INsight/ Shining Light Within

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Chiangmai, 14 December 2025 — How do we stay present while engaged?

Story

At work, many of us move outward by default. We lean into meetings, deadlines, and conversations as if effectiveness requires leaving ourselves behind. Over time, this outward movement becomes habitual, and something essential inside us is neglected.

Yet there is another way of showing up. Instead of stepping out into the world, we can let the world gently enter us. We remain present, allowing experience to touch us without losing our inner ground.

When this happens, action feels different. There is less strain and more clarity. Doing becomes guided by ‘being’, as if light shines from within rather than effort pushing outward.

Challenge

Most workplaces reward visible action. Pausing, sensing, and allowing can feel inefficient or even risky. We may fear that slowing down means falling behind.

So we rely on effort and competence. Presence becomes something we hope to return to later. Over time, this creates subtle exhaustion and disconnection.

The challenge is not withdrawal from life. It is full engagement without self-abandonment. Letting ‘being’ take the lead, moment by moment, as a life practice.

Question

My question for you this week is: How will you stay present while engaged? Can you sense yourself as experience unfolds rather than stepping away to manage it?

Where, today, could you let the world come to you—a conversation, a task, a decision—while maintaining inner presence? If you trusted ‘being’ a little more than ‘doing’, what might quietly reorganize itself in your work and in your life?

This is one of the twelve leadership behaviors we practice in the Grow3Leaders community as we work on expanding our self-awareness in life and work. You can join us at https://grow3leaders.mn.co

Photo: Lanterns in Chiangmai. Is yours shining?

INsight/ Functioning and Being

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Chiangmai, 8 December 2025 — How to act from an expanded self-awareness at work?

Story

This weekend, a senior manager told me about a moment that surprised her. She was in the middle of a fast-moving meeting, juggling timelines and tensions, when she noticed something subtle: even as she spoke, a quieter part of her was simply there—present, spacious, aware.

“It felt like I was both doing the work and watching from a deeper place,” she said. “And strangely, I became more effective.”

Her experience reminds me of the writings of A.H. Almaas: that our capacity to function in the world becomes more fluid, intelligent, and congruent when we’re also in touch with our Being, the felt sense of authentic presence at the core of who we are. That also resonates with Lisa Miller’s work in The Awakened Brain.

Challenge

Most professionals are rewarded for functioning—solving problems, responding fast, producing results. But functioning without Being often becomes mechanical: we react, defend, push, or overextend.

Our awareness narrows, and we lose contact with the deeper intelligence that could guide us. The real challenge is not slowing down or withdrawing—it’s expanding our self-awareness while we work.

This means including not only tasks and goals but also the felt sense of ourselves: breath, body, emotions, inner space. Presence makes our functioning clearer, less effortful, and more aligned with who we truly are.

Question

Here’s my question for you this week:

How to act from an expanded self-awareness at work?

That’s what we explore in the Grow3Leaders community of practice. To grow your collaborative leadership at work, you are welcome to come and join us at https://grow3leaders.mn.co.