The Workplace Healer

Dear Friend,

Over the course of 90 episodes divided into 5 seasons, I have shared the best of what I can offer on how to experience a humanistic worklife by embodying healing through everyday pursuits.

In the very first episode we asked, "Why healing in the workplace?" Over these 5 seasons I trust we answered that question together many different  ways. In this concluding episode we now ask, "How can compassion flourish?"

Although this is a new question, we arrive back at the beginning of our exploration. And the best way I know how to answer this question is to speak from my own experience. We are very much the same. I trust my conclusion on flourishing compassion will resonate for you.

I invite you to go back through the full catalogue of the Workplace Healer. Although production of new episodes has concluded, the material is very much evergreen:

Season 1: "Why Healing?"

Season 2: "Spiritual Profits"

Season 3: "Intentional Magic"

Season 4: "More Than Mindful"

Season 5: "Thrust in Thriving"

You can now listen to the new follow-on podcast, A Healing Being, fearlessly lighting the way for modern westerners to re-connect with their innate capacity to be a healing presence for themselves and others.

The Workplace Healer podcast is a complement to Healeology, my well-being practice of modern meditation. Here you'll find a variety of options for supporting you to be a more healing presence by remembering how to access your own inner wisdom.

For this episode we welcome Lara Gryffn, a small business owner just like so many more striving to create value for her customers and a good life for her team. Lara bravely models vulnerability as she shares her story, her struggles, and the strength and wisdom that she draws from these experiences.

You will hear the insights bubbling to the surface from within. You will feel a connection to what she shares. 

The Workplace Healer podcast is a complement to Healeology (www.healeology.com) a well-being practice of modern meditation offering memberships and courses to people looking to be a more healing presence for themselves and those around them.

Leaders, we know, have many responsibilities. Among them is the responsibility to create an environment for their team that is conducive to doing good work. Yet in the course of responding to their many demands, leaders run the risk actually causing harm. Even when a leader is self-aware and filled with sound intentions, they sometimes fail. They sometimes cause harm.

How does the leader show up as a healer? What are the pitfalls? Can they go too far? Do they focus first on their self or on others? Taryn Sydow, the founder of LightWalker Consulting, joins the conversation to lead us in sorting through the paradox of healing as a practice of leadership.

The Workplace Healer podcast is a complement to Healeology (www.healeology.com) a well-being practice of modern meditation offering memberships to teams and individuals looking to be a more healing presence to themselves and others.

Why do so many invest so much in leadership training and coaching yet continue to struggle? Some might say that for all the research and for all the wonderful assessments and frameworks supporting effective leadership, matters seem to be getting worse! As a former leadership coach and consultant myself, I have seen many of my own former clients' struggle. As a leader myself, I am faced my own doubts and fears.

Recently I read a book on leadership that really provoked me with its cynical views. But reading it helped me see the cynicism I myself had developed, and brought about the reflections shared here. There is one core truth about leadership once we strip away all the noise: it's all about self-possession.

The Workplace Healer podcast is a complement to Healeology (www.healeology.com) a well-being practice of modern meditation offering memberships to teams and individuals looking to be a more healing presence to themselves and others.

Diversity, inclusion and equity efforts are being increasingly understood as far more than "special initiatives." Instead DE&I is understood as changing the very DNA of an organization, embedding new ways of thinking and behaving into every facet of organizational life. Yet we cannot achieve any systemic change without doing the work at the individual level.

In this dialogue with anti-racist facilitator Valerie Spain, we talk about the humbling and necessary work white folks need to do, at the personal level, to help build anti-racist work environments.

The Workplace Healer podcast is a complement to Healeology (www.healeology.com) a well-being practice of modern meditation offering memberships to teams and individuals looking to be a more healing presence to themselves and others.

Have we gone too far in making faith taboo in the work setting? We talk about inclusion and belonging, yet we expect colleagues to keep their spiritual beliefs to themselves. We are each guided by our values and our personal faith--or philosophy if you prefer--plays a major part in shaping those values.

If we bring our "whole selves" to work, then how do we navigate the question of faith and spirituality? This emerged as the theme in this interview with leadership and diversity coach La'Wana Harris.

The Workplace Healer podcast is a complement to Healeology (www.healeology.com) a well-being practice of modern meditation offering memberships to teams and individuals looking to be a more healing presence to themselves and others.

We live in a time and in an economy where many of us can be attracted to the idea of becoming a thought leader, an entrepreneur, an influencer. And there are many appealing voices in our ear encouraging us to pursue our sense of purpose and translate that calling into a career. For some folks, this may be great advice. But be careful. Be thoughtful.

If what you are pursuing is as meaningful to you as "your soul's purpose," then we are encouraged to take a step back from the buzz of the marketplace. Before to plunge forward crafting a strategy to commoditize the outcomes of your soul's purpose, consider the various options to express that purpose. Here is my one story about this struggle.

Shouts out to Lara Gryffn, Kasey Jones, and Christina Pratt.

The Workplace Healer podcast is a complement to Healeology (www.healeology.com) a well-being practice of modern meditation offering memberships to teams and individuals looking to be a more healing presence to themselves and others.

You may immediately respond to this question with the answer, "Of course forgiveness belongs in the workplace!" You'll find the eleven guest voices here broadly agree, yet they each offer a different perspectives. Dave Hamilton, Karen Weeks, Vince Tuckwood, Mariana Cruz, Garrison Gibbons, Lara Gryffn, Eric Meade, Michelle Strasburger, Valerie Spain, Taryn Sydow, and Achebe Powell.

This episode is intended as a contemplation on the place for Forgiveness in our worklife. As you listen, try to do so in a quiet space paying attention to the speakers and to your own responses--rationally, emotionally, physically, and energetically. My hope is that you may be inspired to being a more healing presence in your professional life by allowing for more forgiveness.

The Workplace Healer podcast is a complement to Healeology (www.healeology.com) a workplace well-being business partner offering memberships to teams and individuals looking to develop well-being skills of modern meditation, a compassionate workstyle, and rituals of belonging.

Eric Meade is a nationally recognized futurist, facilitator, and consultant serving foundations, nonprofits, and governments. He is the principal at the Whole Mind Strategy Group and the award-winning author of Reframing Poverty: New Thinking and Feeling About Humanity’s Greatest Challenge and Whole Mind Facilitation: How to Lead Workshops That Change People, Organizations, and the World.

In this episode, Eric shares his perspective on the emergence of a new paradigm for framing work-life and the workplace. Weaving together such diverse concepts as non-violent communication, adverse childhood experiences, approaches to poverty, marriage dynamics, and our sense of legacy Eric presents a call to action: to embrace the place for healing in our work-life.

The Workplace Healer podcast is a complement to Healeology (www.healeology.com) a workplace well-being business partner offering memberships to teams and individuals looking to develop well-being skills of modern meditation, a compassionate workstyle, and rituals of belonging.

Mariana is a diversity, inclusion and wellness professional with 20+ years of experience in the educational and non-profit sectors. She holds an M.S. in Educational Program Planning from Cornell University as well as various professional certificates in the areas of organizational development /HR, Yoga, meditation, Mind-Body Medicine, mindful leadership, and intergroup relations. She is the founder of Heketi Consulting LLC and Inclusive MindBody and facilitates trainings and workshops throughout the US, Asia, and the Caribbean.

In this episode, Mariana reviews the fundamentals of mindfulness and walks us through the benefits as applied to the work environment. She speaks from a place of authority having implemented mindfulness practice across an entire school system, both for faculty and students.

The Workplace Healer podcast is a compliment to Healeology (www.healeology.com) a workplace well-being business partner offering memberships to teams and individuals looking to develop well-being skills of modern meditation, a compassionate workstyle, and rituals of belonging.