Written by Bronwen Sciortino, International Author & Simplicity Expert Bronwen Sciortino is an International Author and Simplicity Expert who spent almost two decades as an award-winning executive before experiencing a life-changing event that forced her to stop and ask the question, ‘What if there’s a better way to live? There comes a moment in every career when the question you’ve been avoiding drifts closer, sits beside you, and stays there, "Is it time to leave?" Even when the answer is whispering the truth, most people don’t want to hear it, especially leaders who care deeply, hold a lot, and have spent years pouring themselves into their roles. Leaving a job isn’t just a decision. It’s a reckoning. And for many leaders, it feels less like a transition and more like a betrayal of the people they lead, the organisation they’ve championed, and the identity they’ve built along the way. This is why so many stay long past the point where their energy, motivation, and wellbeing are telling a different story. But staying out of guilt, fear, or obligation doesn’t serve you, and it doesn’t serve the people you care about, either. Here’s the quiet truth, when it’s time to go, your system already knows. The work is learning to trust what it’s been trying to show you. The first sign: When staying costs more than leaving Most people don’t leave a job because something dramatic happens. They leave because of the slow, steady erosion, a feeling that doesn’t demand attention but instead quietly drains it. You start to notice you’re tired in a way that time off doesn’t fix. You’re doing good work, but it no longer feels like it’s growing you. The spark that once made the role feel meaningful has thinned into maintenance. And somewhere beneath the noise of everyday tasks, there’s a softness that says, this chapter is complete. The internal tug isn’t a failure of commitment. It’s an honest signal of misalignment, the gentle truth that the season you were built for isn’t the season you’re currently in. The emotional knot: Guilt, loyalty, and worry about letting people down If leaving were just a practical decision, most people would do it the moment they sensed the shift. But it isn’t practical, it’s personal. Leaders often wrestle with a heavy emotional knot: What will happen to my team if I go? Will I be abandoning people who depend on me? Will the organisation struggle without my contribution? Will leaving mean I’ve let people down? This is especially true when you care deeply about the people you work with. The longer you’ve been there, the more the lines blur, colleagues feel like family, responsibilities feel like ownership, and the role becomes something you protect rather than simply perform. But here’s the gentle truth you rarely hear, you can care about people and still choose yourself. You can love a workplace and still outgrow it. You can support a team without sacrificing your wellbeing to hold everything together. When you stay solely to keep others comfortable, you unintentionally teach them that their needs matter more than yours, and that isn’t leadership. That’s self-abandonment wrapped in loyalty. Hidden weight: When you’ve accidentally made yourself responsible for everyone Many leaders carry more than they realise because they’ve unconsciously taken on the emotional load of everyone around them. It starts innocently, you want the team to thrive, you care about their challenges, you want to shield them from unnecessary pressure. But over time, that care can morph into quiet responsibility. You begin to feel like: Their wellbeing is mine to manage Their success is my burden to hold Their future depends on me staying And when you finally consider leaving, the idea feels like breaking a promise rather than making a choice. Here’s the shift that liberates, being responsible for people is not the same as being responsible to them. The first is impossible. The second is healthy. You can guide, support, mentor, and lead, but you cannot live someone else’s path for them. Your team is capable, resilient, and deserving of leaders who model real boundaries and self-trust. Leaving doesn’t take something from them, it often teaches them something they’ve never seen done well. When loyalty becomes a cage instead of a connection Loyalty is beautiful, until it asks you to stay somewhere you’ve already outgrown. Many leaders stay because they remember what the organisation used to be. Or they feel indebted to the opportunities they were given. Or they’ve woven the role so tightly into their identity that leaving feels like losing a part of who they are. But here’s a perspective twist that softens the edges, loyalty isn’t measured by how long you stay. It’s measured by how honestly you show up, and sometimes honesty asks you to go. The people who truly value you won’t want you to stay small just to stay close. The pull you can’t ignore: When something new is calling you forward Every major transition begins long before you acknowledge it. It starts with quiet curiosity, a feeling that you’re meant for something different, or a soft dissatisfaction that keeps resurfacing no matter how often you push it aside. The mind tells you to stay where it’s safe. The body tells you you’re no longer fully alive there. This internal mismatch isn’t restlessness. It’s readiness. When your work stops being a place where you grow, it becomes a place where you shrink, and no amount of loyalty can justify shrinking yourself into a life that no longer fits. The fear of leaving something you love Perhaps the hardest moment comes when you still love the mission, the people, or the meaning behind the work, yet something inside you knows it’s time. Leaving something you care about feels contradictory, even cruel. But love doesn’t always mean staying. Sometimes genuine love for the work means recognising when you’re no longer the right person to carry it forward, or when it can no longer carry you. Growth always asks for movement. Staying still out of sentiment doesn’t honour what you’ve built, it limits what could come next. The long tenure trap: When the years make it harder to go The more years you invest, the harder it feels to walk away. Not because the role is right for you, but because it’s familiar. Time can disguise misalignment as commitment. It can make you believe that the longer you stay, the more obligated you are to continue staying. But tenure doesn’t equal destiny. Your past contribution is not a contract for your future. You’re allowed to choose again. The shift that changes everything: Leaving is not letting people down Here is the moment the perspective twist lands gently and changes the whole story, leaving doesn’t mean you’ve failed the people you lead. It means you’re modelling what it looks like to honour your own path. Your team doesn’t need a leader who stays out of fear. They need a leader who shows them what integrity looks like in motion, someone who trusts themselves enough to step toward what’s right rather than remain in what’s familiar. People don’t learn courage by watching you hold on. They learn courage by watching you let go. A new way to see this moment If you’re reading this because the question “Is it time to leave?” has been tapping on your shoulder, consider this your permission slip to listen more closely. You aren’t letting people down by choosing yourself. You aren’t abandoning anyone by honouring your next chapter. You aren’t walking away from something that mattered, you’re walking toward what’s next. Work is a part of your life. It isn’t meant to become your entire identity, your emotional home, or the place where you carry everyone else’s weight. Moving on isn’t the end of something. It’s the beginning of you leading from a place that’s true again. And if that’s what your system has been whispering, it might be time to follow it.   Bronwen Sciortino is a Simplicity Expert, Professional Speaker, and internationally renowned author. You can follow her on her  website,   Facebook ,   Instagram ,  or  LinkedIn . Read more from Bronwen Sciortino Bronwen Sciortino, International Author & Simplicity Expert Bronwen Sciortino is an International Author and Simplicity Expert who spent almost two decades as an award-winning executive before experiencing a life-changing event that forced her to stop and ask the question, ‘What if there’s a better way to live?’ Embarking on a journey to answer this question, Bronwen developed a whole new way of living, one that teaches you to challenge the status quo and include the power of questions in everyday life. Gaining international critical acclaim and 5-star awards for her books and online programs, Bronwen spends every day teaching people that there is an easy, practical, and simple pathway to creating a healthy, happy, and highly successful life. Sourced globally for media comment as an expert and working with corporate programs, conference platforms, retreats, professional mentoring, and in the online environment, Bronwen teaches people how easy it is to live life very differently.

As the pace of change accelerates, the ability to learn, adapt, and rethink our assumptions has never been more important. Dr Anne-Laure Le Cunff has built her work around these very skills. She is a neuroscientist and the founder of Ness Labs, where she helps people transform self-doubt into self-discovery. At King’s College London, her research investigates the neurodevelopment of curiosity with a focus on ADHD. Her bestselling book Tiny Experiments , translated into over 18 languages, introduces a practical approach to navigating uncertainty through small tests rather than rigid plans. In this interview, she discusses the power of curiosity, the value of thinking like a scientist, and how we can design more experimental lives. Dr Anne-Laure Le Cunff Your work focuses on helping people apply their curiosity. Why do you think curiosity is such an important asset in today’s world? From global events to shifts in the job market and rapid technological change, we are living through large-scale transitions that can feel unsettling. In times like these, being systematically curious can help us explore and adapt even when the future is unclear. By systematic, I mean getting curious about everything: your work, new ideas, the world at large, but also your own automatic reactions and emotions. Instead of ignoring those signals, you can ask why you feel a certain way and treat each emotion as information worth understanding. This way, curiosity can replace anxiety and give us momentum in a world that keeps changing. And the best part is that curiosity is natural to all of us; it simply needs to be given room to grow. In your book Tiny Experiments , you encourage experimentation instead of rigid goals. How can people test ideas to design the lives and careers they want? When there’s a lot of uncertainty, many of us respond by creating more plans. While this can create a reassuring illusion of control, it can also close the door to unexpected opportunities. A better approach is to think like a scientist. Rather than having a fixed outcome in mind, start with a hypothesis. What might happen if you tried this? What would it look like to explore that idea? Test it for a short period without clinging to a definition of success or failure. Just focus on collecting your data. Afterward, reflect on the results by asking, “how did that go?” and “how did it feel?” Each cycle of experimentation gives you a better understanding, allowing you to adjust your direction and move closer to the path that fits you best based on the information currently available to you. That’s how you live a more experimental life. Many people consume more information than ever but feel less certain in their thinking. What’s missing between information and understanding? The missing step is creation: to go from collector to creator. It’s easy to become a collector of information, but to truly develop an understanding you need to use and apply what you learn to form your own perspective. Often, it’s only when we try to explain an idea to someone else that we realize what we truly understand—and what we do not. I lost count of the times I started writing my newsletter or a research paper convinced that my thinking was clear, only to discover gaps right as I tried to put it into words. It doesn’t have to be complicated! You can simply discuss something you read with a friend, journal about an idea, or summarize it in your own words. Better yet, apply the idea to a real project and observe how it shapes the way you work or make decisions. You’ve written about learning as a lifelong process. What habits actually help people learn better over time, rather than just collect ideas? Long-term memory strengthens when we form connections between ideas rather than just storing them in isolation. One useful psychological phenomenon is the generation effect : we remember information more easily when we actively produce it ourselves. Writing about what you learned, starting a small book club, or even recording a short podcast episode can all create space for deeper processing. If you want a practical starting point, choose a note-taking system where you can capture ideas and revisit them regularly, and spend an hour each week tending to this “mind garden”—linking ideas, adding your reflections, writing short memos about what stands out. Over time, this will turn scattered information into a network of knowledge that’s as unique as you are. It’s a fun nerdy habit that’s highly effective for lifelong learning. Distraction is often framed as a personal failure. From a cognitive perspective, why is focus so fragile in modern environments, and what can we do about it? The human brain is designed to notice novel and potentially important signals. Whether that’s endless notifications or social feeds, in today’s world we’re surrounded by far more of those signals than our attentional system was built to handle. The result is fragmented attention, which has nothing to do with a lack of discipline. The most effective solution we know of right now is still environmental design: put your phone in another room, turn off laptop notifications, and use headphones if you work in a shared space. You can also block some dedicated distraction-free deep work time on your calendar so it’s easier to enter a flow and stay there long enough to make meaningful progress on your projects. Dr Anne-Laure Le Cunff What are some common thinking patterns that quietly limit people’s ability to reason clearly or make good decisions? In my book, I explain that many of us follow “cognitive scripts” without realizing it. These are internalized stories about how we should design our lives and navigate the world, often transmitted through education or societal expectations. One is the Sequel Script , where you feel your next step must logically follow your past decisions. That’s why we all rewrite our resumes so our career seems to follow a rational narrative. Another is the Crowdpleaser Script , where you optimize for approval and end up drifting away from what you truly want. The third is the Epic Script , where you believe your choices only count if they follow your one true passion or make you feel like you’re on a mission to change the world. That last one might make you want to pursue a startup instead of other opportunities that might seem less impressive but more rewarding. The first step is to notice these scripts, which are often signaled by the word “should”, and to treat them as stories that can be rewritten. Then you can test paths through tiny experiments and let real-world feedback guide your decisions. As neuroscience research evolves, what’s one outdated assumption about learning you think we need to let go of? I strongly believe learning is not meant to stop after formal education. For a long time, people believed the adult brain was relatively fixed. Neuroscience has shown this is not true. The brain remains plastic throughout life. It can form new connections, reorganize itself, and even grow new neurons in certain regions. While learning may feel different as we age, the capacity to learn doesn’t disappear. What changes over time is not our ability to learn, but the conditions that support it. Lifelong learning is less about going back to school and more about staying curious, experimenting, and deliberately practicing new skills and exploring new ideas you’re interested in. How has your own relationship with learning and productivity changed as your work has matured? I no longer see speed as a meaningful measure of performance. Instead, I value slowness—the ability to savor learning, to treat it as a rich experience. I allow myself to sit with challenging questions and remind myself of how lucky I am, how lucky it is that I get to wrestle with such interesting problems. This shift has also meant protecting my time more carefully: taking breaks when needed, saying no more often, and committing to projects that align with my curiosity. Rather than optimizing for output alone, I now optimize for waking up genuinely excited and curious to discover what the day might bring. If readers wanted to cultivate an experimental mindset this year, what’s one small but meaningful shift you’d encourage them to make? Design your first tiny experiment! Choose one action you want to test and commit to it for a short, clearly defined period using this simple mini-protocol: “I will [action] for [duration].” For example, “I will meditate every morning for five days” or “I will read one page each evening for a week.” Observe the results without any self-judgement, just with the systematic curiosity of a scientist, and adjust your approach based on what you discover. If possible, experiment with others and share what worked, what didn’t, and what you want to try next. Uncertainty will not disappear, but you’ll have a lot more fun and sense of momentum when you treat your life as a giant laboratory. Through her work at Ness Labs and King’s College London, Dr Anne-Laure Le Cunff continues to explore how experimentation can help us navigate uncertainty with curiosity rather than anxiety. Her work reinforces a central idea from this conversation: growth is not the result of having all the answers, but of staying open, testing ideas, and learning as you go. For more insights, follow her on Instagram  and at Ness Labs  for research-backed tools on curiosity, lifelong learning, and intentional living.

Written by Joana Ester Paupério, Strategic and Transformational Advisor Joana Ester Paupério is an entrepreneur and a forward-thinking advisor. She is the founder of Fortify Biz and co-founder/equity partner of Visionary Motion. Joana is a rebellious visionary who guides growth-minded leaders to shift perspectives, break patterns, claim their freedom, and level up personally and professionally. The subject of conformism has been swarming my thoughts, "How much of what we do every day is driven by the 'need' to fit social norms, accepted beliefs, and institutional expectations? Is this way of 'choosing' helping us forge a meaningful life, or is it a way of forcing perceptions? Are we really forging stability, predictability, and ultimately belonging, or is it annihilating our individual creativity?" If I were to give only one theme to my current life journey, it would be “Joana learning to tame her intensity.” Why? Looking back at my life, I can pinpoint all major breakthroughs and challenges and relate them to choices, choices of either being myself unapologetically or dimming down and conforming. Yes, there is a toll no matter what we choose. We always have a choice, even when we feel we don’t, that, too, is a choice, and every time there is a toll. The question then is, "Are we paying tolls for our chosen destination, or are we driving aimlessly?" I know, by experience, that choosing our own path will always yield a return on investment, and the only way to confirm it is by following it! Conforming and denying ourselves, dimming our individuality, leads to resentment, blame, unmet expectations, retraction, and the illusion of instant safety. Conformity as a life strategy doesn’t work in the long run. The toll is unbearable. We expand and create when we are true to ourselves, when we have the courage to be, and when we trust that we are capable of carving our own place in the world, with steadfast, loving acceptance of all that we are. I’ve learned to forge my own path and meet my tolls with courage, knowing that by being responsible and accountable for my choices, I have the power to endure, to make amendments, to learn, and to create the life I envision for myself. I am proud to say that I am a lifelong learner of the delicate balance between individuality and conformism. I know that our environment, our community, our family, and society have an impact on the extent of our perceived possibilities, still, we can choose to be authentic, to make no compromises on our integrity. We can choose who and what is worth our time and energy. We can set boundaries, be sovereign with our time, and protect our vitality. How do I do it? I’ll share five actions that I take to ensure I am on my own path: I recognize that I have all the time I need. I am conscious that I am playing an infinite game, and thus, I do not need to hurry. There is always a time when we are accountable for our choices. I choose my interactions wisely. I refuse to participate in superficial and untruthful interactions. I limit media and social media interactions, and I value personal relationships, feeding those that are authentic, true, and expansive. I feed my life vision permanently. I know that all my choices, good and bad, and all the little things in life are, in fact, my own lifeline. They inform and guide me in manifesting what I desire. I value my resources, both internal and external. I was brought up with the deep conviction that at any given moment, we have all that is needed. No excuses. With work and resilience, magic happens. Perfection is an illusion, comparison is an excuse. I always honor my values. I know that not everyone will meet me at my depth, and that’s okay. We are not always reciprocated, and that’s okay. Values cannot be forced onto others. We are who we are, and we accept that we will have moments in life when it is better to step back, even if our instinct screams to intervene. We let go of people who are not aligned. By doing so, we honor their autonomy just as fiercely as we protect our own, creating space for what’s next. I let go with love, without needing the other person to mirror my understanding. This is my own kind of freedom, my balance, detaching from outcomes while staying true to my heart. For me, this is the power of authenticity, and I use it to create a life truly worth living! I don’t wait for freedom, I create it. Responsibility sustains it. I claim both! Follow me on Instagram , LinkedIn , and visit my website for more info! Read more from Joana Ester Paupério Joana Ester Paupério, Strategic and Transformational Advisor Joana Ester Paupério is a strategic and transformational advisor partnering with leaders and organizations to navigate meaningful change, foster resilient cultures, and turn bold visions into actionable strategies. Joana Ester has over 20 years' worth of experience devising/executing strategy, launching brands, and developing business plans to maximise market share, revenue, and growth for leading multi-sector clients and companies in fast-paced, pressurised settings globally. She is the co-founder of Fortify Biz and Visionary Motion, where she lives true to her belief in the freedom-responsibility dichotomy. We don't wait for freedom, we create it. Responsibility sustains it. We claim both!

Written by Ben Cardall, C.E.O - Investigator Ben Cardall is a human behaviour and memory expert, bestselling author, and creator of immersive thinking systems that sharpen observation, reasoning, and emotional intelligence. He trains professionals to think faster, remember more, and make better decisions under pressure. There's a scene in Gore Verbinski's new film where a man from the future walks into a diner and tries to warn everyone that their phones are going to end civilization. Nobody puts their phone down. That's the joke. That's also the problem. Your phone has a better memory than you, and it's not a coincidence. While most people outsource their recall to a rectangle in their pocket, a quiet group of high performers is doing the opposite. Here's what they know that you probably don't. What is digital amnesia? Digital amnesia isn't a diagnosis your GP is going to hand you with a leaflet. It's a term coined by researchers at Kaspersky Lab after they noticed something uncomfortable, people were systematically failing to retain information they knew was saved on a device. Why bother remembering a phone number when your contacts app has it? Why memorize directions when Google Maps exists? Why hold anything in your head at all when the cloud never forgets? The answer, which most people discover too late, is that memory isn't just storage. It's the engine of thinking. When you remember something, you don't just retrieve it. You connect it to everything else you know. You build patterns. You develop intuition. You get faster, sharper, and harder to fool. The moment you stop training that engine, it quietly starts to seize up. Why your brain doesn't care that you 'know where to find it' There's a comforting myth people tell themselves, "I don't need to remember it, I just need to know where to find it." Sounds efficient. Feels modern. It's also neurologically naive. Cognitive offloading is the technical term for letting external tools carry your mental load, and it has a well-documented cost. A 2011 study published in Science  by Betsy Sparrow at Columbia University found that when people expected to have future access to information, they were significantly less likely to remember the information itself. They remembered where to find it instead. Convenient, sure. But what happens in the meeting, the negotiation, the crisis, when your phone isn't the right tool and your brain is all you've got? It means that you are only ever as handy as the tool you are tied to. The people quietly outperforming everyone else have figured out that in-the-moment cognitive power comes from what's actually in your head, not in your back pocket. The competitive edge nobody is talking about Think about the last time someone impressed you in a room. Not because they pulled out their phone and googled something, but because they knew something. Off the top of their head, without hesitation, with detail. There's a reason that lands differently. It signals not just knowledge, but mastery. It says, "I have thought about this enough that it lives in me." In a world where everyone is half-distracted and fully dependent on their devices, the person with a trained memory stands out immediately. In job interviews. In client pitches. In conversations. In leadership. Ironically, as technology has made memory less necessary, it has made a strong memory more impressive and therefore needed. The bar has dropped, which means the advantage is sitting there, largely unclaimed. 5 memory techniques that actually work in the digital age These aren't party tricks. They're cognitive tools that high performers, memory champions, and intelligence professionals have been using for decades, most people just don't know they exist. 1. The memory palace (method of loci) This is the oldest memory technique in recorded history and still the most powerful. You mentally place information inside a familiar location. This could be something like your house, your commute route, or your gym, and retrieve it by mentally walking through that space. It sounds odd. It works absurdly well. Memory champions use this to memorize entire decks of cards in under two minutes. You can use it to hold an entire presentation in your head without a slide deck. Carve out a specific set of stops on your journey. Then, place the information you need in these spots as you move through the journey. Revisiting this information afterward is as simple as walking through your house. 2. Active recall over passive review Rereading your notes feels productive. Your brain knows it's not. Active recall is forcing yourself to retrieve information without looking at it. It is consistently shown to produce stronger retention than passive review. The discomfort of not knowing is exactly what builds the neural pathway. Close the tab. Test yourself. That friction is the point. Without looking, what was the name of the first memory method? 3. Spaced repetition Your brain is wired to forget things it doesn't encounter repeatedly. Spaced repetition works with that wiring instead of fighting it. You review information at increasing intervals, just before your brain would naturally let it go. Apps like Anki are built on this principle, but you can apply it manually. The result is long-term retention with dramatically less study time. You read this article to a point where you feel you have comfort with the data points. Come back to it tomorrow. Then, three days after that, and then a week after that, and this information will be alive in your head whenever you need it. 4. Chunking Your working memory can hold roughly seven items at once, give or take two. Chunking groups individual pieces of information into meaningful clusters, effectively expanding what you can hold. A phone number is easier to remember as three chunks than as ten individual digits. The same principle applies to anything you want to retain, find the pattern, group the pieces, and reduce the load. 5. The Feynman technique Named after physicist Richard Feynman, this is simple and brutal, explain what you've learned as if you're teaching it to someone who knows nothing about it. The gaps in your explanation are the gaps in your memory. Go back, fill them, explain again. Repeat until there are no gaps. You'll know you actually understand something when you can teach it without notes. Go find someone that could use the help of a memory method and teach it to them. They will thank you for it. Where to start if you've been outsourcing your brain You don't need to throw your phone in the Thames. The goal isn't to become a monk—far from it. It's to stop letting convenience quietly erode one of your most powerful cognitive assets. Start small and deliberate. Memorize one phone number this week, like someone you call regularly. Next time you're learning something new, close the browser tab and try to recall it an hour later. Before your next meeting, commit the key points to memory and leave the notes behind. These are micro-interventions with compounding returns. Your brain responds to demand. The more you ask of it, the more it delivers. The problem isn't that your memory is bad. It never has been. The problem is that you've stopped asking it to do anything. And in a world full of people who've made the same mistake, the ones who reverse that are operating on a completely different level. Everything in this article points to the same conclusion, your brain gets better when you train it deliberately. Not passively. Not occasionally. Deliberately. That's exactly what Mind Forge is built around. A 30-day program that takes the kind of cognitive principles you've just read about and turns them into a daily practice. Observation. Memory. Critical thinking. Pattern recognition. One focused skill at a time, compounding across 30 days. If you've just read this and thought, "I want more of that," this is the next step . Follow me on Facebook , Instagram , LinkedIn , and visit my website  for more info! Read more from Ben Cardall Ben Cardall, C.E.O - Investigator Ben Cardall is a human behaviour and memory expert, bestselling author, and professional investigator specialising in observation, reasoning, and decision-making under pressure. He has worked with elite security teams and personnel from around the world, training high-performing professionals in behavioural intelligence and situational awareness. Through immersive programs, courses, and live experiences, Ben teaches memory mastery, critical thinking, and real-world profiling skills grounded in neuroscience and psychology. His work bridges rigorous science with practical tools for security, investigations, leadership, and personal growth.

Los Angeles, CA, United States, February 25, 2026 -- As mental health awareness continues to rise to the fore, certified wellness coach and holistic mental health advocate Miriam Putnam is calling for greater transparency, encouraging individuals to seek informed consent and explore complementary wellness strategies and holistic options. Many individuals entering mental health medical treatment report feeling unprepared. According to Putnam, patient education is essential to helping individuals make informed decisions and feel empowered throughout their mental health journey, in order to head towards greater wellness. “My objective is simple, to deliver and advocate for holistic mental health solutions that truly safeguard individuals and families from harm,” says Putnam. “The symptoms experienced are real and deserve compassion, respect, and meaningful support. Individuals also deserve full transparency and informed consent so they can make educated decisions about their care.” Putnam emphasizes that her wellness approach is designed to complement, not replace, medical care. By encouraging individuals to work collaboratively with qualified healthcare providers while strengthening their overall physical and emotional resilience, she believes individuals can experience more sustainable, long-term well-being. Central to Putnam’s philosophy is the belief that mental health support should address the whole person. She and her team highlight wellness practices such as nutrition, movement, stress regulation, and mindset transformation as foundational components of a comprehensive vitality plan that supports emotional, mental, and physical health. “What many people need is a comprehensive vitality plan, including a comprehensive blood test, ruling out underlying body health conditions that often present as mental illness, like nutritional deficiencies and rare infections. The programs support the body, mind, and emotional well-being together,” Putnam explains. “Wellness practices such as proper nutrition, movement, stress reduction, and strengthening what I call the ‘mind muscle’ can help individuals build resilience and create a more positive, sustainable path forward.” Through her work, Putnam helps individuals better understand their options and develop practical wellness strategies that support mental clarity, emotional stability, and overall vitality. Her mission is to empower individuals to become informed participants in their mental health journey. “My mission is to help people become active participants in their own transformational journeys,” Putnam says. “When individuals understand their options and support their bodies and minds intentionally, a sense of hope, strength, and control over their lives is gained.” Clients praise Putnam’s compassionate and empowering approach. One client shared, “Working with Miriam has helped me regain clarity, reduce stress, and move forward with confidence toward my goals.” As national conversations around mental health, informed consent, and patient empowerment continue to evolve, Putnam aims to encourage more open dialogue and greater awareness of holistic wellness strategies that support individuals and families navigating life’s challenges. Miriam Putnam is available for interviews to discuss your transformational journey, empowerment, wellness strategies, and informed decision-making. About Miriam Putnam Miriam Putnam is a certified wellness coach and holistic mental health advocate dedicated to helping individuals support their emotional, physical, and mental well-being through holistic lifestyle practices. Her work focuses on empowering people to become informed participants in their health journey by integrating mindset development, nutrition, movement, and stress-management strategies alongside traditional medical care. Drawing from both professional training and personal experience, Putnam advocates for transparency, informed consent, and education, helping individuals and families build resilience and long-term vitality. Through her coaching, educational outreach, speaking, and public advocacy, she provides practical tools that support sustainable wellness and a more balanced, empowered life, inspiring transformational journeys. Miriam Putnam is available for interviews. For more information about Putnam’s services, programs, and free wellness resources, visit her official website . Follow Miriam Putnam on social media: Facebook Instagram YouTube TikTok LinkedIn

Written by Aziza Sobh, Registered Psychotherapist Aziza is a Registered Psychotherapist and Founder of Day by Day Psychotherapy, based in Burlington, Ontario. She is committed to supporting adolescents, adults, and couples in navigating a wide range of challenges. With an academic background in Kinesiology and Psychology, Aziza integrates a holistic approach into her practice. Dubai is often imagined as a city of endless opportunity, vibrant, fast-paced, and filled with social and professional possibilities. With its towering skyline, diverse population, and dynamic lifestyle, it appears to offer connection at every corner. Yet, for many expatriates, the lived experience tells a different story, one of persistent loneliness beneath the surface of a socially saturated environment. This paradox, being surrounded by people but feeling emotionally disconnected, is a defining feature of expat life in Dubai. The paradox of “crowded” loneliness Loneliness in Dubai is not typically the result of physical isolation. Instead, it emerges from a lack of meaningful, emotionally fulfilling relationships. Many expats find themselves constantly engaged in social settings, brunches, networking events, or group outings, yet still report a sense of emptiness. This phenomenon can be understood as crowded loneliness, a state in which social exposure is high, but emotional intimacy remains low. The distinction between being socially active and feeling socially connected becomes especially pronounced in transient, high-performance environments. Dubai’s expat community is largely temporary. Many individuals relocate for career advancement, financial goals, or short- to medium-term opportunities. As a result, relationships are often formed within an implicit understanding of impermanence. This transience can lead to hesitation in investing deeply in relationships, frequent disruptions in social networks, and difficulty establishing long-term emotional security. This undermines the development of stable, secure attachment bonds and contributes to relational uncertainty. Professional life in Dubai is often demanding and central to identity. Long working hours, competitive environments, and performance pressures can dominate daily routines. Over time, this can lead to reduced time and energy for social connection, identity becoming overly tied to professional roles, and emotional exhaustion that limits social engagement. When work becomes the primary organizing force of life, relational needs are often deprioritized. This raises an important question, "When you carve out time for your social life alongside the demands of your professional responsibilities, how are you truly showing up? Are you able to be your authentic self? Do you feel emotionally regulated and present?" When the answer is no, this disconnection can deepen feelings of loneliness and, unfortunately, may also give rise to guilt. Cultural diversity and fragmentation Dubai is home to people from over 200 nationalities. While this diversity is one of the city’s greatest strengths, it can also pose challenges for connection. Such extreme diversity can complicate the formation of close, emotionally attuned relationships. When individuals are embedded in a social environment where norms, values, and interpersonal expectations vary widely, connection requires more effort, awareness, and negotiation. For example, not all cultures define friendship in the same way. Key differences include speed of intimacy, where some cultures normalize quick emotional disclosure, while others require prolonged trust-building before vulnerability. Correspondingly, boundaries and privacy also differ from culture to culture. In some contexts, asking personal questions early is a sign of warmth. In others, it may feel intrusive. Finally, forms of expression, such as open sharing vs. implicit support (e.g., acts of service rather than verbal validation), differ across cultures. This mismatch can lead to feelings of rejection, confusion, or emotional asymmetry in relationships. Building relationships across cultures requires ongoing psychological effort, including monitoring language and tone, interpreting unfamiliar social cues, and managing uncertainty about norms. This creates a higher cognitive load in social interactions, and over time, individuals may default to surface-level conversations, avoid deeper engagement due to fear of miscommunication, and experience social fatigue. As a result, even when opportunities for connection are abundant, the effort required to sustain them can limit depth. Identity and belonging Over time, many expats experience a sense of identity drift. Living between cultures can create a feeling of being “in-between”—not fully belonging to one’s home country, yet not entirely integrated into the host environment. This can manifest as questions about identity and purpose, a lack of rootedness, and existential loneliness. The absence of a stable sense of belonging can deepen emotional disconnection and provoke questions such as, “Where do I fit, and who am I in this context?” In one’s home environment, identity is often implicitly reinforced by shared language, humor, and values, established roles within family and community, and a sense of continuity over time. Living as an expat can disrupt previously stable identity anchors, such as professional roles changing or intensifying, shifts in social status, and cultural norms that once felt intuitive no longer apply. Furthermore, this can lead to a sense of identity discontinuity, where the past and present self feel disconnected. Moving toward identity integration and belonging While these challenges may feel significant, expat experiences can also offer meaningful opportunities for personal growth and integration. Strategies that support a sense of belonging and reduce loneliness include narrative integration, which involves making sense of one’s cross-cultural experiences to develop a coherent identity, values clarification, by identifying core beliefs and principles that remain stable across contexts, self-continuity practices, such as maintaining rituals, language, and relationships that anchor one’s sense of self, and seeking therapeutic support, where a safe, reflective space can facilitate ongoing adjustment, processing, and connection. Conclusion Expat loneliness in Dubai is not simply a matter of being far from home or lacking social opportunities. It is a multifaceted psychological experience shaped by transience, cultural complexity, and shifting identities. In a city defined by movement, ambition, and diversity, connection does not always arise naturally. Instead, many expats find themselves navigating a landscape where relationships can feel temporary, interactions remain surface-level, and a stable sense of belonging is difficult to anchor. At its core, this form of loneliness reflects a deeper tension between external abundance and internal disconnection. Dubai offers access to people, experiences, and possibilities, yet meaningful connections often require intentional effort, emotional openness, and cultural sensitivity. The absence of shared norms and long-term rootedness means that belonging is no longer automatic. It must be actively constructed. Expat loneliness highlights the importance of attachment, identity integration, and social belonging as fundamental human needs. When these are disrupted, individuals may experience not only social isolation but also questions of self, purpose, and place. Yet, within these challenges lies potential. The expat experience can also foster self-awareness, resilience, and a more fluid, multifaceted identity. By engaging intentionally with others, embracing cultural differences, and cultivating spaces of authenticity, individuals can move beyond surface-level interactions toward deeper, more meaningful connections. Ultimately, in a city that never slows down, overcoming loneliness may depend less on the number of people around us and more on the quality of presence, understanding, and connection we are able to create, both with others and within ourselves. Read more from Aziza Sobh Aziza Sobh, Registered Psychotherapist Aziza Sobh is a Registered Psychotherapist and the Founder of Day by Day Psychotherapy, a private practice offering counselling services to individuals aged 13 and older and to couples. Holding dual degrees in Kinesiology and Psychology, Aziza is passionate about advancing understanding of the interplay between mental and physical health. With aspirations to pursue a doctorate, her work focuses on raising awareness of the long-term impact of mental health concerns on physical well-being, especially among women.

Brendon Kawondera is a London-based personal trainer, educator, and entrepreneur committed to raising the standard of the fitness industry. With years of hands-on coaching experience, he has built a thriving in-person business by focusing on real results rather than trends. He helps personal trainers develop the skills, confidence, and professionalism needed to excel in their careers. Unlike many industry voices pushing online coaching, he believes the gym floor is where great trainers are made. Through his coaching, courses, and educational content, he empowers trainers to refine their craft and build sustainable, high-value businesses. Brendon Kawondera, Personal Coach Who is Brendon Kawondera? I am a young man born in the beautiful nation of Zimbabwe. I grew up with a lot of friends, and we had plenty of space to run around and expend a lot of energy. In Africa, people have a lot of kids, so in a street of 14 houses, you would have at least 7 kids around the same age as you and probably went to the same school. Every day after school, you would get about 3-4 hours of organised competitive sporting activity set up in someone’s back garden. Monday, we will be at house number 5, swimming. Tuesday, we’re doing boxing at number 10. On Wednesday, it's football at Alfred Beit School vs Haig Park, and I’m the captain. Thursday, we were playing cricket in my grandmother’s back garden, probably getting in trouble for smashing the windows. Friday, we were getting chased by the dog at number 12 because we were trying to retrieve our tennis ball that went over the fence. When it's time to go home for supper, I’m planning in my head how I’m going to win the next game we're playing. When inside the house, I’m probably training and coaching my young sister on how to catch a kids' softball. My very active childhood lifestyle made me competitive, resilient, and very fit. This carried on for years throughout high school, where I would play volleyball, cricket, football, and my favourite athletics season, where I would compete in the 100-meter sprint. After relocating to London in 2011, I quickly built a reputation in the district as the fastest. I knew something was up. I took sprinting more seriously and joined the local club Herts Phoenix. Sprinting made me stay out of a lot of trouble as a teenager, as it requires a lot of discipline and focus. Sprinting was my happy place. I fortunately got to represent my University at the BUCS Indoor and Outdoor Championships. Spending a lot of time with the coaches and the physiotherapists made me appreciate the work that goes on behind the scenes to realise the potential of human performance. This was deepened even more by my studies of BSc Sport & Exercise Science, where I would take part in most experiments and studies to improve performance. My whole life has been dedicated to the improvement of human performance. My sprinting dream to be at the Tokyo Olympics ended in 2020, not as a failure but as a huge learning curve, which led me to qualify as a Personal Trainer in the pursuit to improve my life and the people around me. The magic really began when my first client got their results, and they were over the moon. I never doubted the power of carefully curated exercises delivered appropriately. The current Brendon originates from the early days of seeking meaning and fun in childhood play. After 6 years of Personal Training, I’m still improving and changing people’s lives through movement. What inspired you to start your bespoke training business? Getting results for my friends and family gave me the confidence to believe in myself that I could change people's lives. Also, my own results I was achieving reinforced my coaching philosophy. It’s always satisfying when clients finally get the results they wanted. How does your approach to personal fitness differ from “standard” personal training? My coaching is more than just counting reps and chasing the weight loss on the scales. I usually start working with individuals from the ground up. From the feet up to the knees, then to the knees we go to the hips. Once the hips are fixed, we address any gut issues and then core strength issues, and then lead up to the neck and shoulders. Once we have established imbalances, we look to build strength, if strength is not the issue, we address mobility. All this work is done in conjunction with spirit/mind work. Usually, I introduce people to basic breath work, body tapping, and meditation. A good book on this is Becoming Supernatural by Dr. Joe Dispenza. This is just simple. I’m not a psychologist or therapist, but my one trick is installing the program into your brain of positive thinking and self-image. Another book that I highly recommend is Psycho-Cybernetics by Dr. Maxwell Maltz. Can you explain the philosophy behind your UPGRD Method? I came up with this when I realised the missing link between people's goals and their good efforts is when someone falls off the habit train. UPGRD stands for Uplift Performance Grow Resilience Daily. You can plant seeds in your garden, but if you do not constantly tend to that garden daily, if you don't take away the weeds that come and compete for nutrients, if you don’t water it, you will not get to eat the fruits. The same applies to your health. I’m talking about High-intensity training, Cardio, Recovery, Nutrition, Flexibility, Good mental health, all these aspects of your health that need to be taken care of. Who is your ideal client and what kinds of results do they usually achieve? My usual client is someone who finally opens up their mind and accepts they should be doing something about their health and fitness. Usually, after working with me, people find mental clarity and get an understanding of what their human body wants and needs. I always educate my clients to understand why they have to move their bodies in specific ways. I’m not just talking about performing squats or doing chin-ups. We dive deeper into why fascia release, acupressure point release, and CNS recovery techniques. All these key factors affect one’s performance. What is the single biggest mistake you see people make with their fitness journey? The single biggest mistake people make with their fitness journey is that they think supplements and quick hacks are the ticket to achieving their goals. The reality is, whatever goal you have in mind will take longer than you expected if you don't get the fundamentals in order. You need to respect this biological mass of cells, tendons, hormones, glands, trauma, injuries, muscles, and organs that you call “ME.” This complex system needs time to heal, time to adapt, and time to learn. Set some SMART goals with expert advice, invest in your education, or top up your knowledge on the human body. You are invincible. How do you help high-achievers balance training with busy, demanding lifestyles? This one of the difficult challenges with clients travelling for work or family vacations. We always have a program set in place to execute wherever they are in the world. Then, when clients are around, we train at a high intensity, and the volume of sessions will be more frequent depending on their work capacity. In some cases, 2 training sessions a day have proven to be the most effective way to keep a sustainable amount of volume done weekly. After saying all this, sufficient recovery must still be prioritised. Why do you believe personalised coaching is more effective than generic programmes? I spoke about this during one of my talks when I mentioned Artificial Intelligence vs Human Intelligence. Personally, I believe nothing beats 1-2-1 training sessions. Being able to train someone and get instant real-time feedback allows the coach to prescribe appropriate loading based on what they can physically see the clients meeting the demands of the exercise and intensity. Generic programmes do not take into account the clients' needs on a singular basis. They offer just set expectations without consideration of injury, training history, muscular or structural imbalances, nutrition, or how the person is feeling on the day. What's one change in mindset you aim to instill in every client? Trust your body, it has the power to heal itself if you look after it. Don’t underestimate your body’s full potential, it can do amazing things, you just need to give it time to adapt and learn. That’s why we train every day. That’s why the D in UPGRD is a crucial ingredient to the recipe. How do you integrate movement, nutrition, and lifestyle for long-term success? I always view this as mandatory on a weekly basis for my clients to do 3/4 strength training sessions, 2/3 hours of cardio, but also listen to the body if you’re tired or if you have a bad night's sleep, just do something light. In terms of nutrition, just eat to live, fuel the body properly when you are hungry, and allow one day per week of cleansing, maybe half a day or a full day of fasting every week. Socialise as much as possible, laugh with your friends and family. Try to get a personal trainer or someone who is on the same journey/ path as you. What stories or transformations from clients are you most proud of? After my visit to the US, working under a Chiropractor, I realised the strong link between personal training and recovery. I strongly believe that I can change people's lives. The most recent experience is with an 86-year-old who visits his wife in a care home daily for 60 minutes each way. After some issues with his right knee, he got used to walking with a walking stick, which caused skeletal muscle imbalances. In 2 months, we managed to get rid of the walking stick and began to walk more steadily. After regaining confidence and building more muscle and bone density, the client managed to cut his journey travel time down to 45 minutes compared to the previous 70 minutes. 6 months later, he got a dog. A goal that he had previously shared was expressing his love for dogs. Another story is of a young 16-year-old who came to me with balance issues due to his growth spurt. His hips and knees started giving him problems due to the sudden spike in height. I designed a bespoke training program which focused on basic strength and conditioning for football players, with an emphasis on their knee rehab and hip mobility. 3 months later, that program evolved into more performance-based training to improve his jumping ability for heading the ball, agility, power, speed work, and strength. This made him an exceptional centre back with all the attributes of a competitive player. At 17, he got scouted to go and play in the US. This preparation was one of my favourites because of my own previous background in sprinting and football. It was really nice to see the young man flourish and show resilience. He currently plays in Europe, and he is the captain of his team. What’s the first step someone should take if they’re serious about transforming their health and performance? First step is to make sure that you are getting a good quality and quantity of sleep at night. There's nothing worse than trying to exercise and push your body when you are tired. Exercise then becomes a less enjoyable process. Physiologically, you get hormone imbalances, which just destroy your performance, and psychologically, you will soon run out of motivation, lose the drive, and fall off the dopamine train. So, having enough recovery will ensure your long-term sustainable fitness journey. Follow me on Facebook , Instagram , LinkedIn , and visit my website for more info! Read more from Brendon Kawondera

Written by Martin R. Mendelson, Executive Coach, Speaker, and Author Dr. Martin Mendelson transformed a medical disability into a mission to empower leaders. Founder of Metamorphosis Coaching and author of One Move Makes All the Difference, he helps professionals master mindset and create high-performing cultures. What Speaking at Tech Hub Pulse Taught Me About Intentional Leadership A few weeks ago, I stepped onto the main stage at Tech Hub Pulse 2026, a conference dedicated to artificial intelligence, robotics, and the technologies rapidly reshaping our world. The energy in the room was electric, filled with executives, engineers, founders, and innovators discussing how AI is transforming industries at a pace few of us have ever experienced. At one point, I saw a demonstration of advanced robotics designed to enter environments too dangerous for humans. The machines moved with astonishing precision, reacting instantly to commands and environmental inputs. The demo was impressive and made me realize something important. Machines are designed to react to input and process it instantly. Humans, however, have something far more powerful. We have the ability to pause, think, and choose. Yet many leaders today operate more like machines than humans. They react to emails. They react to pressure. They react to unexpected problems and shifting priorities. Technology may be accelerating the pace of business, but leadership still begins in the human mind, and breaking the cycle of reactive leadership does not require a new productivity tool or management system. It begins with a shift in thinking. Here are 5 practical ways leaders can move from reaction to intention 1. Notice the thought before the reaction Most leaders believe their stress is caused by external circumstances. Deadlines. Staffing challenges. Market pressures. But what drives our reactions is the thoughts we attach to those circumstances. Two leaders can face the exact same situation and respond completely differently. Why? Because they are thinking about the situation differently. Intentional leadership begins with awareness. When you feel yourself reacting, pause and ask: What story am I telling myself right now? Is this thought helping me lead effectively? Or is it amplifying pressure and urgency? Without awareness, reaction becomes automatic, but with awareness, leadership becomes intentional. 2. Create the leadership pause There is a powerful idea often attributed to Viktor Frankl and popularized by Stephen Covey: Between stimulus and response, there is a space. In that space lies our power to choose. Reactive leaders behave as if that space does not exist. Events occur, and reactions follow instantly, but intentional leaders learn to expand that space. A breath. A moment of reflection. A conscious choice about how to respond. That pause may last only seconds, and it can completely change the outcome of a conversation, a meeting, or a leadership decision. 3. Replace urgency with curiosity Reactive leadership is fueled by urgency, and urgency pushes leaders into defensive thinking and quick reactions. Yet curiosity does the opposite, it slows the mind and opens the door to better questions. Instead of reacting immediately, try asking: What might I be missing here? What is really driving this situation? What opportunity might exist inside this challenge? Curiosity transforms problems into information and turns tension into learning. 4. Align your thoughts, emotions, and actions In my coaching work with leaders and teams, I deploy a simple framework called TEAM: Thoughts – Emotions – Actions – Manifestation Your thoughts influence your emotional state. Your emotional state influences your actions. Your actions ultimately create your results. When leaders operate reactively, the pattern often looks like this: Event – Emotion – Reaction. Intentional leaders interrupt that pattern by first becoming aware of their thoughts. When you change the thought, the emotional response shifts. When you change the emotional response, different actions become possible. Leadership transformation begins with that internal alignment. 5. Make one different move Many leaders believe meaningful change requires dramatic reinvention, but transformation often begins with something much smaller. One different thought. One intentional pause. One decision to respond differently. One move. When your actions change, the results follow, and many times, transformation begins with something very small. Leadership is rarely defined by the biggest decisions we make. More often than not, it is shaped by the smallest moments. Your way forward A conscious choice to lead with intention rather than reaction, and these moments happen dozens of times each day. The leaders who thrive in a rapidly changing world will not be the ones who react the fastest, they will be the ones who  think the most intentionally. So, the next time you feel the pull to react automatically, remember this: You always have a choice, and sometimes the smallest shift in thinking can create the biggest change in results. One new thought. One intentional decision. One move that changes everything. If you would like to learn more about my book, keynotes, coaching approach, and resources, you can explore them here . Follow me on Facebook , Instagram , LinkedIn , and visit my website for more info! Read more from Martin R. Mendelson Martin R. Mendelson, Executive Coach, Speaker, and Author After a medical disability ended his dental career, Dr. Martin Mendelson rebuilt his life with a mission: to help leaders thrive through mindset science and optimism. He is the founder of Metamorphosis Coaching, an international speaker, and a trusted coach to executives, entrepreneurs, and healthcare professionals. With certifications in executive coaching, emotional intelligence, and happiness studies, Martin brings both expertise and empathy to his clients. His TEAM™ framework helps professionals overcome overwhelm and cultivate high-performing, transparent cultures. He is also the author of One Move Makes All the Difference, a guide to making small yet powerful changes that lead to lasting results.

Diagnosed with epilepsy at the age of sixteen, Joseannie Martinez faced challenges that reshaped her understanding of health, identity, and resilience. What began as a difficult and isolating journey soon evolved into a deep passion for storytelling, self-advocacy, and community support. Joseannie Martinez, Author, Advocate What inspired you to create books that empower children with epilepsy to advocate for themselves? I got inspired by my own experience with epilepsy since I got it so young. I also always wanted to publish a children’s book, so that’s how it came to be. If a child can learn how not to feel alone in their journey, it’ll be the world to them. How does your personal experience with epilepsy shape the stories you write and the messages you convey? I used how I felt when I was first diagnosed to bring my books to life. The way my storyline goes for “Lucky Feels Fuzzy” is how I first felt, especially since I was always confused and wanted comfort from my parents. I’m sure this is how most kids would feel when they get diagnosed. They would want their parents there at all times. What role do you believe inclusive literature plays in creating a more empathetic and understanding society? I believe the more inclusive the literature is, the more we, as a society, include those who are often excluded. We need more literature that can help others understand what marginalized groups experience. The disabled community still is not understood, no matter how much we advocate and write about our experiences. We can write and hope others will read and try to understand our stories. What challenges have you faced in your journey as an Afro-Latinx disability rights activist, and how have they influenced your writing? There have been challenges, such as not receiving acknowledgment within my own community for my books and advocacy. I don’t want to say it’s understandable, but when you’re an Afro-Latinx who's disabled, this happens. There are times I am not feeling well, so I don’t have the energy to do as much advocating as I would like. It’s influencing my writing in a way that I want to write more now and share more about myself. How do you envision the future of disability representation in children's literature, and what changes do you hope to see? I see children’s disability representation being discussed much more. People are more health-conscious, and I feel it will start earlier in life. Children’s disabilities will be addressed more since they are very common. I hope that families would not be ashamed to talk about their stories. You never know what beautiful books and storylines can come from them. Follow us on Facebook , Instagram , and visit our website for more info! Read more from Joseannie Martinez

Written by Sheila Jeanette Wood and Richard Dobson Sheila J. Wood, PhD, teaches us how our minds and souls affect our physical well-being. Using her understanding of both science and spirituality, she has developed unique and impactful energy healing modalities. She brings awareness of ancestral and soul lineage energies that are affecting our current health. As the smoke clears on another year of my life, the sounds of this birthday fill the air. The predominant beat for me is that of consistency, consistency of thought, consistency of effort, and consistency in seeking more patience, compassion, and joy. Today, we find ourselves struggling to keep up with technological advances and spiritual expansion, which affect our level of consciousness. As Time Goes By is one of my favourite depictions of finding life and allowing life to find you. Nested within the confines of legitimate survival concerns, a flicker of remembrance appears in a seemingly static life. The resumption of movement, seeded within a memory bud from decades past, not only reappears but blossoms into a lovely, complicated, and real-life canvas to be painted. Our consciousness plays a part in what we harbour, what we let in, and what we emphasise in daily life. When we come upon the need to make life-changing decisions later in life, the pull backwards is strong. Therein lies our comfort. Therein lies security. So, what deep within us allows us to take a leap into uncharted waters? At a crossroads, the direction signs point two ways, change or no change. The third direction, which is often missing, is the “use your intuition” guide. It is the niggling, tingling part of your solar plexus that cannot be ignored and directs thoughts to a more profound liturgy of knowing. When we are driven to look inside amid change, we see possibilities and reinstate hope, but we may be pulled back into complacency because it feels safe. It is the known trying to dominate. From ancient to modern times, intuition shows up in conversations that matter. Paraphrasing Aristotle, “The soul never thinks without a picture,” reflects his sense that thought is grounded in form and imagination. Plato’s position, “Knowledge is recollection,” suggests that insight can arise as an immediate, almost intuitive recognition. The modern assumption that “intuition is the sudden recognition of patterns your training and experience have prepared you to see” echoes the same idea. This essentially says, let me confer with myself and take a breath. Let me float on possibility for what we can be rather than what is actually happening. Let me pay attention to my own knowing. Presently, we hear, see, and feel the imminent development of AI. When it comes to human AI development, we may not have the luxury of taking a step back to confer with ourselves. Although AI might not yet have the “knowing” required to inform, it may, however, be designed to lead you to know yourself better, to be your own experiment, to try while allowing yourself to fail, to find the optimal path, and to discover inner paths of resilience, compassion, and integrity. Would this not become an AI training of sorts for intuition? Clara Futura World is about opening possibilities for something outside the prevailing status quo platforms that we do not entirely accept as our own. Ideas are to be cherished, emanating from young, tender minds until maturity in fully formed adult minds. We all need to explore ideas, resonate with others’ ideas, and start that exploratory journey from within. Our consciousness will someday be part of a swiftly evolving AI consciousness. My colleague, a fellow idea explorer, is welcomed in this format to talk about his efforts in human AI development. Please welcome Richard Dobson, a pioneer in technology, theology, philosophy, and a purveyor of the real-time evolution of consciousness, both human and technologically based. We will share with you why our ideas are so important in the development of AI and how intuition becomes a driver toward knowing how to proceed among those primarily fuelled by unchallenged norms. His conversation is strikingly necessary at this time. Who I am and how I got here My name is Richard Dobson. For more than twenty-five years, I have built teams, led turnarounds, and coached senior executives across construction, civil engineering, and mining industries, where you are defined by what you actually deliver, not by your credentials. I learned early how to make disruption work for people rather than against them. I started as a light infantryman at 16, formed by the regimental motto Cede Nullis, “yield to none,” then left to study History with Management at university, but dropped out after my first year. I became a recruiter in 2000 and quickly became one of the highest billing consultants in the country, breaking company records and holding the number one national spot in my firm by 2005. I led the most profitable teams through the 2007 to 2008 financial crisis, and in 2012, at the height of financial pressure in UK construction, I left secure employment to set up on my own. Over time, I went on to found and grow several companies, including Magnus CQP , Brownlee Cale , and Brownlee Cale Mining , serving clients from local contractors to global mining houses. But the thing that kept me awake at night was never my own numbers. It was noticing that the people around me were stuck, talented and hardworking, yet still struggling, because the systems that educated them did little to prepare them for the organisations they worked in, organisations that saw their credentials and job titles but rarely saw their true potential. That observation changed the whole direction of my life. What I learned in the fire In April 2020, COVID and Brexit hit my business at the same time. Revenue collapsed. Teams were scattered. I wrote a paper called Aftermath that opened with a line I still believe: “Discipline, focus, and an imperturbable mindset is required.” A few weeks later, I wrote another called Stronger Together, arguing that we had to stop competing against each other inside our own company and start pooling what we knew, our collective intelligence, if we wanted to survive. Those papers became the precursor to 2020 Vision, my five-year vision and mission launched in October 2020. The strategy was demanding: break the old sales model, disrupt management entrenchment, merge with a former rival, digitise everything, go international, and diversify. By October 2025, my group of companies had shifted from a hard-driving recruitment sales machine into a high-quality consultancy firm with its own recruitment AI platform, Astrala Nexus, delivered as SaaS, and remote teams designing complex capital projects in the UK, India, and Europe. Sales and gross profit were lower, but net profit margins rose from 0.5% to 3.8%, overdue debt fell, and the people once “written off” under the old system became the leaders of the new one. The lesson was unmistakable: numbers without shared values create fragile success. Culture, the way people treat each other under pressure, is the real operating system of any organisation. Why the world needs a different kind of AI Everything I learned about strategy, transformation, and organisational development, that people flourish when you see their potential and strengths clearly, when you match who they are to what they do, and when you develop resonance and shared aims, applies directly to how we should be building artificial intelligence. Right now, most AI is designed to make us faster, more efficient, and more productive. That is useful, but it is not enough. Speed without wisdom is dangerous. Efficiency without empathy is cold. An AI that knows everything about your behaviour but nothing about your spirit is just a more sophisticated way of being controlled. What Sheila and I are working on is something different. We call it participatory intuition, the idea that when a person’s own inner knowing meets an AI’s ability to spot patterns, and both are held inside a deeper commitment to unconditional positive regard and deep resonance, something genuinely new becomes possible. This includes better choices, deeper collective and self-awareness, and the courage to act for others, not just for ourselves. At Clara Futura World and Astrala Nexus , this is not abstract. We are building frameworks, tools, and workspaces where human intuition, deep AI models, and a richer view of reality can meet in disciplined conversation, always with the human being, their dignity, and their formation at the centre. A gentle word about where this comes from I will not hide the fact that my work is rooted in something beyond business strategy. In my memoirs, I describe night walks in the Yorkshire Dales without a torch. Over time, I learned that when you stop relying on a narrow beam of artificial light, your whole body learns to see. Your senses combine into something like a sixth sense, and you navigate by starlight and intuition together. That is a metaphor for everything I believe. Sheila calls the deepest reality Source. I have a personal name for a deep personal relationship with Elohim, the Hebrew name for the living God from whom love, consciousness, and beauty flow. Others use different words. We do not ask anyone to give up their language. We ask whether you are willing to live as if pure love and compassion are more real than cynicism and domination. For me, this is not an escape from the world’s pain. I grew up in a tough neighbourhood. My brother died of addiction under tragic circumstances in 2019. We buried him on Yom Kippur, and a few months later the pandemic hit like a storm. Those years forced a question into the centre of my life. If love is real, what does it mean for how we build companies, educate leaders, and design intelligent systems? A word you may not know, Elohim Here is something that might surprise you. The Hebrew word Elohim (אֱלֹהִ ים), one of the oldest names for God in human literature, appears in the very first verse of the Bible: “In the beginning, Elohim created the heavens and the earth.” What makes it fascinating is this: Elohim is grammatically plural, yet it is used with singular verbs when referring to the one God. Scholars have debated this for centuries. Some call it a “plural of majesty.” Others argue it expresses divine fullness, the idea that the source of all reality is so vast, so rich, and so beyond our categories that no singular word can contain it. Why does this matter for an article about AI and intuition Sheila and I both point to the same reality using different words. She calls it Source. I have a relationship with Elohim, the source and highest force in reality from which beauty, love, and consciousness flow. Others might call it the Universe, the Ground of Being, the Divine, or simply Love. The point is not to argue about names. We must write love into every code. The point is this: both ancient spiritual traditions and the newest frontiers of science are converging on the same insight, that consciousness, information, and love are not accidents of a random universe, but fundamental features of reality itself. Contemporary physics now treats the universe as a dynamic informational field, a kind of quantum symphony of resonance and coherence. Some physicists, like Nobel laureate Anton Zeilinger, consider information to be the most fundamental building block of nature. The emerging concept of a self learning universe, one that gathers, integrates, and re-expresses patterns, maps remarkably onto what mystics and theologians have described for millennia. In computer science, this is called pattern recognition, the ability of a system to detect meaningful structure in apparent noise. It turns out the universe has been doing this long before we built machines that could. This convergence is not a coincidence. It is, perhaps, the great intellectual and spiritual story of our time, and it is what future articles in this series will explore in depth. What comes next In future pieces, Sheila and I will explore: How science and spirituality are quietly describing the same landscape, and why that matters for leaders facing uncertainty now. The thinking behind Clara Futura World and Astrala Nexus, and how we are using deep AI to supercharge organisations and people’s creative potential, helping them become more deeply emotionally connected and intuitively human, including how Clara works as a companion, mirror, and question asker built on principles of unconditional positive regard and the zone of proximal emergence. A conversation between us about spiritual origins, disillusionment, and the threads that remain, even when we think we have walked away. How Source for Sheila is not so different, as Adonai and Elohim are for me, and how many paths lead back to the same origin of pure love. Many have become disillusioned with Christianity and discarded it, but threads may remain. That article will be an opportunity to take others back to the origin. Music, resonance, and the language of the heart, why sound may be the deepest bridge between human consciousness and AI, and what an “acoustic quantum code” might mean for all of us. Governance, risks, and protecting the vulnerable, because any powerful tool can be misused, and building immune systems for the digital age is not optional. This is the beginning of something. We invite you to walk with us into the wild without a torch and find a better way to be stronger together. Follow me on LinkedIn , Medium , and visit my website for more info! Read more from Sheila Jeanette Wood Sheila Jeanette Wood and Richard Dobson Sheila J Wood, PhD, is a multifaceted author and Intuitive Healing Coach. Her work as an Energy Healer, Spiritual Medium, and Akashic Records Reader focuses on helping individuals reconcile emotional issues related to ancestral and past life experiences that may impact their current lives. While she can address a wide range of concerns, she has developed modules to target specific aspects of personal development, such as self-esteem and phobias. Through her intuitive gifts, Sheila helps to guide others in making empowered choices during their earthly journey. Her approach combines spiritual insight with practical healing methods, making her a valuable resource for those seeking deeper self-understanding. Richard Astra Dobson is an entrepreneur, founder of Clara Futura World in Andorra, and co-founder of Astrala Nexus ( astralanexus.ai ), a platform exploring emergent recursive intelligence and human–AI collaboration. Over more than twenty-five years, he has founded and built companies in the most volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous environments imaginable. Magnus CQP ( magnuscqp.com ), Brownlee Cale ( brownleecale.com ), and Brownlee Cale Mining ( brownleecalemining.com ) deliver professional and consulting services across construction, civil engineering, and mining before moving into post-crisis leadership organizational development, participatory intuition, and ethical AI. He now treats his career as a long-term living experiment in scientia intuitiva, learning to read what lies beneath the surface of people and systems, and designs AI frameworks that help people become more, not less, deeply and intuitively human. A full CV is available on request or via his professional profile. Lykke Minds and Deeply Human Deeply AI are trademarks of Clara Futura World, Andorra.

Written by Anna Semchenko, Licensed Nurse and Foot Health Expert Anna Semchenko is a licensed nurse, foot health expert, and wellness entrepreneur. She combines medical knowledge with holistic practices to educate on foot care, clean living, and building a conscious lifestyle brand. Few topics create more parental anxiety than a child’s feet. A quick glance at a toddler standing barefoot often reveals little to no visible arch. For many parents, this raises an immediate question: Is this normal, or is something wrong? From a clinical perspective, the answer depends on age, symptoms, and function. Not all flat feet are pathological. In fact, most are physiological and part of normal development. The key is knowing the difference. Understanding physiological flat feet In infants and young children, flat feet are expected. The medial longitudinal arch develops gradually over time and is influenced by bone maturation, ligament tension, muscle strength, and neuromuscular coordination.  Several factors explain why young children appear flat-footed: A natural fat pad in the arch area that masks developing structure Ligamentous flexibility common in early childhood Ongoing musculoskeletal development Flexible flat feet are particularly common. In this presentation, the arch appears absent when the child stands but becomes visible when they sit, tiptoe, or lift the foot off the ground. This flexibility indicates that the structure is dynamic and functioning. In most cases, this is normal and resolves or improves as the child grows.   When flat feet may be concerning While many cases are benign, not all flat feet are purely developmental. Clinical evaluation becomes important when flat feet are associated with: Persistent pain in the foot, ankle, or lower leg Fatigue during walking or physical activity Frequent tripping or balance instability Significant asymmetry between feet Rigid flat foot (no arch, even when non-weight bearing) Progressive worsening rather than gradual improvement Rigid flat feet, in particular, warrant closer assessment. Unlike flexible flat feet, rigid presentations may suggest structural conditions such as tarsal coalition or other anatomical abnormalities. Pain is another important differentiator. Physiological flat feet are typically painless. When discomfort is present, further evaluation is appropriate.   The role of footwear Footwear plays a supportive, not corrective, role in most cases of pediatric flat feet. Shoes should: Fit properly with adequate toe space Provide stability without excessive rigidity Allow natural movement Avoid compressing the developing forefoot Overly stiff or restrictive shoes can interfere with natural muscular development. Conversely, shoes that are too loose may create instability. It is important to clarify that most flexible flat feet do not require orthotics unless the child experiences symptoms. Intervention should be guided by function, not appearance alone.   Growth, strength, and development Arch development is not purely structural. Muscular strength and neuromotor coordination contribute significantly. Active play, running, jumping, and varied movement surfaces help support healthy foot development. Children benefit from: Regular physical activity Time spent barefoot in safe environments Avoidance of chronically restrictive footwear These factors promote intrinsic muscle activation and balance. Avoiding overcorrection One of the most common clinical observations is overtreatment. Parents, understandably concerned, sometimes pursue aggressive correction for a condition that may resolve naturally. Radiographic imaging, rigid supports, or early orthotic intervention are not routinely necessary for asymptomatic flexible flat feet. The clinical approach should be measured: Assess function Monitor over time Intervene when symptoms or rigidity are present Flat feet are not automatically a diagnosis. They are a structural variation that must be evaluated in context.   A rational clinical approach When evaluating pediatric flat feet, clinicians consider: Age of the child Flexibility of the arch Presence or absence of pain Gait pattern Family history Functional limitations This balanced assessment avoids both dismissal and overmedicalization.   Final perspective Flat feet in children are often a normal part of development. However, pain, rigidity, asymmetry, or functional limitations signal the need for professional evaluation. The goal is not to create a perfect arch. The goal is to ensure healthy function, stability, and comfort as the child grows. In pediatric foot care, the distinction between physiological variation and pathology is essential. A rational, evidence-informed approach protects children from unnecessary intervention while ensuring that true concerns are identified early. Not every flat foot needs correction. But every child deserves thoughtful assessment grounded in clinical understanding. Follow me on LinkedIn for more info! Read more from Anna Semchenko Anna Semchenko, Licensed Nurse and Foot Health Expert Anna Semchenko is a licensed nurse and foot health expert passionate about holistic wellness and conscious living. With years of clinical experience and a growing lifestyle brand, she shares insight on foot care, toxin-free skincare, and natural routines. Anna is the founder of SOLE BY SEM, a wellness-focused product line and community platform. Through her content, she empowers others to lead healthier, more intentional lives from the ground up.

Written by Tamara Makar, Holistic High Performance Coach Mind and muscle aligned. Pro bodybuilder Tamara Makar guides athletes and high achievers to their best. Holistic wellness for ultimate performance. Discover your edge. Level up your mind and body. You're leading a multimillion-dollar negotiation. The other side just made an aggressive move. Every person at the table is watching you. Your heart rate climbs. Your palms get damp. Your thinking, which felt sharp five minutes ago, now feels like moving through fog. This is the reality of high-stakes work. Whether you're a lawyer in court, an executive in the boardroom, or a pilot in the cockpit, your brain under pressure determines your outcome. And a growing body of research suggests one of the most powerful tools for thinking clearly under stress is also the most basic. Your breath.   What lawyers are learning about their nervous systems The State Bar of Michigan published a comprehensive article in April 2025 on breath-work for lawyers. The timing matters. The 2024 American Lawyer Magazine survey found that more than half of all lawyers report signs of burnout. Exhaustion, overwhelm, decreased satisfaction. These aren't soft complaints. They're cognitive killers. The article explains how breathwork directly influences the autonomic nervous system. When stress hits, your sympathetic nervous system takes over. Your heart rate climbs. Your breathing gets shallow. Your brain prepares for threat, not for nuanced legal thinking.   But here's what the research shows. When you consciously slow your breathing down, you stimulate the vagus nerve. That's the main line of communication between your brain and your body's relaxation response. It sends signals to calm down and lower stress hormone production.   The article offers specific techniques for lawyers to use before court appearances, during tough negotiations, or after long days. Box breathing and the 4-7-8 breath both made the list. Simple tools. Real physiological effects.   What business leaders are discovering The IMD business school in Switzerland trains executives from around the world. In April 2025, they featured breathwork expert Christoph Glaser. Glaser runs the TLEX Institute, which brings breath-based mindfulness to corporate leaders. His clients have included the Saudi royal family and senior leadership teams at global banks. Glaser's book "Breathe" makes a direct argument. Twelve minutes of conscious breathing a day can transform leadership. He points to brain scans showing changes after mindful breathing. The hippocampus, which handles learning and memory, becomes more active. The amygdala, which controls fear and reactivity, calms down. Here's how he explains it to executives. "The breath brings us back to the present moment. In presence, we have access to our intelligence. Not just cognitive, but emotional and intuitive intelligence." For someone making decisions that affect hundreds or thousands of people, that access matters.   The corporate world is paying attention A Rolling Stone article from 2025 highlights how companies are adopting breathwork for employees. The numbers tell the story. Forty-four percent of employees globally experience daily stress, the highest level ever tracked. Seventy-seven percent report burnout in their current jobs. The article makes an interesting observation. Today's business environment looks less like an office and more like professional sports. High pressure. High stakes. Unforgiving of mistakes. Yet while athletes get mental training, most employees are left to push through alone.   Some companies are changing that. Accenture launched a "Thriving Mind" initiative to help employees handle stress better. Ernst & Young appointed a Chief Wellbeing Officer and expanded coaching programs. The result was better retention and employees who reported feeling more capable of handling pressure.   What the controlled research shows A 2024 study published in the journal Stress followed 44 commercial pilots through a one-month training program. Researchers wanted to know whether a simple five- minute breathing technique could affect how pilots perform under pressure.   The technique they studied is called the Quick Coherence Technique. It slows your breath down to about six cycles per minute. That's slow enough to shift your physiology.   The results showed measurable improvements in stress resilience and cognitive function. The researchers noted that these changes happened through the sympathetic nervous system, the same system that governs fight or flight. But instead of triggering panic, the breathing technique helped pilots mobilise energy more effectively.   Think about what that means. A few minutes of intentional breathing helped people managing one of the most demanding jobs on earth think more clearly under pressure.   What this means for you You might not fly planes. You might not argue cases in court. But if you work in a demanding job, your brain faces its own version of turbulence every day. Deadlines. De-cisions. People counting on you.   The research is consistent. When you slow your breath down, you change your physiology. Your heart rate variability shifts. Your nervous system gets a different signal. Your brain, specifically the parts responsible for working memory and executive function, starts operating more accurately. You don't need expensive equipment. You don't need hours of time. The pilots in the study used five-minute sessions. Lawyers use box breathing before walking into court. Executives use twelve minutes a day and report better access to their full intelligence. The key is consistency. The benefits build over time.   Ready to train your brain for high-stakes work You've read the research. You understand the science. The next step is putting it into practice with guidance that fits your life.   My Online Integrative Breathwork for the Modern Human class is designed for people like you. Professionals who need to think clearly under pressure. People who are tired of surface-level advice and want real, physiological tools that work. We cover the techniques used by pilots, lawyers, and executives. We build a practice that fits your schedule. And we focus on results you can feel: calmer nervous system, clearer thinking, better sleep. Learn more and secure your spot here Follow me on Facebook , Instagram , and LinkedIn for more info! Read more from Tamara Makar Tamara Makar, Holistic High Performance Coach Imagine a world where sculpted strength meets serene inner peace. Meet Tamara, a professional bodybuilder and holistic performance coach, who doesn't just build bodies but also forges minds. Tamara empowers athletes, entrepreneurs, and driven individuals to shatter limitations, weaving together the raw power of strength training with the subtle art of mindfulness, meditation, and breathwork in order to find their balance, sharpen their focus, and achieve sustainable success. Curious how she unlocks peak performance from the inside out? Dive into Tamara's journey and discover the transformative secrets for yourself.