Written by Jessie Rose, Relationship Identity Breakthrough Coach Jessie Rose, a Relationship and Identity Coach, helps individuals overcome emotional and physical barriers to unlock their true potential. Through her personalized coaching programs, she empowers clients to achieve lasting transformation in their relationships, health, and overall well-being. At some point, you may notice that you are no longer responding to yourself in the way you once did. Not because you have chosen to ignore what you feel, but because your attention has gradually shifted outward. What is happening internally becomes less immediate. Decisions are made more from what is expected, required, or familiar, rather than from what is actually being experienced in the moment. Recognizing shifts in self-love This movement does not happen all at once. It develops over time, often in response to environments where maintaining connection, stability, or safety required adjustment. Emotional responses are contained, needs are minimised, and internal cues are set aside in order to navigate what is in front of you. At the time, this is adaptive. It allows you to function. But gradually, the relationship with your own experience becomes less direct. From there, what is often described as a lack of self-love begins to appear. In reality, it is not an absence of care. It is a disruption in connection. The body continues to register and respond to everything you experience. Not only through thought, but through sensation, emotional shifts, and changes in physiological state. These responses are part of a wider system that interprets information and signals how to respond. This intelligence is not confined to the mind. It is distributed throughout the body, including the nervous system, the gut, and the heart. Each contributes their own experience of your reality to how you orient, decide, and engage with the world around you. When access to these systems is clear, there is a natural sense of direction. Choices feel grounded. Responses are more immediate. There is less reliance on over-analysis and more capacity to respond in real time. When past experience remains active within the system, however, that clarity becomes less accessible. Unresolved emotional material, what can be understood as interference, alters how signals are received and interpreted. Information may be delayed, overridden, or questioned. The connection between what is felt and how it is acted upon weakens. From the outside, this can resemble a lack of self-love. Internally, it is a breakdown in communication. Shifting this does not come from adding new behaviours or trying to think differently. It comes from restoring access, allowing the system to register and respond with greater accuracy again. This begins with noticing, not correcting, not forcing. Simply allowing what is already present to become more visible. As this develops, changes begin to emerge. There is less distance between the intelligence systems and your experience, and response. Decisions begin to reflect internal alignment rather than external pressure. Situations that once felt manageable may no longer feel sustainable. What you tolerate starts to shift. This is not driven by effort. It reflects increased coherence within the system. In my own experience, this did not come from trying to improve myself. It came through reconnecting with my body in a way that allowed it to regulate and recover, not through control, but through the removal of what had been interfering with that process. This is something I now see consistently. The system does not need to be taught how to function. It needs to be able to function without obstruction. When that begins to happen, the changes extend beyond the relationship with self. Interactions feel different. Tolerance for misalignment reduces. There is less inclination to override what is recognised internally. Remaining connected, even when something is uncomfortable, becomes more possible. From here, the idea of self-love becomes less relevant as a concept. It becomes visible in behaviour, in decisions, in how you respond to yourself in moments that matter. This does not remove challenge or discomfort, but it alters the way both are experienced. What was once managed becomes understood. What was once avoided becomes accessible. What was once disconnected begins to integrate. From that place, the language of self-love begins to fall away, not because it no longer matters, but because it is no longer absent. A final reflection Perhaps self-love is not something to develop, but something that becomes visible when nothing is interrupting your connection to yourself. So it becomes something to return to. Reflect on this Where do you move away from your own experience? What do you notice but not act on? What changes when you allow yourself to remain present with what you feel? If you’d like to explore more or work with Jessie Rose, take a look here and book a free transformative discovery call. Follow me on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and visit my website for more info! Read more from Jessie Rose Jessie Rose, Relationship Identity Breakthrough Coach Jessie Rose is an award-winning, UK-based, international-level Identity/ Relational Intelligence Transformational Coach in the field of Wellbeing and Personal Development. Through her work, integrating several processes rooted in science, she supports individuals to break through limitations by reconnecting with their inner intelligences, their own capacity for self-regulation, self-healing, and meaningful change across relationships, health, performance, and purpose.

Written by Elle Kersey, Founder of Luxe Maverick Elle Kersey is the founder of Luxe Maverick, specializing in sports portfolio asset protection. Her work centers on auditing and managing the Capacity Field to ensure alignment with contracted capacity and financial outcomes. The performance economy has changed. The way we define readiness has to change with it. In modern sport, the word “cleared” carries enormous weight. Once an athlete is medically cleared, a quiet assumption enters the room: that the athlete is available, ready, and capable of returning to the expected level of output. But availability is not the same as capacity. An athlete can be cleared and still not be operating at full performance capacity. They can be active, visible, and participating while still carrying post-injury limitations that affect explosiveness, confidence, reaction time, load tolerance, durability, range of motion, and consistency. That distinction matters because sport is no longer just a game-day performance environment. It is an investment environment. Contracts, scholarships, NIL deals, sponsorships, roster decisions, transfer opportunities, draft projections, media value, and long-term career outcomes are all influenced by performance capacity. When capacity is assumed instead of verified, every stakeholder carries risk. The post-clearance field is where value begins to leak Traditional recovery systems are built around injury status, medical progression, rehabilitation timelines, and return-to-play clearance. Those checkpoints matter. They are essential. But they do not always answer the bigger performance question, "Is the athlete actually back to the level of output their opportunity, contract, role, or valuation depends on?" This is where the post-clearance field appears. At Luxe Maverick, we define the post-clearance field as the active space between medical clearance and true performance capacity. It is where residual trauma, compensation patterns, scar tissue interference, mobility restrictions, reduced circulation, reduced range of motion, and protective movement habits can remain active beneath the surface. The athlete may no longer be injured in the traditional sense, but they may not be fully restored either. That difference can affect every layer of the sports economy. This is also where capacity leakage begins. Capacity leakage occurs when an athlete is present, available, and participating, but unable to consistently access the level of output their role, contract, scholarship, brand deal, or valuation assumes. That is not just a performance issue, it is a governance issue. For athletes, this field can become overtraining disguised as discipline Athletes are often praised for pushing through. They train harder, add more sessions, and chase the feeling of getting back to themselves. But when the body is still managing unresolved post-traumatic factors, more work does not always create better results. Sometimes it creates an overload. An athlete who is cleared but not restored may compensate through other muscles, joints, or movement patterns. Their output may fluctuate. Their recovery window may lengthen. Their confidence may feel inconsistent because the body is not giving them the same feedback it is used to. From the outside, this can look like underperformance, hesitation, poor conditioning, or lack of discipline. In reality, the athlete may be operating inside an unresolved capacity field. When that field is not identified, the athlete may train harder against a limitation that needs correction rather than motivation. For agents, the field can suppress valuation Agents are not just managing contracts; they are managing timing, leverage, perception, opportunity, and long-term earning power. A player who is technically available but not performing at full capacity may lose leverage without anyone clearly identifying why. The film may look inconsistent. Testing may not reflect the athlete’s true ceiling. A small performance decline may affect draft projection, roster position, contract negotiations, transfer desirability, or confidence in renewal. This is especially important because value loss does not always announce itself as a major injury. Sometimes it shows up as a half-step slower, reduced explosiveness, missed reps, lower confidence from decision-makers, or a quiet shift in how the athlete is discussed. For agents, understanding the post-clearance field creates a new layer of protection. It gives them a way to ask a sharper question before their valuation drops, "Is this athlete truly underperforming, or are they operating below restored capacity?" That question changes the conversation. Because if the athlete is still carrying unresolved capacity limitations, the issue is not simply performance decline, it may be capacity leakage. For trainers and performance teams, the field affects programming accuracy Trainers are often asked to build performance on top of incomplete restoration. That creates a problem. If the athlete has hidden restrictions, compensation patterns, or unresolved tissue interference, the performance program may be technically sound but applied to a body that is not fully ready to absorb it. This can cause frustration for both the athlete and the trainer. The athlete works hard but does not progress as expected. The trainer adjusts load, intensity, volume, or mechanics, but the same limitations keep returning. Understanding the post-clearance field allows trainers to separate three different issues, "Is this a programming issue? Is this a conditioning issue? Or is this a capacity integrity issue?" That distinction matters. If the limitation is structural, compensatory, or post-traumatic, better programming alone may not solve it. The athlete may need capacity correction before performance acceleration can fully take hold. For teams and front offices, the field becomes financial exposure At the organizational level, the problem becomes even larger. Teams often measure availability, injury status, participation, and performance output. But many do not have a clear mechanism for identifying whether a cleared athlete is performing at the level the organization is financially committed to. A player can be active and still be under-realizing contracted performance capacity. This creates performance volatility, roster uncertainty, and financial leakage. The issue is not simply whether the athlete is playing; it is whether the organization is receiving the performance value it has already committed to. This is why post-clearance readiness should not only be viewed as a medical or performance issue, it is also a capacity governance issue. Organizations need better visibility into the difference between assumed availability and actual capacity. Because once an athlete is cleared and active yet still operating below expected output, the loss becomes harder to name. WWhat cannot be named is rarely governed. For NIL collectives and sponsors, the field affects brand reliability NIL and sponsorship deals depend on visibility, momentum, consistency, and public confidence. When an athlete experiences post-clearance performance inconsistency, their brand value can be affected even while they are still active. Reduced performance can change media attention. Missed moments can reduce exposure. Inconsistent plays can affect fan confidence. A diminished role can lower activation value. For sponsors and NIL collectives, capacity is not just a physical concept, it is tied to brand performance. If a deal is built around the athlete’s visibility and competitive presence, then capacity leakage can affect the reliability of that investment. This does not mean sponsors need to interfere with medical decisions. It means the sports business ecosystem needs a more complete understanding of performance readiness and the hidden factors that can affect it. In that context, the post-clearance field is not only a physical field, it is a commercial field. The future belongs to stakeholders who can interpret the field The next evolution in sport will not come from simply asking whether an athlete is injured or cleared. It will come from asking better questions: Is the athlete restored? Are they operating at full capacity? Are they performing at the level their role, contract, scholarship, brand deal, or valuation assumes? Is the system measuring the field between availability and actual output? Most importantly, is there a way to identify and correct what remains after clearance? This is the shift. The sports industry has spent decades building systems around injury recovery. Now it must expand into capacity governance. In today’s performance economy, the costliest losses are not always the ones that occur when an athlete is unavailable. Sometimes the greater loss occurs when the athlete is present and active yet still not operating at full capacity. If you are responsible for athlete performance, valuation, or investment protection, the question is no longer only whether an athlete has been cleared. The sharper question is, "Is the athlete cleared, or are they truly at capacity?" That is where the next layer of performance protection begins. Follow me on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and visit my website for more info! Read more from Elle Kersey Elle Kersey, Founder of Luxe Maverick Elle Kersey is the founder of Luxe Maverick, a sports portfolio asset protection firm. She specializes in auditing and managing the Capacity Field to align performance with contracted capacity and financial outcomes. Her work provides organizations with visibility into capacity-related risks that are often unseen until they impact valuation. She operates within high-performance environments where decisions carry immediate financial implications. Her focus is on ensuring performance and value remain aligned under demand.

Written by Jazmina Mba Gonzalez, MD, MIP, Jungian Coach Jazmina Mba Gonzalez is a former aspiring surgeon turned medical intuitive specializing in chronic pain unresolved by conventional medicine. She bridges science and soul through her Shadow Alchemy Method, helping clients release pain and awaken their body’s innate ability to heal. Your body is always speaking to you, but most of us were never taught how to listen. When symptoms appear without a clear medical cause, it can feel frustrating and isolating. In this article, you will learn what those symptoms may actually be communicating and discover practical tools to begin a conversation with your own body that can open the door to deeper healing. When medicine doesn’t have the answers The mysteries of the human body have gradually, over time, been solved thanks to the miracles of modern medicine and science. However, there remains an elusive area that often baffles medical experts, the moments when a patient comes in with symptoms, and all the tests, the scans, and the physical drivers that might reveal the origin of that symptom come back normal. The patient insists that something is wrong. They feel it. But the physical mirror says otherwise. There is no “real” reason why the symptom exists, but it is there nonetheless. Research confirms just how common this experience is. According to a 2024 article in Psychology Today, medically unexplained symptoms account for 40% of primary care visits in the United States, yet a biological cause is identified only 25% of the time. This is not a new phenomenon. Research published over two decades ago showed that among the most common reasons people visit their primary care doctor, only 10 to 15% of those symptoms are ever traced back to an underlying organic cause within a year. Various factors can contribute to these numbers, everything from the experience of the clinician to the rarity of a disorder that requires an array of additional tests to find a physical cause. But regardless of the physical root, every symptom carries a message. A message that comes from a language the body speaks, which most of us are never taught to learn. That language comes from a space that speaks about our inner world, our mental, emotional, and spiritual state, regardless of our spiritual beliefs. The parts of ourselves that we may subconsciously push away because it is not the right time to deal with them, because we fear the changes we must make, because it is too traumatic to remember, or because the thing we most desire feels too intangible to hold onto. Even when we believe we are doing all the “right things” and still experience illness, the body remembers these truths about the parts of the world that cannot be seen physically. Since the body has no other way of communicating, it presents us with symptoms that have an uncanny similarity and representation to what is going on in our inner lives. As a physician and medical intuitive, I walk both worlds simultaneously, seeing how the physical responds to the energetics behind it all, to the stories and experiences that my clients have lived and are living. A beautiful dance is constantly happening in their lives, often unbeknownst to them. My clients ask, "What does this all mean? Why aren’t my symptoms going away? What is my body trying to tell me?" In this article, we are going to explore some of the answers to those questions so that the body feels heard and healing is on the horizon. How your body speaks to you In the world of medical intuition, every single symptom has an origin, not just a physical one, but an energetic source of information. That source tells us about a person’s journey and how it has caused the body to manifest illness in a specific way, at a specific time, and why it may not have responded to treatment, or why everything continues to come back as normal when the person clearly does not feel that way. When you begin to learn the language of your body, the number one thing to understand is that nothing is separate. The mental, physical, and emotional parts of your life are all one, communicating consistently at all times, providing feedback to each other and responding in turn. An impactful event in childhood can affect the mental and emotional state, which then causes a physical response to similar situations later in life, which further affects the mental and emotional state, and the cycle continues. With this in mind, when we are dealing with symptoms that are unresolved or mysterious in nature, we must always ask, "What else is going on underneath it all?" It is no coincidence that those hives appear every time you go to work, or that you experience severe gastric distress before or after a family reunion. The symptoms are not random. They are a message sent by the body to look at a deeper layer that feels unheard and unseen. Ways to speak with your body There are a multitude of ways that your body can communicate beyond physical symptoms. The key is to understand the message behind the symptom by understanding that you are having a dialogue with the body instead of demanding answers. See this as a dialogue between two friends who haven’t seen each other in a long time. These practices are perfect initiations that anyone can use in order to start hearing the whispers underneath it all. The mirror practice This practice is great for seeing what life events, relationships, or environments are related to the symptom. Writing everything down as you go is highly recommended, as reading your responses back to yourself deepens the practice. First, we locate the symptom in the body, and if it is in a generalised area, we simply expand our awareness around it. We then notice how we feel when we first notice that symptom in our lives. Is it anger, frustration, hopelessness? What thoughts arise whenever you think about this symptom? For some, it may be that no one understands what they’re going through. Others may feel that they aren’t being heard when they tell others about how this symptom makes them feel. Or maybe they wish that they could have some time alone to themselves to process it all. Be very attentive to what comes to mind. Ask yourself how this symptom has affected your life. Does it make you feel like you’re limited in your choices? As if you are feeling stuck? Go really deep here. After writing everything you can, we hold up the mirror to our responses and point it across various areas of our lives, relationships, childhood experiences, career, and physical environments. We start to ask ourselves where in our lives we feel, or have felt, in a similar way. Where do we feel angry, unseen, limited, like our life isn’t or wasn’t our own? With whom do we feel that the interaction has always given us a feeling of being stuck or unheard? What part of our passions or career choices holds patterns of being pushed away? The goal of this practice is to see ties between the emotional, mental, and environmental parts of our lives and how our body is actively responding to those areas. We see that the body isn’t responding just to some unknown force, but to a pattern that keeps showing up in our lives that we may not have been aware of before. We may even begin to notice people or environments that show up before or after our symptoms flare up. This practice provides a beautiful breadcrumb into the realm of where we need to start the next step of our healing journey. Your friend, the symptom practice This practice is ideal for those who are more into the visual aspect of their intuitive talents or are visual learners. For this one, it may also help to write down the responses so that you can have notes to revisit on ways to work with the internal world as the body begins to process the work that you’re doing. Begin by sitting or lying comfortably. I recommend sitting so that you don’t risk falling asleep. Close your eyes. Locate the symptom in the body and sit with it. Notice the feelings, sensations, and thoughts that arise when you focus on it. Then, begin to form an image in your head. This image represents the symptom as a person in front of you. Imagine them sitting in front of you, ready to have a conversation. What do they look like? What are they wearing? How does this personified version appear to you as they sit before you now? How do you feel with them in the room with you? From there, you ask them questions, and you await their response, as if you’re having a conversation with them. I like to start by asking them about their origin, where they are from, or when they decided to appear in your life. Asking them why they chose that exact moment and what was going on in your life is an incredibly powerful question, as often it will reveal the pattern hiding behind the physical. Remember to treat this as a conversation between two people, staying open to what they have to say. Don’t be afraid to ask about what they’ve been wanting to say for the longest time, what they are here to do for you, and so on. Get as creative as you feel in the moment. Treat this practice with curiosity and notice if their appearance changes as you continue the conversation and they answer. See if you notice any shifts that happen in your own body as they speak to you. Whenever you are complete, thank them for showing up today, slowly come back to your body, and write everything you recall from the conversation, the insights, and how your body feels. The language of the body Everyone’s personal body language is different. However, there are some overarching themes I’ve seen consistently across my clients that can help point you in the right direction if you’re feeling stuck on what yours is trying to say. Each body part, down to the cells, carries an energetic significance, so this list isn’t an exhaustive one, but it aims to point you in a direction that makes sense to you. And, as always, please seek appropriate medical advice first, and then look into the meanings behind these areas alongside that care. Head and neck This is the space of conscious connection to the mind. The eyes carry the inner sight you have with the world, in addition to physical sight. The ears carry what you hear or what you refuse to hear, while the mouth, in conjunction with the ears, speaks to communication, both how it’s received by others and how we reject the information that we may intuitively know is true for us. Similarly, our voice is where we hold our intuitive centre and how we communicate that to those around us. Do we feel safe in our sense of expression, or do we mute ourselves for the comfort of others? Heart and lungs These areas contain the vitality of our essence. When we talk about a breath of fresh air, it goes beyond the physical sense of breathing. We look to the areas in our lives where we feel suffocated or stifled. Where have we felt drained of our sense of vitality or our internal battery? This is also an incredibly powerful centre for how we process grief and how we’ve allowed grief to show up in our lives. The gut and digestive system This is a huge area where many clients experience symptoms related to their sense of self, how they feel in terms of acceptance, especially from close friends and family, and how they allow themselves to process strong emotions, such as anger, in their lives. Often, when we feel that certain boundaries are crossed, especially when we feel that we cannot express who we are as individuals, it will show up in the gut. Sometimes, if we are holding on to emotions that we feel are unsafe to process, our body will mirror this mechanism, creating an environment that is sluggish or slow to move. Anger is an incredibly intense emotion that is closely held in the liver and gallbladder, with resentment being a close second that lives in this space. The womb space This powerful and intricate place contains some of the strongest processing powers when it comes to what we desire, feel, create, hold, and release. Oftentimes, there is more than one story held in this area, with themes often overlapping and affecting each other. Sometimes, we may stifle our desires because we feel we aren’t being realistic. Therefore, we don’t create for fear of judgement, and we hold on to the dreams that could never come to fruition. This space can sometimes be complex. However, under the right guidance, it can be a powerhouse of information for life changing transformation. The hips and legs The hips are often the seat of emotional retention, especially when we notice that we are holding an unusual amount of tightness. We ask ourselves where we feel we are holding back when it comes to emotional expression and what we think would happen if that emotion were to be expressed. Where are we feeling rigid and trying to control the direction in which we are being intuitively led? Our knees are where we honour ourselves and our boundaries. Do we kneel before others, or do we give ourselves the kindness of listening to what we truly need before making ourselves available to others? The feet speak to the path that we are walking on and how sure we are of the steps that we are taking towards the goal or life we know we are going towards. The immune system The protectors of our bodies, and also of our lives energetically. A significant amount of our trauma is carried in the immune system, and the field of psychoneuroimmunology is increasingly finding the science to back this up. When we experience trauma, the body’s instinct is to protect us from reliving it. When we are taught that certain emotions are unsafe to experience, the body remembers that in this space too. This is a place where we intimately look at our childhood experiences and how they shape the way that we protect ourselves, how we feel our emotions, how we express them, and so much more. A word of guidance, when we are exploring the deeper layers of these questions, we may want to seek the help of a mentor or a mental health specialist to safely find ways to shift these areas of our lives. Combining the physical with the energetic Although there are energetic origins to the physical manifestation of our symptoms, this doesn’t mean that we neglect the wonders of modern medicine and the treatments it has to offer. Diagnostic exams help point clinicians in the right direction in the body. A diagnosis helps to give a name to what is happening in the physical body so that proper treatment can be given. You can have a diagnosis and still do this work. They do not have to be exclusive from one another. In fact, healing can become incredibly powerful when they both work together. When I had my chronic pain, I did everything on the medical side. I had the X rays, the physical therapy, the pain medication, the exercises, all of it. However, with the ongoing pain, it was time to go deeper. So, I looked at the meaning behind the pain, where the pain was located, and worked on that simultaneously after the peak of the pain helped me concentrate enough to go deeper. We don’t push aside the aid of modern medicine or a chance at a diagnosis just because a symptom has a deeper origin. If anything, we use what medicine has to offer so that we can explore those deeper layers in peace, create resolution from within, and, as a result, don’t need to revisit the doctors multiple times in the future. By understanding the message, the language, that the body is speaking, we create an avenue to decrease doctor visits, find ways to become self sufficient in the ways that we care for ourselves, and shift our lives in a way that tells the body, I hear you, I see what you’re trying to say, and I will take action on this part of myself so that the message no longer has a place in my life. Continuing the conversation Once we start to understand and unravel the language of the body, the work doesn’t stop there. We begin to take steps after we understand what our body is trying to tell us that we need to shift or process in our lives. Maybe we begin to express how we feel a little more. Maybe we start to have those tough conversations with a loved one. Transformation can even begin by looking into that art class that has piqued your interest on the way home after work. Everyone’s journey is completely different. The one thing to remember is that we are so incredibly powerful and resilient, as is our physical body. With the right amount of patience and questions, we can decipher the secret language of the body and begin a path of healing. If you are ready to start on that journey yourself, I invite you to work with me to uncover the mystery behind the symptom and to learn how your body is communicating with you. Follow me on Instagram and TikTok for more info! Read more from Jazmina Mba Gonzalez Jazmina Mba Gonzalez, MD, MIP, Jungian Coach Jazmina Mba Gonzalez is a former aspiring surgeon turned medical intuitive and creator of the Shadow Alchemy Method. After experiencing chronic pain that conventional medicine couldn’t fully heal, she began exploring the deeper connection between the body, mind, and spirit. Through medical astrointuition and Jungian depth psychology, she discovered that every symptom holds a message waiting to be decoded. Today, she helps others uncover the emotional and energetic roots of chronic pain, guiding them back to their body’s natural wisdom and capacity to heal. Her mission is to bring hope to those who feel their condition is forever, because healing is always possible when we learn to listen within.

Written by Marianne Van Oyen, Psychologist | Author Marianne Van Oyen is a psychologist in private practice with over 30 years of experience. She is a published author with three books to offer those who wish to expand their knowledge and skills by implementing her tools and insights. Marianne brings a blend of intuition, creativity, and psychology to her work. Ready to elevate your energy, efficiency and enjoyment? In today's very busy lifestyle, knowing how to conserve and use your energy effectively is essential. Whether you are a single person or a parent, knowing how to manage these resources is crucial. In this article, we will explore four ways to maximize your time, energy and efficiency, four key ingredients guiding you toward a more satisfying life and lifestyle. 1. Create a menu Much like reading a restaurant menu, creating a “to do” menu for all your tasks, activities, chores, etc., is mandatory for better time management. Too many people don’t plan their time, so they waste it or get caught off guard by unexpected deadlines. Doing so causes stress, cortisol and adrenaline rushes, panic, and poor productivity, even if you claim to do good work under pressure. Completing tasks at the last minute reinforces procrastination, as the task feels gruelling. This cycle reinforces the avoidance of such activities in the future, perpetuating maladaptive behaviours. Define your list of “things to do” Make a list of everything you want or need to do in the coming weeks. There is no need to put the items in any order. Simply write them down. Do a mind dump so that you don’t forget what these items and tasks are. If you enjoy order, you can list the items in categories later, such as work related tasks, personal chores, and miscellaneous. You can add one off items that need attention, much like a menu that is organized into categories such as appetizers, entrees, desserts, and time limited specials. Listing and identifying things that need completion, or personal items you want to tackle, calms your mind and saves brainpower from having to keep the running list in your head. If you don’t write the items down, you will surely forget something, causing unnecessary stress. Set realistic goals When setting goals, make sure you can achieve them in the most productive way possible to avoid overwhelm and analysis paralysis. Too often, people jump into a project or activity with no direction or clue about what it will require in terms of time and resources. Then they get caught off guard and are unpleasantly surprised by the rude awakening that they may not have enough time to complete their task. Clearly define what you want to achieve with your goal. The more precise and detailed your objective, the easier it will be to develop actionable steps to reach it. Measurable: Establish concrete criteria for measuring progress toward your goal. Achievable: Set goals that are realistic and attainable within your resources and constraints. While it's essential to aim high, setting unrealistic goals can lead to frustration and demotivation. Relevant: Ensure your goals are aligned with your academic, professional or personal objectives and contribute to your overall vision and mission. Focus on pursuing goals that will meaningfully impact your success. Time bound: Set a specific timeframe for achieving your goal to create a sense of urgency and accountability. Deadlines help you stay focused and motivated, allowing you to prioritize tasks and allocate resources efficiently. 2. Establish time estimates Knowing how much time you will need to start and complete a task before the deadline is very important. Not doing so is where many people get lost and panic when they encounter an upcoming deadline without a clear plan to execute their project. In minutes, you can create a time management and time estimate map that will guide you to achieve your success calmly, in control, and with confidence. Planning this map is a very good investment of your time, and it will support you on your journey. Take a piece of paper or create a spreadsheet with the following titles across the top of the page. This approach is effective for students, professionals, or your own personal projects: Subject / Projects Assignment Time estimates Real time Due dates History Paint a room Write an article Make a list of subjects or projects you want or need to accomplish, then break each topic into its components. Beside each section, estimate the length of time required to achieve each step, and then multiply it by two in case you underestimated the time needed. Once you have completed each phase, record the actual time under the Real Time column to verify how close you were to your estimated time. Note the due date for each assignment. Subject/Project Assignment Time estimate Real time Due date History project Select topic 30 min 1 hour May 15th Do research 3 hours 6 hours Take notes 3 hours 6 hours Write intro 1 hour 2 hours Main body 3 hours 6 hours Conclusion 1 hour 2 hours Edit 2 hours 4 hours Print 30 min 1 hour Assemble into a folder 30 min 1 hour Total 29 hours Paint a room Select a colour 1 hour 2 hours June 2nd Select the finish 30 min 1 hour Identify supplies needed 30 min 1 hour Purchase paint and supplies 1 hour 2 hours Prepare the room, move furniture, etc. 1 hour 2 hours Wash the walls 1.5 hours 3 hours Repair holes, etc. 1 hour 2 hours Tape the room 1.5 hours 3 hours Primer 1.5 hours 3 hours First coat 1 hour 2 hours Second coat 1 hour 2 hours Clean up 1 hour 2 hours Arrange furniture and decor 1.5 hours 3 hours Total 28 hours Please do this for everything with a deadline. You may not need the extra allotted time, but you will be glad you accounted for it in case you do. You can see that if someone does not create a time estimate map, this person will be caught off guard and become more stressed and exasperated if, for example, they begin their project the day before it’s due. Doing so would require doing nothing else for a complete day, including no sleep. This approach will also result in a lower mark for the project, as there was little time to focus on quality, reflect on ideas, and prepare the most professional presentation possible due to insufficient time and rest. As the experience will be gruelling, one will not want to think about the next project, leading to procrastination, and the cycle will continue. A sense of success and satisfaction will eventually elude a person who either quits or fails to meet their potential, all due to a lack of a plan or inadequate time management. Conduct time estimate research Investing time in assessing what needs to get done and when will change your life when you add the time estimate map to your “to do” menu. You can quickly see how fast time can pass by and elude us if we are not investing in where our time goes and how much time we will need to be successful. Twenty nine hours over two days will feel like torture, whereas if you give yourself 28 days to complete a project, you can decide when you will spend this time, allowing yourself to breathe, think, rest, enjoy life, sleep, and get a multitude of other tasks and projects done. Whether you decide to invest an hour a day over 28 days or commit to doing chunks of time, such as 3 to 4 hour blocks over a period of four weeks, you get the idea. Just reading this should give you a sense of relief. 3. Energy is currency No one teaches us that energy is currency. Rather, we treat energy as a never ending supply, ready to be abused and misspent, much as we treat time. Everything we have, time, energy, and money, has limits in how it can serve us. Yet we put ourselves into financial and energetic debt, leading to stress and a slippery slope toward poor recovery, costing us our physical and mental health and further taxing our nervous systems and bank accounts. We borrow perceived energy from the adrenaline that courses through our veins to get us through a day, always at the expense of our health. Adrenaline and cortisol are the price of getting energy on credit. We can’t afford things, yet we spend regardless and often borrow from banks, paying interest that keeps us stuck in debt. We need to respect ourselves, our energy, and our money so that we can best invest in and support ourselves in a hopefully long and fulfilling life. Sometimes we may need to borrow energy or money in the short term to invest in ourselves and our lives, as long as it is for investment purposes, such as building a business or reaching a substantial goal that will pay dividends in our lives. Otherwise, it’s spending and wasting precious resources. When we rip through our energy by rushing, doing things at the last minute, running marathon sessions of work or school projects, trying to get a million things done in a compressed time frame, and not enjoying any of the process, we are overspending our energy. Once the adrenaline calms down, this will leave us feeling exhausted and in need of recuperation, slowing us down and creating stress as time runs away from us while our energy is trying to catch up. Eventually, the gap becomes too large, and we fall into the abyss of exhaustion, stress, and burnout. 4. Visualize your way to satisfaction To benefit from the menu and time management mapping, you will need to integrate visualization to make the most of your time and energy. We need to remember that life is a marathon and not a sprint. Those who insist on sprinting through life will pay the consequences through illness, injury, dissatisfaction, stress, and/or burnout, not to mention an untimely death. Rushing raises cortisol and pumps adrenaline through your system, giving you a false sense of energy. Like money, if you spend more energy than you have available, you will go into deficit, where, like financial debt, it makes it harder to climb out of negative energy and climb back into the positive energy account. If you gain traction and then overspend your energy, you will quickly fall into a deficit position again, where every round of overspending energy will leave you exhausted and frustrated. One way to help make the most of your energy, like stretching a dollar, is to use visualization and check in with your feelings. The early signs of entering an energy deficit are when tasks and activities feel harder, even the ones that used to bring you joy and satisfaction begin to feel draining. You need to look at a spectrum of activities, etc., from work related to pleasure, and where your energy feels taxed. It’s understandable if your energy becomes impacted when doing heavy or difficult tasks or activities. One would hope that, along the continuum, energy feels less drained during mid range tasks and even restored after engaging in enjoyable activities, such as spending time with friends and family. You know that you're in trouble when the entire spectrum feels heavy and draining. This signal is one of the most telling signs that you are burning out. Visualizing how and when you will attack and accomplish any task will help you manage your time, efficiency, and energy best, preventing or reversing the energy drain on the spectrum of things to do on your menu. You may begin to enjoy what you used to love doing and even enjoy most of your tasks and activities, raising your overall sense of satisfaction and quality of life. Visualization Rather than jumping unquestioningly into your day and tasks, take the time to peruse your menu of things to do. Ask yourself and your energy which item(s) you are up for, and consider whether any of these items have an urgent deadline. Hopefully, none do, as you have mapped out your projects and activities in advance of due dates, which gives you the luxury of choosing what you do on any day and how long you wish to engage in that activity. That is the entire objective of creating a menu and a time management schedule, complete with task breakdowns, time estimates, and due dates. You will have a sense of which tasks you feel like doing by taking a few long, deep breaths and exhaling slowly while tuning in to your energy. Are you tired, restless, anxious, or loaded with energy? Etc. Which task or activity do you “feel” like doing, and for how long? Just because it might take 6 hours to start and complete, if you have ample time before it’s due, you can choose how much time you wish to spend on it. Ask your body how it feels about any given task. Imagine doing the activity and see if your body feels heavy and stressed, which is often an indication that you will spend more energy than needed to start this task. Rather, if your body responds with a sense of lightheartedness or even excitement, you will not have to tackle any barriers or resistance during this activity. Instead, the perceived energy available when you think about engaging in this activity will feel like wind at your back, helping you move forward with ease. Doing so means using less energy to complete the task, which will also feel more pleasurable, giving you more energy and positive feelings as you do it. This energetic state will make the task feel easier, and this is an essential ingredient in preventing procrastination. Once you have chosen the activities and tasks, visualize doing them and the order in which they are to be executed. Consider how much time you wish to devote to each, based on your time estimates and due dates. The vision in your mind should feel light, and the tasks should flow from one activity to the next, picturing where you will need to take a break so that you don’t overextend yourself and run out of steam. If your schedule feels too hectic or long, what can you remove from the list and do another day? Where will your breaks serve you, and what feels right in your energetic system? Once you start an activity and have decoded the order of events, make sure to check your energy periodically so you don’t overdo your workload. For example, you may start cleaning your closets, which you estimated would take two hours. However, if you are 90 minutes in, with 15 minutes left to complete the task, and you are getting tired, stop what you are doing and leave those items for another day. Why, you ask, when there are just 15 minutes left? Because you may have soared through the first 90 minutes with relative ease, yet pushing through the remaining 15 will take up too much energy for what the task would require on another day. Pushing through uses more energy than it should, exhausting you and sapping energy that could better serve you for the next task that feels lighter. Also, pushing through will leave you more tired and feeling negative about the activity by ending on a heavier note. You will have less energy for other tasks, and more often than not, you will pay for the overextension by being extra tired the following day, when you could have stopped sooner, rested, and had enough energy to complete more tasks. If you overdo it, you will pay for it, and it will set you back in the long run. Invest your time and energy well Time and energy are limited resources. We cannot create more time or more energy. Rather, we need to optimize our use of both entities to make the most of these commodities and achieve our objectives with good health, optimism, and satisfaction. When we listen to our bodies and take the time to identify what we need and want to accomplish, we can lay out our objectives in advance and do them in the best ways possible to avoid burnout and increase efficiency and success. If you would like to learn more about time and energy management, please reach out to me via my website here. Take care of your time, energy, and your health. You can’t buy more. Follow me on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn for more info! Read more from Marianne Van Oyen Marianne Van Oyen, Psychologist | Author Marianne Van Oyen answered her call to serve others at the age of 21 and to help make the world a better place, one person at a time. She works primarily with adolescents, adults, and couples in person and virtually. Marianne has spent money, time, and energy in many professional development programs, learning many modalities of therapy to offer her clients the best service and results possible. She has also taken the same path to develop her skills as a writer, author, and publisher so that she can expand her reach.

Brainz Magazine Exclusive Interview Phillip Shoemaker spent years at the center of one of the most consequential trust systems ever built - Apple's App Store. As Director of App Store Review, he oversaw the processes that determined what millions of people could and couldn't download onto their devices. After leaving Apple in 2016, he moved deeper into the identity space, serving as Executive Director of Identity.com, a non-profit pioneering decentralized identity verification on the blockchain. Today, he is the founder of PersonaShield, a platform built to detect and counter AI-generated identity fraud. His path into this work isn't purely professional - he has been SIM-swapped, impersonated, and found his own complete identity profile for sale online for fifteen dollars. That experience, as much as anything, explains why he's building what he's building. Phillip Shoemaker You were instrumental in shaping the early days of the App Store. What lessons from that experience still guide how you approach innovation today? The single biggest lesson from the App Store years is that trust is infrastructure. Everything we built at App Store Review came down to one question: Do users trust what they're downloading? That wasn't a marketing problem. It was an engineering, policy, and human judgment problem all at once. What I carry forward is this: the bad actors never stop innovating. During my time running reviews, I watched developers fingerprint our reviewer devices, build time-bomb code that only activated after approval, and flip server switches the moment an app went live. These weren't amateurs. They were brilliant engineers who studied our systems more carefully than we did. That experience taught me that you can never build a wall and walk away. Security, trust, and integrity require constant re-examination. The moment you think you've solved it, someone is already two steps ahead. The other lesson is that the 2% problem is universal. At Apple, I'd say we built the review process to find the 2% of developers doing bad things. But we put the 98% of legitimate developers through the wringer to get there. Any platform, any company, any system has a version of that tradeoff. How you protect against the bad minority without crushing the good majority defines whether you build something lasting or just something fast. "Trust is infrastructure. The moment you think you've solved it, someone is already two steps ahead." What do you believe most people still misunderstand about digital identity in today's world? Most people think of identity as something they own. It's not. Right now, your identity is distributed across hundreds of corporate databases you've never visited and agreed to in terms of service you never read. It's in Equifax's systems, your carrier's records, data broker profiles, ad networks, and breach repositories circulating on the dark web. You are not in control of your own identity. Companies are. And they are not protecting it well. The second misunderstanding is that a breach is an event. People hear "Equifax was hacked" and think: bad thing happened, it's over. But stolen data doesn't expire. It flows into criminal marketplaces, gets combined with data from other breaches, and gets weaponized months or years later. I personally found my own complete identity profile for sale online for fifteen dollars. Not because of anything I did wrong. Because the systems that were supposed to hold my data securely failed repeatedly, and the data ended up somewhere it was never supposed to be. And the newest misunderstanding is the most dangerous: people think that if someone impersonates them, it requires stealing something. It doesn't anymore. AI has crossed a threshold where an attacker needs only a few seconds of your voice or a handful of your photos to generate a convincing fake. For the first time in history, they don't steal your identity. They generate it. That is a fundamentally different threat model, and most people's defenses are built for the old one. Through your work in blockchain and decentralized systems, what shift do you believe we're currently living through, and how should founders position themselves for it? We are living through the end of the honeypot era, although it's taking longer than I like. For decades, the dominant model for identity, data, and trust has been centralization: one company collects everything, stores it in a giant database, and hopes they can protect it. That model has failed, repeatedly and catastrophically. The breaches aren't bugs. They are the predictable consequence of building systems that make enormous repositories of sensitive data attractive targets. Decentralized architecture removes the honeypot. If there is no central vault, there is nothing for attackers to raid at scale. That's why I was the Executive Director of identity.org and why I remain convinced that self-sovereign identity is not a buzzword. It is the only architectural approach that actually solves the underlying problem rather than patching it. For founders, the positioning opportunity is in building a trust infrastructure for the decentralized transition. The companies that win in the next decade won't just offer features. They'll offer verifiable proof. Proof that you are who you say you are. Proof that a document hasn't been altered. Proof that a voice or video is authentic. The technical foundation exists. What's missing is the user layer on top of it, and that's where builders should be looking right now. You've built, advised, and scaled across multiple industries. What separates companies that truly "break through" from those that never quite get there? Specificity. Companies that break through know precisely who they are failing to protect, precisely what the gap is, and precisely why existing solutions miss it. The ones that don't make it tend to solve a general problem for a general audience. There's no urgency in general. As we built PersonaShield, I've watched the deepfake fraud landscape develop for years and couldn't find a single integrated system that did three things together: establish your authenticated baseline before an attack, detect fabrications as they appeared across the web, and support removal with the documentation platforms actually require. Every tool I found did one piece. Nobody had connected them. That specific gap is what the company was built to fill. The second separator is founder credibility with the problem. Not just expertise in the domain, but personal experience with the cost of not having a solution. I was SIM-swapped. I was impersonated. I found my identity for sale. That isn't a marketing story. It's the reason I know exactly what the product needs to do and why it matters. Leadership in fast-moving tech environments often requires making decisions without perfect information. How do you personally navigate high-stakes uncertainty? I default to the reversible. In any fast-moving situation, the first question I ask is: which decisions can be undone and which ones can't? Resources spent on reversible bets can be recovered. Reputational damage, broken trust, and catastrophic security failures often can't. So I bias toward moving fast on the reversible and moving very deliberately on anything that touches trust, safety, or the user's fundamental wellbeing. The second thing I do is compress the time between assumption and evidence. At App Store Review, we had no choice. Every day, we were making judgment calls on tens of thousands of apps with incomplete information. What we got good at was building feedback loops fast: deploy a countermeasure, see how developers responded, adjust. It was an adversarial environment that forced us to treat every decision as a hypothesis rather than a conclusion. The thing I'd caution against is the reflex to wait for consensus. In high-stakes uncertainty, by the time everyone agrees on what to do, the moment has usually passed. You need a point of view, a reason for it, and the discipline to act on it while remaining genuinely open to being wrong. Your career has been defined by pushing boundaries and challenging systems. What drives that mindset, and how can others cultivate it? Honestly, it started with irritation more than ambition. When I saw what was happening inside App Store Review, the sophistication of the attacks, the creativity of the deception, the real harm to real people, I couldn't settle for the obvious response. Obvious responses are what the bad actors have already planned for. So I kept asking: what do they not expect us to do? That pattern followed me. When I found my own identity for sale online, the obvious response is to be a victim. The non-obvious response is to spend years building a system that changes the equation for everyone who comes after you. For other people who want to cultivate that mindset, I'd suggest two things. First, stay close to the problem. The further you get from the actual harm, the more comfortable it is to accept partial solutions. Staying in proximity to what's broken keeps urgency alive. Second, develop a healthy disrespect for the way things are currently done. Most systems weren't designed thoughtfully. They accumulated. And accumulated systems have accumulated blind spots. Look for those blind spots. That's where the work is. "For the first time in history, they don't steal your identity. They generate it. That is a fundamentally different threat model, and most people's defenses are built for the old one." Looking ahead, what opportunities do you see emerging at the intersection of AI, blockchain, and identity? The most important opportunity is provenance. As AI-generated content becomes indistinguishable from reality, the thing that will have genuine value is verified origin. Where did this image come from? Was this voice recorded or synthesized? Is this document authentic? Right now, we have almost no reliable infrastructure for answering those questions at scale. Blockchain gives you an immutable record. AI gives you the detection capability. Identity infrastructure gives you the verified source. Put those three together, and you have the foundation for a trust layer the internet has never actually had. The second opportunity is in the personal security space, specifically. The threat model has changed faster than the defense products have. Deepfake fraud losses hit roughly $6.9 billion globally in 2024. Consumer-grade tools that can clone a voice or generate a synthetic face are available for $10 a month or free on trial. The barriers to attack are approaching zero, but the barriers to defense are still too high for most people. The companies that can make serious protection accessible to ordinary people, not just enterprises and governments, will build something very large. That's precisely the market PersonaShield is going after, and the timing has never been more urgent. The intersection of AI, blockchain, and digital identity is no longer a theoretical concern; it's where some of the most consequential battles of our time are being fought. What comes through clearly in this conversation is that the threat has outpaced the defense, and most people haven't noticed yet. PersonaShield is one of the few companies building specifically for that gap. Whether it's the right moment for a product like this isn't really a question anymore — the only question is who gets there first. To learn more, visit Phillip´s website.

Peter Boeckel works at the intersection of design, systems thinking, and emerging technology. With a global career spanning industries from medical technology to workplace design, his work has evolved from creating products to exploring how systems, decisions, and ways of thinking shape what gets built in the first place. In this interview, he reflects on the growing gap between technological capability and human understanding, the role of judgment in an automated world, and why the future of education may be the most critical design challenge ahead. Peter Adam Boeckel, Designer, Futurist, Educator, & Entrepreneur You built a global career early on by building products and leading design teams in corporates and start-ups. Today, your work has moved beyond traditional design. You seem less interested in creating products and more in understanding how things come into being. What question are you really trying to answer? I still love creating products of all kinds, but there is certainly a pursuit of something deeper. The question underneath everything is, how do things take shape before they become visible? Products are just the surface. What interests me is the layer beneath that, the forces, decisions, constraints, and beliefs that quietly shape what eventually gets built. Over time, I’ve realized that most outcomes are not determined at the point of execution, but much earlier, in how a problem is framed, what is considered important, and what is ignored. This has shifted my focus from designing artifacts to understanding systems of thought. Whether it is a medical device, a workplace, or an educational program, the same pattern appears. What we build reflects how we think, individually and collectively. So the real question is not how to design better products, but how to develop the kind of thinking that leads to better decisions before anything is designed at all. There’s a sense that we can build far more than we can comprehend. What are we missing as this gap widens? We are missing the capacity to fully grasp the consequences of what we create, especially in times of major technological shifts, whether it is the internet or AI. Technology has accelerated to a point where building is no longer the constraint. We can prototype, simulate, and deploy at incredible speed. But comprehension does not scale in the same way. Human understanding still operates on slower cognitive, social, and ethical cycles. This creates a growing imbalance. Systems become more complex, more autonomous, and more interconnected, while our ability to reason about them remains limited. In that space, decisions become more fragile, even if they appear technically sound. What’s missing is not more capability, but deeper judgment. The ability to hold complexity, anticipate second and third order effects, and make decisions without full information, combined with a collective moral compass that we seem to be losing. I believe design is moving into that space. It is less about shaping objects and more about navigating uncertainty, shaping systems, and connecting them to responsibility and long term viability. “We are no longer limited by what we can build, but by what we are able to understand.” You’ve described design as moving from output to judgment. What does good judgment look like in a world shaped by autonomous systems? Good judgment today is less about having the right answer and more about knowing where to intervene. We will automate wherever there are strong incentives to do so. I believe we are heading toward a future where most of what we consume, use, and interact with will be designed and produced by autonomous systems with minimal human input. In this scenario, designers are no longer directly controlling outcomes. They are shaping conditions, setting boundaries, and defining how systems behave over time. Good judgment means understanding not just what a system does, but how it adapts, where it might fail, and how people respond to it. It requires making decisions that account for ambiguity. It also requires restraint. Not everything that can be built should be built. Your work is expanding into education, systemic change, and even shaping policies. What feels most outdated in how we prepare designers today? We still prepare designers for a world where the primary challenge is execution. But we should zoom out beyond design education. Education focuses on tools, processes, and outputs. Students learn how to create, but not how to decide. They are trained to solve problems, but rarely to question how those problems are defined. What’s missing is the development of judgment. The ability to navigate ambiguity, synthesize across domains, and understand broader systems. If the future is about shaping complex systems, education needs to shift from teaching skills to developing ways of thinking. As a result, we end up producing capable individuals who can execute well, but often struggle to operate in complexity or take ownership of direction when the path is unclear. If we were to rethink design education from first principles, what would need to change? We would start by asking a different question, not what people should know, but how they should learn to think. Education would become less about disciplines and more about developing the ability to move between them. Students would work on real systems and understand context, constraints, and consequences. Learning would no longer be front loaded into a degree. It would be continuous and adaptive. The goal should be to develop generalists who can operate across disciplines alongside autonomous systems. This also means placing more emphasis on reflection and synthesis, helping individuals understand why decisions are made, not just how to execute them. You’re exploring new approaches to learning that move beyond traditional disciplines. What gap are these trying to address? They are addressing the gap between knowledge and application. We have more information than ever, but that does not lead to better decisions. The missing layer is the ability to integrate knowledge across contexts. The aim is not to transfer knowledge, but to develop capability and independent value creation. I believe that “Serial Entrepreneurship 2.0” will become the default model for creating value in the future. Traditional education evaluates performance within isolated disciplines, while real world problems require synthesis across them. New learning environments need to reflect this reality, allowing individuals to operate without clear answers and build confidence in navigating uncertainty. A key part of this will be developing an understanding of oneself and having an extended awareness of how one’s mind and emotions work. What do you see as potential consequences if future education does not adjust fast enough? I think the biggest challenge in the next 10 years is how to avoid, or at least soften, the fall into major societal instability. Instability driven by fragmentation, economic pressure, and loss of purpose. Work has long provided structure and meaning. It provides a rhythm for societies, getting up, commuting, being engaged with others, and so on. As that erodes, we must replace it with new forms of purpose. If we succeed, individuals will create meaning independently. If not, instability will increase. The question is whether we can build new systems of purpose and value creation fast enough to replace what is being lost. As machine intelligence becomes more capable across domains, how do you see the relationship between human intuition and machine generated knowledge evolving? I would describe this relationship as a gradient. It begins as complementary, but becomes increasingly demanding. Machine intelligence is rapidly becoming capable of generating knowledge, options, and even entire systems at a scale no individual can match. This is not entirely negative. In design, for example, autonomous systems could create high quality services and interfaces instantly, making well designed public systems accessible to everyone. The cost of most design work will likely collapse to a fraction of what it is today. This shifts the human role away from producing and toward interpreting, selecting, and deciding. In that context, intuition becomes more important. But it needs to be understood correctly. It is not guesswork or instinct. It is pattern recognition built through experience and exposure to complexity. It helps identify what matters when full understanding is not possible. At the same time, there is a risk. As systems become more capable, they also become more convincing. Without strong judgment, it becomes easy to accept outputs without questioning them. The increasing synthetic nature of news cycles is an early signal of this shift. The challenge is not to compete with machines, but to remain cognitively engaged. Those who can use machine intelligence as amplification without losing their ability to think will remain relevant. If careers are no longer stable structures, how should individuals rethink identity, learning, and their role in the world? I believe future learning comes down to the ability to continuously reinvent oneself while repeatedly finding purpose. For a long time, identity has been closely tied to what we do. Job titles, industries, and career paths have provided structure and stability. That model is starting to break down. I believe we will continue to see the traditional idea of a career path dissolve down to the atomic level of work. Instead of working for companies, people will increasingly work on projects, some lasting weeks, others months or longer. Often self initiated, formed in small teams, and dissolved once their purpose is fulfilled. Work becomes less about belonging to an organization and more about contributing to a sequence of evolving contexts. As careers become more fluid, individuals need to become comfortable reinventing themselves repeatedly. This is not just practical, but psychological. Letting go of a fixed identity creates space for adaptability. This requires a different relationship with learning. Learning can no longer happen in phases. It must become continuous, self directed, and closely tied to real world applications. At the same time, individuals need to develop an internal sense of direction that is not dependent on external structures. When roles become temporary, clarity must come from within. “The ability to reinvent oneself is no longer optional. It becomes a fundamental capability.” This is also the area I actively work in, partnering with universities and institutions to rethink how education can support continuous reinvention and independent thinking in a rapidly changing world. Follow me on Instagram, LinkedIn and visit my website for more info! Read more from Peter Adam Boeckel

Written by Eljin Keeling-Johnson, Personal Development Coach Eljin is a transformative personal development coach from the Midlands, England, and the visionary behind the Alignment Method programme. For over 16 years, Eljin has guided people to release what’s holding them back, rediscover their purpose, and create life-changing transformation. We’ve been taught that intelligence determines success. From an early age, we are measured by grades, performance, and cognitive ability. IQ has long been positioned as the defining factor of achievement. Yet, in reality, many highly intelligent individuals still struggle with stress, relationships, decision-making, and their inner world. So the question becomes, "Is intelligence really the problem or are we missing something deeper?" The answer lies in what we call emotional intelligence. What is emotional intelligence? Emotional intelligence (EQ) is commonly defined as the ability to recognise, understand, regulate, and influence emotions, both your own and those of others. Psychologist Daniel Goleman, who popularised the concept, identified four core components: Self-awareness Self-management Social awareness (empathy) Relationship management However, from a practical and transformational perspective, there is a more powerful way to understand it. Emotional intelligence is not intelligence, it is awareness. Awareness of what you feel. Awareness of why you feel it. Awareness of how it influences your behaviour. Without awareness, there is no regulation. Without regulation, even the highest IQ struggles to translate into meaningful outcomes. Why do people struggle with emotional intelligence? The challenge is not capability, it is conditioning. 1. We are not taught emotional literacy Most people are never taught how to identify or articulate emotions. Research shows that individuals with higher emotional granularity, the ability to distinguish between emotions like frustration, disappointment, or overwhelm, have better psychological regulation and resilience. Yet many people say, “I don’t know what I’m feeling.” “I just feel off.” This reflects a lack of emotional vocabulary, not a lack of intelligence. 2. Autopilot Living Modern life conditions people into constant doing. We move from task to task, rarely pausing to check in with ourselves. This creates what can be described as a state of mindlessness, operating on autopilot while disconnected from internal experience. Neuroscience supports this. The brain’s default mode network (DMN) is associated with habitual thinking and rumination. Without conscious awareness, people remain trapped in repetitive thought loops rather than present moment experience. 3. Over identification with thought Many people attempt to “think their way out” of emotional discomfort. They ruminate, analyse, and spiral, believing more thinking will solve the problem. In reality, this often amplifies distress. Cognitive science shows that rumination is strongly linked to anxiety and depression. The issue is not thinking itself, it is the attachment to thought as truth. 4. Lack of self compassion If someone is constantly judging themselves, they will struggle to empathise with others. Research demonstrates that self compassion is directly linked to emotional resilience, reduced anxiety, and improved wellbeing. Without internal safety, emotional awareness feels threatening, so people suppress, avoid, or deny what they feel. 5. Cultural and environmental factors Education systems, social media, and societal pressures reinforce performance over presence. We are trained to achieve, but not to understand ourselves. The result? High performance, low emotional resilience, constant stimulation, minimal reflection, and external validation, internal disconnection. The reframe: Emotional intelligence is a trainable skill One of the most important truths is this. There is nothing “broken or wrong” with people, they simply haven’t been taught. Emotional intelligence is not fixed. It is not something you either have or do not have. It is a skill set that can be developed through intentional awareness and practice. When it is developed, it transforms not just how you feel, but how you live. The four pillars of emotional intelligence To build emotional awareness and mastery, we can break EQ into four core pillars. Self-awareness: Recognising your emotions in real time. Self-management: Regulating your responses rather than reacting impulsively. Social awareness: Understanding others’ emotions and perspectives (empathy). Relationship management: Communicating effectively and navigating interpersonal dynamics. These pillars form the foundation, but development requires practical application. Practical strategies to improve emotional intelligence 1. Emotional labelling Start by identifying what you feel in the moment. Ask yourself, what am I feeling right now? Can I be specific? For example, not just “bad”, frustrated, disappointed, overwhelmed. Research shows that labelling emotions reduces activity in the amygdala, the brain’s threat centre, and increases regulation via the prefrontal cortex (Lieberman et al., 2007). You cannot regulate what you cannot identify. 2. Create a pause before reacting Between stimulus and response, there is a gap. In that gap lies emotional control. Practical tools include taking a slow breath, counting to 5 before responding, and delaying reactive communication. This activates the parasympathetic nervous system, reducing emotional reactivity and improving decision making. 3. Reframe your internal narrative Your emotions are influenced by your interpretation of events. For example, “This is a disaster” leads to anxiety, while “This is challenging, but manageable” leads to composure. This process, known as cognitive reappraisal, is one of the most effective emotional regulation strategies in psychology. 4. Practice acceptance instead of resistance Many people try to avoid or suppress emotions. But research shows that emotional suppression increases psychological distress (Gross, 1998). A more effective approach is to notice the emotion, allow it to be present, and remove judgement. What you resist persists. What you allow begins to dissolve. 5. Strengthen the mind body connection Emotions are not just mental, they are physiological. Practices that improve awareness include mindfulness meditation, breathwork, with longer exhales to regulate the nervous system, and body scanning. Studies show that mindfulness increases activity in brain regions associated with emotional regulation and self awareness (Hölzel et al., 2011). 6. Reflective journaling Create space to process your internal world. Daily, write freely without filtering. Weekly, review patterns in thoughts, emotions, and behaviours. This builds meta awareness, the ability to observe yourself objectively. 7. Build psychological safety Emotional growth requires a sense of safety. This includes safe environments, supportive relationships, and a non judgmental internal dialogue. Without safety, the nervous system remains in protection mode, limiting emotional awareness. 8. Develop emotional expression and boundaries Emotional intelligence is not just internal, it must be expressed. Practice Honest communication, Assertiveness, Setting clear boundaries. This strengthens both self respect and relational clarity. Final thought: You are not your emotions One of the most transformative shifts is this. You are not your emotions, you are the awareness experiencing them. Saying “I am anxious” creates identity. Saying “I feel anxious” creates separation. This distinction is subtle, but powerful. Emotions are temporary. They move, shift, and evolve. But awareness remains constant. Closing Emotional intelligence is not about controlling how you feel. It is about understanding, allowing, and responding with awareness. When you develop that awareness. Your relationships improve. Your decision making sharpens. Your stress decreases. Your performance increases. In many ways, this is the foundation that allows your intelligence, your IQ, to truly flourish. Because success is not just about how well you think. It is about how well you understand yourself. Follow me on Facebook and LinkedIn for more info! Read more from Eljin Keeling-Johnson Eljin Keeling-Johnson, Personal Development Coach In 2005, Eljin walked into therapy battling anxiety, depression, and drug addiction. What began as a search for healing became a profound journey of self-discovery. Emerging with a renewed sense of purpose, he dedicated his life to helping others find their true selves and step into their full potential. Over the past 16 years, Eljin has delivered more than 16,000 hours of transformative coaching, blending conscious, subconscious, and unconscious work to create deep, lasting change. As the visionary behind the Alignment Method programme, his mission is simple yet powerful, to help people connect, grow, and thrive.

Written by Janie Terrazas, The Mindfulness Coach Janie Terrazas is a Mindfulness Coach and creator of PazMesa, a self-mastery guide to help you access inner peace, joy, vitality, and prosperity through mindful living and unconditional loving. Many people enter relationships seeking love, connection, safety, and belonging. Only to discover that intimacy also exposes unresolved wounds, attachment fears, nervous system patterns, emotional immaturity, and unconscious survival behaviors. This is one of the great paradoxes of human love. Love can feel heavenly, yet intimacy often initiates some of the deepest transformational work of our lives. From a psychological, emotional, and spiritual perspective, conscious connections become mirrors. They reveal not only our capacity to love, but also unresolved pain, emotional triggers, attachment conditioning, communication patterns, fear based coping mechanisms, and relationship with ourselves. What begins as attraction often becomes an invitation into emotional healing, self awareness, nervous system regulation, relational maturity, and spiritual growth. One of the most uncomfortable truths about intimacy is this. Your partner will eventually mirror back the unresolved, unseen, wounded, underdeveloped, and unintegrated parts of yourself. Not because love is punishment, but because true intimacy naturally illuminates what casual connections allow us to avoid. What intimacy truly means One of the most misunderstood words in relationships is intimacy. Many people associate it only with sex, physical affection, attraction, or romantic chemistry. But true intimacy is far more holistic than physical closeness alone. When I work with couples or individuals seeking to improve their connection skills, one of the first questions I often ask is, “How do you personally define intimacy?” Many people pause when asked about intimacy, not because it is unimportant, but because they have rarely been invited to mindfully explore what intimacy truly means. My PazMesa Partnership program, Mindful Love, Building Safe REALationships That Thrive, is designed to help individuals and couples deepen every layer of authentic intimacy. From a PazMesa perspective, intimacy is far more than physical closeness. Into me you see. It is the courageous willingness to truly know yourself while also allowing yourself to be genuinely seen, understood, and experienced by another human being. True intimacy within a partnership includes emotional transparency, psychological honesty, spiritual openness, physical presence, energetic safety, sexual awareness, and conscious connection. At its core, intimacy is about creating a relationship where both people feel safe enough to remove the masks, soften the defenses, communicate truthfully, and connect authentically across the mind, body, heart, and soul. It requires cultivating enough self awareness to understand what makes you feel emotionally safe and seen, what dysregulates your nervous system, what wounds still need healing, what your authentic needs and boundaries are, and what helps you thrive mentally, emotionally, spiritually, physically, and relationally. PazMesa intimacy is holistic. It is not merely physical access to another person’s body. It is safe access to one another’s inner world, fears, insecurities, dreams, emotions, truth, and humanity. This level of transparency can exist within romantic relationships, friendships, family dynamics, and meaningful human connections. Emotionally safe platonic intimacy can be deeply healing because it reminds human beings they are worthy of connection beyond performance, possession, or physicality. True intimacy is not about ownership. It is about resonance. This is precisely why intimacy becomes such a powerful mirror for growth. Because being truly seen often activates fear, vulnerability, shame, grief, insecurity, and protective survival strategies. Intimacy exposes where love can flow freely and where fear still interrupts connection. Why relationships become mirrors When we are alone, we can maintain certain illusions about ourselves. We may believe we are emotionally available, patient, secure, healed, communicative, or self aware. But intimacy exposes truth, especially sustained intimacy. Close relationships activate deeply embedded fears, including abandonment, rejection, inadequacy, vulnerability, betrayal, invisibility, and loss of control. Conflict and closeness often activate survival responses formed long before the current relationship existed. This is why emotional reactions can sometimes feel disproportionate to the present moment. The body remembers what the conscious mind may not fully recognize. This is why relationships often become some of the greatest spiritual classrooms on Earth. 1. They mirror your unresolved wounds Your triggers often reveal where pain still exists, where shame still lives, where fear still governs, and where the nervous system still feels unsafe. A partner may unknowingly illuminate abandonment wounds, betrayal wounds, rejection wounds, unworthiness, control issues, emotional dependency, or self abandonment patterns. The trigger itself is not always the enemy. Sometimes it is information, an invitation into vaster awareness. 2. They mirror your capacity for emotional regulation Conflict reveals emotional maturity more clearly than comfort ever will. Relationships expose your nervous system conditioning, ability to self soothe, tolerance for discomfort, emotional maturity, and capacity for accountability. Do you attack, collapse, shut down, manipulate, avoid, people please, dissociate, or remain grounded and curious? Healthy communication and emotional regulation are not built through avoiding conflict, but through learning how to remain mindful during it. 3. They mirror your relationship with self worth The way someone tolerates disrespect, inconsistency, dishonesty, emotional unavailability, manipulation, or neglect often reflects their internal relationship with themselves. Partnership reveals where boundaries are weak, where authenticity is sacrificed, where self abandonment occurs, and where fear overrides truth. Conscious relationships invite us to strengthen self respect, emotional honesty, and healthy boundaries rather than abandoning ourselves to maintain attachment. 4. They mirror your relationship with love Many people do not actually understand love. They understand attachment, dependency, fantasy, possession, trauma bonding, control, projection, or validation seeking. Relationships expose whether someone can love mindfully, communicate honestly, remain emotionally safe, compromise fairly, honor individuality, celebrate another’s growth, and stay open hearted without domination or collapse. Real love is not control or obsession. It is a mindful love that creates room for transparency, vulnerability, and humility. 5. They mirror your shadow and emotional maturity One of the most confronting mirrors in relationships is the shadow, the parts of ourselves we unconsciously reject, suppress, deny, or avoid. Often, what intensely irritates or fascinates us in another person points toward unresolved material seeking awareness, healing, and integration. For example, controlling people often suppress vulnerability, hyper independent people may secretly fear dependence, rescuers often avoid their own unmet needs, jealous people often fear inadequacy, emotionally avoidant people often fear engulfment or rejection. Relationships also reveal our emotional maturity. Can you admit harm without collapsing, apologize sincerely, remain compassionately curious during conflict, separate intent from impact, hold two subjective realities simultaneously? Or must someone always win, blame, dominate, defend, or avoid? Relationships also reveal our relationship with power, presence, and emotional safety. Can you attune, witness pain, truly listen with intent to understand, tolerate emotional complexity, and remain emotionally available without controlling or escaping discomfort? Many people love the fantasy of intimacy but struggle with the emotional labor of genuine presence. Mindful love requires nervous system presence, not merely physical proximity. This form of presence is real love in motion. Integration is the real work The hard work of relationships is not pretending conflict does not exist, performing perfection, avoiding discomfort, or maintaining appearances. The real work is integration, integrating the wounded child, the reactive ego, the fearful nervous system, the shadow, the body, heart, soul, and conscious self. This is why these unions feel sacred. Because when two people participate in becoming their most loving selves for the greater good of their well being and of the bond, the inward and outward rewards are divine. Trauma bonding vs. Sacred union Trauma bonds say: “Complete me.” “Rescue me.” “Validate me.” “Don’t leave me.” “Become smaller so I feel safe.” Sacred union says: “Walk beside me.” “Grow with me.” “Tell me the truth.” “Help me evolve.” “Let us create safety together.” One is rooted in fear. The other is rooted in mindfulness. How emotionally safe REALationships create peace within PazMesa teaches that heaven is not merely a place after death. It is a state of coherence cultivated within, the mind, body, heart, soul, relationship, and home. Two mindful individuals can co create peace within themselves and their connection, not because they never experience pain, but because they learn how to regulate instead of react, communicate instead of manipulate, repair instead of punish, reflect instead of project, blame, and shame, collaborate and cooperate instead of competing, and love without domination. This creates emotional safety, trust, respect, authentic intimacy, relational coherence, and mutual expansion. Questions for reflection Awareness is where transformation begins. What relationship patterns repeatedly surface in my life? What triggers feel disproportionately intense? Where do I seek control instead of connection? Do I create emotional safety during conflict? Am I capable of honoring both my reality and another person’s subjective experience simultaneously? Final thoughts When two people commit to personal well being, emotional safety, nervous system regulation, safe communication, and authentic growth, partnership becomes more than companionship. It becomes a sacred space for personal evolution. The connection is more than chemistry or attachment. It is a beautiful union rooted in safety, integrity, wholeness, and peace within. Relationships transform into sanctuaries instead of battlegrounds, mirrors for growth instead of prisons for wounds, and pathways toward embodied love rather than unconscious suffering. These bonds are here not only to make us feel good temporarily, but to help us become more aware, more integrated, more loving, fully alive human beings. Follow me on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn for more info! Read more from Janie Terrazas Janie Terrazas, The Mindfulness Coach Janie Terrazas, known as The Mindfulness Coach, transformed her media career into a life-coaching and wellness-advocacy mission after a spiritual awakening in 2011. As the creator of the PazMesa self-mastery program and the force behind Rise Above TV, she fosters balance and mindfulness in others. Her triumphs and trials deeply shape her coaching as she helps clients address stress and trauma and build safe relationships. Janie combines spiritual depth with actionable strategies to guide individuals toward a joyful, vital life. Her coaching transcends conventional methods, empowering clients to find peace and purpose within. Janie's empathetic and innovative approaches offer a safe roadmap for self-discovery and authentic living and loving.

Written by Heather Higgins, Counsellor & Grief Coach With extensive experience supporting people through grief, and the professionals who work with them, Heather delivers practical, compassionate insights grounded in counselling, psychology, and emotional wellbeing. Her work focuses on helping individuals and organisations navigate grief with confidence and care. Grief is one of the most universal human experiences, yet many people still struggle to talk about it openly. Despite growing awareness around mental health and wellbeing, grief often remains hidden behind silence, discomfort or an expectation to appear “fine”. Loss affects us all, but when conversations around grief are avoided, people often feel isolated and unsupported. Open and honest discussions around grief have the power to create connection, safety and compassion, allowing us to better understand what it really means to live alongside loss. Why is grief still so difficult to talk about? Although grief is something every person will go through at some point in life, many of us still find it deeply uncomfortable to talk about. We are often taught to suppress difficult emotions, avoid uncomfortable conversations or “stay strong” for others, leaving many without the emotional language or confidence to navigate bereavement. As a result, grief can feel incredibly isolating, with people fearing they may say the wrong thing, burden others with their feelings, or appear unable to cope. In a society that often values productivity, positivity and fast recovery, grief unfortunately doesn’t always fit neatly into everyday life. Yet, avoiding these conversations does not remove grief. It simply leaves people carrying it alone. The impact of silence on children, adults and families Avoiding conversations around loss can have a significant impact on our mental health, wellbeing, relationships and behaviours. It can create feelings of emotional isolation, leading to negative self esteem and internalised feelings. This can show up in different ways. In children, it might look like withdrawal, changes in mood or acting out. Adults may suppress emotions to protect others or to appear as if they are coping, while internally struggling with exhaustion, anxiety, anger, sadness or even emotional numbness. Within families, silence around loss can create misunderstandings, emotional distance, and the unspoken belief that grief should be hidden rather than shared. Avoiding conversations about grief can leave people feeling isolated in their pain, disconnected from support and questioning if what they are experiencing is normal (spoiler alert, it is normal!). Honest conversations do not remove grief, but they reduce the loneliness that often accompanies it. Why grief conversations matter in the workplace Typically, people return to work or “normal life” quite quickly after a bereavement. This can be due to expectations from others or even ourselves. Some may want to return to work as a form of distraction from the heaviness that accompanies grief and for some, it comes down to finances. It is important that however and whenever people return to work after a loss that they are supported. Conversations and support at work can make a huge difference in a bereaved person's transition back into the workplace. This is why grief education in an organisational context is so important. It teaches managers, business owners, and staff members how to support employees and colleagues returning to work, strategies and techniques to reduce stress and create psychologically safe spaces where employees feel listened to, heard and understood. When organisations are willing to openly acknowledge grief rather than avoid it, they foster trust, compassion and connection in the workplace. This can lead to reduced burnout and emotional overwhelm in staff, but also improve morale, strengthen employee retention and foster healthier workplace relationships which benefits everyone. What do helpful grief conversations actually look like? A common misconception is that people need to have “the perfect words” to support someone who is grieving. In reality, that pressure can make conversations feel even more difficult. Often, the most meaningful thing we can offer is simply our presence. Helpful grief conversations are not about trying to “fix” someone’s pain, but about listening without judgement, acknowledging their loss and allowing emotions to be expressed openly without fear of criticism. When we create space for people to grieve in their own way, we give them permission to feel seen, heard and understood. Grieving people know their pain cannot be simply “taken away”, and it is not our job to remove it. But sometimes compassionate listening is the most powerful support we can offer. Seven practical ways we can improve our conversations around grief Improving conversations around grief does not require perfect words or professional training. It starts with us creating more openness, compassion and willingness to listen. Small changes in the way we respond to loss can make a significant difference to someone who is grieving. By normalising conversations and creating space for emotional expression, we can help people feel more supported and less alone. Here are seven practical ways we can begin creating more grief informed conversations in everyday life: 1. Replace advice with listening and validation It’s often our first instinct to want to “fix” someone's pain or make them feel better and that, at times, comes with well intentioned but sometimes unhelpful advice. During a time of emotional turmoil, an empathetic ear and just showing up for someone is sometimes the most helpful thing you can offer. 2. Stop rushing people to move on People need to grieve in their own time. There is no timeline for grief and there is no “getting over” a loss. There is also no “right way” to grieve and everyone handles it differently, and that’s ok. Over time, we can learn to live alongside the loss as we navigate the stages of grief, but telling someone to “move on” or that they should “be over it by now” can create feelings of shame and guilt on top of an already complex and heavy emotion. 3. Check in with grieving people after the funeral period After a funeral, life goes back to normal for everyone else. But for those suffering a loss, this is often when grief hits the hardest. They are adjusting to a new world without their person, but often this is when the check ins stop. This is commonly when people need it most, so check in on your grieving friends. Grief doesn’t end after a funeral. More often than not, it is just beginning. 4. Normalise talking about grief in schools and workplaces Schools and workplaces play an important role in shaping how people understand and respond to grief. When conversations around bereavement are acknowledged openly rather than avoided, it helps create environments where people feel safer expressing emotions and accessing support. Normalising these conversations reduces stigma and helps people feel more understood. 5. Teach children emotional language early While in their developmental stages, it is important that we encourage emotional language in children and young people. It helps them build confidence in emotional expression and validates their experience. If children learn early to suppress their emotions, this can cause grief to show up in other, often more harmful ways (changes in behaviour, isolation, anxiety). 6. Create workplace policies that acknowledge emotional wellbeing Workplace policies should recognise that grief and emotional wellbeing can have a significant impact on employees both personally and professionally. Compassionate bereavement support, flexible communication and psychologically safe environments can help employees feel supported rather than pressured during difficult times. Grief doesn’t disappear for people when it is time to return to work, and it is important that organisations acknowledge this. 7. Encourage grief education and awareness training Education and training around grief can help individuals, workplaces, schools and communities feel more confident in supporting people through loss. Many people avoid grief conversations through fear of saying the wrong thing, or lack of understanding around how grief can affect emotions, behaviour and wellbeing. By increasing awareness and guidance, we can create more compassionate, informed environments where grief is acknowledged openly and people feel less alone and more supported. Creating a more grief informed society Grief is part of being human, and at some point, every one of us will experience loss in some form. By improving emotional literacy and encouraging more open conversations around grief, we can begin to create a society where people feel safer expressing vulnerability rather than hiding their pain in silence. Compassion matters because feeling seen, heard and supported makes a huge difference during life’s most difficult moments. When we normalise conversations about grief in our homes, schools, workplaces and communities, we not only support those grieving today, but also help future generations develop healthier, more compassionate ways of understanding loss and supporting one another. Creating change through conversation Perhaps creating change begins with something much simpler than we realise, a conversation. When we allow grief to be spoken about openly, we help remove that fear, shame and isolation that so many of us carry after a loss. We may not be able to take someone’s pain away, but we can ensure that they don’t have to navigate it alone. Let’s encourage more open conversations around grief so that we can begin to build a more emotionally aware and compassionate society for future generations. If you need 1:1 support through loss, grief or bereavement or would like more information on grief education workshops for organisations, workplaces and schools please reach out. You can find me through email, Instagram or my website. You can also read more about processing loss in my memoir Guided by Grief. You don’t have to navigate this alone. Follow me on Facebook and LinkedIn for more info! Read more from Heather Higgins Heather Higgins, Counsellor & Grief Coach Heather is a grief specialist, counsellor, author and facilitator with extensive experience supporting children, young people, adults and the professionals who care for them. After loosing both parents at a young age, she now uses her lived experience to support others through bereavement. Her work focuses on helping individuals and organisations better understand grief, loss, and emotional resilience through practical, compassionate approaches. Through her writing and teaching, she aims to make conversations around grief more informed, accessible, and human.

Da Rep Ute Able Vol 3 Tears Still Invincible is a 174-page reputable, real-life memoir written by Julius Clark Jones. Released in late December 2024 by Victory Publishing Company Inc., the book provides a raw look into the author's real life. It chronicles his transformation from an inner city gang member to a community beacon of hope. Book summary and details The memoir outlines the true crime realities of the author's past and subsequent redemption. The Catalyst: At just 10 years old, Jones entered the drug trade to help his mother pay backed up bills. Street and Gang Life: He became heavily entrenched in the streets as a member of the West Side 30's Fruit Town Brim (36th Street) chapter in Jersey City, New Jersey. Legal Troubles: His street operations led to intensive tracking by gang task forces and federal agents. He eventually faced two first degree murder ("187") cases. Incarceration and Turning Point: While serving time in State and Federal prisons, specifically Otisville Federal Prison, he had to watch his daughters grow up through photographs. He found his true calling after taking a business management class while behind bars. Redemption and Giving Back: Following his release, Jones shifted his life toward gang prevention and intervention. He now travels to speak at high schools, colleges, and community centers to guide at-risk youth. What people are saying (reviews and feedback) Readers, community figures, and peers have shared highly supportive feedback. An Inner City Inspiration: Reviewers on platforms like Barnes and Noble describe it as an inspirational autobiography that will "motivate any inner city kids around the world". Readers note that it serves as a blueprint on "how to never give up on your dreams and purpose". A Real Page-Turner: Audience members call it an action-packed, fast-paced "tear jerker" that they simply could not put down. Peer Respect: Fellow community voices and peers like "Big Kay'Bee" and "Chucky Cheese" have publicly congratulated Jones. They note that he has successfully transitioned into a "beacon of light and hope for others". They praise him for putting out a story that "people need to know". A Powerful Testimony: Broadly, readers view the book as an unfiltered window into the soul of a man who refused to let prison or past trauma define him, turning his deepest wounds into wisdom. Available on Books-A-Million, Powell's Books, Walmart, Bookshop.org, Amazon, etc. all platforms. Media contact Website

Written by Dr. Nina Jatuparisuthiseen, Acupuncturist Dr. Kanokwan “Nina” Jatuparisuthiseen is a board-certified and licensed acupuncturist and Certified Sports Medicine Acupuncture® practitioner, and the founder of Nina Acupuncture. Her work is known for its clinical precision, individualized care, and effective results for pain, stress-related conditions, and well-being. Pickleball’s rapid rise in popularity has also brought a quiet increase in overuse injuries affecting the elbow, shoulder, and knee, especially among adults who play regularly. As an active sport that demands repetition, quick movement, and endurance, it often exposes the gap between performance and recovery in ways many players do not notice until pain begins to interfere with daily life. How acupuncture helps with three common pickleball injuries Pickleball has rapidly become one of the fastest-growing sports in America, especially among active adults seeking movement, community, and long-term wellness. Yet alongside its rising popularity comes another growing trend, repetitive strain injuries affecting the elbow, shoulder, and knee. In clinical practice, I increasingly see pickleball players struggling with pain that begins as mild soreness but gradually interferes with daily movement, sleep, and overall quality of life. Many continue playing through discomfort, only seeking treatment when symptoms become persistent or begin limiting performance. As both an acupuncturist and a pickleball player myself, I understand how important it is not only to relieve pain, but to help people continue doing the activities they love with confidence and resilience. Acupuncture has gained increasing recognition as a complementary therapy for pain management, sports recovery, and nervous system regulation (Vickers et al., 2018). Rather than focusing solely on symptoms, treatment often addresses movement patterns, muscular tension, circulation, and the body’s recovery response as a whole. Here are three of the most common pickleball injuries I see in clinic and how acupuncture may help support recovery. Tennis elbow (Pickleball elbow) Tennis elbow, or lateral epicondylitis, is one of the most common overuse injuries among pickleball players. Repetitive gripping, swinging, and wrist extension can overload the tendons of the forearm, leading to pain and inflammation around the outer elbow. Common symptoms include: Pain on the outside of the elbow Weak grip strength Pain while lifting or twisting Forearm tightness that may travel into the shoulder or neck One of the most overlooked aspects of tennis elbow is that pain is often connected to larger tension patterns throughout the arm, shoulder, and upper back. In Sports Medicine Acupuncture and Traditional Chinese Medicine, practitioners frequently evaluate the entire movement chain rather than focusing only on the painful area itself. Acupuncture may help by: Improving local circulation Reducing muscular tension Supporting tendon recovery Regulating pain sensitivity Addressing compensatory tension patterns For many active adults, treatment is not simply about reducing pain temporarily, but about restoring comfortable movement and preventing recurrent flare-ups. Shoulder pain and rotator cuff strain The shoulder is one of the most mobile joints in the body, making it particularly vulnerable to repetitive overhead movement and strain during pickleball play. Rotator cuff irritation may develop gradually over time or appear suddenly after repetitive serving and swinging motions. Symptoms often include shoulder stiffness, weakness with overhead movement, limited range of motion, pain that interferes with sleep. In many cases, shoulder pain is not isolated to the joint itself. Posture, neck tension, scapular stability, and movement compensation patterns often contribute to ongoing discomfort. Acupuncture treatment frequently focuses on improving circulation, releasing muscular tension, and regulating the nervous system’s protective guarding response that commonly develops around chronic pain conditions. Some patients also report improvements in mobility, recovery time, and overall body awareness following treatment. Knee pain and overuse injuries Quick directional changes, repetitive loading, and pivoting movements can place considerable stress on the knees during pickleball. One common presentation is pain around the kneecap associated with muscle imbalance, overuse, and repetitive strain. Tight quadriceps, hip tension, and reduced mobility may increase pressure within the knee joint and contribute to discomfort during activity. Common symptoms include pain with stairs or squatting, stiffness after activity, swelling or irritation, and discomfort during prolonged play. Acupuncture may help support recovery by promoting circulation, reducing muscular tension, and helping regulate pain response pathways. Treatment is often combined with movement recommendations and recovery strategies to help reduce reinjury and improve long-term function. Recovery is part of performance One of the most common misconceptions among active adults is the belief that more activity automatically leads to better performance. In reality, many injuries occur when recovery cannot keep up with repetitive physical demand. Recovery is not simply about rest. It is about creating the conditions that allow the body to heal, adapt, and maintain resilience over time. Acupuncture continues to gain attention not only for pain management, but also for its role in supporting nervous system regulation, recovery, and overall well-being. For many individuals, treatment becomes part of a broader approach to sustainable movement, longevity, and quality of life. Ultimately, the goal is not simply to remove pain. It is to help people continue doing the activities they love with strength, confidence, and vitality for years to come. Follow me on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and visit my website for more info! Read more from Dr. Nina Jatuparisuthiseen Dr. Nina Jatuparisuthiseen, Acupuncturist Dr. Nina Jatuparisuthiseen, DAc, L.Ac., LMT, C.SMA, LE, is a board-certified licensed acupuncturist and founder of Nina Acupuncture. She holds advanced training in Sports Medicine Acupuncture, Traditional Chinese Medicine, and Lifestyle & Wellness Coaching through Harvard Medical School Executive Education, and specializes in evidence-based pain management, sports injury recovery, mental and women’s health, preventive care, and systems-based approaches to long-term health and resilience. Her work emphasizes mindful, ethical, and patient-centered care. Reference: Vickers, A. J., Vertosick, E. A., Lewith, G., MacPherson, H., Foster, N. E., Sherman, K. J., ... & Linde, K. (2018). Acupuncture for chronic pain: Update of an individual patient data meta-analysis. The Journal of Pain, 19(5), 455–474.

Written by Jenny Gaynor, Social Emotional Learning Coach and Founder Jenny Gaynor, author and founder of Calm Education, teaches SEL tools to help kids, families, and teachers build confidence, connection, and calm. June often brings equal parts excitement and chaos. The school year rush disappears, routines loosen, and families suddenly feel pressure to create a summer filled with magical memories. Sometimes we even create bucket lists packed with beaches, camps, road trips, and big adventures. But what if we also created a summer bucket list that nurtured something deeper? Summer offers all of us, especially our children, the wonderful gift of space. Summer gives us room to slow down, notice our emotions, build stronger relationships, practice independence, and develop emotional resilience. The best part is that ordinary summer moments give our children time for meaningful growth. Here are a few bucket list ideas that help build emotional intelligence while still feeling playful, relaxed, and fun. 1. Have a “Yes day” for someone else Often, we give our children a choice of their preferred summertime activities. Instead, encourage them to spend one day focused on someone else’s interests. Maybe they play a sibling’s favorite game. Or they visit Grandma’s special place. They could even let a friend choose the afternoon activity. This simple and intentional practice helps children build empathy, flexibility, perspective-taking, and cooperation. Watching someone they care about genuinely enjoying an activity can help children discover joy in making others happy. This can be a win win for everyone! 2. Watch a sunset without phones This sounds simple, but for many of us it can feel surprisingly difficult. We may feel compelled to snap photos and instantly share on social media with our friends. Instead, try simply sitting together and watching the sky change colors without distractions or multitasking. Moments like this create a sense of awe that we often miss when our phones are in our hands. This time of quiet, stillness, and togetherness helps calm our nervous system and increases feelings of connection and gratitude, which are important for emotional well-being. None of us, including our children, needs more stimulation. Sometimes we simply need to intentionally stop and notice what is already beautiful and awe-inspiring. 3. Create a kindness mission jar Kindness activities help children feel capable, connected, and emotionally fulfilled. Research consistently shows that helping others also boosts our mood and emotional resilience. Together as a family, fill a jar with small acts of kindness written on slips of paper. Some ideas include donating toys, making cookies for someone, writing thank you notes, helping a younger child, or setting up a “free” lemonade stand for neighbors. Once a week, pick a slip from the jar and dedicate some time throughout the day to doing that act of kindness. Ask your children how it made them feel to do these things for others. You may be surprised at their responses! 4. Try a “Boredom hour” This may be the most challenging activity on the list for both children and adults. The key is to explain what this means and to give ample time for everyone to prepare. Boredom is an important emotion to learn how to regulate. Feeling bored creates opportunities to be creative, solve problems, manage frustration, and become more self-aware. These are regulation skills that often develop during unstructured play. To create this summer moment for your child, explain that a portion of your day will not include screens, planned entertainment, or structured activities. Brainstorm ideas with your family ahead of time on how to pass the hour. Maybe they look through a box of toys they haven’t played with in a while, find a good book to read on their shelf, or organize their craft supplies. Explain that the adults will be doing the same thing, and help brainstorm a list of ideas for the grown ups in the house as well. Then, have at it! Enjoy the hour of nothingness! At the end, discuss what everyone enjoyed, disliked, and would do next time. You may be surprised at what comes of this hour for your family. 5. Practice “Rose, Thorn, Bud” How many times have you asked your child, “How was your day?” only to receive “fine” as an answer? Try this reflection on a summer day instead. At dinner, bedtime, or even during a car ride, have each family member share a “rose” (something good from the day), a “thorn” (something challenging), and a “bud” (something they’re looking forward to). This simple activity builds not only emotional vocabulary and communication skills, but also creates time for reflection and family connection. It teaches everyone that difficult emotions can exist alongside joyful ones and helps set up the following day for success. Not to mention, it gets the family talking beyond the response of “fine.” 6. Spend time in silence together When was the last time you spent time in silence, let alone with your family? When children learn to slow down and observe the world around them, they also become more aware of the world inside themselves. Guess what? So do the adults! Mindfulness doesn’t always have to mean guided meditation. Sometimes it simply means learning to notice. Try going on a silent nature walk, listening to the rain together, cloud watching, or sitting quietly by the ocean. Before silence begins, encourage your child to use their senses. Teach them to notice what they see, hear, smell, feel, and even taste! Is it hard for them not to tell you all about it at the moment? Hand them a journal. Let them draw or write what they notice. Model doing the same for yourself. The sharing at the end might be more valuable than you realized. 7. Do something brave Confidence is not built on avoiding discomfort. It grows when we experience challenges and realize we can handle them. Encourage your family to choose one thing that feels uncomfortable to them. It could be introducing themselves to someone new, trying a new food, performing at camp, sleeping away from home, or trying a new activity. Often, we avoid discomfort because we feel we aren’t “good enough” at something, or maybe we are simply fearful. This is a great time to build emotion regulation skills as well. Teach your child to breathe deeply and give them a helpful thought before attempting the activity. Remember, the goal is not perfection. The goal is practicing courage. Remind your family and yourself that in order to feel brave, you have to pass through the unpleasant discomfort first. That is what makes bravery feel so wonderful! A different kind of summer Children may not remember every camp theme, outing, or perfectly planned activity from summer break. But they often remember how summer felt to them. They remember feeling connected, calm, safe, free, and seen. This summer, alongside the big adventures, consider making space for the quieter moments that help children build emotional intelligence, resilience, mindfulness, and connection. Sometimes the smallest moments become the most meaningful ones of all. Follow me on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and visit my website for more info! Read more from Jenny Gaynor Jenny Gaynor, Social Emotional Learning Coach and Founder Jenny Gaynor is the author and founder of Calm Education. She teaches children, families, and teachers essential SEL (Social Emotional Learning) skills. Her mission is to help others build confidence, resilience, and healthy connections. Jenny is a former educator with over 20 years of classroom experience. She holds certifications in both elementary and special education. Jenny also has training in yoga, meditation, and SEL facilitation. She lives in Barrington, Rhode Island, with her family and therapy cat, Tiller.