I'm Coming Out The Closet...

To ask a very important question... Do Spirituality and LOVE Belong in Business?

Since leaving my 'successful' but unfulfilling corporate career I've slowly but very surely come out of my spiritual closet. 

It has taken me 5 full years to explicitly say this and write about it publicly - mainly because I now have enough strength in my own conviction of belief and a massively increased capacity to bounce back from the impact of what other people think about me! 

So does spirituality belong in business?... I say YES, ABSOLUTELY - IT'S ESSENTIAL. 

And here's why. 

To me a large aspect of my spirituality is my capacity to love - myself and others, with minimum shame, judgement, negativity or expectation. 

And this capacity to love myself and others more freely has also helped me positively influence my ability to quiet the critical voice in my head that can rage and ruminate and play negative stories on repeat that lead to me feeling shame, worry and anxiety. 

I say minimum as no matter how pure our intentions may be we're still human right?! It’s natural at times to think and feel from a place of negativity. But if this is your main mode of operation or your default position I know from personal and professional experience it doesn't lead to happiness, fulfilment or meaningful success. And in my case it was a key component of my mental breakdown and physical burnout around 5 years ago.

In the current climate of a pandemic and all the fear and worry that comes along with that it’s even more important to manage your negative thoughts and emotions and to help others to do so too. Demonstrating more love is a natural, simple and easy way to do just that. 

We are wired to love and thrive on being loved in return - that's the driving force within humanity. 

It’s easy to assume there is very little love within business and in some respects you would be right. It’s certainly not normal for there to be an ‘open’ dialogue about loving clients, customers or fellow colleagues in most organisations - especially large and complex ones. 

But if you lift the bonnet or (hood depending which side of the ocean you are on!) and take a closer look there is love all around in an organisation.

It’s the empathy shown to someone who had made a mistake..

It's the guidance provided to someone who feels unsure of which path to take...

It’s the casual offer to help someone with their workload...

It’s the offer of gratitude to someone for a deed they have undertaken...

And I think we can all agree we all have an opportunity and I would argue a responsibility to show more love and compassion to people we work with or do business with. The positive ripple effect if we all did a little more on this can be so significant. 

Now I'm sure some of you don't agree, maybe it feels too ‘fluffy’ or out there - and let’s face it, we are bombarded with so much information and a constant stream of evidence that tells us to be fearful and mistrustful that for many of us it's become our default position. To be cynical and critical of anything too ‘fluffy’ or soft or based in feelings and emotions.

Stories of love and compassion in business are so rarely highlighted - but they do exist and, even more importantly, you can be the author of them yourself in how YOU choose to do business and show up for yourself and others in work. 

When I decided to make significant changes to how I lived my life in the search for more meaning and fulfilment ,one of the first things I did was become A LOT more intentional about my external consumption of information.

I wanted to create more space in my mind and to manage my thoughts in a way that served me and helped me to be and feel more loving and positive. 

So I stopped watching and reading the mainstream news and sourced information that I believed was well researched and told a different story about the world and the people within it.

This action alone made it so much easier to manage the noise in my head that was often critical and doubting of myself and my own abilities.

I was able to choose the tone of my internal voice and align it with who I am at my core - positive, present and passionate about creating a meaningful difference in the world.

I also found that by quieting the noise it created more space for the quiet voice within that so often has the answers you seek to grow in volume and conviction. I believe your wisdom comes from within, it's what you already know to be true and sometimes need to be reminded of. It is the voice of your soul. 

Knowledge is information that comes to you from the outside in. It's learned and lives in your head. It's the voice of your mind. 

Finding the optimum balance of these two voices and helping them to join in harmony is the ultimate objective which leads to more meaning and fulfilment in life and your mission or career. 

I describe the work I do as a leadership coach and consultant as a blend of strategy and soul. 

The strategy is the left brain, research based range of tools and techniques that I share with my clients. The framework I use has been built on a multitude of studies over the last 15 years understanding exactly what the world's most successful people who are still healthy and happy DO DIFFERENTLY. 

The soul aspect is about learning to connect with your intuition and trust your instincts, focus on creating a life and livelihood filled with meaning and satisfaction doing work that makes your heart sing. Showing more love and demonstrating more compassion for yourself and for others.

The Yin and The Yang. One without the other is less powerful and both together create balance and harmony. 

If you want more balance in your life - which all of my clients do - you need to create more balance within yourself, your habits and your routines. 

That means giving equal attention to your mind, your body, your feelings AND your soul. 

What can you do TODAY to create more balance? To engender more positive feelings? To demonstrate more love? 

Here are some suggestions fully founded in extensive research to help you create a more positive and loving environment and experience for yourself and others - 

• Show Your Appreciation - send someone a card or email to share your appreciation for them and their efforts 
• Get Grateful - Create a practice of gratitude by taking time each day to write down 3-5 things you are grateful for no matter how small 
• Show Presence - Ask questions and deeply listen to the response - don’t listen to respond - listen to witness and really be there for someone 
• Offer Support - If anyone is struggling or needs a little help - ask what you can do to help or support them and let them know they are not alone in their struggle 

For those of you who want to dive deeper into exploring your own needs and build more confidence through managing your fear more effectively I encourage you to check out my new mini-course ‘How To Use Fear To Your Advantage and Create Unshakeable Self-Belief’. It’s completely free and will offer you practical support and strategies you can take and apply immediately. 

I’d love to hear your comments and thoughts on today’s blog/email so please leave a comment or reply to let me know any comments or questions and I’ll do my best to respond to each and every one of you. 

With lots of LOVE,

Mel x