Business Fit Magazine May 2020 Issue 1

Mar/Apr 2020

Covid-19 Resilience Toolkit

Key Steps

Born Under an Anvil

The Beauty of Metal Sculpture How to Take the First Steps to

Becoming a Conscious Leader

Is Mother Nature

trying to tell us something?

www.businessfitmagazine.com

a r p o h C v i j n a S Live , r e i ealth H e v i L

rpose u P h wit e v i L , ier Happ

S.H.E is an organization which functions at local, national and international levels to advance women in personal and business development. It focusses on equality for women and girls through advocacy, education, philanthropy and much more. Using SHE’s three pillars of Mindset, Body and Spirituality, we create business with amazing purpose aligned with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals for the world.

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Dear readers, There was a time when almost everyone was able to do what they wanted - to travel everywhere, when we didn’t realise that even the smallest things, like going to the grocery store, was an act of freedom.

Then one day, it all changed. Everything stopped. We could no longer go and watch sunsets from a beautiful beach. We were unable to travel anywhere. We couldn’t even meet with our closest family or friends.

One day, we woke up and our freedom had vanished, our lives were completely changed.

Social distancing laws were brought in, curfews introduced, businesses shut down. One virus had put our entire society at risk.

These days in quarantine have taught me many things and I see this situation as a wakeup call to humanity.

We have seen how something which started in a city far away from us, reached us in such a short space of time, gathering speed and momentum like a snowball, resulting in a world in chaos. Some speak of conspiracy theories, which I will address at another time; others see opportunity to make money by overcharging, while others have lost their jobs and their businesses.

But I have also seen compassion and caring – people uniting to create help centres for

people in need. I invite you to have a good read through this issue of the magazine and see for yourself the opportunities we all have to grow as individuals and become committed to grow our community with love and respect. The only difference now is how we act at this time, the empathy we show not only to ourselves but to others, developing our social intelligence.

I, and the rest of the Business Fit team are doing all we can to help others, through the tools we have, our magazine and our website, particularly the blog, which we have adapted to provide tips, ideas and advice from professionals, to help people through these Coronavirus times.

My question to you is – how will you emerge from this situation? Will it be in self-centred mode or will you start developing your social intelligence to become the leader of your own life, helping others to see the greatness within and by building businesses with purpose in this new era?

A special thank you to Viola for connecting us with amazing contributors to help our readers in these challenging times.

With love, stay safe, Verónica

Verónica Sosa Publisher www.businessfitmagazine.com

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Book Review - p54 Born Under An Anvil The Art of Thalia Farendla of JiPL Arts Karen Corinne Herceg

FIT FEATURES

Book Review - p20 Believers the Achievers Dr. Amit Kaur Puri

What is Required to Grow a Business?

Malish p10 Real Estate in times of Coronavirus Oscar J Morales Jr p22 Breath in the Time of Corona Dr Ela Manga p16 Inner Leadership Barbara Dalle Pezze p28

Navigating the sea of Uncertainty Joe St Clair p6 Healthy Brain – Happy Children Stephanie Brillant p48

4

Sanjiv Chopra p30

Close your eyes and wake up!

Ismael Cala p46

Leadership and the Unknown Debra Sunderland p36 Simple, focused action Arnon Barnes p52

Publisher & Founder Verónica Sosa Business Fit International Advisory Board Viola Edward Vikki Thomas

REACH OUT For information on advertising or placing an article in Business Fit Contact us: Email: hello@businessfitmagazine.com editor@businessfitmagazine.com Phone: +32 468 218 887

General Editorial Coordinator Claire Morley

Emergency Breathing Kit for Parents and Kids JoAnn Lowell p40

Art and Design Director Leo Collier-Bett Mother Nature’s Exasperation Claire Morley p24

Graphic Designer Adverts Javier Sanchez

Health

Covid-19 Resilience Toolkit Dr Anbreen SlamaChaudhry p60

Contributors Dr. Amit Kaur Puri Dr Anbreen Slama-Chaudhry Arnon Barnes Barbara Dalle Pezze Claire Morley Debra Sunderland Dr Ela Manga Ismael Cala JoAnn Lowell Joe St Clair Karen Corinne Herceg Malish Oscar J Morales Jr Stephanie Brillant Vikki Thomas

Copyright © 2020 by Verónica Sosa.

All rights reserved.

This Magazine or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher.

M-20318-2017

5

Body

Navigating the

Sea of

Uncertainty

6

Freelance Writer, Motivational Coach, Reiki Healer and qualified Hypnotherapist, Joe St Clair, explains where he sees links between the 17 Sustainable Development Goals, EMF and Covid-19 and gives our readers some tips on how to stay healthy in our current world We are living in extraordinary times and most of us are now witnessing events and situations around us that are rocking the very foundations that once provided our stability and security.

Everything is in a state of change and transition and no-one is sure when ‘normality’ will return.

As I write these words the whole of the UK, and most of the world, is in lockdown while we try and navigate our way through a sea of uncertainty created by the Coronavirus outbreak, climate change and political and economic upheaval. It seems like our lives have been overturned by events we have no control over and it is hard to see light at the end of the tunnel. For many people these events can be very frightening because of the unprecedented speed at which change is occurring and the uncertainties of the future.

For most of my life I have taken an active interest in global issues and world affairs and I have always endeavoured to look at the ‘big picture’ or what might be termed a ‘holistic’ view of the world around us. I have tried to find the meanings and causes behind situations and events and to try and distil truth from rumour and reality from theory. My own foundation and sense of security has always been my personal ethical and moral ‘spiritual compass’ that guides me in everything I do.

Over the last few years I have been privileged to work with many leading figures on the world stage and have had the freedom to conduct my own research on many global issues. Over the last two years in particular I have tended to focus on two major topics – the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG’s) and the dangers of EMF (electromagnetic frequencies). More recently I have been looking deeper into the Coronavirus pandemic, Covid-19. At first, I treated these three topics as being isolated and different. But after extensive research I now believe that all three topics are interconnected.

At first sight the distinctions appear to be separate. The SDG’s are the 17 critical issues that were identified by the United Nations in 2015 as requiring global action and global resolution by 2030. EMF consists of electromagnetic waves

which are synchronised oscillations of electric and magnetic fields harnessed by mankind to enable telecommunications and other services to operate. And, as we are all now very aware, Covid-19 is a new form of virus within the ‘Coronavirus’ family that is extremely contagious and has now become a global pandemic. So what factors link these issues? The answer is actually very simple.

As humans we are all bio-energetic beings.

That means that at the quantum level we are not composed of ‘matter’ at all. We are just fluctuations of energy held together by a quantum field that has an intrinsic coherence. Our body is composed of approximately 50 trillion cells that are in constant communication with each other through electricity in the form of bio-energy. But even our cells are ultimately just fluctuations of energy pulsing at different frequencies.

Although our origins go back approximately 19 million years, what might be termed ‘modern man’ has only been around for approximately 100,000 years. For almost all of our history we have lived in close proximity to nature and our bodies and minds have resonated with the frequencies of the natural world. In particular we have been attuned to the natural frequency of planet Earth, known as the ‘Schumann frequency’. When we are in sync with natural frequencies our cells are able to communicate optimally with each other to exchange information. This is particularly important when it comes to ‘healing’. Our own bodies are incredibly proficient self-healers if they are allowed to be. But, if any external agency or unwanted frequency interferes with our bodies natural healing and self-sustaining frequencies, then our ability to heal ourselves is compromised. And, in a nutshell, this is what links seemingly disconnected global issues together.

If we start with the SDG’s then despite being categorised under 17 different headings, they all, at root level, refer to global issues which are damaging our planet and also damaging us.

Whether it is climate change, pollution in our cities, plastic in the oceans, deforestation or disease, a lot of the causative factors for these issues are due to our disconnection with nature and living in an ‘unnatural’ environment which surrounds us with a large number of manmanipulated frequencies. While these provide us with many useful technologies, they also disrupt and interfere with the frequencies we need to maintain our bodily health.

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Body When it comes to EMF and Covid-19 there is an obvious similarity between the two. They are both completely invisible to human eyes. If we could actually ‘see’ harmful EMF frequencies permeating through the air it would appear to our eyes as a dirty yellow ‘electrosmog’ and if we could see the Covid-19 virus it would probably appear as a cloud of tiny dust-like particles in the air. The point is that if we could see them, they would be much easier to avoid. But because they are invisible, they are able to invade our bodies without our knowledge.

Electro-magnetic frequencies have increasingly been a part of our lives for the last 250 years starting with the discovery of electricity and culminating in the latest 5G technology which is about to saturate the planet. Despite the reassurances from Telecoms Companies and the Government that 5G is ‘safe’ and within the published ‘safety limits’, I believe there are over 200,000 clinical studies with serious concerns over the safety of 5G frequencies to our cellular health. Whereas, conversely I could only find a small number of studies claiming these frequencies are safe. Most worrying are the studies which state EMF frequencies compromise our immune system - our critically important natural defence against external threats. Sadly, but perhaps not surprisingly, it seems that greed and profit outweigh concern for human health.

We need to adopt a number of strategies to combat these unwanted frequencies

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In order to stay healthy and protect ourselves and our loved ones from harm we therefore need to adopt a number of strategies to combat these unwanted frequencies which damage our bodies and to boost the frequencies that keep us healthy. Here are my very simple but very effective recommendations for the best ways to achieve this:

1. The priority is to protect and enhance your immune system through a healthy diet and by avoiding synthetic food. Take regular exercise and always maintain a positive attitude.

2. The next priority is to raise your vibration to the highest level possible through a variety of regular beneficial practices (meditation, mindfulness, conscious breathing, yoga etc. which are all ‘high vibration’ activities).

3. Spend as much time in nature as possible and away from electronic gadgets, mobile phones, wifi, smart meters and other sources of EMF. 4. Avoid ‘negative’ people and surround yourself with people who inspire and uplift you.

5. Replace ‘fear’ with ‘positivity’. Fear is a ‘low vibration’ emotion that is more contagious and damaging than any virus.

In summary, the more we become consciously aware of ourselves as energetic beings requiring positive vibrational frequencies to keep us healthy, the more inner and outer strength we develop to combat the frequencies which damage us.

Surround yourself with people who inspire and uplift you

Joe St Clair is a Freelance Writer, Motivational Coach, Reiki Healer and qualified Hypnotherapist. He also gives regular talks and workshops on Spiritual themes and has written hundreds of articles and five books.

Previously a Management Consultant and Managing Director of the ‘Laszlo Institute’, Joe is currently UK Director of ‘The World Sustainable Development Forum’ (WSDF-UK) and an Ambassador for the ‘Earth Protectors’.

9

Business

What is required to

GROW

a Business

Our regular contributors, Malish, have developed a series of four articles taking a detailed look at Business Development during 2020, here they bring our readers the first looking at what is required to grow a business and how to adapt in these challenging times of the Coronavirus

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Is a great business idea the solution and a guarantor for success? Are entrepreneurs born or can anyone become a great business owner and leader? Are businesses best created in isolation and alone or with the help of consultants, coaches, business partners, family and friends?

All businesses are facing unprecedented challenges nowadays. Of course, that’s what every generation would say of their time, but if you look at globalisation, environmental issues, political and religious tension, Artificial Intelligence, bioweapons or lately the Coronavirus, we are definitely faced with new hurdles. Whereas challenges in the past might have been restricted to one economy or only affected the social lives of some, what we see today is impacting every creature on planet earth and has tremendous effects on our businesses – whether big or small, whether we own them, manage them or are simply employed.

A lot of businesses will disappear, but also new ones will rise out of the crisis. In this article, we want to take you on a journey and discuss the question what is required to grow a business and how to adapt to the current economic situation.

In the next issues we will guide you through the three steps of business success and development as we see it. This is a sneak preview into our coaching day to day business which we’d like to share with you. We have named it “The Compagneur Signature programme”.

Signature means we have collected all our

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Business years of experience in the corporate world and in entrepreneurship, have developed a standardised and formal coaching plan which we and our clients can use to reproduce consistent results.

The starting point is, what we call CHECK-IN (we love the travel metaphor and use it for all three steps). We look at the WHY of a business, at you, as a founder, and discuss your current and ideal value system. Looking at your internal drivers, we will also touch upon self-management and your personal finances – not as a tax consultant or broker but as a mindset concept. That all can be found in the next issue of Business Fit Magazine.

What follows in our coaching programme Compagneur is the BOARDING. Thus, we will talk about the WHAT of a business. What we mean by this is your product itself, how it is positioned (place, price, promotion). We look at which tools and systems are needed to start a successful business or what is needed to take a business to the next level. Also, how to reach your target customers. Here we will discuss the controversial topic whether you need a Business Plan or not.

We will argue why you should have one and how to adapt it to your requirements in order to Be Prepared.

In the final issue, we will TAKE-OFF. We will show you HOW to reach the marketplace, HOW networking and presentation works and HOW the “right” sales strategies and follow-up makes the difference. Co-operations are key to every organisation, but it’s better to be smart about it.

We will share our view and also some real stories of cooperation success and some unproductive detours we experienced.

theoretical and strategic part first, but also start operating with being (partly) employed. Yes, you will have to give 150% to make it work, but the insights and flexibility to adapt while still earning (some) income elsewhere is THE key advantage over entrepreneurs without a safety net.

Being entrepreneurs ourselves we often ask other business owners why they have started their business and what was and still is their motivation for doing so. Out of these stories you can learn a lot about the state of their business, how they react to struggles and if they are really passionate about what they do. If that is the case – if every fibre of their body burns for their business idea, then selling it to customers, investors, the bank etc will be much easier.

How are business ideas developed?

The development of business ideas is also often reflecting the environment and the time in which they were formed. What do we mean by this?

Here is a little personal anecdote. We are mentors for High School students in Frankfurt, Germany.

About 100 students from 15 local High Schools can volunteer in a project called “Entrepreneurs of Tomorrow”, where they learn how to develop a business idea and how to pitch it to a group of experienced business owners aka the mentors.

We are among the group of mentors for these 15 to 16-year olds and in that function have heard a lot of their business ideas, which as we stated earlier, often either resemble other successful business models or address challenges of our time.

How and where to start?

A lot of people constantly come up with business ideas, but just a few of them start with developing this idea into a real business. Statistically every second Start Up fails in the first two years. So, the question is what makes the difference? We meet a lot of people with ideas and a desire to start their own business. One of the common questions is always: how can/should I start?

Surprisingly many never question their idea and most of them have never checked the market for competitors. On the one hand it is amazing to have the entrepreneurial spirit, self-confidence and total conviction about your idea, but on the other hand an evaluation, proper planning, correct estimations and – yes - a business plan, is more than advisable. Also, for people in employment we recommend to not only do the

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Statistically every second Start Up fails in the first two years

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Business In the school year 2019/2020 almost all business ideas were web or app-based ideas like copies of AirBnB and Uber or looking at environmental issues. Which of course is not bad, but you need a competitive edge if you want to convince people to use your product or services, instead of a wellknown and proven inventor.

Really good business ideas are unique and create a need instead of “only” solving a problem.

Examples of products solving a problem are cars, kettles, a travel toothbrush, heating water and tooth hygiene (just to name a few in daily use).

One of the best creations of a need that people weren’t aware of before is Apple’s invention of the ipad. To be in the position of Apple is amazing, you are creating the need and you are creating the market.

During the global Coronavirus crisis, we will also see a lot of new and unique business ideas arising, which will be much needed. We need entrepreneurs who look around, evaluate a situation and think “there must be a better solution”. Now is the time to think and act. But what could this look like?

How are business ideas implemented?

Once the idea has taken shape in the entrepreneur’s head it’s important to get it out and the best way is to write it down.

The next best thing to do is to talk about it and try to validate the idea. Often, we hear people are afraid someone might steal their idea away.

Even if the reaction is “Oh yeah, that solves a big problem, why didn’t I think if it”, it does not mean they can and will go after your idea. After all: only you can implement it in the way you thought and there is a huge difference between lip service and actual action. For most business ideas we would advise you to take the “risk” of theft because the insights you gain and advice or even help you will get by telling your network, outweigh the threats.

After that it’s the time to put it into action.

Returning to our earlier Corona challenge, a lot of businesses, whether bookkeepers or restaurants

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Really good business ideas are unique

are not using the online tools and systems well enough. Maybe they are not aware of them or find it too complicated in the current situation to learn them. So, a new business idea could tie in with this and help companies to put their services online easier and faster.

What is required to grow your business? And how to adapt to the current economic situation?

Besides marketing, sales, finances, mindset and all the points we will dive deeper into over the next few months, you need to embrace change and be able to adapt to unforeseen and uncertain situations.

From our own experience and meeting business owners internationally we can see a central theme we all have in common: only when you fail or face a really hard time, like the current crisis, will you be able to really grow your business. It shows you: • if your skills are enough and the right ones • if you have fostered your network to one that you can rely on • and if your product/service is adaptable to change You can use this situation for a significant development of your business and yourself. It will sharpen your leadership skills, you will have a clear picture of your vision and set targets.

We want to finish for today with a Russian proverb: “Only those who failed, can really value success”.

Maike Benner and Lilli Rohde founders of MaLish Consulting, an international business consultancy and coaching company. Combining their experiences and strengths in people management, financials, tools and system, communication and leadership MaLish offers a variety of services for companies and individuals. www.compagneur.com - www.malish.global/about/malish-business

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Mindset & Emotion

16

Breath

in the Time of Corona Integrative medical doctor and leading voice in the field of mind-body medicine, Dr. Ela Manga, gives our readers some tips to help keep calm during these Coronavirus times through using breathing techniques We find ourselves at a pivotal moment in our existence on this planet. We balance precariously, cautiously, watchfully and anxiously in the space between where we have come and the future that awaits us. In this moment of pause, the earth breathes again.

How this all turns out will be dependent on if we breathe again. Figuratively. Literally.

Corona has offered us a terrifying and creative choice point. In this moment, we come face to face with our biggest demons and our deepest fears. But right here also lies an opening to our greatest capacities for compassion, creativity and resilience.

How will we meet the waves of emotion that rise within us? Will we reinforce our default behaviour of suppression, distraction, denial, dissection and blame? Will we continue to hand over our health to a system, or use time to nurture our body, mind and heart? How will we meet our helplessness? How will we face uncertainty?

How will we relate to our grief as we lose our businesses, our identities, our belief systems and people we love?

Will we be able to hold what is rising within us with deep compassion for ourselves? Will we learn to

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Mindset & Emotion sends signals of calm and safety to the brain and the body.

These are some of the techniques that may be helpful to practice through this time.

Will we learn to breathe again?

breathe again? To open on the inhale and let go on the exhale? Will we embrace this opportunity to deepen our relationship with ourselves, with others, with life itself?

Will we be able to keep our hearts open with fierce compassion when everything within us wants to shut down? Will we able to use the most primal and basic function of life to access our most powerful human capacity? Will we learn to breathe again?

Conscious breathing offers a profound and effective means to manage anxiety, boost our immunity and support optimum health in the face of the current crisis and as we emerge from it.

Whether stress is manifesting as physical symptoms, comfort eating or reactive behaviour, it is also being reflected in our inhalations and exhalations. Over time these erratic and suboptimal breathing habits can lead to lack of concentration, irritability, aches and pains, insomnia and panic attacks.

Every thought, feeling, emotion and postural pattern is reflected in the way we breathe.

Conversely, changing it can have a powerful and immediate effect on the way we feel, think and behave. By slowing our breathing down and by breathing from the belly versus the diaphragm, we are able to deactivate the stress response through the action of the vagus nerve which

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1. Feeling Safe: Breath Awareness

It is normal to experience waves of fear and anxiety during this uncertain time. We can build up mental strength and the ability to find the calm in the chaos by simply bringing awareness to a function that we don’t usually need to think about. This breath awareness practice is the foundation of any mindfulness, breath awareness or self-awareness practice. It simply involves turning one’s attention to the natural flow of the breath, allowing thoughts, feelings and sensations to arise without judgement while constantly returning attention to it. Keep returning to your breath, and feeling the texture of it – is it warm, cold, are you breathing through your nose, your mouth? Does it feel stuck?

Does it feel at ease? Just being aware of your breath. This technique builds self-awareness and dampens reactivity and an overactive stress response. It can be done for 5 minutes up to 20 minutes and is a helpful way to start and end the day. This practice my feel challenging at first when we become aware of how busy the mind is, but the more you practice, the easier it will get.

Over time, this practice will help you just to watch your mental and emotional experience without getting caught up in it.

2. Feeling overwhelmed: Humming Bee Breath

The world is feeling pretty noisy right now, we are being bombarded with information, scary stories and varying opinions and even the noise of our own minds. This is my favourite practice to quieten down all the noise and to create a feeling of stillness and centring within. It reconnects the body and brain and sends calming signals to the brain from the vocal cords through the vagus nerve.

How to practice:

Find a comfortable position. Take a deep inhale through the nose. Then close off your ears with your thumbs and gently cup your fingers over your eyes without applying pressure. Then hum for as long as you can until you feel you’ve run out of air. Then keep doing this, by taking long inhales through the nose and humming out. Do

this about 6-8 times. After the last cycle, just relax to normal breathing, keeping your eyes closed and enjoying the sensations.

3. For Healthy Lungs and Panic States: Box breathing

This technique is a really helpful way to strengthen the lungs and give you a sense of calm and control if you feel like you are over breathing from panic or are finding it particularly hard to breathe from a respiratory infection. It also helps to improve oxygen delivery to the cells.

We are breathing slowly through the nose and breaking the breathing cycle into 4 parts.

1. Inhale 2.

Pause after Inhale 3. Exhale 4.

Pause after the exhale We give the same amount of time to each part of the breath.

Inhale slowly for a count of 4 Pause for a count of 4 Exhale slowly for a count of 4 Pause again for a count of 4 If you feel you have more lung capacity. you can increase the count to 5 or 6.

4. Breathing with the family: Three Breaths of Blessings

Coronavirus has given us the opportunity to reconnect with our families. Why not use this time to create beautiful and meaningful family rituals that can continue even when this virus has passed. As you sit down together at the dinner table, light a candle. Take 3 deep long breaths together as a family. Conscious slow breathing before a meal will also deactivate the stress response and switch on your body’s “rest and digest” so that you are optimising your digestive function and helping your body to assimilate the nutrients from your meal.

The first breath is for yourself, to bring yourself into your body, to wake up your senses and into the present and deactivate the stress response.

The second breath is to connect as a family, to feel the sense of gratitude for each other.

The third breath is for everyone on the planet who is also needing some support and for all the people that helped to bring this meal to you.

From the farmworker to the truck driver to the people at the grocery store.

Let us navigate this profound time through the greatest gift of life that has always been there and is waiting for us to return its essence.

Do this for about 6 cycles.

Let us navigate this profound time through the greatest gift of life

Dr. Ela Manga is an integrative medical doctor and leading voice in the field of mind-body medicine. She has dedicated her career to using breathing as medicine and as a tool for personal growth and transformation. Founder of Breathwork Africa and author of BREATH- Strategising Energy in the Age of Burnout. She lives and works in Johannesburg, South Africa. www.drelamanga.com www.breathworkafrica.co.za

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Book Review

A Book Review -

Believers the

Achievers 20

Founder and President of AKP Healing India, Dr. Amit Kaur Puri, tells our readers about her latest book, Believers the Achievers and how it can inspire you to reach your goals.

Believers the Achievers is an inspiring true story book authored by Dr. Amit Kaur Puri and is a great way for you to share in the experience of those who have struggled and made it. Or those who have been exposed to suffering and found a way to ease it for others.

They will make you rediscover the strength and greatness of the human race.

These accomplishments inspire us to do more, and to work towards the betterment of everyone.

It consists of real-life stories of real people - all women: 1. Gitikka Ganju 2. Rashmi Sachdeva.

3. Kanchan Luthra.

4. Soniiaa Daang.

5. Jayashri Jain.

6. Sarboni Chatterjee.

7. Dr. Leena Chauhan.

8. Meenakshi Mohanty.

9. Vinky Sidhu Daryani.

10. Ritu Lumba.

11. Banda Preet Mahajan.

12. Sapnaa Datta.

13. Hatice Ozalp.

14. Deepali Gokhe.

15. Laurie Grant.

16. Layla Edward.

17. Denise O’ Brine.

18. Viola Edward.

This is my fifth book. My first one was Women the Achiever followed by Innovators the Achievers.

My third book is entitled Medica Natura, after which I published Beyond the Boundaries.

Author’s Note” Kavan kaaj sirjay jag bheetar janam kavan fal paa-i-aa.

The only thing stopping you from achieving your goals and dreams is your belief. It’s when you reach your limits that you feel resistance and things you want seem harder to accomplish.

Whether it is fear, doubt, physical abilities or some other mental block, it can present a huge barrier to getting what you want. You may have a consistent, steady performance, but by stepping out of it into a new and challenging task you can reach your optimal performance. If we take a minute and think about it, it is quite true that we achieve the most by stepping out of our safe zone.

This book is for you to by inspired by the Authors and also to learn, relearn and practice.

Show up for yourself and the opportunities will appear. Maybe they won’t appear immediately, but if you stick with it, they will show up.

The way will find you when you step up, believe in your own dream, and work toward it.

Once you achieve your big dream, remember to pay it forward and encourage someone else who needs a reminder of what’s possible.

Show up for yourself and the opportunities will appear

For what purpose were you created and brought into the world? What rewards have you received in this life?

Do you know what you want? What I mean is, do you know what your life is about, what you’re meant to do?

Dr. Amit Kaur Puri is the founder and President of AKP Healing

India, Scientist, Ethnobotanist and social activist. She works for triple E’sEnvironment, Education and Empowerment, has published over a hundred research papers, authored three books and has produces a documentary film about Mewati women. Her contributions to make a greener and healthier world are highly appreciated. www.akphealingindia.com

21

Business

REAL ESTATE & Coronavirus

Senior Real Estate Instructor and Commercial Real Estate Broker, Oscar J Morales Jr, talks to our readers about the importance of real estate in the time of the Coronavirus.

During recent events there are so many theories about what will happen in the world and in the futures of everybody’s lives. In my case as a professional in education and instructor on real estate and counsel for many US companies, the recent event of the COVID-19 has caused a lot of uncertainty.

The situation changes by the hour. It is possible that you think real estate will collapse as many of your own businesses. Real Estate has always suffered under any kind of disaster, but Rome, New York City and Hong Kong are all still with us.

The structure has not gone away. It is still out there.

We have seen that humans are more than ever, sociable beings and want to get stronger in their church, do exercise, succeed at their job or meet with friends at a local restaurant. All of these require real estate structures. A new way of life is coming, and all of these structures will adapt to this new rule of living. We will pull this all together but it will take strong minds and positive thoughts to make it happen.

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Real estate will continue to be there

You will have to put all the drama to one side and if you are reading this article it is because you have vision and are taking the time to find new answers. Your finances to buy real estate at the moment may not be right and this may not be the time for many people to buy or to sell. But real estate will continue to be there.

Now, think! Where do you want to spend the next pandemic if it happens, or where you do not want to be? Real estate is still out there. You need to follow your heart and professional guidance to get to your goal. It does not matter what kind of business you run right now, remember that there is no business without family around. This article has been written not from my office, it has been written from home. Where is your home?

What is that place that you can call home and not feel you are in a jail? Real estate is still out there.

I hope to meet you soon on Instagram and now wherever you are, be safe and remember: Real Estate is still out there and you are in it. God Bless you.

Oscar J Morales Jr is the founder of TREI - The Real Estate Institute since 2002 and has created a legacy educating more than 25000 professionals in Florida. He has been training private “Wealth Management” professionals on how to handle their client’s real estate portfolio for the Ultra High-Level Wealthy individual. He is a Senior Real Estate Instructor, Commercial Real Estate Broker and Certified International Professional Specialist CIPS.

23

Environment

Mother Nature’s

Exasperation

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Business Fit Magazine editor, Claire Morley, wonders if the latest crisis facing mankind is Mother Nature’s way of trying to get our attention and rethink our priorities This isn’t the first time the world has been under threat from disease.

The bubonic plague hit Europe and Asia in the mid-1300s. Over five years the Black Death killed more than 20 million people in Europe.

The earliest evidence of the smallpox disease was in the 3BC. In the 20th century alone it is estimated to have killed up to 300 million.

In 1918 the Spanish flu pandemic infected 500 million people, approximately 27% of the population at that time. The death toll is estimated to be anywhere from 17 to 50 million and could have been as high as 100 million.

We all wait with bated breath to see where this latest pandemic is headed. The Coronavirus or COVID-19 has so far claimed over 234,000 lives (correct at the time of writing). Governments are putting strict measures in place to try and reduce the spread of this disease. Schools are closed, travel restricted, economies plunge.

Panic to stop the death toll rises. And while I am in favour of this disease being quickly controlled and halting unnecessary death, a part of me also looks to the irony.

Panic to stop the death toll rises.

Every year the WHO estimates that up to 650,000 people can die from seasonal flu. It affects the same people as Coronavirus, those vulnerable and with respiratory problems. China, with a population of 23 times more than the UK, reported over 4,600 people died as the virus started to diminish there and early predictions in the UK said to expect over quarter of a million people to die before the summer if no preventative measures were taken. Was this just scaremongering on a massive scale?

We, mankind, actually caused the death of as many as 20 million people in the First World War, many of them young men who had yet to experience life (for a powerful description of the horrors of that war, read All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque). Then as if that wasn’t enough, a mere 30 years later, some 75 million were killed in the Second World War. What is the matter with humankind? We caused death and misery to our own kind, but we have not been satisfied with that. Our greed has driven other innocent creatures to extinction or on the verge of it.

And then there is climate change. Personally I find it difficult to understand how people are unable to accept it is happening. I am under no illusion that our planet undergoes cycles and a new ice age is inevitable eventually. But the total refusal by some to recognise we are accountable for speeding up the process astounds me.

Unable to take responsibility that our throwaway society, our desperation to have the latest version of everything, our acceptance of planned obsolescence in products have all contributed to bringing this earlier than nature intended.

Even if you can square away your conscience on that, can you honestly say that you are comfortable with the unrelenting swathes of plastic which litter our verges, beaches, oceans, lakes and rivers? The endless blue capped water bottles, an invention merely to make the manufacturers rich on our gullibility. The ubiquitous plastic bags hanging from trees and bushes like some ugly, inedible fruit or taking space in landfill, where it will wait out the next couple of centuries. Yet we still can’t be bothered to take a bag for life to the supermarket; drink tap water (god forbid); refuse straws (who really needs them anyway!).

We have shown zero respect for Mother Nature.

Ignored the millennia of experience from indigenous peoples, like the Aboriginals, whose

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Environment

And the People Stayed Home Kitty O’Meara And people stayed home and read books and listened and rested and exercised and made art and played and learned new ways of being and stopped and listened deeper someone meditated someone prayed someone danced someone met their shadow and people began to think differently and people healed and in the absence of people who lived in ignorant ways, dangerous, meaningless and heartless, even the earth began to heal and when the danger ended and people found each other grieved for the dead people and they made new choices and dreamed of new visions and created new ways of life and healed the earth completely just as they were healed themselves.

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land management techniques prevented the kind of destructive fires Australia is increasingly suffering. We have raped the rain forests, and along with indiscriminate mining and quarrying, ill-planned road building and unchecked construction have contributed to increased land and mudslides.

Over the past 40 years there has been an increase in intense hurricane activity which is now being attributed to the rising temperatures in the oceans.

And so back to our current situation, the galloping increase of cases of Coronavirus.

Masks and hand sanitiser selling out within hours of a first case being reported. Panic buying in the supermarkets…of toilet rolls, wait, what, toilet paper? This wouldn’t even feature on my list of things to stockpile, let alone induce me to enter a physical fight over it…again, what is wrong with humankind?

Even in the short time humankind activity has been restricted, our planet is starting to heal itself. In some places, carbon monoxide emissions have dropped by about 50 percent, there has also been a significant fall in nitrogen dioxide, a serious air pollutant and powerful warming chemical. In Venice, with no tourists or boat traffic, the canals are the cleanest they have been for 60 years and dolphins have reclaimed the Bosphourus river as the virus silences Istanbul.

We have shown zero respect for Mother Nature

I have several theories about the Coronavirus, but it is the least political of them which I chose to foster here…Mother Nature has been warning us in increasing degrees to take heed, to stop ravaging our planet, to care for it and one another, is this just one more step in her attempt to make us take notice? Isn’t it time we all started to listen to her? She is no longer pleading with us, she is threatening us - listen or I will have my revenge.

Claire Morley is an eco-warrior in her adopted country of Cyprus. She is the Editorial Coordinator for Business Fit and has worked as a journalist and editor in Cyprus and has written a fictional book inspired by her experience as a volunteer in the Philippines. She also runs a business helping authors to self-publish and promote their books www.myepublishbook.com

27

Mindset & Emotion

Inner Leadership:

First Step to Conscious Leadership

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Business Fit Magazine are pleased to announce established coach and leadership development expert, Barbara Dalle Pezze, will have a regular column during 2020, in this issue she talks about taking the first steps to becoming a conscious leader.

Have you ever met people who make you feel immediately comfortable and at ease as soon as they enter the room? With them you feel free to be yourself, it feels like you have known them for a long time even if you just met them, and you feel inspired when you leave them.

Those individuals have done their inner work of leadership. “Leadership is an Inside-out job” writes S. Wehrley, and it is an exciting one.

When I speak of Inner leadership, I refer to the ability to manage your inner life “so that the right emotional and behavioural chain reaction occurs” (Goleman, Boyatzis, McKee) To develop Inner Leadership means to cultivate an ability to discern your thoughts and emotions.

It means to do the hard work of developing a high level of self-awareness and self-management.

When you are self-aware, you have an ability to distinguish your emotions, notice the quality of your thoughts, and you know how to manage your inner state so that you become effective and perform at your best both in your personal and professional life.

With inner leadership, you have developed an ability not only to recognise, but also manage your own emotions, to regulate yourself, and become more capable of empathy. Inner leadership is about intentionally choosing empowering thoughts and feelings and developing a mindset that leads to effectives and positive results.

Managing one’s inner life, however, is not easy.

For many people it is one of the most difficult challenges, and so they don’t invest the time, energy and resources to explore and do the inner work.

Doing the inner work of leadership, impacts positively not only yourself, but also those around you, as it helps you develop social awareness and an ability to manage relationships in the most authentic and effective way. It is about developing

emotional intelligence at the deepest level, aligning your work with your values, purpose and mission.

When you become an emotionally intelligent leader at this level, you are well on your way to becoming a conscious leader. Conscious leaders have done their inner work and it shows.

They display “many of the qualities we most admire in exemplary human beings” (Mackey and Sisodia). Conscious leaders are usually authentic individuals; they have high analytical and emotional skills. They are orientated towards servant leadership, they care about others, they have high integrity and they are aware of their motivations and purpose.

They have done the inner work, they went through the process of self-discovery and personal reinvention, and they have achieved real growth in leadership.

So how can we start developing our inner leadership today? Where to begin? We begin by looking at ourselves. We want to become curious about who we are beyond what we already know.

As Virginia Satir suggests, get excited about who you are, and what you are, be inspired to see what else is in you that you can discover, be inspired “to see that you can go far beyond where you are right now…have a special experience with yourself – one that can open up all kinds of possibilities for you.”

Explore and become aware that you have an inner life made of thoughts, feelings, sensations, which are to be discovered, grown and innovated.

What action, then, can we take right now to begin our inner work of leadership? Take a moment and imagine yourself eight years from now as an effective leader.

Write the description of a typical day as an effective leader: what would you do? Where would you live? Who would be there? How would you feel?... Describe what life would look like, feel like, sound like, if everything was going right…This will help you discover some missing elements in the way you feel and think about yourself and your life today and will offer you some new insights into where to begin your inner exploration.

Barbara Dalle Pezze, Ph.D. is an internationally established Coach and leadership development expert, with over 18 years of global experience.

Barbara believes there are rarely solutions to problems which do not begin in the hearts and minds of people, hence she focuses her work on the inner work of leadership.

29

Interview

Sanjiv

Chopra Having an amazing spiritual journey

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on this planet earth

Physician, author and speaker, Sanjiv Chopra, believes we all have the potential to become exemplary leaders and his mission is to inspire others to live healthier, balanced lives and to make a difference in this world by leading.

Who are you?

I am Sanjiv Chopra, a human being having an amazing spiritual journey on this planet earth. I am a physician specialising in hepatology, I am an author and a speaker on a diverse range of topics, not only medicine, but also exemplary leadership, happiness, living with purpose and the five things you can do to help achieve a happier and healthier life.

The hottest topic in medicine right now is called microbiome. These are 100 trillion bacteria in our gut, on the skin, other orifices, but most of the research has been done on gut microbiome.

It is influenced by how we enter this world, natural or c section; where we grew up - rural or downtown; whether we get antibiotics in the first two years of life, drink coffee, eat kimchee.

Everything influences the microbiome and has implications in arthritis, obesity, diabetes, cancer, liver disease, autism and more.

I am also one of the most happy and optimistic people on this planet and am lucky to have the most amazing family and friends, who I refer to as my chosen family

Adversity can be an amazing gift

Where are you from?

I am from India. As a youngster, I grew up all over India, because my father was in the Indian army medical core and was transferred to a new city every three years.

After I had finished high school, pre-med and medical school in New Delhi, I went to America with my wife, Amita Chopra in 1972. We have lived in Boston since 1973 and I have had the privilege of being affiliated with Harvard Medical school for almost four decades.

Who has supported and influenced you on your life journey?

I have been very lucky and fortunate in having the most amazing mentors, whom I refer to as having “packed my parachute”. These have included my parents, uncles, brother, and about a dozen professors of medicine, Chairs of Departments and Deans at Harvard medical school.

What was your motivation to achieve what you have?

What motivated me to become a physician was a terrifying incident which occurred when I was twelve years of age. I was studying at St Columba’s high school in New Delhi and I had played in a cricket match on a warm sultry weekend. Then at about 6pm on the Sunday I didn’t feel well and took a short nap. When I woke up 30 mins later, I was terrified, my eyes were open, but everything was dark. I could not see. I nudged my older brother Deepak who must have done visual threat and reckoned I wasn’t faking it.

My uncle took me to the military hospital where the doctors didn’t have the foggiest idea what was going on. Finally, they got hold of my father who was about 200 miles away. He was a brilliant physician and very calmly asked to be told everything that had happened to me over the past two months. They told him I had had a laceration to my right leg a week earlier and had been taken to the causality ward to have stitches. He probed further, asking if I have been given any antibiotics or received a tetanus shot. The answer was yes to both and that I had received an anti-tetanus serum (ATS).

I don’t know how my father divined it, but he said to them, Sanjiv is having rare idiosyncratic reaction to the ATS, which means he has severe bilateral optic neuritis. Both his optic nerves are

Interview by Vikki Thomas

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Interview swollen and ready to burst, start an intravenous and give him massive doses of corticosteroids.

That was done and about eight hours later my vision returned. I have told this story to world renowned ophthalmologists around the globe and they are dazzled and impressed asking how my father knew this. It may not have even been a footnote in the textbooks of that time. It is possible I would have been blind for life if the diagnoses and treatment not been carried out.

The next day I decided that my Dharma (it is the Sanskrit word meaning moral compass, vocation, authenticity and truth) was to become a doctor healer like my father. I have now lived that dream and have practiced medicine for half a century.

How do you take care of your body, mind and soul?

To replenish my body, mind and spirit I mediate every day, twice a day, for 20 minutes in the morning and 20 minutes in the afternoon or early evening. I have been doing this for forty years and it is the most powerful practice I have incorporated into my life. I practice Transcendental Meditation and I was taught by a certified teacher which is the way I recommend people learn it.

The five things people say when facing imminent death and asked: What are your greatest regrets in life, are: I should have travelled more I should have spent more time with friends I should have been the bigger person and said I am sorry I should have had the courage to pursue my dreams and aspirations I should have said, I love you more often None of us should have these regrets at the end of our life. I very consciously live by these principles every single day of my life. It nourishes my soul.

If you were in the jungle what kind of animal would you be?

I would be an owl and soar in the sky.

Tell us about a time when things didn’t go the way you wanted?

There are so many times in life when out of the blue adversity will strike. I had a total hip operation and 100 days later the hip got infected and I had to have it redone. I was given

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intravenous antibiotics for more than six months, but adversity can be an amazing gift. I received so much love and compassion from my family and friends, colleagues, students and patients. New friendships were forged and some I treasure most dear to this day. A friend I made eight years ago and her family belong to a prayer group and they had 100, 000 people from all over the world pray for me to recover fully. So adversity is truly a gift as Rumi said. The wound is where the light enters you. There has been some darkness in my life, but the abundance of light has been overwhelming.

What has inspired you to write your books?

My inspiration to write books emerged through a quote by Voltaire, the French philosopher who once said: Every man is guilty of all the things he did not do.

So if one has a skill or a talent or a special gift, it is incumbent to share it with the world. So I feel it is part of my Dharma to write books which will inform and inspire people and to have them integrate good habits into their life so that they will flourish and be healthy, wealthy and happy.

What are the ten core principles of effective leadership?

I have written a book called Leadership by Example - The 10 keys principles of all great leaders. The 10 key principles spell out the word leadership.

L

= listening – great leaders listen with their heart and their soul

E = Empathy A = An attitude which is upbeat and courageous D = Dare to dream big E = Effective R = Resilience S = Sense of purpose H = Humility I = Integrity P = Packing others parachutes.

Who are the future leaders?

I think the future leaders are the young people, people like Greta Thunberg, the social activist.

Malala, who got the Noble Peace Prize at the age of 17 and many, many others, including my grandchildren.

I have been very lucky and fortunate in having the most amazing mentors

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Young people are the modern-day sages and philosophers, they have so much pure heart energy and wisdom.

I also think that fictional characters can impart a lot of wisdom. There is a cartoon of Charlie Brown and Snoopy looking into the distant sunset and Charlie says: we only live once and Snoopy said non we only die once, we live every day.

Winne the Pooh says to Piglet if you live to be 100, I would like to live to be 100 minus one day because I can’t live one day without you. How sublime is that friendship.

So let us live life to its fullest.

What is your latest book about?

My latest book I co-authored with Gina Vild, a friend and colleague and it is entitled The Two Most Important Days – How to Find your Purpose and Live a Happy and Healthier Life. There is a wonderful quote by Mark Twain who said: The two most days of your life are the day you were born and the day you find why.

My contention is that the happiest people on this planet have four things in common

1. They have a collection of good friends – your friends are your chosen family. It’s a gift you give yourself 2. The ability to forgive 3. Doing things for others

– being of service, nurturing, mentoring, philanthropy, sharing a gift or talent They are the three Fs – Friends, Forgiveness and For Others, but there is a fourth one and that begins with the letter G and it’s not God, it’s Gratitude.

If you do these things on a regular basis, you will be happy. But happiness is more than the sum total of happy moments and in order for us to have sustained happiness, we have to find our purpose and live it.

In the book we tell stories which are truly inspiring, where people in the midst of tragedy found their purpose in life. There are the techniques to find one’s purpose in life and when you do that you will live a life of unbridled joy and bliss.

For more details about the Health, Wealth and Happiness event or if you would be interested in speaking please email support@hwhstlucia.com www.sanjivchopra.com

35

Business

Leadership and the Unknown:

Say No to Fear, Yes to Abundance Expert in Executive Conscious Leadershipbringing transformation via present, selfawareness, Debra Sunderland, takes a look at how you can be a visionary business leader in these challenging times of Coronavirus, when you are separated from your team.

Understanding Fear

As a visionary business leader, it’s really important that we stay true to our vision and look at how this worldwide crisis with COVID-19 gives us an opportunity to slow down, and how it could even help us go beyond our original vision for 2020.

Curious leadership at this time is essential.

Since your brain is wired to protect you. It is constantly scanning, looking for what is wrong or could go wrong. Incorporating tools which bring leaders to a present state and applying all learning centres (IQ, EQ, BQ), is the shift to awaken to a whole conscious-responsive leader.

We never know the next moment, we only know the now. In fact, crisis is what we make it to be when we don’t know the answer and we go to the future. To be a present leader is to gain a true perspective on what is right now.

Waking up to our natural, automatic, fear-based thinking first requires questioning our thought and feeling patterns, and how they are limiting our current results--unconsciously. In fact, a conscious growth leader is one who examines every unwanted result to discover their unconscious, limiting beliefs.

Being authentic when you’re fearful, allowing others to have their fear, and knowing how to shift yourself and your teams out of fear and into possibilities brings abundance and is transformational. How we as leaders lead our people in this moment will set up the rest of our year. How we respond to this pandemic is our choice--either we create a pandemic of fear or one of learning and options.

Ask how you might be more connected to one another, even though you’re physically separated. How does this open up new ideas?

These considerations are especially important for leaders who are stuck in unconscious beliefs (fear), wondering how success will happen.

How is this current state actually here for your organisational growth?

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Everyone is hard-wired to be driven by fear. The purpose of this fear is to protect you by searching for safe solutions. This protective part of your brain (the amygdala) is what’s brought you this far, but will not get you what you most want.

The only way to obtain what you most want, with more joy and peace, is to be conscious of what you are telling yourself and believing. It is essential you shift your thinking. This will allow you to create different feelings and behaviours, leading you to the result you do want.

Become Resilient

Much of my life has been spent as an overachiever, receiving many accolades. Just like you, I learned to succeed and win! I hope to inspire you, and for you to know you are more than success. I believe all things are possible! I believe my life was spared to coach leaders so they could have it all, and to live a kinder more loving way of life and leadership.

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Business In 2008, my former husband lost his work and I started a business to serve people. Within eight months, we raised $1 million and were making $40,000 to $60,000 a day. It wasn’t my intention and it happened because I didn’t panic and asked, where may I serve people, and how might our business and our expertise help people right where they’re at?

It isn’t necessary for you to know what I did for my business to get that amount of money, the most important part is my motivation and how I went about my business. Seeking for an end result will never get you what you want. What is your focus? Is it the end goal or is it the moments and how you go about living your life? That’s the foundation of everything.

In 2013, I faced another bump in the road. I was deep into the world of competitive cycling. In the middle of a race, someone pushed into me, sending me crashing to the ground. I survived a traumatic brain injury, a cracked skull, nine shattered ribs, and one punctured lung. Despite doctors’ predictions that I was not going to live, and then that it would take three years to heal, I was back on my bike in eight months.

My journey in life, even as a child, was full of trauma and toxic fear. I’ve learned to be resilient by not allowing fear to be my driver, but my teacher instead.

The Key--Be a Present Leader

I know how leaders today suffer--taking drugs to deal with stress, lack of sleep, struggling with high anxiety, and, now, a worldwide pandemic which has landed on your doorstep. You, your people, and your business has been affected, and no one knows when it will end.

How a leader leads sets the tone of their business and culture all comes down to being in the present.

Every four seconds we are distracted from the present, pulled by our thoughts either into the past, or the future. When our thoughts go into the future, we create anxiety, and when our thoughts go to the past, we create sadness or anger. Test it for yourself.

My work starts with coaching leaders to come to their present state of mind (IQ), and to notice their feelings (EQ) and body intelligence (BQ). All intelligence is present. Emotions teach us. Joy, creative energy, anger, sadness, and fear are there to support us and wake us up to what is serving us, or what is not.

To listen to the head, heart and body is to be a conscious, present leader. Many of us are afraid of our feelings, as we were taught not to feel them. So, we lack learning and fully achieving the results we most want. This is a relearning in some ways.

As an Executive Conscious Leadership Coach, I coach CEOs and leaders to get the results they most want by looking at how they created the results they don’t want. Looking at limiting beliefs and behaviours opens up an opportunity to choose a new path, with new perspectives and different results.

What You Can Do Right Now

Do you know your gifts, talents, and purpose?

What brings you the most joy versus fear? How you bring this into your life more--your teams, your clients, and family will show in your end results.

If you want your business to have stainable success, and you want to live a life with more ease and less drama, the key is to seek presence and learning with every unwanted result. Aligning your purpose with your work is the greatest success!

If you are unsure where to start, or how to get the results you desire, contact Debra Sunderland at Sunderland Coaching, debra@DebraSunderland. com.

I’ve learned to be resilient by not allowing fear to be my driver

Debra Sunderland is the founder of Sunderland Coaching, LLC. With

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decades of executive and team coaching, she supports CEOs, executives and their teams in creating an empowered, internal culture – in a diverse range of industry. She is an expert in transforming leadership, culture build, and group dynamics, specialising in building trust and collaboration; teams that achieve their strategic objectives in an empowered environment.

39

Health

Emergency Breathing Kit

for Parents & Kids

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Professional breathwork practitioner, JoAnn Lowell, from the Breathing Classroom Team of the International Breathwork Foundation (IBF) provides our readers with an emergency breathing kit for parents and children to help in this time of COVID-19.

1) Corona days - issues and conscious breathing for both parents and kids People self-isolating at home at times are feeling a sense of overwhelm, anxiety, stress, irritability, excess energy, having poor sleep.... as well as lethargy and poor motivation to get started with home projects, together with irritability, loss of routine or boredom. This can be especially true with children.

•

•

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Learning how to do online learning with the kids can be a stretch - not only can the act of getting started and sticking with it be hard some coursework can feel boring or lacking in vitality or connection Covid-19 is a lung disease, perhaps with an underlying message that it’s time for us to learn to breathe more consciously Parents can easily incorporate 30-180 second breaks for conscious breathing, movement and nature, as part of ‘the glue’ that holds together your corona days - like a Reset button

2) How Conscious Breathing can help children and parents •

Helps us set focus

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Calms and relaxes anxiety or fears, bringing peace to oneself

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Energizes and brings clarity and optimism

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Helps release built up energy in a healthy way

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Helps both kids and parents to self regulate and self soothe

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Helps with PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder)

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Helps for easing into sleep at night or nap time

3) Parents/Teachers : Put your oxygen mask on first •

You are doing the most important job in the world - you want to start with care for yourself so you can care for your loved ones

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Even if your days are feeling full - find a moment just for yourself to breathe consciously - maybe it will have to be ‘on the corona throne’ in the bathroom!

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Start practicing the All Ages/Adult breathing exercises for yourself on your own

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Do this in the moment, first thing in the morning, before a cap nap, before meals, before bed

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Try out each of the following breathing exercises by yourself first before you offer them with your kids. Each one has a script for you to follow.

4) Breathing Exercises for Young children/Ages 3 - 7

The Core Breath Practice

All Ages/Adult too Use For: To become aware of the breath, to focus, to observe Duration: 1-3 minutes You can use a chime or bell at the beginning and at the end.

When you hear the bell sound, close your eyes and listen until you can no longer hear it.

When you no longer can hear the bell, bring your attention to your breath.

Put your hands on your belly. Feel your belly popping out as you breathe in. Feel your belly flatten as you breathe out. Breathe in through your nose. Breathe out through your nose. Belly rising. Belly falling. As you continue to breathe in this way notice what you feel in your body.

Notice how your breath fills your belly and up into your chest. Keeping one hand on your belly, place your other hand on your chest. Notice how your hands on your belly and chest rise and fall with each inhale and exhale. Notice how it feels.

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Health Like a balloon filling up and then gently letting all the air spill out. Notice how your breath fills (fill in the blank: fills your hands, every cell of your brain, your legs and your feet, your shoulders, your fingers, your heart, your throat and your voice, your eyes, etc.). Now relax your hands and let them rest on the tops of your legs. Bring your breathing back to its normal rhythm.

When you hear the bell sound, listen. When you can no longer hear it, bring your awareness back to the room - in silence.

The Tarzan Breath

All Ages Use For: Raising the energy, fun for all ages Duration: 15 -20 seconds Stand up and take a deep breath. Imagine yourself as Tarzan and start beating your upper chest with your fists. On the exhale make a sound like Tarzan with a long loud Tarzan yell.

Repeat 2 or 3 times .

Notice how you immediately feel energized and alive!

When you hear the bell, start bringing your breath back to its normal rhythm.

The Woodcutter’s Breath

Ages 3 to 13 Use For: To release anger or to let go of built up energy Duration: 1 minute Stand up right with your eyes open and your legs spread apart. We are going to chop wood with an ‘axe’. Hold the handle of your ‘axe’ in both your hands for chopping wood. Take in a deep inhale through the nose or mouth as you lift your hands high over your head. As you let the ‘axe’ drop swiftly to chop the ‘wood,’ make a strong and expressive exhale making a loud sound of Haiiiiiiiiii!!!

Let your head and hands drop down in front like a rag doll and relax for 2 full long breaths. Now come back up and repeat your wood chopping, followed again by hanging and breathing like a rag doll. Repeat this 1 more time followed by a couple of sighs or a relaxing breath.

5) Breathing Exercises for Elementary School children/ Ages 8 - 12 The Relaxing Breath

Age 8-18/Adult too Use For: To relax, to rest, to bring calm Duration: 1- 3 minutes When you hear the bell sound, close your eyes and listen until you can no longer hear it.

When you no longer can hear the bell, relax and notice your breath.

Breathe your normal rhythm breathing in through your nose with your mouth closed and breathing out through your nose with your mouth closed.

Notice how you feel. As you continue to breathe, notice your inhale. Notice how long it is and just to yourself slowly count out how long it is. So to yourself you might notice that it is the length of 1..2.. 3.

On your next breath double your exhale. So if your inhale was to the count of 3, now make your exhale to the count of 6. It only has to be close - it doesn’t have to be exact. Continue breathing with your exhale doubled. Notice how you feel.

Allow your shoulders to drop on the out breath and feel your jaw and your whole body relax.

Continue for several breaths.

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Conscious Breathing can help children and parents

6) Breathing Exercises for High School Kids and Adults/Ages 13 – 18/Adult The Bear Breath

Ages 8 and up/Adults too Use For: This self-control breath helps kids deal with big emotions and anger.

Duration: 3-4 breath cycles.

With the mouth closed, breathe in through the nose for 2 counts. Hold for 2 counts. Breathe out the nose for 2 counts. Hold for 2 counts. Repeat. * Do a round of 3 or 4 breaths and feel more in control.

Inflating the Tire Breath

All Ages/Adult too Use For: This energising breath brings movement and optimism Duration: 3-5 breath cycles Take your bike pump in your left hand (visa-versa if you are left-handed). Support with your left wrist near your left knee. Keep it close to your left knee and pump downwards with your right hand.

Pulling out the handle will make you straighter and breathe in. When pumping, bend towards your knee and breathe out strongly. Take the starting position now with the pump pulled out.

Take a deep breath and push. Pull..Inhale/Push..

Exhale/Pull..Inhale/Push..Exhale. Continue for 1 or 2 more breaths When you stop, come upright. Arms along your body. Close your eyes or focus on a point on the floor. Breathe quietly and feel in your body what it has done to you.

The Balancing Breath

Age 5 - 18/Adult Use For: Helps reduce PTSD and anxiety when regularly practiced; balances the active sympathetic and the relaxed parasympathetic nervous systems Duration: 1 - 5 minutes A) To start We are going to S L O W our breath down so we can time it for having just 6 breaths per minute.

To start we will practice with a stopwatch just to notice how slow that feels. Be ready to start your stopwatch for 1 minute.

Take a deep clearing breath in through your mouth and let your breath out through your mouth let it go. And now we will begin. With your

For your Corona Days at Home

mouth closed, breathing in and out through the nose. Start stopwatch each inhale should be close to 5 seconds long, each exhale should be close to 5 seconds long. Breathe in through your nose, S L O W L Y for 5 seconds. Now breathe out through your nose, S L O W L Y for 5 seconds.

In - 2, 3, 4 for 5 seconds. Out - 2, 3, 4 for 5 seconds. Repeat up to 60 seconds and shift for the next 60 seconds.

B) To add movement Take a deep clearing breath in through your nose and let your breath out through your nose. And now we begin.

On your Inhale: face your palms open towards the sky and then slowly raise your arms up to sky for 5 seconds. On your Exhale: face your open palms downwards towards earth, Slowly bring your arms down to earth for 5 seconds. Inhale palms and arms up to sky for 5 seconds. Exhale palms and hands down to earth for 5 seconds.

Repeat up to 5 minutes in total.

Kids can take turns being an orchestra conductor leading the movement.

Teens and adults can start with 7-8 breaths per minute and work down to 6 breaths per minute.

Younger Kids under 8 can do 8-10 breaths per minute for 1-2 minutes daily.

Teens and Adults - take your time to build this up to make it a 365 practice: 3 x day, 6 breaths/ minute, for 5 minutes. Stick with this practice for a few months and PTSD symptoms will noticeably subside.

7) Making Games, Intentions and Variations with Breathing Exercises If you haven’t already done this, make a routine for your kids during these Corona days similar to the school weekdays. Think about organising these ‘school days’ in the rhythm of breathing: start with an in-breath, with an activity for going

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Health

inwards (reading, school lessons, art making, meditation in nature). Follow this with an outbreath, with an activity for expressing outwardly (exercise, creativity or group projects, socialising with family or friends online, play, chores).

Follow this with an in-breath/inward activity and continue alternating.

Weave breathing exercises throughout your day: beginning of day, at meals, in Nature, before/ during lessons, at moments of upset/fatigue/ excess energy/before bed.

• • • • • •

•

• •

Have bubbles, balloons, feathers or other items on hand to make games for young children.

Add hand, arm, foot, leg movements to breathing exercises for vitality.

Make a breathing song or game for washing hands, or for physical distancing.

Make a breathing game with a straw in the side of paper cup and blow up a latex glove stretched on top.

Make an intention with the breathing exercises for healing, protection, vitality, connection, appreciation.

Notice the difference before and after breathing consciously - focus and deeply feel it - have a discussion about this with older kids.

Have crayons, paints and paper on hand for drawing or painting before and after breathing consciously - present the art and discuss what you are discovering.

Make this an exercise in receiving and sending healing energy to those in need, to loved ones, to self and the world.

Focus on making a connection to a ‘larger whole’ in these times (Earth, Air, ancestorsdescendant continuum).

8) Learn More

You can share your experience/ask questions on The Breathing Classroom Facebook support page.

Learn more about our free programs.

- International Breathwork Foundation (IBF) : Access a world of breathworkers who span the globe, group breathwork online, a Breathing App, a program for trauma recovery, a program for conscious breathing in the classroom, science and research advisors, an annual international breathwork conference, World Breathing Day.

- Conscious Breathing in the Classroom : the ‘Emergency Breathing Kit for Parents and Kids’ is an excerpt from this IBF program which includes a manual and training video for bringing 3-5 minutes of conscious breathing into your children’s daily lives ~ For Our Children and their beautiful Caregivers © ‘Emergency Breathing Kit for Parents and Kids : For your Corona days at home’ is used with the permission of the Breathing Classroom International Breathwork Foundation.

JoAnn Lowell is a professional breathwork practitioner, birth attendant

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and architect from Canada. A visionary within the International Breathwork Foundation, she is the creator of IBF’s Conscious Breathing in the Classroom international program. Lowell is an inspiring speaker, filmmaker, singer, activist, ceremonial leader, mother and the founder of many cutting edge organisations. She is motivated by the vision of each child on the planet discovering the magic of their own breath. www.IBFBreathwork.org

Mindset & Emotion

Close your eyes and

WAKE UP 46

Life and business strategist, best-selling author, and international speaker, Ismael Cala, tells us how we can take advantage of the joys that life offers by recognising that life deserves a strategy Human beings always run the risk of living on autopilot and disconnecting from ourselves.

Certainly, we travel like automatons and we are asleep during a good part of our existence. That is what I feel, for example, when reading opinions such as “not one more migrant here” (even if they are emigrants) or “such a problem has no solution and it is best to let it go and look the other way”.

Nowadays, it is evident that the darkest side of human beings - violence, intolerance, indolence - comes from problems of conscience. From a very poor conscience, which does not develop from and towards the common good, but from selfishness, greed and apathy, the three great spiritual calamities that humanity suffers.

However, living is not complex if we understand that life deserves a strategy. It is not just breathing and walking without any awareness of the future and what we want to achieve. Above all, living means moving toward what we want, but planning how to achieve it. It can be difficult if, on autopilot, you don’t take responsibility for anything. Here come into play what they call “chance, luck, destiny”, which are more comfortable positions because they don’t involve us in the solution and leave us as spectators of our own lives.

Many times, we look outside for answers that reside within us. I give you an example using a scientific evidence. According to the Iztacala Psychology Journal, of the National Autonomous University of Mexico, around 240 medical programs worldwide use meditation to reduce stress and as a treatment for chronic diseases.

If from the traditional medical science there is already a conviction that meditation or mindfulness are very effective ways to calm our mind, why do we still insist on hurting ourselves by giving our power to situations, people and emotions that do not suit us?

Living means moving toward what we want

Taking this into account, last January the Conciencia Divina retreat took place in North Carolina (United States), focusing on detoxifying everything that limits us and prevents us from living awake. It seems that the collective consciousness has been moving towards a greater understanding that we are part of a whole and that, if we have that true awakening, we will live in harmony.

The sooner we awaken from lethargy, the more we can take advantage of the joys that life offers us!

Medical programs worldwide use meditation to reduce stress

Ismael Cala is a life and business strategist, best-selling author, and international speaker specialising in personal development and mindful exponential leadership. The New York Times identified him as “the Latino Larry King”. He is a member of the National Speakers Association (NSA), USA. Founder and president of CALA Enterprises Corporation - focusing on leadership, mindfulness, happiness, productivity, and excellence. www.IsmaelCala.com

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Body

Healthy Brain

HAPPY

CHILDREN

Inspiring and helping people master their lives, Stephanie Brillant explains how children’s brains can pick up on their parents’ feelings and how that can influence the people they become We do know how to raise healthy kids, we do feed them properly, make sure they do physical activity. But what do we know about the child’s brain?

Understanding how the brain works is key for us as parents and educators for two reasons.

First, you can better understand the grown-ups we’ve become, second, we can choose to provide healthy experiences to our children. Not knowing is like flying a plane by putting on the autopilot.

You are not the captain on board. From oblivious we become conscious.

The first thing we have to realise is our brains are social. Relationships shape the brain. It’s not only about what we say or do. it’s about who we are, what we are going through, our inner state, the invisible truth.

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I learned that our brains resonate with one another, thus as parents, no matter how long we spend with our children, above all, what really counts is the way we feel, because they can feel it too and make associations in their young brains.

Let’s say you take the time to put them to bed every night, reading stories and even staying with them until they fall asleep. If inside you are stressed, concerned about your work or anything else, you can be sure that your child’s brain will encode bedtime with stress. Not, of course, if it only happens once in a while.

Hence, it is not an option to be in a constant survival mode, for our children’s sake. I am not suggesting parents should be selfish, I am suggesting it’s exactly like being in the airplane, put your oxygen mask on first and then take care of the passenger next to you.

If we parents are in survival mode, we will have survivor kids. In other words, traumatised children, just because we haven’t been wise enough as parents to take our own stresses seriously and recognise how it affects our children.

Relationships shape the brain.

It’s not only about what we say or do

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Body

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something is a potential asset but doesn’t mean you are going to succeed better.

A healthy brain isn’t optimistic, it is empowered

It’s fine to be stressed, I am not saying it’s normal, I am saying, life isn’t always a piece of cake. Of course, sometimes we are falling apart, who doesn’t? We are just humans.

It’s not a disaster for kids to see us struggling, as long as we can show them we are resilient.

Regulation is important. Knowing that troubles don’t last forever is a great lesson for our kids.

Also in these difficult times, it is reassuring.

A healthy brain isn’t optimistic, it is empowered.

Knowing there is always a way is very comforting for our children. Doctors have noticed that people injured by an accident heal faster if they were responsible for it than if they were the victim of it.

Mindset is key in our brains’ ability to be resilient.

The beliefs we inoculate to our children impact the architecture of their brains. Researchers have found that when you have a fixed mindset, your brain doesn’t react the same way than if you have a growth mindset.

In other words, your alarm system starts up, because mistakes are so disturbing for you, you have to deal with a strong emotional reaction. A fixed mindset is when you believe people were born with a certain amount of intelligence, that some persons are gifted while others are not.

A growth mindset is a belief you can grow, you can achieve great goals, and being a natural at

As parents and educators, we are the ones who are putting that seed in our kids’ minds. A study has found, depending on how mothers praise their baby, we can deduce what type of mindset the kid will develop four years later.

So, how to grow a growth mindset? Don’t tell the kids how brilliant they are, but make them proud of their progress. In negative sentences like “you can’t swim” add the word yet. You can’t swim yet resonates very differently in a child’s brain.

Being an educator is the opportunity to revisit our own childhood and it’s a gift. Then if you are curious to know more about how to help our children overcome powerful emotion, improve their focus, enhance their ability to cooperate, foster kindness and empathy. The documentary film BRAINIOUS is a must-see.

The 90 minutes film was made in collaboration with many bright minds: Allan Schore, Dan Siegel, Tyna Payne Bryson, Carol Dweck, Matthieu Ricard, Susan Kaiser Greenland.

Stéphanie Brillant is a multipotentialist, and connects the dots between Neuroscience - Our lives - Our Spiritual Path working by chapters 1 - Brain: Because when you understand the brain you become conscious and you can start to choose 2 - Breathing: Our breath is our superpower, it brings us clarity, and helps us change, reconnect with who we are, others and something bigger than us! It’s our key to freedom.

3 - Love: What is love? How to find love, to live it. You can’t understand really what it is if you don’t understand your brain and get rid of your attachment pattern. Also, breathing can get you to experience “unconditional love”.

4 - Time: What is time? It doesn’t really exist …

How to create our own time…

For each chapter, there is (or will be) a documentary film - a book - practical tools masterclass and coaching - lectures - fiction “ I found my Why, my Dharma, my purpose, and it’s joyful! “

Stephanie Brillant’s dharma is to inspire and help people master their lives and unlock their full potential. She is a passionaria of enlightened education. She is a journalist, a filmmaker, a former Senior Reporter and TV host. Her expertise includes neuroscience, well-being, social sciences, psychology and philosophy. Her documentary BRAINIOUS was warmly welcomed and selected at the Positive Cinema Week during the last Cannes Film Festival.

51

Business

Simple, focused

Action Business Fit Magazine regular contributor and business coach, Arnon Barnes, talks about the need to stay balanced and centred to help get yourself and your business through this Coronavirus crisis.

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Now more than ever it’s so important to stay balanced and centred. Life and business at times can be very chaotic, add a crisis like COVID-19 to the mix and all hell breaks loose.

If there’s one thing I’ve noticed from coaching thousands of business owners from all over the world it’s that when a crisis happens people react in one of two ways. A very small group becomes hyper centred whereas the majority panic and become completely overwhelmed. In this article I’m going to be sharing my key fundamentals for staying balanced and centred during times of crisis.

Let me start off by saying, there is no best food, or best exercise, or best mediation. There is no best of anything. It’s a combination of things that are practiced daily. Let’s touch on the first fundamental: health. Are you eating clean, drinking plenty of water and getting enough sleep? You might say: “but Arnon this is common sense”. Well, let me tell you that sometimes, common sense isn’t so common at all. Mess up in one of these areas and it has a direct effect on how you are operating as a family man or woman and business owner. Without your health, you’re nowhere. You owe it to the people who are relying on you to take care of yourself, you owe it to yourself!

Fundamental number two: Reducing stress.

What is stress? In living creatures stress is a state of mental or emotional strain or tension resulting from demanding circumstances.

With COVID-19 people are having to deal with sickness and death. Parents have to make time to home-school their children while getting work done themselves. Businesses are unable to stay open resulting in them in having major cashflow problems. Amongst other things, these issues are all very real and may feel very stressful. It’s hard to reduce it when it’s out of your control.

What we can control though is the way we go about it mentally. One of my teachers, T. Harv Eker says this: “Nothing has meaning except for the meaning we give it.” What I see with my hyper centred clients is that they’re staying calm and are approaching this epidemic with a; “this is a temporary situation and I will get through this” mentality. You’ve heard me say this before; 80% of your success is determined by your psychology.

So just be wary of where you are placing your focus. During these times you need to be even more cautious about who you let into your mind.

You must protect the gateways to your mental health especially during these pandemic times.

Which brings me to my third fundamental: Creativity. Although the Coronavirus is detrimental in some areas of business, I believe that in every crisis there’s an opportunity waiting to be discovered. After the outbreak the first business endeavours to be cancelled or postponed were social live gatherings. A lot of my clients host or give live trainings and seminars.

After years and years of tunnel vision and doing their trainings offline, COVID-19 forced them to find creative ways to deliver their trainings online. It’s funny how this crisis has made them go back to the drawing board and innovate their products. These innovations enable scalability and what business owner doesn’t want more of that?

Lastly: Relationships. A lot of business owners are so focused on sales and revenue. Although this is an important part of business, I believe it is not the most important thing. Once sales have been made so many companies fail to keep showing interest and keep clients warm, in other words nurturing the relationship. You should be doing this all the time, so use this time to give extra client support. People do business with people, not with products. When you chase the relationships, money will inevitably follow.

Just because your whole life and business might be temporarily upside down don’t think you need to change everything to make it better. From my experience, the opposite is true. In most cases you already have a lot of good going for you. It has already gotten you this far. Try to ride the wave as centred as possible. Take care of yourself and your company. Change one or two things. Take simple, focused actions consistently. Over time this will help you create the most impact and have lasting change.

Meet and work with Arnon Barnes live? Join one of his next upcoming events. For more information on the event, or coaching, contact his office via info@arnonbarnes.com or check out his website www.arnonbarnes.com.

Arnon started his first business at age 11 and built and sold his first multi million euro company by the age of 28! In the past 5 years Arnon has personally trained and coached more than 90 000 people from well over 65 different countries from all over the world! He is an explosive international speaker, author, investor and one of Europe’s leading and most exciting business mentors. www.arnonbarnes.com info@arnonbarnes.com

53

Art Corner

Born Under an

Anvil

The Art of Thalia Farendla of JiPL Arts

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Poet and writer, Karen Corinne Herceg, introduces the incredible work of French metal sculptor Thalia Farendla, who creates art from recycled materials, to Business Fit readers The early morning sun shoots a beam across a yellowing strip of salvaged metal as Thalia Farendla of JiP L Arts wields her tools to excavate new life from this abandoned scrap. Her petite frame belies her strength as the twenty-eightyear-old moulds and creates unique, resurrected forms from forgotten items. With a determined demeanour, she forges an innovative, artistic statement birthing the piece into a new incarnation.

Working with metal requires a lot of patience and skill, creating art from such repurposed materials takes even more time and accuracy.

Some artists working in this tradition create more representational works, but Farendla prefers a more interpretive approach. You might say she unearths the “soul” of what is hidden in lost pieces. She is working in an ancient tradition that has evolved over millennia.

If necessity is the mother of invention, as the saying goes, then the development of tools from the discovery of copper and subsequent metal derivatives is a testament to human ingenuity for utilitarian purposes. However, the use of such materials for artistic expression is a much more complex consideration. What we can surmise is that it speaks to the indominable creative impetus within us reaching back to the earliest of times, as crafting objects from metal can be traced back over nine thousand years ago.

in reclamation, producing both functional and inventive works of art.

My introduction to Farendla came several months after our family moved to France from the United States at the end of 2018. As anyone who has visited France can attest to, simply walking around the cities and villages offers multiple opportunities to appreciate the artistic sensibility of the French people.

No one can argue that great works of art have always been born in France, and Farendla does honour to that tradition. She refers to herself as a créatrice de peintures sculpturales. She grew up in Strasbourg, France, a city close to the German border. Her birth mother, Beatrix, was of Austrian descent. Tragically, she passed away when Farendla was only three years old. She was raised by her stepmother, a painter, and her father, a sculptor who works with metals, and who served as her first role model.

They brought Farendla and her siblings to numerous exhibitions where they were exposed to the works of Giacometti, Bacon, Kiefer and many others. She has also been inspired by the art of sculptor Bernar Venet, by Lee Jae Hyo who works with pebbles and stones, and by the contemporary artists of Monumenta. These are exhibitions held at the Grand Palais in Paris whose spacious scale is well suited to what is

In ancient Rome and Greece artisans crafted aweinspiring bronze statues as well as furniture and household utensils made from various metallic substances as they gradually learned to produce alloys of iron and copper. This expanded into the creation of dazzling pieces of jewellery and other objets d’art which served more of an aesthetic appeal than simply just a practical purpose.

Craftsmanship was perfected throughout the centuries giving rise to elaborate as well as functional uses for metal creations. Today’s artists working in this genre have additional imperatives for pursuing this art form. Given the need for recycling in a world where a disposable mentality has created great harm to our ecosystem, these artists are also essential societal leaders

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Art Corner

most often very large and expansive work. Kiefer worked in recycled pieces and was the first artist to exhibit at Monumenta in 2007 followed by others such as Anish Kapoor, a British Indian sculptor, who exhibited in 2011, and whose work has inspired Farendla as well. In addition, her parents were pioneers in supporting organic foods and holistic living which reinforced her philosophy of reclaiming and preserving the natural foundations of our bodies and the earth.

Approximately eleven years ago, at the age of 17, Farendla was in a very severe car accident which rendered her unable to walk for a period of time.

Bedridden and in pain, she had the opportunity to think about her life and her future. She felt drawn to the idea of working with her father, Jean-Patrick Lachapelle, in his studio as a sort of therapy for the rage and helplessness she was experiencing.

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Lachapelle is internationally respected in his field, and by apprenticing under him she found expression through her art that was birthed out of adversity. In this regard, she likes to say that she was “born under an anvil.”

Her first work was done in conjunction with her father and became a collection called “The Soul of Wrecks.” From scraps and discarded metal items, she was able to see the spirit and possibilities harboured within these forgotten pieces. She and her friends and associates roam as scavengers searching for fragments that cry out for resurrection. She forges these into a palette or sheets not knowing in advance what the final product will look like. Her moods and emotions imbue the work as they take shape.

Some scraps remain dormant in the studio for a few months or even years until they speak to her

and “ask her” to shape them. Some are crafted of a single piece of metal, while others form a sort of patchwork of various pieces. Sometimes they match up to her original vision and, at other times, they take on a direction of their own. She names each work in a rather simple or vague manner, not wishing to “lock up the piece” into a particular category or to dictate a response in the observer. She sees artwork as changing over time and experience. For this reason, she has chosen not to create figurative paintings and to work with a more fluid approach.

As the owner of two JiP L. pieces, “In the Morning Sun” and “Hot Wreck,” I can attest to the powerful response they invoke in the viewer. The former

piece is rather large (42.2 x 61 x 1.8 inches), and its blend of yellows and greys does indeed remind one of a moody daybreak, remarkably crafted from a discarded hot water heater. Yet, as you study it, you can see the trunk and expansive branches of a large tree and, alternatively, a herd of elephants crossing the Serengeti. “Hot Wreck” is a smaller work (31 x 23 x 5.2 inches), so expertly integrated and impressionistic, that it almost seems as if it had been painted in oils.

There is at once a sense of collision yet harmony, of landscapes hovering over one another, of ocean and air.

As an homage, Farendla adopted the artistic name of JiP L. JiP is a German female name she

Show up for yourself and the opportunities will appear

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Art Corner particularly likes that means to chase and pursue, and she added the “L” for Lachapelle, the surname of her father and guide. Her family enjoys telling the story of her birth, saying she was so curious and in such a hurry to see the world that she was almost born on the rear seat of her father’s Jeep on the way to the hospital. That curiosity and ambition has certainly translated into the work of a world-class artist.

In the five years since she first began working with her father, she has discovered her true calling.

While this is the only genre she works in, recently she decided to branch out within it, creating a line of functional art in metal furnishings. Her approach to this new line is inspired by the Japanese philosophy of Wabi Sabi that is similar to the Scandinavian concept of minimalism. “Wabi” refers to a sort of understated rustic elegance while “sabi” honors the flaws of imperfection that provide their own beauty with age. It celebrates the joy of what is natural and authentic which can certainly be attributed to her methodology and artistic intention. Her materials will remain the same but will become part of the world of interior design. Several prototypes are already cast but are not yet available. This new collection, appropriately called “Redemption WS,” will launch in the near future.

Farendla is moving to a new gallery location at Paray-le-Monial, a commune in the Saône-etLoire department in the region of Burgundy in eastern France, where visitors can stop by, meet her, view her creations, and make purchases in person. She remarks that people are often quite surprised that such a diminutive young woman works so adeptly with difficult materials and machinery, grinding, welding, and cutting. She admits it can be challenging, but meeting those challenges is a key to her success.

Farendla participates in international art fairs, and her manager, Caroline Silvina of CalliArts Agency, (visit them at https://www.calliartsagency.com/ and at https://www.facebook.com/ CalliArtsAgency/) promotes the gallery on social media, websites, at fairs and in competitions.

This allows her more time to work in her studio.

She is currently seeking companies or galleries who can sponsor her work, and she would like to be included in more international exhibits.

For more information, visit her on social media at: www.jipl-arts.com www.instagram.com/jipl_arts/ www.facebook.com/JiPL.arts/ Her work is also available for purchase on: www.artsartistsartwork.com/vendor/jipl-arts/

Karen Corinne Herceg graduated Columbia University where she

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studied with David Ignatow and Pulitzer Prize winner Philip Schultz. She has featured at major venues with such renowned poets as John Ashbery and William Packard. Karen Corinne Herceg writes poetry, prose, reviews and essays. Her latest book is Out From Calaboose by Nirala Publications (2017).

She lives in France www.karencorinneherceg.com

Health

COVID-19 Resilience Toolkit

10 key steps for growing stronger with resilience through the COVID-19 Pandemic

60

In this time of trying to cope with the challenges brought to us by the Covid-19 pandemic, Health Entrepreneur, Dr Anbreen Slama-Chaudhry, has produced a toolkit to help us manage the crisis.

We as a large world community are facing an extraordinary challenge: keeping healthy against the threat of the rapidly spreading novel Covid-19 virus. Starting with flu-like symptoms, the virus attacks the airways leading to severe breathing difficulties in the most vulnerable, ie those whose immunity is decreased because of various reasons - age over 65, living with chronic illness, taking medicines which reduce immunity.

Rapid spread of the virus along with severity of its symptoms led health specialists to recommend social distancing, confinement and thorough hand washing to our governments who took actions to implement these guidelines.

Increasing number of severe cases, indoors confinement, countries locking themselves in have put unprecedented pressure on individuals who face a wide range of emotions: anxiety, fear of disease and death, anger, helplessness. At the same time beautiful initiatives have risen around the globe to celebrate life, express solidarity and joy, such as communities cheering on their balconies at a set time every evening or artists sharing their piece of art online, be it singing, book reading or dancing.

Communities will grow stronger and have greater resilience through the Covid-19 pandemic, with everyone finding a way to cope with this new state of the world.

Here is a ‘resilience toolkit’, which might be helpful in managing this crisis.

Take actions to keep healthy

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Health

1) Stay safe • • •

Respect social distancing with confinement Wash hands thoroughly Don’t mix generations to keep grandparents safe

- This will help with flattening the Covid-19 spread curve

2) Make sure your basic needs are fulfilled •

Warm shelter, access to water, food and sanitation, security

- This will ensure your basic life comfort

3) Take actions to keep healthy •

• • •

•

•

Healthy eating: make sure your meals are balanced (healthy plate: ¼ carbs: rice, pasta, potatoes, ¼ proteins: meat, legumes, dairy, ½ fibres: vegetables), if snacking: replace high calories processed biscuits and cakes with natural food such as fruits or dairies.

Establish a physical activity plan using online fitness instructor or virtual groups Stay hydrated: drink plenty of water to help your organs function and flush toxins out of your body Keep a normal sleep routine allowing your body to rest and feel refreshed (no screens at night in bed, their blue light will cause damage to your eyesight and send message to your brain to stay awake) Avoid cravings if you are subject to any kind of addiction. Symptoms of missing a substance we are regularly using (it may be sugar, alcohol, smoking, or any other drug) can range from bad mood to headache and nausea. This may be the best time to progressively reduce your regular consumption and perhaps even quit.

Keep a daily routine which includes - getting up on time, taking a shower and getting dressed, having a daily activity plan, also trying to limit “screen time” to a reasonable amount. It is fundamental not to reverse your day/night rhythm as this might strongly impact your health.

- This will allow you to keep a healthy lifestyle, with a positive impact on your mood and weight through “feel good” hormones secretions, blood circulation and not stocking calories in new kilos.

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4) Dedicate time for your Mindspace • •

•

Allow yourself a quiet time, away from e-working, e-schooling, family or social media interactions Focus on your breathing, making sure your respiration is profound - inhaling air deep to the last lung space (pulmonary alveoli) from your nose and exhaling slowly through your mouth up to the last air drop is out, ensuring air turnover in your precious airways Try new practices such as mindfulness, yoga, meditation or prayer

- This will put your stress/fight mode nervous system on hold, levering stress hormones and start off the parasympathetic nervous connections: slowing down breathing pace, cardiac rhythm and regulating bowel movements.

5) Listen to yourself • •

First things first: if you are not well, your loved ones won’t be. Make sure you don’t overdo it.

Provide self-care in any way possible, caring for your body, mind and soul.

- This will allow you get stronger and resilient through any difficult situation.

6) Enjoy •

•

Feeling pleasure is an essential need and joy is a strong resource to face any tough situation. Make sure to have joyful moments everyday: family games, karaoke time, playing music, baking together, sharing jokes, doing art and crafts with children, watching feel good programmes/movies, and many more!

Practise your favourite hobby which maybe you did not have time for earlier

- This helps mood stability, diffuse anger and conflicts, strengthen family ties. Day hours will pass smoothly if happiness is around.

7) Declutter •

Home confinement might be the perfect occasion to do the decluttering that was long overdue… cupboards, kitchen closets, toys: it is the perfect time to reflect on what is really needed and what can be put on the “let go, give away” pile… recycling with fulfilling other people’s needs

•

Same decluttering applies to computer desktops, clouds and other drives that in another way are consuming energy for your data to be stored in faraway data centres.

- This will keep your hands and mind busy, not thinking too much about surrounding events.

8) Care for your health •

• •

Your health is your most precious asset and requires your full attention. Every action described above will contribute to keeping you healthy.

If you are living with any kind of illness, be attentive to your body signals and make sure to react fast enough.

Take your treatment regularly, drink enough water (helps medicines to get smoothly absorbed and circulated in the blood to reach their target area)

- This will make you your first care provider as you know yourself best, caring for you 24/7/365!

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friends to share your day, joys and worries.

Join community groups on social media or other online discussion/chat groups, keeping in mind to share positive messages, questions and worries, without spreading fear or harmful comments.

Give preference to your usual information channels to get the latest news, keep connected to your professional circle, enjoy virtual gatherings with your regular friends’ groups

- This will give you a sense of belonging, as long as you are grounded in reality (your daily routine and life) and not totally carried away by the realm of the world wide web.

These tough times may be an opportunity for taking conscious self-care actions, enhance adaptation and work towards self-realisation by building resilience. So let’s all hope to emerge as better versions of ourselves at the end of this.

With each other’s support. Take care.

9) If ill, don’t panic • • • •

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Monitor your health: take your temperature, make a list of symptoms you are feeling, give yourself rest Call your primary care provider for advice Don’t rush to hospitals or clinics as they might be overwhelmed with cases and you might put yourself at risk of contracting infection Follow the medical guidance you receive from known health professionals, the internet might not be the best information source If you feel anxiety, voice it. This is as important as physical illness and must be tackled right away.

- This will help health professionals to take the best care of you and your health.

Communities will grow stronger and have greater resilience

10) Stay connected and informed •

It has never been so easy to stay connected to one another and informed as it is today with social media and information technologies.

Stay in touch with your family members and

Dr Anbreen Slama-Chaudhry, is a Health Entrepreneur. She is a

medical doctor (GP), Health and Wellbeing Consultant, Chronic Diseases Patient Education and Self-Care specialist. She is the founder and CEO of Medical Training Services which is a Swiss registered health training company, whose vision is “A world where everyone has the knowledge and ability to make healthy choices, regardless of their educational or social background”.

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