This morning, the Deva of Safety invites us to play.

What would you create — in your life, in your business — if you knew you were truly and completely safe?

Close your eyes. Breathe in the quality of Safety. Feel safety fill every cell in your body. Feel it fill and expand your heart.

Feel your lungs fill with Safety. Feel it radiate out from your core into your energy field, all around you.

Feel Safety flow from your inner being, beyond your personal boundary, into the world around you.

Who are you, when you are deeply held and safe?

If this post spoke to you, you might like these as well:

• Your Perfect Offering: The Deva of Truth
• Beyond the Garden Gate: The Deva of Willingness
• A Froth of Forms: The Deva of Abundance

This weekend my 9-month-old granddaughter is visiting me, with her parents.

And, for the fifth season, I’m walking alongside forty-eight remarkable, wise and powerful women as they journey through the miracle of discovery and creative exploration that is Become Your Own Business Adviser.

Both sets of relationships show me something about success and its relationship to the arc of incarnation: Desire pulls us into engagement with life. Rich new experiences emerge from our relationships with the people, places, things and situations we encounter. When we meet these with curiosity, strength and sovereignty, as well as receptivity and openness, we grow ourselves and our businesses in alignment with our hearts, and with our soul’s purposes.

Our encounters with the world shape us and help us to grow. In turn, we shape the world around us with our presence, with the quality of our being, and the love we embody.

To be a successful entrepreneur requires the same qualities that usher us from infancy to childhood, from young adulthood to maturity.

Our becoming is our gift to the world. Our becoming is also what seeds our success.

My granddaughter explores her world with the intensity and focus of an eagle swooping down on its prey. She sees something she wants, and she crawls towards it as fast as she can until she reaches it.

If some looming grownup interrupts her trajectory by picking her up for a cuddle, she squirms and squeals until she’s back down on the ground and heading for whatever she is after.

What she is after is experience, not ownership. The encounter itself enthralls her. She has no need to possess what she so ardently aims for.

Today, her desire draws her like a magnet to a narrow wooden incense holder. Nine inches long and about an inch-and-a-half wide, its rounded end just fits in her hand.

She jams it in her mouth and gums it, exploring its taste and texture. She bangs it against a metal stool and wiggles with delight at the sound she and it make together. She squeals and laughs and pounds out an erratic rhythm, her body swaying on unsteady feet, her cheeks pink with excitement.

Twenty minutes of this, and she knows more about my incense holder than I have divined in several years of living with it. By witnessing her exploration without interrupting it in any way, I learn too – about my incense holder and its many marvelous attributes, and also about how we learn.

We have such a capacity for joy. For knowing the world and ourselves through our relationships with all forms of life, including the objects that surround us.

When we follow our natural desire and curiosity, our relationships are filled with wonder, delight, exploration, adventure. It’s what makes us human — this urge to know, to connect, to discover and explore. To actively participate in the life of our world. This is also what makes us successful as a species.

After a while, the call of a larger horizon beckons her. My granddaughter crawls — energetically, purposefully — across the living room to the floor-to-ceiling windows which look out over the garden and treetops to the sea beyond.

She presses her small hands against the cool, slippery glass and pulls herself up until she’s standing, wobbly but determined, gleefully upright. She nuzzles the window with her nose, then backs off and looks with astonishment at the small cloud of breath she’s left on its surface.

She turns her head sideways, to try and get the window in her mouth, which is her primary sensory organ right now. The glass does not offer itself. She looks at it, vexed, then sticks out her tongue, and licks it. Enthusiastically. Once, twice.

She laughs, and licks it again, then smears her saliva with the palm of her hand across the small patch of window until the glass squeaks. This brings fresh delight, and a fit of giggles that drops her abruptly onto her bum. She looks astonished, for a moment, to find herself on the floor, then crawls off to the next adventure.

Back in the Become Your Own Business Adviser class, there’s a similar process of engagement, exploration and discovery happening. Each woman there is unique, and meets the process of growth and learning in her own unique way.

Some revel in the richness of the journey, playing with whatever emerges and following their desire and curiosity wherever they lead.

Others meet the material as though it were a mountain they must climb. They pack their crampons and climbing ropes. They struggle to see the path before them. They want a map, a compass, a GPS device, a Sherpa, to navigate the journey.

The mountain is impervious to their attempts to approach it logically. They are frustrated. Exhausted. They wonder what they’re doing wrong.

Each of these women is learning. Each is growing in her own perfectly imperfect way.

We grow up being told that there is a right way and a wrong way to learn. Our culture often – though not always — values answers over questions, theory over exploration, ideas over direct experience.

Raised in an environment that short-circuits the process of experimentation and discovery, we look to teachers and guides to give us the answers to our questions. We’re afraid of getting it wrong, of feeling inadequate. We’re afraid to trust our own way of knowing.

As my grandbaby tires, she gets frustrated and cranky. She tries to crawl over a too-large ottoman to reach her dad, who is leaning against its big, round bulk. She can’t lift her leg high enough to climb it.

An hour ago, she had tried the same maneuver; when she couldn’t get over the ottoman, she dropped to her knees and crawled around it.

Now, she buries her face in it and wails.

She is inconsolable, until her mama picks her up, snuggles her and carries her off for a nap. The house grows very quiet, as she drifts off to sleep.

We, of course, are all grown up. But we go through this energetic ebb and flow too – we just get better at dismissing, hiding or ignoring it.

We follow our desire and curiosity into new territory. We expand our reach, head for the horizon, stretch our creative muscles and swing our hearts into action.

We set forth full of enthusiasm and energy. Each new creation, each movement towards growth and expansion — in life or business — calls us to grow too. To become the person whose life includes that which we are creating, that which we desire.

Most of the time, on our journey, we draw on our natural capacity for innovation. Creativity is in our DNA. When we try one thing and it doesn’t work, we try something else until we find a way to get to where we want to be, to become who we are capable of becoming.

But sometimes, we get tired. The path we’re on becomes narrow and steep; the air thin, vertiginous. The wind that buoyed us becomes a gale that threatens to sweep us off our feet and tumble us down the mountain’s face.

Our enthusiasm flags. Our energy wanes.

Fear. Doubt. Shadows loom, menacing.

Then, the patterns that turn our feet to boulders and cause us to stumble, the beliefs that lodge like stones in our bellies, grow powerful, clamorous.

If we were nine months old, like my granddaughter, we’d plop down on that mountain path, lean on the nearest rock and cry until someone picks us up, comforts us, soothes us, carries us to safety.

Instead, we feel guilty or ashamed of our need to be held, to be comforted, to feel safe and cradled in a loving lap.

We drag ourselves painfully along the disappearing path, ignoring our need, until our bodies collapse and illness or injury stops us in our tracks.

We project our power and creative capacity onto others, wanting them to tell us what to do, to rescue us, to get us off the mountain and back into our beds.

We turn away from the deep sources of comfort and nourishment that are always available to us, and seek safety and solace in things that cannot provide either: in money or status; the newest shiny thing; in work or other people; in food or fame.

We drag our exhausted selves over rocky terrain, chasing that elusive bird of success as it flits out of reach.

Here’s what I know about success.

Success is pressing your hands against the window; pulling yourself up, wobbly but determined; licking the glass when it won’t fit in your mouth. Discovering, in the process, something new and enthralling about yourself and your relationship with the world.

Success is following the call of your desire; anchoring it to a clear and concrete intention; then acting on it with all the power and purpose at your command.

Success is making the path by walking it. It is bushwhacking a new trail when the old one peters out.

Success is becoming the person who can ask for hugs and holding when your own strength has deserted you.

It is wrapping your arms around yourself when there are no other arms nearby.

It is calling on the rocks; the trees; your walking stick; your trusty hiking boots, for love and support.

Pinning your heart to sky and mountain; knowing they will respond, because they are part of wholeness too. Knowing that you are safe, held, cradled, wherever you are.

Success in business is creating a business that holds you when you’re tired; that makes a soft resting place for you when you need to lay down your head and cry.

It is the wide horizon that calls you to the journey. It is the joy that floods your body as you run towards your desire — arms flung open, heart soaring high.

May the sweet bird of success land on your shoulder today. May its wings remind you of what you already know.

If this post spoke to you, you might like these as well:

• Soul-powered business

Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack in everything
That’s how the light gets in.

–Leonard Cohen

The Deva of Truth invites us to sing with it today. Truth is the what-is-ness of things — the note that only you can sing, the beating heart of the Great Mystery.

Truth needs neither embellishment or apology. It sings a clear note. And in that shimmer of sound, the inner note of all things is revealed.

What is the truth of your being today?

How will you express your perfect offering?

If this post spoke to you, you might like these as well:

• Beyond the Garden Gate: The Deva of Willingness
• A Froth of Forms: The Deva of Abundance
• Gratitude and Grace

This morning, I’ve been playing with the Deva of Willingness. It is spacious, friendly, reassuring, grounded. It fills me with a feeling of deep safety, and trust.

In the Deva’s presence, my body relaxes. My shoulders drop, belly expands with each in-breath. My eyes soften in their sockets.

Even the soles of my feet open to meet the ground beneath them, tenderly, lovingly. Receiving the nurturing flow of Earth energy into my body. Filling up with healing warmth.

The gifts of willingness.

For some time now, I’ve been hearing the call of my Business Deva to cross the next frontier in the expanding, evolving country of my business. Much of me is dancing with excitement — eager to explore this new terrain. My intrepid selves are ready for great adventures. They can’t wait to discover new landscapes of delight and play, creativity and communion in the world of my business.

Others of my inner selves – younger, more timid – want to run for cover and hide behind the skirts of a grownup. They want to be safe. Loved for who and where they are. Appreciated. Invited to the party, not pushed or pulled where they aren’t yet ready to go.

The tasks ahead feel as daunting to these younger selves as venturing into the dragon’s lair. They tremble. They close their eyes tightly shut. No, they will not step out beyond this gate. They are quite happy right here, in their own walled garden. Thanks, but no thanks, they say to my Business Deva’s call.

They can hear the hiss of the dragon’s breath, just beyond the garden gate.

My inner three-year-old has many gifts. Running a business is not one of them. My inner twelve-year-old needs safety, and room to grow. Her young shoulders are not made to bear the burden of growing my business too.

Willingness gives my younger selves permission to be. To grow at their own pace. To take on no more than they can safely handle.

Willingness also gives my fearless, adventurous, creative selves room to play. To run and dance and climb and fly. To cavort with new friends. To scoop up star fire in their cupped hands and bring it back to Earth. To shape my life and business from this star stuff, like shaping PlayDoh.

Willingness doesn’t say: Yes, I will do this, I will zoom to the next galaxy – make way!

It says only: I am willing.

Willing to open my eyes. To be where I am. To explore, to dream.

To greet each stranger on the path as a sacred messenger. As a friend and ally in the play of world-making.

Willing to be surprised. Willing to love. To change and be changed. To be supported and to support.

To shape a new story.

The gifts of willingness.

How about you? What happens when you meet the Deva of Willingness at the garden gate today?

If this post spoke to you, you might like these as well:

• Your Perfect Offering: The Deva of Truth
• A Gift of Devas
• World-making

The Deva of Abundance invites us to play with it this week. Abundance is a quality of the Soul of the Earth, which expresses the Sacred in a multitude of forms. It is also a quality of your own soul, so it lives within you. As you explore your relationship with the Deva of Abundance, you might begin by recalling all the ways in which your life is abundant right now.

Because I grew up in a newly post-colonial, pre-technology India, I’m still gobsmacked, at times, by the miracle of everyday technology — everything from the telephone (!) to shampoo, from car washes to curbside recycling pick-up. Each of these is a source of wonder and astonishment.

Abundance abounds, when we open our eyes to it. And springtime brings its own exuberant bounty of blossoms and birds, silver herring, new leaves and sap rising.

Where is Abundance already showing up in your life?

How do you meet it? With delight? Fear of how it will change you, or fear that it will go away? Love? Tenderness? Something else?

What are your beliefs about it? How do they affect your relationship with the Deva of Abundance?

What containers and pathways have you created, in your business and in your life, for the flow of Abundance to enter your world and to be safely held in your first chakra and the first chakra of your business?

Abundance is the primary vibration of a healthy first chakra. Invite the Deva of Abundance to bring the pattern that it holds in its energy field for the perfect unfolding of this quality, into your first chakra. Pay attention to what happens next. What relaxes and releases, when you do this? What begins to flow, in your life?

If this post spoke to you, you might like these as well:

• Your Perfect Offering: The Deva of Truth
• Gratitude and Grace
• The Deva of Safety

The creative powers of Gratitude and Grace are the open doorway of your soul in action.

Your soul creates through receptivity and relationship – with the Devas, with the natural world, with the Earth, with everything and everyone in the ecology of your life.

Send your striving, ambitious selves into retirement. They are exhausted from all that get-up-and-go. Thank them for getting you to where you are now.

Invite them to meet your soul’s creative partners — the Devas of Gratitude and Grace.

If this post spoke to you, you might like these as well:

• Your Perfect Offering: The Deva of Truth
• A Froth of Forms: The Deva of Abundance
• The Deva of Safety

Sitting with the Deva of Sustenance on this misty Sunday morning.

What sustains you? What holds you up day in and day out? What puts ground under your feet?

Here’s what sustains me today:

Physically: Breath. Miraculous inner workings of my body — blood, organs, bones, cells, thrumming together in perfect harmony. Bowl of blueberries and Greek yogurt. Fire in the fireplace.

Emotionally: Phone call from my daughter-in-law, radiant with love and affection. A full heart. Mountains on the far horizon kissed by clouds. Robin fluttering raindrops off his wings as he lands on a cherry branch’s shy blossoming. Early morning silence.

Mentally: Poem from Louise Gluck’s “Seven Ages”, which takes off like a swan rising from the waters of a lake.

Energetically: The Deva of my home, who wraps me in belonging. Being cradled and sung to by the Deva of the Earth. Heart connections with the trees outside my window; Devas of sea and sky. Bach cello sonata.

Spiritually: The Sacred. The sun — whose face is covered by clouds, but whose light illuminates every raindrop. My granddaughter, newly arrived.

What nourishes and sustains you today?

If this post spoke to you, you might like these as well:

• Right-Brain, Left-Brain: Necessary Balance
• Talkity-talk-talk: The Powers and Perils of Communication
• Be a Source of Strength in Difficult Times

Remember those early days, when you couldn’t get enough of each other? When all you wanted was to be together? When every moment was luscious with promise?

Desire and Intention form powerful bonds between you and your business. And if those bonds are deep and true, they bear the golden fruit of lasting love.

Consider these three questions:

• Do you love your business?
• Do you love it the way you love the people who are dearest to you?
• Do you love it so much that you want it to be itself, even if that isn’t what you imagined it to be, or what you’re comfortable with?

The relationship between you and your business has the potential to be deeply intimate, rich and rewarding. After all, it emerges from your soul’s calling to serve and bless the world; from the natural flow of your own creative genius, and your heart’s wish to live a life of sacred abundance, fullness, and delight.

Love makes all of this possible.

When you love your business, you nurture its life without guilt or obligation, with the buoyant joy of true devotion. In turn, your business loves you; it delights in supporting you and the perfect unfolding of your own life.

Without love, the relationship between you becomes transactional — I’ll love you if you do this for me, or behave this way, or become who I want you to be. And transactional relationships are scarred by conflict and power struggles.

The relationship between you and your business is a gift. And gifts are made to be cherished.

There are so many ways in which you can cherish your Business Deva. Here’s one that needs just a little of your time and attention. And a pen, some writing paper, and an envelope.

Clear space in your schedule. Gather your supplies. Go to a favorite, quiet spot where you can be alone to write.

Ground, center, and attune to your Business Deva — the being that holds, in its energy field, the pattern for the perfect unfolding of your business. Light a candle or a stick of incense, or ring a bell to remind you to gather your love and attention into this sacred moment of communion and connection with your business.

Feel the love you have for your business. Feel all the ways in which you deeply love this creation, which has emerged from the desire of your heart but which has its own life, its own soul, and its own purposes with which it wants to serve and bless both you and the world.

Write a love letter to your Business Deva. Share how you feel about it; express your love and appreciation for it; write about your deepest desires and your vision for your unfolding relationship.

Write about the ways in which your life is enriched and made more full and whole, because of its presence in your life.

Let yourself feel, fully, your true feelings for your Business Deva – what you know in your deepest heart.

Let your love radiate through your whole body and energy field, as you write this love letter to your Business Deva.

When you finish, sign and date the letter, and place it in the envelope.

Next: Create a sacred space that is dedicated to your relationship with your Business Deva. This may be as simple as a corner of your desk or a small table in your office or study. It may be as elaborate as an altar in the heart of your home.

Ground this space, bless it, and place in it those objects that symbolize your most loving intentions for the unfolding of this relationship.

A rock for grounding, perhaps. Or a feather to remind you that this is a relationship of soul and spirit. A circle of string or beads, to represent wholeness. A candle for illumination. Chocolate or honey, for sweetness.

A flowering plant for life, growth and fragrance.

Be creative – give yourself freedom and permission to play. Sacred spaces are fluid. You will change, add, move, or take away elements of this space as your relationship with your Business Deva grows and changes.

Once you have created your sacred space, place your love letter to your Business Deva in it. Place it there with the clear intention that it will bring you and your Business Deva into closer, more harmonious and loving relationship with each other.

Share your love letter in the Comments below. Together, let’s hold a creative space for the relationship between you and your Business Deva to flourish.

If this post spoke to you, you might like these as well:

• Beyond the Garden Gate: The Deva of Willingness
• Right-Brain, Left-Brain: Necessary Balance
• Stories Dance on the Rainbow Bridge

“After working through BYOBA I’ve found myself in the midst of the best business partnership I could ever have imagined. I’m working with someone who is in total alignment, whom I love and respect tremendously, and we both bring so much to each other’s businesses – it’s amazing. I’m so grateful!”
–Nathalie Lussier, Website design, Media and Marketing Specialist.

This past month has felt, at times, like a dizzying hike along a mountain trail. My wonderful assistant, Angie Wheeler, left to take on a full-time job at the beginning of February and the process of finding the right person to take her place has been both challenging and growthful.

A great working relationship doesn’t just happen. It requires work on both inner and outer levels. Like a good marriage, it is based in a clear vision of what is truly important to you — those qualities, values, skills and ways of being in the world that are essential to you and your business.

So, start by making a list of everything that’s essential to you, in a co-worker. You’re not seeking perfection, here, but rather those qualities, skills and attributes that are both necessary and sufficient to grow the world of your business in harmony with your vision and values.

Think right fit for the job, rather than Mother Teresa!

Once you’re clear about what’s essential to you, you can call on your Business Deva and on your friends, colleagues and allies in many dimensions to help you connect with the right person.

You’ll do your homework, of course. You’ll meet with people on your short-list, feel the quality of their presence and be guided by your intuition about how they might fit into the world of your business.

You’ll ask questions, listen for their responses, share your own heart and hear theirs in return. You’ll check their references and talk to people they’ve worked with. You’ll use your discernment to sift through all of this information.

Inner and outer work go hand in hand, in this process.

You’ll attune to the soul essence of this person, as well as to their personhood — everything that makes them who they are, unique and irreplaceable. You’ll consider the alignment between them and the soul of your business.

Throughout the process, you’ll ask yourself one fundamental question: Will this person bring greater harmony, wholeness, coherency and integration to the ecology of your business — or not?

And you’ll ask yourself if your business, in turn, can offer them what they need to truly flourish.

There is an element of serendipity and magic in connecting with the right people for your co-workers — those whose vision and values, skill, knowledge and experience are in harmony with the world of your business.

Business — like any creation — is an ecology of relationships fostered through love and devotion, clear communication, integrity, willingness, reciprocity and partnership, generosity of spirit, and a host of other soul qualities.

Different people in your business’s ecology may embody these qualities to greater or lesser degree. We are all individuals, and we bring our souls as well as our personalities to work with us.

If too many of these essential qualities are missing, if the person you’re considering isn’t sufficiently mature or skilled, or if there’s a large energetic discrepancy between them and you, it will cause friction and difficulty in your business.

On the other hand, if the person has the practical skills, genius, and experience your business needs, there’s sufficient resonance and alignment between you, and you have clear agreements and strong systems to support you, your business and everyone in it will flourish.

Here are some essential elements to consider, in crafting a soul-centered business relationship:

Once you’ve made the decision to hire someone, offer them welcome, appreciation and hospitality. You are making a commitment to their well-being, and you contribute to the quality of the relationship by your own attitude toward them.

Give them time and support to find their place in the world of your business. Hold qualities of flexibility, appreciation and patience, as you build trust and negotiate the differences between you.

The best business relationships are those in which each person feels safe, cherished, and encouraged to grow according to the inner pattern of their being; where boundaries and agreements are clearly delineated and understood; and there is a foundation of love, flexibility, trust, humor, good will and clear communication.

Soul-centered decision-making takes into account the well-being and fulfillment of everyone involved. Wholeness embraces everyone and everything in your business’s ecology and provides a container for everyone’s perfect unfolding.

“BYOBA is a treasure chest of spiritual and practical greatness. Every time I open it and work with it I find new perspective, an ‘a-ha”, a gem of wisdom, or a great ‘clunk’ of re-alignment in my life. This is the most transformative class I’ve ever experienced.”
-Gillian Berry, Educator

“Expanded vision, empowered healing, growth made easy — these are just a few of the gifts I received from participating in Become Your Own Business Adviser.”
- Kathryn Elliott, PhD, Editor

Starting April 9th, I will teach the fifth session of Become Your Own Business Adviser. The program is a 12-week journey into sacred prosperity, and the loving, conscious evolution of your business.

Details and registration are here.

If this post spoke to you, you might like these as well:

• World-making
• You Are…
• Be a Source of Strength in Difficult Times

When you come to the end of the path
it isn’t obvious.

There are openings under the trees
where small streams have carved what looks like

a way forward.

The forest floor is golden with fallen fir needles
and at first you think Ah yes! Here’s a trail

or at least a deer path to follow.

A half-hour later, maybe more, you find yourself
lost. The same heavy-boned trees all around

the same openings that lead nowhere.

The drip drip drip of drooping branches. Weird creaks
and groans, echoes without direction.

You lean against a slick black rock, slippery with mosses
clusters of emerald stars in no visible constellation.

You’re not afraid, exactly. After all, there are paths
through these woods. You’ve walked them before

on Sunday afternoons much like this one. You have
a nodding acquaintance with several spectacular ferns

and at least one flaming arbutus tree whose scarlet trunk
you pat fondly whenever you pass by.

Now, you sniff the air the way you’ve seen dogs do—
that keen alertness, that panting relationship with geography.

Maybe you’ll don a dog’s intelligence when you assume
its stance — the hidden pattern of the woods revealed

in your canine nose.

The trees stand, inscrutable, silent. No sun-dappled path
appears magically before you, inviting your foot

to its ordained destination.

You’re hungry, now. You’re cold. The light
thins overhead.

You lean your heart into the slanting rain
and walk.

This poem is dedicated to my dear friends, Jen Louden and Mariko Gordon, and to my heart-sisters everywhere: powerful, creative, freedom-loving women who are shaping a world of kindness, courage and love for everyone.

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• Fog
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