Women & LeadershipStrength Without Self-Abandonment

Women & Leadership

The Woman Who Leads

Strength without self-abandonment.

By Dr. Marilyn Carroll

Women have always led.

We have led organizations, families, communities, classrooms, movements, and conversations that changed what others believed was possible. We have led from formal positions of authority and from places where our influence was undeniable even when our titles were not.

Yet women’s leadership has frequently included work that organizations do not formally recognize.

We notice who has withdrawn from the conversation. We sense when trust is deteriorating. We translate what someone intended to say, manage the tension no one wants to name, and help people recover after decisions made somewhere above us.

This is leadership—but it is also labor.

When Caring Becomes Infrastructure

Women are often encouraged to lead with empathy. That advice is not wrong, but it is incomplete.

Empathy becomes dangerous when it means absorbing everyone’s discomfort, compensating for every gap, and remaining perpetually available.

Leaders do not burn out from caring. They burn out from caring without boundaries.

A woman may begin by supporting a struggling employee. Over time, she becomes responsible for regulating the emotions of an entire team. She may step in when a process fails, resolve the immediate problem, and continue doing so until the workaround quietly becomes her permanent responsibility.

Eventually, the leader is carrying what the system has not learned to carry yet.

Her competence can conceal organizational weakness. Because she continues making everything work, the organization does not feel sufficient pressure to correct what is broken.

What looks like extraordinary leadership may actually be unpaid emotional and operational labor.

The Emotional Debt Organizations Accumulate

Organizations accumulate emotional debt when difficult conversations are postponed, poor behavior is tolerated, expectations remain unclear, and leaders depend upon a few emotionally intelligent people to hold everything together.

Like financial debt, emotional debt grows when it is ignored.

The cost appears through mistrust, disengagement, turnover, burnout, resentment, and the quiet withdrawal of talented people who no longer believe the environment will change.

Women are frequently asked to service this debt. They are expected to mentor without additional time, smooth over conflict without authority, create belonging without resources, and protect morale while implementing decisions they did not make.

This work may reflect genuine leadership strength. But strength should not become the reason a woman is expected to carry an unreasonable load.

Empathy Must Become System Design

The highest form of leadership empathy is not absorbing discomfort. It is designing a system capable of tolerating it.

That means establishing expectations before confusion becomes conflict. It means creating decision processes that do not depend upon one person’s constant intervention. It means giving people the tools to have honest conversations without requiring the leader to translate every emotion.

Empathetic system design also includes boundaries. A boundary is not the absence of care. It clarifies where responsibility belongs. It allows a leader to remain compassionate without becoming responsible for every person’s reaction to necessary change.

Women should not have to choose between being respected and being humane. We should be able to communicate hard truths without imitating leadership styles built around dominance, detachment, or fear.

Fierceness and compassion can occupy the same room.

Stop Rewarding the Rescue

Many organizations unintentionally reward women for rescuing broken systems.

The woman who consistently fixes everything is praised for being dependable. She receives more work because she has demonstrated that she can handle it. Her ability to function under unreasonable conditions becomes evidence that those conditions are acceptable.

But every successful rescue can postpone a necessary redesign.

Leadership maturity requires asking a different question. Instead of asking, “Who can take care of this?” the organization must ask, “Why does this keep requiring rescue?”

Women leaders must be allowed to move from carrying the system to changing it.

That transition may initially make other people uncomfortable. When a woman stops compensating for every gap, the gaps become visible. When she establishes boundaries, those who benefited from her overextension may describe her differently.

She has not become less caring. She has become more aligned.

Leadership Without Disappearing

A woman can become so identified with her leadership responsibilities that she disappears inside them.

She becomes the decision-maker, problem-solver, mentor, strategist, caretaker, and dependable person everyone calls. Her value becomes attached to her availability and output.

But the leader is still a whole person.

She has a body that requires rest, relationships that need presence, a mind that needs renewal, and an identity that must remain larger than the position she occupies.

Wholeness does not reduce leadership effectiveness. It protects it.

A leader who is aligned can distinguish urgency from dependency. She can decide what requires her involvement and what requires the development of someone else. She can support people without preventing them from building their own capacity.

Most importantly, she can contribute without treating herself as a resource that never needs replenishment.

The Next Expression of Women’s Leadership

The next expression of women’s leadership should not be defined by how much more women can endure.

It should be defined by what women are prepared to redesign.

We can create cultures where emotional intelligence is a shared expectation rather than a woman’s invisible assignment. We can build systems that distribute responsibility, address conflict early, and recognize relational labor as real work.

We can lead with empathy and boundaries, strength and softness, ambition and wholeness.

Women have already proven that we can carry extraordinary weight. The more important question is whether we will continue accepting systems that require us to carry it alone.

The woman who leads does not have to disappear inside the leadership. She can care without carrying everything. She can be strong without remaining silent. She can create results without sacrificing her identity.

And she can leave behind more than evidence that she survived the system. She can leave behind a better system.

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The WomanIdentity · Strength · Alignment

The Woman · Identity · Strength · Alignment

The Woman: Identity, Strength & Alignment

A reflection on becoming visible to ourselves within the roles, responsibilities, and expectations we carry.

By Dr. Marilyn Carroll

There comes a point in a woman’s life when the question changes.

For years, she may have asked, “What must I do?” She learned how to meet expectations, care for others, build a career, manage a household, support a family, contribute to her community, and keep moving—even when the demands placed upon her exceeded what anyone could reasonably see.

Eventually, however, a deeper question emerges: “Who am I becoming through everything I have been asked to carry?”

That question sits at the intersection of identity, strength, and alignment.

Identity: More Than the Roles We Perform

Women are often introduced through their relationships and responsibilities. She is someone’s mother, wife, daughter, sister, colleague, caregiver, leader, or friend. These roles may be meaningful, but none of them—alone or together—can fully describe the woman.

Identity is not simply the collection of roles we perform. It includes our values, experiences, gifts, convictions, needs, boundaries, aspirations, and the private truths we carry when no one else is watching.

A woman can be deeply committed to her family and still desire something that belongs only to her. She can be successful in her profession and realize that her title no longer reflects who she is becoming. She can be dependable and still need rest. She can love the people in her life and recognize that love does not require the abandonment of self.

Rediscovering identity does not mean rejecting our responsibilities. It means refusing to disappear inside them.

Strength: Beyond Endurance

Women are frequently praised for being strong. Yet what society often calls strength is actually endurance—the ability to absorb more, sacrifice longer, remain quiet, and continue functioning.

But strength is not measured only by how much a woman can carry.

Strength can mean telling the truth about what has become too heavy. It can mean establishing a boundary without writing an apology around it. It can mean asking for help, beginning again, leaving what no longer honors us, or choosing peace over performance.

Strength also includes softness. It includes the ability to remain open, curious, compassionate, and hopeful after disappointment. It is the courage to be fully human rather than constantly invulnerable.

A woman should not have to reach exhaustion before she is permitted to change her life.

Sometimes the strongest decision is not to push harder. It is to pause long enough to hear what the woman beneath the responsibilities has been trying to say.

Alignment: When the Inner and Outer Life Meet

Alignment occurs when the life we are living begins to reflect what we say matters to us.

It is possible to appear successful while feeling internally disconnected. A woman may have achieved the position, maintained the image, fulfilled every obligation, and still feel that something essential is missing.

That feeling is not always ingratitude. Sometimes it is information.

Misalignment can reveal itself through chronic exhaustion, resentment, restlessness, or the sense that we are constantly performing a version of ourselves designed to keep everyone else comfortable.

Alignment asks us to examine the distance between our stated values and our daily decisions. If we value health, does our schedule permit care? If we value family, are we emotionally present? If we value purpose, does our work allow us to contribute in meaningful ways? If we value peace, why have we normalized environments that continuously disturb it?

Alignment does not require a perfect life. It requires an honest one.

Becoming the Woman You Can Recognize

The aligned woman is not a woman without responsibilities, ambition, fear, or uncertainty. She is a woman who has stopped allowing external expectations to make every important decision for her.

She understands that identity can evolve. She recognizes that strength can include rest. She knows that alignment may require disappointing people who benefited from her lack of boundaries.

Most importantly, she is no longer trying to earn the right to belong to herself.

The woman is not simply the person others see when she enters a room. She is the person she must continue living with after the applause ends, the children grow, the position changes, the relationship shifts, and the world asks her to become something new.

This season is not about abandoning everything she has built. It is about ensuring that the woman doing the building remains visible within it.

Identity asks, “Who am I?” Strength asks, “What truth am I prepared to honor?” Alignment asks, “Does the life I am living reflect the woman I am becoming?”

When those three meet, a woman does more than succeed. She becomes whole.

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The Human VariableCareer Insurance · Identity

The Woman · Identity · Strength · Alignment

Who Are You Beyond the Title?

Success beyond career titles—and why Career Insurance begins with an identity that can travel with you.

By Dr. Marilyn Carroll

Professional titles can become powerful shorthand.

They tell people where we fit, what we have accomplished, and how much authority we may possess. They influence how others respond when we enter a room—and, over time, they can influence how we see ourselves.

“I am the vice president.” “I am the professor.” “I am the director.” “I am the founder.”

But what happens when the title changes?

What remains when the organization restructures, the industry evolves, the position ends, retirement arrives, or we discover that the role we worked so hard to attain no longer fits the person we have become?

These are not merely career questions. They are identity questions.

When Success Becomes Attached to the Position

There is nothing wrong with being proud of a professional title. Titles can represent years of education, sacrifice, leadership, experience, and perseverance.

The danger appears when the title becomes the primary evidence of our value.

A title belongs to a position, and a position belongs to an organization. Even when we have performed the work exceptionally well, the organization retains the authority to rename, restructure, eliminate, or reassign the role.

This is why one of the foundational ideas of Career Insurance is simple: Your job belongs to the employer. Your career belongs to you.

Your job is not your career. It is one chapter within it.

A career includes the capabilities you have developed, the relationships you have cultivated, the problems you know how to solve, the reputation you have earned, and the evidence you can carry into the next opportunity.

A title may introduce you, but it should never be the only language available to describe you.

What Do You Own?

Career Insurance is not a traditional insurance policy. It is the deliberate development of assets that remain portable when employment conditions change.

Those assets include evidence, capability, relationships, reputation, income, identity, and reinvention.

Evidence shows what you have done. Capability reflects what you know how to do. Relationships connect you to people and possibilities. Reputation represents what others have learned to expect from you. Income and earning power expand your options. Identity gives you a professional sense of self larger than any employer. Reinvention allows you to apply what you know in a changing world.

Together, these assets help you move, adapt, earn, contribute, and begin again when necessary.

The central Career Insurance question is: “Whatever happens in the next five years, what must I own so I still have choices?”

Describe Yourself Without Using Your Title

If your title disappeared tomorrow, how would you explain the value you bring?

Perhaps you build trust during uncertainty. You see connections that other people miss. You develop emerging leaders. You create systems out of confusion. You help organizations translate ideas into action. You make complex information understandable. You bring calm to difficult conversations.

These descriptions travel with you.

A portable professional identity is built around contribution rather than position. It explains not only what you have been called, but what you are capable of creating wherever you go.

This distinction becomes increasingly important as artificial intelligence, automation, restructuring, and new business models continue to change the nature of work. The person who has only prepared to hold one position may feel trapped when that position changes. The person who understands her transferable value can see multiple paths forward.

Success That Travels With You

Success beyond the title does not mean becoming less ambitious. It means building a form of ambition that is not entirely dependent upon external recognition.

It means collecting evidence of your work instead of allowing your accomplishments to remain hidden inside an organization. It means continuing to learn before circumstances force you to. It means maintaining relationships beyond moments of immediate need.

It also means developing financial and emotional room to make decisions from possibility rather than panic.

Career Insurance does not promise that disruption will never happen. It helps ensure that disruption does not erase your sense of self or eliminate every available option.

The Person Beneath the Position

Eventually, every title changes. Some are earned, some are outgrown, and some are taken from us before we are ready.

The deeper question is whether we have built an identity capable of surviving the transition.

You are not only the office you occupy, but the organization also printed beneath your name, or the authority temporarily assigned to your role.

You are the judgment you have developed, the people you have influenced, the problems you have learned to solve, the courage you have demonstrated, and the capabilities you have built along the way.

The title may open the door. But who you have become determines what happens after you walk through it.

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The WomanHolism · Integration · Expectations

The Woman · Identity · Strength · Alignment

Wholeness in a World of Expectations

Holism reminds us that a woman is not a collection of disconnected roles, but one whole person moving through all of them.

By Dr. Marilyn Carroll

The world rarely asks a woman to be one thing.

It asks her to be accomplished but never intimidating, confident but always agreeable, nurturing but endlessly productive, independent but constantly available. She is expected to care deeply, perform consistently, age gracefully, remain relevant, maintain relationships, and make it all look effortless.

Somewhere beneath those expectations is a whole human being.

Holism offers a different way of understanding her.

What Holism Means

Holism is the recognition that a person cannot be fully understood by examining isolated parts of her life. Her emotional, physical, intellectual, relational, spiritual, and professional experiences are interconnected.

What happens in one area affects the others.

A difficult work environment can follow her home. Caregiving responsibilities can influence her health and career decisions. Financial pressure can affect relationships. A lack of rest can reduce creativity, patience, and confidence. A renewed sense of purpose can create energy that spreads across multiple areas of life.

Holism reminds us that the woman is not a collection of unrelated roles. She is a whole person moving through all of them.

The Fragmented Woman

Women often learn to divide themselves according to the environment.

The professional self enters the workplace. The nurturing self attends to family. The responsible self manages the details. The social self reassures others. The exhausted self waits until everyone is asleep.

This fragmentation can become so familiar that a woman no longer notices the distance between the version of herself presented to the world and the person she experiences privately.

She may be praised for managing everything while quietly feeling present nowhere.

Wholeness begins when she recognizes that the parts of her life are not competing identities. They are expressions of one life—and that life requires care, coherence, and truth.

Wholeness Is Not Perfection

Wholeness does not mean achieving perfect balance. Balance suggests that every area of life should receive equal attention at all times, which is rarely realistic.

Some seasons require more caregiving. Others require greater professional focus. There are periods of building, grieving, healing, learning, resting, and beginning again.

Wholeness is not equal distribution. It is conscious integration.

It is the ability to recognize what a season requires without abandoning the rest of oneself permanently. It is knowing that a demanding role may temporarily receive more time but should not be allowed to erase health, relationships, identity, or purpose.

A whole woman can be unfinished. She can be healing. She can be uncertain about what comes next. Wholeness does not require having every answer. It requires refusing to treat parts of ourselves as disposable.

The Weight of Expectation

Expectations are not always spoken. Some are inherited.

Women receive messages about what a good mother, successful professional, supportive partner, respectable daughter, or strong woman should do. These expectations can become internal rules long after anyone else is enforcing them.

Wholeness requires asking whether those rules still belong in our lives.

Some expectations reflect our values. Others reflect fear, tradition, image, comparison, or the desire to avoid disappointing people.

The distinction matters.

A life built entirely around expectation can look admirable from the outside while feeling unrecognizable from within. The cost is often paid quietly—in exhaustion, resentment, anxiety, disconnection, and postponed dreams.

Returning to the Whole Self

Returning to wholeness is not a dramatic rejection of responsibility. It is a gradual restoration of relationship with oneself.

It begins with attention.

What has the body been communicating? What emotions have been repeatedly dismissed? Which relationships restore us, and which ones require us to shrink? Where has achievement replaced meaning? What part of the self has been postponed until some imaginary future when everyone else needs less?

These questions are not evidence of selfishness. They are invitations to live more consciously.

A woman who listens to herself is better positioned to make decisions that reflect both responsibility and truth. She can care for others without treating depletion as proof of love. She can pursue success without offering her entire identity in exchange for it.

A Life That Belongs Together

Wholeness is the freedom to stop performing separate versions of ourselves for every audience.

It is the recognition that our ambition, tenderness, intellect, history, spirituality, relationships, work, and desire for rest can belong to the same woman.

The goal is not to become someone entirely new. It is to bring home the parts of ourselves we learned to leave behind.

In a world that continually tells women what they should become, wholeness asks a quieter and more powerful question: “What would it mean to live as though every part of me deserves a place in my own life?”

The answer may not arrive all at once. But listening for it is where alignment begins.

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Executive PresencePersonal Brand · Trust

Personal Brand & Executive Presence

Your Personal Brand Is the Story People Learn to Trust

Moving beyond visibility to authentic presence.

By Dr. Jamie Chesler

A personal brand is often mistaken for a polished photograph, a memorable tagline, a carefully designed résumé, or an active social media presence.

Those things may communicate a brand, but they do not create one.

Your personal brand is the story people learn to trust about you.

It is formed through your values, communication, decisions, appearance, professionalism, body language, consistency, and the quality of the experiences people have in your presence.

Long before someone reads your biography, your behavior has already begun telling your story.

Brand Is a Trust Signal

A strong personal brand helps people understand what they can expect from you.

Will you arrive prepared? Can you communicate difficult information with clarity? Do you remain grounded when circumstances become uncertain? Does your work support the claims you make about your capability?

Trust develops when the answers remain consistent.

This does not mean performing the same personality in every environment. We all adjust our communication according to the audience and situation. Authenticity does not mean telling everyone everything or refusing to evolve.

It means that the person others encounter is connected to the values you claim to hold.

Your brand weakens when there is too much distance between the story you tell and the experience you create.

You Already Have a Brand

Some people resist the idea of personal branding because it sounds artificial or self-promotional.

But choosing not to manage your brand does not mean you do not have one. It means other people are defining it from the information available to them.

They form impressions from how you contribute during meetings, respond to feedback, manage conflict, communicate online, follow through on commitments, and treat people who cannot advance your career.

Your brand exists in the sentences people use when you are not present.

These observations become a professional narrative. When the narrative is repeated consistently, it becomes reputation.

Personal-brand management begins with understanding that narrative—not inventing a false one.

Executive Presence Is an Experience

Executive presence is sometimes reduced to clothing, confidence, or the ability to command a room.

Appearance matters because it communicates attention, context, and intention. But executive presence is not simply how you look when you enter the room.

It is how people experience you after you arrive.

Do people feel confused or clear? Diminished or respected? Anxious or grounded? Do they believe you understand the consequences of your decisions? Can you communicate authority without making other people feel invisible?

Executive presence travels through screens as well. Virtual meetings, emails, messages, online profiles, and digital content now shape professional impressions.

Presence is the ability to remain intentional wherever people encounter you.

Your Story Needs Evidence

A compelling personal narrative should not depend entirely upon adjectives.

Calling yourself innovative, strategic, collaborative, or transformational is not the same as demonstrating those qualities.

Evidence gives the story credibility.

What have you built, improved, solved, written, taught, designed, led, or changed? What happened because you were involved? What can another person see that supports the professional identity you are communicating?

Your résumé, portfolio, presentations, projects, recommendations, writing, community involvement, and digital presence should collectively answer a central question: “Why should someone believe this story?”

The strongest personal brands connect narrative and evidence.

AI Can Amplify—but It Cannot Define—You

Artificial intelligence has made it easier to produce polished biographies, résumés, articles, social posts, and professional statements.

It has not made authenticity automatic.

AI is a multiplier. It can amplify clarity, but it can also amplify confusion. It can help communicate a well-defined identity, but it cannot decide what you value, what you have learned, or what you want your work to mean.

You cannot automate authenticity. You must define it first.

Before asking AI to write your professional story, you must understand the story yourself. Otherwise, you may receive language that sounds impressive but could belong to almost anyone.

Alignment Before Exposure

Visibility is not always the first goal.

Before pursuing a larger audience, new platform, promotion, or professional opportunity, ask whether your brand is aligned with the direction you want to travel.

Sometimes a brand must evolve before it expands. People grow. Careers change. Expertise deepens. New experiences reveal capabilities that earlier titles could not fully express.

The task is to connect the chapters so that growth feels coherent.

Become Recognizable for What Matters

The goal of personal branding is not to become known by everyone.

It is to become recognizable to the right people for the right reasons.

A meaningful brand makes your value easier to understand. It helps opportunities find a clear place to connect with you. It allows your reputation to travel into rooms you have not yet entered.

But visibility without substance is temporary.

Your personal brand is not a costume worn for professional attention. It is the intentional expression of who you are, how you contribute, and what people can trust you to bring into the room.

You do not need to manufacture a new identity. You need to identify the truth of your value, gather the evidence, and communicate the story with consistency.

That is how visibility becomes credibility. And credibility becomes trust.

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Spiritual Well-Being · 365Identity · Stillness · Alignment

Spiritual Well-Being · 365

She Is Still There

Returning to identity, strength, and alignment.

Written by Dr. Stephanie Hawkins

She is fierce. Unapologetically compassionate. Able to see through things and through people to get to the essence. She has always been there, even when the roles grew loud enough to drown her out.

The roles of a woman are many, and each one asks something of her. But when accommodating shifts from desire to sacrifice, when compassion gets labeled as weakness, she can lose the thread back to herself. I learned to use my assertiveness not to replace my compassion, but to carve space for it in the room. Not by choosing between fierceness and softness, but by letting one carry the other.

The roles are many and loud. But she is still there, waiting to be remembered.

The Excavation

Staying connected to your own identity requires practice. For me it begins in stillness, getting quiet enough to hear the soft inner voice until it becomes unwavering. I am an excavator of the unconscious, probing my motivations and feelings with curiosity rather than judgment.

Journaling and honest self-reflection create the objectivity to see ourselves clearly. If we cannot be raw and honest with ourselves, we carry blind spots that quietly shape how we show up in the world.

A personal mission statement, an anchoring declaration that transcends roles and titles, also brings me back to myself. Not what I do, but who I am. I return to it at least once a year and remain open to the shifts. Honoring that evolution is not inconsistency. It is integrity.

“I am not my roles. I am not my output. I am perfectly imperfect, and that is enough.”

The To-Be List

I recently began keeping a to-be list alongside my to-do list, and it has quietly changed everything. For most of my life I measured my days by productivity, feeling accomplished when I finished most of my list and falling short when I did not.

When I excavated that pattern honestly, I had to confront something important: I was measuring my value by my output.

I am worth far more than what I produce. I am not flawed. I am experienced. I am perfectly imperfect, and that is enough. So now, alongside the to-do list, I craft a to-be list. To be grateful. To be connected. To be in nature. The structure of a day built around who you are, not only what you must accomplish, is what alignment actually looks like in practice.

The body does not lie. Learn to listen to it, and you will never be without guidance.

Listen To Your Body

The shrinking still happens. There are still moments when I make myself smaller because the room seems to require it. The difference now is that I can see those moments, name them, and return.

Having a village, people who hear you without judgment and hold space for your full power, is life-giving. We were not meant to find our way back to ourselves alone.

And when the mind rationalizes or checks out, the body does not lie. The persistent ache. The fatigue without clear cause. The tightness in the shoulders. These are not interruptions. They are information.

Become an excavator of the body just as you excavate the mind. When something arises physically, pause and ask: what is my body asking me to pay attention to? Attend to it with the same curiosity you offer your inner life.

She is still there. Beneath the roles, beneath the expectations, beneath the noise. Fierce and compassionate and perfectly imperfect. She is not waiting to be found. She is waiting to be remembered.

This Month’s Reflections

Carry these into your stillness this September:

Who is she, the woman beneath the roles? How would you describe her in three words?
What does your “to-be” list look like today, separate from everything you need to accomplish?
Where in your body are you carrying something your mind has not yet named?

Guiding Affirmation

“I am not my roles. I am not my output. I am a woman of depth, wisdom, and purpose. I return to myself with curiosity and without judgment. I listen to my body. I honor my evolution. And I take up space, fully and without apology.”

365 Inspirations · September 2026

She Is Still There · Daily reflections inspired by Dr. Stephanie Hawkins

She is still there beneath every role.
Let stillness make your inner voice audible.
Compassion and fierceness can occupy the same room.
Your worth was never measured by your output.
Begin the day with a to-be list.
Notice where you have learned to shrink.
Take up space without apologizing for your presence.
Meet yourself with curiosity, not judgment.
Your body may be naming what your mind avoids.
Rest is information, not a reward.
Honoring your evolution is an act of integrity.
Return to the mission beneath the title.
You are experienced—not flawed.
Perfectly imperfect is still whole.
Choose connection over performance today.
Make room for the woman beneath the obligations.
A boundary can protect your compassion.
Your softness does not diminish your strength.
Let nature remind you that growth has seasons.
Listen when your shoulders ask you to release.
Name the moment you begin making yourself smaller.
Your village should make room for your full power.
You do not have to return to yourself alone.
Pause before dismissing what your body knows.
Who you are matters beyond what you accomplish.
Gratitude can be a way of being, not a task.
Alignment begins when your life reflects your truth.
Let one honest sentence bring you back to yourself.
The woman you were is allowed to evolve.
You are not waiting to be found—only remembered.

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Health & WellnessGentle Movement · Stress

Health & Wellness · Gentle Movement

Pause, Breathe and Release

Five gentle yoga practices for stressful days.

By Dr. Marilyn Carroll

Stress often enters the body before we consciously recognize it.

The shoulders tighten. The breath becomes shallow. The jaw clenches. The mind begins moving faster than the moment requires.

This gentle sequence is designed to interrupt that pattern. Move slowly, breathe naturally, and never force your body into a position. The entire practice can be completed in approximately 10 to 15 minutes.

Move slowly · Breathe naturally · Never force the body

Practice 1 of 5 · Five to eight breaths

1. Seated Mountain Pose With Centering Breath

Sit toward the front of a sturdy chair with both feet resting on the floor. Lengthen your spine without becoming rigid. Relax your shoulders and place your hands on your thighs.

Inhale slowly through your nose. Exhale gently, allowing the exhale to last slightly longer than the inhale. Continue for five to eight breaths.

Stress-relief intention: Use the breath to bring your attention away from racing thoughts and back into the present moment.

Seated Mountain Pose with a woman sitting tall on a chair — Seated Mountain Pose · Take 5–8 slow breaths

Practice 2 of 5 · Repeat six to eight times

2. Seated or Floor Cat-Cow

For the seated version, place your hands on your thighs. As you inhale, lift your chest slightly and allow your shoulders to move back. As you exhale, gently round your spine and bring your chin toward your chest.

For the floor version, begin on your hands and knees. Inhale as you lift your chest and tailbone. Exhale as you round your back gently. Repeat six to eight times.

Stress-relief intention: Coordinate breath and movement while releasing tension through the neck, shoulders, and back.

Seated Cat-Cow movement shown in two positions on a chair — Seated Cat-Cow · Inhale to lift, exhale to round

Practice 3 of 5 · Five to ten slow breaths

3. Supported Child’s Pose

Kneel on a padded surface with your knees comfortably apart. Place pillows or folded blankets in front of you and lower your upper body onto the support. Turn your head to one side and allow your arms to rest.

If kneeling is uncomfortable, sit in a chair and fold forward onto pillows placed on a table. Remain for five to ten slow breaths.

Stress-relief intention: Allow the support beneath you to hold some of the weight you have been carrying.

Supported Child’s Pose with the body resting on stacked pillows — Supported Child’s Pose · Rest your body on pillows

Practice 4 of 5 · One to three minutes

4. Legs on a Chair

Lie comfortably on your back and rest your lower legs on the seat of a sturdy chair. Your knees should be bent at approximately a right angle. Place one hand over your chest and the other over your abdomen.

Breathe slowly and remain for one to three minutes. If lying on the floor is uncomfortable, practice in bed with pillows supporting your legs.

Stress-relief intention: Give the legs and lower back an opportunity to rest while the body settles into stillness.

Legs resting at a right angle on the seat of a chair — Legs on a Chair · Let the chair support your legs

Practice 5 of 5 · Two to five minutes

5. Supported Final Relaxation

Lie on your back with a pillow beneath your head and another beneath your knees. You may also practice while sitting in a supportive chair.

Allow your arms to rest comfortably. Soften your jaw, lower your shoulders, and close your eyes if that feels safe.

Beginning at the forehead, slowly bring your attention down the body. Notice each area without trying to change it. With every exhale, imagine releasing a small amount of tension. Rest for two to five minutes.

Stress-relief intention: Nothing needs to be solved during these minutes. Your only responsibility is to breathe and be present.

Supported Final Relaxation with the head and knees resting on pillows — Supported Final Relaxation · Rest for 2–5 minutes

A Gentle Reminder

Yoga is not a competition, and discomfort is not evidence that a pose is working. Stop if you experience pain, dizziness, numbness, shortness of breath, or unusual discomfort.

People who are pregnant, recovering from surgery, managing an injury, or living with balance, joint, cardiovascular, or other medical concerns should consult a qualified healthcare professional and work with an appropriately trained yoga instructor.

The goal is not to perform every pose perfectly.

The goal is to create a few quiet minutes in which the mind and body can find each other again.

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Beauty NowFounder Story · AUSTELLA

Beauty Now

When One Product Wasn’t Enough

How Tori Buchanan’s postpartum skin journey inspired AUSTELLA.

By Dr. Marilyn Carroll

For Tori Buchanan, skincare did not begin as a business idea.

It began with her own reflection.

After experiencing two pregnancies and giving birth twice within a relatively short period, Tori began noticing changes in her skin. There were marks, blemishes, uneven areas, and differences in her skin tone that had not been part of her earlier routine.

Pregnancy affects every woman differently. Hormonal changes can contribute to acne, sensitivity, dryness, melasma, and other forms of hyperpigmentation. For some women, these changes gradually fade. For others, they remain long after the baby is born.

Tori’s skin was telling the story of what her body had experienced.

But she was not prepared to accept that nothing could be done.

Searching for the Right Product

Like many women, Tori began by trying existing skincare products.

She discovered something important during that process: one product was not always enough.

A cleanser might leave her skin feeling refreshed but do little for the appearance of lingering marks. A product designed to address uneven tone might not provide sufficient moisture. Another formulation might work well temporarily but fail to deliver the consistent experience she wanted.

The more she experimented, the more she recognized that skincare rarely comes down to finding one miraculous bottle.

Healthy-looking skin often requires a coordinated routine. Cleansing, hydration, protection, ingredient compatibility, consistency, and patience all matter.

For Tori, the search gradually evolved from “Which product should I buy?” to a much more intriguing question: “What if I developed a combination designed around what I have learned from my own skin?”

The Beginning of AUSTELLA

That question became the beginning of AUSTELLA.

The name carries a sense of place, identity, and possibility. Its Texas-inspired visual identity—a clean state outline accompanied by a star—gives the developing brand a distinctive foundation.

But AUSTELLA is more than a name placed on a bottle.

It represents Tori’s movement from consumer to creator.

She began exploring how different types of products could work together as a system rather than expecting one formulation to accomplish everything. Her trial products have included approaches to cleansing, smoothing, improving the visible appearance of uneven tone, and caring for areas affected by marks and blemishes.

As Tori has tested combinations within her own routine, she has observed encouraging changes in the appearance and feel of her skin. She is seeing a more even-looking tone and results that she describes as remarkable for her personally.

These observations are promising, but Tori understands that her experience is the beginning of the development process—not the end.

Personal Results Are the Starting Point

Many beauty brands begin with a founder who solves a problem she has personally experienced. That authenticity matters.

However, personal results cannot automatically predict how a product will perform for everyone. Different skin types, sensitivities, allergies, medical conditions, medications, environmental factors, and hormonal changes can influence how a person responds to a formulation.

For AUSTELLA to move from Tori’s successful personal trials to a responsible consumer brand, the next stage must include professional formulation support, ingredient review, stability and contamination testing, safety substantiation, accurate labeling, documented feedback, and carefully written product claims.

The FDA requires cosmetic claims to be truthful and not misleading. A product marketed as improving appearance is treated differently from one claiming to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent a medical condition.

Tori is not presenting herself as a dermatologist or promising that her products will medically treat postpartum pigmentation, acne, melasma, or another skin disorder. She is sharing the skincare journey that inspired her to begin developing cosmetic products intended to support smoother, more radiant, and more even-looking skin.

Beauty After Birth

The postpartum period is often discussed in terms of the baby. Far less attention is given to the woman looking into the mirror.

Her body may feel different. Her skin may respond differently. Her sleep, schedule, hormones, responsibilities, and relationship with herself may all be changing at once.

The pressure to “bounce back” can make these changes feel like personal failures rather than evidence of what the body has accomplished.

Tori’s story offers a healthier perspective. She did not approach her skin as something to punish for changing. She approached it as something to understand.

Beauty after pregnancy does not have to mean returning to the exact appearance a woman had before giving birth. It can mean learning how to care for the woman who exists now.

From Trial Runs to a Larger Vision

AUSTELLA is currently a developing idea supported by Tori’s personal experimentation and early trial experiences.

The vision, however, is becoming clearer. The brand could eventually serve women who have struggled to find a single product capable of addressing the complexity of their skincare needs. It could also become a brand grounded in education—helping women understand that more is not always better, that multiple strong ingredients should not be combined carelessly, and that consistency and sun protection may be as important as the featured product.

Most importantly, AUSTELLA can grow without losing the personal story that gave it life.

Tori did not begin with a marketing trend. She began with marks, blemishes, questions, and the determination to find an approach that worked for her.

For Tori Buchanan, beauty now means more than improving the appearance of her skin. It means turning her experience into possibility.

And AUSTELLA is the name she has given that possibility.

Editor’s note: AUSTELLA is presented as a brand and product concept in development. The results discussed in this feature reflect Tori Buchanan’s personal experience and are not guarantees of performance for other users. Cosmetic products should undergo appropriate formulation, safety, stability, microbiological, labeling, and regulatory review before being offered to consumers. Persistent or concerning skin changes should be evaluated by a qualified healthcare professional or board-certified dermatologist.

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The Human VariableHealth Decisions · Personal Account

The Human Variable · A Personal Account

My Body, My Decision

What Zepbound taught me about weight, health, and sustainable change.

By Dr. Marilyn Carroll

A personal account — not medical advice.

GLP-1 medications have changed the weight-loss conversation.

For many people, medications such as Zepbound have provided results they struggled for years to achieve. I have family members and friends who use these medications, have successfully lost weight, and have decided to continue treatment to maintain their results.

I respect that decision.

My experience was different.

This is not an article arguing for or against GLP-1 medications. It is the story of what happened when I realized that an increasingly popular medical solution did not fit neatly into my body, my history, my financial priorities, or the life I wanted to build.

My Body Came With a History

Before taking Zepbound, my abdominal area had already been through a great deal.

I have had fibroids, two cesarean sections, surgery to repair a hernia, and another surgery to remove scar tissue. Those procedures left me with an abdominal history that could not be separated from how I experienced giving myself an injection.

The abdomen is one of the approved injection areas for Zepbound. The thigh is another. But neither site seemed to give me the experience or results I expected.

Eventually, I tried the back of my upper arm with assistance, which is also an approved injection site. That was when I began noticing a more meaningful response.

I cannot scientifically conclude that my fibroids, surgeries, or scar tissue caused the difference. I also cannot claim that the upper arm is a more effective injection site for everyone. I can only describe what I observed in my own body.

Personal experience can help us ask better questions, but it should not be presented as universal medical evidence. Patients must be able to discuss their complete medical and surgical histories, injection technique, dose, results, side effects, and concerns with qualified healthcare professionals.

When Effectiveness Required More Medication

Zepbound did eventually become more effective for me, but only after I reached a comparatively high dose.

That created another question: was this the right long-term investment for me?

The medication was expensive. At the same time, I was building a company, supporting several projects, and making decisions about where limited resources would create the greatest long-term value.

Health is not an area where we should automatically select the least expensive option. But cost is a legitimate part of healthcare decision-making. A treatment can work and still create a financial burden that a patient cannot—or does not want to—carry indefinitely.

I stopped taking Zepbound approximately six months ago, perhaps a little longer. I did so knowing that weight regain was possible.

The Nine Pounds

At my latest medical appointment, I learned that I had regained nine pounds.

I was disappointed, but I was not entirely surprised. Research has found that many people regain some weight after discontinuing tirzepatide. That does not mean every person who stops will have the same outcome. It does mean that GLP-1 treatment should not necessarily be understood as a temporary intervention followed by effortless maintenance.

The nine pounds represented information—not failure.

They told me that stopping the medication could not be the end of my health strategy. If I did not want medication to be my permanent solution, I needed to become more deliberate about building a sustainable alternative.

Healthy, Happy—and Still Paying Attention

With the exception of my weight, elevated cholesterol, and low vitamin D, my latest health indicators were stable.

If I rated my overall health on a scale from one to ten, I would probably give myself an eight. I am active, productive, engaged in meaningful work, and generally happy.

Feeling well and being medically well are related, but they are not identical.

That may be part of the reason I am pursuing another degree in clinical psychology. I remain fascinated by the relationship between our minds, behaviors, bodies, environments, and choices. Health is not just a number—but numbers can reveal risks that happiness alone does not remove.

A New Warning: Cholesterol

During my appointment, my physician told me that my cholesterol was elevated and my vitamin D was too low.

When medication for cholesterol entered the conversation, my immediate reaction was clear: I did not want to begin another medication without first exploring what I might be able to change through food and lifestyle.

That was not a rejection of medical care. It was a request to begin with another evidence-informed option while continuing to monitor my health.

My physician recommended increasing omega-3-rich foods or discussing an appropriate over-the-counter supplement. She also suggested Mediterranean-style eating.

There is nothing wrong with enjoying Southern food or family traditions. The challenge comes when an occasional meal quietly becomes the normal pattern.

Now it was time to return.

Is Mediterranean Eating Too Expensive?

My first concern was cost.

As I began researching Mediterranean-style eating, I realized that it does not have to mean purchasing imported ingredients or preparing expensive restaurant meals.

The pattern centers on vegetables, fruits, whole grains, beans, lentils, nuts, seeds, olive oil, and moderate amounts of fish and poultry. It limits highly processed foods, added sugars, fatty or processed meats, and excessive saturated fat.

Some of the most useful foods are also relatively economical:

Canned sardines can cost less than many cuts of meat.
Beans and lentils are among the least expensive protein sources.
Frozen spinach may be more affordable than fresh.
Quinoa can be combined with lower-cost whole grains.
Garden vegetables reduce both cost and waste.

My family is already growing spinach, onions, watermelon, cherries, jalapeños, and approximately seven varieties of peppers. That garden is not separate from my health strategy. It is part of it.

Choosing a Sustainable Path

I am not promising that Mediterranean-style eating will produce the same weight loss I experienced with medication. I am not declaring that I will never need medication again. I am certainly not recommending that another person discontinue a prescribed treatment.

I am choosing to see what happens when I become more consistent with food, movement, medical monitoring, sleep, and the routines I know I can sustain.

I will have my cholesterol and vitamin D rechecked as my physician recommends. If the numbers do not improve sufficiently, I will return to the conversation with more information and an open mind.

Health decisions should not be based on pride. They should be based on evidence, personal circumstances, informed medical guidance, and an honest assessment of what we are prepared to maintain.

Zepbound taught me that a treatment can work without becoming my permanent choice. Regaining nine pounds taught me that stopping medication does not eliminate the need for a plan. Elevated cholesterol reminded me that weight is only one part of health.

My next chapter is not about punishing my body for regaining weight. It is about learning how to nourish the body that has carried me through four surgeries, motherhood, leadership, caregiving, entrepreneurship, and every new beginning.

The medication was one tool.

Now I am building a different kind of health infrastructure—one meal, one decision, and one honest conversation at a time.

References

SURMOUNT-4 randomized clinical trial — continued versus withdrawn tirzepatide for maintenance of weight reduction.
American Heart Association — Mediterranean-style eating pattern and cardiovascular risk.
American Heart Association — fish and omega-3 guidance.

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The Human VariableWorkforce · Career Insurance

The Human Variable

You Cannot Insure the Job. You Can Insure the Person.

Growth is real, but it’s moving—concentrating in healthcare, science, data, and technically demanding work while routine support roles thin out.

By Dr. Marilyn Carroll

Every weekday morning I read the same kinds of reports: employment projections, GDP releases, corporate earnings, hiring surveys, apprenticeship announcements.

Not because the numbers are comforting—often they aren’t—but because they are early. By the time a change reaches a person as a layoff notice, it has usually been visible in the data for months, sometimes years.

That is the whole premise of this column. In an economy this large and this automated, most of the machine runs on its own logic—capital, productivity, technology, returns. The human is the variable. And the human is the only part of the equation any of us actually gets to move.

Two Numbers, One Tension

Corporate profits can surge while the broader economy barely steps forward. Most of us live on both sides of that ledger: we want stable employment as workers, and through our pensions and retirement accounts, we expect companies to raise productivity and returns as investors.

The tension isn’t between us and them. It runs straight through each of us.

AI is an accelerant, not the whole engine. The real chain looks more like this:

Capital investment → productivity pressure → technology & work redesign → changing labor requirements → occupational reallocation → displacement or advancement → new skill & evidence requirements

The Market Is Splitting, Not Shrinking

The newest labor projections tell a story of movement more than loss. Growth is distributed very unevenly. Healthcare and social assistance are expanding while office and administrative support roles decline as automation and AI-enabled tools absorb routine work.

The sharpest edge shows up at the entry ramp. In the most AI-exposed occupations, younger workers are falling behind older colleagues as hiring softens. The direction is unmistakable: routine, codified work is being absorbed first, and that work is where careers used to begin.

Can People Carry Themselves Across?

Here is the question underneath all of it. Can a worker move from declining work into growing work quickly enough—and can our education, employer, and workforce systems help them carry their skills, experience, and earning power with them?

Some systems are answering well. Paid, credentialed apprenticeships built to move people toward demand show what a useful bridge can look like. But most people are handed the research burden by themselves. The translation gap is the problem: what does this mean for me by Friday?

You Cannot Insure the Job. You Can Insure the Response.

This is why I keep returning to the idea of Career Insurance—not as a product pitch, but as a stance toward one’s own working life. It doesn’t promise to save your job. Nothing can.

It promises something more durable: a way to continuously watch the variables that could reshape your career, understand what they mean for you, and build your next move before you’re forced into it.

Watch — the market and your occupation, before there’s anything to react to.
Assess — your personal exposure and your career assets.
Prepare — the skills, evidence, and relationships you’ll need.
Position — toward viable adjacent work that uses what you already have.
Move — before or as disruption hits, not months after.
Recover — your earning power, relevance, and options.
Rebuild — the career capital you’ll need for the next cycle.

You cannot insure the job against change. You can insure your ability to respond to change.

The Behavior Underneath It All

The difference between the person who navigates disruption and the person who is flattened by it is rarely raw talent. It is stance—the quiet, trainable psychology of watching instead of waiting, of treating your own capability as something you actively steward.

Psychologists call one piece of this self-efficacy: the belief that your actions can influence your outcomes. It is not optimism, and it is not denial. It is the practiced habit of turning signals into small, early moves—before the moment when your options collapse.

You cannot insure the job against change. You can insure your ability to respond to change. The human variable may be the only asset that was ever truly yours to grow.

— Dr. Marilyn Carroll · The Human Variable · LIV Magazine

Sources

U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis — GDP (Second Estimate) and Corporate Profits, 2nd Quarter 2026.
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics — Employment Projections, 2025–2035.
Stanford Digital Economy Lab — Canaries in the Coal Mine? Six Facts About the Recent Employment Effects of Artificial Intelligence.
GE Aerospace and Cape Fear Community College — Flight Path Machinist Apprenticeship.

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The Great Education Tech ResetHigher Education · AI Literacy

Guest Feature · The Great Education Tech Reset

Responsible AI Use Has to Be Taught.

Faculty tell students, “You may use AI responsibly for this assignment.” But what does responsibly mean to a student who has never been taught the difference?

By Dr. Lynn F. Austin, DBA

Faculty tell students, “You may use AI responsibly for this assignment.” But what does responsibly mean to a student who has never been taught the difference? The difference between asking AI for help—and asking AI to do the work. That distinction is part of teaching now.

Students are already using AI to understand difficult readings, brainstorm ideas, organize notes, review writing, and prepare for exams. They can also use the same tools to generate analyses, discussion responses, and papers they were expected to develop themselves.

The technology is the same. The learning is not.
Responsible AI use has to be taught.

As faculty, our job is not simply to police AI use. It is to help students understand when AI is supporting their learning and when it has begun substituting for the thinking they are expected to do.

That requires clearer guidance than “AI is allowed” or “use AI responsibly.” Students may encounter different expectations from one instructor, course, or assignment to another. That makes assignment-level direction more important, not less.

A model for the classroom

Assignment-Level Guidance

You may use AI to brainstorm topic ideas, create practice questions, or review your draft for clarity. You may not use AI to write the analysis you submit. You remain responsible for verifying information and following the course requirements for disclosure.

A few sentences can remove a great deal of uncertainty. Faculty can also teach the difference between assistance and substitution through examples students recognize.

A student preparing for an exam might ask an AI tool to quiz them on course concepts, wait for each response, and explain what they misunderstood. The student is still doing the intellectual work. Asking AI to answer the exam questions removes the student from the learning process.

The same distinction applies to writing. A student might ask AI to identify places where an argument is unclear or where additional evidence may be needed. The student still has to decide whether the feedback is useful and make the revisions. Asking AI to create the argument and submitting that work under the student’s name crosses a very different line.

Polished AI output should not automatically earn a student’s trust.

Students also need to learn that polished AI output should not automatically earn their trust. AI can produce a confident answer that contains an inaccurate claim, weak reasoning, a fabricated source, or information that simply does not fit the assignment. Responsible use means questioning the output, checking the evidence, and knowing when something that sounds right still needs verification. That is where instructional leadership matters.

When we tell students to “use AI responsibly” without explaining what responsible use looks like, we have given them a rule without teaching them how to apply it. Students need examples, boundaries, practice, and feedback before we can reasonably expect them to make sound choices on their own.

Those choices will matter beyond the classroom. Graduates will enter workplaces where AI may help them write, analyze, research, communicate, and make decisions. Their value will not rest simply on knowing how to get an answer from a tool. It will depend on knowing whether the answer is reliable, appropriate, useful, and worth acting on. Faculty still matter because students need help developing that responsibility.

The goal is not to graduate students who know how to get answers from AI. It is to graduate students who know how to question those answers and remain responsible for the work carrying their name.

Dr. Lynn F. Austin, DBA, is a business professor and AI workforce readiness consultant. She is the author of The Ethical AI Prompting Pocket Guide for Faculty and co-author, with Andrea Banto, DBA, of The Ethical AI Prompting Pocket Guide for College Students.

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She is still there.

The Woman Beneath the Roles

When Caring Becomes Infrastructure

The Emotional Debt Organizations Accumulate

Empathy Must Become System Design

Stop Rewarding the Rescue

Leadership Without Disappearing

The Next Expression of Women’s Leadership

Identity: More Than the Roles We Perform

Strength: Beyond Endurance

Alignment: When the Inner and Outer Life Meet

Becoming the Woman You Can Recognize

When Success Becomes Attached to the Position

What Do You Own?

Describe Yourself Without Using Your Title

Success That Travels With You

The Person Beneath the Position

What Holism Means

The Fragmented Woman

Wholeness Is Not Perfection

The Weight of Expectation

Returning to the Whole Self

A Life That Belongs Together

Brand Is a Trust Signal

You Already Have a Brand

Executive Presence Is an Experience

Your Story Needs Evidence

AI Can Amplify—but It Cannot Define—You

Alignment Before Exposure

Become Recognizable for What Matters

The Excavation

The To-Be List

Listen To Your Body

This Month’s Reflections

Guiding Affirmation

365 Inspirations · September 2026

1. Seated Mountain Pose With Centering Breath

2. Seated or Floor Cat-Cow

3. Supported Child’s Pose

4. Legs on a Chair

5. Supported Final Relaxation

A Gentle Reminder

Searching for the Right Product

The Beginning of AUSTELLA

Personal Results Are the Starting Point

Beauty After Birth

From Trial Runs to a Larger Vision

My Body Came With a History

When Effectiveness Required More Medication

The Nine Pounds

Healthy, Happy—and Still Paying Attention

A New Warning: Cholesterol

Is Mediterranean Eating Too Expensive?

Choosing a Sustainable Path

References

Two Numbers, One Tension

The Market Is Splitting, Not Shrinking

Can People Carry Themselves Across?

You Cannot Insure the Job. You Can Insure the Response.

The Behavior Underneath It All

Sources

Assignment-Level Guidance