It took me until my 60’s to deconstruct the persistent patterns of worries, fears and self-doubt that were preventing me from being the best version of myself I knew I could be. Along the way, I realized that I wasn’t the only woman doing this particular dance. As one who has always been compelled to help others, I recognized this was a key area where I wanted to serve others as well as myself once I figured out what was going on.
My journey taught me to study and practice new ways of seeing myself and the world. The perennial wisdom teachings at the root of most spiritual traditions nourished me with an understanding of the necessity of love, kindness and compassion in our relationships with ourselves and others. Participating in a multitude of personal growth trainings and working one-on-one with master practitioners of various healing modalities taught me to inhabit my own body, mind, heart, soul and life journey bearing responsibility for myself and my choices. Finally, studying the field of human consciousness taught me exactly how we go about creating, promoting and allowing ourselves to be as we are and how we can change our experience of ourselves and the world by simply changing our perceptions and attitudes.
In 2016 this all coalesced into what has become my latest book, The 11 Keys to Consciously Thriving – a book to read until you live it by heart. While my writings, mentoring and speaking serve both men and women, I have chosen to work primarily with smart, talented women with inner callings who find themselves held back by worries, fears and self-doubt. I believe that women today have a very important role to play in shifting our cultural consciousness and our life priorities.
Later this year, I will be launching free, monthly, live on-line conversations focusing on women raising consciousness in the 21st century. Most of us have too little time to nurture our friendships and be together with other women. It is my hope that these on-line conversations will remind us to spend more time together – loving, caring, and supporting each other as we find our way forward.
Along these lines, I am enamored with the work of Tara Mohr and her concept of women being called to be on “The Transition Team” . In Playing Big, Mohr says:
. . .when women play bigger, they change the world for the better, and – more precisely – they bring forward what is missing. . . . They call out the failings of the status quo. They bring forward a more enlightened, humane way. .. . .It’s time to shift the women’s movement paradigm, from one of participation to one of transformation. . . .more and more women are finding that they want more than equal access to participation in outdated, often harmful systems. We want to transform those systems to make them more just, more compassionate, more sustainable for the planet and for our families. We want to add our ideas, our alternatives, our ways of working. In other words, now that we have more power, we want to use it for good. [p 246-247]
. . . . Today women have access to participate in a public life, a professional life, and a political life that is not yet reflective of women’s voices or women’s ways of thinking, doing, and working. That means that as we participate in those realms, we’ll often feel like outsiders, like strangers in a strange land. It’s our job to not run away from that but, instead, take up our small piece of the transition team’s work, sharing our ideas, our voices, our callings in a way that is authentic to us. By so doing, we’ll create a more balanced, sane culture, one reflective of both men’s and women’s voices. [p 250]
And so, my own work now focuses on helping other women to deconstruct persistent patterns of self-doubt, worries and concerns so they can raise their voices as they are called to do so in their own unique way. To find out more about how I might help you to step forward in your calling, please explore my website, especially my Mentoring page and The Thriving Studio.
It’s so exciting to see other women stepping forward with more guts than fear to add their contributions to the quality of our individual and collective lives. Here are some questions to ask yourself:
- Am I listening to my deeper calling?
- Do I have the guts to go for it in spite of my fears, worries and self-doubt?
- What’s at stake if I don’t go for it?
- What’s possible if I do go for it?
