Hello beautiful soul
Making big leaps in your career can feel daunting. I get it.
I leapt from Talent Acquisition Director to VP People to Chief People Officer in under 3 years.
Making that leap, I put that down to two things: hustle, heart... and Hatha. As in yoga.
The real level up that made me jump from Director of Talent Acquisition right to C level People person with a team of 15 (HR gang will know that isn't an easy leap to convince folks to let you make) was also becoming a Yoga Teacher [wait, what...?]
I started practicing yoga in 2014 and became a Yoga Teacher in 2016, with a 200 hours qualification in Hatha yoga.
Here's my testimony as to why yoga really was the secret ingredient.
#1 The practice made me slow down, but not without a fight
When I started practicing yoga in around 2014, it was like an invisible hand came and grabbed me from the treadmill of life my collar and held me still (with my arms and legs flailing, trying to fight them off haha).
I can remember sitting and laughing at the crazy poses I saw people doing, and lying in savasana (the pose where you lie down at the end) with my eyes open desperate to run away.
But something about this crazy practice, with its crazy poses and its wild breathwork and its soothing chanting made me stay. I knew there was something there for me.
#2 I was learning how to balance my energy and banish burnout
The term Hatha is also sometimes broken down symbolically:
- "Ha" means sun (representing active, masculine energy).
- "Tha" means moon (representing passive, feminine energy).
Yoga is about balancing these energies, creating harmony between effort and surrender, strength and flexibility, and body and mind.
And boy did I need that balance.
Before yoga I only knew how to rise and shine, and burn with the sun. I would be at work before everyone else, and there after everyone left too, determined that if I could just give a little more, I would be enough.
That road led me to burnout.
After only a short amount of time practicing yoga, I started to look at how I was living and working, and established some much needed boundaries around work.
#3 Teaching was the biggest growth curve ever
I'd really only been practicing for a couple of years before qualifying as a teacher, and standing in front of a room of humans as a teacher left me fully exposed, and feeling like I didn't belong.
Let me add to that that when you teach something like yoga, the students look like they hate you the whole time. I mean it. Concentration faces all round and scowls.
So I had to find a way to belong where I didn't real fast, and the practice of yogaāthe breathwork, the energy work, the posturesāwas how I managed to stay present enough within myself to do that.
Teaching yoga as a 'noob' was one of the most exposing and character building things I ever did. I grew very fast in a short period of time, and I believe it is that that prepared me for what was coming next.
#4 Just two years into teaching, I was in my first Executive role
I wasn't just doing my first role at Executive level, it was a role that I had been headhunted forā¦ because the energy we are operating in becomes magnetic my sweet sister.
When we start to live into embodied confidenceānot false or fake confidenceāothers can feel it too.
Embodied confidence doesn't mean I had all the answers suddenly, but it means I backed myself enough to be able to solve and navigate challenges along the way.
And I back you to do ALL of that and more too... with a little help from me in Bloom 3.0.
If you want to get a sneak peak on some of the energy practices and yoga we are doing in Bloom 3.0, reply "hustle, heart and hatha" and I'll add you to the calendar invites.
On the topic of Bloom 3.0...
A big thank you to those of you that voted. I LOVED hearing your views on the logo and what they meant to you. I saw people in the OO's too haha.
I am delighted to share that the new Bloom logo is this one:
Why did I choose it? Because, through working with over 50 women closely in Bloom so far, I know that my super power is not just supporting them to claim the career they really want... it's them getting to do that as who they really are.
To me, the upside down person coming first, really means that we lead with our uniqueness, and that's what provides our connection to others.
I am also thrilled to report that the new website is well underway.
This week I have been working on the ācontent pillarsā for Bloom 3.0 and I need your help.
Tell me my friend, what should I be talking about? What are the topics I have covered before that you loved? What have I missed that you would like to learn more about?
Rooting for you always
Ruth x
Ps. Make sure you check out the latest series of the Women Who Lead podcast, the last episode with Ji Son Choi is š„
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