more hours. Follow me on Facebook, LinkedIn, and visit my website for more info! Read more from Shona! Shona Hirons, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine Shona Hirons is an award-winning global Resilience and Burnout Coach. A breakdown from work-related stress, which led to a life-changing accident, requiring major facial reconstructive surgery and brain damage, gave her a big wake-up call. During her recovery, she went on a journey of self-discovery to rebuild her resilience, consider her values and achieve all the things she was told she couldn't do. Shona has developed strategies to boost her resilience, and now helps others to do the same. She is the CEO of Mindset in Motion, and a leader in corporate wellbeing, working with corporate clients in over 195 countries. Her mission: To improve the well-being of people and businesses throughout the world.

Written by: Lisa Treasure, Executive Contributor Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise. I first heard the term ASMR about three years ago when my thirteen-year-old daughter was struggling to get to sleep. One evening, I went into her bedroom to say goodnight and noticed that she was listening to something on her phone. When I asked her about it, she told me that she was listening to someone chewing! As you can imagine, I was baffled by this as the sound of other people chewing repulses me, as I’m sure it does many other people. However, she assured me that it was helping her to relax and drift off to sleep. Since then, I have become intrigued by this relatively new phenomenon and have to confess to becoming slightly addicted to listening to ASMR videos on YouTube as a way to wind down at the end of the day. So, what exactly does the acronym mean? ASMR stands for autonomous sensory meridian response: autonomous as it happens without our control; sensory as it involves the senses; meridian as it has a climax, and response as it is triggered by something internal or external. Although the phrase was first coined in 2010, there is still surprisingly little research available explaining the meaning of ASMR is, and descriptions vary immensely. In fact, it can be so difficult to pinpoint that it is often referred to as ‘the nameless feeling’. However, the most commonly accepted explanation is that it is the feeling of pleasurable head tingles that begin on the scalp and move down the neck. There are a number of external stimuli that are believed to activate ASMR, but they are so subjective that it is impossible to name them all. What gives one person tingles, might make another person’s blood run cold, and some people don’t seem able to experience the tingles at all. My personal favourite ASMR triggers are gentle whispering and crunching sounds which I find very therapeutic. Here are some other known triggers: ASMR whispering; ASMR slow speech patterns; ASMR watching someone complete a task; ASMR close personal attention; ASMR hair cut; ASMR makeup; ASMR sounds like tapping, crunching, and scratching; ASMR eating; ASMR watching a demonstration; ASMR massage; ASMR eye gazing. When we look at this list we can see that there is potentially a common thread running through it, and that is the idea of social bonding. Triggers like whispering, eye gazing, grooming, and close personal attention are all soothing behaviours that we use to create intimacy and strengthen relationships. They are also known to activate certain regions of the brain and release feel-good hormones like oxytocin. There is even some research that shows that watching ASMR videos can reduce your heart rate, reduce stress and anxiety and help you sleep. Since 2010 when ASMR was first discovered, it has become one of the fastest-growing YouTube trends with the number of videos soaring to over thirteen million in a hundred and thirty countries and being searched more times than chocolate! It is certainly something that divides opinion with some people becoming addicted to the low-level feelings of euphoria while others just can’t fathom what all the fuss is about. Before you dismiss ASMR as a weird fad though, I wonder if you can remember the painter Bob Ross? If you’re anything like me, and millions of others, you found something incredibly soothing and relaxing about his soft voice and quiet demeanour. Without realising it, perhaps you experienced that unknown feeling that we now call ASMR. As a hypnotherapist, I am always looking for new ways to deliver therapy to clients to get the best results. I am beginning to incorporate whispering into some of my sessions as a way to encourage comfort and relaxation. Go to the resources section of my website to download my free whispering hypnosis session for sleep. I’ve also created an ASMR video on YouTube called ASMR Frosty Crunches. Try it out to see if it gives you the tingles! Lisa Treasure, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine Lisa Treasure is a multi-award-winning therapist who has worked with clients worldwide. Her articles have appeared in various industry publications, and her teachings and methods are best sellers on platforms such as Udemy. Lisa is also a published children’s author, with her debut book for adults due to hit the shelves later this year.

Written by: Alyssa Johnson, Executive Contributor Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise. One of the greatest and most devastating problems in this world is White supremacy. In the United States, supremacy affects everyone regardless of skin color. As a White woman, I’ve received messages since birth that I am superior to people of Color simply because I’m White. In 2015, I began my race literacy journey and have had to reconcile some very painful truths about myself. Below are some of the things I’ve learned about myself as I’ve explored my internalized racism in order to take anti-racist actions. Exposure to Race Literacy My first exposure to race literacy work was in 2015 during a training about racism in the child welfare system. I had a very stereotypical White woman response: I froze, I teared up, I couldn’t talk about race, I thought I wasn’t supposed to talk about race. I didn’t want to talk about race. I held myself out as a “good White woman” who wasn’t racist and wouldn’t hurt people of Color. My desire to learn more about the child welfare system was stronger than my desire to quit my race literacy work, however, so I kept at it. And uncovered a lot about my racism in the process. What is a Race Literacy Journey? A race literacy journey is a journey of healing race-based trauma. As I’ve learned in my studies, we all hold race-based trauma, but how we hold it in the body depends on skin color. White people hold it as supremacy. Gender also influences how we hold race-based trauma in our bodies and the feelings that are most present as we begin a race literacy journey. For White men, anger tends to be the forefront emotion. For White women, guilt and shame tend to be the most prevalent feelings. Other feelings exist and they show up as we continue working through our race-based trauma, but anger, guilt, and shame tend to be the feelings that present themselves initially. Because we’re dealing with trauma as we engage in a race literacy journey, it’s imperative that we go slow and we continually check in with our bodies and feelings to see how they’re processing the information we’re learning. What many White people tend to do is intellectualize racism, which is a defense mechanism. Looking at racism as an intellectual exercise prevents deeper healing from occurring because we’re disconnected from the body and emotions. It also minimizes and often invalidates the experiences of people of Color because racism is a body, feeling, and mind experience for them. The effects of racism on people of Color are extensive as noted by Tracey Lynn Pearson in her article Loving the Skin I’m In - Mindful Care for Persons of Color (January 17th). As we engage in race literacy teachings, keeping the body and feelings incorporated into our experiences will help us process what we’re learning and heal our race-based trauma at a much deeper level. The Race Literacy Journey as a White Woman One of the earliest pieces I had to confront in my race literacy journey was the falseness of the “good White woman” trope. I wasn’t aware of how deeply I had attached my identity to the idea of being a good White woman until that belief was challenged as I worked through my internalized racism. The idea of a good White woman was created by supremacy as a way to prevent White women from doing our inner work around our internalized racism. White women who are attached to the good White woman image generally believe ourselves to be kind and loving and incapable of hurting people of Color. We probably wouldn’t join supremacist organizations, we may hold liberal beliefs and support candidates of Color, we often love Michelle Obama and Oprah Winfrey, and we believe that we treat everyone equally. The reality, however, is that we deeply hurt people of Color – especially women of Color – because we hide behind the illusion of being a good White woman and we avoid doing deeper inner work around racism. So our supposed anti-racist actions actually stem from supremacist teachings rather than what people of Color share that they need. The good White woman trope is an ego construct. The ego “create[s] a set of beliefs, patterns, and ideas, that most people label ‘personality.’ Your ego is very defensive about your identity” and generally rejects any messaging that is inconsistent with these beliefs, patterns, or ideas. (The Holistic Psychologist, How to Do Ego Work, May 17th, 2019). But to grow we need to challenge our ego and our beliefs about ourselves. Constantly looking for information that validates our preconceived notions about ourselves prevents us from doing the deeper inner work to unearth beliefs, thoughts, and ideas that we’re holding inside. There is no such thing as a good White woman when it comes to race work. Our internalized racism must be examined and addressed to truly move towards anti-racist actions. When we don’t do our inner work around our internalized racism, it often plays out in the world as: 1) White women not listening to or validating the experiences of people of Color; 2) White women saying things to women of Color like “we’re women and we’re in this together” without understanding that the experiences of women of Color are vastly different than White women; 3) White women bashing the patriarchy without us examining and owning our role in upholding supremacy; and 4) White women not owning when we say or do things that are hurtful to people of Color, but rather breaking down into tears and shifting the blame onto people of Color for making us cry or feel bad about ourselves. I’ve done all of the aforementioned behaviors and have deeply hurt people of Color in the process. Since the idea of being a good White woman was taught to me under supremacy, my actions flowed from supremacist messaging rather than race literacy messaging. Truths I’ve Had to Reconcile About Myself to Become More Race Literate As I did inner work around my good White woman ego construct, I realized that it was a total lie and a defense mechanism to avoid confronting painful Truths about myself. Truth No. 1 Owning My Hurtful and Violent Actions Towards People of Color One Truth I’ve had to reconcile with myself is that I have deeply hurt and been violent toward people of Color, especially women of Color. This has played out in a myriad of ways. Specifically, I haven’t spoken up against racism thousands of times. I’ve looked the other way and stayed silent when the correct response was to speak up and challenge the racist comment or behavior. I’ve also asserted my own needs over or at the expense of women of Color. And not only have I asserted my own needs over women of Color, but I’ve also expected and demanded that they meet my needs by providing me with emotional support or help with my work. This is directly related to enslavement. I’ve failed to listen to women of Color and have ignored or minimized their experiences. I haven’t believed them when they’ve shared racist experiences in Life or experiences of police brutality. I’ve said things like, “that can’t possibly have happened.” Whatever they shared absolutely happened and perhaps multiple times, but because I experience Life very differently as a White woman, I haven’t had empathy or compassion for their experiences. I’ve let people of Color be hurt so I can maintain my privilege. I like my privilege and have wanted to protect it so I’ve thrown people of Color under the bus to maintain what I’ve believed to be rightfully mine. Lastly for this article, I haven’t owned my behavior. I’ve shifted the blame to people of Color when I’ve been called out for my racist comments or behaviors. I’ve said things like “you didn’t understand what I meant” or “you’re overreacting”. They absolutely understood what I meant and they didn’t overreact. I wasn’t looking at myself clearly or honestly and I couldn’t handle that I was being racist. Truth No.2 I’m Racist A second Truth I’ve had to accept is that I’m racist. This was a hard pill to swallow because supremacy taught me that racists are bad people. And that racist acts and behaviors are only done by supremacist organizations. Both of those supremacist teachings are lies. The world isn’t divided up into an either/or equation where racist = bad person and not racist = good person. It’s an experience of bothness. I can be a good person and be racist. Which is what I am. I’m a wonderful person who has absorbed supremacist messaging since childhood. Racism is also much wider in scope than supremacy taught me. Racism touches every part of our society. It's a core component of our country’s creation and it affects education, medical care, governmental structures, politics, jobs, housing, the criminal justice system, and so on. It’s pervasive and not limited to the actions of a supremacist organization. Once I reconciled and addressed this incorrect information and the corresponding wounding within me, it became my job to speak out against racism and do my part to dismantle supremacy. I had a choice to make. Do I do my part in White allyship work or do I continue to stay silent and allow supremacy to hum along nicely while people of Color continue to be harmed? Next Steps on the Race Literacy Journey Addressing and healing race-based trauma takes time. As White people, we have a lot of humbling realizations and reckonings that need to occur to heal our race wounds. Ultimately, we have to realize that we are very hurtful toward people of Color. But the healing can be done. We have to go slowly and keep our bodies and feelings engaged. Once we’ve created some internal resiliency, the next step is to speak out against racism and do our part to block and prevent racist policies from being implemented in society. There is no shortage of ways to get involved in anti-racism work within the community. Allow your interests and passions to lead you to the organizations and causes where you want to get involved in anti-racism work. Although you will face massive resistance and opposition from White people who don’t want to do race literacy work, you will find allies and make friends in the most surprising of places. Keep at it. It will take all of us who are willing to do the work to dismantle supremacy. Follow me on Instagram, LinkedIn, and visit my website for more info! Read more from Alyssa! Alyssa Johnson, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine Alyssa Johnson, Esq., is a formerly practicing attorney who now works with lawyers and legal organizations on topics related to lawyer well-being. This includes emotional intelligence, stress management, menstrual cycle-syncing, and experiencing more joy and pleasure in Life. Additionally, Ms. Johnson is passionate about ending White supremacy within the legal profession and engages White lawyers in race literacy work.

Written by: Viviane Schima, Executive Contributor Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise. The winter holiday season is upon us and babies, unfortunately, didn’t get the memo. The Winter holiday season means family gatherings, celebrations, and bundling up underneath a blanket with some hot cocoa and a book. Well, most of the time. It also means inductions skyrocket at this time of year. If you’re wondering whether this is a typo, it isn't. You read that right. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists says that “more than 22% of all gravid (pregnant) women undergo induction of labor in the United States, and the overall rate of induction of labor in the United States has more than doubled since 1990 to 225 per 1,000 live births in 2006." Of course, natural variations in birth dates exist, but one might ponder the question: does a planned and deliberate pattern occur, given the fact that hardly any babies are born during the major winter holidays? What is an Induction of Labor? An induction might seem like a quick, pain-free medical intervention that shortens a mother’s labor and the time she spends in childbirth. However, the reality is rather different. An induction of labor can be long and complicated with its fair share of unpleasant side effects for you and your baby. (Discussed in detail in section: The 39-Week Milestone) There are different methods of inducing labor and some don’t require medications, like a membrane sweep, which involves the mechanical loosening of the amniotic sac through the cervix. Ingesting castor oil is another medication-free method, which causes cervical stimulation by increasing the production of prostaglandins. Nonetheless, inductions that involve medications such as Cytotec, Cervidil, and Pitocin are much more popular and it’s something a mother is more likely to encounter at the suggestion of her obstetrician. Regardless of the method of induction, two goals have to be met to achieve the desired outcome: the ripening of the cervix and the onset of contractions. This is why timing is crucial and why serious side effects may occur if induction is done too early. However, no matter what induction method is used, a mother should be closely monitored by her obstetrician or a midwife. The Convenience of Modern Medicine Not many care providers wish to wander the hospital halls during Thanksgiving dinner time or on Christmas morning. While this is understandable, it is also important to emphasize that babies do not have a set schedule and they, certainly, do not abide by the one we have been following for centuries. However, for this exact reason,a mother can feel pressure and increased tension from her maternity care provider to move things along. Her doctor may even suggest an early labor induction. It happens too often that when a mother whose pregnancy is without any complications but whose due date is around the major winter holidays might, all of a sudden, receive a concerning statement from her doctor about her baby’s head measuring too big. Induction is, therefore, introduced to the discussion and highly suggested. However, this is not a medically valid reason to induce labor. This is how mothers are commonly treated in today’s prenatal care: ever-changing statements by the attending doctor or simply the lack of clear guidance. This isn’t to say that all medical providers practice medicine in the same manner. It is therefore paramount to find a maternity care provider that aligns with your values; one that you trust and feel secure and safe with. What About the Turkey? We have to take the mother’s point of view into consideration as well. Not all mothers wish to spend their holidays in the hospital with the “skeleton” holiday staff or leave the uncooked turkey on the table for the cat to eat while birthing the baby. Nevertheless, it is of utmost importance that mothers-to-be are told the information they need in order to make an informed decision on whether to induce or not. Knowing when it is safe to induce labor and knowing the valid reasons for induction is half the battle. One rising issue to mention here is that mothers-to-be might be feeling under pressure and cornered when their maternity care provider is suggesting induction earlier than 39 weeks. Because of this, The American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) has just recently redefined the meaning of “term pregnancy” which offers a little more leeway in categorizing “post-term babies.” The ACOG now recommends that elective induction of labor should not occur before 39 weeks of gestation. This is in response to current research evidence showing decreased fetal outcomes in induced labor and a doubled risk of cesarean section. The Catch With Due Dates There are always two sides to everything and due dates are no exceptions. Due dates are determined by “Naegele’s rule,” which locates the first day of a woman’s last menstrual period, adds one year, subtracts three months, and adds seven days to the final date. The result equals approximately 40 weeks from the woman’s last menstrual period. The reason to mention this is to pinpoint and demystify the one reason for induction that isn’t backed up by evidence – that is, being overdue. Only 4-5% of babies are born on their due dates. A few days past one’s due date is not considered post-term and, therefore, is not considered a medically valid reason to induce labor. The 39-Week Milestone We know by now that due dates are far less reliable than we’d like them to be. Sometimes it’s hard to pinpoint when exactly you got pregnant. Even with an ultrasound, a due date can be off by as much as two weeks and if you’re scheduled for an induction, there is a chance that your baby might be born too early. This can lead to complications that no one signed up for. So why does a baby need to spend 39 weeks in the womb? Important organs, like the baby’s brain, lungs, and liver, need time to develop. The brain goes through a rapid growth spurt towards the end of the pregnancy. To imagine just how massive this growth spurt is, a baby’s brain weighs only two-thirds at 35 weeks of pregnancy of what it will weigh at 39 to 40 weeks. Babies that are given the needed time in the womb have also a better suck-and-swallow reflex and because of this, they have a much higher chance of breastfeeding successfully and without assistance. The secret to learning efficientlyand without major difficulties can also be backtracked to when the baby was in the womb and was given at least 39 weeks. After all, nature designed a low-risk pregnancy to last for 40 weeks so we can birth strong and healthy babies. Take some time away from this and we might end up getting something we didn’t sign up for – that is, unnecessary complications. The Importance of a Doula The stigma around doulas and midwives is still very much present. Doulas alongside midwives were completely banished from the practice in the 1800s because the male supporters of medicine thought they were channeling black magic and using occultism to help birth babies. This, of course, couldn’t be further from the truth but the comeback took its time. Even today, the word doula invokes an image of a woman living in the woods, chanting incantations over a fire, and mixing herbs of all kinds in a ritualistic form. We can’t, of course, forget the dreadlocks and spare clothes that only underline and compliment their strange behavior. Doulas are, in fact, highly educated, go through in-depthtraining, and are here to empower you. Furthermore, they act as your emotional, mental, spiritual, and physical anchors during pregnancy, childbirth, and in the postpartum period. A doula’s presence can make all the difference. A carefully chosen support team is paramount to a positive birthing experience. In other words, doulas matter. A Winter Holiday Call-to-Action I ask all mamas-to-be that after you’re done doing your research for the day, to do some more on the next. And don't hesitate to call up a doula when you get lost in the vast land of biased, medically unsupported, and confusing studies and “facts”. You deserve someone who will research for you, who will teach you how to be a better advocate for yourself and your baby, who will help sound the trumpets of ever-lasting motherhood, and who will give you the absolute best chance at your best birth experience. Follow me on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and visit my website for more info! Read more from Viviane! Viviane Schima, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine Viviane Schima is a Newborn Care & Breastfeeding specialist, founder of The AH-mazing, Pain-Free Birth Formula™, Mama Coach and a podcast host. As a certified Lactation Consultant & Doula, Viviane uses her expert knowledge and more than ten years of experience to provide mothers with the support they need and the results they want. She believes that making informed decisions creates a path to empowerment and owning your choices. For Viviane, this empowerment journey begins with preconception, to the moment of conception, and beyond. Viviane is an enthusiastic advocate of breastfeeding, low intervention births and “skin-to-skin” contact after birth. “Creating a strong and healthy community starts at home."

Written by: Brian Wood, Executive Contributor Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise. Disclaimer: I might come across as that "Hey, you kids, get off my lawn" guy – but bear with me. The older I get, the more I miss my parents and the more I appreciate the way they sacrificed, worked hard, and fought even harder. The idea of sitting on the front porch and speaking with them would be an emotional dream come true. There are hundreds of questions that I wish I asked on that front porch. When we overlook front porch opportunities, the stories stop being shared and many lessons learned phase out from one generation to the next. Before we know it, the storytellers are no longer with us, and the stories are often forgotten. A quick rewind: Back in the day before social media, there weren't as many entertainment options and not nearly as many distractions. When we were in grade school there was a "must have" game. The football field board would vibrate and shake to the point where these little plastic figures, which almost resembled football players, would randomly move in different directions (but they normally just spun in circles endlessly). Anyway, it wasn't like you could design plays or do anything beyond turn the game on and hope for the best! It went from extreme excitement to "This is the worst – let’s just go outside and play” in about four minutes. Even TV options were limited and the idea of having access to 24/7 fun through the magic of television was crazy talk. TV stations stopped broadcasting late night every evening. Fast forward to our current world: We have an infinite number of social media and streaming opportunities. The possibilities are endless! But we have some choices to make. Social media and technology can become the ultimate distractions – pulling us away from those front porch conversations. But they can also expand our ability to communicate with more people and enhance our conversations on a global scale. It's not the technology but what we do with it, how we use it. Again, not trying to suggest that "Life was so much better before electricity" I seriously doubt that was the case. But I believe we can have the best of both worlds where we can connect virtually with family, friends like-minded people and people with belief systems that contract ours – across the planet. We can learn, support, interact and serve others through social media. We can choose to like, share, follow and comment on the posts and people that raise our energy and bring us joy. We have the power to filter content and absorb positive, creative, and inspiring thoughts while blocking negative and judgmental noise from small thinkers. There is a connection between the front porch conversations and leadership. Think of it was the athlete engaging in HIT – high intensity training. He/she works exceptionally hard but then there is the recovery period. Both are needed to drive optimal results. So, I'm not preaching for you to metaphorically stay on the porch, never take any risks and talk about the past for your entire life. We need to be present while appreciating the stories and accomplishments of the past. As a leader don’t fall into the trap of believing life was perfect before social media and technology. Don’t get tricked into thinking “If I could only manage my generation, things would be simple.” There is room for social media and technology, just like there is a need to slow down the game with the right discussion at the right time. And it’s okay to be intimidated – or even scared of both! We are surrounded by talent, tools, resources, and gifted people from every generation. The best leaders leverage newness, learn from individuals with different knowledge and show up with confidence and vulnerability. And they rarely miss an opportunity to sprinkle in a few front porch conversations. Follow me on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and visit my website for more info! Read more from Brian! Brian Wood, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine Brian Wood combines 30 years of corporate experience with his background as an athlete, certified player agent (NBA, WNBA, and FIBA), and a certified professional success coach to provide clients with a unique perspective and guidance toward the next level of achievement. Wood is passionate about continuous personal and professional growth including organizational development, training, and gamification. He is enthusiastic about helping leaders leverage their gifts to drive impact and success. Wood supports major corporations, professional sports organizations, and municipalities. He provides confidential, professional, and executive coaching, speaking engagements, virtual and in-person facilitation.

Written by: Jennifer McClendon , Executive Contributor Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise. New Year’s resolution, anyone? How many times have you set an intention for the new year, and it did not go as planned? After doing this a few times and wondering what happened, why didn’t this work out? Age and wisdom led me to start identifying what was needed to achieve my goals. I learned preparing for success requires the same level of effort it takes to be successful. Discovering things that kept me from being effective day to day was a game changer. As 2022 ends, it’s important to consider ways to ease into the new year ready to receive the outcomes of your efforts. During your downtime consider these five tips I use to help you begin the new year with wellness in mind: Declutter-clean out work and personal spaces, including contact lists, emails, and calendar. Clutter can affect mood, concentration, and motivation. Spend 30 minutes a day decluttering for a clear mind. Organize-give easy access to items you need for everyday living and work. Remember to put everything back in its place after each use. Consider the benefits of being organized to help cancel out any background noise telling you to do it later. Review-what actions are you taking in the new year to help you achieve your goals? Are they realistic and specific to your needs? Use mindful problem-solving and revise your actions as needed, especially when things are not going well. Eliminate-review spending habits to identify subscription services and other monthly fees you have been paying for things you do not use or no longer fit your current lifestyle. Cancel them and consider saving this money instead. Plan-create a plan for your basic needs, luxuries, and leisure activities. Getting a jump start on this frees up your time and financial resources. Learning more about our habits and how they help or hinder our progress is necessary for growth. Practice the tips until they become a natural response. Remember, wellness is the outcome of our self-care practices. Investing in areas often overlooked can positively affect results. Check out my blog for more info and tips. Subscribe to my YouTube channel coming in 2023. Follow me on Instagram for more info! Read more from Jennifer! Jennifer McClendon, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine Jennifer McClendon is a licensed professional counselor and licensed clinical alcohol and drug counselor with over twenty years of experience in the mental health field. Early childhood and young adult experiences led her to counseling for personal growth and created an opportunity for her to become a counselor helping others recover from similar challenges. She specializes in care for substance use, trauma, anxiety, stress, depression, and co-occurring conditions.

Written by: Bernice Fabi, Executive Contributor Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise. You drag your feet out of bed every morning after hitting the snooze button on your phone alarm for the third time. Then you’re racing to get to work on time. You watch the clock all day every day and count the minutes until your “escape” time. You’re exhausted, frustrated, angry in the stop-and-go drive home rush hour traffic. When you get home you open the front door, throw your keys on the counter and mindlessly scroll social media all evening long with the tv playing in the background. You’re too exhausted to do anything socially yet you see all those perfect lives on social media and feel depressed. Supper is ordered in or consists of cold beans out of a can. You finally go to bed and can’t even sleep through the night only to start the same process all over the next day. Then you lie and complain that you don’t have time and you’re exhausted every day. This scenario is likely an extreme and unrealistic case, but be honest, does any of this sound familiar? I know at least it was for me and I do remember eating beans out of a can, cold, not even scooped into a bowl. One less dish to wash I convinced myself. Life felt meaningless and empty. I had no direction in life. I felt alone. It can be so easy to fall into a trap of negativity and criticism especially after a life change such as a breakup, divorce, layoff, or the Covid pandemic which affected us all in one way or another. So, how do you create more of an upside to life? Well, that last sentence is the first step toward positive change. It’s the concept that we are initiating a desire for change. It’s also absolutely necessary that the desire for change comes from within ourselves. I could honestly provide you with an entire list of things to consider and do. I won’t because I believe in simplicity. And face it, you’re very likely overwhelmed already so let’s not add to the stress. Here’s five simple-to-do and easy-to-remember ideas to help get you out of the “stuck syndrome” mindset trap: Think of one small habit or change you can make in your life. It might be our first inclination to think of grandiose changes and unrealistic timelines that require uncompromising commitment. When things don’t work out, we get easily discouraged and give up altogether only to fall into a deeper slump because we put in an effort, and feel we failed miserably. Choose one small change you can swap out for another that won’t disrupt your routine in any big way but that you would feel positive about. It could start as simple as warming up the beans and putting them on a plate. Maybe it’s listening to a podcast on your drive home rather than the intermittent traffic report. Enjoy the standstill moments listening to something inspiring. One little change will lead to another, and more and bigger changes over time. Reach out for positive support. Humans are social beings. We need each other. Seek out a friend, colleague, professional, or coach that can provide empathy, and support and challenge you in a positive way to move forward. Be wary of naysayers and critics that will bring you down. Also, be wary of any pity party network. Let me just take a sentence here to reinforce the words “positive support.” Practice self-empathy, not self-pity. I stumbled upon this definition of self-empathy in a recent Google search. “Self-empathy means that an aspect of yourself observes, in an empathic manner, the aspect of yourself that experiences. This is done with an attitude of suspended judgment and openness towards yourself (Jordan, 1994)”. In other words, self-empathy is simply being aware of our feelings as a result of what we experience. We give no judgment to those feelings. The world is full of critics. We don’t need to be one to ourselves as well. Self-empathy enables inner confidence and strength, which also opens us up to connect with others and a common purpose. Take time to explore life in a fun way. Sorry, this does not include scrolling on social media. Take yourself outdoors, into a bookstore, or into a new interest or old hobby you once thought of revisiting. Volunteering, exercising, shopping or dancing are only a few examples that can take you to a new environment that energizes you and allows you to get lost in the moment of time in a productive and positive way. Take up a practice of gratitude. This can be as simple as acknowledging the grocery store clerk where you buy your cans of beans or a simple wave to the driver that let you into the condensed lane of traffic. It can be a note, a card, a text or a simple smile. You never know what kind of day someone else is having. Always, the giver and receiver will be touched by a “feel good feeling.” Now, if you’re saying this is all still too overwhelming, let’s make it easier yet. Choose one item from the list above you can practice intentionally. Change it up daily for variety and to maintain interest. Every step in a positive direction is a step that will make a difference toward getting you unstuck. Follow me on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and visit my website for more info! Read more from Bernice! Bernice Fabi, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine Bernice Fabi is a certified Life and Empowerment Coach for women. She also applies mental fitness into her programs for a truly life changing experience. Always an eager life student, Bernice brings an array of experience to her coaching practice including a lengthy financial career and as an entrepreneur in real estate investment and management. Bernice helps women overcome limiting beliefs and realize their potential. In doing so, they make choices to live an extraordinary and purposeful life.

Laura J. Wellington is the Founder of Celebrity-Lifestyle blog THREAD MB. A Media-Tech Entrepreneur, Wellington is also an Award-Winning Children's Entertainment creator and Author. Critics have called her most recent book "Be Careful What You Wish For" a 'magnum opus. A TEDx Speaker, Wellington's newest venture is called ZNEEX, an app that combines fitness and socializing for users and their dogs in a fun, new way that has partners saying "it's the best idea that they've heard in a very long time" (coming to you December 2022). A mother of five, Wellington was widowed at thirty-five years old. She has won The Forbes Enterprise Award, Multiple Telly Awards, The Buzz Award, and many more. Laura J. Wellington, THREAD MB Introduce yourself! Please tell us about you and your life, so we can get to know you better. (Feel free to share your hobbies, your passions, your family life, your pets and anything that makes you unique.) My name is Laura J. Wellington. I’ve been a serial entrepreneur in the technology, entertainment and media spaces for over thirty years. Included in this is the creation of an award-winning children’s television series, the authoring of several books, and the founding of a popular celebrity-lifestyle blog called THREAD MB. I have spoken at TEDx, was one of the first women to receive The Forbes Enterprise Award, and have been graced with the likes of four Telly Awards as well as the BUZZ Award and countless others. In addition, I am the single mom of five children, who lost her husband to Cancer when I was thirty-five years-old. My favorite things to do are run, travel, spend time with my family and close friends, study my faith and learn. My daughter-in-law recently said to me that I definitely gave my “avid love for learning” to all of my children. I believe she is right. What is your business name and how do you help your clients? My newest venture is an app called ZNEEX (www.zneexfriendship.com). ZNEEX is a friendship and dating app that brings together new friends and lovers based upon individually preferred vaccination statuses. What this means is that unvaccinated users who only want to meet other unvaccinated users for the purposes of friendship and especially dating can do so through the ZNEEX app. Same holds true for vaccinated folks. And for those users who don’t care either way, they will only be introduced to users who feel the same. Three groups, each making “vaccine status” the priority when it comes to new friendships and love, sans judgment. And all of this takes place over healthy strolls through invitations sent from one user to another compliments of smart technology and my development partners at DACWAY. Together, we truly have made something very positive and unifying out of a very difficult and divisive situation – a solution that supports users socially, emotionally, intellectually and physically while helping to mitigate the loneliness epidemic and obesity epidemic too. The ZNEEX app can be downloaded at the Google Play Store. Users can elect to sign-up for the free basic membership or the monthly premium membership ($9.99 per month). What kind of audience do you target your business towards? The first group includes anyone and everyone living in the United States who are eager to meet new friends and/or lovers aligned with their particular vaccine preferences. The second group includes those individuals who are lonely and/or who enjoy walking but don’t know where to go or what to do to meet new people who are looking to do the same. There are plenty of people like this with no good solution to be had. ZNEEX is that solution. What are your current goals for your business? Our goal is to grow the ZNEEX user base as aggressively as possible. What would you like to achieve for yourself and your business in the future? I’d like to drive ZNEEX to become a million dollar business that demonstrates that “every difficult situation holds unique opportunities for good if you maintain a positive attitude, a genuine desire, and look hard enough.” Who inspires you to be the best that you can be? God and my children. What is your work inspired by? The discord running wild across our nation and the strong understanding that “we are better than this.” The knowledge that every great empire comes to an end but we don’t need today to be that end. We still have a choice. Tell us about your greatest career achievement so far. Having a career that is meaningful while raising four plus one incredibly gifted, happy and successful children on my own. Ultimately, ending up a very close family despite the passing of my husband so young in our lives”. If you could change one thing about your industry, what would it be and why? I’d love to see “the good of humanity” take precedence over “the almighty dollar.” Tell us about a pivotal moment in your life that brought you to where you are today. How about I let you read about that moment instead as my recent book called “Be Careful What You Wish For” is based heavily upon my real-life story. Called a “magnum opus” by critics, you can pick it up on Amazon today... Follow me on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and visit my website for more info! Read more from Laura!