an intro to intrinsic wayfinding
a recent meme on instagram said: we are floating on a rock in space and somehow we decided on mortgages and credit scores (i felt that to my core).
individuals operate within a myriad of constructs.
they exist in the ether, they are an undercurrent beneath everyone’s feet, they envelop every member of society—everywhere and in everything people experience, completely surrounded.
from capitalism and white supremacy to patriarchy—these systems are omnipresent. they are reductive. they reinforce the concept of lack, and breed a scarcity mindset. they are inherently and intentionally divisive. they indoctrinate the limiting belief that for others to receive, someone(s) else must lose.
they were made by men (not women). white men made them (not people of color). white men with penises made them (CIS not others), and, finally, it took many, many of them to do that.
within those constructs sit the people. and, in order to exist each one takes on roles. in fact, folks are typecast into these roles—all playing enabling parts.
like the systems themselves, these roles don’t serve folks, or, if they do, only up to a certain point. they are limiting. they are often binary (an in-group and an out-group), requiring false trade-offs. cogs in the wheel, each individual is essential to a construct’s viability. folks play their political parts, their class and gender roles, they reinforce racial lines. all the while pulled further and further from their true self.
take a listen! just a personal story to help bring this section to life. we hope you enjoy it!
here’s the plot twist: these constructs are fabricated, false, and fake. each and every one.
these systems protect the few at the expense of the many. people can grind themselves to death, #HustleHard af, and fight for that seat at the table all day, everyday, but ultimately it all comes down to a single truth. these constructs cannot serve folks because they were never meant to.
one more point of note: when it rains, everybody gets wet. these constructs are not only systems of oppression for the many but also are becoming increasingly oppressive for the very populations they were meant to serve.
what if we’re able to make our way to our original best—our self before we were unduly and overly influenced by these constructs? what if there’s a pathway back before we were typecast into roles that were never meant for us?
the work to tap into our original self—a soulful reclamation—is threefold. three elements are inherent to intrinsic wayfinding. a practice that allows us to unshackle our personal narratives and identities from systems of oppression. a way forward to live more fulfilled and fully abundant lives.
Align. Deliver. Deconstruct.
read on to understand how these elements work together to bring each of us closer to our original self through intrinsic wayfinding.
“and you? when will you begin that long journey into yourself?”
- rumi
the first element of intrinsic wayfinding is about aligning our head, heart, and gut—a pathway leading to internal knowing. a practice reigniting our ability to tap into the source (you!) in order to navigate in this lifetime.
in our society we overly index on the power and value of the head, or the mind. sayings like mind over matter, it’s all psychological, or your mind can convince your body to do anything ring in our ears as we push through. and in fact, we do often drag our bodies along for the ride.
take a listen! just a personal story to help bring this section to life. we hope you enjoy it!
when we are misaligned, and over-indexed, our behavior looks inordinately rational or logical—intellectualizing everything, including deeply human moments. it takes the shape of a saddening inability to hold compassion or grace for not only others but also ourselves. internal disconnection can also manifest as indecision—good ol’ analysis paralysis.
how might we stop bypassing the messages and the signals that come from our heart and our gut? how do we get to a place of internal knowing through head:heart:gut alignment? what might operating more reflectively—where we are able to take in information and respond from a place that is centered and balanced—look like?
“tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?”
- mary oliver
the second element of intrinsic wayfinding is about the contribution we each make within this one lifetime. our personal offering is something uniquely special to us. but again, given the way society has us built, we gravitate towards the conventional paths laid out before us—the tried and true.
we go from a to b, and from b to c. the college graduate gets a job, and a job turns into a career. within a field, organization, or institution we work towards promotion after promotion after promotion—to get that title and that bag.
this is particularly true if we come from first generation families of any sort or carry any marginalized identity.
all of which begs the question: how fulfilled are we, really? are we working towards what brings us joy or just working on what we do well and brings others benefit? have we even given ourselves permission to consider either of those as possibilities for ourselves in this lifetime?
when we aren’t delivering against our unique offering it looks like safe routes and traditional careers. we are stuck in what gay hendricks, in his book the big leap, calls our zone of competence. that place where you perform just fine, executing tasks well, but with no joy and certainly no fulfillment. you may even reach your zone of excellence—executing in life in a way that sets you apart from the pack, but you still do not love what you’re after.
take a listen! just a personal story to help bring this section to life. we hope you enjoy it!
the opportunity, this practice, is for us to envision new futures—new possibilities for ourselves in this one life and to then start down the path of manifesting our personal contribution.
how can we question the realm of possibility to envision new futures full of limitless abundance? how might we utilize internal knowing to eclipse our wildest dreams? how do we create the opening for the universe to conspire in our favor—offering the relationships, experiences, and moments needed to clear a path towards our unique contribution?
“what are the tyrannies you swallow day by day and attempt to make your own, until you will sicken and die of them, still in silence?”
- audre lordé
the third element of intrinsic wayfinding is about understanding that we are complicit in upholding these man-made oppressive constructs (wait, wait, give me a chance to explain). this is not to imply complicity in a way that harms others. instead, complicit in a way that limits and undermines one’s own self.
when a construct is done well, built to perfection, the prison guard doesn't have to sit at the gate to mind it. no, in fact, we do the work for them. we start to take those constructs and their limiting beliefs, behaviors, and feelings and we swallow them whole. we make them ours. we become susceptible to conformance. we do the heavy lifting of turning down our own voice, minimizing our shine, making ourselves smaller, diminishing our own power, and playing small. we help perpetuate the system utilizing our very own physical, emotional, and spiritual labor.
take a listen! just a personal story to help bring this section to life. we hope you enjoy it!
here’s the thing. we are often looking for these big broad brushstrokes that expose these systems when in fact it’s actually death by a thousand papercuts. if we take these small instances of internalization and add them up over the course of a day, a week, a year, a lifetime, where does that leave us? what does that leave us with?
when these constructs are alive and thriving in our day to day lives we get tripped up, feeling like we are often taking two steps forward and two steps back. we either break under social pressure to conform, or buck-up against it in rebellion (hello, zero f@cks!). it can feel like immense frustration—like the odds are ever stacked against us. we are triggered, many times defensive, and left feeling backed into a corner—we can’t catch a break. over time, it’s defeating and it always ends up exhausting.
what might it look like if we unshackled ourselves from the limiting constructs that have us in a chokehold? what new mindsets and behaviors could we utilize to reframe our responses? what might a truly liberated life look like?
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so those are the elements. and, you can imagine that the more aligned you become, the more you are able to envision new futures for yourself. and, the more you envision the more you are able to see and dismantle the layers of limiting beliefs. and the more you deconstruct, the more you're able to align, because you're better positioned to deepen your internal knowing. wash, rinse, and repeat.
listen, this is not to imply that any of this is easy. it is a life’s practice—a radical approach to life.
one that requires faith, deep curiosity, and a tremendous amount of bravery. taken together, align:deliver:deconstruct create a path to intrinsic wayfinding—offering a revolutionary way of living through an abundant life. i've seen it in my life. i've seen it in the lives of others. and i believe it is accessible to us all.
