“The gift of healing the woundedness of trauma is that it becomes a gateway to love, freedom, and healing.” – Tara Brach

In a world where so many are discovering more about trauma in their own stories and in others, I’m struck by this beautiful quote from Tara Brach:
“The gift of healing the woundedness of trauma is that it becomes a gateway to love, freedom, and healing.”

May this offer even a wee glimmer to someone who needs it right now. It might be you, someone you lead, or a peer sitting next to you holding far more than you know.

We sure are in it these days and accessing that “gateway” Brach references can be a lifeline.

Does this subject belong in business? I think so. People navigating change often revisit old wounds, and sometimes the transitions themselves are traumatic. Some of the toughest moments in leadership and teamwork stem from unhealed experiences that shape how we relate, react, and recover. And yes, workplaces themselves can be sources of trauma when trust and safety are fractured.

As leaders, growing capacity to observe ourselves is beyond helpful. Noticing, pausing, adapting to a constructive alternative and practicing with consistency when we’re activated makes a big difference. So does understanding trauma more broadly. Building literacy around how it shows up in behaviour, emotion, and relationships helps us see, sense, and support rather than judge and divide.

We are living stories of so much that influences us. When pain goes untended, it resurfaces including professional environments and relationships. Learning to tend to ourselves and others shifts what’s possible for trust, belonging and so much more.

If any part of this resonates, may it bring us a step closer to more conscious care and connection. Your Personal Board of Directors can help and might include counsellors, friends, chosen family, coaches, mentors, or healers. You might also be that person for someone else.

With gratitude for the wisdom and work of Moving The Human Spirit, Dr. Gabor Maté, Dr. Nicole LePera, and others expanding the conversation on trauma and healing. Appreciation for the late Doug Silsbee, too, for his many teachings including the value of Self-Observation versus Habit Loops.

With warmth and hope for our collective healing,

Eva

“We work on ourselves in order to help others, and also we help others in order to work on ourselves” – Pema Chödrön

The leaders I most admire practice humility and downright dig growing. They look inward and outward, supporting others while staying committed to their own development and healing too, where needed. They are attuned to themselves and strengthen tuning in with those around them. Every challenge, courageous conversation, and moment of collaboration becomes a chance to learn something about themselves.

For me, that’s true too. Committing to my own growth strengthens how I support and relate with others. My peers and clients teach me daily. So do my loved ones. When I feel uncentered for any reason, I come back to center with a growth move. It’s part of my integrity and way of life; learning, leadership and ‘human-ing’ as a lifestyle. It can be entirely gritty at times yet deeply rewarding.

I consistently observe a wonderful truth, albeit imperfect and bumpy along the way. When we help others grow, they help us grow too. Humility is a key ingredient in the mix. I call it a ‘mutual growth loop’, and notice more fulfillment in the humans involved, and the business ideas and outcomes.

My inspired tangent all started with this wonderful reminder from Pema Chödrön:

“We work on ourselves in order to help others, and also we help others in order to work on ourselves.”

Because a reflection question perks up the fervor in some, here goes: How are you stretching and being stretched in the work you do with others?

Enjoy stretching!

Eva

“Love who you are when you’re with people.” – J. Lovitt

Do you love who you are when you’re with the people in your orbit?

When I was 16, heartbroken and sprawled on the floor in pajama pants printed with red hearts, tissues surrounding me in a near perfect circle, a family friend asked me a question I’ve never forgotten: “Do you love who you are when you’re with that person?”

The answer was no.

That question is with me years later. There’s a truth worthy of remembering: if you can’t be yourself with the people around you, it takes a toll. Over time, it chips away at a sense of self and can inhibit possibilities.

It’s not just in relationships of the heart either. In professional environments, many contort to fit the perceived bill to endeavor to belong with others. Contorting is exhausting.

Often the root of it is loving who you are when you’re with yourself. For many this is brave, lifelong developmental and for some, healing work. It’s gritty, gnarly, knotty at times. Getting to a place where one can genuinely say “I like myself the way I am” or “I am enough” is a very special place of arrival, and cliché as it may sound, it’s not a destination. It can still ebb and flow and require nurturing to stay alive and well.

I think it also helps to have trusted, psychologically safe fellow humans in our lives to help teach us what it looks and feels like to experience belonging just as we are (as Timothy R. Clark offers, “rewarded vulnerability”). Soon, it becomes clear with whom we come alive, and with whom we get small.

So… Who in your orbit helps you love who you are when you’re with them? Where do you experience a disconnect? How might this noticing inform your future moves?

And a drum roll question: How safe are you making it for others to be themselves with you?

Here’s to your fervor,

Eva

Head. Heart. Gut. Wisdom worth listening to.

I was facilitating a group in learning end of last week and noticed some of them feeling stuck in thought loops. So I asked: what does your heart feel about this? They shared openly. Then I asked: what does your gut have to say, in other words, the knowledge, wisdom, and perspective you already carry? Suddenly, the room lit up with clarity.

These are channels of wisdom always available if we slow down to listen. They’re incredibly illuminating and further, enable us to find alignment or misalignment, which in either case offer us information, especially when faced with tough decisions.

From my Trauma Informed Coaching Certification with Moving the Human Spirit, I learned more about the heart brain axis and the gut brain axis. Science now shows what wisdom traditions have long held true: we’re not just brains on skin suit bodies. Cognitive knowing is only about 10%. The other 90% sits in our hearts and guts.

The pressure is so often on that 10%. This makes sense because we’ve been groomed and rewarded to use it. Yet when we bring all three channels into alignment, something magical happens. And when we can’t bring them into alignment, that is information worth exploring.

There’s more to this than is reasonable for a post, so I’ll leave it as an invitation to consider the magic in your channels of wisdom: head, heart, and gut.

Next time you’re wavering on a decision, try this:

  • Pause, reduce noise and distractions, close your eyes if you like, and take a few deep, nourishing belly breaths.
  • Ask what your head (logic/analysis), heart (feelings/emotions), and gut (past knowledge, wisdom, perspective) each have to say.
  • If one says “yes” and the other two say “no”, or any combination that doesn’t align, take it as information. What is this reflection trying to tell you?

Inquiring, reflecting and listening in this way helps us in tough moments, decisions, and enables more aligned life and leadership. What decision in your life right now could use the wisdom of all three?

 

“The present moment is the only time over which we have dominion.” – Thích Nhất Hạnh

Last night, my spouse and I were walking by the ocean, flowers blooming in a spectrum of colour. We found ourselves debriefing on something simple, yet vital to our connection years later: how to be present and really listen to each other without interrupting and judgment. I’m grateful we can talk about these things openly with a shared vision. If I’m candid, we’ve worked at it. A lot.

Aren’t our closest relationships some of our greatest teachers? Even though I might do what I get to do in my second act of career, I’m reminded daily that I’m oh-so-humbly human. And sometimes, all it takes is someone close to nudge our best intentions back into view.

This sunny but honest conversation reminded us (yet again LOL): presence is the foundation for deep listening. And deep listening is one of the most generous things we can offer another human being.

For those of us leading teams, presence is more than a personal practice. Presence is a precursor to relational connection rooted in trust.

So, I thought I’d get practical with my fellow leaders in mind and invite your thoughts too!

Five Practical Tips for Presence
• Pause and breathe deeply before responding/reacting
• Put away your phone or laptop, even briefly
• Tune into your senses: sight, sound, feeling
• Listen to understand before you respond
• Drop the narrative and get curious

Why Being Present Matters
• Builds trust and connection
• Reduces mental noise
• Brings you back to what matters in the moment

What Gets in the Way
•  Being hijacked by past or future rumblings
• Tech distractions, hustling to stay on top of it all
• Avoiding discomfort or emotional intensity, a natural response depending on one’s historical and relational context

Being present means noticing what it feels like, recognizing when it slips away and trying again. It’s hard when we’re in overdrive too. Yet sometimes presence begins with a single moment of listening with an open heart and the intention to get it right with a fellow human.

When is your next moment to show someone they matter?

With fervor, always,

Eva

Do more with less or “fewer, better, stronger”?

“Do more with less.” We’ve heard and experienced it for years. And it shows through stress, burnout, and the quiet overwhelm that many of us as leaders carry.

Yet we can get creative, rethink roles, bring in part-time and contracted support, and strengthen our systems.

But one move often gets missed: doing less with less. I flashback to my first act as a leader in a complex organization to fear of being terminated when in my first act, a leader in a complex organization where workaholism and squirrel-fast, additional priorities were norms.

Doing less with less requires gut level bravery. It means using discernment, naming the reasonable limits of the team, and prioritizing what truly matters. If we do less with less, what will most advance the mission, serve the people impacted, and nurture a healthy, intentional culture?

Countless times in my practice, I encounter leaders who feel the heavy weight of “do more with less” but hesitate to assert what they and their teams need for fear of judgment, reprisal, or being seen as dispensable. But staying silent takes a toll on leaders and their teams.

When a leader chooses to pause, reprioritize, and call in support, they’re modelling a new way by:

  • Asking for what’s needed, realistic and speaking to what’s possible as a result
  • Setting clear boundaries
  • Asking for support and alignment

This kind of honesty often leads to more impact, not less. It sets the stage for better focus, stronger engagement, and a bit more calm in an already demanding context. Teams scramble less and start moving with a healthier cadence. That’s good for people and for the business.

When energy and priorities aren’t managed well, the costs show up in disengagement, low trust, and turnover aren’t surprising.

“Do more with less” walks a fine line. If we want to lead in sustainable ways, we need to get real about what’s doable with the resources we actually have. Ironically, that’s often when momentum builds, creativity sparks go off, and results start to flow.

More fervor, too.

Eva

You get to design life and leadership on purpose, even from the hard stuff.

Time and again, I see how people’s hardest experiences like trauma, unhealthy working cultures, or unjust systems become the very ground they build something meaningful from. When there’s space for learning, healing, and reflection, those experiences start to take new shape. They become fuel for clarity, purpose, and leadership that’s rooted in real and sometimes raw lived experience.

I relate. I’ve experienced both healthy and toxic leadership cultures. I’ve seen what happens to culture, creativity, and belonging when leadership goes off the rails. I’ve felt the impact. I’ve shrunk in systems that didn’t support my voice or values. And I’ve also grown into a leader who stands in the very things I wanted in environments that didn’t have them. It took work and still does to be true to what I believe in. It’s been a humbling and incredibly rewarding journey of inner and outer work, a willingness to own where I led well and didn’t, and a crystal-clear sense of purpose, values and criteria that combined inform what I say “hell yes” or “hell no” to today.

Today, I coach others who are doing the same. They’re rumbling with the pain of their contexts and identities. Many of these are turning painful chapters into purpose. Maybe they worked in environments where DEI mandates failed them, and now they’re leading with bold, embodied inclusion ensuring DEI cannot be dismissed. Maybe they went through unjust terminations, and years later, they’re advocating for fairness and equity in the very systems that once failed them. Sometimes, an executive who never thought CEO was in their future found the not-for-profit that struck a deep, meaningful chord to advocate for what once hurt them. Maybe they even started their own organization. The teams they lead? They’ve struck gold too.

This is something that transcends resilience. These leaders are reclaiming their voices, values and vision. Their sense of inner alignment is life energy.

You get to design life and leadership on purpose, even from the hard stuff.

What have your experiences prepared you to stand for right now?

At your side with fervor,

Eva

Stand in your values and you’ll never need to contort to fit someone else’s mold.

I’ve noticed a recurring theme with clients where there’s a yearning for more self-worth. I’ve come to a place where I think this is a very common and deeply human phenomenon.

These remarkable humans have so much to offer, they care about contributing immensely, they want to make meaningful moves or lead boldly. Yet sometimes they hold back, doubt creeps in and they question whether they’re “too much” or “not enough.”

This is where values work often finds its way in. Values, integrated with other developmental and healing work, become a powerful way to remember who we are at our core. Personally and professionally, claiming and embodying my top two values of Courage and Integrity has offered profound meaning and grounding.

When we’re clear on our values, what they mean to us, how to spot when we’re in or out of alignment, and what it looks like to embody them, we strengthen our authenticity.

When we are in alignment with our values, we show up with more self-trust, clarity, and healthy grit. We apologize less for things that don’t require apologies. And whether or not things go our way, we can place our hands on our hearts and know we stayed true to ourselves.

What would change if you stopped contorting and started honoring what matters most to you?

Grateful to the work of Moving The Human Spirit and one of the best facilitators I’ve ever had the gift of learning with, Laurie Hillis and her exceptional delivery of the Dare to Lead curriculum to reinforce the power of living courageously through our values.

May your values and more fervor be with you.

Eva

Grief invites release, renewal, and a new rhythm.

Grief isn’t just about death. It lives in the quiet losses, shifts in our identities, disappointments, and ruptures whether at work, in our personal lives or both.

  • At work, it might be the end of a role, a team dynamic, a vision you poured your heart into.
  • In life, it may show up as change in your relational world, strain from caregiving, or discovering you have dreams that no longer fit as hoped.

These are gritty, knotty, gauzy experiences that can have us feeling destabilized and stuck in a heavy veil.

Yet, what if we pause to consider grief isn’t something we get over, but something we move through and learn to live with? What if the grief experience enables an alternative way of being in the world that might even be sacred?

I hold this quote as sacred, with thanks to the dear human who led my Trauma Informed Coaching Certification a while back, Brad Hardie, MCC, TICC, CTP, MPNLP of Moving The Human Spirit. He shared recently, “…if we reframe for how we look at grief, we can look at it as a reset, a rebirth. Grief is a wonderful part of life. We get to release, let go and reset nervous systems and generate a new path forward.”

Grief makes many of us uncomfortable, yet it’s inevitable, raw, and often present around us or within us. What if, as leaders, we lean more into honest conversations about it, rather than turning away?

At your side in the grief experience,

Eva

“You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them.” – Maya Angelou

Challenge is part of the human existence but it doesn’t get to define you. How we meet it, move with it, and grow from it is where we rise from deep within, and positive power emerges.

What’s one way you’re choosing to rise in the face of challenge vs shrink?

At your sides with fervor,

Eva

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