Adelynn Lim works at the intersection of clarity, identity, and leadership. She helps professionals understand the deeper patterns shaping their choices and supports them in creating a more aligned, sustainable way of living and leading. She believes that transformation does not require a crisis. Life offers subtle signals far earlier than most people realize, and responding to those signals with small, deliberate changes can shift a person’s trajectory far more gently than waiting for upheaval to do it for them. Adelynn Lim, Senior Transformational Coach & Clarity Strategist What first drew you to focus on clarity and identity as the foundation of leadership? I used to think leadership and its required characteristics were primarily shaped by hierarchical status, role, or position. So, to be a leader, I had to work hard and rise through the ranks. However, striving for recognition left me feeling unfulfilled and doubting my ability to lead. When I hit the lowest point of my life, going through a divorce in 2018, I remember picking up the book “Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes Are High” and reading it. I could not put it down. The book laid out the answers I needed most at that time, and more. Its exploration of how communication makes or breaks under pressure shifted my perspective profoundly on how I think, act, and show up in my personal and professional life. It led me to a deeper understanding that great leaders must first know how to lead themselves. They must clarify what they want and decide who they need to be to step up and lead others effectively. Importantly, there is inherent leadership potential in every individual that can be honored, honed, and nurtured. How has your background in global business and IT shaped the way you approach transformation today? My background has given me great opportunities and depth working at the intersection of industries and large-scale projects with diverse teams, people, and cultures, often layered with unique challenges and complexities. I have witnessed and experienced firsthand how people are motivated or resistant to transformation, driven fundamentally by their needs and purpose. It takes courage, patience, and resources to examine the root cause of resistance, refocus, and take the necessary steps forward. I believe understanding this about people is at the heart of both the successes and setbacks in mobilizing transformations, whether at the personal or organizational level. The intricacies of communication, negotiation, and decision-making involved, sometimes under immense pressure, have taught me to appreciate the multifaceted dynamics of human relationships and the power of progress over perfection. Intentional small shifts, whose impact may not be evident immediately, pave the way for worthwhile transformation. So, learning to ask the right questions, listen to people’s responses and feedback, and address their concerns is a crucial deliberate effort to optimize success and achieve desired outcomes. What role does subconscious work, like RTT, play in helping high achievers move forward when logic alone isn’t enough? High-achievers often succeed through willpower, strategic thinking, and relentless execution, the conscious mind part that relies on step-by-step logic and reasoning. When they reach a certain level of achievement, they might discover that more discipline, harder work, or better strategies no longer deliver the same excellence they seek. This is where the subconscious mind hides the clues, with every memory, belief, habit, and emotional pattern recorded since childhood. It is the more holistic part of the brain, estimated to operate 90-95% of our lives through instinct, emotions, and learned conditioning, influencing daily choices and decisions often beyond our awareness. Knowing this, high-achievers would want to understand how their internal landscape, the underlying ‘operating system’, is serving or hindering their external goals and ambitions. RTT can help with that. Through RTT, we access the subconscious mind with hypnosis and focus inward to investigate the roots of problems that keep high-achievers stuck. For example, if the problem is ‘procrastination,’ instead of simply improving productivity, RTT goes deeper to uncover the limiting habits, beliefs, or identities driving the behavior, reframes them, and reinforces new, empowering subconscious programming through repetition. Why do you think so many successful professionals miss the early signals that something is no longer aligned? Successful professionals seem to always be on the go and hardly take time to pause and reflect on their state of being. They take pride in being busy. It energizes them, keeps them competitive, and makes them feel valuable. To them, there is always another level to aim for, and stopping might mean getting left behind. It is that addictive. Rest is often treated as a reward after hard work rather than fuel for higher productivity. In such constructed societal norms, misalignment sets in unknowingly through repeated stress, frustration, or exhaustion. But here is the catch: these signals feel familiar and are usually not strong enough yet to disrupt their lives. To some extent, they even reinforce their definition of success through the ability to overcome or cope with them. It gives them a sense of victory, and they wear it like a badge of honor. Inside this ‘success’ bubble, what is no longer aligned does not feel like misalignment as long as they keep seeing the results they want and receiving the validation they seek. This locks in their ‘successful’ identity of “doing whatever it takes,” despite the ignorance in plain sight, tied with a nice bow. It never occurs to them to question how their definition of success actually came about and how they first see themselves without it. What are some of the most common patterns you see in people who feel they’ve outgrown their current version of success? From what I can see, there are two overarching patterns of people who no longer resonate with their version of success. They are either forced into a major transition or become curious and start asking new questions. One is reactive, the other proactive. People in transition may be dealing with the loss of a loved one, career change, health challenges, financial upheavals, relationship breakups, divorce, you name it. They may not realize that such life-changing events often carry the cumulative impact of past ignorance they can no longer overlook. When they don’t pay attention to the countless early signals, life has its way of making sure they do. They can no longer sustain the same trajectory of success and are compelled to face their new reality by making different decisions. On the other hand, some people find their version of success beginning to feel more like a daily grind than something they look forward to attaining. Their growth plateaus, and they hit a success threshold that lacks meaning and purpose. It creates discomfort, but they don’t succumb to it. They don’t ask, “What’s wrong with me?” but, “What can I do differently?” They let curiosity lead and uncover new opportunities, even if it means actively seeking help to get there. Within your Unlock Your Authentic Self (UYAS) framework, what is one shift that tends to create the biggest breakthrough for clients? One powerful shift I notice in my UYAS clients is when they challenge and assign a different, more useful meaning to what happened in their lives, especially unexpected turns of events. For example, when they did not get the promotion they wanted, do they see themselves as failures, or as needing more time to acquire new skills? Same event, two completely different meanings. The mind loves to default to past references to justify the present. Clients may find that, in most cases, these are assumptions based on a fraction of reality they experience, which they call fact. That then solidifies into disempowering stories they tell themselves, which determine their states. So, to change how they feel and the outcome they want, they need to be intentional in examining their stories. When clients are more aware of their own perception, they can explore and ask, “What else could this mean?” and choose differently, again and again. This is where they might say with relief, “Wow, I never thought of it this way.” They learn to focus on what they can control and take inspired action. That’s a game-changer. For someone who senses misalignment but is unsure where to start, what is a practical first step they can take? Start right where you are, by acknowledging the sense of misalignment in you. It’s a simple but important step. Don’t avoid, suppress, or ignore it, especially when it has been constant for a while. Sit with the discomfort without judging it and let how you feel be true in the moment. Misalignment means there is a gap between your experience of reality and your expectations of it. Either side of the equation needs recalibration to restore balance. When you’re ready, spend time in solitude to deconstruct it and understand what the feeling is trying to convey. Don’t overcomplicate it. Journaling is a great way to get clear about your thoughts and identify their triggers. Ask yourself, “What has it cost you so far? What would it have cost you even more if nothing changes?” and see what comes up. You miss this window of opportunity for growth as soon as you distract yourself from it. Awareness always precedes change. It will reveal the next step you need as you stay attuned. How has your own experience navigating major life changes reshaped your definition of leadership and resilience? Whether it was adulting, expat life and career abroad, motherhood, or divorce, I realize there wasn’t any specific definition of leadership and resilience to begin with. In hindsight, every stage of the non-linear journey has been an invitation to greet life as it unfolded, with whatever capacity I had. I learned to embrace fear and uncertainty, be resourceful, and make informed, timely decisions under those circumstances, sometimes when the odds were stacked against me. I explored my options, stumbled a lot, and learned through costly mistakes and failures, mine and others’, to appreciate the different facets of these qualities inherently embedded in real-life experiences. Every setback warrants the question, not “Why is this happening to me?” but “What is the lesson I’m supposed to learn here?” It’s a feedback loop. Steve Jobs once said, which I shall paraphrase, that things only start making sense when connected backward. That’s exactly how I developed richer contexts and a refined understanding of leadership and resilience over time, simply by engaging fully with these major life events. I guess this is what it comes down to…when you show up for life, life will show you the way. What does living and leading with clarity look like in everyday decisions? How your life is right now is the compounded result of decisions you make, or do not make, every moment to this day. With clarity, you tend to observe more rather than jump to conclusions, and act intentionally without compromising your values while honoring the person you want to become. No matter what happens, you choose to respond, not react. For high-achievers, this may mean getting into the habit of checking in: “Is this an external expectation I’m trying to meet, or does this still resonate with who I am today?” Conscious decisions coming from this rooted self are the most honest and genuine, the ones you can accept and make peace with, regardless of their outcomes. You won't always get it right, but you always get the lesson you need most. Clarity also does not mean the absence of fear. It means discernment, where you can make fear your ally, trusting that every experience is happening for your highest good, and your own encounters keep backing that up. There is something inexplicable about carrying such faith that drives your confidence from within. When you live and lead with clarity, it becomes one of the best gifts you bring to those you cross paths with in life. Follow me on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and visit my website for more info! Read more from Adelynn Lim

Written by Madeleine Daleng Nyland, CEO of MAD Madeleine Daleng, a five‑time Norwegian figure skating champion, now empowers people through rehabilitation, obesity coaching, and fitness training, blending elite‑sport insight with a human, down‑to‑earth approach. We live in a world where health advice hits us from every direction. Every time you open social media, you’re met with “health hacks,” miracle routines, strict rules, and endless opinions about what you should eat, how you should train, and what you must avoid. It’s a jungle, a loud, confusing, overwhelming jungle, filled with both well-meant guidance and not-so-well-meant noise. Trying to navigate it all can make even the calmest person feel lost. What this constant bombardment really does is simple, it makes us overthink our health, our habits, our bodies, our choices, and our entire lifestyle. One expert says one thing, another expert says the complete opposite. Suddenly, you’re stuck in your head, feeling stressed, anxious, or even scared of making the “wrong” choice. So let’s slow down. Let’s simplify. Let’s find a healthier, kinder way to approach your health, one that actually supports you instead of overwhelming you. Awareness is good, overthinking is not It is healthy to be aware of your body. It is good to notice changes, signals, and emotions. It is important to stay connected to what feels right and what doesn’t. But awareness becomes a problem when it turns into constant analysis, when every small sensation becomes a warning sign, and every choice becomes a moral decision, and when every meal, workout, or symptom becomes something you must decode. If you overthink every signal your body sends, you’ll end up with a full-time job trying to interpret it. That’s not living, that’s monitoring. Your body is meant to change, your mind is meant to evolve. Your energy, hunger, motivation, and emotions will shift, and that’s not a problem. That’s growth. Instead of fearing change, try welcoming it. Your body is not malfunctioning, it’s adapting. Why it’s so hard today Humans were not designed for the world we live in now. We were made to move naturally, eat when food was available, and rest when we needed it. Today, we’re surrounded by ultra-processed foods, sugar everywhere, constant sitting, artificial stimulation, endless comparison, and unrealistic expectations. These things aren’t your fault, they’re simply the environment we live in. Because everything is available all the time, we’re forced to make choices constantly. That alone creates mental overload. So instead of blaming yourself, try understanding the bigger picture. You’re not weak, you’re navigating a world that challenges your biology every single day. A simpler, kinder approach to health Here’s a healthier way to think about your health, one that removes pressure instead of adding it. First, choose what feels right for you, not what’s trending, not what someone else swears by, and not what the algorithm pushes. Your body is your best guide. Second, avoid the “must” mindset. The moment health becomes a list of strict rules, you disconnect from your intuition. Shift from “I must” to “I choose.” Third, keep it natural and uncomplicated. Eat as naturally as possible, move your body daily in any way that feels good, drink water, get sunlight, and sleep. These basics matter more than any hack. Fourth, seek real help when something feels wrong, not from influencers, not from strangers online, but from a doctor or professional who can give you clarity. Fifth, enjoy your life, truly enjoy it. Health is not meant to be a constant project. It’s meant to support your ability to live, love, laugh, move, and feel good. Let your life be bigger than your health worries. The goodvibes way In the end, health doesn’t have to be complicated. It doesn’t have to be perfect. It doesn’t have to be stressful. It can be simple, joyful, intuitive, and flow naturally. Move your body, eat real food, listen to yourself, and ask for help when needed and most importantly, live your life with good vibes. Follow me on Instagram, and visit my website for more info! Read more from Madeleine Daleng Nyland Madeleine Daleng Nyland, CEO of MAD Madeleine Daleng is a five‑time Norwegian figure skating champion who now channels her competitive drive into helping people rebuild strength, confidence, and health. With a background from the Norwegian School of Sports Science, she works across rehabilitation, obesity coaching, and fitness training. Her approach blends elite‑athlete discipline with warmth, humor, and real‑life understanding. As the founder of MAD, she supports clients through personal training, group fitness, and long‑term lifestyle change. She also inspires a wider audience through her YouTube channel, Madeleinedaleng_goodvibes.

Written by Safiya Abidali, Neuroscientist and Professional Coach Safiya Abidali is a neuroscientist and professional coach specialising in behaviour change, resilience, and emotional regulation. She takes neuroscience research to develop practical tools for sustainable habits and mental well-being. I asked my sixteen-year-old recently whether he wanted me to lift the screen time limit on a game he enjoys, after a bit of a moan about how he only has 15 minutes. He thought about it for a moment and said, "No, only until after my exams." I have spent years researching adolescent development. I have read the studies, analysed the data, and written on the effects of digital technology on young people. That one sentence from my son really got me thinking because it was a sign that what we had been doing, slowly, intentionally, sometimes imperfectly, was working. He had weighed up what he wanted in the moment against what he wanted for himself overall, and he had chosen the latter. That is not restriction. That is self-regulation. It is, I believe, something every parent can work towards if they understand what they are trying to build. I am a neuroscientist and a mother of three, sixteen, fourteen, and eleven years old. None of my children have social media, and my youngest two don't have smartphones. So, when I write about this, I am not coming from a place of research alone but from understanding the dinner table struggles, the school runs where your child feels left out, and years of watching the research play out in my own home. The world our children are growing up in We are raising the first generation of true digital natives. Adolescents today have never known a world without smartphones, and many receive their first device before they are ten years old. Social media platforms are not just tools they use; they are environments they inhabit. Like any environment, they shape the people developing inside them. The research is unambiguous in some areas and still evolving in others. What we do know is that heavy social media use in adolescence is associated with increased rates of anxiety and depression, particularly in girls. The mechanism is not simply time spent; it is the specific nature of what platforms such as Instagram and TikTok are built to do: encourage constant social comparison, reward curated self-presentation, and keep users scrolling through algorithmically optimised content designed to provoke a response. Passive consumption, endlessly scrolling without creating or connecting, appears to be especially harmful. There is a significant difference between a teenager using social media to message friends or share something they made, and one who spends hours absorbing an idealised, filtered version of everyone else's life. Understanding that distinction matters when we think about how we guide our children's use, rather than simply capping time or switching the Wi-Fi off. What concerns me most, as both a researcher and a mother, is the identity part. Adolescence is already one of the most psychologically complex periods of a person's life, when young people are forming their sense of self, figuring out who they are, and where they fit. Social media inserts a public stage into that deeply private process. Teenagers are not just growing up anymore; they are growing up in front of an audience, in real time, with a like count attached. What you can do: A practical guide Restriction alone is not the answer. Parents who understand the landscape are far better equipped to guide their children through it than those who simply panic and take the phone away. Here is what I recommend, drawn from both the research and my own experience. 1. Having a smartphone is a privilege, not a right The biggest mistake parents make is treating the first smartphone as a reward with no strings attached. Before your child gets a device, have an honest conversation about what having a smartphone entails and about social media, not just how to use it, but what it is designed to do. Talk about algorithms. Talk about the fact that what they will see is curated, filtered, and selected to perform a version of someone's life, not reflect it. Talk about how it might make them feel sometimes and that those feelings are worth paying attention to. This is not a one-time conversation. It needs to be ongoing. The goal is to build the kind of critical digital literacy that acts as a protective buffer, the ability to engage with social media thoughtfully, with awareness of what it is doing and why. That is one of the most powerful things we can give our children, and no app can install it for them. 2. Write a phone contract together Before the phone is handed over, sit down and write a contract together, not a list of rules from parent to child, but a genuine co-creation. Adolescents are far more likely to respect agreements they helped shape. The contract should cover: the reason they are receiving the phone, which apps are permitted, what hours the phone can be used, where it lives at night, expectations around communication, and what happens if the contract is broken. Revisit it as you see fit. 3. Keep the phone out of the bedroom at night The research here is particularly clear. Adolescents who sleep with their phones in their bedrooms are significantly more likely to develop insomnia and disrupted sleep. The reasons are multiple: blue light, the anxiety of notifications, the temptation to check, but the outcome is consistent. Poor sleep in adolescence has serious downstream effects on mental health, academic performance, and emotional regulation. Set a household charging station outside the bedrooms. Make it a family rule, not a punishment, and if possible, do the same as adults. 4. Protect the dinner table Studies show that children who keep their phones at the dinner table are less likely to engage meaningfully with their family during mealtimes, and this holds even when the phone is face-down and silent. The mere presence of a device reduces the quality of conversation because part of everyone's attention remains on it. Mealtimes are one of the last daily rituals where families are reliably in the same room without an agenda. They are valuable, so protect that space. 5. Use screen time tools, but understand what they are really for Built-in screen time limits, app restrictions, and downtime schedules are worth using. But most parents think about them the wrong way. They are not just for containment, to manage a child who cannot manage themselves. That framing misses something important. Limits, used well, do not just contain behaviour. They build the capacity for self-regulation over time. My eldest's phone has a limit on each app. When he reaches it, he receives an alert before he can request an extension. That pause is not incidental; it is a mechanism that interrupts what would otherwise be an automatic, unconscious continuation and forces a moment of intentionality. He has to stop, notice what he is doing, and decide. The research on this kind of friction-based intervention is compelling precisely because it does not rely on willpower. It restructures the choice itself. Which is why his answer about the game limit meant so much. He had internalised the pause. He no longer needed the alert to prompt it; he was doing it himself. This kind of outcome will be helpful in all aspects of life, even outside of a phone screen. 6. Think carefully about age My fourteen- and eleven-year-olds do not have smartphones. I know that raises eyebrows, the assumption being that it is socially untenable, that they will be left out, that it simply cannot be done. It can. It requires more active investment from parents and some degree of swimming against the current. But handing a young adolescent a portal to the entire internet and every social comparison platform ever built, because their friends have one, is not a neutral choice. Introduce smartphones gradually, with oversight, and at a pace that matches your child's maturity, not the peer group's timeline. 7. Model the behaviour you want to see Your children are watching you. If you check your phone at dinner, scroll before bed, or reach for it automatically the moment there is a pause, they will do the same. The rules you set carry weight only when you live by them yourself. This was my own harder reckoning. I had all the research. I knew everything I have written here. I still had to catch myself doing exactly what I was asking my children not to do. Parenting in the digital age requires us to examine our own habits honestly. That is uncomfortable. It is also, I think, part of the point. A final thought The goal is not to raise children who are afraid of social media or so sheltered from it that they cannot navigate it when the guardrails come off. The goal is to raise young people who understand it, who can enjoy its genuine benefits, recognise its risks, and have a strong enough sense of themselves that a bad comment or a highlight reel does not destabilise them. It is not easy and not automatic, but possible with intention, consistency, and a willingness to stay in the conversation even when it is uncomfortable. That is, in the end, what parenting has always required. The technology is new. The job is not. Follow me on Instagram, LinkedIn, and visit my website for more info! Read more from Safiya Abidali Safiya Abidali, Neuroscientist and Professional Coach Safiya Abidali is a neuroscientist and professional coach specialising in behaviour change, resilience, and emotional regulation. With a background in social anthropology and applied neuroscience, she bridges brain science and behaviour with lived experience. Safiya writes about motivation, uncertainty, habit formation, and mental resilience. She is the founder of Neuropath Coaching, a neuroscience-informed coaching practice.

Written by Joana Esteves, RTT Practitioner, Clinical Medical Assistant & Hypnotist Founder of Holistic Transformation Center and host of the Mind Untangling Podcast, Joana Esteves is an International Rapid Transformational Therapy practitioner and Health Coach who helps high achievers reach the next level through the power of hypnosis. Most people don't realize that the voice shaping their confidence, relationships, and decisions is the one they hear every day inside their own head. What if the biggest obstacle standing in your way isn't your circumstances, but the conversation you're having with yourself? Have you ever noticed that you spend more time talking to yourself than to anyone else? From the moment we wake up until we fall asleep, there is an ongoing conversation happening inside our minds. It comments on our appearance, evaluates our decisions, predicts outcomes, judges mistakes, and often determines how we feel about ourselves and the world around us. The question is: if someone followed you around all day speaking to you the way you speak to yourself, would you feel supported, encouraged, and empowered? Or would you feel criticized, defeated, and exhausted? For many people, the loudest voice in their life is not their biggest supporter. It is their inner critic. As a transformational RTT practitioner and founder of the Holistic Transformation Center, I have witnessed how changing the way we speak to ourselves can profoundly impact every area of life, from confidence and relationships to health, purpose, and success. The good news is that self talk is not fixed. The way you speak to yourself can be transformed. When you learn how to work with your mind instead of against it, your mind becomes one of the most powerful allies you will ever have. Your inner voice is shaping more than you realize Most of our thoughts happen automatically. We rarely stop to question them because they feel familiar. Over time, these repeated thoughts become beliefs. Those beliefs influence our emotions, our decisions, our behaviours, and ultimately, our results. If your inner dialogue constantly tells you that you are not capable, not ready, or not good enough, your actions will reflect those messages. You may hesitate, procrastinate, avoid opportunities, or settle for less than you deserve. On the other hand, when your internal dialogue becomes more supportive and constructive, you begin to approach life differently. You take healthier risks. You recover faster from setbacks. You trust yourself more. The relationship you have with yourself begins with the conversations you have inside your own mind. Why the inner critic exists Many people assume that the inner critic is an enemy that needs to be silenced. In reality, that critical voice often developed as a form of protection. At some point in life, your mind learned that criticism, perfectionism, people pleasing, or self-doubt might help you avoid rejection, failure, disappointment, or emotional pain. The problem is that what once felt protective often becomes limiting. The voice that was trying to keep you safe starts preventing growth. It convinces you to stay small, avoid challenges, and question your worth. Understanding this changes everything. Instead of fighting your mind, you can begin listening with curiosity and compassion. Become aware of the conversation You cannot change what you are not aware of. One of the most powerful exercises is simply observing your thoughts without immediately believing them. Pay attention to the phrases that repeatedly appear in your mind: “I always mess things up.” “I’m not smart enough.” “People will judge me.” “I’m too old.” “I’m not ready.” Notice how often these thoughts appear and how they affect your emotions and behaviour. Awareness creates distance. Distance creates choice. The moment you recognize that a thought is simply a thought, not necessarily a fact, you begin to reclaim your power and challenge negative thoughts one by one as they arise. Question the story Our minds are excellent storytellers. The challenge is that not every story is true. When a negative thought appears, ask yourself: Is this absolutely true? What evidence supports it? What evidence contradicts it? Would I say this to someone I love? Is there a more balanced perspective? This process helps interrupt automatic thinking patterns and encourages a more objective view of reality. Often, we discover that the harshest judgments we make about ourselves would never survive even a few moments of honest examination. Replace judgment with self-leadership There is a significant difference between self-criticism and self-leadership. Self-criticism says, “You failed.” Self-leadership says, “That didn’t work. What can I learn from it?” Self-criticism focuses on blame. Self-leadership focuses on growth. One keeps you stuck in shame. The other moves you forward with wisdom. Imagine speaking to yourself as you would a trusted friend, mentor, or coach. Firm when necessary, but always supportive, respectful, and encouraging. That shift alone can transform your relationship with yourself. Train your mind to notice what is working The human brain has a natural tendency to focus on problems, threats, and what is missing. While this survival mechanism once protected us, it can also create a distorted perception of reality. Many people become experts at spotting their flaws while remaining blind to their strengths. To create a healthier mindset, intentionally acknowledge what is going well. Celebrate progress. Recognize effort. Appreciate your growth. Notice your resilience. The goal is not to ignore challenges. It is to create balance. A mind that only sees problems becomes an enemy. A mind that sees both challenges and possibilities becomes an ally. Speak to yourself with intention Words carry emotional weight. The language you use internally influences your emotional state and self-image. Small changes can create profound shifts. Instead of saying, “I can’t do this.” Try, “I am learning how to do this.” Instead of saying, “I failed.” Try, “This experience taught me something valuable.” Instead of saying, “I am not good enough.” Try, “I am growing, improving, and becoming more capable every day.” This is not about pretending everything is perfect. It is about choosing language that supports growth rather than reinforcing limitation. Build evidence for a new identity Positive thinking alone is not enough. Your mind trusts evidence. Start collecting proof of your capabilities. Keep track of accomplishments, challenges you have overcome, positive feedback you have received, and moments when you showed courage despite fear. When self-doubt appears, revisit that evidence. Remind yourself of who you really are rather than who your fears suggest you are. Confidence is not only built by repeating affirmations. Confidence is built by remembering your own experience. The most important relationship you will ever have Many people spend years trying to improve their careers, relationships, finances, or health while neglecting the relationship they have with themselves. Yet every experience in life is filtered through the mind. If your mind constantly criticizes, judges, and undermines you, success will feel harder than it needs to. When your mind becomes supportive, encouraging, and constructive, life changes. Challenges become opportunities for growth. Mistakes become lessons. Setbacks become temporary. Your relationship with yourself becomes a source of strength rather than struggle. The voice in your head will accompany you through every challenge, opportunity, and chapter of your life. The goal is not to silence it, it is to transform it. When your inner dialogue becomes rooted in awareness, compassion, and self-leadership, your mind stops being a battlefield and becomes the most trusted ally you have. Ready to take the next step? Changing the way you speak to yourself can change the way you experience your entire life. Yet sometimes, despite our best efforts, old subconscious patterns continue to pull us back into familiar cycles of self-doubt, fear, and limitation. True transformation begins with awareness. To help you put the concepts from this article into practice, I've created two complementary resources that you can use every day to strengthen your self-talk and rewire limiting thought patterns. Subscribe through this link and enter the offer code SELF-TALK to receive free access to Automatic Negative Thought Worksheet and Daily Self Talk Success Checklist. If you're ready to explore the deeper beliefs shaping your inner dialogue and would like support creating lasting transformation, I also invite you to schedule a complimentary discovery call by emailing me here. Together, we'll explore where those patterns originated, what's keeping them in place, and how you can begin creating a more empowering relationship with yourself, one that supports the life you truly want to live. Because when you transform your subconscious mind, you don't just change your thoughts, you change your reality. Follow me on Instagram, and visit my website for more info! Read more from Joana Esteves Joana Esteves, RTT Practitioner, Clinical Medical Assistant, Hypnotist Joana Esteves helps people from all walks of life with issues like stress, anxiety, weight loss, insomnia, addiction, wealth, relationships, confidence, self-esteem, phobias, sports performance, procrastination, and any undesirable patterns that may be keeping them from living at their highest potential. Using the phenomenal RTT method, Joana taps into individuals' subconscious minds to get to the root cause of the issue, removing old beliefs and reprogramming the mind to achieve the desired goals. Further reading and resources: Healthline: Cognitive Distortions YouTube: Understanding Negative Thinking Patterns Holistic Transformation Center: 7 Ways to Turn Your Mind Into Your Best Ally YouTube: 7 Ways to Turn Your Mind Into Your Best Ally

Written by Dr. Erin Oksol, High Performance Psychologist, Speaker, Author Dr. Erin Oksol. "The Success Psychologist" and founder of The Higher Life, is an expert in the psychology of success and helps evolve the human behind the business. She is the best-selling author of the book Mind Your Own Business, a keynote speaker, high-performance mentor, and host of the Oh How Human of Me Podcast on Substack. I recently took a break from social media. Really, it was a break for my soul. My weary, exhausted, disconnected soul needed a pivot. Here is what I learned, three nudges I noticed and leaned into during my social media sabbatical. 1. We are meant to create exponentially more than we consume Creators know that creating is the medicine. It is the salve for the wounds of the tricky parts of being human, the sadness, anxiety, stagnation. I was addicted to social media. Hey, I’m a recovered alcoholic, I come by it naturally. But seriously, it was bad and by bad, I mean all-consuming. I knew it. I would go searching for my “hit” first thing in the morning and couldn’t go very long without needing the next. The dopamine, ah, the dopamine. Just like drinking worked until it didn’t, the dopamine hits worked until they didn’t. Guess what happens to us humans when we consume? By definition, it means we step out of creating. One cannot create while consuming. So guess what happened when I stopped creating? I stopped being happy. Guess what happened when I stopped consuming? My happiness found its way back to me. 2. Stillness is pregnant with the possibilities of the cosmos I know, so dramatic. Let me explain. For 49 years, I resisted meditating. I had a good run. I don’t know why I was so opposed to it. I think I misunderstood it. I think I expected to be sitting there, doing nothing but trying not to think. Or worse, I imagined sitting still and having to listen to myself think. Neither sounded safe or like a good time. Until I realized that meditating wasn’t about the absence of thought. It was about creating stillness so that I could listen, not to my own thoughts, but to the ideas of the divine creator. I learned that the stillness was not as still as I feared. It was actually buzzing with excitement. It was full, not void, of all sorts of epic ideas and visions, imaginations, and new possibilities. The best part? I could actually hear the voice of God. I became excited to get back to my practice, to wait for God’s call and pick it up. To me, meditating is about contemplating and conversing with the divine. Too cool. 3. We want our real life to be bigger than our digital life You know the saying, “If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?” In my social media addiction, I started to feel like the Velveteen Rabbit, unsure of my realness. When it came to my real life and posting, I noticed myself asking, “If I don’t post it, did it really even happen?” I realized that my obsession with posting my real life actually made me less connected to its reality and, subsequently, its beauty. Think about it, if you have to step away from the moment to capture the moment, it changes the actual moment. I want to live my life way more than I want to document it. I want to experience my life way more than I want to market it. I don’t think we as humans are equipped to metabolize the sheer volume of sensations and information we consume daily. I think much of life is meant to be experienced between ourselves and our higher power. I wonder how these nudges are landing for you. Have you ever taken a break from social media or taken your soul on a sabbatical? Follow me on Facebook, Instagram, and visit my website for more info! Read more from Dr. Erin Oksol Dr. Erin Oksol, High Performance Psychologist, Speaker, Author Dr. Erin Oksol is an expert in the psychology of success and human optimization. She blends science and spirituality to help visionary leaders create a business and life sourced from their truth. She founded The Higher Life, where high performance is informed by and co-created with one's highest self and higher power. Her mission is "to set the captives free", freed from any limitations and freed to live with purpose, peace, and prosperity.

Columbus, GA, wellness entrepreneur, human connection speaker, and global service advocate Versandra Kennebrew officially launches The Power of CommonUnity Tour on Friday, June 5, 2026, in her hometown of Detroit, Michigan. The kickoff event will be held at In Harmony Café Sweets and More, a creative hub located at 12041 Dexter Ave., Detroit, MI 48206. Designed as an immersive experience in relational wellness and community collaboration, the tour invites attendees to step into a space where connection becomes a catalyst for transformation. Kennebrew wants attendees to come prepared to build meaningful connections with other conscious business owners, organizations, and community partners, using a signature community pop-up exercise to demonstrate how shared purpose and collective growth fuel impact. A community-rooted launch with cultural significance The Detroit event is co-hosted with local ambassador Kimle Nailer, a powerhouse in construction and women’s empowerment. Nailer recognized the gathering as a natural prelude to the city’s Juneteenth celebrations and helped connect Kennebrew with the owners of In Harmony Café, an intercultural meeting ground for entrepreneurs, artists, and community builders. The evening will blend conversation, culture, and what Kennebrew calls “empower-tainment”, her unique fusion of spoken word, live messaging, and song, aligned with the café’s popular Friday night karaoke tradition. A dual celebration: Tour launch and Brainz Magazine partnership Kennebrew’s tour launch also marks her debut as a Senior Executive Contributor for Brainz Magazine, a role she embraces as part of her broader mission to elevate global relationship wellness. “I’m happy to celebrate The Power of CommonUnity Tour launch while also celebrating my new assignment as senior executive contributor to Brainz Magazine,” she shares. Beginning January 2027, Kennebrew will serve full-time in West Africa, volunteering on a maternal health mission focused on strengthening mother-infant bonding and promoting healthy lifestyle practices. Her writing and speaking through Brainz Magazine will allow her to remain connected to audiences worldwide while amplifying stories of healing, service, and human connection. Advancing relationship wellness across continents Kennebrew’s work sits at the intersection of healing and entrepreneurship. Her signature programs position touch as a transformative tool for restoring emotional health, deepening intimacy, and strengthening relational resilience. She invites mental health professionals, relationship coaches, and community leaders to explore her Touch Artist Certification, a training designed to elevate how practitioners support individuals and couples navigating emotional and relational challenges. Her expanding Global Relationship Wellness Community will serve as a bridge between continents, uniting people around the belief that human connection is not optional, but essential. Host the tour Organizations, campuses, and community groups interested in bringing The Power of CommonUnity Tour to their city can learn more here. About Versandra Kennebrew Versandra Kennebrew is a visionary wellness entrepreneur, keynote speaker, and author of Touch Me With Love: Intimate Alignment for Couples Through Touch and Yoga. With more than two decades of experience in holistic health and emotional restoration, she designs high-impact programs that integrate yoga, touch therapy, and transformational coaching. As founder of Optimal Living Retreats LP, she is committed to educating, innovating, and collaborating to help couples and communities thrive through intentional connection and wellness.

Written by Joshua Bennett-Johnson, Licensed Counselor & Owner of JBJ Counseling For nearly 14 years, I've helped individuals navigate the complex landscape of addiction in order to achieve recovery. Nicknamed "The Casual Counselor", my approach is unconventional but undeniably effective. Ah, the American treatment industry. As a treater in private practice, I work parallel to it. I’ve even worked directly within it, in three different clinics over the span of 14 years. I often have clients who require a higher level of care than I can provide, creating a need to encourage those individuals toward the business of private drug and alcohol treatment. There are a few programs I trust to provide my clients with high-quality care. I can count them on one hand. So, I make the referral while simultaneously wishing I could burn the entire system into a pile of ashes and rebuild it for the good of the community. Why? The for-profit model of treatment has transformed a staggering public health crisis into an insanely lucrative money-making machine. Valued at tens of billions of dollars, this healthcare sector prioritizes profit margins over patient outcomes. There are some exceptions, but again, they are few. I live and work in one of the most progressive and esteemed locations in this nation, with a reputation for high-quality medical care. Rather than delivering evidence-based medical care that helps create positive, long-term outcomes, the US model really just amounts to a predatory cash grab. Deceptive marketing, undeliverable promises of guaranteed positive outcomes, unscientific treatment modalities, patient brokering, the industry not only fails to help individuals get well, but actually perpetuates the very “disease” it claims to cure. It keeps the train rolling. At the core of the for-profit treatment model lies a fundamental ethical conflict of interest, a “cured patient” does not earn more money for these programs. Healthy individuals do not wake up one day telling themselves, “Life is going great! I think I’ll go check myself into treatment!” True recovery requires long-term, ongoing, community-based support, stable housing, mental health care, and often Medication-Assisted Treatment (MAT). However, the most profitable segment of the industry is short-term, high-acuity rehabilitation. They are referred to by the industry as “residential programs.” They typically provide anywhere from 4–6 weeks of stabilization and care. When insurance companies cut policyholders off from the high costs of that introduction to care, these same residential programs offer lower-cost outpatient services, allowing patients to continue under their umbrella of programming. Insurers generally feel comfortable allocating markedly less revenue to allow the individual a bit more time to receive care. But rest assured, that time won’t last long. Insurance companies decide when a patient has received “enough” help, even if the individual is obviously not ready to leave treatment. Actual clinicians have zero leverage in proving that a person still needs more help. These are the same clinicians who have earned expertise at the level of master’s degrees, doctorates, and MDs to properly assess how well, or not, the patient is doing within their recovery. It is all up to the insurance companies to determine. They make the rules, break the rules, change the rules. They are the rule. They love taking policyholders’ money each month, jacking up their premiums and deductibles. But they do not like giving it back. They are loyal to their shareholders and bottom-line profit margins. Rest assured, they care not a single bit about you, me, or anyone struggling with a health crisis. Any health crisis. It is not limited to substance use. For-profit facilities routinely charge between $20,000 and $80,000 per month for a residential stay. One month. These exorbitant costs are justified by luxury amenities, equine therapy, private chefs, private rooms with oceanfront views, a spa-like atmosphere, rather than clinical excellence. Because commercial insurance typically covers these high rates for only 20 to 30 days, facilities face a financial incentive to maximize intake, exhaust the patient’s insurance benefits, and then discharge them with minimal, if any, personalized or possibly effective aftercare. This dynamic creates the “revolving door” phenomenon. When I was doing per diem group therapy at a highly regarded local program for much of the past year, I asked a client about their personal experience there. They informed me it was their third time receiving treatment at that program in the past two years. “Josh, this place is just a revolving door of relapse,” they told me. “Most of the people in this group? They’ve been here multiple times, too.” When a patient inevitably relapses due to a lack of robust residential and outpatient support, they are often readmitted to the same program, or sometimes a “sister facility.” Two facilities refer patients back and forth to one another, like a game of hot potato. It reignites that highly profitable billing cycle. Brilliant business model for our beloved free-market economic model. Essentially, in a purely capitalistic framework, chronic relapse is not a clinical failure, it is an unending, sustainable business model. It equates to serious wealth at the expense of serious help. It’s also very often built on deceptive marketing and shady business practices. To maintain a steady influx of insured individuals, the for-profit industry relies on aggressive, ethically compromised marketing strategies. After all, with thousands of competitors to contend with, “playing dirty” gives treatment programs an effective edge to “maximize the census,” regardless of whether their program is a good fit for that particular individual’s needs. A prominent example is "patient brokering," a practice where call centers and digital marketing firms masquerade as independent addiction helplines. They have serious dollars to manipulate search engines into placing them at the top of page one when a loved one is searching the web for help for their son, daughter, spouse, or friend. When the vulnerable individual or their family calls seeking help, these entities assess the caller’s insurance policy first, rather than their actual clinical needs. The patient is then sold to the highest bidder, to put it plainly. Very few individuals will ever scroll past page one on that initial web search. It’s called search engine optimization (SEO). The big money players manipulate and hijack local search results for real people seeking real help for life-and-death crises. Anxious and panicked, a family searching for a local, affordable public health clinic will often be subtly redirected to an out-of-state luxury facility. This commodification of human suffering strips patients of their agency and diverts them away from localized, evidence-based care networks. In short, good care, administered by skilled treaters and often at a fair price point, belongs to programs that lack the enormous resources to land at the top of page one because they do the work for the right reasons and with honest principles. These are the programs that genuinely want to help individuals truly heal. Despite the American Medical Association’s (AMA) scientific consensus that addiction is a complex neurobiological disease, many, if not most, for-profit facilities rely heavily on outdated or unproven treatment methods. They do this on purpose, for the record. A significant portion of these centers reject or underutilize FDA-approved medications for opioid use disorders, such as buprenorphine and methadone, which clinical data show reduce mortality rates in opioid users by upwards of 50 percent. Instead, many centers mandate strict abstinence-based 12-step models as their primary clinical approach. While peer-support groups like Alcoholics Anonymous are highly valuable as free, community-based tools, translating them into an expensive, involuntary residential model has zero clinical justification. Why? It’s not evidence-based care. By focusing on experiential therapies and isolating individuals from their real-world environments, these facilities purposely fail to address underlying traumas, socioeconomic stressors, and co-occurring mental health difficulties that drive substance use. This almost guarantees that individuals in early recovery will have a difficult transition when their benefits expire, and they are shown the exit. The consequences of this system extend far beyond financial exploitation. For-profit care actively exacerbates and promotes the substance abuse crisis. When a patient undergoes a forced, rapid detoxification in a residential setting without access to long-term MAT or comprehensive, evidence-based aftercare, their physical tolerance to their substance of choice drops precipitously. This increases the risk not just for relapse but for accidental and often fatal overdose. This is particularly true in the era of highly potent synthetic opioids, like fentanyl, contaminating the street drug supply. By replacing evidence-based medical continuums with fragmented, high-cost interventions, the industry leaves patients more vulnerable than they were before entering treatment. I have had literally hundreds of clients tell me they felt worse after leaving treatment than when they first arrived seeking help, with a modicum of hope. Ultimately, treating drug and alcohol abuse as a commodity rather than a medical condition ensures that public health resources are consumed by corporate profits rather than effective care. Until systemic reforms mandate strict clinical accountability, legislate penalties for predatory marketing, and integrate evidence-based treatment into a regulated healthcare infrastructure, the for-profit rehab industry will remain a perfect, predatory machine that capitalizes on a national tragedy. The owners of these programs, the insurance companies, the shareholders? They love the results. Because, as we’ve all been conditioned to believe in this American society, getting filthy rich, no matter the human cost, is considered the ultimate achievement. As long as it’s not happening to them personally, or to someone they love, I suppose. Follow me on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and visit my website for more info! Read more from Joshua Bennett-Johnson Joshua Bennett-Johnson, Licensed Counselor & Owner of JBJ Counseling After working for 7 years in an amazing clinic, I launched into private practice in 2018. I love my job. I can say that without reservation. Watching people rebuild their lives is something that is worth more than any dollar amount.

Written by Bobby Goodman, Principal and CEO of Goodman Tolbert Running a small business often means being the CEO, marketer, accountant, and customer service team all at once. But trying to do everything alone can lead to burnout, stalled growth, and missed opportunities. There’s a romanticized idea of the small business owner, the visionary who builds something from nothing, hustling day after day, and mastering every role along the way. In reality, most entrepreneurs quickly discover the harrowing truth, you’re not just the CEO. You’re also CMO, CFO, COO, accountant, sales rep, and janitor. Unfortunately, playing every position is impossible. The do it all entrepreneur, in the early stages of a startup business, wears multiple hats. Limited funding almost demands it. Each role in any business requires a totally different mindset, even strategically, for growth. Strategy requires long term thinking, sales demand persuasion and energy, and if you’re an introvert, there’s another obstacle to deal with. Operations call for systems, precision, and now AI. Funding the engine that drives the train demands daily detail and risk assessments. Switching between each role can and does create cognitive overload. It can dilute focus, drain your energy, and lead to burnout. More importantly, it prevents business owners from operating in their zone, the very thing that likely made the business viable from the beginning. There is a hidden cost to doing everything, and I can personally attest to that. Growth stalls, you’re too busy maintaining to expand. Quality drops, and spreading yourself too thin leads to mistakes and customer service nightmares. Opportunities are missed, and strategic thinking gets replaced by constant task execution. This is where many small businesses plateau, not because the idea isn’t strong, but because the structure can’t support growth. A corporate trained individual will say, “Just delegate.” Easier said than done. Hiring takes money, time, and, not to mention, finding someone who can see your vision and execute that vision daily. Training someone requires systems you don’t have because you were so busy doing everything else, you never had the chance to put them in place. No SOPs, it’s all in your head. Outsourcing can be risky when money is tight. Now we’re getting to the problems. This creates gaps between where the business is and where it needs to go. That gap is exactly where the aforementioned AI steps in. AI as the ultimate support team. I know what you’re thinking, stop it, but when you’re starting out, cost, profit margin, and execution are everything for your business. Artificial intelligence isn’t just a trend, now it’s a practical solution to one of the oldest problems in entrepreneurship. I used to say I had two assistants that worked for me 24/7, Google and YouTube, and they were free. Think of AI not as a replacement for people, but as a force multiplier for your time and effort. Here’s how it can help you stop playing every position. Marketing: AI tools can generate content ideas, write social media posts, draft email campaigns, and even analyze audience behavior. Instead of spending hours staring at a blank screen, you can move faster with a clear direction. Customer communication: From chatbots to automated responses, AI can handle common customer inquiries, freeing you to focus on high value interactions that actually grow relationships. Simplify operations: AI can assist in scheduling, task management, and workflow automation. Repetitive tasks, once a major time drainer, can run in the background with minimal oversight. Smarter financial insight: AI tools can track expenses, forecast trends, and highlight inefficiencies, giving you clarity without requiring you to become a financial expert. Decision support, not just data: One of AI’s most powerful roles is helping you think. It can summarize reports, identify patterns, and even offer strategic suggestions based on your goals. Running a small business will always require adaptability and resilience, but the expectation that you should excel at every role is outdated and, quite frankly, unrealistic. You don’t need to be everything. AI doesn’t replace the entrepreneur, it restores them. Follow her on Instagram, LinkedIn, and visit my website for more info! Read more from Bobby Goodman Bobby Goodman, Principal and CEO of Goodman Tolbert Bobby Goodman is an entrepreneur and advocate for small business growth who understands the realities of business from the ground up. Through firsthand experience, he shares insights on leadership, burnout, and the importance of delegation in entrepreneurship. In Wearing Every Hat: Why Small Business Owners Can't Do It All, Goodman explores the challenges many business owners face while trying to balance every role on their own.

Singapore, 6 June 2026 – In a city known for its pace, ambition, and constant movement, The Curious Circle by El Brand offers something increasingly valuable: a space for genuine conversation. Launched by Singapore-based cross-border marketing agency El Brand, The Curious Circle is a curated gathering that brings together founders, creatives, business leaders, and decision-makers from diverse industries to exchange ideas, challenge perspectives, and build meaningful connections through curiosity. The inaugural edition, held on 22 May 2026 at Chez Suzette in Singapore, gathered women leaders, entrepreneurs, architects, designers, marketers, and innovators under the theme "Curious Women Build Powerful Things." The evening focused not on traditional networking but on thoughtful conversations, shared experiences, and the possibilities that emerge when people from different disciplines come together. "Community is not about size, but about supporting and building trust," said Paula Andrade, Founder of El Brand and creator of The Curious Circle. "We wanted to create a space where conversations have depth, where people feel comfortable sharing ideas, and where connections are built through curiosity rather than transactions." The event featured speakers from various industries who explored topics spanning leadership, sustainability, personal identity, collaboration, and the environments that shape how people work and grow. Featured speakers included: Naomi Chang, Business Development Manager of The Work Boulevard, shared insights on how physical environments influence creativity, confidence, and professional growth. Clarence Koo, Founder of Amica Labs and Signal House, discussed the importance of collaboration, trust, and cross-border partnerships in an increasingly connected Southeast Asia. Alodia Cecilia, Founder of ACMS, who explored the relationship between personal style, self-awareness, and authentic self-expression. Ar. Joan De Leon-Tabinas, Managing Director of CORE+ Studio and Founding Partner of GBUILDEX, spoke about sustainability, leadership, and designing systems that serve both people and communities. The gathering also welcomed media leaders, entrepreneurs, and professionals from across Southeast Asia, including representatives from The Metro Edit and Expat Living. According to attendees, what distinguished The Curious Circle was its intentional atmosphere. Rather than focusing on scale, the event prioritized meaningful exchanges, thoughtful dialogue, and authentic relationship-building. The result was an evening where conversations continued long after the formal program had ended. The concept behind The Curious Circle reflects El Brand's belief that curiosity remains one of the most valuable drivers of innovation, collaboration, and growth. Research continues to show that curiosity strengthens learning, relationship-building, and the exploration of new ideas, making it a critical ingredient in both personal and professional development. Following the success of its first edition, El Brand plans to continue growing The Curious Circle as a recurring platform for founders, creatives, business leaders, and curious minds seeking meaningful conversations and collaborative opportunities. The initiative aligns with El Brand's broader mission of connecting people, ideas, and opportunities across borders through storytelling, community-building, and strategic partnerships. About The Curious Circle The Curious Circle is a curated event series created by El Brand that brings together founders, creatives, leaders, and decision-makers for meaningful conversations, idea-sharing, and authentic relationship-building. Through carefully curated discussions and community gatherings, The Curious Circle aims to create spaces where curiosity leads to collaboration, learning, and new possibilities. About El Brand El Brand is a Singapore-based cross-border marketing agency that helps businesses strengthen their brand presence, connect with the right audiences, and grow through strategic storytelling, digital marketing, branding, website development, SEO, AI visibility, events, and partnerships. Founded by Paula Andrade, El Brand works with brands across Singapore, the Philippines, and Southeast Asia. Media contact El Brand Pte Ltd Email: marketing.elbrand@gmail.com WhatsApp: +65 8493 6997 Website: www.elbrand.solutions

Written by Samantha J. Goddard, Self-Mastery & Leadership Mentor Samantha Goddard is a Self-Mastery & Leadership Mentor, author and the creator of the Reiki Remastered™ framework. Her work explores the intersection of energy, leadership and personal responsibility, supporting individuals to cultivate depth, resilience and conscious alignment in modern life. From the outside, many women appear to be thriving. They are capable, high-functioning and outwardly successful. They are building businesses, leading teams, raising families, supporting others, managing responsibilities and continuing to achieve. They are often the women others rely upon and the ones who hold everything together. I have been that woman. Yet beneath that external capability, many are quietly carrying a very different internal experience, a growing disconnection from themselves. This is not necessarily because something has gone catastrophically wrong, but because somewhere along the line, constant pressure, performance and responsibility have slowly and quietly pulled them away from their own internal relationship and authentic self. This is something I see increasingly with the women I work with. Women who are intelligent, self-aware and deeply capable. Women who have often already invested significantly in their personal growth and development and who, on paper, are doing well. Yet privately, they describe feeling flat, lost, overwhelmed, emotionally exhausted and disconnected from their own sense of meaning, clarity or purpose. What is important to recognise is that this is not always burnout in the traditional sense. In fact, many women continue functioning exceptionally well. They continue to achieve, be productive and support everyone around them. Externally, they continue to appear and state that everything is “fine”. However, something I have come to realise after years of lived experience is that “fine” is often an immediate red flag of disconnection. An autopilot response born from cultural conditioning and from not having the time, space or tools to stop and ask ourselves truthfully, “How am I feeling?” This is a simple exercise I invite so many of my clients to do. Pause, breathe into the belly and ask yourself the question, “How am I?” Then stop long enough to genuinely listen to the body’s response, not that of the mind. For many, it is incredible to witness the void between “fine” and the actual answer they find. Performance over presence Modern culture often rewards performance over presence. We are encouraged to achieve, improve and push forward almost constantly. As a result, extreme productivity becomes normalised and over-functioning becomes praised. Over time, this can create a dangerous disconnect. Eventually, many women become highly skilled at managing life externally whilst simultaneously losing touch with what is happening within themselves. Their nervous systems remain in a near-constant state of activation. Their bodies rarely fully rest, and their minds rarely become quiet. Their internal landscape becomes something only briefly visited in the spaces between responsibilities, if at all. The problem is that no amount of external success can fully compensate for a loss of connection with ourselves. Achievement may temporarily distract from disconnection. It may even validate us socially for a time, but it cannot replace the fundamental human need for presence, purpose and relationship with self. This is true of all human beings. It is also why, on so many occasions, we reach goals once longed for, only to discover that something still feels missing. Awareness changes everything Over the past few years, I have found myself speaking more and more about awareness because I believe awareness changes everything. Real mindful awareness. Not the overly curated version often presented online, but the ability to notice ourselves honestly. To recognise when we are operating from pressure rather than presence. To become aware of the nervous system patterns driving our behaviours. To observe the ways we abandon ourselves in order to maintain performance, approval or productivity, and to be brave enough to ask ourselves why. This is where practices such as mindfulness, breathwork, Reiki and embodiment become so important, not as trends or quick fixes, but as foundational tools for returning to ourselves. True self-mastery is not about becoming more impressive or mirroring someone else. It is the ongoing practice of remaining connected to ourselves as life ebbs and flows around us. It is learning how to lead, achieve, create and grow without abandoning our own wellbeing, truth or humanity in the process. It is developing the capacity to pause, listen, feel and become more honest about what is actually sustainable for us, so that we can begin to recognise that slowing down is not the same as falling behind. A different relationship with success For many men and women, this requires an entirely different relationship with themselves and with success itself. A movement away from constant proving and perpetual performance towards a more embodied, sustainable and internally connected way of living and leading. Because ultimately, success means very little if we lose ourselves whilst trying to maintain it. So perhaps the real invitation is not to enter this next chapter from a place of old habits, conditioning and behaviours, but instead to reconnect with who we are beneath them and learn to lead from that place. Follow me on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and visit my website for more info! Read more from Samantha J Goddard Samantha J. Goddard, Self-Mastery & Leadership Mentor Samantha Goddard is a Self-Mastery & Leadership Mentor, author and the creator of the Reiki Remastered™ framework. With over 25 years of experience guiding individuals through personal and professional transformation, her work integrates energetic intelligence, nervous system awareness and disciplined self-development. Samantha supports artists, entrepreneurs and leaders to cultivate deeper alignment, resilience and clarity in times of transition and growth. Her work emphasises depth over performance and personal responsibility as the foundation of meaningful leadership and service.

Written by Danielle Van de Velde, Meditation Teacher, Reiki Master, Psychic Medium, and Author Dani Van de Velde is a passionate advocate for living a spiritually aligned life in the modern world. She is a meditation teacher, Reiki Master, psychic medium, and author of Spirited. She is the founder of Spirited Living and Spirited Business online communities, a broadcaster on News for the Soul Radio, and host of The Modern Crone podcast. We like to believe we make decisions consciously, choosing our careers, relationships, priorities, and paths through deliberate thought and free will. Yet beneath almost every decision lies something quieter and more powerful, our values. Values shape what we pursue, what we tolerate, what we defend, and what we are willing to sacrifice. They influence our politics, relationships, boundaries, ambitions, ethics, and even how we define success. Our values, both as a person and in business, are like our inner counsel, guiding us when we make decisions about partners, collaborators, and opportunities, and alerting us when something or someone breaches them. They also inform us about the type of client and client behaviours we want to attract, and when we may need to make the call to let a client go. When we haven’t given much intentional thought to our values, the signals from them usually emerge as a felt cognitive dissonance, which we can override and then regret not seeing the ‘red flags’ in hindsight. When we are clear about our values, we recognise much more consciously when an event, opportunity, or person is not aligned with us, and we can respond graciously with choice and discernment. Clarifying our values is a key first step in my Spirited Business coaching program for founders of businesses that offer wellbeing to others. I have learned that when we align with our values and make decisions from that alignment, our offerings send clear, powerful signals to the universe. We become magnetic, even when we turn down misaligned opportunities. The fascinating thing is that many of our values are inherited long before they are examined. They arrive through family systems, culture, religion, education, trauma, reward, survival, and belonging. Over time, they become internalised, invisible operating systems that quietly guide our lives beneath conscious awareness. Yet most people rarely stop to ask: What are my values? Do these values still belong to me? This is where the idea of Active Values begins, consciously examined, intentionally chosen values that actively shape how we live and work. I believe this is an exercise that is best repeated because values are not static. They evolve as we do. The quality of our lives is often shaped by whether we live according to conscious values or unconscious conditioning. The values we never chose Many of the values we hold began as adaptations. A child raised in instability may grow into an adult who values control above all else. Someone who received love for achievement may unconsciously prioritise productivity over well being. A person raised to maintain harmony at any cost may value loyalty while quietly sacrificing themselves in relationships. Some values are deeply beautiful. Others are survival strategies, dressed as virtue. Because these values often operate invisibly, we mistake them for identity. We say, “That’s just who I am.” But maturity often involves recognising that some of our most deeply held values were shaped by environments we have already outgrown. One of the most confronting forms of self awareness is realising that a value that once protected us may now be limiting us. The quiet consequences of unexamined values We rarely intentionally destroy our lives. More often than not, we follow unconscious values to their logical conclusion. A person who unconsciously values external approval may remain in relationships that diminish them. Someone who values achievement above balance may slowly burn themselves out. A business owner driven primarily by visibility or status may eventually lose touch with the deeper purpose that once animated their work. In my arena, I see so many spiritual practitioners driven by a desire to be perceived as ‘special’. Many crises are, at their core, values crises. Moments when our outer life no longer reflects what our deeper self knows to be true. I have experienced this personally in my work. There have been opportunities I have deliberately declined because, although they may have offered visibility or financial gain, they did not sit well with my values. One was a proposed mediumship demonstration for a well known documentary maker, which leaned heavily towards spectacle and performance. While genuine healing is possible within evidential mediumship, this event felt more aligned with entertainment than with meaningful spiritual service. I could feel subtle pressure to perform spirituality rather than facilitate insight, reflection, or transformation. I politely declined. Another client’s primary interest was not inner work, healing, or growth, but testing psychic ability itself. The interaction shifted from self awareness to proving or disproving something externally. I suggested they see another healer. While discernment is healthy, the energetic dynamic felt fundamentally misaligned. Earlier in my career, I may have said yes out of obligation, for visibility, under financial pressure, or out of fear of missing an opportunity. But values clarity changes decision making. Sometimes the most important thing we do is decline what pulls us away from ourselves. Active values When people are disconnected from their values, they often lose touch with their intuition as well. Decisions become reactive rather than aligned. Success becomes externally measured rather than internally experienced. I have watched members of our 2026 Spirited Business cohort start making radically different decisions once they became clearer about what genuinely matters to them. Some turned down clients who consistently drained them. Others stepped away from partnerships that looked impressive but felt energetically off. Some stopped underpricing themselves to maintain approval or avoid discomfort. Almost every time, something remarkable happened. Space opened. New opportunities arrived that were more resonant, reciprocal, sustainable, creative, and alive. This is one of the paradoxes of values based living. When we say “no” to opportunities that breach our values, we also say “yes” to those that honour them. Alignment itself becomes magnetic. Values shape energy, boundaries, self trust, and the standards we unconsciously communicate to the world. Over time, they shape what we allow ourselves to receive. Values evolve as we do What we value at twenty may not be what we value at forty. Life and experience shift priorities. Illness can make us value vitality. Grief can make us value presence. Burnout can make us value simplicity. Parenthood can reshape our identity. A spiritual awakening can redefine our sense of success. Sometimes the most courageous thing we can do is admit that our old values no longer fit who we are becoming. That can be uncomfortable, especially when those values are tied to family expectations, cultural conditioning, identity, or a sense of social belonging. But there is a profound liberation in consciously redefining what matters according to our truth. Fulfilment and coherence Fulfilment is not merely getting what we want. It is experiencing a sense of coherence between our inner world and our outer life. There is a psychological and even physiological cost to living in ways that run counter to our values for prolonged periods. Internal conflict creates stress. Fragmentation drains energy. Pretending exhausts the nervous system. By contrast, alignment creates a different quality of experience, coherence. A sense that who we are internally and how we live externally are no longer in conflict. Perhaps this is where self trust truly begins, in no longer abandoning ourselves in the process of making it. Living by active values Living consciously by values requires honesty. It requires us to examine: What do I actually believe? What matters most to me now? What am I no longer willing to betray within myself? Where does my life feel aligned? Where does it not? Values are not proven by what we say. They are revealed by what we repeatedly choose. Transformation comes when we become deliberate, one aligned decision at a time. When we have not consciously examined our values, we often mistake them for universal truths rather than personal frameworks shaped by experience, culture, conditioning, and identity. From there, it becomes easy to judge others whose choices, lifestyles, ambitions, relationships, or beliefs do not mirror our own. Passive values often create rigidity. We unconsciously divide the world into “right” and “wrong,” successful and unsuccessful, worthy and unworthy, without realising we are often measuring others against inherited standards we never consciously chose. But active values create something quite different. When values become conscious, embodied, and intentionally lived, they stop being tools for judgement and become sources of personal power. True alignment creates coherence, and coherence is magnetic. People feel it. Opportunities respond to it. Relationships reorganise around it. The clearer we live by our values, the more our lives begin to reflect them. Misaligned opportunities lose their appeal. Aligned experiences become easier to recognise and receive. Our values shape our decisions. Our decisions shape our behaviour. Our behaviour shapes the energetic and practical reality we build around ourselves. Certainly, in my own experience and that of the people I coach, over time, we stop chasing everything. Begin attracting what genuinely belongs. When was the last time you intentionally examined what you stand for in your life? Follow me on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn for more info! Read more from Danielle Van de Velde Danielle Van de Velde, Meditation Teacher, Reiki Master, Psychic Medium, and Author Dani Van de Velde is a meditation teacher, Reiki Master, psychic medium, and author of Spirited. She is the founder of the Spirited Living and Spirited Business communities, supporting spiritually aligned growth and conscious leadership. Dani is a broadcaster on News for the Soul Radio and host of The Modern Crone podcast, exploring modern spirituality and embodied wisdom. Her work bridges intuition and everyday life, offering grounded, accessible pathways to self-trust and inner clarity. She is known for a warm, practical approach that honours both the mystical and the real.

Written by Paula Rose Castronova, Global Sustainability Voice Paula Rose Castronova is a sustainability leader and speaker who turns complex concepts into practical action. She champions sustainability as a human issue, uniting strategy and everyday choices to align purpose with performance and inspire systemic, real-world change. For too long, sustainability has been framed as something managed by institutions while individuals watch from the sidelines, waiting for change to happen elsewhere. This article explores why that mindset is shifting and how the future of sustainability depends on everyday people stepping into active, personal leadership. The future of sustainability is not passive, it is personal For years, sustainability has been treated as a problem for governments, scientists, activists, and corporations to solve. People have largely been cast as spectators, encouraged to recycle more, consume less, and hope those in power make the right decisions. But something is changing. Across the world, people are beginning to recognize that sustainability is not simply an environmental issue. It is also a leadership, cultural, and human issue. It shapes how we live, work, buy, build, communicate, educate, vote, innovate, and care for one another. The future will not be shaped by passive awareness alone. It will be made by active participation. This is where Active Sustainability Leadership emerges, not as a title reserved for executives or policymakers, but as a mindset available to everyone. It is the recognition that leadership begins the moment we stop waiting for permission to care, to act, and to influence change. People have always created extraordinary change throughout history. Sustainability’s evolution will be no different. Sustainability is no longer a side conversation There was a time when sustainability sat on the sidelines, discussed mostly within environmental circles, scientific communities, or political debates. Today, it touches every part of our lives. Climate events are reshaping economies, insurance systems, food production, migration, health, infrastructure, and global stability. Oceans are under pressure. Biodiversity is in decline. Waste systems are overwhelmed. The fashion, technology, agriculture, construction, and energy industries are now forced to confront the consequences of unsustainable growth. At the same time, people are facing a quieter crisis beneath the headline. Emotional exhaustion, eco anxiety, disconnection, and uncertainty about the future. Many of us know something is wrong. The challenge is that awareness alone does not automatically lead to action. In fact, awareness without direction can create paralysis. People become overwhelmed by the scale of the problems and underestimate the power of their own influence. They assume sustainability belongs to experts and wait for governments to legislate change or for corporations to innovate solutions. Meanwhile, they disconnect from the role they themselves can play. But sustainability was never meant to be outsourced entirely to institutions. It was always meant to be lived. The myth that leadership belongs to important people One of the greatest misconceptions in modern society is that leadership belongs only to those with authority, wealth, status, or visibility. We have been conditioned to equate leadership with titles such as CEO, politician, activist, founder, or expert. Yet real leadership has never been confined to boardrooms or podiums. Leadership is influence. It is a parent teaching a child to value nature that demonstrates leadership, and a teacher inspiring critical thinking who practices leadership. It is a business owner transforming supply chains who is a leader, or a consumer choosing to support ethical brands who is leading the way. A community member starting difficult conversations is practicing leadership, and just as significant, a young person refusing to accept indifference is a leader. Active sustainability leadership recognizes that influence exists everywhere. Some of the most transformative movements in history began not with institutions, but with individuals who chose to think, speak, and act differently long before society caught up. The sustainability transition will require millions of people stepping into leadership in their own way, not perfectly, but deliberately and with intention. From passive awareness to active participation Modern society has become effective at producing information. We are bombarded with headlines, documentaries, statistics, warnings, and predictions about the planet's future. Yet information rarely changes behavior. People do not transform because they are overloaded with facts, they transform when something becomes emotionally real and personally relevant. This is why Active Sustainability Leadership is not just about knowledge. It is about participation. It asks a deeper question. Now that you know, what will you do? This question shifts sustainability from abstract concern to lived responsibility. It invites people to move beyond guilt, fear, or performative gestures and into conscious, meaningful engagement with the world around them. Participation will look different for everyone. It may mean changing the way a person shops or consumes, or it may involve reshaping business practices. It could be using a person’s voice, creativity, platform, or profession to influence wider systems. The goal is not perfection. The goal is momentum, because sustainable change is built through participation at scale. Small actions are never small One of the most damaging beliefs people hold is that individual actions do not matter. People often say, “What difference can one person make?”, “My actions are too small”, “The problem is too big”. Yet history repeatedly proves otherwise. Cultural shifts rarely begin with majorities, they begin with small groups of people willing to act before it is convenient. Every large scale transformation starts somewhere. A conversation, business decision, innovation, refusal to accept the status quo, or one person influencing another. Individual actions matter not only because of their direct impact but also because of their ripple effect. Human beings are deeply influenced by social behavior. We mirror norms, values, habits, and expectations. When sustainable actions become visible, they become culturally contagious. This is how change spreads. A single business adopting ethical practices can influence its competitors. Communities reducing waste can influence councils and local policy. Consumers demanding transparency can influence entire industries. Parents influence future generations. Creators influence audiences. Employees influence workplaces. No action exists in isolation. The real power of Active Sustainability Leadership lies in recognizing that everyday choices, consistently made, collectively reshape systems. Sustainability is about more than the environment One of the core limitations of traditional sustainability conversations is that they are often framed solely through an environmental lens. But sustainability is not simply about protecting nature, it is about sustaining life itself. That includes environmental wellbeing, but it also encompasses mental health, social equity, community resilience, ethical leadership, cultural values, economic systems, education, and human connection. A society disconnected from empathy cannot create a sustainable future. A business built on exploitation cannot claim to be sustainable. A culture driven entirely by overconsumption cannot sustain wellbeing. This is why sustainability must be holistic. The future requires leaders who understand the interconnectedness of people, planet, purpose, and progress. Active Sustainability Leadership recognizes that external sustainability and internal sustainability are deeply intertwined. How we treat ourselves often mirrors how we treat the world around us. Burnout culture, relentless consumption, emotional disconnection, and environmental destruction are not separate issues, they are symptoms of a deeper imbalance in how modern society defines success. The future demands a new model of leadership, one rooted not only in productivity, but in consciousness, responsibility, adaptability, and care. Businesses have the influence Businesses hold enormous power in shaping the future. They influence supply chains, employment, consumer behavior, innovation, media narratives, manufacturing systems, investment flows, and cultural aspirations. For decades, sustainability was treated by business as an optional add on or a marketing tactic. Today, it is rapidly becoming a defining factor in long term resilience and trust. Consumers are asking questions about where products come from, who made them, how they are sourced, what impact they create, and whether businesses genuinely live up to their stated values. The shift toward sustainability is not driven by consumers alone, as employees, investors, and younger generations also demand greater accountability. The business that thrives in the future will be the one that understands sustainability not as a constraint, but as a catalyst for innovation. This moment calls for courageous leadership, leadership not driven purely by quarterly profits, but willing to think long term. Active sustainability leadership in business means recognizing that influence carries responsibility. It means understanding that every industry, from fashion to food, construction to technology, beauty to energy, has the capacity either to accelerate harm or to drive regeneration. Governments have the incentive Governments also play a critical role in shaping sustainable futures. Policy, infrastructure, incentives, regulation, education systems, and international cooperation all influence the speed and scale of societal transformation. However, governments rarely move independently of public pressure and cultural demand. Political systems often respond when populations begin demanding different priorities. This is why people still matter. Communities influence politics. Culture shapes policy. Public expectations guide leadership. The relationship between citizens and institutions is deeply interconnected. Active Sustainability Leadership does not reject systemic responsibility, it strengthens it by recognizing that systems themselves are shaped by human behavior, public values, and collective participation. The future requires both top down and bottom up change working together. The emotional side of sustainability One of the least discussed aspects of sustainability is the emotional experience that surrounds it. Many people today feel overwhelmed by the state of the world. They feel fear for future generations, grief for environmental loss, confusion in the face of misinformation, guilt about consumption, frustration about inaction, and helplessness in the face of scale. Yet these emotional responses are deeply human. The danger is not in feeling them, it is becoming immobilized by them. Fear without empowerment creates paralysis. Awareness without action creates despair. This is why hope must become active. Not blind optimism, denial, or toxic positivity. Active hope is the decision to participate in building better outcomes, even when uncertainty exists. Active Sustainability Leadership helps transform eco anxiety into agency. It reminds us that while no individual can solve every problem alone, every individual can contribute meaningfully to collective progress, and this is how we change history. Redefining what progress looks like For generations, society has equated progress with speed, consumption, expansion, and economic growth at any cost. Yet many of the systems driving modern success are also fueling ecological strain, social fragmentation, and declining wellbeing. The future demands a broader definition of progress. What if progress also meant healthier communities, cleaner oceans, regenerative agriculture, circular economies, ethical innovation, mental wellbeing, stronger relationships, long term resilience, deeper connection to nature, and purpose driven business? Sustainability challenges us to rethink not only how we live, but why we live the way we do. This does not mean rejecting advancement or modernity, it means evolving them. The next era of leadership will likely belong to those who can balance innovation with responsibility and ambition with awareness. The power of becoming At its core, sustainability is not only about saving the planet, it is about becoming the kind of people who can create a better future. This is a deeply personal process. At some point, each of us reaches a moment of awareness. A moment when we can no longer unknow what we know. The question then becomes, "Will that awareness lead to avoidance, or to transformation?" Active Sustainability Leadership invites people into transformation, not through shame, not through perfection, but through participation. It calls on individuals to recognize their influence, reclaim their agency, and contribute their unique strengths to positive change. The future will not be shaped by institutions alone. It will also be created by people who decide that indifference is no longer enough. Conclusion: Extraordinary change begins with us The sustainability enterprise is not waiting for superheroes. It is waiting for participation, and the future will be shaped by millions of decisions made every day, what we support, tolerate, consume, teach, create, value, ignore, and choose to change. Active Sustainability Leadership means recognizing that leadership is not reserved for the few, it belongs to anyone willing to engage consciously with the future. Extraordinary change has always begun this way, not with perfection, not with certainty, but with people who choose to move forward. The most important shift of our time is not technological or political, it is human, and it begins the moment people realize they are not powerless. Follow me on LinkedIn and visit my website for more info! Read more from Paula Rose Castronova Paula Rose Castronova, Global Sustainability Voice Paula Rose Castronova is a sustainability leader, speaker, and holistic thought architect transforming how people and organizations respond to today’s defining challenges. With a career rooted in creativity, design, storytelling, and leadership, she turns complex sustainability ideas into clear, actionable pathways. She sees sustainability as fundamentally human, shaped by how we live, lead, consume, and connect. As an Active Sustainability Director, she identifies opportunities where others see obstacles, using systems thinking to link environmental, social, and economic issues. Through her writing, speaking, and strategy, she bridges policy and daily action, turning knowledge into meaningful change.