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Who is the Business Heroine and how will she change the world?

This was my 2013 defining question as I looked at how hard I was working to “save” the world, burning myself out on both ends, and struggling to keep it all together so I wouldn’t completely fall apart.

If I was going to redefine what it means to be a feminine leader in business, I had to swing way over from the masculine way of doing business – structures, agendas, numbers, goals, linear progression – to the feminine – flow, surrender, trust, organic, connection, intuition.

So I did, and in the process ended up falling apart, unravelling at the seams, losing myself and everything I thought I knew. The feminine is messy, mysterious and unknown.

During that dark night of the soul, I stumbled upon a book, The Heroine’s Journey, and immediately emailed the author, Maureen Murdock to meet with her. Maureen wrote her masterpiece in 1990 and has impacted thousands of women with her spin on Joseph Campbell’s The Hero’s Journey.

She describes the heroine’s journey as a woman’s separation with the feminine leading her to take the traditional masculine route of success. When she finally tastes that so-called success and realizes it is not what she really wants, she descends back into the feminine and eventually finds integration between both energies.

My process of reclaiming my feminine and integrating all parts of myself consisted of going to the root of my being by healing the mother wound and then the father wound.

I spent six months identifying and clearing the limited beliefs I learned from my mother (who learned from her mother) around the feminine including my self-esteem, expressing my needs and desires, and honoring my limits and boundaries. It’s no wonder we as woman despise the feminine. It has been passed down from generations that it is not safe to be a woman, our husbands own our bodies, and our intuition is not as powerful as our intellect.

We’ve been burned at the stake, shut down, and told we belong in the kitchen.

But what I learned in reclaiming my feminine is it’s not about me blaming anyone. It’s not a dissing of the masculine. It’s not about me saving the world or being saved.

I have gained valuable tools from the masculine and when I put those together with my feminine shakti, that power within me that is so magnetic and inspiring, I can do anything. And when I come together in collaboration with other women, that’s when the world shifts.

I don’t need to save the world, I can inspire it. I don’t need to work hard, the world works with me.

The Business Heroine is a force of nature because she embodies feminine power and takes masculine action. She creates freedom for herself and helps others not by saving them, but by empowering them to awaken to their own truth.

I have finally learned how to take care of myself and give from a place of abundance instead of depletion. I can lead my own life for me and be an example for other women to get that they don’t need to save the world to be worthy. I have become my own business heroine. I do it for me and, damn, do I make myself proud.

From Open Your Heart: How to be a New Generation Feminine Leader

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March 2014 Issue