Written by Kimberly Cloud, Inventor and Entrepreneur Kimberly Cloud founded Genuinely Michelle Wigs LLC and Blue Cloud Cleaning LLC, a cleaning agency best known for creating successful businesses from the ground up. She is dedicated to empowering people, especially women, by addressing mental health issues. Before The Kimberly Cloud Show 2.0 LLC, graduate education, entrepreneurship, and my goals of philanthropy, there was military service. I served from January 14, 2003, through March 26, 2006, and received an honorable discharge. Those dates represent more than a line on my résumé. My service became part of the foundation from which I later learned to think about responsibility, structure, completing objectives, and continuing forward when circumstances become difficult. Before The Kimberly Cloud Show 2.0 LLC, graduate education, entrepreneurship, and my goals of philanthropy, there was military service. I served from January 14, 2003, through March 26, 2006, and received an honorable discharge. Those dates represent more than a line on my résumé. My service became part of the foundation from which I later learned to think about responsibility, structure, completing objectives, and continuing forward when circumstances become difficult. My life after service has not followed a perfectly straight line. I have experienced periods of homelessness and financial instability. Those experiences changed the way I think about money. When you have experienced times when housing or financial security was uncertain, having money left over after the bills are paid can take on an entirely different meaning. For me, a rainy-day fund is not about showing wealth. It represents breathing room. It means asking, "If something unexpected happens tomorrow, can I handle it without destroying everything I have been building?" That lesson now influences how I approach The Kimberly Cloud Show 2.0 LLC. Education became another form of investment Today, I am closing in on completing my second master's degree at Colorado Technical University (CTU). I see education as another investment in my ability to make better decisions. I do not believe a degree automatically makes someone successful, nor do I believe people without graduate degrees cannot become extraordinary entrepreneurs. Education is one tool among many. But there is quantitative evidence showing an association between higher educational attainment and labor market outcomes. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that in 2025, full-time wage and salary workers age 25 and older whose highest attainment was a master's degree had median weekly earnings of $1,876, compared with $1,578 for bachelor's degree holders and $1,135 for associate degree holders. Master's degree holders had a 2.6% unemployment rate in those data. These are population statistics, not promises about an individual's future income. That distinction matters to me. I grew up in Grierton Court, in an environment I describe as the hood, and I did not feel that I started life with all the opportunities that some other people had. I could spend adulthood being angry about that. Or I can educate myself. I choose education. Someone else's fortunate beginning does not have to become my curse. Their opportunities do not take away my ability to create opportunities today. From military service to a media company In March 2021, I established what would become my entrepreneurial media journey with The Kimberly Cloud Show. The concept is simple but important to me, give people an opportunity to tell their stories. Over time, that concept developed into The Kimberly Cloud Show 2.0 LLC. Being President of my own show is one of my greatest business strengths because I can establish the show's operating standards, interview approach, production priorities, and long-term direction. That freedom also comes with accountability. When something succeeds, I have to understand why. When something fails, I cannot simply blame an employer or another department. I have to examine the decision and improve it. That is where Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound (SMART) goals and Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats (SWOT) analysis meet. SMART: Turning my vision into measurements Specific My objective is to continue producing and distributing The Kimberly Cloud Show 2.0 LLC while building a recognizable, sustainable media company. That means producing interviews, developing short-form content from longer programs, improving distribution, maintaining a professional website, strengthening guest relationships, and learning more about protecting original creative works. Measurable I want the company's progress to become increasingly quantitative. Rather than simply saying, "My show is growing," I can create a quarterly dashboard that tracks episodes published, views and listens, watch time, engagement, website visits, guest inquiries, confirmed guests, repeat guests, and revenue-producing opportunities. For example, I could track 10 episodes, 30 clips, 50,000 impressions, 3,000 engagements, 100 website visits, 20 guest inquiries, and 10 bookings. Those figures are an example of a measurement system, not a statement of my current analytics. That distinction is essential. Actual platform numbers should be entered each quarter. Then I can compare Quarter 1 with Quarter 2 instead of judging success by emotion. Qualitative Not everything valuable fits into a spreadsheet. I also want to know, "Did my guest feel respected? Was the interview organized? Would the guest return? Would that person recommend another guest? What did viewers say they learned? Which topics generated meaningful conversations rather than empty clicks?" Those are qualitative measurements. The strongest business decisions can come from putting quantitative and qualitative information together. Achievable: Grow without trying to look rich One of the most important lessons I learned through financial hardship is that business growth should not require pretending to have money that I do not have. I would rather grow steadily. My philosophy is to prioritize income, then essential expenses, followed by business operations, an emergency reserve, selective reinvestment, and future giving. The emergency reserve matters. When an unexpected car repair, housing expense, technology failure, or other emergency occurs, having reserves can prevent one problem from becoming five problems. My strategy for the show is to create, measure, learn, repurpose, and reinvest carefully. That is much more sustainable for me than spending money, advertising everywhere, and simply hoping something works. Relevant Every opportunity needs to complement the central mission. Does it educate me? Does it strengthen the show? Does it help a guest? Does it build a professional relationship? Does it create sustainable revenue? Does it contribute to the legacy I am trying to establish? If the answer is no, I need to become comfortable saying no. Time-bound I can evaluate my media company every 90 days. That gives me four major business checkpoints every year. At each checkpoint, I can compare audience metrics, expenses, publishing consistency, guest inquiries, and accomplishments against the previous quarter. That transforms a dream into project management. My SWOT analysis SMART tells me what I am trying to accomplish. SWOT helps me understand where I stand while trying to accomplish it. Strengths Ownership and leadership. I am President of The Kimberly Cloud Show 2.0 LLC. I determine the show's direction and standards. Authentic story. My experiences include military service, entrepreneurship, higher education, financial hardship, and rebuilding. Education. Graduate study gives me opportunities to apply business, leadership, and project management concepts to an actual company. Content ownership opportunities. Original recorded interviews, articles, graphics, and other sufficiently creative works may qualify for copyright protection when the legal requirements are satisfied. The U.S. Copyright Office explains that copyright protects original expression fixed in a tangible medium, although copyright does not protect an underlying idea or method. Adaptability. One interview can potentially become a full video, podcast episode, short clips, quotes, and social media content. Weaknesses Limited financial resources. I cannot spend like a major media corporation. Founder dependence. When the President is also closely involved with production, education, promotion, and administration, time becomes a limited resource. Too many directions. Entrepreneurship gives me many ideas. Without priorities, those ideas can compete against each other. Analytics development. I need to continue strengthening how I document and compare performance across platforms. Recognizing weaknesses is not insulting the company. It is management. Opportunities One major opportunity is my status as a veteran entrepreneur. The U.S. Small Business Administration provides veteran entrepreneurs with resources involving training, funding programs, and federal contracting opportunities. Its Veterans Business Outreach Centers also assist veterans, service members, and military spouses who are starting or developing businesses. That means I do not necessarily have to purchase every piece of business knowledge. I can investigate legitimate educational and mentoring resources before paying consultants. Another opportunity is content repurposing. One great interview can become a full show, an audio podcast, short clips, and quotes. The audio podcast can reach podcast audiences, short clips can support social discovery, and quotes can become professional posts. Together, these forms of content can strengthen The Kimberly Cloud Show 2.0 LLC. That is a budget-friendly growth model because I am creating more value from something I have already produced. Threats Competition belongs in every realistic SWOT analysis. I have personally observed other creators and programs that I believe watch or develop content similar to subjects I cover. I cannot know another creator's motivation merely because similar material appears elsewhere, and ideas and general concepts are not automatically protected by copyright. That means my business response should not be to spend all my energy worrying about competitors. It should be to differentiate and document my work. The Copyright Office specifically explains that copyright does not protect ideas, procedures, systems, names, titles, or short phrases, although original creative expression can receive copyright protection once the requirements are met. Some names or branding may instead involve trademark law. So my competitive strategy is to document and date my work, publish it, protect eligible work, differentiate it, and keep producing. Other threats include changing social media algorithms, subscription costs, audience fragmentation, creator burnout, and depending too heavily on platforms that I do not control. Those are business threats I can plan around. From surviving to giving My next chapter is not only entrepreneurship. I am also an aspiring philanthropist. That word means something different to me because I am not approaching philanthropy from the position of having unlimited wealth. I understand what it means not to have enough. That is precisely why giving, even beginning modestly, has meaning to me. My long-term vision is to help young adults pursuing science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education with expenses such as books, educational supplies, or other appropriate academic needs. I want the sequence to remain responsible. My priorities are stability, education, business growth, savings, and, ultimately, sustainable giving. I do not want philanthropy to create another financial emergency. I want generosity to grow alongside stability. The lesson behind The Kimberly Cloud Show My military service from January 14, 2003, through March 26, 2006, my honorable discharge, periods of homelessness, graduate education, entrepreneurship, and the establishment of my show in March 2021 may look like separate chapters. I increasingly see them as one story. Military service taught me structure. Hardship taught me the value of reserves. Education teaches me how to analyze. Entrepreneurship teaches me accountability. SMART goals teach me to measure. SWOT analysis teaches me to look at strengths and weaknesses while recognizing opportunities and threats. Philanthropy is teaching me to think beyond myself. I do not want people who had better opportunities growing up to feel guilty for having them. I want people who did not have those opportunities to understand something else, where you begin and what you build afterward are two different measurements. I cannot rewrite Grierton Court. I cannot rewrite periods when money or housing was unstable. But I can determine what I study today, what I save, what I produce, what I measure, and how carefully I build tomorrow. That is what The Kimberly Cloud Show 2.0 LLC represents to me. Not overnight success, but measured progress. And when I combine SMART goals with an honest SWOT analysis, I have something much more valuable than a motivational slogan. I have a plan. The Kimberly Cloud Show Apple Podcasts Spotify Better Business Bureau (BBB) profile Follow me on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and visit my website for more info! Read more from Kimberly Cloud Written by Kimberly Cloud, Inventor and Entrepreneur Kimberly Cloud is an African American entrepreneur. She is the founder of Genuinely Michelle Wigs LLC and Blue Cloud Cleaning LLC, a cleaning agency. Cloud is best known for creating successful businesses from the ground up and is dedicated to empowering people, especially women, by addressing mental health issues.

Vinitha Edward is a Certified Life Transformation Coach and Founder of Transform & Thrive, a platform that empowers women to create meaningful habits and mindset shifts through journaling and conscious living. She helps women overcome obstacles, build confidence, and find balance through intentional growth. Blending practical strategies with emotional awareness, Vinitha guides clients to move from feeling stuck to thriving with purpose. Her mission is to transform lives one step at a time. Vinitha Edward, Life Transformation Coach What inspired you to create Transform & Thrive, and what change did you hope women would experience through it? Transform & Thrive was born from my own journey. As a wife, mom of four daughters, coach, and someone who has experienced different seasons and transitions in life, I realized that many women spend years taking care of everyone else while quietly losing touch with themselves. I didn’t want to create another motivational program that made women feel good for a day. I wanted to create a practical approach that helps women create real, lasting change and build a life they genuinely enjoy living. My hope is that every woman who works with me gains clarity about who she is, builds confidence from within, and becomes more intentional about the life she is creating. For me, transformation isn't about becoming someone different. It’s about reconnecting with yourself, understanding what truly matters to you, and making intentional choices that align with the person you want to become. Ultimately, I want women to stop simply reacting to life and start consciously creating a life they truly love. You describe journaling as more than a writing habit. How does it become a practical tool for lasting transformation? Most people think journaling is simply writing down their thoughts. I see it differently. Journaling is a space where you slow down enough to notice your patterns. For example, if I find myself feeling frustrated every evening, instead of simply saying, “I’m stressed,” I can pause and ask myself: What happened? What was I thinking? How did I respond? What could I do differently tomorrow? When we repeat this process, we begin to recognize the habits, triggers, and beliefs that may be influencing our everyday choices. That awareness is powerful because once we become aware of a pattern, we have the opportunity to choose a different response. Awareness leads to better choices, and better choices, repeated consistently, create transformation. That’s why I don't believe journaling is about filling pages or writing perfectly. It’s about giving yourself the space to pause, listen, reflect, and understand yourself more deeply. Journaling isn't about filling pages. It's about creating clarity, and clarity gives you the power to change. Your coaching is built around five areas of thriving. Why is it important to nurture these areas together rather than focusing on just one? Life is connected. We are not just one part of ourselves, and when one area is neglected, it often affects the others. That’s why I look at five areas of thriving: Self, Mind, Emotions, Relationships, and Life. Self is about knowing who you are, your values, needs, strengths, and identity. Mind is about the thoughts and beliefs that shape how you see yourself and the world. Emotions are about understanding what you feel and learning to respond rather than simply react. Relationships are about building healthy, meaningful connections and learning boundaries. Life is about intentionally creating the life you want, including your health, work, goals, purpose, and everyday choices. For example, someone may be successful professionally but feel disconnected from herself. Someone else may have a strong mindset but struggle with her emotions or relationships. Real transformation happens when we stop focusing on just one part of ourselves and start nurturing the whole person. When we grow from the inside out, our choices become more intentional, and our lives become more balanced, meaningful, and sustainable. Why do you think so many women struggle to sustain personal growth even after attending workshops and reading self-help books? One of the biggest reasons is that inspiration is temporary, but transformation requires practice. A workshop can give you insight. A book can give you a new perspective. A motivational video can make you feel ready to change. But what happens the next morning when real life begins again? The children need you, work demands your attention, your phone keeps buzzing, and your old habits are waiting for you. That is where many people struggle, not because they don't want to change, but because they don't have a simple way to turn what they learned into consistent daily action. I believe personal growth needs to move from information to implementation. Instead of trying to change everything at once, choose one behavior, connect it to something meaningful, and practice it consistently. Transformation is not created by how much we know. It is created by what we repeatedly practice. The real question isn't, “What did I learn?” It is, “What am I going to do differently because of what I learned?” That shift, from knowing to doing, is where real growth begins. In a world that celebrates dramatic breakthroughs, what makes small, intentional habits more powerful over time? We often underestimate small actions because they don't feel dramatic. But our lives are largely shaped by what we repeatedly do. You don't become healthier because of one great workout. You become healthier through the small choices you make consistently, how you eat, how you move, how you sleep, and how you manage stress. The same is true for mindset and personal growth. Five minutes of journaling, a short walk after a meal, putting your phone away during a conversation, saying no when something doesn't align with you, or taking a few minutes to reflect at the end of the day may seem insignificant. But when repeated consistently, these choices begin to change our behavior, and eventually, they influence how we see ourselves. I encourage women not to ask, “What huge change can I make?” but rather, “What small change can I actually sustain?” Because lasting transformation isn't usually one giant leap. It is the accumulation of small, intentional choices made again and again. For someone who feels overwhelmed and doesn't know where to begin, what is the first daily practice you would recommend? I would start with a simple five-minute daily check-in with yourself. Before immediately stepping into everything you need to do, give yourself a few quiet minutes and ask three questions, “How am I feeling today?” “What do I need today?” and “What is one thing I can intentionally do for myself?” It sounds simple, but it creates something we often don't give ourselves enough of, space to pause and listen to ourselves. You don't need to solve your entire life in five minutes. You simply need to become aware of what is happening within you. Maybe you realize you need rest. Maybe you need to have a difficult conversation, take a walk, set a boundary, reconnect with someone, or simply slow down. When you begin listening to yourself consistently, clarity starts to develop. Sometimes the first step isn't doing more. It's pausing long enough to understand what you truly need. You’ve recently spoken about creating healthier relationships with technology. What simple habit can help people become more intentional with their time and attention? One simple habit I recommend is creating a pause between the urge to check your phone and actually picking it up. We often reach for our phones without even realizing why. We see a notification, feel bored for a moment, or simply experience a few seconds of silence, and automatically reach for the screen. So instead of creating another rule about when you can or cannot use your phone, I encourage people to ask one simple question, “What am I reaching for right now, information, connection, or simply distraction?” That question creates awareness, and awareness gives us a choice. You may realize you actually wanted to check an important message. Or you may realize you were simply uncomfortable with having a quiet moment. The goal isn't to live without technology. It's to stop using it automatically. Because when we become intentional about where we give our attention, we become more intentional about how we live our lives. The phone should fit into your life, not become the place where your life happens. You often say that transformation begins with awareness. How has that principle shaped your own life since you first embraced it at the age of 12? My interest in personal growth began when I was around 12 years old. I was naturally curious about people, emotions, mindset, and why we behave the way we do. As I grew older, I began to understand that awareness is what allows us to recognize what is happening within us and gives us the opportunity to make different choices. I've learned that we can't always control what happens around us, but we can become aware of our thoughts, emotions, patterns, and responses. That awareness has been especially important during different seasons of my life, when I have had to pause and ask myself, “Is this still who I am? What do I need now? What do I want the next chapter of my life to look like?” For me, awareness is not about judging yourself or finding everything that is wrong. It is about being honest enough to see where you are so you can consciously decide where you want to go. That is why I believe transformation begins with awareness. First, we notice. Then, we choose. Through those intentional choices, we grow. I don't see transformation as perfection. I see it as continually reconnecting with yourself, resetting when necessary, and rising into who you are becoming. If every reader committed to one intentional change this week, what would you encourage them to start with? I would remind every reader that they don't have to change their entire life overnight. Start by paying attention to the life you are already living. Ask yourself, "What is working? What isn't? What feels aligned with who I am, and what no longer does?" We often get so caught up in responsibilities, expectations, and what everyone else needs from us that we forget to ask ourselves what we need and what we truly want. You don't need to have everything figured out. You simply need to be willing to pause, listen to yourself, and make one intentional choice at a time. Maybe that choice is setting a boundary, taking care of your health, reconnecting with someone, pursuing something you've put aside, or simply giving yourself permission to become a different version of yourself. Reconnect with yourself. Reset what no longer serves you. Rise into the life you want to create. Because a meaningful life isn't created in one big moment. It is created through the small, intentional choices we make every day. Follow me on Instagram and LinkedIn for more info! Read more from Vinitha Edward

Written by Agnes Szabo, Entrepreneur, Author & LifeArchitecture Creator Agnes Szabo is an entrepreneur, author, and creator of LifeArchitecture, with more than three decades of experience. Built through LifeCode, LifeCommand, and LifeInspiration, LifeArchitecture is a methodology connecting clarity, decision-making, and the development of solutions. We often treat problems as if we can decide when they matter. We know something needs attention, but the timing feels inconvenient. We are busy. We do not want the conflict. We do not want the expense. We do not want to make the decision. So we postpone it. For a while, that can create the impression that nothing has changed. But the problem is still there. While we are not dealing with it, its consequences can begin to appear in other areas of our lives. A financial problem can affect a relationship. A difficult relationship can reduce concentration at work. A work problem can affect confidence and decision-making. An unresolved family situation can influence how much attention and patience we have left for everything else. One problem rarely stays in one part of life. That is why the way we respond to our problems matters just as much as the problem itself. Postponing a problem does not solve it I have noticed how often people do not solve their problems. They keep pushing them into the future, next week, next month, when work is quieter, when there is more money, when the other person changes, or when the timing is better. But postponement does not change reality. If something requires a decision today, avoiding that decision does not remove the situation. It simply means the situation continues without deliberate action from us. That has consequences. A small financial difficulty that is ignored can become much larger. A conflict that is never addressed can change the quality of a relationship. A problem with an employee that is repeatedly tolerated can affect an entire team. A decision we refuse to make can influence several decisions that come after it. That is why I do not see postponement as neutral. Postponement is also a decision. It is a decision to allow the current situation to continue, and it is rarely a good one. Not every problem has to catch us unprepared There is another side to problems that receives far less attention. Many difficulties cannot be prevented, but many can be prepared for. There is a major difference between living only according to what is happening today and consciously considering what today’s decisions can create tomorrow. Financial planning is a simple example. If we know an expense is coming, we can prepare for it. If a business depends too heavily on one customer, one employee, or one source of income, that risk can be recognized before it becomes a crisis. If the same problem keeps returning in one area of our lives, ignoring it does not make the next occurrence unexpected. Preparation does not mean trying to control everything. It means paying attention. What is already visible? What could create difficulty later? What requires a decision before it becomes urgent? What can I do today to reduce the consequences if something goes wrong? This is not pessimistic thinking. It is responsible planning. A problem is easier to manage when we prepare for it before it becomes an emergency. Conscious living also means not thinking only about today. The decisions we make in the present have future consequences. Asking for help is not weakness Another common reaction is to wait. Someone in the family will help. The workplace will handle it. The circumstances will change. Someone will step in. But there is an important difference between waiting for someone and actually asking for help. There is nothing wrong with asking for help. In fact, recognizing when we need another person’s knowledge, experience, or support is part of good problem-solving. We do not have to solve everything alone. Sometimes advice helps us see more clearly. Sometimes we need expertise. Sometimes someone else’s experience helps us reach a solution faster. Sometimes we simply need support in order to deal with a difficult situation at all. But asking for help only moves us forward when it genuinely serves the solution, not when it becomes another form of delay or when we wait for someone else to begin what we already know we need to do. Asking for help is not weakness. Asking for the right help at the right time is often a very good decision. Recognizing a problem is not enough We can understand a problem perfectly and still do nothing about it. We can talk about it, analyze it, complain about it, and explain how it developed. None of that means we have solved it. At some point, a decision has to be made. We have to take responsibility not only for the existence of the problem, but for solving it. That is often uncomfortable. A solution can cost money. It can require a difficult conversation. It can require us to change something we have become used to. We may have to admit that an earlier decision was wrong or act even when it would be much easier to wait a little longer. But if we do not take that responsibility, the problem remains active in our lives. The longer we leave it unresolved, the more influence it can have on our decisions, our relationships, and other areas of our lives. That is why dealing with a problem in time is not only about solving that one problem. It is also about preventing its consequences from growing unnecessarily. Taking responsibility is part of the solution For me, this is one of the important principles of LifeArchitecture. We cannot prevent every difficult situation. We cannot control every circumstance. We cannot guarantee that every decision will produce exactly the result we wanted. But we can decide how long we allow a known problem to remain unresolved. We can prepare for foreseeable difficulties. We can ask for help when we truly need it. When action is required, we can take responsibility for solving what is ours to solve. That does not make life problem-free, but it can significantly reduce the chance that one unresolved problem will begin affecting several other areas of our lives. Most problems do not become bigger because they are complicated. They become bigger because we leave them unresolved for too long. Postponement is also a decision. It is just rarely a good one. Follow me on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and visit my website for more info! Read more from Agnes Szabo Agnes Szabo, Entrepreneur, Author & LifeArchitecture Creator Agnes Szabo is an entrepreneur, author, and creator of LifeArchitecture, with more than three decades of experience in real estate development, education, and building businesses. LifeArchitecture is the conceptual and methodological system developed through her three books, LifeCode, LifeCommand, and LifeInspiration, guiding the process of consciously shaping one’s life from clarity through decision-making to solutions. Her work is defined by creating, thinking independently, and building systems that work both in theory and in practice. She is also the founder of Nilvara, which extends the ideas behind LifeArchitecture into a new physical form.

Yolan is a writer and coach for high-achieving women who are ready for more than titles. After a decade in corporate, she now guides women through career transitions, identity shifts, and emotional sustainability with clarity and care. Through coaching containers and writing spaces, she invites readers into a life that invites an exhale you didn’t know you were holding. One shaped by resonance and honest reflection. Yolan Bedasse, Writer and Coach What first inspired you to create spaces for women navigating the quiet in-between seasons of life? My own experience. My story is a common one. I was taught growing up to follow the “sensible” path. Go to school, get good grades, pick the right college, pick the “right” degree, land the internship, and land the job. Why? Because this path would pay off not only financially but in all aspects of my life. I’d get my degree, set up my career, and along the way, I’d build lifelong friendships as they do on sitcoms, meet someone, fall in love, and have children. But when I’d walked that path for almost fifteen years and was still waiting for things to pan out, eventually I started to question what the point of “sensible” was. And then the unraveling of what I’d known started. I had family and friends I could confide in, but they couldn’t relate to what I was going through. Then there were the co-workers who could relate, but confiding in them was tricky. I found that out the hard way. So, I created coaching and writing spaces where those with similar experiences could come in, be seen, and exhale. What patterns do you see in women who look successful on paper but feel disconnected from themselves? I want to first acknowledge that no two paths and stories are the same. It’s less about patterns and behaviors and more about the belief system. The thing we all have in common is the idea of success that’s instilled in us from a young age. When you’re taught to follow paths without questioning them, you will wake up one day questioning whether what you worked so hard for is still what you want. The bigger question is, “Was it ever what you wanted, or were you told to want it?” And this almost always leads to the ultimate question, “Do I trust myself to choose a different path?” Because when you realize everything has worked out so far because you followed a playbook and you’ve never actually bet on yourself, that’s the disconnect and where the rebuilding starts. How has your time in corporate shaped the way you now coach women through identity shifts and reinvention? It gave me a level of grace and understanding that I could’ve only developed through first-hand experience. Corporate is its own beast, and while your loved ones can always be empathetic and supportive, it can also be difficult for them to understand why you can’t just go to Human Resources (HR) when “your well-liked boss is disrespectful” or why you “shouldn’t let things bother you and just do your job.” Having a coach who understands the climate you must exist in daily can be a game changer. As coaches, we’re trained to be able to coach folks on anything, whether or not it’s been our lived experience, and to be mindful of our own biases. But it’s my firm belief that the magic of coaching is not “advice.” It’s being seen, heard, and understood. Sometimes, those who see you best are those who have walked in your shoes. Why do you think emotional sustainability is still largely missing from conversations about success and personal growth? The current conversations around success and personal growth are still rooted in the collective, not the individual. Most of us were never seriously asked, “What do you want to do with your life?” But I’m willing to bet a lot of us were handed a list of the things we “should” want, which were largely based on paths that led to others’ success. If the foundation of our drive for success is always rooted in the collective, how can it be personal? From this standpoint, productivity will always be the priority, and an individual’s emotional sustainability becomes optional. I believe that’s why a lot of successful, high-achieving women struggle to walk away from what looks good on paper. We were taught that accolades equal happiness, and so we spend our lives chasing them. When we finally catch them? There’s a disconnect. Because it was never about us as individuals. It’s always been about maintaining the definition of success we never chose. What has the coaching industry misunderstood about ambition, achievement, and well-being? I don’t think the coaching industry misunderstands ambition, achievement, or well-being as much as it places a lot of emphasis on the outcome versus the individual. We’re trained to focus on goals such as SMART goals, session outcomes, and measurable progress, which absolutely have their place. But in that focus, we can miss the power of clients simply being seen and heard. Sometimes an individual needs more time in the in-between phase to feel safe enough to figure out their next step. Some individuals benefit from quickly moving to outcomes. But I find that, for a lot of high-functioning women who are often the emotional anchors for those around them, having a safe space to breathe and regroup is the most powerful part of the coaching experience. Cultivating that space is an honor for me. Also, I want to be clear here, coaching is not therapy, and having both in your toolkit is necessary. But it’s amazing how easy the goals conversation becomes once that trust is built, once someone feels understood without added explanation. They’re no longer defining the outcomes from a place of requirement but from their own truth. How does your Soft & Sensible Method™ help women make decisions when they no longer know what they want next? This method was accidentally born out of my own experience of walking away from a six-figure job. Acknowledge the Ache. Analyze the fear. Give yourself grace to reset. Then You Plan. Then comes the shift. This is structured with the understanding that before you can even think about coming up with a strategy for your next step, you need to feel safe enough to do so. Strategy comes from clarity, and clarity requires safety. It slows you down. It forces you to figure out what’s not working anymore, why you’re feeling stuck, and gives you permission to rest and pivot. I help women give themselves permission to pause, regroup, and move forward at their own pace, on their terms. This method takes the pressure off immediately going into action mode. If you’re in your own season of figuring out your next step and want to feel less alone, I write about this and my own experiences on my Substack here. Stop by and say hi. Of course, when you’re looking for one-on-one support, that’s exactly what my Soft & Sensible sessions are for. You can learn more here. What is one practice you recommend to someone who feels stuck between who they were and who they are becoming? Surrender to the season and give yourself some grace. One of the most common questions I got from friends and family when I left my job was, “What’s next?” The pressure of that question felt like someone was standing on my chest, and it grew into frustration. “Why can’t I figure it out?” And the simple answer is that some seasons are for rest. One small practice that has helped me is to write down one thing you can do for yourself at the start of each day and, at the end of the day, one thing you did or said that made you feel more like yourself. Your work often says this is not about fixing but remembering, what does remembering look like in practice? Daily reminders of positive self-talk and grace. Fixing immediately goes to controlling outcomes. Remembering is reminding yourself daily that nothing is black and white. The only constant is change. This is our first time here, we’ve never lived this life before. Remind yourself that you’re doing the best you can with what you have in this moment. Also, please know you are not a walking self-help affirmation book. You will have moments where you feel zen and in control and crash-out moments when all you can do is look up and go, “What the hell?” Both are valid and necessary. What is the most important thing you hope women learn about themselves during periods of uncertainty? Your self-trust muscles will be stretched and tested. As women, a lot of us followed the “good girl” rules. And these rules came with an instruction manual, ratings, and well-used paths as “shining” examples. Finding yourself in uncertainty means you’ve found yourself on a path you weren’t prepared for. But please know uncertainty doesn’t mean “bad”, it’s unfamiliar. Trust yourself to walk the path, to do the best you can, and understand that mistakes will be made and consequences will follow, but with surrender and a little grace, you’ll be okay. Follow me on Instagram and LinkedIn for more info! Read more from Yolan Bedasse

Jackie Anderson is the owner of Kula Yoga Studios and a longtime yoga teacher whose approach centers on authenticity, self-awareness, and taking the practice beyond the mat. In this interview, she shares how yoga became her dharma, why teacher training should be a journey into the self, and how ancient yogic teachings can become practical tools for navigating everyday life. At the heart of her work is a simple belief, yoga isn't about perfection or performance, it's about learning to quiet the mind, recognize our patterns, and remember the wisdom that already exists within us. Jackie Anderson, Yoga Teacher, Healer & Studio Owner What first showed you that yoga was becoming more than a practice and was actually the work you were meant to do? When I opened a studio with my sister in 2011, I was 30, had a business law degree, and was working in pharmaceutical sales. I was also pretty brash and rough around the edges, dealing with people was not my specialty. On paper, I was successful. I made great money, but internally I was deeply unhappy and living in ways that weren't aligned with who I was. At the same time, I was teaching yoga at 5:30 in the morning, working all day, and coming back to teach at night. Becoming a mother really clarified things for me. I began realizing that the place I felt most connected and purposeful was teaching. Ironically, the woman who thought she preferred animals to people discovered that connecting deeply with people was one of her greatest strengths. Yoga became my dharma. My willingness to be raw, transparent, and imperfect became part of my teaching. When we give ourselves permission to be authentic, we give others permission to do the same. How do you help students move from simply learning yoga to actually embodying its teachings? I teach a very physically challenging practice, but I'm actually not that interested in the physical practice of yoga. Many students initially come because they want the workout, and that's okay. The physical practice can be the doorway. My job is to show them what exists beyond it. While we're moving, I'm teaching about the koshas, the yamas and niyamas, the eight limbs, and, most importantly, the simple practice of quieting the mind. I try to take teachings that can seem ancient or complicated and make them applicable to ordinary life. What happens when you're angry with your partner? When you're judging your body? When you're parenting from frustration? When fear takes over? Can you pause long enough to recognize what's happening before reacting? Eventually, yoga becomes less about what happens in a pose and more about how you move through your life. That's embodiment to me. The posture gives us an opportunity to practice awareness, but what we do with that awareness once we leave the mat is where the real yoga begins. What does it mean to you for a student to eventually become their own teacher? I believe every student already is their own teacher. Their life is teaching them through their relationships, challenges, mistakes, triggers, losses, and experiences. We're often just moving too quickly or carrying too much noise in our minds to hear the lesson. That's why I continually come back to quieting the mind. When you slow down and get out of your own way, you can begin asking, "What is this experience showing me? What pattern keeps repeating? What am I supposed to see here?" I'm not big on gurus. I don't want to be worshipped or put on a pedestal. In my teacher trainings, I make it clear that we're equal. I'm learning too. My role isn't to give someone all their answers. It's to give them tools and help them become still enough to hear themselves. Eventually, I want a student to realize that the wisdom they keep searching for outside themselves already exists within them. My job is simply to help guide them back to it. Where do you think modern yoga loses its depth when image, performance, and social media become the focus? I think social media, magazines, and the performance of yoga have created a huge misunderstanding of what the practice actually is. People see yoga portrayed a certain way and think, I don't have that body. I'm not flexible enough. I'm too old. I can't do that. But yoga meets you exactly where you are. Yoga isn't asking you to look like somebody else's version of a yogi. It's asking you to recognize the unconscious patterns that create pain and suffering, move toward your highest self, and realize you are perfect in your imperfections. One of our strongest addictions is where we allow our minds to dwell. Judgment, comparison, fear, anger, and resentment can become automatic. Yoga teaches us to notice those patterns and interrupt them. When I catch myself judging my body, can I pause and acknowledge something I love about myself instead? That's practice. That’s discipline. There's nothing wrong with a beautiful pose or sharing yoga online. But when the image becomes more important than the inner work, we've missed something essential. The goal isn't to look like yoga. It's to live it. What should yoga teacher training develop beyond the ability to sequence and lead a class? My teacher training is far more than learning poses, sequencing, and cueing. That's probably only about 30% of what we do. Much of the training is about looking inward. We explore childhood, relationships, patterns, and experiences that shaped us. Students choose the yoga teachings to actually apply to their lives rather than simply memorize. I also ask trainees to give something up and practice discipline around it. It might be coffee, shopping, social media, or a relationship pattern. The thing itself isn't the point, the awareness is. This is where we begin to see. So much of what we do is unconscious. The moment we become aware of a pattern, the light turns on. Now we have a choice, repeat it or respond differently. This is enlightenment. That's what I want teacher training to develop. It's a journey into the self, removing some of the masks and performances we've accumulated and getting closer to what's underneath. Before you can authentically guide another person inward, you have to be willing to go inward yourself. How can someone begin using yoga philosophy in ordinary moments of stress, uncertainty, or change? Start with two things. Breathe and pay attention. When you're stressed, afraid, or overwhelmed, take a few slower breaths before immediately reacting. Then listen to what your mind is telling you. We are not our emotions. We are not our thoughts. They are what move through us, shift, change, and pass. Yoga teaches us to create enough space to observe them instead of automatically becoming them. Become the seer rather than the main actor. When you're struggling, ask, "What am I feeling? What story am I telling myself? Is an old pattern being activated? What can I actually control right now?" Yoga also teaches us about attachment and change. Our children change. Relationships change. Careers change. Our bodies and identities change. The tighter we grip something that is inevitably changing, the more suffering we can create. Yoga doesn't eliminate uncertainty. It teaches us how to meet it differently, to breathe, return to the present moment, and consciously choose our response instead of allowing an old pattern to choose for us. What helps create the sense of safety and trust you want people to experience in your classes, trainings, and retreats? I share first. I share my story, the good, bad, ugly, and indifferent. I think sharing is a pivotal part of growth because so many of us carry experiences we're ashamed of or afraid to talk about. Somewhere underneath that is often the fear that if people really knew us, they might judge, reject, or abandon us. In my trainings and retreats, I ask deep questions. We journal, we talk, and sometimes we go into uncomfortable places. But I would never ask someone to go somewhere I'm unwilling to go myself. So I share my stories, my trauma, my mistakes, and the things I've struggled with. I'm very raw and transparent. I always say I live in a glass house. When the person leading the room is willing to remove the mask first, other people realize they don't have to perform either. That doesn't mean anyone is required to share. Safety also means honoring boundaries. I simply want people to feel, I can be human here. I don't have to have everything figured out, and I still belong. How has “authenticity, not perfection” shaped the way you teach, lead, and live? It's everything. I genuinely believe the community I've built would be completely different if authenticity weren't at the center of it. I've experienced yoga spaces where spirituality begins to feel like a performance, where teachers separate themselves from students, or where ego creates a sense of superiority. That's never what I've wanted Kula to be. I'm not interested in appearing perfect. I'm interested in being real. My students know they're getting me, my strengths, flaws, mistakes, stories, humor, and intensity. I think that authenticity is a huge part of why I've been able to build this community, lead trainings and retreats, and continue doing this work all these years. Your vibe really does attract your tribe. If I created a culture around perfection, I would attract people seeking perfection. Instead, I want people to know they can be messy and still be growing, make mistakes and still have wisdom, and be deeply spiritual while being completely human. Yoga isn't about perfecting yourself. It's about becoming honest enough to truly see yourself. What do you hope people carry into their everyday lives after practicing with you? I want them to know they're enough. I want them to recognize that they're beautiful in their imperfections and they're doing the best they can with the awareness and tools they have right now, while also knowing they have the ability to grow. I hope they learn to trust the process and, more importantly, trust themselves. I want them to honor themselves with love, respect, and boundaries. Sometimes yoga means breathing and staying present. Sometimes it means saying no. Sometimes it means finally walking away from a relationship, job, or pattern that continually asks you to abandon yourself. I want people to understand that beginning again is always available. We can heal. We can change patterns. We can reset. We can make a different choice today than we made yesterday. Ultimately, I don't want anyone to believe their power comes from me. I'm here to guide, teach, and remind them. Their worth was already there. Their power was already there. Hopefully, the practice simply helps them remember it. Follow me on Facebook, Instagram, and visit my website for more info! Read more from Jackie Anderson

Written by Ruth Rivera, Broker Associate, Coach, Author & Speaker Ruth Rivera is your Fearless Real Estate Coach™, a broker associate, an author, and a speaker with thirty years of production experience who coaches real estate agents and realtors in English and Spanish across the United States, Puerto Rico, and Latin America. Thirty years in production taught me that collecting names is not the same as building a business. This is the story of the habit that quietly kills more real estate careers than any market ever could. Pull up your phone right now. Scroll through your contacts. How many of those names have not heard from you in over a year? Now be honest with yourself. How many of them still think of you as their agent? If that question made you uncomfortable, you are not lazy, and you are not a bad agent. You are something I see in almost every professional before we start working together. You are a Name Junkie™. A Name Junkie™ is someone who mistakes collecting a name for actually working it. Every new contact feels like progress. A business card at an open house, a lead from a sign call, a friend of a friend at a birthday party, all of it goes into the phone or the customer relationship management (CRM) system, and something in your brain checks a box marked success. But a name sitting untouched is not a lead. It is a headstone. The graveyard of names Walk through most real estate databases, and you are not looking at a pipeline. You are walking through a graveyard of names, thousands of them, each one with a date attached to the last time anyone actually spoke to that person. Some of those dates go back years. The names are not gone. They are just buried, and every single one of them was once someone who wanted to buy, sell, invest, or refer you to somebody who did. A packed database and an empty pipeline are not two different problems. They are the same problem wearing different names. I built my entire coaching practice around this exact moment, the moment an agent realizes their business isn't actually short on leads. It is short on follow-up. Most of what it takes to reach a record-breaking production year is not sitting on some lead generation website. It is already sitting in your phone, waiting to be dug back up. The cost nobody names Being a Name Junkie™ does not just cost you production. It costs you something quieter and more painful, the slow erosion of your own confidence. Every month that passes without following up on an old contact adds one more reason it feels awkward to reach out at all. What starts as a busy week becomes a guilty year, and the guilt itself becomes the reason the name never gets called. I have coached agents who could not bring themselves to reopen a conversation with someone they had gone silent on for two, three, even five years, not because the opportunity was gone, but because the silence had grown a wall around it. That wall is not permanent. It is just untouched. The fastest way to tear it down isn't motivation. It is a system that tells you exactly what to say and exactly when to say it, so reaching back out stops being a leap and starts being a next step. Buckets, not burials The reason names end up buried instead of worked is simple. Nobody ever gave you a system for what to do with them. A name comes in, and then what? You call once, hear no, and move to the next name because at least that feels like activity. This is exactly the gap I built the 8 Bucket System to close, long before customer relationship management (CRM) systems even existed, using nothing more than index cards and a legal pad. Every contact gets sorted into one of eight buckets, based on where they actually are, not where you hope they are. Red Hot & Ready. Warm & Exploring. Engaged but Hesitant. Life Change Triggered. Objection-Heavy. Clients for Life. Long-Term Nurture. Re-engagement Needed. A name does not go into a database and disappear. It goes into a bucket, and every bucket has a next step attached. In coaching, this becomes what I call Bucket Driven Questions, or BDQ, a handful of questions that instantly tell you which bucket a contact belongs in, followed by Bucket Driven Content, or BDC, the exact kind of follow-up that moves that specific person forward. A Name Junkie™ treats every contact the same way. A coached agent treats every contact according to exactly where they stand, and that difference alone is usually what separates a stalled career from a growing one. Waking the graveyard up None of this means anything as theory. It only means something when you watch it happen in a real business, so let me give you two examples. One agent came to me with well over three thousand contacts in his phone and almost no active business. He was proud of that number. It felt like proof he was doing something right. When we actually looked at those contacts together, fewer than sixty of them had heard from him in the last six months. By his own admission, once we talked it through, he was a textbook Name Junkie™. We ran every single name through the Bucket System, sorted them honestly instead of hopefully, and started working the buckets that were actually alive. It was not glamorous work. It was calls, texts, and plenty of names that did not answer the first time. Within a few months, contacts he had written off years earlier started closing deals again, deals that had been sitting in his own phone the entire time. The other example is an entire office where every agent was quietly living out the same pattern without realizing it. Leads came in constantly. Almost none turned into appointments because everyone treated a brand-new name the same way they treated an old one, one call and no plan. We rebuilt the office around the buckets instead of the leads. Every contact got a bucket, every bucket got a next action, and agents stopped chasing new names and started reviving the ones already sitting in their own systems. Production did not jump overnight. It climbed steadily, the way it always does once a graveyard finally gets some traffic again. Accountability breaks the pattern Knowing you should call your old database and actually doing it are two very different things, and the gap between them is where coaching earns its place. On my own, I could always find a reason the graveyard could wait one more week. With someone checking in on exactly which buckets I worked and which I avoided, I had nowhere left to hide behind my own excuses. That is the real function of coaching inside this system. It is not just showing you what a bucket is. It is standing next to you while you actually open the ones you have been avoiding and refusing to let you call it later one more time. What Clients for Life say "Working with Ruth has been one of the best decisions I've made in my business. Her Bucket System gave me clarity, structure, and a simple process that I can actually stick to every day. Ruth genuinely cares about your success and has a way of making you believe in yourself while holding you accountable. I'm grateful for her guidance and highly recommend her to anyone looking to grow their real estate business." – Efrain Reyes, Realtor®️, Orlando, Florida "I've known Ruth Rivera for over a decade, and I've witnessed her exceptional coaching skills and unwavering passion for real estate. As the broker-owner of a real estate franchise, I've consistently utilized Ruth's expertise at various events and meetings. Her ability to keep our agents informed about market trends and inspire them with innovative strategies for attracting buyers and sellers has been invaluable. Ruth's motivational approach fosters engagement and competitiveness among our agents. Whether you're a seasoned agent or a newcomer, partnering with Coach Ruth will undoubtedly elevate your real estate career." – Jacqueline Garcia, Broker-Owner, Miami, Florida Written from the coaching room Everything I write comes out of moments exactly like these. The Real Estate Bucket Playbook, built around this same system, is already in agents’ hands in English and Spanish. Built by Design: 52 Weeks of Fearless Real Estate Execution, Stop Preparing. Start Producing, and Licensed & Lost: What Nobody Tells New Real Estate Professionals are all on their way, built on the same foundation. A name is not a number. It is a bucket, and every bucket deserves a next step. Not by chance, by design If you have ever bragged about the size of your database while your pipeline stayed empty, this article was written for you. Not to shame you. To hand you a way out. Nothing in that database is too old, too cold, or too far gone to be worked back into an active bucket if you are finally willing to stop collecting and start following up. I built Your Fearless Real Estate Coach™, so no agent has to figure this out alone or keep mistaking a full phone for a full pipeline. I have dug through my own graveyard of names more than once. I know exactly what it takes to bring it back to life, one bucket at a time. If your database has quietly turned into a graveyard, do not let it sit there for another quarter. Visit here to learn more about coaching, or reach out directly to start the conversation. For the story of how the 8 Bucket System was born, read The Year I Almost Quit Real Estate. Follow me on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn for more info! Read more from Ruth Rivera Ruth Rivera, Broker Associate, Coach, Author & Speaker Ruth Rivera is Your Fearless Real Estate Coach™, a broker associate, coach, author, and speaker with thirty years of productive experience. She built her 8 Bucket System after going ten months without a single closing, then used it to produce a record-breaking year, and has since coached hundreds of real estate agents and realtors through the same turnaround. She sits on the Florida Realtors Board of Directors for District 12, is a National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals (NAHREP) 10 Certified Trainer, and a past president of NAHREP North Orlando. Ruth coaches in both English and Spanish across the United States, Puerto Rico, and Latin America, and is the author of The Real Estate Bucket Playbook, now available in both languages.

Written by Courtney Lochner, Holistic Health Coach & Psychedelic Practitioner Courtney Lochner is a leading expert in psychedelic medicine for treatment-resistant anxiety, depression, and trauma. An Eric Hoffer Award-winning author and founder of the Intuition Rehab Lab (IRL), she teaches her signature holistic healing method to students, healers, and retreat participants around the world. Everyone wants the vision. The colors. The cosmic download. The moment the universe finally explains itself. Few people talk about what comes with it. Ayahuasca is not a vacation. It is not a shortcut. It is a brew of the Banisteriopsis caapi vine and Psychotria viridis leaf, a pairing that lets N, N-dimethyltryptamine (DMT) reach your brain long enough to take you apart. Indigenous healers in the Amazon have worked with it for generations, and now the Western world wants a piece. And yes, what science is finding lines up with what the medicine has been saying all along. The healing is real. So is the emotional cost. I have sat with her many times. Here are five truths I wish someone had told me before the first cup. None of them are comfortable. All of them are necessary. 1. The medicine will meet you where you are She does not meet you where you want to be. She meets you exactly where you are. If you are in denial, you will deny the medicine (your ego will actually block you from even receiving a vision). If you are in pain, she will show you pain. If you are avoiding something, get ready to eat it. I learned this the hard way. I once went into ceremony with a sweet, simple intention. I asked to learn how to sit in stillness. What I got was the opposite of stillness. My body filled with a sensation so uncomfortable I wanted to crawl out of my own skin. Every cell screamed at me to get up. To leave. To run. I came up with every plausible reason to leave the maloca as some desperate measure to escape the sensation. And then I understood. This was the lesson. Not a peaceful meditation handed to me on a silver plate, but rather a test. Can you sit through this? There is a reason this happens. Brain imaging from Brazil's Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte found that ayahuasca quiets the default mode network, the brain system tied to self-referential thinking and the stories we tell about who we are.[3] When that narrator goes quiet, the usual defenses go with it. What is actually there rises to the surface. So, the intention you bring is not a request. It is an invitation. And she will answer it in the language you most need to hear, not the one you prefer. She is the tool. You are the medicine. 2. What you think you resolved is still there You did the therapy. You read the books. You forgave your father, mother, ex. You told yourself it was handled. She will decide. The problems you promised yourself you cleared have a way of showing up in ceremony like old friends who never really left. Childhood wounds. A betrayal you swore you were over. The small denial you told yourself last Tuesday. Nothing is too old. Nothing is too small. Researchers have a clue why. In functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies, closed-eye visions under ayahuasca activated the primary visual cortex at levels comparable to seeing real images, alongside regions tied to memory and emotion.[2] The memories do not feel like memories. They feel like they are happening now. After all, time is an amoeboid, not an arrow. That is why a wound you filed away in your head can still live in your body. Understanding something is not the same as releasing it. She knows the difference. Soon, you will too. 3. You may not come home the same person People expect to leave ceremony transformed. They picture a lighter, brighter version of themselves. They do not picture six months of silence. After one particularly strong session, I came home and could not be around people. The medicine had made me hypersensitive to technology. I could barely stand to watch someone scroll on their phone. Using my own laptop felt like an assault. I stopped hosting dinner parties. I stopped answering texts. I pulled away from nearly everyone. I was not broken. I was being asked a question. Life is in nature. You are nature. "Can you stay true to yourself?" Technology is not going anywhere. That was the part I had to accept. No one was going to protect my peace but me. The boundary was mine to set. I am not alone in this. The Global Ayahuasca Survey, which gathered data from 10,836 people across more than 50 countries, found that 55.9% reported challenging mental health effects in the weeks or months after ceremony. Feeling disconnected or alone was among the most common. Yet about 88% of them saw those effects as part of a positive process of growth or integration.[1] Hard is not the same as harmful. But hard is still hard. That question she asked me has not gone away. It is still painful. Every day is a remembering. A return to my core self, over and over again. 4. You cannot outrun yourself There is no stop button. Read that again, because in the middle of a hard journey, you will look for one. You will bargain. You will beg. You will promise anything if it would just end. It will not end on your schedule. The brew combines N, N-dimethyltryptamine (DMT) with harmala alkaloids from the vine that block the enzyme your body uses to break DMT down. That pairing is what makes the experience last for hours instead of minutes. Once it begins, it runs its course. No shaman can walk the path for you. They can hold space. They can sing. They can keep you safe. But the journey she gives you belongs to you alone. And here is the part nobody wants to hear. The truth is inside the difficulty, not on the other side of it. The moment you stop fighting is often the moment it turns. The only way out is through. 5. The medicine is a mirror, and the lessons are yours to use It is the deepest mirror you will ever look into. And what you see there comes with a responsibility. What she gifts you in ceremony is the key to your liberation. But a key does nothing sitting in your pocket. If you come home and do not integrate the lesson, expect it to come back louder. A whisper becomes a scream. A stomachache becomes a violent flu. Ignore the lesson, and you find yourself back at square one, facing the same wall with fewer excuses. The science points in the same direction. After a single dose, a randomized, placebo-controlled trial found rapid antidepressant effects in people with treatment-resistant depression.[4] Follow-up imaging showed shifts in the brain's salience and default mode networks a day later.[5] The ceremony opens a window. What you build in that window is up to you. This is not a race. Time is of no essence here. No one is grading how fast you apply what you learned. The only question is whether you do. If you're willing These truths are uncomfortable because they are true. And that is exactly where the hope lives. Ayahuasca does not heal you by making the pain disappear. She heals you by showing you that you were strong enough to face it all along. The denial, the old wounds, the parts of yourself you ran from. You meet them. You sit with them. You walk through them. And on the other side is a version of you that no longer needs to run. That is the real gift. Not an escape from yourself, but a return to yourself. The medicine is ready. The only question is whether you are. Follow me on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and visit my website for more info! Read more from Courtney Lochner Courtney Lochner, Holistic Health Coach & Psychedelic Practitioner Courtney Lochner is one of the foremost voices in psychedelic medicine for treatment-resistant anxiety, depression, and trauma. An Eric-Hoffer Award-winning author, board-certified health coach, and founder of the Intuition Rehab Lab (IRL), she has built a global reputation for turning the most complex healing modalities into accessible, life-changing practice. Certified in nutrition design from Harvard Medical School and medicinal plants from Cornell, and shaped by a career that has taken her across continents as a professional dancer and healer studying under various tribes in the Amazon, Lochner teaches her method to students and retreat participants around the world. References: [1] Bouso JC et al. (2022). Adverse effects of ayahuasca: Results from the Global Ayahuasca Survey. PLOS Global Public Health. [2] de Araujo DB et al. (2012). Seeing with the eyes shut: Neural basis of enhanced imagery following ayahuasca ingestion. Human Brain Mapping. [3] Palhano-Fontes F et al. (2015). The psychedelic state induced by ayahuasca modulates the activity and connectivity of the default mode network. PLOS ONE. [4] Palhano-Fontes F et al. (2019). Rapid antidepressant effects of the psychedelic ayahuasca in treatment-resistant depression: a randomized placebo-controlled trial. Psychological Medicine. [5] Pasquini L, Palhano-Fontes F, Araujo DB (2020). Subacute effects of the psychedelic ayahuasca on the salience and default mode networks. Journal of Psychopharmacology.

Written by Nathaniel McAllister, Founder of Hurdle Community Nathaniel is the founder of Hurdle Community, a platform empowering graduates and young professionals to find clarity, confidence, and opportunity. He is now building a platform and ecosystem that redefines how people grow and progress in a rapidly changing world of work. The job market in 2026 is harder to navigate than at any point in recent memory. Application volumes are up, response rates are down, and the process from first application to final offer is longer than most people are prepared for. What nobody tells you before you are already in the middle of it is how isolating the whole experience can be. If you are feeling it, you are not struggling because something is wrong with you. You are struggling because the job search, by design, is almost entirely a solo experience. It should not be. Why does the job search feel so isolating? The job search feels isolating because it combines three things that are individually difficult to navigate, uncertainty, rejection, and invisibility, into a single, sustained experience with no fixed endpoint. Unlike most challenges that come with a clear timeline or external structure, the job search can last weeks or months, and in some cases years, with very little external feedback and no one around you who fully understands what each day actually feels like. The structure of the modern job market makes this worse: Most of it happens in private. Applications go in, and then silence. There is no shared space where this is acknowledged as the normal experience it is. Social media creates a false picture. LinkedIn shows announcements, new roles, and professional wins. It does not show the forty applications sent before that or the three final-stage interviews that did not convert. The timeline is unpredictable. Not knowing how long the search will take makes it genuinely difficult to maintain momentum, confidence, or perspective. The people around you often do not get it. Friends, family, and former colleagues want to help but frequently do not understand what the current market actually looks like, making their advice well-intentioned but often unhelpful. Is job search isolation normal? Yes. Job search isolation is extremely common and is a well-documented psychological response to prolonged uncertainty and repeated rejection. A significant proportion of job seekers from the Hurdle Community report that the emotional difficulties of the job search, including loneliness, the knock to their confidence, and social withdrawal, are harder to manage than the practical elements of applications and interviews. What makes it particularly difficult is that there is no recognised language for it. People talk openly about stress at work. They rarely talk openly about the specific exhaustion of being between jobs and maintaining a professional front online while feeling depleted in private. What makes job search isolation worse? Several factors compound job search isolation significantly. Understanding them is the first step toward addressing them. The comparison trap. The job market is not experienced collectively. It is experienced individually against a backdrop of other people's highlights. Seeing peers announce new roles while your own search is stalling creates a distorted picture that is difficult not to internalise. The advice gap. The people closest to you are rarely in the job market at the same time as you. Their frame of reference, including how long things take, what employers are looking for, and how the process works now, is often years out of date. This means the people most willing to help are frequently the least equipped to do so usefully. Declining response rates. According to research from Greenhouse, average application-to-interview rates have fallen significantly in recent years, with some candidates sending over 100 applications before landing a first-stage interview. Sustained rejection with no feedback is one of the most demoralising experiences a job seeker can face. Financial pressure. When money is tight, the natural ways people break isolation, such as socialising, travelling, and pursuing hobbies, become harder to access. The financial consequence of a prolonged job search accelerates the social consequence. The identity shift. For many people, especially those who have been in a role for several years, their professional identity is closely tied to their sense of self. Being between jobs can feel, in a very real way, like being between versions of yourself. How do you deal with job search isolation? Ten things that actually help Job search isolation is best addressed through a combination of structure, honest community, and deliberate self-management. The following are evidence-informed approaches, not generic motivational advice, but specific, practical interventions that can make a measurable difference. 1. Name it The instinct when struggling with a job search is to minimise it, "I'm fine, just taking my time." Acknowledging the isolation, at least to yourself and to people you trust, reduces its psychological hold and opens the door to getting support that actually helps. 2. Build deliberate structure into your days The structure that employment provides, including a reason to get up, a rhythm to the day, and built-in social contact, does not return on its own when you are job searching. Build it deliberately: fixed hours for applications, defined breaks, and at least one reason to leave the house each day. The research on routine and mental health is consistent: structure can reduce anxiety, which is a significant driver of job search paralysis. 3. Set a daily application limit and stick to it More applications do not always mean more progress. A targeted approach, with five to ten well-researched, well-tailored applications per day rather than fifty generic ones, is both more effective and more sustainable. It also creates space for the activities that support your wellbeing alongside the search. 4. Find people who are in it right now This is the single most consistently cited factor among people who navigate the job search well. Not people who have been through it and now have the perspective of distance, but people who are in the middle of it right now, who understand the specific experience of a third-stage rejection or the disorientation of updating a CV after several years in one place. Peer community means connecting with people going through the same thing at the same time, like those in the Hurdle Community. 5. Be specific about what kind of support you are looking for "Any advice?" is a question that tends to produce generic answers. "I have a final-stage interview next week, and I'm struggling with how to answer questions about my gap period. Has anyone navigated this?" produces something useful. Being specific about the kind of support you need, whether emotional, practical, or strategic, leads to better conversations and more actionable help. 6. Audit your LinkedIn use LinkedIn is a useful tool. It is also a significant driver of comparison anxiety during a job search. Consider setting specific times for LinkedIn use rather than checking it throughout the day. Engage with content that is genuinely useful to your search rather than scrolling through a feed that is optimised for engagement rather than your wellbeing. 7. Treat rejection as data, not a verdict This is easier to say than to feel, but it is worth practising as a habit of thought. A rejection at the first stage does not mean you are not hireable. It frequently means there was a better technical fit, an internal candidate, or a change in the role's requirements. Requesting feedback where possible and logging rejection patterns turns an emotionally difficult experience into something more actionable. 8. Protect your identity outside the job title Your professional value is not the same as your employment status. Actively engaging with skills, interests, and relationships that exist outside the job search is not a distraction. It is part of what sustains you through it, and it frequently surfaces opportunities that direct applications do not. 9. Be honest with your close network about where you are People cannot support you effectively if they do not know what support looks like. A brief, honest update to close friends or former colleagues, without performing confidence but while being real about where you are, tends to produce more useful help than maintaining a front. 10. Know when to take a deliberate break A sustained, depleted job search is less effective than a focused one. Counterintuitively, taking a defined period away from applications, such as a long weekend or a week, and returning with a fresh approach frequently produces better results than grinding through burnout. If any of the above resonates, you are not behind, you are not failing, and you are not alone in feeling it. The people who navigate the job market best are almost never the ones who go through it in isolation. They are the ones who find the right community at the right time. That is exactly what Hurdle is built for. Follow me on Instagram, LinkedIn, and visit my website for more info! Read more from Nathaniel McAllister Nathaniel McAllister, Founder of Hurdle Community After experiencing redundancy firsthand, Nathaniel recognised how isolating the job search can be and set out to change it. Through Hurdle, he’s building a global platform and community where people can rebuild confidence, find support, and move forward together. His mission is simple, no one should face the job search alone.

Written by Elizabeth Ballin, Professional Certified Coach In this series, Elizabeth Ballin, PCC, offers reflections from her coaching and mindfulness practice on how people discover insight, meaning, and resilience in the changing landscape of modern life. Her perspective is rooted in years of working with people from many cultures and in a driven curiosity that understands human growth as a life in motion. I asked a student this while coaching him through a research paper. Like many students, he had taken key points straight from AI without questioning them. My question stopped him and prompted a realization: in the age of artificial intelligence, the challenge is not simply gathering information, but learning to question it, think for ourselves, and develop our uniquely human capacities. He then did what this article is about, and I'll come back to it. “Do you know if this is true?” We have created machines that process information faster than we can, draw on more knowledge than one person could hold, and give answers in seconds. We should not have to compete with that. As we explore what AI can do, we risk forgetting what we can do instead. So AI is forcing us to confront an interesting question: how can we keep developing the qualities that make us uniquely human? We don't need to be faster machines For a long time, we have associated intelligence with acquiring knowledge, remembering information, and finding answers. In mathematics, quickly recalling formulas and solving equations was often seen as intellectual prowess. Now machines do many of these things better than we do. Our response should not be to become faster versions of the machines we created, but to develop what they cannot replace. Staying one step ahead of AI doesn't mean we need to know more than AI. We can use what it gives us, but we still need to observe, experience, imagine, create, and stay curious. The key is not to become too dependent on it: AI can be a powerful learning tool, but it shouldn't replace our thinking and judgment. Education needs to move in the opposite direction The obvious example is the screen. It's a familiar point, but it matters more now than ever. Because AI is a powerful learning tool, it is tempting to let it fill more of the school day. Schools should do the opposite: protect the physical, creative, and experiential parts of learning. Observation and curiosity develop when children encounter the world themselves, not through a screen. Think about a science experiment where students make predictions and test them. Sometimes things don't happen as expected. One student may notice something the others didn't, while someone else might wonder what would happen if they changed part of the experiment. This is where AI can be useful. Within seconds, students can access an explanation drawing on scientific knowledge. But the answer should not end the lesson; it should give them more to work with. They can ask: Does the explanation account for everything that happened? What does it assume? Could there be another explanation? What if we changed one part of the experiment? Armed with these questions, the students leave the computer and return to the lab to test, investigate, and discover for themselves. AI provides access to knowledge, but their curiosity determines where they go next. The power of the question We often think of intelligence as being able to solve problems and learn new things. But AI is changing the way we think about that. A student who accepts an AI answer may not learn much. The student who questions the answer, notices something others missed, or keeps asking why is still thinking and learning. We should also be careful about telling students to ask only “good” questions. How do we know which questions are worth asking before exploring them? A question that seems trivial to one person may fascinate another, and one that seems to lead nowhere may open a new direction. Students should be free to ask questions without judging whether each is intelligent, useful, or relevant. Most may lead nowhere, but one might. Without the question, the knowledge available through AI remains dormant. The question gives that knowledge direction; another question changes it. Ten students can use the same AI and travel different intellectual paths, because each notices and asks something different. Asking questions requires observation, imagination, curiosity, and confidence: the willingness to pursue something that interests you even when nobody else thinks it's important. Questions come from experience Questions need to come from somewhere. That is why the physical world becomes more important, not less, as AI grows more powerful: it gives us the experiences from which real questions arise. People don't learn just by taking in information. We learn by seeing, hearing, touching, tasting, and smelling. We learn by moving, trying hard, being with other people. We learn when something surprises us, excites us, or lets us down. All of that gets tied to our memories and feelings and changes what each of us notices. A student can ask AI to explain balance, but can it describe what it feels like to stand on a beam and stay upright? Each student will experience it differently. AI can describe and produce sound, but playing music with others means listening, responding, and feeling sound through the body. A unique, in-time communication happens. AI can explain acidity in detail, but it cannot give a child the experience of tasting a lemon for the first time. These experiences are part of what it means to be human. Schools need laboratories, workshops, playing fields, art studios, kitchens, music rooms, gardens and theatres. Children need to make things, move their bodies, experiment, perform and interact with others. This is the raw material for their observations, questions, and growth. An example is sports. Students can use AI to understand biomechanics and physiology. But they can run, jump, measure their heart rate, modify their technique, and observe their bodies in action. I once had two students who followed the same exercise but experienced it differently. They were curious, so they asked each other how it felt. Their answers were uniquely their own. AI could never have come up with those answers. Our emotions are important. Curiosity is emotionally driven. We go for things because they fascinate us, confuse us, delight us, disturb us, or refuse to leave our minds. A student may become interested in something a teacher, curriculum, or AI considers unimportant, yet that emotional connection keeps them investigating. Creativity grows from the same sources: unusual connections between experiences, memories, and ideas. It requires the freedom to imagine something that does not yet exist and to develop it without knowing whether it will succeed. This freedom may become one of the most important parts of education in the AI age. A science experiment may lead to design, music to mathematics, sport to physiology or psychology, and a walk outdoors to questions about biology, climate, or human behavior. These departures are not distractions from learning; they are learning. When answers come too easily Another relationship with AI exists, however. A student encounters a question, asks AI, receives an answer, and moves on. Then comes another question, another answer. It is efficient, but efficiency is not the same as learning or growth. Much of our development happens when we struggle with a problem, develop an idea, discover we are wrong, or argue with someone who sees things differently, leading us to realize our understanding was incomplete and ask more questions. If AI resolves every moment of uncertainty immediately, we risk losing the experiences that build our intelligence, judgment, persistence, independence, and connections. This is why AI literacy must mean more than writing good prompts. Young people need to know how to use AI well and when not to use it. They need to be comfortable putting it aside, thinking for themselves, and challenging what it tells them. The purpose is not to teach children that AI is wrong. Increasingly, AI is right, and that is precisely why the question is whether we can think critically alongside it. Remember the student I mentioned at the start? When I help students write a thesis or research paper, I see how often they accept AI-driven information unquestioningly. So I asked, “What other perspective could you take on this that differs from AI?” He took time to think outside the AI box. He played with the idea that the information was false, coming up with scenarios that would prove it. It took time, and he learned about questioning facts. In the end, AI was mostly right, but it left out what he wanted to discover and communicate. His observations went deeper, and he created something genuinely his own, far more interesting to read. Most of all, he walked away feeling empowered. He took the reins and decided for himself what he wanted. A correct answer does not mean there are no more questions. The greatest protection against dependence on AI is curiosity. A curious person does not stop simply because an answer has been provided. The student must remain the traveler We can each encounter the same situation and notice different things because we bring different senses, memories, emotions, and experiences to it. One person hears a sound everyone else ignores, like distant birds; another recognizes a pattern in a difficult conversation; someone else becomes fascinated by what the group considers irrelevant. That is what makes us unique, and we need to develop our individuality. As AI becomes more powerful, education needs to develop the “whole human being”: through our five senses, emotions, creativity, physical awareness, imagination, judgment, and curiosity. We should not narrow this human experience as machines become more capable. Not every question needs to be useful, and not every journey needs to be efficient. The real aim is to keep the student thinking, noticing, and asking: I noticed something, and I want to know more. AI can become an extraordinary companion on that journey, opening a vast landscape of knowledge at a speed previous generations could scarcely have imagined. But the student must remain the traveler, because the journey is still theirs to make, question, and shape. There is something worth remembering. AI learns from what human curiosity has already discovered. Without people noticing, questioning, and exploring, it would have far less that is new to learn from. Our curiosity doesn't just keep us one step ahead of AI. It also helps AI grow. We don't need to surpass AI's speed or capabilities to stay one step ahead of it. We need to use its power to facilitate the discovery and development of our uniquely human potential. As AI continues to develop its capacities, it is up to us to continue growing as human beings. Follow me on LinkedIn and visit my website for more info! Read more from Elizabeth Ballin Elizabeth Ballin, Professional Certified Coach Elizabeth Ballin, PCC, is an International Coaching Federation (ICF)-accredited professional coach and mindfulness practitioner working globally with people and professionals from many backgrounds. She combines emotional insight, cultural intelligence, and practical structure to support meaningful growth. She brings a lifelong multicultural awareness, deepened by twelve years of coaching across more than twenty cultures, which helps her attune to the emotional and practical realities her clients face. Her writing spans themes such as curiosity, creativity, well-being, communication, judgment, and the inner shifts that support meaningful growth in the complexity of modern life.

Written by April Michelle Ratchford, Occupational Therapist & Podcast Host April Ratchford, Occupational Therapist, Registered/Licensed, is an autistic occupational therapist and the voice behind Adulting with Autism. She supports neurodivergent adults across the world with relatable storytelling, lived wisdom, and empowering strategies for real-life challenges. Have you ever learned the rhythm of a relationship so well that the smallest change makes your brain scream, "What the fuck just happened?" For autistic people, noticing patterns can make a shift in communication feel much bigger than it looks from the outside. Add attachment, past dating experiences, cultural differences, and the normal loss of novelty in a relationship, and suddenly one late good-morning text can feel like a full investigation. Autistic brains love a pattern I can only speak from my own experience because I am autistic. Maybe one day somebody will add ADHD to the alphabet soup. Who knows? But autism is what I know. When I get into a relationship, I notice patterns. Maybe this person texts every morning. Maybe they send voice notes throughout the day. Maybe they call at night. They use a particular pet name. They send pictures. They tell you what they are doing. Day after day, a rhythm develops. Eventually my autistic brain says, "Okay. I understand this. This is how we communicate. This is our pattern." Then one day something changes. The good-morning message comes later, or does not come at all. There are not as many voice notes. The selfies disappear for a while. Replies take longer. Maybe they do not call you "babe" three times a day anymore. Nobody has told you that the relationship changed. But the pattern changed. Sometimes that is all an autistic brain needs to start an entire internal investigation. Now add attachment to the mix Autism is not the only thing coming into your relationships with you. Every relationship you have ever experienced comes along for the ride, too. This is where attachment enters the conversation. I am not a psychiatrist or psychologist. I do not have those letters behind my name, and frankly, I do not have the heart to go get any more damn letters. So we are keeping this simple. Attachment theory describes patterns in how we experience closeness, trust, security, and separation in relationships. You will commonly hear about secure, anxious, avoidant, and fearful-avoidant attachment patterns. These patterns can be influenced by our early relationships and can also be shaped by experiences later in life. They are not necessarily permanent labels stamped onto our foreheads. A securely attached person may notice a communication change and think, "They are probably busy. We will talk later." An anxiously attached person may think, "Are we okay? Did I do something? Why have they not answered?" An avoidant response might be, "Fine. If you do not need me, I do not need you either." A fearful-avoidant pattern can create the confusing combination of wanting reassurance while simultaneously wanting to run before somebody gets the opportunity to hurt you. Personally, my anxious side can come out when I become genuinely attached to somebody and a familiar pattern suddenly changes. My brain wants to know why. Younger me was passive-aggressive as hell When I was younger, teenage years, twenties, and if we are being truthful, probably further into adulthood than I would like to admit, I could be passive-aggressive as hell. I might have said, "I see you are really busy, so do not worry about texting me." That sounds considerate, does it not? It was not. What I actually meant was, "I have noticed you are not communicating with me like you used to. It hurt my feelings. Please notice that I am hurt and reassure me without making me admit that I need reassurance." Meanwhile, the other person may be sitting there thinking, "Okay. She told me not to text her because I am busy." Congratulations. You have now started an argument with somebody who does not even know the two of you are arguing. A changed pattern is data, not an explanation This is something I have had to learn. Autistic pattern recognition can be incredibly useful. If something changes, I may genuinely notice it before somebody else would. The mistake is assuming that because I correctly detected the change, I also automatically know why it changed. Those are not the same thing. "They are texting less often" is an observation. "They are losing interest in me" is an interpretation. Maybe they are losing interest. Let us not pretend that never happens. But maybe they are stressed about work. Maybe somebody in their family needs them. Maybe they are exhausted. Maybe their mental health is not great. Maybe the relationship has simply become more comfortable and they do not feel the need to maintain the intensity of the first few weeks. Maybe you have gotten busier and have not noticed that your own communication has changed, too. Before you turn one missing pet name into a federal investigation, ask yourself: What actually changed? And just as importantly: What has not changed? Are they still initiating conversations? Are they still affectionate? Are they still interested in your life? Are they still following through? Have they told you about something stressful happening in their world? Look at the entire relationship, not one data point. Novelty changes, too We also need to talk about the beginning of relationships. When you are first getting to know somebody, everything is new. What music do you like? What do you eat? Where did you grow up? What are your weird habits? What makes you laugh? What are you doing today? Send me a picture. Call me when you get home. There is an enormous amount of information to exchange because you are essentially learning another human being from scratch. Eventually, you know some of that shit. The relationship develops a rhythm. You do not necessarily need constant updates because the other person is not a fascinating stranger anymore. They are becoming familiar. That can feel wonderful. For a brain that relies heavily on patterns, however, it can also feel terrifying when familiarity changes the pattern that originally made the relationship feel safe. Less novelty does not automatically mean less intimacy. Then add culture Relationships are complicated enough when two people grew up with similar expectations. Now date somebody from another culture. Good luck. We all learn relationship scripts without realizing we are learning them. Family, culture, age, language, previous partners, personality, and neurotype all influence what we think affection, commitment, and communication are supposed to look like. You may interpret a behavior according to the relationship rules you have learned your entire life while the other person is operating from an entirely different set of assumptions. Neither person necessarily has bad intentions. You may simply be translating their behavior using the wrong dictionary. For an autistic person who is already watching patterns closely, that ambiguity can be maddening. Do not make somebody take a test they do not know exists This may be one of the biggest things I have learned: Do not punish somebody for failing a test they did not know they were taking. If you miss hearing someone's voice, do not sit around becoming increasingly angry because they did not magically know you wanted a voice message. Tell them. "I miss hearing your voice. Send me a voice note when you get a chance." If you want to spend time together, ask. If something has genuinely been bothering you for a while, communicate directly. Do not say, "You are obviously busy, so do not bother texting me," when what you actually mean is, "I miss you and I would like more connection with you." Those are two completely different messages. Please do not deliberately disappear just to see whether somebody comes looking for you. That is not information. That is an experiment the other person never agreed to participate in. You still have to live your own life This may be the hardest part. You cannot control another person's behavior. You cannot make someone text you. You cannot make someone stay. You cannot obtain enough reassurance to guarantee that nobody will ever hurt you. That is the risk of relationships. You can communicate what you need. You can observe whether someone's actions consistently match their words. You can establish boundaries. You can decide whether a relationship works for you. But while you are figuring all of that out, you still have to live your life. Sometimes they are going to be busy while you are not. Sometimes you are going to be the busy one. Sometimes both of you are going to get slammed by life at exactly the same time. A healthy relationship should contain two whole people, not two people sitting beside their phones documenting each other's response times. Before you spiral So the next time the pattern changes and your brain immediately screams, "What the fuck just happened?" give yourself a minute. Notice the change. Do not dismiss it. But do not immediately assign meaning to it either. Ask yourself what you actually know versus what you are assuming. Look at the entire pattern, not one message. Consider what is happening in both of your lives. If you genuinely need information from the other person, ask them directly instead of sending a passive-aggressive message and hoping they decode it correctly. Because sometimes a change in communication really does tell you something important about a relationship. Sometimes? People are just fucking busy. Learning the difference takes time, communication, and a willingness to tolerate a little uncertainty without losing your entire damn mind. I am still learning. If you are autistic and staring at your phone wondering why somebody did not call you "babe" today when they called you "babe" yesterday? Trust me. I get it. Keep the conversation going If this sounds familiar, take a look at the patterns you notice in your own relationships and ask yourself whether you are responding to what you know or to what you fear. For more conversations about autistic adulthood, relationships, executive functioning, and everything nobody prepared us for, follow Adulting with Autism and join me on Instagram. Follow me on Facebook, LinkedIn, and visit my website for more info! Read more from April Michelle Ratchford April Michelle Ratchford, Occupational Therapist & Podcast Host April Ratchford, Occupational Therapist, Registered/Licensed, is an autistic occupational therapist, writer, and global advocate for neurodivergent adults. As the creator and host of Adulting with Autism, an internationally ranked podcast with over two million downloads, she blends clinical expertise with real-life lived experience. April specializes in supporting autistic young adults as they transition into independence, higher education, and adult identity. She is known for her clear, empowering approach that makes complex neurodivergent challenges accessible and manageable. April is currently advancing her studies in neuroscience through King’s College London to further elevate her work in autistic well-being and adult development.

Jacksonville, Florida – The Healers University will host two virtual gatherings in October 2026: Pearls & Pumpkins on October 9 and Big Love Day on October 11. The events will bring community members together for seasonal celebration, gratitude, healing, family, and connection. They will also highlight the continued development of initiatives supporting children and families through Divinity's Cove and Divinity's Children's Cove. Rooted in tradition, family, and holistic healing, The Healers University creates gatherings and community initiatives that provide opportunities for connection, reflection, education, and community support. Pearls & Pumpkins – October 9 Pearls & Pumpkins is The Healers University's annual Fall Gala, centered on harvest, family, celebration, and community. The virtual gathering will give participants a chance to connect and celebrate the season while learning more about The Healers University's work and initiatives. Event details Date: October 9, 2026 Format: Virtual Cocktail hour: 6:00 PM Dinner & program: 7:30 PM Dress: Formal attire; pearls encouraged Participation in Pearls & Pumpkins is by donation. The donation serves as the attendee's ticket and provides access to the dinner and event experience. View Pearls & Pumpkins Event Details & Access. Big Love Day – October 11 Big Love Day, The Healers University's Day of Gratitude, will bring community members together virtually to recognize family, healing, service, and the relationships that contribute to community life. “Every day is filled with love. On Big Love Day, we root ourselves in it and gather the momentum we need for the season and the year ahead.” – Kheru DeFontes Hargrove El The gathering will give participants an opportunity to connect, reflect, and celebrate the people, experiences, and community connections that help shape the season ahead. Event details Date: October 11, 2026 Format: Virtual Time: Noon View Big Love Day Event Details. Supporting the continued development of Divinity's Cove The October gatherings will also highlight the continued development of Divinity's Cove and Divinity's Children's Cove, initiatives focused on creating supportive spaces and services for children and families. Divinity's Children's Cove is being developed as an environment where children and families can learn, heal, and grow through holistic care, education, wellness, and community support. Planned offerings include holistic homeschool and unschooling support, childcare, daycare, after-school and aftercare services, overnight care, counseling and care, spiritual guidance, wellness services, education, and personalized support. Community members can learn more about the initiatives and explore ways to support their continued development. Learn More About Divinity's Cove & Children's Cove. How to participate Community members interested in attending or learning more about the October gatherings can access event information and participation details through The Healers University. About The Healers University The Healers University is a community rooted in tradition, family, and holistic healing. It hosts ceremonies, gatherings, educational experiences, and community initiatives centered on healing, connection, personal development, and support for families. Media contact Kheru DeFontes Hargrove El Holistic Therapist, Healing Ambassador & Transformational Guide The Healers University Email Website

Written by Wai CS Wong, Legal English Consultant & Textbook Writer Steven Wong is a Legal English Consultant and Textbook Writer with 15 published books. He is currently working on his novel about HK post-1997. Steven Wong retired from full-time teaching after a 30-year career across Asia and Europe. For Hong Kong lawyers, the language of law has never been simply a matter of vocabulary. It has reflected Hong Kong’s unusual position: Chinese in culture and daily life, English in much of its legal and commercial history, and, since 1997, increasingly bilingual in its formal institutions. This linguistic environment has changed considerably. This does not mean that English has become less important; it remains essential to international legal and commercial communication. What has changed is the role English plays within Hong Kong’s legal system and the linguistic background of the people using it. This matters because knowing legal English is not the same as being persuasive in English. From an English legal system to a bilingual one Before the handover in 1997, Hong Kong’s legal system operated predominantly through English, although the overwhelming majority of the population was Chinese-speaking. English was the language of legislation, judgments and much formal legal business. The transition towards bilingualism began before 1997. The Government undertook the enormous task of producing authentic Chinese versions of existing laws. Since the completion of that process, new legislation has been enacted in both Chinese and English, with both versions legally authentic. The Basic Law subsequently gave this arrangement constitutional status. Article 9 provides that, in addition to Chinese, English may be used as an official language by the executive authorities, legislature and judiciary. The change was therefore more than simply allowing lawyers to use Chinese in court. It created a legal environment in which both Chinese and English became legitimate languages of legal thought, legislation and advocacy. The Judiciary describes the present arrangement as a bilingual court system in which either or both Chinese and English may be used. For the Hong Kong lawyer, this created a new linguistic reality. The three-language professional environment The formal legal system may be bilingual, but Hong Kong’s professional environment is effectively multilingual. Cantonese remains central to everyday professional life, while Putonghua has become increasingly significant in dealings with Mainland clients, businesses and institutions. English remains essential in international business, finance, arbitration and cross-border legal work. A Hong Kong lawyer may therefore move between three linguistic worlds during a single working day: Cantonese for local communication. Chinese for much domestic legal and professional communication. English for international legal and commercial communication. This makes the question of legal English more complicated than simply asking whether a lawyer’s English is grammatically correct. The challenge is often linguistic switching. A lawyer may be comfortable discussing a case in Cantonese, capable of reading a contract in English and competent at producing written submissions in English, yet find it more difficult to negotiate spontaneously in English, challenge opposing counsel diplomatically or present a complicated argument orally before an international tribunal. These are different skills. Legal English vs. Persuasive English Consider, “It is respectfully submitted that the respondent’s interpretation is incorrect.” There is nothing grammatically wrong with this sentence. It is recognisably legal English. But it does not tell the tribunal very much. Compare, “The respondent’s interpretation cannot be reconciled with Clause 12.” The second sentence is shorter and gives the arbitrator something concrete to consider. Or, “The respondent relies on Clause 12. But Clause 12 does not say what the respondent says it says.” This is spoken advocacy. The lawyer is not merely demonstrating command of English. The lawyer is controlling the structure of the argument. This becomes particularly important in international arbitration, where the tribunal may come from different jurisdictions and English may be the common working language even when it is not the first language of any tribunal member. The Hong Kong lawyer therefore needs English that is not merely accurate, but internationally intelligible, concise and persuasive. A change in the culture of advocacy There has also been a change in the balance between written and oral advocacy. The Hong Kong Department of Justice has noted the importance of written submissions alongside increasingly limited time for oral submissions. It has emphasised the need for advocates to present compelling arguments both on paper and orally. A written argument cannot simply be converted into an oral presentation. For example, “In light of the aforementioned circumstances, and having regard to the totality of the evidence as adduced by the parties, it is respectfully submitted that the tribunal ought to conclude that the respondent was aware, or alternatively ought reasonably to have been aware, of the circumstances giving rise to the alleged delay.” When spoken, this is heavy. An advocate might instead say, “The respondent knew about the delay. The evidence establishes that. At the very least, the respondent should have known.” Three short sentences can carry greater persuasive force than one elaborate sentence. The problem of excessive indirectness Cultural and linguistic transfer can also affect advocacy. In a Chinese-speaking professional environment, indirectness may be useful. It can preserve relationships, avoid unnecessary confrontation and allow disagreement without openly humiliating the other party. These qualities can be valuable in negotiation, but they can become a weakness in arbitration if they obscure the lawyer’s actual position. For example, “It may perhaps be suggested that the claimant’s position is not entirely consistent with the evidence.” What does the lawyer actually mean? Probably, “The claimant’s position is inconsistent with the evidence.” The answer is not to abandon politeness or adopt an aggressively Western style of advocacy. The more sophisticated approach is to develop control over the degree of directness. A lawyer should be able to choose between: “We disagree.” “We do not accept that proposition.” “That interpretation is difficult to sustain.” “The evidence does not support that conclusion.” “That argument cannot be reconciled with the contractual wording.” Each expresses disagreement, but each produces a different rhetorical effect. Negotiation requires another kind of English Arbitration and negotiation should not be taught as though they require identical language. In arbitration, the lawyer wants the tribunal to reach a conclusion. In negotiation, the lawyer wants the other side to move. A lawyer might say in arbitration, “The respondent has failed to establish causation.” In negotiation, the same position might become, “Our client is not persuaded that the evidence establishes causation.” Similarly, “Your proposal is unacceptable.” could become, “We would have considerable difficulty recommending that proposal to our client.” And, “You caused the delay.” could become, “Our client’s position is that responsibility for the delay rests with your client.” The substantive position has not disappeared. It has been expressed in a form that leaves room for the conversation to continue. This is particularly important in Hong Kong, where lawyers may negotiate between Chinese-speaking clients and international counsel. The ability to adjust linguistic temperature without changing substantive meaning is a genuine professional skill. The advantage of Hong Kong’s linguistic environment The changes since 1997 should not therefore be presented simply as a loss of English dominance. Hong Kong’s bilingual legal system has produced something potentially more valuable: linguistic flexibility. The modern Hong Kong lawyer may need to move between Chinese and English, local and international clients, arbitration and litigation, and adversarial advocacy and commercial negotiation. That requires more than vocabulary. It requires awareness of tone, register, implication, cultural expectations, rhythm, directness and persuasion. A lawyer who says, “I know what I want to say, but I cannot quite find the right English,” is describing a problem that grammar books cannot solve. The solution is not necessarily more complicated English. It is often better English. From correctness to choice The central lesson for Hong Kong lawyers is therefore simple. Legal English training should not replace Chinese patterns of thought with Western ones, nor persuade lawyers to abandon the formal traditions of Hong Kong’s common-law heritage. It should give lawyers greater linguistic choice. A lawyer should know when to say, “It is respectfully submitted...” and when to say, “The evidence shows...” When to say, “We would have difficulty accepting that proposal...” and when to say, “We cannot accept that proposal.” When to use traditional language of advocacy, and when a shorter, clearer sentence will have greater impact. Hong Kong’s legal language has changed because Hong Kong itself has changed. Since 1997, Chinese and English have developed a formal coexistence within the legal system, while Hong Kong lawyers increasingly operate across local, Mainland Chinese and international professional environments. The challenge is therefore not simply to speak English correctly. It is to understand what English is doing. In arbitration, English must clarify, organise and persuade. In negotiation, it must influence without unnecessarily confronting. In both, the finest advocate understands that the most powerful sentence is not necessarily the most complicated one. It is the sentence that makes the listener see the argument exactly as the lawyer wants it to be seen. Follow me on LinkedIn and visit my website for more info! Read more from Wai CS Wong Wai CS Wong, Legal English Consultant & Textbook Writer Steven is bilingual and bicultural. Arrived in UK at aged 4, grew up working in his father's hospitality business, attended university in Scotland and also a second degree in HK. He has worked in several countries, including the UK, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Hong Kong, China. Although retired, he continues to consult on Legal English and write Common Error textbooks for the HK, Taiwanese, and Middle Eastern markets.