Dr Amina Aitsi-Selmi MD PhD

What actually happens when you’re afraid? Years ago, before I took a career leap in 2016, I came home to find a large spider just outside my room. I was meditating and engaged in a lot of inner-work and coaching at the time which enhanced perception. The 5 seconds that followed showed me as much about the workings of my mind-body as ten meditation retreats. In life, under pressure, we often move from one thing to the next and live in a continuous stream of thought. We never

This week, I was in a peer led liberation group and one of our members was in Ukraine. She left her policy role at the European Commission and moved there. She wanted to bear witness to history and offer social reconstruction work through a foundation she created. It was her birthday but her heart weighed heavily as her neighbourhood had been hit by the Russian bombing this weekend. Later that day, I watched The Testament of Ann Lee - a movie about one of the rare female spir

"We don't know what will happen next. We just know we must be ready." This phrase graced the front of a letter I received from Médecins Sans Frontières who has resumed its activities in Gaza. Working with MSF in 2006-7 in South Sudan was one of the most vivid, intense and fulfilling experiences of my life. Decisions had to be made fast with rifles in the room. We can't know the future. But we can become more responsive to rapidly changing conditions. In life-threatening situa