I work as a manager for a big consulting firm for almost seven years now. To be very honest, for at least the last two years I was seriously considering quitting my job. I felt that my job often was a waste of time and holding me back from things I really wanted to do.
When I started with my first yoga teacher training five years ago, a gate opened to another world. The world of spirituality, personal development and a conscious lifestyle. I was very skeptical and resistant in the beginning. Sitting singing in a circle during a cacao ceremony, meditating a week in silence or training twelve hours per day for two weeks in martial arts camp to name a few things. Letting my reservations go I learned to connect to my body, to listen to my intuition and sometimes find a glimpse of a state of being. I learned that these are all feminine qualities, which we all have in us, but especially in the western culture are not cultivated anymore.
Despite this deep longing I feel for these feminine qualities, it’s still one of my biggest struggles to invite these qualities more in my life. I’m so conditioned from my education and job to be independent, rely on reason and numbers and always be in a state of doing. Which are all masculine qualities and are valued and rewarded in our society.
How feminine qualities help you to find balance at work
I thought that I had to make a decision to which of these worlds I belong and which path I want to take. I’m the hippie in the business world and the stiff business lady in the spiritual world. I felt stuck between these polarities, the feminine pole and the masculine pole.
I was in a deep meditation when finally this thought, my calling, came to me:
“I’m here to contribute to the awaking of the feminine consciousness in the business world.
The feminine qualities such as imagination, intuition and empathy will make the difference in a technological age in the business as stated by many studies because they can’t be replicated by technology. My vision is to bring these qualities in our by masculine energy driven business world. I realized that I don’t need to decide to belong to one of the worlds, but rather be a translator to create balance between the masculine and feminine polarities. The struggle of finding a balance is as old as humankind is and described in cultures all over the world, call it feminine and masculine, heaven and earth, yin and yang or shiva and shakti.
How feminine qualities can create a more sustainable business
In our business world, we are often in fight, flight or freeze mode driven by a subconscious state of fear and lack. We look for fulfillment in the external world, for more status, more money or a bigger car. This emptiness inside is a main driver for the endless need for consumption which exploits our natural resources. We contribute to this fatal process as consumers but also as employees being part of the business. We don’t only exploit our natural resources, but also our personal resources. Sometimes we need a burnout forcing us to dive into the feminine qualities and surrender, if we are not able to make the shift in another way.
My vision is to cultivate the feminine qualities and to reconnect to our true essence in which we can find fulfillment. These feminine qualities are rooted in an intimate connection with the earth and a state of being. In this state, we can prevent to burnout and save mother earth from burning-out. If we don’t start to think in business in sustainable long-term solutions instead profit bringing short-term solutions, we are screwed anyway. It’s time to change!
I still work in the corporate world. My vision puts my daily work in a very different perspective. Connecting my corporate job with the spiritual part in me, feels like the right thing to do.
Written by Svenja Carolin Dietrich
About Svenja Carolin Dietrich:
Svenja is a management consultant, yoga teacher and an unshakable optimist dedicated helping you to reconnect being and working. In her job as consultant, she advises management boards of global organization on their people strategy and future of work. Driven by her deep longing for a mindful way of working, Svenja blogs about her vision on the future of work (www.humanreconnect.com) and helps people with her coaching program to redefine work on their terms (www.findyourflowatwork.com).
Creating a future of work, which cultivates the feminine qualities such as compassion, curiosity and creativity, is her big dream.
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