Ryan Stride interviews Jan Barley an amazing Neurocoach, copy writer and profound mentor. 2020 is a year that will inevitably change the way a lot of people work and the way a lot of companies perform. Now I have asked Jan Barley to do this interview as I feel she can share something really helpful to people who run businesses and are now concerned about ways forward during and beyond the pandemic. Jan is a multi-talented life coach with experience in Neuroscience, Neuroeconomics, and stress management. Jan definitely has a message to share perhaps now more than ever before so it is a pleasure to present this interview with her. RS: Jan welcome. Now you're based in the beautiful Cotswolds, right? Where are you from originally or have you always lived there? JB: I was born in Birmingham, UK, but moved around the country a couple of times. I was a sales rep for 15 years, and used to travel to Gloucestershire. It always felt like home, so, when I got the chance to move again, this is where I chose. Apparently, back in history, my family worked here as farm labourers, so I guess it is in my roots. I absolutely love living here. RS: Ok so what are some of the more typical reasons that clients seek your services? JB: People come to me seeking clarity, answers to life questions and wanting to really discover who they are and their life purpose. I also help clients get clear on the content they need to write to attract their clients. I help align their writing with who they are and what they are trying to attract. Quite often, clients end up getting something they didn’t expect, but which was the real reason they came to me. I devote my energy to a client once they commit to me and become a heat seeking missile to find their purpose and passion. RS: Yes I can sense you are passionate about helping people in an authentic way. You have been a life coach for over fifteen years now. How do you feel your coaching has developed over the years? JB: OMG, what can I say. The coaching training was good, but the learning which has come from living my life, and digesting the lessons, has made me into a great coach. The people I have met, animals who have been great teachers, random experiences, they all shape you. I have an ability to ‘see’ people way behind the persona. I see and feel what is really going on with a person. It’s really hard to put into actual words, even as a writer! I am told my gifts are uncanny. I can read the tiny micro signals people are giving off, either with their expression, body language and also with their words. I see behind the words. I know the second someone is out of balance. I think some of this comes from being raised by a mother with narcissistic personality disorder. I had to learn to try to read her as a child, and find ways to survive her emotional negligence. But also, a life lived with both pain and joy, has developed me as a human being. As, I think it does all of us, if we give it the chance. RS: Now as lockdown has been going on over the last couple of months have you noticed more business people aiming to change or refocus their brand or the services they provide? JB: Yes, I see a lot of innovation. People have been given the chance to stop and really think about what they want for their future. The idea of going back to what they were, has become abhorrent, so they are tapping into the deeper resources and discovering what is there inside. RS: Could you give our readers a brief sense of how you might work with businesses that need to re-brand or simply promote their business in new ways. JB: Firstly, I need to make it clear I am not a branding expert. I haven’t been trained in branding, and I won’t be helping clients define their marketing brand, logos etc. What I actually do is to help clients get clear on who they are, what will make them happy and fulfilled and how they are turning up in their business. Until you absolutely know this, you are running in the dark, mostly chasing the money, but feeling little reward other than financial security. Once I have spent an hour or two with someone, I start to build a picture in my head, and my heart, of who they are. Then I start delving deeper to see if they align with what I am seeing and feeling. It is a total immersion process, which requires both of us to be committed. But, once started, it is a lovely process where you get to see the real person emerge. Like a butterfly out of a chrysalis. RS: Just returning to your background, how much has your studying of Neuroscience influenced your work as a life coach. JB: Massively! I have been fascinated with the brain, and human behaviour, for a long time. I’d used neuro linguistic programming and cognitive behavioural therapy as part of my coaching for years, which was great. I still use these processes. But, having that deeper knowledge of what is going on inside someone’s head is very powerful. Originally I undertook the study as part of my research for a book I have written on emotional eating. I wanted to further understand the science behind what drives our eating habits. I’m editing that book now, armed with the knowledge I acquired during the training. RS: You are also as I understand a believer in the energetic connection that exists between people and with that the use of intuition- so what I would like to ask you, is intuition something you consciously seek to develop? JB: I’m developing it every day, and always will. I worked as a horse healer for twenty plus years and as a physic. Over time, my role became about bridging the communication gap between horse and owner, so they understood each other. Horses are deeply spiritual animals and great teachers. I was very good at it and I loved it. I ran clinics too, for a few years, which helped to further develop that side of me and teach others how to access it too. It is a part of my being I love. Being near horses is like swimming in a cool pool on a hot day. It is healing on so many levels. I believe everything is energy. I believe we are all, in some way, connected. I see my role going forward as a bridge to help people reconnect with what is important. RS: Your work as a horse healer sounds very interesting and I like how you mention horses being deeply spiritual animals. Now when I decided to write my book The Peace Dimension, I wanted to share some of the core tools that have not only helped me over the years but also the many people I have been so fortunate enough to share them with. It was my intuition that lead me to many of the meditations I mention in the book. However, it was meditation that really expanded my intuition and to realise the vastness of the intuitive mind. So, for me meditation and intuition are very inter related. Within Neuroscience there has been a lot of research into the effects of meditation. Could you share something with us about your experiences with meditation? JB: I am a trained meditation teacher. I ran corporate sessions for years, and taught many students to become meditation teachers. Meditation IS rooted in neuroscience. Maybe people don't get that. The brain is a complex structure that needs to be trained to be more helpful towards us. It hasn’t evolved since Stone Age. That’s’ crazy isn’t it? But in neuroscience research on habits, it was clearly shown that quite often, Rhesus monkeys are better at breaking negative behaviour patterns than humans. Just putting that out there, Ryan! And, hasn’t the pandemic just gone and proved this with all the crazy, selfish, destructive behaviour we have seen across the world. Everything we experience is stored as a memory in the hippocampus, which is a vast memory bank, mostly deep subconscious memories we’ll never access consciously. Over time, and with repeated behaviour, these memories produce automated behaviours, or habits. This is because the job of the brain is to protect and reserve resources – at all times. So it makes it easier by serving us up with an automated behaviour, because it has assessed, from memory, that this is how we react and behave in each particular circumstance. Unfortunately, most of the automation our brain does is not serving our interests. A great saying to highlight this is ‘if you always do what you’ve always done, you'll always get what you’ve always got’. The brain won’t change until we make the decision to do something to help it to change. There are approximately 86 billion neurons in the brain, all doing different jobs. It takes conscious application to create new neurons to replace old habits. There’s a lot of talk about neuroplasticity, which is the ability of the brain to create lasting change. What people omit to say is that neuroplasticity works both ways. You can create negative neuroplasticity as easily as positive neuroplasticity. In fact, this serves to show how easy it is to slip into bad habits, but challenging to develop good habits. It’s why diet and exercise plans fail. The brain need constant repetition until a new thought and/or behaviour becomes a new habit. And, all the talk of 21 days to change is BS. In the research of change, some people took 256 days before change became a constant for them. We aren’t statistics are we? We are all human, individual, so we are all different. So, to get back to your question Ryan, meditation, therefore, is a tried and trusted vehicle for change, as is mindfulness. Meditation lowers brain wave frequencies and allows us to access higher states of self-awareness. When you become mindful of the disruptive, unhelpful thoughts and behaviours, you are on the first step to creating the change you truly want. RS. Yes meditation has certainly been a key, on going part of my journey and you have made some really good points here. I can see that you are creative person and noted your recent pieces of art such as the horse drawings. Is art a way of de stressing for you? JB: I started doodling cartoons at the beginning of lockdown. I was a skilled artist as a child, but my mother used to throw my paintings in the bin. Eventually, I gave up because I got sick of rejection. But, I've done a lot of inner child work over the last few years, persuading that part of me to come out and play. The thing is, when I am drawing, it’s like escaping to Narnia. Much the same as when I am writing, I disappear completely outside of reality, losing myself in the immersion process of creativity. Of course, much like meditation, this gives the brain a break. So, by default, yes, it does help to alleviate stress. RS: I love the way you refer to yourself as a Word Weaver and I can see how a skill with words is essential for a copy writer. You mentioned the book you have written on emotional eating Have you any plans to write creatively as I could see you writing a wonderful book? JB: It was a client gave me that title, but I just loved it. I have always woven words. I've won many debates because I love the process of word mastery. To be honest, I see my work way beyond the title of copywriter. I write so people feel something, have to think, they want to think. Yes, I am currently editing and proofreading the book on emotional eating, and an e-book to help people with writing great content on LinkedIn, or any social media really. I have written a lot of children’s stories and I have several other books in the pipeline. RS: During lockdown have you found discovered any reading gems? JB: I read prolifically. One of my all-time favourite books is Black Box Thinking by Matthew Syed. It’s brilliant book about how society strives to shy away from admitting mistakes because it is seen as failure. It’s quite an eye opener. It revolutionised my thinking on how failure is perceived. I recommend it to everyone. Matthew has a wonderful style of writing. RS: How did Wolfheart become the name of your company? JB: No idea really. It was one of those intuitive things. It didn’t make much sense 18 months ago when the name popped into my head, and wouldn’t go away. It is only lately, Wolfheart is actually starting to wrap itself around me as the description for the person I am, and what I do. I align with the energy of wolf. I am strong, resilient and loyal. I fight my battles calmly and defend my pack with my life. I think maybe now, Wolfheart is becoming my own personal brand. It’s only been just under two weeks since I lost David but I have written on LinkedIn every day. As I think I mentioned earlier, writing is healing for me. But people are saying I am brave, resilient and strong. They are saying I am inspiring them. I’m not sure why this is but I do feel the spirit of the heart of the wolf is within me, supporting and guiding me. Everything has its time and place I guess, so maybe this is the time for Wolfheart to shine. I already know my future role is important. I know I am to help a lot of people. It’s like a small seed growing inside of me. As I pass through my grief, I hope soon to start seeing what it is. Right now, I am just accepting it is something, and that’s enough. RS: I am again really sorry to hear of your loss of your fiance David but sense he would be and IS very proud of you and your courageous spirit. Now some might understandably see 2020 as being an intense ride so far; how do you feel this pandemic is going to change the world looking forward? JB: I really hope we aren’t going to slip back into our old ways. I think the economy is going to be rocky and that we are going to need to step into our creativity and look at things from an adaptive mindset rather than a technical mindset. In case anyone doesn’t understand this concept, adaptive is when we have no known solution, whereas technical is we already know the solution to a problem. I think governments will try to make us think we can carry on as normal. But, I believe the pandemic has rocked the world. It can’t go back to normal. I also believe it is counter-intuitive to go back. We really need to go forward. I hope the sense of community, compassion and comradeship will continue. It has made me realise how much I want to be part of a positive, supportive community. Kindness has become immense. I see it everywhere. If we can hold on to these positive things and refuse to be drawn back down the miserable rabbit hole, I think we have a chance to positively impact our future world. RS: Yes brilliant and I agree. Jan as you are probably aware The Peace Dimension is something for me way beyond my book- it's something deep, mystical but very tangible- it's a place and state open to humanity. What does The Peace Dimension represent to you? JB: In my grief, I have had brief moments where I felt I was in a dimension of peace. It's when I feel David, my fiancé, around me. I actively encourage people to be real, authentic. Let's stop pretending to be something we are not and connect to the part of us within, the soul, or whatever form you choose to call it. Connect to the part which is YOU, the real you. So many people have no idea who they really are, and what incredible gifts they have within. Connecting to humanity, it makes you feel whole and in a place of infinite peace, whatever is going on in your life. Connect to compassion, and give with an open heart and you will find peace. I truly believe this, even now, during the most difficult, painful period of my life. We are so focused on making money, we lose track of what is important. We lose hope in the abundance of all that is, of which money is only a small part of. RS: Jan thank you for joining us here and as you have so much to offer with your experience, services and heart I wish you great success with your work. May you weave words that heal, inspire, circulate and shine. Jan's website is: www.wolfheart.co.uk The Peace Dimension by Ryan Stride is available on Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk Copyright © Ryan Stride 2020 All rights reserved Comments are closed.
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AuthorBorn in London, England, Ryan wishes to share with people how the mystical can be found in the moment, allowing great things to happen. Ryan is also a writer and social commentator who is currently working on a script and several new book titles. ArchivesCategories |