What is Positive Intelligence _ Lauren Kinghorn

What is Positive Intelligence?

Have you ever wished you could stop self-sabotaging and start living with more clarity, calm, and joy?  That’s exactly what Positive Intelligence (PQ) helps you do.  But what is Positive Intelligence?

What is Positive Intelligence? 

In this video, I explain what Positive Intelligence is, where it comes from, and why it’s such a powerful tool for transformation, especially if you’re a people pleaser or high achiever.

You’ll also experience your very first PQ rep,  a 2-minute mental fitness exercise that brings you straight into calm presence and helps you quiet the negative chatter in your mind.

What is Positive Intelligence? (Video)

Watch now, or scroll down to read the key takeaways.


What is Positive Intelligence?

How PQ Rewires Your Brain, Weakens Saboteurs & Strengthens Your Sage

Positive Intelligence _ Neuroscience_ Positive Psychology _ Performance Science _ CBPPositive Intelligence is a groundbreaking approach to mental fitness developed by Stanford lecturer and New York Times bestselling author Shirzad Chamine.  You can get a copy of Shirzad’s book, Positive Intelligence, on Amazon.**

Positive Intelligence is a powerful, unique blend of neuroscience, positive psychology, performance science and cognitive behavioral psychology.

Through focus exercises and mindfulness techniques, PQ helps you identify and weaken the Saboteurs (those negative inner voices that fuel fear, stress, and self-doubt, causing us to self-sabotage) and strengthen your Sage powers (your inner wisdom, calm, and creativity).

Through the Positive Intelligence Program, Shirzad Chamine has over half a million people, including coaches (like me) and CEO’s and their teams.


What Are Saboteurs?

Saboteurs are coping mechanisms we develop in childhood to calm our fears, make us feel safe, or make us feel good about ourselves.

Saboteurs are usually our most positive traits, our greatest strengths, taken too far.

For example, a child who discovers they receive more love when they are kind and caring may develop a strong desire to please others.  This is called the pleaser saboteur.

Someone who is praised for their achievements or scolded for underachieving, even when they are doing well, might develop the hyper-achiever saboteur.

A child who experiences a lot of fear in their childhood may develop a stronger avoider, victim, or hypervigilant saboteur.

Everyone has saboteurs, but each of us has a unique set of saboteurs or hierarchy, as one saboteur may play out stronger in our lives than another.

You probably already have a sense of how you see self-sabotage. Maybe you’re a people pleaser, a perfectionist (stickler), a hyper-achiever, or perhaps you tend to avoid conflict (avoider).

In Positive Intelligence, we work to weaken those Saboteurs and strengthen our sage powers.

Here’s the list of all 10 saboteurs.

  • The Judge (the master Saboteur we all have)
  • The Pleaser
  • The Hyper-Achiever
  • The Avoider
  • The Stickler
  • The Victim
  • The Restless
  • The Controller
  • The Hyper-Rational
  • The Hyper-Vigilant

Want to discover yours?  Take the free Saboteur Assessment here.


What Are Sage Powers?

Once you learn to quiet your Saboteurs, you activate your Sage.

These are the parts of you that lead with empathy, curiosity, creativity, purpose, and focused action.

PQ helps you develop five Sage powers:

  1. Empathize
  2. Explore
  3. Innovate
  4. Navigate
  5. Activate

Try PQ Reps: A Mini Mental Workout

In the video, I guide you through practicing some PQ Reps — a simple mindfulness exercise that helps build your prefrontal cortex (home of the Sage) while weakening the fear-based amygdala (home of your Saboteurs).

What Are PQ Reps?

What Are PQ Reps _ LaurenKinghorn.com

PQ Reps are tiny 2-minute meditations you can do anytime, anywhere.  They are like a little mini-holiday from your everyday thoughts and concerns.  The idea is to switch the ruminating thoughts off in your brain by concentrating only on one physical sensation at a time.

One example is rubbing your fingertips together with focused attention. Another is noticing the sounds around you or the breath in your nose.

The more you practice, the stronger your Sage gets — and the quieter your Saboteurs become.

Let’s Try a PQ Rep Together

Think of a PQ rep like a micro meditation — it helps you come into full presence.

Let’s try one now:

  1. Rub the tips of your fingertips together gently — just enough to feel the ridges on each finger.
  2. Now, slowly run your fingertips down the palm of your opposite hand, noticing every sensation.
  3. Place one hand on your chest, the other on your belly. Feel the rise and fall as you breathe in and out.
  4. Bring your awareness to the air entering and leaving your nose. Is it cool or warm?
  5. Listen for the furthest sound you can hear… and now the closest.

Just like that, you’ve done a couple of minutes of PQ reps. That’s it.  That’s how we build mental fitness – with short, focused mental exercises, designed to build new neural pathways and mental muscle.

You can do PQ reps anywhere: in a meeting, at your desk, while waiting in traffic, or in the middle of an argument to calm down your jets.

Sounds simple, and it is.   Simple, yet extremely effective.


How PQ Rewires Your Brain

This isn’t just mindset work. It’s neuroscience.

When you practice PQ Reps consistently, you rewire your brain.

After just 6–8 weeks of doing 100 PQ reps a day, MRI scans have shown new neural pathways being formed.

  • Your limbic system, amygdala, and fear centres in the brain shrink, reducing fear, stress, and anxiety
  • Your prefrontal cortex grows, increasing empathy, focus, and decision-making

This is mental fitness in action.


What Happens When You Practice PQ?

I completed my first 7-week Positive Intelligence course with Shirzad Chamine, and it changed my life.

PQ helped me:

  • Quiet my inner critic
  • Reconnect with my intuition
  • Make empowered, soul-aligned decisions
  • Support my clients with deeper presence and compassion
  • Improve my personal relationships

Final Thoughts

After practicing Positive Intelligence for over a year, I can feel the difference it’s made in my life and see the difference it’s made in the lives of my clients.

This is why I’m so passionate about sharing this work with others, because it helps you return to your center, your Sage, your truth.


Want to Go Deeper?

In my next post, I’ll be sharing 25 powerful reasons to say YES to the Positive Intelligence Program — and how it can change your life too. Stay tuned!

In the meantime…

Take the Saboteur Assessment

Watch this video next >> Silence Your Inner Critic Using Positive Intelligence

Or book a call to discover how Positive Intelligence can help YOU weaken your saboteurs, strengthen your sage, and boost your mental fitness.

** Please note:  The link to Shirzad Chamine’s book on Positive Intelligence is an Amazon affiliate link. If you click on this link and purchase something on Amazon, I will earn a small commission, at no extra cost to you.

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