Written by Roberto Usenich, Founder, Chief Emotional Futurist & Therapist Roberto Usenich is the founder of ARIVO.ONLINE, a platform blending AI-powered healing with emotional intelligence. With expertise in neuroscience and digital strategy, he helps individuals and organizations navigate emotional challenges, empowering leaders to lead with empathy and resilience. High achievement can create success on the outside while quietly weakening a leader’s sense of identity within. This article explores why emotional disconnection, nervous system overload, and identity fatigue affect many successful leaders, and what it takes to reconnect with the person behind the role. I want to speak to you directly, leader to leader, human to human. If you’re reading this, you already know what it feels like to carry a life built on achievement. You know how to deliver, how to stay composed, and how to keep moving even when your nervous system is begging for stillness. You know how to be the person everyone relies on. What you may not admit, even to yourself, is that somewhere along the way, your identity became a performance. A role. A mask. A version of you that works but no longer feels like you. I know this because I lived it. For years, I operated at a high level, building companies, mentoring practitioners, designing emotional frameworks, trading global markets, raising a child, and carrying responsibility with a straight spine and a steady voice. Yet, despite all the external success, I felt an internal drift, a quiet fracture between who I was and who I had become. It wasn’t burnout. It was identity fatigue. A slow erosion of the self behind the achievements, and it’s happening to leaders everywhere. The quiet crisis affecting high-achieving leaders In my work across psychotherapy, logotherapy, systems architecture, Jungian dream science, and emotional futurism, I kept seeing the same pattern: The more accomplished the leader, the more fragile their inner identity becomes. Not because they failed, but because they succeeded in ways that disconnected them from themselves. Leaders tell me: “I don’t feel like myself anymore.” “My nervous system is always in fight or flight.” “I’ve built a life that looks impressive but feels emotionally thin.” “I don’t know who I am outside my role.” These are not operational problems. They are existential ones. Many Brainz Magazine readers feel this deeply because they are the world’s highly functioning adults, founders, executives, creators, coaches, parents, and achievers. They are people who have done everything right, except stay connected to themselves. Why I built ARIVO.ONLINE ARIVO wasn’t created from theory. It was created from necessity, mine and that of thousands of leaders who came to me with the same silent fracture. I didn’t want to build another coaching program. I wanted to build a place where identity could be rebuilt, not patched. ARIVO.ONLINE is an emotional architecture lab that offers a cinematic, structured identity reconstruction process lasting 10 hours to help leaders return to themselves. Inside ARIVO, we deconstruct the identity you built for survival and map the nervous system patterns that keep you in emotional overdrive. We rebuild meaning through logotherapy, integrate Jungian narrative design, restore psychological coherence, and install a designed emotional operating system. This isn’t mindset work. This is identity engineering. It’s for leaders who function at a high level, feel emotionally overloaded, are quietly exhausted and psychologically fragmented, and are ready for a deeper version of themselves. ARIVO doesn’t just fix you. It returns you to yourself. A personal invitation If your achievements no longer feel like your identity, ARIVO.ONLINE is where you rebuild the human behind the role. I designed ARIVO for leaders who are successful but emotionally disconnected. It is an identity reset lasting 10 hours that restores clarity, regulation, and a sense of self that feels unmistakably yours again. Most leadership frameworks teach you how to perform better. ARIVO teaches you how to be yourself again. “Rebuild the human behind the role: The identity reset leaders performing at a high level never knew they needed.” Follow me on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn for more info! Read more from Roberto Usenich Roberto Usenich, Founder, Chief Emotional Futurist & Therapist Roberto Usenich is a therapist, educator, and founder of ARIVO.ONLINE is a global platform blending neuroscience, storytelling, and AI-powered healing. Focused on Futurism, he helps individuals and organizations build emotional clarity, resilience, and visionary leadership in a tech-driven world through immersive workshops, cinematic rituals, and culturally adaptive tools.

Written by Annie Paraison, Founder of Love Before ALL LLC Annie Paraison, the visionary behind Love Before ALL, is a Cultural Architect who leverages over 17 years of leadership experience to demonstrate that love is a strategic necessity. She helps leaders, businesses, and communities operationalize love to optimize personal, organizational, and communal wellness and collective success. What if everything we call a leadership failure is actually a relational wound that was never given the room to heal. The most dangerous lie that professional culture ever told was that the strongest leader is the one who needs no one. This article is an invitation to put that lie down and to reimagine what sustainable, joyful, impactful leadership could look like when it is finally held by something larger than one person's will. The myth we were handed There is a story that runs so deep in professional culture that most of us have never stopped to question it. The story says that the leader at the top is the one who figures it out alone. Who carries the most. Who asks for the least. Who is, above all, unflappable. I was given that nickname once. Unflappable Annie. I wore it like a badge because I had learned early, the way many of us do, that composure under pressure was the price of being taken seriously. What nobody told me was that the energy required to hold that composure was quietly hollowing me out from the inside. The data now confirms what my nervous system already knew. According to a Harvard Business Review study, nearly half of all CEOs report feelings of loneliness and isolation, and 61 percent believe it directly affects their performance. A 2024 survey of more than 55 percent of CEOs found they had experienced mental health challenges, including anxiety, depression, and burnout, a jump of 24 percentage points from the year prior. The DDI Global Leadership Forecast 2025 found that 71 percent of leaders worldwide report significantly higher stress levels since stepping into their current roles. This is not a crisis of individual weakness. This is the predictable outcome of a model of leadership that was never designed to be sustainable. The weight is not distributed equally Before we go further, we have to name what the data makes clear. This kind of leadership isolation does not land the same for everyone. For Black women and women of color in leadership, loneliness is not simply structural. It is compounded by what the research calls the "broken rung," the point in organizational life where Black women are left behind more than any other group, which means that when they do reach senior roles, they are frequently the only person who looks like them in the room. They are navigating decisions, managing teams, and carrying organizational weight while also managing the psychological labor of being a first, a representative, or a symbol. The Black Women Thriving 2022 report found that over 50 percent of Black women felt they did not have a shared sense of purpose at work, did not feel part of the team, and did not receive care and support from others. Research on women in leadership more broadly shows that 60 percent of women in leadership say their feelings of loneliness and isolation actually increased as their careers progressed, while their male peers reported the opposite. Women of color experience higher rates of workplace stress and burnout compared to their white counterparts, driven by microaggressions, isolation, and the pressure to conform to dominant cultural norms while often being asked to lead the very diversity and justice work that the organization has failed to resource adequately. The ‘hero’ model of leadership was not built for everyone. For Black women and women of color, it was not built with them in mind at all. The leadership cost of carrying it alone Loneliness in leadership is not a mood. It is a measurable operational risk. Former U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy has stated plainly that at work, "loneliness reduces task performance, limits creativity, and impairs other aspects of executive function such as reasoning and decision making." A peer-reviewed study in PMC found that loneliness has been linked to increasing burnout, declining productivity, and rising attrition, costing U.S. companies up to 154 billion dollars annually. When a leader burns out, the ripple effect is not contained to the corner office. According to Gallup research, managers account for 70 percent of the variance in team engagement, and a 2025 study found that burnout costs organizations up to 20,683 dollars per executive per year in lost productivity, significantly more than the cost of supporting a non-manager. Burned-out leaders create burned-out teams. Burned-out teams create burned-out communities. None of this is sustainable, and none of it is inevitable. Where most support stops short There is a growing market of support for individual leaders: executive coaches, wellness retreats, leadership assessments, mindfulness apps. Many of these are genuinely valuable. They address the "Grow the Me" dimension of leadership, the internal regulation, clarity, and self-trust that every leader needs. There is also no shortage of organizational consultants who offer strategic planning, culture assessments, and change management frameworks. They work at the systems level, addressing the "Grow the Collective" dimension of organizational life. What is missing, almost entirely, is the middle layer. What Love Before ALL calls "Grow the We". Most coaches support individual growth without organizational strategy. Most consultants support organizational strategy without the relational infrastructure needed for that strategy to take root. Neither approach treats the leader as a holistic unit inside a living system of relationships. Neither asks what this leader needs relationally in order to lead sustainably, nor who is holding space for the person doing all of this holding. This is the gap the Love Before ALL Method was built to address. Our approach, "Grow the Me, Grow the We, Grow the Collective", moves through three tiers of transformation because we know that lasting change cannot happen at only one level. A leader who has done profound inner work but returns to a relational desert will be depleted. A team that has built a strong culture but has no systems to sustain it will fracture. Real transformation requires all three, moving in concert, with the leader treated as a whole person inside a whole system. The reimagining prompt What would shift in your leadership tomorrow if you believed you no longer had to carry the organizational weight alone? Sit with that for a moment before you move on. Here is what Love Before ALL believes that reality could look like. Imagine a leadership environment where your relationships are not a distraction from the work but the foundation of it. Where repair is not a crisis response but a standing protocol, because your organization has agreed in advance that rupture is human and restoration is standard practice. Where the people you lead are genuinely cared for, not because caring generates a return on investment, though research confirms that it does, but because the organization has decided that the humanity of its people is a nonnegotiable value. Where you, the leader, are included in that circle of care. Not last. Not as an afterthought. From the beginning. In that environment, freedom is not a perk. It is infrastructure. When people are not spending their energy bracing for the next rupture, performing wellness they do not feel, or suppressing the instinct to ask for what they need, that freed energy goes somewhere. It goes into creativity, into innovation, into the kind of discretionary effort that no performance management system can mandate but every thriving organization depends on. What if that was not a fantasy? What if it was simply a different set of agreements, held together by a different understanding of what leadership is for? At Love Before ALL, we believe it is. We have seen it begin to take shape inside schools, nonprofits, and organizations that have been willing to do the relational work that most leadership frameworks skip. It is not easy work. But it is the work that lasts. An invitation to be held If you are a leader carrying more than you are being supported to carry, we would like to offer you something simple. Not a program. Not a pitch. Just a room. The LBA Connection Circle is a free, 45-minute monthly session designed to hold leaders' humanity. It is a curated space where you do not have to have the answers, project the presence, or perform the strength. You simply show up. Because leadership was never meant to be a solo sport. You were never meant to carry it alone. Request your seat in the LBA Connection Circle. Join the movement Connect with Love Before ALL: Website, Annie's LinkedIn, YouTube Channel, LBA Blog, Talk to Me Podcast. Follow me on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn for more info! Read more from Annie Paraison Annie Paraison, Founder of Love Before ALL LLC Annie Paraison is the visionary behind Love Before ALL, a consultancy optimizing wellness through the power of relationships. A proud Haitian-born leader, she journeyed from New York City to Vanderbilt University, igniting a passion for harnessing human potential and building "Beloved Community." With over 17 years of leadership experience and an Executive MBA, she challenges the status quo by proving that love is a rigorous life and business strategy. She ensures no leader has to choose between impact and well-being by supporting the transformation of unconscious patterns into conscious compassion. Grounded in faith and guided by hope, Annie is committed to a world where personal and collective success are inextricably linked. Sources Referenced: McLean Hospital, "The Silent Strain at the Top: Mental Health Among Executive Leadership," citing Harvard Business Review research. LGT, "Lonely CEOs: Tackle Executive Isolation and Thrive" Forbes / DDI Global Leadership Forecast 2025, "Leadership Burnout Is Surging. One Overlooked Habit Can Help" Dr. Twanna Carter, "5 Reasons Black Women Feel Alone at the Top of Their Careers," citing 2023 Women in the Workplace Study (McKinsey and Lean In) Johnson Center, "With Crisis Comes Change: Black Women and the Glass Cliff," citing Black Women Thriving 2022 Report (Hines and Fitts Ward) Fast Company/TheLi.st Report, "New Report Finds 60% of Women in Leadership Feel More Lonely as Their Careers Progress" PMC/NIH, "Loneliness and Leadership," citing U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy and peer-reviewed data. Gallup, "State of the Global Workplace 2024 Report" WorkTime/American Journal of Preventive Medicine, "40 Employee Burnout Statistics and Trends in the Workplace 2026"

Written by Nansia Movidi, Relationship Specialist & Hypnotherapist Nansia Movidi is a relationship specialist, hypnotherapist, and holistic practitioner focused on presence, emotional regulation, and secure connection. Through transformative hypnotherapy, she helps individuals reprogram subconscious patterns, break cycles of emotional unavailability, and build relationships rooted in safety, clarity, and depth. One of the quietest ways we lose ourselves isn't through a dramatic breakup, a betrayal, or one life-changing argument. More often, it happens gradually, through hundreds of seemingly insignificant moments that slowly pull us away from our own inner voice. It begins innocently enough. A conversation leaves you feeling unsettled, so you call a friend to ask what they think. Another interaction feels confusing, so you text your sister for her perspective. Before long, you've consulted your best friend, your mom, your colleague, and half the group chat, who always give "great relationship advice," and perhaps even a stranger on the internet. Somewhere in that process, you stop asking yourself how you feel and start asking everyone else whether your feelings are justified. Seeking perspective is healthy and deeply human, but when every emotional experience requires a committee meeting before you're willing to trust it, something much more significant is happening than simply looking for advice. The problem isn't that you're asking for guidance. We all have blind spots, and the people who care about us can often help us see situations from angles we might have missed. Healthy relationships with friends give us perspective, challenge our assumptions, and remind us of who we are when life feels overwhelming. The concern begins when advice quietly transforms into permission. Instead of using other people's perspectives to expand your understanding, you begin relying on them to determine whether your own experience is real. Your emotions no longer feel valid unless they're confirmed by consensus, and without realising it, the relationship you're slowly losing isn't necessarily the one with the other person. It's the relationship with yourself. How we slowly learn to doubt our own experience Most people imagine losing themselves as something dramatic. They picture sacrificing their dreams, abandoning their values, or changing their personality for someone else. In reality, it usually looks far less obvious. It looks like explaining away your discomfort because someone tells you you're too sensitive. It looks like convincing yourself that something didn't really hurt because the other person insists they didn't mean it that way. It looks like repeatedly asking whether you're overreacting instead of becoming curious about why you're reacting in the first place. Little by little, you begin placing more trust in someone else's interpretation of your experience than in the experience itself. This shift is subtle, but it changes everything. Instead of checking in with yourself after an interaction, you instinctively check in with everyone else. "Would this bother you?" "Do you think I'm reading too much into it?" "Am I expecting too much?" Notice how your own perspective quietly disappears from those questions. Without intending to, you've handed over authority for your emotional reality to other people. The more often that happens, the less confident you become in your own ability to interpret what you're feeling. One of the greatest costs of repeatedly dismissing yourself is that self-doubt eventually begins to feel normal. You stop recognising it as something that's happening to you because it simply becomes the way you operate. You apologise before expressing your feelings. You soften every opinion with phrases like, "Maybe I'm wrong," or, "I know I might be overthinking this." You begin questioning your own reactions before anyone else even has the opportunity to question them. What started as occasional uncertainty slowly becomes your default relationship with yourself. Why the brain starts looking everywhere except within From a psychological perspective, this pattern makes perfect sense. The human brain is constantly trying to create certainty because certainty allows us to feel safe. When another person's behavior becomes inconsistent, unpredictable, or contradictory, the brain immediately begins searching for an explanation that restores order. If someone's words don't match their actions, your mind tries to reconcile the difference. If they're affectionate one day and emotionally unavailable the next, your brain assumes there must be a reason it simply hasn't figured out yet. Rather than accepting uncertainty, it begins working overtime to solve the puzzle. This is why so many people find themselves replaying conversations in their minds long after they've ended. They reread text messages, analyse facial expressions, remember tiny details from weeks ago, and revisit conversations, hoping that one overlooked sentence will finally make everything make sense. It's not because they're irrational. It's because the brain would rather spend hours searching for certainty than sit comfortably with ambiguity. Eventually, the relationship begins to resemble an investigation rather than a connection. One friend becomes responsible for analysing text messages. Another somehow develops expertise in decoding punctuation. Someone else offers a detailed psychological profile of a person they've never actually met, based entirely on the screenshots you've sent them. Before you know it, you're standing in front of an imaginary whiteboard explaining why the thumbs up emoji at 9:42 p.m. probably means something significant. It's amusing because many of us have done exactly that, but underneath the humour is a far more important question. Why have you become so convinced that everyone else can interpret your experience more accurately than you can? What chronic confusion does to the nervous system When people talk about intuition, they often forget to talk about the nervous system. Long before your conscious mind reaches a conclusion, your body has already begun responding to the environment around you. If your relationships consistently leave you feeling emotionally safe, your nervous system gradually learns that connection is something it can relax into. If, however, your relationships repeatedly leave you uncertain, anxious, or emotionally off balance, your nervous system adapts to that unpredictability by becoming hypervigilant. Hypervigilance is not simply overthinking. It's your body's attempt to keep you safe. You become more aware of tone of voice, facial expressions, response times, subtle shifts in behavior, and anything that might help you predict what comes next. While this response is understandable, it comes at a cost. Living in a constant state of emotional analysis is exhausting because your nervous system never receives the message that it's safe to stop scanning for danger. You begin confusing vigilance with awareness and anxiety with intuition, even though they're very different experiences. Intuition is generally calm, quiet, and clear. It doesn't need to convince you. Hypervigilance, on the other hand, is noisy. It keeps searching, questioning, analysing, and preparing for every possible outcome. One helps you move towards truth, while the other desperately tries to protect you from uncertainty. Learning the difference between the two is one of the most important parts of rebuilding self-trust. When advice becomes permission There is a profound difference between seeking wisdom and seeking permission, yet many of us don't realise when we've crossed that line. Wisdom expands your perspective while leaving your own voice intact. Permission replaces your perspective with someone else's. Healthy advice doesn't tell you what to think or what to feel. Instead, it helps you understand what you're already experiencing more clearly. The healthiest people in our lives rarely rush to tell us what decision to make. Instead, they ask thoughtful questions that gently guide us back towards ourselves. They ask, "What feels true to you?" "What have you been ignoring?" "If you removed fear from this situation, what would you know?" Rather than becoming our compass, they help us remember where ours has been all along. Unfortunately, when we've spent long periods doubting ourselves, we often seek certainty instead of insight. We don't want perspective. We want someone to tell us we're right, because if someone else validates our feelings, perhaps we'll finally allow ourselves to believe them. The irony is that external validation provides temporary relief but rarely restores lasting self-trust. As soon as the next confusing interaction occurs, the committee is called together once again. Coming home to yourself Rebuilding self-trust doesn't mean becoming fiercely independent or refusing to ask anyone for advice ever again. Human beings heal in connection, and wise counsel will always have a place in our lives. The difference is that advice should support your inner knowing rather than replace it. Before asking five people what they think, pause long enough to ask yourself. What am I actually feeling? What happened from my perspective? If nobody else could answer this question for me, what would I honestly believe? It can also be incredibly helpful to begin paying attention to patterns instead of isolated incidents. One misunderstanding rarely defines a relationship, but recurring emotional confusion often tells a much bigger story. Journaling can become a powerful practice because it allows patterns to emerge over time. What feels confusing while you're living it often becomes remarkably clear when you step back and observe it from a distance. Instead of trying to remember what happened, you begin seeing what repeatedly happens. Another important practice is learning to notice how your body responds around different people. Do you leave interactions feeling calmer or more anxious? More expansive or more contracted? More yourself or less? Your nervous system often recognises emotional safety long before your logical mind can explain why. Listening to those signals doesn't mean becoming suspicious of everyone. It simply means recognising that your body carries valuable information worth paying attention to. Finally, begin rebuilding trust through small everyday decisions. Self-trust isn't restored by one dramatic breakthrough. It's rebuilt through repetition. Every time you honour your intuition, express an honest feeling, maintain a healthy boundary, or follow through on a promise you've made to yourself, you reinforce the message that your own inner voice is trustworthy. Confidence isn't created by never doubting yourself. It's created by returning to yourself every time doubt appears. The relationship that matters most One of the most important relationships you will ever have is the one you have with yourself. Every decision you make, every relationship you enter, and every challenge you navigate will be filtered through that relationship. If you no longer trust your own perception, the world begins to feel confusing because you've lost the one voice that has been with you your entire life. There is nothing wrong with asking for wisdom. There is nothing wrong with leaning on people who genuinely want the best for you. Community is one of the greatest gifts we have. The goal has never been to stop asking for advice. The goal is to become someone who no longer needs permission to believe what they already know deep inside. So the next time you find yourself preparing another relationship debrief with your friends, take a moment before opening the group chat. Ask yourself whether you're looking for perspective or whether you're asking strangers, friends, and family members to vote on whether your own emotions deserve to exist. If your feelings require a weekly board meeting, color-coded timelines, witness statements, and a PowerPoint presentation titled Evidence That I'm Not Imagining Things, the issue may not be that you're incapable of understanding your emotions. It may simply be that you've spent so long doubting yourself that you've forgotten your own experience was always worthy of your trust. Healing doesn't begin the moment everyone finally agrees with you. Healing begins the moment you realise that your own experience doesn't need unanimous approval to be real. The strongest relationship you will ever build isn't the one where someone else constantly reassures you that your feelings make sense. It's the one where you trust yourself enough to know they already do. If you recognise yourself in these patterns and you're ready to rebuild trust in your own inner voice, send me an email. Let's start your journey back to yourself. Follow me on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and my website for more info! Read more from Nansia Movidi Nansia Movidi, Relationship Specialist & Hypnotherapist Nansia Movidi is a relationship specialist, hypnotherapist, and holistic practitioner focused on presence, emotional regulation, and secure connection. Her work explores how attachment patterns, nervous system states, and modern conditioning shape the way we love, often causing intensity to be mistaken for depth. Through transformative hypnotherapy and her writings, Nansia helps individuals reprogram subconscious patterns, break cycles of emotional unavailability, and cultivate relationships rooted in safety, clarity, and embodied self-trust.

From an early connection with ecology to a deeper calling in kinesiology and energy healing, Kirsty Marie Denny’s work explores the link between the body, subconscious stress, sensitivity, and personal transformation. Her approach is shaped not only by holistic training but also by lived experience with illness, motherhood, neurodivergence, and highly sensitive nervous systems. In this exclusive interview, Kirsty shares how kinesiology can help uncover stored trauma, support brain integration, and create more individualised pathways for healing. She also discusses what mainstream conversations around neurodivergence often miss, and why moving beyond labels can open the door to greater connection, well-being, and self-trust. Kirsty Marie Denny, Kinesiologist and Neurodivergence Specialist What led you from ecology into the world of kinesiology and energy healing? Life! I would call it a divine redirect. I always felt very connected with the earth and inspired to deepen that understanding. That calling to nature is still very much true in the spiritual sense. However, along the way, I came to the realisation that my role in elevating our relationship with the natural world is more about shifting our state of consciousness and the wounds we hold within ourselves than as a scientist or academic. What pushed me in a practical sense was becoming unwell in my early 20s, catalysing a deep dive into holistic health and energy work in order to regain my vitality. This change in my life path was cemented when I became a mother to two high-needs babies and began to learn all about neurodivergence and highly sensitive nervous systems so that I could assist their authentic thriving too. A lot of this divine redirect was painful and confusing, but now I love to pay it forward by using all the knowledge and experience I’ve gained to assist others. When you work with trauma stored in the subconscious, what actually shifts for a client in a session? Often, when something stressful or traumatic occurs, particularly in early life, the brain records this type of stimulus as ‘dangerous’ and tucks it away deep in the subconscious. This makes perfect sense for our physical or emotional survival at the time, but can result in us repeating behaviours and patterns into adulthood that are no longer serving us. Think of the frustration when, despite your best efforts, you seem unable to respond differently or create new outcomes in certain scenarios. Your subconscious is still screaming ‘danger’ and sabotaging you to keep you ‘safe’. With kinesiology, we can bring these deep, hidden patterns to the light without reliving every stressful event or being retraumatised. It then becomes much easier to energetically shift into new ways of being, to rewire ourselves for new perspectives, and to begin to take actions that support our dreams and well-being. Often clients feel immediately calmer, more expansive and better resourced as well as more comfortable and present in their physical bodies. Many report major shifts such as freedom from chronic states of fight or flight (including associated physical symptoms), liberation from people-pleasing tendencies or toxic relationship dynamics, releasing confusion or learning blocks and much more! How do you approach brain integration differently from more traditional mindset or therapy-based work? My work is very different from talk-based therapy and complements traditional counseling or psychotherapy where required. You still receive the benefit of being deeply listened to and able to talk through your stressors where appropriate, but it is a much more holistic modality. Many of us are familiar with the model of the brain where the left side is more analytical, whereas the right is more creative and big-picture. In reality, though there is value in this model, the brain is incredibly complex, with mind-blowing webs of interconnectivity and adaptability. In my work, rather than assuming I know what is going on, I ask your body and consciousness via muscle testing to indicate where there is stress and how we can best remedy that. We can work energetically to optimise the connectivity between all the regions of the brain in a way that maximises your unique genius! As mentioned in the previous question, we can address the subconscious stressors causing confusion and inefficiency and unlock specific skills or overall mental wellbeing. Exercises, activities or lifestyle changes that support brain balance can be incorporated between energy work sessions to potentiate your progress. Where do you see mainstream conversations around neurodivergence falling short right now? I see a lot of amazing conversation and awareness, and also a lot of unnecessary polarisation. The neurodiversity-affirming movement brings so much positivity to the table in terms of celebrating strengths and the value in providing supports and understanding as opposed to ‘fixing’. At the same time, this focus on autism and adhd as innate neurotypes can result in demonisation of those seeking to improve wellbeing in a holistic way. Wanting to improve quality of life doesn’t imply any devaluation of a neurodivergent person’s intrinsic worth. Particularly with regard to the autism spectrum, there is such great variability in presentations, and although there may be a genetic component, this is in interaction with a wide range of environmental factors. The autism spectrum, as it stands currently, is incredibly diverse, and individuals have a right to their own opinions about it. This includes those who experience it as profoundly disabling or distressing and those who wish to investigate environmental causes or triggers. As with other hot-button topics, I believe we need more conversation, more understanding and more respect for those whose beliefs differ from our own, not less! You speak about working beyond diagnosis debates – what does that look like in practice with clients? As mentioned above, some experience neurodivergence as something to be celebrated, whereas others wouldn’t wish it on their worst enemy! Regardless of your stance on what neurodivergence is or isn’t, the truth is that each person is a unique individual with many factors influencing their overall health and wellbeing. Therefore, if we focus on the individual, we can’t really go wrong. In this way, whether or not you have any type of diagnosis, we can look at stressors ranging from the biochemical to the spiritual and everything in between! When we peel back the layers of stress and subconscious conditioning, as well as focusing on your true alignment, your unique way of being in the world will be enhanced. The goal is never to be ‘normal’ (what is that?) but the most fulfilled version of yourself, whatever that looks like. For parents raising high-intensity or neurodivergent children, what is one shift that changes everything? This is not always something we want to hear as parents, but working on our own mindset and beliefs can make a huge difference. If our children are struggling, it’s so easy to slip into feelings of guilt or wondering what we did wrong, for example. Some amount of reflection is useful, of course, but beating ourselves up about what-ifs only takes us into a negative mindset and, ironically, out of connection with our children in the present. Likewise, if our children are exhibiting intense or explosive behaviours, it can feel nearly impossible not to take it personally. When my kids were small, I had a mantra of ‘I choose love’. Whatever assists you in pausing and creating some space around the intensity is a treasure! Once we create that little bit of space, we may begin to build the capacity for responding differently and also noticing what is coming up internally. Often, there is a painful but powerful opportunity for seeing with compassion our own trauma and limiting beliefs. I’m not saying that this inner work will automatically remedy whatever is going on with your child, but it does shift the energetics, increasing the opportunity for connection, growth, and a more intuitive awareness of what is called for in each moment. How can someone begin to move from “surviving” to “thriving” in a realistic, everyday way? How ‘thriving’ looks may be vastly different for you and me, such that one of the most important shifts is to release societal expectations about what a successful life ‘should’ look like and reconnect with what truly lights us up. All the wellness hacks in the world are unlikely to bring true fulfilment without a sense of purpose and connection. That said, when we feel completely burnt out and under-resourced, it can be very difficult to tap into our inspiration! Sometimes the first steps towards alignment involve the smallest, most accessible shifts to reduce the feeling of ‘fight or flight’ and foster a sense of safety to build upon. These shifts might look like disconnecting from the internet morning and night, touching the earth more often, small changes in diet that make a big difference, finding glimmers of joy and gratitude during the day or sharing genuine conversation and understanding, just as a few examples. Working with kinesiology can help us to make rapid subconscious shifts so that we can more easily move out of a state of fighting fires to alignment with our truth. You often say “it all matters” – how does that philosophy guide the way you support healing? In today’s online landscape, we are bombarded daily with the ‘latest things’ with regard to health and well-being. A lot of this information is truly valuable, but how do we know whether what works for that influencer (or what they’re selling) will work for us? We can jump from thinking our problems will be over if we take the right type of supplement or superfood one day, to the next being absolutely convinced we need a $2000 programme on healing the inner child or a breathwork retreat in Bali. Of course, each of us is a unique and complex being. Our biochemistry, genetics, diet or toxin exposure can’t be truly separated from our mindset, emotions or spiritual orientation. It’s all connected and it does, in fact, all matter. Kinesiology provides an excellent tool for prioritising our approach to create the most positive change without overwhelm. For example, for a highly sensitive child, muscle testing may guide us to begin with nutrition, detoxification, working with primitive reflexes, brain integration exercises, emotional stress, epigenetic stress, spiritual aspects, breathing, sleep hygiene or something else entirely! In this way, we create a coherent, individualised healing pathway. If there’s one perspective you wish every parent or individual navigating neurodivergence could hold, what would it be? In my opinion, sensitivity is a common thread running through the diverse experiences of neurodivergent people. This sensitivity is, of course, variable and in response to wide-ranging stimuli which may be sensory, biochemical, emotional, or environmental. Being highly sensitive can feel like a curse at times, particularly in our modern world with its cacophonous intensity and high levels of toxic exposures. However, sensitivity does also present us with gifts. With our increased awareness of physical or emotional discordance, we can act as ‘canaries in the coalmine’, shining a light on the aspects of modern life that are actually incongruent for many. I’m optimistic about our ability to transform our world for the better, but of course it takes time. The good news is that in addition to designing our lives in more aligned ways, we can make internal shifts that lighten the load without squandering the gift of sensitivity. Working with kinesiology is a powerful way of reducing stress whilst enhancing intuitive awareness. When we sensitives liberate ourselves from the hamster wheel of fight-or-flight, tune in to our physical bodies, and deeply understand ourselves, this is truly a gift on both the individual and collective levels. Follow me on Facebook, Instagram, and visit my website for more info! Read more from Kirsty Marie Denny

Written by Mona Liza Santos, Award-Winning Children's Author & Emotional Literacy Advocate Mona Liza Santos is an award-winning children’s author and founder of World Love Press. She has written more than 40 books focused on emotional literacy, kindness, confidence, and cultural identity, inspiring families, educators, and young readers worldwide through heartfelt storytelling and meaningful life lessons. When we think about children’s books, we naturally picture libraries, classrooms, bookstores, or bedtime stories at home. Those places have introduced generations of children to the joy of reading, and I believe they always will. But over the past few years, one unexpected experience challenged the way I think about where stories truly belong. As a children’s author, I’ve had the privilege of meeting children, parents, grandparents, educators, and librarians from many different backgrounds. Through those experiences, I’ve come to believe that children’s books do far more than teach children how to read. They help children understand themselves, encourage empathy, strengthen family connections, and create conversations that often continue long after the final page has been turned. In many ways, the story becomes the beginning, not the destination. Eventually, those experiences led me to ask a question I had never really considered before: What if some of the most meaningful conversations a book can inspire happen in the everyday places where families naturally gather? That question changed the way I think about literacy, emotional connection, and the role stories can play in strengthening our communities. Stories have always been about more than reading When I first began writing during the pandemic, I wasn’t trying to become an author. Like many parents, I was simply thinking about the kind of world my son was growing up in. I wanted him to grow up believing that kindness mattered, that his emotions deserved to be understood rather than dismissed, and that who he was would always be enough. Those thoughts slowly found their way onto paper. Looking back now, it’s incredible to think that those quiet moments eventually grew into more than 40 children’s books. What surprises me most, however, isn’t the number of books I’ve written. It’s the number of meaningful conversations those stories have inspired. Over the years, parents have written to tell me that one of my books helped their child finally talk about emotions they had struggled to express. Teachers have shared that discussions about kindness, friendship, confidence, or belonging continued long after story time because students felt seen in the books I wrote. Experiences like these have reminded me that children’s books often become much more than stories. As someone who writes stories centered on emotional literacy, I’ve learned that books often become one of the safest places for children to explore feelings. A child who doesn’t know how to explain disappointment, loneliness, fear, or anxiety will often recognize those same emotions in a character first. That recognition creates a bridge, making it easier for families to begin conversations that might otherwise feel difficult. In many ways, stories become a child’s first opportunity to realize that they are not alone in what they are feeling. A community event changed my perspective Earlier this year, on July 11, 2026, I had the privilege of participating in Kwento at Kulay, a family event held at Seafood City Chula Vista. Like many author events, I arrived expecting to read a story, meet children, and hopefully encourage a love of books. It was something I had done before, but it was my first time sharing one of my books inside a Filipino grocery store. I was curious to see how families would respond in a setting so different from a library, bookstore, or classroom. Instead, I left with a completely different perspective. As story time began, I noticed something that caught my attention almost immediately. Grandparents sat beside their grandchildren. Parents joined the conversations instead of simply watching from a distance. Children proudly shared what they knew about Filipino culture after reading The Filipino in Me. Before long, grandparents were adding stories from their own childhoods, parents were sharing memories with their children, and conversations continued long after the final page had been turned. Driving home that afternoon, I realized the lesson wasn’t really about where the event had taken place. It wasn’t about being inside a grocery store or even about the event itself. It was about what happened because families were already together. The story simply became an invitation to pause, sit together, listen, and begin talking. That experience reminded me that books don’t have to compete for people’s attention. Sometimes, they simply need to meet families where life is already happening. For years, I had naturally associated children’s books with libraries, classrooms, and bookstores because those were the places where we traditionally expected to find them. But that afternoon challenged my own thinking. I realized that stories have the ability to create meaningful moments almost anywhere. If anything, they often become even more personal because they unfold naturally within everyday family life. Looking back, I don’t think the most important part of that afternoon was the story time itself. It was watching families experience the story together. Children listened with curiosity, parents listened with intention, and grandparents smiled as memories from their own childhoods resurfaced. Although everyone heard the same story, each generation connected with it in their own way. That was the moment I realized my books were doing something much bigger than I had imagined. They weren’t simply telling stories. They were creating opportunities for families to slow down, reconnect, share memories, and begin conversations that might never have happened otherwise. Stories become bridges between generations One of the greatest gifts children’s books offer is their ability to bring different generations into the same conversation. Although everyone may be listening to the very same story, each person experiences it through the lens of their own life. A child may see an exciting adventure or recognize a character who reminds them of themselves. A parent may hear a reminder to slow down, be more present, or appreciate the little moments that often pass too quickly. A grandparent may remember traditions, family stories, or experiences they have not thought about in years. That is one of the quiet strengths of children’s literature. A single story can speak to everyone differently while still bringing them together through one shared experience. Children begin asking questions. Parents begin listening a little more carefully. Grandparents find opportunities to pass along memories that might otherwise remain untold. In many ways, the story simply becomes the starting point, while the conversations that follow become the lasting memory. As an author, I have come to believe that some of the most meaningful moments do not happen while children are reading the book itself. They happen afterward, when the book is closed and families continue talking. Those conversations help children better understand themselves, strengthen relationships across generations, and remind all of us that every family has stories worth preserving and sharing. In today’s busy world, where schedules are full and technology often competes for our attention, those shared conversations have become more valuable than ever. Children may not remember every sentence they read, but they often remember who was sitting beside them, who answered their questions, and how they felt during those moments. Sometimes, that feeling of connection becomes the greatest lesson a story has to offer. Literacy does not belong to one building For generations, we have naturally associated literacy with schools, libraries, and bookstores because those spaces were intentionally created for learning. They remain essential, and I hope they always will. Libraries inspire curiosity, classrooms nurture lifelong learning, and bookstores introduce readers to stories that can shape their lives. But children do not stop learning when they leave those buildings. They learn while visiting museums and asking questions about what they see. They learn while attending cultural festivals and discovering traditions different from their own. They learn while exploring parks, walking through grocery stores with their families, participating in neighborhood celebrations, and simply observing the conversations happening around them. Every one of those experiences quietly shapes the way children understand themselves, their relationships, and the world around them. If children are constantly learning from the environments around them, perhaps stories deserve to become part of those experiences too. Bringing books into community spaces is not about replacing libraries, classrooms, or bookstores. It is about expanding opportunities for literacy beyond traditional settings and making stories more accessible to families in the places where they already spend time together. When books become part of everyday community life, reading begins to feel less like another task and more like something that naturally belongs alongside family, culture, curiosity, and connection. Community literacy begins where life happens As I continued reflecting on that experience, I found myself thinking about what community literacy really means. To me, community literacy is about creating opportunities for children to discover stories wherever life naturally happens, not only inside educational spaces, but throughout the communities where they grow, explore, and build relationships. Community literacy recognizes that children are constantly learning, not only inside classrooms, but everywhere they live, play, explore, and spend time with the people they love. Rather than limiting literacy to designated learning spaces, it embraces the idea that every neighborhood, gathering place, and shared experience has the potential to inspire curiosity, conversation, empathy, and a lifelong love of reading. Stories simply become another way those everyday experiences help shape who children become. Children are constantly learning from the world around them. They learn by listening to conversations, observing how people treat one another, asking questions, and experiencing different cultures and traditions. Stories have the unique ability to become part of those everyday moments, helping children understand not only the words on a page but also the emotions, values, and relationships that shape who they become. Perhaps community literacy begins the moment a story helps a child see themselves, understand someone else, or start a conversation they might never have had otherwise. The future of literacy may be closer than we think Since that afternoon, I have often imagined what our communities might look like if we intentionally created more opportunities for children to encounter books outside traditional educational spaces. Not because libraries or classrooms are lacking, but because families already gather in so many places where meaningful moments naturally happen. Imagine museums pairing story times with exhibits so children can continue learning after leaving the gallery. Imagine cultural festivals inviting children’s authors to celebrate heritage through stories alongside music, dance, and art. Imagine grocery stores hosting family literacy events, farmers’ markets welcoming local authors, parks creating reading corners, or even airports offering quiet spaces where families can pause together over a book before beginning a journey. None of these ideas requires enormous budgets or complicated programs. Sometimes, all it takes is one story, one author visit, one reading corner, or one meaningful conversation to spark a child’s curiosity. The goal is not to turn every public space into a library. The goal is to recognize that every community already has places where families gather, and many of those places can also become opportunities for literacy, emotional growth, and human connection. With that being said, sometimes the most meaningful reading experience a child has is not one they planned. Why this matters more than ever Today’s children are growing up in a world where technology constantly competes for their attention and where family schedules often leave little room to simply slow down together. While technology has created incredible opportunities, it has also made uninterrupted conversations increasingly rare. Stories naturally create those moments. For a few minutes, children stop looking at screens. Parents pause their errands. Grandparents begin sharing memories. Families laugh, ask questions, and listen. What may appear to be an ordinary story time often becomes something much greater, a shared experience that reminds everyone of the importance of simply being present. Looking beyond the page Looking back, I realize the lesson I carried home that afternoon was much larger than the idea that children’s books belong outside libraries. It was about community. Stories have always had the power to bring people together. They encourage us to slow down, listen more carefully, ask thoughtful questions, and appreciate experiences that may be different from our own. Whether those moments happen in a classroom, a library, around the dinner table, inside a museum, at a cultural festival, or in the middle of an ordinary shopping trip, every shared story has the potential to strengthen families and build more connected communities. If one story can bring a family closer together during an ordinary afternoon, imagine what could happen if more communities intentionally created opportunities for moments like that. I truly believe the future of literacy is not found in one building alone. It is found wherever children laugh, explore, ask questions, and spend time with the people who matter most. Join the conversation I’d love to hear your thoughts. Where have you seen stories unexpectedly bring people together? Whether you are a parent, educator, librarian, homeschool family, business owner, museum professional, or community leader, I encourage you to think about how your own community might create more opportunities for children to encounter books in meaningful ways. To learn more about my children’s books, educational resources, and initiatives centered on kindness, emotional literacy, belonging, and cultural identity, visit here. Together, perhaps we can help stories reach even more children, one community at a time. This image is from the Kwento at Kulay family event referenced in the article. It illustrates the community experience that inspired the piece. Follow me on Facebook and Instagram for more info! Read more from Mona Liza Santos Mona Liza Santos, Award-Winning Children's Author & Emotional Literacy Advocate Mona Liza Santos is an award-winning children's author, publisher, and founder of World Love Press. She is the author of more than 40 children's books focused on emotional literacy, kindness, confidence, resilience, and cultural identity. Her work has been recognized by the Mom's Choice Awards for its positive impact on children and families. Inspired by motherhood, global travel, and her Filipino heritage, Mona creates stories that encourage children to embrace who they are and recognize their worth. Mona is also the founder of National Intentional Kindness Day and Heritage and Heart Day, created to promote empathy, inclusion, cultural pride, and meaningful human connection within schools and communities.

Written by Davian Bryan, Self-Confidence Coach Davian Bryan is the author of Vulnerable Soul (published in 2025). Through Storytelling Power, he helps brands strengthen their storytelling with creative communication. As a self-confidence coach at Dare Your Lifestyle, he empowers introverts to embrace their God-given confidence. What if the parts of yourself you struggle to accept are not flaws, but survival strategies that once kept you safe? This article explores how self-acceptance, compassion, and renewed thinking can help you grow without using self-hatred as motivation. You've hated the same thing about yourself for years. Has the hate ever once fixed it? Probably not, and it never will. You've had the whole thing backward. How do you actually accept yourself with all your flaws? Ask yourself one question before you try to "just love yourself": Is this actually a flaw, or is it something you built to survive? That question changed everything for me. People pleasing, overapologizing, and shrinking so you take up less space. Nobody is born doing those things. You built them because, at some point, they kept you safe, and nobody ever told you it was okay to put them down. A flaw is not a character defect. It is a strategy that is overdue for an update. Accepting yourself was never about being done growing. It is about not hating yourself along the way. Self-acceptance versus self-esteem: What is the actual difference? Self-esteem is a score. Self-acceptance is the truth, whether the score is high or low that day. Psychologists define self-acceptance as being honest about your strengths and your limits. It does not mean liking everything, just not lying about any of it. Self-esteem moves. It spikes after a compliment and crashes after criticism because it is built on outside approval. That is exactly why it is such shaky ground on which to base your worth. Self-acceptance does not move because nothing is grading it. Concept Measures Comes from Falls apart when Self-esteem How highly you rate yourself Approval, achievement, and comparison Someone stops clapping Self-acceptance The honest truth about yourself Something internal and steady Rarely, because it is not graded Self-improvement Effort to grow Goals and practice It is used to punish, not build Why does accepting yourself feel so hard? It feels hard because your brain thinks the harsh voice in your head is protecting you. Backing away from it feels like dropping your guard, not healing. Researchers have mapped the exact patterns that keep people stuck: judging yourself, isolating yourself, and replaying the same mistake on a loop. A newer study tracked people over time and found that the two forms of self-hate, feeling unworthy and feeling broken, both get worse the longer you leave them alone. Not one study found that being harder on yourself worked better. Not one. What does God actually say about the parts of you that feel like flaws? Here is where it gets interesting. Science and the oldest book in the world are saying the exact same thing. Romans 12:2 called it centuries before anyone ran a study: Change comes from renewing your mind, not from gritting your teeth harder. Put the meanest thing you have said about yourself next to what God actually said about you, and see which one sounds more true. I am fearfully and wonderfully made, not a mistake. (Psalm 139:14) I am a new creation. The old label does not get the final word. (2 Corinthians 5:17) I am forgiven, not just tolerated. (1 John 1:9) I am still being transformed. I am not finished, and I am not required to be. (Romans 12:2) Say these words until they stop sounding like a nice idea and start sounding like the truth on which you build your life. When one specific thought keeps looping in your head, deal with it directly instead of trying to affirm your way around it. Does accepting my flaws mean I will just stop trying? No. That is the lie keeping most people stuck. Berkeley tested this four separate times. People who treated their own weaknesses with compassion instead of criticism studied longer after failing, tried harder to correct their mistakes, and were more willing to work on the things they were bad at. Self-criticism did not win a single round. It simply felt more urgent, which is why everyone reaches for it anyway. Is self-acceptance just a nice way of giving up? No. Giving up means you stop caring about what happens. Self-acceptance means you stop needing to hate yourself in order to care about what happens. Those are not the same thing, even when they look identical from a distance. A person who respects you gets more out of you than someone who insults you at every practice. You are both people in that relationship. Start acting like it. What do you actually do with this every day? Pick one thing you are hardest on yourself about. Say it out loud without adding the insult you always tack onto the end. Do it every morning, not just once. One good day of kindness does not undo ten years of the opposite. When the loudest thing you are fighting is really an old coping habit, deal with it directly. A structured reset works faster than trying to think your way out of it. You were never the problem. You were simply doing the best you could with information nobody gave you. That story ends today. Follow me on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and visit my website for more info! Read more from Davian Bryan Davian Bryan, Self-Confidence Coach Davian Bryan is a freelance creative specializing in brand storytelling and communication strategy, and the author of Vulnerable Soul (2025). After overcoming insecurity and rebuilding his confidence through faith and discipline, he now helps introverts embrace their God-given confidence through Dare Your Lifestyle. He operates Storytelling Power, where he supports brands with strategic content creation and communication systems. His mission: Build clarity. Build confidence. Build something that lasts.

Written by Michael Donaldson, Nutrition Researcher & Health Coach Dr. Michael Donaldson is a nutrition researcher and health coach specializing in type 2 diabetes reversal. As founder of End Diabetes Now and Research Director at Hallelujah Diet, he empowers people to transform their health through evidence-based, plant-centered nutrition. Your doctor said your labs are normal, but you don't feel normal. You don't have the energy you used to. You carry extra weight that won't go away. Your thinking isn't as clear. You don't recall names as well. The problem isn't that you're just getting older or that there isn't a problem at all. The problem is that it is going undetected. The wrong tests are being ordered, and the right calculations are never made using the numbers you do get. Here are three markers your doctor almost never orders and two calculations that could be run using the data already sitting in your chart. All of these are capable of catching insulin resistance and metabolic dysfunction years before your standard blood work will. Pay attention, and you could learn the answer to why you don't feel normal. I have spent nearly three decades studying health and learning why metabolic disease develops. One pattern that shows up quite often involves people who feel off, with low energy, mental fog, and stubborn weight gain, but have normal fasting glucose. It may be a little elevated, but it is still normal. This isn’t a good pattern because fasting glucose is often one of the last markers to become elevated. By the time it rises, insulin resistance may have been building silently for 10 years or more. The five markers I'm going to walk you through fall into two categories. The first consists of lab tests that your doctor doesn't order. The second consists of information derived from numbers in your lab results, but it is just sitting there because the numbers aren't put together to tell the whole story. These are routine tests and calculations, not exotic or expensive. You just have to know how to order the right tests. Markers your doctor almost never orders Test 1: Fasting insulin, the marker your annual panel is missing entirely Standard annual labs measure fasting glucose. They almost never measure fasting insulin. It's a little like looking at the oil pressure gauge in your car to see if your engine has enough oil. By the time your engine loses oil pressure, it has lost almost all the oil in the system. You need to read the dipstick to see if you have enough oil in your car. Fasting glucose is just like that. Glucose levels are like oil pressure. Oil pressure is the wrong test to see if your engine has oil, and glucose is the wrong test to see if your metabolism is okay. The dipstick for your metabolism is fasting insulin. Fasting insulin tells you how hard your pancreas is working to keep blood glucose levels normal. When cells become resistant to insulin's signal, the pancreas produces more insulin to force the cells, especially those in your liver and muscles, into submission. Glucose levels stay normal, but insulin levels may be three to four times the optimal level. That's insulin resistance. Fasting insulin reveals it right away, but it isn't measured on a standard lab panel. Dankner et al. followed 515 normoglycemic adults for 24 years and found that elevated fasting insulin, independent of BMI, blood pressure, triglycerides, and fasting glucose, was the single strongest predictor of who would eventually develop type 2 diabetes. Nearly a quarter of that group progressed all the way to diabetes. Their insulin was the early signal, years before their glucose levels were abnormal. A 2016 reanalysis of Kraft's original database by Crofts et al., published in *Diabetes Research and Clinical Practice*, confirmed that hyperinsulinemia, meaning high levels of insulin after eating or during a glucose tolerance test, appears in nearly 75% of people with completely normal glucose tolerance. Most of them had no other clinical symptoms. Fasting insulin won't catch every case, but it will catch the metabolic direction, and that's what matters if your goal is optimal function, not just avoiding a diagnosis. A fasting insulin above 8 mIU/L is a warning sign worth investigating. Optimal is below 6 mIU/L. The Quest Diagnostics reference range is 2.1 to 9.0 mIU/L. Labcorp’s reference range is 2.6 to 24.9 mIU/L, a range so broad that it includes many people with metabolic dysfunction. What is HOMA IR, and why does the calculation matter? HOMA IR, or Homeostatic Model Assessment of Insulin Resistance, combines both numbers: fasting insulin in mIU/L multiplied by fasting glucose in mg/dL, divided by 405. You need both values to run it. Most doctors order one without the other. Here's what the numbers mean in practice. A fasting insulin of 5 mIU/L and a fasting glucose of 85 mg/dL give you a HOMA IR of about 1.0. That's optimal. Below 1.5 is the target range. Below 2.0 is acceptable. At 2.5 and above, insulin resistance is present. Isokuortti et al. found the upper 95th percentile of HOMA IR in a population of more than 1,600 healthy Finnish adults to be 1.9, meaning that even what the research community calls the boundary of “normal” sits above optimal. As with fasting insulin, the reference range isn't protecting you. The calculation predicts real outcomes. González González et al. published a systematic review and meta-analysis in 2022 covering 38 studies and 215,878 participants. They found that elevated HOMA IR was associated with an 87% increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes, a 46% increased risk of nonfatal cardiovascular events, and a 35% increased risk of hypertension. HOMA IR gives you valuable information connected to real health outcomes. The barrier is that most doctors never order fasting insulin, so the calculation never gets made. Test 2: ApoB, your lipid panel counts cholesterol, this counts what actually damages arteries Your standard lipid panel reports LDL C, the concentration of cholesterol carried in LDL particles. What it doesn’t report is how many LDL particles are actually circulating. That’s what ApoB measures. Every atherogenic particle carries exactly one ApoB protein, so ApoB is a direct particle count. You can have a normal LDL C and a dangerously high particle number, especially when insulin resistance drives the production of smaller, denser particles that carry less cholesterol per particle but cause more arterial damage per collision. LDL C tells you the cargo. ApoB counts the trucks. Sniderman et al. made exactly this argument in *The Lancet* in 2003. ApoB is a superior index of coronary risk compared with LDL C, particularly in people with metabolic syndrome, because it directly counts the atherogenic particles rather than estimating the cholesterol they carry. ApoB is not on a standard annual panel. If your triglycerides are elevated and your HDL is low, which is quite common in insulin resistance, your ApoB is likely elevated regardless of what your LDL C says. Most doctors won’t order it to find out. Test 3: Uric acid, an early warning signal for metabolic dysfunction that almost nobody orders Uric acid is almost never ordered unless a doctor suspects gout. That’s too narrow. Elevated uric acid is one of the earliest detectable signs of metabolic dysfunction, often rising years before fasting glucose does. Uric acid is the direct metabolite of cells consuming large amounts of fructose. Johnson et al. laid out the full mechanistic case in a 2009 review in Endocrine Reviews. It works like this: Excessive fructose intake raises uric acid. Uric acid impairs nitric oxide production in blood vessel walls, reduces insulin signalling, and raises blood pressure. This cascade contributes directly to metabolic syndrome and type 2 diabetes. Globally, fructose intake is closely associated with diabetes rates. The mechanism runs through uric acid. The “normal” range for uric acid typically goes up to 7.0 mg/dL for men and 6.0 mg/dL for women. However, metabolic risk begins climbing above 5.5 mg/dL in both sexes. A result of 6.2 mg/dL won’t trigger a flag on your lab report. In metabolic terms, it’s an early signal that something is happening upstream, before your glucose even moves. If your diet is high in fructose from processed foods, sweetened beverages, or excessive fruit juice, your uric acid will likely be in the higher range. Calculations your doctor already has the data to run, but never does The next two markers don’t require an additional blood draw. The numbers are already in your results. What’s missing is the decision to do the math. Calculation 1: The triglyceride to HDL ratio, your lipid panel has the answer, but nobody divides it Most people with a standard lipid panel already have the two numbers needed to calculate one of the most reliable noninvasive markers of insulin resistance. The triglyceride to HDL ratio is almost never calculated or communicated to the patient. McLaughlin et al. tested multiple metabolic markers against gold standard insulin clamp measurements in 258 adults and found that the triglyceride to HDL ratio was among the most useful for identifying insulin-resistant individuals. A ratio above 3.0 in traditional US units, measured in mg/dL, identified insulin resistance with 64% sensitivity and 68% specificity. This was comparable to the full Adult Treatment Panel III metabolic syndrome criteria and achievable using two numbers already on your lipid panel. Nobody calculates it. Your total cholesterol could look fine. Your LDL could look fine. However, if your triglycerides are 180 and your HDL is 42, your ratio is 4.3, and that tells a very different metabolic story from what appears on your lab report. Optimal fasting triglycerides are below 100 mg/dL. Most labs don’t flag anything until 200 mg/dL. If your triglycerides are between 100 and 150, that’s a metabolic signal worth addressing now. Calculation 2: PhenoAge, your biological age, calculated from existing lab data Have you ever seen a 50-year-old woman who looks 35? On the other hand, have you seen a 50-year-old woman who looks 75? There are ways to estimate someone’s biological age based on what is happening inside the body, which we can sometimes see reflected on the outside. To me, this calculation is the most fascinating and striking. You can really tell whether you're winning the war against ageing with this calculation. Nine biomarkers that appear in a standard blood panel- albumin, creatinine, glucose, C-reactive protein, lymphocyte percentage, mean cell volume, red cell distribution width, alkaline phosphatase, and white blood cell count- can be combined into a single calculation that estimates your biological age. Morgan Levine and colleagues at Yale developed the PhenoAge algorithm using NHANES III data from 9,926 adults, applying a penalised regression model to narrow 42 candidate biomarkers down to the nine mentioned above that best predicted mortality risk. Those nine biomarkers produce a single number: your biological age. The validation data tell a clear story. In a follow-up cohort of 6,209 nationally representative US adults tracked for up to 12 years, each one-year increase in PhenoAge above chronological age was associated with a 9% increase in all-cause mortality risk, a 10% increase in cardiovascular mortality risk, and a 20% increase in diabetes mortality risk. The authors noted that the clinical biomarker-based PhenoAge is a better predictor of morbidity and mortality than more complex laboratory measures. Every number needed to calculate your PhenoAge is already on your standard blood work. Your doctor has the data. The calculation is never made. “Normal” is not the same as “healthy” Every laboratory has a reference range based on what it normally sees in the population, and values outside that range are flagged. However, “normal” is not the same as “optimal.” It is simply what is statistically common in a population. When the average person is sick and overweight, “normal” does not mean much. For example, fasting insulin up to 25 mIU/mL is “normal.” Uric acid up to 7.0 mg/dL is “normal.” Triglycerides up to 150 mg/dL are within the reference range, meaning “normal.” These ceilings don't reflect optimal metabolic function. They simply reflect what is common. PhenoAge makes this argument very clear. If your biological age is three years older than your chronological age, that won't show up as a flag on a standard lab report, but it should set off an alarm bell that your body is ageing faster inside than the calendar is passing by. When I look at these markers with people, I'm not just looking to see if the results are “normal” or even “optimal.” I'm trying to get an idea of your metabolic trajectory. That is, where are you headed, not just where are you today? What do all these numbers mean? If you keep going in the same direction you’ve been going, without taking action to become healthier, what will happen? What should you do with this information? Start with a conversation with your doctor. Ask them to order fasting insulin alongside your next fasting glucose test. Ask for your triglyceride-to-HDL ratio to be calculated. Ask whether ApoB and uric acid are included in your panel. Ask your doctor to run those tests. For PhenoAge, you can calculate your biological age right now if you have recent blood work. The nine biomarkers needed are included in most standard panels. You'll find a free, accurate calculator here. If your biological age is ahead of your chronological age, you should take action. I offer a comprehensive metabolic assessment that includes all five of these markers and calculations, along with 80 additional biomarkers. It is specifically designed for people who’ve been told their labs are fine but don’t feel fine. If you want to know what your numbers actually mean, you can learn more about that assessment here. You’ve spent years building a life with real purpose. Your body is supposed to give you the energy and strength to live it fully. The right tests and the right calculations are the first step towards understanding what’s actually standing in the way. Follow me on Facebook, Instagram, and visit my LinkedIn for more info! Read more from Michael Donaldson Michael Donaldson, Nutrition Researcher & Health Coach Dr. Michael Donaldson, Ph.D., is a leading voice in plant-based nutrition and lifestyle transformation. With a doctorate from Cornell University and more than two decades of research at Hallelujah Diet, he has helped thousands understand how food can restore health and vitality. Through his coaching platform End Diabetes Now, he guides clients in reversing type 2 diabetes naturally and sustainably. A scientist, entrepreneur, and educator, Dr. Donaldson also founded True Wealth Health Products and formulated Ora-Shield, an organic oral-care blend. His work bridges science, faith, and practical wisdom to help people achieve lasting wellness and purpose.

Written by Sandra Mihailova, Founder Sandra is the founder of A'Ferreira, where she combines science-proven actives with rare Brazilian botanicals to create luxury skincare for mature and sensitive skin. Her formulations are designed to strengthen the skin barrier, deliver lasting hydration, and help defend against everyday environmental stress. We often think of skincare as something we apply to our skin. Yet our skin is constantly responding to what is happening within us. Understanding the connection between stress and skin health may be one of the most important shifts we can make, not only in our skincare routines, but also in the way we care for ourselves. Introduction When people think about healthy skin, they often focus on finding the latest miracle ingredient or following the newest beauty trend. Yet one of the biggest influences on our skin isn't found in a bottle at all. It's stress. Whether it's emotional pressure, environmental challenges, lack of sleep, or simply the demands of modern life, our skin often reflects what we're experiencing long before we notice the first fine line or patch of irritation. Understanding this connection is the first step towards achieving healthier, more resilient skin. As someone who struggled with psoriasis for years, I learned this lesson firsthand. My journey inspired me to study skincare formulation, and what I discovered changed not only my skin but also my understanding of skin health. Your skin is your body's largest organ Our skin is remarkably intelligent. It protects us from environmental damage, regulates temperature, and acts as our first line of defence against harmful bacteria and pollutants. But like every other organ, it responds to what is happening inside our bodies. When we're under prolonged stress, our bodies respond in remarkable ways. We often notice changes in our sleep, mood, and energy levels, and sometimes in our skin too. Research continues to explore the close relationship between our minds and our skin, helping us understand why periods of stress can leave our skin feeling more sensitive, reactive, or slower to recover.[1] Many people notice changes such as increased sensitivity, dryness and dehydration, a dull complexion, breakouts, flares of conditions such as eczema or psoriasis,[2] and fine lines becoming more noticeable. While stress isn't the only factor that influences our skin, it can play an important role in how our skin responds, particularly during prolonged or challenging periods of life. Healthy skin begins with a healthy skin barrier One of the biggest misconceptions in skincare is that stronger products produce better results. In reality, healthy skin starts with protecting the skin barrier. When this barrier becomes compromised, moisture escapes more easily while irritants penetrate more deeply. The result is skin that feels tight, reactive, inflamed, and increasingly difficult to manage. Supporting the skin barrier through gentle cleansing, hydration, antioxidant protection, and consistent care may deliver better long-term results than overly aggressive treatments. Research also suggests that prolonged psychological stress may affect the skin barrier, highlighting the importance of caring for both our skin and our overall wellbeing.[3] Nature and science work best together For years, skincare has often been presented as a choice between natural ingredients and scientific innovation. I believe that's the wrong conversation. Many effective skincare ingredients come directly from nature. Others are the result of decades of scientific research. Strong results can come from thoughtfully combining both. Brazil is home to extraordinary botanical ingredients that have been treasured for generations. When thoughtfully combined with scientifically researched active ingredients, they can help nourish, protect, and strengthen the skin in a way that supports its natural function. Beautiful skin isn't about perfection Social media has created unrealistic expectations about what healthy skin should look like. The reality is that skin changes throughout our lives. Stress, hormones, age, climate, and lifestyle all influence how our skin behaves. Instead of chasing perfection, we should focus on resilience. Healthy skin isn't flawless skin. It's skin that is balanced. Comfortable. Protected. Cared for. A different way of thinking about skin My own experience with psoriasis taught me that skincare is about far more than appearance. It's about confidence, wellbeing, and understanding how our bodies respond to the world around us. By respecting the skin barrier, managing stress where possible, and choosing formulations that combine scientific research with nature's most effective ingredients, we give our skin the best opportunity to thrive. After all, our skin tells a story, not just about our age, but about how we care for ourselves every day. Perhaps healthy skin isn't something we achieve. Perhaps it's something we support, one thoughtful choice at a time. Follow me on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and visit my website for more info! Read more from Sandra Mihailova Sandra Mihailova, Founder Sandra is the founder and skincare formulator behind A'Ferreira, a luxury skincare brand inspired by her journey from England to Brazil and her lifelong experience with dry, sensitive skin and psoriasis. Professionally trained in skincare formulation, she combines science-proven actives with rare Brazilian botanicals to create gentle, high-performance skincare for mature, dehydrated, and stressed skin. Her formulations are designed to strengthen the skin barrier, deliver lasting hydration, and help defend against environmental stress. Through her articles, Sandra shares evidence-based skincare insights, formulation expertise, and practical advice to help others build healthier, more resilient skin. References: [1] The Impact of Psychosocial Stress on Healthy Skin, PubMed. [2] The Role of Psychological Stress in the Pathogenesis of Psoriasis, PubMed. [3] The Impact of Stress on Epidermal Barrier Function: An Evidence-Based Review, PubMed. [5] THG Labs, Stress and Our Skin.

Written by Dr. A. Keith Carreiro, Author, Speaker, Writer, and Creativity Coach A. Keith Carreiro, Ed.D., is a Harvard-trained educator, author, and creativity researcher with more than five decades of teaching experience. Through MindWeaving™, he helps people strengthen creativity and critical thinking while recognizing and releasing the genius within them. Most people have been taught to treat imagination and analysis as competitors: one generates possibilities, while the other closes them down. Yet our most meaningful ideas emerge when imagination, memory, intuition, experience, knowledge, faith, and critical reflection are allowed to interact. MindWeaving™ offers a practical and philosophical framework for understanding that interaction and turning scattered inner threads into ideas, decisions, and works that carry meaning. MindWeaving™ and the legacy of synectics New frameworks do not appear in a vacuum. In the 1950s and 1960s, William J. J. Gordon, George Prince, and their colleagues developed synectics, a method that encourages people to make the unfamiliar familiar and the familiar strange in order to create new connections. Synectics invites analogy, metaphor, and playful thinking, powerful cognitive tools for opening the field of possibility. What is MindWeaving™? MindWeaving™ honors that legacy while extending it. Where synectics helps us generate associations, MindWeaving™ helps us weave them, bringing the dynamic process of interlacing thought, imagination, memory, experience, emotion, intuition, inquiry, knowledge, faith, critical reflection, and discernment into a coherent and meaningful whole. I developed the framework gradually through more than five decades of teaching, research, writing, music, and reflection on human creativity. Again and again, I saw that meaningful creation rarely comes from one isolated ability. A writer does not create through imagination alone. A leader does not solve a complex problem through analysis alone. An educator does not awaken understanding by transferring information alone. Human beings create by bringing many capacities into relationship. MindWeaving™ names that relational process. It is not another productivity formula, a promise of instant inspiration, or a rigid sequence that every person must follow. It is a way of attending to how meaning comes into being. It helps us recognize the inner threads already present, understand how they influence one another, and shape them without reducing creativity to mechanical output. At the heart of the framework is a simple conviction: creativity is not merely manufactured. It is released. We do not force a living pattern onto experience from the outside. We create the conditions in which an emerging pattern can be noticed, tested, strengthened, and given form. In that sense, integration is not imposed; it is released through MindWeaving™. Why does creative thinking need a new framework? Creativity is often described as talent, originality, brainstorming, innovation, or the production of something new. Each of these ideas contains part of the truth, but none is sufficient by itself. A person can generate many unusual ideas without producing anything coherent, responsible, beautiful, or useful. Novelty alone is not meaning. Brainz Magazine has explored the value of creative thinking in everyday life and the importance of balancing critical and creative thinking. MindWeaving™ extends that conversation by asking a deeper question: How do our many ways of knowing and imagining become integrated into something that matters? The question is especially important because modern life fragments attention. We move rapidly among messages, images, tasks, opinions, and demands. We may have more information than ever while possessing less time to dwell with it. Under these conditions, thought can become scattered, reaction can replace reflection, and production can become disconnected from purpose. MindWeaving™ does not ask us to escape complexity. It teaches us to enter complexity more attentively. It helps us gather what appears disconnected, remain open long enough for relationships to emerge, and then exercise the judgment required to form a meaningful response. Why is weaving the right metaphor? The mind does not ordinarily create in a straight line. A remembered conversation may meet an unanswered question. An image from childhood may connect with a present problem. A piece of music may awaken an emotion that gives language to something previously unnamed. A fact may alter a conviction. A failure may reveal a better form. A moment of faith may sustain a work whose destination remains uncertain. A woven fabric gains strength not because every thread is identical, but because different threads cross, hold tension, and contribute to a larger pattern. Human creativity works in a similar way. Imagination opens possibilities. Memory supplies depth. Emotion gives energy and color. Experience tests abstraction against life. Knowledge contributes substance. Inquiry keeps thought alive. Intuition perceives relationships before they can be fully explained. Critical thinking examines coherence and consequence. Faith sustains trust in what is not yet visible. Discernment asks what is true, good, worthy, and faithful to the work that is emerging. The pattern is not always visible at the beginning. It appears through relationship. This is one of the central insights of MindWeaving™: meaning emerges through connection. The five movements of MindWeaving™ Although MindWeaving™ is not a rigid step-by-step method, five recurring movements can help us understand and practice it. These movements may overlap, repeat, or occur in a different order, just as a weaver may return to earlier threads while the pattern develops. 1. Attention: Receive before you produce Creative work begins with attention. Before asking, “What can I make?” we can ask, “What is asking to be noticed?” Attention restores contact with the world, with a face, a phrase, a contradiction, a wound, a possibility, a question, or a moment of beauty. This movement is receptive rather than passive. It requires the discipline to slow down, resist premature conclusions, and notice what hurry would overlook. Many people believe they lack creativity when what they have lost is not imagination but attention. 2. Imagination: Open the field of possibility Imagination asks, “What might be?” It rearranges the given, crosses boundaries, creates alternatives, and allows us to see beyond the immediately visible. It is essential not only to art but also to leadership, science, education, relationships, and moral life. We cannot move toward a better possibility unless we can first imagine it. During this movement, ideas need room to breathe. Judgment applied too early can silence the very possibility that later becomes fruitful. MindWeaving™ therefore distinguishes between opening and evaluating. The first movement welcomes; the later movement tests. 3. Connection: Bring the threads into relationship Creativity often appears when two or more previously separate elements meet. A memory may illuminate a problem. A scientific idea may reshape a story. A spiritual conviction may alter a business decision. An encounter with another person may expose an assumption we did not know we held. Connection does not mean combining everything indiscriminately. It means allowing conversation among different kinds of knowledge and experience. The purpose is not to create complexity for its own sake, but to discover relationships that deepen understanding. 4. Discernment: Test without strangling the idea Critical thinking is sometimes portrayed as the enemy of creativity. In healthy creative practice, it is a partner. It asks whether an idea is coherent, truthful, necessary, responsible, and suited to its purpose. It helps distinguish a living possibility from an attractive distraction. Recent research is consistent with this partnership. A 2025 multicenter study involving 2,433 participants found that creative ability was associated with dynamic switching between brain networks linked to spontaneous thought and cognitive control. The findings suggest that creative strength depends less on one mode defeating the other than on a flexible balance between them. The timing of discernment matters. If judgment arrives before an idea has developed, it can become censorship. If it never arrives, the work may remain shapeless. MindWeaving™ seeks disciplined freedom: enough openness for possibility to emerge and enough rigor for possibility to become meaningful form. 5. Form: Give meaning a body An insight becomes shareable only when it takes form. Form may be a poem, a lesson, a decision, a design, a conversation, a strategy, a melody, a scientific hypothesis, or a changed way of living. Form gives boundaries to possibility so that another person can encounter it. Revision belongs here. Revision is not merely correction; it is renewed seeing. We return to the emerging work and ask what it is becoming, what it still needs, and what must be removed so its deeper pattern can appear. In this movement, the creator is also changed. We do not simply make the work. The work acts upon us as we make it. What makes MindWeaving™ different? MindWeaving™ begins with integration rather than isolation. It does not reduce creativity to divergent thinking, inspiration, technique, intelligence, or personality. It acknowledges that creativity is cognitive, emotional, relational, moral, embodied, temporal, and, for many people, spiritual. It also shifts the central goal. The purpose of creative thinking is not simply to have more ideas. It is to make meaning: to bring perception, possibility, knowledge, and judgment into a form that contributes to understanding and life. Finally, MindWeaving™ treats creativity as participation. We bring intention and discipline, but we also listen. We act, but we remain responsive. We shape the material, and the material answers back. This posture replaces domination with dialogue and frantic production with attentive making. Try this 10-minute MindWeaving™ practice You do not need special materials or a perfect creative environment. Begin with a notebook and ten uninterrupted minutes. Gather three threads. Write down one image or observation, one memory or experience, and one question that currently matters to you. Open possibility. Ask, “What might these three threads reveal if they belonged to the same pattern?” Write freely without correcting yourself. Make one unexpected connection. Link your three threads to something outside them, such as a book, a person, a place, a piece of music, a problem, or an idea from another field. Discern what matters. Underline the sentence or connection that feels most alive. Ask: Is it true? Is it coherent? Why does it matter? Whom might it serve? Give it a small form. Turn the emerging insight into one paragraph, a sketch, a question for further study, a decision, or the opening of a larger work. The purpose is not to produce a masterpiece in ten minutes. It is to experience the movement from scattered material toward meaningful connection. Repeated over time, this practice may strengthen attention, imaginative range, intellectual flexibility, and trust in the developing work. MindWeaving™ in an age of artificial intelligence The rise of artificial intelligence makes this framework more urgent, not less. Machines can now generate language, images, music, summaries, and many kinds of ideas with extraordinary speed. Human creativity, however, is not defined by speed alone. We create from within lived experience. We remember, love, grieve, hope, believe, doubt, choose, and accept responsibility for what we bring into the world. MindWeaving™ can help us use new tools without surrendering the deeper human work of meaning-making. The question is no longer simply, “Can this be generated?” It is also, “Why should this be created? What human reality does it serve? What does it ask of us morally, intellectually, emotionally, and spiritually?” Technology may extend our reach, but discernment must guide our direction. The future of creativity will depend not only on what our tools can do, but on whether we cultivate the wisdom to use them well. Begin with one living question MindWeaving™ begins wherever you are. It may begin with a problem you cannot solve, a story you cannot yet finish, a decision that resists easy answers, a memory that continues to return, or a possibility you have been afraid to follow. Do not demand the whole pattern at once. Attend to the next thread. Let imagination open possibility. Let inquiry deepen it. Let critical thought test it. Let discernment guide it. Then give the emerging meaning a form that can enter the world. In my recent Brainz Magazine interview on MindWeaving™, creative intelligence, and the making of meaning, I offered a question that continues to guide my work, “What has been entrusted to me, and how might I faithfully bring it into the world?” That question is an invitation to all of us. Your creative potential may not arrive as a finished answer. It may first appear as a thread. MindWeaving™ begins when you choose to notice it, follow it, and weave it into meaning. Follow me on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and visit my website for more info! Read more from Dr. A. Keith Carreiro Dr. A. Keith Carreiro, Author, Speaker, Writer, and Creativity Coach A. Keith Carreiro, Ed.D., is a Harvard-trained educator, author, and creativity researcher with more than five decades of teaching experience. Through his MindWeaving™ work, he helps writers, educators, and lifelong learners strengthen their creativity, critical thinking, and capacity for meaningful expression. He is an award-winning author and the founder of Copper Beech Press. His mission is to help people recognize, cultivate, and release the genius within them. References: Watkins, Ellen Jenny. “The Value of Creative Thinking: Possibility and Potential in All Parts of Your Life.” Brainz Magazine, February 23, 2024. Karatza, Konstantina. “Balancing Critical and Creative Thinking for Effective Leadership.” Brainz Magazine, July 12, 2023. Synecticsworld. “Our Story.” Prince, George M. “What Is Different About Synectics.” Synecticsworld. Chen, Qunlin, et al. “Dynamic Switching Between Brain Networks Predicts Creative Ability.” Communications Biology, vol. 8, 2025. National Institute of Standards and Technology. “Generative Artificial Intelligence.” Carreiro, A. Keith. “Dr. A. Keith Carreiro Interview on MindWeaving™, Creative Intelligence, and the Making of Meaning.” Brainz Magazine, 2026. Carreiro, A. Keith. Official website.

Miranda Jane is a somatic coach and creator of the ND Friendly Tarot cards, supporting late-identified Autistic and ADHD adults as they reconnect with their bodies, understand their needs, and build lives that feel more authentic. Drawing on their training in Somatic Experiencing and counseling, Miranda works at the intersection of neurodivergence and trauma. Their approach combines nervous system support, radical self-acceptance, and creative tools that make healing and personal growth more accessible. In this interview, Miranda shares their own journey of late identification, the challenges many neurodivergent adults face after years of masking, and how somatic practices and the ND Friendly Tarot can help people trust themselves, accommodate their needs, and live with greater self-compassion. Miranda Jane, Neurodivergent Affirming Nervous System Coach Who is Miranda Jane? First of all, I’m a late-identified Autistic ( just figured that out a few years ago) and ADHDer (learned that in my mid-30’s). I’ve always been very physical. I took dance lessons and made up my own choreography as a kid, and even spent a few years doing Roller Derby with TXRD in Austin, TX. I went through a profound burnout with health consequences in college (as so many neurodivergent people do) and spent the next twenty years waiting tables and trying to figure out why daily life was so much harder for me than for other people. I eventually went back to school and got my Master’s in Counseling and trained in SE, which was the one thing that had really helped me to put my PTSD into remission and start living in my body again. Now I’m a coach and creative, and my mission is to help late-identified Autistic and ADHD people listen to their bodies and trust themselves again. I love that work, but as an entrepreneur I wanted to make a bigger impact than I could working one-on-one, so I designed a special neurodivergent (ND) affirming tarot deck and am working on other creative projects like that. I know counseling and coaching are not for everyone, and I want to find ways to bring opportunities for healing and growth in ways that are more accessible. What inspired you to specialise in supporting late-identifying neurodivergent adults? As long as I can remember, I felt different from other people, and like I didn’t fit in. I regularly suffered breakdowns and had unusual physical health problems. My brain function was unpredictable, and sometimes I felt smart and capable, but other times it was like I couldn’t get the lights to turn on in my brain! I had to get very creative in how I lived my life, and particularly how I navigated work and relationships. When I finally learned I was Autistic and had ADHD, it made a world of difference, and it became a special interest for me. I had always felt like I was the problem, and suddenly I understood I’d just been expecting the wrong things from myself. When I learned how many undiagnosed and late-identified NDs commit suicide, I think it kind of radicalized me. I want to do whatever I can to help people realize it is OK to be exactly who they are. How does your approach differ from traditional services for Autistic and ADHD adults? My clients often come to me believing that they are the problem, and that they need to learn to be different. And unfortunately, that’s the message they’ve received from “helping professionals” in more mainstream spaces. Instead, I embrace the idea of “radical acceptance” and invite my clients to accept themselves exactly as they are. I use somatic techniques, helping my clients listen to their bodies and learn how to feel their feelings. I use tools like the Safe and Sound Protocol and the Rest and Restore Protocol, which are therapeutic audio programs designed to support the nervous system. I also help people update core beliefs that no longer feel useful or accurate to them, like “I should be different” or “I need too much.” Because therapy and coaching are often unappealing to Autistics and AuDHDers, I created the ND Friendly Tarot so people can still get my messages even without working directly with me. What inspired you to create the ND Friendly Tarot cards, and how are they different from regular Tarot cards? Well, at a certain point I realized I was having to do the same work with most of my late-identifying clients. They had been masking their neurodivergence their whole lives without realizing it, and now that they understood they were Autistic and ADHD, they went through waves of grief and relief. They struggled to believe they were allowed to have the needs and limits that they had, and repeatedly burned themselves out trying to do too much. They had imposter syndrome, and didn’t think they deserved support or accommodations. The work we were doing was radical self-acceptance and self-compassion. It was about understanding themselves, so they could adjust their systems and environments to support themselves better. It was learning about neurodivergence, and finally feeling like a “normal AuDHDer” instead of an extraterrestrial or a “bad person.” And it was life-changing. My neighbor Shelby Glaser had been giving me these amazing Tarot readings that were so healing and just blew my mind. And one day the idea hit me. I had to make a tarot deck that was all about Autism and ADHD and get it out in the world. What are the biggest challenges your clients face when they come to you, and how do you help them overcome those? I work with people at the intersection of neurodivergence and trauma, where a lot of people have dissociated from their physical existence and only identify with their minds. This leaves them vulnerable in many ways, and I want to give them access to their physical sensations and emotions so they can have more accurate personal information as they’re making decisions and navigating their lives. It’s a pretty common experience (for Autistic people especially) to hate feeling their feelings, or to fear that their emotions are dangerous. There are good reasons for that, but it doesn’t have to stay that way. When we accommodate the neurodivergence, bring support to the nervous system, and directly address the experiences that led them to fear feelings, things start to shift. How do you help clients stop masking and start living authentically? Actually, I think the ND Tarot is great for that. So many of us don’t even realize we’re masking and people-pleasing; we’re “performing human” because just being authentic wasn’t a safe option earlier in our lives. When you do an ND Friendly Tarot spread, it helps you question that default way of being and double-check to see what you really want and need. What types of measurable changes or breakthroughs do your clients typically experience? The ability to stay present for more and more of their lives. To have challenging conversations with their romantic partners. To have a meltdown and then recover, without going into a shame spiral. Sometimes to accommodate their needs in enough time that the meltdown doesn’t even happen! Going from almost constant self-loathing and thoughts of escape (divorce, suicide, quitting their job) to living a life that feels manageable, and even sometimes fun. It’s basically the coolest job in the world for me to get to witness this stuff! My clients are my absolute heroes; they inspire me daily. As hard as the stuff we talk about is, we spend a surprising amount of time laughing! Who is your ideal client and how do they know they’re ready to work with you? I’m kind of the coach of last resort for a lot of people. My clients tend to be “professional” clients, or experts at going to therapy. They’ve been in therapy and coaching for decades, and read every self-help book on the shelf. But when they start to get neurocurious and wonder if they might be Autistic or ADHD, they crave something different. They want to stop trying to get better at living a life that doesn’t fit, and instead custom-build one that does. They’re ready to work with me if they’re willing to practice accepting themselves exactly as they are, even if they don’t understand how to do that yet. If someone is feeling stuck, overwhelmed, or “burnt out” as a neurodivergent adult, what is the one action you want them to take right now? It’s kind of a thought experiment. I know this is crazy, but I want you to close your eyes and just imagine that whatever you’re going through, it’s ok to be who and how you are, and nothing needs to change about you. If you think about it like a math problem, stop making yourself the variable you’re solving for. Let yourself be the known quantity that is what it is, and let your environment, systems, and ways of moving through the world be the variables you can change. Then head over to Etsy and get yourself an ND Friendly Tarot deck, or go to our website and book a session with me or my business partner, Amy Noyes! We can’t wait to meet you. Visit my website for more info! Read more from Miranda Jane

Every entrepreneur has a story. Few know how to transform that story into a media asset that builds credibility, authority, and long-term business growth. In this exclusive feature, America's Supermom, bestselling author, speaker, and Zondra TV producer LaChelle Adkins shares how overcoming 13 years of depression became the foundation of a powerful media platform that now inspires women around the world. More than a success story, this article demonstrates how The Media Access Method™ by Zondra TV empowers entrepreneurs to transform their experiences into valuable media assets, establish authority beyond social media, and build a media ecosystem that continues to create opportunities long after the cameras stop rolling. Your story is more valuable than you think Entrepreneurs have been conditioned to believe that success comes from chasing followers, feeding algorithms, and posting more content on social media. But the marketplace has changed. Algorithms shift, platforms become saturated, and content disappears in hours. Many entrepreneurs unknowingly build their entire brand on platforms they do not own. At Zondra TV, we’ve watched this happen for years. That’s why we’ve evolved beyond being a television network. Today, we are a Media Access Company, helping entrepreneurs, authors, coaches, speakers, nonprofits, and business leaders gain strategic access to media that increases discoverability, strengthens credibility, and positions them as authorities in their industries. Television remains an important part of that strategy, but it simply isn’t the entire strategy anymore. Our mission has always been to be the Home of Positive Programming. Today, that mission has expanded to helping purpose driven entrepreneurs create a permanent media presence that continues working for them long after a social media post has disappeared. No one illustrates that transformation better than longtime Zondra TV producer LaChelle Adkins. When your greatest struggle becomes your greatest asset For years, LaChelle, like many others, believed her struggles would make her unworthy of making a meaningful impact in the world. After battling depression for 13 years, she faced moments that tested her resilience, confidence, and sense of worth. Those challenges became the foundation of her purpose, to help other women, and redefined her American Dream. Today, millions know LaChelle Adkins as America’s Supermom. Yet her greatest achievement isn’t becoming an author, speaker, podcast host, or television producer. Her greatest achievement was choosing to tell the story she once believed would disqualify her. That decision changed everything. Your story isn’t simply something that happened to you. It’s one of the most valuable media assets you already own. The difference between visibility and authority Many entrepreneurs assume they need more visibility. Often, what they really need is greater authority. Visibility gets attention. Authority earns trust. Visibility generates impressions. Authority generates opportunities. Visibility may bring followers. Authority attracts partnerships, speaking engagements, media interviews, referrals, and clients. That distinction is the foundation of The Media Access Method™. Rather than helping entrepreneurs simply appear on television, we help them build an ecosystem of media assets that continually reinforce their expertise across multiple channels, including television, streaming, press, interviews, digital publications, commercials, podcasts, micro networks, and branded content. Together, these assets become a permanent digital footprint that people can discover long after today’s social media trends have changed. Building a media ecosystem LaChelle didn’t stop after launching one television show. She built an ecosystem. Her television program, Reel Life Without Excuses, became the foundation for something much larger. She expanded into Keep It Reel TV, creating a Micro Network that gives other creators an opportunity to share their own stories. She also developed her transformational framework, FRESH Start, helping women release guilt, rediscover their worth, and move confidently into purpose. Each platform supports the next, each piece of content reinforces the others, and each media asset increases her authority. That is what Media Access looks like in action. Redefining the American Dream Society has often taught women that they must choose between building a successful career and raising a successful family. LaChelle rejected that belief. “I believed I had to choose between motherhood and a career. There wasn’t room for me to do both.” Instead, she chose authenticity and transformed personal adversity into public purpose. “The ‘America’s Supermom’ brand became more than motherhood. It redefined my American Dream.” Today, she serves as a bestselling author, international speaker, podcast host, television producer, and media platform owner. Every opportunity builds upon the last because every media asset works together. From survival mode to significance “I spent so many days functioning in survival mode,” says Adkins. “The greatest transformation wasn’t becoming an author, speaker, podcast host, or TV producer. It was learning to recognize my worth despite years of struggle.” That lesson now serves thousands of women. Her work encourages people to forgive themselves, stop allowing guilt to define their future, and recognize that authenticity creates influence. When your story becomes authentic, your message becomes memorable. When your message becomes memorable, media opportunities naturally begin to multiply. The Media Access Method™ LaChelle’s journey demonstrates the principles behind Zondra TV’s Media Access philosophy. Own your story before you build your brand: Authenticity builds trust faster than perfection. Your experiences become your greatest competitive advantage when you embrace them instead of hiding them. Turn your story into media assets: One story can become a television show, an interview, a podcast, a press release, a keynote presentation, a branded streaming channel, articles, commercials, and educational content. When strategically developed, your story becomes intellectual property that continues creating opportunities for years to come. Build authority across multiple media channels: Social media should support your business, not become your business. Entrepreneurs who diversify their media presence create greater stability, discoverability, and influence. Why Media Access matters For decades, small businesses have been taught to focus almost exclusively on social media. While social platforms certainly have value, they should never be the only place where your expertise lives. Every interview, television episode, article, commercial, press release, and branded streaming program becomes part of your permanent digital footprint. Instead of renting attention from someone else’s algorithm, you begin owning media assets that continue building authority long into the future. That is the difference between exposure and Media Access. More than television At Zondra TV, we are no longer simply producing shows. We are helping entrepreneurs build authority through strategic Media Access. Our goal isn’t simply to help clients appear on television. Our goal is to help them create media assets that establish credibility, increase discoverability, protect their intellectual property, and generate opportunities across local, national, and global markets. LaChelle Adkins represents exactly what that future looks like. She didn’t just tell her story, she transformed it into a platform. She didn’t just build a television show, she built a media ecosystem. She didn’t simply gain visibility, she built lasting authority. Your story has the power to do far more than inspire others. When developed strategically, it becomes the foundation for your brand, influence, and legacy. Your story is your superpower. The question is no longer whether your story deserves to be told. The question is whether you’re ready to turn it into lasting Media Authority through The Media Access Method™ by Zondra TV. To learn more about how authors, coaches, and speakers can get their brands featured on TV, click here to book a one to one call with Zondra Evans. To watch Reel Life Without Excuses and Keep It Reel TV, visit here.

Written by Helen Kenworthy, Artistic Director Helen champions the arts as a tool for change. Now, as CEO of RYTC Creatives CIC and Give Get Go Education, she mentors young people, creates pathways for them to thrive in the arts, and helps launch successful careers. There is something that happens when a young person steps onto a stage, speaks a line with conviction, moves their body through a rehearsed sequence, or delivers something they have worked on to an audience that is actually listening. Something shifts. It is not simply performance. It is a young person discovering, often for the first time, that they can hold space, that their voice carries, and that who they are is worth paying attention to. Confidence is one of the most talked about qualities in youth development and one of the least understood. It is often described as something a young person either has or does not have, as though it were fixed, innate, and beyond the reach of those who arrived without it. But confidence is not a personality trait. It is a lived experience. It grows through doing, through trying, through receiving honest feedback, through failing and returning, and through being trusted with something real enough to stretch what a young person believes they are capable of. The performing arts offer one of the most powerful environments for this kind of growth. Drama, dance, music, spoken word, physical theatre, film, and storytelling all ask young people to bring themselves into the work. Not a polished, edited, acceptable version of themselves, but their actual presence, their actual voice, their actual body, imagination, and emotional life. This is both the challenge and the gift. It is uncomfortable in ways that matter and transformative in ways that last. Beyond confidence, the performing arts develop something equally important, practical life skills. Communication, collaboration, discipline, adaptability, empathy, problem-solving, and the ability to be present under pressure are not incidental outcomes of creative training. They are at its very core. These are the skills that employers seek, that relationships depend on, and that young people carry with them into every room they enter for the rest of their lives. Why confidence must be built, not assumed Many young people are told they should be more confident. They are encouraged to speak up, put themselves forward, believe in themselves, and take up more space. But telling a young person to be confident without giving them the experiences through which confidence genuinely develops is like telling someone to be stronger without ever giving them anything to lift. The instruction is meaningless without the conditions that make it possible. Confidence is built through accumulated evidence. A young person becomes more confident when they have enough real experiences of trying something difficult, managing it, receiving honest feedback, trying again, and gradually doing it better. Each of those moments becomes a piece of evidence they carry with them, evidence that they are capable, that effort leads somewhere, and that the discomfort of being seen is survivable and often worth it. The challenge for many young people is that the environments they move through do not consistently offer this kind of experience. Academic settings reward correct answers more than courageous attempts. Social environments punish vulnerability. The young people who most need experiences that build confidence are often the ones who have the fewest opportunities to access them. The performing arts interrupt this pattern. They create structured, supported spaces where trying is the point, where growth is visible, and where a young person’s presence and contribution genuinely matter. What the performing arts really develop It is tempting to think of the performing arts primarily in terms of talent, those who can sing, act, dance, or perform at a level that impresses. But this misses almost everything that makes creative arts education genuinely valuable for young people. The performing arts are not primarily about producing polished performers. They are about developing whole human beings through the experience of creative practice. In a well-designed performing arts environment, a young person develops: Deep listening to a director, to fellow performers, to an audience, and to themselves. The ability to receive and act on feedback without collapsing under it. Preparation and consistency, the discipline of showing up and doing the work. The capacity to support others within a shared creative endeavour. Resilience under pressure, managing the vulnerability of publicly performing something that required courage to attempt privately. Emotional range and the confidence to bring their full self into a space. An understanding of the relationship between practice, effort, and genuine progress. These are not soft skills. They are foundational human capacities that shape how a young person functions in relationships, workplaces, communities, and their own inner life. That knowledge does not stay on the stage. It travels with them everywhere they go. Creative expression as a pathway to self-discovery For many young people, the performing arts offer something they cannot easily find elsewhere, a legitimate space to explore who they are. Adolescence is a period of identity formation, of trying on different versions of the self, and of asking questions about values, belonging, purpose, and voice. Most environments do not make room for this exploration in any structured or supported way. The performing arts do. Through character work, physical practice, storytelling, improvisation, and creative collaboration, young people encounter aspects of themselves they might not have known were there. They discover an emotional range they had not previously expressed. They find that they can be funny, moving, commanding, or tender in front of others. They learn that their perspective has value and that their imagination is a genuine creative resource, not something to be managed or suppressed. This is especially significant for young people who have struggled to find belonging in more traditional educational or social settings. For those who have been overlooked, underestimated, or defined by what they find difficult rather than what they are capable of, a performing arts space can become the first environment where they feel genuinely seen. Being seen, truly and generously, is one of the most powerful catalysts for confidence and growth that a young person can experience. How the Creative Pathway Methodology brings this to life Through RYTC Creatives CIC, The RYTC, Education Selection Box, ESB, and Give Get Go Education, GGGE, the Creative Pathway Methodology creates a living example of what it looks like when performing arts, education, and career development are brought together with the whole young person at the centre. It does not treat creative expression as an enrichment activity that sits alongside more serious learning. It treats it as a core environment through which young people develop confidence, capability, and a credible sense of their own future. The RYTC is at the heart of this creative work. It offers young people access to high-quality, brave, and inclusive performing arts experiences that are designed not only to develop their craft but also to develop them as individuals. Through rehearsal, performance, production, and the daily practice of creative participation, young people build the confidence, discipline, communication skills, and self-awareness that carry them far beyond the stage. The RYTC understands that what happens in the rehearsal room is preparation not only for performance but also for life. ESB supports the learning dimension of this journey, holding educational development and mental wellness alongside each other. It recognises that a young person’s ability to engage with creative practice, or any practice, is shaped by how they are doing on the inside. By attending to both learning and wellbeing, ESB creates the conditions in which young people can show up to their creative work with greater openness, stability, and readiness to grow. GGGE connects the confidence and skills built through the performing arts to real-world opportunities. It helps young people understand that the qualities they are developing through creative practice, including communication, presence, adaptability, resilience, and the ability to collaborate and lead, are exactly the qualities that open doors professionally. Through GGGE, creative growth becomes the foundation for career confidence, and young people begin to see a future in which their talent, voice, and contribution have a genuine place. Together, these three strands ensure that the confidence built through creative expression does not remain confined to a single space or moment. It becomes part of a wider journey, one that holds learning, creativity, wellness, and future opportunity together as inseparable parts of what it means to help a young person genuinely thrive. How to know if the performing arts are the right pathway for a young person The performing arts are not the right fit for every young person in the same way, at the same time, or through the same route. But they are often the right fit for more young people than anyone initially expects, including the young people themselves. Recognising the signs that a young person might thrive through creative expression is one of the most important things an educator, mentor, or parent can do. The performing arts may be the right pathway for a young person who: Finds it easier to express themselves through movement, storytelling, or performance than through traditional academic formats. Has a vivid imagination and a natural tendency to inhabit characters, stories, or other ways of seeing the world. Struggles with confidence in formal settings but comes alive in more creative or expressive environments. Has energy, presence, or a quality of attention that traditional classrooms do not know what to do with. Is drawn to music, film, drama, dance, or any form of performance, even without formal training or encouragement. Feels a strong desire to be seen, heard, and understood but has not yet found an environment where that feels possible. Responds well to feedback when it is delivered within a relationship of trust and genuine care. Is looking for a community of peers who share a creative orientation and a sense of purpose. Has experienced difficulty in more traditional educational settings but has not lost their curiosity or will to try. Needs a space that values who they are becoming, not only what they can currently produce. These are not prerequisites for entry into the performing arts. They are invitations to look more closely at a young person and ask whether a creative pathway might offer them something that other environments have not. The answer, more often than not, is yes. 11 ways the performing arts build confidence and practical life skills It gives young people a reason to use their voice: The performing arts create structured, purposeful opportunities for young people to speak, express themselves, and be heard in ways that most environments never offer. Over time, a young person who practises using their voice in creative spaces begins to carry that capacity into every other area of their life. It builds confidence through repeated, real experience: Confidence is not built through encouragement alone. It is built through the accumulated experience of trying, managing, reflecting, and trying again. The rehearsal process gives young people exactly this kind of repeated, real practice in a space where growth is the goal and mistakes are part of the work. It develops deep listening and present moment awareness: Performing arts training asks young people to listen to directors, fellow performers, the energy of an audience, and themselves. This quality of attention, practised consistently through creative work, becomes one of the most transferable and valuable skills a young person can develop. It teaches discipline and the relationship between effort and outcome: Preparing for a performance requires showing up consistently, working through difficulty, and understanding that quality emerges through practice rather than talent alone. Young people who experience this connection between effort and outcome in a creative context carry that understanding with them into education, work, and life. It strengthens communication across every register: Through performance, young people learn to communicate not only with words but also with their bodies, timing, expressions, and presence. These are dimensions of communication that most formal education never explicitly develops, and they are precisely the ones that matter most in real human interaction. It builds empathy through character and storytelling: Stepping into a character, exploring a story from the inside, or giving voice to an experience that is not one’s own develops the capacity to imagine other lives with genuine curiosity and care. This is not only an artistic skill. It is one of the most important human qualities a young person can develop. It develops resilience through the practice of trying in public: Performing in front of others requires a particular kind of courage, the courage to be seen attempting something, to receive feedback, and to return and try again. Young people who develop this capacity through the performing arts build a form of resilience that extends far beyond the creative space. It teaches collaboration and the value of shared endeavour: Theatre, dance, music, and film are almost always collective practices. They require young people to bring their individual contributions into relationship with others in service of something shared. Learning to collaborate generously, support others, and subordinate ego to the work is one of the most practical and lasting lessons the performing arts offer. It creates a safe space to take creative and emotional risks: In a well-supported performing arts environment, risk is not only permitted. It is encouraged. Young people are invited to try things they are unsure of, explore emotional territory they have not visited before, and discover what becomes possible when they move beyond what feels safe and familiar. It connects creative identity to professional possibility: The performing arts open young people’s eyes to a wide range of creative and professional pathways in performance, production, direction, writing, design, education, events, media, and beyond. When a young person begins to see their creative identity as something with professional value, their relationship with their own future changes. It helps young people believe they are worth watching: Perhaps the most profound gift of the performing arts is the experience of standing in front of others and discovering that what you bring is enough, that your presence, voice, imagination, and effort matter. For young people who have spent years doubting this, that discovery can be genuinely life-changing. Conclusion Confidence is not a gift that some young people are born with, and others must do without. It is something that grows through experience, practice, being trusted with something real, and discovering, again and again, that the effort was worth making. The performing arts offer one of the richest environments for this growth found anywhere in education or youth development. When young people are given access to high-quality, inclusive, and well-supported creative arts experiences, they do not only become better performers. They become more confident communicators, more empathetic collaborators, more resilient individuals, and more purposeful human beings. These are not outcomes that stay on the stage. They travel with a young person into every space they enter and every future they build. Through the Creative Pathway Methodology, across RYTC Creatives CIC, Education Selection Box, and Give Get Go Education, young people are supported in discovering what becomes possible when creative expression is taken seriously as a route to confidence, capability, and a life they can genuinely imagine themselves living. The performing arts are not a luxury for the few. They are a pathway for the many, especially for those who have been waiting, sometimes for a very long time, for a space that was made for them. To explore more about how the performing arts build confidence and life skills in young people, visit here. Follow me on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and visit my website for more info! Read more from Helen Kenworthy Helen Kenworthy, Artistic Director Helen Kenworthy’s career embodies the transformative power of the arts, from her early roles in the prestigious West End with Bill Kenwright to her impactful work in regional theatre. As manager of the Oxfordshire Youth Arts Partnership, she created pathways for young people to thrive in the arts, with many going on to successful careers. Now at RYTC Creatives CIC and Give Get Go Education, Helen continues to inspire and mentor the next generation of theatre-makers and community leaders, offering invaluable opportunities for growth and professional development.