This is Part 3 in the Project Management as Spiritual Practice series. Read Part 1: Small Steps & The Ripple Effect and Part 2: Building Trust in the Process to follow the full journey.
One of my favorite personal growth teachers, Jean Houston, shares about the importance of tuning into our unique frequency to awaken to our life’s purpose. Building on concepts in Madeleine L’Engle’s “A Wrinkle In Time,” both teachers share the power of pursuing what resonates most with our authentic selves.
The analogy states that we’re often so close to being dialed into our specific “station in life,” just slightly off. Perhaps we need a little more support or a little less controlling behavior. The aspects of our life that are too much or too little can create static, like a radio station that’s not tuned into the right channel.
In project management, we call this scoping — determining the right boundaries, priorities, and focus areas for successful outcomes. But what if scoping isn’t just an analytical exercise? What if it’s also about learning to sense when we’re aligned with what wants to emerge?
Moments when you feel completely alive — full body “yes!” — are when you know you’re dialed in, and that’s what we want to see more of.
Dial In: Recognizing Your Signal
Certain activities, groups, or people can help us dial into our best selves, while others can pull us further away. We can recognize this by whether we feel expansive and in a “flow state” or contracted, shrunken to conform to other’s comfort level.
Because finding what fulfills us can seem like a moving target, paying attention to our most affirming experiences becomes essential. In the workplace, this translates to questions like: When have I felt most energized and effective in collaborative work? What conditions supported that? How can I create more of those conditions in future scenarios?
Moments of Recognition: When Someone Sees You
Recently, someone told me I was like a tuning fork, and it may be one of the greatest compliments I’ve received. This came after I posted a vulnerable, private Instagram story about how important theatre and the performing arts are for my creative fulfillment. Someone saw it — someone I didn’t even realize had access to it — and their response was confirmation to keep sharing in this vulnerable way.
Here’s what struck me: I had allowed myself to be seen by a small group of trusted friends, doing what I’m most passionate about yet still afraid to focus on — the creative and performing arts. By being vulnerable and sharing in a protected, intentional way, someone else’s life was touched and it helped them recognize more about what moves them.
This is the exact kind of sharing and connecting that I want to promote. When we tune into what makes us come alive and risk sharing it with the right people, we create opportunities for mutual recognition and support.
Do you have tuning fork people in your life? Think of people or experiences that allow you to attune to what is most sacred and vital to you. The tuning fork moments are gifts that can create momentum in our journey.
One way you can tune in is by paying attention anytime you feel chills or “goose bumps.” What is happening in that moment? This bodily signal indicates that there is something specifically important to you, and the more curious you are about it, the more you can find ways to prioritize those experiences.
Put Your Feelers Out: The Call to Explore
When I first entered my formal career path and struggled to discern where to focus with an interdisciplinary degree in social science, one of my aunts encouraged me — she said, “Put your feelers out. Try as many things as you can and see what speaks to you.” This was some of the best advice for someone like me who enjoys many things and has a perpetual hunger for adventure.
I want to encourage you to also explore as much as you can. I realize this is easier said than done for many of us. Whether our constraints are financial, familial, health, or otherwise — there are real barriers that prevent us from being able to explore as much as we’d like to.
I often hear, “If you want it bad enough, you’ll make it happen.” As much as I wish life were this simple, I have not seen that be the case. This is where community matters. We are far more likely to make things happen when we have a chance to see momentum building around us.
Expanding Horizons Through Inner Work
What if there were ways for each of us to expand our horizons, without ever leaving home? Using kinesthetic and visualization exercises can open new worlds within ourselves. If you truly long to experience something, I believe it is possible for you to create aspects of the experience within yourself before it occurs externally.
Living into the reality that we want to experience is what Mahatma Gandhi referred to when he said, “Be the change you wish to see in the world.” In my experience, this requires two things:
- Align yourself to what you want to become
- Receive the support of a community to sustain the changes you’ve made within
If we do not yet have people supporting us in who we want to become, it is critical that we commit to becoming the person that we want to see before we place expectations on others to support us in this journey.
In project terms, this means doing your inner alignment work first, then engaging collaborators from a place of clarity rather than confusion.
Here’s what we can control: we can find ways to recognize what calls to us, even within our constraints. We can practice tuning into our frequency through small experiments, trusted conversations, and paying attention to what creates those full-body “yes” moments.
Consider these questions to support your own discernment:
- What is the most affirming experience I’ve felt?
- What was happening within the context of my life that made it so meaningful?
- What elements of the experience can I recreate now?
Sometimes the most invigorating moments come only in hindsight — after we take a risk and realize that something beautiful came from it. These experiences can be rare, and that’s also what makes them important to notice.
Next in this series, I’ll explore community building as spiritual practice — how what we cultivate in our inner work ripples out into the collaborative projects and communities we help shape.
In partnership with two heart-centered leaders I met through a transformative learning experience, we’re co-creating a community of practice called the Nurtured Roots Guild, where we explore building the foundation of our visionary lives through embodied practices like the kinesthetic and visualization work mentioned here.
Learn more about the Nurtured Roots Guild: lindalanoue.com/community
Leave a comment