This book is based on my experiments with energy while I was working as a management consultant. The two worlds seem incompatible at first. But they are not. Managing my energy with the techniques I learned and perfected made the difference between success and failure many times. Here's one of them...
Personal Power (Mindfulness Techniques for the Corporate World) - Book fragment
“This meeting wasn’t planned!” I want to scream, but nothing comes out.
Better it doesn’t. He is my boss, the programme manager. I am just one of the many project managers working for him. I cannot scream at him even when he is pulling me away from my desk and into a meeting I had no idea was happening and no time to prepare for.
“Come on, you just need to be in there for ten minutes. The top guy wants to know more about this performance indicator dashboard and asked to speak to the project manager handling this piece.”
‘Oh great’, I think. Ten minutes is all they need to trash my project, and me included if I don’t sound convincing enough.
“He’s not in a good mood,” my boss warns me. “We already talked a little bit about it and he isn’t really convinced...”
I bite my lip and still say nothing. I just feel heavy all of a sudden. A bit shaky and a bit unsure about what I am to do once I enter that meeting room where the top executives of the organisation I’m working for are having their monthly meeting. They have all the power. Including the power to fire me, a little insignificant contractor.
The meeting is on the top floor, of course it is. That’s where all the top guys always live: on the top floor. I feel grateful for the few minutes of nothingness as we wait for the elevator to come.
“Don’t worry, you’ll be ok,” my boss says encouragingly. But his stressed voice gives a different message. And yet... they won’t fire him. He is high up enough in the hierarchy not to be touched if one of the projects goes wrong. Unlike me. This is my only project and if they think they have no use for it... well, they have no use for me either.
“Ground,” I think. “Just ground.”
My boss is still talking but I do not hear him any longer. I start travelling down with my roots to the centre of the earth. It is a journey at lightning speed because the elevator is here and we only have a few minutes left. By the time he presses the button for the top floor, I am already under the shower of white light. I feel my energy field, heavy and somewhat greyish; maybe I had unconsciously picked up on that conversation about my project. But I have no time to worry what this greyish thing is. I just cleanse it off. The elevator is on the eighth floor now. I close my eyes and for the next few seconds I totally immerse myself into the white light shower.
Bing. The doors open.
I step outside and carry a bubble of light around me. I make sure it is there and I make sure I am not in my mind, trying to anticipate their questions. I have no time for that. I only have a few steps until I reach the door of that meeting room. I make sure I am in my body as I take those steps, feeling my roots and feeling the bubble of white light all around me, bathing me, making me shine.
Sparkle. Shine. White light. Roots. Safe. I am safe. Safe.
“Good morning, gentlemen,” I say, smiling as I enter the meeting room.
“This was unexpected but I would be happy to answer any questions you might have about my project.”
The white light is still there with me as I listen to and answer their questions. I feel it: pure white light. I feel the sparkle, and I feel my energy: clean, strong and grounded.
And so is my project, they conclude after about ten minutes of questioning. Strong and grounded. In good order.
“Thank you for your time, we have no further questions.”
My boss smiles relieved and nods his head. “Well done” I read on his silent lips.
The white bubble of light is still with me as I walk out of the room, back into the elevator, and as I take my place at my desk on the third floor and let out one long sigh of relief.
