tesse akpeki and paula okonneh

Uplifted under the bonnet is about bringing your authentic self to life and living. This shines a spotlight on human flourishing, the kindness, compassion, hope and empathy. Our stream of consciousness considers, where we are trying to get to in our journey through life. We reflect on what needs we are trying to satisfy. The reality is that most of us are trying to satisfy very simple needs such as living a peaceful life with our families and going about our daily live in a calm, focused, intentional and meaningful manner.

Conflict often arises from unmet needs and expectations. When we enhance our conversational capacity and our compassionate embrace to accept ourselves and others, we can be more focused and better able to handle challenging and difficult situations. Healthy relationships are built through individual and collective efforts.

Taking the time is like slowing down to speed up is the right answer. It is about the legacy we live, lead and leave.

Inspiration can be found in how Stephen Sidebottom tells his story. Finding happiness in the place you are, is the thing that matters the most.

You have a choice, which is what's your next step, and you have a choice of, am I going to be happy, or do I choose not to be? Success recognises where value is created and takes the time to think and to shape. Everything is a question of the steps you take and what you make of it. I've never been someone who has some regrets about things. I quite like nostalgia; I like thinking back about things. I grew up in with a lot of exposure to travel and spending time in other countries, and that gave me a real perspective on different values and the joy of new ideas about how the world could be and how life could be.

Adversity can lead to triumphing in the face of challenges and suffering. Deshauna Barber is doing good in the world from a place of knowing what it's like to serve. She is doing her story, being her story, telling her story. Pretty Ugly Lessons: empowering strategies to transform adversity into triumph by a former Miss USA and Army veteran is a treasure trove. Highlighted is the importance of getting balance in life through strategies for investing our energies and overcoming our fears.

“It is a road trip; I feel that I'm at my peak. I'm at my peak because I've had so much experience and now, I can take all this experience from my professional and personal things that I've done and really step it into a higher gear in things that I can do. I feel very optimistic for the direction that a lot of things are taking in the professional corporate aspect”. Max Ekesi describes himself as super excited about a lot of things, and one of those is the opportunity to serve on his "Agile Austin Community" where he's been an active member since 2009 and has proudly served on the board as the vice president and now president. He is presently an IT manager at PayPal. Celebrating life brings energy to him. This year he felt particularly special on his birthday - more poignant because people could not come together during Covid 19. He still pinches himself to wake up from all the excitement about the fact that now we can be around people, be around big crowds and embrace people we care about.

Erin Randall is indeed a treasure trove and fragrance. When asked how she would like people to notice about her, Erin answers humbly “I want to be noticed as the coach who will be with you and stay with you. The coach who reflects back your loveliness so that you can work with that. “Ever the skilled and compassionate coach, Erin reminds us of the work of Caitlin Walker PhD, Director of Clean Learning and the Developer of Systemic Modelling. Dr Caitlin uses clean language, asking clean questions and encouraging clean work. The impact of this approach is to ask move towards curiosity without judgement, creating safe spaces for systems to respond. Erin espouses the value of reflective spaces and creating opportunities for off line processing that are unique and special . All parts of the system are different and special. I will definitely be watching Bird Cage the movie through a more thoughtful and considered lens.

Jane Duncan-Rogers shares with us her story of grief and how it’s become her treasures and gifts to others. “My husband was diagnosed with stomach cancer in 2010. It stops you in your tracks. He got treatment, we hoped for the best, but actually the worst happened and I ended up being a widow.” This was the beginning of Jane’s grief journey. Jane’s greatest fear had come true. She was on her own at age 54.

How could she be gifted by this terrible loss? Louise L Hay, author of "You Can Heal Your Life" comforting words "what you feel you can heal" helped Jane get through pretty difficult feelings. A willingness to face grief and to face one’s own mortality can be helpful. Having an open heart and not letting fear stop you from doing what you want to do can help navigate loss. This often requires vulnerability, openness and being joyful in the face of sadness. Philip, Jane’s first husband used to say, “In vulnerability lies your strength.”

Lisa Hammett talks about how she dealt with burnout and found a way out.

“My mother, was bipolar, diagnosed late in life. It was chronic anxiety related. There were periods in my life growing up where she wouldn't talk to me for like a week. If I did something to really upset her, she would just completely shut me out. I developed people pleasing tendencies and hyper achieving tendencies. I was always pushing myself really hard to get good grades and doing everything to please her.”

For my mom I would tell myself she's doing the best she can and give her some grace”. “My experience, reaching burnout has really led me to where I can serve my clients to the best of my ability now”.

The choreography of life leads to a growing realisation that dancing in leadership is more relevant as ever. Dance like no one's watching, Sara Ramsey’s love of dancing led her to dance in the world amateur championships at the Royal Albert Hall.

During the Covid lockdown she reconnected with her love of dance. Bragging rights? She did her fair share of Fox trotting with Anton Du Beke pre his fame. While people baked sourdough bread, she studied the psychology of dance and has developed a course for teams. “Dancing is really good for connecting people. People dance in sync with each other, build trust and connect with others” says Sara.”

To find out more visit our dedicated TesseLeads website - https://tesseleads.com