Beyond Positive Intelligence: Why Real Growth Requires More than Just Positivity

Beyond Positive Intelligence: Why Real Growth Requires More than Just Positivity

Positive Intelligence, aka PQ, focuses on identifying and overcoming internal ‘saboteurs’ – so-called negative thought patterns that can interfere with success and wellbeing. While this model resonates with many, it also presents critical limitations, particularly for individuals with histories of trauma, chronic stress, or unresolved inner conflict.

This article examines the strengths and shortcomings of the PQ framework, exposes the risks of oversimplified coaching approaches and inadequate coach education, and makes the case for a more trauma-wise, compassionate, and heart-centered approach – one that supports both coaches and individuals in fostering deeper self-awareness, self-acceptance, healing, and authentic growth.

A Year of Reckoning and The Call for Love and Courage

A Year of Reckoning and The Call for Love and Courage

I had not one inkling that the final year of my 40s would turn out the way it did. This past year has reshaped both my inner and outer life in ways I could never have anticipated. I hate to admit it, but I was incredibly naïve, and ignorant. The writing was quite literally, on the wall….

As I turned 50 just days ago, I find myself contemplating how this year of horror, trauma, violence, and hatred has fundamentally shifted my identities – as a Jew, an Israeli, a Canadian, a family man, friend and neighbor, and as a professional who tries to bring more heart to the world.

Beyond Stress Management: Expanding Your Window of Tolerance to Restore Authenticity, Resilience & Heart

Beyond Stress Management: Expanding Your Window of Tolerance to Restore Authenticity, Resilience & Heart

Is Stress Changing Who You Are? It’s highly likely that the toll of chronic stress is silently reshaping you, and without understanding how to manage it, the risks to your wellbeing, family life, and leadership effectiveness are only growing.

I would like to share a model to help explain what might be happening, from a neurophysiological perspective, called the Window of Tolerance.

Burnout is Not a Badge of Honor: The High Achiever’s Dilemma

Burnout is Not a Badge of Honor: The High Achiever’s Dilemma

“In the relentless pursuit of success, many high-achieving executives wear their burnout as a badge of honor, not realizing it’s a complex condition that can be rooted in trauma, as well as cause it.”

At the heart of this issue lies the High Achiever’s Dilemma: being in perpetual pursuit of achievement, while continuously increasing one’s standards and expectations of themselves, and no matter what they achieve and accomplish, they never feel “I am enough”. There is a void where there should be a natural sense of worth, self worth and ‘Good Enoughness’

The Power of Heart Coherence (HRV) for Balance, Resilience and Wellbeing

The Power of Heart Coherence (HRV) for Balance, Resilience and Wellbeing

Lately, many of us find ourselves tossed about by tsunamis of stress, emotional adversity, and uncertainty about the future. Amidst the chaos, we can always find a profound yet often overlooked resource within us – the power of our hearts to help us generate a state of greater inner balance, harmony and coherence.

At its core, heart coherence is a tangible psycho-physiological state with profound implications for our mental, emotional, and physical wellbeing. It’s rooted in the science of Heart Rate Variability (HRV).

Reframing Impostor Syndrome as Self-Deficiency Syndrome

Reframing Impostor Syndrome as Self-Deficiency Syndrome

Impostor Syndrome needs a major reframe. It’s actually the tip of the Self-Deficiency iceberg hiding deeper issues of shame & unenoughness below. Self Leadership Coaching offers a compassionate trauma-informed approach.

If you’re feeling that impostor feeling – it means you’re not in Self. You’re back to being a vulnerable kid again. When you recognize that a wounded part of you is scared and struggling, and your go-to strategies are to push yourself harder or run for the hills, it’s time to stop and reconnect – it’s time to give yourself the kind of love, compassion and acceptance you may never have gotten growing up.