Do you want to ignite an intimate relationship with your divine essence and feminine intuition?
Author Sera Beak says a simple meditative practice can be a powerful tool to ignite a deep connection to our “divine spark” or inner wisdom that will help guide every aspect of our lives including career, relationships, health and spirituality.
Sera says the “divine spark” goes by many names. It is your soul, your essence, your inner goddess/god – the center of your center. The you of you. Your distinct and sovereign divinity that is connected to all that is. The divine spark is your guidance and grace, your deepest knowing, and your toughest truth.
Sera says the divine spark’s love for you is unmatched by anyone or anything in the universe. When you ignite it, you don’t just believe, you know on every level of your being, and in every cell of your body, that you are the one you’ve been looking for. “When you ignite your divine spark … you finally come home.”
On today’s Power Practice recording, Sera leads us through a transformative meditation to ignite our divine intuition, warming us to the essence of ourselves, our intuition, our bodies, Mother Earth, and all that is.
Play Power Practice – Ignite Your Divine Spark:
Sera Beak finished graduate school at Harvard studying comparative world religion and rapidly gained traction as what The New York Times called “a new role-model” for her generation.
She was much in demand as a speaker, author, and teacher for young modern women who she felt had been left out of the world’s wisdom traditions. She left lucrative offers behind to pursue the work of her Soul.
How do we know which to listen to as we work to live our truths? Harvard trained scholar Sera Beak joined us for May’s Emerging Women Power Boost to help navigate the jungle, connecting us with the gem of all voices – the Soul.
We’ve all absorbed a myriad of external voices over the years: from our family, our upbringing, our schooling, religion, media, culture, friends, and other entrepreneurs. We’ve also got a chorus of internal voices: our shadow selves, our wounds and fragments, our beliefs and our complexes, like the infamous Inner Critic. There are negative aspects of our ego that like to shame, judge, blame, and compare in dogged pursuit of success and admiration, creating fear and stress. There are even aspects of our more spiritualized ego – which Sera calls a “tricky little sucker” – that can come across holier-than-thou and kick our butts for not being spiritual enough.
In short, there’s a virtual cocktail party of voices inside of most of us, most of the time.
But there is one voice that knows us best of all, says Sera. It’s eternal and infinite, connected to all that is, yet also awesomely unique for each one of us. It’s the root of our inner guidance and grace. It knows us better than any teacher, tradition, coach, therapist, friend, or woman named Sera Beak, Sera says with a mischeivous smile. It knows when and how we can emerge into this world and offer our unique gifts while staying in integrity and in alignment with our inner truth.
That voice is our Soul with a capital S. And it wants to spend more time with us.
The Soul is the wisest and most loving aspect of ourselves. It is often quite subtle, more of a gentle whisper than a “big cosmic light show.” It is there to remind us what we already know. You may feel it poking at you through mundane channels – a song on the radio, a sign on a bus, an overheard snippet of conversation. When we take the time to create the space to connect with our Soul, Sera says, it shows our Soul that we’re ready to listen, allowing us to turn up the volume on those little nudges.
And turn up the volume we did. Sera’s beautiful guided meditation helped us pump more life-force into our bodies and this earth by tuning in to the warmth, expansion, and unconditional love of the distinct divine being that is seeking to incarnate through each one of us.
We asked questions to our Souls, and practiced recognizing the flavor of the reply.
“It feels and sounds familiar,” Sera says, “like Oh yeah. This is me. This is my truth. This is my Soul.” Which is not to say that it will always sound “spiritual.” It has nuance and flavor, showing up as what we need in the moment. “And sometimes we might need a dirty joke,” she laughs. We ended the meditation feeling more grounded, devoted, present, alive, real, and connected to our truest selves.
Try the meditation for yourself (and your Soul) by watching the archive video here. There’s a 30 day free trial if you’re not already a member, so you can join us live for the next Power Boost, too.
And just a reminder from Sera: she uses the word “imagine” in the meditation because imagination is an excellent tool for greasing the wheels between our human consciousness and the divine.
But, she says emphatically, this is not make believe.
We can’t wait to see Sera Beak in her 3rd appearance at Emerging Women Live 2017, October 5-8th in Denver, CO. Alicia Garza (co-founder of Black Lives Matter), Elizabeth Gilbert (author of Eat Pray Love), Esther Perel (author of Mating in Captivity), and so many more will be there, plus workshops, practices, a fire walk (!), coaching, dancing, connection with amazing women… it’s 4 days you’ll never forget.
The list of powerhouse speakers at Emerging Women Live just keeps growing! This week we are thrilled to announce Sera Beak will be joining us in Denver, October 5-8th. We can’t wait to see what hot new truths she brings to this year’s event.
Sera is a Harvard-trained scholar of comparative world religions who spent years traveling the world studying spirituality with Sufi dervishes, Tibetan monks, Croatian mystics, shamans, and more. She’s given tender and wise keynotes (including In All Fears and Trembling Boldness) at past Emerging Women Live conferences. Here’s a tidbit:
“Our soul’s voice reveals our deepest wisdom and our deepest wounds, which is why unleashing our soul’s voice is often our deepest desire and our deepest fear. We ache to be self-expressed, to be authentic, to totally let ‘er rip and yet we are terrified of being that vulnerable, that raw, that real. So we edit, shape or even shut up our unique soul’s voice in order to be accepted, successful, and even loved. But deep down in our bellies, where our power burns the brightest, we know we cannot be of service, we cannot be free, we cannot truly come alive if we aren’t sharing the truth of who we are.” – Sera Beak
Amen, sister! And have you heard her Emerging Women podcast Red Hot and Holy? She vulnerably speaks to the double-edged sword many of us have faced while trying to make an impact:
“I know for me, in my own experience, it’s been through delivering my truth to the world that I have most often lost my soul. That’s the kind of crazy paradox, that it’s been through trying to actually serve other women and serve the diving feminine in this modern day that… I thought I’d been in contact with my soul, but the reality was there was actually some part of my own spiritualized ego kicking in, or there were other aspects of me that were really more at play than my own soul.” – Sera Beak
Sera will lead us in creating a more intimate and expressive relationship with the universe, in trusting our unique paths, in becoming our own spiritual authorities, and in creating some delicious, divine mischief along the way. A community Q&A/spot-coaching sesh with Sera will follow. Save your virtual seat now and receive a 30 day free trial to the Emerging Women Leadership Platform.
As we transition into the second month of a new year, it feels like time to start reaching back and pulling those soulful souvenirs from EWLive14 into the forefront of our consciousness again.
In this ongoing series, we’ll share some of our favorite moments and memories from the weekend, and we invite you to do the same. You never know who needs to hear the words that resonated so strongly with you. As all of the Emerging Women Live speakers would agree, it’s crucial to your emergence to share your voice and have an impact on the tribe.
“Women are natural connectors. This our time. The bridges have been built. Now it’s time to connect. ~ Chantal Pierrat”
Sera Beak
In All Fears and Trembling Boldness
Sera Beak shared her personal journey of not only living her truth, but speaking it in her own voice. “We ache to be self-expressed, to be authentic, to totally let ‘er rip,” she says, “and yet we are terrified of being that vulnerable, that raw, that real. So we edit, shape or even shut up our unique soul’s voice in order to be accepted, successful, and loved. But deep down in our bellies, where our power burns the brightest, we know we cannot be of service, we cannot be free, we cannot truly come alive if we aren’t sharing the truth of who we are.”
As the Harvard-trained scholar found herself on the fast-track to fame, she struggled with squaring the messages she was receiving from her publicists with the messages she was receiving from her deepest self. As marketers tried to groom her speaking voice (which she self-describes as sounding like a chipmunk on speed) to be more “powerful,” she could feel the authenticity and impact of her talks losing potency.
“The most important part of my message IS my shaky, struggling voice,” she says in her trembling, yes, but 100% Sera voice.
“Your voice is a treasure. Don’t bury it, share it.”
And these words, beautifully unadulterated by public speaking shoulds and shouldn’ts, stamped an unforgettable image in our hearts that we can call on when sharing our unique expression with the world:
“Every time you speak your truth, a goddess tattoos your name across her belly.”
To feel the power of Sera’s soul voice for yourself, tune in to her EWLive14 talk “In All Fears and Trembling Boldness.”
Tara Mohr
Playing Big: Find Your Voice, Your Mission, Your Message
Women’s leadership expert Tara Mohr has seen a pattern among her brilliant peers.
“Women are sitting on their big ideas rather than sharing them, holding back their most provocative questions instead of asking them,” she says. “They are having a collective hallucination that they aren’t ‘ready’ for that bigger role or next step.”
Based on her recent book, Playing Big, Tara helps us learn to trust our instincts, “unhook” from praise and criticism and begin taking bold and wise action. Because when women play big, we change the world.
The bump in the road is often created by paying too much attention to what other people think. Does that sound familiar to you?
“We strangely learn to see women’s stories as how they’re perceived by others,” she says. The solution is to unhook from both praise and criticism as motivating factors while we carve out our space in the world.
If that sounds like something you could benefit from, do yourself a favor and watch the entire insightful presentation here:
Karen May
Reflections on Leadership
It’s no surprise that Karen May is the Vice President of People Development at Google. Her bouncy energy and enthusiasm is infectious, and her ability to really listen to those going through an emerging process is obvious.
What’s not so immediately apparent are her battles with failure and disappointment. If you can relate, you’ve got to hear about the “Disappointment-A-Day Diet” she started with her brother, where they trained themselves to be okay with disappointing people by promising to disappoint at least one person a day, no matter what.
“You have to be willing to disappoint.”
“I failed! Victory!” became Karen’s new cheer for herself as she learned to accept failure as a natural and helpful part of a fulfilling life. “You gotta find a way to make failure something you just step through,” she says.
“You gotta find a way to make failure something you just step through.”
“To emerge requires looking in the mirror and confronting the awful truth that you’re flawed,” Karen says, “and then digging really really deep to find the grace to go back out and say ‘tell me more,’ trusting that you’ll have the strength and support to hear it and to grow with it.”
Get ready to grin with Karen May here:
Agapi Stassinopoulos
Integration is one way that Emerging Women Live sets itself apart from other conferences. The feminine is all about the body, and so we take time to consciously connect with our bodies through dance, yoga and meditation.
We invite you to take a moment for yourself right now and let Agapi Stassinopoulos, sister of Arianna Huffington and author of Unbinding the Heart, lead you in a soothing and nourishing guided meditation.
“Give yourself permission to not wear Spanx on your heart.”
Just press play and let Agapi do the rest:
Keele Burgin & Power Circles
“You do not have to be good. You do not have to walk on your knees For a hundred miles through the desert, repenting. You only have to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves.” – Mary Oliver
In this moving Emerging Short, writer, poet and memoirist Keele Burgin shares her revelation that she did not have to be her father’s definition of good, and how her Power Circle helped her harness that exuberant empowerment. What a testament to the beauty of women’s groups.
“We can fit in anywhere, but to belong is our soul’s request.”
Want to be there in person this year? Save big when you register now for Emerging Women Live 2015 in San Francisco.
This is part three of a series of posts that we hope will inspire and keep you engaged with what you learned at Emerging Women Live.
We are so grateful for being able to bring together these phenomenal women who shared their unique power stories, who gave us the gifts of wisdom and joy, who inspired and motivated us to take our work to the next level. We encourage you to share your favorite Emerging Women Live moments, so please leave a comment below and tell us what inspired YOU the most at #EWLive13.
1. Tami Simon – We Are Always Emerging
In 1985, at the age of 22, Tami Simon founded Sounds True, a multimedia publishing company dedicated to disseminating spiritual wisdom. Based in Boulder, Colorado, Sounds True has published more than 800 audio, video, music, and book titles along with online courses and events. A two-time winner of the Inc 500 award as one of the fastest growing privately held companies in America, Sounds True is widely recognized as a pioneer in providing life-changing, practical tools that accelerate spiritual awakening and personal transformation. In addition to being the publisher and CEO of Sounds True, Tami hosts a free weekly podcast series called Insights at the Edge in which she interviews Sounds True authors about the growing edge of their life and work.
2. Sera Beak – Soul Fire: It’s Time to Burn, Baby, Burn
Sera Beak is a Harvard-trained scholar of comparative world religions who spent years traveling the world studying spirituality with Sufi dervishes, Tibetan monks, Croatian mystics, shamans, and more. She is the author of The Red Book: A Deliciously Unorthodox Approach to Igniting Your Divine Spark and Red Hot and Holy: A Heretic’s Love Story, has appeared in The New York Times, People, and Publisher’s Weekly, and on NPR, The Dr. Oz Show, and Oprah and Friends.
3. Sil Reynolds – Emerging Crone: Gaining Value As We Age
Sil Reynolds, RN, is an author, nurse practitioner, therapist and workshop leader. For more than 30 years she has worked with women of all ages, helping them create balanced and meaningful lives. Reynolds completed Marion Woodman’s BodySoul Rhythms® Leadership training and she a graduate of Brown University, where she majored in Women’s Studies. She has been an ongoing advisor to the Omega Institute’s Women and Power Conference since its inception. For over a decade, Reynolds led Geneen Roth’s Breaking Free From Emotional Eating workshops across the country. In 2005, Sil coordinated the Love Your Tree project for V-Day in NYC, in conjunction with Eve Ensler’s Broadway play The Good Body.
4. Eliza Reynolds – The Whole Girl: A New Model for Growing Up Imperfectly
Eliza Reynolds is a 22-year-old workshop leader, author, speaker, and “professional big sister.” She is a certified teen mediator, SOS trained counselor by Planned Parenthood, and an affiliate of Adventure Game Theater. Eliza leads Mothering & Daughtering workshops for mothers and their preteen and teen daughters with her mom, Sil Reynolds. Her book, Mothering & Daughtering: Keeping the Bond Strong Through the Teen Years, co-authored with her mom and inspired by their workshops together. Eliza is also the co-founder and co-director with Josh Smith of Teen Rising.
5. Nancy Levin – Rock Your Own Foundation, Before It Rocks You
Nancy Levin, author of Writing For My Life, received her MFA in Poetics from Naropa University. Since 2002, Nancy has been the Event Director at Hay House, Inc., producing innovative events and experiential conferences focusing on self-empowerment, health and spirituality while weaving in her own story and poems to connect with audiences around the world during keynotes, workshops and seminars. Nancy is a certified LifeForce Coach and co-presenter for the Deborah King Center LifeForce Coaching Program, and she is currently completing her certification in the Breakthrough Shad Coaching Training Program with The Ford Institute.
Check out EWLive13 Speaker Highlights part I and part II featuring Eve Ensler, Brené Brown, Elizabeth Gilbert and many more. Please leave a comment below and tell us what inspired YOU the most at #EWLive13.
Chelsea Brookshire
Executive Assistant and Relationships Manager
Chelsea has over 15 years of experience in administrative and executive support. After her years of working in the legal and oil and gas industry, Chelsea has made it her passion to fill her life with creativity and incorporates that into everything she does. Her position at Emerging Women allows her to expand on that creativity and assist with empowering women around the world. She is a native of Colorado and enjoys spending time with her husband, her son, bonus son, family, and friends. In her free time she loves camping, painting, and all things creative.
Michelle Caggiano
Online Business Manager
Michelle studied Marketing and received her degree from Metropolitan State University of Denver. Her passion for marketing, combined with great attention to detail, and over 7 years of experience in the tech-world makes her a valuable asset to the team! In addition to Emerging Women, she is also a solopreneur and works with a number of different clients in the online business realm. She is an experienced Online Business Manager and Virtual Assistant who specializes in marketing operations, project management and online course launch management. She is a Colorado native, mother of two dogs, a cat, and a turtle, and step-mother to an amazing little girl. In her spare time she enjoys live music, good food, traveling, and spending time with her friends and family.
Jen Jefferson
Power Circle Administrator
Jen comes to Emerging Women with over 25 years of experience in event operations and volunteer management. She has worked various types of events as a Volunteer Manager for Integral Life conferences and as an Event Coordinator for various large arts and sports festivals throughout Colorado. Alongside her passion for creating and producing events, she worked as a hospital administrator for over a decade in one of Denver’s largest hospitals helping make care affordable to hundreds of patients. Jen was born in Lima, Peru but has spent most of her life in Colorado. In 2016, a year sabbatical morphed into a life living abroad. Jen has been living in Cusco, Peru for the past four years and cherishes her life in the Andes mountains. In her spare time she enjoys exploring the world, playing capoeira, and deepening her yoga and meditation practices.
Nicole Fegley
Director of Power Circles
For over 13 years, Nicole has been a producer and connector in the field of personal and professional growth and transformation, creating diverse content, life-changing curriculum, and exquisite live and online experiences. She loves to unite and facilitate people in their work to live more good, true, and beautiful lives. She’s honored to bring this diverse expertise to Emerging Women. For the past two years she has been the lead producer for Emerging Women Live, and now is bringing her extensive production, coaching and facilitation skills to EW’s Power Circles. Nicole works in private practice as a Certified Integral Master Coach™, through her company, Unabashedly You, and has worked with hundreds of women (and men) individually and as a group facilitator. She also creates programs and interviews fascinating teachers and wellness experts in her role as U.S. Content Producer for Conscious Life. She is the co-founder of Core Integral, an educational company offering a comprehensive and accessible approach to learning integral theory. Prior to this work, she owned a large and lively restaurant and brewery in Pennsylvania. She has studied extensively and worked alongside Ken Wilber (Integral Theory), Daniel Brown, PhD (Tibetan Buddhism, Self-Development, Attachment, and Positive Psychology), and Sofia Diaz (Hatha Yoga and Feminine Embodiment). She holds a Masters Degree from Lehigh University. She regularly delights in the sunshine and mountains of Colorado with her two dogs and her partner Clint, and is a new mama to her daughter Truly Golden.
Chantal Pierrat
Founder & CEO
Chantal’s mission is to increase women’s leadership across the globe. After earning an MBA from the University of Colorado, Chantal left a career in medical device manufacturing in search of work that would align her dedication to transformative leadership with her passion for living an inspired, impactful life. In September 2012, she founded Emerging Women, a global leadership and media platform that serves over 70,000 women worldwide and has advanced women’s leadership within Fortune 500 companies such as HP, Oracle and more. Chantal’s ultimate vision is to weave feminine leadership and authenticity into businesses, and to create a world where women have a strong voice in the shaping of our future. Prior to Emerging Women, for over a decade, Chantal served on the executive team as the VP of Sales and Marketing for Sounds True, a multimedia publishing company focused on spirituality, personal growth, and holistic living. Chantal is a sought after speaker delivering keynotes at The Grace Hopper Celebration, Wisdom 2.0, and many other stages where women’s leadership is critical to the conversation. When she is not dancing or working to empower women around the world, Chantal enjoys family time with her husband and two sons in Boulder, CO.
Sera Beak finished graduate school at Harvard studying comparative world religion and rapidly gained traction as what The New York Times called “a new role-model” for her generation.
