Thriving not just surviving  

Emma J Bell is based in North Berwick on the East Coast of Scotland and was originally a Corporate Employment Lawyer and Partner in a law firm for twenty years. During this period she became interested in workplace motivation and engagement and set up a leadership development programme for her team. Then, ten years ago she resigned from her role to take on more leadership and coaching and wrote her first book whilst working part time as an employment judge.  Her book, ‘The True You’  looks at how we develop conditioning throughout our lives, the neuroplascity of the brain and how we can change neural networks to develop new habits, take on more empowering stories and fulfill personal potential.

Emma's most recent project involved travelling over 35,000 miles around the world to interview fifty ‘ordinary people’ who had faced different types of adversity and trauma. The one thing they had in common was that they were thriving, the psychological definition being that they had bounced forward and grown and, as a consequence, were living positive and fulfilled lives. The purpose of the research was to find out if the fifty ‘thrivers’ were using the same resilience strategies and, despite a variety of circumstances, they each credit their ability to flourish in the face of adversity to just nine key strategies.

Emma feels the journey changed her life and that her research shows we can all choose to thrive. She now travels widely speaking to audiences about the inspiring stories she hears and how we can uncover our inner resilience by following the wisdom and practical insights of fifty of the world’s most resilient people. Emma's book about the project is  ‘Choose to Thrive. Nine Secrets to Uncover Your Inner Resilience' which is being published by Audible in May 2020.

You can get in touch with her at emmajbell.com