Embracing Change: The Transformative Power of Radical New Beginnings

Photo credit: Liza K. Williams

Dear friends and community,

I hope this blog post finds you and your loved ones healthy and well. I am so excited to be returning to my writing practice here on this blog. If you don’t know me, my name is Liza and I want to welcome you to my small corner of the world. I’m grateful you’re here. If you do know me, I’m happy to reconnect.

I have some exciting news to share - and I can’t wait to tell you more!

But first...

Happy International Women’s Day! Today is a worldwide celebration of women’s diverse contributions and accomplishments and a call for gender parity. IWD is also a global call to action – inspiring us to think of innovate ways to bring gender equity into our everyday lives.

I am proud to know so many women and folx who have done amazing things – like write books, start businesses, start non-profits, get doctorates, hold healing and transformative spaces, be kick-ass moms, fight cancer, fight climate change, speak up, write songs, resist, and bring beautiful things into this world. I celebrate each and every one of these accomplishments today.

On the International Women’s Day website it states that “The IWD 2024 campaign theme is Inspire Inclusion. When we inspire others to understand and value women’s inclusion, we forge a better world. And when women themselves are inspired to be included, there’s a sense of belonging, relevance and empowerment. […] Feminism's eclectic and inclusive nature means that all efforts advancing women's equality are welcome and valid, and should be respected. In the spirit of abundance, there is a place and space for everyone. This is what it means to be truly 'inclusive' as everyone, everywhere can help fight the good fight. […] Gloria Steinem, world-renowned feminist, journalist and activist reportedly once explained, "The story of women's struggle for equality belongs to no single feminist, nor to any one organization, but to the collective efforts of all who care about human rights." In this quote, Steinem reminds us that liberation belongs to all of us if we wish to move the needle forward on gender equity.

I love the theme Inspire Inclusion because it reminds us that inclusion is not only important but a requirement for cultivating equity for women around the globe. To me, inclusion reflects the everyday actions that embrace and support women in all their diversity, no matter age, race, ethnicity, nationality, sexuality, gender expression, class, education, ability, faith, body image, or any other ways they may identify. True inclusion means that we value all human beings for their diverse contributions, and we work to support spaces that cultivate inclusion even in times of challenge or strife.

Cultivating inclusion is one of the most important personal and professional values I hold and aim to create in my life and work.

So - in the spirit of inclusion and International Women’s Day, I am excited to announce the launch of Rise and Thrive Women’s Leadership Academy – the mission-driven company I am building to support women change-makers on their transformational journeys to heal themselves in order to heal the world. Sound like a tall order? Yes, I think it is. But I also believe it’s possible.

I believe that if we create safe spaces for community, dialogue, and problem solving across difference, we can cultivate and support women’s creative contributions, and the potential for social change grows. In that work, both big and small, we take one more step in the direction of creating a more beautiful and just world that values every human and all life on this planet. If these values resonate with you, I invite you to learn more about Rise and Thrive and my work here.

Before I share more about my offerings at Rise and Thrive, let me tell you a little about me.  I am many things, but I consider the root of who I am, to be an indigenous (Kanaka Maoli or Native Hawaiian) feminist who cares deeply about our collective liberation as women, as queer people, as indigenous people, as people of color, and as humans.

I am also a writer, heart-centered intellectual and scholar, course-creator, teacher, facilitator, singer-songwriter, seeker, mystic, creative, community connector, partner/wife, and mother. I am an advocate and ally for justice, equity, inclusion, and diversity, and I believe in that in this very divisive time, we need an all-hands-on-deck approach to solve the pressing crises we face in our modern world due to climate change and the deep systemic oppressions that continue to persist in our institutions and leadership.

I’ve had what feels like a million iterations of my work and life – none of which has been linear or predictable. The cultural expectation around work is that we “move up a ladder,” where one role leads to a better role, and so on. The mainstream assumption is that professional growth (and we could say personal growth as well) is often represented by accumulation: increased salary, more management or leadership responsibilities, gained seniority, and increased visibility. But for many of us, accumulation is not what defines our paths. And that has been true for me.

My work, life, and even accomplishments have been far from linear or predictable.

Rather, I see my personal and professional path as connected through deep healing and the transformation that occurs when healing happens – reinvention.

I grew up in Hawaiʻi, on the island of Oʻahu, in a small country town called Waimānalo on lands known as Hawaiian Homestead (lands allotted for Native Hawaiians in 1921 during Hawai’i’s colonial Territorial era from 1900-1959). I was raised by my single mother and my single grandmother – two resilient women who worked incredibly hard to provide for my brother and I on modest wages. In them, I learned about the strength of women who lived through heartbreak, poverty, loss, and economic struggle. Even though their strength was persistent, I saw how the generational effects of colonialism and its inherent struggles went beyond our family and into the communities around us.

From a young age, I wanted to understand why our communities struggled while other communities seemed to be thriving. As a young child, I didn’t have the language to describe the confusion of inequality I sensed in my body. I was very close to my grandmother as a little girl.  At the end of a long day, I would curl up next to her and fall asleep while she watched her favorite television programs. In those quiet moments, I sensed that my grandmother was carrying the weight of something deeper than daily struggles and worries about paying the bills. As I got older, I vowed to put language to these feelings. As I grew as a person and even more so as a professional, I committed myself to bring these issues to light so that they can be named and healed.

As an indigenous woman, my experience in life has been marked by many kinds of traumas – both big trauma, and small trauma. Because of these traumas, I needed to prioritize healing so that I had the energy and clarity to pursue my professional goals and dreams.

This makes my life path more akin to a spiral rather than a line, where I cycle through phases of more visibility versus the quiet cocoon of inner healing and rest.

This cycle has always made me feel resonant with the butterfly as a symbol of transformation, light and dark, quiet and visibility.  The butterfly is not only the caterpillar’s expression of full transformation, but it is also a radical new beginning.

Healing creates transformation, transformation sparks reinvention and reinvention initiates new beginnings. This cycle is the heartbeat of life and the root of change.

As much as I’ve tried to will that culturally expected straight line onto my life, it hasn’t been my path. Now in my late 40s, I find myself, once again, facing the need to reinvent myself in many ways: around my health, my body, my healing journey, my finances and my sense of abundance, and most notably, around work.

For the last two and a half years I served as an Executive Director for a great mission-driven start up environmental non-profit. In that role, I was able step into and practice my leadership skills as a course-creator, facilitator, and as a change-maker passionate about helping other leaders find their voice and impact. I taught a curriculum called Regenerative Leadership and created a heart-centered community of humans who wanted to show up to their leadership in ways that cultivated justice, equity, diversity, sustainability, and meaning. Together we aimed for whole-heartedness and compassion, while discussing new ways we could imagine our world with systems that valued each and every human’s unique contribution while achieving goals efficiently and holistically.

After more than two years in this role, I have closed that chapter of my life.

I am excited for my next chapter as I transition to a new path that is in alignment with my biggest dreams and hopes for greater impact. This is how Rise and Thrive Women’s Leadership Academy was born.

I am excited about this radical new beginning and I’m excited about the potential it holds for collaboration, community, creativity.

In Rise and Thrive, my mission is to hold space for change-makers to align their purpose-driven leadership with social justice and a deep commitment to personal healing in order to show up more fully in the service of collective transformation. I am grateful to have the space in my life to launch this iteration of my work today. And I am looking forward to supporting women leaders in their personal and professional journeys around transformation and impact.

In our mainstream culture, we don’t often have access to stories of alternative routes around professional paths. The truth is, for some of us, our life-force and sense of contribution cannot be squeezed into narrow definitions of what it means to be human. There are many ways to make a life – weaving work, family, community and connection in ways that are creative, innovative, and deeply meaningful to our sense of place in the world.

Many of us have had to fit ourselves into paths around work that ask us to compartmentalize or hide important parts of ourselves, and that prioritize capitalist ways of working that lead to burn out, hyper-productivity, overriding our physical needs, and imbalance. I felt all of these things for the majority of my life. And as I reached a season of life that had me juggling motherhood, step-motherhood, a blended family, all the things that go with daily life, and the continued need to heal from historical and generational trauma as an indigenous woman, I felt like I was drowning.

Healing from trauma and doing all-the-life-things, along with the added responsibility of visible leadership, made my life feel like it was moving faster than I could keep up. I realized the life I created was unsustainable. I was just getting by each day, trying to complete my to-do list while trying to be fully present as a mom and partner. I have learned over time, especially through motherhood and healing from trauma, that it is impossible to be everything to everyone, all of the time.

Trying to aim for this impossibly high bar led me to slowly burn out while I continued to hold space for work meetings and workshops, for my Regenerative Leadership students, and at home as the emotional anchor for my two middle-school girls and my family. My self-care barely made it to my weekly list of priorities, and it began to suffer.

I desperately needed a change – a transformation, a new beginning, and a sense of reinvention.

Rise and Thrive Women’s Leadership Academy is what I envision as a space that supports mission-driven women to balance their healing journeys with their leadership journeys. It is what I wish I had access to when I was an Executive Director and slowly burning out.

My vision is to provide a space that we can co-create together as leaders who want a world made more beautiful and just through every woman’s value centered leadership and creative contributions.

By providing the space to heal and grow within a safe container, I have seen women experience flashes of insight, innovative ideas that change systems, and release old patterns that hold them back from showing up as powerful leaders in their work and lives.

I have witnessed recognition in their eyes when they are able to voice inequities in a space that is validating and responsive. I am proud of what I have witnessed and co-created in circles of women, and I am thrilled to offer these kinds of transformational spaces to a wider community of leaders in values-aligned ways through Rise and Thrive.

Are you feeling the call for a radical new beginning?

Have you been dreaming of or envisioning yourself as reinvented – as sovereign, powerful, purposeful, alive and thriving?

Have you been feeling overwhelmed or burned out because your self-care has slipped to the bottom of the to-do list while you juggle all-the-things in your family, life, and work?

Do you feel a call to find more power and meaning in your leadership and visibility that is rooted, authentic, resilient, healing, and grounded?

Are you passionate about bringing an equity lens to your work and life within a community of people who are on a similar path?

If you said yes to any of the above questions, I invite you to learn more about ways to work with me here.  

As a way to get to know me better, I invite you to begin with my free community called The Radical Care Collective that meets for one hour over Zoom every first Saturday of the month at 9 am Pacific Standard Time. Our very first gathering will be held next month, on Saturday, April 6th, 2024. When you visit my website, simply sign up for my newsletter and you will automatically receive a welcome email from me with the Zoom link provided.

During the hour that we meet each month, I hold an intentional space for us to pause, rest, reflect, celebrate our wins, and plan for the upcoming month. This space is meant to serve as self-care within community, to clear away any overwhelm that has built up over the previous month, to rest in grounded action, and to learn about and practice new ways of being that supports our leadership and healing journeys. Some of what we’ll do together is restful listening (I love to share poems or passages read out loud), grounding, meditation, journaling, somatic awareness, or goal setting. All are welcome, and it is a come-exactly-as-you-are space. Go here to sign up for my newsletter and receive your Zoom link for our gathering in April.

When you sign up for my newsletter you will also receive another gift – my free 15-Day Self-Care Challenge Guide. If you are experiencing burn out and overwhelm, especially due to trauma, it becomes difficult to find the space in our already too full minds for clear thinking. Once overwhelm turns into anxiety, the decision-making part of our brains can go “offline” and the fight, flight or freeze response kicks in – blocking our ability to make decisions. This can happen when we receive hard news, when something out of our control occurs, or when we are actively healing traumas from our past. When our bodies are in overwhelm, it is extremely difficult to make the small decisions we need to reset our nervous systems. To move our bodies out of trauma response, we need to return to the basic practices that calm our bodies and nervous systems, so that our system feels safe to come back “online.”

My 15-Day Self-Care Challenge Guide is meant to help you move from overwhelm to a calmer nervous system. Each day for 15 days, there is one suggested short self-care practice. Each activity is no more than a few minutes since we are busy people! When you commit to practice these short exercises for 15 days, your body will remember how it feels to soften and relax. Slowly, your nervous system will relax, and your brain will come back “online.” Once your system is reset, you will have the capacity to think about how you want to continue with your leadership and healing journey. For the free 15-Day Self-Care Challenge Guide click here.

I look forward to connecting and co-creating community with each and every one of you. Each Wednesday, a new blog will drop with new resources, musings and inspirations to support you on your journeys as a mission-driven leaders. I have more offerings to come so please stay tuned!

Want to reach out to me directly? I would love to hear from you. Email me at liza@drlizakwilliams.com.

I wish you an inclusive, equitable, and inspirational International Women’s Day.

In warmth and solidarity,

Liza