Vincenzo Labarbera founded Landsdown Corporation in 2012 with a clear focus on supplying the sand and gravel materials that construction and landscaping projects depend on. The company specializes in mining and provides a range of materials, including construction gravel, landscape gravel, construction sand, concrete sand, and mortar sand. Starting small, thinking specific Rather than position Landsdown as a general mining operation, Labarbera built the business around a narrow set of materials from day one. The company mines metallurgical gravel, landscape gravel, and construction gravel. It also produces construction sand, concrete sand, mortar sand, fill sand, and fill dirt. That list has not changed much since 2012. The company has grown around it instead of past it. Knowing what you want to be known for Ask Labarbera what Landsdown does best, and the answer does not wander. He wants the company known for selling metallurgical gravel, construction gravel, and landscape gravel, alongside construction sand, concrete sand, and mortar sand. Nothing on that list is incidental. Why the materials matter Metallurgical gravel serves industrial processes. Construction gravel and sand go into roads, foundations, and buildings. Landscape gravel finishes yards and public spaces. Concrete sand is an essential material for ready-mix companies, providing the consistency needed for reliable concrete production. Mortar sand and other fine materials are equally important for masons and contractors who depend on the right mix for their projects. Each product has its own customers and its own standards, and Landsdown mines for all of them rather than specializing in just one corner of the market. For a company that started in a single location, that range took years of deliberate buildout, not a single expansion. A philosophy of fewer, stronger relationships Landsdown’s approach to customers is just as deliberate as its approach to materials. The company tries not to take on too many customers at once. The reasoning is straightforward: take care of the loyal customers first, and make sure they get what they need when they ask for it. Saying no to grow That is an unusual stance for a mining company sitting on steady demand. Most businesses chase every new account. Labarbera's version of growth runs the other way: protect service for the accounts already on the books, and expand only as far as that promise can stretch. It is a slower way to build a company. It is also the reason Landsdown has kept its focus on the same handful of materials for over a decade instead of diluting attention across unrelated product lines. Four states, one standard Landsdown’s main office sits at 3949 Blue Banks Loop Road in Leland, North Carolina. From there, the company runs locations across Alabama, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Florida, with about 75 employees spread across those operations. Operating as a public company Landsdown is organized as a public company, a structure Labarbera has kept in place as the business has added locations across the Southeast. The footprint lets Landsdown serve customers in several states without losing the hands-on service the company built its name on. Still the same business, just bigger More than a decade after founding Landsdown, Labarbera has not changed the core bet he made in 2012: mine the materials below the surface, know exactly which products you want to be known for, and keep the customer list small enough to actually take care of. That is not a complicated formula. But for Landsdown, it has been enough to turn one office in Leland into a multi-state operation built on gravel and sand.

Medical assistant training often attracts adults balancing employment, caregiving, or college. Traditional classroom schedules can create conflicts that delay enrollment or force students to reduce other commitments. Online classes change that pattern by placing instruction, assignments, and exam preparation within a more manageable routine. Students still need discipline and practice, but they gain greater control over study time. That structure matters when certification preparation must fit around existing responsibilities and clinical goals. Why the online structure fits adult learners Flexibility begins with schedule control. A student can attend live instruction twice each week, then complete daily coursework at a chosen time. That arrangement helps a parent maintain work hours or a college student preserve class commitments. A structured medical assistant program gives those learners a defined sequence for medical terminology, anatomy, patient care, and certification preparation without requiring campus attendance. Online training removes commuting from the daily routine, which gives students more usable time for study and family duties. That control also reduces travel time, which matters for students commuting across large service areas or managing frequent daily work changes. Live classes still create accountability because students attend at set times and interact with instructors. Recorded materials, assignments, and practice exercises support review after class. The format works best for students who protect a regular study block and respond promptly to questions. What students learn online A curriculum must connect academic knowledge with clinical tasks. Early lessons cover healthcare systems, medical terminology, anatomy, and physiology, giving students the vocabulary needed for later work. Subsequent units address patient care coordination, patient education, medical law, ethics, OSHA, and HIPAA. Skills practice then covers injections, venipuncture, phlebotomy, and EKG procedures before exam review begins. Hands-on learning does not disappear because instruction happens online. A clinical kit can support practice with equipment such as a thermometer, stethoscope, blood pressure cuff, and phlebotomy supplies. Instructors can demonstrate procedures during live sessions, while students repeat steps, check technique, and prepare for performance-based tasks. This approach links screen-based lessons to the physical work performed in clinics. A schedule still requires planning Online access does not remove the workload. Students should reserve two live class periods each week and plan for about 90 minutes of daily coursework. A calendar can be used to assign time for reading, skills practice, mock exams, and question review. Protecting those blocks prevents small missed tasks from accumulating before an assessment. Early planning also helps students identify conflicts with work or family care. Certification and clinical experience Certification preparation gives the course a clear endpoint. Students should review the exam objectives, complete mock exams, and identify weak areas before testing. A national credential can support applications for medical assistant positions, although employers still set their own hiring requirements. Students should check state rules and understand which duties require additional workplace training. Some students pursue in-person clinical hours after certification. An externship creates supervised practice with patient-facing tasks and helps connect online coursework with daily clinic operations. Students should confirm availability requirements before choosing this route, especially if weekday daytime access affects eligibility. How to judge an online program Prospective students should examine the schedule before enrolling. Live class times, daily assignment expectations, instructor access, and exam preparation all affect whether a program fits a working adult’s routine. The course should also explain its clinical pathway, certification exam preparation, equipment requirements, and state-specific disclosures. Clear answers help applicants compare workload and support without relying on broad claims. Applicants should read the catalog for eligibility rules, pricing, refund conditions, and disclosures before reserving a spot. They should also ask how clinical placement works, whether career coaching is optional, and what availability the process requires. Written details reduce surprises and help students choose a route that matches their schedule and career plan. Conclusion Online classes give medical assistant students more control over when they study, while live instruction and practical exercises keep training accountable. The strongest choice is a program with a clear curriculum, realistic time requirements, equipment for skills practice, and transparent clinical information. Before applying, prospective students should compare class times with work and family duties, review certification preparation, and verify state requirements. That short check can turn flexibility into a workable plan for entering healthcare.

Written by Rachel Simms, RGD, Creative Director Rachel Simms, RGD, is the founder and Creative Director of Broadbent Studio, a brand strategy and design studio helping health and wellness practitioners build ethical, expert brands that attract the right clients and grow with integrity. Before a new patient ever sits across from you, they’ve already formed an opinion about your practice. That impression comes from your marketing materials, intake forms, social media, branding, and, most importantly, your website. Think about what happens in a physical waiting room. The chairs are clean. The lighting is calm. A sign explains what to expect. Every detail, intentional or not, tells the patient something about the care they’re about to receive. Your website works the same way, except it’s the waiting room almost every prospective patient sits in first, often weeks before they ever first connect with you. I call this the digital waiting room, and for regulated health and wellness professionals, it may be doing more of your practice-building work than you realize. Your website is already answering their questions, but not in the way you might think By the time someone lands on your site, they’ve already Googled their symptoms, read a few forum posts, watched a few TikTok videos, and formed a rough idea of what kind of practitioner they’re looking for. What they’re doing on your site isn’t deciding whether they need help. They’re deciding whether they trust you to be the one who gives it. They’re asking, often without realizing it: Does this person understand what I’m going through? Do they seem credible? Is this a safe space to be honest about what’s actually wrong? Will I feel judged, rushed, or unseen? Your website answers those questions before you’ve said a single word, and a cluttered, outdated, or generic-feeling site rarely answers them in your favour. It’s not that the visitor thinks, “You’re a bad practitioner.” It’s that they have no way of knowing if you’re a good one if you’re hiding behind a generic-feeling website. Uncertainty is enough to make them look elsewhere. Professional doesn’t have to mean forgettable This is where many professionals get stuck. You can’t use patient testimonials the way other businesses use customer reviews. Your marketing has to stay within your college’s regulatory guidelines. So the instinct becomes, stay quiet. Stay neutral. Stay safe. But safe and forgettable aren’t the same thing. Evidence-informed language, a clear description of your approach, and a website that simply looks like it was built with the same care you bring to your clinical work, these are all completely within your control. They do far more trust-building than a bland, templated site ever will. The goal isn’t to market louder or use louder visuals. There’s nothing wrong with bright colours either. It’s about letting your expertise show through in a way that a compliance officer and a nervous patient would both feel comfortable with. You can be compliance-safe and professional, and still be yourself! What a well-designed digital waiting room (website) actually does A website built with this in mind does a few specific things: It answers the visitor’s unspoken questions before they have to ask, through clear, plain-language descriptions of who you help and how. Think about this like explaining what you do to an 8-year-old child. If a child read your website, would they know how you could help? It signals credibility through structure and polish, not through claims you can’t legally make. It reduces the friction between “I found this practitioner” and “I booked a consultation,” because a confused or overwhelmed client rarely takes that next step. It reflects the same care and attention you bring to an actual appointment, so the digital and in-person experiences feel like they belong together and extend one another rather than feel like an afterthought. None of this requires stretching the truth or pushing past what your college allows. It requires treating your website with the same intentionality you already bring to your patient care. Practitioners who understand this early have an advantage Most practitioners think about their website once, at the beginning, maybe if there have been some major transitions, and then forget about it for years while their practice and their patient base evolve around it. Meanwhile, the version of your practice a potential client meets online is often out of date. Your digital waiting room deserves the same attention you’d give a physical one. If a patient walked into a waiting room with flickering lights, torn magazines, and no sign of where to go, you’d fix it immediately. Your website is no different. It’s simply “the room” where more of your patients sit first. If you’re a therapist, naturopath, chiropractor, or physiotherapist, and you’ve never really looked at your website through this lens, it’s worth a second look. Not because your practice isn’t credible. Not because you “don’t know what you’re doing.” But because your website may not be doing you any favours. I help health and wellness practitioners build websites that act as true extensions of their care, compliant, credible, and unmistakably them. If you’re ready to see what your digital waiting room could say instead, let’s talk. Book a free consultation with Broadbent Studio. Follow me on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn for more info! Read more from Rachel Simms, RGD Rachel Simms, RGD, Creative Director Rachel Simms is the founder and Creative Director of Broadbent Studio, a brand and website design studio based in Hamilton, Ontario. As a Registered Graphic Designer (RGD), the highest professional designation in Canada, she brings over a decade of strategic design experience to health and wellness practitioners and professional service firms who are ready to stop being the best-kept secret in their field. Her proprietary Diamond Blueprint methodology puts strategy before aesthetics, building brands that communicate trust before a word is spoken. Her mission is to help the most trusted experts become the most visible ones.

Written by Lital Bernstein, Founder & Owner of WholeNest Lital is a women's wellness expert, entrepreneur, and founder of WholeNest, an all-natural postpartum care and family wellness line. With a background in holistic health, Shiatsu, Pilates, body-mind balancing, and spirituality, she integrates conscious living, emotional awareness, and personal transformation. We spend so much time thinking about what we will teach our children. We imagine the values we will pass on, the opportunities we will offer, and the love that will help them feel safe in the world. Then they arrive, with personalities, needs, and ways of seeing life that we could never have fully anticipated. Somewhere between the plans we made and the children we actually meet, our own education begins. I believe that our children choose us before they enter this world. I see the bond between parent and child as a soul connection, an agreement to meet in this lifetime, each bringing something essential to the other's journey. Our children come with a purpose of their own, and our relationship with them also invites us to grow. You do not have to share this belief to explore the question it raises: What if there is a deeper meaning to why this particular child is in your life? The child beyond our expectations Before becoming parents, many of us carry an image of the family we hope to have. We may imagine a child who shares our interests, responds to our guidance, or moves through life in ways we understand. Yet a child is a whole person. Their temperament may be different from ours. Their pace may challenge our patience. What comforts us may overwhelm them. What comes easily to us may require great effort from them. Believing that our child chose us does not mean assuming we already know how to parent them. It asks us to pay closer attention. Who is this person entrusted to our care? What do they need from us? Which of our expectations are helping us see them, and which are getting in the way? Their purpose belongs to them. Our task is to support its unfolding, even when it takes a direction we would not have chosen. What our children bring to the surface Few relationships reach so deeply into us as the relationship with our children. Their disappointment can stir our guilt. Their resistance can awaken our need for control. Their growing independence can touch a fear of being left behind. A sensitive child may invite us to soften the tone we once considered normal. A strong-willed child may ask us to develop boundaries that are firm without becoming harsh. A child who needs more time may reveal how closely we have tied our own worth to achievement. These encounters can be uncomfortable. They can also make visible patterns we have carried for years without questioning them. When a reaction feels bigger than the moment in front of us, we can pause and ask: What am I afraid of right now? Am I responding to my child, or to an old experience this moment reminds me of? What do I need to understand in myself so I can respond with more care? The answer will not always come immediately. Sometimes growth begins with noticing that we have a choice. Our healing remains our responsibility There is an important responsibility within this perspective. Our children are not here to manage our emotions, repair our past, or make us feel complete. The relationship may reveal places in us that need healing, and doing that work belongs to us. A child needs room to be angry, uncertain, different, and imperfect without carrying the weight of a parent's growth. We can seek support, examine our patterns, and learn to respond differently. We can apologize when we get something wrong. An apology can be simple: “I was frustrated, and I spoke too sharply. That was my responsibility. Let me try again.” In that moment, we give our child an experience of an adult taking ownership. We also practice becoming the parent we want to be. Finding meaning in ordinary moments The larger purpose of parenthood often meets us in ordinary places: getting everyone out the door, sitting beside a child who is struggling, listening to a story when we are tired, or holding a boundary through tears. Remembering a deeper connection can help us bring more intention to those moments. We may still feel frustrated or exhausted. We may still need help. Meaning gives us a reason to return to the relationship with curiosity and care. For me, believing that my children chose me brings both comfort and humility. It reminds me that our connection matters and that I must keep learning how to honor it. I do not believe every painful experience needs an explanation. We can seek meaning while taking suffering seriously, protecting our children, and getting the support they need. A belief in purpose should deepen our care for one another. Growing together Perhaps the agreement between parent and child is an invitation to keep becoming, to meet the person in front of us more honestly, to loosen old patterns, and to love with greater understanding. We guide our children as they discover who they are. Along the way, we discover parts of ourselves that still need attention, courage, and tenderness. If our children choose us, then being chosen carries a responsibility. We can honor that connection by listening closely, taking ownership of our growth, and allowing them the freedom to live their own lives. The child we are raising is becoming someone. So are we. Follow me on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and visit my website for more info! Read more from Lital Bernstein Lital Bernstein, Founder & Owner of WholeNest Lital Bernstein is a women's wellness expert, entrepreneur, and founder of WholeNest, an all-natural postpartum care and family wellness line born as a natural extension of her many years of experience in the wellness field. Her background spans holistic health, Shiatsu, Pilates, body-mind balancing, Theta Healing, spirituality, and conscious living. Throughout the years, Lital has taught and facilitated body-mind classes, healing circles, Pilates, and workshops exploring the internal organs and the Five Elements of Chinese medicine, along with other experiences designed to help people reconnect with themselves on a physical, emotional, and spiritual level. Her approach brings together natural wellness, emotional awareness, consciousness, and personal transformation. A mother based in New York City, Lital is devoted to helping others, especially women, feel supported, empowered, and more deeply connected to their own well-being and purpose.

Written by Honor Tremain, Nutritionist, Author, and Journalist Honor Tremain is an award-winning longevity nutritionist, author, and journalist whose journey into nutrition began with a personal health crisis. Determined to reclaim her life, she completed qualifications in nutrition, eventually healing herself and going on to complete a Bachelor of Science degree. Omega-3 is an essential nutrient, yet 80-85% of the world is deficient in it. A krill is barely the size of a paperclip, yet they are a foundational food source for most Antarctic wildlife, which makes the decision by large-scale supermarket chains to stop selling krill-based supplements a reminder that even apparently insignificant consumer choices can have consequences far beyond the checkout. But there is an important question missing from this debate. "Why are we still looking to the oceans for our omega-3 when there are cleaner, more nutritional, eco-friendly sources?" The answer may be growing off the shores of pristine Northern NSW, Australia. We’ve been looking in the wrong place For decades, krill and fish oil have been marketed as the obvious way to get the most powerful omega-3s for cardiovascular, brain, and inflammatory health. But fish and krill aren't the original producers of Omega-3 fats, the microscopic seaweeds (microalgae) they eat are! So perhaps we've been approaching the problem backward? Rather than harvesting increasingly valuable marine life from the oceans and harming the ecosystems while we do it, it makes more sense to cultivate these valuable nutrients directly from the original, more potent sources. That is precisely why marine microalgae and seaweeds are attracting growing scientific interest from universities and scientists from all over the world, including Australian-based, Swedish-born scientist, entrepreneur, and CEO/founder of Phycohealth, Dr. Pia Winberg, along with Australian scientist and Founder of SeaO2Nutrition, Dr. Skye Thomas-Hall. “Seaweeds and microalgae are fascinating not only because they have the potential to be the next biggest “superfood, but because they also point to a fundamentally different way of thinking about food and nutrition.” Says Dr Skye Thomas-Hall, principal scientist and chief technology officer at SeaO2 Nutrition. One example they’re very interested in is Nannochloropsis oceanica, a microalgae they’re cultivating in the famously beautiful and luxurious Byron Bay region of Australia, and branded Nannovia™, a whole-food microalgae ingredient containing EPA omega-3 alongside proteins, prebiotic factors, B vitamins, carotenoids, antioxidants and other naturally occurring super nutrients. Stop harvesting, start growing: The eco-friendly solution For most of human history, food has meant finding something in nature and taking it. Fish from the ocean. Animals from the land. Plants from the soil. But the pressures of a growing population and a changing climate are forcing us to rethink that model. “Perhaps what makes microalgae so extraordinary is their potential in and beyond nutrition. For microalgae are among Earth’s most ancient and most important life forms and are responsible for producing roughly half of the planet’s oxygen. They absorb carbon dioxide as they grow through the process of photosynthesis and produce 50 times more protein per acre than soy does, making it a gamechanger for sustainable agriculture.” Dr. Thomas-Hall. The breakdown: A microscopic rethink of new “superfoods” It doesn’t stop there: microalgae such as Nannochloropsis oceanica are particularly intriguing because they aren't simply omega-3 oil, it’s a whole food that’s super nutrient-dense, covering multiple bases, including being a complete protein, containing peptides and branched-chain amino acids, and high in not only Omega-3 but Omega-7- both being amazing for skin and hair health, lowering inflammation, boosting cognition, and more. It’s rich in the antioxidants lutein, zeaxanthin, and violaxanthin- amazing for eye, brain, and heart health–a broad base of vitamins and minerals including B12, B9, Vitamin E, C, and iron, while also containing prebiotic and green pigment compounds. The paradox: Ancient yet futuristic, tiny but mighty We tend to associate “superfoods” with rare collections of colourful berries, exotic seeds and fashionable plants from hard-to-reach jungles overseas, but microalgae are turning these concepts on their head. Microalgae are abundant in oceans and are also the most ancient organisms on Earth, yet the technology surrounding them is some of the most advanced and cutting-edge. They are microscopic, yet capable of producing vast quantities of protein and essential fatty acids. They don't need to be harvested from the middle of Antarctic to reach us. Australian-grown seaweeds and microalgae, such as Nannovia™, may ultimately prove to be one small part of a much larger movement towards cultivating nutrition that is not only sustainable, but helpful to the planet, human and animal health, while potentially answering a question we’re being confronted with more often of late: how do we feed ourselves without continually asking nature to give us more? The decision by big supermarket chains to remove krill supplements from their shelves is therefore only the beginning of this conversation. Maybe the real opportunity is to stop asking what we can take from the world, and start asking what we can do ourselves and potentially give back? Honor Tremain is a qualified nutritionist, author, and journalist. Find Nannovia™ in RawOmega™ here. Find more on Dr. Pia Winberg here. Find more on SeaO₂Nutrition here. Follow me on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn for more info! Read more from Honor Tremain Honor Tremain, Nutritionist, Author, and Journalist Honor Tremain is an award-winning longevity nutritionist, author, and journalist whose journey into health began with a personal crisis where, between the ages of 18 and 23, Honor was bedridden with multiple chronic illnesses & determined to reclaim her life. She completed a Diploma in Nutrition, eventually healing herself, and went on to complete a science degree. Honor opened a thriving nutrition practice in Sydney, Australia, became a columnist and feature journalist for national and international publications, and in 2015, Honor published her debut book, A Diet in Paradise. Most recently, she founded Daya Pet Food Co., a health-focused and sustainable dog food company that was proudly awarded Best Health-Conscious Dog Food Brand 2025.

Written by AnneMarie Smellie, Neurodevelopmental Practitioner, Kinesiologist & Hypnotherapist AnneMarie Smellie is a UK-based neurodevelopmental practitioner, kinesiologist, and hypnotherapist with over 20 years’ experience. She helps children and adults build resilience, regulate anxiety, and strengthen brain-body foundations for learning and life. Why does my intelligent child find reading so difficult? Why are they constantly anxious? Why can't they concentrate, sit still or cope with everyday situations that other children seem to manage effortlessly? These are questions I hear regularly from parents who come to my clinic. Often, they have spent years searching for answers, trying different approaches and wondering why their child continues to struggle despite all the support they have received. What I find particularly interesting is that the difficulties we see on the surface are not always where the problem begins. A child who struggles to concentrate may not simply have an attention problem. A child who avoids reading may not lack ability or motivation. A child who appears anxious, emotional or easily overwhelmed may be responding to something happening within their nervous system that they cannot explain or control. This is what inspired me to write my latest book, Why Is My Child Struggling? I wanted to help parents understand that there may be more to their child's difficulties than the behaviours or symptoms they see every day. Are we looking in the right places? When a child struggles at school, the focus naturally turns towards learning. If they have difficulty concentrating, we look at attention. If they struggle with reading, we investigate literacy. If they are anxious, we explore their emotions. All of these approaches have their place, but I believe we also need to consider the foundations upon which learning, behaviour and emotional regulation develop. Over the years, working with children with dyslexia, dyspraxia, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), autism, anxiety and other challenges, I have become increasingly interested in the connections between physical development, sensory processing, nutrition, stress and learning. These are not necessarily separate issues. They can influence one another, sometimes in ways that are easy to overlook. Understanding those connections can change how we approach a child's difficulties. The importance of our early foundations One area I explore in my book is the role of primitive reflexes. Primitive reflexes are automatic movements that develop during pregnancy and early infancy. They help babies respond to their environment and support their early development. As the nervous system matures, these reflexes are normally inhibited or integrated, allowing more sophisticated movement patterns and postural control to develop. However, some children continue to show signs of these early reflex patterns beyond infancy. In my clinical work, I frequently see children who have difficulties with coordination, balance, posture and motor control alongside challenges with reading, writing, concentration or emotional regulation. For example, a child who struggles to sit comfortably at a desk may be using considerable effort simply to maintain their posture. Another may find handwriting exhausting because the physical skills involved are not yet sufficiently automatic. Retained reflexes are one possible factor to investigate, although their precise contribution to learning and behavioural difficulties remains an area of ongoing research. The important point is that learning is not simply a cognitive process. It involves the whole body. Could hearing be affecting more than we realise? Another fascinating area is auditory processing. Most parents assume that if their child can hear, their hearing is not contributing to their difficulties. But hearing sounds and making sense of them are not quite the same thing. Some children can hear perfectly well on a conventional hearing test yet struggle to process spoken information, particularly in busy or noisy environments. Imagine trying to concentrate in a classroom when the scraping of chairs, conversations around you and sounds from outside all compete for your attention. For some children, this can be exhausting. Auditory processing difficulties or sound sensitivities may contribute to problems following instructions, understanding speech in noise, maintaining attention and feeling comfortable in busy environments. A child who repeatedly asks for instructions to be repeated may not be deliberately ignoring the teacher. They may genuinely be struggling to process what has been said. Understanding this can help parents and teachers respond differently. What about what is happening inside the body? We tend to separate physical health from learning and behaviour, yet the brain depends on the body for the energy and nutrients it needs to function. Nutrition, sleep, digestive health and certain medical conditions can all influence a child's energy, concentration and general wellbeing. A child who is persistently tired, uncomfortable or poorly nourished may find everyday demands more difficult to manage. In my work as a kinesiologist, I consider nutritional and physiological factors as part of a broader picture, while recognising that suspected deficiencies and medical concerns require appropriate clinical assessment. I am particularly interested in how these factors may interact with a child's developmental and sensory challenges. It is rarely helpful to look at one aspect of a child in isolation. When the nervous system is constantly on alert Perhaps one of the most important areas to understand is stress. We often think of stress as something caused by external events, such as school pressures, friendships or family difficulties. But stress can also arise when a child finds everyday sensory, physical or emotional demands overwhelming. A child who is constantly trying to cope with noise, movement, uncertainty or uncomfortable sensations may spend much of their day feeling on edge. When the nervous system is highly alert, concentrating, learning and regulating emotions can become more difficult. I see children who are bright, articulate and full of potential, yet whose anxiety prevents them from enjoying school, friendships or everyday life. Rather than asking only how we can change their behaviour, perhaps we should also ask what is making life feel so difficult for them. Looking beyond the diagnosis Diagnoses such as ADHD, autism, dyslexia and dyspraxia can be enormously valuable. They can help children and families understand their experiences and access appropriate support. But a diagnosis does not necessarily explain every difficulty a child experiences. Two children with the same diagnosis may have very different strengths, needs and challenges. One may be particularly sensitive to sound. Another may struggle with coordination and balance. Another may experience significant anxiety or fatigue. This is why I believe it is important to look at the individual child rather than assume that one explanation or intervention will address everything. The aim is not to change who a child is. It is to understand what may be making everyday life unnecessarily difficult and identify ways to support them. Why I wrote Why Is My Child Struggling? After years of working with children and their families, I wanted to put this information into a book that parents could understand and use. Not a complicated medical textbook, but an accessible explanation of some of the developmental, sensory, physical and emotional factors that may influence a child's ability to learn and thrive. I wanted parents to understand what primitive reflexes are, why auditory processing matters, how physical wellbeing can influence learning and why stress deserves more attention. I also wanted to address the questions parents actually ask. Why does my child find reading so difficult? Why can't they concentrate? Why do they become overwhelmed so easily? Why are they struggling when they are clearly so intelligent? Perhaps most importantly, what else might be worth exploring? My hope is that the book encourages parents to become more curious about the reasons behind their child's difficulties, rather than focusing entirely on the difficulties themselves. Because when we understand more about what a child is experiencing, we are in a much better position to help. A different way of asking the question One of the most rewarding parts of my work is hearing from families months or years after I have worked with their children. Of course, it is wonderful to hear that a child is doing better academically. But what means even more to me is hearing that they are happier, more confident, more willing to try new things and beginning to believe in themselves. Academic progress matters, but confidence and self-esteem can shape a child's entire experience of growing up. I would love to see a shift in how we approach children who struggle. Instead of concentrating solely on what they cannot do, perhaps we should become more interested in understanding why certain things are so difficult for them. Not every child will have the same underlying challenges, and there is no single solution. But asking broader questions may reveal opportunities for support that have previously been overlooked. Sometimes the most helpful question we can ask is not simply, "How do we get this child to do better?" but "What might be making this so difficult for them in the first place?" That is the question at the heart of my book. Follow me on Instagram, LinkedIn, and visit my website for more info! Read more from AnneMarie Smellie AnneMarie Smellie, Neurodevelopmental Practitioner, Kinesiologist & Hypnotherapist AnneMarie Smellie is a UK-based neurodevelopmental practitioner, kinesiologist, and hypnotherapist with over 20 years of clinical experience. She specialises in anxiety, neurodiversity and learning differences, working at the intersection of brain development, nervous-system regulation and emotional resilience. Through her work at Quester Therapies, AnneMarie helps children and adults uncover and address the root causes behind behavioural, emotional, and cognitive challenges. Her writing focuses on practical, compassionate insights that make complex brain-body concepts accessible and empowering.

Written by Mindy Yanish, Grief and Loss Specialist & Life Coach Mindy Yanish is a Grief and Loss Support Specialist & Intuitive Life Coach who helps people move through loss, aging and major life transitions with compassion and practical, love-centered tools. I closed the business I'd built and run for thirty years, and two weeks later, my back gave out from the simple act of reaching for a vacuum. It wasn't a coincidence. What I didn't expect about retirement wasn't the free time, it was discovering how much of myself I had built on top of a business card. If you're standing at the edge of a similar transition, here's what I want you to take from this: the disorientation has a name, it's more common than anyone warns you, and there are concrete ways through it, not just around it. What is the retirement identity crisis? Most retirement planning focuses on one thing: money. Financial security matters, and there's no shortage of books telling you how to build it. What almost none of them mention is the identity collapse that can happen the moment the paycheck, and the purpose attached to it, disappears. The retirement identity crisis isn't a diagnosis; it's what happens when a role you've occupied for decades ends, and you discover how much of your sense of worth, belonging, and daily structure was quietly fused to it. A 2024 study in the Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology found that retirement adjustment has as much to do with meaning and social identity as with financial readiness (Smith, 2024). How does it show up? It rarely announces itself directly. In my case, it showed up as a series of small humiliations I wasn't prepared for. Two men arrived to buy several glass showcases from my closing store. After they'd hauled them onto their truck, one handed me five hundred dollars, a hundred short of what we'd agreed. When I pointed that out, he told me that was all he'd brought, and if I wanted to make an issue of it, the deal was off. I let it go. In that moment, I wasn't a business owner with thirty years of accomplishments behind her, I was five years old again, invisible, ashamed, certain I had no right to insist on anything. The empty shelves around me seemed to confirm it: you don't have a business anymore. That's the identity crisis in miniature, not one dramatic loss, but a string of moments where you reach for the authority, competence, or confidence you're used to having, and find it isn't there in quite the same way. The role gave it a stage. What's underneath it, the skill, the judgment, the years of practice, is still yours; it just hasn't found its new stage yet. Why does this catch so many of us off guard? Because we tell ourselves we're the exception. I was sure I wasn't one of "those people" whose identity was merged with their career, surely my sense of belonging wouldn't depend on a five-hundred-square-foot storefront I called Offerings. It took the closing itself, and months no platitude could touch, to understand how much of my life's structure and self-worth had been built into those walls. That gap between what we expect retirement to feel like and what it actually asks of us is exactly where the crisis lives. Why grief is the right lens for this transition I've spent years training as a Grief and Loss Educator, and one of the first things I teach is that grief isn't reserved for death. Any real loss, a role, a routine, a sense of being needed, moves through something like the same stages: shock, denial, anger, bargaining, acceptance, each person on their own timeline. As Nadija Bajrami writes, the only right way to grieve is your own way, and that's as true of a career as it is of a person. Retirement rarely gets named as a grief event, which is part of why it blindsides so many accomplished people. Treating it as a loss worth grieving, rather than a milestone to simply celebrate, is often the shift that lets someone move through it. Reframing retirement as an opening, not just a loss Financial security is worth having, and I'm grateful for it when it's there. But money can't fill what a full and open heart fills. A hefty bank account without that is an empty acquisition; a full heart, even with modest resources, feels like abundance. The retirement identity crisis is painful, but it's also an opening, a forced audit of what you built your sense of self on, and a chance to build the next chapter on something that won't collapse the day the role ends. Mahara Wayman's piece on refreshing your retirement offers a good starting point for that work. Ways to move through it, not around it Name what you're actually grieving. It's rarely just "the job." Often it's status, structure, or being needed. Naming the real loss lets you address it directly instead of staying vaguely unsettled. Notice when you're reacting from an old, smaller self. The moment I accepted less than I was owed, I wasn't the capable business owner I'd been days earlier, I was reacting from a younger, more fearful part of myself. Look for what was never tied to the business. Skills, relationships, curiosity, the capacity to care deeply, none of that depended on your title. Retirement is simply what makes that obvious. Let structure come back gradually, not all at once. Filling every empty hour immediately often recreates the busyness you were trying to leave. Find at least one place to still be witnessed. Look for a community, a class, a volunteer role, or a creative practice where people notice your presence again. Treat this as a practice, not a single event. Like grief itself, this work moves in waves, expect to revisit it more than once. For more day-to-day tools, this piece on coping with grief at work is a useful companion. Start your own reinvention today If you're facing, or already inside, a major life transition and finding it harder than anyone warned you it would be, know that the disorientation is real, common, and survivable. Visit Mindy Yanish's coaching services to learn more about navigating this passage with support, including a free consultation. Follow me on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and visit my website for more info! Read more from Mindy Yanish Mindy Yanish, Grief and Loss Specialist & Life Coach Mindy Yanish is a Grief and Loss Support Specialist & Intuitive Life Coach based in Westchester, New York. She is certified as a Grief and Loss Educator through David Kessler's grief.com program and trained for several years under master coaching mentor Nancy Levin. Mindy works with clients navigating loss, retirement, and major life transitions, helping them move through change with compassion rather than bypassing or avoidance. She is the author of the forthcoming teaching memoir 'Turning Feathers To Wings', which explores aging and love-centered living through her own story.

Written by: Editorial Team Researchers at the University of Southern California (Frontiers in Psychology, 2023) found that children who begin music education early are more hopeful about their future and score higher on measures of positive youth development, including confidence. In small church communities, where there is neither a budget nor a staff of professional teachers, this effect often rests on a single person. At the House of Prayer Baptist Church in Green Bay, Wisconsin, Olga Govorun, a collaborative pianist who trained professionally abroad for many years, has taken on this role. In two years, she transformed a group of teenagers who simply sat in the sanctuary during services into a well-coordinated ensemble of seventeen members playing five instruments. Accompanying at fourteen Govorun grew up in a musical family. Her father played the piano and clarinet and, in his youth, conducted a church folk orchestra; her mother sang and also accompanied on the piano. At the age of nine, Olga was enrolled in music school, and a few years later, a seemingly ordinary moment would shape her future career. Her father opened a new church during the religious revival of the 1990s and needed an accompanist. He had his fourteen-year-old daughter sit down at the instrument. That's how she first learned to play by ear, pick out chords, and improvise. These are skills that often receive less attention in traditional music school lessons. Later, she went on to complete nine more years of professional training, four years at a music college and another five at an institute. At the same time, she taught piano, worked as an accompanist at a music school, and played at church every Sunday. Of these three activities, supporting other musicians always brought her the most joy. The birth of the ensemble When the family moved to the U.S., Olga picked up her instrument that very first Sunday. The church the family attended is the only Baptist congregation in Wisconsin that serves a multinational Slavic community, and it has grown primarily through refugee families. There had been no youth music program there until then. The teenagers simply sat in the sanctuary as listeners. Olga noticed this and began preparing their first songs for the holidays with them, although initially she didn't even formalize it as a separate ministry. At Easter in 2024, the children and teenagers performed together for the first time, accompanied by Olga on piano, her fourteen-year-old son on guitar, and Tymofii on cajón. Soon after, on May 26, 2024, eight of the group's members led an entire worship service on their own for the first time, featuring piano, synthesizer, guitar, cajón, and vocals, without a single adult musician in the group. That morning, Olga sat in the sanctuary and simply listened. A part written by hand In her work with teenagers, Olga combines the roles of teacher and practicing accompanist. She tailors her method to each student individually. The performance itself becomes the first step in the learning process, and the technical details are worked out afterward, adapted to the specific part and each performer. There are simply no published arrangements for the church repertoire designed for a mixed-level group of teenagers. That's why Olga writes all the sheet music herself, separately for each instrument. Over the ensemble's first two years, that has added up to eight full arrangements. In March 2026, one song required a single arrangement written out separately for the viola and the bass guitar, plus a combined score joining both parts with the piano. Petr, the son of the church pastor, joined the ensemble in May 2024 as both a vocalist and a pianist, playing from sheet music that Sunday. By that time, he already had a classical piano repertoire and read music fluently, though he knew chords only in theory and had never applied them in practice. In the fall, as the ensemble was preparing for Thanksgiving, Olga began teaching him to play from chord charts on a synthesizer, practically from scratch, and he has played synthesizer with them ever since. He is now learning the accordion, and Olga expects him to add it before the year is out. Tymofii Hordiienko joined the ensemble from its inception and remains the group's sole percussionist. Olga has worked with him all this time on the precision of his entrances and exits and on dynamics, so that the cajón would become a structural pillar for the entire ensemble. Over the past two years, he has matured noticeably. Now he comes to rehearsals without his parents and brings his cajón to informal get-togethers on his own, even when no one asks him to. He has also grown more engaged during rehearsals, taking initiative in the ensemble more often than before. Beyond Wisconsin Over the course of two years, the ensemble participated in twenty-one documented events, including four interstate trips: twice to Rockford, Illinois, in 2025 and 2026; once to Wheaton, Illinois, in 2026; and once to a youth conference in Arvada, Colorado, also in 2026. The second trip to Rockford, in February 2026, was broadcast live by the church in Wheaton, Illinois, and the recording has been viewed over 25,000 times on YouTube. On that first trip to Rockford, Olga stood in front of the ensemble and conducted all three songs herself; her husband filled in on guitar, and the group borrowed a violinist from another congregation, since it had no string player of its own yet. By 2026, viola and bass guitar had joined the lineup, and more teenagers were traveling with the group. The musicians had grown more confident on their own, and Olga no longer needed to conduct at all. At the roughly 700-person Colorado conference, held jointly with the church in Wheaton, Illinois, Olga's son was the only instrumentalist representing their congregation on stage; everyone else in the delegation sang. Bass guitar had joined the ensemble only the year before, when Olga wrote him a simple part to start on. He was performing it independently within a couple of months, and by four or five months in, he played with the kind of confidence that held up in Colorado, alongside musicians from another congregation he had never rehearsed with. Each time, Olga herself selects and adapts the repertoire and parts for the specific lineup. Hanna Savenko, the church's worship leader, who has been working with Olga since April 2023, considers her one of the most influential figures in the congregation's musical life, whose expertise the church will find difficult to replace. Years of experience In 2005, Olga was officially appointed to a position at a music school and has since accompanied students to exams, concerts, and competitions. In 2018, she attained the highest qualification category. That level of professional recognition is reached only after years of accumulating students' achievements alongside her own performance experience. Olga brings this level of musical training to young people in her church community. Through regular rehearsals and performances, these young people gain experience singing and playing together. On May 14, 2026, almost exactly two years after their first independent service, the now-experienced teenagers led it entirely on their own, performing five songs without outside assistance and two more together with a younger group of children. Today, Olga continues to balance the roles of accompanist, arranger, and mentor. She consistently articulates the goal she set for herself from the very beginning. The ensemble, which first performed at an Easter service in 2024 and grew within months into eight teenagers leading worship entirely on their own, can now perform far beyond its home church and state, and it is independently leading its annual service for the second time. And the pedagogical approach, combining classical training with learning through live performance, continues to evolve with every new student and every new piece.

Written by Briana Lee, Founder, Visual Artist & Fashion Creative Briana Lee is the visionary founder behind LoveCashionista, a globally recognized creative brand specializing in fashion, digital art, photography, and interior design. Celebrated for its innovative aesthetic, the brand has been showcased in prominent exhibitions and featured in leading publications around the world. There will be moments in life when things don't go as planned. Moments when progress feels slow, when the future seems uncertain, and when the voice of doubt becomes louder than the voice of hope. During these times, it is easy to question yourself, lose confidence, and wonder whether you are truly capable of achieving the things you dream about. But these are the very moments when believing in yourself matters the most. "The power of believing begins with the decision not to give up on yourself, even when life gives you reasons to feel discouraged." Believing in yourself doesn't mean that you will never feel afraid, uncertain, or overwhelmed. It means choosing to keep going despite those feelings. It means understanding that a difficult season does not define your entire life, that a setback does not determine your worth, and that a mistake does not mean you are incapable of succeeding. Sometimes, believing in yourself simply means getting up another day and giving yourself another chance. One of the most important relationships you will ever have is the relationship you build with yourself. You are the person who hears your thoughts, carries your fears, experiences your disappointments, and knows the battles you fight behind closed doors. That is why it is so important to become your own biggest supporter rather than your own biggest critic. Too often, we become our own enemies without even realizing it. We discourage ourselves before we try. We convince ourselves that we are not good enough, that we are not ready, or that we will fail before we have even taken the first step. We compare our journey to someone else's, overlook our progress, and focus so much on what we lack that we forget how far we have come. Imagine what could change if, instead of constantly criticizing yourself, you started encouraging yourself. What if you spoke to yourself with the same kindness you offer the people you love? What if you reminded yourself of your strength when you felt weak, your progress when you felt behind, and your potential when you struggled to see it? You do not need to have everything figured out to believe in yourself. You do not need to be perfect to deserve your own encouragement. You do not need everyone else to recognize your potential before you begin to recognize it yourself. "Your inner voice can either become the reason you keep moving forward or the reason you keep holding yourself back." Choose to make it a voice that builds you up. Of course, there will be difficult days. There will be moments when your plans fall apart, when opportunities pass you by, and when the results you hoped for take longer than expected. You may question your abilities or wonder whether your efforts are worth it. But do not allow temporary struggles to convince you that your future has no possibilities. When life becomes difficult, encourage yourself. Remind yourself that you have survived days you once thought you could not get through. Remember the challenges that have taught you resilience, the disappointments that have strengthened you, and the moments when you kept going even though you wanted to stop. Your past is not just a collection of things that went wrong; it is also evidence of the strength you have developed along the way. Sometimes, the encouragement you need most will not come from another person. Sometimes, you will have to remind yourself to keep believing, to take another step, and to trust that you are capable of learning what you do not yet know. You may have to celebrate your own small victories, acknowledge your own growth, and reassure yourself that it is okay to be a work in progress. That is perfectly fine. You are allowed to grow at your own pace. You are allowed to change direction, start again, and learn from your mistakes. You are allowed to have days when your confidence is low without allowing those days to define who you are. The goal is not to eliminate every negative thought; the goal is to stop allowing those thoughts to make all your decisions. Doubt is a natural part of being human, but it does not have to become the driver of your life. You can feel uncertain and still take a chance. You can feel afraid and still move forward. You can question whether you are ready and still begin. Courage is not the absence of doubt; it is the willingness to act even when certainty is not guaranteed. Do not let the fear of failure rob you of the opportunity to discover what you can accomplish. Do not let the opinions of others become more powerful than your own belief in your abilities. Do not spend so much time worrying about what might go wrong that you miss the possibilities waiting for you to take a step forward. The truth is that you cannot control every outcome, every circumstance, or every person's opinion of you. But you can work on how you respond to life's challenges. You can choose to learn instead of giving up, to encourage yourself instead of tearing yourself down, and to take constructive action instead of allowing fear to keep you stuck. Believing in yourself is not about pretending that everything will always work out exactly as you wish. It is about trusting yourself enough to handle the journey, even when things do not go according to plan. It is about knowing that if one path closes, you can look for another; if you make a mistake, you can learn from it; and if you fall, you can give yourself the chance to rise again. Most importantly, remember that your worth is not measured by how quickly you succeed, how much you achieve, or how well your life compares to someone else's. You are still worthy of respect, patience, and encouragement while you are learning, rebuilding, and finding your way. Start being intentional about the way you speak to yourself. When you catch yourself thinking, I cannot do this, try asking, What can I do to make this possible? When you think, I am not good enough, remind yourself, I am learning, growing, and becoming better. When you feel like giving up, take a breath, acknowledge how difficult things are, and ask yourself what the next small step could be. You do not have to conquer everything today. You just have to stop treating yourself as though you are the enemy. Give yourself permission to believe in the person you are becoming. Support your dreams with effort, strengthen your confidence through action, and learn to celebrate progress even when it is small. Surround yourself with people who encourage your growth, but also learn to provide yourself with the reassurance you may sometimes be waiting to hear from others. There is something powerful about knowing that, regardless of what happens around you, you will not intentionally stand in the way of your own growth. You will not allow every fear to become a limitation or every disappointment to become a reason to quit. You will learn to be patient with yourself, honest with yourself, and committed to your own potential. "Be the person who reminds you that you can try again. Be the voice that tells you your story is not over. Be the support you need when the journey becomes difficult." Life will challenge your confidence from time to time, but you do not have to help those challenges defeat you by constantly doubting your worth or questioning your ability to grow. You can acknowledge your fears without surrendering to them. You can recognize your weaknesses without allowing them to overshadow your strengths. You can face uncertainty without losing faith in yourself. At the end of the day, believing in yourself is a choice you practice repeatedly. It is choosing hope when discouragement feels easier, action when fear encourages avoidance, and self-compassion when your inner critic demands perfection. So, the next time life gets difficult, do not be so quick to count yourself out. Pause and remember that you are still learning, still growing, and still capable of making meaningful changes in your life. You may not have all the answers, and you may not know exactly how everything will unfold, but you can choose to face the future with courage rather than allowing doubt to decide what is possible for you. Believe in yourself enough to begin. Encourage yourself enough to continue. Love yourself enough to stop working against your own happiness and growth. You deserve to have someone in your corner every single day. Let that person be you. Follow me on Instagram and visit my website for more info! Read more from Briana Lee Briana Lee, Founder, Visual Artist & Fashion Creative Briana Lee is the founder and creative force behind LoveCashionista, a Boston-based brand specializing in fashion, digital art, photography, and interior design. Recognized for its emotionally driven and visually captivating work, LoveCashionista has been featured in renowned publications including Elle and Harper’s Bazaar, as well as in major exhibitions around the world. Inspired by nature, sustainability, and the power of creative expression, the brand is rooted in the mission of turning pain into power through artwork, using art and design to inspire healing, resilience, environmental awareness, and self-empowerment.

Written by Vicky Reeves, Internal Family Systems Coach Vicky Reeves is an Internal Family Systems coach and writer who helps individuals reshape their relationship to their inner world. Blending deep parts work with somatic inquiry and contemplative practice, she supports people in shifting from chronic internal conflict to grounded clarity and coherence. Most of us were taught that self-development means improvement: become calmer, more disciplined, less emotional, less messy, less too much. Spiritual versions of the same idea can sound gentler, but the demand is often identical. We are asked to rise above the parts of ourselves that seem to get in the way. So, we try. We manage ourselves, argue with ourselves, and exile the needy one, the angry one, the scared one, the ambitious one, and the part that still wants more. For a while, this can look like progress. Then we notice the cost. It takes an enormous amount of energy to stay at war with our own inner life, and that war is noisy. It clouds judgment, turns confidence into a performance, and hides strengths behind the very qualities we were trying to eliminate. What if the problem was never that you had a self? What if the problem was your relationship to it? The shift I want to begin with is this, because everything else grows from it: we do not need a different personality first. We need a different way of being with the one we already have. The inner split we all recognize You can feel it in ordinary moments. One part of you wants to speak while another says, "Don’t you dare". One part is tired while another calls that laziness. One part longs for a different life while another insists that longing is ungrateful. One part feels grief while another says you should be over it by now. Then there’s the inner critic, working overtime to get there first and keep you from being hurt, embarrassed, or seen. It can feel like a full-blown civil war inside. None of these parts are abstract. They show up as tension in the chest, a sudden fog, a tight jaw, a burst of overwork, a collapse into distraction, or a smile that covers a flinch. We often treat them as problems to correct or ignore, and in doing so, we miss what they are: inner voices and protectors that formed for a reason. When we fight them or block them out, they do not disappear. They get louder, or they go underground and run the show from there. When aversion to our inner world becomes strong enough, we disconnect from it. Dr. Gabor Maté points to that inner rupture–not only what happened to us, but what happened inside us in response–as the heart of trauma. Healing, then, is less about attacking what we find and more about reconnecting with ourselves. Internal Family Systems (IFS) gives us the tools to rebuild this inner relationship. Early studies of IFS have found increases in self-compassion and reductions in symptoms such as depression and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), which supports a simple but often overlooked idea: when the inner war quiets, people function differently. Transformation begins when exile ends. The shift Changing your relationship to the self means moving from "get rid of this" to "I can be with this". That sounds simple, and it is not easy. Many of us were trained to believe that self-compassion is selfish, that emotions are a distraction, and that a good life means focusing exclusively on others. Aversion to ourselves and to what arises within us is everywhere. This shift from shutting out our parts to letting them exist is not the same as approving of every behavior. You can hold a part with compassion and still choose wisely. What changes is the climate inside. Instead of a courtroom, there is contact. Instead of a verdict, there is curiosity. In that climate, something surprising happens. Clarity returns because the static of self-attack drops. Confidence steadies because you are no longer using half your strength to manage an inner refugee camp. Hidden strengths appear, often inside the very parts you rejected. The anger held a boundary. The fear held discernment. The ambition held a will to live. The grief held love. The “too much” held vitality. We do not unlock those strengths by conquering the parts that carry them. We get access to them by creating enough safety for those parts to stop fighting for their lives. Four principles for reconnecting with yourself This process does not require you to already be good at it. It requires practice. These four movements are enough to begin. Notice what is here. Before you interpret, improve, or explain, notice the tightness, the drop in energy, the critical sentence, or the rush of wanting. Notice where you feel it in your body. Notice what it feels like. Name what it feels like. Part of me is afraid. Part of me is angry. Part of me wants to hide. The moment you say, “part of me,” you are acknowledging that this pain is not what you are. It is simply part of your experience. In doing so, you’ve already created a bit more space to be with it. Noticing is the first courageous step to ending the inner war. Give it permission to be here. Once you’ve noticed a part, let it know it’s allowed to be here, right here, right now. This isn't permission for the part to sit in the driver's seat. It is permission for it to exist. So much inner panic comes from the second battle: first the feeling, then the fight to get rid of it. Try saying, inwardly, "You are allowed to be here", and watch how the system changes when it is no longer being expelled. Accept it without judgment. All resistance stems from judgment. No matter what your part thinks or feels, there’s a valid reason for it. Can you get curious enough to consider what it may be? You are better positioned than anyone else to understand why this part would be frustrated or stressed. You do not need to analyze it. You need to stop calling it bad. "I see you. I get why you feel that way. I get that you are trying to help, or protect, or be heard". Judgment breeds resistance. Acceptance cultivates relationship. Meet it with compassion. Compassion is not a mood you force. It is a posture: I will not abandon this part of me in order to become acceptable. If compassion feels out of reach, start with respect, or even neutrality. Stay. Breathe. Place a hand on the body as a gesture of support and let the part learn that you are not here to make it disappear. These four movements are as much a spiritual practice as a psychological one. They are how we stop leaving ourselves, and how a deeper presence–call it the higher Self, the inner teacher, or the still small voice–gets room to come forward. What becomes possible When people begin this work, they often expect insight, and they get that. They also get something more practical. Their body relaxes. They make cleaner decisions because they can tell the difference between fear and wisdom. They recover energy because they are no longer spending it on inner exile. They become more trustworthy to themselves, which is the root of confidence: not a louder personality, but a less abandoned one. They find strengths that were never missing, only unwelcome. Reconnecting to yourself is not a withdrawal from life or from other people. It is how you become available to both. A person who is at war inside has little left for love, work, or the sacred. A person who can stay with themselves can bring a different quality into every room they enter. A small place to begin Sometimes today, when a difficult inner state appears, do not try to solve it. Pause, notice the part, say "You can be here", and stay one minute without fixing it. That minute is not a technique for later. It is the relationship's beginning. Befriending your inner world is not self-absorption. It is the ground of a clearer, more courageous life. For now, remember this: you do not have to become someone else to come home. You have to stop treating the one already here as the enemy. If this way of relating to yourself feels like the work you have been looking for, begin with that one minute of contact today. If you want company in the process, I guide people through these steps using Internal Family Systems. When you meet yourself in this way, you may find that what you were waiting for was never a different self. It was a different relationship with this one. Visit my website for more info! Read more from Vicky Reeves Vicky Reeves, Internal Family Systems Coach Vicky Reeves is an Internal Family Systems coach and writer dedicated to the art of coming home to ourselves. Integrating inner parts work, somatic awareness, and compassionate presence, she helps individuals transform internal warfare to reclaim their innate clarity and vitality. Her approach is shaped by a lifelong dedication to spiritual practice and a sacred relationship with the natural world. Based in Wisconsin and serving clients internationally, her work focuses on inner coherence, emotional resilience, and grounding insight in daily life.

Written by Chitra Soerdjbalie, Business Owner Chitra Soerdjbalie is an international model and entrepreneur who bridges the worlds of fashion, event planning, and female leadership. She is passionate about helping others build confidence, create meaningful experiences, and lead with authenticity in both business and life. Changing direction can feel like starting again. A new industry, a different role, a business idea or an entirely new ambition can make years of previous experience suddenly seem irrelevant. I have learned the opposite. Every chapter teaches us something, and the skills we build often travel much further than the job title in which we learned them. Reinvention is not about erasing your past. It is about recognising what you have already built and deciding how you want to use it next. Why do we think changing direction means starting over? For many years, we were taught to think about careers as a fairly straight line. You enter an industry, build experience, move upwards and continue developing in that same direction. My own career has looked very different. I spent nine years working in financial services before moving into television production. From there, I moved into another sector, where I spent seven years working across different roles. Alongside my corporate career, other parts of me also developed through modelling, entrepreneurship and event planning. On paper, those worlds can look disconnected. In practice, they are much more connected than people might think. The mistake we often make is judging experience only by the tasks attached to a particular job. We ask: Will I ever use this exact piece of work again? I think a better question is: Who did I become while doing it? Because while tasks change, competencies grow. Your job title is not the only thing you take with you When I look back at the different industries and roles I have worked in, what stands out most is not a list of individual duties. It is the skills I developed while doing them. Stakeholder management. Negotiation. Budgeting. Planning. Structure. Organisation. Knowing how to communicate with different people and understanding that not everyone needs the same approach. Those skills did not disappear when I moved industries. I now use many of them as an entrepreneur. I use them when planning events. I use them in modelling when discussing projects, expectations or terms. I use them when developing an idea and turning it into something concrete. Even experiences that seemed specific to one job have often taught me something I later needed somewhere completely different. Research on occupational mobility supports the broader idea that moving between jobs is not simply a matter of throwing away one set of capabilities and acquiring an entirely new one. Research by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) into job transitions looks specifically at the cognitive skills and skills related to tasks that workers carry between occupations, as well as where additional learning may be required. For me, that is one of the most reassuring things about reinvention: nothing has to be wasted. Transferable skills matter more than we sometimes realise We tend to associate skills with the environment in which we first developed them. Negotiating might sound like a corporate skill, until you are negotiating a modelling agreement or supplier terms for an event. Stakeholder management might sound like something that belongs in an office, until you are dealing with a client, venue, creative professional, partner and supplier who all have different interests. Budgeting might appear to belong to finance, until you are building a business or producing an event and realise that creativity without financial boundaries is not a plan. Structure and organisation are perhaps the clearest examples for me. Whatever I am doing, I need a plan. I do not believe in moving completely without direction and hoping everything somehow falls into place. That does not mean everything happens according to the original plan. It means having enough structure to understand what you are trying to achieve, what it requires and what needs to change when reality looks different. This is why I have stopped looking at my career as a collection of separate identities. I see it more as skill stacking. Brainz has explored this same shift toward viewing a career through capabilities rather than simply job history: your résumé can be treated as an inventory of what you have built, improved, solved and learned, not merely a chronology of positions. That distinction becomes incredibly powerful when you decide to change direction. One job does not have to contain every part of you There have been moments when I wondered whether I was doing too many different things. But I quickly realised something: why should we expect one job to use every talent we have? It often cannot. Sometimes a role fits us perfectly for a particular period. Then we grow. Our interests change, our strengths develop and what once challenged us may eventually stop doing so. That does not necessarily mean the job became bad or that choosing it was a mistake. Sometimes you simply outgrow something. I believe boredom can sometimes be information. So can curiosity. So can the repeated feeling that another part of you wants room to develop. For me, pursuing different things allows different qualities to come forward. Corporate environments use certain strengths. Entrepreneurship demands others. Modelling challenges me in another way. Event planning brings creativity, people, organisation and commercial thinking together. I do not have to force all of that into one job description to make it legitimate. It can all belong to the same person. Reinvention does not mean rejecting your previous life This is perhaps the biggest misconception around reinvention. People can make a new choice and immediately feel as though everything that came before it has become irrelevant. I disagree completely. Changing direction does not mean rejecting your previous experience. In many cases, it is exactly that experience that enables you to make the next move more intelligently. When you begin something new at 30, 40, 50 or beyond, you are not approaching it with the same toolkit you had when you first entered the workforce. You know more about people. You know more about yourself. You understand what you are good at, what drains you and what environments allow you to perform at your best. You have made mistakes and survived them. You have probably learned how to communicate, negotiate, solve problems, manage disappointment and adjust when things do not go according to plan. So no, you are not starting from zero. You are starting from experience. That is a completely different starting point. Reinvention can happen at any age I also think we attach unnecessary deadlines to ourselves. By a certain age, we think we should have chosen our career, established our identity and learned exactly what the rest of our professional lives are going to look like. But people grow and change. Why would our needs and ambitions remain exactly the same? What interested you ten years ago may no longer fulfil you today. The life you imagined at 25 may look very different when you are 40. New experiences can expose talents you did not know you had or give you ambitions you had never previously considered. That does not make you inconsistent. It makes you human. A career transition can, of course, require planning. Depending on the change, you may need additional knowledge, qualifications, savings, experience or time. Reinvention should not be confused with making every decision impulsively. But preparation and postponement are not the same thing. There comes a point when you have to start moving towards what you want. Another Brainz contributor describing a major career shift makes a similar point: career change often requires understanding why you are changing and being willing to build on resources you already possess rather than assuming everything must be created from scratch. What if your different interests are actually connected? When someone has several professional interests, the immediate advice is often to narrow down. Pick one thing. Choose your lane. Focus. Sometimes that is good advice. Focus matters. But I also think we can become so obsessed with fitting into one professional box that we fail to notice the common thread running through everything we do. For me, that thread includes working with people, organising, negotiating, creating structure and turning ideas into something tangible. Those abilities appear in different forms across different parts of my life. The setting changes. The skills travel. Instead of asking yourself, “Why have I done so many different things?” it might be more useful to ask: “What keeps showing up in everything I do?” That question can tell you much more about your professional identity than a job title ever will. Your next chapter does not invalidate the previous one If you feel the need to change direction, I would encourage you not to begin by focusing on everything you still lack. First, take inventory. Look at the roles, industries, projects and experiences you have already had and identify what they actually taught you. Not only technical knowledge, but the competencies underneath it. Perhaps you learned how to lead. Perhaps you learned how to negotiate. Perhaps you became excellent at bringing structure to chaos, building relationships, solving problems or remaining calm when things go wrong. Then ask yourself where those strengths could create value next. Your next chapter does not have to look like the one before it to benefit from everything that came before. If there is something you have wanted to explore for years, do not automatically dismiss the feeling because you think it is too late. Listen to it. Investigate it. Make a plan. Work towards it. Because one of the thoughts I would most like someone to have after reading this article is very simple: It is still possible. You may change. Your ambitions may change. What you want from your career may change too. The goal is not to spend your life proving that an old decision was the right one. It is to use what you have learned to make the next decision with more experience than you had before. Sometimes reinvention requires a leap of faith. But taking that leap does not mean leaving everything behind. You bring yourself with you. Nothing you genuinely learned along the way is lost. Follow me on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and visit my website for more info! Read more from Chitra Soerdjbalie Chitra Soerdjbalie, Business Owner Chitra Soerdjbalie is an international model, entrepreneur, and founder of Curated Moments by Chitra. After stepping onto her first international runway during Milan Fashion Week in 2022, she continued to build her presence in the fashion industry while championing confidence, representation, and authenticity. Through her work in fashion and event planning, she creates meaningful experiences that bring people together and leave a lasting impact. Passionate about female leadership and personal growth, Chitra inspires others to embrace their visibility, pursue their ambitions, and lead with confidence.

Written by Prudence Hatchett, Leadership Resilience Strategist Prudence Hatchett is an award-winning entrepreneur, international speaker, bestselling author, and Leadership Resilience Strategist. She helps leaders transform burnout into sustainable influence and high performance. At some point, organizations must begin asking a different question. With more leadership books, training programs, certifications, and development resources available than ever before, why are we still struggling with some of the same leadership problems? Perhaps the issue is not what leaders are being taught. Perhaps it is what we are failing to understand about the people we are teaching. Leadership development has become an important investment for organizations seeking to improve performance, strengthen workplace culture, and prepare leaders for increasing responsibilities, and rightfully so. The success of an organization depends heavily on the people responsible for leading it. However, I believe we have reached a point where organizations must reconsider not only what they are teaching their leaders, but also what they understand about the human behavior influencing how those leaders perform. For years, leadership development has centered on building skills such as communication, emotional intelligence, conflict management, decision-making, change management, and psychological safety. These are necessary skills, and I would never suggest otherwise. But there is something that deserves just as much attention, if not more. What happens when the person being taught these skills is struggling internally with the very things that influence their ability to use them? This is where I believe the conversation about leadership development needs to change. We cannot continue developing leadership skills while overlooking human behavior One of the greatest misunderstandings about leadership development is the assumption that learning a skill automatically translates into demonstrating that skill. In reality, knowing what to do and being psychologically and emotionally prepared to do it are two different things. Consider a leader who has completed extensive training in effective communication. They understand the importance of listening, responding thoughtfully, and creating an environment where employees feel comfortable expressing concerns. Yet, when faced with criticism, uncertainty, or a situation involving significant pressure, that same leader becomes defensive, dismissive, or emotionally reactive. Does this necessarily mean the leadership training failed? Not entirely. The leader may understand the information perfectly. However, their response may be influenced by something that was never addressed during the training. Human behavior is influenced by our experiences, emotional patterns, perceptions, beliefs, and the way our nervous systems respond to stress and perceived threats. These influences do not disappear when someone receives a leadership title, earns a promotion, or completes a professional development program. In fact, leadership responsibilities can make these patterns more noticeable because increased pressure often reveals how people respond when their internal resources are being challenged. This is why I continue to emphasize that leadership development is a human development problem. If we do not understand the person behind the leadership position, we risk continuing to teach skills that may never reach their full potential. The missing conversation is about what happens beneath performance Organizations are very familiar with evaluating performance. They measure productivity, employee engagement, retention, profitability, and leadership effectiveness. These measurements are important because they help organizations understand what is happening within their operations. However, I believe we should become equally interested in understanding what is happening beneath those measurements. For example, when a leader struggles with decision-making, is the issue a lack of knowledge, or is fear influencing their ability to make a decision? When communication becomes ineffective, is the problem a lack of communication skills, or is the leader operating from a heightened stress response? When a leader avoids difficult conversations, is it because they do not understand conflict management, or because conflict triggers an emotional response they have never learned to recognize or regulate? These are different problems, and they require different approaches. We cannot assume that every leadership challenge can be resolved by introducing another leadership competency. Sometimes, the issue is not the absence of a skill. It is the presence of an internal barrier that interferes with the leader's ability to use the skill they already possess. This is where understanding human behavior becomes essential. As a mental health professional and leadership resilience strategist, I have spent years understanding how human behavior, emotional experiences, and psychological responses influence the way people function. One thing that continues to stand out to me is how often we expect people to perform differently without helping them understand why they respond the way they do in the first place. When we bring that same expectation into leadership development, we should not be surprised when information does not always produce transformation. Leadership development must go beyond information There is a difference between giving someone information and helping them develop the internal capacity to apply that information consistently. A leader can attend an excellent workshop, leave feeling motivated, and genuinely intend to implement everything they learned. But what happens when they return to an environment filled with competing priorities, difficult personalities, unrealistic expectations, and constant pressure? What happens when the motivation wears off and familiar behavioral patterns return? This is one reason I believe leadership development must move beyond the traditional approach of teaching skills and expecting those skills to automatically become behaviors. Understanding human behavior allows us to examine the relationship between what a leader knows, what a leader experiences internally, and how that leader responds externally. It creates opportunities for leaders to recognize patterns that may be interfering with their effectiveness. It also helps them understand that emotional regulation, self-awareness, psychological flexibility, and resilience are not separate from leadership performance. They are part of what supports it. This does not mean leadership development should become therapy. It means organizations should recognize that human behavior plays a significant role in whether leadership development produces meaningful and sustainable results. We should not have to wait until a leader experiences burnout, a breakdown in workplace relationships, or a significant decline in performance before we begin paying attention to the person behind the position. Resilience must be part of developing leaders, not just helping them recover Another area where I believe organizations have an opportunity to change direction is in how they understand resilience. Too often, resilience is introduced when something has already gone wrong. A leader becomes overwhelmed, a team experiences prolonged stress, or an organization begins noticing the consequences of burnout. Then resilience becomes part of the conversation. But why are we waiting? I view Strategic Leadership Resilience as a power skill because it supports a leader's ability to remain effective while navigating pressure, uncertainty, change, and challenges. It is not simply about recovering after a difficult experience. It is also about developing the internal resources necessary to recognize, respond to, and navigate those experiences before they begin interfering with performance. This requires more than encouraging leaders to remain positive, practice self-care, or push through difficult circumstances. It requires helping them understand their stress responses, recognize emotional patterns, strengthen their ability to regulate their reactions, and develop a healthier relationship with the demands of leadership. A resilient leader is not someone who never experiences stress, frustration, fear, or uncertainty. A resilient leader is someone who develops a greater understanding of how those experiences influence their behavior and learns how to respond without allowing every internal reaction to determine their next decision. That distinction matters because the way a leader responds under pressure does not affect only the leader. It can influence employee confidence, communication, trust, psychological safety, and the overall working environment. In other words, the internal condition of a leader can have external organizational consequences. The future requires a different understanding of leadership readiness As organizations continue adapting to technological advancements, changing workforce expectations, and increasing business demands, leadership development will remain necessary. However, I believe the definition of leadership readiness must expand. Being prepared to lead cannot be measured only by professional knowledge, technical competence, experience, or the ability to demonstrate a list of leadership skills. We must also consider whether leaders have developed the internal capacity to navigate the human demands of their responsibilities. Can they recognize when stress is influencing their judgment? Can they manage emotional reactions without allowing those reactions to damage professional relationships? Can they remain open to feedback without immediately interpreting it as a personal threat? Can they recognize when their own behavioral patterns may be contributing to the very workplace challenges they are trying to resolve? These are not insignificant questions. They are questions that can influence how leadership is experienced throughout an organization. They deserve a place in leadership development conversations. The future of leadership development should not require organizations to choose between performance and human development. In fact, I believe one supports the other. When we strengthen the person, we create greater opportunities to strengthen the leader. When we strengthen the leader, we influence the conditions under which employees, teams, and organizations perform. The direction of leadership development matters I believe organizations have an opportunity to rethink the direction of their leadership development before they continue investing in more of the same approaches. This does not mean abandoning traditional leadership training. It means recognizing that teaching a skill is only one part of developing the person responsible for demonstrating it. Human behavior is not an additional topic that we should occasionally include in leadership development. It should be part of the foundation upon which leadership development is built. Because no matter how advanced our technology becomes, how sophisticated our business strategies are, or how many leadership competencies we introduce, organizations will continue to depend on human beings to make decisions, build relationships, navigate challenges, and lead other human beings. Human beings do not leave their psychological and emotional experiences at the door when they enter the workplace. I often say, "You cannot separate the performance of the leader from the condition of the person." That statement is more than a perspective on leadership. It is a reminder that organizational performance and human development are more closely connected than many traditional approaches to leadership development acknowledge. The question is no longer whether organizations should invest in developing their leaders. The question is whether they are developing their leaders in a way that addresses what actually influences leadership behavior. Because if understanding human behavior is not part of the direction of your organization's leadership development, you may be investing more resources into a journey that continues to take you in circles. The future of leadership development will not be determined solely by how much we teach leaders. It will also depend on how well we understand the human beings we are expecting to lead. Follow me on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn for more info! Read more from Prudence Hatchett Prudence Hatchett, Leadership Resilience Strategist Prudence Hatchett is an award-winning entrepreneur, international speaker, executive coach, Leadership Resilience Strategist, and bestselling author. With over 20 years of experience in mental health, education, and leadership development, she helps leaders eliminate burnout, strengthen resilience, and elevate their influence. As the founder of PH Counseling, LLC® and Learn with Prudence®, Prudence combines neuroscience, psychology, and leadership strategy to deliver transformative, actionable insights. Her engaging presentations empower audiences to lead with clarity, confidence, and purpose while creating psychologically safe, high-performing cultures that thrive in today's demanding environment.