The Power of Community...
This has become a tag line in many of my keynotes. It is also related to the title of chapter two in my memoir meets self-help book, Embrace Your Truth: A Journey of Authenticity, Building a Support System. The reason this catchphrase has become so integral to my talks on authenticity is because it cannot exist apart from community. The journey of authenticity is not meant to be traveled alone.
Because we are multifaceted beings, we must experience authenticity on three levels of knowing...mind, body and spirit...cognitively, intuitively and experientially. For us to truly embody authenticity, our minds have to have a cognitive understanding of it; our bodies have to experience it in the physical world AND our spirits...that is our heart, soul or gut -- whatever you call that deepest, truest part of yourself -- it also has to intuit that something is true, right or real.
For example, a person may have a passion or desire to pursue a specific facet of their life. Once they intuit this desire on a gut level, then they often try to embrace it on a cognitive level. But our knowing isn’t complete...it isn’t pervasive throughout our whole being...until we add the dimension of experiential knowing; until we actually experience this new reality in our bodies...living, moving, and being in this physical world.
This is where the power of community comes in. Experiential knowing cannot be achieved without being immersed in a safe, supportive and affirming environment that gives us the latitude to embody and "try-on" the new version(s) of ourselves.
This need for experiential knowing is an invitation for us redefine what community can look in our workplaces. When employees are able to show up as their authentic selves, their personal performance improves because they no longer have to spend energy hiding who they are. Teams become more collaborative, efficient and effective which directly improves an organization's bottom line. The more organizations can recognize their role and responsibility in setting their employees up for success by allowing them to experientially embody the fullness of who they are, the more these organizations will benefit and thrive!
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