What Does It Mean to Be Empowered in Your Personal and Professional Life?

How Can I Use My Brain More Effectively?

Written By: Lisa A. Barrett, M.S., LPC, ATR, Author, Speaker, Coach, Artist

That is a huge question and could mean different things to different people. I teach empowerment and describe it in my book How to Live an Empowered Life: Easy and Practical Daily Tools, as finding the answers in a place I coined as Calm Clarity. What is this magical place and how can I get this to help me excel when challenges arise? It is at your availability 24–7 as it lives inside you.

From a brain-based perspective, Calm Clarity is literally the shift from the emotional parts of your brain, the amygdala and the basal ganglia, to the prefrontal cortex. In size comparison, the emotional parts of our brain are very small – ironically when we feel overwhelmed with stressors, causing anxiety, and frustration we are keeping ourselves limited and small. 

The prefrontal cortex is quite large and is incapable of having emotions. It knows only facts, figures, organization, solutions, science, logic, and higher-level thinking. When we intentionally shift into this area, we step into our “bigness” — the place where possibilities, innovation, creative thinking, resolution, and mutually beneficial communication can occur.

This is our place of action, this is where we find Calm Clarity and what I coined as The Neutral Zone.         

The Neutral Zone is neither good nor bad — it simply is. By definition, neutral is impartial, balanced, and unbiased. When we learn to access this state, we create space between ourselves and our emotional reactions. This allows us to respond with greater wisdom, clarity, and empowerment.

An important truth about shifting to your Neutral Zone is that it has no emotionality, and therefore it cannot be argued with.

How Do I Shift Into Calm Clarity?

In both our personal and professional lives, challenges will always arise. Shifting from emotions and breaking it down to facts can be as simple as asking yourself, neutral questions:

• What are some possibilities here?
• What can I learn from this experience?
• Who can support or assist me?
• How can I become more present with myself and others?
• What solution would best serve everyone involved?

Challenging your mind, takes you out of reactivity and stress and puts you in your empowered place, where, Calm Clarity is found. This is where your creative solutions lie awaiting for you to tap into them.  Reframe often and know, you have a gift of choosing all day long how you want to expand your energy.

A simple but powerful reminder is this: whatever just happened is already in the past.

The emotion we continue attaching to it is often what keeps us stuck. By consciously choosing to move forward with empowerment, reframing often, and becoming intentional with our energy, we create healthier outcomes for ourselves and those around us.

Imagine if more people operated from a place of Calm Clarity. 
How might that change our relationships, careers, communication, leadership, and overall well-being?

I am available for coaching and speaking engagements focused on empowerment, Calm Clarity, emotional regulation, communication, and personal and professional growth.

https://www.youtube.com/@CalmClarity-LisaBarrett

https://www.touchedbyart.net/

touchedbyart@yahoo.com 

5/21/2026