Wholeness is about alignment of our personal and professional selves

#Internationalwomensday2023 #worldupshiftforum #emeraldconsciousness

“One’s life story – no matter the circumstances – provides a gateway to an inner journey, revealing one’s genuine sense of place and purpose.”

Murray Nossel, Co-founder of Narativ. Inc. and 2019 Conference Keynote NYC

On a snowy day in December 2017 I shed the mantle of ‘control by others’ to become an independent woman.?It was not of my choosing but as a result of a bad decision made some 15 years previously to move from one side of the country to the other.

It had gone wrong from six months in and despite using every ounce of our entrepreneurial skill-sets the end result was the loss of everything that I thought was valuable to me – my home and 34 year relationship and marriage.?It initially brought me to my knees, completely unable to function for at least three months until I was gradually able to come to terms with and understand exactly what had happened and why.

I had thought that my purpose in life was ‘to understand but not be understood’ when things were bad after the move but slowly learned from meditations and reflections that I also needed to understand who I was, who I had become and who I continue to become.

“You can’t go back and change the beginning, but you can start from where you are and change the ending.” C.S. Lewis

My ‘sense of place’ had changed dramatically from my simple, yet traumatic childhood years, born into a Military family suffering the effects of PTSD from WW1 and WW2.?Experiencing eviction from our family home and the poverty that comes from family redundancy in my teenage years led me to believe I was unintelligent, bottom of the heap and a failure.?A rebellious streak, that I later learned was my coping strategy, together with the support of a nurturing woman at my first job on leaving education, ignited my work ethic and I built a successful 5? year career in a firm of City Solicitors.?This was followed by a 4 ? year career in a manufacturing company, the epitome of Recruitment & Selection, Training & Development and Retention as a pilot company of 250 employees grew into a full blown business with 1400 employees, within two years.?When I left to have my first child I knew that I wanted to do similar work as a Consultant.

My ‘family’ break lasted 9 years during which time I developed a whole different set of skills (unknown at the time) including how to survive a huge rate of inflation and ever increasing mortgage repayments at one time dipping into negative equity, only achieved by developing serious cash management skills.

Learning when I was 40 that I have Problem Solving and Analytical skills within the top 2% in the country and an IQ of 148 changed my life and vision of who I was and what I was capable of.?Travel, living and working in Hong Kong for two years in the late 1980’s just before it was passed back to China, was an extraordinary experience, not all pleasant, as a result of which I became an Entrepreneur, building a successful career as a Consultant, Coach and Mentor across sectors and projects.?

One project – a transformational culture change for an SME Manufacturer with a serious Industrial Relations crisis that threatened to close the business down, included a multi focus strategy across Technology, Export and Customer base led to turnaround, whilst a new People Strategy led to harmonisation of old and new workforce and increased workplace flexibility, resulting in an increase in Turnover from ￡7-￡15 million in 6 years.

The experience at strategic level, working alongside the CEO, led to being accepted onto an MSc HRM degree course, studying motivation for my thesis and development of a new model - MIA? (Motivating the Individual to Achieve).?It is a strategic diagnostic tool that measures the gap between what management is saying and what employees actually experience.?Last used in 2016/7 by HotelShop, a woman-owned Worcestershire tourism business as they began their Investors in People journey.?The dashboard enabled them to address the issues alongside their year long journey resulting in achieving a Silver Award.

“When you come to the end of all the light you know and are about to step into the darkness of the unknown, faith is knowing that one of two things will happen.?There will be something solid to stand on or you will be taught to fly.” Elizabeth Kubler Ross

The four years from 2018 to 2021 had opened a whole new chapter of my life that I saw as a liminal space. ?It felt like I was standing on quicksand that could give way at any moment.?In needing to understand what had happened I needed to turn myself inside out, revisit those years that actually turned out to be cathartic as I learned that it was external as well as internal events that had led us to the abrupt end.?To know that there was nothing I could have done about the external events was sort of reassuring but nevertheless made me doubt my own ability.

I knew that I was in danger of going into a deep dive and had to make an important decision.?Was I truly going to allow this, of all the adverse events in my life, to take me down from where I would never recover, or was I going to do something, anything to change my life??I knew that it meant I had to change myself that meant digging deep and probably wouldn’t like some of what I found to be true.?

I decided to put in place my own recovery programme as little was forthcoming from my GP practice in mental health terms.?This included a three step process – Recuperation, Convalescence and Rehabilitation.

Recuperation involved the process of unlearning, to relearn helped me to understand more about psychology and its impact on health and wellbeing, combined with learning about mental health and the impact of trauma on the brain.?Meditation and journaling helped to externalise what had happened, get it out of my head.?

?Convalescence involved putting in place a disciplined routine – enough sleep, nutritious meals, measured alcohol and exercise to regain my fitness.?

?Rehabilitation involved putting myself out of my comfort zone three times in the last three months of 2018.?It was important to me to regain my self-confidence.

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In 2019 I lost my voice.?In dealing with the trauma of the Worcestershire years and the final ending, it allowed the childhood trauma to emerge.?I had six months treatment with an amazing Speech and Language therapist who was a tremendous help in my recovery.

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2020 saw in COVID19.?The Pandemic with its lock-downs and isolation was scary, unpredictable and with no level of certainty that I would survive, let alone thrive.?The actions of the government did nothing to help my recovery.?During the first lockdown I went into a deep despair but once again I was able to turn it around.?I decided that I had not aimed high enough in my previous life and learned about the state of the world, that whilst terrifying at times, helped me to see clearly the fractures in not only the country’s systems but also in global systems.?

When I had to spend my first ever Christmas on my own I had to ask myself what on earth it was in my life that I had done to have to experience so many adverse events.?I dealt with it by refusing to accept that it was not Christmas at all.?During my meditations and journaling I realised that living and surviving on my own had revealed a silver lining as it had provided the time and space to truly understand the past and close the door on it.

The lessons I learned over those years were profound, the most important one being not to allow my past to define me as it taught me important lessons.

Others included:

* Everything is not always as it seems

* Listen to your inner voice, intuition is a wonderful gift

* Do not be afraid to change your mind set or direction in life

* Be prepared to learn, unlearn and learn again

* Always to look for the silver lining

* Be kind to yourself, you are worth it

* It’s never too late to start again

* Find out who your ancestors are as it will explain some of your traits

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“The strength to stand alone is the strength to make a stance” (from Game (new) 2022)

For me, finding out that my ancestors on my Nan’s side go back to the Saxon times was amazing.?Her family name ‘originated’ in Devon and although I have no way, yet, of filling in the 700 year gap between 1066 and 1784, that one of them owned Bickleigh Castle explains a lot to me about my traits.

2022 was a game changer for me.?At the end of April I was introduced to the Originize conversations that take place every Friday afternoon via zoom.?At the end of July we went on a 3 day visit to Ireland where 12 of us met for the first time in the flesh.?The impact on me and others was unbelievable.?The love and the hugs reminded me of what humanity is all about and should never be forgotten.?

On the plane on the way home I knew I had to begin a new initiative and it had to be called EMERALD because the meaning is about restoring optimistic hope (something we have badly needed during the Pandemic), has healing properties, promotes good health (also badly needed right now), is about balance and harmony (got to get rid of the toxicity of the past 13 years), Culcates unity, unconditional love and compassion (also badly needed) heals the heart, helps to spring forth in fabulous refreshed energy and can bring all kinds of goodness into life (ditto), and reflects Regeneration, renewal and recovery and with harmony, compassion, love and illumination.?

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It also had to be about raising consciousness because it is about letting go and allowing, it happens naturally, is based in TRUTH (definitely needed right now) and happens in the moment (Credit: Mia Hewett – ‘Meant for More’ eBook)?

It’s also about the state of understanding and realising something, being aware of and responsive to one’s surroundings as well as a person’s awareness or perception of something.

We have been told lies upon lies upon lies, the country is divided not only from Brexit but also the refusal to negotiate settlements with striking workers across the public sector.?In businesses that just want to get people back into the office without realising that employees working from home are far more productive than when being micro-managed.?When the gap between what the CEO earns and the lowest paid employee has become morally and ethically unacceptable at 400 to 1.?With the lowest paid being unable to put bread on the table or heat their homes.?All of which is inhumane.?Any government that treats its subjects, or business its employees in this way is unfit for purpose.?

2023 sees in a whole new life for me that I see as my third, standing on my own, responsible to no-one but myself and making a stance.?I had described what happened as ‘losing everything’ and it is only some five years later that I’ve been able to reframe it as my ‘rebirth’.?In doing so I no longer revisit the trauma and I know that my brain is gradually recovering as the instances of ‘forgetting’ are thankfully reducing.

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In February I was invited to the House of Lords, to a reception hosted by Lord Stone at the behest of Roger Casale an ex Labour MP where the Upshift Movement and Forum was launched.?It is the brainchild of Dr. Ervin Laszlo, a Philosopher of Science and the result of his lifetime’s work.?It is about “Building a World beyond War – The Path to Healing and Evolution on Planet Earth”.?

“The ‘message’ of this movement is an antidote to the pessimism and inaction spreading in today’s world.?It shows that we can meet the challenges that face us – the challenges of war and aggression, of climate change and poverty-driven migration, and of a persisting pandemic.

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There are two paths opening for us on this planet; the path UP to healing and evolution, and a path DOWN to crisis and chaos.” (Credit: from the first page of the book UPSHIFT).

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It is our choice which path we take.

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“Do we want to be the last generation on earth, or the first in a new generation which embraces more sustainable ways of living?”

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“The pandemic, climate change, poverty, conflict and violence as shown by the War in Ukraine, and the refugee emergency; global crises that have an unsuspected silver lining.?They bring us to a tipping point where we can choose our destiny.”?(Credit: ?From the back cover of the book)

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“There are many systemic issues that we as a global community are facing – climate change, updating the business mind set, deepening our relationship to Mother Nature and each other.?As Ervin’s work shows us they are all interconnected, creating a crisis for humanity.?But as spiritual beings living this human incarnation, we must not waste this unprecedented crisis, but call for radical and immediate change.

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The book shows how to enter on the upward path – how to upshift to a saner and healthier world…?It is up to us to make that era one where we can all live and thrive in harmony with each other, with nature, and with the wonder of life in the universe.”

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Supporting this movement is me taking my stance against the place we now find ourselves in as a country and as a world.?The Upshift is about raising consciousness that our world and country can be a better place.?

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I was born at the end of WW2 and I, along with many others, helped rebuild the UK.?I am still active today when the opportunities arise.?I will put my shoulder to the wheel once again, this time to reclaim our country and to create a country that works for every single subject.?

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We all deserve to be on this earth, we deserve to have a roof over our heads, food on our table and decent work.?

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We can do this.

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Will you join me on this International Women’s Day to help create the country that our grandchildren and children deserve?

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Not everyone needs to be a CEO or a Prime Minister but we do all have the right to become the people we were born to be, to release our full potential and get out from under this undemocratic government. In other words to become whole.

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We are more capable than we think

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My mission is to help people grow beyond who they are today.?This will be achieved with LOVE and HOPE for a brighter future.?This came from the transformational experience in Ireland that reconnected my Intellect, Heart and Hand, something that is sorely needed throughout humanity and the business world.

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This underpins my genuine sense of place and purpose.

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If/when you are interested in joining this movement you will be welcomed with open arms.

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Connect: Email [email protected] or Follow me on LI - https://uk.linkedin.com?? barbarahankinsmsc

OR Join the Group on LI - World Upshift Forum?