John Kenny is The Relationship Guy - relationship coach, author of The P.E.O.P.L.E. Programme, documentary maker and speaker. After living a life full of unsuccessful and toxic relationships, John has created Interpersonal Relationship Coaching (IRC) to help successful singles who struggle with intimate relationships of their own. He has been in the field of personal development since 2004 and has helped thousands of clients to live the relationships and life that they choose, rather than the one they always have or feel they have to or should! John will not only help you to understand why you think, feel and do as you do, but also the intricacies of deeper human behavior. Who is John Kenny? I have always worked in the service sector, from retail management, personal trainer to being a firefighter in the London Fire Brigade, but helping people improve their lives through coaching is my purpose and passion. I now reside just north of London in the UK, and although I have traveled around, have ended up not far from where I grew up in east London (but who knows where I will end up, somewhere warm is my plan). I work locally with clients face to face and online with people all around the UK and internationally from Canada to Australia. I have always liked to keep myself fit, one of the reasons I became a personal trainer, as I have exercised regularly from the age of 16. That was when I discovered I was a pretty fast sprinter and ended up competing for Great Britain on numerous occasions over 200 meters. I was one of those kids that had no idea what they wanted to do with their lives as they grew up and when my dream of becoming a full-time athlete didn't happen, I became an adult with absolutely no idea of what I wanted to do with my life. By chance, when studying for something else, I discovered the world of psychology, trained to be a counselor, and then trained as a coach in 2012. I also trained as a hypnotherapist and NLP Practitioner and in 2016 put all of my knowledge and experience together and founded IRC. I focused for a few years on helping people to manage unhealthy/toxic relationship spaces and to heal from the pain and difficulties we carry from them. This was my own personal experience too and my healing helped me work with others to do so. How do you help now? The 75 years Grant Study from Yale University concluded that there is a direct correlation between the quality of your relationships and the overall quality of your life. I help people to find that quality. My background in counseling and psychology enables me to understand the intricacies of human behavior and why you think, feel and do what you do. We learn how 'to do' relationships throughout our lives and are impacted by early childhood experiences and subsequent relationships. You will develop relational patterns, relationship beliefs, and certain attachment styles. My coaching then helps my clients to work out how they relate to themselves and the world around them so that they can then choose the life that they want, rather than the one that has been absorbed into their subconscious, drives their behaviors and subsequently their outcomes in life. Learning all about the intricacies of human behavior. We keep hold of the things that work and change the outdated things that no longer serve as a positive purpose. Your brain holds onto things as they feel familiar and has put mechanisms in place to keep you 'safe', but actually keeps you stuck, unable to be your true self and live your best life, attracting difficult and unfulfilling relationships in the process. Who should hire you? I work with people who have reached a certain level of success in their lives, but not in their relationships. This could be because you have focused all of your time on other areas of life, such as a business/career and now want to find a relationship that complements your life. Maybe you have experienced difficult, toxic, or unfulfilling relationships in the past and want to know why you keep attracting these types of people. Perhaps you have avoided deeper connection with people as it isn't something you feel comfortable with, but now want to find a relationship you can feel committed to. There are many reasons why relationships haven't worked out in the past and we explore those reasons and work out what you now want. The top five indicators of a healthy relationship are: The belief that our partner is committed to the relationship. That each partner feels appreciated by the other. Your partner is happy because they are in a relationship with you. Conflict is not frequent and doesn't escalate beyond a certain level when it occurs. Sexual satisfaction - not just about how much, but the quality of connection. We can have these in our lives. What is your big goal? Where do you see yourself in 10 years from now? Apart from my comment earlier (to be living somewhere warm), my aim is to help as many people as possible to experience an intimate relationship that they find fulfilling, happy, and connected with, whilst being a bit in love with themselves too. Having a healthy relationship with yourself will lead to you living healthy relationships with everyone else, and if not, making sure that you are affected in the least negative way possible by other people. My belief is that everyone deserves this and is possible to achieve. I want to spread the word of Interpersonal Relationship Coaching (IRC) to as many people as possible so that they can use it in their life and help others too. I am in the process of writing training in IRC so that I can train other coaches to use it and gain exceptional results for their clients. For more info, follow me on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and visit my website! Read more from John!

Written by: Theresa Tirk, 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 entire universe is made up of energy, and this includes your body. This belief comes from many ancient cultures that believed all living things carried a life force inside them. This includes the human body. They called these energies that move inside of us the chakras. They believed 7 main energy centers make up the chakras. Chakra is an old Sanskrit word that translates to wheel. Prana, or life force, is the energy moving inside of you that is spinning and rotating. It starts at the base of your spine and travels to the top of your head. It is believed that if your chakras are healthy and balanced, they provide the right of energy to every part of your body, mind, and spirit. By learning about the chakras, you can become in alignment with your body's natural energy cycles. The 7 chakras are as follows: The Root Chakra: Muladhara The Sacral Chakra: Svadhisthana The Solar Plexus Chakra: Manipura The Heart Chakra: Anahata The Throat Chakra: Vishuddha The Third Eye Chakra: Anja The Crown Chakra: Sahasrara Let’s dig a little deeper into each individual Chakra. The Root Chakra, Muladhara This is where you need to start when determining if you are out of balance. You will not be able to balance any of your other 6 chakras if your root is not in alignment. This chakra is located at the base of your spine to just below your belly button. It is associated with your day-to-day survival, your emotional security, your financial security, the ability to take care of ourselves and our responsibilities. If this chakra is not balanced, you cannot fully balance the others. The color associated with this chakra is Red. The element associated is Earth. The planet is Saturn. The sound is "oohm." The yoga poses that you should do to work with this chakra are standing poses. "Lam" is the mantra that you can chant as part of your meditation. Try eating "earth or grounding" foods grown in the earth or the color red. When meditating, diffuse one of the essential oils and visualize a ball of red light at the base of your spine. When your chakra is balanced, it translates to a sense of accomplishment, peace on money, safety, and shelter. You feel connected to the human experience. Imbalanced causes you to feel ungrounded, fearful, insecure, confused, and unclear in your purpose. When it’s overactive, you feel jittery and anxious. If it’s under-active, you may experience daydreaming, trouble concentrating, a “head in the clouds” type feeling. Physical symptoms can manifest in digestive issues, back and hip pain, ovarian or prostate issues. There are a few different ways to balance this chakra. Take care of your survival needs first. Focus on your spiritual connection – pray and meditate. Volunteer and provide acts of kindness and compassion. Spend time in nature – take a walk, get your feet in the grass. Let’s talk about the essential oils that can work to help balance and calm this chakra. Try applying one oil or a blend of them to your feet and lower back, massaging in a clockwise direction. Once applied, focus on positive thoughts and intentions aimed at balance. You can also diffuse the essential oils in the home while you are working on balancing. Cedarwood Frankincense Myrrh Patchouli Spikenard Vetiver There are also specific crystals that work well with this chakra. Try using these crystals during meditation. Bloodstone Garnet Red Agate Red Jasper Red Tigers Eye Ruby Root chakra affirmation: "I am grounded, stable and empowered to stand on my own two feet." The Sacral Chakra, Svadhishana The location of this chakra is below the belly button and includes your sexual organs. This is the home of your creative energy. Your place of self. Your identity as a human and what you do with it, your motivation to enjoy life, your ability to indulge in pleasurable activities. The color associated with this chakra is orange. The element is water. The planet is Jupiter. The sound is “vam,” which you can chat with during meditation. The yoga poses to aid in opening your sacral chakra are those that open the hips, such as downward-facing dog, seated side stretch, standing forward fold, sun salutation. Eat orange foods. When you are meditating, visualize a glowing orange ball at your lower abdomen and spreading outward. When your chakra is balanced, you have a smooth creative flow, healthy sexual desire, and a positive outlook. When it’s out of balance, you will feel needy or withdrawn and fear intimacy, sexual problems, or dysfunction. Underactive can cause impotence, decreased sex drive, lack of passion and creativity. When it’s overactive, it can manifest in addictions and gluttony, obesity, restlessness, and hormone imbalance. It can manifest in physical symptoms as ED (erectile dysfunction), hormone imbalance, an intestinal disorder. To balance this chakra, find a creative activity you enjoy, such as painting, drawing, dance. Meditate and journal to process your emotions. Work on forgiveness of yourself and others. Essential Oils to help open up and balance your sacral chakra: Bergamot Cardamom Clary Sage Neroli Patchouli Sandalwood Ylang ylang Crystals to use during meditation and for healing: Citrine Carnelian Orange Calcite Milky Quartz Moonstone Selenite Sacral Chakra Affirmation: "I am passionate, creative and empowered too manifest abundance from within." The Solar Plexus Chakra, Manipura The location of this chakra goes from your belly button to your breastbone. This is where your self-confidence, your identity, your personal power lives. It’s associated with your personal power, your physical feelings of confidence, and wisdom. It’s also referred to as your "Warrior Chakra." The color associated with this chakra is yellow. The element is fire. The sound is "ram," which you can chant during meditation. The yoga poses to aid in opening your solar plexus are twisting poses or poses to strengthen your core. You will want to eat yellow foods. Drink peppermint, chamomile, dandelion, or ginger tea. When your chakra is balanced, you have a sense of wisdom, decisiveness, personal power, inner peace. When it’s out of balance, you will have low-self esteem, feelings of abandonment, and nervousness. Underactive can cause lack of energy, indecisiveness or insecurity, timid and needy. Overactive can cause you to be quick to anger, lack of compassion and empathy, be controlling or greedy. Physical symptoms can manifest as digestive issues, imbalances in your internal organs such as the appendix, pancreas, livers, and kidneys. To balance, open your heart with love and compassion, meditate, refocus your power by thinking of things you are good at by making a list. Essential oils to help open up and balance your solar plexus chakra. Black Pepper Cedarwood Cinnamon Clove Ginger Lemongrass Grapefruit Crystals to use during meditation for healing and opening your chakra. Amber Citrine Golden Topaz Sunstone Solar Plexus Chakra Affirmation: "I am confident and ready to express my life purpose to serve the highest of all around me." The Heart Chakra, Anahata This chakra is located right over your heart and radiates down to your breastbone and up to your throat. This chakra is associated with health and healing. It’s where your love, compassion, and kindness are empowered. It’s where you house your love for others and yourself. The color associated with this chakra is green. The element is Air. The sound is “yam,” which you will chant during meditation. The planet is Venus. Yoga poses to help open up your heart will be “chest opening, stretching,” such as cat pose, camel pose, cobra pose. Try eating green foods. Since this chakra is associated with “air,” you will want to breathe deep when you meditate and visualize green air circulating around you. When your chakra is balanced, you can express love and compassion. You are giving, joyful and content. You have loved your others and for yourself. An imbalanced chakra causes emotions of jealously, selfishness, hatefulness, and depression. When your chakra is overactive, you lose personal boundaries and make unhealthy choices. When it’s underactive, you can have trouble getting close to anyone, be out of touch with your body and have a tendency to build walls. Physical symptoms can manifest in the way of circulation problems, fast heart rate or palpitations, heartburn, or relationship issues. To balance this chakra may take a lot of work. Start by treating yourself well; practice self-care and self-love. Meditate, take relaxing baths, get massages. Spread love and compassion through volunteer work. Show appreciation for yourself and for others. Guilt, regret, and shame all plague the heart chakra and can cause greater disease. Antidotes for the problems of the heart are self-love and forgiveness. Essential Oils to help balance and open your heart chakra are: Bergamot Sweet Orange Ylang ylang Lavender Sandalwood Jasmine Crystals to help with healing your heart chakra are: Amazonite Emerald Green Flourite Peridot Jade Heart Chakra Affirmation: "I love myself. I share this love with others. I live in balance with grace and gratitude." The Throat Chakra, Vishuddha This chakra is located between your collarbone and down to the center of your heart, and up to the center of your eyes. The chakra governs your communication to yourself, to others, to source, to higher powers. It’s intended to help you express your highest truths and intentions. The color associated with this chakra is blue. The element is Sound. The sound is “ham,” which you will chant during meditation. The planet is Mercury. You can do various yoga poses such as Shoulder Stand, Plow Pose, Fish Pose, and Corpse Pose to open up your throat chakra. You can also try rolling your head back and forth, side to side, rolling it in a circular motion. Stretching out your neck and throat muscles. When your chakra is balanced, you have effective communication. You can express yourself. You are a good listener. You are patient and honest. You can open to criticism and constructive feedback. An imbalanced chakra can cause poor communication, cause you to be deceitful or manipulative. It can manifest as being shy or even causing you to talk excessively. When your chakra is overactive, it can cause you to spend a lot of time alone. You may feel ignored or invalidated. When it’s underactive, you can shut down and be unable to express yourself. Physical symptoms can manifest in the way of circulation problems, fast heart rate or palpitations, heartburn, or relationship issues. To balance this chakra, try meditation, sound therapy and also try practicing the mantra of "think before you speak." Buddha says, “before you say anything, ask yourself is it true, is it necessary, is it kind?" Practice speaking your truth, being your authentic self. Essential Oils to help balance and open your throat chakra are: Lemongrass Bergamot Basil Peppermint Cypress Blue Chamomile Crystals to help with healing your throat chakra are: Aquamarine Sapphire Turquoise Blue Lace Agate Blue Calcite Throat Chakra Affirmation: "I am able to clearly express myself and speak up about the truth that is important to me." The Third Eye Chakra, Anja This chakra is located between your eyebrows and radiates down to your mouth and up to the top of your head. This chakra opens up your mind to information beyond the material world and the 5 senses. It’s associated with extrasensory perception, intuition, or physic energy—our sense of knowing or higher wisdom, i.e., your sixth sense. The color associated with this chakra is indigo. The element is light. The planet is the Sun and the Moon. The sound is “om,” which you can chat about during meditation. You can do the yoga poses for this pose are child’s pose, downward-facing dog, extended puppy pose, and head to knee pose. Eat purple foods as well as dark cocoa or chocolate. When you are meditating, visualize a glowing purple light spinning over your Third Eye. When your chakra is balanced, you feel in tune with the physical and material world. You receive psychic information frequently. When it’s out of balance, you will feel forgetful, have nightmares, judgmental, and non-sympathetic. Physically it can cause headaches behind your eyes or issues with vision and sinuses. Most people have an under-active Third Eye Chakra as we live in a world that tends to invalidate intuitive development. So we close off our 3rd eye and ignore our own psychic experiences. To balance this chakra, remind yourself that you are a creature of the Earth. Connect your body to the Earth. It will take practice to energize this chakra. You need to devote time to solitary meditation, focus on signals outside your physical body, listen to your spirit, and recognize how it feels. Essential Oils to help open up and balance your 3rd eye chakra: Clary Sage Cypress Elemi Frankincense Patchouli Sandalwood Vetiver Crystals to use during meditation and for healing: Amethyst Blue Quartz Sodalite Charoite Kyanite Purple Flourite Third Eye Chakra Affirmation: "I trust my intuition and inner guidance. I see myself for who I truly am." The Crown Chakra, Sahasrara The chakra is located at the top of the head center and radiates down to between the eyes, and extends up and outward. This chakra influences our deeper understanding of ourselves beyond the physical or material. Whether we connect to another person, ourselves, or a source, this chakra presides over how that connection is made. The color associated with this chakra is either white or purple, whichever you feel more drawn to. The element is space. The sound is a silent “om” or vibration. No specific yoga poses for the crown, just meditation, and visualization. Utilize the essential oils and crystals during your practice. When your chakra is balanced, you feel balanced in your spiritual life. You have a purpose. You are connected to others, and your trust your own wisdom and knowledge. When it’s out of balance, you will feel unspiritual. You may have an excessive fear of dying or of impending doom. You may not have a clear vision of your life purpose. You may feel alone or unloved. To balance this chakra is not easy to do. It’s also not possible to have an overactive Crown Chakra. The best steps to take to balance your Crown chakra are practicing your spiritual development and focusing on balancing the other 6 chakras. This can aid in bringing you closer to experiencing the conscious energy in your crown. Having an under-active crown chakra just means you are human. Essential Oils to help open up and balance your crown chakra: Cedarwood Lavender Myrrh Neroli Sandalwood Rosewood Elemi Crystals to use during meditation and for healing: Clear Quartz Moonstone Snow Quartz Selenite White Topaz Crown Chakra Affirmation: "I am balanced. I am connected to the universe and to spirit." I hope that you can use this as a guide to balance and re-align your chakras. The energetic system within your body controls much more than you probably imagined! Having your chakras aligned and all working cohesively can greatly impact your life. Wishing you love and light. For more information, follow me on Facebook, Instagram and visit my website! Read more from Theresa! Theresa Tirk, Executive Contributor, Brainz Magazine Through her work as a Spiritual Life Coach and Certified Aromatherapist, Theresa Tirk empowers women everywhere to step out of overwhelming and into joy by awakening their own validation and strength. Theresa creates massive impacts in her clients’ lives with dynamic daily rituals and simple yet powerful mindset shifts. Theresa was called to coaching through her own spiritual journey of self-discovery following a battle with depression and anxiety. Theresa is the host of The Ritual Queen Podcast and CEO of The Ritual Queen LLC.

Written by: Snježana Ana Billian, 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. Marci Shimoff is a 1 New York Times bestselling author, a world-renowned transformational teacher, and an expert on happiness, success, and unconditional love. Her books include the international bestsellers Happy for No Reason and Love for No Reason. Marci is also the woman's face of the biggest self-help book phenomenon in history, as co-author of six books in the Chicken Soup for the Woman’s Soul series. With total book sales of more than 16 million copies worldwide in 33 languages, Marci is one of the bestselling female nonfiction authors of all time. Marci is also a featured teacher in the international film and book sensation, The Secret, and the host of the PBS TV show called Happy for No Reason. She narrated the award-winning movie called Happy. President and co-founder of the Esteem Group, Marci delivers keynote addresses and seminars on happiness, success, empowerment, and unconditional love to Fortune 500 companies, professional and non-profit organizations, women's associations, and audiences around the world. Marci is currently leading a one-year mentoring program called Your Year of Miracles. She’s hosted Your Year of Miracle's webinars that more than 200,000 people have heard. Marci earned her MBA from UCLA and held an advanced certificate as a stress management consultant. She is a founding member and on the board of directors of the Transformational Leadership Council, a group of 100 top transformational leaders. Through her books and her presentations, Marci's message has touched the hearts and rekindled the spirits of millions of people throughout the world. She is dedicated to helping people live more empowered and joy-filled lives. First of all, how has the global pandemic impacted you personally? I’ve taken this opportunity to slow down, and it’s helped me thrive during the pandemic. At the same time, I feel deeply empathetic towards the circumstances, challenges people have experienced who have lost work or whose health was affected, and what a difficult time this has been for so many. Before the pandemic, I think that many of us were going at an unsustainable pace. And that included me. One of my great teachers, the cultural anthropologist Angeles Arrien, said that nature moves from medium to slow. Before COVID-19, I didn’t even know what going at the pace of medium to slow was. When we move too fast in life, our creativity is squelched, and we don’t have the spaciousness to reflect on our lives and what we truly want. Because I had this opportunity to slow down, I feel more creative and connected to myself than ever. It’s certainly useful to be a world-renowned happiness expert when you’re going through challenging times like the COVID-19 pandemic. What inspired you to set out on this journey and dedicate years of research to the topic of happiness? I was born depressed. I had a great family, but I felt deeply unhappy from a very young age that lasted through my teenage years. When I was in my 20s, I wanted to be happy, so I did what most people do: I set goals for myself that I thought would bring me happiness. My specific objectives were to have these things: A successful career, helping people. A wonderful husband or a life partner. Great friends. A comfortable home. The equivalent of Halle Berry’s body. I worked hard and achieved four out of those five goals. (I don’t have Halle Berry’s body, but I have a healthy body for which I am very grateful.) In 1998, I had a turning point moment one evening. I had three books in the top five on the New York Times bestseller list, and I had just finished giving a speech to 8,000 people. Having autographed 5,432 books, I felt like an author rock star. After I signed the last book, I went up to my hotel room, walked over to the big windows, and took in the beautiful view of Lake Michigan. Then I turned around, fell onto the bed, and burst into tears. I burst into tears because I realized I’d gotten everything I thought I needed to be happy, and I still wasn’t. I still felt the emptiness inside that I’d felt throughout my life. I realized then that no more “accomplishments” would bring me the happiness I yearned for. That’s when I set out to research happiness, interviewing happiness experts along with unconditionally happy people. I found that the only difference between happy people and everybody else is that happy people have different habits. That’s it. Our habits are the key to our happiness. Before we jump into those habits, let’s talk about the definition of happiness. Happiness means different things to different people. What does it mean to you? My definition of happiness is somewhat different than many other definitions of happiness. Most people define happiness in terms of having everything working right in their external world. I call that the “I’ll be happy when” syndrome: I’ll be happy when I have the right job. I’ll be happy when I’m making enough money. I’ll be happy when I get married. I’ll be happy when I get divorced. There’s nothing wrong with these reasons to be happy, except that when they get taken away, there goes your happiness. My definition of happiness—I call it happy for no reason—is having an inner state of peace and well-being that doesn’t depend on your outer circumstances. By that, I don’t mean that we’re walking around all day long with a silly grin on our face and ignoring what’s going on in the world. I mean that even amidst all the challenges in the world right now, we have an inner state of peace and well-being that we bring to our life circumstances. We can be more resourceful and more resilient when we have that backdrop of inner happiness. What are the habits that happy people have and others don’t? There were 21 main habits that I discovered, and they fell into seven main areas. Altogether, I call it building your “inner home of happiness.” There are seven main components of a home: A foundation, four corner pillars, a roof, and a garden. The foundation for your happiness is taking responsibility for your life. The opposite of this is blaming, shaming, and complaining. If you find yourself doing this, you’re giving away your power and being a victim rather than a creator in your life. Then there are the four corner pillars of your happiness home: The pillar of the mind - Do your thoughts rob you of your happiness or support your happiness? The pillar of the heart - Do you live with gratitude, kindness, forgiveness, and generosity? The pillar of the body - Do you have the biochemistry of happiness? Do you have enough serotonin, oxytocin, and endorphins? The pillar of the soul - Do you feel a connection to your soul and greater energy in the universe? The roof in your home for happiness has to do with living your purpose and inspired life. And then finally, there’s the garden. The garden has to do with people you surround yourself with in life. Are you surrounding yourself with the weeds of the park—toxic people who drag down your happiness? Or are you surrounding yourself with roses and gardenias—people who support you in your joy? If you look at those seven areas, look at where you’re the weakest, and start there. Ana, where do you think you’re the weakest? "Right now, my body is probably my weakest area. I am moving less than I’m used to because of the lockdown. I feel that my body needs more sleep and to get in better shape." There are some simple things that you can do for the body to help create more of the happiness chemicals. Indeed, getting enough sleep and the right kind of sleep is one of them. The quality of sleep that you got last night has a bigger impact on your happiness than your marital status or income level. Here’s a little sleep tip: Every hour of sleep you get before midnight is worth twice as much as what you get after midnight. Because of our circadian cycles, our bodies do so much better when we get to sleep earlier. 10 o’clock is the magic hour. You get the most restful sleep between 10:00 p.m. and 2:00 am. If you’re not feeling great, try going to sleep by 10:00 p.m. three nights in a row, and then notice how you feel on the fourth morning. Thank you, I’ll do that. What about our minds? Most of us find it difficult to think positively when we’re facing so many problems. The average person has about 60,000 thoughts a day. And for the average person, 80% of those thoughts are negative. Scientists call it the negativity bias. We inherited this tendency from our caveman ancestors, who had to focus on the negative to survive. We don’t need to be that alert any longer, and yet we still operate that way. Rick Hanson, my friend, and a happiness researcher, said that our minds are like Velcro for the negative and Teflon positive things. Negative thoughts stick to us like Velcro, and the positive thoughts slide right off. For example, if you get ten compliments in a day and one criticism, what do you remember at the end of the day? Most people remember that criticism. Happy people have reversed that. They have learned to Velcro the positives and Teflon the negatives. There is a scientifically proven, three-step way to create new neural pathways in the brain so that we focus more on the positive: Be on the lookout for the positive. Savor the good for at least 20 seconds. It takes savoring something for 20 seconds or more to start creating new neural pathways in the brain for the positive. Unfortunately, it doesn’t take anywhere near as long for the negative to stick. Therefore, if you see a sunset, take the time to take it in. If there’s good news, you stop and enjoy it. And if somebody gives you a compliment, instead of downplaying it, thank them for their appreciation. We’re not used to focusing on the positive in this way, but it becomes easier and easier when we start doing it as a habit. Go for a 3:1 ratio—focus on three positives to every one negative. We’ve talked a lot about the habits of happy people. Were happy people born with those habits? We all have a happiness set-point, just like a thermostat setting. It might get warmer or colder, but the thermostat is going to return to its original setting. It’s the same with our happiness. We might get happier or sad for a little while, but we’re going to return to our original happiness set point—unless we do something consciously to change it. The happiness set-point is the key to everything. And here’s how it’s determined: It’s 50% genetic (what you’re born with), and our circumstances are only 10% of the equation. The other 40% are your thoughts, habits, and behaviors, and that’s what we can do the most about. We can create happiness habits in our thoughts and behavior. And I’m going to take it one step further and share that scientists in the field of epigenetics, like Dr. Bruce Lipton, who wrote The Biology of Belief, say that even our DNA can be influenced when we change our habits. That means that up to 90% of our happiness set-point can be influenced by changing certain specific habits. To me, that’s freedom. Once you know that your happiness set-point is in your hands, you have to learn what the habits are and practice those. Today, most of us find it challenging to focus on the positive aspects of our experience. We’re worried about our health and finances, and we feel that we have more important things to do than focus on our happiness. What’s your view on this? In times like these, when people are in so much fear, it may seem like a luxury to be thinking about happiness. But research tells us it’s quite the opposite because joy strengthens our immune system, helps us create greater resilience, and leads us to more excellent health. Not only that, happy people are more successful and more creative at problem-solving. In a nutshell, happiness helps us get through challenging times with inner strength and peace. How can we unplug from the fear that’s presented to us in the media? These days, we are bombarded with negative news. This is a perfect time to practice being on the lookout for good because amongst all the negative things that are happening. There are also people generously helping each other. People are more vulnerable and openhearted in many ways. One thing that I do is limit the amount of news exposure that I get. I make sure that I know what’s going on via just headlines, but I don’t watch the news on TV because I’m very sensitive visually. We need to be disciplined and to stay informed in a way in which we’ll not be impacted as dramatically. Also, rather than getting hopeless or despondent, ask yourself what your role might be in making the current situation better. I believe that we’re each put on the planet for a reason. And if you get in touch with what you’re here to do and start doing it even in small ways, you’ll help others. Lastly, is it selfish to focus on our own happiness when the whole world is going through such a difficult time? Focusing on your own happiness is the least selfish thing you can do because you contribute to the world around you when you're happier. I feel that one of the things I’m here to do is to help people recognize that they can live happier lives. When we’re happier, we’re creating a better world because happiness—just like all our emotions—is contagious. Surround yourself as much as possible with people whose emotions you want to catch, and be the generator of positive feelings and affect your family and community by your happiness. There’s a Chinese proverb that I think sums it up in a beautiful way: “When there is light in the soul, there will be beauty in the person. When there is beauty in the person, there will be harmony in the house. When there is harmony in the house, there will be order in the nation. And when there is order in the nation, there will be peace in the world.” My wish for every one of us is that we all find that light in our souls, and through that, we help create more peace here on our planet. To learn more about Marci Shimoff, her work, and her mission, visit her website and make sure to check out Marci’s Your Year of Miracles program, showing you how to live a miraculous life. For more information about Snjezana Ana Billian, visit her website and connect with her on LinkedIn & Instagram! Read more from Ana! Snježana Ana Billian, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine Snježana Ana Billian is the founder of Workmazing, the go-to career platform for people looking to leave a mark and do amazing work in the world. Workmazing's online summits are devoted to sharing thought-provoking feature interviews of people who are authorities in the field of leadership, happiness, money management, and relationships at work. Ana is the co-author of the bestseller Inspired By The Passion Test – The 1 Tool For Discovering Your Passion And Purpose. She was featured in Business Insider, Thrive Global, Brainz Magazine, and other media outlets. In the past decade, Ana has been leading numerous human resources programs for large-sized multinational corporations, helping executives and high-potential professionals step into more prominent roles. She graduated with a degree in Economics and holds multiple certifications in personal and leadership development. Ana is, at heart, a citizen of the world. Born in Bosnia Herzegovina and having lived in Italy and the United States, she now spends her days in Germany with her husband Thomas and their son Tim.

Written by: Jola Pypno-Crapanzano, 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 Bannister Effect" is the phenomenon of one person showing others that it can be done and, thus, prompting others to believe and achieve. In case you are not familiar with this famous story from the athletic world of runners, let me briefly remind you: On May 6th, 1954, Roger Bannister was the first ever to run one mile under 4 minutes, clocking in at 3 minutes, 59.4 seconds. By crushing the 4-minute mile mark, he broke the nine-year-old record and allowed runners to dream of the impossible. Before him, no one could do it, but afterward, many other people did it. His record lasted just 46 days. And even though some may point out that the tidy narrative of psychological breakthrough, unleashing humans' potential to realize they too can run under 4 minutes is a false one because, in other distances, the same phenomenon took place. The fact that we truly can achieve amazing things in sports and other areas of our lives is undeniable. Let me illustrate this with my examples both in the running and in business. I am a sprinter by nature. Back in school, I was good at running the 100-meter dash and the 100-meter hurdles, but to run anything longer was quite a challenge for me. Distances like the 5 km, 10 km, Half Marathon, or the Marathon seemed unachievable. Last year during the pandemic, I began to fantasize about running longer distances. I started to challenge myself as I downloaded an app on my phone, which helped guide me in taking all the necessary steps to prepare myself — ultimately leading me to run in a 5 km race that I tackled in the summer of 2020. Shortly after, I decided that I will try to conquer the 10 km, and again I started preparing by training consistently, increasing the distance by small increments. Fourteen weeks later, I completed the 10 km race beating my best record by 7 minutes. Currently, I am pleased to report that I am training for a Half Marathon, again without any crazy expectations, just proving to myself that I can do anything I put my mind to. Another example from my business is related to copywriting. English is not my native language, and I was always super insecure about writing even the shortest posts on social media. Once again, in 2020, I decided to get out of my comfort zone, and after I got invited to participate in two collab book projects and write my chapters, even though skeptical, I agreed, and I did it. The fact that both books: One — Your wellness guide to body, mind, and soul. Stay home when you can't go outside what happens on the inside? ...became an international bestseller on Amazon was astounding to me. More importantly, I started believing in my ability to write on a larger scale. You, reading this article now, is another proof that anything is possible. I am an Executive Contributor to the amazing Brainz Magazine and another world-known online publication, which I consider once again as achieving my record. I am my version of Roger Bannister, and I know you can become one too. So how do you do that? I'm glad you asked. Here are the ten necessary steps: First of all, you need to want to achieve a specific goal. Next, you must make the decision that you are going to do it no matter what. Then you need to plan it Schedule it in your calendar. Begin without excuses and procrastination. Challenge yourself in the process. Get out of your comfort zone often. Break down the goal into manageable steps. Progress in small increments. And finally, and most importantly, never give up. Anything is possible! Really! Anything! For more info, follow me on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and visit my website! Jola Pypno-Crapanzano, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine Jola Pypno-Crapanzano is a Certified High Performance Coach™️, NLP and TLT®️ Practitioner, founder and CEO of Coaching Journey with Jola, two times International Bestselling Author of “One” - Your wellness guide to body, mind and soul and “Stay home”- When you can’t go outside, what happens inside? She carries Masters Degree in Scientific Technical Information from Silesian University in Poland. She has over 30 years of combined experience in working with thousands of very unique individuals and groups of people serving them in many different capacities. First as a tour guide traveling all over the world (almost 70 countries visited so far) and translating into 4 languages, then working in entertainment and hospitality industry as part of operational management in large publicly traded company in NYC. Finally coaching people initially as a fitness, wellness and lifestyle coach and most recently more holistically as Certified High Performance Coach™️, NLP and Time Line Therapy®️ Practitioner. She also helps her clients in area of Positive Intelligence specializing in strengthen their Mental Fitness and supports them through various strategic interventions. Her mission is to help one million people live their lives to the fullest, reach heightened and sustained levels of clarity, energy, courage, productivity and influence and show them that it is possible to live lives of their dreams, on their terms, without regrets, be fully engaged, joyful and confident and build incredible lasting legacy.

Written by: Stephanie Booth, 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. This past year has been emotionally exhausting. But each of the challenging, sad, shocking, outrageous, scary, and angering circumstances supports us in our ability to thrive. If you're feeling down, I'll bet that you are doing so much better than you thought. Keep reading through to see my six signs that you've got what it takes to thrive during the tough times. Emotional Resilience | The Key to Thriving The actual key to thriving during challenging times isn’t buying the right stocks when they’re low, pivoting your business in just the right way, or having enough experience navigating difficult circumstances to know how to rise above them. All actions result from feelings or emotions. Thoughts trigger emotions. So, working on your mindset is vital. But, working on your feelings is also incredibly important to your success. What is Emotional Resilience? Your ability to bounce back from, move on from, or make the best of tough times. Think about it, does it matter what you do during tough times if you’re doing it with a terrible attitude? If you’re mad at the world? If you are outraged that people don’t feel the same as you? Those emotions will have a far more significant impact than your actions will. So, if you’d like to build your emotional resilience, here are the signs to look for, 6 Signs That You Can Thrive During Hard Times: Emotional Resilience Sign No. 1 You accept unwanted feelings instead of suppressing, numbing, or projecting them. For me, this one was my biggest step. I felt profoundly unsafe experiencing unwanted emotions like, say, anger. For most of my life, anger was only talked about in a negative context, and so I avoided any experience where I knew I might feel it. As I began clearing my blocks, I started recognizing that emotions don’t last forever. I began accepting whatever I was feeling, and I noticed that I experienced it less as I did. I didn’t need to feel a surge of anger because I’d feel angry when I needed to, and it would subside in less than a minute. If you’re avoiding your emotions, know that recognizing them and choosing not to change them is a great first step. You’ve got this! Acceptance is an inside job. Emotional Resilience Sign No.2 This one might be my favorite and the most relevant to current events right now: You don't need to convince others around you to feel the same way you do to be "right." You honor your own experience. I used to feel bewildered and upset at how people were calling out influencers for not posting a specific opinion at a particular time. Terms like virtue signaling suddenly became common jargon as those influencers tried to make up for the backlash. I thought to myself, "why force something if it’s not genuine care? Why not educate them and watch them learn how to care about this issue?" The more I see people shaming others for not expressing a specific opinion at a particular time, the more I realize that often, shamers need others to validate their feelings. And I feel sad that they can’t do that on their own. We all deserve to self-validate our emotions. We all deserve to say, "no matter what anyone else is feeling, this is what I feel. I love and accept myself right now." Respect is an inside job. Emotional Resilience Sign No. 3 You've created resources that you use to support yourself when you're feeling unwanted solid emotions. (A self-care menu, a mental health toolkit, etc.) I’ve been open on social media about my journey with anxiety and depression and how I’ve supported myself during those states. I am firmly committed to mastering my form and believe that doing so is a hallmark of excellence and success. The other day, I woke up with a familiar tightness in my chest and immediately asked myself, "how can I support myself right now?" I chose a few of my favorite resources from what I call my Mindset toolkit did them, and immediately felt peaceful, grateful, and that tightness in my chest is replaced with an open, the swelling feeling of love. Love is an inside job. Emotional Resilience Sign No.4 You can see and respect another person's perspective without feeling triggered, pressured to agree, or to try to change it. This has been such a gift from the events of 2020. I’ve started learning how to understand someone without any need to participate in their point of view. This is emotional intelligence and leadership. Leadership is an inside job. Emotional Resilience Sign No.5 You can find silver linings or even have a sense of humor during difficult times. My husband has a unique ability to joke in almost any circumstance. For most of our relationship, if I were pretty upset at something and made a joke, I would get mad at him. And honestly, it felt confusing because his jokes were hilarious to me-well-timed and just genuinely funny. (I love his sense of humor.) Do I laugh? I could feel the sides of my mouth turning up into a smile, nooo! But I'm so mad at him. So I’d shove my mouth back down into a frown. But dang, that was a good one, and now my mouth was a mangled, confused mix of laughter and anger. Ugh. I didn’t have the resilience to see the big picture, see positives, and even crack a joke. A few days ago, amid more national turbulence and my feelings of fear, I cracked a few jokes. My husband stopped and said, "Babe! Do you know how big a deal this is?" It was a huge deal. Perspective is an inside job. Emotional Resilience Sign No.6 You have clear and loving boundaries. You understand that people's words say more about them than you. When people use angry words or attacks, criticize or come at you, that only speaks to their wounds, not yours. I used to believe everything people said about me. If I learned that someone thought something negative about me, I’d work to change how they saw me. I had to! I wasn’t the person they thought I was! (duh) Most people show up this way-operating from a need to prove themselves to others. And I’m here to say it’s not needed if you approve of you. Fast forward: I recently received an angry message from someone. Her message to me was filled with anger, conspiracies, and accusations. I would have felt triggered by the past's intense emotions, and I would have believed what she said about me, entering the conversation to prove myself to her. However, this time, I knew that what she said came from her wounds and insecurities, not mine. This is always true. When someone comes to you with solid emotions that say more about them than you, this point of view allowed me to release triggered feelings, feel compassion toward her, and then quickly resolve the conflict and move on. I felt utterly unphased by her opinions of me. And that rocked my world! Yes! This is one of the most prominent signs of compassion-understanding: someone speaks from their own wounds and not into yours. They can’t. This perspective opens us to feel deep compassion for them and a desire to feel healed and whole. Compassion is an inside job. For more info, follow me on Facebook, Instagram and visit my website! Read more from Stephanie! Stephanie Booth, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine Stephanie Booth is an NLP practitioner & success coach for online entrepreneurs who is most known for her theories and work around breakthroughs. She has been named a Yahoo Finance top success coach to follow and has had her work featured on top podcasts in the business and coaching spaces. Stephanie believes that breaking through limitations follows a natural pattern. The most important personal growth work we can do is learn to allow a breakthrough, where we would naturally self-sabotage. Stephanie hosts mentorships, masterminds, and signature programs, such as her popular program, Magnetic Minds, to help entrepreneurs harness the mind's power in creating their success.

Written by: Trevor Folgering, 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. Recently I was on a phone call with a man over 40, and he mentioned that his friend said he should be doing OMAD to lose weight. Now I know what you're thinking. What the heck is OMAD? OMAD stands for One Meal A Day. It is just another weight-loss craze with individuals thinking that there is a shortcut to losing weight. More on this later, but now back to the phone conversation. This individual, who I was speaking with on the phone, was super excited about the thought of only having to eat once a day to lose weight. He was so excited that he began almost salivating at this particular idea. (Excuse the pun.) After speaking with him about the proper ways to lose weight, I decided to write about why you should not start with this type of nutritional protocol and what you should do instead. The Energy System Conundrum One of the main reasons you should not start with an OMAD nutritional protocol is that you will experience side effects like hunger, cravings, dips in energy, mood swings, and an inability to concentrate throughout the day. The reason for this is because your body has two distinct energy systems it uses to fuel cells: The Glycolytic Metabolic Pathway The Ketogenesis Metabolic Pathway For 99.9% of your life, you have been living in the Glycolytic Metabolic Pathway, which is the pathway that uses Carbohydrates as fuel. (Otherwise known as glucose which is the simplest form of energy that can be used within the human body.) Your body loves to gobble up glucose. It’s a very easy energy source for the body to use to fuel cells. If you can imagine hundreds of thousands of Pac-mans in your bloodstream running around and eating up glucose pellets and then spitting them into the body's cells, this is exactly how the body utilizes glucose. Now the problem when you suddenly shift to OMAD, your body is used to getting all of this glucose throughout the day, and then suddenly nothing! What do you think is going to happen? Your body is going to get super responsive and start sending you signals to start eating and fast! This is because you suddenly slammed the brakes on the Glycolytic Metabolic Pathway and tried to force your body to switch to the fat-burning Metabolic Pathway. And this is a recipe for disaster because forcing your body to do something never works out in your favor. Your body will send you out signals to increase your appetite, which can lead to cravings, overeating, and binging. The other downfall is that the OMAD method is counterproductive to stabilizing and regulating your hunger hormones, which greatly impact when and how much you eat in one sitting. Hunger Hormones Rule Your Body In the end, your willpower is finite. No matter how much willpower you have, you will never be able to outdo your hunger hormones. Two hormones regulate hunger: Ghrelin Leptin Ghrelin is your “hunger hormone” and signals the brain to look for food. Leptin is a hormone that helps to regulate energy balance by inhibiting hunger. I bet you see where this is going, right? So, if you decide to suddenly switch to OMAD, then what happens? Your Ghrelin levels dramatically increase, giving you the sense that your hungry all the time and need to look for food! In essence, your body will increase Ghrelin, and this hormone will travel to the brain. The brain will then know there is a fuel shortage and send you signals to start to eat. On the flipside, Leptin levels will dramatically be reduced. The lower levels can trigger huge increases in appetite and food cravings. This, in turn, can make weight loss more difficult. So, do you see that eating one meal a day can be super detrimental to your overall weight loss goals? Now, there is an easier and safer way to actually lose weight! Instead of eating one meal a day, you need to work with your body’s unique biology instead of against it. By giving the body the right combinations of meals at the right timing throughout the day, you will turn your body into a lean, mean fat-burning machine! Let’s look at what to do instead that will yield you amazing weight loss results! The Solution to All of Your Weight Loss and Health Struggles (Biohacking Your BodyFat) In the Biohack The Fat Body Transformation System, we focus on getting your body into a fat-burning state without dieting, starving the body, or excessive exercise. We have 3 distinct phases to help your body switch metabolic pathways and get you using your own body fat for energy 24/7! We call this Biohacking, and we do this without eating one meal a day. In fact, you will start out doing the exact opposite. You will be eating 4 meals a day, spaced 4 hours apart. By consuming the right combinations of foods every 4 hours, you will do two things: Reduce your hunger hormone and regulate your appetite, so you never feel hungry or get cravings. Gently get the body to switch metabolic pathways into Ketogenesis. This is one of the most effective methods that will help you lose body fat without going on a diet or eating one meal a day! The meals need to be very personalized for your body, so before you begin eating 4 meals a day, it is best to reach out to our Biohacking coaches to create meal plans designed for your unique biology. Our clients experience amazing weight loss results without the need to diet or restrict calories. In fact, our biohackers' average weight loss is 3.3 lbs per week — which is almost 40 lbs. in 3 months! Experience what it’s like to Become Biohacked today! Right now, you can enroll in the Biohack The Fat Body Transformation System! If you have excess belly fat that you just cannot seem to lose, we want to speak with you! Get started today by visiting our website and speaking with one of our Biohacking coaches. Let’s help you lose the belly fat without having to resort to OMAD! You will feel so much better, and the weight loss results will be phenomenal! Let’s get your body Biohacked! For more information, follow me on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and visit my website! Read more from Trevor! Trevor Folgering, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine Trevor Folgering is a leader in the weight loss and nutrition industry. For over 22 years, Trevor has relentlessly pursued the truth regarding losing body fat correctly. By uncovering the truth about how our bodies utilize body fat, Trevor created very specific nutritional protocols that allowed him to tap into his own body fat stores and lose 40 lbs. of body fat in a very short period of time. He achieved this without going on a low caloric diet or restricting the foods that he ate. He now helps men and women achieve the body and health that they truly deserve through the science of Biohacking. He is CEO of Biohacked, global online health and body transformation company. His mission: To shift the weight loss industry's paradigm and re-educate the world on the proper methodologies of losing excess body fat correctly.

Written by: Jackie Woodside, 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. It’s a big world out there. There is so much to experience, learn, see, do, and innumerable ways to be in life. What a precious gift to be born a human being. What a special gift to be awake, aware, and fully alive! Or are we? Where are you being called to be a Yes! in your life right now? I am always amazed at the innumerable possibilities in life. There is so much to enjoy and experience. Often, as my spouse and I finally make it to bed at night, after taking care of the house, the dishes, paying the bills, lunches for the next day, getting our son to bed, catching up on the last few emails of the evening and saying hello to one another for an hour or so, we look at one another and wonder, “How in the world does anyone have time for TV!?” Being a Yes! to life means being willing to live beyond your fears, considerations, and what other people might consider reasonable. It is being willed to take risks and follow the flow of life’s unlimited potential. It means that your energy is constantly moving, flowing, open, and receptive. People who are guided by their fears and considerations have a restrictive feeling to their lives. They hold back and are a justification for why things should stay the same. Sameness is the enemy of being a Yes! to life because being a Yes! to life most certainly invites change! Here is an example of something that happened to me due to being a Yes! to life. I was in my early 20’s, just a year or so out of college and living in Rochester, NY. I had a great job at a well-respected institution and was creating a great career path and reputation. Then one summer, I went on vacation with a group of friends to Cape Cod. While there, I met a woman who told me about a new division of her company that was being started. We saw that my education and skill set was a good match. She invited me to return to Massachusetts the following week for an interview. I had never been to Massachusetts in my life before that brief vacation on the Cape. But something inside of me said, “Sure!” and off I went the following week to interview for the job. Well, the rest, as they say, is history. I honestly didn’t love the job all that much but stayed on a year or so before leaving to attend Boston College to get my master’s degree and have lived in Massachusetts ever since. Being a Yes! to life changes you. It opens you up to a world of fantastic possibility and surprise. I like to wake up and say to life, “What do you have in store for me today!?” Because I am confident, whatever it is, I will greet it with a cheerful and faith-filled YES! For more info, follow me on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and visit my website! Jackie Woodside, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine Jackie Woodside, CPC, MSW is a best-selling author, TEDx speaker, radio and television personality and trainer who is passionate about the expanding the edge of human potential. Jackie has written three best-selling books and over 30 different training programs. She was featured along with Jack Canfield and Don Miguel Ruiz on the Wake Up! TV series. She is the Founder of the Curriculum for Conscious Living and the Conscious Living and Money Vibe Summits. Jackie provides custom training programs or keynote speeches for organizations such as Blue Cross Blue Shield, Bayer Corporation, the Air Force National Guard, The National Association of Social Workers, Gallaudet University, and the Massachusetts Executive Office of Health and Human Services. Jackie is committed to raising consciousness on the planet, creating a world that works for everyone.

Written by: Tom Paine, 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. An Architect’s work shows inspiring designs, detailed blueprints, and a vision of future construction. But should the practice of architecture be limited to buildings only? I believe that we can be the architect of our own life. With the right mindset, we can design our dream future. Becoming your own Life Architect starts with the belief that you have the power to choose your path. For example, if I decide not to go into the office today, then I can make that choice. I may get fired for not turning up to work, but I always maintain the power not to show up. Extend this one step further, and you can choose to change your career. Becoming an astronaut tomorrow maybe a little unrealistic, but deciding to spend more time working on something that is fulfilling, more exciting to you is within your grasp. Let’s look at how a regular architect works with a new client. They will start by asking specific questions; how do you want the building to look? How should it make you feel? What are the essential features to be included in the design? Try asking yourself the same questions, but this time reflect on your life. Suddenly, you will start to take a different outlook on what’s achievable and what you truly want. Feeling Trapped It’s certainly not uncommon to feel trapped in the game of life. Our careers, financial commitments, and families can make us feel stuck, without options. Sometimes it feels like we don’t have the power to change. It can be hard to face up to your belief system, layer upon layer of negative thoughts on what is possible: I can’t change my career. That’s all I’ve ever done. We can’t move from the area, we’ve made too many roots, and so on. The Power of Choice What you need to know is that you do have a choice. Free will is something that nobody can take away from you. And with consistent action in the desired area, you have the power to change your circumstance. You can start to change your life, one step at a time, today. How do you become a Life Architect ? If you are at the point where you have decided that enough is enough and need to redesign your life, then a transformation process is inevitable. Next up is a period of reflection, self-questioning, and soul searching. Becoming a Life Architect starts with asking yourself the right questions. The answers to your dream future will quickly appear once you reconnect with your passions, skills, and dreams. After that, you can start to focus on designing your life the way that you want it. Creating a life based on Values Living by a clear value system gives you greater control over the choices you make. Surprisingly, so many people live their lives under someone else’s value system, and in some cases, they have no conscious values at all. I’ve seen people living a double life, split by separate value systems. At home, their family values are evident and regularly upheld. In the workplace, however, their value system is compromised, accepting of behavior that goes against their firmly held beliefs. I prioritize the value of family time above anything else. If I find myself in a situation that clashes with this value, I walk away from that situation very quickly, with a polite no thanks . Establishing our value system is a critical first step before designing our life blueprint. How do I start the journey? So, you’re now at the point where you want to create your future, design your life, and write your blueprint. What next? Well, you need to recognize what you’re not happy with. Understanding what you’re not is the first step to understanding who you are and what you stand for. Start by asking those Architectural questions, challenge yourself to think big: What inspires me? What am I naturally great at? What would I do if I knew that failure wasn’t an option? Engaging with a Life Coach at this stage can be invaluable. Having a trained professional listen to your challenges has been proven to speed up the process of personal transformation. Sharing your story with friends and family can get you on the right path too. The path to starting designing your future is waiting! Follow me on LinkedIn , Twitter and visit my website for more info! Read more from Tom! Tom Paine, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine Tom Paine is a Certified Life Coach, offering expertise in resilience, confidence growth, and relationship management. Professionally, Tom spent ten years working in the Recruitment sector. He built an excellent reputation as a specialist IT Consultant, eventually becoming a Business Manager, leading sales teams responsible for £8m annual turnover for global and SME organizations, relocating to London and Manchester. Tom’s sales team operated at 18 staff at its peak, ranging from Junior Consultants to Principals, Managers, and Team Leaders. Tom coaches people based on their needs, supporting them to overcome restrictions in their life. Tom's clients experience a renewed sense of confidence, well-being, and energy, enabling them to take control of their lives, to start living with happiness and fulfillment. He blends corporate experience, spirituality, and goal setting to fantastic effect.

Jacqui Grant is a highly sought-after Weight Management, Bariatric Surgery, Wellness Coach, Personal trainer, soon to be Advanced Weight Management Practitioner, and International Best Selling author of 3 books — Break Free & Go For It!, Life Beyond Obesity! (Jacqui’s story of transformation) and Can-Do Bariatric Surgery! She is dedicated to helping clients around the world to stop feeling overwhelmed, tired, and embarrassed by their weight by showing them how to create long term changes in their food choices, change their relationship exercise and develop a “Can Do” mindset to live their best life! Jacqui also helps those who have had or considering having bariatric surgery to achieve their goal and keep the weight off and work with professionals such as personal trainers to understand bariatric surgery. Jacqui has worked as a nurse, coach, personal trainer, manager, and owns her own business, Break Free Consultancy, where she can work one to one with her clients or through her programs, courses, challenges, and books. Empowering others to break free, go for it, and live their best life! Who is Jacqui? I am a mom of two incredible sons who live close by. I come from a family of 7 children, which includes 3 step-siblings. I have a female spoodle named Sammie who enjoys coming out with me when I go for a run. I live in Melbourne, Australia, and enjoy spending time by the beach, sitting at a local café having a coffee with friends. I also enjoy meditating on the beach and working out at the beach. Health, fitness, and wellbeing are a huge part of my life, so I make sure that I choose nutritious foods and do my daily workout, which consists of a jog/run for up to an hour every day. Every second day is weight/resistance training. I did struggle with obesity for over 10 years until I finally took back control of my life 5.5 years ago and started releasing weight, over 110kgs to be precise, and have kept my weight off now for over 3 years. I did have bariatric surgery, and it was at that time in 2006 that I realized how many people do NOT have a complete understanding of how the surgery works long term and how much your life changes. I have had many people judge me; however, I choose to do it for my health, my fitness. I bought everything I know from my personal experience, knowledge as a nurse, personal trainer, coach, and weight management practitioner together for my business to help others. This brings me so much joy, and I have so much love for it. I also realized how many health professionals and personal trainers, holistic practitioners do not completely understand the ongoing long-term changes that occur of this surgery, so I decided to create a program for them. I am someone who enjoys their own company as well as time with family and friends. Going for bush walks is also something that I enjoy, along with time snuggled up reading a good book or watching a movie. I enjoy gardening when I get the opportunity. Building a business and working in the disability area is full-on at times, so I do not tend to get into the garden as often as I would like. I have a nursing background with over 30 years of nursing in the different parts of the health industry. As a nurse, I have also studied coaching, motivational psychology, personal training, weight management, nutrition, and currently completing additional weight management studies. My friends describe me as having a lot of energy and always full of life and passion for life. My motto in life is: Break Free, Go For It & Live YOUR Best Life!, part of which is the title for one of my Amazon bestselling books. What is it that you do for your clients? I assist my clients in releasing excess weight and keeping it off long-term while improving their health, fitness, and wellbeing. I do this by assisting them in breaking through the barriers they have in place, limiting beliefs about themselves, their lives, and creating new habits that set them free to live a life they enjoy. I work with my clients on their mindset, shifting the focus from what isn’t working to what is working and what is possible. I encourage them to celebrate their success, no matter the size of it. I also encourage them to be kind to themselves, take care of who they are, and set goals that help them grow a little bit. After all, change comes at times when we are stuck in patterns that are no longer serving us. I have a variety of ways to assist someone in achieving their weight, fitness, and wellness goals, which also affects their health. Podcast – FREE Books, at the time of this interview, 3 Amazon Best Sellers One to one consultation. (a combination of coaching and providing information such as a menu plan or exercise program Break Free Membership – there are four to choose from, depending on the person’s goal. Weekly tips and strategies to help you stay up to date with information about weight loss, fitness, health, and wellbeing. Make It Happen 8-week program—a combination of consultations/coaching with Jacqui and online content. Let’s Make It Happen 6-month Program. It's like the 8-week program just on a bigger scale for those who are serious about long-term changes in more than one aspect of their life. Who should hire/work with you? Those who should work with me are: Choosing to lose/release weight Anyone who would like to improve their fitness, health, and wellbeing, including stress management Those who have had or considering having bariatric surgery (weight loss surgery) Personal Trainers, Allied Health Professionals who would like to understand bariatric surgery and how they can assist their clients What is your big goal? Where do you see yourself in 10 years from now? My big goal is to set up the Break Free Foundation. I achieve this through working with my clients. The Break Free Foundation is where we have houses all around Australia, and other countries around the world that are set up for those who have been through abuse have a disability, families with children who have a chronic disease/illness where they can go and have a holiday, a break away from their everyday stress and worries. The goal is for each house to be set up to be a peaceful, relaxing environment, and all they need to pay for is food and travel to the house. We take care of the rest. I also have the goal of traveling with my business and doing that for the rest of my life until the day comes that I am unable to, which is a long way away. 😊 For more information, follow Jacqui on Facebook, Instagram and visit her website! Read more from Jacqui!

Written by: Mechi Renee , 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. Mindset is an incredibly powerful tool. It is the driving force behind the actions and behaviors which will set us up for success or failure. It will keep us fearful and unsure about the future. Depending on which mindset we adopt, our perspectives will be very different. We become what we think. The path of abundance has us looking at the world through a lens of optimism and gratitude. January 2021, I started a challenge called “365 Days of Hearing God’s Words.” It has helped me increase my faith and attach my mind, body, and soul to God. God touches our souls when we are in trouble and removes fear from our hearts. Recognizing your thoughts is essential. It would be best to cultivate mindfulness. Always practice being grateful. Share your passions and purpose. Be around people that can help you unleash your skills, gifts, and talents. You can begin taking steps today to develop an abundance mindset, and it’s easier than you might think. Here are 10 simple things you can incorporate into the daily life that will have you on the life-changing path of abundance in no time. Let’s dig in! 1. Mind Your Thoughts The mind dictates to you what actions you should take. Our thoughts truly rule our lives, and it’s important to be aware of them when making the transition from scarcity to abundance. Pay attention to the things going on inside your head. What thoughts steal your time? Are they positive or negative? Take one day and track as many thoughts as you possibly can. It’s important to track our thinking. What messages are you telling yourself through those thoughts? I’m not good enough, smart enough, pretty enough. I can’t. What if I fail? Who am I to do something big in this world? I personally recite mantras that help me stay positive. Your thoughts have held you back from many opportunities and possibilities that will make you grow and succeed. If you learn how to track your thoughts floating in your mind , you will become fully aware of what is going on, you can regain control, and those thoughts lose their power over you. 2. Remove Toxic People One of THE best things to take care of yourself and your future success is eliminating toxic people from your life. Identify those relationships that weigh you down and decide to stop sacrificing your own needs and happiness for those that don’t value you. Put yourself first. Take a long, hard look at who you’ve allowed into your circle. Make an effort to distance yourself from those who make you feel less than and seek out those that are more. Abundance minded. Replace the toxic people with like-minded people, be a part of a tribe who will celebrate your wins, and encourage you to be the best possible version of yourself. Join the Unikorn Trybe on Facebook for a supportive business community. 3. Practice Gratitude One of the most powerful things you can do to attract abundance is practice gratitude daily. Be grateful and purposeful. Decide that you are going to look for and seek out the good in every day. Celebrate small wins. Instead of dreading the day when you wake up, immediately think of a few reasons why you are excited and grateful to jump out of bed. Smile more. Complain less. Spend quality time with people who help you see the blessings in life. Start a journal. Before you go to bed, reflect on the good things that happened that day and write them down. Life is unpredictable, and it won’t always be filled with happy moments. However, when you make an effort to see the good and be grateful for what you have, it makes it easier to get through those tough times. 4. Stop the Comparison Game If you keep on creating yourself by replicating other people, you will not be the best version of yourself. You will not discover your uniqueness and beautiful skills. We live in a society that pushes perfection. But, remember that you cannot find perfection. You will never be the perfect person that other people want you to be. Embrace your quirks and imperfections – they make you, you. Keep in mind that there are 7 billion people on this planet – not one of them is perfect (no matter what Instagram says, LOL ). Turn the tables and let others inspire you with their strengths, their wins, and their accomplishments. Rather than feeling like you don’t measure up, appreciate what they have to offer while knowing that there is plenty of space for you to shine as well. 5. Be Intentional If you want to develop more abundance in your life, the key is to make the intentional decision to walk your own path. Be mindful of your everyday consumption. Where is most of your time and energy being spent? Are you spending too much time absorbing the trolls, bad energy that causes negative posts on social media? Are you working towards something you are proud of or just counting the days until Friday? Make time for self-reflection and get clear on what you really want out of life – what are your values, goals, and dreams? Who do you want to follow? What do you want to become? What really lights you up inside and makes you want to jump out of bed every morning? Until we know what is truly important to us, it’s hard to be intentional with our time and effort. Be mindful of the people who will affect you and change you. Choose your circles carefully. Again, carefully. Make time to do things that bring you joy and choose to be kind to yourself and others. Take small steps to start embracing life on your own terms. 6. Learn Something New Learn something to help you get out of your comfort zone. One of the very best gifts you can give yourself is that of knowledge. No one can take it away from you. I am learning something new on a daily basis. A person who lives in abundance will make every effort to explore new ideas, learn new skills and broaden their perspective to see things in a new light. There is always something new to be learned. Choose a coach that will help you align everything, your business, life, etc. A coach can give you guidance and value because they are already experts on your chosen journey. Decide that you will be a life-long learner and take full advantage of all the resources you have at your fingertips today – podcasts, Ted Talks, online courses, audiobooks, etc. Life is a continuous learning journey. If you are content with your knowledge, then how can you improve yourself? Continuous learning can help you rewire yourself and unleash your inner genius. 7. Give More Specifically. Become an Either. There are billions of people on this planet, but we are all connected when it comes to giving and receiving. When you add value to someone else’s life, it will always increase the abundance in yours. It’s more blessed to give than to receive. Become good at being an unconditional giver of your time, energy, money, and resources. Don’t expect things in return when you give – just let it be. If you do good to other people, you will attract good karma even if you don’t work for it. It will come your way because you planted a seed. Being a blessing to other people is not just giving cash. There are so many ways to be of value to another person. Go through your house or garage and donate things you don’t use anymore. Give away bags of clothing or toys that your kids no longer play with. You get to help someone else and declutter your space at the same time – that’s a win-win in my book. If you can’t afford to help people by giving your stuff or extra money. Pray for someone or offer a helping hand when they are struggling. Money does not always matter. Lend your ear to a coworker who is going through a hard time. Be friendly to a stranger and offer them a smile or a few kind words – you never know what someone is going through. It might be the one thing that gets them through the rest of their day. Don’t take that for granted. Just love people without judging whether or not they deserve it. 8. Step Out of Your Comfort Zone Get out of the box. You will not discover your better self if you stay in your comfort zone. One of the biggest mistakes you can make is to allow countless opportunities to pass you by because you refuse to be uncomfortable. Stepping outside of your comfort zone is tough. It means pushing yourself to do things you’re not used to. It means going into unfamiliar territory. It’s not easy. You fear getting hurt. You fear failure. I get it. It’s so much easier to shrink back and stay hidden than take a leap of faith into the unknown. But staying hidden isn’t helping you grow, and it’s not challenging you to reach your full potential. Up until now, you’ve been blind to all the possibilities life has to offer. Developing an abundance mindset is about taking off those blinders and waking up to all the things you’ve been missing. It doesn’t have to be hard – reach out to someone you admire to ask them questions. Start that business quit that job. Write that blog post – and then hit publish! Once you start taking baby steps outside your comfort zone, a world of possibilities will begin to open up. 9. Eliminate Excuses If you want to live in more abundance, you have to stop saying, "I cannot," to the things you can do, but you are just afraid of failure. our fears and insecurities drive excuses. They keep us rooted in perfectionism and procrastination so that we don’t tiptoe too far outside our comfort zone. We make up reasons why we can’t before we even try. Fear of failure. Fear of what others will say. Fear of looking stupid. It’s an endless cycle that keeps us stuck in a rut, never allowing us to grow into the person we are meant to be. To live a more abundant life, we have to decide that we will eliminate excuses from our vocabulary and our life. When you notice yourself making an excuse, go to the root cause. What is keeping you from taking action? Sometimes, being overwhelmed can play a big part, and it helps break down bigger goals into smaller tasks, so they are easier to achieve. 10. Healthier Habits It’s impossible to have a healthy mindset if you don’t take care of your body. We live in a microwave society where unhealthy habits run rampant. We get so caught up in the daily chaos of life that we sometimes tend to put our health on the backburner. It’s a good idea to look at your daily habits and see which ones might need some tweaking. You don’t have to join a gym and eat lettuce every day. Simply make an effort to start putting yourself first and create a routine that works for you. Be conscious about what you are putting into your body. Make time for self-care. Eat more veggies. Get outside in nature, breathe the fresh air and make sure you’re getting enough sleep. Decrease your stress by learning to say a firm no to the things that don’t serve you. Love yourself enough to put your health and wellness at the top of the priority list. You can easily begin developing your abundance mindset today by incorporating some of these tips into your daily routine. No matter how long your scarcity mentality has been weighing you down, you have the ability to start over at any given moment. By recognizing that you have a choice, that you don’t have to be stuck in scarcity for the rest of your life, you can begin to transform your life and create your own reality from this day forward. Give yourself patience and grace, and enjoy the journey ahead. For more info, follow me on Facebook , Instagram , LinkedIn and visit my website ! Mechi Renee, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine Unikorn Trybe and COO Mechi Renee and The Trybe Squad Team are on a mission to support.motivate.inspire.lead.empower and deliver the lives of Christian women around the world. Mechi does business God’s way and believes He is the CEO of our life and business. Unikorn Trybe is the place to discover your authenticity, to be the best version of yourself in business and life, a place that you can be unapologetically YOU!!! Mechi is the "Queen B" Business & Monetization Coach that is. Mechi helps high-achieving Christian to ditch the hustle mentality to build and grow an impactful online business, nonprofit or ministry that generates consistent profit.

Written by: Samantha Leske, 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. It is that old saying, "If only I knew then what I know now." As I have grown, my life has been filled with so many lessons. Many I have chosen to go a long way around, making sure the understanding is complete! Growing up, I had the perfect childhood to create my journey as a wounded healer. I remember having visions as a teenager where I was in a man's body, and I had shot another. We were in a duel. It was set back in the old days — horse and carriage, big dresses, and the local saloon to help you draw a picture. I am shown myself being carted off to goal. I had no reference point for this or what it meant. It was just a vision that I was able to see, with nothing before or after it. I also had no clear-cut belief around spirituality or past lives. I was raised as a catholic, and it was just my inner knowing that this vision I was seeing was me. I knew that I was the man that had shot another. I rationalized it to be my karma for the experience I was having now in this life. I was living a form of hell, and I could not explain otherwise. It wasn’t until much later, around 15 years later, that I started to have some context and a greater understanding of what it meant, that vision all of those years ago, how it fits in, and what my divine purpose on this earth was. I was birthed into trauma, and trauma was the catalyst for my great awakening. This is the story for many of us. We are raised in what we think are normal families until we leave them and discover piece by piece the true dysfunction levels that really existed when we were growing up. This is the first choice we are truly given — take responsibility for your healing, create a different experience, or continue with the same patterns, making the best of what you have and placing bandages over the dysfunction. I am proud to be a part of the generation that has declared, "This dysfunction will stop with me." We are busily working on ourselves while doing everything in our power to prevent a single line of the trauma we experienced running down to our children. As a society, we have seen firsthand how trauma runs in families. It’s well documented that when a traumatic event occurs, it takes 3 generations to heal it. The wayshowers of our generation are doing our best to smash through this. We dive deep, over and over, declaring we will be the last to be affected by the trauma from our ancestors. The work is relentless and also a huge blessing. Freeing all involved and allowing those who are ready to claim their sovereignty to do so. Few things I wish I had known earlier. Healing is possible. It doesn’t matter how deep it is. It is possible with the right support team around you to heal and live the life you dream of. It will take hard work, dedication, and a leap of faith but the rewards and personal freedom are worth it. Not having contact with an abusive family or family member is very okay. You being safe is the most important thing. You can only ever take responsibility for yourself, your thoughts, actions, feelings, and experiences. Know that doing your work is still important, and it will move mountains. Even without contact, you are freeing the familial lines on either side of you by becoming well and healing your personal trauma. Remember, hurt people hurt people. The trauma you experienced — without justifying it — was inflicted by a hurt/traumatized person. All it takes is one courageous person to heal themselves for the chain to break. You, your effort, the personal work you are doing are making a huge difference. Allow people to show you who they are, and respect yourself enough to believe them. People will always show us who they are, what their morals are, how they feel about you, what their personal integrity is — believe them. Let go of thinking you know better, or if you just help them with x, they will make a better choice. It is not our right or responsibility to change people. We must accept them as they are. Judgment and shame are some of the biggest blocks we will face. When I look at various parts within a community, the single biggest trap to keeping people stuck and cycling over within an experience are judgment and shame. It keeps you feeling less than. "I couldn’t possibly share this experience because I will be judged." This prevents the person involved from speaking up and seeking the support they require to move past the situation they are stuck in. We very much live in a culture where projection is the norm, placing more value on another's opinion than on our own. All of the "shoulds" You should be doing this; you should be doing that. When we understand that we are all here having a soul's journey, where we are here to learn, it releases the pressure. We are meant to make mistakes, and in this human life, it is impossible not to make mistakes. This is how we grow, this is how we learn, how our mental and emotional intelligence grows. I hold a strong belief now that as I encounter people and their situations, if I can't help or it isn’t appropriate to offer the help, I won’t judge them. I will step aside and allow space for another who is better suited to help them. I am in ego if I am judging or shaming another. Similarly, I won’t allow others to judge or shame me for my experiences. I now know this is the most unhelpful thing, and it comes from unhealed hearts. Oh, how I wish I knew this years ago! Know that everyone has something. Each soul has had its own challenging situations and circumstances to overcome. It doesn’t matter if you were born into money, what education you had, a single-parent household, or both parents present, or what part of the world you grew up in, or the hundred other variables that gift our different experiences and viewpoints. Everyone has something they are working through, everyone. So do your best to be kind. You have no idea what another has come from or is going through. Understanding knowing me, who I really am, and the importance of self-love is the next thing I wish I had known about. It took many experiences, many of which involved me falling straight on my face to learn who I am and how I am wired. It wasn't until I was around 36 that I discovered self-love. What I know now is that love is the key to lots of things. Giving it freely with your heart wide open and feeling safe enough to receive it. Choosing to be kind to me in every sacred choice I am offered. Love is what we are at our soul essence, and regardless of our experiences, we are made of and making our way back. This is part of all of our journeys. Learning to love yourself is of great importance. Self-love helps us know our worth, to know we are worthy of being treated well, worthy of loving ourselves while we have all of the experiences we have had and will have in the future. Self-love helps us set healthy boundaries and to meet our needs. Growing up, boundaries was something I was not allowed to have. Saying no was punishable, and saying yes was expected regardless of if I actually wanted to. Freedom of choice was not allowed. Boundaries are important. They keep us safe. However, we need to feel safe setting them and then asserting them. Saying no is a skill set, as is only saying yes when we want to. If this is something that rings true for you, it’s well worth doing the workaround until these things are comfortable. You are worthy of feeling comfortable in this skill set. For those who have not been gifted the opportunity and have started working on it know that it is a process. Your body may have a very specific response each time a situation arises. A boundary needs to be set and verbalized. It may also take some time to get what you feel is an appropriate response out verbally. Sometimes, you may be too light. Other times you may be too harsh in your response — it takes practice, and the kindest thing you can do is be real with the person you are having this experience with (if it is appropriate) and loving yourself through the situation. Putting yourself down because you didn’t get it right only hurts you. Love yourself and promise to keep working on it. It does get easier, I promise. Responsibility for self. This bad boy is so huge and important. It is key to everything. You have chosen who you are, where you were born, the family you birthed into. I was so mad when I was told this! My reaction was literally, "As if I would do that to myself?!" but I did. Later, down the track, I got to see why I had, what contracts were behind it, etc. Every experience around us is something we have to take responsibility for. It is not just in this 3D world of having to take responsibility for our bills, children we have, pets we own, family obligations, relationships we engage in, etc. It comes to a deeper level of knowing — why are we energetically attracted and wanting to have a relationship with this person, what energy was present for us to be employed at this particular place, what beliefs do we have running that has helped to create this. Our childhood programming creates much of our early energetic wiring. While we were at the mercy of the adults raising us, adults are responsible for the energy we hold within us and the experiences we create. If it is in our reality, there is something there for us. Not always about us being on the receiving end, sometimes we are the teachers, and we may be contracted to be playing a role. However, we have a responsibility for the integrity and the energy we bring to all situations, any reactions we may have, and the level of kindness, authenticity, and love we can contribute. The final thing I wish I knew was that people’s reactions to you are a reaction to what they have running through their heads. Their beliefs, thoughts, and experiences. It doesn’t make them right and you wrong. They are just working with a set of glasses and instructions, and you can’t see through. You have an individual experience, and you have your own soul's guidance to follow. You don’t know the level of work they have done on their own emotional maturity. They may still be reacting from a place of their own trauma or have engaged in many years or personal work. Don’t allow another's opinions, projections, expectations, beliefs to prevent you from following your own intuition. You are a divine soul with a unique mission. Your skillset is individual, and it deserves respect to be discovered and nourished. We are here to help one of 3 things on this Earth — the people, the animals, or the Earth itself. We have a responsibility to discover where we fit into this and what our skill set is for. Who are we here to serve? This can often mean that situations, places, and people will change in your life to allow you to discover it and allow it to blossom and grow. Get curious. Until I had my awakening, I had always known I was here for something, but I just had no idea what. When I started to discover that I was a healer at my core, I knew why nothing else had ever felt right. For the first time in my life, I felt that I had a purpose. The more I connect to this, the more I connect to me, the deeper my skill set grows. We all deserve to feel connected to ourselves and our true calling on this earth. For more info, follow me on Facebook, Instagram and visit my website! Samantha Leske, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine Samantha Leske is a Spiritual Healer, and the CEO of Nurture you, Heal you. She specializes in trauma/ shadow work and teaching women how to love themselves unconditionally. After working in the industry for over 12 years, she has a varied skill set that allows the healings she offers, to incorporate all levels of a souls journey from this life to past and birthing timelines. Samantha has recently become a best selling author on Amazon from her contribution to the multi author book "Intuitive, knowing her truth" Her goals in life are to live a quiet rural life with her children and animals, while engaging in her soul led mission - to help as many people awaken and heal. Loving them while they come home to themselves and their own unconditional love and acceptance for themselves. To actively be apart of the solution.

Written by: Corina Enache, 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 am Corina Enache and I am a Language Learning Strategist and Mindset Coach to Language Learners. In the last 10 years, I have been helping through my work ambitious language learners achieve language mastery with ease. I’ve dedicated my life to learners who get the impact a new language has on both their personal and professional lives AND who know that anything is possible if they ARE READY TO commit to their learning goals . And today, I am going to share with you the foundation of my learning system. This system is the one that I created based on my own learning experiences and struggles and it is the very method that allowed me to learn six foreign languages with ease, while having fun in the process. Let’s start! What are we going to tackle today? Firstly, I am going to teach you how to do some groundwork: what are your dreams, your expectations what do you really want how you want to proceed further to achieve it Then, I’ll show you what a good learning strategy means: How to plan your learning How to take action upon your planning How to track your learning How to measure your progress And how to do it all over again until you reach your goal. Finally, I’m going to share with you what you need to do to ensure that: You stay on track with your learning You make progress every day (and that) You achieve language mastery with ease! Where Are You Right Now? You need to really grasp your current situation and to know where you are at this point. My advice here is for you to grab a piece of paper and get some answers to these questions: Where are you right now? Where do you find yourself, in relation to your goal? What is it that made you take action today and read this article? Also, you need to consider the transformation you’re going to experience - the journey from point A to point B. You need to know what’s the impact that the transformation you’re going to make will have on your life. How can learning a new language starting today can actually change that for the better? You also need to get some measurable results - get down to reality. Check those facts. Get some real answers and keep those in your mind. Write these questions down and really think about them. Take some time and then come back to the questions and go through your answers. What Do You Want To Do? Basically, it can all be summed up to just one question: What do you want to achieve? Do you want to learn a new language as a hobby? Or maybe you want to up-level your professional life, and therefore you understand the impact a new language has on your career opportunities? Or maybe you hope for a future when you can travel and get to meet different people from different cultures and use your language skills to speak with them? You need to know HOW achieving this goal will impact your life. Whatever your goal might be, you need to have it very clear in your mind. So this is the moment where I encourage you to visualize yourself in the future, already proficient in your target language. What are you doing? How do you feel? What are you wearing? What is the place where you’re in look like? How does it feel to have the language skill under your belt? There are going to be times when you don’t feel like going on, and you need to remember how your end result will look like. And this is how you’ll keep your eyes on the end result. Why Do You Want It? Here we’re digging deeper into what we just tackled. What is the REASON why you decided to learn a language? What is your WHY? What truly motivates you, to the extent that you are ready to go through months of learning and practicing and actually get to master a new language? You need to know that your why is your motivation. Your why is what makes you take the next step. And the next. And the next. And this leads to the next point… What’s The Image of Successful “YOU”? Visualize yourself winning! What will be different in your life, once you’ve achieved your goal? How do you feel? Imagine you’ve just passed the language examination proving you are an advanced speaker of your target language. What is your initial reaction? How do you feel? Where are you when you get the good news? What does this mean for you? Get a hold of that feeling. Build an image around it. How you imagine it to be. Your perfect moment of achievement. What you’ve just hoped for, now has just become a reality. Now you can clearly say: My life changes now because I nailed this. I can do this and this and this and this. Having a clear image of you succeeding holds such great importance! It takes you from 0 to mastery. It makes you keep going and doing all that it takes for you to achieve your goal. The 4 Successful Learning Pillars My success formula in terms of language learning is quite simple and effective: It consists of four main focus areas that you need to take into consideration at any time while learning your target language. 1. Plan your learning A rigorous, consistent planning routine can make the whole difference when it comes to achieving your language learning goals! Plan for success, and you’ll see it becoming a reality! 2. Track your learning Being able to see where you’re at at any given moment is gold! You need to be able to self-evaluate and tweak your actions, so that you get better and better results and you improve your learning strategy to suit your way of learning and thus you get to achieve your goals quicker! 3. Stick to your planning Nothing is more difficult than going on with your actions when you seem to not make any progress. Please remember that what you do today needs a few days to remain imprinted onto your brain, so give it time! Do the tasks you’ve planned for, belief in the magic of perseverance and consistent work! Put in the hours and believe in yourself! Don’t make excuses to fail! Take action and win! 4. Make it happen The only way you can make your goals come true and actually achieve language mastery is if you put in the work consistently. Plan Your Learning In order for you to succeed, you need to plan for it. You know the saying: The first step of failure is failing to plan? Yes, that’s the mantra. Plan. Plan. Plan. Then action upon it. So.. let me show you exactly what I’m talking about: Let’s say you want to learn a language from scratch and you want to give twelve months to make this happen. First and foremost, you need to have a planner. You will get one in the bonuses I have prepared for you, but you can also find a template on the internet, or maybe you can even make one yourself. You choose. For example, I love having an actual planner where I can write down my strategy on actual paper. Let’s say you have twelve months. Check your calendar and write down the exact number of weeks. Split your page so that you have even slots, and in this way, you can have a clear overview of your action points. Then write down the days for each week. Include in your days all time slots that are already taken - or that you know for sure you are taking care of something else (be it work, family time etc.) You also need to decide how many hours you can allocate for your learning (monthly). Then you distribute them evenly in your planner. Be flexible with your schedule and allow yourself to have fun during this whole process! Remember! It’s the journey that matters and brings joy, even more than the destination! Amazing! Now you have your weekly hours that you’re going to spend learning your target language. My recommendation is that you do the daily planning on a weekly basis (for example, I am planning on Sunday evening for the whole week ahead). In order for you to plan your time wisely, you need to distribute your time to cover the following categories: Reading Writing Speaking Listening You cannot test any of these four categories without having a solid grammar and vocabulary foundation. When I say solid, I mean a few good hours a week need to be put aside only for the basic grammar and learning basic vocabulary for anyone who wants to see consistent and rapid progress in their learning. So in the first eight weeks, your focus will be 50% of the time on grammar and vocabulary, 50% of the time reading on writing, listening, and speaking (these will take up more time once we get past the initial 8-week period) We’ll get more into it shortly, but for now, you need to take into consideration your priorities and include them in your planner. After the first twelve weeks are done, you can already go ahead and plan for the next period. Of course, you will have learned from your struggles and you’ll tweak your planning, so that you get better and quicker results in the next learning period. Track Your Learning While you are making progress and crossing off your list of daily actions for your learning, you need to be able to regularly track your progress. Especially when you are learning on your own, you need to know how to get real feedback that you can measure and tweak in order to get better and better results each and every time! What are the best ways to track your progress? Weekly reports on your progress! Check out your planner weekly and see what went as planned and what didn’t. For what did work, congrats! You should continue doing that!! For what didn’t, you need to go back and see why you had difficulties. Tweak the schedule a bit, try and assign easier tasks for yourself, but do something to ensure next week is going to be better! Check your goals regularly! Tracking your progress in comparison with where you want to get is a good habit. Also, tracking your progress in comparison with the previous week is a good way to celebrate progress, of any kind. Be sure you remain true to yourself and your vision. You can be successful at anything you want. You just need to make a plan, act upon it consistently and track it. Test yourself! In order to test the learning material you’ve been learning, you need to be able to test yourself (your grammar and your vocabulary). Tip: Always use a colored pen for mistakes, but never red! You can do this by yourself and check everything,and then you can draw up some conclusions and action points to implement in the following weeks. Stick To Your Learning Plan Be committed! Be consistent! Be honest! Daily actions lead to progress and, as you know, progress makes it perfect. Believe in your learning strategy. Believe in the way your brain works when learning new things. Follow the planning. Do the work. Be consistent, day in and day out. Be positive and do your best to achieve your language learning goal! Stick to your plan! No matter how you feel, what’s been going on at work or what’s the atmosphere at home, you need to focus and put in the work so that you achieve mastery in your target language, as you’ve planned! Make it Happen! In order for you to make it happen, you need to: Know your goal. Know your why. Know how your life will change once you achieve your goal. Plan your learning. Action upon your planning. Track your learning. Stick to your planning. Revisit your goal. Your why. The benefits you’ll get once you nail this. Plan it. Do it. Track it. Stick to it. Do it again. Do it every single day. Until you achieve it. Now... How does it feel? You need to do it. EVERY. SINGLE. DAY. NO MATTER WHAT. You need to go through steps 1 - to - 3 over and over again, until you reach that level where you know ahead of time what you did right or what needs improvement during a particular period of time. You need to trust the process and once you have planned, decided upon the action points, set up your tracking process and started doing the work, do the work, day in and day out. What exactly means that you make it happen? Well, that means that you also have a good understanding of what your learning material is. After you’ve distributed your learning hours in your planner, you need to know exactly what you need to learn. You either join a program, buy an online course or choose some books for yourself to learn; in any case, you need to map out your whole learning material. Once this is done too, you can start learning and ensure you cover everything from the start! Great, you now have a whole strategy to put into place to start from scratch and achieve language mastery within the deadline that you set for yourself! Happy learning! Happy learning! Follow me on Facebook , Instagram , LinkedIn and visit my website for more info! Corina Enache, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine Corina Enache is a Language Learning Strategist & Mindset Coach, helping high achievers reach even greater levels of success by mastering a new language with ease. Having learned 6 languages, in 2010 Corina developed her own Language Learning Blueprint, which she tested herself with amazing results. From that moment on, Corina has been using the same method to help people transform both their personal and professional lives. In 2018, Corina quit her corporate job and started her journey as a businesswoman. She is now the founder & owner of the Multilingual School of Languages, and the founder of the Language Learning Accelerator Mentorship, a 12-month program designed for any high achiever who wants to master a language with ease.