Written by: Tamar Medford, Executive Contributor Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise. Every Monday I would wake up feeling like the only reason I had to get out of bed was for a paycheque. I never slept all that great on Sunday evening because I was filled with anxiety thinking about the week ahead. I knew that if the coming week was anything like the previous, it would be filled with stress, angry customers, and co-workers with low morale. The sad part was that I had a pretty great career, which I worked hard for and I felt as though I should just be grateful. Yet I continued to feel as though I was settling for a life that I was not meant to live. I was following what I thought was the social norm, I was conforming. Some days I felt selfish and ungrateful for feeling this way because only seven years earlier I had hit my bottom from a twenty-year career of drug and alcohol addiction. Unlike many who suffer from addiction I had managed to hold onto a few things when I decided to get sober, and my career was one of them. I was what some call a functioning alcoholic. On the outside, it seemed as though I had it somewhat together. I had a good career, marriage, car and even a dog to round things off. But inside I was severely depressed, suicidal, financially bankrupt, overweight, unhealthy, and unhappily married. I used drugs and alcohol because of my inability to handle my emotions, but at a certain point in my life, even substances didn’t numb the pain anymore. Early recovery taught me how to build a solid foundation by living a more spiritual life, recognizing my part in any given situation, and helping others. Living this way helped me stay sober and function day to day without wanting to numb out my emotions with drugs and alcohol. This is where I also learned about emotional intelligence without evening knowing it. I think I cried more in my first couple of years of sobriety than I did my entire life. I was fortunate to be able to repair the damage I had done and for that, I was truly grateful, but it never sat well with me knowing I was meant for more and to have no idea what that more was or how to find it. At around the six-year mark of my sobriety, I felt the urge to go on a journey of self-exploration. I felt as though I needed to find my purpose because I was tired of settling for a life that didn’t provide much in the way of fulfillment and happiness. If there was anything I learned in early sobriety it was that I had a choice in creating the life I wanted to live. I began my journey in discovering my purpose by learning more about the concept, “Ikigai.” In North America, the Japanese concept of ikigai roughly translates to, “a reason for living,” or “the reason you wake up in the morning.” This involved answering four questions and then finding things within those answers that aligned or made my heart sing. The four questions were: What do you love? What are you good at? What could you get paid for? What does the world need more of? After answering those questions the first time I did this exercise I came up with this answer which became my purpose, or in other words my reason for waking up in the morning. “I empower people in recovery to live up to their true potential and meet the challenge of change.” This became my purpose! That was the moment when I decided to become a coach and a performance consultant. It was also the moment that I realized that the experience I had been through with my life of addiction was the key to my success. For years in my sobriety, I had always assumed that my past would follow me around in a negative way. I never realized that my experience was a gift I could use to help others overcome the same struggles I had. I also realized that by sharing this journey of re-inventing myself and living a more purpose-driven life, I could teach others to do the same. In late 2019 I was inspired by a few of my mentors to start my first podcast called, “The Road to Health.” I was still working my corporate job at that time and did a lot of traveling. I shared my journey to reclaim control over my health while being subjected to the temptations of being on the road. After the pandemic hit, I started working from home and this is when I decided to officially start my coaching business. This was also around the time that I wrote my first book, “Hope Elevated,” which shared my story of overcoming over twenty years of addiction. During this time I pivoted with my podcast as I was no longer traveling and so "The Road Beyond Recovery Podcast" was born. The Road Beyond Recovery Podcast began with me sharing parts of my first book and the struggles I had gone through. I also shared about my early days of starting a business and becoming an entrepreneur. I interviewed other entrepreneurs in recovery with the hope to inspire people like myself to lead a more purpose-driven life. Shortly after I began writing my second book called, “Beyond Recovery.” This book shared my story of getting sober and the strategies I had used to find my purpose and start my business. My goal was to inspire others in recovery to create a life so good for themselves that they never wanted to go back to their old way of living. I wanted to help others create a life beyond recovery. The result of discovering was purpose has not only allowed me to create the life I was meant to live but it has also enhanced my sobriety. In less than one year I started my own business, wrote two bestselling books, and quit my corporate job to pursue my dreams. Today my purpose is to help entrepreneurs in recovery master their mind, so they can grow their businesses and lead authentically fulfilled lives. This is the path I am now walking because I have discovered a purpose greater than myself. Not a bad start for a recovering alcoholic is it. Follow me on Facebook, Instagram, Linkedin, and visit my website for more info! Tamar Medford, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine Tamar Medford is a National Director with Life In Balance Careers, Founder of The Road Forward and host of The Road Beyond Recovery Podcast. Since overcoming a 20-year battle with drugs and alcohol, she has dedicated her life to helping entrepreneurs in recovery master their minds so they can grow their businesses and lead authentically fulfilling lives. Tamar is a Neuro Change Master Practitioner, Performance Consultant and Life Coach and uses evidence-based frameworks to help her clients live purpose-driven lives. She is the author of two Amazon bestselling books, Hope Elevated and Beyond Recovery. Tamar has almost a decade of experience helping individuals in recovery, and she desires to bring more awareness to addiction, recovery, and mental health. Her mission is to help those in recovery create a life so good for themselves that they never want to go back to their old way of living.

Written by: Claire Michelle Ward, Executive Contributor Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise. Six years ago, I stepped into the world of self-development. My mental health had taken a turn for the worse again. I went to the doctor and got some anti-depressants for the third time in my life, but this time they didn’t help, in fact they made me a whole lot worse. So, what to try next? I knew I needed to do something, or my brain was going to implode, and I was truly exhausted of always ending up back in the same place. That is when I started to look for a different way to help myself. I found an exciting new world where people told me I could change my life. I could be in control. I could create my life and live my dreams. I was in!! The only thing was my husband wasn’t. I craved change, I wanted our lives to be different and I thought that meant he had to be different too. I thought that he had to be on board with me, that he had to learn what I was learning. I found it so frustrating when I wanted to talk about our dream life, what that would look like for us, and he just couldn’t see it. He didn’t want to have those types of conversations. I felt like I was banging my head up against a brick wall. I was worried it was going to come between us and we would grow apart, after all I was setting myself on this new path and surely for us to create the life of our dreams we had to be on the same path? I was so wrong. The thing is you can never do anything about anyone else. You can’t make decisions for them. You can’t make them want what you want. You can’t make them want change. The only person you can ever do anything about is yourself. I was given good advice early on in my journey, to focus on myself and my own transformation which would, in turn, have an impact on those around me. I found this hard to believe in the beginning, especially as I didn’t understand the energetics behind everything but believe me when I say this - it works!! I have transformed myself. I have learned to love and accept myself. I have healed my wounds, well many of them, not sure I will ever heal everything in one lifetime but that is a conversation for another day!! I am so much happier within myself and live to love. What this has done for my relationships, in particular my marriage, is astounding. The thing is, when you are miserable, frustrated, hating on yourself, living in those dark places within, you project this onto others. When you feel like this you are quick to anger, you have no patience, and you are most likely living in a state of blame and shame. A classic example of how this played out in my marriage was when I had something I wanted to discuss with him, I would ruminate over it all day. I would think about it over and over, guessing his how he would feel and reacting to his supposed opinion. By the time the poor guy came home from work I had fallen out with him in my mind countless times and would react towards him as if he had done something wrong. As he is not a mind reader, he would have no idea what the hell was going on which resulted in arguments and us not talking to each other for days. Another thing to consider is that we are energetic beings, and everything is energy around us and within us. When you are living in such a negative state, this is the energy you are putting out and what others feel from you. Think of a time you have walked into a room, and someone has been having an argument beforehand, you can feel it, there is that saying, “you can cut the atmosphere with a knife”. Well that my friend is energy, and it does not feel good, you can feel your mood dropping and you become more irritable yourself. We have the power to affect others at an energetic level, causing them to feel good or bad. When you transform yourself from the inside and you start living from a place of love, your energy changes. You become a ray of sunshine. You have more patience; you have more compassion. You learn how to communicate in a more loving way with yourself and others. When you talk to others with love and compassion, guess what? They respond back with love and compassion. You become someone people want to spend time around because it makes them feel good. They see how happy you have become, and they can’t help but want some of it too. It can’t help but affect those around you, and when that happens, those conversations around your hopes and dreams become more natural and more regular. My personal journey of self-development has not damaged my marriage. Yes, there have been many challenges along the way, but it has not driven us apart, in fact, it has done exactly the opposite. We are more together than ever before. We are more in love than ever before. We have big dreams and hopes for our life together and have the most amazing conversations. In fact, after years of listening to me (even though I thought he wasn’t) he has changed the way he sees things and now even instigates many of those conversations. It has helped us create a deeper connection to each other. The thing is, we are so much more powerful than we realise, we can have a huge impact on the people around us. It all started with me! Improving the relationship I have with myself, led to improving the relationships I have with others. When you learn to love and accept yourself, it changes the way you behave towards people, and it shows them what is possible for their own life. I believe when everyone learns to love and accept who they are, we will live in a much better world, which is why I am so passionate about helping people to empower themselves to get there. If you want to change the world, you need to be that change. Learning to love yourself is the greatest gift you can give to your loved ones. After all, you cannot teach them, what you do not know how to do yourself!! Follow me on Fa cebook & Instagram for more info! Claire Michelle Ward, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine Claire Ward is a wife, a mum of two beautiful children, a Holistic Empowerment Coach, and a Reiki Master Teacher, who teaches people to identify and let go of their self-judgment and self-criticism, so they can empower themselves and their families, leading them all to be emotionally and mentally strong individuals. ‘Only when you learn to love, respect and accept yourself, can you teach others to do the same’ – Claire M. Ward. After more than 20 years of living a life inflicting pain and suffering on herself, and her family, Claire came to the realisation that the power to transform and heal herself was in her own hands all along, leading her on a journey into a new world of self-love and appreciation. Seeing the transformation in her own life and the impact it had on her relationships, particularly with her husband and children, she realised the processes she used on herself would also work for them, enabling them to support themselves throughout life’s challenges. In that moment her passion and purpose became clear; to use her experiences and skills to guide other people along their individual paths to healing, giving them the skills and techniques needed to support themselves and their families. Claire intuitively helps clients to discover the root of their pain and suffering, before selecting an array of healing tools and techniques specific to the client. This gives them the ability to take their healing power into their own hands and provides them with lifelong tools which can also be passed onto future generations. For those wanting to take a deeper journey into the world of energy healing, Claire runs courses online and in-person in Level One and Level Two Reiki.

Written by: Millie Martinez, Executive Contributor Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise. Trauma is a condition that occurs when an event or circumstance overwhelms you, causes you physical pain or emotional and mental suffering. The type of experience is irrelevant to the brain - as complex an organ it may be - the brain doesn’t know the difference between low-level and high-level trauma. It’s just - trauma. And, no one can escape it. This means, if you’re still healing from the bully in 3rd grade who stole your ice cream or you’re suffering from the death of a pet, there is no hierarchy. Your brain files it off as trauma. Not only can trauma lead to mental and physical health conditions, such as depression or heart disease, it can also affect how successful you are in your business due to the largely unconscious impact. Some of my previous clients had four things in common when it came to how trauma affected their business: They avoided making new connections due to lack of trust They were irritated easily when interacting with strangers, clients, or prospects. The thought of having sales conversations caused them stress or anxiety. They avoided hosting live events due to lack of self-esteem or low-confidence. Making connections and sharing your expertise is a vital part of growing your business. We can’t deny that the online space is dominating how we currently run our businesses. Whether it’s a service-based or product-based business. This means, we are susceptible to experiencing triggers stemming from unhealed trauma that may influence how we show up, not only for ourselves and our clients, but also for our business. And, although you might be an ambitious goal-setter - deciding to push to the back burner all the trauma you will “one day” attend to - your unconscious mind will evidently create a barrier that will prevent you from achieving your goals. Here are a few ways you can begin healing your trauma. 1. Awareness is the first step. Notice your triggers. If you find yourself getting irritated at the slightest of things, take note of it and then, get to the root cause. 2. Ask yourself, what is causing this trigger on a deeper level? 3. Then, reprogram the trigger by changing the memory into a new memory. (This is a great opportunity to reprogram your unconscious mind.) How to Reprogram Your Memory: Close your eyes and take a few deep breaths. Revisit the experience in as much detail as you can. Notice any heaviness or pain in your body such as a tightness in your chest or your heart-beat accelerating. In your minds’ eye, restructure the memory to reflect what you wish would have happened instead. Take a moment to embrace all the emotions that may arise from this reprogramming. Then, say out loud: I forgive myself and _________ for _____________. It is safe for me to be myself. It is safe for me to connect with others. It is safe for me to be a successful business owner. I am amazing at what I do. I am loved. I am confident. I open myself to healing my trauma in this timeline, all timelines, in this reality and all realities and remove it from my DNA in this dimension and across all dimensions of space and time. Do you want to learn how to heal from trauma? There is never a ‘good’ time to start the healing process. All it takes is one small change to get things moving. If you are contemplating healing your trauma but don’t know where to start just click the 'connect' button & send me a message telling me how unhealed trauma has affected your life and business. If you are not yet ready, that is fine, go easy on yourself. If you decide to give the healing method above a try, shoot me a message letting me know how it went! Follow me on Faceb ook , Instagram , and visit my website for more info! Millie Martinez, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine Millie Martinez is an intuitive business strategist and energetics healer for service-based entrepreneurs. After being held hostage in a foreign country and experience narcissism abuse, she created strategies to dramatically heal her trauma and enhance her emotional intelligence. She has dedicated her life to helping other women unleash their true potential by combining CBT, REBT, NLP, EFT, and Spiritual healing. Her mission: Let's heal the world and create a life of freedom and abundance.

Written by: Linda Ford, Executive Contributor Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise. For most of my life, I've always wanted to lose that last ten pounds (although after a year of COVID, that number has increased to fifteen!) And I suspect you too have a certain number in mind of how much you'd like to shed. And whether it's showing up on your thighs or mid-section, that extra weight is palpable and tangible. We see it when we look in the mirror, and we feel how it restricts us. You may be one of the lucky ones who doesn't have a problem with physical weight gain, but there's not one of us who doesn't carry some form of psychological weight. And although you can't see it and touch it in the same way you can grab your belly fat, it's just as heavy and restrictive. Co-dependency is one of those weights I've been carrying on my back for most of my life. It's a word we hear a lot these days and it's typically applied to relationships. But I've come see how it's playing out in all areas of my life, especially in my business. How we do one thing is how we do everything! But let's first be clear what it is: Here's a great definition: Co-dependency is a dysfunctional boundary pattern in which you are overly invested in the feeling states and outcomes of other people, to the detriment of your own life or self-care. It's when you have an urgency to help, fix or correct the person's situation even though it may not serve you. As I look back on my relationships, I can see that I've always been overly invested in making other people feel good to the detriment of my own situation. I'm a classic peacekeeper, caretaker, and people-pleaser who has always avoided and ran away from conflict. For example, growing up I would always play down my achievements at school – winning essay competitions or getting straight A's – because I quickly caught-on that my friends would accuse me of being stuck up, full of myself, and above them (their words!). And so I learned very early in life that doing well would make other people jealous of me and cost me my (so-called) friends! I innocently made up a story that excelling and achieving meant that I would be unloved and friendless. Living our lives feeling worried, anxious, or overly concerned about how others are feeling at the expense of our own pursuits, is not only a heavy weight to carry through life, but it causes us to pinch-off, narrow and restrict who you really are, your talents, skills, and the dreams you have for your life. It's you living with your dimmer-switch turned down low. So where are you carrying extra weight unnecessarily? In your business, do you avoid writing a blog that really says how you feel, for fear you're going to offend someone? Does working on your business or dreams come last on your list? Do you often find yourself taking care of family needs first to the detriment of getting to your own work? Do you find yourself holding back from taking a leadership position - speaking out, or proclaiming your expertise - because you're afraid people will call you arrogant or full of yourself? Do you feel uncomfortable about bragging about your achievements? Look at your life, become of aware of how you're dimming your light. Notice when you find yourself caring and worrying about how others are feeling more than how YOU are feeling. When we don't allow our own expansion, life feels heavy – as if we're carrying the weight of everyone around us on our backs. Notice how YOU are the one doing it. It's time to turn up your dimmer switch and experience the lightness of being YOU. Follow Linda on Facebook, Youtube and visit her website for more info! Read more from Linda! Linda Ford, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine Linda Ford is a master coach and author who specializes in helping introverted coaches and solopreneurs who want to have more impact and clients – who want to be seen and heard –but who struggle with imposter syndrome, hiding out fear of criticism, and the uncomfortableness of having to put themselves 'out there'. At the heart of Linda’s work is the belief that we have to develop a deep connection with our unique gifts, message and to know our true value. This is the rocket fuel that allows us to be seen and heard and feel the ease of putting ourselves 'out there'. When we do this essential inner work, we awaken our natural confidence, charisma, and power to connect and resonate with others. It surpasses and precedes any marketing strategy. Linda Ford is the co-creator of the online programs, The Confidence Coach – how to have more impact and change the world, and Confidence in a Box: If I’m so smart, then why don’t I feel more confident? Ford is also the co-author of the Kindle best-selling book Women and Confidence: The truth about the lies we tell ourselves.

Written by: Lori Clark, Executive Contributor Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise. Childhood trauma. Many people have it and some are even scared to admit it. However, when you don’t address and heal from your childhood trauma; it often shows itself in your day-to-day adult life. For example, if someone was rejected as a child, as an adult they could turn into a people pleaser. The feeling of being rejected at an early age made them feel like they always had to “do something good” to always have approval from others. Or let’s say a person had abandonment issues. Someone in their life constantly pushed them away for whatever reason. Now that person feels like they don’t ever want to get too close to anyone because that first feeling of abandonment made them realize that they never want to feel like that again. As children we’re taught to listen to our parents, respect them, and obey them. The thing about it is, all parents aren’t ready to wholeheartedly do what it takes to raise children. Thus, leaving the children with mental and/or emotional scars that follow them into adulthood. In this article, we are going to discuss three ways to move on from traumatic childhood experiences. Address your pain. Children are happy, energetic, and spontaneous. People often think children are not smart enough to comprehend their feelings or even remember how a certain situation made them feel. Think about times where you were disappointed as a child. Times where you felt unloved. Times where you felt unheard. Now look at your adult life and see where things have failed. Do you see a correlation? This is where you need to start. You knew how it made you feel when you were a child. Now that you’re an adult, you’re wiser, more articulate, have access to more resources and guidance, and have the capability to help yourself. Forgive the people that hurt you. I know that made some of you have a side-eye look. But let me ask you this. Does holding a person accountable from your childhood help you in your adult life? I know there are some people that may not have changed since your childhood. Forgive them from a distance. I also know there are some people who hurt you while they were hurting or didn’t realize they hurt you. You know how you felt and how you still feel, they don’t. you may even be treating them as if they are still presently hurting you. Forgive them. Forgive them and what they did. Your forgiveness could be the start of a brand-new beginning for you and them. Choose to no longer be a victim but rather a victor. Although dealing with childhood trauma isn’t something you brought upon yourself, it is something you have the power to fix. Once you address how childhood trauma is affecting you and take the necessary steps to forgive and move forward; you will quickly learn how much better you feel. How you now have peace and confidence in your actions. You know you’re not tip-toeing around people, places, or situations based on your past. You will no longer subconsciously self-sabotage yourself. You will be free. Take control of your life. Live in the present. Heal. Be yourself. You’re amazing. Follow me on Face book , Instagram , LinkedIn and visit my webs ite ! Read more from Lori! Lori Clark, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine Lori Clark is a leader in the life coaching industry, dedicated to helping individuals overcome life's challenges. She also aims to help people reach their highest potential while eliminating mental barriers. Lori had a rough childhood that led to an adulthood of trying to fill different voids. She eventually made up her mind; she would live a life worth living and changed her world. During this time, her health failed, and she was diagnosed with a chronic illness. Doctors told her she would never be the same. Instead of playing small, Lori took her circumstances and excelled. She finished college, went back to work, and is now certified to help others.

Written by: Sandra Corzilius, Executive Contributor Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise. What does this mean? What does this statement refer to? Who is touched by that? How does this affect me? What is it suitable for? Is it dangerous? Am I coming out of there again? These are all the questions and many more that I have asked myself. My first contact with Mercury retrograde was very negative, as I described in my first article. My interest aroused and I started researching. I realized for the first time that it is not just three weeks in which Mercury retrograde influences us, and it begins much earlier. The Pre-shadow To live in the shadows. That means that we get two weeks, as a present for free, before the total decline. Yes, you read that right, just given like that. I see it as a gift. We are not immediately thrown into the deep end, the brakes are not applied from jet to now, and reverse gear is not thrown immediately. But on the contrary. We get two weeks of acclimatization for free. With armbands and training wheels. It's relax in the Hammock time. We immediately get feedback in our body if we are on the move too fast, too much, too long. If we are very still, very quiet, keep ourselves open, we can hear what needs to be worked on and healed in these three weeks of Mercury retrograde. It refers to a period of transition. That casts its shadow on us like an artificial night. Or is it our shadow that is getting bigger? In the view of the artificial night, we have the chance to relax more. I am already so sensitized that the days before the shadow influence my need for rest and sleep. My rhythm is changing. I usually wake up before the alarm clock, and I would like to hang on for another 2 hours. And there is the point of change. One possibility is to ignore this and keep charging forward at the usual place. AND THAT'S SO EXHAUSTING. Or we unite with these needs. To anyone who is saying I have a job and fixed times when I have to get up! Then go to bed earlier;) When there is a problem, there is a solution. The view that our own shadow is getting bigger fascinates me as well. According to the motto, the spirits I called and not even consciously. Our past emerges in the pre-shadow. Sometimes she knocks softly or loudly and intensely on our door. Let her in. Now is the time to look and learn from your experiences. We are all meant, and we are all bathed in this influence. And when you open yourself and your heart to it, miracles happen. What is all of this good for? Hustle, hustle, hustle, how long can we hold out? Have a look around: burnout people, panic attacks, states of anxiety, total suppression, and repression. We have to clean everything up before everything can be good. And the shadow extends its hand to you. Gently shows you how to immerse yourself in the depths of your topics. At the right time. Suppression can cause an explosion during this time, and it can seem threatening if you proceed as before. You perceive your feelings even more, and the energy of Mercury is there to hold you. The pre-shadow accompanies us for a full 14 days before Mercury starts moving retrograde. Now we are prepared for all that will be ready to reflect over the next three weeks. And just as it was believed at the time that Mercury is two planets. He also has a second shadow, and I will report on this in another article. Mercury's power has changed my life, and it continues to do so. And with this, it allows me to be in the here and now, with all my past and an unimaginable future. This is what I wish for every human being in the world. The pre-shadow started on September 13th, 2021. Mercury retrograde begins on September 27th. Want to learn more from Sandra? Follow her on Facebook, Instagram, Youtube or visit her website. Read more from Sandra! Sandra Corzilius, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine Truth! Perfection! Quiet! Bliss! Universal love! These are not empty phrases, Sandra Corzilius embodies that. As a Hairstylist, Makeup Artist (8 years since when she was 21), an Actress (7 Years in a Daily Show), a Naturopath since 2017, and now as a Holistic Digital CEO and Specialist in the Power of Mercury she knows about all odds. Helping her Clients to Re-Empower themselves with Mercury Retrograde and give them their Energie and Rhythm back, with so much empathy and knowledge in so many things, as also in Gene Keys and Human Design. Sandra is using these, for example, as tools in her Work. She is helping people to create their strength, the knowledge of how their best Energy feels like in their body, and creating with them their unimaginable life. The greatest happiness for her is to see the people of her heart showing their potential and letting it blossom. Sandra is a great animal lover, who has recently saved 4 animals, here in the Dominican Republic. Two are now Sandras Pet's, Grew and Canela, a Cat and a Dog who are, by the way, the greatest of Friends. And the other two Sandra found beautiful homes for. And one of them in fact just had 8 Puppies, 4 Girls, and 4 Boys, ready to start their unimaginable lives. Love needs you.

Heidi Jennings is a Holistic Health Coach specializing in Plant-Based Nutrition. After a health crisis left her bedridden and disillusioned with conventional medicine, she embraced a holistic approach to help her heal. She now runs her business alongside her husband Steve, and together they deliver holistic coaching programs to their clients. They specialize in chronic pain, anxiety and depression, stubborn body fat, menopause symptoms, autoimmune dysfunction, and sleep issues by focusing on the five pillars of health; nutrition, exercise, gut health, sleep, and managing stress. Heidi is also a guest speaker and is currently authoring her first book. Her mission is to change the lives of 500,000 people around the world by empowering them to take control of their health and happiness. Heidi Jennings, Holistic Health Coaching Tell us a little bit about your business. My husband Steve and I are holistic health coaches based in New Zealand. We deliver holistic coaching programmes to our clients with a 95% success rate in completely transforming their health. Our mission is to impact and change the lives of 500,000 people around the world, and thanks to modern technology, this is a very achievable goal. Who is your ideal client? Generally, somebody who has already been down the path of conventional medicine to solve their health issues and has been left feeling stuck, frustrated and without satisfactory answers or results. Our typical customer is female, between the ages of 45-65, with a raft of worsening health conditions that are not being adequately addressed by conventional methods, but we also work with anyone who is experiencing discomfort or dissatisfaction with their current state of health and is looking for a safe, natural and effective solution. I specialise in plant-based nutrition and find that many clients are wanting to turn to the plant-based lifestyle in an effort to recover and heal. What problem does your business solve? We address the ROOT CAUSE of health issues by focusing on the five functional pillars of health – nutrition, exercise, gut health, sleep, and addressing the root cause of stress. We specialise in anxiety, depression, stubborn body fat, menopause symptoms, autoimmune dysfunction and sleep issues, but our methods can work successfully for any condition that lowers the quality of one’s life. What makes you stand out from other professionals in your field? We are leaders in our field because we have a very unique approach to healing, which combines science, common sense and our own life experiences. A significant contributor to developing our outstanding coaching programmes was through having to work through my own health crisis and figure out a way to heal, when conventional medicine could do nothing for me. Another area in which our programmes really shine is by helping people address their root cause of stress, because without this, attempts to heal the body and mind will be futile. We have a very successful track record spanning two decades and thousands of satisfied clients. What has been the biggest learning curve in your business? Aside from my health crisis and the amount of researching and knowledge we accumulated, realising that when you take a new direction in business, you will always be tested. This can come in the form of scepticism from others, internal questions about whether your decision is the right one, or testing your faith and courage to forge a new path. You must be able to be strong through the difficult times and have confidence and self-belief that you can succeed. What is the best piece of advice you would give someone who is struggling with their health? Visualise yourself in five or ten years, after your current state of health has continued to worsen. Ask yourself if you are prepared to continue living your one and precious life inside a sluggish and sick body. Or are you going to take control and live the vibrant and happy life you dream of and deserve? The time to take action is today, because tomorrow never comes. What motivates you to get up each day? The knowledge that we are changing people’s lives every single day. There’s nothing better than when a client tells us their life has been utterly transformed. Also, we are motivated simply by the love and satisfaction of what we are able to do and create within our business. What are you the most proud of? That we were able to find purpose and meaning during a very challenging time in our lives and turn it into an opportunity. We chose to swim, not sink, and as a result, we now have a very successful business helping others and are able to live a life we love. If you could choose one person to help you run your business for a week, who would it be? Tony Robbins. I’ve followed him for 25 years and have so much admiration for his outlook on life and his incredible ability to empower people to take control of their destiny. Any final words of wisdom related to business or life? This quote from Thomas Carlyle is my favourite and I like to splash it around everywhere I go. “He who has health has hope, and he who has hope has everything”. Follow me on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, or visit my website for more info! Read more from Heidi!

Written by: Marcus Cecil, Executive Contributor Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise. Personal Energy Everyone has energy. To be clear I’m not speaking of energy in a scientific, or even a metaphysical, sense. I’m speaking of the energy we feel in ourselves and others. Call it a person’s mood, call it the atmosphere people create around themselves. It’s about how people speak, how people look, how people interact. It’s also about how people are in the moment, not necessarily who they are at their core. Your energy propagates and interacts with other people’s energy very much like the ripples of stones thrown into a pond. Your energy is typically a reflection of how you feel at any point in time. You may be able to display a different energy from that which your emotional state would imply, particularly in an environment in which you are used to showing a façade. But you won’t be able to do this for long… most people have an uncanny ability to spot lack of authenticity, even if they may not quite be able to explain it. Now energy is just energy – it can be used for multiple purposes. It’s really up to each person to decide what to do with it: the same energy that can produce fantastic outcomes can also be very detrimental to those same outcomes. As definitions of positive or negative are very dependent on the value system of the person judging, in this article I will simply refer to “positive energy” as energy that helps achieve what you want to achieve. Energy In Teams A team is composed of people with very different personalities and experiences; people who will come together with varying degrees of energy depending on their emotional state. Each of these team members will choose , sometimes consciously yet often unconsciously, to use energy as they see fit to their environment. And this is where leadership energy comes into play. Seeing a leader’s energy as the potential to cause change in others immediately highlights the importance of managing it. Leadership energy is the energy you exude at any point in time in your capacity as a leader. It is typically managed with two goals in mind: creating an environment in which the prevailing energy supports the pursuit of the team’s purpose and helping each team member direct energy towards that purpose. It might sound obvious but it’s worth stating that for a team’s energy to be channelled towards the pursuit of a common purpose, the leader’s energy must first be managed. The use to which you as a leader put your energy will be seen by others as a model to follow… whether they realize it or not. And while I don’t want to reduce leadership energy to a mathematical formula, simply put you must have the appropriate quantity and quality of energy to be able to share it. Imagine a glass that is almost empty, and that your energy is measured by the liquid in the glass. In this scenario, you are more likely to be absorbing energy than sharing it. You will crave the energy for yourself, simply because you don’t have enough. Now imagine the glass to be full to the brim – as you accumulate energy the glass will overflow, so you can easily share energy with others. But make sure that you are sharing the energy you want to share – “positive energy” as per my earlier definition. So here are some tips for boosting the appropriate quantity and quality of energy for yourself and for those around you. 1. Boost energy: Know your rhythm and triggers. You probably know pretty well already when you are most energized during the day: are you an early-morning person? a late-afternoon person? Get to know your rhythm and adapt to it. Focus on your most challenging activities when you feel most energized, do the routine stuff at other times. Let other people know your rhythm… and get to know the rhythms of people interacting closely with you. Many people can also be triggered into lower energy cycles – interacting with a certain person, listening to a certain type of music, stress building-up, you name it. Get to know your triggers and actively try to avoid them. Reflecting often and learning to live more consciously are good ways to make this happen. 2. Boost energy: Allow time for recharging. Everyone’s energy fluctuates throughout the day, and often even throughout the week. Recognizing that energy levels aren’t directly controlled by anyone is a great step in allowing people the time to replenish when they ‘are low’. So, create a culture in which taking breaks during the day is not only acceptable but desirable. Allocate physical spaces where people can relax, or even take a power nap, in order to replenish. 3. Boost energy: Be aware of your ripple effects. The impact your energy has on others may sometimes be very obvious. Let’s say you are upset about something, and you vent your frustration on others by challenging everything your team presents to you. You will probably realize yourself that there is a causal relationship at play. Often though, ripple effects aren’t so obvious, particularly when they interact with other people’s ripples. Let’s say that, with the best of intentions, you insist a team member who appears exhausted take a day off despite the team being overloaded. Great idea you think, yet perhaps the person can’t find rest at home. Next day the person looks even more exhausted. You feel frustrated, the rest of the team feels you gave special treatment to one person. And the undesirable ripple effects build up quickly. So, make a habit of thinking through the potential outcomes of your ripple effect. 4. Boost energy: Focus, focus, focus… As a leader, you play a key role in focusing your own and everyone else’s energy towards common goals. In my experience, focusing energy can best be achieved by being an authentic leader . Be well aware that focusing energy does not mean that everyone should always be aligned towards the same use of energy. And it certainly doesn’t mean that your energy must prevail over everyone else’s. As traditional ‘command & control’ leadership models have shown, compliance is the best you can hope for if you aim to prevail over others. People will tend to do exactly what they are told to do, and little else. Applying such a leadership model will diffuse everyone else’s energy rather than bringing it into focus for a common purpose. Another way in which energy is typically dispersed through lack of focus is by confusing activity with productivity. Being active simply means you are doing something, anything; whereas productivity implies you are doing something that contributes to common goals. Obviously, the more intertwined the team is, the more productivity becomes something that requires team focus. As a leader, you can increase team productivity significantly by mingling the energies of different players to achieve something more than the sum of the parts. Think of yourself as an alchemist! 5. Boost energy: Create a baseline “positive energy”. Creating habits that continuously replenish you with energy that reflects who you want to be and what you want to achieve sounds appealing, doesn’t it? Well, there’s no secret here: the same behaviours that will make you more likely to be happier will help you be “positively energized”. Regular sleeping habits, healthy eating, exercising, practicing yoga or meditation, changing negative narratives circling around in your mind… all will help. Avoiding too many mood-altering substances will also help… you know coffee, tea, nicotine, alcohol, etc. And actively pursuing happiness can also make a big difference to the energy you propagate. Interested in learning more? If you’re not fully convinced yet, bear in mind that a study published in the Harvard Business Review in 2007 concluded that people who learnt to manage their energy consistently outperformed those who didn’t. In fact, more than 2 out of 3 people who learnt these skills reported improved productivity, improved performance, and better relationships at work. The study also highlighted the importance of balancing energies in a holistic way – energies connected with the body, mind, emotions, and spirit. “Let your unique awesomeness and positive energy inspire confidence in others.” [anonymous] Are you in doubt how to get started managing your energy to become a more effective leader? Often it will help to have someone mirror back to you how your behaviours are perceived by others, and indirectly how your energy impacts others. Your ripple effects may not be immediately obvious to you, but with the help of an executive or leadership coach you will soon understand them… and learn to use them to become a more authentic leader! Follow Marcus on Facebook , Instagram , Linkedin and visit his website . Read more from Marcus! Marcus Cecil, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine Marcus Cecil is a life coach and a career mentor, helping successful corporate highflyers and business owners transform their lives radically to achieve more fulfillment. His approach to personal transformation, the 9 Steps to Conscious Living, is based on raising self-awareness to support a more purpose-driven life. As a boutique global leadership development firm partner, Marcus is also a leadership mentor and business transformation facilitator for large corporations. His approach to fostering business change is based on a purposeful leadership framework – aligning strategic goals, culture, organizational structures, and leadership behaviors to an overall corporate purpose. Before becoming a full-time coach and consultant, Marcus had a successful career in business, working for 20+ years at Fortune 500 corporations around the world. He has lived in 8 countries and has a solid understanding of what it takes to work effectively and enjoy life across cultures. He applies his lifelong experience to help both private and corporate clients find more holistic success. His mission is to raise the world’s level of self-awareness, one leader at a time.

Written by: Cheryl Whitelaw, Executive Contributor Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise. I work hard. I sit in a local diner, 7:30 am because this is when I can make time to write. To be successful in our work, in our lives, we know we have to work hard. As an entrepreneur, I am sold with visions of making more money and working less. I know entrepreneurs that are living this dream. But this vision became true only after years of working hard, building the foundation of their business, brick by brick. We believe in the value of a work ethic as a society while we dream of being able to fast-track this investment of effort and time for success. This idea of working hard is also a socially created habit that impacts how we age. Imagine you are lifting a suitcase, one that you didn’t pack. You don’t know how heavy the suitcase is. You grab the handle, start to pull up. Besides lifting, you are doing 2 other things as you start the effort. You hold your breath and tighten your muscles. Before you lift, you prepare to lift. This is the trap of effort, of the belief that to succeed we need to try hard. So we prepare to try and how we prepare is to do it hard. What else can we do? When you lift a suitcase with just your hands and arms, the effort is localized in those parts. You grasp the handle with your hands, tighten your arm muscles and lift. We know the phrase, “Lift with your legs.” Lifting with your legs (version 2.0) is to start the effort of lifting by pressing your feet into the ground, using the movement of your pelvis to fuel the lift. Your hands and arms are tethers from the suitcase to your body, to guide the lifting movement, not the workhorses to make it happen. This is an upgrade in body mechanics, in the way you use your body to achieve what you want. But that’s not what I am talking about. Rather than focusing on the details of how we lift the suitcase, I want to focus in on how we prepare to try. When we prepare to try, we hold our breath, tighten our muscles. We harden ourselves to achieve because embedded in our preparation is the fear we will fail. What if there is another way to achieve? What if rather than preparing hard to achieve, you lengthened your body? Most suitcases require you to bend a little to lift them, what if you only needed enough effort in your hand and arm to keep a hold of the suitcase? Then the work of lifting comes from lengthening your body to come to standing? It is one option to do the work of lifting the suitcase without trying hard. Just doing it. I have a client who often asks me, “Isn’t that cheating?” One of the basic concepts I share with clients is that if someone feels pain in one part of their body, it is because they try hard with some parts of themselves, trying until it hurts to try. When a client learns to lift through length, they are using all of their parts – the trying is distributed. They can achieve with what feels like less effort. They get results with a less costly way of trying. The trap in trying hard related to aging is a cumulative one. When we follow our habit to try hard, we wear ourselves out with our effort, a little at a time. This trying hard habit gets noticeable around middle age. Often people move less as it gets more and more difficult to try hard. When I move with an easy way of trying, I have more energy. I can do more when I try easy, not hard. When you age and trying hard feels too costly, it is helpful to get choosier on how you try. And to get curious – how could I do this in a way that is less costly? I plan to go as far and do as much as I can squeeze out of my life. Learning to try easy, rather than hard is a key to the longevity of my passions and continuing to grow as I age. It is not cheating. It is a way to live the dream of getting more results by working less. Follow me on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, or visit my website for more info! Read more from Cheryl! Cheryl Whitelaw, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine Cheryl is a leader in using movement to improve brain and body performance, reversing the impacts of aging. As a child, Cheryl asked, “If we can do war, how do we do peace?” Her lifelong exploration of that question led her into embedding transformative learning technologies into adult education, coaching, inclusion, and diversity training and supporting people to recover their personal sense of wellness and wholeness after injury and trauma. A devoted practitioner of aikido, Tai Chi, and Feldenkrais, she is committed to her personal evolutionary path to integrate body, mind, and spirit in service of peace in the world. She has coached individuals in private, public, non-profit organizations, unions, and utility companies from over 12 countries around the world. She is a published author in the field of diversity and inclusion and is well regarded for her blog on how our movement can help us create a more potent and peaceful self in the world. Her mission: Move more; react less, and live more fully with no regrets.

Written by: Christine Deschemin, Executive Contributor Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise. Everything you do begins with a thought, but where do your thoughts begin? They begin with a mindset. “Mindset” refers to how you see the world and your most basic beliefs about yourself. Your mindset guides not just your thoughts but also your choices and actions. It can either hold you back or push you towards growth and limitless possibilities. With a few changes, you can improve your fixed-growth mindset ratio. Are you ready to flip the script? What Are Growth and Fixed Mindsets? Stanford psychologist Carole Dweck first developed the concept of fixed and growth mindsets. According to her, when your mindset is fixed, you believe that certain aspects of your character and ability are fixed or innate. On the other hand, when your mindset is focused on growth, you recognize that you have talents and abilities that can be nurtured and developed to better reach your full potential. When your mindset is fixed, you might find yourself trapped in unhealthy or even toxic patterns. Failure becomes a personal flaw, and criticism is an attack. At work, you might struggle to reach your goals, and at home, you might pull away from the people you love at each perceived slight or offense. You may even be limited in ways you do not even fully realize. A growth mindset is different. You see challenges as opportunities, and mistakes are human. When you fail, you use that failure to learn more about what does and does not work. You use setbacks to drive you closer to the success you want, and constructive criticism to strategize. You are ready to rise to any challenge at work, and in your personal relationships, you are open to new ideas. While each of us has a mix of traits from both types of mindsets, we likely have a few more of one type than the other. If your scales are tipping towards a fixed mindset, you can take steps to gently nudge it in the other direction to nurture healthy growth and development. Mindsets and Beliefs — What is the Link? Your mindset is a little like a lens through which you see the world. When that lens is foggy or inaccurate, it can obstruct or skew your view. What you are seeing is not a clear or complete picture. Your brain filters these inaccurate impressions and integrates them as memories. You may even categorize certain aspects of these experiences, judging them and storing them as beliefs. These inaccurate beliefs then continue to influence you later in life. Each of us develops our mindset at an early age, and it heavily influences our behavior from that time forward. Your mindset is not set in stone, however. As you work to incorporate more growth into your mindset, you can expand not just your mind but also your horizons, strengthen your confidence, and open up new opportunities. Changing your mindset or inner narrative changes, not just the way you think about the world but also your habits. It corrects the faults in the lens and clears away the obstructions. You begin to see clearly, and you can make better choices for yourself, your career, and your relationships. When you change your narrative, you can change your habits, and when you change your habits, you can change the outcome. When you change the outcome, you can transform your life. Transforming Your Mindset If you have ever tried to break a bad habit, you already know that it can be tough to break deeply ingrained behavior patterns. It is no less difficult to change deeply held beliefs. You are trying to overcome mindsets that you might have developed in childhood. That does not mean you need to settle for looking at life through a clouded lens, however. If you are ready to get that lens clear and sparkling, self-guided hypnotherapy can be a great option. Self-guided hypnotherapy can offer a powerful new clarity to improve your mindset and tip the scales towards abundance and growth. You can learn to rise above challenges and nurture your innate talents and skills. You can learn to embrace opportunities and stimulate your mind to grow and develop to its fullest. Instead of fearing change, you will embrace it as an exciting opportunity. Self-guided hypnotherapy can give you tools that help you learn more effectively while developing insights to see past experiences from a new perspective. Each step forward will help you feel more committed to growth and change, and you can put your lessons into practice in real-life scenarios. While a major shift in perspective can have massive benefits for your life, you do not have to change everything at once. According to Carole Dweck, even “(s)mall shifts in mindset can trigger a cascade of changes so profound that they test the limits of what seems possible.” Take Our Quiz! What kind of mindset do you have? A growth mindset thrives on challenges, sees failure as a springboard for growth, and uses challenges as building blocks for change. A fixed mindset focuses on abilities rather than actions and uses failure as evidence of personal inadequacy. It sees setbacks as losses. Discovering your true mindset tendencies can help you learn more about yourself and understand how to harness the power of your subconscious mind. You can learn to stretch your talents and abilities and grow them, developing a new relationship with both success and failure, and ultimately expand your capacity for happiness. Taking our quiz can help you understand your own mindset and get the information you need to take the next step. Are you ready to flip the script and write your own story? Follow me on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and visit my website for more info! Read more from Christine! Christine Deschemin, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine Christine Deschemin is a certified hypnotherapist and founder of the Renewed Edge Hypnotherapy Centre in Hong Kong. With a keen interest in resilience, she leverages her experience as an athlete and as a former engineer and banker in high-stress environments with her executive and sports clients. In March 2020, she released the UpNow hypnosis app to bring the benefits of self-hypnosis to the fingertips of anyone in need. The self-hypnosis downloads can be accessed online and offline to make mental health aids very affordable. In addition to her many scholastic achievements, Christine Deschemin has a Master of Science from the Ecole Polytechnique (France) and an MBA from Harvard Business School. She is fluent in four languages.

Written by: Sarika Kishore, Executive Contributor Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise. Have you labeled yourself stubborn, impatient, procrastinator, etc., and can’t find a way to improve? How many times do you inwardly swear at yourself because you feel you are not good enough? Do you find that you can’t start anything new until you have spent a long time perfectly dotting all the i's and crossing all the t's? These are all signs of your inner critic at work. Maybe your mom or teacher criticized you at some point in your life, and now you have assumed the label and are punishing yourself. Knowing your weakness is a great tool because you enable yourself to work around your shortcomings or overcome or strengthen your weak points. But giving a free hand to your inner critic can only create barriers and hurdles to living a happy and successful life. The following tips have worked well for my clients and me, and I hope they do the same for you. 1. Observe your thoughts. Observing and awareness of your thoughts are the first steps to modifying them. Please write down your criticisms and notice when they are triggered. After a week of making notes of your observations, you will notice a pattern. You will see that these patterns are activated whenever you perform a particular action or have to make a decision and fear failure at doing it well. For example-, whenever you need to speak up at a meeting, you are afraid you don’t have the right words to express clearly. Or, on a busy day, you neglect your household chores and are ridden with guilt because you were lazy. You beat yourself up for the same things over and over again. 2. Remember why/who criticized you. Recall an incident from your past where you were a failure (or whatever name you call yourself) because you made a mistake. Being repeatedly blamed for making a mistake, you internalize it and give yourself the same name. Or conversely, you were picked on and humiliated for not following the rules at home or outside. Figures of authority or even teammates can reject you for not following the expected path, whether cleaning your room or following a routine or obeying the dictates of your culture. It could have started anywhere and at any time in your life, and it is essential to know what triggered your name-calling. 3. Understanding your internalized belief. Now that you are aware of your triggers and the actual incident that causes you to be your critic check in to find the belief you internalized. Did you start believing that you were a fool because you made a mistake? Or did you think you were lazy or angry, or not good enough? Allow your beliefs to surface in your conscious mind. Question it! Is it true that what you believed as a result of the past incident is accurate NOW? Are you the same person you were at the time of the incident? I am sure that the answer will be no if you are honest because you have grown since the incident. You have learned that mistakes or misses can happen, but they don’t define you. You have learned that routines are not necessarily the same for everyone or that cultural definitions are not valid. You have learned to adapt and find your way in your life. 4. Fact-checking when critical thoughts appear. As you identify the belief you have internalized, maintain awareness of it, triggering your self-criticism. Stop your thoughts by doing a fact check: Am I right now because I believe I am always , or am I just fearful that I won’t be successful? Is it true that I am right now or know what I can or cannot accomplish? Your answer is — I am a grown-up, yet I am allowing my humiliation from the past to dominate me. So there! I am better today, and I will be even better tomorrow. Fact-checking allows you to stop the unconscious habit of reliving the memory or feeling and will let you know what you are required to do in the present moment. It gives you more confidence and freedom to make new mistakes and learn from them rather than getting stuck in the unpleasant feelings from the memory of failures. 5. Keep practicing till it is automatic. Practicing awareness and rewording your thoughts is the most crucial part of dealing with your harshest critic. You have control over your thoughts, and you are free to enjoy the lessons you learn from your mistakes and live an adventurous life! Every time you slip, go back to the first step and start again, and you WIN. Good luck on your next adventure! Follow me on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, or visit my website for more info! Read more from Sarika! Sarika Kishore, Brainz Magazine Executive Contributor Sarika Kishore is a Life Coach who is passionate about helping women rediscover the magic of life. She had battled with depression and anxiety for several years and learned that happiness is an attitude, not an event. A shift in attitude allowed her to reinvent and adjust to any challenge that life threw at her and empowered her to live life on her terms. Now, she shares her strategies and techniques in her signature program "Be The Magician" and helps other women identify, modify and defy their barriers to life and take control of it. Her goal is to help women become more impactful and joyful and create a ripple effect in our society, spreading happiness and hope to others.

Written by: Pia Antico, Executive Contributor Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise. I was stewing in my funky juices soaking in a bath… thinking the bath would change my mood I grumped out of the bath… grumbling as I picked the wet hand towel off the floor, tossing it over the edge of the bath. I was frumping on the bathmat too far from my bath towel that my T-Rex arms couldn't reach from my standing spot. I was stuck in the quicksand of a day's worth of regret, guilt, shame, resentment with a big dollop of 'not fair' & 'I'll never get'… a day of picking at a scab from the past and rubbing salt in it for good measure. It's been a while since I slipped into such self-reproach & it didn't feel good at all… bloody, not fair! So, stuck on my bathmat, refusing to move my whole arse to my towel - the focus of my desire… I carelessly put my foot on the side of the bath to reach over and try & yank my towel off the hook on the back of the door Remember that wet hand towel I irritatedly slung on the side of the bath as if it were the greatest offense to me of all time. Yes! I think you can see where this is going… In a matter of microseconds, I was lurching forward with the hand towel sliding into the bath & my other leg on the bathmat sliding in the opposite direction, while I valiantly tried to cling to the towel sliding off the hook on the back of the door. Pause this scene… & rewind to the months & months of shifting my focus back to my Divine Feminine Crone Wisdom, calling in Source, my Spirit tribe, Buddhas, Yoginis, Dakinis & High Vibe karmic beings (some who may have been blood relatives in this life). Strengthening my connection to the energetic truth of my existence, co-creating at metaphysical quantum levels beyond my limited intellectual or material awareness. Basically, I’ve been focused on turbocharging my experience so that I can readily realign if I slip into an illusory funk of thinking UNPAUSE So, I am mid-air spread-eagled and suddenly calm took over… I watched myself be shifted sideways so that as I began to land on the terrazzo marble floor, I saw the bathroom sink graze past my left ear rather than catch the back of my head as would have been the original trajectory. Instead of hitting the marble floor at full force on my back and striking my head on the floor - as would have been the typical outcome… I felt myself slowly & gently laid across the floor like a yoga backroll with my head cradled off the ground the whole time. My arm that I put out to stop the fall, never actually touched the ground to brace the impact. I lay on the cold floor naked replaying the geometry of the fall & knowing to my core that a whole tribe of high vibe protective beings were with me at that moment... not as an intellectual belief but felt like a core wisdom certainty. A certainty not perceived in the 3 previous near-death experiences over the years. I lay on the floor naked enveloped by numerous epiphanies: I am protected on levels where energy & material form converge I saw the stark futility of my thought-created suffering by replaying the past in my present moment thinking. I am the only cause of my suffering So much is working in my favour that I have no idea I even want/need If my Spirit tribe can save me from certain death then I am totally supported in getting ALL that my higher being wants. I also thought that maybe I don't actually want to die alone naked on the bathroom floor, not in reach of my mobile, & maybe I am ready to open my heart to a soul mate who will enhance every area of my life. A life partner that would be there to peel me up off the bathroom floor, should there be a next time. My wise women over 40 (Sacred Crones), I promise you… any & all your crumby thinking that feels so real & truly looks like a problem needing fixing in order to be happy; it's all illusion of self-created suffering. If you want to experience your innate joyful self more frequently before it's too late then book a FREE 15-minute session. We can chat about how I can guide & support you toward living a life free from regret, shame, guilt, anger, fear & resentment. Follow me on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and visit my website for more info! Read more from Pia! Pia Antico, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine “In the middle of a storm, it is possible to find peace and strength when we tap into our innate Spirit-led wisdom and step heartfully into the present moment.” - Pia Antico. Pia Antico is the Founder of Essential Awakening Mentoring, a Relationships Reset Mentor/Coach/Trainer, Speaker, and Author. Pia is also in a Creative Partnership with the charity “More to her life,” contributing a percent of her sales/fees to inspire and support women to dream and build beyond domestic violence. She guides and encourages unfulfilled women over 40 who have spent their adult lives looking after others and following ‘the rules’ to courageously step into the second half of their lives with a total ‘Joy Reboot’ using her signature AWAKEN Model © of joyful living, based on a 3-step transformational journey embodying the 6 key elements of joy. This allows her clients to respond to any situation with calm, clarity, and confidence, enabling them to live and love fearlessly in the present moment. Pia holds three degrees in Psychology, Counseling Training, and Certification in the Inside-Out Paradigm. Additionally, she learned how to thrive after two toxic marriages and following an accident that left her with a life-altering brain injury; all while she raised a resilient, courageous, and creative daughter who has now stepped into her own light and soulful marriage.