Healed visionary leadership

There’s the old adage that hurt people, hurt people. Whether conscious or subconscious, personal pain can manifest in obstructive ways and cause a ripple effect onto other people’s lives.

It is also true that healed people, heal people. And healing is a fundamental component of leadership. Healing includes qualities of self reflection, honesty, self nurturing, and communication. All these qualities aid and equipt solid, grounded, visionary leadership. 
Leaders cannot do for others what they cannot do for themselves. And for leaders who are conscious with their light switched “on”, they in turn make others feel more comfortable shining their light too.

So, how do we bridge the gap between being stuck in hurt and being on our healing journey? There are four key phases:

1. Understand where your pain comes from

2. Become conscious of how your pain manifests

3. Reframe your perspective of pain

4. Accept that healing is a lifelong practice

1) Understand where pain comes from

Our lived experience

We all have different levels of trauma in our lives, as Peter Levine describes we all have, “frozen residue of energy that has not been resolved and discharged; this residue remains trapped in the nervous system where it can wreak havoc on our bodies and our spirits”. This trauma is individual as well as collective. It is acquired as part of our human journey and inherited as we come into this world. To heal is to first acknowledge that we have core wounding that informs how we live our lives. 

Wounding is part of the human process and it shows up in how we lead, work and live. No matter how seemingly big or small a traumatic event may be, our perception of the experience through our younger self’s eyes can impact our belief systems, consciously or subconsciously.

It’s our belief systems that cause our pain. It’s our belief systems that get triggered. And it’s our belief systems that we must take a closer look at when understanding where our pain comes from.

Collective trauma

Resmaa Menakem, author of "My Grandmother's Hands", argues that trauma is deeply embedded in all of our bodies, and references how racism will continue until Americans learn to heal the generational anguish of white supremacy. We often disassociate personal healing with collective healing. This is a perfect example of how trauma is embedded into our personal and collective bodies. Trauma is more than the experiences we have faced as an individual, trauma can be felt as a collective from generations before us. Until we heal personally, we continue to recreate old patterns.

2) Become conscious of how your pain manifests

Personal experience fuels, colors, and propels activist work. But passion that is fueled by pain is hazardous - at best you will hit a wall and at worst unintentionally create more harm in the system.

Pain and hurt can be a powerful impetus to focus and create change. But here’s the truth, when we create from past pain, we inadvertently perpetuate pain throughout the system. When we experience trauma we fragment and freeze in the past. Left unattended, leaders can unintentionally create further fragmentation in the system, perpetuating the past into the future. This is how leaders inadvertently imprint their individual pain on the collective whole, causing unintended harm. 

Earlier this month, I facilitated a session at a global gathering of human rights activists. During one of the sessions, an activist shared how she had been persecuted by her government, and loudly proclaimed, “I have two choices, either let them make me miserable or I make their life miserable. I choose the latter.” I shook my head. 

This binary, zero sum, perspective is what perpetuates pain through the system. Pain begets pain. Every moment of pain - big or small is an invitation for personal and collective transformation, if we allow it. 

When we attend to trauma, and move past victimhood, we allow ourselves to see the bigger picture - trauma impacts both the oppressed as well as the oppressor. When we acknowledge the wounding of all we can move towards true reconciliation and recompense. This is most notably demonstrated through the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of South Africa (TRC), a process of healing that uncovering truths of human rights violations during apartheid. TRC gathered evidence from both victims and perpetrators and did not prosecute individuals for past crimes. In doing so, it acknowledged pain on all sides and enabled collective healing for both the oppressed and oppressor.

3) Reframe your perspective of pain

Grief and trauma are an invitation for soul transformation. Trauma has the possibility to accelerate us along our path to discover and live into our highest and truest expression. As Viktor Frankl notes, “what is to give light must endure burning”. 

What if instead of denying and shaming our pain, we viewed it as a gateway to our growth?

Could the pain and trauma be a powerful invitation to uplevel our consciousness so we feel more aligned to our higher self?

Of course, in the thick of it, we often can’t see the higher perspective, and that’s okay.

It is equally important to feel the depth of your emotions through each stage of your pain so you can authentically transition into the next stage of healing.  Anger is an important and valuable emotion; in itself, it is not bad, it is important information. However, we get to choose whether we allow our anger to stew as unattended garbage, or convert it into compost to grow a new beginning.

The new way of leading calls for us to be human and real. Gone are days where we as leaders have to keep it all together in front of our colleagues, friends and family. Authenticity and vulnerability is what makes us human. These soft skills are what builds deeper connection, and in turn, makes us better leaders.

From here, we create from our integrated selves and are empowered into freedom. When we integrate our past into our present. And acknowledge, not deny, our trauma into our current selves, we create from wholeness and in turn create holistic solutions that attend to society’s collective mind, body, spirit, soul. As Otto Schramer shares, we allow ourselves to birth from presence, enabling a pathway for creative solutions. This is part of operating from a higher level of consciousness. 

4) Accept that healing is a lifelong practice

As linear, binary thinkers, we tend to think of healing as something to do before we can lead, or something to be done completely on the side so we can get to the business of attending to our purpose. This is far from true. As Thomas Hübl, author and spiritual teacher shares, healing is not separate and a part of our purpose; we are here to heal, healing is central to our purpose. 

Healing is continuous practice that we must have acceptance for. Our only responsibility as heart-led conscious leaders is to become clear on our wounds and understand where our blindspots are so we can address them. If you would like additional guidance during your healing journey, then I encourage you to book a free consultation with me so I can offer my support.

Right now, there’s an incredible need for our healing approach to be focused on all levels of the systems we see; individual and collective.  We need visionary leaders who are taking radical responsibility to step up, own their healing journey, and play a bigger role in our world. 

Woo in the Workplace

Your CEO is into the “Woo”. 

How do I know? 

Because they’re coming to me, and people like me.

For the past year, I have served many people, including CEOs, executives and business owners seeking energetic healing and intuitive guidance for their personal and professional life. 

Just as mediation, mindfulness, and emotional health have become mainstream - accessing universal energy and higher levels of consciousness is the best kept secret of the corporate world. Look no further than Jeff Weiner, Executive Chairman of LinkedIn, JJ Martin, Founder of La DoubleJ, and Otto Scharmer, Senior Lecturer at MIT, as examples of spiritually conscious leaders integrating universal energy into corporate DNA. 

It is no coincidence that executives' receptivity to universal energy has intersected with brain science popularity. Buzzwords such as neuroscience and subconscious have become code for accessing realms beyond our senses, invisible fields beyond time and space. With increased attention on accessing higher consciousness, the natural question is why now?

Often, people come into Divine connection through great suffering or great love. It is when we are shaken out of our monotony, coaxed out of our routine, that we come into full presence and attune to the bigger picture. While the pandemic has caused immense grief it has also jolted us from our old way of being. In doing so, it has accelerated our conscious awareness and opened portals of mass awakening. Increasingly, people are reassessing their lives and clarifying how they want to focus their energy. Yes, even your CEO.

As it turns out, when we are in full presence we connect to infinite frequencies that carry vital information. These collective frequencies are also known as the Akashic Records, the Quantum field, Pure Consciousness or in the Christian tradition, the Book of Life. The Akashic Records are the energetic thumbprint of the universe - an infinite database of every thought, activity, feeling and experience in the collective. Through the Records we have access to all, including new potentialities that have not yet materialized.  

COVID has awakened us from slumber and pointed us towards this central truth that we are all interconnected. It comes as no surprise that leaders connecting to realms beyond our consciousness and to transform themselves and their world.  

So, what type of work are we doing together? 

1. Healing Leaders – We often view leaders as impenetrable. Too often we forget that CEOs are also human, with personal pain and wounding. Jerry Colonna, former venture capitalist turned “CEO Whisperer”, has led the charge on radical self-inquiry, advocating that by addressing personal issues, CEOs become better leaders. Through the Records, I work with leaders to dissolve old patterns and call in new imprints that serve the highest good. 

2. Developing and executing business strategy – The Records can be exceptionally pragmatic. Offering an energetic mechanism to call in business partnerships, activate marketing strategies, and clarify business models. Yes, we are harnessing Universal energy to align with Divine Purpose and promote healthy businesses.

3. Building a relationship with Spirit – Arguably the most important, I work with leaders to identify their intuitive ways of knowing and to strengthen how they access the Divine so they can take purposeful action outside our time together. My goal is to create a culture of empowerment where leaders build trust and confidence with how they connect to the Divine. 

The future belongs to leaders who learn to access the universal field and move beyond our three-dimensional reality. As more people become sensitive to the shifts in consciousness it is increasingly critical to speak about and normalize these experiences. And, as we prepare to enter into a post-COVID world, with all its twists and turns, it behooves us to access deep wisdom, from this realm and beyond.  

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Intuitives: Leaders of our World

Intuitives are the leaders of our world. 

Over the next 20 years, intuitives - those with refined extrasensory abilities - will play an outsized role leading our communities, organizations, and institutions. Rational thought, while important, is limited in meeting today’s complexity. As we navigate increasingly ambiguous circumstances, intuitive approaches enable us to access levels of awareness that rational thought cannot. As Einstein shared, “No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it.” And intuitives have the perceptive advantage to move us beyond our dystopian reality. Unlike the movies, this isn’t a muggle versus wizard world. We are all innately intuitive, naturally hard-wired to access universal wisdom. Those who have cultivated their gifts and are willing to apply wisdom to complex challenges, have the edge in shaping our world. 

Here’s the good news: We’re in the midst of the greatest awakening in human history. Every day, more people are coming into greater consciousness - attuning their intuitive gifts and accessing non-local insight. Through focused intention, we all have the ability to access wisdom on demand and actively co-create our world. 

Intuition and Spirituality

Intuition is the voice of the soul. And for those seeking to live more intuitively, spiritual practices can attune us to hear with greater clarity. Focused practices like prayer, meditation, and contemplation, are techniques to quiet our minds and open to deeper ways of knowing. While these practices are tried and true, they are not the only way to grow and mature.

Many of us have experienced moments of oneness, periods of inexplicable fullness and depth where space and time slow down. Perhaps you’ve experienced this oneness gazing at your newborn or sitting on the dock on a summer evening. These moments preview the type of deep knowing that is available when attuned to universal energy. The challenge is that for most of us, these moments are fleeting and spontaneous, it can be difficult to extend these connective moments with intentionality and depth. Thankfully professionals are here to guide us on the path. 

Spiritual practitioners provide foundational healing and support for intuitives to mature their abilities. These healers and energy workers have intimate knowledge of the awakened path. They have learned to orient to a new way of being and provide a living blueprint for deepening intuitively while grounding responsibly. In doing so, they act as true leaders for our world: offering vision, extending faith, and embodying oneness in these tumultuous times.

Spiritual Leadership at Work

While spiritual practitioners are spearheading this awakening period, the thrust of the movement are those who are integrating spirituality in their traditional careers. Already we see spirituality in corporate settings under the moniker of empathetic leadership, mindfulness and neurohacking. As we operate from a blended consciousness in all parts of our lives, the need to mask spirituality with semantics will naturally dissolve. 

Professionals who integrate intuitive approaches are on the cutting edge of innovation - embodying a new state of perception to act with clarity, wisdom and inspired creativity. Integration is happening now across all divisions and at the highest executive levels: market strategists are articulating brand messages through sound healing, management consultants are diffusing client tensions through energy work, and CEOs are aligning business with purpose by accessing the Akashic Records. 

With this transformation underway, there are opportunities for Executives to support and nurture this growing movement:  

1. Invest in your healing: There is the old adage that hurt people hurt people. It is also true that healed people heal people. Invest in your growth as a human being and be transparent about your healing journey with your team and broader community. This transparency helps build a culture of trust and authenticity, foundational ingredients for deepened intuitive connection.

2. Be brave - As a society we tend to segment personal and professional lives, limiting our ability to show up consistently as whole beings. There is an urgent need to normalize multi-sensory capabilities and create safety for those who perceive deeply. Leaders go first, and there is an exciting opportunity to create healthy blueprints for spiritual leadership in the workplace.

3. Support intuitive learning opportunities - We are all intuitives, but our natural ways of knowing e.g. emotions and body wisdom, are often dismissed in the workplace. By creating spaciousness to talk about, trust and take action on these ways of knowing, we seed a culture for collective intuitive knowing.

Our future is bright. But a shift can only happen when we deepen, heal, and attune to higher levels of consciousness, individually and collectively. For many of us, COVID was an invitation to pause and become aware of our extra-sensory gifts. Now, as we awaken to our intuition we have the opportunity to act: Will you answer the call?

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Experiential knowing of Divine

I connect people to the Divine within themselves and their world.

When people ask what I do for a living, I get a lot of interesting reactions.

Most recently, I was in a store and a gentleman asked me for directions. We struck up an easy conversation, talking about life and my love of football. And invariably he asked about my profession. When I shared, his eyes widened and he whispered, “So, you’re like a pastor?”

“Well, kinda.” 

He began to back away and quickly left the aisle. 

This reaction is not uncommon. When I share my connection with God, generally people have one of two reactions: either drawing near, disclosing their most private and vulnerable moments, or backing away suddenly with wide eyed cautiousness. It’s always an interesting experience when I’m on a plane mid-flight and my fellow passenger either looks frantically for the exit or deeply in my eyes. I understand from my own journey, the nervous apprehension around “spiritual folk” and the desire to keep them at bay. 

What comes up for you when you think of God?

Growing up I was taught to love God, but through behavioral observation, what I really learned was to fear God. You see, I was conditioned to think of God in authoritarian terms. I bought into patriarchal forms of hierarchy and perceived God as punitive, condemning and distant. Through subtle messaging, I thought God experiences were for special people, and despite my best efforts, I wasn’t worthy enough. When I speak with people about their spiritual journeys I find this is a common theme. And as I’ve matured in my practice and deepened relationship with Divine, I’ve found this construct to be a gross misrepresentation of Spirit. 

Here’s what I believe now:

People fear God, because they don’t know God.

Knowing God is experiencing expansive generosity, infinite grace, and a continuous outpouring of Love. 

Knowing God is recognizing Divine in and with and amongst human form. 

Knowing God is being with the paradox of divine individuality and cosmic universality. 

For far too long, we’ve tried to tame God’s immeasurable generosity. We cram God into a mold that we as humans understand because it’s convenient. We envision God in our image, and project our definitions of God when God is indefinable. We forget that what makes God, actually God, is infinite expansiveness - an enormity so massive that it can't be fully understood, only experienced. 

This is the pathway of mystics - an experiential knowledge of Divine.

I serve through the Akashic Records because I experience such a visceral knowing of divine love - an encounter that, once experienced, cannot be unknown. It is my belief that through the Akashic Records, you cannot help but find the true nature of God yourself. 

God is experienced through many means - scripture, nature, through relationship - oftentimes, we catch glimpses of Divine but find the experience fleeting. Through the Records, I’ve learned how to extend these moments of encounter for longer and deeper periods of time. It is my hope that through your journeys in the Records, you may be able to recognize and find your pathway to Divine within yourself and your world. 

FYI: If you want to learn how to access the Akashic Records yourself, my mentor, Brynne Dippell, is offering a course starting October 13, I will be assisting. I believe in empowering the Divine in you, if this article resonates, you may be called to deepen your relationship with Spirit in this manner.

Transcending Transaction

 I got COVID in early April.

Despite strict precautions, I was knocked out for six weeks. And I was pissed.

You see, I arrogantly thought I’d be immune to COVID. This bravado was born not of superiority but from entitlement, like the universe owed me. As some of you know, I’d been involved in a traumatic car accident six years prior. While the accident fast tracked my spiritual growth, it also stripped me of all false identities - relationships, money, status - all gone. The dismantling process was excruciating, and I thought I’d paid my dues.

I was wrong.

The thing is, Spirit isn’t transactional.

This isn’t a quid pro quo relationship where “if I eat all my vegetables” then I’ll be rewarded. As much as it would make things cleaner, more straight forward; in my experience, it doesn’t work that way.

Why?

Spirit is relational.

Spirit continually invites us into deeper connection, sacred intimacy, and eternal discovery. Spirit wants us to connect in all its infinite dimensionality. To that end, Spirit consistently reveals itself in new and fresh ways: in our world, in each other and in ourselves. This is the pathway of awakening: noticing, allowing, and being in wonderment of all that is. 

In my case, Spirit used COVID to deepen my connection by first taking it away. With the virus, my primary ways of knowing just plain stopped. Whenever I’d open the Records, it would feel familiar, but I had no orientation – it was like I was lost in the woods, but my reception was low, the satellites were still transmitting, but I couldn’t access Google Maps. Anyone who’s experienced a “systems down” error, knows the maddening frustration of this moment. However, it is in this precise juncture – the place of discomfort, annoyance, and grief – that Spirit reveals itself and invites us into a new way of being.

As I began to quiet, my anger slowly thawed, and I was conscious of a new dimension blossoming before me. With my “screen off”, I had greater awareness of nearby “mountains”, “streams” and “stars”; and over time, I began to decipher summits, cool waters, and twinkles in the sky. This would serve as my new geography for an upgraded navigation system. From here, I guide clients with an organic perspective - less “technology”, more intimacy. I am delighted to find that they too experience Spirit with a depth previously unexplored. By focusing less on how I was connecting and more on what I was connecting to, a deeper knowing has emerged for myself and those I serve.

Pain is not a punishment, but an invitation for intimacy.

It’s been four months since my diagnosis, and I’m still recovering from COVID. I’ve had numerous hiccups, loads of doctor’s visits and big pile of bills to prove it. Yet, I am grateful for the pathway of pain for it has transformed my world. While I’d prefer more rainbows and unicorns, I marvel at the magic that is wholly present. I’ve realized, that when we release control on *how* Divine shows up, we can delight at *what* shows up.  

As we enter a new phase of the pandemic, it can be easy to be overwhelmed and disheartened. The next time you feel yourself moving into frustration and uncertainty, I invite you to get quiet and deepen.

It is by focusing our gaze on connection, that we transcend the realm of transaction.

Representation Matters: Spirituality in the Boardroom

To my closeted Spiritual Leaders,

We need you. And we need your leadership.

I understand your hesitancy to “come out”. And I understand the resistance to being fully expressed in the workplace: you’re afraid of bleeding clients, losing credibility, being labelled as a weirdo. The perceived cost is high, I get it.

And, more than ever, we need you to lead.

We’re in the midst of the largest recovery in modern times. We are a fractured society recovering from massive inequality, social dissonance, racial injustice and a global pandemic. We’ve suffered deep collective trauma and are in desperate need of healing and holistic solutions. To do this, we need spiritual leadership at communal, organizational and institutional levels. 

We need you to show up.

As a spiritual leader, you have vision beyond this reality. You have experiential knowledge of Divine, and you possess the skills, wisdom and felt sense of wholeness and love. 

This is a rare gift. It is meant to be shared. 

Right now, droves of employees are resigning at unprecedented rates, the highest in more than two decades. Why? Because they can’t be their full selves at work. They’re traumatized from the constant yo-yo between who they are at home and who they “need” to be at work. Ultimately, they're resigning because core needs aren’t being met.

Representation matters. 

We need you to show up: fully human and fully divine.

We need you to show up as Whole, especially the workplace.

When you allow yourself to live into your wholeness, you give permission for others to do the same. When you show up as fully integrated - mind, body, spirit, soul - you invite aliveness into your workplace. And most importantly, when you own your spirituality and give voice to your true essence, you feel at peace with yourself and your world. 

An integrated world requires your integrated self. 

I recently wrote an article about spirituality in the workplace, specifically how I’m working with leaders in the Akashic Records. While the article received positive feedback, I was surprised by the influx of closeted leaders privately thanking me for my boldness.

Many remarked, “I just loved how you owned it. I wish I could be fully expressed.”

Here’s my invitation: Be who you are. 

To deny your spirituality at work is to deny your core essence. Give yourself permission to be all of your beauty. Be Whole.

Be the Leader you’ve longed for.

Here’s the truth: I get nervous talking about “it”, too. 

The supernatural is difficult to “summarize”. I often find myself using Crayola to describe Adobe Illustrator experiences, it feels rudimentary at best.  

But here's what I know: everyone has a Soul that recognizes eternal Truth. Whether people are consciously aware, their inner being reverberates when they sense the Divine. With this knowledge, I don’t seek to push, prove, or argue my way through. I share my personal experiences balanced with intentionality, purpose and groundedness. 

When I speak, I connect to people’s highest expression, trusting that their internal navigation system lights up with resonance. Love always orients people along their path. My job is to show up and offer an opportunity for transformation.  

If you are reading this, it’s likely that you’ve been called to show up more authentically. If you’re scared and you don’t know how, please ping me, I’m happy to help you navigate this terrain. 

Stop seeking permission. Be the leader you’ve longed for. 

Who do we choose to be?

Watching Trump board Marine One for the final time, I admittedly breathed a sigh of relief.

And yet I am reminded - the future of this country does not rest on the shoulders of one person or one office.

And the truth is: It never did.

To blame our current circumstance on one person is to abdicate our collective responsibility for how we got here. We all shoulder responsibility, I shoulder responsibility.

Every time I've been unloving, dismissive or felt superior to another, I contributed to this mess.

Every time I threw up my hands and said "not my problem", failing to voice concern, I added to the swirl

And every time I allowed cynicism to intervene thinking, "that's too hard", "that'll never happen", I've limited myself and others of what is possible.

Over the years, one of the hardest and most difficult lessons I've learned is to fully claim and take responsibility for personal agency. It is far easier to blame another or to bemoan a circumstance than to say, "I am always at choice."

Here's the rub: I am always actively choosing what I think, what I do, how I feel. Even a subconscious choice is a choice. Not choosing, is itself, a choice.

To my fellow Americans, as we turn the chapter on a new presidency, my question remains "who do we choose to be?" and "how do we want to show up?"

It doesn't matter who is in office. It never did. We don't need to wait for New Years Day to make a change in our life. And we didn't need a new President to shift the trajectory of this nation.

We are the soul of this nation. And we are at choice with how we listen to one another, care for one another, and love one another.

Let us choose wisely.