Just as you need to put on your oxygen mask before helping another person with their oxygen mask, you need to love yourself before you can do anything else well. The oxygen mask is a source of breath, and self-love is the same; it is the breath, root, foundation of a truly healthy, vibrant, radiant life.
Why do I say this?
Because you are not fully “whole” until you have learned how to love yourself unconditionally while recognizing all of who you are, including the dark aspects we come with as humans: jealousy, anger, resentments… We absolutely need to work on understanding and releasing all of our jealousies, anger and resentments, but we can love ourselves through them.
Ghandi purportedly advised us to, “Be the change you wish to see in the world.” Right? Well, a desire to want to change the world for the better starts with love; for our fellow humans and our planet and our higher good. As much as a large percentage of corporate America doesn’t want to admit it, it starts with love. If we want to bring that change then we need to start by being that change, which starts by loving ourselves unconditionally and creating space for others to do the same.
Why is this important in business?
As Doreen Lorenzo said in Adam Bryant’s New York Times article on how to succeed in business as a woman, “We still don’t encourage girls to speak up, to use their voice, to use their instinct, to not be afraid, and teach them how to combat the bullying. How do you trust your inner soul? We don’t address that at all in school. You have to believe in yourself, but I think many women don’t. And you watch some men just take advantage of that.”
What’s at the root of not believing in yourself or trusting your inner soul? Not having a fully-matured foundation of self-love, which includes a strong core of worthiness.
How do you help others develop this? You give women (and men) the tools* to wake up every aspect of who they are: their worthiness, poise, and courage, their intuition and their inner knowing of who they are and what they really want for themselves in their lives. You help them realize that they are the only ones on the planet who can give them permission to be happy and to pursue their goals and dreams; that they should stop waiting for someone else to give them this permission. You show people how to stop blaming others for the lack in their lives, and how to take full responsibility for creating the life of their truest wishes.
After all, we can have it all, where “all” is defined as everything our soul truly does want. It’s just we often don’t know what it is we really do want, or we subconsciously create blocks to what we want in our life out of fear or feelings of unworthiness. We are afraid that if we open our eyes to see that we can have it all, we will come face to face with our fear of failing. It’s simply easier to find a million reasons why we can’t have it all than to go after our dreams and risk failure. It’s easier to find reasons why we can’t have it all than to do the hard work of forgiving others, forgiving ourselves, letting go of our resentments and old belief systems, and releasing all the blocks that hold us back. And sometimes it’s actually easier than admitting we don’t actually want the societal “all,” we want something much simpler and truer. (What would our friends think?!)
Blessedly, all of this is within our control. And it all begins with loving ourselves and awakening every aspect of who we are and who we were created to be. Because to be able to release all our fear requires a root of self-love that is deep and knowing and powerful.
From this root grows our character and our courage and ability to truly change the world for the good.
From this root comes our ability to lead others to do the same.
This is the true essence of leading from within.~
*My business partner and mentor, Vanda Teixeira, created Tools for Your Soul to connect you to your soul, to your own divine wisdom, awaken your intuition, and open your channels to empower you to connect better with yourself. To be more of who you are, and less of who you are not. They are exceptionally powerful for corporate executives seeking greater success, higher meaning and personal fulfillment.
