The Essential Feminine Company - Empowering Women to Create Successful Businesses and Lives

In a recent New York Times article on Michelle Bachelet, president of Chile, we can observe the growth of a leader.  On her election in 2006, she faced student demonstrations across her country, a new chaotic public transportation system and the “impression that she was not in control”.  She will be ending her term as one of Chile’s most popular leaders.  “Polls this month show her public approval to be above 70 percent, and in recent weeks she has recorded the highest levels since Chile went from dictatorship to democracy in 1990.” 

”At the start, she said, the political establishment tried to portray her as weak and disrespectful of the office of the president.  She did things that were not presidential in the eyes of the Chilean establishment,” said Ms. Lagos, the pollster. “It is very difficult to go back. She lowered the presidency closer to the people.”

“It was an important challenge in the first few years,” Ms. Bachelet, 58, said in a recent interview, noting the way other powerful women had urged her to toughen up and “scream and insult” to be respected. “I took a gamble,” she added, “to exercise leadership without losing my feminine nature.”

Becoming leaders takes courage and determination and most of all a willingness to step forward.  It cannot and will not be done for us.  Though, each of us must take that step for ourselves, we need not do it alone.  Hopefully we too can and will do it by manifesting our feminine natures. We need to rely on them for they are our strengths.

 Maureen Simon

Have you long had the sense that you are here to live a big life? Perhaps you have already achieved great success in particular areas of your life but are certain there is something more—and that something “more” has little to do with quantity and everything to do with quality.  There is a life awaiting you that is profoundly beautiful and richly satisfying, and suddenly you are willing to cross any terrain in order to meet it.

 Going to the Outer Edge

 In seeking to find the unblurred truth of your purpose and destiny, you may feel at times as though you’re caught in a maze of cultural conditioning and familial influences, along with some of your own once-useful, now outdated attitudes and beliefs. You’re not alone. Most of us have, for varying periods of time, taken to hibernating in an attempt to protect ourselves from both real and imagined dangers. When the pressures of living in a fast-moving world have felt overwhelming, a long, deep “nap” has seemed to be a reasonable coping technique. Then comes a point—one you’ve undoubtedly reached—where the cost of missing the sheer grandeur of life’s depth and breadth is too high a price to pay.  Waking up becomes the imperative.

 In a status quo culture, remembering what you’re here for and consciously choosing the life you were meant to live is risky business. It makes skydiving and walking on hot coals seem rather tame, although there is a distinct similarity. Like most extreme sports, diving fully into life is a conscious act that requires an artful synthesis of calculated risks, preparation and skillful planning.  When you whole-heartedly embark on the “Hero’s Journey” (that solitary quest to discover your true life) and when you make an agreement with yourself to wake up and allow all that has stopped you in the past to drop away, you discover an amazing paradox: You actually do  have the assistance and support of your true friends, the world and the entire universe.

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A problem is a chance for you to do your best.

Duke Ellington

 A problem is an opportunity.  When I look back over my life I realize that each problem had a distinct lesson attached to it. Sometimes these lessons did not become clear until many years later. I remember many challenging times when I lived in London that did not make sense to me at the time, but now have become pillars of strength as I look back and remember lessons learned. Failed relationships, problems with finances, issues with friends and family and even our health all carry a special message.  What does it mean if a relationship that you are dealing with feels disharmonious, is there something to learn about this? How can you become more clear about your ability to gather and glean information from both your history and your current situations.

 As I mentioned my life in London held many challenges, new culture, difficult relationship, and a loss of all that was familiar to me in my day-to-day life.  At thirty I literally started my life over.  The support that I needed was not there.  I learned to turn within. I studied subjects such as loneliness to understand what the root of loneliness is.  I learned that I had all I needed within   myself. And that I just needed to relax, look at the parts of my life that was working and build upon them.  I think we all have moments where problems feel overwhelming, but in reality they are great indicators for lessons that need to be learned.