Rooted & Unwavering

Find Your Flow. It’s Here to Help You.

Where are you when you get into the flow state the most? What are you doing on the outside? On the inside? Why is it so meaningful? Violinist Diane Allen, keynote speaker and bestselling author of Flow: Unlock Your Genius, Love What You Do, discovered these questions as gateways to the flow state. “It’s in everyone,” says Diane. Accessing it can be simple. Maybe you put your office in order, or you take a walk outside. For Diane, making music and speaking are natural places where she finds flow. On the inside she has committed to work with her inner critic with care. “I can’t think of a single performance that was flawless… you can’t dwell on that wrong note. You say to your inner critic, I hear you, I will sit with you later and now I am going back to doing what I am here to do.” Flow is a state we can cultivate. It’s definitely worth it. “A McKinsey study says we are 600 times more creative in flow state.”

Self-criticism or Self-Compassion? You Choose

“I saw two roads in front of me. One was self-criticism and blame for what just happened and the other was about surrender and gratitude.” Massimo Backus, leadership coach and speaker and author of Human First, Leader Second: How Self-Compassion Outperforms Self-Criticism, reflects on a severe accident he had in October 2025. It brought him face to face with a foundational question: what is really important to me? He realized that achievement had been in the driver’s seat and self-criticism had been a relentless  companion on this path. He was never enough. Self-kindness helped him put achievement in the backseat and put his true priorities, health and family, in the front. Paradoxically rebalancing his priorities helps Massimo to be of greater value to his clients. “To give my all, I need to have my all to give. This requires self-care and time.” He now puts time to connect with himself, his health and his family on his calendar. And he practices being in the now, surrendering what he can’t control and being grateful for all that is in this moment. A place to start on this journey? “Notice what is here without judgment. Be curious about what is.”

Love. Serve. Remember.

“No matter how closed off or distracted the workshop participants appear on Sunday eve, at the beginning of our journey together, I greet and see them as grateful and open as I know they will be on Friday.” Amy Elizabeth Fox, co-founder and CEO of Mobius Executive Leadership, has led thousands of executives through immersive transformational programs over the past twenty years. Where did she get the inspiration to get started? “In my early twenties I received this mantra: Love. Serve. Remember. Open your heart more and more every day of this life. Serve others to open theirs. And remember the Divine Blessing Field that is always there to support us.” This is an endless journey of healing and awakening and taking aligned action.  This journey includes embracing and holding the traumatized parts of us, that otherwise keep us stuck in regressive thinking and reactivity.Our work is to enlarge our inner container and groundedness to free ourselves from our intergenerational trauma. We curate our healing container in verypersonal ways. For Amy this includes daily repetition of mantras, cooking, spending time in the alchemy of conversation with friends and colleagues, working with teachers and guides, dance, poetry and being in nature. “We are walking too alone.” Who can you ask to sit and be with you today as you go through this healing moment?

“I started off as an achievement junkie,” shares Lori Brewer Collins, transformational coach and recognized leader in the fields of vertical development, polarity thinking, and global leadership agility.

Over time, she learned not to reject the achievement-driven part of herself, but to integrate it alongside long-dormant dimensions, including her desire to paint, write, and simply be. “Integration starts with not making my earlier self wrong,” Lori reflects. “It’s about openness, soft wonder, warm welcome - being with all the parts of ourselves, including the parts longing for healing.” One of the shadow sides Lori describes is her relationship to anger - something she discovered she could trace back to her four-year-old self who sought understanding. “I needed to learn how to stay with that part of me, and when I did, something began to open.” She described it as moving from a feeling of inner jaggedness to one of sfumato - a term Leonardo da Vinci used to describe how he softened his painting's edges so nothing was harshly separated or overdefined. She emphasizes the importance of accompaniment and trusted guides as we journey towards inner maturity.  When we learn to embrace ourselves in this way, Lori suggests it's the beginning of recognizing how each of us is a universe of mystery. And how our self-compassion becomes the foundation of empathy for others. It's here that mature leadership begins: the willingness to listen deeply to all the parts within ourselves and within others."

Leadership Sfumato: Soft Wonder, Warm Welcome“I started off as an achievement junkie,” shares Lori Brewer Collins, transformational coach and recognized leader in the fields of vertical development, polarity thinking, and global leadership agility.

Over time, she learned not to reject the achievement-driven part of herself, but to integrate it alongside long-dormant dimensions, including her desire to paint, write, and simply be. “Integration starts with not making my earlier self wrong,” Lori reflects. “It’s about openness, soft wonder, warm welcome - being with all the parts of ourselves, including the parts longing for healing.”

One of the shadow sides Lori describes is her relationship to anger - something she discovered she could trace back to her four-year-old self who sought understanding. “I needed to learn how to stay with that part of me, and when I did, something began to open.” She described it as moving from a feeling of inner jaggedness to one of sfumato - a term Leonardo da Vinci used to describe how he softened his painting's edges so nothing was harshly separated or overdefined.

She emphasizes the importance of accompaniment and trusted guides as we journey towards inner maturity. 

When we learn to embrace ourselves in this way, Lori suggests it's the beginning of recognizing how each of us is a universe of mystery. And how our self-compassion becomes the foundation of empathy for others. It's here that mature leadership begins: the willingness to listen deeply to all the parts within ourselves and within others."

Basically Bad or Basically Good?

“Feeling myself, life feels workable. I feel a sense of goodness,” shares Lodro Rinzler, best-selling and award-winning author of eight books, including his latest one “You Are Good You Are Enough.” We may believe that we are an anxious, angry or depressed person. “We have a choice,” shares Lodro, “do we want to stay in that story, or look a little deeper?” Slowing down, being mindful, we come to realize that our mind is much more workable and adaptable than we think. Ziji, the Tibetan word for confidence, authentic presence may arise in us as we slow down and repeatedly choose to bring our mind back to remembering that we are basically good already.  This is not about belief, it’s about letting ourselves experience that we are good enough already. Maybe take a few conscious deep breaths, take a walk in nature or look at the sky. See what the world looks like when you relax a bit more. Let basic goodness arise in you. Then people we don’t like, events that are painful and other life challenges still may feel hard and yet,  having habituated ourselves to the view that underneath it all we and everyone else are basically good already, we may experience a sense of peace and kindness that makes our relationship with the outside world more workable.

“The quiet space of the heart guides us to what we truly are about,” shares Jessica Tracy, Jungian Coach and speaker.  When we live out of alignment with our authentic self, it hurts: our soul feels fragmented. Getting into alignment requires us to face the parts of us that aren’t integrated yet, our shadow, as Jung called it. Living in alignment with our authentic self is journey in which we get to face our shadows. How does this happen in real life? Our unresolved parts attract energy that complement it, in the form of triggers - events that challenge our shadows. Life is a teacher in this way. It wakes us up to who we truly are by also having us face what we are not. We face our shadow directly by working with the energy that comes online when we are triggered. As opposed to giving into the energy, or acting it out, we intentionally work to transform it. This can take many forms, including physical exercise, creativity, and naming the shadow. On this journey we may discover that our shadows are portals into something beautiful.

Live 90 Years in 90 Days

“What is a different choice I can make that creates the best story?” is one question John K. Coyle, champion athlete, speaker and innovator, also in the field of “Chronoception,” asks to help time slow down. The Greeks had two words for time: Chronos and Kairos. The former is literal time, the latter our experience of it. It turns out we have many more choices than we may be aware of to change our perception of time. “Expand the breadth of experiences,” so that your experience is more like that of a seven-year-old who experiences everything for the first time. Also, increase the intensity of how you experience it. In this way you create more memories in each time frame. The more and the stronger the memories you create, the more timeless your experience of time becomes. Then you can live 90 years in 90 days, as one of John’s role models exemplified in the last 90 days of his life before passing from a terminal disease.

Live 90 Years in 90 Days
Live 90 Years in 90 Days

Manage Yourself First
to Lead Others

“Coming out of the hospital with my firstborn son, I realized I had no idea how to raise a child,” shares Maragaret Andrews, author of Manage Yourself to Lead Others. Similarly, we learn to become good parents to ourselves by repeatedly allowing ourselves the humility of not knowing how we will coach ourselves through the challenges we encounter. 85% of what makes bosses great is their interpersonal skills and EQ. The other 15% is IQ and technical skills, Margaret learned from in-classroom research with executives. The good news is we can learn EQ. The bad news is that it’s hard at times. Margaret was told by a boss she had no self-awareness. At first, she felt defensive. She now reflects that is a natural part of being human. Then she became curious and started to change. Ask yourself: how well do you know yourself? How do you manage yourself? How do you care for others? These three questions can help you increase your interpersonal leadership effectiveness

Manage Yourself First
to Lead Others

“Coming out of the hospital with my firstborn son, I realized I had no idea how to raise a child,” shares Maragaret Andrews, author of Manage Yourself to Lead Others. Similarly, we learn to become good parents to ourselves by repeatedly allowing ourselves the humility of not knowing how we will coach ourselves through the challenges we encounter. 85% of what makes bosses great is their interpersonal skills and EQ. The other 15% is IQ and technical skills, Margaret learned from in-classroom research with executives. The good news is we can learn EQ. The bad news is that it’s hard at times. Margaret was told by a boss she had no self-awareness. At first, she felt defensive. She now reflects that is a natural part of being human. Then she became curious and started to change. Ask yourself: how well do you know yourself? How do you manage yourself? How do you care for others? These three questions can help you increase your interpersonal leadership effectiveness