leader if your title is heavy and your soul is tired you're in the right place this show is for the burnt out leader who feels spiritually disconnected and trapped in outdated toxic leadership models let me help you restore your presence your peace and your purpose with grounded strategies and soul rooted wisdom so you can lead your people with confidence compassion and conviction I am your host and guide, Dr. Denise Simpson. Join me now so we can integrate spirit, science, and strategy. Hi, welcome back leader. Happy to serve you today. If you are listening to this on Spotify or on Apple podcasts, you're going to want to watch the video episode because I am wearing one of my favorite anchor sweaters. It's one of three. and so we're gonna go deep today because i am in the mood to talk about the lie the lie that vulnerability makes you weak so many of you have approached me over on linkedin and saying spiritual depth, anchoring myself into spiritual principles so I could be a better leader. No thanks, because I don't want to look weak. I don't want to be vulnerable to attacks. I want to make sure I keep this emotional armor on because I can't look like an idiot out here. And if I show any ounce of concern or compassion or much less bring up my spirituality in the workplace, I'm not going to be taken seriously. Okay, cool. That's fair. So I want to bring you this episode as an invitation, an invitation to open yourself up to how this is a lie. The lie that vulnerability makes you weak. Now, listen, I know in the workplace, it's hard. There's so many incredible employees that we lead, right? Different faiths, different religious backgrounds, different spiritual beliefs. Cool. Great. We're not there to preach. We're not there to shove down. a Bible down their throat. We're not there to impose on what they believe either in their faith or in religion. That's not what contemplative leaders do. We don't do that. We will never undermine anybody's faith or religious ideologies. That's none of our business. See, this is the internal work that we do as leaders. It's not something we spew out in public and that we, you know, you know, pastor on. No, that's not what we do. This is the interior alignment work. This is, this is you, the core, the nucleus. I want to focus on you and, and I want to help you be a more aligned, spiritually connected leader. So that your output, your results, the effectiveness of your leadership comes through. Because now more than ever, we need humanity. We need you, human, to show up in your fullness. Listen, we don't want you to be replaced by AI, right? So if you show up in the organization with no emotion, no value, no depth to your personality or even to your character, you will easily be replaced by AI. I want for you to leverage your humanity here. I want you to capitalize on that because right now everyone's looking at how we can replace you. Now, listen, I know there are lots of people being displaced right now because AI has taken over these organizations. I know that to be true because I've had a few of my clients come to me to tell me they are done with our coaching because they can no longer pay for these services because they have now been replaced by AI. This is serious work. So I'm not laughing at this. I'm not on the surface with this. No, this is no joke for us. And so my goal here is to help you leverage your humanity. So fine, this organization wants to replace you with AI. There's another organization that will not do that because they value your humanity. And we need humans to lead our people. And yeah, even lead our AI programs. We need humans to stay in their humanity. And how do we do that? We do that by going down below the depth of our soul. This is spiritual depth. We're anchors. Listen. We're captains of these ships, okay? I'm on mine, you're on yours, he's on his, they're on theirs, okay? We're all on our boats. And here comes a storm that has come through, one that we did not predict, one that we cannot control. Our jobs as leaders on that boat with our teammates, yep, those with the souls, the humans on the boats with souls, we are responsible for in navigating through those uncontrollable circumstances. It's up to you whether we're going to survive on that boat. It's up to you and your strategies and your spirituality and all the things that we use here, right here on the show every single week to navigate and to harbor our boats safely so that these humans have a chance to survive in this industry or in this organization. We're responsible for their survival. But so many of us have put on these armors, emotional armor. I mean, just think about how heavy that is. It's like, if I feel the weight of this armor, that means I can't feel the weight of caring, the weight of compassion. the weight of concern for my employees. Let me put this emotional armor on so that I don't have to feel a thing. See, we've been trained through those toxic leadership models. I know this because I was a trainer. I perpetuated that lie. I perpetuated that lie that you can't feel an ounce of emotion in the workplace because if you do, you're not going to be taken seriously. And because I was training mostly women, oh, I wanted them protected. I'm like, here, put more armor on. One more. Let's put more armor on top of you because you're just too emotional. You're not going to survive out here. I know what I perpetuated. I know. And I'm here to tell you what a lie, bold-faced lie that freaking was. Okay, I'm going to try not to cuss on this show. But what a lie. What a lie that is. So I'm here to disrupt that in your neurology. I'm here to open up the conversation. I'm here to invite you into a new way of thinking about your spiritual depth. You're anchoring. Ooh, my goodness. Listen, when we descend, right, because you're on those boats, and it is chaotic, and there is emotional violence, those waves up there, at the hands of others or even by your own mind, yeah? How many of you live right here? Ooh, in the negativity. Oh, my gosh, in the mental rumination, in the mental loops. My goodness, so many of us don't know how to shut it off. And so this is when we choose, we find awareness around that chaos and then choose to descend down below. And then we go, it's getting really heavy here. And I don't like who I'm becoming. I don't like how I'm feeling right now in this chaos and this overwhelm and this exhaustion and this stress. Ooh, what do I do, Denise? Ah. Choose. Choose with me. Let's choose together to descend down below. What does that practically look like for me? I'll tell you right here, right now. When I'm stuck, when I'm stuck in the mind and I have all of these... What if scenarios, right? For me, I'm gloom and doom. That's my mind goes directly to doomsday. I'm like, Oh, that's it. We're all going to die. That's it. We're all going to like burn up in flames here. Like I'm extreme in that way. Some of you are too. But if you are stuck here in the mental rumination and all of those limiting thoughts that are creating negative emotion in your body, choose with me to picture in your mind's eye An anchor symbol. This is what works for me. An anchor symbol right here in my third eye, right here in the middle of my forehead. And I envision that anchor. And it just drops down below, drops down below, drops down below. And it lands. Sometimes it lands in my heart center. Sometimes it lands in my solar plexus like it just did right now in my gut right now. It just landed here. It bypassed my throat. It bypassed my heart and it landed right here on my solar plexus. Maybe that anchor drops down below, maybe on your feet. I don't know. Maybe to your lap, maybe to your sacral, maybe your root chakra. I don't know. Maybe that anchor keeps going down below because it just needs further to go. It needs more depth to go into. And so you're here on the surface. And I'm just here to remind you that all that is on the surface, all of that mental rumination, All of those external variables that you have no control over are right here on the surface. It's okay. But you get to choose to be the anchor. And as you plummet, ooh, descend down below, the anchor decides where it's going to stop. For me, it's usually on my chest or stomach. And just now, like I mentioned, it landed in my solar plexus. And so there it lands at the bottom of the ocean floor. And that anchor is illuminated. It is bright. It is glowing. Oh my, it's alive. It's alive. So you choose. You choose to descend because you realize I'm worthy of more. I don't want this pain and suffering anymore in my mind and in my body. I can't control these circumstances right now. What can I do, Denise? What can I do? This is a way for you to distance yourself. Listen, we're not running away because I had somebody say, well, you're just running away from your... from all those problems is this spiritual bypassing oh you're so cute thanks for asking that and no it's not no on the contrary we're anchoring into what what what's actually important in our leadership lives in our personal lives right we are actually anchoring into something bigger and greater than the ego because it's the ego that has caused the emotional violent waves to be so forceful and to want to take us out, right? That's what wants to crash us into these cliffs. So no, we are anchoring ourselves into something that's more important, again, bigger, greater than our egos, tiny, tiny egos that scream so freaking loud. So we anchor, we anchor, and we're anchoring together right now. That's what we get to do. And so the spiritual depth that I want you to anchor into is, Ah, it's intimate. This is part of our interior authority, our interior alignment. This is personal, my friend. This is intimate. So no, we're not out there on a pulpit screaming to our employees that, you know, they're not spiritual enough and oh my God, they're all going to hell or whatever you want to, you know, associate spirituality with. No, no, no. That's not what we do. This is intimate, personal experience. So we anchor. And so for me, that's what that looks like. I picture in my mind's eye an anchor and the raging seas around that anchor. And so that I can detach, distance myself from all of those raging thoughts and emotions, I just drop down below. And then I settle there for a moment. And it looks like meditation. It looks like imaginative prayer. It looks like a moment to breathe. It looks like a moment alone. It looks like do not disturb on my office door so that I can remove myself from the chaos out there. This is a chance for me to reconnect to my spirit, to my soul. This is a chance for me to just take a deep breath. It's to remind myself why I was called into this role. That's what we're doing here. We're giving ourselves a moment. That's all I'm asking. I'm not asking you to believe in something you don't already believe in. I'm not asking you to go to a different faith-based practice or to a different church. I don't care what your religious principles are. Those are yours. Those are personal. But I want to remind you through your spiritual descent as the anchor that you were called into something bigger and greater. You have a higher calling on your life. But because we've been living on the surface for so long, we have forgotten. So I'm just asking for you to return back to that calling. knowing that calling, because my divine assignment is mine, not yours. Yours is not mine. I would never be able to do what you do ever, ever, ever, because I wasn't assigned to do those things that you're doing. And so this is a moment for us to individually remember why we were called. So when you say to me over on LinkedIn, and I love all of your comments and your DMs, bring them on, bring them on. But when someone comments that this is, yes, spiritual bypassing is what they think it is, but also that if they show an ounce of tenderness, an ounce of compassion towards their employees, that they lose authority and they look weak. I'm here to say now actually the emotional armor is what makes you weak because here we are putting on that heavy duty armor and we are keeping our humanity away from the humans that we lead. You're not AI. You're not a bot. You have a soul and a spirit that lives in you. And you have emotions that you just can't turn off. And so many leaders out here, I know because I was one of them, I thought I could compartmentalize my emotions and leave them in a box at home and go to work and be a robot and act like I knew what the hell I was doing. And I showed certainty and more so control over my employees and their actions. And I didn't think my emotions would creep in. I know. I know what some of us are doing out here because I led that movement. I was the one who said, nope, no emotions at work because when emotion is high, logic is low. Although that neuroscience is true. When emotion is high, logic is low. And so what do we need to do? Distance ourselves from the raging seas so that I know where my thoughts begin and yours end. So that I can find clarity around what I can control and cannot control. So I know when I am in those raging seas and I'm caught up, I'm caught up. I get to remind myself there's a choice. I choose to descend and I choose to distance myself so I can think for myself, so I can reemerge. See, that's the piece. That's the piece. Yes, we choose to descend. We choose to anchor, but you can't stay down below. all day, every day. No, we can't do that. We have to reemerge. We have to ascend back into our boats so that we can have a clear mind. So yeah, when emotion is high, logic is low. So when I ascend back into my boat, I'm clear-minded. I'm clear-headed. Let's go. I have some solutions. Let's try these out. So here you are emotionally balanced and regulated. Because you spent some time remembering, anchoring yourself back into those spiritual principles. Yes, there's five. There's five that we follow inside the sanctuary. You're going to want to join me now inside the sanctuary, wherever you're watching this video or listening to it. You're going to find a link. Join me ASAP. That's where we do the deep work. So don't be afraid. Don't be afraid of the spiritual depths that we go to as contemplative leaders. This is how we ascend back into fulfilling, purposeful, focused leaders who are impactful, more importantly, because by the way, you're still being judged by your performance. That is true. That is true. But when you find the time and you choose to descend down below and then do what you got to do, anchor into those spiritual principles, remind yourself why you were called to lead, and then reemerge, ascend back, the effectiveness. off the charts. You don't have to question about, you'll never question your performance again. No one will, right? No one will. And so that's the importance of what we do here. So when you tell me, oh, this looks very weak. And if I show an ounce of concern, oh, no one's going to take me seriously. I've lost authority. No, you're losing authority now. With that emotional armor that you like to wear every single day, you think your emotions can't peep through, can't sneak out. Yeah, they're there because you take your brain and your heart everywhere you go, my friend. And so you think that by wearing this armor, you're going to be taken more seriously, that your authority will not be questioned. But I'm here to tell you that that's a lie. It's a lie. And open yourself up to the possibility that actually if I show concern and if I do this work that Denise is asking me to do, that I can reemerge, that I can ascend into this incredible leader that I know I'm designed for, that I know I'm assigned to do. This is the work I was assigned. I was called to do this work. And then I get to do it effectively and transformationally. Sign me up. Try this for yourself. See how this could work for you. And so. I leave you with that and I also leave you with the invitation to join me inside the sanctuary because you and I and a group of incredible leaders are ready to take the surface level leadership role that we are so bored with and we're overwhelmed with and exhausted in doing. This is where we get to go down below the depths of our souls so that we can find new meaning, a new perspective on why we were called into leadership. And I invite you to do that now, now, now, now. So join me as soon as you can. And I got to go because my little guy down there, Odin, he wants to go outside. It's the only time I'm going to end an episode early is when my dogs need me, their mama. Okay. Wishing you all a fantastic rest of your day. I pray that this has served you today and that you take what resonates and you leave the rest. I look forward to serving you again very soon. Take good care. Bye. Hey, before you go, if today's episode served you, please consider subscribing or even leaving a review. Or you can share this with a leader who is desperate to find peace right now. Now, if you're craving a deeper refuge, somewhere where you can return to the stillness, I created a sacred space. It's called the sanctuary. Here is where you can reconnect to your divine assignment. thanks again for listening today reader until next time take very good care bye for now
