Written by: Irena Grofelnik, Executive Contributor Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise. As a leader, there is trust and responsibility often mentioned and a constant debate what kind of leaders we should be and which virtues do we have to possess, how to dress, how to smile, how to walk and talk, or must we walk the talk which frankly is my favorite. My leadership experiences are quite a waste. And I have a confession to make. I have not always been a good leader. Not even exceptional. There were obstacles in a way, mainly because of my lack of self-leadership. Can you relate to that? My past mistakes can be put into few bullet points: Influence. As a young female leader with a lack of experience, I was following the leadership styles of my previous bosses. Some were great with people, others more autocratic, and when following their style, in a way, I lost my values and my personality; Fear. I remember taking over a company in my late 30's when the market went down, and to secure all the jobs, I lay too much pressure on a sales team, which in the end did not perform well. Task-oriented. It is known that by our character we are more task or more people-oriented. As a goal-driven and task-oriented person, I may at times forget to nurture people more; Lack of communication . I knew that I have to improve. Educate myself, organize, build resilience, and consider people more. Make them accountable and engaged. Throughout the years of breaking habits and listening more, I made one team shine, and another, and another,… I found my way and style, which resonates with my values, gives confidence, empowers, and puts people first. So how to polish your team to success? Have you ever heard about Bill Gene? He is the crazy digital marketer from San Diego with a bunch of awards. And Daniel H. Pink, the known psychologist specialized in motivation? Their ideas, books, and work helped me to make the 5E leadership model tangible. What is it all about? It is a model suited to my character and my values, goal and people-driven, personal and makes team members thrive. It makes the team shine. 1st E: Execute My core obligation as a leader is to execute the strategy we set for our company, achieve goals, and secure business continuity and results promised to stakeholders. Execution is part of the business, which is non-negotiable. As a leader, I have to set clear explanations of the strategy and actions needed as well as expectations towards each individual member of the team. Recommended tools : communication and coaching. There is a different kind of execution in vocabulary as well. And unfortunately, leaders at some point clash with it willingly or not. Remember, we are as strong as the weakest link in our team. Do not hesitate to remove a disruptive member if his or her influence is negatively affecting the whole team. At some point, the team will be grateful. If you miss the right opportunity, some team members may even resent it. Recommended tools : evaluation and selection. 2nd E: Educate As a leader, you are probably (usually) in a position because of seniority and/or expertise. And if you follow the quote: “100 times 1 % of the effort is better than 1 time 100 % of the effort,” then you are aware that as long as your team members are not skilled, the majority of the work will have to be done by you. “Auch,” not very tasty. Secondly, poor productivity and time management, as a lack of experience and knowledge, will slow down the team and kill profitability. Thirdly, overall relationships in the team will suffer as well because some team members will have to carry an additional workload to make to work done. By Daniel Pink intrinsically motivated teams are focusing on 3 areas: a. mastery b. purpose c. autonomy Mastery through the team's education will give people the feeling of unlimited potential and direct them to improve their skills. Recommended tools : coaching, internal and external training, mentoring, shadowing. In addition, Pink’s autonomy is directly linked to our 3rd E below. 3rd E: Empower At some point, we have to support and create an environment where mistakes are accepted. Where people know that the old “carrot-stick” approach is not accepted. As a leader, giving people autonomy, not only the responsibility, will encourage team members to find their purpose. Command-and-control management can create cultures of silence, which we must avoid. By autonomy, we grant people the opportunity to take ownership of their work and skill development. Recommended tools : fostering the innovation-positive culture that encourages constructive criticism, regular feedback, coaching, team building canvas. 4th E: Entertain What the heck? We also have to laugh at work. I do not want to be a dull, uptight boss. But, as leaders, it is our responsibility to create a safe, healthy atmosphere which will boost creativity, work progress, positivity, cut the stressful moments, etc. But as my grandmother always said: “There has to be balanced in everything.” Companies with pools, gaming rooms are not necessarily the most productive. Sometimes even the best intention can lose the real meaning. My advice: “Use common sense!” Be approachable and stressless. See what kind of team you lead (formal, informal) and act upon it. Recommended tools : morning coffee, Friday lunch, “My story” time, team building, etc. Which brings us to the most essential E. 5th E: Empathy You are a role model. Bring empathy not only in sales calls but also in your team. You never know in what personal state your colleague is entering the company. Build trust, compassion, and understanding among team members. Do not allow bad behavior and be there for each and every person. Your tone, communication style, rules, and behavior must create a safe environment where every member matter as a person, not an employee. Recommended tools : assertive communication, coaching, feedback, open-door policy. The 5 E model, as stated, will make your colleagues shine. I guarantee you it will result in another winning E. Engagement. Good luck on your way, my great leader! If you at any time want to hear from me, do not hesitate to use one of my contacts. Irena Grofelnik, EMBA irena@spiriton.si Phone: +386 8 205 94 63 GSM: +386 41 247 554 Follow me on Facebook , Instagram , LinkedIn , or visit my website for more info! Irena Grofelnik, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine Irena is a graduate of the Faculty of Business and Economics . She enrolled in a master's degree in Tax law at the Faculty of Law and later in the Executive MBA at the Cotrugla Business School in Zagreb, where she graduated in 2009. She gained experience in the companies like Atlantic Grupa, Steklarna Hrastnik, Monsadria, where she led sales teams for the international markets or held the position of a general manager . For the last 7 years, as the owner of Spiriton, she has trained sales teams and organized leadership workshops. She specializes in sales and participates in business transformation projects, opening sales channels, and developing advanced business strategies. Irena is particularly focused on increasing employee engagement and sales profitability. In addition, she helps foreign companies entering and developing the local market (Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia, and Herzegovina). As a sales coach, she develops competencies for sales teams and trains sales managers in developing and leading the teams. She is a visiting professor at the Altius Business School in Zagreb in the subject »Team Leadership and Development . « She is also a certified trainer of the L.1 and L.2 Points of you® Academy for the use of advanced tools and coaching facilitation. She has been working with the brand Modra Akademija for two years, where she speaks as a lecturer on the topic of how to bring coaching into schools. Irena is a founding member of the WomenH2H international organization, which helps women build their own businesses . She is also a board member of Business Intelligence Center, a business club for entrepreneurs . In the past, she was an active Cherie Blair Women Foundation Mentor.

Written by: Sunu Philip, 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. If you’re a coach, consultant, or online service provider, one of the best ways to supercharge your business is by offering high-ticket packages. That way, you only need to sell a few of them each month, work with fewer clients, and give them more value while also freeing up your time for other priorities. Raising your rates and moving your offers to premium prices is a big step. One that requires stepping out into the unknown. You have to really believe in yourself and be confident that you can do this. When you know for sure that you are capable and people trust you enough to invest in you, nothing can stop you. If you’re planning to start marketing your high-ticket offers, here are a few things you should know. 1. High-ticket offers are subjective The value of a high-ticket offer may vary from person to person. What you consider high-ticket, might not be considered high enough for someone else. According to me, a high-ticket offer is anything costing more than £3K. But for another person, a £300 or £1000 offer may be considered high-ticket. And for someone else, £1000 offers are on the lower spectrum, and they might consider £100K to be high-ticket. It’s all very subjective, so you don’t have to exactly define what range qualifies as high-ticket. Choose to go ahead with whatever the term “high-ticket” means to you, rather than abiding by what others tell you it is. You should do what feels right for you at this moment in your business journey. You don’t have to limit yourself to your current packages. As your business grows, you can increase your rates and push the high-ticket ceiling further. As you gain experience over the years, you’re learning, applying and getting results. This means your business is expanding and you can start charging higher rates. Your offer can double, triple, or even quadruple in value. That's perfectly alright because that's how it should be. 2. You don’t have to be everywhere There’s a false expectation that you need to be active on all the social media channels if you want to sell your high-ticket offers. Let me just say, you don't have to be present on all the online mediums. You don’t have to try your hand at all the latest social networks. Pick one place where your ideal client hangs out and start serving your audience there from your heart. This could be Instagram, LinkedIn, your Facebook group or profile. Once you start getting enough traction, you can add on to other social media channels. You can also streamline your social media tasks and outsource them to your team if you’d like. You don't have to feel guilty that you’re not maintaining an active presence everywhere online. 3. You don’t have to be visible all the time This is yet another unreasonable expectation that’s often placed on business owners. It’s birthed out of a fear that if you’re not visible on social media all the time, your engagement will drop and people won’t see your high-end offers. While it’s true that you have to show up consistently, you get to define your online posting schedule. You don’t have to compare your online activity with others who are acing it out there. Whether you choose to post 5 times a day or 5 times a week, choose to do what feels right to you. When your community sees the real you and the value you bring them through your social media presence, they’ll appreciate your genuineness and start trusting you. 4. Don’t play it safe It’s easy to stick with what you’re comfortable with. No one wants to leave behind what feels good and satisfying. Going outside the comfort zone feels unsafe. The fear of leaving the familiar behind comes out in full force when you want to create bigger premium packages or increase your pricing. You might even sabotage yourself because you feel that the next step is not safe. So whenever you’re thinking of going to the next level with your high-ticket offers, ask yourself if you’re trying to play it safe. If you feel any kind of fear or reluctance, ask yourself where it’s all coming from. Tune into why you’re doing it, dispel your fears one by one, and forge ahead with your best foot forward. 5. You can’t catch a whale with a fishing rod Let me preface this by saying I’m just using a whale as an example and I do not condone whaling or any kind of violence. When you’re trying to catch bigger fish, your usual equipment might not do the job. You’ll need a different strategy, a better approach. These big fish might even be hanging out at a different fishing spot and it might take days to spot one. When you’re trying to hook in leads for your high-ticket offers, you have to find out where they are and spend time there. Discover what their unique needs are and provide something valuable to reel them in. You’ll have to rejig your entire lead magnet funnel strategy and spread it out over several weeks/months to get your ideal client in a place where they’re ready to invest in your premium package. It will take some time and effort, but it’s not impossible. Need help setting up a streamlined lead magnet funnel that will bring in more leads for your high-ticket offer? I’d be happy to help. To know more about me and my work, please visit my website . Follow me on Facebook , Instagram , and Link edIn ! Read more from Sunu ! Sunu Philip, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine Sunu is an international lead magnet expert specializing in creating a lead magnet and launch funnels that help coaches and consultants consistently sell their high-ticket offers with ease. She has been in the digital marketing industry for the last 12+ years, working with varied industries, and has helped her clients generate £3 Million+ yearly income through SEO and inbound marketing strategies. A high-school teacher turned online marketing consultant, Sunu is passionate about supporting people who love to transform the lives and businesses of their clients. Over the past 2 years alone (since she embraced the title ’The Lead Magnet Lady’), Sunu has helped hundreds of entrepreneurs and small business owners share their story, build their tribe, increase their impact, and get more leads and sales by designing and setting up an efficient lead magnet and launch funnels for their businesses.

Written by: Catherine Elizabeth Wood, Executive Contributor Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise. Many leaders are unsure how to drive employee engagement in the workplace. Along with reward, recognition, and retention, employee engagement results in high performance. However, during these uncertain times, employees often need to navigate multiple challenges within their personal life as well as navigating change and uncertainty at work. As a leader, you can feel unsure in how to respond to emotion-charged situations at work where employees are perhaps struggling to manage their conflicting priorities, managing stress, or they are feeling overwhelmed with increased work pressures. Having a collaborative approach as a leader will build a future-fit organization. Your leadership behavior will impact your team and the organization. Workplaces have a need now more than ever, to collaborate to enable teams to thrive. Not only is there a need for a collaborative leadership approach across each team, but also a need for the collaboration of a heart and brain leadership approach. This means having a focus on caring about the needs of employees as well as promoting team growth and development to drive employee engagement. There are 7 key leadership skills that will positively influence behavior, attention, memory, decision-making, and effectiveness. 1. Listening You can become a better listener by building your self-awareness and self-regulation. You can develop the skills of ‘tuning in’ to understand how you respond to challenges and develop strategies to use at the moment to maintain a sense of calm and control within your team. Listening to understand employees is a skill you can develop as you learn to ‘tune in’ to the needs of your team by developing emotional competence, a combination of emotional intelligence and emotional resilience. 2. Aligning There are many distractions in the workplace, and it can be challenging for you as a leader to juggle conflicting priorities daily. Acknowledging which activities are either time-wasting or taking too long, is the first step to aligning yourself to a smarter way of working. Perfectionism and unproductive meetings are just a couple of examples. Aligning yourself as a leader means to be disciplined in what you spend your time on, being clear in how you add value as a leader, and how you can bring out the best in your team through your leadership behavior. Team alignment is about having a shared purpose, accountability, integrity and above all else, a foundation of trust in you as a leader. 3. Empowering Enabling your team to generate new ideas and better ways of working is powerful in helping them to have a sense of purpose. Empowering employees to make choices in their roles to improve team performance is key to promoting a culture of inclusion and innovation. Providing positive and constructive feedback to your team as well as inviting them to provide feedback on your leadership is important to drive employee engagement. Giving your team an opportunity to have their say is key to you and your team working effectively together. 4. Serving Identifying and addressing potential roadblocks for you as a leader and those within your team is often overlooked. “By changing nothing, nothing changes,” is a quote by Tony Robbins. If you can action yourself out of the problem and encourage your team to do the same working together, then change results in a change. Seeking to serve your team is to identify what is not working before brainstorming solutions and involving your team in the problem-solving process. Serving is about identifying your leadership traits, purpose, and the legacy you want to leave behind as a leader. 5. Collaborating Your willingness to collaborate will impact you and your team. Sometimes you can prefer to take ownership over tasks or responsibilities particularly if you have experienced this type of approach in the past. However, this approach can result in employee disengagement. Sharing responsibilities and creating a collaborative culture will promote trust in you as a leader and pave the way for connectivity within your team and across the organization. Sharing in decision-making with your team, providing inspiration, showing courage and generosity are all key elements of a collaborative approach. 6. Social Awareness Understanding what your emotional triggers are and how you manage your emotional responses are both important in impacting your team positively as a leader through your behavior. Your team will be observing how you respond in emotion-charged situations and forming their perception of you as a leader. Having some strategies in place in how to respond positively and constructively will help you to model leadership behavior. Social awareness is knowing how you can positively and constructively respond to the different personalities and behaviors in your team. 7. Communicating Adapting to change as a leader is important to help your team to feel supported while knowing there will be challenges along the way but having the ability to achieve the desired change together. There is always a resistance to change however as a leader you can help your team to adapt to change as well as influence change. Providing clear communication as a leader is necessary particularly navigating your team through change and uncertainty. Understanding the most effective way to communicate with individuals will help to bring out the best in your team. Communicating is knowing what to say and how to say it to promote connectivity. Having regular engagement with employees to develop your understanding of them and their needs will help them to build trust in you as a leader. Follow me on Facebook , Instagram , LinkedIn , or visit my website for more info! Catherine Elizabeth Wood, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine Catherine Wood, is a leader in mental resilience, science-based coaching through neuroscience, and creating new habits for behavior change. After an acute brain injury as an adult left her having irrational thoughts and self-doubt, Catherine developed an interest in neuroplasticity to understand how she could challenge her self-beliefs, promote helpful thoughts and create new habits for behavior change. Catherine has since dedicated her life to helping people to establish their self-belief in who they are as their best self to drive helpful thoughts and create new habits for behavior change in the workplace and in their personal life. Catherine is the Founder of Life Renewal, the online coaching business combining leadership coaching and team coaching with evidence-based techniques in neuroscience. Catherine helps leaders drive employee engagement by modeling leadership behavior across 7 key leadership skills. Catherine has helped clients through her own coaching programs, workshops, and digital courses including "Mastering Emotional Competence in Leadership." Catherine has been a guest writer for Thrive Global which included an article on "Seeking Opportunities While Navigating Uncertainty", and she hosted a resilience series including "The Neuroscience of Resilience". Catherine's mission: Science-based coaching for collaborative leadership behavior.

Written by: Jessie Liew, Executive Contributor Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise. The Fundamental of Parenting has Not Changed — You Just Need New Strategies. Do you know, children and adolescents spend a lot of time watching screens, including smartphones, tablets, gaming consoles, TVs, and computers? On average, children ages 8-12 in the United States spend 4-6 hours a day watching or using screens, and teens spend up to 9 hours. While screens can entertain, teach, and keep children occupied, too much use may lead to problems. 41% of parents of 12-15s find it hard to control their child’s screen time according to the latest Ofcom Children and Parents: Media use and attitudes report 2017. Here are some of the discussions I had with my client, Sarah (not real name). “Mum, are you crazy? Why are you keep popping into my room?” shouted Anna, a 9-year-old girl with her mum. This is what happens when Sarah wanted to check what Anna is doing in her room with the electronic devices. “Mum, get out of my room”, shouted Jake, Anna’s son, a 14-year-old boy. Anna has absolutely no idea what the children are doing online. The children are secretive about their online activities. They are spending too much time on their electronic devices. They refuse to focus on their school or homework and did little to help up the house chores. Whenever Anna threatens to pull the Internet plug, the conflict surrounding the electronic devices is so high. The children were so mad. Anna is aware of Jake being exposed to pornography and as she does not know what he is doing online, she got very worried. She’s been trying to get them to do the reading, house chores, or even outdoor activities, but it seems she can’t get them away from the screen for long. She’s been constantly talking to them about the screen effect on their brain, the Internet dangers, and the importance of reading. It has fallen to deaf ears. Anna is extremely worried about her children’s future. The screen has changed her children's behavior. She is afraid of her children's future. With the screen addiction, she sees the children might be failing in their adult life and not able to fulfill their full potential. She fears that she has lost her children to the screen. When the children are younger, they are closer to you and obedient. They are also more receptive to what you say. When the electronic devices passed to them, it seems that it has changed them. They are more addicted to the screen. They start to disengage with their real-life activities, school, homework, chores, their sports or hobbies, and even family time. The screen occupies their life most of the time. When they grow up to be teenagers, they will always ask why, push the boundaries and crave more freedom. They are also in the midst of discovering their own identity. The discussion surrounding screen uses is always in a defensive manner. The children don’t like you to control their screen use and therefore your relationship soars. When you confront the children on the time spent on screen, he/she will ask why. Most parents answered “because I said so” and therefore the children become more rebellious. Occasionally, you wonder what they are doing on their mobile phones. The children are secretive about it. They are not willing to talk about their online activities. This is due to a lack of openness to discussion and trust between you and the children. When some incidents related to screens happen, most parents react in a furious manner, which totally kills the trust level between the parent and children. I want you to think about this: Does the school really teach about discovering your own personal value and family values and setting their goals and vision? Does the school really teach much on Internet Safety Habits and realign with your family values? Does the school teach on setting boundaries? Does the school teach about discovering who they are and conflict management? Does the school teach about communication and decision-making? What you need in digital parenting your children are: 1. Family culture sets the foundation, habits, values, and tone of your family. This is the foundation that sets the future self of your children. When you do this right: You have set the right mindset and expectations for your children so that they know how to decide and act. In fact, the most powerful of this program is children see the family values as their own values and willing to follow through and be more accountable. 2. Internet Safety Habits agreement, decision-making guideline as well as boundaries. When you do this right: This is the foundation of internet safety habits that will keep them away from Internet Dangers In fact, the most powerful of this program is children are self-accountable to keep themselves safe. Both parents and children understand and agree on a decision-making guideline so that whenever something pops up, the children know how to make a simple decision. If they are not sure, they will check with the parent. Like any other family matter, boundaries need to be set with the technologies and children agree to it. 3. Knowledge of setting secure Internet environment (use of technology tools) When you do this right: Here’s where we will give you a quick “hack” about Internet Safety and tools to secure the Internet environment. With this setting, you have eliminated 70% of the Internet Dangers from your children. 4. Process to break bad internet habits and build good Internet habits. When you do this right: Your child’s internet safety habits have been shaped, thus you know your children can behave as expected when comes to the Internet. You can use the same process to shape any desired habits in your children. The most powerful of this program is that your children can set a balanced life between their online and offline worlds. 5. Discussion and education of online habits and internet safety with your children. When you do this right: You have established trust between you and your children. The most powerful of this program is instead of you checking your children's online activities, your children will come to report to him when they see something was not right. You and your children are aware and educated on internet safety. 6. Process to discuss with your children when you find that they are not following the agreement on-screen use. When you do this right: Instead of reacting to their misbehavior, you respond appropriately so that you can able to lead your children to come back and realign with the family culture and values. When you have set this system up: The game has completely changed. You have a vision of what are the internet safety habits that you are trying to promote to your children You have set the right Internet environment for your children to install the desired habits in your children You have confidence that your children know how to protect themselves from Internet Dangers when you are not around with them. If they are unsure, they will report back to you. If you caught your children having bad internet habits, you know how to shift them to the right internet habits. You have peace of mind when comes to your children with their electronic devices. · You can focus on building a better relationship with your children. This is a REALLY, REALLY big deal. If we can help you establish a better relationship with your children while empowering them to use the Internet and technologies responsibly while staying safe on the Internet. Would you be interested? I am looking for responsible parents who love and care about their children and screen use / Internet Safety. They wanted to build their children to be better future digital citizens and they want to have a life-long lasting relationship with their children. If this is you, click here to book a free strategy call with me. If you would like help with reducing your children’s screen addiction and improving your relationship with them, join my free Facebook group to get immediate access to all of my free training. If you would like 1:1 coaching with me to help you reduce your children’s screen addiction and improve your relationship with them, book a free strategy call with me. Read more from Jessie! Jessie Liew, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine Jessie Liew is a Digital Parenting Coach. As a cybersecurity expert, a mother of 4, she also has to face the same task as all parents, which is rearing safe & responsible digital citizens. We are living in a digital era, and hence we need new skills to parent our children. She’s been working in the cybersecurity field for more than 14 years. She also holds professional certifications in Cyber Security (CISSP, CRISC, and CISA). She has been able to shape the companies’ employees' internet habits as well as in her own children. Her Mission: Empower Parents to nurture their children to use the Internet and technologies in a positive way while staying safe on the Internet. This builds the foundation of our future Digital Citizens. She is looking for parents or educators who want to nurture their children to be responsible digital citizens and build a great relationship with their children.

Written by: Dana Rowan, Executive Contributor Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise. You have entered the beautiful world of motherhood. For years, you dreamt of what your life would look like as a mother. You felt joy, eagerness, uncertainty, happiness, and curiosity. For many women, the motherly desire comes alive, and deciding to be a mother can be pretty easy. You naturally feel, think about and see it in your future. Hold up, hold on, wait for a second. You may be asking yourself, "where did this not-so-great feeling come from? My baby is here. The life I envisioned has happened, I am a mother. I am also sad, lonely, isolated and so lost." Why didn’t anyone tell me about this part? Do other moms feel this way? Am I doing something wrong? Is there something I should be doing better? You pour everything you have into carrying, birthing, and raising your child. You wholeheartedly enjoy the process and fueled by the energizing excitement of loving, teaching, feeding, cuddling, and watching your little ones grow. The thousands of decisions you make and thought processes you work through quickly, take a toll on your mental health. You are capable of physically barrelling through the day and making it all happen. But, the end of the day comes, and you see what you didn’t do — you're lost and overwhelmed — and isolation resurface. You then turn to something indulging but yet remain distracted by your thoughts, uncertainty, and continuous intuition of what your child needs at any given moment. The cycle repeats, and the subconscious ensues. Your subconscious goes deep, and it’s nearly impossible to bring it to the surface and understand it. Your conscious mind is full of all things but “mom's life” and no “me life.” You no longer see what you, as a woman need and enjoy. Your innate ability is there for you, but your holistic health is thrown into quicksand. You wonder why no book, no person, and no class can fully tell you what to do and how to do it. You quickly fall into the deep hole leaving your full self behind. It makes getting back seemingly impossible. Oh yes, let’s not forget the dreadful mom guilt that never seems to go away — the guilt that has your mind in a shuffle and your heart heavy; the guilt that leads you to believe anything you do outside of being a mother is selfish, not worthy, and takes away from what you are supposed to be doing. Hi, my name is Dana. I lost myself after becoming a mother of two beautiful children. I have had too many moms tell me their similar stories and want more for themselves as a woman. As I walked through my days of loneliness and isolation, I fell into a state of depression that I never want to see again. I made a decision to grow into my full self as a woman, a wife, and a mom. I took tangible and intentional steps each day to get back to being me. A large part of my purpose is to serve by inspiring and guiding fellow women in motherhood back to themselves. I am a Confidence Coach and created 5-Steps Back to You in Motherhood. Step 1: Personality, Values, and Reminisce Step 2: Hobbies & Interests Step 3: Community & Friendship Step 4: Conquer your days Step 5: Be confident in all you do. I coach women in motherhood through my five-step process by meeting them where they are in their journey. This process is not one size fits all, and the self-improvement is exponential. It is my mission to help women bring back their full self, their friends, and their hobbies so they can live their full purpose and experience abundance. Included in 5-Steps Back to You is easy to reach, tangible resources, accountability, and support to start conquering their days, having more fun, and connecting fearlessly in community and friendship. You may wonder what exactly is it and how you could even begin to reach for yourself. Follow me on Instagram and Facebook and visit my website where comfy with the idea of getting back to you and fueling your fire to be the mother and partner you fully want to be, not just need to be. Dana Rowan Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine Dana Rowan, Confidence Coach for Women is a former Cardiac ICU Registered Nurse turned Life Coach. She spent her first thirteen professional years serving patients in the hospital setting and is now serving her full purpose in coaching women in motherhood. After experiencing postpartum rage and depression being a mother of two, she took real-world, tangible steps in getting back her identity as a woman, not just a Mom. Living abundantly in her full purpose led her to coach fellow moms through her program 5 Steps Back to You. Getting mothers back to their full self, their fun, and their friendships so they can have a full cup while they pour into others. Her mission is to hear more Moms say "I am a woman in Motherhood" vs "I am a Mom".

Written by: Fran Pedron, 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. Standing IN – Standing UP – Standing OUT Living In Authenticity with Earth Shaking Confidence To get to the Earth Shaking Confidence , first, you have to uncover your authenticity. To do that, you must release judgments. Most people squirm at the thought, “ME, I don’t have judgments!” Wouldn’t that be a wonderful thought – only if it were true. SO ask yourself, “What judgments do I have that need to go?” Judgments Reign Supreme Judgment, from the dictionary, means the ability to make decisions or come to sensible conclusions; a pronounced opinion or sentence; and the process of forming an opinion by comparing. Judgments steal from you so much. Many times, you do not realize it until it is too late, and there is no way to regain yourself. You may feel that you do not have time to contribute to your life. You may see yourself as not having the courage to show up for you anymore. You may know that your self-worth is nowhere to be found. It is an endless stream of what you cannot do . To start recognizing judgments, ask yourself, “How do I judge myself, and how often?” Answering these questions may uncover AHAs and insights. How do I determine how I perform: objectively or feeling alone? Do I compare myself to others by standing on equal footing or using generalizations? Do I accept others for who they are or who I need them to be? Is my worth performance-based? Do I accept all of me: wholly or in bits and pieces? Do I see the good in myself and others? If I do not like something about myself or others, then I know the entire person or myself is negative, worthless, or bad – yes or no? Do you also have this type of self-talk? I’m such a jerk. How could I have done or said that? I’m so stupid. I should have learned that by now. I’ll never be good enough. I’ll never do it right. No one could love me. I’m not lovable. These lists are endless. How do you feel about your answers? “Judge nothing, you will be happy. Forgive everything, you will be happier. Love everything you will be happiest.” – Sri Chinmoy Knocking Down the Castle Judgments are points of comparison and often lead down that yellow brick road to doomsday. You start to realize you boosted yourself via an opinion of others and not “ the you ,” who looks back in the mirror each morning. When you choose to make a difference in your life, you begin to choose yourself as the necessity , not the priority. Being the necessity means you come from that place of truth in your heart … that place free of clutter … to deliver your truth – to yourself and the world. Releasing judgments allows mental and emotional space to clear and increased energy to be a part of daily living. Look at these ways to release judgments found. Use pattern interrupts – when you catch yourself having a defining moment, thought, etc. – ask yourself, “Do I really know this person saying, feeling, choosing that?” Switch to praise – come up with one thing you like about someone and honor them with praise. Say it out loud – the outside conversation takes attention and places it in the praise. Look within – find places where you make decisions. Ask yourself, “Is this really how I feel? Is this really my truth, or is it how I really feel about myself?” Be discerning – you delve down to the foundation of feelings, which can bring much clarity. Journaling allows you to see in black and white the truths and falsehoods to be honored or addressed. Admit to your feelings and findings – self-discovery is an amazing tool. It is also filled with many dimensions of exploration growth, and that growth is filled with many “is this really me” levels to own and embrace or disown and trash. Don’t revisit the trash – Take it out for good! Be gentle with yourself – this discovery opens old wounds, regrets, and a plethora of human emotions. Self-discoveries are made and must be addressed to heal. This list takes many forms. This is just a starting discovery point. “When you begin to accept yourself the way you are right now, you begin a new life with new possibilities that did not exist before because you were so caught up in the struggle against the reality that was all you could do.” – Traveling Free, Mandy Evans . Building the Castle Anew Now that the clutter of falsehood and untruth no longer defines YOU , authenticity is the word of the day! In your authentic self, you develop a confidence-building self-acceptance. You start from these foundational truths. Believe in your worth and uniqueness. There is only one YOU . Embrace your self-humanity. Self-Joy replaces negativity, whether toiling with a tedious project or growing through self-development. Accept the mistakes you make. Use them as your newest success-learning curve. Move onto a bigger and better you. Focus on action or behavior change to achieve better “ you ” results. Use positive self-talk. Compliment yourself. Use “I can do this,” or “I can find a solution for this,” or “Forgiving others is just what I do,” or find reinforcement statements that support the freer, more positive you . Be tolerant and compassionate with yourself. You are your own best friend. Take care of yourself, as you would that person you cherish and adore. What can you add to this list? Authenticity is highly valued. We seek those who stand up for what they believe in, are committed and passionate about many things, align with their beliefs in what they say and how they act, are consistent in their behavior, etc. As you experience your authenticity, look for these characteristics: Have realistic perceptions of reality, not unrealistic perceptions of reality. Acceptance of self and others, not looking to others for approval. Non-hostile sense of humor, humor that is not hurtful and derogatory. Ability to express emotions freely and clearly, not holding an agenda behind what is spoken. Open to learning from past mistakes, not repeating patterns of self-depreciating behavior. Understand what motivates you, not knowing what is in your heart. Being in your authenticity is engaging from healthy non-defensive actions and emotional maturity. Wearing Your Crown You have worked really hard. Now it is time to celebrate the You, which has been rebirthed anew. Through judgment discovery, you have found pieces that do not support the experience you want to live. You have released them and put in their place behaviors that align with your authenticity. Then you have rebuilt yourself with self-acceptance through actions and definitions that support who you are on purpose. This leads you to know your Earth Shaking Confidence intimately and without question. For more info, follow me on Facebook , Instagram , LinkedIn and visit my webs ite ! Read more from Fra n ! Fran Pedron, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine Fran Pedron combines intuition, education, and life experience to help clients understand their foundational self-definition, make changes, and intention-purposed plans, which align with who they are as they create their desired outcomes. Her experience in insurance, technology, accounting, communications, along with being abruptly downsized later in life, led her to understand how change affects people and their decision-making processes, along with the need to make decisions aligned with their authenticity.

Written by: Shawn Singleton II, 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 is leadership? The answer to that question varies depending on who you ask. At its core, leadership is rooted in the measure of a person's character against adversity, success, and opposition. Regardless of the outcome that came from their oversight, their effectiveness becomes a measure of their competency to make high-level decisions accurately. This is where Reshape Your Thinking steps in with an objective evaluation framework for executives and company leaders alike by looking at four key areas. Unfortunately, many of us tend to limit this way of thinking to individuals in executive positions, other professional leadership roles, and those aspiring to be in those roles. However, in my experience in coaching several leaders, personal and organizational, I developed a framework based on several occasions that those high-level decision-makers shared behind the reason for their sustainable and repeatable success. It's the secret to what most executive leaders focus on because they understand it affects their effectiveness in their personal and professional leadership roles. A framework that allows you to successfully create "tunnel vision" towards your life's goals without disrupting your overall performance... One aspect of this framework starts with Acknowledgment . The primary focus is understanding that grief is not limited to tragedies or loss. Grief is an emotion that can be experienced outside of those moments. You feel like giving up—the moments when you were anticipating what was about to happen; that your breakout moment is vastly approaching. Only you run into another issue that throws you off track once again and places you back into the perpetual cycle. When you fail to acknowledge grief, you feel deflated as if you're in a spiral, losing control of your life, and begin to blame yourself or your environment for why certain things are, which creates a deep feeling of discomfort. It's in this moment you feel as if you have to do something to fix it before your life falls apart even more. When, in fact, the best thing you can do is take a moment and do nothing. It's what I discovered as the next point in the leadership framework, Assess . Stephen Moeller, a Grief Recovery Specialist, considers the misinformation as it's related to grief in his article, " How Long Does Grief Last? ” [i] He suggests that the passage of time has nothing to do with actually moving through the pain. One of his main points was this: "If anything, all that happens as time goes by is that grievers become so accustomed to living with the pain that it becomes an everlasting part of their lives. That pain will continue to control them if they fail to take meaningful action to deal with it." As a Certified Business, Life, and Cognitive Behavior Life Coach, I can tell you that the relationship is directly proportional between the amount of grief you've genuinely resolved and the amount of consistency you will develop to become an effective leader inside your life. Assessing your leadership roles in your personal and professional life means that once you've acknowledged these moments of grief, you're now attempting to make sense of the damage. It doesn't have to be a significant traumatic experience or an immediately recognizable change. The damage assessment will typically yield effects recognized in your behaviors and actions that you might've changed since the moment occurred. I tell all my clients to start with the critical areas and "clean your house," even if you feel there's nothing there, it doesn't mean we should overlook it. Assess your social circles, lifestyle habits and behaviors, physical activity, and community. The next step in the framework is where most people jump to first when grief occurs in their life. They begin to Adjust their life to learn how to live with the grief- rather than adjusting their life to learn how to heal from the grief. Remember, grief is not connected solely to the personal loss or tragedy of another individual or animal. Merriam Webster has three definitions for the word and several other sources. However, regardless of the definition, the term still implies an unfortunate outcome and can still be managed using the same framework. Adjusting your life in these areas is where most of us give up on becoming more effective leaders inside our lives, but it's where the successful ones learn to stay. They understand the concept as creating a foundation for development and growth if a grief moment occurs; they don't have to reach so far down in their thought process for the answer that will consistently produce effective high-level decision-making. They rely on this thought process in both their personal and professional leadership roles. The last step in the framework has been my clients' personal favorite. Once they have gotten their leadership to a consistent level, they can be more effective and devote more energy to the habits that will make them even more successful. It's where they Maintain their influence and effectiveness in both their personal and professional leadership roles and become trusted high-level decision-makers. A simple, repeatable formula that I've had numerous successes and positive feedback. The reason it's so successful is that this framework isn't based on some proprietary knowledge or pretending to know every situation that all of you encounter. It relies on you being honest with yourself and teaches you how to apply this concept to your life using your environment, resources, and current leadership roles. " Yes, I A cknowledge, A ssess, A djust, M aintain!" My company, Reshape Your Thinking , has made it simple and easy for anyone of all ages and cultures to learn how to develop this framework within their own life and be able to say, "Yes, I A.M. a Leader!" Buy our Book: Brick by Brick: Reshape Your Thinking, available here on Amazon. "I loved that Coach Shawn's tone was very inspiring. Better still, he used some quotes at the end of each chapter. Coach Shawn knows how to coach people who are going through difficulties." – Online Book Club Reader. Take our Course: Gain access to our Reshape Your Thinking LIFETIME Leadership Course (That's right, Pay ONCE for LIFE) In this course, we will cover how to apply the four principles that make the Yes, I A.M. method effective at helping you become more influential in your personal and professional leadership roles. We will cover each topic in videos no longer than 10 minutes! Friends Family Action Character Counseling Finances Coach Shawn will show you how one might apply the four core principles Acknowledge, Assess, Adjust, and Maintain (Yes, I A.M. principles) that will empower you to become the leader you desire to be! Book your free Initial Coaching Session with Coach Shawn and take your personal and professional leadership to the next level! Click here! Want to learn more about our services? Visit us at https://reshapeyourthinking.com , where you lead, and we follow! For more info, follow me on Facebook , Instagram , LinkedIn and visit my web site ! Shawn Singleton, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine Shawn Singleton, II is the author of "Brick by Brick: Reshape Your Thinking" and 2 021 CREA Global Award recipient who primarily focuses on advising youth and young adults to effectively manage their influence in their personal and professional leadership roles. As a Husband, Community Leader, Engineer, and Certified Cognitive Behavioral, Life, and Business Coach, Shawn knows what it takes to become an effective leader in personal and professional leadership roles. Shawn created the "Yes, I A.M." leadership method from several personal and professional experiences, from being raised without a father in a single-parent household to head coach and community leader to organizational leadership and management. Shawn has experienced and overcame almost every obstacle young men face today regarding development and understanding of creating a foundation to become the leader they desire to become! Reference: [i] Moeller, S. (2017, July 13). How Long Does Grief Last? Retrieved from The Grief Recovery Method.

Written by: Rachael Downie, Executive Contributor Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise. The past 18 months have been an incredible experience for businesses worldwide. It is also an opportunity to harvest the good and look for opportunities. And sometimes, this means doing things that make you feel uncomfortable and stretch your thinking in a way that hasn’t happened before. Our dairy farming business faced a crisis 5 years ago. With the drop in the milk price, we were faced with losing a business and family property that had been in the family for over 4 generations. I didn’t have the mindset that I have now. And my husband and I did fall into a hole for a while until we asked for help. It was time to dig deep, look for the opportunities, look at all the options, decide what was right, and then seek the people and resources that were required to stay in business; as this was the decision that whatever it took, we were going to make sure that we kept the farm. Working with businesses to shift mindset over a number of years has highlighted how easy it is to get in harmony with the worst-case scenarios and stay stuck and even lose the business that you spent so much time building. No one really wants to give up on their dreams.“Bad news” is reinforced in the media day in day out. You might be looking at the physical results you are achieving (perhaps loss in revenue, the lack of money in your bank account, a lack of clients) and lose heart, be stressed, despondent, and at an absolute loss as to what to do. You can be in a place of being so worried about what you may lose that you can’t receive the ideas or see the opportunities that can take you in the opposite direction. You see, this is the mindset that actually chokes on the supply of creative ideas. Solutions don’t come from this place of thinking. It requires a mind shift to focus on possible opportunities and operating from the solution mindset rather than the fear mindset. It is about doing and looking at things in a certain way. If your mind hasn't been conditioned to look at things from a place of looking for opportunities, it can help if you go back to the beginning. When you first started your business, you probably fell in love with an idea. You had a goal, and you looked at ways that you could create it. You may have sought certain people’s guidance, resources, and opportunities that helped bring your business to fruition. You made a decision, and you went after it fuelled with the desire and the possibility of what you could create. You were persistent. This is exactly what you need to be doing right now. Tap back into the desire that made you jump out of bed in the first place to go after what you wanted. If you haven’t fine-tuned your mind to continue to take this form of action and come from a creative space of thinking, then your conditioning can take over, and you stay in the ‘comfort zone.’ When a situation arises from the left field, you may not actually be ready to deal with it. This is where many businesses can go backward and ultimately go out of business. Change is the only constant. With the fast pace of technology, the natural disasters, and all that is going on in the world right now, the business world needs to be ready to embrace change and look for opportunities or become extinct. This will involve the same creative thinking that you used when you first started your businesses. It will be a continual evolvement process. You will need to outwit your fears. Understanding your fears will help you to find out what is standing in your way. Identify what they are and then come up with intelligent actions that you can take to move forward or take side steps. Harvest the good. Forget the rest. Focus on hope and expectation. There is always an opportunity, but you have to look for it, be open to it and expect it. And quite often, the outcome will be even better than you could have imagined. Follow me on Facebook, LinkedIn, or visit my website for more info! Rachael Downie, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine Is your mindset holding you back in your business? Rachael Downie is a success mentor and someone who is truly focused on converting your thinking into results. Rachael works with a variety of individuals, businesses, and CEOs both locally and internationally - simply because we all have the same blockages, doubts, limited thinking, money, and staffing issues. (and if you don't, you are probably one of the 3% who is an unconscious competent, who may find it difficult to transfer your success skills to your staff or family). Rachael loves helping you create success not only in your business but also in other areas of your life.

Written by: Marlena O´Donnell, Executive Contributor Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise. Do you enjoy your life? You may say - “yes, of course, I do. I love who I am and the life I have”. Or you may say - “I go through life, but I cannot honestly say that I am living it to the full. I always feel guilty about something, worry about what may happen, want to be like people I see on television - happy, fulfilled, and carefree”. The good news is - you can live the life you want. Your happiness is not dependent on other people, what goes around you, good fortune, circumstances, your upbringing, or anything else. Only you can create your destiny and happiness. Don’t fret about what may go wrong. We often spend more time worrying about the imaginary consequences of our actions than taking the actions. We list all the things that can go wrong and get paralyzed by all the obstacles in the way. But in reality, we don’t know what is going to happen. The consequences of our actions may be good or bad. And if they do happen to be bad, it is likely that we can handle them and solve any problems that occur. We are brilliant at problem-solving - we do it in every situation. Every day, we have to make decisions, resolve complex issues and conflicts. Who is to say we won’t be able to do it in the future? Put aside any doubts you have and do all these exciting, daring, fun things you want to do, but you worry that you will not manage the consequences if something goes wrong. You will! Look within. We all tend to look at others and seek validation of who we are through recognition, praise, or respect. But you don’t need other people to tell you how good you are. How can anyone else but you know what you are capable of? It’s impossible! Even you may not be fully aware of what your power is if you let the voice of self-doubt take over. The voice of doubt does not know what you are capable of, just as it does not know the future. It tries to predict what will happen but is unable to tell you with certainty that it will happen. If you doubt that you have what it takes to succeed and you are struggling to defeat the voice of doubt, just assume that you are capable and act as this was a given. You don’t need to feel confident to act confident! Take action. If there is something you don’t like about yourself or your life, only you have the power to change it. You don’t have to spend the rest of your life not liking who you are. Seek help, speak to someone you trust and respect, get a coach or a mentor. Similarly, if you want to get what you want, take action now. Thinking about taking action is not the same as taking steps towards your vision. Make a phone call, write an email, give up a bad habit, read a manual - the list of actions you can take is endless. Each day, do at least one thing that is going to change your life and create the future you want. Focus on what you want, not what is stopping you from having it. Have fun. What’s the point of living your life if you are not enjoying it? When we were children, we had no restrictions - the sky was the limit. There was joy in playing, not worrying about the future, being free to express how we feel and what we want. What is stopping you from having the same freedom to have fun in your life right now? Consider all that you do from the perspective of having fun - you can find joy even in the things you don’t like, but have to do by imagining how much you will enjoy finishing them. Live your life now. I often hear people say - I will be happy when… I retire, get a new job, meet the girl/boy of my dreams, move house, go on holiday, have children, and so on. They think that their happiness is dependent on something that has not happened yet (and may not even happen!). Life is for a living now - there is no point in waiting for something in the future if the only thing that you can control is the now. Live each day as if it was the best day of your life - the day you’ve been waiting for, and it is happening right now. You feel great. The sky is the limit. Everything is how it should be. Grab your life with both hands. You can shape it and change it to meet your dreams. Only you can break down the barriers to your happiness. What are you waiting for? For more information, follow me on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and visit my website! Read more from Marlena! Marlena O’Donnell, Executive Contributor, Brainz Magazine Marlena O’Donnell is a certified life coach, mentor, and motivational speaker specializing in freeing her clients from beliefs that are not serving them well. Marlena has successfully helped many people gain an unwavering belief in themselves, confidence, motivation, and courage to go after what they want in life through individual and group coaching, mentoring, and workshops. Marlena has personal experience of overcoming significant challenges in life and succeeding against all odds. This, combined with her thorough understanding of both business matters and personal issues, puts her in a unique position to help her clients successfully navigate their way through difficulties they face in all areas of life and achieve “the unachievable.” As a motivational speaker, Marlena inspires others to make powerful and lasting changes in their life. She has been a keynote speaker at business events, online conferences, and summits.

Written by: Rita Farruggia, 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. Think about the skills required to achieve high levels of success. We have heard them a million times: laser focus, clarity, emotional mastery, creativity, flexible thinking, great leadership, problem-solving, communication skills, and high energy are some of the top skills required to achieve success. Meditation enhances our ability to cultivate these skill sets required to achieve high levels of success. Relationship Building and Sales A top skill to achieve success in business has great people skills. We are always dealing with people, even if you are a solopreneur. As a solopreneur, you are still dealing with people: clients/customers, vendors, pitching to secure speaking engagements, and converting (communication skills) strangers into paying clients. When you are dealing with people, you interact with multiple personality types with different perspectives, communication styles, and personal past histories (education levels, experiences, beliefs, values, etc.). We have all encountered people in our day-to-day business life that appear to be rude. The important thing is how we deal with both pleasant and not so pleasant people so that our energy doesn’t get depleted if we let them change our state into an angry state. Meditation helps you build emotional strength. You are less likely to become upset when dealing with difficult people because practicing regular meditation, we can observe and understand the truth behind our own emotions (gain clarity to see that people who chose to act disrespectful are insecure, it’s about their personal wounds, their bad behavior is not about you) and you become better at seeing how those around us are feeling. This gives you the ability to develop deeper connections with people when you are deeply connected to yourself. This enhances your communication skills because you are becoming aware of the truth between your interactions with people. You are more aware of what the other person needs to hear in your conversation because your listening skills increase along with your intuition. This is because when you meditate, you quiet your mind from mental chatter and stop living in a reactionary state from external stimuli. This allows your nervous system to calm down. It is from this calm place we can see more clearly. When tuning into ourselves, our intuition increases; therefore, we can receive clear insight from this theta state. Therefore, we become used to observing our breath and ourselves more. This is the reason after you complete a transcendental (quiet) meditation, you see more details in the room, you feel more present and alive once you open your eyes (you are becoming more tuned in). This is why daily meditators don’t respond with a quick reaction to an offensive statement; instead, they can recognize the other person’s feelings and have more emotional flexibility in their response. Being more aware of our emotions and thoughts allows us to motivate people who work for us. This allows you to have advanced communication skills to ensure your team members' emotional and mental needs are met in order to feel fulfilled in performing their work. For example, if one team member is doing something that you see as inefficient, you have the ability to communicate with diplomacy because you are not quickly reacting based on emotion. Instead, after you react in your body and mind, you process your reaction by asking yourself questions as to why that specific team member is taking that action? (it could be for a number of reasons, maybe someone else told that team member to take that action or a misunderstanding in communication, etc.). Therefore, you can have a calm, respectful conversation to discover the truth and explain the action you prefer that member took because of efficiency. You apologize if you weren’t clear in your instructions. Improve Mental Performance Our mental performance declines as we age. We can combat the aging process with a daily meditation practice. Meditation, when practiced regularly, is training the mind to concentrate and focus. You need to be able to concentrate on your breath initially to get into a meditative (theta) state which is a state just above the delta (sleeping) state. Studies prove that meditation helps people sustain their focus, even during mundane tasks. Researchers have discovered that Buddhist monks who meditate daily have high performance on concentration tests than the average person. Those who meditate regularly not only increase their ability to concentrate they also boost their attention to detail. Every entrepreneur wants to get more done. This research proves how meditating can improve your productivity levels and the quality of your productivity. Therefore, you are likely to achieve the results you desire with laser focus as a result of daily meditation. Learn Faster and Improve Your Memory In order to be a successful business leader, you need to process and learn new information quickly. All entrepreneurs can relate to this. Technology is always changing, our culture always changes, the market always changes, and new opportunities arise that require a new skill or knowledge to adapt. Researchers have discovered that meditation stimulates areas of the brain associated with memory, concentration, and learning. One study of college students who took a mindfulness class four times a week for two weeks demonstrated that their working memory capacity improved during that time. Other studies demonstrated that meditation increases gray matter volume, also enhancing the performance of other areas of the brain that assist with learning, memory, cognition, or emotional regulation. Researchers highlighted that meditation is likely to change the brain’s structure, increase mental activity and think faster. This means that meditation improves your mental performance. Increase Your Creativity Being creative leads to business innovation. If you are not innovating in this fast-moving business world, your business can get left behind. The ability to be creative is a must-have skill in order to succeed. Having rigid and in-the-box thinking can get you stuck at a certain level in your business. Meditation activates your creativity. A study discovered that open-monitoring meditation, a type of meditation that involves observing how you are feeling in the present moment in your body, your thoughts, and sensations, increases “divergent thinking.” This kind of thinking involves generating creative ideas by exploring many possible solutions. Research has discovered that open-monitoring meditation improves working memory and increases flexible thinking. Tools To Amplify Your Meditation Practice Burning Sage There are tools you can use to amplify your concentration during your meditation sessions. You can burn sage. Smelling sage is aromatherapy for your brain, it activates your brain to concentrate by calming down your nervous system, and it is also known to increase your intuition. Also, looking at the swirls of smoke in the air puts you into a trance/meditative state. Crystals Each crystal emits a different energy frequency to amplify your meditation session. Depending on the intention of your meditation, you would choose a crystal to match your intention. For example, when doing self-love or increasing compassion mediation, hold rose quartz in your hand since it emits a love frequency. To gain more clarity on making a decision, you can hold clear quartz, amethyst, or selenite crystal. Clear quartz amplifies clarity, and it also amplifies the energy of the other crystals around it. Amethyst crystal increases your intuition, and selenite helps communicate with your higher self. Essential Oils You can diffuse essential oils in an oil diffuser for aromatherapy. Smelling the wonderful scents of essential oils puts you into a calm state, feeling more peaceful and more at ease to go into a trance/meditative state. Also, health benefits are associated with smelling the wonderful scents of essential oils. Note that some people also run the essential oil of their choice onto the palm of their hands then smell them before meditating. Some Top Essential Oils for Meditating: Lavender. Ylang Ylang. Cedarwood. Frankincense. Chamomile. Patchouli. Sandalwood. Also, guided meditations performed by a person certified in hypnotherapy (two meditations below) helps guide your body and mind into a deeply relaxed state to ensure you are in a theta state for the specific guided imagery the meditation facilitator is painting in your mind, a trained hypnotherapist is trained in activating emotional responses through voice techniques, choice of particular words to increase the success of your transformation with daily meditation. Two Excellent Guided Success Meditations to Activate High Performance: Achieve Higher Levels of Success Meditation Abundance/Wealth Meditation After reading this article, now you know why some top business leaders meditate regularly, such as Marc Benioff (CEO and Founder of Salesforce), Arianna Huffington (founder of Huff Post), Jeff Weiner (CEO of LinkedIn), Tony Robbins, Oprah, and Ray Dalio (Founder of Bridge Water Associates) among many other top business leaders. My passion is to motivate and inspire people to live their best lives by improving their minds, body, spirit, and confidence. If this article has inspired you to meditate daily, please share the gift of mental health by sharing this article with your network. Stay updated with me and my content on Instagram, Happy Being Well Blog, and Facebook. Read more from Rita! Rita Farruggia, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine Rita Farruggia is the CEO and Founder of HappyBeingWell.com, with the mission of being the 1 Self-Care Community in the world. Her mission is to awaken a billion people globally to their love while teaching them how to love themselves, reprogram their subconscious, align with truth, universal laws, and create a daily spiritual practice that involves self-care practices. HappyBeingWell.com offers the tools/products, education, and inspiration to use in our daily spiritual & self-care practice. Rita believes a daily spiritual practice is not limited to yoga and/or meditation. The truth is when we are manually cleaning our dishes, we often go into a trance. This is also a form of meditation. Rita believes our personal hygiene (self-care) and home cleaning sessions can also be our spiritual practices. Self-care and spiritual practices changed Rita's life, increased her ability to love herself.

Written by: Lucy Griffin-Stiff, Executive Contributor Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise. As we begin to see the light appearing at the end of the Covid tunnel, has this period made you re-think your life? For some, it’s been a matter of survival. For others, a period of reflection. People, businesses, and families have needed to change and adapt to new ways of life, new rules. And most of all, we’ve all had a bit of a shake-up. It’s very easy to get used to life being a certain way and keep journeying on the merry hamster wheel of life going round and round, but if Covid has done one thing, it’s disrupted us all. We’ve realized that things can change, and things do change. Which begs the question – is there a change you want to see in your life moving forward that’s different from what life used to be like before the Corona Crisis? It’s very common to have that niggling feeling that something needs to change in life but to not know where to start. Or how to make the change without getting stuck. So here are 5 things you can do to get more clarity on what you want. 1. Purpose Have you asked yourself how you want life to be and feel? If you haven’t, take some time to brainstorm how you want to live your life and how you’d like to feel each day. Then ask yourself why. Why do I want this? Why is this important to me? Is there a contribution you want to make to the world? Is there a legacy you’d like to leave behind? Is there something that you’re passionate about that would drive you to get up each day? Do you want to live a life where you can balance work and family life more easily? If you were living your life with purpose, what would be different? Now consider how life is right now. Can you find the purpose in what you do and how you live right now? Is there a gap between life now and the vision of purpose you brainstormed? 2. Ideal Day Exercise Building on the brainstorm above regarding your purpose and how you want your life to be and feel, can you envisage an ideal day in the future where you’re living that purpose? Take a piece of paper and write down if you were to have an ideal day, what would it be like? How would that day go from the minute you got up to the moment you went to sleep? What would you be doing? Who would you be with? How would you be spending your time? How would you be feeling? What activities would happen during the day? What’s interesting about this exercise is that it helps you question your thoughts and what you really want. You may find you start writing out what an ideal day would look like based on your current habits, but when you see it written down, you might re-think it and realize you only wrote that because it’s what you’re used to. Challenge yourself – in an ideal day, what would really happen? 3. Values Values help us decipher what’s really important to us. They help us make decisions and guide our choices. In my book, The Create a Life you Love Journal ™ The Ultimate Life and Mindset Makeover – you’ll find an exercise that helps you discover your core values. Unless you’ve worked with a coach or done a decent amount of personal development, you don’t often spend time doing a values exercise for yourself. We just let our values develop. And often, we don’t pay much conscious attention to them. We pick up other people’s values as we grow up, and it’s only as we get older that we begin to challenge them or question if they are still true for us. To do a really quick values audit, you can ask yourself: How do I spend my time? What do I spend money on? Who do I spend my time with? These questions help reveal what you’re actually paying attention to – how you’re currently living your life. The question is – are these activities aligned with the values you truly want to live by? Do your values fit with your ideal day? Do they align with your purpose? 4. What’s working? Another great exercise to help bring you more clarity and make the shift from where you are now to where you want to be is to ask yourself these three questions: What’s working well that I want to keep in my life? What’s not working well that I’d be wise to let go of? What needs to change? Deep inside, we know the answers to these questions. We know what’s working and what isn’t. We often know what needs to change. It’s just that fear gets in the way. It can feel so overwhelming that we don’t know where to start. Stepping out of our comfort zone can stretch us. It can make us feel uncomfortable. That’s normal. The thing is, if we do what we’ve always done, we get what we’ve always got. So somewhere between now and your ideal day, we need to figure out what we keep, what we lose, and what we change. 5. Do the (Mindset) Work Usually, the biggest thing stopping us from getting clear, living a life we love, and reaching our full potential is ourselves! We are masters at getting in our own way. Whether this is down to fear or our deep-rooted limiting beliefs about ourselves, we have become habitually conditioned over our lives to behave in certain ways and believe things (that aren’t necessarily true). Unless we “do the work” to free ourselves from the limits and conditioning of the past and let go of our old baggage, we’ll find ourselves going round in familiar circles and never really getting to our ideal destination. In my book The Create a Life you Love Journal ™ - The Ultimate Life and Mindset Makeover – you’ll discover how to “do the work.” The book is a unique hybrid – part book, part coaching exercises, and part journal. It’s time to break the rules on not writing in books because this is the book you actually “do the work” in. It’s been described as “a manual for a new life.” With 23 different exercises to complete, alongside knowledge, insight, and tools, you’ll be able to create a life you love from the inside out – if you do the work. If you’re re-thinking your life post-Covid and would like some support, you can get your copy here. Follow me on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, or visit my website for more info! Lucy Griffin-Stiff, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine Lucy Griffin-Stiff is a global messenger of Enoughness, on a mission to help as many people as possible understand they are worthy and enough. Lucy spreads the message that the unhelpful conditioning of the past isn’t how the future needs to be. As a life and mindset coach, Lucy works mostly with women in and around their forties to help them understand or re-find themselves, let go of what’s been holding them back, reach their potential, and design a life they love from the inside, out. Lucy is a certified mindset coach, Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) coach practitioner, Timeline Therapy™ practitioner, certified hypnotherapist, neuroscience geek, and author of The Create a Life you Love Journal ™ The Ultimate Life and Mindset Makeover.

Written by: Andrea Cristancho, 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. Building your business from your gut, core, lungs, and pelvic floor with KPIs in all the colors of the rainbow. It was 6:00 am, a misty morning winter in Shanghai in 2010. I was heading to my yoga teacher Waylon’s class. He was in his next stay in Shanghai throughout his yearly Asia tour, just starting his regular classes at Anamaya, the yoga studio our friend opened recently in the heart of the french concession. Shoes off as usual inside the shala, I walked in, and the smell of fresh incense greeted me on this wet morning. I dropped my stuff in the changing rooms and headed to practice. There he was, the same old smiley Waylon, hyped up at 6:15 am already awake, guiding us to take a seat, but first: “go blow your nose,” he said, “because we are going to practice kriyas.” Back then, my normal was to wake up with a stuffy nose, and I totally blamed the pollution, so I went to the bathroom to do as I was told. We slowly came back and sat in our places, started with soft pranayama, and in no time switched into deeper forceful intentional breathing sequences that, oh my, were clearing airways and getting me high. I was curious and delighted, happy and nervous at the same time. I was experiencing a new sense of peace, and it was intentional. We carried on for a couple more minutes. After that, we sat in meditation and began our asana practice. 90 minutes later, I was walking out of the studio alive, awake, feeling fresh, feeling powerful, and my brain in alert mode. I could only say that was great… and it was, as I made my way to the office. On that day, my regular kriya practice began. My journey on the mat is long and ongoing. It extends over 11 years now, and I’m nowhere close to retiring yet. But, now I’m on a mission to share the secrets among my fellow coaches and dear clients because it is possible to integrate business with a healthy lifestyle. The regular practice of kriyas got me to tap into the power of my breathing in business and life. When speaking on stages, when hosting a team presentation, when in session with a client 1:1, even when jet-lagged. Kriyas work! This experience got me to research the energy centers inside the body, or as I like to call them, the energy pockets. The places where we can store and tap into energy as we are pleased. Breathing is one. Now allow me to introduce to you three more: the gut, the pelvic floor, and the core. Inside our gut lives our gut bacteria, the essence of our immunity. Did you know you can rebalance your gut with the power of the rainbow? And I’m not talking about unicorns here. The rainbow you find in your fridge, at the farmers market, on a lovely whole foods meal. If you’re curious, I invite you to research and experiment with the awareness of your food intake. As an entrepreneur, dealing with mental fog and running low on energy is common, but it doesn’t have to be. Remember, you have the ability to tap into your power sources! Next up, the pelvic floor. In yoga, we call it “Mula bandha,” and mastering these techniques allows for real awakening and direct access to your highest self and purpose. Something entrepreneurs could absolutely benefit from, don’t you agree? Imagine having access to your superpowers 24/7 by simply controlling the muscles that sit on your pelvic floor. The exercises are super simple, in combination with your breath count and hold, no equipment nor gym time required, only mindfulness and commitment. Women, in particular, tend to work hard at recovering the pelvic floor, and as a result, gain tremendous strength after the delivery of their children. But not all, unfortunately! And man can absolutely master this too! Google it. And last but not least at all, the core. Yes, we can aim for the 6 pack, good for you. However, be mindful of the inner muscular wall that holds up your body structure, prevents lower back pain, gets you to gain your confidence like anything else, and keeps your posture upright. Alright, alright, the last one sounds like a fantasy, and I’m sure you’ve tried the reps at some point in time and failed. However, my invitation to you is to examine it from a micro-commitments daily perspective for at least 10 minutes a day. As we commit to building habits of highly effective individuals as business people, we can start with building our energy pockets 10 minutes a day. Did I get you interested? As a holistic business coach, I bring to the table that integration, not balance, of running a business and a healthy lifestyle. Really combining a lifestyle that you can design and put together, keeping in mind that fuel for your business is your own energy. And building all the pieces of the puzzle upon that energy level and level of intelligence and expertise you already have. There’s nothing less or more missing from the equation. It’s all about designing and strategizing that roadmap. And that’s exactly how we integrate the creation of your Flagship Offer and your lifestyle as an entrepreneur inside my holistic business coaching world. But of course, I’m biased. This is why today is special. I’ve asked my first business coach - who focuses on helping health coaches launch their businesses —, Dawn Friedland — to answer the top 3 frequently asked questions I get asked the most for you. 1) Q: What’s your take on burnout? Dawn: Burnout is a symptom of fear and scarcity at play in your mindset. When an entrepreneur begins her journey of building a business, she likely has big dreams, big visions, and lots of excitement for future possibilities. She starts out with an abundance mindset. "Plenty of business to be had!" she thinks. But then the realities of how difficult the path will actually be start to sink in. The revenue doesn't grow the way she expected it to. She has a bad month and maybe goes into debt. She gets scared it might happen again and doubles down on her efforts to make up for it (fear.) She starts to take clients that aren't perfectly aligned for her because she needs every dollar she can get (scarcity.) But then, next month, she exceeds her goals and gets re-invigorated about the possibilities again, so she keeps going. The following month isn't so hot. The cycle continues, and each time the fear and scarcity increase a little bit while the workload and doubling down continue to grow. Eventually, an entrepreneur will burn out if this problem is not addressed due to overworking for too many months. The solution is to find a balance between your big visions & dreams and what actually can be accomplished in your first 6 months, 1 year, and 3 years of business. Keep that abundant mindset ever-present and stay tuned in to the future possibilities while accepting and expecting a bit of a roller coaster as par for the course. When you believe that the path from A to Z is not a straight line and you will hit some bumps in the road and few detours, it can be easier to stay present to your abundant vision and pace yourself on the journey towards that vision. 2) What’s your top 1 advice to aspiring online business entrepreneurs? Dawn: In the online marketplace, alignment trumps all. To win in the online space means to attract perfect clients into your perfect offer. You can have all the funnel pages, complicated technology, and budget for ad spend in the world, but if you are not in 100% alignment with who you help and what problem you solve, no amount of marketing will work. Here's why the success of your business is a direct function of your ability to communicate what you do and why people should work with you through copywriting and content creation. Communication is essentially an expression of your inner beliefs, deepest understanding of the problem, and most importantly, an expression of your empathy for their struggles & challenges. All humans want to be heard and understood. Most of us don't get that from the people we interact with daily because most people just survive and get their own needs met. Most people don't make it their mission to make other people feel heard. It's just how the world works: bosses are hitting KPIs, spouses are trying to get the kids to school, be at work on time, etc. So often, this need to feel understood and be heard goes unmet. So when you can express your deepest understanding of what they are struggling with and what they want, when they see your content, they're going to resonate with it. They're going to feel heard. They're going to be drawn in. If you aren't 100% aligned, it's going to be difficult to create that experience for them - you'll get crickets on your posts, your ads won't convert, the leads won't buy. But when you are 100% aligned, everything becomes easier, and the business starts to flow in because of the aligned energetic pathways you've created through the resonant communication in your content. 3) Do you believe it’s possible to integrate business with a healthy lifestyle, for real? Dawn: Not only is it possible to integrate business with a healthy lifestyle, it's required! If you interview the founders of the most successful online businesses, you will find something they all have in common. They have a morning routine. They actively work on their mindset. They exercise. They meditate. They drink lots of water. They eat well. They minimize clutter and manage their calendar tightly. They invest in healthy relationships and avoid toxic or draining people. Successful online business owners know that business success is an extension of their personal energy. Personal energy is created through daily acts of self-care and business care. When an entrepreneur allows her state to go into an unhealthy state, energy blockages in their mind and body show up as energy blockages in their business. "As within, so without," as the saying goes. I hope our approach gets you inspired, and if you need further support, you know where to find us. My online community - Health & Business Integrated, The Club - is the place where all my teachings and practices come together and evolve as our community grows. More on this coming soon. To your success! You can also visit her website for more info and join her Facebook Group here. Read more from Andrea! Andrea Cristancho, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine Andrea Cristancho, the founder of www.andreacristancho.com, is a Holistic Business Coach helping female entrepreneurs in the wellness space. Through her signature program, The UpLevel Method, Andrea integrates the entrepreneurial mindset with practical business tools that re-engineer existing businesses to achieve their next growth level. As an international business mentor with Latin roots and serial entrepreneur, she has run her own businesses in 3 continents in many different industries. In the process, she has discovered that having a signature program, a personal brand, and the right mindset is the key to taking off your entrepreneurial success.