A value that lights me up is joy, the deep soul fulfilment of happiness that is beyond any thing or action, but just emanates from us. Yet my experience is that those people who really personify joy are those who have been willing to face into their pain, hurt or depression with an honesty that requires considerable bravery. Those people with the clearest thought have often spent much time living with doubt, those who are emotionally and physically brave have and do live with bone shaking fear when they take their next risk to do something amazing.

Wildness… to grow your way, to plant and root yourself in foundations that nurture your mind body and spirit, to turn towards what brings you light and warmth and to honour how your emotional waters move, tumble and flow through you.

When your work load spikes, and the multiple responsibilities of work, home, family coincide and shunt out the door all but the smallest moments of self reflection and pausing, ‘me time’ seems a luxurious (perhaps even laughable) and distant idea. In those busy times it’s hard to stop. Before you know it, you are the workaholic who burns out at the end of the week. You most likely crave and need simple things like fresh air, a moment of heart to heart connection with loved ones, a walk and a good belly laugh… yet you actually get caffeine and sugar as a sticky plaster to keep going…

The latest edition of the pioneering Women in Leadership publication has landed and I’m thrilled to be featured as a ‘thought leader’ sharing some of my work with WDI Consulting, in creating a new paradigm in women’s leadership – a Heroine’s Reinvention.

It’s my belief that Compassionate Power is the most radical and effective power that we have to create a thriving present and future. However, we can disown this power, not believing its full strength, thinking it will make us weak or a ‘push over’ if we are too compassionate. Yet my experience is that compassion is the fiercest, strongest, most unstoppable force for positive change and achieving your goals.

Breast feeding and expressing is a topic that’s not talked about that openly, yet has been a powerful part of my ‘heroine’s journey’ as a mother. For both of these reasons, I wanted to write about it, make the taboo less taboo, and share more about the insights and transformational journey it has taken me on personally.

If you were watching a movie, you’d know a threshold point as a pivotal moment in the plot – the place where all of the Heroine’s lessons and experiences to date were going to be put to the test through the choices or actions she takes. The big heroic blockbusters normally charge these moments with the pressure of many eyes watching…

In his book, ‘The hero with a thousand faces’ Joseph Campbell gifted us with the ‘Hero’s Journey’ – a map for personal and collective growth and transformation, that he derived from his in-depth analysis and study of the myths of the Gods across cultures. His work uncovered a psychological journey of growth embedded in these stories. He did however only…