Welcome to this process to help you connect with and access your inner leader.
My name is Trish Everett and I'll be guiding you through this process.
So let's start by filling the land underneath you and the sky up above you and honoring the people,
The First Nations people,
The elders who have held this land,
Who have held the sky and who have held the water and held it well for so,
So long.
And now coming to your breath,
Breathing in and breathing out and keeping an awareness of your breath as I talk about what we're going to do in this process today.
So we're going to be exploring the realm of your inner leader which is really about helping you to access the way that you are when you are in your authentic leadership.
So whether that is leadership of yourself,
Leadership of others or leading change,
Whenever you are leading you need to access that part of you that is your inner leader and the more authentically and truly you lead the more access you have to that part of yourself.
Bringing your attention to breath again,
Breathing in and down.
So what this process is going to do today is we're going to discover,
Connect with and enhance and explore that authentic leadership that lies within you and everyone's authentic leader,
Their inner leader is different,
Everyone's has its own flavor because it's innately you.
It's how you are going to bring the best of yourself to leading whether it's yourself,
Others,
Change.
Whatever you're leading accessing your inner leader is going to support that journey.
So again connecting with breath.
Now in your mind's eye we're going to be walking down a track,
Whatever track appears in your mind is perfect.
As you walk along down this track you know that you are walking towards a place where you're going to build an understanding of the inner leader within you and as the track opens out you find yourself standing on the edge of a cliff overlooking a great gully or canyon and in the distance the sun is just starting to rise.
So in this place I want you to feel into where you hold clarity.
Feel your body right now as you watch this beautiful sunrise and feel the place in your body where there's clarity.
It may be in your head,
It may be in your hands,
It may be in your heart,
Could be anywhere,
It could be in your little toe.
Feel the place where you find clarity.
As the sun rises feel that sense of clarity also growing in brightness,
Growing in intensity.
And as it lights up feel yourself lighting up,
Feel the sun on your skin lighting up your clarity and see that it also lights up your purpose and your direction.
So allow space right now for what's important for you.
What hints around your purpose you have,
What gems there are waiting for you to know about direction.
Feel them intensify as the sun's rays grow in their intensity.
Your clarity,
Your purpose and your direction are all powerful.
Now in your mind's eye we're going to move away from the cliff face and you're going to follow a path that leads away from the sunrise as you walk around to the north.
And you're walking down a track you still feel the essence of clarity within you.
What does clarity feel like to you?
What does having each step filled with purpose feel like to you?
As you come now to another clearing in this clearing there is a beautiful fire burning.
And as you stand around the fire and feel the warmth of the flames start to become aware of your strength,
The strength of your muscles,
The strength of your mind,
The strength of your determination,
The strength of your willingness to stand up when you need to stand up.
Feel the places in you that hold that strength.
Let an image of yourself when you're standing strong come to mind.
It may be some time from your past or it may be an image of how you'd like to stand strong in the future.
Feel where your determination lies,
Feel it being warmed by the fire that lies in front of you.
As you're watching the fire see the flames rising with confidence,
With courage and now feel that confidence and courage in you.
Feel how you can burn hot,
How you can burn bright.
Feel that fire in you.
See yourself acting with that confidence,
With that courage.
Now bring your attention to the coals in the fire,
The coals at the bottom of the fire,
The coals that lie there burning hot but they have patience.
I want you to feel the place within you that has that deep patience,
The willingness to wait for what's worth waiting for,
The patience that balances your purpose and your passion,
That allows space,
That allows for momentum.
Feel now that deep place of patience within you.
We now turn away from the fire and wander down another path.
As we walk down this path with each step we feel our strength.
You feel with your confidence and your courage and hold with you that deep patience,
That deep sense of knowing when to act.
As the path comes to an end it opens up onto a beach,
A beach that along the western side there is a cave.
We walk along the beach and the sand squeaks and the sea rolls in in waves and you come in through the cave entrance and you can sit down and on one side there is the darkness of the cave and the other the brightness of the day and the beach and the sound of the waves rolling in.
Within this place let's feel that empathy and the care that you have for what you want to lead whether that is for yourself.
If you're leading yourself into new habits,
New systems,
New ways of being,
Feel that compassion,
That empathy for yourself.
If it's teams and people that you are leading,
You're leading others let's take a moment to really send out a deep pulse of care and compassion for those people and opening up your heart,
Opening up your being to being able to understand what it's like for them.
Opening up the receptors of empathy to know what it is like for them.
Take a moment to really feel what is their experience.
And if it is change that you're leading and rarely do we lead just one of these areas we're usually leading all three with the change have a deep compassion and honouring for what has been,
For what it has taken to get to where it is.
And empathy for those for all those who finding the change,
The shifting,
The moving,
Feel for them what it's like to be stuck.
Understand,
Open up that feeling to what it's like for all those who are resisting change.
And expanding out further and feeling into what it's like for those who need the change,
Who will benefit from it.
Whether it be people,
Whether it be organisations,
Whether it be the earth,
Whether it be your communities.
Feel what this difference,
Feel what difference this change could make and the possibilities of that.
It's time now to leave this cave.
As you get up and leave the cave there's a path that leads up and over the rocks.
We walk up and over and as we do we can see out to the horizon and see the ocean in the next cove ahead of us.
And as we walk towards this cove feel the compassion and the love in your heart.
And with each step know that you're walking from that place of compassion,
Of care and of empathy.
And as now you descend down the path that leads to the next cove,
Again you feel your feet squeaking in the sand and the sand between your toes.
You hear the waves and you feel the air dense with salt as you walk towards the ocean.
And you stand just on the edge where the waves come and lap at your feet and roll away again.
Lap at your feet and roll away again.
In this place let's connect with that feeling of wisdom,
That knowing that you have.
All the ideas,
All of the intuition to act.
Feel where that wisdom,
That knowledge,
That knowing is in your body.
See yourself either as a memory of the past or a vision of the future.
Making wise decisions.
Feeling empowered by knowing what you're talking about.
By having your passion,
Your drive,
Your leadership fueled by truth.
Invisit your words,
Your wisdom,
Being deeply heard,
Deeply understood,
Being seen for the wisdom that these words are creating.
You now are ready to leave the beach and you walk up through a path that takes you away from the beach.
And as you take each step really feel how wise you are,
How much knowing you have access to.
How even when you don't know something you know how to learn,
How to access the information that you need.
And the path now leads you to a big,
Big tree.
A big tree in a clearing.
And you're going to walk once around this tree.
And as you do really feel the leader who you are.
Feel your each step coming from your own inner leader.
What does clarity and direction and purpose feel like to you?
What does strength and confidence feel like to you?
What does having that care for the change,
For the people,
For yourself feel like to you?
And what does having access to the wisdom and knowing that you need feel like to you?
What does having full access to your inner leader feel like to you?
This powerful leader.
This powerful leader is always with you.
It's you.
It's the authentic true parts of you that belong only to you.
So any time that you need to bring forward,
Bring out your inner leader,
Remember this tree,
Remember these feelings.
And you can call on all of these parts of yourselves.
You are a powerful leader.
And as you let the image of the tree dissolve and you come back to awareness of your body,
Awareness of the here and now.
As you feel where you're sitting or lying,
Where you feel the cloth on your body,
The air on your skin.
And you feel and you taste the air as it comes in and out of your lungs.
And when you are ready,
Opening up your eyes to greet the day.
Walking forward,
Knowing that your inner leader is always there,
Is always part of you.
You can bring them forward whenever you need.
This is a beautiful practice to come back to and visit when you want to drop further into your leadership.
It's beautiful to bookmark this and come back to it when you feel that you need to top up your leadership.
The other thing you may like to look at is there's an inner leader group here on Insight Timer.
I'd love for you to come and be part of it.
We have Meditations Weekly where you can come together and connect with other people who are really working on authentic leadership.
I invite you to go and have a nice big drink of water after this process.
And also to place your hands on the land and feel the sun on your skin if that's possible.
So that you can really ground yourself back into the here and now.
