The 'F Word' as a Vision Clarifier?
http://www.refresher.com/mindfulnetwork/articlelive/articles/187/1/The-039F-Word039-as-a-Vision-Clarifier/Page1.html
Jamie Walters
Jamie Walters is an inspired 'creative inquirist', transformation guide, inspiration catalyst, and "prophet of an emerging new economy of intelligent, caring, cutting edge entrepreneurs.She is the founder of Ivy Sea, Inc., author of Big Vision, Small Business the handbook for conscious SOHO/Solo enterprise published by Berrett-Koehler — and Leading at the Visionary Edge (forthcoming from ICFAI University Press). She is also the creatrix of Ivy Sea Online.
Jamie integrates her professional / business experience with her energy, shamanic, and Indigenous Wisdom training, to help individuals and organizations cultivate vision, intuition, creativity, and other innate and unique gifts, and apply them in the workplace and other areas of life.
This liberation of this innate 'genius' supports skillful communication, transformation, conscious business,and a meaningful, purpose-aligned way of being and working.
Visit Ivy Sea Online.
By Jamie Walters
Published on 07/14/2009
A month or so ago, a fellow from corporate-training company approached my publisher and invited their authors, including me, to contribute content to their training database. In his conversation with me, he invited me to contribute in areas of my expertise that were under-represented in their database. Wonderful! Then came the clincher: "I love your web site and the work that you do; you're obviously a thought-leader. But in the content you contribute, we can't use the "F Word".
How 'the F Word' helped to remind me of what I stand for in my life and in my work
A month or so ago, a fellow from corporate-training company approached my publisher and invited their authors, including me, to contribute content to their training database. In his conversation with me, he invited me to contribute in areas of my expertise that were under-represented in their database. Wonderful!
Then came the clincher: "I love your web site and the work that you do; you're obviously a thought-leader. But in the content you contribute, we can't use the "F Word".
I admit, it took me a minute to figure out what the heck he was talking about. Just as I found myself thinking, "I don't use the 'F Word' in my writing or work…", he must have taken my pause as a need for clarification and continued:
"You know, the 'F word' - the Feminine."
Then it dawned on me. This lovely, very personable, and I'm sure very talented fellow - who was probably my age or younger - was equating the word 'Feminine' with an expletive; a curse word; profanity. Oops.
To my own surprise, I didn't feel enraged or even offended (which might be understandable reactions to such a thing). Instead, I felt bemused, and even compassionate; after all, I, too, marginalized that whole sector of my being and my gifts -- my inherent nature - for years, favoring the analytical, rational, 'all business' mode.
Perhaps most surprisingly, though, this 'F word' incident was one in a series of recent 'clarifying angels'. Upon reflection, I felt even more committed to the direction my own work is taking as a result of my own very transformative journey.
I've realized over nearly 20 years working with skillful communication, conscious business, and mindful organizational transformation that none of them really take hold without the inner work that creates aware, conscious, less-fearful and less-scarcity-focused people. Conscious business requires conscious people, first and foremost.
You see, language is telling. The words we use are powerful in what they reveal, what they conceal, and in what they activate, energize, and magnetize. The words we use, and don't use, help to sustain the status quo or effect change.
When we say 'the F Word' instead of 'the Feminine', we're revealing our own bias against and discomfort with the Feminine to such a degree that we can't even say the word. The Feminine, like the Masculine, is an archetypal energy or consciousness that is inherent in both women and men.
And that means, whether we're a woman or a man, that we're repressing and devaluing a significant part of who we really are --- a significant sector of our gifts -- and devaluing a good part of who others are, and beyond that.
The same could be said about the 'S Words' - Spirit, Sacred and Shamanic. Or the 'D' word - the Divine. We hesitate to say these words around many people because we wouldn't want to appear too 'woo woo'. What would 'they' think of us then?
Imagine what it means when the words ''Feminine', Spiritual', 'Sacred' or 'Shamanic' -- or 'Peace' for that matter -- have become unspeakable, or at the very least dissociated from 'business'. What sacred part of ourselves, what part of our very essence, is being silenced? What does that mean for how we treat women? Or Nature, for that matter? Or each other?
We don't have to look far for answers to those questions. We just read the headlines.
Our embarrassment about using words such as these reveals our own alienation and disconnection, and the lengths we go to 'fit in', to avoid causing waves, or - sin of all sins - to make people uncomfortable by being who we actually are, if we even remember who and what that is.
Why do I think this is so important -- very practical and light-years from 'woo woo' (whatever that means)?
Because you can't have skillful communication, conscious business, inspired and humane leadership, or truly good relationships without the transformation that begins within. We bring ourselves to all of these roles, all of these arenas. Whether we bring our whole selves or partial selves defines the effects or results.
And if we're still saying 'the F Word' or apologizing for valuing spirit and wanting to honor the sacred and restore the Feminine, or if we're feeling uncomfortable about and rejecting others who do, it's our big clue that we're being invited to grow and expand into greater potential.
The soul beckons, and the pathway to outer fulfillment and our highest potentials as individuals and organizations starts within.
All we have to do is look around, look at the news, look at what's happening in financial institutions or other poster-companies for greed and plunder, to see the effects of how we show up in relationship, at work, as business people, and as leaders when we haven't done that inner work to evolve our own awareness and consciousness.
As I saw from nearly 20 years of work in organizational communication, political communication, and change management, we'll only be able to truly show up in a way that allows skillful communication, conscious business, mindful transformation, and so on when we've transformed ourselves.
That's really what restoring the Feminine and remembering the sacredness of all things -- including ourselves -- is all about. That's what being the change you wish to see means, and nothing changes until we do.
And that's infinitely practical, and very, very valuable, because the end results are truly good, respectful relationships, inspired leadership, and humane, conscious business.
Then came the clincher: "I love your web site and the work that you do; you're obviously a thought-leader. But in the content you contribute, we can't use the "F Word".
I admit, it took me a minute to figure out what the heck he was talking about. Just as I found myself thinking, "I don't use the 'F Word' in my writing or work…", he must have taken my pause as a need for clarification and continued:
"You know, the 'F word' - the Feminine."
Then it dawned on me. This lovely, very personable, and I'm sure very talented fellow - who was probably my age or younger - was equating the word 'Feminine' with an expletive; a curse word; profanity. Oops.
To my own surprise, I didn't feel enraged or even offended (which might be understandable reactions to such a thing). Instead, I felt bemused, and even compassionate; after all, I, too, marginalized that whole sector of my being and my gifts -- my inherent nature - for years, favoring the analytical, rational, 'all business' mode.
Perhaps most surprisingly, though, this 'F word' incident was one in a series of recent 'clarifying angels'. Upon reflection, I felt even more committed to the direction my own work is taking as a result of my own very transformative journey.
I've realized over nearly 20 years working with skillful communication, conscious business, and mindful organizational transformation that none of them really take hold without the inner work that creates aware, conscious, less-fearful and less-scarcity-focused people. Conscious business requires conscious people, first and foremost.
You see, language is telling. The words we use are powerful in what they reveal, what they conceal, and in what they activate, energize, and magnetize. The words we use, and don't use, help to sustain the status quo or effect change.
When we say 'the F Word' instead of 'the Feminine', we're revealing our own bias against and discomfort with the Feminine to such a degree that we can't even say the word. The Feminine, like the Masculine, is an archetypal energy or consciousness that is inherent in both women and men.
And that means, whether we're a woman or a man, that we're repressing and devaluing a significant part of who we really are --- a significant sector of our gifts -- and devaluing a good part of who others are, and beyond that.
The same could be said about the 'S Words' - Spirit, Sacred and Shamanic. Or the 'D' word - the Divine. We hesitate to say these words around many people because we wouldn't want to appear too 'woo woo'. What would 'they' think of us then?
Imagine what it means when the words ''Feminine', Spiritual', 'Sacred' or 'Shamanic' -- or 'Peace' for that matter -- have become unspeakable, or at the very least dissociated from 'business'. What sacred part of ourselves, what part of our very essence, is being silenced? What does that mean for how we treat women? Or Nature, for that matter? Or each other?
We don't have to look far for answers to those questions. We just read the headlines.
Our embarrassment about using words such as these reveals our own alienation and disconnection, and the lengths we go to 'fit in', to avoid causing waves, or - sin of all sins - to make people uncomfortable by being who we actually are, if we even remember who and what that is.
Why do I think this is so important -- very practical and light-years from 'woo woo' (whatever that means)?
Because you can't have skillful communication, conscious business, inspired and humane leadership, or truly good relationships without the transformation that begins within. We bring ourselves to all of these roles, all of these arenas. Whether we bring our whole selves or partial selves defines the effects or results.
And if we're still saying 'the F Word' or apologizing for valuing spirit and wanting to honor the sacred and restore the Feminine, or if we're feeling uncomfortable about and rejecting others who do, it's our big clue that we're being invited to grow and expand into greater potential.
The soul beckons, and the pathway to outer fulfillment and our highest potentials as individuals and organizations starts within.
All we have to do is look around, look at the news, look at what's happening in financial institutions or other poster-companies for greed and plunder, to see the effects of how we show up in relationship, at work, as business people, and as leaders when we haven't done that inner work to evolve our own awareness and consciousness.
As I saw from nearly 20 years of work in organizational communication, political communication, and change management, we'll only be able to truly show up in a way that allows skillful communication, conscious business, mindful transformation, and so on when we've transformed ourselves.
That's really what restoring the Feminine and remembering the sacredness of all things -- including ourselves -- is all about. That's what being the change you wish to see means, and nothing changes until we do.
And that's infinitely practical, and very, very valuable, because the end results are truly good, respectful relationships, inspired leadership, and humane, conscious business.