Issue 27 | Bloom with Ruth Penfold-Brown

Hello beautiful human

International Women's Day is this Friday, and it serves as a global day for reflection, recognition and celebration of the achievements of women.

It also serves as an important reminder of the ongoing struggle for gender equality and the need to continue advocating for the rights of women and girls around the world.

But for this year, I want to celebrate each and every one of the women in Bloom. Within this wonderful group we have a veritable array of women who in the past 8 weeks have done things like:

?? Fight for and won a promotion and pay rise

?? Land and start an amazing new role in a different country

?? Say no to a role that didn't feel aligned

?? Say yes to an amazing job that really felt right

?? Choose to start a new business - actually that's potentially now of them!

?? Say no to things that have them step out of integrity at work

?? Step away from an abusive situation at work

?? Have strong boundaries in their personal life that really serve them

?? Choose to train to be a coach

...and that's just scratching the surface of the amazing changes and moves these phenomenal women are making.

It is my greatest honour to watch you all rise: Varsha Mistry Leigh Scholefield Kirsty Wilson Kirsty Power Hanna Smith FCIPD Krutika Srinivasan Natasha Norman Yasmin Chalmers Allison Anti, MSHR, MBA Gemma Lockhart Yael Harel Joanne G Agata Dobrosielska Natalie Harmon-Tatton Olya Yakzhina - I couldn't be prouder to get to see you all in Bloom ??

If you would like to be 'in Bloom' then join me on March 21st where I will uncover the Bloom method in more detail so that you too can craft the career you really want in 2024.?

This masterclass will help you if you:

?? Struggle to communicate authentically and powerfully with every audience?

???Find it hard to have boundaries and say no

???Lack the confidence to self advocate, and either make bold career moves or simply to boldly claim the role you are in.?

But biggest of all…?

?? Are ready to make a shift from the career you have to the career AND LIFE you want.

If that sounds like you, sign up to join me live?on Thursday March 21st (3pm UK time, which is 11am EDT with the daylight savings change on that date): https://www.ourtimetobloom.com/bloom-masterclass-dream-career

Rooting for you always

Ruth x

I can't believe the final episode for season two of the Bloom podcast with Charu M. drops this Friday!

I have been blown away by the guests on the podcast this season, if you haven't listened already, find it here: https://www.ourtimetobloom.com/podcast

A big thank you to Jenn Fenwick Dannique Blake, FRSA Jessica Z. Kelly Vickery Natasha Norman Allison Anti, MSHR, MBA Gemma Lockhart Hanna Smith FCIPD ?? Saná (Rasul) Walker, SHRM-CP, DEIB Advocate Daryn Edgar Naomi Trickey Saira Gangji, MIRHR for all of your amazingness ??

Join me March 21st at 11am EDT, 3pm UK time here:

Have you ever felt like you're still carrying the weight of past experiences from a job you've left behind...?

I think of it as?PJSD - post job stress disorder.?

Whatever your experiences in life, it's soooooo easy to carry them through to the next thing, both in your mind and in your body.?

Think about relationships, if we have experienced something negative with someone, we?can often assume?that it is going to happen again with the next person.?

We can't even help it, it's coded into our nervous system.

But it means we enter into new situations almost holding our breath.?

The same is true with jobs, especially bosses. Where we have had a bad experience, it is incredibly easy to carry that through to the next role.

We enter the new environment, holding back in some way, as if braced for impact.?

I give you a great exercise for working through this in my weekly newsletter this coming Monday. Sign up for it here: https://www.ourtimetobloom.com/newsletter

This newsletter is a little later than normal this month, because this past weekend I attended a 'Somatic Trauma Healing Immersion' conference in San Diego, and got to hear from the likes of Gabor Maté, Bessel van der Kolk and Peter Levine plus others.?

Not everything painful and stressful needs to be traumatic. Trauma is what happens inside you as a result of something bad happening in the absence of a present, connected other.?

Levine describes trauma as the body being stuck in a high state of activation, where the traumatic energy has not been properly discharged. This can lead to a variety of physical and psychological symptoms, including chronic anxiety, mood swings, and somatic (in the body) complaints.

I will share more of this in the coming weeks, but for now, I want to be clear that the overriding message for healing is that these kinds of wounds happen in relationship, so must be healed in relationship too.

If you want to explore being part of a safe community of women in HR, where you get to heal, build and grow,?join my March 21st masterclass ?to hear more about Bloom.

You don't have to do this alone ??