Do you need permission to lead? Or were you just born naturally a leader? I am a leader, yet it would depend on the situation and the environment when I was younger, whether I would be willing to lead or not. Whether I would even believe whether I could lead or not. Because the experiences I had in life had conditioned me to believe that I needed permission to lead, and that permission had to come from somewhere outside of myself. 

Because I am a highly sensitive person, I could tune into my environment, and I could sense whether it felt safe for me to step up in leadership or not. I was also very good at becoming a chameleon. When I tuned into others, I could sense what the needs were, I’d then drop my own needs to serve them, to contribute in their lives. I didn’t use that language at that time, I didn’t even realize that is what I was doing. 

I could sense what others wanted me to be or do, because I wanted belonging, I needed inclusion and to know I...

I’m especially curious about those of you who are in positions of leadership in your world. Some of us, in those positions, hold a lot of responsibility, even more so now. One person described it as navigating through the jungle of leadership. In some pockets of our world there is desperation and hard choices to make. When we have the capacity developed within us to hold the whole global picture and still be able to do the microscission surgery of paying attention to the little details that can make such an impact on so many lives. That’s a gift. It’s not a gift that all of us have. I want to acknowledge that it’s a gift that some of us have and I’m so grateful for your leadership in the world. You inspire me. 

At the same time as you are out there navigating this jungle of leadership in our world today, especially on the medical forefront where there is such a pandemic going on with this virus. It’s like you are out there in this wilderness...

Have you ever felt scared of the unknown? You know, feeling frightened and uncertain, not knowing what to do, or how to do it. The worst part can be feeling so all alone while believing there is nowhere to turn for support. How can we find our way back to heart-centered relationships, beginning with ourselves?

This experience of awakening, is captured beautifully in the guest blog below, by Ruth Crea…

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I finished parking the ATV, after mucking for several hours, and peered over at the horses to see who might want to engage for some quality time together in the corrals. My horse Lacey was standing at the far end of her corral and our eyes met briefly. Next, I wondered where the minis were and I then gazed over at the other corral and noticed Finn standing with Shara lying down beside him. I gazed back at Lacey, and then at Finn, and I just felt drawn to enter Finn's corral. As I entered through the fence, and started walking to the center, Finn immediately came...

Today’s post is especially dedicated to all of you folks out there who support others. You might be a therapist, a doctor, a psychotherapist or a coach working in health and wellness. Sometimes, when we are about this work, we can feel exhaustion. We keep doing our best to power through to make a difference, because our work in the world really does matter, to so many lives.

Yet, what can happen when we are powering through, we can end up lacking healthy boundaries, taking on more than we need to or that is good for us. We may find it difficult to be able to say “No” when somebody asks for support or help, even though we have already put in our shift or have a full schedule. If we continue down that path, then some of us may start to get frazzled and not be able to track so well and communicate with a lack of clarity. We can fall down into this place that has no motivation at all and we feel so tired. This can happen in many different ways.

Let me share one of my...