Written by Sharon LeShane, Executive Leadership Coach, Speaker, and Business Consultant Sharon LeShane is the founder of LeShane Synergy and a dynamic Business Coach, Consultant, Transformational Personal Coach, speaker, and writer. Her work bridges professional development and holistic wellness, offering Reiki, Reiki Training, Sound Alchemy, Yoga, and Meditation. Sharon is also the creator of two empowering group coaching experiences, Awaken Your Authentic Self and Sacred Feminine Rising. Healers, leaders, and guides dedicate themselves to empowering others, creating safe spaces for transformation, and fostering growth. They hold space for the light and shadow in others, offering wisdom and compassion without judgment. But in their unwavering commitment to serve, do they extend the same care and support to themselves? What is a healer? Healers are teachers, leaders, guides, and coaches. Authentic leaders do not wish to be placed on a pedestal or consider themselves better than others. They recognize that we all have the same light and spark within us, allowing us to become anything we want to be. Healers do not heal others; they guide and empower by embodying wisdom, compassion, and integrity. Healers create a safe space for growth, assisting others in unlocking their potential and breaking through the barriers holding them back. They guide others to accept all parts of themselves, dedicating themselves to uplifting and nurturing others while witnessing both their light and shadow without judgment. However, are they doing that for themselves? Or do they often neglect the most essential act of self-love: receiving? Just as muscles require rest days to rebuild after intense training, our minds, bodies, and spirits need space to restore. Without intentional rest, we risk burnout, stagnation, and losing the clarity that allows us to serve others passionately. Furthermore, if we do not pause for our healing and growth, are we truly aligned with the principles we teach? Are we embodying the wisdom we share? Guiding and growing Leaders have not arrived at a final destination or stopped growing. It's important to recognize that, as leaders, we continue to benefit from seeking guidance from mentors, healers, teachers, and guides. It is equally important for clients to see coaches as the imperfect humans we are, not as some unrealistic, unattainable state of being. This empowers others to love and accept all parts of themselves. The moment we believe we know it all, we stop growing. Our ego may tell us we are confident and have reached our destination; however, that is usually fear disguised as certainty. Fear of failure, being seen as inadequate, losing credibility, or admitting we don’t have all the answers comes from ego. The need to control and hold on to the illusion that we must be perfect to help others also stems from ego. True strength and growth emerge from having the courage to remain open to receiving wisdom and guidance as we continue to guide others. Being a healer is not about perfection. Just as we nonjudgmentally meet and accept clients where they are, we can embrace ourselves and our cycles of giving and receiving. In doing so, we expand and become living proof that growth is a journey, not a destination. In healing ourselves, we create a beautiful ripple effect that benefits both us and those we support. Ego: Friend or foe? The ego is that part of us that defines our identity. It is an internal protector shaped by past experiences, conditioned beliefs, and fear. However, our ego is not our enemy. It is a well-intentioned force designed to keep us safe. It whispers caution when we step into the unknown and resists uncertain change. It sometimes builds walls instead of boundaries, and although its role is to shield us from danger, it can also hold us back. If we allow our ego to control us, it will have us mistaking growth for danger and comfort for security. Recognizing and accepting ego requires deep self-awareness. It often manifests as resistance, self-doubt, avoidance, self-grandeur, overthinking, and the illusion of control. It convinces us that staying the same is safer than evolving. When we move awareness from our minds to our hearts, we know that vulnerability is not a weakness; it is a bridge to a deeper connection with ourselves and others. In the stillness of our hearts, we can distinguish between real danger and the fear of expansion. In the words of Marianne Williamson, “Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us.” Growth asks us to acknowledge our egos and fears with compassion. We are not meant to fight our ego but to understand, transcend, and allow it to transform us. While the ego's protection is valued, our growth and transformation bring joy and expansion beyond our imagination. It's important to remember that the goal is not to destroy or eliminate the ego as if it were our enemy. Our goal is to consciously lead it with courage rather than unconsciously allowing it to control and lead us. Embracing discomfort: The path to breakthroughs Transformation requires the shedding of our old selves. Most of us want the benefits of transformation without doing the necessary work to achieve it. To be reborn, parts of us must, in essence, die. This can be uncomfortable, as it involves relinquishing familiar patterns, surrendering control, and stepping into the unknown. We are often deeply attached to who we are; this is evident in statements like, “I have always been this way.” To make room for the new, we must let go of the old and familiar. Consider the metamorphosis of a caterpillar into a butterfly. This process is a literal death of the old self, as it sheds its chrysalis to emerge as a beautiful, colorful butterfly that can take flight. What an amazing transformation! Does the caterpillar fear what it is leaving behind to become what it is meant to be? Does it know how magnificent it will become? Could it even imagine that it would grow wings and fly? When leaders and healers allow their outdated identities to fade, they unlock wisdom and strength that were previously untapped. This opens doors to creativity, compassion, and a renewed sense of purpose. By surrendering, we can let go of our need for control, and just as the butterfly spreads its wings and takes flight, we realize our next level of abundance. This requires us to trust in the divine unfolding. The death of the old and familiar may be uncomfortable; however, it is a powerful opportunity for rebirth. We can tap into limitless potential by rewiring and recoding subconscious beliefs, eventually reaching a state of completeness. We end the old chapter that was not working and rewrite a new chapter, or quantum jump to a completely new book. When we are open and trusting, we receive downloads of divine wisdom and reach deeper levels of consciousness, resulting in creative breakthroughs. Lead by example: Align actions with our teachings When we face life's challenges and experience stress and anxiety, there are tools we can use to lessen their effects. When our nervous system is triggered, we can use breathing techniques, yoga, meditation, mindfulness, walking in nature, grounding, cold water plunges, and many other methods for healthy emotional processing. However, sometimes reaching out to another leader, healer, or coach for support is necessary. Receiving assistance accelerates our healing and enhances our growth. Supporting one another requires acknowledging that our well-being is the cornerstone of our service. It empowers us to offer more heart-centered and transformative guidance and inspires powerful waves of change. Our well-being is our foundation as leaders; a strong one will generate strength and elevate those around us. Asking another for guidance is not a sign of weakness; it is a sign of courage and recognition that we are all interconnected. The person who becomes your guide today may turn to you for their healing tomorrow. This reciprocal healing is not possible if we are led by ego. We all have unique gifts to offer and are like pieces of a divine universal puzzle. No one piece is more or less important. Whether it is in alignment to give or receive will depend on where we are on our healing journey and the timing of life's inevitable highs and lows. By setting aside our egos and fears, we remain open and learn from one another. This honors our unique individuality and our sacred interconnectedness. As leaders and healers, we need to be challenged if we want to continue growing. Seeking guidance from a healer you trust, someone who will give it to you straight, is valuable. To heal that next layer, we need someone to offer honest direction without sugarcoating for fear of hurting our feelings. This helps us reach our next level of growth, enrich our lives, and expand the service we offer others. During periods of rest and reflection, our energy is like the chrysalis stage of the butterfly, a time of metamorphosis. When the butterfly leaves the chrysalis, it unfolds its wings and flies. This is what accepting guidance does for us as leaders. We let go of the old and familiar and emerge with newfound freedom, creativity, and limitless potential. When we are rested and emerge confident, we rise transformed, spread our wings, and soar. I am so grateful for the beautiful leaders, healers, and mentors who have, and continue to, offer love, guidance, and motivation. I witness the strength and wisdom in their humility as they continue their journey of self-improvement, and I am inspired to strive to be my best self. By nurturing one another, we deepen our healing and amplify the impact on those we support. Let our actions reflect our teachings as we lead by embodiment. Follow me on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and visit my website for more info! Read more from Sharon LeShane Sharon LeShane, Executive Leadership Coach, Speaker, and Business Consultant Sharon LeShane founded LeShane Seaside Vitality, offering Reiki, Reiki training, personal coaching, yoga, women’s circles, meditation and sound alchemy. She also created the empowering coaching experiences, Awaken Your Authentic Self and Sacred Feminine Rising. With a background as a Chartered Professional Accountant, business consultant, and instructor, expanding into business coaching and consulting was a natural evolution to meet her clients’ changing needs. This inspired the rebrand to LeShane Synergy.

Written by Kiara Pooja Chandru, Founder & CEO, KiLeela Kiara Pooja Chandru is the visionary Founder & CEO of KiLeela. A premium beauty brand built on the belief that beauty is inclusive, confidence-driven, and transformative. Where she turned her pain into a brand. The phrase self-care has become one of the most overused terms of the last decade. Scroll through social media, and you'll find endless images of bubble baths, candles, luxury spas, expensive skincare routines, and weekend getaways, all labeled as self-care. While these moments can certainly feel restorative, they often miss the deeper meaning. Self-care is not something you buy, it is not a face mask, a luxury hotel, or even skincare. Self-care begins with something far less visible, it begins with self-respect. The conversation we have with ourselves Most of us speak to ourselves in ways we would never speak to someone we love. We criticise our reflection. We replay mistakes. We compare ourselves to strangers on the internet. We apologise for taking up space. We overwork ourselves to prove our worth. We say yes when we desperately want to say no. Over time, these small moments become habits. Those habits become beliefs. Those beliefs shape our confidence. Long before the outside world forms an opinion of us, we have already formed one about ourselves. Our bodies often reflect it. Stress appears on our skin. Anxiety steals our sleep. Burnout drains our energy. Negative self-talk changes the way we carry ourselves. People often ask how to look more radiant. The answer isn't always found in another beauty product. Sometimes it begins by changing the relationship we have with ourselves. Respect is more than confidence When we hear the phrase self-respect, we often imagine confidence. But confidence is only one expression of self-respect. Self-respect is also: Honouring your boundaries. Allowing yourself to rest without guilt. Walking away from relationships that diminish your peace. Fuelling your body with nourishment instead of punishment. Moving because your body deserves care, not because it needs to earn food. Protecting your mental wellbeing as intentionally as your physical health. Self-respect is choosing yourself, not because you're better than anyone else, but because you recognise your own worth. That recognition changes everything. Your inner world always finds a way to show itself We've all met people who are undeniably beautiful, yet something feels absent. We've also met people who may not fit conventional beauty standards, yet they light up every room they enter. What creates that difference? Presence Peace Confidence Kindness Purpose These qualities cannot be purchased. They are cultivated. True beauty has always been more than symmetry or flawless skin. It is the energy created when someone feels comfortable in who they are. You can sense it before they even speak. The hidden cost of constant productivity Modern society celebrates being busy. Our calendars are full. Our notifications never stop. Many of us feel guilty simply for resting. Somewhere along the way, slowing down became associated with laziness. Yet our minds and bodies were never designed to operate at full capacity every hour of every day. When we ignore exhaustion, we disconnect from ourselves. We become reactive instead of intentional. We rush through meals. We rush through conversations. We rush through our mornings. Even the moments meant to care for ourselves become another task to complete. How often do we rush through our skincare routine while thinking about tomorrow's meetings? How often do we apply products without ever truly looking at ourselves? When self-care becomes another item on a checklist, we lose its purpose. Self-care influences every relationship The way we treat ourselves becomes the standard for how others treat us. When we constantly neglect ourselves, we unconsciously teach others that our needs can wait. When we never establish boundaries, people learn to expect unlimited access to our time and energy. When we constantly seek validation, we give others permission to define our worth. But when we respect ourselves, something shifts. We communicate differently. We carry ourselves differently. We make decisions differently. Not because we've become someone new, but because we've remembered who we are. Self-respect quietly transforms every relationship in our lives, including the one we have with ourselves. The greatest form of self-care Self-care is often portrayed as indulgence, but it is a responsibility. It is choosing habits that protect your peace. It is speaking to yourself with compassion. It is honouring your body rather than criticising it. It is understanding that your worth has never depended on your productivity, your appearance, or anyone else's approval. The relationship you have with yourself sets the tone for every other relationship in your life. When you begin treating yourself with respect, everything else starts to change. Not overnight. Not perfectly. But intentionally. Because self-care is not a luxury reserved for special occasions. It is one of the clearest expressions of self-respect. When we learn to respect ourselves fully, confidence is no longer something we must chase. It becomes something we naturally carry with us every single day. Why I created KiLeela When I founded KiLeela, I wasn't interested in creating another beauty brand focused solely on appearance. The beauty industry is filled with products promising transformation. I wanted to create something different. I wanted to encourage women to slow down. To reconnect. To create moments of intention in a world that constantly asks them to move faster. For me, beauty is never just about what we see in the mirror. It is about how we feel when we stand in front of it. Because the most luxurious thing we can give ourselves isn't another product. It's our presence, and this is the energy that no product or skincare can replicate. The energy that changes in a woman shows on her skin over time. This is what modern society has forgotten. Energy, presence and aura are what create the real transformation in an individual. Follow me on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn and visit my website for more info! Read more from Kiara Pooja Chandru Kiara Pooja Chandru, Founder & CEO, KiLeela Kiara is a beauty entrepreneur building KiLeela, where her journey began not from confidence, but from pain, spending her teens and twenties battling acne and personal insecurities that deeply wounded her self-worth and left her believing beauty was something she had to earn. She measured herself against impossible beauty standards, feeling like she never quite belonged in beauty spaces. But that pain became her turning point, and through intentional self-care and deep inner work, she discovered that real glow is not something you buy, it is something you build. That revelation gave birth to KiLeela, a brand rooted in the philosophy that beauty is a form of self-mastery. Because beauty fades, but your presence lasts.

Written by Kiara Pooja Chandru, Founder & CEO, KiLeela Kiara Pooja Chandru is the visionary Founder & CEO of KiLeela. A premium beauty brand built on the belief that beauty is inclusive, confidence-driven, and transformative. Where she turned her pain into a brand. We live in a world that likes to say looks don’t matter. Yet every day, our actions suggest otherwise. We invest in skincare, makeup, fashion, fitness, cosmetic procedures, and personal grooming. Companies build multibillion-dollar industries around helping people look and feel their best. Employers speak about hiring based on merit, yet first impressions inevitably influence how we perceive one another. Social media celebrates authenticity while rewarding polished, carefully curated images. Whether we like it or not, appearance influences perception. That doesn’t mean beauty is everything. But pretending it has no influence doesn’t make that true either. For a long time, this is what many women have struggled with. We have always questioned why women have to carry so much pressure to look a certain way. Why are we expected to be intelligent, ambitious, kind, confident, and somehow effortlessly beautiful at the same time? Why does appearance seem to shape opportunities, relationships, and even the way people listen to us? It seems unfair, right? But instead of focusing on how unfair it is, change your perspective. You could spend your life complaining about the rules, or you could simply learn to play the game of life. Understanding the game When it is said that beauty is currency, it does not suggest that a woman’s value is determined by her appearance. Far from it. Alongside confidence, communication skills, and emotional intelligence, appearance influences the way a woman is perceived. Think about a job interview. Most of us choose professional clothing. We prepare our presentation. We rehearse what we are going to say. We do not do these things because they define our worth. We do them because we understand that presentation matters. Beauty works in a similar way. Looking after ourselves, dressing intentionally, and presenting ourselves well can influence first impressions. That is not a moral judgement. It is simply part of how people form perceptions. Acknowledging that reality does not mean we are superficial. It means we are aware. The difference between playing the game and losing yourself The danger comes when we confuse beauty with identity, when we believe that looking good is the same as being worthy, when compliments become our measure of confidence, and when our reflection determines our mood. That is where many women quietly suffer. No matter how much we improve our appearance, there will always be another trend to chase. Another product. Another standard. Another comparison. The game never ends if someone else is writing the rules. So, make a different decision. Play the game, but do not allow it to define you as an individual. Choose to invest in yourself, not because you are not enough, but because you want to show up as the best version of yourself. That shift changes everything. What history can teach us Across ancient civilisations, from Egypt and India to Japan and China, beauty rituals were not driven by insecurity. They were rooted in care. Women massaged oils into their skin, prepared herbal treatments, spent time tending to their hair, and passed these traditions from mothers to daughters. Beauty was not a race towards perfection. It was a quiet ritual of presence. Somewhere along the way, we traded rituals for routines. We traded intention for speed. We traded connection for correction. Instead of asking, “How can I fix myself?” we must ask, “How can I care for myself?” That shift says a lot about the world we live in. Beauty is a tool, not your identity It is a harsh truth. Beauty is a form of currency, just as confidence can open doors, communication can build relationships, and knowledge can create opportunities. But none of those things should define who we are. Beauty is a tool, not an identity. The moment we understand that distinction, we stop seeking validation through our reflection and start using beauty as a form of self-expression rather than a measure of self-worth. Perhaps the conversation should not be about whether beauty matters. Perhaps the real question is this: Can we embrace beauty without allowing it to define our value? I believe we can because the most powerful woman in the room is not necessarily the most beautiful. She is the one who understands that her appearance may introduce her, but her character, confidence, and presence are what people remember. Perhaps that is the most valuable currency of all. Follow me on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn and visit my website for more info! Read more from Kiara Pooja Chandru Kiara Pooja Chandru, Founder & CEO, KiLeela Kiara is a beauty entrepreneur building KiLeela, where her journey began not from confidence, but from pain, spending her teens and twenties battling acne and personal insecurities that deeply wounded her self-worth and left her believing beauty was something she had to earn. She measured herself against impossible beauty standards, feeling like she never quite belonged in beauty spaces. But that pain became her turning point, and through intentional self-care and deep inner work, she discovered that real glow is not something you buy, it is something you build. That revelation gave birth to KiLeela, a brand rooted in the philosophy that beauty is a form of self-mastery. Because beauty fades, but your presence lasts.

Creating an original anime character is about a lot more than generating one attractive image and calling it done. Most beginners have a spark of an idea, a personality, a mood, maybe a rough backstory, but struggle to turn that into a visual design, and struggle even more to keep that design recognizable across future artwork. Memorable anime OCs come from an intentional design process, not a single lucky generation, and that process is learnable even if you've never drawn a character in your life. This guide walks through a repeatable idea-to-design workflow: defining who your character is, translating that into visual choices, exploring directions, locking in defining traits, and building a reference you can reuse for years of future art. PixAI comes up throughout as a practical example, since it supports the whole journey, from open-ended brainstorming to the consistency tools that keep a finished design intact. Start with the character, not the artwork Successful character design begins with who the character is, not what they look like. Before generating anything, spend real time defining the basics: Personality: Shy or outgoing, serious or playful, confident or anxious Goals: What does this character actually want? Strengths and weaknesses: What are they good at, and where do they struggle? Background: What shaped them before the story starts? Role in the story: Protagonist, rival, mentor, comic relief Relationships: Who matters to them, and why This isn't busywork. A character with clear personality traits naturally guides visual design choices later, a shy character reads differently from a confident one through posture and expression alone, even before you've decided on a single hairstyle. The strongest anime OCs feel like real people wearing an anime art style, not the other way around. Turn personality into visual design Once personality is settled, it starts to influence visual design through several channels at once: Hairstyle: Long hair tends to read as gentle or graceful; short hair often reads as confident or practical Clothing: Outfit choices communicate personality almost instantly, before a viewer reads any dialogue Color palette: Warm tones feel energetic; cool tones feel calm or reserved Accessories: Small details like jewelry, bags, or weapons reveal personality in ways big design choices can't Expressions and body language: A habitual half-smile or a tendency to cross arms says as much as the outfit does Signature features and silhouette: The shape a character reads as even in silhouette, with no color or detail at all A shy character might end up in soft pastels with gentle, rounded features, while a rebellious character leans toward bold colors and sharper lines. This kind of visual-personality alignment is what makes a character instantly readable, viewers pick up on it even before they know anything about the story. As a rule of thumb, every visual choice should reinforce personality and archetype rather than exist purely for decoration. It also helps to think in terms of silhouette specifically. If you can strip away color and detail and still recognize your character from shape alone, a distinctive hair silhouette, an unusual outfit cut, a particular posture, that's a strong sign the design has a real identity behind it. Characters that only work in full color and fine detail tend to blur together in a viewer's memory, while a strong silhouette is what makes fan art and quick sketches instantly recognizable as "that character" even in rough form. Explore multiple design directions with AI Your first AI generation is very rarely your final design, and that's fine, it's supposed to be a starting point, not a finish line. Generate a wide range of variations: different hairstyles, color schemes, clothing styles, accessories, even different art styles or models entirely. Treat this phase as creative and experimental rather than something you're trying to get right on the first try. This is a good stage to get started with Mio.2, PixAI's conversational image agent, since its chat-based workflow is built for exactly this kind of open-ended refinement. Rather than needing a perfectly engineered prompt from the start, you can describe your idea in plain language and refine it through natural back-and-forth. You might start with something as simple as "anime girl, long hair, school uniform," narrow it to "shy anime girl with gentle features," and refine further to "shy girl with a round face, soft pink hair, nervous expression." That gradual back-and-forth mirrors how a human artist actually sketches toward a finished character, a few rough passes before anything starts to feel locked in. Choose the traits that define your character Eventually, the exploration phase needs to converge. Look back through everything you've generated and start locking in the specific choices that define your character going forward: Hair color and style Eye color Outfit A signature accessory A characteristic pose A default facial expression Character proportions Core personality traits The goal here is consistency over constant redesign. It's tempting to keep chasing a slightly better version forever, but a character only starts to feel real once these choices are settled and repeated across multiple pieces of art. You can always evolve a design later, but that's a deliberate update, not an accident of never having decided in the first place. Build a reusable character reference Every original character benefits from a proper reference sheet, whether you're generating future art yourself or eventually working with a human artist. A solid reference should include: Front, side, and back views A range of facial expressions Outfit details, shown clearly The character's color palette, ideally with specific codes Accessories, shown up close Notes for future artwork, anything easy to forget or get slightly wrong Having this in one place makes every future illustration faster and more accurate, because you're no longer relying on memory or a handful of scattered images to remember what your character actually looks like. Keep your character consistent across future artwork Consistency tends to become the biggest challenge right after you finish your first successful image. Every new generation is a fresh roll of the dice unless you actively work to preserve your character's defining traits, exact hair color, distinctive markings, signature clothing, by referencing them explicitly in every prompt going forward. For a structured approach, keep your character consistent with these 3 beginner methods covers practical, beginner-friendly techniques for preserving the same OC across future generations. The more detailed your documentation and the more consistently you reuse it, the more recognizable your character stays over time, though it's worth setting realistic expectations here too, since even careful documentation won't produce perfectly identical results every single time. Minor variation is normal; the goal is a character that's clearly, recognizably the same one, not pixel-perfect repetition. Common mistakes new OC creators make Designing before developing the personality: Appearance without a foundation tends to feel generic Copying popular anime characters too closely: Borrow influences, but avoid recreating an existing character wholesale Adding too many defining features: A character with ten "signature" details has none; pick a few that matter Constantly changing the design: Some evolution is healthy, but redesigning every few images prevents recognition Ignoring character references: Skipping documentation is the fastest way to lose consistency Expecting one AI generation to produce the perfect OC: Treat early generations as drafts, not final answers Most of these come down to the same underlying fix: slow down at the planning stage, and treat the first few generations as exploration rather than a final result. It's also worth remembering that even experienced creators run into these mistakes occasionally, the difference is usually how quickly they catch it and go back to the planning step instead of pushing forward with a design that isn't quite working. Why PixAI fits the entire character design process Across the workflow above, PixAI supports each stage rather than just one part of it: Conversational idea exploration through Mio.2, for beginners without a fully formed prompt yet Rapid iteration across hairstyles, outfits, color schemes, and art styles Tools for building out character references across angles and expressions Consistency techniques for keeping a finished design recognizable over time A workflow that's reusable for every future piece of art featuring the same character A beginner-friendly experience that doesn't assume prior drawing or prompting skill None of this guarantees a perfect character on the first try, or perfectly identical results across every future generation, character design is still a creative, iterative process. What PixAI offers is a set of tools that make each stage of that process faster and more approachable, especially for creators without traditional drawing skills. Final thoughts Memorable anime OCs come from an intentional design process, not a single perfect generation. Start with personality, let that personality guide your visual choices, explore broadly before narrowing down, lock in the traits that define your character, and document everything in a reference you can return to. Each new piece of artwork should reinforce the character you've built rather than reinvent them. Keep refining, keep documenting, and keep reusing your reference as you continue creating, that ongoing process is what turns a rough idea into a character readers and viewers actually remember. Your OC's journey starts with the first honest question, "Who are they, really, before you decide what they look like?"

Katalin Fligg is a consciousness educator, trance mediumship teacher, and spiritual practitioner dedicated to helping people explore intuition, self-awareness, and personal transformation. Through her work in trance, mediumship, and healing, she guides individuals to develop a deeper connection with themselves while emphasising ethics, personal responsibility, and empowerment. In this interview, Katalin shares her insights on consciousness, altered states of awareness, intuitive development, and how life experiences can become catalysts for profound inner growth. Katalin Fligg, Trance Evidential Medium & Consciousness Educator Your work spans consciousness education, trance mediumship, and healing. How do these disciplines come together in your teaching? My teaching brings together consciousness education, trance mediumship, healing, and manifestation as one integrated path of personal transformation. I believe that true manifestation begins with consciousness. When we enter deep trance states, particularly Theta states, we become more receptive to profound inner change, allowing old limitations to dissolve and new possibilities to emerge. My work is inspired by universal principles – often described as Hermetic laws – which teach that our inner world shapes our outer reality through intention, vibration, harmony, and conscious awareness. Every workshop combines meditation and theory with direct experience. Participants practice with one another in simulated private sittings, healing sessions, and guided rituals, while also having opportunities to step onto the platform and immediately apply what they have learned. This transforms knowledge into lived experience and builds confidence. An essential part of becoming an effective medium, healer, or conscious manifester is removing what blocks the natural flow of energy. Every exercise, therefore, serves two purposes: it helps the person receiving the session while simultaneously fostering healing, self-awareness, and growth for the practitioner. As participants release fear, resistance, and emotional burdens, they become clearer channels for higher consciousness, healing energies, and authentic spiritual guidance – allowing transformation to occur for themselves and those they serve. You describe trance mediumship as a skill that can be developed through disciplined practice. What do most students misunderstand before they begin? Most students begin by thinking that trance mediumship is something outside of themselves – a technique to master or a process to repeat. In reality, it begins with discovering who they truly are. Before they learn to connect with the spirit world, they first learn to connect with their own spirit, their own consciousness, and the infinite intelligence that already exists within them. The foundation of my teaching is a deep meditative practice in altered states of consciousness. In this state, students move beyond everyday thinking and directly experience presence, unity, and their own inner knowing. Rather than simply believing spiritual concepts, they begin to experience them for themselves. Knowledge gained through direct experience cannot be learned from a book alone. Research by Mary Helen Immordino-Yang demonstrates that emotionally meaningful experiences accompanied by emotional engagement are encoded more deeply in the brain, making them easier to integrate, remember, and apply throughout life. My work is also guided by Hermetic principles – the universal laws that describe how consciousness and reality interact. Students experience principles such as living fully in the present moment, unity, harmony, vibration, and the understanding that "as within, so without." These are not just philosophical ideas but lived experiences during meditation and trance. Once students discover that the source of wisdom, creativity, and spiritual intelligence already exists within them, mediumship becomes a natural expression rather than a performance. From that place, healing, manifestation, and authentic communication with higher realms emerge effortlessly, grounded in self-awareness, responsibility, and direct experience rather than belief alone. Ethical development is a recurring theme in your work. Why is it just as important as developing intuitive ability? Developing intuitive ability without ethical development is like having a powerful instrument without understanding how responsibly to use it. The deeper we explore altered states of consciousness, the more important integrity, humility, and respect for individual experience become. With greater awareness and knowledge comes greater responsibility. For me, trance is not about giving someone answers or directing their experience. It is about creating a safe and supportive space where people can connect with their own spirit, inner wisdom, and consciousness. Through this connection, we naturally begin to raise our frequency, which many spiritual traditions describe as ascension – an expansion of consciousness where we connect more deeply with our infinite self. As consciousness expands, we begin to see a bigger picture and develop a deeper understanding of ourselves and our purpose. One of the greatest gifts of trance is that it supports inner transformation. It helps us use the ego consciously – not to protect old wounds, insecurities, or seek validation, but to set clear intentions for healing, growth, and positive creation. Intuitive abilities such as deeper perception, mediumistic awareness, and heightened sensitivity can then unfold naturally as a result of this development. Ethical practice means that the practitioner empowers rather than creates dependency. A good teacher does not create followers; they help people discover who they truly are and encourage them to become the best version of themselves. Authentic teaching comes from lived experience, continuous learning, and humility. Ethical development ensures that our abilities are always guided by compassion, responsibility, and respect. Interest in consciousness and spirituality has grown rapidly in recent years. What changes have stood out to you most? The growing interest in consciousness and spirituality reflects a deeper human need for self-discovery and self-expression in a rapidly changing world. Digitalisation, globalisation, and social changes are transforming how we work, connect, and define ourselves. As technology replaces more traditional roles, we may have more opportunity to explore who we truly are and what we want to contribute. Men’s roles are also evolving, with many feeling more comfortable accessing their sensitive and intuitive sides, allowing them to discover a more balanced expression of themselves. At the same time, more people are questioning consciousness, our connection to life, and the possibility of other forms of existence. Many feel that the answers they seek are not only outside of themselves, but also within. This inner exploration is where true transformation begins. How do you help people explore altered states of consciousness without losing sight of everyday life and personal responsibility? One of the main purposes of trance mediumship is not to escape everyday life but to engage with it more consciously. Meditation and especially trance meditation are not about placing a temporary bandage over life's challenges or becoming dependent on spiritual experiences as a form of escapism. Instead, it helps us develop the awareness, resilience, and inner wisdom to meet life more fully. Before students learn to connect with higher spiritual energies, they first learn to connect with their own soul and ask a different question: not "What do I want?" but "What do I truly need for my growth on a physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual level?" This inner connection becomes the foundation for personal development. As students deepen their trance practice, they may invite higher spiritual intelligences to provide healing, inspiration, and broader perspectives. However, the purpose is always to bring these insights back into everyday life – to heal, make wiser decisions, manifest positive change, and live with greater authenticity. Personal responsibility is never replaced by spiritual guidance. Trance is a voluntary, fully controllable altered state of consciousness, and the individual always remains responsible for how they interpret insights and the choices they make afterward. Spiritual experiences are not meant to remove accountability but to strengthen it. My goal is to help people become more self-aware, more empowered, and more capable of taking conscious action, using spiritual wisdom as a source of inspiration rather than a substitute for their own responsibility. For someone who wants to strengthen their intuition, what is the best place to start? The best place to begin is not by trying to become intuitive, but by becoming deeply present. Intuition is easier to access when the mind becomes quieter, and the nervous system feels safe. I therefore encourage people to start with meditation, gratitude practices, and gentle breathing techniques that stimulate the vagus nerve – for example, slow diaphragmatic breathing with a longer exhale than inhale. Research by neuroscientist Stephen Porges, developer of the Polyvagal Theory, suggests that regulating the vagus nerve helps move us out of survival mode, making us more receptive, emotionally balanced, and aware of subtle inner signals. Listening to binaural beats can also support relaxation and help some people enter deeper meditative states, including slower brainwave activity such as Theta, where analytical thinking softens, and intuitive awareness often becomes more accessible. Research into the adaptive unconscious, including the work of psychologist Timothy D. Wilson in Strangers to Ourselves: Discovering the Adaptive Unconscious (2002), shows that our subconscious mind continuously processes far more information than we consciously perceive. Within my spiritual approach, I see intuition as the bridge between this deeper subconscious processing, our instincts, and the wisdom of the soul. As self-awareness grows, people learn to distinguish fear from genuine intuitive guidance. Journaling dreams, practising with others, and developing compassionate self-awareness all strengthen this connection. Ultimately, intuition is less about acquiring a new gift and more about learning to trust the quiet wisdom that has always been within us. What practices have had the biggest impact on your own resilience, clarity, and self-awareness over the years? The practices that have had the greatest impact on my resilience, clarity, and self-awareness have been meditation, trance development, self-reflection, and the continuous willingness to learn from life itself. Through trance and altered states of consciousness, I have learned to quiet the noise of everyday life and connect more deeply with my own spirit, intuition, and inner wisdom. This has helped me understand myself beyond my experiences, emotions, and limiting beliefs, allowing me to see the bigger picture and approach challenges with greater awareness. Another important practice has been self-honesty – the willingness to look within, heal old patterns, and transform experiences into wisdom rather than allowing them to define me. I also believe lifelong learning is essential. I regularly continue my own development through training and working with experienced teachers because growth never ends. Every experience we have is an opportunity to expand our consciousness, deepen our understanding, and become more aligned with who we truly are. Looking back, how did supporting a family member through severe depression reshape your understanding of consciousness and personal transformation? Initially, my motivation came from love and the desire to help, but along the way I discovered an important lesson: we cannot be responsible for another person’s journey or transformation. It would be an illusion to believe that we can take away certain experiences from another person simply because we want to protect them or because we believe we know what would be best for them. True transformation has to come from within, and every soul has its own path, timing, and experiences to navigate. Through this experience, I realised that my desire to “save” this person was also connected to an old childhood wound within myself – a part of me that wanted to fix something from the past. Although I had already supported hundreds of people through my work, I discovered that the person who needed the deepest healing and self-discovery was me. This experience led me to explore consciousness in a completely different way. I began meditating and, through those experiences, felt guided to attend the Arthur Findlay College - a leading centre for spiritual and mediumship education in the UK – because I wanted to understand the profound experiences I was having. There, my journey into mediumship, trance, and consciousness began. I started to understand that life is not only what we perceive through our physical senses, but also the depth of our inner world, our choices, and the emotional states we cultivate. I learned that by transforming myself, my awareness, and my own energy, I could create a different experience of life and ultimately support others from a place of wisdom rather than the need to save. If you could leave readers with one insight about consciousness that could change how they live, what would it be? If I could leave readers with one insight about consciousness, it would be this: we are not only experiencing life; we are also participating in creating our experience of it. Many people search outside themselves for answers, but true transformation begins with the awareness of our own inner world. The thoughts we choose, the emotions we cultivate, and the energy we bring into each moment influence how we perceive and experience life. A powerful question to ask ourselves is: “Am I living from old patterns, fears, and expectations, or from the deeper truth of who I am?” When we become conscious of ourselves, we gain the freedom to choose differently. Self-awareness is the beginning of true personal transformation. Follow me on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and visit my website for more info! Read more from Katalin Fligg

Written by Martha Maria Smith, Bilingual Mentor Martie Smith's journey as a Resilience Ambassador began in Colombia and highlights her steadfast strength and adaptability, from her service in the US Air Force to becoming a Radiation Therapist and a certified personal trainer at 62. An internationally acclaimed author and Poet Laureate, she mentors young individuals and shares her expertise. Life often teaches its most meaningful lessons through unexpected moments. In this reflective article, Martie M. Smith explores how prayer, humility, and a renewed perspective can help us recognize God’s fingerprints in creation, struggle, growth, and the ordinary experiences that shape our faith. What if the greatest classroom you’ve ever attended has no walls, no tuition, and no graduation ceremony, yet it has been teaching you every day of your life? In more than thirty-five years of teaching the faith to children, teens, and adults, I’ve discovered that people rarely struggle because they lack information. More often, they struggle because they lack perspective. We can read Scripture, attend classes, and gather knowledge, yet still overlook what God is revealing through everyday life. Knowledge informs the mind. Wisdom transforms the heart. That transformation begins when we slow down enough to notice that life itself has become one of God’s greatest classrooms. As a photographer, I’ve learned that two people can stand in the same place, look at the same scene, and capture completely different images. The landscape didn’t change. The lens did. Life works much the same way. Our experiences matter, but the lens through which we interpret them often shapes us even more. Sometimes the greatest miracle isn’t that our circumstances change. It’s that our perspective does. Jesus taught this beautifully. He pointed to seeds, vineyards, birds, lilies, fishermen, storms, and mustard seeds because creation reflects its Creator. Every sunrise after a night, every seed that disappears before it grows, and every season that follows another remind us that God has woven lessons into ordinary life. Creation has never stopped pointing toward Him. So why do we miss so much? I don’t believe it’s because God has stopped speaking. I believe we’ve become distracted by the clutter we’ve collected along the way. Disappointment, fear, blame, pride, insecurity, limiting beliefs, and unhealed wounds gradually become the lens through which we interpret ourselves, others, and even God. Without realizing it, yesterday’s pain begins narrating today’s story. Prayer has a remarkable way of cleaning that lens. Honest self-examination does the same. Neither changes who God is, but both change what we can recognize. They invite us to ask deeper questions. Which beliefs are rooted in truth, and which were born from fear? Am I responding to today’s reality or reacting to an old wound? Am I allowing God’s voice to shape my identity, or am I still listening to the echoes of past disappointments? Those questions aren’t meant to condemn us. They’re invitations to freedom. Looking back over my own journey, I can now see that many of God’s greatest gifts arrived wrapped in packages I never would have chosen. What felt like an interruption became preparation. What looked like a detour became direction. What seemed like loss often made room for growth I couldn’t have imagined. Faith didn’t remove the struggle, but it revealed purpose within it. Only with time did I recognize God’s fingerprints where I once saw only confusion. That’s why I believe the School of Life never closes. Every conversation has something to teach us. Every challenge offers an opportunity to grow. Every season invites us to trust more deeply. The lessons have always been there. The question is whether we are willing to become lifelong students. Perhaps the mystery was never God. Perhaps the mystery has always been the lens through which we choose to look. When prayer clears the clutter and humility reshapes our perspective, we begin to recognize what was there all along. We see God’s fingerprints in Scripture, in creation, in unexpected kindness, in unanswered prayers that later reveal their purpose, and even in the chapters we once wished had never been written. The School of Life has never closed. God has never stopped teaching. His fingerprints have never disappeared. The invitation is simple: clean the lens, pay attention, and let every lesson draw you closer to the One who has been walking beside you all along. Follow me on Facebook, Instagram, and visit my website for more info! Read more from Martha Maria Smith Martha Maria Smith, Bilingual Mentor Martie Smith's journey as a Resilience Ambassador began in Colombia and highlights her unwavering strength and adaptability. She exemplifies resilience from her service in the US Air Force to becoming a Radiation Therapist and certified personal trainer at 62. As an internationally acclaimed author and poet, Martie mentors young individuals, sharing her expertise and spreading messages of hope and resilience globally as a captivating speaker.

Written by Honor Tremain, Nutritionist, Author, and Journalist Honor Tremain is an award-winning longevity nutritionist, author, and journalist whose journey into nutrition began with a personal health crisis. Determined to reclaim her life, she completed qualifications in nutrition, eventually healing herself and going on to complete a Bachelor of Science degree. In the ever-evolving world of nutrition, true breakthroughs are rare, but when leading skin care companies are stockpiling patents related to microalgae, it’s time to take notice. While many so-called “superfoods” come and go, one tiny microalga is quietly emerging as an exciting new area of research in longevity science, beauty, brain health and sustainable nutrition. “It’s the newest superfood, yet the oldest species on earth; the first species in fact!” states Professor Lindsay Brown, Adjunct Professor at Griffith University, QLD, Australia. It’s microalgae! A revolutionary new whole-form, Nannochloropsis Oceanica, is being grown in Australia on the pristine shores of the Byron Bay region, and it’s changing the way we think about beauty, health, food and even the future of our planet. Although microscopic in size, it packs an extraordinary nutritional punch. Rich in complete proteins, essential omega fatty acids, antioxidants, vitamins, minerals and chlorophyll, it delivers an impressive nutritional profile in its pure, natural, vegan form, all while offering the potential to support more sustainable food production. With chronic inflammation rising globally and underpinning accelerated aging along with most of our world’s biggest health concerns; this little plant food could be a potent solution. “I think 'Let food be thy medicine' is one of the best quotes ever conceived. Because you truly are what you eat,” says Dr. Thomas-Hall, Principal Scientist, Chief Technology Officer, and microalgae expert at Seao2nutrition, whose new super-wholefood microalgae, nanno. oceanica aka-Nannovia™ just happens to be a fierce anti-inflammatory firefighter, amongst its many other powerful health impacts. “The abundance of beneficial nutrients in certain microalgae, like the nanno, means there's significant potential to enhance individual health by modulating inflammation at the cellular level. These nutrients help address a wide range of conditions, from cardiovascular and autoimmune diseases to premature aging and even cancer.” In both people and pets, this can mean reduced inflammation and pain, a longer and healthier lifespan, increased vitality, better heart health and cholesterol levels, a lower risk of disease, improved mental clarity, shinier hair and coats, and healthier, glowing skin. Pure powerful beauty begins within Many top skin-care companies are also exploring the potential of microalgae, with nanno being up there due to its unique profile of EPA omega-3, omega-7, combined with antioxidants and chlorophyll, which all support healthy, younger-looking, vibrant skin from the inside out. Newly discovered Omega-7 has been studied for its relationship with skin hydration, healthy mucous membranes and cell rejuvenation, while B vitamins, amino acids, selenium and polyunsaturated fatty acids, nourish, support, moisturise and promote healthy growth of skin, hair and nails. Skin health is further boosted by the antioxidants present, that reduce free radical damage and support cell repair, while anti-inflammatories help reduce redness and swelling. Combined with high-quality protein; providing amino acids needed for collagen and tissue maintenance, this microalga offers nutritional building blocks that truly support healthy, glowing skin, shiny hair and overall vitality. Omega-3: Nature’s potent essential food “Not many people see Omega-3 fatty acids as being essential. But they should,” states Professor Lindsay Brown, Adjunct Professor at Griffith University, QLD, Australia. Omega-3s are vital not only for skin, but for heart, brain, joint, immune, and eye health, yet around 85% of the global population are deficient in them. “Omega-3s are some of the most powerful anti-inflammatory and neuroprotective nutrients we know of. Specifically, EPA (eicosapentaenoic acid) is key for reducing cardiovascular disease, cognitive decline, diabetes, and inflammation,” says Dr. Skye Thomas-Hall. And a big reason fish oil supplements are so beneficial. But here’s the kicker: Fish are not the original producers of the omega-3 found within them. It comes from the microalgae they consume. So, let’s cut out the middleman and go direct to the source: Nanno. Oceanica. Longevity brain food Healthy brain aging is another of today’s greatest health priorities, with the number of people living with dementia and Alzheimer’s disease increasing worldwide. Omega-3 consumption improves cognition, memory, learning and increases blood flow to the brain. Omega-3 also protects against neurodegeneration, preserving nerve cells. EPA omega-3 contributes to the structure and function of cell membranes and, combined with naturally occurring antioxidants, such as powerful violaxanthin, zeaxanthin, lutein, vitamin C, E, and beta carotene, helps protect cells against oxidative stress, lowering inflammation in the brain and in all cells. The whole spectrum advantage Unlike isolated fish oils or synthetic supplements, this microalga delivers nutritional excellence in a whole-food form, where the beneficial compounds work together synergistically, allowing you to gain more from its broad and complex nutritional profile. “Nanno. oceanica isn’t only high in the essential omega’s, it also contains over 50% protein, with 25% being essential amino acids; more than three times what you’d get from beef,” says Dr. Thomas-Hall. “It also contains eight times more iron than red meat but in a gentle, vegetarian form that’s far more sustainable.” The nutritional diversity of this new superfood is one reason scientists are studying it as a very real contributor to longevity. Rather than relying solely on isolated supplements, whole foods like this provide complex biological compounds that work together in more nourishing ways on multiple systems throughout the body. Feed your gut-brain As we saw in my previous article on the gut-brain here, modern science now recognises the vital relationship that exists between gut health and complete wellbeing. Prebiotic factors, both insoluble and soluble fibres like Beta-glucan in this new superfood, nourish beneficial gut bacteria, support short-chain fatty acid production, and other naturally occurring compounds such as anti-inflammatories that improve digestive health and contribute to a healthy gut microbiome, associated with improved mood, immunity, skin, and wellbeing. Sustainability at its core Perhaps what makes microalgae even more extraordinary is their potential benefits that extend far beyond nutrition. Microalgae are among Earth’s most ancient and most important life forms and are responsible for producing roughly half of the planet’s oxygen, as seen here. They absorb carbon dioxide as they grow through the process of photosynthesis and produce 50 times more protein per acre than soy does, making it a game-changer for sustainable agriculture. The future of longevity nutrition As longevity science advances, the focus is shifting towards more cohesive nutritional strategies that support real healthy ageing across multiple body systems. Nutritional foods such as microalgae embody this philosophy by providing an impressive spectrum of naturally occurring compounds that researchers are discovering work together to support skin health, brain health, cardiovascular function, immune resilience, gut health, and cellular protection. The rare combination of plant proteins, EPA omega-3, omega-7, antioxidants, prebiotics, chlorophyll, vitamins, minerals, and other healthful components of nanno. oceanica; makes it a nutritionally dense whole food ingredient very worthy of our attention. And in a world searching for foods that benefit both people, animals and the environment, the future of beauty, brain health, longevity and sustainable nutrition may already be growing off the pristine waters of the Byron Bay region of Australia. Find more To purchase Nannovia™, an Australian-grown Nannochloropsis oceanica product, in supplemental form through RawOmega, visit here & here. Read more about this microalga here. Contact the growers of Australian-grown Nannochloropsis Oceanica at SeaO2 Nutrition here. Follow me on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn for more info! Read more from Honor Tremain Honor Tremain, Nutritionist, Author, and Journalist Honor Tremain is an award-winning longevity nutritionist, author, and journalist whose journey into health began with a personal crisis where, between the ages of 18 and 23, Honor was bedridden with multiple chronic illnesses & determined to reclaim her life, she completed a Diploma in Nutrition, eventually healing herself, and went on to complete a science degree. Honor opened a thriving nutrition practice in Sydney, Australia, became a columnist and feature journalist for national and international publications, and in 2015, Honor published her debut book, A Diet in Paradise. Most recently, she founded Daya Pet Food Co., a health-focused and sustainable dog food company that was proudly awarded Best Health-Conscious Dog Food Brand 2025. References: Brown, L. (2023). Personal interview. Adjunct Professor, Griffith University, Queensland, Australia. Holscher, H. D. (2017). Dietary fiber and prebiotics and the gastrointestinal microbiota. Gut Microbes, 8(2), 172-184. Mohan, S. V., Rohit, M. V., Chiranjeevi, P., Hariprasad, R., & Arora, S. (2015). Integrating microalgae cultivation with wastewater treatment for biodiesel production. In D. Das (Ed.), Algal biorefinery: An integrated approach (pp. 377-408). Springer. Slavin, J. (2013). Fiber and prebiotics: Mechanisms and health benefits. Nutrients, 5(4), 1417-1435. Thomas-Hall, S. (2024-2026). Personal interview. Principal Scientist, Chief Technology Officer, and microalgae expert, SeaO2 Nutrition. Zanella, L., et al. (2020). Vitamin composition of Nannochloropsis species. (Complete journal title, volume, issue, page range, and DOI required.) Zheng, Y., & Cantley, L. C. (2019). Toward a better understanding of folate metabolism in health and disease. Journal of Experimental Medicine, 216(2), 253-266. Additional source: Authors unknown. (2022). (Title required). National Center for Biotechnology Information.

Written by Dr. Asanee Brogan, Ori Alignment Coach Dr. Asanee Brogan is an Ori Alignment Coach, Ifá educator, and author. She is the founder of Asanee 44, a spiritual brand rooted in the Ifá tradition that offers lineage-based guidance and support through Ifá divination, Odu Ifá wisdom, and Ori-centered ancestral work. She is also the host of the African Spirit Reintegrated + Reimagined podcast. Western culture teaches us to grieve our deceased loved ones, bury them, and move forward. When someone dies, you attend the funeral, keep their photo on the mantel, and eventually learn to live without them. That is the script. Grief has a beginning and an end, and once you reach the end, the person you lost becomes a memory instead of a presence. However, that script is incomplete. It treats ancestors as relics of the past. In the Ifá tradition and across many African cultures, ancestors are not just ancient beings. They are inside us. They shape how we love, how we live, how we survive, and how we make decisions, even if we do not know all of their names or narratives. Our ancestors are not just dead people. They are the blueprint of a living framework stored deep within our essence. The DNA of memory This is not just tradition or belief. It is biology. Epigenetics has shown that trauma and resilience can be passed down through generations at the cellular level. Descendants of enslaved Africans may carry inherited patterns in their bodies’ responses to scarcity and threats. This is not a metaphor. It is documented in our blood and genetic expression. That means the instinct to hide what you have, even from people you trust, did not start with you. It started with ancestors who learned that showing off their skills, abilities, or resources could mean death or severe punishment. The way you read a room before you speak, sizing up who is safe and who is not, did not start with you. It started with people who had to know within seconds whether a look or tone of voice meant danger. The way you watch your children with a level of vigilance that sometimes exhausts you did not start with you. It started with mothers and fathers who could be separated from their children without warning. They maintained a hypervigilant level of protective awareness within their bloodline as a survival response. These are inherited survival mechanisms. Someone before you needed them to live, and your mind and body kept the instructions. However, your inheritance did not stop at survival. Your ancestors also passed down their ingenuity, their joy, and their capacity to love fiercely. The way you care for your family, the way you create, the way you laugh, and the way you enjoy life’s simple pleasures, these aspects of your being came from them too. The same bloodline that holds vigilance also holds resilience, creativity, and celebration. This is ancestral memory. It is not something you have to imagine or believe in. It is something you can measure. The wisdom they left behind Beyond biology lies lived experience. Our ancestors figured out how to survive under conditions most of us will never face, and the lessons they learned did not disappear when they died. Those lessons were passed down through storytelling, discipline, and the way a grandmother stretches a single chicken into three meals. They were also passed down through the way communities established their own banking systems when colonial banking infrastructure was not available to them. In Ifá and other ancestral traditions, we understand this as ancestral intelligence, the wisdom our ancestors continue to offer through various mechanisms. This is not a closed chapter. It is our living, breathing book of life. Think about what specific ancestors in your own bloodline survived and how they learned to evolve, such as: How to build community and sustain stable societies. How to raise children while living under constant threats. How to maintain joy and celebration in good and bad times. How to make a way when there was no map for the road ahead. None of that knowledge came from a book. It came from a lived journey, and it is still available to you, whether you are aware of it or not. Ancestral intelligence as social capital Here is where this stops being sentimental and becomes practical. Ancestral intelligence functions as real capital, just as land, money, or education does. Communities that remain connected to their ancestral knowledge tend to establish stronger networks. They know how to lean on and into each other. They know how to trust. They know how to organize resources. This is a tool you can draw from, build on, and hand down, just like anything else of value. When you tap into ancestral intelligence, you are not reaching into the past for comfort. You are reaching into an asset your family has been developing for generations and adding to it before you pass it forward. What changes when you claim this Understanding that this framework already exists inside you is one thing. Using it on purpose is another. Here are a few ways to start: Identify an inherited pattern within your bloodline. Ask where that pattern actually started and who needed it first. Ask how a specific ancestor survived or thrived. Do not focus only on your general family history. Instead, inquire about specific individuals from your lineage. What did they learn or do to make it through? Pay attention to areas where you innately draw on wisdom, such as your daily decisions, how you cook, how you discipline, how you save, and how you forgive. Speak to them. Whether through prayer, ritual, or simply talking out loud, treat your relationship as an ongoing connection. None of this requires you to believe in anything in particular. The evidence is in your habits, your instincts, and your body. The living framework Western culture says your lost loved ones are gone. Ifá and similar ancestral traditions say they are present, active, and still living within us. Your ancestors are the foundation you are standing on right now, whether you have acknowledged it or not. You are not just remembering them. You are still being shaped and cultivated by them. The only question is whether you claim your inheritance on purpose. Learning to recognize your ancestors’ presence, receive their gifts and blessings, and build a real relationship with them takes practice and effort. For guidance on how to go deeper, "Connecting with Your Ancestors: A Practical Guide for Living a Destiny Driven Life" by Dr. Asanee walks you through the process of establishing such a connection. Follow me on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and visit my website for more info! Read more from Dr. Asanee Brogan Dr. Asanee Brogan, Ori Alignment Coach Grounded in years of study and practice within the Yoruba-based Ifá tradition, Dr. Asanee Brogan creates accessible learning resources. These tools guide individuals toward ancestral reconnection and Ori alignment. Through Asanee 44, she provides Ifá divination, rituals, products, courses, and more that honor African spirituality with authenticity and cultural integrity.

Written by Ben Robins, Business & Leadership Coach Ben Robins, a business and leadership coach and former EMEA leader of a global consultancy, helps established business owners gain more control, more profit and more time by building a business that no longer depends on them for everything. What this article covers? Why smart, capable people fail to get buy-in, and a practical framework for identifying what the person in front of you actually needs to hear before you speak. What you will learn? How to read any conversation quickly, which of three communication modes to lead with, and how to frame your message so it has the intended impact the first time. The real reason most people lose influence is simpler than they think. They are speaking the wrong language for the person in front of them. Getting buy in consistently requires one skill above all others, identifying whether the person you are speaking to is primarily focused on the logic, the emotional impact, or the consequences of what you are saying, and then leading with that. Everything else is secondary. We tend to believe it's about confidence, charisma, or being the smartest person in the room. So, we spend our time refining our presentation skills, learning how to tell better stories, or understanding how body language can improve things. Now, this certainly helps. But often, we still don't get the buy in we want. Which means plenty of smart and ambitious people never have the influence they know they are capable of. So eventually, many resign themselves to the idea that they simply are not great communicators. A former colleague of mine, a senior finance manager, couldn't understand why his partner never engaged with their household finances. He told me how he'd raised it dozens of times. When I asked how, he said he'd built a shared spreadsheet, walked her through the monthly numbers, and explained the logic clearly. She had a good income, understood money, and still switched off every time. The issue was he was speaking an entirely different language. The spreadsheet was his version of the conversation, but it certainly wasn't hers. This mistake costs people promotions, influence, connection, and greater impact all the time. We assume that if something is logical, important, and clearly explained, other people understand and resonate with it in the same way we do. Research consistently shows this. Poor communication is cited as a leading cause of workplace failure, yet most professionals focus on delivery rather than on what the other person actually needs to hear. Just because you are in conversation doesn't mean you are having the same one. Until you understand that, it doesn't matter how polished your delivery becomes. Your impact will always lag behind where you want it to be. Why influence depends on understanding what matters to people So what can you do about this? Ask yourself one question before you speak, and keep asking it throughout the conversation. What actually matters to this person right now? In most conversations, the person opposite you is primarily focused on one of three things, the logic, the emotional impact, or the consequences of what you're saying. If it's the logic Stop explaining your reasoning and start showing your conclusion. Lead with the outcome, back it up with data, tell them what happens next. They don't need the journey. They need the destination. If it's the emotional impact Slow down. The facts are secondary. What they need to know first is that you've thought about the people involved, the stress this creates, and what support looks like. Get that right before you get to anything else. If it's the consequences Name them before they do. What happens if this works? What happens if it doesn't? They're already thinking it. Address it directly and you immediately have their attention. One of these is dominating every conversation you have. If you're not communicating through it, you're losing people without knowing why. How to tell which one it is You listen. Not for what they say, but for what they ask. Logic focused: Asks about outcomes and data. What works, what doesn't, and how do you know? Emotionally focused: Asks about people. Who does this affect, and what does it feel like to be on the receiving end of it? Consequence focused: Asks about risk and exposure. What happens if this goes wrong? What are we signing up for? Who is accountable? You don't need to ask them directly. Most people will tell you exactly what they care about in the first few minutes of a conversation. At this point, some people ask, isn't this manipulation? The answer is no. You are not trying to get someone interested in something they genuinely don't care about. You are simply taking the time to understand what matters to them, so that something important to both of you actually gets heard. Under pressure, most people revert to their own preferred style and lose the room. Why good leaders fail to follow through explores exactly this. Most people answer the wrong conversation A client of mine was working on a significant deal. They needed to ask a CFO a straightforward question, one where a positive outcome was clearly in both of their interests. The answer they got back was short and prickly. They were confused. A positive outcome was in both parties' best interests. But the CFO wasn't hearing the question they were asking. They were hearing risk, or why does this person need to know this about our finances? The question was never framed in a way that addressed those concerns before they arose. So we worked on one thing. Before going into any conversation of this nature, my client added a few sentences upfront, why they were asking and what a good outcome looked like for both sides. They addressed the concern before the other person had a chance to form it. This seemingly small change meant subsequent meetings ran completely differently. They led with what the CFO already cared about. This is the shift in practice. Before any important conversation, ask yourself one question, how is the person I'm speaking to likely to interpret what I'm about to say? If you think something is implied, assume it isn't. If you think the other person already understands your intent, say it anyway. This isn't just true for this CFO. It is equally true for the early stage founder who hears a board member's constructive feedback on their go to market strategy as a vote of no confidence. Or the mid level operations manager who hears their company's AI rollout not as an efficiency gain, but as the beginning of redundancies. Address what is important to them upfront, and you will find that it leads to a radically different conversation. If you found this useful and want to explore how these principles apply to your own leadership or career, you can read more about how I work with leaders and professionals. Follow me on Instagram, LinkedIn, and YouTube for more info! Read more from Ben Robins Ben Robins, Business & Leadership Coach Ben Robins is a business and leadership coach and keynote speaker who spent a decade in senior leadership, including running EMEA for a global consultancy with clients such as Google and Meta. He has seen the pattern from the inside: companies that have grown but still rely too heavily on the owner for decisions, client relationships and to keep things moving. His work sits where business strategy, leadership and mindset meet. He helps owners change how the business runs, while also challenging the habits, beliefs and ways of leading that keep them at the centre of it. Ben works with business owners across London, Dubai, Singapore and the US who are ready to lead the business rather than carry it.

Written by Dee Mani, Natural Health Consultant, Best-Selling Author & Founder, My Way CBD Dee Mani is a holistic healing advocate and founder of My Way CBD, who transformed her life after overcoming an aggressive breast cancer diagnosis using natural remedies. She is an author, entrepreneur, and speaker dedicated to empowering others through the healing potential of cannabis and holistic wellness practices. A cancer diagnosis has a way of dividing your life into two chapters: before cancer and after cancer. One moment you're making plans for the future, worrying about everyday life and thinking about everything you still want to do. Then, in a matter of minutes, you're sitting in a consultation room hearing words that stop you in your tracks. From that moment on, life doesn't quite feel the same. The day everything changes People often ask me what it was like when I was diagnosed, and the honest answer is that it's almost impossible to describe. Unless you've heard the words, "You have cancer," you simply cannot fully understand the emotions that follow. You can imagine how frightening it must be. You can love someone who's going through it with every fiber of your being. You can desperately wish you could take their place. But until it's your own body, your own life and your own future that's suddenly filled with uncertainty, there will always be part of that experience that you can't truly comprehend. That isn't meant as criticism. It's simply the reality. More than just a diagnosis One of the greatest challenges isn't just hearing the diagnosis itself. It's what comes afterwards. Within days, you're expected to absorb huge amounts of information, understand terminology you've probably never heard before and make decisions that could affect the rest of your life. At the very same time, you're trying to process fear, uncertainty and emotions that are changing by the hour. For generations, cancer has been a word that has carried enormous emotional weight. Long before most of us ever receive a diagnosis ourselves, we've grown up hearing stories that naturally shape how we view it. It's hardly surprising that many people immediately fear the worst. The reality is that every diagnosis is different, every person is different and every journey is different. Yet when you're first told you have cancer, your mind rarely thinks logically. It races ahead to every possible outcome, and that alone can feel overwhelming. Don't let fear make your decisions for you When you're told you have cancer, very little about the days and weeks that follow feels normal. Your mind is racing, you're trying to make sense of information you've never had to think about before, and suddenly everyone seems to want an answer. What treatment are you having? When does it start? Have you made a decision yet? The reality is most people haven't even had time to process the fact they have cancer, let alone decide what they want to do about it. Fear has a way of clouding our thinking. It can make us feel rushed, vulnerable and desperate to find certainty in a situation where certainty simply doesn't exist. It can also make us more likely to hand our decision-making over to the loudest voice in the room, simply because we're overwhelmed. That's why I believe every cancer patient deserves the time and space to pause. To breathe, to ask questions. To learn, to listen. Most importantly, to listen to themselves. Whether you ultimately choose a conventional treatment, a holistic approach or a combination of both, the decision should never come from panic or pressure. It should come from careful thought, from understanding your options as fully as you can, and from making the choice that genuinely feels right for you. Because once the opinions of family, friends and even complete strangers begin flooding in, it becomes very easy to lose sight of the one voice that matters most. Your own. When your diagnosis suddenly belongs to everyone else Then something happens that very few people prepare you for. Your diagnosis somehow becomes everybody else's. Almost overnight, the opinions begin. Family members tell you what they think you should do. Friends send articles they've found online. Someone tells you about a neighbour who had the same cancer. Another person insists there's only one sensible approach. Before long, you can find yourself surrounded by advice from every direction, often before you've even had the chance to understand how you feel yourself. Most of those opinions do actually come from love. When someone we care about is diagnosed with cancer, we naturally want to help. We want to protect them. We want to believe that if we can just point them in what we think is the right direction, everything will somehow be okay. But even the best intentions can sometimes create an enormous burden for the person living with the diagnosis. If you're living with cancer, I want you to hear this If you're reading this because you've recently been diagnosed, or you're somewhere along your own journey, I want to tell you something that I believe every cancer patient deserves to hear. This is your body, this is your life. Most importantly this is your decision. That doesn't mean shutting out advice or refusing to listen to different perspectives. Quite the opposite. Life-changing decisions deserve careful thought. They deserve questions, conversations, research and, where appropriate, second and even third opinions. But there is an important difference between being informed and being pressured. The final decision has to be one that you can live with. Not your partner. Not your parents. Not your children. Not your friends. You. Because you are the one who will experience whatever comes next. Nobody wants to stay alive more than you do Over the years, I've spoken with countless people dealing with cancer, and one thing has become abundantly clear. Patients are often treated as though they don't fully understand the seriousness of their diagnosis. Nothing could be further from the truth. Nobody wants to stay alive more than the person living with cancer. Nobody spends more time questioning their decisions than they do. Nobody lies awake longer wondering whether they're making the right choice. Nobody thinks more about the future, about the people they love, or about the life they desperately hope to continue living. Every person facing cancer is trying to make the best decision they can with the information available to them, their personal beliefs, their circumstances and what feels right for them. Many people also begin learning about nutrition, lifestyle, inflammation and other factors that may influence their overall wellbeing, because they want to understand every option available to them. Those decisions are never made lightly. The pressure nobody warns you about One of the saddest things I've witnessed isn't just the illness itself. It's watching patients begin to doubt themselves because of the constant pressure from those around them. I've seen relationships become strained because partners couldn't agree on a treatment path. I've seen families become divided over decisions that were never theirs to make. I've spoken to people who no longer feel comfortable sharing updates because every conversation turns into another debate about what they should or shouldn't be doing. Perhaps the most heartbreaking conversations are with people who tell me they feel completely alone, not because they don't have family around them, but because they no longer feel understood by the people they love most. Cancer is difficult enough. Nobody should have to spend their energy defending decisions they've made after hours of thought, research, conversations and soul-searching. The people who love you are absolutely entitled to their opinions. But they are not entitled to make your decisions for you. When love starts feeling like pressure If you're reading this as the partner, parent, child, sibling or friend of someone living with cancer, I'd like to ask you to pause for a moment and consider something that perhaps you've never thought about before. The person you love isn't just living with cancer. They're living with uncertainty. They're living with fear. They're living with decisions that most people hope they'll never have to make. While you may be frightened too, your fear is very different from theirs. Yours comes from the thought of losing someone you love. Theirs comes from wondering whether they're going to lose the life they know. When we love someone deeply, it's only natural to want to protect them. We search for answers, read articles, ask questions and desperately hope we'll find something that convinces them to choose the path we believe is best. But sometimes, without even realising it, love begins to sound like pressure. It sounds like, "You have to do this." Or, "I don't understand how you can even consider that." Sometimes it becomes, "If you really wanted to live, you'd..." Those words are rarely spoken with bad intentions. More often than not, they're spoken through fear. But to the person living with cancer, they can feel like judgement, rejection or even abandonment. I've lost count of the number of people who've told me they feel they have to defend themselves to the very people they hoped would simply hold their hand. That isn't support. Support doesn't require agreement. Support means standing beside someone, even when you would have chosen differently yourself. There are no perfect decisions One thing I've learned, both through my own journey and through supporting others, is that cancer rarely presents people with simple choices. Every option carries uncertainty. Every path comes with questions. Every decision asks you to weigh up potential benefits, possible risks and what matters most to you as an individual. That is why I always encourage people to take the time, where possible, to understand their options, ask questions, seek more than one perspective and never feel rushed into making a decision before they feel ready. There is nothing wrong with wanting to understand more. There is nothing wrong with seeking different opinions. There is nothing wrong with exploring approaches that resonate with your own beliefs and values. At the end of that process, however, there comes a point where you have to stop listening to everybody else and listen to yourself. No one else has to live with the consequences of your decision. You do. Protecting your peace is part of healing During my own journey, which I later shared in my book My Way, Following the Cancer Brick Road. I realised something that surprised me. Healing isn't only about looking after your physical health. It's also about reducing unnecessary stress, looking after your emotional wellbeing and supporting your body as a whole. I found myself surrounded by people who cared about me, yet some conversations left me feeling stronger while others left me emotionally exhausted. Every discussion seemed to come back to what I should be doing, what I shouldn't be doing, or why someone believed I was making the wrong choice. I don't believe those people wanted to hurt me. I believe they loved me, and I believe they were frightened. But I was the one carrying the diagnosis, and I couldn't carry everybody else's fear as well as my own. There came a point where I had to create boundaries. That wasn't because I stopped loving people. It wasn't because I thought I knew everything. It was because I recognised that constant negativity, conflict and pressure were taking away the one thing I desperately needed. Peace. Sometimes protecting your peace means stepping back from conversations that leave you feeling anxious. Sometimes it means politely saying, "Thank you, but I've made my decision." Sometimes it means surrounding yourself with people who may not agree with every choice you make but who respect your right to make it. That isn't selfish, it's self-preservation. To every cancer patient reading this If there's one message I hope you take away from this article, it's this. You are not selfish for wanting to understand your options. You are not selfish for asking questions. You are not selfish for seeking different perspectives. You are not selfish for taking the time to think. You are most certainly not selfish because your decision looks different from someone else's. This is your life, and you have every right to understand as much as you possibly can before making one of the biggest decisions you'll ever face. Read widely, ask questions, seek different perspectives and never be afraid to continue learning. Whether that's understanding treatment options, learning more about gut health, nutrition or other aspects of wellbeing, knowledge gives you confidence, and confidence helps you make decisions that are truly your own. Nobody wakes up hoping to make the wrong decision, and nobody cares more about your future than you do. Whatever path you choose, let it be one you've reached through careful thought, honest reflection and a genuine belief that it's the right path for you. Not because someone shouted the loudest. Not because someone made you feel guilty. Not because you were afraid of disappointing the people around you. But because, after listening, learning and reflecting, it felt right to you. To every loved one reading this If someone you love has cancer, I know this journey is affecting you too. You may feel frightened, helpless or desperate to protect them. Hear me when I say, those feelings are completely understandable. But try to remember that the person sitting opposite you doesn't need reminding how serious cancer is. They live with that reality every single day, they don't need another reason to be afraid. What they need is to know that your love isn't conditional on whether they make the same decision you would have made. You don't have to stop asking questions and you don't have to pretend you don't have concerns. Healthy conversations matter and honest discussions matter too. But there comes a point where the conversation has to end and respect has to begin. Imagine how powerful it would be if, instead of saying, "I don't agree with your decision," you said, "I may not fully understand it, but I love you, I respect you, and I'll be here whatever happens." Those words won't change a diagnosis, but they might completely change how someone feels as they face it. The one thing every cancer patient deserves Cancer changes many things. It changes priorities, it changes relationships and it changes the way you look at the future. But it should never take away your dignity, your voice or your right to make informed decisions about your own body. Every cancer patient deserves the opportunity to listen, to learn, to ask questions and to choose the path that feels right for them. Every cancer patient deserves to be treated with kindness, even when others would have chosen differently. Every cancer patient deserves to be supported without feeling they have to earn that support by agreeing with someone else's opinion. Years from now, people may not remember every conversation they had about treatment. They may not remember every article that was shared or every opinion that was given. But they will remember how they were made to feel. They will remember who stood beside them without judgement. Who listened instead of lecturing, who offered comfort instead of criticism. Who respected them enough to trust that they were doing everything they possibly could to fight for their own life. Because nobody wants to live more than the person living with cancer. Sometimes, the greatest gift we can give them isn't another opinion. It's the reassurance that, whatever road they choose, they will never have to walk it alone. If this article has resonated with you, I've shared more of my thoughts and experiences through my health articles and resources for those looking to better understand the body, wellbeing and informed choice. Follow me on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn for more info! Read more from Dee Mani Dee Mani, Natural Health Consultant, Best-Selling Author & Founder, My Way CBD Dee Mani is a Natural Health Consultant, bestselling author and founder of the award-winning My Way CBD. With a professional background in pharmaceuticals and a personal journey that reshaped her approach to health following a breast cancer diagnosis in 2017, Dee is dedicated to educating and empowering others through nutrition, lifestyle and evidence-informed natural therapies.

Written by Claire R. Silverstone-Bright, Author, Expert by Experience and Criminologist Claire Silverstone-Bright is an author, speaker and criminology researcher whose work connects lived experience with public education. She is the author of A Life Lived Chronically: Memoir of a DES Daughter and writes on DES, justice and rehabilitation. Who has the right to know they have been harmed? Who has the authority to recognise someone as a victim? Who has the right to speak for a community? When medicine, advocacy, the law, and society each tell a different story, which version do we believe? At first glance, these questions appear unrelated. One belongs in a hospital, another in a courtroom, another in Parliament, and another in the public square. Yet, over the past few years, I have found myself asking each of them in turn. What began as a deeply personal journey as a DES daughter slowly became something much larger. I realised I had been asking the same question in very different places, not simply, “What happened?” but, “Who has the authority to recognise what happened?” The recent parliamentary debate on diethylstilbestrol, better known as DES, brought that question into sharper focus than ever before. For those unfamiliar with DES, it was a drug prescribed to millions of pregnant women around the world in the belief that it would help sustain healthy pregnancies. Years later, it became clear that its consequences extended far beyond the women who took it. Many of their daughters experienced structural abnormalities, increased health risks, and, for some, rare cancers. A medical decision made during one generation became the lived experience of the next. To hear DES discussed in the House of Commons, therefore, mattered profoundly. After decades in which so many affected families felt overlooked, the condition had finally entered the parliamentary record. Recognition had begun. Yet, as I listened, another thought quietly emerged: recognition is never as simple as it first appears. Recognition is one of the most underestimated forms of power. Before research can be funded, policy can change, treatment pathways can be developed, or compensation can be considered, someone must first acknowledge that there is something worthy of recognition. Until that moment, suffering can remain intensely personal while remaining largely invisible to everyone else. The more I reflected, the more I realised that every institution recognises harm differently. Medicine, advocacy, the law, and society each answer a different question. None of those answers is complete on its own. Together, however, they reveal something important about how we understand victimhood itself. The first question belongs to medicine. Who has the right to know they have been harmed? As a DES daughter, I have often reflected on the curious relationship between my mother’s medical records and my own health. The prescription sits within her notes. The consequences reside within my body. That simple reality raises questions that modern medicine will increasingly encounter as our understanding of genetics, inherited conditions, and environmental exposure continues to develop. Medical confidentiality remains one of the cornerstones of ethical healthcare, as it should. But inherited risk asks us to consider where one person’s medical story ends and another’s begins. If my understanding of my own health depends upon information recorded before I was born, do I have a moral interest in that information? At what point does my mother’s medical history become part of my own clinical future? DES does not provide easy answers. It does, however, force us to ask better questions. Medicine does far more than diagnose disease. It acknowledges experience. A diagnosis tells us not only what may be happening physically, but also that our concerns have been heard, investigated, and taken seriously. It opens the door to research, treatment, and understanding. Recognition in medicine is often the first step towards healing. The second question belongs to advocacy. Who has the right to speak once harm has been recognised? The parliamentary debate reminded me why advocacy matters. Without people willing to share painful experiences, organise communities, and persist when institutions appear slow to respond, many important issues would never reach public attention. Campaigns create visibility where invisibility once existed. They transform private suffering into public awareness. That contribution deserves recognition. Yet recognition also carries responsibility. Governments cannot consult every individual. Researchers cannot interview every patient. Journalists cannot tell every story. They naturally look towards organisations and recognised voices to help them understand a community. That is both necessary and practical. But recognition and representation are not quite the same thing. Communities are rarely uniform. They include people whose experiences differ, whose priorities vary, and whose voices are expressed in different ways. Some become campaigners. Others contribute quietly through research, education, or professional practice. Many never join an organisation at all. Their experiences remain no less authentic simply because they have chosen a different path. No organisation owns a condition, and no individual owns lived experience. The strength of advocacy lies not in becoming the only recognised voice, but in remaining open to voices beyond its own. Recognition should widen the conversation, not narrow it. That principle extends well beyond patient advocacy. It applies wherever institutions seek to understand communities through those who speak on their behalf. The third question belongs to the justice system. Who decides which harms become part of the official story? We often imagine courts as places where truth is discovered. In reality, they perform a more precise and limited task. They apply legal definitions to human experience through evidence, procedure, and the rule of law. They determine legal responsibility. They cannot capture every consequence of every event, nor are they intended to. That distinction matters. Every criminal case involves choices. Charges are selected, while others are not. Evidence is admitted or excluded. Some matters proceed to trial, while others conclude through negotiated outcomes. These are not signs of failure. They are an inevitable part of a justice system that must balance fairness, proportionality, and the public interest. Yet those decisions also shape the official narrative. The legal story is not always the whole story. For victims, lived experience is often richer, more complicated, and more enduring than the legal language eventually used to describe it. Equally, the absence of a prosecution or conviction does not necessarily mean that no harm has been experienced. It may simply reflect the thresholds on which every justice system depends. Legal recognition carries immense authority. It is public, formal, and rigorous. It is also one form of recognition among several. The fourth question belongs not to any institution, but to all of us. Who do we choose to believe? Not every victim receives a diagnosis, joins a campaign, or enters a courtroom. Many people experience recognition, or its absence, through the everyday judgements of society itself. Today, those judgements are increasingly influenced by technology. Search engines shape first impressions. Social media amplifies some stories, while others disappear beneath an endless stream of content. Journalists decide which voices become headlines. Communities decide which experiences fit their understanding of victimhood and which remain difficult to hear. Recognition no longer belongs solely to institutions. It belongs, in part, to each of us. Every time we repeat a headline without reading beyond it, dismiss an experience because it does not resemble our own, or assume that the most visible story is the complete story, we participate in deciding whose suffering is recognised and whose quietly fades from view. The internet has made recognition astonishingly powerful. It can connect people who once believed they were alone. It can expose injustice, accelerate research, and build communities across continents. Yet it can also simplify complexity, rewarding certainty over curiosity and visibility over nuance. The loudest story is not always the only story. The most visible victim is not always the only victim. The recognised voice is not always the only voice worth hearing. Watching Parliament debate DES, I felt something that many families have waited decades to experience: recognition. For that, I am profoundly grateful. My hope is that this moment marks not the end of a conversation, but its beginning. I hope that recognition continues to expand, that research reaches every family still searching for answers, that healthcare continues to listen, that advocacy continues to welcome diverse voices, that justice remains conscious of the stories it cannot fully tell, and that, as a society, we become a little slower to assume we have already heard every perspective. Justice does not begin when a remedy is offered. It begins when someone says, “I see what happened. Your experience matters. You are not invisible.” Follow me on Facebook, LinkedIn, and visit my website for more info! Read more from Claire R. Silverstone-Bright Claire R. Silverstone-Bright, Author, Expert by Experience and Criminologist Claire Silverstone-Bright is an author, speaker and criminology researcher working at the intersection of hidden medical harm, justice and rehabilitation. Her memoir, A Life Lived Chronically: Memoir of a DES Daughter, explores the lifelong impact of DES exposure and the wider consequences of being medically harmed, misunderstood and unheard. Through her writing, public speaking and research, Claire examines how identity can be rebuilt after adversity. Her mission is to transform lived experience into public education, compassion and meaningful change.

Written by Prudence Hatchett, Leadership Resilience Strategist Prudence Hatchett is an award-winning entrepreneur, international speaker, bestselling author, and Leadership Resilience Strategist helping leaders transform burnout into sustainable influence and high performance. We hear a lot about having a growth mindset. We are told to embrace challenges, learn from failure, remain open to feedback, and believe that we can improve. All that sounds great. In fact, it sounds like something we should all be able to do. But what happens when life has exhausted you? What happens when the challenge is no longer exciting, failure feels personal, and one more lesson feels like one more thing you must survive? This is where I believe the conversation about growth mindset is missing something important: resilience. A growth mindset may help us believe that growth is possible, but resilience gives us the emotional and psychological capacity to stay in the process long enough to grow. Growth requires more than positive thinking Growth is uncomfortable. I know we like to talk about growth as this beautiful journey of becoming, evolving, and stepping into the next version of ourselves. Yes, it can be all of those things. However, growth can also be frustrating, confusing, and emotionally draining. Sometimes growth looks like questioning yourself. Sometimes it looks like making the wrong decision and having to recover from it. Sometimes growth means realizing that the strategy, mindset, or even identity that helped you reach one level cannot go with you to the next. That takes resilience. I often say that resilience is more than something we use when life gets hard. Resilience is a way of being. It is an internal foundation that helps us navigate pressure, uncertainty, disappointment, and change without completely disconnecting from ourselves. This is why I believe resilience is foundational to a true growth mindset. You cannot continuously grow if every setback convinces you to stop. Resilience helps us stay open to growth One of the most important parts of a growth mindset is the ability to remain open. Open to learning. Open to feedback. Open to doing something different. Open to the possibility that maybe we do not know everything yet. That sounds simple, but psychologically, it is not always easy. When we feel threatened, overwhelmed, or emotionally exhausted, our natural response may be to protect ourselves. We become defensive. We avoid. We shut down. We overthink. Some people become controlling, while others completely withdraw. In those moments, growth is not necessarily our first priority. Protection is. This is where resilience becomes so important because resilience helps us recover our capacity to remain engaged. It does not mean that we ignore discomfort or pretend that something did not affect us. Instead, resilience allows us to acknowledge what happened, regulate our response, and determine how we want to move forward. There is a difference between reacting to an experience and growing through an experience. Resilience helps create that difference. A growth mindset needs emotional endurance I believe we have an oversimplified mindset. We sometimes talk about mindset as if changing our thoughts will automatically change our lives. As a mental health professional and leadership resilience strategist, I know our thoughts are powerful. However, I also know that human behavior is more complex than simply telling ourselves to “think positive.” You can believe in growth and still be tired. You can believe in your potential and still struggle with self-doubt. You can know that failure is a learning opportunity and still feel disappointed when something does not work. This is why emotional endurance matters. Resilience gives us the ability to experience difficult emotions without allowing every difficult emotion to determine our next move. It helps us understand that discomfort does not always mean to stop. Sometimes discomfort is information. Sometimes it is an indication that we are stretching beyond what is familiar. Sometimes, we simply need time to recover. Growth mindset without resilience can quickly become another form of pressure. We start believing that we should always be learning, improving, producing, and becoming. Then, when we struggle, we criticize ourselves for not being “mentally strong enough.” That is not growth. Real growth includes recovery. Failure feels different when resilience is present Failure is probably one of the most discussed concepts associated with a growth mindset. We are encouraged to “fail forward” and view mistakes as lessons. But failure can hurt. Rejection can hurt. Being overlooked can hurt. Losing an opportunity you prayed for, prepared for, and truly believed was yours can hurt. I think it is important that we acknowledge this because when we rush people to find the lesson, we sometimes overlook the emotional experience connected to the loss. Resilience gives us room for both. I can be disappointed and still grow. I can grieve an opportunity and still believe another one will come. I can question myself and still choose not to give up on myself. For me, that is where growth becomes real. Resilience does not remove the emotional impact of failure. It helps us process the experience without making the failure our identity. “I failed” and “I am a failure” are two very different beliefs. A resilient growth mindset learns the difference. Resilience creates space for evolution Growth is not always about becoming better at what we already do. Sometimes growth requires us to become different. That can be scary. There are moments in life and leadership when we have to release an old version of ourselves. Maybe it is the version that always says yes. The version that needs everyone's approval. The version that overworks to prove value. The version that believes rest has to be earned. These patterns do not disappear simply because we read a book about growth mindset. It takes awareness. It takes practice. It takes resilience. Resilience helps us tolerate the uncertainty of becoming. We may not have all the answers. We may not feel completely confident. We may even miss parts of who we used to be. But we keep evolving. This is one reason I view resilience as an internal operating system. It is working beneath the surface, influencing how we respond to stress, recover from disruption, and navigate change. When that internal system is depleted, growth becomes harder to sustain. You cannot grow if you are always in survival mode This may be one of the most important conversations we need to have about growth. It is difficult to focus on becoming when all of your energy is being used to survive. Many leaders, professionals, and high achievers are trying to maintain a growth mindset while experiencing chronic stress, emotional exhaustion, and burnout. They are reading books, listening to podcasts, attending conferences, and collecting information. Yet, they still feel stuck. The problem may not be a lack of knowledge. The problem may be that they do not have the internal capacity to apply what they know. Information does not automatically create transformation. Resilience helps us rebuild the capacity needed for transformation. It allows us to move beyond simply knowing what we should do and begin understanding what is happening internally that may be preventing us from doing it. This is where self-awareness becomes essential. We have to become curious about ourselves. Why does this challenge feel threatening? Why does this feedback feel personal? Why am I afraid to try again? Why do I believe I have to be perfect before I move forward? These questions are not signs of weakness. They are opportunities for deeper growth. Resilience is the foundation A growth mindset tells us, “I can learn.” Resilience reminds us, “I can recover.” A growth mindset says, “I can improve.” Resilience says, “I can keep going, even when improvement is uncomfortable.” A growth mindset encourages us to see possibility. Resilience gives us the internal strength to pursue that possibility when the process becomes difficult. We need both. Because growth is not just about believing that you can become more. It is about developing the capacity to navigate everything that may challenge you along the way. So, yes, work on your mindset. Challenge your limiting beliefs. Stay curious. Remain open to learning. But build your resilience, too. Because the goal is not simply to believe that growth is possible. The goal is to be emotionally, mentally, and psychologically prepared to experience the process of becoming. That is why resilience is the foundation of a growth mindset. Follow me on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and visit my website for more info! Read more from Prudence Hatchett Prudence Hatchett, Leadership Resilience Strategist Prudence Hatchett is an award-winning entrepreneur, international speaker, executive coach, Leadership Resilience Strategist, and bestselling author. With over 20 years of experience in mental health, education, and leadership development, she helps leaders eliminate burnout, strengthen resilience, and elevate their influence. As the founder of PH Counseling, LLC® and Learn with Prudence®, Prudence combines neuroscience, psychology, and leadership strategy to deliver transformative, actionable insights. Her engaging presentations empower audiences to lead with clarity, confidence, and purpose while creating psychologically safe, high-performing cultures that thrive in today's demanding environment.