Jamie Adamchuk has been in the professional training industry for well over 11 years, serving executive management teams worldwide. He’s worked with multiple industries, including healthcare, restaurant & food service, heavy equipment, real estate, and coaching, specializing in Extraordinary Customer Service and Strategic Business Growth. He's previously served with the Anthony Robbins Group of Companies as a Tony Robbins Certified Master and Platinum Coach, conducting in excess of 7000 coaching sessions, along with providing his services as a Tony Robbins Business Trainer. He’s coached clients in over 30 countries worldwide, on 6 of the 7 continents, and has most recently traveled to Australia to do so. Read the full interview with the founder of UE_Coaching Jamie Adamchuk below! As a World-Leading Professional Business Mentor and Expert, you help new and established business operators relieve unnecessary stress, scale their businesses, and finally step into the role of a true business owner. When did your successful journey as an entrepreneur start? My journey as an entrepreneur started almost 14 years ago when I recognized where I truly wanted to be. I had to do something different than I was currently doing. At the time, I was a new father, working one of those “great” corporate jobs – the ones that gave you all the certainty that you could ever ask for. The only unfortunate thing about the job is that to be working where I was, I had to be living in the city, and no matter the amount of certainty that the job brought, with benefits, pension plan, and stocks, the $300.00 I had leftover after all the bills were paid was enough for me to recognize that as long as I remained working for someone else, I’d only be able to earn what they were willing to pay. From that point, it took me several years to have the lesson really sink in. I experienced ups and downs through those years, experiencing only marginal increases in my income. However, it was the lessons I learned during that time that have made the biggest impact for me today. It wasn’t until I had endured a very contentious divorce, persevered through the struggles of a child custody battle, experienced the loss of my father to cancer, had relocated my family several times due to that “secure” corporate job, and then ultimately losing that secure corporate job to downsizing that I finally decided to double down on me. The incredible lessons that I was provided through all of this built a resiliency inside me and paved the path to where I now am. Those lessons ignited the passion within me to help committed, motivated business operators achieve their dreams of business success while never having to experience that same level of struggle that I did. You were also a Tony Robbins Certified Elite, Master, and Platinum Coach, where you were selected as 1 of 12 people out of thousands of applications, which is a huge accomplishment. What did Tony see in you that sets you apart from many other business coaches? I asked my trainers and mentors this same question when I became a Tony Robbins Coach and Business Trainer, and they narrowed it down to several key factors. The first thing was my level of energy. I possess an extraordinary amount of energy and infuse that into every segment of the content I’m training, which creates a highly engaging experience for my clients, unlike any other they’ve experienced before. I also have a way to articulate content to my audience that creates a greater level of understanding and meaning, enabling those participants to have a richer experience and take away specific strategies of exactly how to implement the new knowledge immediately into their businesses. As we know, what is learned, practiced, and then implemented has the greatest chance of success over what is learned and then forgotten. Business optimization is one of your top skills and qualities. Could you share 3-5 tips, steps, or secrets that businesses could use to optimize and leverage? Absolutely. Rather than focusing on making massive changes, say increasing your workforce by 50% or doubling your client count (as those multiples and factors can scare even the most seasoned business experts off), you can experience extraordinary business growth by focusing in on so many small areas of the company that can produce huge double-digit results. I teach the Leverage and Enable principle, and it’s the fastest way to create highly effective teams. It’s the process of encouraging and leveraging your team members to make quality decisions on their own (congruent with the Purpose Mission and Values of the Company), thereby enabling you as the Business Owner to truly work on versus in the business. Reviewing your corporate game plan for company exposure through social media is a very underrated and still underutilized means of growing your client base. Even in today’s age of social media being constantly thrust in our face, there are still so many corporations who don’t make use of this valuable tool. Multiple organic and paid strategies can result in a significant bump in your ideal client exposure, and oftentimes, by making only a few small changes, you can experience massive growth. The sales process of the company is one other area that, in most cases, is overlooked. I can’t even begin to tell you the number of times I’ve worked with clients who subscribe to the “Law of Large Numbers” sales process, that being, “make more calls, and eventually you’ll get the sale.” In reality, by slowing down, targeting your ideal clients and creating an offer that provides them massive value, coupled with a formula for them to buy (and them NOT feeling like they are being sold to), and most importantly eliminating the “neediness” of the sale, you’ll radically increase your closing rates. We know your clients have said some great things about you. What are the results they have been getting from working with you? I’m so glad you asked this question. Apart from the non-tangibles, such as getting unstuck, getting rid of the unnecessary stress, and finally feeling like the business is moving forward on the right foot, discovering their own value (what they are truly worth) has been a big eye-opener. One of my clients, we’ll call her “E,” experienced a 333% increase in the average program price she was charging, and in that time has increased her overall monthly revenues by over 950% simply by implementing some of the very same principles I’ve shared here today! This result has set her well on her way to have her first-ever 7 figure year. Another Client, “T,” during this last year, in spite of Covid, was able to increase his overall business revenues by over 80%, and that’s not the most impactful part of it. The most impactful part is that he could achieve those incredible revenue increases while decreasing the time he spent working in his business by 70% to devote his time to creating a brand-new method for people to sell their businesses while keeping even more profit for themselves. So, what’s the next big goal or project for Jamie Adamchuk? What do you have in front of you? This one scares me in a really great way. The next big project on the books is completing my business mission of creating a replicable 8 figure Business model. It’s taking the content I deliver and the and structure of the training being delivered, developing a strategic partnership agreement for other qualified trainers, mentors, and coaches so that they would have a done for you business model, helping them launch a successful training and mentoring program FAST, without having to reinvent the wheel or spend precious time developing their own programs. For more info, visit UE_Coaching and follow Jamie on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn. Here is a link to a free productivity case study and a link to the UE Coacing Education Academy. More about Jamie Adamchuk: Jamie is an internationally Licensed Neuro-Linguistic Master Practitioner certified by Dr. Richard Bandler, the NLP creator and one of Tony Robbins' original mentors. He has coached thousands of Consultants, Coaches, and C-Level Executives on business development, marketing, sales, and most importantly, how to scale the business quickly. Through his training and mentoring program, he’s helped those business clients quadruple their monthly income, quickly and efficiently scale their businesses, coached his clients on creating multiple successful business streams that produced 80% increases in profitability, and helped those same business owners reduce their time spent working in the business, by as much as 70%. Jamie is a published author and is extremely proud to donate his time to The JASH Foundation, where he helps separated and divorcing parents put their kids first.

Written by: Sarah Dawkins, Guest Writer Brainz Magazine Modern, western medicine sadly doesn’t appear to take a holistic approach to health and wellness, appearing to focus only on symptoms rather than the root cause of dis-ease. Hence, a client is determined “healed” by a lack of symptoms due to medications, surgery or other treatments. However, in the current climate, physically visiting a doctor has become increasingly difficult, hospitals are cancelling more and more elective surgeries, and the cost of conventional treatments is ever escalating, not only in financial terms but also the long-term health cost of taking pharmaceuticals, therefore, taking responsibility for our own health is more important than ever. So how do we take responsibility for our health and start our own healing? And is it possible? Well, as Doctor Joe Dispenza states: “When we experience for ourselves, or witness in another person, something that we've once believed to be impossible, we are freed in our beliefs to transcend those limitations in our own lives”. In short, we only have to see one person doing what we believed to be impossible to change our belief that something is impossible. My secret to health is natural self-healing, outside the world of pharmaceutical drugs that I was trained to believe were a necessary part of life. I coach people on doing the same to improve their health and wellness. After healing myself of suicidal depression, underactive thyroid, adrenal fatigue, body and head pains, frozen shoulders, candida, eczema, psoriasis, and reflux, I absolutely know what it takes to naturally self-heal rather than taking medicines that I believe we should, for so long. I am writing a book about it, called HEAL YOURSELF, the remarkable journeys of ordinary people healing themselves of dis-ease in extra-ordinary ways , to empower people to change their belief that natural self-healing isn’t possible, by showing the readers many people who have healed themselves, in a variety of ways. I hope that they, too, will then embark on their own healing journeys. Currently, my book contains seventy people's healing journeys, from a range of dis-eases diagnosed as “chronic, long-term and life-long” by doctors, proving that we absolutely CAN heal ourselves from dis-ease without pharmaceutical medications. So, rather than reaching for pharmaceuticals, let me share with you some strategies for self-healing that I learned through my own healing journey and found re-iterated through the contributions of others for my book. Secrets to Healing True healing needs us to address not just our physical body but also our mental, emotional and spiritual bodies too. Mental body Our mental body is our thoughts, attitudes, beliefs, desires, values, and goals, and these can be crucial in determining what we experience as symptoms. We can improve our mental health through meditation, mindfulness, education, and goal setting. Emotional body This is about connections with ourselves and others. Reconnect with emotions through mindfulness without judgment and bond with the lost inner child. Practicing self-reflection, gratitude, and forgiveness strengthen our emotional body. Spiritual body This is about our connection to energy, our true essence, our oneness, and understanding that we are all connected. Often it is US that is out of alignment with our spirituality. Being conscious and present in the moment, practicing mindfulness, and prayer all support our spiritual body. Physical body A healthy physical body is gained through: Nourishment – eating nutritious foods and drinking natural beverages. Gentle exercise – walking is great and very undervalued; outside in green space is the best. Sleep – around seven to eight hours of uninterrupted sleep Breathing – daily practice of deep and slow breathing PLUS – all the other bodies being in harmony, as our physical body reflects all our bodies. The root cause of dis-ease can emanate from a mental, emotional or spiritual issue, which will manifest real physical symptoms in the body. These symptoms are no less than any occurring as the result of a physical issue. Therefore, as we heal our mental, emotional and spiritual bodies, our physical body naturally heals. Our body is healing every day. It’s what it does. We just can’t always see what is going on. The Mind-Body Link The mind-body link has been proven by many, with the placebo effect highlighting how our mind can create healing. So, if it can create healing, why would it not be able to create dis-ease? Can we accept that it is possible for our body to be manifesting what our subconscious (unconscious) mind believes, therefore we are co-creators of our suffering? Well, if we have co-created it, surely, we must be able to heal it, right? Absolutely, if we can just believe, we CAN heal and believe that we are WORTHY of healing. Healing comes from our belief in belief, and the healers in my book are testament to just that. I wish you all healing. Love, light, and blessings to you! Sarah Dawkins Find Sarah on Linkedin , Facebook , Instagram , Twitter , Gab . and visit her website . Sarah Dawkins RN, BSc (Hons), MSc, AMC Sarah is a Registered Nurse, Author, multi-award-winning entrepreneur, and Holistic Health Coach. She has a plethora of experience in health and wellness gained through her many years in nursing and her insatiable drive to improve overall health through nutrition and natural means. Her coaching sessions are designed for anyone wanting to improve their overall health, whether there is an active health problem to resolve or not. Sarah’s 12-week on-line course, Healing at Home, and her hand-made natural and organic products compliment her coaching. Sarah walks her talk with regards to health and wellness.

For over a decade, Patricia kept ignoring the growing sensation that there was more she could do to serve the world. It was daunting to think about changing her life in a dramatic way without direction. After spending some time searching for the answer, Patricia found her calling as a Life Coach. This became the vehicle for her to facilitate the transformation of people who felt stuck in their life; not knowing how to begin a new journey. Patricia dedicates her time to connecting people with their true passion so they can live a passionate and purposeful life. Patricia’s innate ability to see people’s potential, beyond their purview, inspires clients to work through the inner blocks that are preventing them from living their dream. You’re a life coach. What’s the 1 issue clients want your help with? A lot of my clients are looking to make a change. They are feeling unfulfilled but don’t know how or what to change. As we start working together, we discover deeper emotions that need to be examined before defining the vector for change. We often learn that there are beliefs that have been passed on by family and society that contradicts the client’s values. And then there’s fear. Because we all experience fear in different ways, it also shows up in various forms in someone’s life. We are complex beings filled with layers of sensitivities and interpretations. My job is fascinating. I help clients dissect their minds and reprogram their behavior, so they can connect back to their purpose and live a passionate, fulfilling life. What is the one thing that you want people to know? You are always in control. You always have choices. No matter the circumstance, you are always in control of your experience. You get to decide how something will impact you. Embracing this wisdom changed my life. I used to carry a list of excuses of why things weren’t the way that I wanted, as if I had to be submissive to life. Once I realized that I was in control and that I had always been in control, my purview of possibilities widened. I started to see opportunities everywhere. I realized that I had been the one setting the limits and not the circumstances around me. What motivates you? I grew up in a traditional household where my Mom kept the house, and my Dad provided our financial means. My Mom chose to be a stay-at-home mom and serve her family. Although she felt great joy in being available for her family, she was never given the option of a different lifestyle. She was taught that doing anything for herself was selfish and that the best role she could ever play was that of a mother who gave herself fully to the family. As I transitioned to adulthood and had the opportunity to go to college, I started to contemplate my Mom’s life. We are both women on different trajectories defined by our moment in history. My Mom never got to experience the freedom to dream because, at an early age, her life had already been defined for her. Once I had this intense realization, I became committed to helping women expel the idea that their opportunities are limited. I want to offer women a space where they can dream and map out the actions to realize those dreams. I have two daughters, and they are my legacy. I want them to be inspired by how I choose to live my life. I’m the living example that you can pursue all of your dreams at any time. There are no rules. The only limits are the ones you set for yourself. We only have this life to live, and I believe that everyone deserves the opportunity to live it to the fullest. Follow Patricia on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and visit her website for more info!

Written by: Emi Olausson Fourounjieva, 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. Leadership today and beyond pushes many Leaders to review their values, skill set, and leadership style. The old solutions are not always applicable anymore. The world is developing at a tremendous pace, which presents real challenges and requires contingency planning. However, this intense environment creates amazing opportunities for those leaders who want to adapt, grow, and succeed. In this article, I will share my top tips to the high-level Leaders and Executives - to help them see themselves as powerful, high-impact leaders and act accordingly - today and in the future. There are many important qualities especially needed in this changing post-Corona environment to thrive - professionalism, resilience, drive, ability to embrace change, integrity, empathy, open-mindedness , and many others - but here and now, I’d like to share with you what I see as really helpful and sometimes, unfortunately, missing. 1. Be engaging, be engaged. To be present and have a clear vision is really important. It allows you as a Leader to spread your energy across the area of your responsibility and be really impactful. It becomes increasingly important for a Leader to be a Coach, a Mentor, to offer help, support, and share wisdom with those who need it. It is really about time for many bosses to leap into becoming genuine leaders. Self-awareness, emotional intelligence, and communication skills are really important at this stage. 2. Be authentic, be true to yourself. To step out of the comfort zone to show more of your personality and to share the best of your true self with your team and your community are other changes coming up to the surface and growing fast. Soft skills are needed today and tomorrow as never before - to be the best of yourself toward yourself and others. Step out of your comfort zone - become the change and drive the change. Obviously, it’s always important to keep it well balanced with the reality - some businesses are more ready for change and growth than others, but the overall trend is there, and it’s for everybody’s best. The future generously offers you that space to become a stronger Leader already today, to share your wisdom and lead by example. 3. Stop doing, start doing. The changing world's opportunities are great, but it’s also about changing the approach, transforming the mindset, adjusting the way of leading, and reviewing the list of priorities. It’s all about a clear strategy - what is fitting into your new paradigm and what is not serving you anymore. Get rid of everything that doesn’t belong to your vision, everything that will not enable you in the future, stop doing things that didn’t show enough results. Define new initiatives and add them up to your pipeline - there is no way to get different results while doing exactly the same thing time after time. There is no growth without innovation. The trends and solutions I shared in this article are applicable for many Leaders today, but, surprisingly, not all of them understand in a clear way how many of their pain points and challenges are connected to the leadership topic. In fact, what they see as the root of their problem is sometimes just a consequence of Leadership issues in a specific area. That’s why, in my opinion, it is so important to enable today’s Leaders to find their unique winning concepts fitting into the new reality and support them on their way to success. After all, today’s leaders are shaping the leaders of tomorrow! Follow me on Facebook , LinkedIn and visit my website for more info! Emi Olausson Fourounjieva, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine Emi Olausson Fourounjieva is a Transformational Coach, Digital Transformation Leader with extensive experience in Digital Analytics and Marketing, Visionaire, Educator and Global Speaker, Advisor in the Advisory Board of two global professional networks. Her strength is to create synergy effects using resources and technologies to get optimal business results in a data-driven, customer-centric way. Emi's initiative "Digital Transformation for Humans" reflects her passion to the intersection of Technology, Business and Human Factors. Her professional experience has led her to the conclusion that Digital Transformation must be boosted not only by the power of data, research, algorithms and technologies, but also by human intuition, creativity and adaptability, in order to obtain harmonious and sustainable development. Through her coaching, Emi empowers Leaders to combine their Intelligence and Competence with Soft Skills, helping them become more confident and self-aware, feeling positive, having more impact, and achieving goals with ease and joy. Emi sees Mindset as a critical part of any successful Leader's toolbox, which is why she has developed her signature coaching program, "The Winning Mindset for Leaders in Digital".

Written by: Viviana Di Leo, Executive Contributor Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise. Have you ever had a friend convince you to do something that is really working for them and it does not work for you? Have you followed diets that did not work? Have you followed mindset strategies or business strategies and they do not work for you? So many people think that they need a standardized system, they find themselves following what others say works and get frustrated because it is not working for them. I was there too. And today, I am here to spark some clarity to you. If you are feeling defeated, follow me, and hopefully you can find the key. When following others, they are sharing their experiences, which is completely valid. Their experience, their life, their business, their results. This means their set of values, their life experiences, their resources, their level of consciousness, and their energy. You can learn from them, but you are not them. If you do not know yourself, do not have clarity on your set of values, skills and limitations , you feel no matter what you do you are still getting stuck. You might be asking yourself; how do I know myself and stop feeling stuck? Trust me, it is not an easy road. Why? Because to make a road easy, you have to master it. If you are good at handling the unknown then awesome you might enjoy knowing yourself more than others. If unknown is scary, it will require a lot of courage. Know that If you have lived your whole life following and living from the follower seat, you have to teach yourself to guide your life. You have to start again. Meet yourself again and question your limitations, the power you are giving to your experiences. Can you do it on your own? Not fully. You will need guidance to access those blind spots. To shine the light on the way, to get resources that will help you resonate with what you need in that specific moment. Unless you want your life to stay forever in the same way. You can for sure learn to know yourself on your own reading amazing books. But if you read and you do not act or test what the book or mentor says, you will never know if that works for you. So how do I get to know myself better? Here I will give you tools that allow you to understand yourself better. I can help you with some of them, so feel free to connect with me; otherwise I can recommend you to the right person. Meditation to access listening to yourself and your body. The best are the ones with guiding questions. Journaling to learn from your life experiences. The best is done guided with an intention. Self-help book that will make you think. Louis Hay, Lisa Nichols, Rachel Hollis, Joe Dispenza and so many others. The best for me are the ones that have guiding questions. Enneagram a tool to understand your personality and how to center yourself. Understanding how you can simply connect with your center and when you are losing yourself is life-changing. Human design will bring clarity to yourself. Allow you to understand what works best for you and your energy. Emotional intelligence gives you tools and more tools for your own life and becoming better at social skills too. Exploring your Dharma and Sankalpa. A spiritual approach to your purpose that is connected with finding your why it makes your life simpler. How do you know that following others is not for you? When you choose something. You feel stressed and constantly triggered. You find resistance when you are using what someone says you should do. It does not make you feel good after doing it. You can spend a long time wondering when something is going to work for you. You can spend a long time blaming yourself or the other person, situation. OR You can choose different, choose your peace of mind, and start that journey with yourself. Every day you have the opportunity to get to know yourself better and live your best version. Is today the moment for you? For more information, follow me on Facebook , Instagram and visit my website ! Read more from Viviana ! Viviana Di Leo, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine Viviana Di Leo is a Certified Peacefulness & Fulfilment Coach. She helps women on their self-healing journey to live a more peaceful and fulfilled life. She's an Expert in Biodecoding & Emotions.

Written by: Agnese Rudzate, 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. Taking the time to level up in business might seem like a lot at first. It does require restructuring, changing systems, implementing strategies, and tweaking processes. It’s understandable to procrastinate when you’re maxed out already. “I can't find the time to restructure. There’s so much on my plate already. I don’t have time to explain the tasks want to delegate! It’s easier and faster to do things by myself.” That is a very typical mindset of busy entrepreneurs. It keeps them stuck in BUSY place leading to execution and even burnout. Let’s look at a couple of options for switching things around to create the life you deserve. A life where you are financially successful and have the time that gives you the freedom to enjoy life without guilt. 1. “I create time” instead of “I can’t find the time.” We are in charge of our time, decisions, and management in business. It's in our hands to make decisions that will benefit ourselves as well as business growth. Choosing wisely what you fill your time with will allow you to create time for what matters. 2. “I’m not busy” instead of “there’s so much on my plate.” It’s easy to make an excuse and bury ourselves in busywork. But all it does is create an illusion of being worthy of success. Let’s call out this illusion and see it for what it is — an illusion. We tend to fill 8h of work because we have 8h to fill. But when we choose not to be busy, suddenly there is no need to have 8h to create an impact! 3. “I have the time” instead of “I don’t have time.” If we are constantly conditioning ourselves into lack, that what we will be getting more of. So every time you notice that lack of mindset creeping in, notice it and switch it to a success mindset. It only takes a couple of seconds, so it doesn't need much time investment. It does, however, require your commitment and consistent action. 4. “I trust in delegation” instead of “ It’s easier and faster to do things myself.” While you absolutely CAN do it all, you DON’T have to. Whenever you feel like it’s just easier to do things yourself, take a moment. Switch into imagining the time freedom that delegation will create for you in the long term. It’s no secret that this process can take some time to get the results you expect for your business. But once that’s nailed, it will save you hours every single day. It will give you space to be more creative and work in your zone of genius. Cut as many administrative tasks as you can from your tasks list. You can do that by delegating them. It will create that precious time you can use more wisely. Switching our mindset into success mode is the first and most important step. Take it towards more time freedom and greater impact. Choose to notice the lack in mindset and replace it with powerful mantras that lead to confident decision-making and time well spent! Here’s to you making choices that suit your vision! For more info, follow me on Facebook , Instagram , LinkedIn or visit my website ! Read more from Agnese! Agnese Rudzate, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine Agnese Rudzate is a Business Productivity Coach and Time-management expert with a professional background in Quality Management and Empowerment Coaching. She has turned her lifelong passion for organizing into her mission, helping women gain the confidence, clarity, and time freedom they deserve by providing action steps, tools, and customized strategies. Agnese is a firm believer that anyone can achieve business or personal goals through a deeply focused effort based on her coaching. Through structure, systems, and processes that bring results, Agnese teaches her clients to manage their business with ease, create time freedom, and scale profits.

Written by: Jenn Drakes, 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 current buzz words for most companies are “transformation” and “innovation.” The pervasiveness of those words correlate to the pressure companies are under to stay relevant. Many of their initiatives transform or innovate something related to methods, processes, technology, products, and services. However, some leading these initiatives do not realize that innovation is more far-reaching than the things that get transformed. Innovation impacts the entire company, including its people, and few companies fully understand this reach and its overall impact. Companies miss opportunities and valuable insights by forgetting that employees are also consumers. What employees see and hear in their day-to-day related to the company’s consumer-facing technology and offerings is important. Few companies truly encourage their employees' voices to be raised and, more importantly, to be heard. Most often, companies’ internal speak of ideation or feedback is an employee feel good gesture that ultimately proves superficial in follow-through and execution. So, what can be done to change this? Companies should expand their thinking around innovation to include people. People innovation should be adopted within the company’s culture and operating ideology. It should be reflected in how people are treated and encouraged to grow. Leading individuals to be innovative requires the fostering of their mindset (another buzzword) and their behavior. No different to companies, people need to stay relevant and capable of contributing and adapting to the magnitude of changes occurring around them, internal and external to the company. Now the how behind companies doing this is a key differentiator. Let’s face the truth. It's not effective to have think tank meetings. Most meetings occurring in companies are ineffective. A company that aims to innovate its people must formulate an environment and a culture that nurtures attitudes, freedoms, outlook, and mentality prospecting. Giving employees the freedom to be triggered by things occurring around them, to explore, and to reflect is a key aspect of encouraging innovative thinking. This is in addition to training and competency validation to ensure innovation is understood. Bringing employees into the fold of innovative intent changes the dynamics of their conversations and actions. It redirects focus. For example, instead of focusing on organizational hierarchy, focus could go to team connections, team member accountabilities, and contributions. A thriving innovation culture should base performance on making innovative objectives happen, as defined by the company. That means a company has mastered a repeatable process for how ideas, small or large, flow-through to become ROI initiatives to be implemented. Implementation is the results that lead to rewards and perpetuated organizational value. The core of that mastery is people; effectively leveraged based on their proven capabilities, acquired skills, positive behavior, and demonstrated potentials to help direct and grow the company to new and possibly disruptive levels. Follow me on Facebook, connect with me on LinkedIn and visit my website for more info! Read more from Jenn! Jenn Drakes, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine Jenn is a mom, serial entrepreneur, and life advocate who hosts the podcast Arrays of Living. She is also creator and co-host of the Get Awesome show, author of the book Aladdin Carpets — change your perspective, change your life. In addition to Brainz Magazine, she is a Featured Author on Plumose.co for her poetry and stories and Contributing Author on Boss Ladies Mindset. Jenn is a hidden gem in a desert of gems, and her personality and presence forever change everyone who discovers her. Over the years in working with youths and young adults, she was crowned The Original Goddess to acknowledge the shared feeling that "Jenn is wise beyond her years. I find her to be almost an "old soul" type of spirit." Her voice and writings are powerful, impactful, and life-changing because they trigger thought and promote tantalizing, intelligent conversations. Today, she uses that wisdom to shatter glass ceilings and power up the purpose she believes everyone holds within. It is a belief that is foundationally based on all of us being born with a gift and a responsibility to use and share that gift to achieve sustainable happiness. Her mission is to improve how people feel about themselves and empower their sense of self-worth to achieve more personally and professionally than they imagined.

Written by: Rita Hurry, 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. Too Busy for Self As a Body, Mind, and Spirit Teacher, I have come across many people who desire to banish the fears and anxieties that hold them back from moving forward but do not make the time to put the work into clearing this. It’s not that they don’t have the time; it’s that they do not make the time. There is a big difference here. The fears and anxieties continue to interfere with the success they could achieve, but they are so busy busying themselves with things that this gets pushed to the side. Is this you? If it is, then it’s time to change this. You are the foundation of your success. So why is it important to prioritize ‘self-time’? Stress is the biggest factor here. Often, when you are too busy to spend time looking after your wellbeing, it is due to the build-up of stress and the increasing workload you keep putting yourself under. Stress can cloud your judgment on many things and leave you feeling overwhelmed, doubtful, and in a frenzy. This then leads to anxiety as the pressures mount and you feel you lack control over everything…this will then lead to fear and depression and could lead to your immunity weakening and a severe illness. Often what happens also is that you make appointments for personal things and have to cancel them because you are over-consumed with work-related things. Now, as a Business Owner myself, I know how busy things can be, and with running 2 businesses currently, I think I have a fair idea. But you have to realize what makes your business or your job a success is not all about what you are doing, but it’s also about who you are and how you manage the stress of each day and your well-being. Well-being goes far deeper than looking good on the outside and getting things done. Making time to clear the negative stuff within you, the things that block you and stop you from achieving unlimited success is crucial. By doing this, you limit the effect stress can have on you, body, mind, and spirit. After all, you are the foundation of your business. You are the foundation of your life and everything in it. If you are not 100%, you will begin to crack, and the ups and downs of work, business, and life will take over and consume you until you cannot be productive anymore. Create the Balance Success is created through balance. Having that work/life balance is important. Just like eating wholesome food is good for the body, having a work/life balance is good for the mind and your career. It gives you the sustenance needed to achieve success. Saying yes to ensuring that your wellbeing is positive and that you are self-aware and have dealt with the negative beliefs that often hold you back will set you on the path to managing stress when it arises and keep you moving forward. Visit me on my Facebook, Instagram, Podcast, and Website! Read more from Rita! Rita Hurry, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine Coach Rita Hurry is an Entertainment Spiritual Coach focusing on the balance of Body, Mind, and Spirit, which is the foundation to success. Coach Rita Hurry specializes in Law of Attraction, Meditation, Energy Healing, and Breathwork. She has been coaching for over 17 years, and her clients include – Casting Agents, Musicians, Music Producers, Writers, Artists, Actors, Singers, Business Owners, CEOs, Entrepreneurs, and other professionals. Her clients are based all over the globe. She also is a published author and has 2 books based on the Law of Attraction principles available on Amazon. Along with the spiritual work she does, Coach Rita also co-owns RIME Entertainment Limited and is a co-presenter and co-producer of an online interview show, RIME Entertainment Showcase, where both her sister and her interview various talents in the Arts and Entertainment industry, sharing their journey and inspiring others to never give up on their dreams. Coach Rita’s mission is to help everyone to Think Big and Make the impossible… I’m Possible.

Written by: Shantinique James, Executive Contributor Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise. In today's world, there are always emotional triggers waiting to happen in our lives. We will never be able to escape the stimuli of attractions provided by the outside world. Therefore, it is critical to have a method in which you manage how you respond to life. Our responses to life stem from the ways we think, feel, and act. How we think, feel, and act are all apart of our life events like relationships, money, material possessions, and so much more. We are in a cycle of consistent responding to life despite if we want to participate or not. So often, we allow life's circumstances and situations to affect how we feel on the inside. We unconsciously disconnect from our perspectives and intentions. We become mentally, emotionally, and spiritually influenced by the environments and circumstances presented to us. Simply because this world is an energetic playground, and we feel everything. You can agree that this world is a "feeling & thinking" world, right? However, there are a few ways that you can start to develop a sense of mental and emotional stability amid all the craziness. Here are three tips on how you can start to notice and manage your emotions: Tip 1: Pay attention to the way you feel The term "Emotion" is just a word created to help us communicate effectively with one another. When you are in a situation that is causing you to feel negative, you often notice these "feelings" within your body. Some feelings may appear as a stomachache, headache, body twitching, and more. You are the perfect identifier of what the symptoms are for your body. When you can become aware of your body's natural response, you become consciously aware of those feelings within your body. You are the only one who can identify them because you most likely can identify the things in your life that cause you to feel negative. When those moments present discord, you should bring awareness to the way you are feeling in your body. Developing self-awareness helps to identify the emotional impact on our health, mental, and behavioral responses. Negative emotions are also indicators of when something is abnormal in your environment. Sometimes, we are triggered emotionally, and we do not verbally speak it. You will begin to acknowledge the feelings within your body. Developing this understanding also helps you notice the things in your external environment that may affect you. Tip 2: Become aware of the thoughts your thinking The way that we feel in our bodies is a response to the way we think. When you catch yourself feeling an emotion, it was because of some external situation in your environment. Consider the idea that your circumstance in your external environment was "perceived" by you. The life you've experienced has created a perception of how you view the world. This perception includes people, places, and things. Whenever you notice that you feel an emotion, whether negative or positive, it is because of your perspective. Your perspective causes you to think thoughts associated with the event in your external environment. You can become aware of the thoughts you are thinking by first noticing the way you feel. Start to become aware of the "thoughts" that cause you to feel negative or positive. You can verbally or inside your head ask yourself questions such as: what just happened to make me feel this way; why do I feel this way about this situation; what thoughts was I thinking to make me feel this way? This may result in a deep psychological understanding of how you feel and how you’ve got to this point in life. It's important to understand that all thoughts which appear in your head do not have to be true. We must remember that we are creating our life from our perceptions. Sometimes our perceptions are built from viewing the lives of others, media, childhood, and more. Therefore, when assessing your thought's ask yourself, "Is this how I feel?". Tip 3: Practice time alone (meditate, journal, exercise) To become more self-aware and notice how you feel, you will need to understand SELF. Life can be so busy that we have no time to explore and discover what we "deeply" want. At the core of every life, the one thing we all have in common is that we at least want to be happy or experience some feeling that feels good to us. What is it that makes you feel this way? Meditation, journaling, exercising, or whatever activity you can do alone will help the path of finding your true self. When you spend time alone with yourself, you will ask yourself the hard questions. You know yourself better than anyone else, right? Get connected with your body by doing some breathing exercises. Start to care about yourself more than anything you do. If you begin these practices, it is guaranteed you will begin the path to living a more happy, peaceful, and joyful lifestyle. Follow me on Facebook , Instagram , LinkedIn and visit my website for more info! Shantinique James, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine Shantinique James is a Mindset Coach specializing in Emotional Intelligence. She experienced many years of emotional self-destruction which left her living an unhappy and unfulfilled life. Over time she decided to enhance her abilities by learning how to master her emotions through reprogramming her brain. Shantinique has dedicated her life to helping women develop emotional intelligence so they can feel empowered. She is the Founder & CEO of BecomingInnerSelf a company that strives to bring positivity into the world. Shantinique is also the author of "Originated Self: How to Develop Self-Love and Inner Happiness". Her mission is to help as many people find their inner selves so they can live life on their own terms.

Written by: Stevie Orrill, 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 Return It was the 16th of March 2020. I took a call from my Sales Manager. She was a good friend of mine and relatively new to this particular role. We made some small talk and discussed a few different topics. I could sense she was nervous. And then she said, “We’ve decided to put you on an informal performance improvement plan.” My heart skipped a beat. This was something I’d heard of. Something that happened to people who struggle with performance. I’d always been a high achiever. It made no sense to me. The injustice made it difficult to process. I had my instincts as to who and what might have been behind it. I reacted as I’d conditioned myself over the course of a lifetime to react. I went on the attack and stood up for myself. After a few sleepless nights, I took on a corporation, made my case, and enjoyed a small win. The winning has little significance. I took no joy from that. What’s more relevant is… All my life, I’ve been an underdog. When I feel a sense of injustice, my instinct is to stand up for the truth. Opportunities to find strength & courage come when life seems most challenging. My 15-year career working as a corporate employee ended a few months after this phone call, entirely on my terms. There can be no future without trust. This was the push I needed to break through fear and pursue my true purpose and passion in life. I might never have jumped had life not intervened. At that moment, I took control of my life. How is it that we end up following a path that is not the one we would choose voluntarily? The Call to Adventure As a child growing up in the ’80s and ’90s. I was often subject to ridicule or humiliation. My experience was no different to most children trying to find their place in Thatcher’s Britain at that time. There’s one particular experience I remember vividly. I was with some “friends,” smoking around the back of a mobile classroom during a school lunch break. We must have been about 13 or 14 years of age. There was one lad – a really big lad – determined to show me how he could make smoke come out of his ears. I knew it was a ruse. To avoid any prolonged conflict, I went along with the experiment. All I had to do was stand behind him with my hands around his chest and watch his ears while he inhaled. Of course, smoke never came out of his ears. Instead, I received a sharp burn to the back of my hand from his cigarette. That was the punchline to this schoolyard party trick. I don’t remember if I laughed with my friends at the time. I don’t remember how much it hurt, physically or emotionally. What I know is that this experience – along with many others – left an indelible mark on my emerging character. My personal brand was taking shape… When I’m faced with the choice of being humiliated or responding with conflict, I’ll always choose conflict. Whatever the outcome, my soul can rest much easier when I take a stand. I instinctively empathize with those who are silenced, victimized, bullied, or made to suffer in any way. My desire for safety would play an integral role in the decisions I took as a young adult. Our early experiences lead us on an adventure. It’s an adventure where we are searching for ourselves. Into the Abyss At 26 years of age, I was married and living in an apartment complex in Tampa, Florida. The paperwork I needed to work in the US legally had recently arrived. I could have done anything. A lively social scene meant I was able to establish friendships with a number of my neighbors. One friend, in particular, was keen to help me find a job. He had recently moved from New York and was looking for qualified people to work for a Computer Software company. He secured an interview for me, and I was soon offered a job. I took that job for one reason… the compensation package. My need to feel safe was the subconscious driver behind that decision. My true passions, desires & talents were given little consideration as I made that decision. They were given little consideration for the next 15 years. The decisions I made allowed me to feel financially secure. Peers respected me. I attained a certain prestige in my life. But how secure was I really? Working in an environment that I had no passion for meant that I had to drag myself out of bed every Monday morning. It meant I was constantly looking over my shoulder, trying to prove myself against whatever metrics were the latest to be arbitrarily asked of me. It meant that the work I came here to do – the work that allows me to enjoy blissful happiness and positively impact the lives of others – was put to one side. However, there are no arbitrary experiences. We are all destined to face our shadow selves before we can ascend to a higher plane. Without these experiences, I wouldn’t have been exposed to the insight that allowed me to transform. Here’s what I know now, that has taken me half a lifetime to work out… When we allow fear and material desires to guide us, we move away from our true purpose and the things that make us happy. Words really do not teach. Your true knowledge comes from your own life experience. You only hear what you are ready to hear. Nothing is a coincidence. This is my story. We each have our own unique, powerful story. We begin our lives in the “ordinary world” before being called on an adventure and are plunged into the “unknown world.” We experience trials, are subject to ordeals, encounter mentors and enemies before returning – often reluctantly – as the master of two worlds. All too often, we dismiss our stories. We write them off as coincidences. The truth is, they encapsulate our greatest gifts. This story is my brand. It is the life and the gift that was given to me. Your brand is in your story. The most significant story you ever need to tell is your own. You’re invited to join me for a free 5-day workshop from March 22nd-26th, where we will get deeply connected with our stories and learn how to turn them into profitable brands - https://www.todaywillbe.com/passiontoprofit. As Joseph Campbell said, “The privilege of a lifetime is being who you are.” Follow me on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and visit my website for more info! Stevie Orrill, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine Stevie Orrill is a leading mindset coach. Following an epiphany that his traumatic childhood meant that he was relying on outdated survival-based programming, he made a conscious choice not to settle for a life that isn't fully aligned with his true purpose. Directed by the powerful experience of his own personal transformation, he is an expert at taking high achievers to become the fulfilled and fearless leaders they were born to be. His mission: To create a reality where people wake up every day feeling on purpose, fulfilled, and in love with their life. He is the founder of Today Will Be and his work is underscored by a belief that every human is capable of achieving extraordinary things… if they make the choice to connect with it. He has created programs that transform the life experience of others.

Written by: Marilda Cutrone, 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. Above all, are we sure that work-life balance is the key to happiness? First of all, let us define what is generally meant by Work-Life Balance. Typically, we separate these two entities, “life-time” and “work-time” and then look for a balance between them. If this is the meaning, then I don't believe in Work-Life Balance at all. The reason why I say this is pretty straightforward; however, I realized it after 20 years of agonizing on juggling career and family. In my opinion, we make a mistake when we divide our lives into two different times: work and everything else as if work was “non-lifetime” and everything else was “lifetime.” In this state, finding a balance becomes exhausting and impossible. That's why we easily fall into burnout , which affects women so severely. Take, for example, a typical day of a working mother. Wake up very early in the morning, around 5.30 or 6.00 am, to have at least 5 minutes to drink a coffee before waking up the children and starting the school run. Then you go to work and often do your make-up in the office bathroom. The shower? No time, maybe tonight. You work until 5.00 pm (in some countries, even until 6 or 7 pm) and then you rush home. Children, in the meantime, were "carried" from school to babysitter or grandmother or aunt, etc. As soon as you get home, there's this big chaos to sort out, dinner to fix, laundry etc., and then the bedtime story and cuddle; and if you survive all that, you manage to take a shower before bed or fall asleep on the sofa watching Netflix. Sounds familiar? Most probably yes. And every day, it's the same story. There's no time for the “unexpected.” Not to mention visits to the dentist or other appointments that you can't avoid, or without saying the fact that the kids often get sick. And then you usually spend the weekend doing all those things you didn't manage to do during the week. And on Monday, this cycle starts again. The question is, does this make sense? We have divided the day into working hours and hours for other duties. But it seems to me that something is missing. And above all, I don't see any fun in this routine, maybe only during special occasions, weekends, or holidays. The rest of the time, and most of the year, it feels like a struggle for survival. Or am I wrong? And the miraculous thing is that we go through all this: modern Wonder Woman performing miracles every day. The truth is that being a parent and working is complicated in our society (as we think it should be). My experience as a professional and mother of twins has taught me that balancing work and life leads to exhaustion and even failure because life is not easy. However, I believe that there is an alternative to this dichotomy; a work-life "fusion" that we can achieve. The more we seek this "fusion" and align it with our values, the happier and more successful we will feel. I have spent most of my life trying to plan the exact next step through a carefully crafted and perfectly executed plan, trying to control every outcome. But I have learned that it is impossible to achieve this mythical balance. It does not exist. Or it comes at a high price: nervous breakdown. Or unhappiness. Depression. Anxiety. Ultimately, is it better to seek Balance or Fusion? If we could only manage to merge these two separate entities, work and life, and exploit the synergies, we would discover many opportunities that we cannot even imagine. There is no reason why the time spent at work should be less enjoyable than time spent elsewhere. Yet, we tend to see work as a trade: I sell my time for a salary. We still fail to see work as a solid opportunity to give meaning to our existence, even in the context of parenthood. Perhaps we remain anchored to an old way of thinking inherited from our old society. And we do not realize that many things have changed, and quickly too! Only a few millennials are aware of this; all the others who understood this are mainly young people, who have no social conditioning, a legacy of the past, and have immediately embraced the new lifestyle. I am referring to digital technologies and automation, which today disintegrate traditional work patterns and constraints. And they create new opportunities. New forms of organization, new ways of exchanging knowledge/money, and new opportunities to live and work more harmoniously, without the time and geographical limits, are emerging. These new forms of work are tangible and increasingly widespread. Today we have the opportunity to express our talents; we can dedicate ourselves to something we are passionate about, taking care of ourselves and creating value and benefit for others at the same time. However, to enter a new way of thinking, working, and ultimately of living, you need to move from an old way of thinking to a new one. Towards a new mindset. This transition should not, in my opinion, be traumatic or forced. You can undertake it in small steps: while keeping the old job, you can get ready to learn new skills and knowledge. And I know very well that time is short, considering the usual routine, but I also know that you can start with a little courage and a small act of willpower. The hardest part is always the beginning; then, as you progress, the path becomes smoother. Three tips for shifting into a new mindset and starting building your knowledge. They are three intrinsically linked and complementary pieces of advice. One flows into the other. So, to make progress, you have to consider them almost as a whole. Or concauses. First step: abandoning old beliefs and limiting thoughts It essentially means to stop counting working hours and to stop considering work as a time/money trade. My advice is to focus on how to dedicate at least an hour or two a day to first getting informed and then learning the new economy's innovative skills. Automations and programs help us to acquire skills quickly, and you don't need to be tech-savvy. But you do need to know what to do and when. Second step: overcome fears and stop procrastinating "I don't have time," that's what we always say. And it's true, in a way. But if we analyze things better, we can come to realize that we "believe" we don't have time; and if we start to think that "not having time" is just a belief and not a reality, then we can find that famous hour to start moving in another direction. We often procrastinate out of tiredness or laziness or because we "believe" that we don't have time and can't do things differently. It is complicated to explain and 'see' this situation, but I have seen so many people start to change when they realize this point. When they understand that not having time is just a belief and not reality, they face their fear and begin to take action. Third step: embrace change and stop controlling everything all the time Embracing change means being willing to change perspective; it means admitting failure, accepting a challenge, and stepping out of our comfort zone to build a new version of ourselves. This new version of oneself has to be visualized at living and working in tune with one's values, intentions, aspirations, and desires. To accomplish this new version of oneself, one must also admit that we are not in control and cannot pursue "control" at all costs. It is only an illusion. Abandoning the idea of controlling everything leads us to unhinge an old way of thinking and enter a new way of thinking. Then many new options, opportunities, and ultimately a new vision will become more evident to us. We need to make this shift not only because we are in the midst of a health and economic crisis but also because the very idea of looking at work as a way to get money (in exchange for time) is too limiting. And it will never lead us to happiness, even if we manage to find that mythical balance. To be happy, we have to follow our innate talents and aspirations and find ways to earn money (because we all need money to live, even a lot of money sometimes) by doing what we like and above all by putting at the center what we believe is the most important thing: our family, ourselves, our time, our energy. In conclusion, for all the working mums out there, I say to each of you: Don't be hard on yourself. Don't be afraid to ask for help. Know that you are enough. Maintain a support network. Take time for yourself and your education. Never lose sight of the things that are most important to you. Every day, I make choices and compromises based on my needs, family needs, and business needs. This is a constant balancing act that I choose every day intentionally and serenely, knowing that this 'fusion' changes in appearance and duration every day. So, let's not strive for work-life balance but focus on the deliberate and intentional management of our time; let's open our minds to the options the digital economy presents us. Let's stay flexible to get the results we want. I am sure that in this way you will finally be more balanced and happier. Follow Marilda on Instagram , find her on Facebook , or visit her website to learn more about the programs. You can also subscribe to her YouTube-channel ! Read more from Marilda! Marilda Cutrone, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine Marilda walked away from a successful 20-year career as Senior Project Manager. For many years, she felt unfulfilled: she was continuously struggling to juggle career and family. And eventually found herself drained and depressed. Marilda massively changed her life in 2019 when she realized that developing a new set of skills in the current economy is a must. And here is why: over $2.5 trillion per year is being spent on retail purchases online and, over the last few months, there's been a 25% increase in online sales. By leveraging the digital skills, Marilda created her own business - Living My Digital Life - and reached a whole new work-life balance level. This shift would not have been possible for Marilda if she had not discovered the power of affiliate marketing. She is now the owner of her time and can build her career around the family (not a life arranged around the job as it used to be). Her mission is to empower other women to stand up for themselves and make the same shift. Hence Marilda offers a program that walks you through specific steps to learn the skills you need to create a profitable online business from scratch.

Written by: Byron Athene, 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. Anxiety is one of the most common problems in life. Despite its prevalence, it’s an issue that’s often easy to resolve. This article will show how easy. It will also illustrate how you can incorporate it into a framework that supports a healthier and happier life. Despite the usually negative association, anxiety can be an excellent tool and a valuable source of foresight. Psychoeducation This is one of the methods used to resolve anxiety – or at least reduce it. It means learning more about the condition; the more you know about it, the less it will affect you. Having more information can interrupt or disrupt the automatic processes that maintain anxiety. Psychoeducation alone can resolve anxiety. Psychoeducation and behavioral experiments will resolve it quickly. So what is anxiety? Anxiety is the perception of threat. The presence of threat indicates that we are at risk of harm. When someone feels anxiety, they consciously or subconsciously believe a situation to be life-threatening. One of the most important jobs our brains have is to protect and perpetuate existence. This might explain why anxiety is so common. Events trigger a perception of threat in two different ways. There’s amygdala-based anxiety and cortex-based anxiety. Association activates amygdala-based anxiety. The amygdala is the part of the brain responsible for the fight, flight, or freeze response. When you survive threatening situations, you will make associations. Then, something you have associated with the original event can trigger fear, such as a smell, color, or sound. Thoughts activate cortex-based anxiety. You could be feeling relaxed but then have a series of thoughts. These thoughts can make you believe that you should be feeling scared. It is common for people to report that once negative thoughts start, momentum builds, and it becomes difficult to stop. This means the amygdala becomes activated because people have reasoned themselves into a state of alert. Unhealthy Negative Emotions According to Albert Ellis, the originator of CBT, anxiety is an unhealthy negative emotion. A goal in his therapy was to move a client from the unhealthy negative emotion of anxiety to the healthy negative emotion of worry or concern. Ellis believed the unhealthy emotions are static or stuck states. If you’re experiencing a stuck state, you will be less likely to resolve the issue. If you’re feeling a more resourceful state of concern or worry, you’re more likely to resolve the thing that you’re worrying about. If you’re anxious, you avoid the thing you’re feeling anxious about, which helps maintain the anxiety. If you’re concerned, you can plan, which can increase the chances of securing better outcomes. The Pillars of Anxiety Anxiety has three pillars, and all three pillars must be in place – at the same time – to maintain the anxiety response. The first pillar is the overestimation of the threat. The second is underestimating your ability to cope with the threat. The last is underestimating the level of support you think you would get in the face of that threat. If any of the three pillars were missing, the framework would collapse, and you wouldn’t feel anxiety. At worse, you could feel worry or concern. If you didn’t overestimate the threat but did underestimate your ability to cope and the level of support, you wouldn’t feel anxious, likewise for the sole absence of the other two pillars. A Treatment Plan The treatment of anxiety has a basic structure. It’s similar to the treatment of trauma. It has three steps—exposure, self-regulation, and cognitive restructuring. Exposure involves putting yourself into situations that will usually trigger anxiety. Self-regulation centers around being comfortable with the situation's emotions. You can use cognitive restructuring when you feel unable to self-regulate. This involves thinking or talking to yourself in a way that helps you to bear feelings that you may consider unbearable. Exposure You can use behavioral experiments to help this process. An example of a behavioral experiment is picking a worrying event and resolving the anxiety in that event. Start small. In a mildly anxiety-provoking situation, get used to the idea that feeling scared doesn’t mean you’re in danger. Once you believe you’re not in danger, your body will stop acting like it is. You can then move on to situations that you consider more anxiety-provoking. You could even start by just imagining being in situations because the brain will respond in the same way as if you were. The more varied and vivid the visualization, the more impact this will have. Self-regulation There are many exercises you can use to develop self-regulation. One of the quickest is to bring about a state of relaxation consciously. It’s impossible to be anxious and relaxed at the same time. Inducing relaxation is a reliable and congruent way of signaling to yourself that you are not in danger. Feeling relaxed in situations that are usually anxiety-provoking will rewire the brain. A quick and discreet way to induce relaxation is 5/5/5 breathing. This is where you breathe in for five seconds, hold it for five seconds and then breathe out for five seconds. Doing this five times usually yields immediately effective results. Cognitive Restructuring If you feel unable to self-regulate, you can introduce to yourself self-soothing statements. There are three general examples that you can apply to almost any situation. The first is reminding yourself of the three pillars. Nominate at least one pillar and remove it. The next is telling yourself that anxiety is an over-activation of your fight, flight, or freeze response. The third and final example is telling yourself that anxiety is the conviction that you’re in a life-threatening situation. When you’re feeling anxious, there’s no evidence to suggest that you’re at risk of physical harm at all. Shifting Anxiety If you’re feeling anxious, use those three steps to move you from anxiety to concern or worry. A sensible way to treat worry and concern is to focus on what you’re worrying or concerned about. You can then set about preparing for the event. This could include revising, researching, and rehearsing, depending on the event you’re worrying about. Preparation to this extent can lead to a level of relaxation. If you’re relaxed, you’re more likely to get better emotional, psychological, and behavioral results. Thus, the presence of anxiety can increase the chances of performing better than before you started feeling anxious. The relaxation aspect has added general health benefits. There have been studies that link relaxation to longer lifespans. Alchemists How does alchemy fit into this? It involved trying to turn base metals like lead into more precious metals like gold. Alchemists also looked for a universal cure for diseases. They also tried to find a way to lengthen lives. Alchemists were not successful: they have not been able to turn lead into gold; a universal cure has not been engineered; they did not discover a way to prolong life. However, we can all be successful alchemists: when we feel anxious, we can transform the now into something much better; we’re able to cure this particular disease, and we can lead longer, healthier lives in the process. In summary, taking onboard the analogy of alchemy allows us to accept and appreciate anxiety and align it as an ever-present, worry-alleviating, and life-affirming ally. Connect with me on LinkedIn and visit my website! Byron Athene, Executive Contributor, Brainz Magazine After fully immersing himself into the fields of philosophy and psychology for 30 years, Byron Athene is truly an innovative force. His 'Generative Mindset' and 'Emotions Mastery' packages vastly extend the boundaries of conventional thinking. He encourages clients to change their current perspective. This often results in them immediately tapping into the infinite source of creativity and power of the mind and this will have significant emotional, psychological and behavioral benefits.