Hiro Boga » Soul of Business

This business of chakras…

Hiro Boga — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 15:49:55 +0000

This post was originally published in November, 2009 as Whose Chakra Is It Anyway.

In a session with a client a while ago, I described the chakras of her business, and how they related to some problems she was experiencing.

If you’re wondering how chakras and business ended up in the same sentence, bear with me—All Will Be Revealed, I promise!

Chakra is a Sanskrit word that means “wheel”. Essentially, chakras are energy vortexes (like bio-computers) that process information from the world around us, as well as from our inner worlds–including our history and biology. They extend from our physical bodies into the subtle-energetic space around us, and link us to our larger, multidimensional selves.

They are the interface between subtle energy and physical matter.

Yet, they’re no more exotic than the mysteries of how blood flows through our veins, or how our marvelous bodies digest food and transform air into fuel for our cells–or any of the other astonishing capacities we have that are more familiar to us only because science has focused its attention and resources on understanding them.

Whether chakras are metaphors or vibrational realities matters little to the empiricist in me. What interests me is effectiveness—if working with them extends my creative capacities, I’ll happily play with them.

So I approach the chakra system as one way of mapping, organizing and working with information to transform and create my life–and my business–in precise, efficient ways. There are sophisticated systems from other spiritual traditions that offer similar technologies of transformation, but this is the one I’m most familiar with. And, after three decades of working with it, I continue to be enchanted by its beauty, flexibility and power.

It’s an efficient, elegant mapping system through which we can explore our reality, and change it.

The implications of this for business are as practical as they are profound.

For one thing, developing skill and precision in working with chakras helps you, as a creative entrepreneur, handle day-to-day situations in your business with an ease that can seem miraculous. (Although the real miracle is that we have these enormous, untapped capacities which we so seldom use.)

An example: You have a big presentation coming up first thing tomorrow. You’ve researched and prepared for it; rehearsed your presentation until its cadences feel natural, easy; and you’ve laid out the clothes you’ll wear in the morning. You’ve gone to bed early so you’ll be rested and ready.

Now, it’s 2 am and your mind is racing. Should you really have used “Oscar the Grouch meets Shrek at the 42nd Street Starbucks” as your central metaphor? What if that funny rattling sound your car made when you were heading home today turns out to be something monumental and the steering wheel falls off just as you’re about to drive to your meeting? Or the car’s okay but you’re halfway there before you realize you forgot your laptop at home and have to go back for it and then you get caught in traffic and then you get pulled over for speeding and then . . . What If?

Sound familiar?

If you knew something about chakras, you would probably realize that the disaster scenarios running through your head while the clock ticks over to 2:30 a.m. are driven by adrenalin pounding through your body. And that by closing down your first chakra (the energy center in charge of keeping you safe from dinosaurs and roving marauders) to a manageable ten percent of its capacity, you can slow down the production of adrenalin in your body almost instantly.

If you were reasonably skilled in working with chakras, you would then clear the debris of the day from the cord that connects your third chakra (which controls your power and energy distribution) to your subtle body; release any energy that isn’t yours; and disconnect from all the other folks who are going to be at tomorrow’s meeting. Many of whom are lying awake, worrying about their presentations too. You’d do this because you’d know that all that worry ends up in your own subtle energy field, unless you consciously disconnect from it.

Because you’re working with subtle energy, which moves much faster than physical energy, you can do all of this work in less than three minutes, without ever leaving your warm bed. Add some simple belly-breathing, fill your chakras with support and safety, and et voila! Before you know it, you’ll be asleep.

In the morning, you’ll be rested and ready for your presentation.

This is just one very simple example of how working with chakras can help you in your business.

But there’s another reason why chakras matter to the health of your business.

Your business has its own presence, its own soul, and its own life. As it grows, it develops a subtle body of its own. Complete (ta-dah!) with chakras.

By exploring the chakras of your business, you can get a clear map of its terrain. You can see the hills and valleys–which areas of your business are strong and can bear heavy loads, which ones are fragile and need care and nourishment.

You can see where your business is leaking energy—this can take the form of money flowing out as fast as it comes in. Or maybe too many clients who aren’t right for you. Which makes you cranky, tired and overwhelmed–not the best way to make decisions.

The good news is, you can change these trends by working with the chakras of your business.

When you remove stagnation and restore subtle-energy flow in a chakra, your business will respond with concrete, positive changes. More of your right clients “miraculously” show up, while those who aren’t right for you leave. Income begins to flow in a steady stream. Miscommunication and missed connections become a thing of the past.

It seems miraculous. Yet these changes are simply a result of using capacities you already have. You may not have developed them yet, but they are there, and they are yours.

Learning to work skillfully with chakras makes you more effective in your business.

If this interests you and you want to know more, take a look at the Become Your Own Business Adviser program, which starts on September 15th. We will work with the chakras of your business to help it grow into its vibrant potential.

How about you? I’d love to hear how you use your extended capacities–your intuition, creativity, genius and multidimensional skills–to help you create and grow your business.

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Pass the ketchup, and hand me my crown…

Hiro Boga — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 20:39:47 +0000

For the past seven weeks, in Sovereignty Kindergarten, we’ve played with crowns and capes, with energy building blocks and tools, Devas, qualities and essences to explore what it means to be the queens and kings of our own kingdoms.

We’ve learned energy technologies to help us craft our lives.

As I get ready to teach Become Your Own Business Adviser in a couple of weeks, I’ve been thinking about sovereignty—how essential it is to living an authentic, creative, free, exuberant life.

We come into this world filled with the joy and radiance of our souls. We are overflowing with love, brimming with excitement at our own miraculous capacities, thrilled about all that we intend to create, to give and to receive.

We offer ourselves to the world without fear, shame or inhibition. We expand with delight to meet what’s in front of us.

If we’re lucky, our parents or caregivers see us for who we really are—powerful spiritual beings incarnated as babies. They see our physical vulnerability and our spiritual wisdom. They know we have our own purpose, creative vision and gifts.

If we’re lucky, the people who love us help us grow more fully into ourselves. They take care of our physical needs, and keep us safe, warm and nourished. They give us space and freedom to feel our feelings and think our thoughts.

They don’t impose their agendas, their fears or their beliefs on us.

They encourage us to explore the world, to develop our own relationship with it, to follow our natural rhythms and our curiosity wherever it leads us.

If we’re lucky, the grownups in our lives support us in experiencing ourselves and our world directly, unmediated by expectations about how things should be. They show us their love and appreciation openly and often. They encourage us to trust in our own judgment and choices, to learn from our mistakes, and to celebrate both our successes and our failures as milestones of learning and growth.

If we’re lucky, we grow up trusting ourselves, knowing our limits and our powers, and having faith in our ability to shape our lives by following our inner guidance.

If you haven’t been so lucky, you may find yourself with what my friend Mariko calls a wonky GPS system. You may have trouble making decisions about aspects of your business or your life.

Decisions like: Should you lease that extra office space now, while it’s available, or is it simply going to add to your overhead without increasing your sales.

Should you spend a chunk of your budget to hire that marketing consultant, copywriter or VA? Will they be a good fit for your business, or will hiring them be a costly mistake?

When’s the best time to launch your new product, and how much should you charge for it?

These day-to-day decisions shape your business and can make the difference between a successful year and one that’s less than great.

Since you’re a responsible, intelligent person, you gather information, research your market, and make your decisions based on the variables you know about.

But there are often hidden factors that affect the success or failure of any course of action.

Intuition and clear seeing are two of the capacities of your soul. We’re all born with them. They are practical, useful qualities that can help us navigate our lives and our businesses with skill and wisdom.

These capacities can be developed, just as you develop a natural talent for language, or sports, or making art. Practice makes us more skilled at using intuition and the ability to see things as they are, and as they can be.

Inner guidance—knowing what you want and what’s right for you—is a useful and practical way to make good decisions for yourself and your business.

But energy technologies and sacred skills have more profound, equally practical applications in every aspect of your business and your life.

For example: You may be a person who has many creative ideas, but they never quite seem to get off the ground. Maybe you begin new projects with great enthusiasm, only to see them fizzle away when the gremlins of resistance, anxiety or self-doubt rear their heads.

Your projects fail to gain momentum, not because you’re lazy or incompetent or lack willpower, but because you don’t have the skills and tools to work with the fears, beliefs and issues that inevitably arise when you set a creative intention and begin to act on it.

Intuitive skills are powerful. And because they are already within you, using them reconnects you to your own power.

Instead of driving yourself crazy making pro-and-con lists, asking all your friends for advice, or hiring costly professionals, you can turn to your intuition for guidance.

As you practice applying your intuition to concrete situations in your life, you regain trust and confidence in your choices. You begin to use energy skills and processes to help you work through fears and resistance. You make friends with your emotions, and with your inner selves. And you learn to work with non-physical allies to help you create your business and your life in seemingly effortless, miraculous ways.

If you’re ready to regain your power and sovereignty, learn intuitive skills and practice sacred technologies to help you craft a sustainable business and life, please join us for Become Your Own Business Adviser.

This 14-week program starts on September 15th. And you’ll save nearly $300 if you register before midnight on Wednesday, September 1st.

How about you? How do you experience sovereignty and intuition in your life and in your business? What challenges do you face? What do you wish you’d known, or learned, about these skills and capacities that are so much a part of you?

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Happy Birthday, Havi’s Playground!

Hiro Boga — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 14:58:58 +0000

Today, my friend Havi opens her new Fluent Self Playground in Northeast Portland. It’s been an astonishing journey, one I’ve been privileged to be a part of for the past four months.

The first aha and inspiration for the Playground bloomed near the end of January, during a retreat in Monterey. Being Havi, she listened deeply to the voice of her inner genius and then acted on it. The search for the perfect Playground space began.

The road from there to here has been a winding one, with hairpin turns, U-turns, and turns of heart as well. Like all creations, this one has been about transforming and giving birth to new aspects of Havi, as well as birthing her beautiful baby Playground. And like all births, there’s been mess and blood as well as transcendent joy.

Today, we celebrate. We celebrate the Playground, its birth, the process of its creation, and Havi. We celebrate the birth of possibility and vision, of a new space for these to unfold. We celebrate love in all its forms.

Please join us.

Here’s a recording of a conversation Havi and I had earlier this week. Enjoy!

A Conversation with Havi

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Money, Heart and Soul: An Interview with Mark Silver

Hiro Boga — Mon, 03 May 2010 14:07:17 +0000

Last week I talked with my friend Mark Silver–Sufi healer, owner of Heart of Business, all-around mensch, and wickedly good player of Ultimate Frisbee.

We talked about soul and spirit as well as money and business. We explored the perils and pitfalls of popular approaches to abundance and manifestation.

Our conversation kept returning to the inner connection that makes it possible for us to approach life, business and money from our wholeness, rather than from fear and fragmentation.

In June, Mark will once again teach his 8-week course,The Heart of Money. If you’d like to know more about his approach, check out his no-cost teleclass on Wednesday.

You can listen to our conversation by using the player below:

[Click through to the post to listen to audio]

To download the audio, right-click (on a PC) or option-click (on a Mac) on the link below. Then select “Save link as” or “Save target as.”

Download the interview with Mark

Please join the conversation. I’d love to hear your thoughts on money, soul, and business.

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Slay the Ice-Cream Dragon: Healing Internet Hangover

Hiro Boga — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 14:50:48 +0000

Healing: the process of restoring to wholeness.

Healing Internet Hangover? Slaying the ice-cream dragon? Wha…?

Maybe you’re one of those folks who aren’t susceptible to ice-cream. Or dragons. Or the internet. If so, please click away. You don’t need to read the rest of this post.

For the rest of us, being on the internet can become an ice-cream slide down a slithery slope. Sweetly deadly, in a hundred flavors. Chocolate and chili; persimmon and praline.

It starts out innocently enough. Check email, Twitter, Google stats on your website. Read and comment on your favorite blogs.

Ignore the bitter breath of the ice-cream beast so deliciously cold on the back of your neck.

Or it starts out virtuously: Research for that article, for that blog post, for that presentation that’s due tomorrow. Not ice-cream! Spinach!

Next thing you know, the morning’s been swallowed whole. It’s lunch time. You’ve forgotten to eat. Or pee. Except for that giant bowl of ice-cream. You feel sick.

Your body is wa-a-ay down the-e-re somewhere; your head is swimming in clouds of sugar.

You’ve forgotten what you came here for. Or why you’ve been clicking links for the past hour. You’re a zombie looking for your ice-cream fix.

Your shoulders are hunched, your eyes squinty and glazed. You feel stunned stupid.

And…there goes the rest of the day.

You WANT to write that article, work on your book, create that genius product that’ll change your world.

But the folds of your brain have melted into a chocolate puddle. Any creative ideas you once had have long since slithered away.

You feel guilty, ashamed, weak of will. You swear to do better next time.

You promise yourself: No more ice-cream! At least, not until after dinner. Work first, then a visit to Ice-Cream InternetLand.

You vow to ice-cream in moderation: Just one cone, ten minutes, no more. You set a timer.

Your inner ice-cream freak rebels. Want. Ice-cream. Now!

You get in a fight with yourself. And emerge bowed, bloody, covered in creamy chocolate-chocolate-chip.

Is there another way? (I’ll whisper the answer to this in your ear…come closer…yes!)

Healing Internet Hangover: The Class.

May 12th, 19th, and June 2nd.

Early bird price of $48 ends Saturday.

Slay the ice-cream dragon! Discover your inner sugar-free superhero! Do join us. :-)

You’ll find details and registration here.

I’d love to hear your stories about those Internet Ice-Cream Hangovers. What gets you started down the ice-cream slope? How do you make your way back? What’s the worst ice-cream hangover you’ve ever had?

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Playful Discovery: The Cure for Internet Hangover

Hiro Boga — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 15:57:51 +0000

So much has been birthed this past week. And it happened lightly, happily, while I played hooky from my business and hung out with my friends Havi and Richard, who came up from Portland for a visit.

What I didn’t do: Spend a lot of time on Twitter, email, the internet, or the computer.

What I did do: Slept in. Read books. Had long, rambling, wildly interesting conversations on everything from the nest-building habits of ground-dwelling birds, to the bizarre and wonderful antics of families.

What else we did: Laughed. A lot. Ate good food. Did healing and energy work on the things we’re each creating in our businesses.

Went for walks–on the beach; alongside a marsh; in the woods. Had lunch at an English country pub.

Mmmmmm…

My friends are returning home this afternoon. And I’m back at work. Feeling creatively inspired, and with a new teleclass that I’m delighted to launch today.

A class that emerged out of the rich, rambling conversations we’ve had these past few days.

A class on how to deal with Internet Hangover.

It’s that stunned feeling you get when you’ve been on the computer for too long. Only to emerge into the three-dimensional world hours later, blinking and disoriented, wondering what happened to your day.

These are the energy tools I teach my clients–and that I use every day–to stay present and connected while I’m on the computer.

Our computers are incredibly valuable tools. So is the internet. It gives us access to each other across great divides of time, space, geography, culture, history and language.

And it presents problems, if we don’t understand the kinds of pressures it exerts on us, physically and energetically.

It helps to have a tool-kit of practical techniques before you enter the gates of Internet-Land.

So you can choose the quality of your experience once you’re there, instead of being swept down the rabbit-hole.

It helps to be able to recognize the first signs of overwhelm, and have ways to address them before they cascade into a full-blown hangover.

I hope you’ll join us for this three-part teleclass, May 12, 19 and June 2nd. The early registration price is $48, until May 1. After that, it goes up to $100.

You’ll find details and registration here.

Random Posts

Meet a Fire Starter: a conversation with Danielle LaPorte

Hiro Boga — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 14:23:53 +0000

That streak of lightning that just lit up the sky is Danielle LaPorte’s The Fire Starter Sessions.

Her blog, White Hot Truth, is provocative, interesting, opinionated, brilliant.

Her business strategy sessions–the eponymous Fire Starter sessions–will change the way you think about your business.

Listen in on our conversation, as Danielle riffs about creativity, money, business, focus and technology.

And then click the link below to check out her practical magic.

If you’re reading this via RSS, click through to hear the audio.

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There’s No Place Like Home. . .Creating the story of your business in 2010

Hiro Boga — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 15:28:29 +0000

The trouble with the future is, it hasn’t arrived yet. So we daydream that our house (our life!)—in which we sometimes feel so ill at ease–flies off in a hurricane, and lands SPLAT! on the Wicked Witch of the West, flattening her like a pancake. Hee-hee, she can’t scare us any more!

We glide on gossamer wings with Glinda the Good Witch, who sparkles like a cotton-candy cloud in her impossibly pouffy pink tulle dress. (That fluting voice, that high-calorie smile—oh! they make my teeth ache.)

We conjure up worlds where magic wands zap ruby slippers onto our size-ten feet. And a yellow brick road unwinds before us, showing us exactly where we are to go.

We take our first tentative steps in those shiny red shoes, accompanied by a gaggle of squealing munchkins. We’ve begun the new adventure of our lives; we’re headed for the Emerald City.

Along the way, we meet the strangest of strangers: A brainless scarecrow who regularly gets the stuffing knocked out of him. A hollow tin man who’s missing his heart and suffers from seized-up joints at the most inopportune moments. And a bully of a lion who trembles at the sight of his own shadow.

We link arms with these comrades because we see in each of them something of our own human frailty. Our sometimes-scattered minds and hollow hearts. Our fearful, roaring selves.

Arm in arm we skip along the yellow brick road. Singing, We’re Off to see the Wizard, the Wonderful Wizard of Oz.

The all-wise Wizard who’ll make us whole. Who’ll show us the way home. Who’ll make all our dreams come true.

It’s seductive, this daydream. It comes to us from the land of infinite possibility, and it carries in its heart a secret truth, the way an acorn carries the truth of the oak tree.

But, when we get to the Emerald City, all is not sweetness and light. Flying monkeys descend from the sky, bent on destroying us. We are chased by dangerous storm troopers in clanking armor, who get their orders from the Wicked Witch of the East. Her feral green face and her angry voice are awfully familiar . . . like someone we once knew.

We are saved by the love and loyalty of our little dog, Toto.

Eventually, we meet the Wizard in his inner chamber. Only to discover he’s as lost as we are. He’s a myth of his own making; he has no power to save us.

That’s when the miracle happens. The story we’ve lived through in our imaginations shapes us. The qualities we so desperately longed for come out of their hiding places in our minds and hearts.

We find the courage to leave the safety of that which is known and familiar, but too small to contain us; the intelligence to meet challenges along the way; the heart to embrace all we encounter as part of ourselves.

And in finding these qualities through the magic of story, we find our way home.

Home to our innermost selves. Home to the soul that holds the infinite possibilities of our lives, like the acorn holds the story of the oak tree. That waits patiently for us to birth our stories with love, courage, intelligence and action.

Tomorrow, I’ll host a free 75-minute teleclass and discussion on creating the new year in partnership with the soul of your business.

We’ll play with ways to connect with the soul of your story, which holds the blueprint for its unfolding. You’ll enter the story with the light of your soul as your guide, and the soul of your business as your companion and friend.

And you’ll get to see that story unfold in magical ways, as you craft it in vision and imagination.

You can register by clicking your heels here.

Please join us in the dance. And wear your ruby slippers!

I’d love to hear how you envision and create your future, and the future of your business. Ideas? Insights? Questions? Please share them in Comments.

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Follow the Yellow Brick Road — Create the new story of your business in 2010

Hiro Boga — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 16:45:13 +0000

This week the horizon moved. And kept on moving. Swiftly, silently, in a vast circle, revealing such breathtaking possibilities–vistas of astonishing beauty—that all I could do was breathe in wonder: thank you. Thank you.

We live in a time when creation is unfolding ever more swiftly, succinctly. There is an alignment of spiritual and planetary energies right now that quickens the process of bringing things across the threshold of spirit, and into the world of form.

We can dream a story and bring it to life with greater ease than ever before.

We can grow ourselves and our businesses by applying the skills of attunement, presence, and alignment. We can craft a new story for 2010.

How that story unfolds is part magic, part skillful means–held in the golden bowl of possibility. Nourished by all that loves, supports, and cradles us.

At the heart of the story are the great mysteries: of seeding, gestation, birth, growth, death.

The gyre that spins dreams into the world. That unspins spent dreams back into the void.

And opens the mouth of the womb through which new stories emerge, damp, triumphant, molded by the passage of their birth.

On Wednesday of next week, I’ll host a free 75-minute teleclass and discussion on creating the new year in partnership with the soul of your business.

We’ll play with ritual and sacred imagination to seed the new story of you and your business in 2010. You’ll meet the soul of your story, which holds the blueprint for its unfolding. You’ll enter the story with the light of your soul as your guide, and the soul of your business as your companion and friend.

And you’ll get to see that story unfold in magical ways, as you craft it in vision and imagination.

If you’d like to join us, please register here. If you can’t make it to the class, you’ll get a link to the audio recording, so you can listen to it later.

Follow the Yellow Brick Road: Create the new story of your business in 2010

Date: Wednesday, December 9
Time: 10 am PT/ 11 am MT/ 12 noon CT/ 1 pm ET

» The call is free and will be recorded.

For now, I’d love to hear your insights, questions, thoughts and feelings about the story of you and your business. What is your story right now? What are you dreaming of, for your business, in 2010? What would your new story be, if the horizons were limitless?

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Whose Chakra Is It Anyway?

Hiro Boga — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 12:00:41 +0000

In a session with a client a couple of days ago, I described the chakras of her business, and how they related to some problems she was experiencing.

If you’re wondering how chakras and business ended up in the same sentence, bear with me—All Will Be Revealed, I promise!

They are the interface between subtle energy and physical matter.

It’s an efficient, elegant mapping system through which we can explore our reality, and change it.

The implications of this for business are as practical as they are profound.

Sound familiar?

In the morning, you’ll be rested and ready for your presentation.

This is just one very simple example of how working with chakras can help you in your business.

But there’s another reason why chakras matter to the health of your business.

Your business has its own presence, its own soul, and its own life. As it grows, it develops a subtle body of its own. Complete (ta-dah!) with chakras.

The good news is, you can change these trends by working with the chakras of your business.

It seems miraculous. Yet these changes are simply a result of using capacities you already have. You may not have developed them yet, but they are there, and they are yours.

Learning to work skillfully with chakras makes you more effective in your business.

If this interests you and you want to know more, take a look at this page. We’ll be talking about chakras and business in a program I’m teaching in January.

How about you? I’d love to hear how you use your extended capacities–your intuition, creativity, genius and multidimensional skills–to help you create and grow your business.