Dealing with workplace frustrations, burnout, or feeling overlooked? Join us on a journey of growth and enlightenment for achieving success and purpose at work and in life.
This book guides you to overcoming obstacles and making the most of your skills, knowledge, and talents. Drawing on age-old techniques and current research, Lubna Samara provides a practical, and holistic, approach to resolving problems for a rewarding and sustainable forward momentum.
Based on Lubnaâs 25 years of experience and proven signature system, âThe 4 Quadrants of Growth Method,â the book and workbook* guide you through a 7-step framework for mastering key life-skills, and building positivity, resilience, confidence and clarity. You will learn how to:
⢠Move beyond obstacles like office politics and self-doubt to be more productive
⢠Enhance your performance and make more of an impact at work
⢠Find meaning and sense of purpose at your place of work
The book will also support you if you are a leader who wants to mentor your team to achieve their best.
Whether you are a CEO, senior manager, or team member, Beyond Potential is a must-read to thrive in todayâs workplace.
*available for download at the end of Chapter 1
Dealing with workplace frustrations, burnout, or feeling overlooked? Join us on a journey of growth and enlightenment for achieving success and purpose at work and in life.
This book guides you to overcoming obstacles and making the most of your skills, knowledge, and talents. Drawing on age-old techniques and current research, Lubna Samara provides a practical, and holistic, approach to resolving problems for a rewarding and sustainable forward momentum.
Based on Lubnaâs 25 years of experience and proven signature system, âThe 4 Quadrants of Growth Method,â the book and workbook* guide you through a 7-step framework for mastering key life-skills, and building positivity, resilience, confidence and clarity. You will learn how to:
⢠Move beyond obstacles like office politics and self-doubt to be more productive
⢠Enhance your performance and make more of an impact at work
⢠Find meaning and sense of purpose at your place of work
The book will also support you if you are a leader who wants to mentor your team to achieve their best.
Whether you are a CEO, senior manager, or team member, Beyond Potential is a must-read to thrive in todayâs workplace.
*available for download at the end of Chapter 1
We are all born whole, but somewhere along lifeâs journey this gets lost in translation.
How We Spend Our Days
We each have our unique talents, interests, strengths, and accomplishments that help us to find meaning and success in life. Making the best use of these resources not only helps us to achieve and be valued members of our community, but it also supports our innate human drive to grow beyond our boundaries and connect more fully to the world around us for a richer, more abundant, life.
This book is for anyone who is interested in putting more of their abilities and potential to work. Working through the book and workbook will guide you to gain calm, control, confidence and clarity to see a clear roadmap of your path ahead. It offers insights and practical steps that you can use daily to break through obstacles holding you back and boost performance and success at work. Whilst the book is tailored for people at work, it unfolds a wider perspective that extends beyond the workplace, fostering personal alignment and purposeful existence.
Iâve been asked why I aimed this book at people in a work environ- ment when the concepts and exercises presented in the book would benefit any reader. I believe we are moving into a time when weâre looking for greater balance and fulfilment, not only in our personal lives, but also at work. As laureate Annie Dillard1 wisely put it, âHow we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives,â1 and most of us spend a large part of our days at work.
Having worked in the corporate sector, I have seen and experienced many of the problems people face at work. As a leadership coach and healer, my clients have come from diverse cultural and socie- tal backgrounds, and I am grateful for this rich experience that has given me insight into problems viewed from different perspectives. Whilst our problems are unique to each one of us, given our indi- vidual backgrounds, experiences, and abilities, if we look deeper, we see that in the workplace, whether youâre a CEO, a team leader, or team member, we share many of the same pressures, struggles, and desires for fulfilment.
This book is for you if you want to:
- Focus on being productive at work instead of draining your time and energy dealing with obstacles like office politics or self- doubt
- Enhance performance and make more of an impact at work
- Find meaning and sense of purpose at your place of work
It will also support you if you are a leader who is inspired to mentor and guide your teams to fulfil more of their potential.
We will be working holistically, taking into account body, heart, mind, and spirit, where the term âspiritâ refers to our drive to align with our values, to live a life of purpose, and to elevate our level of awareness.
We each have a body, a heart, a mind, and a spirit, and we need to nourish every part of our being if we want to have a stable struc- ture that withstands the knocks that life deals us, and one that also allows us to steam ahead unencumbered in the good times.
To some, working holistically may seem like a luxury when theyâre struggling just to keep up with the pressures of their day-to-day life. However, this is exactly the time when you need to ask your- self: How many of us are suffering from what have become common problems like burnout, overwhelm, anxiety, loss of confidence, and depression, where it seems that nothing we do has much value or significance? Now imagine that you were anchored to your inner self. What would that mean to you, and how would your life be different?
If we want to know calm even in turmoil, we need to be more col- lected. If we want more harmonious interactions with our col- leagues, family, and friends, we need to hear our hearts better. If we want to achieve, create, and be productive, we need to be con- fident in who we are. And if we want to enrich ourselves during our lifetime and leave this world a better place, we need clarity to see our lives in a wider perspective.
All of these are very tangible benefits that help us to depressurise and bring improvements to our lives in the here and now. They set our day-to-day problems in a wider perspective that makes them manageable, allowing us to move forward with momentum.
Over the past decade weâve seen organisations taking a more holistic approach and incorporating spiritual elements in their strategies, like values, purpose, and authenticity, to improve culture. They are also increasingly adopting servant or transforma- tional leadership styles in which the leaders themselves become, in essence, coaches and mentors supporting their teams to achieve more of their potential. Many of the companies regularly named in Fortuneâs â100 Best Companies to Work Forâ now practice servant leadership and have integrated this into their culture.2 And more recently, these concepts have been filtering through to the work- force, with Millennials and Gen Z prioritising purpose even over an increase in pay.3
Since the late 1980s, when I was in banking, I have believed that the way to change the world is through the corporates and businesses, so Iâm very pleased to see this trend. Imagine if more of us at work felt included and part of a bigger whole, aligned with the organisa- tionâs values, and found meaning in what weâre doing. How would that impact us collectively? Most of us humans instinctively like to share kindness, paying it forward, and we also know that as we raise our awareness, we also positively impact other people around us; our science validates both these points, as weâll see later in the book. Given that the best parts of us are contagious, imagine the ripple effect we can create to impact the world for the better.
In writing this book, I have included many of the major areas that we need for personal and professional growth today, while still retaining focus and momentum; these include improving positiv- ity, resilience, empathy, creativity, focus, connectedness, authen- ticity, and purpose. Working chapter by chapter, weâll set off ona journey of growth to help you heal, balance, and energise every part of your being. In the final chapter we will write your story, your Heroâs Journey, to chart your transformation and plot a clear path towards a more fulfilling future.
As for my quest, my journey of transformation, it is in its own way a clear example of this type of story, and Iâm happy to share with you a part of it below.
My Unexpected Journey
Ever since I was young, Iâve been fascinated by anything that seemed to me even vaguely esoteric or mystical. I was addicted to Kung Fu of Grasshopper fame in the 1970s, watched fascinated as hypnotists worked their magic on nervous volunteers onstage, and spent hours with friends as a young teenager reading each oth-erâs minds and proving that ESP really was a thing. And, of course, the late-night conversations on whether ghosts were real or not, before going to bed terrified.
Growing up, I wanted to become a doctor or a human rights law- yer. I liked the idea of healing people, helping those who needed protecting, and putting away the bad guys. All seemed like good options to me. But my family and teachers decided that I was gifted at maths, and one way or another, I ended up studying that at uni- versity. I was fortunate enough to be offered a scholarship to con- tinue my studies as a PhD student in maths, but the appeal of going out to explore in the big wide world proved a strong draw, and I went to work in Paris as an assistant mathematician in the explo- ration division of a French petroleum company.
After a year, they wanted to send me to work on an oil rig to become familiar with the technical aspects and get hands-on experience. This all sounded great in theory, until I found out that I would be stuck in the middle of the sea with three hundred men. I was a shy but stubborn twenty-two-year-old, and this wasnât going to work out for me. Also, the environment at the office had become stagnant, with changes and plans for âreorganisationâ casting shadows over our job security, and almost everybody on that floor of the building kept their heads down. The mood was low. In hindsight, this was my first lesson on âHow Not Toâ in leadership and management.
I went back to university to study economics and finance as a related field I could potentially find a career in. After many months of receiving what felt like more letters of rejection than the number job applications Iâd sent out, I eventually did manage to land in the dealing room of an American investment bank through what could only be called a chance meeting. Today Iâd say that was synchro- nicity or the Law of Attraction at work.
I loved the hustle and bustle of the trading floor even though I had a hard time catching numbers and data, which were being shouted out by traders over our heads at great speed; the environment was high-energy and exciting. This was in the Gordon Gecko âGreed is Goodâ era, and my friends were fond of telling me what a waste of space bankers are. They had a name for us, which I wonât repeat here, but it rhymed with bankers. I hadnât really thought about pur- pose at that time, and no one in the bank above the dealing room level ever visited us to give us pep talks or make us feel part of a bigger whole. I wouldnât have known the CEO if heâd fallen in my lap. This was pre-internet, and brochures were reserved for the shareholders and customers, not distributed to the workforce. My friendsâ comments did set me thinking, though: What purpose was I fulfilling in my role?
Having thought about it, I decided that we helped corporates with their liquidity so they could:
- Keep us supplied with goods and services that give us a better standard of living
- Take care of their employees who took care of their families
Fund research and development so we could progress as a society
That was a pretty good purpose, I thought, and certainly good enough for me.
Around that time, the dealing room I was working in was rumoured to be in the process of being taken over with a lot of layoffs planned, heading back to the same situation Iâd been in when I was in the oil company. It was during this time of potential upheaval at work that I had my first experience of consciously seeing a part of my own energy field. One day, after working out in the gym, I was running up some stairs to the third floor of a building where a friend lived, I looked down to check my footing and saw swirling white clouds down the front of my body. I found this experience weird, to say the least, but at the same time strangely familiar.
Coincidentally, my colleague Jane who sat next to me in the dealing room, was into the New Age movement, so she was a good person to ask about this experience. When I described what I had seen, or perhaps a better way to describe this is what I had "perceived," she raised her eyebrows, smiled, and said, âOh those are your chakras,â and gave me a book to read.
I managed to push this event to one side and forget about it for a year, mainly because Iâd never entertained the possibility that I may be spiritual. That was for monks, nuns, people with a calling, and maybe even for New Age âtree huggers,â but not for someone who was mainstream like me. Underlying it all, though, was a dis- tant sense of not being worthy to be called âspiritual.â
A year after I saw my chakras, I spontaneously saw my energy fields, like concentric fields around my physical body, complete with blockages. Iâd been to a few counselling sessions to help me make sense of the changes I was experiencing in my work and personal life, and a voice in my head told me this was a good thing to do, but âin order to move beyond the emotional dynamics holding you back, you need to release them from your energy field; you need to let them go from your heart.â
Now I get that hearing voices can seem a bit dodgy, but the fact is, when Iâve received these guidances, itâs hard to think of any other advice Iâve received that makes as much complete sense â itâs what I can only describe as distant parts of my own being becom- ing âilluminated.â Have you ever had one of those dreams where youâre in your own house and start discovering new rooms that you werenât aware were there? Itâs a bit like that.
At that time, I also became aware of feeling like Iâd spent a lot of energy climbing a ladder, but it was somebody elseâs ladder, not my own. I had a lot of gratitude for everything in my life, but every time someone asked me, âWhere do you see yourself in five yearsâ time?â my heart would sink. I saw myself as feeling grey and hollow inside, and this feeling was subconsciously attracting me to failing situations. I needed to break free of that.
What started as an interest very quickly turned into a passion. I started practicing Tâai Chi for a couple of hours every morning, meditating for another couple of hours in the evening, and reading voraciously whatever I could get my hands on related to this new field in my life. I read about esoteric disciplines, spirituality, phi- losophy, psychology, and mythology, and I went on courses learn- ing about NLP, CBT, and breathwork, amongst others.
I did that for around eight or nine years, but after a few months of starting on this path, someone stopped me and told me my energy was very strong and that I should start doing healing. My first thought was, âNah, Iâm a mathematician, I donât do that.â Now, I happen to also pride myself on being open-minded, so I decided to go and at least give it a shot. Of course, I didnât bother to do any- thing about it. A few weeks later, another person told me I should try healing. Slapped on the wrist and more than a little bit awed by how the universe was working, I signed up for my first healing course.
By the third session, I came out of the room feeling star-struck by what we could do with our minds when we applied it. It wasnât so much what I picked up about other peopleâs energy that had impacted me as much as what other people in the course had picked up about my energy field â specifically, peculiarities that I hadbecome aware of when I perceived my chakras.
I spent the next couple of years looking for a spiritual teacher to help me in my quest even if I wasnât really sure what it was I was looking for. Coming back despondent one evening after yet another failed attempt, I sat down to meditate and thought, âWhat do I want from this?â
Now, I happen to believe that each one of us is loved equally and receives an infinite amount of guidance. Rationally, I thought this must include me as well. The guidance was already there in abun- dance, and it was for me to tune in to it, much like tuning in to a radio frequency.
My DIY spiritual journey started in earnest that evening, and I focussed my question â What do I want from this? Three aspects fell into place:
- Iâd become tired of feeling like my heart was getting dented by the slightest provocation at work, with friends, and in my private life. I needed to de-personalise, and it was up to me to take charge and change the map. Inspirational stories of beings like Buddha and Jesus, who had not only shown exceptional emo- tional detachment but who were even able to show kindness to their abusers, lit up my mind. I wanted to know peace.
- At that time, Iâd recently had a situation in my personal life where my head was clear on a course of action, but my heart was intent on going the opposite way. This brought up the questions: If I am one person why are bits and pieces of me in different places? Who is this âIâ? I wanted to heal the inner division and get closer to my true self.
- The last answer to come through was that I wanted to raise my lower desires, my lower will, to be in alignment with a Higher Will. I became aware that for some time Iâd been perceiving a Higher Will â a level of existence where weâre all equal, where weâre all loved equally, and where weâre all in harmony with each other. Each one of us is connected to this level, and through it weâre all connected to each other.
As I started looking at this more deeply, I realised this has been written about repeatedly throughout millennia: the Taoists call it the Tao, the Buddhists and Hindus call it Dharma, Abrahamic reli-Â gions call it Divine Will, and many know it as Universal Conscious- ness. I appreciated getting to this level of existence was a massive ask, but I thought that if I set out in that general direction, going as far as my road would take me, I couldnât go wrong.
I believe that an aspect of any spiritual awakening is the powerful calling to serve, and it was no different with me. However, moving out of a career in finance didnât come without personal cost. My father had lost everything twice in his life due to shifting Middle Eastern political maps, and we had come to the UK with precious little, so he was all about education and having a solid career to survive the unexpected traumas life throws at you. Thereâs no arguing this logic.
As they say, one path closes and another opens. Whatever else it was, this period of my life was a time of mystical exploration and learning, and of breaking boundaries between what we consider miraculous with understandings from a place of a higher logic.
At some point, a line of no return is crossed where faith in some- thing bigger than us gives way to experience. It is within and with- out. It is intimately kind, infinitely knowledgeable and ultimately Love.
I continue to be a devoted seeker finding my way home.Â
Lubna
CHAPTER 1
FOUNDATIONS: CHARTING TRUE NORTH
âEvery great dream begins with a dreamer. Always remember, you have within you the strength, the patience, and the passion to reach for the stars to change the world.â
âHarriett Tubman
The most valuable skill you can have is the ability to chart your path towards what you want to create and achieve in your life, whether that is in your personal or professional life. Whatever it is you strive for, whether it is to build a better life for yourself and those you love, or you want to explore, create, and innovate, or perhaps you feel a calling to help your community and planet, it is your dreams that motivate you and give you the determination to succeed.
Growing up, we become immersed in the practicalities of daily life, working to achieve and attain, and in the process, we can get lost in a sea of details and forget about our North Star. This book encourages you to explore your dreams. Every so often, we need to bring our attention back home to remind ourselves of what is important to us. Some dreams will be workable, and others less so, but giving that light in your heart oxygen to allow the flame to burn brighter is not a luxury, it is a human imperative.
Your unique set of abilities and skills empower you and give you confidence to find achievement and success in life. But this journey isnât always plain sailing. We may confront obstacles that hold us back, or find our work isnât good enough to make the mark despite our best efforts, or perhaps our own interest starts to fade, and we struggle to find the motivation to succeed in the environment weâre in. If the light at the end of the tunnel starts to fade, motivation goes with it, and weâre going to be less focussed, unfulfilled, and more easily triggered. Putting that much energy and time into managing pressures at work comes at a personal and professional cost.
In many ways, charting our course for True North is a quest fit for a hero, which requires great leadership skills, clarity of vision, determination, and the resilience to move beyond the setbacks we will inevitably encounter. These are skills that help you to connect with a vision that aligns with where you are today, and to navigate even blockages that seem impassable. Turning failing situations around into forward momentum is not only achievable but is a source of learning and growth. You will also find that the effect of the posi- tive energy on colleagues and team members encourages everyone to achieve more at work.
To help you master these skills we will be working using our signa- ture system, The 4 Quadrants of Growth Method, as a roadmap to strengthen every part of your being: body, heart, mind, and spirit. We then bring them together to achieve an inner alignment that releases pent-up power and brings back balance, meaning, and direction in your life.
In the workspace, this translates to good energy and positivity, more harmonious interactions with colleagues, improved focus and communications, and a shared sense of purpose and values for cohesive teams.
The idea of a more holistic workplace is not new. As part of my MBA programme thirty years ago, we studied the likes of Peters and Waterman, and Drucker, who spoke about the need to have good culture in a company and about the organisationâs responsibil- ity to act for the common good. So I was surprised when speak- ing with a successful leadership coach a few years ago and telling him I was a leadership and spiritual coach, he looked puzzled and asked me, âWhat does spirituality have to do with business?â It was my turn to be puzzled. Our greatest leaders inspired respect, trust, and loyalty because people sense they acted from a place of higher values. Without this underlying tone for a greater connectedness, even a charismatic leader will struggle to maintain authority for any length of time. Weâve seen this repeatedly on the world stage.
Mulling over what the leadership coach said, I thought he had a point â associating this trend as spiritual development is not obvi- ous, so I identified four main areas where a holistic approach is becoming increasingly evident in business. In order of sphere of influence, these are: Corporate Social Responsibility; Vision, Mis- sion, and Values; Leadership Styles; and Personal Responsibility.
This book is concerned with Personal Responsibility â personal sovereignty â and what each one of us can do to influence our own path, achievements, and success at work.
Each one of us is like a drop of water, we can create harmonious ripples or discordant waves that are disruptive. The choice is ours.
The theme of sovereignty is a motif that recurs in the book.
In this chapter
We will be looking at what weâre going to cover in the book, as well as picking up the tools weâll be working with. The 4Q Method maps out the journey weâre going to go on together, which will culminate with writing your personal story of transformation.
The tools to help you accomplish this growth are a powerful combi- nation of age-old modalities, which, when worked with correctly, can transform the challenges we face into forward momentum. We call these the pillars of your higher mind, and they are psychology and coaching, meditation, energy-works, and the Heroâs Journey of transformation.
The Workbook
The link and QR code at the end of this chapter allow you to down- load the workbook which has the exercises and meditations that accompany each chapter; you will also receive a colour PDF of the diagrams in one handy place to refer to.
At the end of the workbook, weâve provided for you an eight-week calendar where you can keep track of your meditations and ener- gy-works exercises, as well as a journal where you can make a note of your thoughts, feelings, and insights as you work through the exercises and meditations. These exercises will help you in the final chapter when we pull everything together to write your Heroâs Journey of transformation.
Feel free to take a moment to download your workbook now.
THE FOUR QUADRANTS OF GROWTH
We are all born whole. We have a physical body so weâre able to do and achieve, a heart so we can feel and connect, a mind so we can think and create, and we have a spirit so we can grow to achieve more of our potential and experience way beyond our boundaries. Ours is truly an amazing structure.
But like everything else in nature, it is a finely balanced system and if something goes out of sync and we donât know how to reset it, we can continue on for some time even if weâre limping, but weâll eventually run out of steam and grind to a halt. This happens to almost all of us at some point. People often describe this limping phase like theyâre driving with the handbrake on, or they complain that even the simplest tasks feel like a huge effort. In the I Ching, a 5,000-year-old book of Chinese wisdom, thereâs a line that reads âNo skin on his thighs and walking comes hard.â In todayâs lan- guage weâd say âheading for burnout,â and when we get to that point, itâs time to stop and pay attention, my friend.
We all have problems at work, and these are some of the most common:
- Having a hard time controlling your reactions when youâre trig- gered
- Not feeling confident enough to put yourself forward
- Dealing with procrastination
- Setting too high a standard for yourself â and for everyone else
- Pulling together a wayward team
- Handling a boss or senior leader who is indifferent
- Struggling to adapt to new inputs and events
- Managing to keep your head while leading others who are losing
theirs
- Feeling like there must be more to life than this and missing a sense of purpose
Do you recognise yourself somewhere in there? All these pressures are fertile ground for stresses to work their way out into full-blown problems, which will be harder to deal with further down the line and will have a direct impact on productivity over time.
The 4 Quadrants of Growth Method was developed to stabilise, strengthen, and nourish every part of your being. Working one quadrant at a time, we nurture your â4Cs,â calm, control, confi-Â dence, and clarity. We make sure the whole structure is strong and stable and working harmoniously to help you gain:
Calm â overcome anxiety, find inner balance and positivity (body)
Control â improve resilience and empathy to help you to deal with setbacks, and for more harmonious interactions with colleagues (heart)
Confidence â strengthen communication and empower your per- sonal belief system by working with the higher mind (mind)
Clarity of Vision â promote shared values, purpose, and connect- edness for greater motivation, supportive team-building, and bet- ter overall direction and planning (spirit)
As someone who comes from a science background, grounding the work in research is important to me, so I have also incorporated research in psychology, neuroscience, and energy fields where rel- evant. That having been said, I am also a massive respecter of the many commonalities that the teachings of mystic traditions have shared for millennia; we need to accept that our science is still developing, and we have a way to go. Einstein, who was an agnostic, said:
âThe harmony of natural law, which reveals an intelligence of such superiority that compared with it all the systematic thinking and ÂactingÂofÂhumanÂbeingsÂisÂanÂutterlyÂinsignificantÂreflection.âÂ
To Einsteinâs brilliant quote, I would add only that in my experi- ence this incredible intelligence is driven by love.
Figure 1 gives the overview of The 4 Quadrants of Growth Method. The diagram sets out the basics of what weâre going to be covering in Chapters 2 through 5.
What We Will Be Covering
Each quadrant builds on the previous one to make sure the whole system is solid. Working chapter by chapter:
Foundations: In this chapter weâre going to look at the over- view of our journey through this book and the tools that will help us accomplish this. You will also find in the workbook a few gentle exercises to get you warmed up. The guided meditation, âMountain Meditationâ, for this chapter helps to soothe and elevate a stressed mind and is an old favourite.
Quadrant 1: We start with the basics of making sure our phys- iological and safety needs are addressed and met. Here we look at effective methods of dealing with anxiety, calming triggers, and strengthening the physical body to improve overall wellbeing and positivity. We also start waking up the dormant muscles of our intuition, and getting the Law of Attraction working for us.
Quadrant 2: This level serves the heart, which has the ability to move, motivate, and instil a powerful determination in us. We are going to work on improving emotional intelligence, resilience and empathy, as well as moving beyond our old repeat patterns and dynamics.
Figure 1 â The 4Q Method Overview
Quadrant 3: Our mind includes the higher mind, the super- conscious, and weâre going to explore ways to access this amaz- ing facility. We will look at how to transform negative beliefs that have held us back into empowering beliefs that support our growth, explore the building blocks of confidence and how to develop these, as well as the 7 modes of communication.
Quadrant 4:Â Coming deeper to the inner self, this is where we align with values and authenticity, get clarity of vision, and align to purpose. In this section we also look at our human connectedness and explore what neuroscience is discovering about our brain waves, which we can put to use, not just to grow, but to evolve.
In addition to what is represented on the diagram above, The 4Q Method includes:
The Fifth Quadrant: Having strengthened and nurtured each of the first four quadrants, we now need to get them working together. I call the Higher Self the fifth quadrant as it has a birds-eye view of the other four quadrants and brings them all together to work as a connected, synergistic, whole. This is where the magic happens. We will go deeper into purpose and intuition in this section and look at some of the many ways how your Higher Self can help you, from gaining insight into living life with more passion and flow to taking your negotiation skills to a whole other level.
The Heroâs Journey: In this final chapter we will write your Heroâs Journey to help you gain a deeper understanding of your path â where you are now, what transformation needs to happen so you move forward into a deeper alignment, and how to achieve this. This is your journey, your quest, and what you do next with that is your call.
Working through The 4Q Method will help you to break through your past dynamics to move forward at work and in life. It will also help you to note where your strong points are and where you feel more challenged as you work through the quadrants.
But before we can get started on this journey, we need to pick up some tools that will help you on your quest.
PILLARS OF YOUR HIGHER MIND
We work with psychology and coaching, meditation, energy-work, and your personal quest to help you navigate to your North Star.
Figure 2 â The Pillars of Your Higher Mind
Each one of these four modalities serves an important purpose: psychology & coaching to manifest positive changes in your life; meditation to calm the mind and heart; energy-works to heal and raise awareness; and your quest to set you on your path to fulfilment.
Pillar I: Psychology And Coaching
This helps us to understand how our blockages impact our lives, what negative effects they cause in our physical reality, and then look to raise our awareness and modify our behaviour so we can create a better reality.
Going back to basics:
What Gives Us Satisfaction at Work?
According to the Boston Consulting Group, which surveyed over 200,000 people around the world,1Â the top ten factors for satisfaction and happiness at work are:
- Appreciation for your work
- Good relationships with colleagues
- Good work-life balance
- Good relationships with superiors
- Companyâs financial stability
- Learning and career development
- Job security
- Attractive fixed salary
- Interesting job content
- Company values
Note that being validated at work is in the top place and having an attractive salary sits at number 8.
Experiments conducted in the 1920s, the Hawthorne experiments, where to help the workers, managers increased the lighting levels in a plant. After turning up the lights, the managers noticed that the workersâ performances improved. They decided to try turning up the lighting levels again; productivity went up again. Curious about what was going on as there was plenty of light in the factory by this point, the managers decided to try turning down the lights; pro- ductivity went up yet again. What was driving the improvements in job performance wasnât the lighting levels but the fact that the supervisors were giving the workers more attention.
These experiments have been contested; some researchers vali- date the results whilst others fault the methodology. What is inter- esting, though, is that the premise that humans can be motivated simply by giving them more attention has fuelled so much interest and debate for so many decades. BCGâs study above leans towards favouring the Hawthorne experiments.
Where It Can Go Wrong at Work
We will inevitably be hit by external factors, like market forces, which are hard to control or are out of our control, and there will always be internal factors which are made up of our own inner blockages, limiting beliefs and behaviour patterns that can stall our progress. We can proactively work on improving the internalside of things, which will also help with how we deal with the not so wonderful surprises.
Examples of External Factors: Other People and Our Environment
- Problems with the boss â being passed over, not feeling included
- Senior leadership not encouraging creativity and new ideas
- Poor communication of values, systems, procedures, and job
requirements from senior leadership, impacting workforce
morale
- Difficult team members creating tensions and stresses for
everyone on the team
- Unreasonable expectation â time constraints, lack of resources
- Supply problems impacting schedules and deadlines
- Possible issues at home, such as divorce, bereavement, etc.
- Unanticipated global events
Examples of Internal Factors: Our Belief System, Repeat Patterns
- Procrastination
- Fear of being in the spotlight
- Accused of being disruptive, not a team player
- Imposter syndrome
- Overwhelm â struggling to keep up with the demands and
schedule
- Feelings of irritability or difficulties controlling temper
- Feeling isolated
- Quiet quitting
The more we deal with our internal blockages, the better weâll be able to do damage-limitation when weâre confronted by external factors. We manage to stay composed and balanced and find our footing much more quickly; like a ninja athlete, our recovery rate will be that much faster, and we can catch a situation before it esca- lates into a full-blown problem.
Clients have come to me over the years saying theyâre unhappy in what theyâre doing and want to leave their job and find more reward- ing work. With a few of them this feeling was so strong that theyâd wake up in the mornings with a tightness in their chest. I always advise that if youâre going to jump, make sure itâs from a position of strength and not a place of weakness. First, letâs see where the problems really are, and then work on fixing them. Thatâs Plan A, B, and C, and then if nothing works, we can look for fresh pastures.
Spotting the signs early is critical. Often, weâre too busy putting out the fire to think strategically, but we can do a lot to success- fully turn these failing situations around. Most problems at work are resolvable.
After going more deeply into one clientâs situation working for an insurance company, we found that what was upsetting him wasnât so much to do with the work itself being unfulfilling as with one of his bosses being obstructive, and no one else in his office was offer- ing him support. It often happens that colleagues may be worried theyâll draw disfavour from the boss and prefer not to interfere, and this increases the sense of isolation and not being a part of the team.
We began to unravel the knots, starting with something simple that was within his control: modifying one aspect of his behaviour at work. He had a fear of being left behind which made him prone to being overly eager, and this could come across as aggressive, so we worked on cooling that down. He found the situation started to correct itself very quickly, and within a few weeks he was much happier in his environment. It starts with getting back a sense of control, and we take it from there.
Only two clients whom I worked with were sure their jobs were never going to fulfil them, one because of her love for travel and the other because of his passion for art. They both started on a second path in their spare time doing what they felt passionate about as a sideline but staying in their paid employment for the time being. This relieved a lot of the pressure of feeling frustrated, and ironi- cally, they started doing a lot better at work once they relaxed and started having more fun with it.
A good thing to remember is that our memory for pain in a work environment is thankfully short. We donât hold as many grudges against people weâre not deeply emotionally involved with, so these problems, big as they seem at the time, do blow over pretty quickly.
Our default starting point is that we are each sovereign, and as adults, our journey starts with taking mastery over our own self â both to be a successful leader and to be a supportive and effective team member.
In my experience there are few situations where we come across problems that cannot be resolved with a little strategic thinking, and in line with remaining authentic to yourself. We usually need to lift up our line of vision and see the bigger picture to find the right path, but the effort is worth it, and the result is achieving more sat- isfaction in our work.
Maslowâs Hierarchy of Needs
One of the most respected and widely used psychology theories in leadership courses and the business world, shedding light on what drives and motivates us humans, is Maslowâs Hierarchy of Needs. Chances are youâve come across it before, but itâs worth looking at it again here, especially as weâre going to revisit it with a twist a little further in this chapter.
Maslow, who was a psychology professor at Columbia University, put forward his theory of human developmental psychology in 1943. This asserted that we have five sets of goals, or basic needs, which are arranged in a hierarchy; when the most pressing goal is realised, the next higher need emerges. The order is shown in Fig- ure 3.
The first level is meeting physiological needs like food and water. If we donât have food or water, weâre going to be consumed with finding something to eat and drink. Once these needs are met, our next priority is to find warmth and shelter, and finding a place where we can rest without the threat of freezing to death or being attacked while we sleep. After ensuring that we have enough to eat and a place where we can be safe, our focus shifts to addressing our emotional well-being. We look for a community of people to belong to, and to cultivate more intimate relationships.
Once our emotional needs are met, we will strive to achieve, accom- plish, and be respected in our community. And after fulfilling all these needs, we will turn our attention to exploring more of our abilities, creativity, and potential â what Maslow called self-actualisation.
The hierarchy is usually shown as a pyramid, even though Maslow himself never presented it that way. If you think about it, a monk would have an inverted pyramid, with the physical and shelter needs being basic and the self-fulfilment part being the broadest as their point of focus. A Gordon Gecko, of Wall Street fame, would have a very wide and flat pyramid, with the first two levels being the dominant ones.
Figure 3 â Maslow, a Theory of Human Motivation
Over the past ten years the pyramid has started to change shape, getting wider at the top, as businesses have been paying more attention to spiritual elements like values, purpose, connected- ness, and inclusivity, and integrating these into the work structure and the organisationâs procedures. They have also begun to more widely adopt leadership models that reflect interest in their work- forceâs potential, such as Servant Leadership. Businesses like UPS, PwC, Salesforce, Cisco, and Ikea are known to be great employers that can attract and keep top talent.
Through understanding our behaviour patterns and what motivates us, we are able to fine-tune the shape of our pyramid structure to be more in line with how we want to live our life to give us the best chance of finding the happiness and success we are looking for.
Pillar II: Meditation
Meditation is experiential and brings peace and calm to the heart. It gives us the space to come to a point of stillness in ourselves so we can regenerate at a deep level, and it allows us to hear those higher messages of guidance that come from our Higher Self, and our guides.
Weâre conditioned from early childhood to keep our minds and senses firing, which we need to function and thrive in our physical world. However, weâre not taught how to still our minds. Imagine your conscious mind is like a switchboard that is being bombarded with information and demands: How do the really important mes- sages get through?
Iâm often asked, âHow do you stop yourself from thinking?â and I say, âI donât.â This is one of the common misconceptions about meditation â stilling the mind and stopping the mind are not the same thing, and in meditation we look to calm the mind, not stop it. As Grand Master Oogway said to Kung Fu Panda:
âYour mind is like this water, my friend. When it is agitated, it becomes difficult to see. But Âif Âyou allow it Âto settle, the answer becomes clear.â
Benefits of meditation are far reaching, and I had to smile when I read about this account: In preparation for the 2016 Olympic games, the Rio de Janeiro elite police force was taught to medi- tate. The chief of staff of the military police in Rio, Colonel Robson Rodrigues, told journalists, âA policeman that is less stressed will have the better capacity to make decisions and will fire less during an operation.â2 Not the first application for meditation that jumps to mind, but great to hear!
Growing Your Grey Matter
Youâve probably read many articles about how meditation improves focus, working memory, executive decision-making, cognition, emotional regulation, compassion, and empathy and decreases fear, anxiety, and stress.
According to Harvard research,3 however, just eight weeks of twenty to thirty minutes a day of meditating is enough to signifi- cantly increase your grey matter. And not only that. We all know our little grey cells head south sharply after we turn twenty-five, but they found that the grey matter of an experienced meditatorwho is fifty years old is the same as that of a twenty-five-year-old. There is hope for us all!
The energy exercises and meditations in your workbook are designed to be between ten and fifteen minutes each to encourage you to stick to a routine of doing one every morning and another in the evening over the next few weeks. You can choose a mix of the guided medi- tations and energy exercises for your twenty to thirty minutes a day. If you keep it up for a few weeks, then youâre much more likely to continue this as a habit that you turn to on a regular basis, and any- time you need to de-stress, re-centre, and come to a point of clarity on your path.
Please feel free to supplement the meditations in your workbook with meditations of your choice that work for you.
Starting Your Practice
Most meditations start with a few deep, slow breaths, and thereâs a good reason for this. When weâre stressed, we go into fight-or- flight mode, with cortisol pumping through our system getting us ready to run. This is a physiological reaction triggered by an emo- tional state. In this mode our breathing is fast, shallow, and we take slightly deeper breaths in than out to improve our chances of flight. When we prepare for meditation, we want to reverse this process. Start by taking slow, deep breaths, and try to make your exhales slightly longer than inhales. This will signal to your body that it can relax.
In the meditations that I practice and teach, after calming the body to get it ready for meditation with the breathwork, we generally start by attuning and grounding. This sets up a positive and neg- ative polarity, much like a battery, with the positive being your crown connecting to the purest source of energy (universal energy or the divine), and the negative being your base opening to earth. The idea is to bring fresh energy into your whole being â your body, heart, mind, and spirit â and let go of whatever youâre holding on to thatâs lingering and no longer needed.
More than that it reminds you that being in a place that is more loving is a choice you can make, not a condition that is bestowed on you.
Grounding connects you to the earth energy, which we as humans are so dependent on. We have a symbiotic and, in my experience, a very loving interaction with our beautiful planet. We breathe out carbon dioxide, and the earth recycles it into oxygen again for us. We eat and drink, and the earth recycles our waste products to enrich our plants and to feed us and the animal kingdom. We take fresh, nurturing energy from the earth and we release our spent energy back to the earth to be used and recycled into energy that nourishes us.
Even if you donât believe in energy particularly, Iâm sure youâve noticed how âheavyâ or âgrimyâ the energy around cities is com- pared to being in nature. The Japanese even have an exercise called âForest Bathingâ4 as an antidote to tech-boom burnout.
In our life on Earth, Earth is our biggest friend and greatest supporter.
Attunement is about establishing a conscious connection with the highest source of love, power, and intelligence. To some itâs the divine, to many itâs universal consciousness, and to others itâs natural law. Please feel free to decide what youâre comfortable with, but itâs important that it is 1) powerful, 2) an extreme intelligence, and 3) purely loving. This is what will help you to clear out stagnant energy out and set you up for your meditation.
Protection speaks for itself, and many feel the process of attune- ment inherently offers protection without needing to take more measures. But when you first start, itâs a good practice to con- sciously work through this and use it when you need it, for instance, if you feel someone is draining your energy. After attunement, ask your Higher Self, the divine or source, for protection and visualise a pure white light coming down around you that only allows what is beneficial for you and your highest growth to enter into the field.
The meditations accompanying the book often start with breathe â ground â attune. Once youâve done this a few times, it will take you less than a minute, and then start the meditation youâre doing.
I often do only this as a simple meditation for ten minutes and find itâs a great reset when Iâm feeling agitated.
Every chapter comes with a guided meditation that is designed to help you achieve that sense of calm and connection quickly. The meditations are also designed to promote self-healing and to har-Â monise your energy fields. With the audio guided meditations, I advise to listen to the meditation the first time like a narration andthen allow yourself to relax and sink deeper the second time.
Most meditations will help with bringing you to a state of calm and stillness, and if there are any that you specifically enjoy in your current practice, please feel free to use these as well. If it works for you, use it.
Pillar III: Energy-Works
Energy balancing helps us to cleanse the energy fields and nourish our whole system for overall healing, balance, and flow. Working direct in the energy fields and chakras also allows us to speed up the process of transcending the dynamics that hold us back and make way for creating new patterns that serve us and what we desire to manifest in our lives.
Some years ago, I volunteered one day a week in a healing centre for over three and a half years. This was with The Healing Trust, which is one of the oldest professional healing organisations in the world, and requires two years of training to qualify. Several of the healers there were in their mid to late eighties, and it was inspiring lis- tening to them talk about their week. All of them were very active, joining writing groups, hiking, as well as being available for heal- ing and helping others â they led rich lives. We all used to note that they had great energy, and that we were going to keep doing what- ever it was they were doing. Also, many of our clients who came to the centre used to tell us that they felt very calm in our presence.
Energy-work works.
The largest clinical research trial of energy healing in the world was led by Sandy Edwards, Fellow of The Healing Trust, and con- ducted by the University of Birmingham (2007-2017), involving 200 chronically ill patients. Edwards obtained lottery funding to carry out research to observe the effect of energy healing under clinical conditions. Working with a consultant gastroenterologist at the hospital, she organised for a group of healers to give healing sessions alongside conventional medical treatments, documenting the effects of the healing. The doctor was surprised at the over- whelmingly positive outcomes. In his testimonial for the book, Dr Michael Dixon, LVO, OBE, FRCGP, FRCC, Head of the Royal Medical Household, Chair of the College of Medicine, and past president of the NHS Alliance, wrote:
âThe results of this research are spectacular... The conclusion of herÂ[Edwardsâs]ÂworkÂisÂclear.ÂBiomedicineÂmustÂwidenÂitsÂremit to understand, not reject, the mysteries of healing.â5
The full story and records of the trial are documented in Sandy Edwardsâs book, Spiritual Healing in Hospitals and Clinics: Scientific Evidence that Energy Medicine Promotes Speedy Recovery and Positive Outcomes.6
We work into the energy fields drawing on the purest, most pow- erful source of energy to purify and nourish the energy fields, and to re-energise our whole system.
When we focus on guiding energy from a pure source, we are able to access the higher brain states of theta, delta, and gamma, where we know healing and regeneration happens to accelerate healing and growth. Research since the 1970s7 has shown that not only do healers themselves enter into the higher brain states, but they also put their clients into these higher states and in that way the healing can take place. Our science canât tell us why this happens, possibly by a process referred to as Spiritual Resonance, but like most longstanding healers, Iâve seen many âmiraclesâ that modern medicine canât explain. We will cover brain waves in more detail later in the book.
One of the benefits of healing that caught me off guard when I first started healing was becoming aware that I was connecting to a part of my mind that was not a part of my conscious awareness, and neither was it my subconscious. I realised later this was, in fact, the superconscious mind, the higher mind, and what many coaches these days call âYour Genius.â Iâve noticed that many of the healers Iâve known or worked with not only instinctively search out purpose in their work, but are also very creative whether theyâre artists, writers, business strategists, or scientists.
The practice of healing, which we know can elevate the brain waves, helps to strengthen the connection to the higher mind, which ener- gises creativity. Even if youâre not particularly interested in heal- ing, working through the exercises can help to stimulate this part of your brain that is so powerfully âUs in Potential.â
Does Our Science Register Energy Fields?
Great as our science has been in researching brain waves and making breakthroughs in that field, photographing energy fields hasnât been high on their agenda. Possibly because this could abnegate work done by some pharmaceutical companies, and they naturally will not fund this research, but this is speculation. However, we are able to photograph the etheric field thanks to Russian photographer and inventor Semyon Kirlian, who invented Kirlian photography in 1939.
The etheric field reflects our state of relaxation, calm, and anxiety, and sits close to the physical body; please see Figure 4.
UCLA conducted research on this field using Kirlian photography in the 1970s, and the results are captured on a film available on You- Tube.8 They put their volunteer under pressure by asking him questions he couldnât possibly answer, and they then photographed his finger.
Note on the left how shrunken his energy field is. They then relaxed him by giving him a couple of shots of his favourite tipple and told him a few jokes, and then photographed his finger again. The energy around, and inside, his finger now looks lush and detailed. You can clearly see how transient emotions, like being relaxed or feeling under pressure, will impact the etheric energy field.
We do register this etheric field even though itâs at an unconscious level, and again we carry this in our language. We say: âYouâre looking radiant,â âYouâre glowing,â or âYou look down.â
Figure 4 â Kirlian Photography of a Manâs Finger Under Stress and When Relaxed
Under Stress When Relaxed
Grounded and calm personalities, like James Earl Jones for example, often have rich etheric fields, which help them to absorb the minor day-to-day knocks and triggers. People with rich etheric fields tend to be well liked because they are slow to react to negative impetus, managing to maintain their composure and calm. This buys them enough time to think through how they want to respond before reacting to the trigger. Iâm sure youâve heard of the adage âRespond, donât react.â As you saw above, the etheric field is within our sphere of influence, and is a good place to start.
Spending a couple of minutes directing fresh energy into your etheric energy field is one way to bring calm to a situation that is escalating and quickly put out a fire.
A reassuring word about what energy healers can âseeâ: Some people become a little nervous about what people like me pick up about them just in casual interaction, even when they havenât asked for healing. They worry that we can see their deficiencies or failings by looking into their energy fields. It really doesnât work that way.
Speaking for myself and other healers Iâve worked with, we need to focus in order to go into âhealing mode,â where weâre in a deeper state of concentration, and itâs very unlikely someone can do that without you noticing. Also, your Higher Self releases the information on a need-to-know basis, so even if a healer can see a blockage somewhere, without your Higher Self communicating what the blockage is about, we wouldnât be able to know the details. Consent is king, with energy fields as with everything else in life. If you feel like someone is âprobingâ into your energy fields and making you feel uncomfortable, mentally go through the protection exercise in your workbook. As with grounding and attunement, once youâve gone through the steps a few times and familiarised yourself with the process, you can do it in a few seconds, or you can take your time giving it more attention.
Energy Fields
I mentioned in the Introduction that I started seeing my energy fields spontaneously. What I saw was very much as shown in Figure 5, except I happened to also see great dark blobs in mine, which I was told were my negative dynamics, my blockages, that I was working to clear (you can see a diagram of this in Chapter 3, Figure 2).
This is what healers, mystics, and shamans have described for mil- lennia, and itâs what I also happened to see before Iâd ever heard of chakras or energy fields. Some people work with nine fields and call them by different names, but the basic idea is always the same.
I would also like to qualify that I saw my chakras as a pure energy, like a very fine mist, and not in the colours theyâre traditionally represented by, but the colours came later.
Most healers start off with an interest in healing and a desire to heal and help other people; their ability to perceive and sense energy fields develops with practice and a little dedication.
Figure 5 â The Human Energy Fields
We rarely work with the spirit field, and itâs an unspoken rule that we allow the client to arrive through their own path for the rest.
As you see in Figure 5, we have seven energy bodies, and out of these, I would only work with the first five while in healing mode with a client. As healers, we work mainly with the physical, etheric, emotional, and mental fields. We rarely work with the spirit field, and it's an unspoken rule that we allow the client to arrive through their own path for the rest.
Table 1 -The Seven Energy Bodies
I fully believe each one of us is already a healer; itâs just that some of us have awakened this ability and worked on developing it.
These energy fields are all interdependent and interact with each other. The greater the balance and harmony between the fields, the greater the sense of wellbeing in the individual. Table 1 shows the seven energy bodies and how working to make them healthy and strong impacts our wellbeing.
What Are Chakras?
Thereâs been so much written about chakras that you probably already know these are seven energy centres starting from your crown, going down the front of your body and to the base of your spine. Chakra is a Sanskrit word meaning âwheelâ or âcircle,â which is what they look like â energy vortices taking in energy from the surrounds, and releasing it out into the earth, much like we do with our breath and foodstuff.
These chakras are thought to work closely with the endocrine sys- tem, and is a major point of contact with the physical body. Each chakra connects to every level of the energy body, and they work together in an interrelated way. Figure 6 shows the main chakras, their properties, how they are believed to connect to the endocrine system, and the colours traditionally associated with them.
These are the seven major chakras that we have in our bodies. They take their energy from the earth, the source, and other people, ani- mals, and plants, and distribute this energy into the energy bodies. We also give back energy to people, animals and plants, the planet, and to the Universal Consciousness, the Divine. In meditation and energy work we always draw energy first and foremost on the pur- est, most powerful energy of the Source.
Figure 6 â Properties of the Seven Chakras
Please Note: As we work through the book, some chakras will nat- urally come to the fore, like the heart chakra, when we work through Q2 on the heart. Itâs important to stress that balance between the chakras is key to a healthy system, so when we high- light one or two chakras in a section and direct extra energy and attention, we are not excluding the other chakras. If youâre doing a chakra meditation, work with all of the chakras, taking longer on the ones you feel need more attention, and ensuring theyâre all in balance.Table 1 shows the seven energy bodies and how working to make them healthy and strong impacts our wellbeing.
Maslow and the Energy Fields
When I first came across Maslowâs theory of human motivation, it all looked very familiar. And then the penny dropped. Each of Maslowâs bands is a direct one-to-one mapping of the first five energy fields I work with:
Level 1 --> the physical body
Level 2 --> the etheric field (transient emotions, anxiety/calm)
Level 3 --> the emotional field
Level 4Â --> the mental field
Level 5 --> the spirit field
Intrigued, I dug around a little and found out that Maslow had spent time with Native American shamans a couple of years before presenting his theory.9 This would have almost certainly influenced Maslowâs structure of the hierarchy.
This perspective provides a clearer context for our journey with The 4Q Method. It is designed to nourish and strengthen the whole structure â body, heart, mind, and spirit - as we work through the energy fields (from the inside working outwards), and Maslowâs pyramid (from the bottom-up).
Itâs worth taking a moment here to think about how are youâre fixed on each level of the hierarchy, and which quadrant you may want to spend more time on.
Figure 7 â Mapping Maslow to the Energy Fields
Benefits of Working with Energy
As we just saw, energy can help you by making the whole of your being a more stable structure. It can help you to identify weak- nesses and plug the gaps, and often sensing one part of your energy is strong can also improve your confidence. And you donât need to have years of experience â youâd be surprised how much you can learn about yourself in just a few weeks.
Itâs happened on a number of occasions where someone comes to me wanting to have their back or hip sorted and while Iâm working in their energy fields, they literally see a fog in front of their mind lift away and they see the solution to a long-standing problem. Some years back when I was volunteering at the healing centre, a German gentleman came to me with severe back pain; after the healing he looked a little dazed. He told me that heâd been strug- gling with a problem for the past couple of years and during the healing he saw what he called a âdark cloudâ lift from his brow, and he was able to see a solution clearly for the first time.
Something releases during the healing causing a shift in the energy fields and the mind clears; itâs common for us healers to see this. Most will at the very least feel a sense of peace, and possibly a little bit groggy like theyâve been in a very deep sleep. This is, in part, the effect of going into the theta, delta, and gamma states we men- tioned earlier, and weâll be looking at that in more detail in Chapter 5.
The benefits of working with energy are numerous, and the greater the balance and harmony between the fields, the greater the sense of wellbeing in the individual on every level of being. These are a few:
- Better physical health, stronger immune system, and more energy
- Greater emotional resilience
- Improved empathy
- Clearer mind
- More creativity and focus
- Ability to see life path and purpose
- Improved intuition
- Connectedness to other people, the planet, and the universe
These are just some of the benefits that I, and other healers Iâve worked with, have observed, and that are commonly reported. Once you start working with energy, youâll find other ways that you relate to that are personal to you.
Patience and the Detox Effect
Most of us want instantaneous results, but a little patience is a vir- tue. Give energy a little time to work. Just like going to a psycho- therapist or physiotherapist, holistic healing is not symptomatic. It works at a deep level and takes time to work through the energy fields and out from the physical body.
Imagine flushing a jet of water into the pipes of an old house and these channels have furred up with dirt. The first thing you see isnât clear water but the old stuff coming through, and only then followed by clear water. Itâs common when working with energy to experience emotional releases, which can leave you headachy, tearful, irritable, or feeling like youâre having a bad day. This is the detox effect.
Like everything else in life, how long this phase lasts depends on how long the issue has been there and how much is flushing through, but it can be anywhere from one day to a few months. This process is usually accompanied by breakthroughs, and we focus on the how best to move forward with the bright and the new.
Working with energy can accelerate healing and growth at every level. Self-healing can be done in a very similar way to a guided meditation, but the focus is on guiding energy into and around the larger body, paying more attention to areas that feel stuck or in pain. For this chapter, you have the grounding, attunement, and protection meditations to start you off gently, as well as the calming âMountain Meditationâ.
Pillar IV: The Heroâs Journey of Transformation
Your Personal Quest is about stepping back and seeing where you came from, where youâre going, and how to get there. Thereâs always a transformation involved as you make the leap across the void that separates your dreams and the reality you find yourself in. As you battle your old limiting beliefs, and a couple of demons along the way, you go through a death and resurrection and come back victorious. Your desire for that dream, your quest, pushes you to shed your old skin to emerge wiser, kinder, and more self-aware so you can make your dream, your vision, a reality. This is the stuff of heroes.
Crafting your quest brings your focus back to that dream you hold in your heart, and it helps you to decide if it is still what you want at this point in your life or if youâve uncovered a deeper dream that is better aligned to your purpose. Fulfilling your transformation generally involves letting go of something youâve outgrown that may have once served you but now is holding you back. And itâs not always easy. In fact, itâs this part that usually involves a death and rebirth.
Our mythology and popular culture are filled with stories of the Hero that have a common thread. Orpheus braving the underworld to find Eurydice, Perseus killing Medusa to save Andromeda, Dante braving the nine circles of hell to unite with Beatrice, Luke Sky- walker fighting the Galactic Empire to save Princess Leia. Our hero starts out naiĚve and innocent, happily going about his life and is called to a mammoth task that he believes heâs unable to accom- plish.
As he undertakes these challenges, he undergoes a process of exploration, learning, and growth that leads to his transformation.
He sheds his naivety to become a warrior. There are tests along the way to tempt him to part with his innocence, to transgress his inner self, and he usually has to negotiate these in order to win favour from the Gods. Perseus, Luke Skywalker and Dorothy are all good examples of this hero who manage superhuman tasks in a service to their community, or to humanity, and in the process the youth who sets out undergoes a transformation to become a radiant adult.
These epics can be seen as allegories where the Lady represents the soul, and our Hero, the conscious awareness, is guided to brave challenges and painful situations to emerge transformed: Wiser, kinder, more aware and more fulfilled. We can all identify with our Hero because it taps deep into our psyche â itâs the story of each one of us and each of our journeys.
Recently I was talking to someone who was trying to enrol me into a masterclass, and he politely asked about my background. I told him a little about how I started receiving guidance on how to heal myself whilst working in investment banking, and later moved to being a healer and coach. He stopped me and said, âAh ok, so thatâs your transformation!â I had to think about this for a second. Clearly, this was a typical story of transformation where my road took a sharp bend when I left banking due to a calling. He was right of course. But at another level, as I use the experiences I gathered in my âpreviousâ life to help me with my current work and life, it just felt like I had shed my baggage to become more who I truly am. And that I believe is our ongoing transformation: To become morewho we truly are.
Transformation is the process of evolving naivety into wisdom and compassion, so that we can become more who we truly are.
To achieve this transformation, as adults we need to reassess our childhood dreams and see if these still hold good today. We also need to release the barriers that have held us back and re-examine what it is we want to achieve going forward to take us to a more fulfilling and happier life.
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Well done, thatâs the foundations and groundwork sorted.
In the next chapter, we set off on Q1 where we will be addressing our physiological and safety needs â the physical and etheric bod-Â ies â to free up all that energy wasted on stressing and transform- ing it into a grounded calm and positive energy.
The workbook, which you can download using the link or QR code, overleaf, is for you to chart your path as you work through the chapters, and support you in your journey of growth.
IN YOUR WORKBOOK
Complete the exercises in Chapter 1 to set you off on a solid footing on your journey, before heading off to Q1. The audio guided meditation for this chapter is âMountain Meditation,â takes you to a serene space and is an old favourite.
DOWNLOAD YOUR WORKBOOK
If you havenât yet downloaded your workbook, and the PDF of colour diagrams, use the link or the QR code below to down- load them now.
The workbook has exercises, meditations, an 8-week calen- dar where you can track your meditation and energy-works practice, as well as a journal where you can note down your insights, thoughts, and feelings.
Links to the audio guided meditations are also in your work- book; you can download these to listen to them in comfort on your mobile device. Please note that we can only guaran- tee that the links for the meditations will be active for three months from the date of purchase.
Link: www.higherwill.com/beyond-potential QR code:
I imagine that just about every person would be interested in boosting performance and success at work. I know that I am very interested in being the best version of myself regardless of my job. I wanted to read this book because anything related to self-improvement is always at the top of my list. In Beyond Potential: The Complete Guide to Boost Performance and Success, Lubna Samara presents an insightful and compelling exploration of finding that sweet connection between well-being and professional success.
As a personal well-being coach and corporate trainer, Lubna Samara is more than qualified to offer advice. The author masterfully blends deep psychological insights with practical advice to create a transformative and informative guide. Anyone at any stage of life can benefit from the nuggets between the pages of Beyond Potential: The Complete Guide to Boost Performance and Success. This book reminds us that we must take a holistic approach if we wish to truly succeed at work.
This two-hundred-and-eighty-page book has seven chapters. The author has also included some additional information that may benefit the reader. There is an extensive reference list by chapter and a Facebook Community to join. Those interested in learning more about the author can also find that information at the end of the book. You will like the actionable strategies that Lubna Samara has included in Beyond Potential: The Complete Guide to Boost Performance and Success. The writing is engaging and makes it easy for the reader to understand complex psychological concepts.
This book will help the leader who wants to learn how to better mentor staff. If you are a new or seasoned staff member struggling with workplace frustration or burnout, then may I encourage you to grab a copy of Beyond Potential: The Complete Guide to Boost Performance and Success? Even if you are fully aware of everything in this book, refreshing your mind on what it takes to succeed at work will not hurt.