Your Personal Legend

Hey Visionaries!!  No spoilers, but if you’ve started reading this quarter’s Books and Brunch selection, The Alchemist, you might be thinking more and more about your own personal legend.  What is a personal legend?  It’s the thing that you are meant to do or resolve or bring to life.  I believe that each one of us have been blessed with a unique mix of characteristics, gifts and skills that give us a clue as to what our personal legend is.

Uncovering your personal legend or the vision for your life can be a process. There are some people who are seemingly born knowing what direction they should take, but there are many of us who must work to uncover our journey, like the shepherd boy, Santiago.

Where are you in the process of uncovering your personal legend?  What is that really gets you energized? Is there a specific theme that can be found throughout your life experiences?

the-alchemist
Art inspired by The Alchemist

I would love to help you answer these questions and refine your vision for 2018.  We will be taking a limited number of new coaching clients before the year’s end.  Secure your slot today by clicking the “Book Appointment” button. We’re looking forward to accompanying you on your path!

Advertisement

Notes from Northampton

20150411_165341.jpgHello Visionaries!! I’m feeling so blessed to be back in Northampton for the Diverse Smithies retreat series.  The purpose of this retreat series is to help current undergraduates of color get connected with alumnae of color and to gain skills necessary for navigating life as a woman of color in this society.

For this retreat, I will be facilitating a session entitled, “Cultivating Personal Growth for Professional Success” with the intention of giving each woman the tools to increase their sense of self-empowerment and set their life trajectory towards growth and expansion.

In his book, The Alchemist, Paul Coelho writes, “…when you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.”.  My goal is to help the women of Smith College and YOU clarify your vision, so that all the universe may conspire with you!

If you have not yet joined us for Books and Brunch, claim your seat for our last group of the year to discuss The Alchemist.  We will meet at First Watch in Bowie Town Center on December 9 at 11:00 am.  I believe you will leave our discussion energized and ready to illuminate your vision for 2018! See you there!

Take Your Seat at the Table! Books and Brunch this Saturday, 9/30

Books and Brunch is a quarterly, thought-provoking, community building dialogue for Visionaries. Join us for food, fellowship and fun. The venue and book change every quarter. There is no charge for this event, other than the cost of your meal.

Connect with other Visionaries through stimulating conversation about Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s We Should All Be Feminists.  We will dine and discuss at Soul in Annapolis, Maryland on Saturday, September 30 at 11:00 am.  This small group event is limited to 6 participants, so reserve your spot today!

Smith Women’s Leadership Conference 2017

Last weekend’s conference was simply amazing! I met lots of new people, most, fellow Smith College alums, who are all doing incredible things.  I am hopeful that these new connections will be lasting and impactful.

I was also blessed to have my presentation proposal chosen from over 200 submissions. On the second day of the conference, I presented my workshop, Leadership as Disruption: Women of Color and their Allies Moving Beyond the Boundaries.  We had an enlightening and engaging discussion.  I was able to not just lead the talk, but learn from some incredible women about increasing inclusive leadership opportunities for Women of Color.  We also discussed how white women can ally themselves with leaders of color to expand inclusion and inclusive leadership in their organizations.  I hope this presentation was a seed for more opportunity to talk, listen and act around issues of inclusion.  It was a wonderful experience to “come home” to Smith and I can’t wait for next year’s conference!

Re-affirming the Vision

Hello Visionaries!

It’s been a while since I have written.  Returning to the US from Japan was a flurry of activity that left me burning the candle at both ends and in the middle.  I’m still getting settled in, but I’m also getting geared up to make my vision for 2017 a reality.  As the political climate here in the US has become more volatile, I’m becoming increasingly interested in ensuring that people of color have the knowledge and tools to secure economic empowerment and self-reliance for themselves as individuals and for their communities.  Our political system is so strongly tied to our economic freedom, we miss the mark if we don’t focus on both simultaneously.

So what does economic freedom have to do with mental health? Everything!  Our psychological health secures health across every other life domain. If we are not mentally healthy, we neglect our physical health.  We take poor care of ourselves and fail to nurture the relationships that are vital to our livelihood and well-being.  We stop progressing as individual people.  A community with too many unhealthy members, also fails to progress.  The feedback loop of service to community and community support to individual breaks down.  Our community institutions become ineffective or stop working all together.

Reciprocity_infinity-loop

I believe that it is imperative for people of color to rededicate ourselves to improving our mental and physical health, while building relational skills that increase opportunity and the availability of resources to individuals and the community.  With this in mind, more Envision sponsored events are in the works for this year, especially those with a focus on professional development for people of color.  Highly skilled individuals build thriving communities.

My literal next stop is Northampton, Massachusetts for the Smith College Women’s Leadership Conference where I will be leading a breakout session, Leadership as Disruption: Women of Color and their Allies Moving beyond the Boundaries.  My intent for this session is to provide support to women leaders of color, as well as tools for increasing inclusive leadership by people of color and their allies working in the mainstream economy.  I am hopeful that this presentation will be one of many opportunities for me to serve my community.  I hope you will join me in finding your wholeness and healing your community in 2017.

design

If you weren’t able to get in on our Growth and Goal Setting workshops, use our individual coaching sessions to get 2017 started on the right note.

Our special New Year, New You package gives you 5 individual, video conferencing sessions for the price of 4!

Renew yourself and set your direction from the comfort of your home or any other convient location you choose.  All you need is your smartphone or tablet!

Buy Package

Books and Brunch 

Books and Brunch is a quarterly, thought-provoking, community building dialogue for Visionaries. Join us for food, fellowship and fun. The venue and book change every quarter. There is no charge for this event, other than the cost of your meal.

Rounding out 2017 is Paulo Coelho’s “The Alchemist”.  Meet us at First Watch in Bowie Town Centre on Sunday, December 9 at 11:00 am for a full plate of hope and inspiration for pushing towards your vision for the next year. This small group event is limited to 6 participants, so reserve your spot today!

Click here to register.

Registration Now Open!! Growth and Goal Setting-January 11

xgoalboard-pagespeed-ic-k3iku5dx1

The new year is just around the corner!  Make 2017 the year you actually meet those resolutions that you’ve been recycling year after year!

Get on the path to accomplishing either a short term goal with our one-time January session or work on a longer term goal by participating in the extended course for the first quarter of the year.

Join us on January 11, 2017 at Hera Hub in NW Washington DC from 10:00 am to 1:00pm to explore:

The Fundamentals of Goal Setting
Building the Foundation-Self Image and Underlying Beliefs
Risk Taking and Tolerance
By-passing Barriers to Success

Want more? Upgrade to our extended course where you will get on-going support and accountability to facilitate meeting your goals and maximizing personal growth. The 3-month long course includes 2 virtual accountability sessions and will wrap-up with a culminating workshop and celebration on March 8, 2017 to help you cement the new skills you’ve learned and apply them to additional goals you set in 2017 and beyond.

Registration is limited to 20 participants, so reserve your spot now, by clicking the links below!

January Session Only: $155

3-month Extended Course: $335

Supporting Kanye and the Community

If you haven’t had the opportunity to see Kimberlyn Foster of For Harriet, give her reasons for supporting Kanye West, you missed a great video making the case for Black folks to end the stigma around mental health issues in our community.   She summed up beautifully what so many of us have been inclined to feel watching Kanye West morph into someone largely unrecognizable following the death of his mother, Donda West, almost 10 years ago.  img_0129

Since we can only speculate, I agree with Foster that finding empathy is the best stance we can take as a community.  Learning to practice empathy and being non-judgmental when others are struggling to maintain their emotional and psychological centers is key to the well-being of everyone in our community.

If you are a member of a group that has been marginalized in our society, then you know all too well, what this current political climate will bring.  In the past two weeks, we have seen unprecedented attacks against those that are not white, male, straight, and Christian.  There have been huge spikes in hate crimes against black and brown people and a parade of white sumpremacists in and out of Trump Tower that will be appointed to advise the actions of the Preseident-elect and head the institutions that are supposed to be protecting and supporting all Americans.

Even though Kanye’s struggles might not look exactly like yours, there is a glimmer of recognition that none of us are exempt from grief that goes unchecked and lingers until we are broken down and busted psychologically.  None of us are exempt from the emotional toll of witnesing Black and Brown people being terrorized by violence, whether in the streets of Furgeson or the fields of Standing Rock.  None of us know when it will be our turn to ask for empathy, understanding, and a place to rebuild our psyches and our bodies.

Let’s choose empathy.  Let’s choose internal peace while we wage an external ideological war for social justice.  Let’s choose to hold each other up when one of us grows weary.  Let’s choose love of self and our communities as our way forward.

If you or someone you know needs help finding mental health care, call the NAMI Helpline at (800) 950- NAMI(6264)  or text NAMI to 741-741.