Core Routines for Being a Bridge

aliveness article articles by larissa burnout calling growth intuition leadership meaning through work mindfulness at work power rest ritual sensing the future of work transformation vital leadership wayfinding Dec 19, 2022


Helping others rise to a new level of consciousness asks certain things of our beings. 

This community is comprised of a wide range of such bridges. Each of you helping to infuse more expansive worldviews into the world of work in amazing ways like regenerating the real estate industry; advancing DEIB in organizational leadership, practice, and policy; bringing psychedelic wisdom to the mental health field; redefining best practices at the highest levels of law; and guiding organizations to get work done in more adaptive, human ways. 

 

You bridge a reality of what’s so with a vision for what’s possible by illuminating stepping stones to get there. 

 

The visions you hold fire you up AND as you know, vision isn’t a singular fuel. (👋 Hello, that burnout you experienced in the last 3 years / are maybe currently experiencing). When you feel like you’re in a never-ending uphill battle or “against an adversary”, the bridge of you starts to strain and crack. When you focus too much on what’s so in the moment, you can lose heart that change is even possible sometimes entering great despair. You need deeper fuel and nourishment than just inspiration, in addition to freedom from the erosive impacts of an adversarial posture.

Because we have the honor of seeing the patterns you wrestle with and those you feel uplifted by as you champion power that serves the whole, here are reminders of some core routines for you to stay bright and clear as we enter this season of renewal and opening to the coming year. 

 

Tend your own mythopoetic journey.

When you focus on who you’re becoming and what you’re learning about your own power — you often realize you’re not here to “save” anyone or anything. But to become the most essence-filled expression of you and to contribute from there. You relax, experience more magic, and access your flow. So how would you describe your year in mythic and poetic ways? (*not OKRs and goals checked off). And what stories or un-business books can you read to water your soul this holiday break?

 

Track your caretaking shadow. 

Do you do any of the following? “I consistently put others’ needs before my own — to my own detriment AND / OR I try not to rely on anyone for anything AND / OR I give to store up favors I can cash in AND / OR I know what others need better than they do AND / OR I make people depend on me to the point they don’t believe they can care for themselves.” If so, welcome to your caretaking shadow! It’s a sneaky form of shadow power that we can use to justify not taking care of ourselves. So how can you notice doing this and create practices to prioritize your own needs and self-care?

 

Get great at rest practices.

Rest is a skill. It’s not “doing nothing.” It’s when we integrate deep learnings, experience cellular regeneration, and release what’s not needed. So practice ramping down your nervous system daily and having unstructured free time weekly — especially when it can be easy to channel all that end-of-year rush energy into lots of holiday-time doings. Enjoy moving slower, being away from your devices, walking in nature, time by fires or candlelight, and generally doing less. 

 

Have joyful fun. 

Not “I love learning” types of fun, but “this brings me childlike joy and I don’t care about trying to be good, look good, or develop mastery” kinds of fun. Most folx in the Wayfinding community can lock into overachieving modes with self-care and are mega deficient in vitamin Fun, so if this is you — good news! This is an invitation to stop trying so hard all the time and do things you loved doing as a kid. Not just once during the holidays, but throughout the year as part of your rhythms of aliveness.

 

Keep building trust in your sensing power.

For our alums, sensing is a way of being many of you have re-membered and you know the fruits of your sensing power in your wayfinding and lives. For community members who are newer, start with sensing your aliveness and consciousness balance daily and then asking what you can do in the next 24 hours to get your numbers higher. Listen. See what comes. Then do it. 

 

Flex your sovereignty

Begin contemplating what sovereignty means to you — and what it doesn’t — and how you can bring that to life. As one of our Vital Leadership alums said, “I took your advice and asked for help with my CEO regarding how overwhelming my projects are. I thought my work was about unleashing my own sovereignty as defined by taking on anything and everything with supreme confidence. I now think it’s about sensing into my aliveness, values and needs and defining sovereignty as living into power on my own terms, not what I think I should be able to do or what’s expected of me. It’s making me much more gentle with myself.”

 

Focus on the space more than the boulder.

We can get so fixated on what’s stuck or not moving, what other people are (not) doing, what hasn’t happened (or what did & how it hurt) — and all the emotions we have about the whole scenario, which can pull us into a negative spiral. So much that we can lose sight of the SPACE altogether. The space is the literal way around. So, what boulders have you been giving too much energy to recently and how can you shift your focus to the space? If you tend to focus on the boulders most of the time, try a daily practice of identifying the space. 

 

Choose your most liberating perspective & community

As one of our amazing AL & VL alums, shared in our Vital Leadership program closing, “I have made a conscious decision to not run in very specific circles. Those are the circles of people who look like me, who relate to me, who have very similar points of view as me but are stuck in that victim consciousness… I said to my friend the other day, ’I don't know where we're seeking liberation, or who we're seeking liberation from. But I am liberated. I am free and I am sovereign. I am not in the shackles that my ancestors were in. I am not living the same life my ancestors were living. I understand that there's a lot of nuance there and I'm functioning in the systems that still oppress and still do that. But if I only tie myself to that, then it's done.’” What foundational views can you ground in to feel most free in your power that serves the whole? How are you tending relationships and community to invigorate this shared way of being?

 

Have an active relationship with your own power expressions. 

Community members who’ve gone on deep Wayfinding journeys have reported spending 50-60% of their time being disoriented by not knowing about the invisible realms of power. Yo, that’s so much time. And it’s generally representative of the amount of life force we can burn on not knowing wtf is going on with power. So invest in expanding your power literacy. understanding what knocks you out of your center, and the practices that reliably get you back to clarity. 

 

We hope these suggestions help bring balance and buoyancy to your rhythms and choices into the New Year.

And as always, we’re here to help if you have questions on the journey.

Be well, Friends.

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