To quote Oprah at the Golden Globes, “Speaking our Truth is the most powerful tool we have.”
I know I’m not alone to say that her speech brought tears to my eyes. I have long been a believer in aligning your actions (including your words) with your personal Truth. In fact, I’ve dedicated my business to this, and living my life in alignment with what I teach.
I cried when she spoke about being the first black female to win the prestigious award. I cried to see the support of the audience as she used her platform to speak about the #MeToo movement and at the thoughts of all the hearts that have healed in this time of such major pain and upheaval in our world.
I cried tears of joy at my own healing that has happened this last year of buried memories of boundary violations that are right on time with the healing of the collective consciousness.
#MeToo
My own Truth has continually come to light in massive “Truth Pivots,” as I call them, and subsequent actions that have scared the hell out of me to implement. And they have almost always come in conjunction with a decision to get out of my environment and into a community of people who could hold the space for my Truth to emerge.
Attending retreats, and the activities surrounding them (booking travel, arranging my life to be gone, actually traveling, connecting with people, being exposed to new ideas, playing full out for my own transformation, observing my own way of being around the whole thing) has ALWAYS been a container for my own quantum leaps.
The LIFE STUFF that affects our business gets magnified in this process.
And we get to see ourselves in a whole new way, every single time.
So what is it that is so magical about this process?
FIRST, we create a “Container of Support” for our transformation. There are 4 Pillars to a Container of Support (CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE ON THIS), and two of them (50% of the transformation) have to do with the ‘client’ saying ‘yes’ to the support and aligning their intentions to receive a breakthrough, and the STRUCTURE created when the time gets set aside to make this happen. You are signaling to the Universe that on March 8-10 in Charlotte, I am available to hear what I need to hear to make change. (As an example).
SECOND, a powerful transformational retreat leader creates a space for the Truth to unfold. So the second 50% is the leader’s energy and presence, and the leader’s knowledge and transformational toolkit.
When I work with Retreat Leaders in my COURSE and my LIVE RETREAT, we work on two things. We work on the MARKETING AND BUSINESS MODEL of retreats, and we work on the MINDSET AND ENERGY of BEING a Retreat Leader.
Marketing and business model are of course the key to monetizing a retreat-based business.
And then there is the BEINGNESS of Retreat Leader.
If you’re reading this and you know what I mean by BEINGNESS – you are probably a great retreat leader! I often refer to this as understanding your “Captivation Factor.”
Each Retreat Leader is unique. Yet there are some foundational beliefs and practices that you can align yourself with to be captivating in front of the room. This captivation is not about being a big bold presence (unless your Truth is big and bold). It is about being in alignment with your personal Truth in front of the room.
When the retreat leader is in alignment with their Truth, they automatically create a space for Truth to unfold for others. And this is the magic.
If you’ve followed me for long you know one of my favorite quotes is by Kurt Wright, “A human being cannot accept a part of themselves that they have not shared with another human being and had validated rather than violated.”
Because so many of us have had our truth violated:
- When you’re joyful and expressed and told you’re “too much.”
- When your intuition guides you to an exciting new idea and people tell you to “think it through” or “have a backup plan.”
- When you were being feminine and alluring and someone took that as an invitation to violate your physical boundaries.
- When you asked for more and you were told you were “ungrateful.”
- When you said what you saw and you were told it “wasn’t polite,” or you simply weren’t believed.
When I shared the truth with a family member last year I was first asked if I was SURE that was the truth. I was then given a logical reason why my truth wasn’t relevant. The truth was uncomfortable and therefore buried safely as it always had been. But I spoke it anyway.
But not without first being able to see it and validate it for myself. This is why #MeToo has freed so many. We need to know we’re not crazy. We need to know we’re not alone. We need to know our truth matters.
If you’re a Truth Seeker in your own life, if you embody the boldness to speak your Truth that is required to be a bringer of light in this time of Darkness, and if you are willing to continually do your own work in your life so that you can expand the level of Truth you can BE WITH without walking away, then please… host… your… retreat.
Speaking our Truth is the most powerful tool we have.
And yet millions have not yet been freed to speak their Truth because it’s still buried there under the surface, under a layer of violation and shame.
If you can hold the space for Truth to emerge, please do. I’d like to share a full copy of my book this week to guide your journey: LINK
And by the way, holding Truth hidden under a layer of shame is the human condition, and is a real part of the journey of transformation and alignment, not just for the sad or broken, but for the extremely successful as well.
Achieving outward success and holding inward shame is an epidemic. And I’ve been there… climbing the corporate ladder to finally be enough, when my soul was unfulfilled and my heart was all walled up. If that’s your story and you want to guide others to breaking free… host… your… retreat.