You have worked hard over the past many years to build your successful business. Every cell in your body says you were born to do the work that you are currently doing. You are at the top of your game relishing in all your outwardly success. Many may look to you as their mentor. Their boss. Their confidant. A leader.
Business is booming and life is moving fast. You’ve accomplished your goals in life/business while retaining high positions of honor.
But yet, something is off.
Something is missing. You are searching. Seeking something greater in life. Right now, everything seems meaningless. All the stuff. All the possessions you need to take care of.
What’s it all for anyway, you ask?
Even with all your money, status, and material abundance, your soul isn’t satisfied. It’s screaming for something. Something different that will satisfy you from the inside — out.
And yet, that “something” is hard to pinpoint. It is elusive. But it is real, and painful at a deeper level.
It’s that empty feeling even though you’re full. Perhaps agitated, angry, or guilty for reasons unknown. Maybe even depressed or frustrated, all the while you are telling yourself you should be happy. But the truth is, you are not satisfied with the status quo. What you used to do to dull the feelings of your silently screaming soul, isn’t working any longer.
You yearn for deeper meaning and fulfillment beyond the riches you have already achieved. You go-go-go all the time, push, strive, conquer the world while filling that not-so-quiet-any-longer voice inside of you hasn’t been a priority.
All this talk of deeper meaning beyond material abundance, filing yourself from the inside—out, satisfying the calling of your soul, your spirit, your higher self points to the realm of “spirituality” in its many forms.
You tell yourself you don’t want to bring religion or other’s many spiritual beliefs into the board room for a variety of reasons. However, you realize you no longer can ignore the voice of your soul’s yearning. You and everyone in your organization are each holistic human beings. All areas of each “self” must be fed, nurtured and sustained on a daily basis— intellectually, physically, emotionally, energetically, and spiritually.
More Specifically:
Intellectually—your mind chatter, thoughts and beliefs (conscious and unconscious).
Physically—your connection to your physical body and spaces (home, car, work, nutrition and health).
Emotionally—stuck emotions stem from thoughts and can be stuck inside of your body causing physical illness.
Energetically—everything that is you and attached to you that makes you the ball of light you are as well as the toxic people and circumstances in your life.
And, the one area that connects all these systems is your Spirit.
Spiritually— your intuitive connection with the divine.
CEOs are just now beginning to recognize they can’t detach themselves or an employee from their spirit to do their work. I believe the key to living a deep, satisfying and fulfilling life, not to mention growing in your leadership position, will only result from nurturing the growth of your spirit. Your business is a mirror of you. It can only grow to the extent that you grow. Your employees can only grow has high/much as you do.
So, how does one work this muscle? Strengthen this muscle of “Know Thyself?”
Many other successful high-powered executives and leaders have sought spiritual advisors to assist them in various ways, have come to learn how and know at their core — there is a place for spirituality in the workplace.
Creative genius and the late Apple chief, Steve Jobs, had a well-documented Zen priest as a spiritual advisor.
Facebook’s guiding light, Mark Zuckerberg, and several other American technology gurus have been drawn to an ashram in India for guidance and teachings.
Conscious CEOs, entertainment executives, entrepreneurs, and leaders worldwide are welcoming spiritual consultants into their companies to help themselves and their employees both professionally and personally. As a spiritual consultant myself, specific religions are not discussed. Instead, I help leaders feed their soul while at work in a way that it unique to each person. Helping them to create connections between their values, their purpose and their passions in a way they often have not thought to connect the dots between. The result? Greater satisfaction and fulfillment, lower stress and improved performance.
Although once taboo in corporate America, there are now several offerings to leaders and employees alike which are now becoming mainstream as employee benefits and perks:
- yoga
- mindfulness classes
- angel workshops
- massage/reiki
- essential oil therapy diffusing
- Feng Shui
- prayer and meditation rooms
- intuition and energy workshops
- intuition consulting
- astrology services
Can spirituality drive bottom line success?
Absolutely.
Executives from a wide range of industries gathered at Harvard Business School to discuss how their spirituality helps them be powerful leaders. The conference explored issues of leadership, values, and spirituality in business. Most interesting to me were the many different ways each expressed their own individual spirituality. Some spoke of dharma, others finding their own primary values, Christian values, reading the Bible at work and social justice.
Leading executives are finding when they personally open up to spiritual advisors and their own guiding inner wisdom are considerable immeasurable benefits; including,
- A deeper meaning in their work aligned with their values
- Clarity of their own higher purpose
- Obstacles are removed (unprocessed emotions and non-serving beliefs)
- A heart connection (to themselves, to God, and others)
All of the above fulfills their soul’s yearning and gives them a powerful and positive edge in life they’ve never experienced before.
In A Spiritual Audit of Corporate America, business professor Ian I. Mitroff found that “Spirituality could be the ultimate competitive advantage.”
This competitive edge comes from tapping into your own intuitive abilities by going within. Intuition is defined as: “The ability to understand something immediately, without the need for conscious reasoning.”
Everyone is intuitive at some level. The only difference is inner work they have done at becoming a clear channel in order to receive the information. Often you will hear a CEO say, “It was a gut decision” or “I felt it was right.” That is their intuition at work. It’s a feeling or a clear knowing of what to do.
High powered executives know that learning to tap into their own GPS is the key to up-leveling their life and business. If you desire to up-level your life and business while seeking greater satisfaction, look no further than within. To begin…
1.Be Still. Take some quiet time each day — even if only a few minutes — to listen to that still small voice within. The time you take for noticing allows your soul to whisper to you.
2.Silence the Mind Chatter. Begin to pay attention to your thoughts. Especially the self-defeating ones. Once you become aware of what negative thoughts are running in the background, you can choose to change them.
3.Practice Mindfulness by focusing intently on the present moment—during various activities (eating, talking to a friend, working).
These 3 steps together can rewire your brain for incredible satisfaction and is the start of a spiritual connection to yourself that feeds your hearts’ greatest desires.
