The Death of a Business Paradigm

I find myself in the midst of a deep winter. Everything in my body and being is telling me to go inward and to listen. From this place of welcome solitude and respite from the typical go-go pace, my intuition reveals deep strategy and plugs me into the collective vision I'm here to serve. It shows itself through play, pleasure, and a distinct feeling of empowerment. I'm starting to hear the subtle messages of the earth, of my future ancestors, and of my own heart... despite how broken it can feel in the face of a broken world.

I've already accepted the loss of how things used to be, but it wasn't without painful and alchemizing grief. At times, I felt lost, disoriented and disheartened that my previous strategies of overachieving, overproducing and relying on logic were no longer working. By the contrary, these old ways were slowing killing me, sending me into a deeper hole of burnout, debt, and confusion.

Sometimes we must surrender to change, to trust the process and trust ourselves to know how to die and be reborn. There's a different type of leadership "logic" that guides me these days. It starts by going inward and noticing the subtle cues in my own body. It requires me to move from alignment and integrity, towards a true north that isn't only mine, by ours.

In this new paradigm, I lead as part of a collective. I'm attuned to the well-being of us all, not just my own. Just like a butterfly or a dragonfly, we're transforming into something else, something we don't yet have examples of or words for.

It's a total paradigm shift, with a new set of rules, that we're re-writing as we learn, as we come back home to connection with ourselves, each other, and our planet. Can we brave the change and trust the process? Can we transform together? Can we fully let go of what is no longer working, in time? Can we allow ourselves to fully embrace this part of the cycle, this season of our humanity, so full of change?

- Reflections from our Founder

Lessons in Leadership from an End-of-Life Doula

We asked palliative care nurse, Janet Booth, what executives and business owners can learn from end-of-life care. It turns out, a lot!

Allowing ourselves to feel grief honors the past while creating space for newness. Seeing death and endings as a natural part of any cycle helps us to let go of what isn't working. Through self-investigation, we can befriend death and learn to feel safe and grounded through big change, even when it's painful and uncomfortable. With practice, it gets easier and we begin to look forward to the rebirth on the other side of surrender.

As leaders we can model healthy grieving and adopt a cyclical mindset. More and more, it seems mission critical to be able to process our own emotions and self-regulate our nervous systems in the face of change. When we show up clear, honest, and grounded, it helps our teams feel safe and held with care through challenging times.

Honoring natural cycles is more sustainable.

Nature isn't constantly in a state of productive, so why are we trying to be? What if we are missing something essential to our future survival by being caught in "always on" culture?

When we're in a constant state of fear, urgency and reactivity, we lose access to the executive function of our brains. We go into self-preservation mode and more easily succumb to short-term thinking. Our ability to think creatively and maintain access to empathy plummet. Not an ideal place to be if we're trying to collaboratively innovate our way into a more sustainable future.

We need cycles of productivity and rest, of doing and being, of logic and intuition. Patriarchal, hierarchical culture widely neglects the value of deep reflection and integration. Sometimes the biggest breakthroughs happen when we slow down, get outside, or talk with a loved one. These more feminine gifts of creativity, community-building and intuition are harder to come by when we're burnt out by extractive productivity practices. And isn't the pattern of over-extraction the same pattern that got us into this mess with Mother Earth?

It's time to come back to our nature, and to more sustainable cycles, seasons and rhythms in how we work and create.

We've been working with female executives and founders to teach them the power of Cycle Syncing. Those of us with a menstrual cycle have a unique blueprint for cyclical leadership, within our own bodies. Just like the seasons or phases of the moon, there are four distinct phases of the menstrual cycle, each one with it's own unique gifts. Honoring all phases creates balance and harmony within. It also helps heal burnout.

Pre-Order the Complete Guide to Cycle Syncing

Join a Cycle Syncing Circle to learn alongside other women!