HealthTALK

5 Types of Friends to Avoid (According to Neuroscience)

1. The Chronic Critic

These are the friends who constantly judge, correct or undermine you even in the name of "being honest."

Chronic exposure to criticism triggers the amygdala the brain’s fear centre leading to stress, self-doubt and a heightened cortisol response. Over time, this can weaken neural pathways related to confidence and emotional resilience (Harvard Health, 2021).

You need relationships that activate your prefrontal cortex where growth, problem-solving and empathy reside. Constant criticism shuts that down.

MENTAL WEALTH:

Reclaim. Rebuild. Rise.

Mental health is personal. Mental wealth is collective.

The MENTAL WEALTH: Reclaim. Rebuild. Rise. campaign is a leadership-led, culturally intelligent movement launched by the National Black Women’s Network and SistaTalk. It was born from a single truth, women of colour are carrying the emotional cost of systems they did not design and they are still expected to lead with grace.

This campaign reframes mental health as more than recovery. It’s about capacity. Sustainability. Legacy. Let us not forget the urgent need for healing systems, not just resilient individuals.

The Silent Saboteur

How Nerve Damage Can Undermine Your Leadership Edge

Imagine this. On a humid Tuesday morning in Atlanta, a marketing executive noticed a strange fizzing sensation in her toes, like soda bubbles under the skin. She shrugged it off as a pinched nerve from a long run.

Weeks later the fizz had turned into nightly sparks of pain and her balance felt unreliable in the boardroom’s high-heeled shoes. She did not know it yet, but her story was part of a much larger one.

That electric buzz beneath the skin is the earliest whisper of peripheral neuropathy, a disorder in which the nerves outside the brain and spinal cord begin to misfire.

The Invisible Weight We Carry.

7 Self-Leadership Habits for Healing, Energy and Alignment

We rarely talk about the hidden weight.

Not the one on the scale but the one on your shoulders. The emotional exhaustion, the boundary-less busyness, the late-night scrolling when sleep should be sanctuary. Many of us are navigating health challenges not because we’re weak, but because we’re overcommitted, overwhelmed and disconnected from our core values.

Yet, something powerful happens when we stop managing symptoms and start leading ourselves back to alignment.

Beyond the Algorithm,  AI, Health Equity & the Future for BAME Women

There are moments in history where everything changes, not through a viral headline, but through quiet shifts in access, behaviour and power. COVID-19 was one of those moments. But what followed may be even more defining,  the silent rise of AI and digital acceleration in healthcare.

While algorithms replaced admin and remote care replaced waiting rooms, an uncomfortable truth emerged, BAME women remain underrepresented and underserved. Not just in treatment, but in the design of the very systems meant to improve our wellbeing.

Let’s break it down.

1. AI in Healthcare and Who Gets Seen

The Lie Stress Tells Us “You’re Not Enough Unless You’re Struggling!”

We’ve been conditioned to believe that being constantly busy is a sign of success. That if we’re overwhelmed, we must be doing something right. But here’s the truth, stress is not strength it’s misdirected survival.

"Stress is an ignorant state. It believes everything is an emergency. Nothing is that important."

This simple idea, deeply rooted in mindfulness and neuroscience, reminds us that the mind lies when it’s under pressure. It shrinks your world. It tells you that everything is urgent and you are not enough until it’s all done.

Let’s reclaim the truth.