Written by: Debra Abraham , 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 And you run. Run the race of your life. Eyes ahead, perspiration dripping as you keep your eyes on your goal of reaching the finish line, hopefully, first. You are in the lead and you prefer to let it stay that way. Suddenly, you notice a runner running beside you, also vying for that coveted first place. You use your peripherals and your mind starts to wonder (and wander). “Will you be able to withstand the competition and hold on to the top spot?” You keep running, looking straight ahead at the lane in front of you but also casting a sidelong glance at the runner beside you. The pressure builds as you continuously check in on your competitor- are they slowing down? Will they outdo you? You get nervous and then….. In the age of social media, where everyone shares almost every detail of their lives, it takes much resolve to stay focused, keep your eye on the ball and just keep running your race. Whether it is for business networking, building personal relationships, sharing stories of family life or reviews of purchases, social media sites have become an expression wall for the global community. As much as it allows us to celebrate the successes of our connections, invigorating us by offering us the opportunity to live vicariously through the photos and content shared, there is at times a gentle urge for us to compare our lives to those of others, which can insidiously bring about feelings of underachievement. Playing the comparison game is not always a negative thing. Comparing and being inspired to improve and challenge ourselves to leap for our dreams is a positive reaction. But this is not the type of comparison I am referring to. I am talking about that nagging feeling that tugs at your heart after seeing photos of a contact expanding their business by setting up a spanking new outlet at a premium location in your city. That feeling of despondence when a friend bags that dream job you have always longed for. We may be ashamed to outwardly admit it, but it happens to the most motivated and the best of us. That feeling of comparing ourselves to another person and regretting our missed opportunities or worse, resulting in us succumbing to the defeatist notion that we will never be able to measure up to the achievement of that other person. Call it insecurity, envy, low self-esteem, self-doubt or limiting beliefs; these feelings can really put a dent in your emotional and mental well-being as well as in your progress and growth as an entrepreneur/individual. What is the cause of this feeling of underachievement? How do we get our mojo back and keep running our marathon (marathon because it certainly is a commitment for the long haul and not a short sprint) of self-improvement and business growth? 1. Stay focused and committed to your goal- Stay on your course. Like an athlete running a race. Train endurance. The journey may be long and challenging but aim for growth from every experience. Do not allow yourself to be negatively sidetracked by your environment or the people around you. Be your own cheerleader and motivate yourself through "self-talk." You've got this, and everything that is needed to fulfill your dreams is within you. 2. Change your perspective- Withstand the urge to compare and learn to appreciate the uniqueness of your journey. Most people who celebrate a success on social media may not reveal the full details of the painful sacrifices and challenges they have had to endure. If you are comfortable, there is no harm in personally reaching out and asking them to share stories leading up to their success and the personal struggles of their journey with you. Most people will be more than willing to share and you will draw immeasurable knowledge from listening to them. " For every finish-line tape a runner breaks—complete with the cheers of the crowd and the clicking of hundreds of cameras—there are the hours of hard and often lonely work that rarely gets talked about."- Grete Waitz , Marathon runner & former World Record Holder. 3. Celebrate the small successes- Stay motivated and keep moving forward. Appreciate each chapter of your journey, acknowledging the value it contributes to your business and personal growth. Every step forward (or sometimes even backward), however small, is a step forward. Refrain from discounting or downplaying each experience as a small achievement. Accept the success graciously and move on to the next chapter. “If you can’t fly then run, if you can’t run then walk, if you can’t walk then crawl, but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward.” —Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr . 4. Share your journey with others- Be real and inspire others. Document the process of your journey either via podcasts, videos or social media content. Contribute your knowledge and share your experiences with those who are on the same journey as you are. This will help you stay accountable to yourself while you also find your tribe. 5. Wait- Wait patiently for your time to arrive. Work steadily on your goals, and soon, it will be your turn to post your sweet success story! "The ultimate is not to win, but to reach within the depths of your capabilities and to compete against yourself to the greatest extent possible. When you do that, you have dignity. You have the pride. You can walk about with character and pride no matter in what place you happen to finish."- Billy Mills , Olympic Track & Field Athlete Victory is sweet not because you have beaten your opponents but because you have outperformed yourself. Follow Rockstarzstudios on Facebook , Instagram and visit Debra's Instagram ! Debra Abraham, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine Debra Abraham, founder of Rockstarz Performing Arts Studios, has been coaching students of all ages to find their identities and be empowered through music. She leads a team of instructors who are skilled at providing music education in a nurturing & student-centered environment, allowing students to boldly express themselves. Currently working on building her online singing community, she believes in empowering people to pursue their dreams, free themselves of limiting beliefs and inspire others through their journey. She aspires to inspire small business owners in the areas of mindset & personal development, which will lead towards positive transformation of themselves and their businesses.

Written by: Dale Darley, 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 Saving your life with journaling all sounds a bit dramatic, doesn’t it? And had I not experienced the power of journaling, I’d probably be right there with you scoffing at the very idea. Of course, you may be a long term journaler and sagely nodding your head, wishing others knew about this incredible secret club. A club where we hoard boxes of colored pens and an equal number of beautiful journals waiting to receive our deepest secrets and genius ideas. I was asked recently when I started journaling. I shocked myself when I realized that it was well over 30 years ago. This is discounting the years of silk-covered diaries held together with tiny locks that silently kept my scribbled and fearful teenage angst within the narrow lined pages. 30 years of pouring my heart out is a long time to be practicing anything, isn’t it? But that is a testament to the learning and personal growth that I have gained. Naturally, over the years, the way I journal has changed. Years ago it was all emotional pain, which in the dead of night was turned into strange, strangled prose or odd short stories where everyone who had ever wronged me saw a sticky end. My journal has supported me through redundancy, relationship endings, going into business, changing direction and the most life-changing thing to date healing a fractured spine. Having a fractured spine effectively put an end to normal life for over a year. It wasn’t just a case of healing my spine; there were other complications. All of which meant I was unable to work, and for many months I couldn’t even walk properly without being in excruciating pain. At the time, I consulted my journal and my heart and decided that my savings needed to be spent on supporting and healing me. Writing about it gave me clarity and a sense of purpose. When there were nights when I did not want to be here, my journal held me and soaked up my tears and pain. In the light of a new day, it never seemed quite so bad as it had the night before. My journal held all of the research needed to heal myself. I studied practically every system of the human body, looking at how everything interacted and what I needed to deal with first. I drew endless pathways, which were eventually turned into patterns of healing. I astounded myself in front of medical experts talking about this stuff and suggesting to them what needed to be done. Journaling also gave me the confidence to express my ideas. I set goals such as I have a healed, healthy spine in six months. It actually took longer; however, there were many successes along the way. When I eventually returned to running my business, I was able to brainstorm ideas, set goals and work out where to focus my energy. All of this has evolved into something I call journaling magic, where there are no rules other than I make it work for me. Journaling magic covers freewriting, using prompts, oracle cards, mandalas, affirmations, and gratitude, all done when intuitively they each feel right. I have a routine where I greet a new journal with writing and reviewing my bucket list for my soul (what I want), where I am, who I want to be, my big life goal, smaller goals and envisioning the future. This forces me (gently) back on track with what I want in my life. All of this ensures I have clarity, meaning and purpose. So what could you expect from journaling? Journaling benefits There are many many benefits to journaling, but as I said earlier, journaling could save your life and where best to start than with the physical and emotional benefits. Your health Your health is your wealth. This has been the driving force for my life. Journaling has proven time and again to help fight stress (and anxiety). Stress is one of the worst things for our health. It affects all aspects of our life, including our diet, sleep and mood. On top of that, it releases damaging hormones into our bodies. Reducing stress is often the trigger to a whole host of health benefits. As a stress relief tool, journaling can actually boost your physical health and well being. People who journal: Have a better immune system Tend to want to explore natural treatments and are big fans of self care Often heal quicker This is because it all goes back to the stress component. The very act of writing about things you are connected to emotionally activates certain areas in your brain. When these areas are activated, you can more efficiently process what life throws at you. However, I like to believe that life happens for me and not to me and that there are lessons in everything. Journaling supports your mood and enables you to function cognitively at a higher level. All of which helps you come up with creative solutions to any potential problems or stressors in your life. In short, journaling gives some of the benefits you’d get if you were ranting to your best friend – not that you would do that (too often) – would you? As I said earlier, people who journal are less stressed, have better immune systems, heal faster, and tend to enjoy a better quality of life. Nowhere is this more evident than in people who are going through serious medical issues such as, in my case, healing fractures from Osteoporosis. Not all the benefit is from mere stress reduction, though. Journaling has been proven to raise the quality of life – it did mine and continues to do so. Those who journal while dealing with a severe medical condition do better in accepting their diagnosis, processing everything going along with it and looking for ways to support their healing. In my experience, I have seen people with illness fare far better in treatment (natural or otherwise) than those who never journal. Managing your emotions Emotions are fundamental to human life; they keep us safe and help us experience life. However, they are often poorly understood. A lot of research has gone into defining emotions, what they mean, how we experience the intensity of them and what they mean to us. The fascinating thing about emotions is that what we experience will differ from others. So, my experience of anger will be different from yours. You may fly into a rage, where I will only feel annoyance – yet we both describe it as anger. One issue with emotions is the ability to really feel each part of the emotion, understanding what that emotion means to you, the sensations you have inside your body and the thoughts that run through your mind. The more you can observe these and understand them, the more you can use these emotions for your benefit. A great way to notice your emotions is to stop regularly enter the space within and note what you are feeling. In this way, you can truly feel them in full. Don’t judge them as bad or good. Just note them. Writing these in your journal will help you to process them. Also, noticing how other people behave can be very illuminating and improve your understanding of self. Your journal can help you work through emotions in a healthy way. You will be able to reframe them and refocus in a more productive way. When you stop during the day, ask yourself: What your current state of mind is Ask yourself what your most dominant emotion is Note the intensity, e.g. Fear – fearful to terrified Make a note of anything else that seems relevant, like the trigger, who you were with, the environment and what was happening at the time Reframing Reframing is the way that you choose to see something from another perspective. In your journal, you can go on an adventure and explore the root of any triggers, emotions, thoughts, beliefs and behaviors. When you find the memory, make a conscious choice to see the past in a new way. I look at the past with gratitude and appreciation, which enables me to see the lessons, gifts and benefits. A simple way to reframe is to change; I can’t into I can. The you now perspective Your journal enables you to ask questions, be curious and explore your past from the you now perspective. The emotions that you once experienced will now feel different. This will help you to understand yourself and others better. In this way, you can use your journal to scramble the script and tell a new story. When you do this, you can give them a better meaning and learn more about how to manage them in the present. This provides wonderful opportunities for growth and the future you. Taking responsibility When you see your stories in black and white, please be kind and compassionate towards yourself. Your journal is not a place for judgments. Take the stand of this has happened for me (to learn and grow) and not to me. By being responsible for your emotions and embracing what you learn over time, you will see your transformation. Being emotionally intelligent Emotional intelligence is about better understanding yourself and your emotions while understanding others and their feelings. Daniel Goleman, from his 1995 book, Emotional Intelligence, suggests the following model for managing your emotions. Knowing your emotions Managing your own emotions Motivating yourself Recognizing and understanding other people’s emotions Managing relationships, i.e., managing the emotions of others Journaling enables you to see patterns and pictures in managing your emotions and how you interact with others. You can also practice reframing your emotions and holding assertive conversations in your journal before having to face anyone in the flesh. All of which will improve your emotional intelligence. Goals, dreams and desires Journaling can help you achieve your goals, dreams and desires because it will force you to think about them, consider the why and how, and delve deeper into the situation so that you can examine all sides of it. It encourages you to write down your goals, dreams and desires – When I start a journal, I reframe and review my goals, dreams and desires. Whether you write them down on paper or you use technology to get it all down doesn’t matter. However, I am biased and believe that journaling is more effective because of the powerful connection between the paper and our brain. Once they’re written, they are ready to tackle. I start with what I call a bucket list for my soul. This lets me get everything out that I want. My big life dream gets turned into a goal, and other smaller goals fall out of this. It makes you consider why and how – As you write in your journal, you’ll be forced to face the why and how of your goals. This is especially true if you write them down and use your journal to create a focus. I sort my bucket list and goals into focus areas and use these to create daily aligned and inspired actions. It enables you to examine the blocks and resistance – When you are focused on goals, in your journal, you’ll also be able to (and want to) explore blocks and resistance coming your way. It helps you avoid roadblocks in advance and creates a space for opportunities. It makes you develop steps for success based on your goals – When you see it written down, you’ll become very aware of what to put into in a plan and what task go into your calendar (to-do list) for scheduling. It helps you improve goal and intention setting – Each time you set intentions (present moment) and intentionally set goals (future-focussed) or write about your dreams and desires, you can define the steps you need to achieve them (a plan with daily aligned and inspired actions). When you actually do them, you are setting yourself up to improving your life and the direction you want to go in. It provides accountability – Even if no one else is reading your journal, a private journal can help you become accountable to yourself and your goals. By writing down your daily actions, you will start to become accountable, and you will enjoy being able to write your success in the back of your journal. That is, of course, if you have actually carried out your action list. It provides a permanent record – Having a permanent record of the things you’ve done in your life, whether it’s personal or work, is a beautiful thing. Hardly anyone has a perfect memory, so the wisdom you get from reflecting on how far you have traveled is priceless. It may be inspirational – Depending on the journal, you might even be able to take the information and insights gained and turn them into something like a book, blog or course to inspire others. Journaling is an excellent way to work toward achieving all your goals, dreams and desires. It will even help you make better goals and set clearer intentions because the process of writing in your journal and reflecting will enable you to see the patterns and pictures of your life. This may help to ‘save’ your life, career or business as you will be able to see what works and what doesn’t from the feedback and reflections in your journal. You’ll know when to change direction and where to place your focus. You can express yourself freely Being able to put into words how you perceive and experience the world is a feeling like no other. The very act of doing so provides you with a sense of satisfaction. After all, these are your impressions that your unique voice wants to express. Expressing yourself through writing is also healing. This is where you can begin to find your voice, step into your personal power, reclaim your confidence and become more assertive. Your creativity is ignited The more you write, the more you’ll see how things fit together. You will start to see patterns and pictures and get wonderful aha moments. When you start your exploration with a “what if…” or ‘I wonder’ you will make big creative leaps, leading you into fresh, new territory waiting to be explored. Encouraging your creativity to come out to play is invaluable in life and in business. Some of my best ideas have shown up when I am more relaxed with my pen poised. You make sense of the order of things Writing things down helps you to easily see what you need to do and how to go about doing it. Again this is slowing yourself down to check that all of the steps make sense. Of course, it can be a little frustrating when you have scribbled all of the steps down to find that you have missed some vital parts. My journal is full of ideas and scribbles that just get more and more clarity as I write and reflect. Your learning is cemented I love the way that writing things down cements your learning. There is a connection between your hand, brain and the paper that differs to how you might write on a computer. I have personally found that I remember more when I handwrite, and I have a deeper emotional connection. Handwriting will slow you down so that you take the time to learn rather than speeding along at a rate of knots just to get the information down. Even though it can seem longer than typing, you really will retain more for longer. Your writing improves The daily act of writing improves your connection with words and language. I’ve noticed that the way that I express myself in my journal has changed over time. I have been able to explore how to use new words. The exploration of different words in my journal means that I have a safe space away from judgment to take risks with my writing. Daily journaling trains the writing muscle and keeps it fit. Much needed when you are required to use words in all aspects of your life. Your personal stories are captured If you want to write your story, this is a great place to start. Your journal becomes a record of your life. No one else is experiencing the world in the same way you are. Your impressions, the way that you live your life have importance. In your journal, you preserve what it means to be you, here in this moment for your future self—and even generations to come. When you have been able to express your voice and discover how to create a life of meaning and purpose, you will potentially want to inspire others to do the same. Journaling is a stepping stone to becoming a writer, ready to stretch your wings and fly into the world of stories, blogs and books if you so desire. So there we have it the many benefits that come from journaling that could save your life, career or business. With so many reasons to journal, the only question remaining is when will you get started. For more information, please visit my website ! Dale Darley, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine Dale works with her clients to help them to discover the magic in their story, through the power of writing, journaling and energy work. Dale is an expert at getting your story out and finding the essence of who you are, what you want to become and supporting you to get what you want, through coaching and programs. She believes that writing heals, and her vision and mission is to create a community of people who find clarity, purpose and meaning through their writing. That these people go on to inspire others to know what is possible in the world. Dale holds an MBA from The University of Glamorgan and an ILM Level 7 Executive Coaching certificate. She served in senior marketing management roles in the IT and manufacturing sectors before working for herself.

Written by: Adelina Stefan, 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 the current world of uncertainty changing rapidly and unpredictably, companies and individuals have been forced to transition, adapt to new conditions and change specializations. Getting clarity on what how to do, how to do, and when to act is not an easy thing in these times. As a Coach, when working with individuals in career transition, the goal is to help them discover their potential, connecting themselves to their own values in order to get clarity on their career path. If you are currently exploring the job market to land a new opportunity, these 3 insights will help you to leverage your skills and strengths to get a new job in these uncertain times. 1. Know yourself Knowing your own strengths and talents will empower you in your job search and in your career success. Define your professional value proposition to stand out and show your potential employer how you will bring value inside the organization, what makes you unique or at least unusual, what work style and competencies you possess, such as problem-solver, results-oriented, team player or self-starter, etc. To identify those strengths, take a psychometric test or skills assessment , debrief the results, define its accuracy, and build a strategy to help you leverage your skills to unearth the opportunities that would best suit you and your objectives. Search for a role and an environment you love, not for a role that you can do! Being passionate about what you do, followed by your competencies, is key to securing employment. Select the companies where you would like to work, rather than those who have a vacancy. 2. Build strategically your network Personalizing your resume depending on the job requirements and company’s mission is only one step that can significantly impact your chances of landing the targeted job! However, remember that your resume represents only one way to reach employers. Hence, once you have built your resume and cover letter, you are ready to position yourself as a professional in your field and start focusing on connecting with the right people in the direction of your dream job. How many times as a job seeker, have you heard how crucial networking is in landing the job? Networking for a job refers to how we build a community of professionals who know you and may help you if they can to identify new opportunities, increasing your chances of success through an internal referral. Even if the connections you build are not the decision-makers at your targeted company, a direct referral can bring you closer to the hiring manager. In other words, try to find the decision-makers inside the company through a bridge contact. When reaching the hiring manager, position yourself as a problem-solver to a challenge that the company is facing, showing the hiring manager how your skills and expertise are valuable and needed by the company. Prepare your elevator pitch to introduce yourself, transmitting clearly and concise who you are and, what strengths and skills you possess what you are looking for. Last, remember that networking may not give you instant results. It requires high perseverance, motivation and preparation to reach someone who may impact you or whom you can impact. 3. Master interviews Interviews are one of the critical parts of the hiring process and their preparation can be very time and energy-consuming. However, as Benjamin Franklin said, “By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail”. Neglecting preparation or working on building up your confidence before an interview can lead to unforeseen issues later, limiting your chances to get hired . Researching in depth the company’s mission statement, vision, values, and target audience will give you more confidence to provide accurate and concrete answers based on both your experience and the targeted job requirements. Prepare your interview checklist, reviewing your strengths, and emphasizing how your key skills are relevant for your targeted role. Describe briefly how your strengths have contributed to your achievements and how you can use them to bring value to the company you are being interviewed for. Use a first-person point of view, incorporating personal pronouns like “I” and “me”, and an active voice such as “I’m excited to”, when describing your smart stories. Prepare your powerful and unique questions that will help you to understand whether the company and the role itself are the right for you. Remember that interviewers expect to hear your questions as first, they will get the sense that you are interested in the position and second, you aim to understand key details regarding the role and atmosphere inside the company. Last, pay attention to the dress code and the body language. Dress properly, maintain eye contact with the interviewer, sit straight, listen carefully to remain focused during the interview. The job search brings its challenges in many different forms and completely unavoidable, but with these three tips, you will overcome them and land your next opportunity! Follow me on Facebook , connect with me on LinkedIn and visit my website for more info! Adelina Stefan, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine Adelina Stefan is a Professional Certified Coach & Intercultural Facilitator specialized in Career Development, with a deep expertise in international HR recruitment and selection and Training and Development. Having worked for 10+ years across cultures, Adelina seeks to catalyze individuals’ potential, helping them create and implement their unique career blueprint and, at the same time, achieve a healthy work-life balance. She specializes in working with expats and mid- to senior-level executives dealing with challenging work environments that can affect both their performance and well-being. She supports organizations in building a corporate coaching culture by highlighting individuals’ maximum potential and engagement so that they become dedicated and highly successful employees. Her practice includes Career, Life, Executive, and Agile Coaching for individuals, as well as developing and implementing corporate Human Resources practices for improving intercultural relations.

Written by: Betsy Kauffman, Executive Contributor Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise If you are keen to schedule another virtual happy hour for your team or require your employees to attend a multi-day virtual conference, please do not. I know this may seem unpopular and goes against everything recently written about virtual team building, but if your employees are feeling the same as most of my peers, they are dealing with screen fatigue. We are spending an unprecedented amount of time in front of our screens because our homes are also becoming our places of work and school. No more commutes where we can zone out and listen to a good podcast or our favorite music. No more going out to lunch with peers or grabbing a drink with the team for a quick happy hour. I am guilty (like many others) of rolling out of bed and going straight into my home office to dial in for an early morning conference call. I grab a quick bite for lunch and quickly head back to my screen. Conference calls run over and go into the evening because we are no longer rushing home to get a child to practice or to attend a community meeting. The lines of home, work, family, and school are all blurred because everything is happening in the same location and most days feel like "Groundhog Day." I am afraid there is no end in sight since most workplaces have yet to put plans in place for returning to the office. Is there really such a thing as achieving work-life balance, especially in the world we all currently live in? Some say it is not possible because our work and home lives have become so intertwined. Some say it is up to each individual to figure out how to balance their own personal and professional lives. I believe it is also a leader’s responsibility to ensure each of your team members is finding the necessary balance to protect their mental health. My first challenge to all leaders - turn your virtual happy hours and team-building activities into mandatory disconnects. Give your employees time to step away from work and connect to their families. Encourage them to rediscover the music they love or activities they enjoy. Commit to going for a walk or run so they can enjoy the beautiful weather instead of peering out over their screens to see the sunshine from their home office. My next challenge for leaders, set an example and disconnect, too. When it is time to come together for your next team meeting, take time to applaud and celebrate how everyone disconnected. Your team will appreciate the support and “permission” to disconnect and will probably become more engaged, allowing your team to become more “connected”. Follow me on Facebook , LinkedIn and visit my website for more info! Read more from Betsy ! Betsy Kauffman, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine Betsy Kauffman is a globally recognized Leadership and Organizational Agility Coach with more than 20 years' experience working in Fortune 500 companies. Her company, Cross Impact Coaching, helps leaders create innovative, aligned, disruptive organizations. Betsy has observed and worked side by side with hundreds of CxO leaders and has seen just about every variation of how Leadership Teams operate and execute (both successfully and not so successfully). She deeply understands and has experienced firsthand when the team of individuals charged with leading the organization aren't aligned, focused, and working as one, the rest of the organization suffers. She is a published author providing thought leadership to both the agile and project management communities and speaks internationally on topics around leadership, corporate culture, and achieving organizational agility. She just completed her first TED talk - “How To Have Open and Honest conversations at Work” in September, 2020 in conjunction with the TED@PMI partnership and was selected by the TED editors to have her talk highlighted on TED.com in the near future – stay tuned for more details!

Written by: Rachel Paling, Executive Contributor Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise Everything we say has an impact on the person we are talking to. Did you know that words can literally change your brain? According to Andrew Newberg, M.D. and Mark Robert Waldman: “a single word has the power to influence the expression of genes that regulate physical and emotional stress.” Martin Teicher and colleagues at Harvard Medical School discovered that young adults 18-25, who reported experiencing verbal abuse from their peers during middle school years had underdeveloped connections between the left and right sides of their brain through the corpus callosum and had higher levels of anxiety, depression, anger, hostility, dissociation, and drug abuse than others in the study. Words can, in fact, cause far more than emotional harm. Our capacity to communicate through speech is one of the unique factors possessed by humans distinguishing us from other animals. However, our impact awareness and sensitivity to our listener is something that we do not consider enough, as more often than not, we blurt out a reply which is more from habit than from empathy and compassion. When we shift communication into our learning processes, we can see that educators are also not as aware as they could be and even should be. And we are all educators and teachers at some point in our lives: as leaders, managers, directors, learning and development or staff trainers, human resources, teachers, trainers, coaches or simply parents. The way we communicate when training, teaching or coaching is absolutely key and could totally change the life and future of a learner. So how can we create brain-friendly compassionate communication and especially in our roles as educators? Just imagine, one of your learners explains to you that s/he isn’t feeling confident about giving a presentation and you immediately jump in saying you think s/he is great and you are convinced s/he will be just fine! The impact of your response could have left your learner feeling unheard, unrecognized and ignored. On the other hand, you obviously acted with the best intention and you felt you were encouraging and supporting. Let’s take another scenario: your learner shares with you that s/he is quite nervous about giving presentations and in the past s/he had felt panic, sweating with shaking hands, even with her/his mind going blank and you respond to him/her by saying it is only a talk that s/he is giving and there is no need to be nervous! And finally, you even ask blatantly “why do you get so nervous?” and your learner responds with an extremely defensive and upset answer. Neurolanguage incorporates professional coaching conversations and models as well as principles of neuroscience to totally transform learning. In our first scenario above, from professional coaching, I would be engaging in extremely active listening, demonstrating this through reformulation to check back, “so am I hearing that there is a confidence problem for you here?”. To be able to reformulate well, I really have to listen to what my learner is saying. The next step would be to demonstrate empathy, “I am really sorry that you are feeling this way”. Then I would use powerful questions to bring in compassion, “so, what could you do to build up your confidence?”. Traditionally everyone says that coaching is about empathy, personally I think it is about “beyond empathy into compassion”. Compassion, in fact, means to understand the pain of another person and to want to mitigate that pain. In other words, it is where the coach recognizes and acknowledges the pain of another but swiftly moves the conversation into action and solution. The fascinating thing is what happens to the brain when we feel empathy and what happens when we feel compassion because, in fact, neuroscience demonstrates how the brain reacts differently to both. Tania Singer is the director of the Department of social neuroscience at the Max Planck Institute for human cognitive and brain sciences in Leipzig and she clearly explains the differences. With empathy, mirror neurons trigger and in fact the pain and reward circuits of the brain light up. Therefore, “I feel what you feel”. However, with compassion, the Periaqueductal grey, which triggers the vagus nerve, lights up and “I recognize and empathize with what you are feeling, but I want to help you move on from this”. The conversation could then move into a thought-provoking brainstorming, using Socratic questioning, so that my learner could come up with her own ideas and solutions. Ultimately, this would also mean that my learner does not feel that I am telling her what to do. Compassionate communication empowers people to find their own solutions, promoting respect for their feelings and opinions. In scenario number two, I would also firstly reformulate to check what my learner has told me, “so do I hear it really upsets you to give presentations and to the extent that you notice it physically?” I would also move to empathy and say “I am really sorry to hear that”. I would then ask my learner permission to share the neuroscience relating to “fight or flight”. By sharing what happens to brain functions when we get nervous, frightened or panicked could enlighten my learner as to what is actually happening to her and the reason for the physical reactions as well as the blank mind. I would explain how the threat response arouses the amygdala, which sends signals to the brain stem and hypothalamus, triggering the fight or flight response. The rational, analytical parts of the brain may shut down as the reptilian brain kicks into gear. After talking this through with my learner, I would then go into Socratic questioning to brainstorm strategies for her to manage this state. Often, when we are fully able to comprehend what is happening, it serves to calm us down, thereby explaining brain functions and potential reactions could greatly serve us to know ourselves and appreciate how this may be happening to someone else. In scenario three, I would avoid asking such a directly insensitive question and try to see if I could cajole my learner into shifting into a rational analysis of what happens in those situations by exploring the reasons for her reaction. Could this be from a bad memory? Could it be something that s/he does not do very often? Together we would try to analyze the reasons and that could lead us to coaching around bad memories or talking about neuroplasticity and how the brain creates habits. In summary, a Neurolanguage Coach not only brings equanimity and compassion into learning conversations but also constantly brings awareness about the brain; neuroplasticity; neurogenesis; the conscious and subconscious and the interplay of explicit and implicit learning; how the brain learns through association; how positive feedback impacts the production of dopamine essential for learning: any potentially learning styles; the learning journey; the learning plateau; spaced-out learning; the limbic system affecting the rational, logical, analytical part of the brain; emotional and social pain: arousing curiosity regarding the learning. In any learning conversation, the magic begins with the words of the educator. For more information, follow me on Facebook , Instagram , LinkedIn and visit our website ! Rachel Paling, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine Rachel Marie Paling is an International Game Changer in Education, in particular, the education of languages. She has created the method and approach Neurolanguage Coaching which incorporates professional coaching and principles of neuroscience into the learning process. She coaches and trains teachers worldwide, transforming them into certified and ICF accredited Neurolanguage coaches and has created the Neurolanguage Coach network with over 700 NL Coaches in just over 70 countries worldwide and is now bringing the approach to schools and institutions over the world through her licensed trainers and in nine languages. Rachel started teaching language at the age of 17 and has a BA Honours in Law and Spanish, MA in Human Rights, she is a qualified UK lawyer, MA in Applied Neuroscience and a PCC ICF Life Coach. She is the author of the books Neurolanguage Coaching and Brain-friendly Grammar and has written numerous blog articles about learning, coaching and neuroscience. She has spoken at many international conferences and her company was awarded the Bronze Award at the Reimagine Education Awards 2019 in the Science in Education category, She is dedicated to the shift in education and is currently establishing an educational foundation to bring coaching, neuroscience and heart science into educational processes.

Written by: Sefanit Berihun, 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 Being a first-generation Ethiopian-American, I have always veered on the side of caution. Financial and educational security were extremely important, so I did everything to attain this for my family and me even from an early age. My parents told me to get good grades to get into a good college, get into a good college to get a good job, get a good job to-you get the picture. However, while my parents preached the traditional American Dream to their children, they were living the more difficult entrepreneurial version as immigrants to this country. Within four years of immigrating to the US, my young parents created and operated The Blue Nile Ethiopian Restaurant, which went on to be the only Ethiopian cuisine restaurant in the city for many years and, ultimately, the most successful. At the time, my life consisted of doing homework with my father on one of the many seating tables in the front and grabbing snacks and specially made goodies from my mother in the kitchen. Now, being a mother of two and an entrepreneur in the online world, I can’t fathom how a couple that barely knew English at the time established a long-living cult-favorite restaurant, much less mustered up the courage to even entertain this idea. The Blue Nile Ethiopian Restaurant served ethnic cuisine successfully for over 20 years. So you can imagine my response to my own fears and apprehension of pursuing the entrepreneurial life and starting up my online business...ARE YOU BLOODY KIDDING ME? Yes, I had a stable corporate engineering job providing me a biweekly paycheck, yes, I was comfortable, but I knew something was missing. My mother, ironically, or not so ironically, was the one urging me repeatedly to watch the initial webinar that started this whole journey for me earlier this year. She kept reminding me of my WHYs and that the ultimate goal is to work for oneself and gain the freedom of determining my work hours and my home life and being present for my young children and my husband. I guess once an entrepreneur, always an entrepreneur, right? Her three most important traits for a successful entrepreneur are: 1. FAITH Faith was a huge aspect for my parents in general and as entrepreneurs. You have to believe that this journey is all for something bigger than the money, the success, and quite honestly, even yourself. It is often a challenge as a new entrepreneur to surround yourself with those who believe in your vision considering the unconventional path of this career choice. However, have faith that you have the support and blessing from the most important one and that He can do greater things than any opportunity or connection you may ever acquire. 2. INTENTIONS Why are you interested in entrepreneurship? Is it solely for your own gain? The answers to these questions are essential in determining your true intention and, ultimately, your degree of hunger for success on this journey. For me, yes, my online business allows me the time and financial freedom I desire in my own life, but the fact I get to share this with millions of others who want the same in their own life is my driving motivation. Sharing a blessing with those who are open to receive is the fulfillment I’ve craved my whole professional career. 3. PERSEVERANCE Any entrepreneur will tell you that this path is not easy, not straightforward, and definitely not for the faint of heart. There will be endless days of quiet, diligent work requiring enormous amounts of discipline and consistency with only a sprinkle of victorious days that attest to all this hard work. Along with the external hardships, there will be an internal struggle of the mind to keep yourself focused and motivated no matter how small the daily progress may appear and no matter how unsupportive your circle may be. With the first two traits guiding your vision, you will be renewed and prepared for the daily battles and continue developing in faith and perseverance. With my parents as inspiration, I have come to welcome every aspect of this amazing, exhausting, frustrating, and yet very rewarding entrepreneurial journey. Is it always pretty and magical? Absolutely not. But is it worth it? Definitely. Entrepreneurship is sought out by many and achieved by several, with even fewer who actually enjoy the process. I wish you all great success and happiness in your business ventures! For more information, connect with me on LinkedIn and visit my website ! Sefanit Berihun, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine Sefanit Berihun is a chemical engineer turned full-time entrepreneur with her global online business, Sefanit M Consulting. Her exit from the corporate world was integral in creating the time and financial freedom she desired to enjoy life with her two young children and her husband. Now she works tirelessly to share this opportunity with others who are also interested in time/financial freedom and want to utilize the ever-expanding online space to create a business and an income from home. A completely automated system is provided and maintained for clients who become business owners. Utilizing only attraction marketing, this business model consists of no sales, no multilevel marketing (MLM), and no product handling. Take back control of your time, finances, and career by exploring this opportunity.

Written by: Heather Guernsey, 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 Self-love. It’s what’s trending. It’s all the rage— a bit blasé even. Perhaps it’s become such a cliché term used by online influencers that you choose to steer clear of it altogether— I get that. BUT, have you ever stopped to think about what it actually means to love yourself? One way to become aware of the negative self-narratives many of us carry is to take a sentence or thought that we have about ourselves and ask, “Would I have said that to someone that I love?” If the answer is “no,” then why, in the name of all things good and pure, do you think it’s ok to talk to yourself like that!? Here’s a rule of thumb: if you wouldn’t say it to them, don’t say it to yourself! Easier said than done though; after years of this abusive self-dialogue, it can be a hard habit to break. But why is it such an important issue to tackle? Your subconscious mind hears everything, sees everything, and stores all of your memories that your conscious mind can’t even remember. So every time you fall back on that self-deprecating “humor” or stare at yourself in the mirror and think “no one’s ever gonna want to marry THAT,” you are absorbing these thoughts as subconscious beliefs. We have the ability to program our subconscious minds, and you have been doing so in a wildly negative fashion for years, without even realizing it. The law of attraction comes into play here, too. We are all magnificent energetic beings, traipsing around earth having our human experiences, and we are all functioning at a certain level of vibration. The happier and more fulfilled you are— the higher your vibration will be. The more depressed, angry, and stressed you are— the lower your vibration will be. So the more you continue your negative self-talk, the more your subconscious believes it, and the lower your vibration becomes. This makes you more prone to attracting low-vibrational people, circumstances, jobs, etc.— and who wants any of that crap?! In order to raise your vibration and be truly happy, you must begin to love yourself, and a great jumping-off point for that is by rewriting your self-narrative; even if you don’t fully believe it just yet. So how do we begin? The first step is key, and it’s simply to become more aware. Begin to take note of just how often you’re falling back on self-deprecation to make yourself feel comfortable or to “fit in.” Perhaps you’re a visual learner and you’d prefer to keep a running tally in the Notes app on your phone. For every negative thought you have or comment that you make about yourself, type an “X” in your note. You may be surprised by the end of the day, week, or month, by how many X’s have appeared. The goal here is not to shame you more than you’ve been shaming yourself— but to create a habit of becoming aware of your thoughts— and if you make it a game to keep track of them, you will innately begin to realize when they are happening, as they are happening. And when you can begin to catch them in the moment when you are about to say something mean about yourself for a laugh, or when you have a harsh thought about yourself, then you are able to switch the narrative. You get to catch yourself and realize, “Oh, wait— I’m not a dumb blonde— that’s just a stereotype from society based on my looks alone that I’ve accidentally chosen to live up to on some level. I have a Master’s degree for God’s sake,” and then you can insert a positive thought or sentence in its place. We call these affirmations. “I am a smart and talented woman who doesn’t rely on the opinions of others to know my worth.” BOOM! Subconscious hears this, and begins to absorb that level of positivity to replace the negative poppycock you’ve been feeding it all these years! The results will shock you! It’s such a simple habit to practice, but the more you subconsciously love yourself, the more you can consciously love yourself, the better you are going to attract into your life, and the happier you will be! So quit the trash-talk, stop hanging out with low-vibin’ trolls who like to gossip and put each other down “for fun” and raise your vibrational frequency with the power of your own loving self-narrative! Follow Heather on Facebook , Instagram and visit her website for more info! Heather Guernsey, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine Originally from Maine, Heather has been a dancer & performer her whole life, and spent the majority of the last decade performing on the stages of Las Vegas. Over a year ago, she embarked on her spiritual journey and was led to The Emotion Code method of energy healing- and the rest is history! Heather owns a remote energy healing business called Soul Path Energy Healing and currently practices the Emotion Code modality (though her repertoire is expanding quickly!), supplemented by Oracle Card readings and other offerings to help her clients process the healing that they are receiving. This work has changed Heather’s life, and the lives of so many others. She is so passionate about her purpose and hopes to help as many people as possible through this miraculous work!

Written by: Melia Diana, 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 woke up from a vivid ex-boyfriend dream? This dream left an unsettling feeling inside your gut. Your mind goes back to a momentary glimpse of a broken relationship that didn’t work. Perhaps, you thought the relationship would last forever but, it didn’t. What went wrong? Has your past lover moved on with someone else? Were you unfaithful, and he left? Did your insecurities and emotional baggage cause you to push him away? This dream began to give you false hope… All sorts of thoughts come flooding back into your mind. That relationship left quite a mark on your heart, and you’re starting to wonder about rekindling an old flame. Now, you’re badgering yourself with the meaning of this wacky dream. You wondering why on earth this is happening? Single or married… we all at some point in our lives have come across these questions. I have always been able to dream, even as a child. I didn’t think these vivid dreams represented anything meaningful until I became closer to God with an understanding He was trying to tap into my inner psyche. The Lord woke me up at 5:00 am the other morning from the third consecutive night of reoccurring dreams of my ex-boyfriends. Urg… This was a head-scratcher for me because I’m a happily married woman. So why was this happening? I woke up conflicted but brought this straight to God. I wanted to see what He had to say about these dreams. So, as usual, I grabbed my coffee, Bible, and sat at my kitchen table for necessary prayer time. With my spiritual ears and heart wide open- I flipped my Bible straight open to, “Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. Point out anything in me that offends you, and lead me along the path of everlasting love” (Psalms 139:23-24 NLT). Honestly, in the last past few months, the Lord starting to reveal and pour more into my soul than He ever has before. It can be extremely overwhelming yet powerful. I’m very grateful for the close kinship I have with my Abba Father. It’s an agape love, a blissful expression of a deep and extremely satisfying personal relationship with Him that no other person on earth can ever bring to the table. So, what happened, you ask? The Holy Spirit whispered to me… “You still are holding onto feelings of the past hurts from old boyfriends.” What? I thought I had let go, but there was still something inside of me I was not allowing God to release. God revealed a hidden wound to purge. A message from the spiritual realm I was not willing to lay down at Jesus’s feet. God will do what He needs to do in order to grab our attention. Dreams are one example of how the Lord speaks to us, but we must be vulnerable enough to allow God to start the pruning process. During my prayer time, the Holy Spirit flashed a blue bin in my mind. I knew this bin was stuffed on a rustic bookcase in my garage. Friends, I forgot about this old bin, but went straight to the garage to find it. As I opened this blue bin, hundreds of pictures of my past flashed in my face. The most relevant were old boyfriends. Bam! There it was. Do you know what He revealed next? To break soul ties with these men and get rid of the pictures inside the bin. How about that? So I obeyed what God told me to do. I have done this before, but only with one particular relationship. I proceeded to grab every picture I could. I will admit, I got a little choked up. This took me back to a place of reminiscing. The Lord told me, “I was not that woman any longer and to teach other women how to break souls ties too.” Ladies, you can’t make this stuff up. When you put God first in your life, without a doubt, He speaks! All those memories were dumped in my trash can outside. After I released emotions of hurt, pain, and heartache- I looked up in the sky and a rainbow popped up. Just a friendly reminder of God’s covenant and He has my back. Let’s take a step back here for a moment. Every time we have sex with a man who is not our husband, it leaves a toxic soul bind with another individual. Think about it. We give the most sacred part of our body to a man without the commitment, just to feel loved. The Lord says to – “Run from sexual sin! No other sin so clearly affects the body as this one does” (See 1 Corinthians 6:18 NLT). We allow our fleshy desires to cloud our judgment. Hey, I’m not judging, but God is trying to protect us for a reason, my friends’. Is God trying to get your attention? Maybe you have some possessions stored away too? Do you have soul ties that need to be broken? As a Relationship and Dating Coach specializing in inner healing transformation, I am on God’s mission to help women break all barriers & have the loving relationships they’ve always desired. Ladies, we must get real with ourselves if we expect anything different to happen in our lives. We can’t continue to stuff the feeling of unforgiveness, bitterness, and anger in our soul and expect to have healthy relationships with others. Repeated patterns of unhealthy emotions that entangle the soul… need to be released! Breaking soul ties is just part of the process if we want to have fruitful relationships. My transformational “HEAL MY WOUNDS" Jump Start Program is for Professional Christian woman who truly desire inner healing & transformation “God’s Way.” Break free from the discord, negative mindsets, soul ties, and subconscious beliefs stored in your hurting soul... God wants more for you! Blessings xo Follow me on Instagram, Facebook and check out my website and YouTube-channel! Read more from Melia! Melia Diana, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine Melia is an International Best-Selling Author, Certified Christian Counselor, and Relationship & Dating Coach specializing in inner healing transformation. She has spent over 13 years in medical & fitness field, as a Licensed Physical Therapist Assistant and Certified ACSM Personal Trainer helping people through her passion to deliver attainable and solid goals. But it doesn’t stop there! Melia’s extensive certifications and background led her to utilize her faith, knowledge, experience and personal development to brand and design her own Signature Coaching Programs. She developed a unique methodology to help clarify the missing links and identify core root problems hindering God’s best. With a godly approach, she helps Christian women to break all barriers and have loving relationships they’ve always desired. God’s mission for Melia, is helping lost souls find their true identity in Christ & restore broken relationships through an inner healing transformation journey, guided by the Holy Spirit. Her empathetic approach encourages others for growth, wisdom, and a stronger mindset for a more abundant & fruitful life.

Written by: Laura Flanagan, Executive Contributor Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise. Do you experience any of these signs and symptoms of digestive dysfunction? Heartburn Constipation Bloating Gas Diarrhea IBS Crohn’s Colitis Candida Leaky Gut There are many more, but these are the top issues many adults face when the digestive system is impaired. Did you know that the first step in the process of digestion is chewing? Actually, we can dial that back a step further. Before you take your first bite of food, if your digestion system is working optimally, you are already beginning the process of digestion simply by thinking about what you are going to eat! This action releases hormones to induce salivation. Three different pairs of salivary glands release saliva into the mouth. There are two processes of digestion that happen in the mouth as the first step in proper digestion. They are chemical (the enzymes in your saliva) and mechanical (the act of chewing). The saliva released from the salivary glands lubricates the food as we chew. Saliva also aids in swallowing the ‘bolus’, which is a term used for the mixture of food and saliva. The enzyme in the saliva that begins the digestive process is called amylase. It begins the chemical breakdown of carbohydrates. Two things we can do to significantly enhance our digestion are: 1. Activate our salivary glands 2. Chew our food thoroughly How do you activate your salivary glands? Well, the simple act of thinking about the food you are going to eat just before you eat it will send signals from the brain to release hormones to induce salivation. Other ways to boost your salivary glands' action include practicing Yamuna Body Rolling face work. While this is an entire body of work that releases all muscles, there is a specialty practice for the face. As a certified Yamuna Body Rolling instructor, I teach both the full bodywork and the face ball work. (Check my website for details). In addition, consuming pungent and tart foods helps increase the activity of our salivary glands. Fermented foods are great for this. Kimchi and umeboshi plums are some examples. Maybe you have noticed that elderly folks often have decreased appetites and become very particular about what they will and will not eat. One of the significant reasons is that their salivary glands are not working as efficiently as they did when they were younger. Even chewing gum can help stimulate salivary activity – though it is difficult to do this often enough to improve saliva production. On to the topic of chewing. My teacher at the Functional Nutrition Alliance, Andrea Nakayama says, 'we're not just what we eat, but how our body processes what we eat'. In essence, what we digest, absorb, and utilize is critically important for how we feel. In fact, the optimal function of these processes is critical for every organ system in our body. Digestion is a cascade of actions that are significantly interrelated. Much like the efficient action of a conveyor belt in a factory, each event in the process is considerably dependent on the completion of the prior action. Some of the initial steps involved in digestion are chemical, but one of the steps that we have control over is mechanical. It is chewing! When we chew, our food breaks down and this signals hormones, enzymes, and gastric juices to begin the process of digestion. The longer our food remains in this stage of dissolving, the easier digestion is on the rest of our body. The food is not only broken down into smaller pieces by the teeth, but our saliva produces the enzymes that further decompose the molecules of the food. Saliva contains softening agents that allow the food to be 'molded' into a ball – the bolus I mentioned earlier. This allows for ease in swallowing. The longer the food remains in these stages in the mouth, the more time we allow for the rest of our digestive system to rev up its engine! Well-chewed food moves easily through our esophagus and into the stomach. Dried and improperly chewed food has a more challenging journey through our entire digestive and metabolic factory. Chewing our food properly can eliminate bloating, gas and abdominal pain. It is cheap and easy way to improve the health and efficiency of our digestive system, thereby improving our overall health. When we free up the digestive system's energy, imagine how much energy we have to accomplish other goals! Here are some practices you might consider the next time you sit down for a meal. And, did I just write 'sit down' for a meal? It is important to begin there. Many of us are so busy that we do not actually sit down to eat. We grab our food on the go, eat in our car on the way to the office or to pick up the kids, or eat over the kitchen sink without even having the civility to use a plate. When we become more mindful about our eating practices, beginning with where we are eating, we begin to set positive motions in action. There is something about physically sitting at a dining room table, without distractions or noise, that makes us really focus on the eating experience. An unexpected bonus? We take the time to connect with our loved ones if we can encourage them to join us in these new eating practices. Connecting and communicating over a meal is something our ancestors were accustomed to. It forces us to slow down and take breaks between bites to speak. Think about the food that you will be eating 30 min before the meal. This helps stimulate the salivary glands thereby initiating the digestion process. Have gratitude for your food; say a prayer or mantra before you begin eating. This also initiates the release of hormones to activate the salivary glands. Learning to chew well involves the tongue. The tongue has the important role of keeping the food in the mouth. Observe the action of your tongue when you eat. Once the tongue is trained to discourage swallowing large chunks of food, take 7 days of counting anywhere between 5 and 50 chews for each bite. You might wonder why such a broad range. For for some foods (like yogurt for instance) it is not necessary to chew 50 times. That said, it is still important to ‘chew’ yogurt and other soft foods. Other foods, such as meats or certain carbohydrates, may require more chewing. If the task feels too challenging, try this for only one meal of the day. Make a conscious effort to enjoy the food – even if you still have to eat on the run. After three weeks (21 days), if you adhere to these practices, you will have developed a new, healthy habit. Tune in to the feel of the fully chewed food in your mouth and how it corresponds to your overall feeling after your meals. After 90 days this habit becomes a lifestyle and while you will still want to be mindful at every meal, you have now habituated to new chewing patterns. If you are interested in some recipes that will keep you salivating like Pavlov’s dog, check these links: Easy Kimchi: https://www.foodiewithfamily.com/easy-fast-kimchi-mak-kimchi-recipe/ Umeboshi plum recipe: https://www.thespruceeats.com/umeboshi-japanese-sour-salted-plums-3895688 For more information about Yamuna Body Rolling and Face work, click the link below and check my website for virtual class offerings: https://www.yamunausa.com/products/save-face-kit Happy chewing! Follow me on Instagram, YouTube and visit my website for more info! Read more from Laura! Laura Flanagan MS, RYT, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine Laura Flanagan is a Scientist by education and career, but she recently left her corporate job and moved to Costa Rica with her horse to open an Equine Therapy Center. Concurrently with her career as a scientist, she has been teaching Yoga and Meditation for over 18 years. Laura is a Yoga Instructor, YamunaÒBody Rolling Instructor, Meditation Teacher, and Director of the Socrates Center in Perez Zeledon, Costa Rica. She has helped thousands of clients with physical pain through her certification with Yamuna who uses a form of small ball therapy. She has used her Yoga, Body Rolling, and Meditation practices to assist in her own recovery from breast cancer. She is also enrolled in the Functional Nutrition Counselor program through the Functional Nutrition Alliance. https://fxnutrition.com/

Written by: Fayola Delica, Executive Contributor Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise. You must start your business with a why that impacts the world in a major way. You will have the excitement and enthusiasm in the beginning, but if you are not connected to your why, you will lose your commitment and dedication to your business. Not only will knowing your why help you to stay focused as you start your business, but it will also help you to continue to stay in business during the slow times when productivity and profits are low. Also, it will help you to expand your business. Yet, as you seek to expand your business, remember your why because it should be connected to the vision you had from the very beginning of becoming an entrepreneur. Your company’s why is answering the question of how your business will bring about a positive change in the world. However, your personal why is about why you started the business. Knowing both whys will determine how your prospective clients will connect with you. As you seek to know your why, some suggested ways to identify your why are by applying one or all the following steps: Asking those around you who know you best to share with you what your best assets/skills/traits are? Make a list of your top ten strengths, and then narrow down that list to your top five. Reflect on which one of your top five strengths provides you with the most sense of fulfillment/satisfaction. Ask yourself, each time you wake-up in the morning, what is the one thing that you would wake up every day doing without getting paid? Look over your life and reflect on what recurring themes have appeared in your life. For example, when I was transitioning from healthcare to becoming a public speaker/author, I usually had strangers sharing their life stories with me and then asking me for advice on how they should deal with that situation. As Simon Sinek stated during one of his TED Talks in September 2009 entitled "How great leaders inspire action," he said that "people do not buy what you do, but why you do it." Therefore, if you want your business to be a leader in your industry, connect with your customers/clients on an emotional level beyond just providing a product and/or service. You will be providing much more for them through your personal and your company's why. You are the driving force behind your reason for becoming an entrepreneur, and your personal and company why will be the reflection of that driving force. The impact that your company has on the marketplace and the world will be a reflection of you. Therefore, seek to be true to yourself in why you want to become an entrepreneur. Your journey will be worth it in the end, regardless of what setbacks and/or challenges you may face along the way. As they say, "if it were easy, everyone would be doing it." So, if you are set to start or expand your business, I wish you all the best as you have so much to offer the world. Your why is your key to longevity in building your business as well as being successful at it. For more information, follow me on Instagram, Twitter and visit my website! Read more from Fayola! Dr. Fayola Delica, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine Dr. Fayola Delica is a native of Miami, Florida. She is an Apostle and an Ordained Pastor, International Award-winning Healthcare Professional, International Award-winning Serial Entrepreneur, International Award-winning Motivational Speaker, Multiple International Best-selling Author, Multiple 1 Best-selling Amazon Author, International Award-winning Beauty Queen, Global Talk Show Host, and an Educator. She believes it is your winning season, and you should be living your best life NOW. In short, she is your Passion and Purpose Activator. She helps you to live out loud by living out your divine purpose in the areas of business, nonprofit, and ministry.

Written by: Cheryl Kasper, 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 Avoidance. Denial. Suppression. Repression. Many people have learned to "stuff" their emotions so they won't have to deal with them. It may be their defense mechanism to suppress feeling pain in the moment or to avoid arguments with others. How many times have you flown off the handle for no 'good reason' when someone said something to you? Something was triggered inside of you- most likely from your past that you have not dealt with. Emotions are normal, healthy and give us a clue as to what is happening in our lives to navigate through it. When emotions are stuffed deep inside, they will always find a way to show up. You are either suppressing your emotions or have repressed them. Suppressing your emotions is a conscious and temporary avoidance that you push aside for the moment. For example: you come home after a long day at the office- the house is a mess, and dinner hasn't been made for the third time this week! You feel your blood starting to boil. Your anger is ready to explode like a volcano erupting hot lava. Your spouse runs up to you excited that he got the promotion he has been waiting at that very moment. So you suppress your anger and enjoy the moment of celebration. You decide to deal with addressing the house situation tomorrow. On the other hand, repression is when emotions are stuffed so deeply in the subconscious that you may be unaware of their origin. You may also be unaware of what may trigger a negative response. Repressed emotions show up as : Anger Sadness Depression Anxiety Resentment Jealousy Self-sabotage Procrastination Blocks/feeling stuck Procrastination Avoidance Fear They can also show up through physical symptoms in the body or through addictions. An addiction, such as alcohol, drugs, shopping, or sex is a way to detach from the emotion. Emotional repression often begins in childhood, usually before the age of 12, as a way to avoiding physical or emotional pain, such as: Abuse/ neglect Betrayal Hurt Feeling unlovable Guilt Shame Abandonment As a young child, you may have developed a belief that it was 'safer' to stuff your emotions rather than show them. It could have been that if you showed your emotions, you weren't validated, you were hit, punished, shamed, told to 'stop' crying, etc. You believed that if you suppressed your feelings, that you would be protected and safe in some way. Now those suppressed feelings became repressed over time, deep in the subconscious vault. Repressed emotions can result in: feeling anxious, worried, and stressed doing everything for others and not take care of your own needs avoiding talking about your emotions always putting on a happy face to avoid your inner emotional pain having difficulty building intimate relationships 'exploding' in response to small triggers, as the emotions have built up inside. lacking self-love perfectionism 6 Tips to Uncover Repressed Emotions: 1. Allow yourself to feel the emotion. Identify it. Where in your body do you notice it? 2. Was there a trigger to the emotion? 3. Do a body scan by starting with the top of your head and slowly move down your body to your feet. Notice any tension. Breathe into the tension to release it. Is it an emotion-based tension? 4.. Let go of any judgment. Just allow yourself to feel whatever comes up. You are safe now. Just acknowledge the feeling. Then give it permission to leave. 5. This exercise my clients love! Write a letter to the person who hurt you. Include: -This is what you did to me -This is how I felt about it at the time -This is how it has affected my life today -This is how I think and feel about you now Then, read the letter out loud to yourself. After you have done that, destroy the letter to release it and let go. You can rip it into tiny pieces. You can shred it. Or my favorite is burning it. 6. If you can't recall a memory, identify the feeling you feel in your body. Where is it? -Float back to the earliest time you remember feeling this feeling. -How old were you? -Where were you? -Were you alone, or were others with you? -Was it day or night? Journal on this until nothing else comes up, or until you have a memory. Then follow the letter writing above. It’s natural to want to avoid negative feelings. Our minds always want to avoid pain and move towards pleasure. It may seem scary to uncover and confront the deep, intense emotions, especially when they are linked to unpleasant or unwanted experiences. As you learn to identify, accept and get more comfortable with your emotions, they can truly help you navigate the challenges of life more successfully, improve your relationship with yourself and others, and most important, open the door to the vault of your subconscious so you can have emotional freedom from the inside out. For more info, follow me on Facebook , Instagram , LinkedIn and visit my website ! Read more from Cheryl! Cheryl Kasper, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine Cheryl Kasper, LCSW is a Clinical Psychotherapist with a private practice in New Jersey. Cheryl is also a global Mindset & Empowerment Coach. Cheryl helps female entrepreneurs achieve balance in their life by showing them how to do the deep inner work by removing negative beliefs, blocks, Imposter Syndrome, anxiety & overwhelm to up-level their life and business. Cheryl uses a unique mix of her 25 years of experience in clinical psychology, Rapid Transformational Hypnosis, deep inner healing , mindset and strategy, to work with both the conscious and subconscious mind. She integrates psychology, neuro-science and spirituality into her practice for rapid and permanent results.

Written by: Domenica Escatel, 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. Having a service-based business that relied on in-person events to generate revenue put my business in a bit of a predicament when COVID-19 arrived, but what happened next, I would have never imagined. I started to focus on building an online presence. I met entrepreneurs worldwide by following these simple 5 things I did to boost my company's visibility online. "Courage starts with showing up and letting ourselves be seen." -- Brene Brown Step 1: Get clear on your mission statement. One of the first things I learned in my entrepreneur journey is to get clear on my mission statement. This will help you know your why. As in the, why are you doing what you're doing? You can't tell the story behind your mission statement unless you are clear on the "WHY" behind your company or brand. Your customer needs to fall in love with supporting you. Your customer needs a reason to shop with you vs. a franchise. What keeps you motivated to keep doing this one thing when there is no evidence that you will achieve your goal? I didn't know how I was going to pivot during COVID and I just stood firm on the belief of my mission statement. Make sure your mission statement is clear and simple. You should be able to pull a heartstring when you state your mission statement. Step 2: Make sure your business is represented in every social media outlet. Make sure your social media profiles are aligned with your mission statement. Do your social media profiles tell your brand or companies story? I made sure that my profiles used the same colors and fonts were all consistent. I started to add more photographs that told my company story. There is a rule of thumb for every three business-related posts; you should have 4 additional posts that reflect life outside of your company. For example, freedom and flexibility is part of my mission statement. I make sure that my photography reflects my life as an entrepreneur that shows freedom and flexibility. My life outside of the 8-5 clock. Step 3: ASK This, by far, is the most important step out of all of them. Ask. I started to engage in social media profiles of accounts that I wanted to network with. For example, on Instagram, I would leave a direct message with a compliment about what I liked about their post or page. I always leave a voice message and sometimes I went the extra mile and left a video message. Daily, we are bombarded with tons of emails and many external factors. You want to be able to stand out from all other things to the person who you want to connect with. The power of "Connection" is so much stronger than just wanting to network. I posted a series of social media posts that stated, "Let's connect!" Followed by the subheading, "do you want to collaborate? Send me a direct message." That one post allowed me to have meetings with entrepreneurs in Spain, Mexico, Canada, London, and all across the United States. Step 4: Call to action. It is important that you follow through with the call to action. If you have someone that you connected with that agrees to do a webinar for you, go the extra mile and send them a google calendar invite with the zoom information that your guest will need to know to facilitate the webinar. Make social media assets for your guest. Make a promotional video for them. Get creative. There are so many tutorials on YouTube that you can look up that will teach you how to create fun social media announcements for your guests. Step 5: There is a Fortune in the follow-up. Lastly, from your call action posts, anyone who expressed they want to work with you and didn't book with you. Follow up with them. Meet them over zoom, and get that date booked. Create an opportunity for you to exchange services. This newfound relationship has to be ongoing. Cultivate a space where you continue to grow the connection from a place of authenticity and just watch magic happen. I created a virtual space to run my business by following the steps above. If I wasn't interacting with someone on their social media account, I was meeting someone over zoom for a virtual coffee meeting. There are so many free digital tools and resources that if you are not techie you can easily take a tutorial. Following the steps above will help you build your online presence. Connect with me on LinkedIn and visit my website for more information! Domenica Escatel, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine Domenica Escatel is an online branding strategist, dedicated to helping entrepreneurs around the world show up powerfully online. Domenica shows entrepreneurs how to craft their business stories with practical steps that can be easily implemented. Domenica will show you how easy it is to leverage any social media platform to make you and your business stand out. Domenica has a master’s degree in leadership and her photography has been featured in various media outlets. Domenica has earned numerous awards in the United States for her work and has been invited to speak at various conferences. Domenica has also used the power of building an online presence to build a movement on social media that is built on educating, empowering, and equipping the next generation of leaders.