(May the odds be ever in your favor.) One important thing I tell my audience and followers is that YOU ARE A HERO already. You just don’t know it because the opportunity has never presented itself for you to shine. Let me tell you a story about a personal hero of mine. His name was Jospeh Campbell, and he was an academic who spent his entire life studying mythology and stories from around the world. What Joseph found is that all stories from around the world pretty much follo

Part I: What To Do in a Pandemic: Staying Positive Would you hate me if I told you that this virus might be exactly what you need to make your life better? Would you think that I was crazy to tell you that this virus could very well be the reason we create a better world? Would you think I was insane if I told you that a part of me is really excited about everything that’s happening right now? I am genuinely excited! Hi, my name is Maja, and you may have never heard of me. I

Staying six feet away from everyone is smart. Distancing yourself socially is not. Words have power. Words influence our perception of the world and people around us, and leave an emotional impact in their work. I recently read an article in Psychology Today called “Scientist Find That a Single Word Can Alter Perceptions,” which discusses a study released in 2013 that confirms that language has the power to “reshape our knowledge and expectations of the world.” The author dis

On the joys and necessities of escapism during challenging times. Sometimes, rather than running around and trying to fix all your problems, you just need to turn off your brain. For the last month, the situation with COVID-19 has gone from bad to worse. It has been insane to watch this develop practically overnight. The pandemic has gone from something I thought would simply blow over to the cancellation of all of my speaking engagements to a total lockdown. As expected, the

Not abiding by the self-isolation rules? Then you are putting your life, and the lives of everyone you come in contact with, in grave danger. I am the first person to not panic about the virus. I’ve gone through so much in my life that a virus and pandemic aren’t actually that bad. I actually feel fortunate that the current moment is not as bad as some of the times in my life when we literally had nothing. No food, no water, no medicine, no electricity, and no outside contact

What do you do when you wake up one morning and find that life has forever changed? As a survivor of the Bosnian genocide, I am always prepared for the world to fall apart. But I also know that crises represent our best opportunities to come together. The situation right now with the coronavirus feels all too familiar to me. In the nineties, my family and I survived the Bosnian genocide. What we learned from that time - how to find a new normal, how to live one day at a time,