What I'm Becoming More Passionate About

This week, I woke up with an image in my mind.

On one side, I could see so much of what is happening in the world that diminishes human freedom and wellbeing. On the other, all the people, resources and organizations trying to create something better.

Somewhere in between was the question I couldn’t stop thinking about:

Even among the people who genuinely want to create something better, how are we getting stuck and entangled with each other? What is draining our individual and collective capacity to thrive and contribute?

I have evidence that my algorithm keeps me in a bubble.

Every once in a while, someone in my family sends me a reel about a war, a catastrophe, some horrifying thing happening somewhere in the world, or apparently now “aura farming” from the younger generations 😂, and I’m reminded of just how much is happening outside the little corner of the internet that gets served to me every day.

It blows my mind. Instead of making me want to consume more of it, it makes me want to focus even more on what I can actually do.

I’ve learned that if all our energy goes into battling the old, we can remain bound to it. At some point, real change requires us to break through the cracks and create the new.

I’m increasingly interested in what happens among those of us trying to create that new.

I’m aware of the resources we’re blessed with: education, health, family, community, opportunities, support, nature, and extraordinary people and ideas. At the same time, I’m aware of how much of ourselves we can give away in order to belong, conform, hold the peace, be good, take care of others and hold things together.

It makes me think about how many heart-centered people are doing the same inside families, companies, nonprofits, communities and organizations trying to make the world better.

Having a good mission doesn’t automatically mean we know how to stay connected to ourselves, or how to stay cleanly connected to one another, while serving it.

Even in the name of good, we can sacrifice ourselves. We can override our bodies, dilute our knowing to maintain belonging, people-please our way into someone else’s vision, or allow ourselves to be extracted from because the cause or person seems important enough.

All of that consumes energy that could be going toward the very things we care about creating.

What would happen if the people and organizations trying to create good became exceptionally good at guiding people back to their own center?

What if we could reduce the drainage that happens between people, so each person could hold their gifts without collapsing, conforming, extracting or being extracted from?

Everybody’s medicine could remain pure rather than diluted by the need to belong. 

I don’t believe we should have to sacrifice ourselves in order to contribute. The better we care for our bodies, energy, desires, limits and joy, the more we have to give from overflow. We are part of the world we’re trying to care for, too.

A lot of what taught me this happened in ways I cannot fully speak about publicly. There are people I love involved who aren’t here to tell their side.

For a long time, I believed that if I couldn’t tell the whole story, I couldn’t reclaim my own.

I don’t believe that anymore. We don’t need to expose anyone to return to ourselves. We don’t need to fight someone to reclaim our power. We don’t need their acknowledgment, apology or permission. We can return to our center and create differently from there.

I’m realizing more and more that this is the inquiry underneath my work:

How do we become more ourselves in relationship with one another, not less?

Can we belong without abandoning ourselves?

Will we start contributing without sacrificing ourselves?

It’s time to create more good in the world and become more alive in the process.

I love being part of this inquiry.

For those of you who have known me through The Florrest, this may also help explain how my work there is evolving. The Florrest is not simply a beautiful place where people gather. It is the place I created to do this work.

Nature gives us a way out of the noise. The land creates space to listen differently. And when we come back into relationship with ourselves, we have the opportunity to meet one another differently too.

That is what I’m passionate about exploring with individuals, groups and teams: creating the conditions for people to return to themselves, reduce the unnecessary drainage between us, and bring more of their unique capacity to whatever they are here to create.

The property creates the conditions for this work to happen, and I’m becoming much clearer about what that work is. I’m glad you’re here for it.

With love, Mena

Mena Teijeiro Founder & Steward of The Florrest Leadership Calibrator — Helping leaders return to their center so they can live and lead from overflow.

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