Soul-Based Leadership for a Transformed World

by Emanuel Kuntzelman   Possibly the most apparent change happening in this transformative time is our shift from a materialistic society to one focused on spirituality. When we say spiritual, however, a lot of people get nervous. Perhaps it is the immediate association of the word “spiritual” with religious traditions, but when we use the word spiritual in this context, we are equating it with higher consciousness. We are recognizing that materiality grew out of consciousness and not the other way around, as standard evolutionary theory would have us think. Assuming consciousness is the primordial reality of our existence means that we are spiritual beings having a human existence, and as such, we need to embrace this idea as our birthright and the real foundation upon which we move forward in our roles as leaders.  Today’s leaders must begin to change from the materially-oriented to the spiritually-focused. Up until now authority figures were about business, profit and accomplishments, but our new 21^st century leaders will be concerned with the spiritual community. To successfully create this conscious environment, we will need to better understand how to get in touch with the spirit within ourselves, the soul if you will. When each of us is able to discover our soul’s purpose in this life, and understand that it is our moral obligation to be good for something, we can begin to lead from example. We need to find our life’s purpose or life career, as I like to call it. This requires going through a very rigorous examination of our talents, our dreams and the reality of what we are currently doing. At some point each of us must face the question “Are we living the life we are meant to live, or are we doing a great job of fooling ourselves to be comfortable in what we have?” When we begin to ask ourselves these authentic questions, we realize that most of us are not living to our highest potential. It’s not that we aren’t given the opportunities, but that there is social resistance, which can partially be our ego’s resistance. We want to be looked at as an accomplished individual in the light of others. Society compels us to keep up with the Jones’s in the material paradigm. The spiritual paradigm entices us to forget about our egotistical and logical minds and pay closer attention to what our heart and soul are saying. There are lots of tools that we can develop to listen to our inner guides and our heart to get a new and meaningful message about who we want to be, who we should be and how that will serve us to better serve humanity. To begin to develop a sense of soul-based leadership, these three steps can be used to listen to your heartfelt messages about whom  you strive to be: - Meditation: Creating a space to be present and in silence will help you tap into your inner truth. - Commitment to a daily practice: No matter if this is yoga or Integral Transformative Practice, having a daily ritual will help you stay physically, mentally and spiritually in-tune. This will allow you to develop your soul-based leadership skills and reach your highest potential. - Commitment to continual, personal evolution: This is a continuation from the second step, but understanding the work and constant effort to evolve is necessary as we transform into leaders. Why should we develop our soul-based leadership skills? It is our hope that as future leaders in our communities we can begin to understand the dynamics of resistance and develop the emotional intelligence and personal strength to “take the hits” of everyday life and turn those around to make them work for us. As soul-based leaders, it is our responsibility to create a more conscious and respectful environment that will lead us toward a transformed world. I'm excited about an opportunity to really put this idea of soul-based leadership into action in the months ahead. Greenheart Transforms will be partnering with Integral Transformative Practice International in hosting our "Leadership Transformed" retreat at Asilomar State Beach in California in May 2013. Leadership transformed retreat will offer even more details: Asilomar link