Your Brain Coach D

If you’re still being told to breathe through hot flashes, it may be time to question that advice.

I still see the 2013 study being referenced as evidence that diaphragmatic breathing can reduce hot flashes by 30–40%. It was a small study, and this finding has since been challenged by subsequent research.

Breathing can absolutely be helpful. I use and recommend breathing techniques for stress and anxiety, where there is plenty of research supporting their use.

But when a woman is struggling with menopause, I don’t want her to believe that breathing is the answer to her hot flashes.

As a brain coach, I know where my role begins and where it ends. Coaches, psychologists, and therapists can provide valuable support, but some things need to be addressed by doctors and other medical professionals.

That is why I always encourage women to stay informed, look at current research, and seek the right professional help rather than relying on advice that may no longer reflect what we know today.

Because the goal is simple: to help women feel better and thrive.

If you’re struggling, get yourself some real help. Go to a doctor.

We often look at symptoms to understand whether a treatment is working. But what is happening inside the brain?

Poland is home to the world’s largest brain biobank, housed at the Institute of Psychiatry and Neurology in Warsaw.

More than 6,000 human brain tissue samples, preserved since 1952, give researchers an extraordinary opportunity to study the brain at the cellular and molecular level.

What makes this especially interesting is the possibility of connecting those findings with what researchers observe in living brains through EEG.

That opens the door to deeper questions about psychiatric treatment.

How do antidepressants such as SSRIs physically affect the brain? Which neural pathways change? And why do some people respond to treatment while others don’t?

Research like this moves the conversation beyond symptoms and toward a better understanding of the biology behind the brain and the differences between people.

For me, this is one of the most exciting directions in mental health research: understanding the brain one neural connection at a time.

And as a Polish brain coach, I’m especially proud to see this kind of research coming from Poland.

If you’re fascinated by the brain and want to learn more about how it influences your life, follow me for more neuroscience-based insights.

What can 20 years of brain data reveal about psychiatric medication?

Researchers in Poland have created one of the largest maps to date of how psychiatric medication affects brain function.

The team analyzed more than 24,000 EEG recordings collected over 20 years from patients treated in two psychiatric hospitals in Warsaw.

They examined 14 different classes of psychiatric medications and more than 75,000 neuropsychological parameters, looking at changes in brain-wave activity, synchronization between brain regions, and the complexity of neural communication.

That makes this research particularly interesting because it looks beyond whether symptoms improve. It examines how the brain itself changes while patients are receiving treatment.

As a Polish brain coach, I’m especially excited to see research of this scale coming out of Poland. The passion for understanding the brain certainly feels close to home.

If you’re interested in brain health, neuroscience, and how the brain influences the way we think, perform, and live, follow along and connect with me.

Link to the study in comments.

What is success worth if achieving it costs you who you are?

Leaders are under constant pressure to deliver results, hit KPIs, and maintain high standards. But when performance is the only focus, it’s easy to lose sight of the principles that anchor your leadership.

How you lead shapes your environment, it dictates how decisions are made, how people are treated, and what you stand for when the pressure hits. That’s why clarity on your core values and non-negotiables is essential.

While people grow and roles evolve, core values remain your constant anchor. Aligning your leadership with these values changes the entire meaning of success.

Thank you to for the invitation and for creating space for such a meaningful conversation.

What is your number one non-negotiable as a leader?

How many times are you making the same decision?

You tell yourself you’ll have just one, stop tomorrow, or make an exception this time. Then a few hours later, the same choice is back in front of you.

Every time you reopen that decision, your prefrontal cortex has to engage again. That repeated reconsideration uses mental energy, and as the day goes on, decision fatigue can start showing up in surprisingly simple moments. Even choosing dinner can feel harder than it should.

This is why I question the advice, “Everything in moderation.”

When the boundary stays unclear, the decision stays open. A clear choice removes the need to keep negotiating with yourself throughout the day.

Think about where this happens in your own life. Food, alcohol, a habit, a relationship, or something you keep postponing.

So what decision are you making now?

Looking composed doesn’t always mean you’re regulated.

As high-achieving women, we can become very good at pushing through. We keep leading, solving, delivering, and showing everyone that we have it under control, even when what we feel inside tells a very different story.

But suppressing an emotion is not the same as regulating it.

One of the techniques I use is cognitive reappraisal. It can begin with something surprisingly simple: name what you’re feeling.

Putting an emotion into words brings it into conscious awareness. It engages the prefrontal cortex and helps reduce activity in the amygdala, making it easier to respond to what you’re feeling instead of simply pushing it down.

Sometimes self-regulation starts with being able to say, “This is what I’m feeling right now.”

If you look like you have everything together on the outside but know that things feel very different on the inside, I want you to know there are ways to work with those patterns.

Book a Consultation. Link in the comments.

I had worked hard to earn my place in that room. But earning the seat didn’t mean I was seen the way I expected.

I was 32 when I walked into a room filled with men in dark brown suits. I could hear the quiet conversations around me, and the feeling I received was polite tolerance at best.

At the same time, I was proud to be there. I had worked hard for that seat.

But I also knew what some of them were thinking. They didn’t see me as a leader or a decision-maker. Some saw me as a decoration, even as part of a trend of giving women a voice.

That experience stayed with me, and it became part of a much bigger conversation about women and leadership.

If you want to hear more, watch my TEDx talk: Why the Female Brain Is Built for Leadership. Link in the comments.

What happens when the life that looks successful from the outside no longer feels right on the inside?

One of my clients, a high-achieving woman, recently asked herself a powerful question: Am I really still people-pleasing?

At 53, she realized she was still living by expectations she had learned a long time ago, even performing for people who had already passed away. That realization led to much bigger questions: Is this how I want to live? Is this how I want to perform? Is this how I want to design my life?

Our brains naturally hold on to patterns that feel familiar and protective. They are constantly looking for problems and trying to keep us safe. Without awareness, those old patterns can continue influencing our choices long after we've stopped questioning where they came from.

This is especially important for high-performing women who appear to have everything together, while internally life has become overwhelming, exhausting, or very different from what they imagined it would feel like.

You can begin examining those patterns and consciously refocusing your brain on the life you actually want to create.

Ready to start that work? Book a consultation. Link in the comments.