What I do, or do not do, has an impact.

Everyone and everything is part of a larger system (the group). It is impossible not to be part of it.

Connection always exists; what changes is how it is perceived — e.g. intimate, cold, frozen, uncomfortable, protective, open, loving, bitter, distant. 

Everyone and everything has an equal right to exist and to unfold their life.

Space is not finite, which implies that there is potential for everyone's expression (verbal, embodied, contemplative, …) to coexist.

My inner experience emerges as a response to my perception of elements of the inner and outer system (people, objects, leaders, words, energies, thoughts, memories).

My inner experience is created within myself, and it is I who have the agency to change it.

The more people express their experience (needs, boundaries, aspirations, virtues, emotions, energies), the more the system (group) can evolve in response to them. This potential could not be achieved in the same way by a leading individual without collective co-creation (intelligence).

In a space where I am welcome to be freely myself, and where little or no external expectation is held about how I should be, I confront more clearly my internal parts that believe I should be a certain way (conforming, strong, submissive, silent, entertaining, helping others, …).

The more trust I develop that my experience belongs to the collective process, the more transformative potential I open for myself and others.

Right and wrong are arbitrary and depend on the type of narrative we hold as true.

Our narratives are shaped by the past and differ from one person to another.

With truly no narrative or agenda, there is no right and wrong.

Living life from a place of love is more pleasant than living it from hate and separation.

We can strive to act from love — understood here as being welcoming to what is — not because it is right, but because it is more pleasant.

Becoming present to our experience leads to discovering it, and to refining and growing self-awareness. As a result, we can start relating to it instead of being it. That leads to the evolution of one's identity.

The mind, in its ordinary operational mode, especially in Western culture, has a tendency to drift away from what is happening here and now.

The body, and subtle perception, can serve as a gateway to the present moment and to more direct experience.

Experience changes from one moment to another, and cannot be predicted.

If we are fixed on following a certain plan or context, we are more likely to overlook what is actually happening.

Becoming honest about what really wakes up in me in connection with someone is often a rich, complex, and continuously unfolding experience.

The more peaceful and clear I am, the more clearly I see the other. The more contracted, resistant, or uncomfortable I feel, the more distorted my view of the world and of people becomes.

The more likes and dislikes I have, the more frequently I constrict my free energy flow. 

Heartfelt vulnerability, honesty, or moving with owned aliveness often creates softening and openness in others. Conversely, embodying frustration, blame, or reactivity often has a protective, distancing impact on the group.

Problems cannot be solved on the level they were created. Attempting to solve conflicts or tensions on the level of their content is often futile; going to the level of their context and impact can create more spaciousness.

Being in Surrendered Leadership is not about doing it right (e.g. always having steady access to presence, clarity and love), but about the willingness to show oneself in the very place one is experiencing, and to offer that to the collective with trust (leap of faith).

Polarities. Our experience, mostly happening in dual awareness, can be mapped by various polarities. Neither end of the spectrum is right, and development can lead to the integration of both. Some examples:

1. Attachment vs Authenticity

2. Merging vs Boundaries

3. Belonging vs Separation

4. Collective vs Individuality

5. Interdependence vs Autonomy

6. Feminine vs Masculine

7. Sustainability vs Emergence

8. Surrender vs Leadership

9. Divine vs Human

At any given moment, it is likely that parts of the collective will hold diverse perspectives and experiences. The ability to hold that complexity and integrate it into a larger system deflates perceived tensions and conflicts.

Because collective intelligence is invited and everyone's agency is supported, the leader's shadows are likely to be exposed — explicitly, by being seen and named, or implicitly, as resistance in the group, or by acting these shadows out. 

If one wants to lead a practice based on the above pointers, it is necessary to embody them first and foremost. Lack of integrity in that will likely lead to a dichotomy and tension in the field.

A leader of the Surrendered Leadership practice strives to embody the qualities of being welcoming to their own experience, and listening to it, while holding the same attitude towards each individual and towards the collective.

The leader holds the space while trusting that the space holds itself, and that individuals have the capacity to hold themselves and hold the space as well. Leadership in that sense can be fluid, co-existing, clear and dissolved — potentially all at the same time.

The Surrendered Leadership practice often deconstructs sets of beliefs, loosening identity formations. Through that, it can lead to questions such as: Who am I? What is expressing through me? What am I surrendering to? To navigate these questions, opening to the spiritual realm — a sense of something larger that we serve — can be helpful and enriching.