We all know the famous poem about the reluctant follower that was pushed from the edge to find that they didn’t in fact fall, their fears were unfounded, and the master pushed them because he knew they could fly.

In my teaching and especially in groups, there are sometimes these overwhelmed aviators but instead of one edge, they have many. Coming to our edges is usually uncomfortable, our protective mechanisms can fire over time, blaring out alarms and pointing to red flags that have to do with times from the past which have damaged the highly sensitive soul when they attempted this kind of vulnerability. 

This is one of the reasons I created the Safe and Sacred Leadership course, to be such a strong and flexible container that it can hold these students as they bravely take on each edge but then expand in an instant giving them room to experience the sudden and sometimes enormous spread of wings. As a facilitator who deals with a vast array of talents and personalities in each group I needed the backup of course, a way of learning that would mean each student got the individual support required to confront and embrace however many edges appeared. The Sacred and Safe Leadership Course is a way of large-scale modeling my own understanding of what it is to hold space and how this tool can always be broadened and deepened. It is limitless and needs to be so because when a warrior emerges in a group, they need space to swing their sword. One of these students from the last cohort was Alana.

Alana is a spiritual warrior in the truest form. 

Just as Hinemoa hid her love for Tūtānekai, so did Alana hide her love for her destiny. But this too turned out to be a love story as Spirit and Alana’s own gifts searched and searched for her, not giving up until they were united. And so her story also ends in completion, recognition and celebration.

Her resistance became the doorway to her hidden stash of power. We all witnessed her hero’s journey through The Sacred and Safe Leadership course from trial and test to revel in success. She has woven her cultural identity into her personal attributes and shifted from being completely blocked, she rose to overcome and had such an immense flow of gifts open up through her energy centres, her personality and her words. She channeled the voice of spirit through many beautiful poems and in one identified herself as a Homebringer. 

This term is something unique to her and has made the reflection of her struggle become the definition of her healer identity. She will now be a beacon for those who are blocked and bring them home to themselves. 

In the beginning, Alana spent several months in the Sacred and Safe program wrestling with a massive power that was coming online for her – making friends with it, claiming it, so that she could fully own it.

She spent the first couple of months wanting to run away. From herself, her gifts, her healing nature and her power. 

When I think of Alana I smile, thinking of the innocent one that entered the program and the warrior that left it. 

Alana was adamant at some levels that she had no gifts, that perhaps she was a healer but most likely not. Even though it was the core calling of her life she was in a deep struggle with it. However one of the first signs of enduring strength of character was that she would happily laugh and nod and tell you that this was true.

The path of the spiritual warrior asks us to meet our fears, our edges, and to stay and not run. Alana needed to learn and did learn how to stay on those edges, how to breathe with them, slow down on them and greet them.

With Process Work training, she learned that she could surf those edges like the waves of her native Hawa’ii and bring herself to a soft landing, on the freshly turned sand, looking forward, ever present and flexible. 

In this program, Alana perhaps had the most fear, and yet was asked by her own path to become the most fearless, and I am proud to say she accomplished this in a way few others could.

Alana brought a lot of doubt to this program, and by weaving her own meta skills, dreaming and seeing them modeled by others, she was able to perceive the bones of her own talent. To sketch a framework that became fleshed out very quickly by innate knowing and clarity in lessons. 

She found her confidence when she activated and crafted her own sacred space that was so full of the elders and ancestors of her own culture, and discovered she was not alone, she was supported by many allies that gathered around her.

She was here to heal in a multidimensional way and those dimensions showed up for her. 

Alana also learned what it meant to stay in a deep center, anchored in your sacred space with your meta skills and to not move from this place whatever came at her, her trauma, her fears or difficult energies. She learned that she is not here to move from that place, but the gifts and powers she will use in facilitation come from the deep center in the same way her island is in the center of a vast ocean. 

What also blossomed for Alana was this incredible playfulness and joy – she is funny and fun and playful as a sacred and safe facilitator. At first, she struggled to understand how that playfulness and joy were helpful as a facilitator but now she revels in it. It is unusual, relieving and uplifting, especially for those that bring deep trauma to her door. 

Her playfulness also gives her the meta skill of the unpredictable and the spontaneous. This is a delight because you never know in a loving and safe way where she is going to go, how she will respond and what she will bring in – keeping her leadership fresh and present and creative. She was so moved by this experience and has said, ‘I am grateful for all the experiences that I have had, whether right or wrong, that has helped me to learn, grow, and heal on so many different levels. Most of all I am just grateful for being me.’

Alana was the youngest member of her cohort – yet she soared and excelled as much as her more senior colleagues and stood equally in her power alongside them all. She has culminated her completion of the course by creating her own business that she manifested from the energetic plane to the physical. So now she is ready and willing to offer this emergence of talent through this business. 

When I think of Alana I see a warrior goddess with a shining sword in one hand, a lamp in the other, a radiant aura around her, a lei around her neck and a wreath of flowers upon her head, her heart shining like a star. She has arrived in the true power of who she is as a facilitator. A Quirky, fun, joyous, unmoving, relentlessly powerful, sensitive and compassionate leader. I want to leave you all with one of her poems, I am so proud of her and want the last words to be hers.

Unfurl more about Alana’s journey here in this video below 👇🏼