From Pain to Power
Jan 17, 2024Yesterday was the 13th anniversary of my near-fatal accident.
That day at sunrise in Golden Gate Park when I stood up too quickly at the top of a waterfall, blacked out, fell 10 feet onto a boulder, bounced 4 times, and almost bled out to death. I freely share this story (as many of you have heard before) and it took me on a wild, intense 12-year healing journey.
In the past, this day conjured varying (usually huge) levels of grief, as well as gratitude to be alive.
But yesterday was different.
I’d never felt so joyful, so free, and so grateful on this anniversary of my near-fatal accident as I had yesterday. (You can catch the vibe in my joyful mini dance burst on LinkedIn or Instagram.)
I’m fully aware of the sacred gift of this wound in a way I never have been before, particularly after the deep root-level alchemy I did last year to the base of my spinal cord and deepest conditioning. There’s no more gripping in my heart or psyche about what happened. Not even a little. Which means I’ve transmuted some deep-rooted Shadow Power patterns that imprinted in me long ago. This clearing and all the years of inner work I’ve done have now made the space for even more Power that Serves the Whole to flow through my being.
The quality of my leadership and my service are entirely bound up in how I metabolize my life experiences in all scales — especially related to my biggest pains and this healing.
I know the same is true for you.
Your true leadership power is bound up in your ability
to transmute your pain to power
as we do in our work together here at Wayfinding.
This is part of what it means to realize and liberate the untapped power of our wholeness at work.
Yesterday I was awash with the knowing that I’ve gotten to live an utterly glorious life so far. The ways all that pain served as a portal of initiation I chose to walk through to become my greater self.
✨ This journey taught me multidimensional empathy and the capacity to sit with anyone traversing the Underworld.
✨ It taught me how to sense the life force—its flow and blockage at any scale.
✨ It birthed my body of work here at Wayfinding.
✨ It taught me what power really is and how astoundingly beautiful it can be.
✨ What alchemy, regeneration, faith, relentlessness, softness, patience, sensing, insight and what all the faces of power really are across the scales of life.
✨ It revealed my magic, helped me fully embrace myself as a medicine woman, and taught me to TRULY trust in my medicine.
✨ It took me to meet my cadre of Shadow Powers and learn from each as I transmute them.
✨ It taught me to love myself no matter what.
✨ It taught me the staggering creative power and power of focus that I (and we) all have.
✨ It led me to incredible elders, mentors, healers, friends — and to my amazing husband!!!
✨ It taught me the power of decidedness.
✨ It taught me how to ask for help.
✨ It led me to learn so many healing modalities and to know the tools for longevity.
✨ It birthed whole realms of courage I never even thought possible.
✨ It taught me what sovereignty feels like in my bones.
✨ And it taught me how to hold center in a bigger perspective than pain, even when the pain is incomprehensibly big for myself or another.
🔥This has been my epic journey from Pain to Power.
And I’m here to tell you that the alchemical journey
of your encounters with power isn't a side story —
It's the keystone to your greatest capacity as a leader.
It's how you release resistance and headwinds
at the most foundational level.
My journey helped me earn and embody my lionheart. And it helped me learn how to guide other leaders, teams, and orgs on this journey to embody and unlock their greater Power that Serves the Whole. I am grateful for these 13 years and how wildly whole I feel now after feeling so broken and facing huge obstacles on multiple fronts (health, love, wealth, calling, business, community, spirit) for SO long.
It’s my honor to show up in love and service with all I’ve gained through this saga❤️🔥
This year is the start of a whole new era
in my life and Wayfinding.
If you’re ready to expand into your more true, free self to birth the next octave of your mastery of evolving systems for the benefit of all, while also feeling more alive, joyful, and prosperous — please be in touch. I have limited executive coaching slots and 2 group power coaching cohorts at the start of this year, while we build exciting new forms for the next era of power transformation here at Wayfinding.
I look forward to sharing more details as it all unfolds... and until then:
My wishes for your brightest, most powerful year yet.