Arabella Davis 10/22/23 Arabella Davis 10/22/23

The Rat Race: Part II (The Opportunity)

"If powerful men and women could remain centered in the Tao all things would be in harmony. The world would become a paradise. All people would be at peace ... "

-Tao Te Ching, Lao Tzu

Once we see through the facade of the American Dream, we are confronted with another realization: we think we are not the public servants who have seemingly betrayed the public or we think we are not the CEO who uses people and loves money.

When we see these thoughts we are presented with a powerful opportunity:

To remain polarized choosing sides and pointing fingers or to become one with the side we think is “not us”.

Oneness with “the politician”, the “banker”and the “CEO” is not saying “I agree with everything they do.”

It’s much deeper than that.

It’s removing ourselves from participating in the divisiveness.

Oneness means you’re done taking sides.

If we choose this path, we have a chance to realize we are all human - regardless of title, status or actions - and we can be in it together.

Once one accepts this humble perspective, something happens.

Suddenly, the world outside of you can't touch the world inside you. Sure, you may feel it at times, but you don’t fear it; you don’t try to change it and you won’t be distracted by it because you are one with it. And so you love the world outside of you because you are it and it is you; you embrace it as a mother embraces her child.

When you can hold space for both the dark and the light of the world, you have the ability to lead in a way that doesn’t compromise the sanctity of Oneness.

And that’s when you won’t be able to focus on anything but your mission.

If you’re a business owner or non-profit founder,your brand is the vessel for Oneness because it requires you to empty yourself of a stance and to use your resources, time and platforms for its mission (not your opinions)..

As the brand moves in harmony with all that is happening in the world, its actions, values and voice will simultaneously shape the world.

If your intention is to leave a brand legacy, the brand mission will require you to match its stance as a vessel of oneness. And once you become this, you will not need to fight, prove or try. Because you will be.

Your power is not in money, influence or followers.

It is in the Oneness.

By Arabella Davis

Arabella Davis 10/15/23 Arabella Davis 10/15/23

The Rat Race: Part 1 (The Performance)

“The ideology of democracy tries to maintain a society’s comfort and convenience based on liberal views, so that the bigger questions of life are never asked of those imposing democracy upon the people. The hierarchical systems of government, banking, corporations, and royalty end up being tyrants rather than servants.”

-Tao Te Ching, Translated by Jason Gregory

*You enter a small theater. The lights are off, but the seats are empty, so you reach out your hand to skim the back of the seats and choose the one on the end of the aisle. Your arms are resting on dark mahogany wood and you relax. It’s too dark for your eyes to make out the figure approaching, but judging by the light, small interval of foot steps, it’s a woman. Bright lights abruptly come on, and although you’re in the back, your eyes are nearly blinded by the synthetic white. You’re curious, so you keep your eyes open. But the light hurts, so you turn your head and avert your eyes from the stage when you hear a sharp, sweet voice*

“Welcome to America!”

She exclaims.

“Please make yourself at home, but remember to keep all nefarious activities like critical thinking and a high quality of life outside of the vehicle.”

She squats down and puts her hands out as if driving a vehicle and motions her hands as if she is a carnival ride operator.

“One foot in front of the other now.”

You feel amused.

“To make your stay here as comfortable as possible, please get the hell in line.”

You shift your weight to the edge of the seat to take in everything that is going on.

“Don’t ask what kind of person you want to be or even can be. The only objective here is what you want to be when you grow up.”

You yell to the stage as if the last sentence she asks was a direct inquiry.

“Oh, an artist?”

You nod your head.

“Do you want to live under a bridge? Well, at least you’d have a big community to be with.”

She puts her hand to her ear as if she hears another person yelling a response as to what they want to be when they grow up.

You look around to make sure it really is just you there and just as your eyes scan the other side of the theater your gaze snaps back to center stage with a wild retort.

“A doctor? Perfect! But not the kind of doctor that teaches holistic medicine. The kind that goes by the book.”

She winks.

You finish scanning the auditorium - you’re definitely the only one there.

“What book? Written by who you ask?”

You press your feet to the floor with discomfort and glue your back to the seat. Oddly fascinated, you remain glued to her words. Before her last questions can catch up with you, she shoots out words with a sudden sternness. She locks eyes with you to make sure you’re paying attention.

“It doesn’t matter, it's correct.”

You didn’t realize you were holding your breath. You close your eyes and breathe deeply and you hear her continue with the same stern sentiment she shared a moment ago. You keep your eyes shut to avoid the glare, but you can still feel her looking at you.

“And the same goes for our religions, our laws, and our politics.”

Your eyes stay closed, but your amusement has faded and now you feel angry. With fists balled up, you remain quiet. She can be heard continuing.

“Do not question it.”

You breathe deeply again and focus on your breaths as her voice falls to the background.

“Also do not question the dozens of pills we prescribe you so you’re just productive enough to continue working but not productive enough to escape. And definitely don’t begin to think about the chemical ridden food available in every family grocery store.”

Now you feel like you’re gonna lose it - you begin to stand up and violently assert your opinions when she returns to a sweet, tender voice - a side she hasn’t yet shown. The sudden shift in her tone makes you feel disoriented. As fast as it came, your anger fades to hopelessness. Your limbs become momentarily limp.

“We look forward to seeing you soon for your next visit to the doctor’s and will send you a thank you letter with an even longer bill attached neatly to the end.”

The program in her mind plays. She responds to another objection, but this time it matches that you had been thinking.

“A fractured system you say? Failing? Surely not.”

Your eyes begin tearing up as you realize nothing you say will make a difference because she doesn’t want to hear it anyway. You wonder if she is a robot as she starts another rant.

“America is number one! It always has been. To continue being number one, it is up to you, and only you to show up on time, eight hours a day, five days a week.”

After realizing this has gone on for a while, you take a different approach. You stop taking things she says personally and begin to observe her as if you’re watching a play. After all, you are in a theatre. You realize she’s saying a script she has been programmed with over a long period of time.

“Oh, it's your child's birthday you might have to skip. Not work, your child's birthday, silly.”

Your begin to see she is the one who is trapped. As your hopelessness turns to compassion, you watch standing with your hands on the seat in front of you, your body relaxed.

“I heard you had a family emergency? How terrible!”

You recall hearing these words before.

“We may have to consider someone more committed if this happens again. Next time, you might want to consider using one of your sick days or holidays.”

At this point, she is used to the objections; her own statement prompts a defense when you haven’t said a word.

“There's not many, but you should make the most of it!”

You continue observing and involuntarily your head cocks to the side and your eyebrows soften. The compassion becomes a softness inside of you as you see her innocence. She continues still in the script. You can’t tell if she is a brilliant actor or a brainwashed person.

“We want happy employees for our PR. And the holidays are a fantastic benefit because you can experience diverse cultures of the world and get a glimpse of the world without biased media. If you could afford it, that is.”

Without missing a beat she boasts another response to objections.

“Maybe if you get another job, it’d be possible.”

You put your hands in your pockets and wonder how much longer she could continue with this act. You continue standing with patience and curiosity to see if she’ll break character.

“With what time you ask? Don’t worry you’ll figure it out.”

You put your hand to your heart because you feel for her. Whether it’s an act or a brainwash, you can sense the tension and anger in her instead of you. She stands with a rigid body, stiff and pointing her finger.

“You better not be asking for handouts. That’s not the American way.”

You wonder how long she’s been saying these things.

“We are so glad to have you …by the throat.”

You begin to remember feeling that way and recall once more that she is the one who is trapped.

“Now on your marks, get set …go!”

*The lights turn on and the curtains close. You walk away wondering if she knows she’s acting. As you exit the theater, you begin to cry - this time it’s not suffering you feel as a victim, it’s sadness for her as a human. Even if it is an act. You wonder if she will ever feel freedom the way you do now.*

By Arabella Davis

Guest User 10/1/23 Guest User 10/1/23

Conscious Identities

“Consciousness is dancing to a new rhythm and vibration, both collectively and individually.”

Not so long ago, I was moving through life unconsciously. Though blissful, existing unconsciously had lulled me into a state of inaction, closed mindedness and feeling largely indifferent to the world around me.

One day, I realized my unconsciousness wasn’t fulfilling the kind of life I wanted to live. This led me to choose consciousness over drifting, which set my life on a new path.

To gain consciousness as I moved through life, I had to learn to let go of my ego and embrace new perspectives and rhythms that at the time, didn’t feel like I identified with. Just like learning a new dance, I stumbled to find the flow and kept making the same mistakes over and over again until my body and mind learned how to pull the lessons together.

Relearning how to be conscious was incredibly tiring, emotionally and physically, but it was absolutely worth it.

As my conscious identity began to find stable ground, I took notice of the multifaceted world around me and how it was responsible for not making one ‘correct’ identity, but endless identities that were constantly experiencing changes based on their individual experiences.

The more I learned about the world around me and who I was within it, the more fluid I saw consciousness. It is constantly ebbing and flowing.

As we begin to explore our own consciousness and its significance, we can gain more openness and empathy in our perspectives. We are able to see the beauty in people’s singularities and how these singularities form all of our consciousnesses.

But take it with a grain of salt, because consciousness isn't something that is meant to everyone the same way. In fact, every person has a different consciousness so it wouldn’t work to judge yourself off of someone else’s consciousness.

As we begin to move through the world consciously, we can become stewards of where our energies are directed and more responsible for what we put into the world as we recognize its effect on others.

As business owners, it is important to promote businesses with consciousness. This is firstly important for your employees whose individual creativity, empathy, and teamwork will grow as they learn more and feel supported with your care. It is also important for promoting responsible stewardship of collective consciousness. It is our responsibility to create businesses that support healthy consciousness across communities where people can share different ideas but feel understood, valued, and at ease with each other.

By Arabella Davis

Guest User 9/24/23 Guest User 9/24/23

Trusting Your Path

“We-wei is the Taoist principle of trust. The trust of wu-wei threatens any governmental, social, religious, and cultural landscape. We align with our innate trust when we are not forcing and instead allow life to take place. This capacity to align with your innate trust brings you back in harmony with the entire cosmos.”

-Tao Te Ching, Translated by Jason Gregory

You know that feeling when you really want something to go perfectly as planned but it ends up having its own agenda? Don’t worry, we’ve all been there.

As someone who has experienced my fair share of this feeling, I know how uncomfortable it can feel. But at the end of the day, it's important to remember that some things, no matter how hard we try to paint it to look like a chicken, still might quack like a duck.

And that's okay.

Society can be very demanding. It imprints expectations shaped by social norms into everything we know about the world and who we are within it. Even as small children we are asked what we want to be when we grow up. That's the largest of the nesting dolls.

The nesting dolls represent the cookie cutter life that we have to get just right for success.

As we grow older, we might feel the nesting dolls getting smaller, with less room for error, deviation, and imagination. For example, what career you pick is shaped by many other factors like their salary, their availability, and their status. If you hesitate or are not proactive even from a young age we are taught that we run the risk of being left behind. This sounds stressful, right?

The government and social constructs have over generalized our lives and put imaginary labels and timelines on all kinds of things. When we miss one of the steps on the meticulous agenda, we usually feel restless, down, embarrassed, or anxious about our future.

Wu-wei helps us regain our inner peace as we move through life because it sets aside the rigorous agenda that society has laid out for us and instead appreciates the present and welcomes change.

This can be threatening for governmental and societal constructs because it's more difficult to label, influence, and harness power from. While governments struggle to preserve their influence when this principle is applied, individuals gain more influence, confidence, inner peace, and appreciation for the present.

When we think about wu-wei and business, the first thing is to remember not to sacrifice your inner peace for your job. Your inner peace and job should complement each other. By prioritizing your inner peace, you stress less and also hold more tightly onto your individuality and voice. These will help protect your inner wu-wei.

And if you are a business owner, some ways you can help promote wu-wei in your workplace are by cultivating autonomy, reducing micromanagement, and embracing adaptability. By doing this, your employees will feel more at ease with finding ways to work that complement their individual strengths, having change be seen as an asset rather than a hindrance, and by lightening the mood of the workplace with new creative and refreshing ideas.

By Arabella Davis

Guest User 9/17/23 Guest User 9/17/23

Strength in Exchanging Perspectives

“We are raised to believe that we exist in a hostile universe, so we ought to fear one another and never trust anyone. This ideology is bringing the human race to its knees”

-Tao Te Ching, Translated by Jason Gregory

Some say don’t speak to strangers, and others say a stranger is just a friend you haven’t met yet.

Either way, most Americans can recall a phrase we swear kept us safe from the time we first started walking to school:

“Stranger danger!”

While being cautious is always advisable, a seemingly harmless side effect happens when we adopt this philosophy as children. And that is the unintentional practice of fear so far into adulthood that we become fearful of our fellow humans.

With less rationality, less conversation, and more judgment, fear can urge us to act without thinking and villainize people's identities or circumstances, simply because we’ve never experienced it before.

I think the root of our fear is a reflection of our vestigial biological instincts when our ancestor’s survival depended on staying with our group. But we no longer live in a hostile world, so why does senseless fear still persist?

Today there is still such haste in categorizing people into a little box and closing our ears to their perspectives and reasoning.

It's as if we are afraid that their tongues hold magical spell casting properties that will erase our own perceptions.

To challenge or relinquish our own perceptions is an act of selflessness.

It invites self doubt, but at the same time, self improvement and new realizations.

As we learn more about the world around us and stories become more visible through the media, we can now more easily see that every person we meet has a story and lessons to go with them.

I sometimes like to think that every person I meet has something to teach me and that I have something to teach them.

This idea keeps curiosity on its toes and celebrates every individual interaction we have.

When fear and distrust are eliminated, ideas big and small can be shared. The space that allows for big and small ideas is called presence. And presence can only exist in our interactions with others when we become fully at peace with whatever we or someone else is experiencing in the moment. This ultimately gives way to intimacy, a factor which is a foundation for long-lasting relationships with our fellow humans.

Each new person you meet gives you an opportunity to see things through new perspectives. Challenging social constructs and learning more about those around us builds empathy so we can value and stand in the shoes of other identities.

Such an intense practice of the heart is especially critical for business owners and non-profit founders who hope to leave the world better than we found it.

The world is in desperate need of business owners and non-profit founders who actively prioritize relationships above missions and dollars.

As business owners and non-profit founders, It’s up to us to set the precedent for the future of human relationships.

Have you been afraid of being rejected (again) by people who don’t resonate with your vision?

Are you holding back on talking with a colleague or teammate about what is or isn’t working?

Or are you simply settling for a smaller reach because you are aware of the challenges and discomfort that come with expanding your organization?

Each of these scenarios will inevitably come up in our lives as we embrace leading with intention.

If you’ve noticed fear is entangled within your leadership, here are a few tips on how you can challenge yourself to be uncomfortable and resolve your fear one conversation at a time for a more humanized business and ultimately, a more caring world:

Create a space where everyone feels comfortable openly sharing their thoughts.
Promote team bonding exercises to ease relationships.
If an employee seems like they are struggling, ask how they are doing and if they would like any help.
Ask employees to list parts of their job they like, don’t like, and what could be functionally improved?

By Arabella Davis

Guest User 9/10/23 Guest User 9/10/23

Embracing New Possibilities: Part 2

“We cease clinging to the experiences of the past and instead become rejuvenated in the present”

-Tao Te Ching, Translated by Jason Gregory

Suddenly, it burst to life.

Vines with colorful tiny flowers, all unique and sweet smelling, began to curl around the edges and up the corners of the box.

As the vine continued to wrap its way around the room, the dusty box was forgotten.

The vine climbed higher than even the shelf where I had hidden the box for so long. With its accent, I felt my peace and potential rising off the ground.

How could I have been that dusty box?

And that’s when the patchy roof broke away, making room for the tiny vine, only no, it had become a blossoming tree.

Woven into a firm trunk made of lessons, gratitude, perspectives, trust, pride, and love. And then I saw the forest.

Who am I?

I am you.

…

Sometimes it’s difficult to break away from the limitations that no one has put upon us except our own mind.

It’s a silly thing, but it can also feel incredibly powerful.

If your brain ever tells you you can’t be something new or break away from a set agenda, it might be time to stop taking your thoughts as the truth.

It would be a shame to never challenge your beliefs, for that is when you close your mind to all the possibilities of what could be.

Allowing the possibilities to exist is presence.

If you’ve defined yourself by past failures, or even successes, give space for new outcomes to grow.

Being present in the possibilities - especially the ones we don’t want - cultivates peace with what is. And despite what we hear from social media, so-called gurus or any other entrepreneurs, your success isn’t helping anyone. Maybe not even you.

It’s your presence and intention - your originality - these are the keys to both being okay with where you are now and to take you somewhere else.. But first you must learn to simply be.

By Arabella Davis

Guest User 9/3/23 Guest User 9/3/23

Embracing New Possibilities: Part 1

“We cease clinging to the experiences of the past and instead become rejuvenated in the present”

-Tao Te Ching, Translated by Jason Gregory

Who am I?

Who are you?

The dusty box of my own identity has been tucked away neatly placed upon a high shelf. No curious hands to marvel at the contents within or to ask about its hopes and comforts. Or even worse, expose it to societal pressures to change.

It was the same cycle - simple, ordinary, safe. But what could the curious hands do?

If Pandora's box was opened, what would emerge? Newness and discovery? Freedom and peace? Or uncertainty and a deep sleep that had been disturbed?

The curious hands snatched the dusty box before alarms could be raised, spirals of stardust lifting up from the top. The curious hands eagerly began to unwrap the faded colors that had protected the box for so long.

Soon it was an ordinary cardboard box, just as so many others are. But what lies inside?

As a child would, the curious hands peeled back the cardboard tongues.

A seed.

Confused, the elation already evaporating from the room, the child stares down at their now apathetic hands as a single tear slides down their cheek.

Pandora’s box was underwhelming and unfruitful.

The curious hands began to close the box but not before their single tear fell and splashed across the old seed.

By Arabella Davis

Caitlin Thiede 5/28/19 Caitlin Thiede 5/28/19

Blog Post Title One

It all begins with an idea.

It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more. Or maybe you have a creative project to share with the world. Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.

Don’t worry about sounding professional. Sound like you. There are over 1.5 billion websites out there, but your story is what’s going to separate this one from the rest. If you read the words back and don’t hear your own voice in your head, that’s a good sign you still have more work to do.

Be clear, be confident and don’t overthink it. The beauty of your story is that it’s going to continue to evolve and your site can evolve with it. Your goal should be to make it feel right for right now. Later will take care of itself. It always does.