Access To Beauty or the treasure of depth
a glimpse on humanity beyond the pattern of scapegoating
As humans we all have a strong inner call to live our lives in accordance with our deepest values. I call that soul integrity. We are made for this. The visions we have for ourselves, for the wellbeing of our human tribe and for the planet we call our home is shaped by our life stories meaning they have a very individual taste and touch that matter. It is not necessary that we all agree on the details. The important thing is to listen to our inner call and to listen to the innermost calls of the people around us who are currently the average of 8 billion people living on our planet.
The starting point for my own journey towards soul integrity was an ambivalent one and it can be clearly linked to the losses and heartaches that my ancestors who had experienced World War II in Germany went through – with different possibilities for insights and different capacities to deal with them, which includes the prices we all have to pay if being numb(ed) and only partly present in our lives.
I am the grandchild of two remarkable women who are the same age and were born in the same country, but whose life stories are completely different. Both were thrown into fully different contexts of experience during the war through their marriages. While my young grandmother Liselotte fell in love with someone with an active role in the Nazi regime, my grandmother Friedegard lived in constant fear that her husbands well kept secret of being half Jewish would lead to his deportation. Although their stories are so different, they both later tried to give meaning to their lives by dedicating themselves to service for the common good, justice and peace.
Blessing or curse, my two grand-fathers passed on to me both, the legacy of the perpetuator and the legacy of the oppressed one. For me as a child I didn’t have the chance to build my identity on a clear belonging to one of the groups. I had to find my own way to make sense of myself. I learned that history is not so simple, that there was so much more to their life stories that could not be told within a framework of judgement and dehumanisation. Still, it took me half a lifetime to claim my right to contribute to the beauty of the world – a desire that had been alive in me since birth.
I think this is the core of what I dare to stand up for in my life today. It began with the ever burning question in me: How do I come to live a meaningful life – one that reflects my deepest values and in which I can contribute to beauty in the world – while being bound into an environment and structures that are primarily hostile to life?
Our biography, however painful it may be, holds the key to our personal access to beauty.
There is a concept that divides people into victims and perpetuators. And then there are people who say that we need to break down this concept and step out of our “victims mindset”. There is a truth to that. And I think that we are overlooking something important in both perspectives. Hurt people hurt people. The losses and heartbreaks and injustices and cruelties we do to each other are real. As humans we are capable to do harm to the integrity of someone. And as humans we have also access to the possibility of repair. Both approaches, the insistence on the simplistic division into two sides and the attempt to overcome it through the denial of dualism can be seen as dead ends or shortcuts. What is missing in both of them is the treasure of depth.
Life is complex and we have all had numerous experiences of being mistreated or causing harm to others. To address these states with the narrowing lens of moralism will inevitably add to the harm. With my work, I strive to create spaces that are there for everyone, regardless of where you are on the moving scale of experience at any given moment in time. Then feelings of oppression or helplessness, shame or guilt become precious doorways into a deeper truth where the grief we feel can turn into a new aliveness, where our care for the world is rehabilitated and shifts into the perception of beauty and a deepened experience of joy.
Soul integrity is our birthright. And that includes the right to learn and change to get closer to it every day. This is the journey I have committed myself to. The encouragement I want to give is that in every moment you can choose to “become your essence”. The range is wide. Wether you are in the process of healing a traumatic experience of oppression or abuse or whether you become aware of a painful gap between your leadership position in a company or in politics and your deepest personal values, whether you are burnet out as a long time activist for a special cause or whether you are looking for a way to free yourself from a destructive logic to which you feel bound because of your role in society – we can start everywhere.
In which area your trust has been broken? Where do you act against better knowing? What is the actual context in which you can’t see any possibility to live in accordance with your deepest values? The missing perspective is probably part of the fragmentation we all live in. And the gap can be closed.
When we fail to live up to our deepest values, damage occurs that should not be taken lightly, as it is often more destructive than the original wound that caused it. When we lack wholeness – integrity – at the soul level, we can experience an increasing loss of self-worth, hopelessness, helplessness or even depression. Our own very life force is affected. Then it is time to act and take the first courageous step towards soul integrity, which may be something unthinkable. I promise you, every further step will be easier. Once your soul is nourished by standing up for what you know about the flourishing of life, life itself will gift you with the strength you need to take the next step – until you walk the path of soul integrity in your full beauty.
I went through this. I have been through the dark night of the soul. That makes me your steadfast companion on this journey. In a deep pearl dive, we face that which may prevent you from acting in harmony with your soul. In the light of awareness and in the warm company of a knowing other, there is the possibility of healing. Together we will reweave your soul mission with your work in the world.
Become Your Essence – a trauma-informed path towards soul integrity
(offers individual pearl dives & a world-conscious leadership program for business, politics and organizations)
Integrity For Future – an initiative to reinstate the trustworthiness of humankind
(offers community talks, an interview series and formats to inviting a soulful entrepreneurship)