UMBRA’s CEO, Kate Bright introduces the idea of Emotional Security – UMBRA’s emerging pillar of work – and its importance for everyone in today’s permacrisis world.
“I’ve been speaking a lot recently to friends of the business about an emerging area of private client security practice. It is very close to my heart since my own journey through physical, mental, and cognitive health awareness has been a long and sometimes difficult one, as well as seeing and witnessing firsthand what happens when one or more of those areas is depleted. This area of my work and interest is that of humans and Emotional Security.
As a result, I have been gradually developing a handrail (at the moment, still a developing list) of areas I have personally learned about and benefited from during the last 2+ decades of working with private clients. I have to also give a huge thanks and mention to my colleagues and friends with far more elite minds than I do in professional sports and military, law enforcement, global government agencies, and other high-performance specialists.
We as a business, have extensive proof and authority to say that physically, mentally, and cognitively healthy clients see risk and threat in a logical and proportionate manner, enabling them to live their best Secure Lifestyle. This breakthrough has led to the development of our pioneering Emotional Security pillar approach.
Below is the start of the UMBRA Secure Lifestyle recommendations. A lot are UK/London-focused, but we are happy to recommend the best medical, wellness, and high-performance people and practices across the globe for clients in specific jurisdictions. We are adding to this toolkit on an almost daily basis and encouraging ideas from other professionals from all walks of life. We are sector-agnostic and inclusive when it comes to new ideas, methodologies, and high performance at UMBRA HQ. Even as a team, we are now providing access to the team in the areas below, creating a unique, safe place to work for our brilliant minds to come together to problem-solve and protect the clients of today and tomorrow. I hope you enjoy reading the below!”
So what is Emotional Security…
‘The feeling of safety, confidence, and freedom from apprehension’ (http://www.elementsuk.com/)
According to the World Health Organisation, one in four of us have mental health problems at any given time, revealing the extent of the emotional challenges the world faces. Those with lower emotional resilience tend to experience a higher incidence of holistic security breaches. This is particularly prevalent in the under-25s (based on UMBRA’s review of 200 top clients and their families since 2015).
The toolkit we offer encompasses connections with the very best emotional support community across the globe and tips for fostering emotional resilience and well-being, ranging from the Calm App (created by a friend of the business) to world-leading retreats, cognitive specialists, and functional medicine and biohacking programmes.
We recognise that when under stress, people’s responses to risk changes – and our job is to build a trusted relationship with clients so they understand HOW this happens and HOW emotional security affects the other risk pillars. When emotional security is compromised, it directly impacts our physical, digital, and reputational risk. We work proactively to prioritise emotional resilience in our clients, believing it to be the front line of holistic security.
Emotional Security – keeping ourselves and our clients mentally, physically, and cognitively aware and healthy.
We recommend the following, and wherever you’re based or travelling to and from in the world, we can make recommendations accordingly:
Therapies
HBOT (oxygen chambers) – London, UK at the Hum2n clinic in London, SW3 (Chelsea), Bodylabs (Kensington) and Grey Wolfe (Barnes, SW London).
Infrared saunas https://www.londoncryo.com/
Cryo /ice baths / cold showers every morning (LUMI has launched an at-home pod)
Breathing (look into Wim Hof; he’s the pioneer of cold therapy and breathing – his app is a good intro to breathwork)
IV vitamin infusions: Hum2n has these and they are a great way to absorb nutrients. NAD, Glutathione, CoQ10, B12, etc are great
Good sleep starts with your morning routine, so make sure to get daily sunlight and movement in nature first thing in the morning for at least 20 minutes, even if overcast, to reset the circadian rhythms
Moju Ginger / Turmeric shots in the morning before food
Nutrition
Hum2n does a formal holistic health consult which includes blood panels. We also recommend Elena @GutPhilosophy who reviews 6 monthly blood panels from Randox Health. Some prefer the ease of one place to go and do treatments, which is why Gut Philosophy combines both. The key is to create and adjust a supplementation plan from there.
Give blood – it is being a good human and good for detox
Thriva: this is also a good home blood test, we want to try Bioniq. You can also do gut tests and food insensitivity tests to manage inflammation via Bioniq
Bulletproof coffee (brain octain, coffee, grass fed butter or ghee – we are trying this MCT oil at the moment). We prefer mushroom coffee – Spacegoods (see below)
Keep your ketone production high (Ketone IQ or brain octain oil) and check out Davinia Taylor (if you’re on Instagram) or her latest book and Willpowder (with a 15% discount) products online – this approach is best under clinical supervision
Headstrong for pure functional mushroom supplements taken every day
Spacegoods is also good (some don’t get on with the sweetener in it)
London Nootropics good for adaptogenic coffee
Matcha Latte and green tea have replaced coffee after our morning Spacegoods – we never drink either after midday. We love the Matcha & Collagen mix from Ancient & Brave – and use the discount codes HELLO20″ for subscription orders and “WELCOME20” for single orders
AG1 greens is great, we use Vitalgreens for a scoop of goodness in the morning – a massive tub lasts forever
Have a look into seasonal eating and ‘Blue Zones’ on Netflix
We are also obsessed with Collagen – using Marine and Davinia’s Bovine Collagen
We can’t get enough of Ancient & Brave’s True Hydration. It replenishes key electrolytes for deep replenishment, improving recovery, mental clarity and performance.
Reading
General approach is anything related to biohacking/ functional medicine
Dave Asprey: Super Human is a great start (his brand is bulletproof)
Dr Mark Hyman has a good mailing list, and a book
‘Breath’ by James Nestor
‘Why we sleep’ by Matthew Walker – fascinating. If struggling with stress or workload it is the one thing to prioritise over everything else.
Podcasts are great too – many of these are full of science and data including Huberman Lab & High Performance
Wearables/Kit
OURA Ring & Whoop band are great for measuring health and well-being, and sleep.
Blue light blocking glasses: we use Red Light rising, but there are plenty of brands on amazon
Supersapiens is good for glucose monitoring, Veri is another one. We’ve just finished our Zoe trial which was brilliant for insight about how sugar affects you/mood/sleep
Keto Mojo for measuring ketones
Airofit is great for enhancing lung capacity
An at home infra sauna blanket is a way of bringing the benefits to your door – MiHi brand
Grounding mat – either get out to grass, sand, earth every morning or get a mat. The science behind grounding and its ability to reduce inflammation (what a lot of functional / integrated medicine focuses on) is undeniable
Brain Performance
We advocate for a Trauma release approach to mental well-being and can firmly recommend CBT as a starting point to ease into talking therapies
Psychotherapy – BetterHelp is a great app-led approach
Brain Spotting is a really interesting development in the world of brain health. Let us know if you’d like a specialist introduction
London Holistics is our go-to navigator in this area of integrated therapies.
Our friends at SOFOS are helping our clients understand the optimisation of their Brain health, and we are excited about their cutting-edge approach to cognitive performance
Fitness and Community
Fitness in all its forms is key to overall health and can be adopted and maintained at all ages. Contact us for introductions to the best trainers, gyms and physical movement specialists across the world. For anyone in London contact us for access to our exclusive recommendations to the likes of OneLDN, Psycle and BXR in London
Especially when combined with movement of any kind, giving back (especially while learning a skill) can slow cognitive ageing, according to Harvard Health.
Contact us for introductions to low/ no cost communities to suit your interests Eg walking buddies / groups, Toastmasters (for public speaking and confidence), trundl (the app that turns your everyday walks into charity donations) and volunteer opportunities across the world. There are many charities and initiatives that need our collective support.
Our UMBRA Emotional Security pillar is emerging and we can speak to the benefits personally of a personalised programme of therapy and wellbeing. For more information and to be connected with our Head of Emotional Security, please get in touch.
From all at UMBRA International, we wish you the very best in your emotional security.
