Hey, Reader

I hope things are spring-y and blooming in your life. The weather here in Copenhagen has been sunny for many days, so I’m soaking it all in. 🌸☀️

It’s been a while since my last newsletter because I’ve been processing many things. Witnessing the world’s violence and lack of conscious relating has felt like continuous punches to the gut, and in stark contrast, Creative Catalyst, my leadership program, kicked off with a wonderful group of creative leaders—giving me immense joy and hope.

To say it’s been an ambiguous time is an understatement. It’s been a period of transformation that made me reassess my purpose and values and - reclaim alignment with them.

I hope you read this until the end because, as a reader of this newsletter, a follower of my work, or even one of my clients, you might find it important to know what I stand for and why. My work, including this newsletter, is changing going forward.

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The vision

I do what I do because I want to create a microcosm of the world I want to live in. I want to live a life (and, within that, grow a business) that serves my community (family included). I want my work to make a real difference to the people in my circles. I want to live in a world where we can meet each other across divides of all different kinds with respect, creativity, curiosity, grace, compassion, kindness and love. I want to live in a just world where we can gather by the bonfire and share stories and ideas for a better long-term future for all, regardless of our identities and belief systems. I want freedom and justice for all people.
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The chasm

This vision is alive in me, fuelling and motivating me while I grapple with a reality that is anything but. I’ve awakened to the kind of violence and devastation we humans are capable of, much in the light of the death of George Floyd, and the aftermath, the genocide in Palestine and Sudan, the dire conditions in Congo, continuous exploitation of people and the planet, increasingly strong far-right movements, attacks on freedom of speech, and so much more. Looking around me, especially online, I see a lack of conscious relating and an inability to bridge divides in our human collective. I see violent, extractive systems of oppression at work, doing exactly what they were designed to do, extract at any cost, including life. They feed off of our hatred and disconnection from each other, which perpetuates this degenerative way. Our lack of integrity, accountability and leadership enables all of this.

As a human collective, we are not willing to “sit in the fire” (stay in conflict to resolve it) and really listen to each other - to come to a different outcome, a different way forward, through healing and conscious relating. It’s heartbreaking, gut-wrenching, and anger-inducing. I feel it all: the grief, sickness, anger, frustration, apathy. And behind it all, a looming fear of saying the wrong thing, fear of being labelled, fear of losing privilege, fear of being cancelled, fear of difficult emotions and conversations. Looking away is easier; staying silent, pretending like it has nothing to do with us, is easier. While we spread high-level stereotypical leadership credos and inspiring quotes on our social media profiles. Easier. But it doesn’t make it ok.
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An inquiry

I’ve been asking myself some really big questions:

• How can I navigate the ethics of the coaching profession and its expected neutrality while standing up for human rights and being adamant about their violations?
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• In what ways am I complicit in perpetuating the status quo of our extractive colonial paradigm, and how can I disentangle myself from its grip?`
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• What am I willing to stand for, no matter what?
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• What privileges am I willing to lose by speaking my truth?
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• In which ways am I out of integrity with my values?
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• What gifts do I want to contribute to this systemic shift towards a regenerative future?
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The answers have not been easy and are still emerging. But I have enough clarity to speak now. My values are creativity, authenticity, integrity, agency, and freedom. By choosing “easier,” I have forsaken them. I’ve been hiding parts of myself for fear of being judged. It’s a combination of internalised patriarchy, which hammered into me a belief that my voice doesn’t matter, compounded with visibility trauma from bullying, which makes me feel like my safety is at stake - again. But my integrity is the cost of staying stuck, so it’s no longer an option.

So, I won’t do “easier” anymore. I only want to do meaningful work and speak my truth. No more hiding, masking, chameleoning and over-functioning to keep other people happy.

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Regeneration work

Regenerative work involves remembering, reclaiming, reconnecting, reconciling, rewiring, and rewilding. It means disentangling from old paradigms and divesting from capitalist, colonial, white supremacy, patriarchal, hierarchical and extractive systems and paradigms.

It means instead cultivating the interconnectedness between:

• Humans and nature
• Inner and outer
• Feminine and masculine
• Rational and intuitive
• Scientific and spiritual
• Thinking and feeling
• Mind, body, heart and soul
• Self and others

It is not an either-or duality but a both-and integration from which new possibilities emerge.

This integration and realignment for me come after a long process of getting my CTI leadership coaching and ORSC systems coaching certifications, continuous and powerful systemic supervision, travelling the Regenerative leadership journey, years of (intergenerational) trauma healing, anti-racism work, reconnecting to my culture’s nature-based ways of living, reconnecting to the mythology of my Slavic heritage, and reclaiming the intellectual legacy of my ancestors. Combined with the presence of my wise but unruly inner elder, it enabled me to reclaim my inner wilderness.

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The future

From now on, my work will increasingly focus on regenerative, liberatory, and anti-oppression principles and practices. I'm also working with an increasing number of people from the global majority, witnessing their stories of exploitation and trauma, which further validated this necessary transition. I will increasingly seek to cultivate relational spaces based on deep democracy where we can sit by the bonfire and courageously catalyze change in ourselves, our cultures, and our communities.

I will also increasingly make room for intuition, myths and stories, and spiritual aspects of my work because that is true for me and enables me to do my best work. I am a multi-passionate, complex human, as are we all. I have an inner range and help others cultivate it, too. The kind that cannot be put into a box and described with a one-liner under our LinkedIn profiles.

I know that my best work is ahead of me. And it cannot be done if I cling to the old version of me, which is still, to some extent, trying to orient herself outwards rather than inwards, fearing the undefinable what-ifs. Because it is only in becoming my true, authentic self that I can stand firmly rooted in my life and the world and hold that powerful space for my clients, my community, my family, my friends, and the human collective.

I would be lying if I said I had it all figured out. I don’t—far from it. I’m just getting started with some of this work. And I know it’s a lifelong journey. I’m lost a lot of the time. But I also know that being lost is an invitation to places I haven’t visited before. It’s a fruitful place of new dots connecting, new stories calling to be written, and new beginnings unfolding.

And, I am ready to stumble and fall, to lie face down in the mud and face challenges I can’t yet fathom.

If this is not what you signed up for, this is your exit cue. No hard feelings - I wish you well. 😘

But I do hope that you, too, want more honest, conscious conversations, sitting by and in the fire and creating systemic shifts that will enable all life on this planet to thrive. If so, I welcome you with open heart, arms, mind and soul.

Let’s co-catalyse change towards a just and regenerative future for all.

💚🔥 Martina

PS. I invite you to use my questions above for your own inquiry.
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Let's work together!

I am a fellow creative leader, a certified Co-Active coach and a strategic designer. I bring 20 years of experience and expertise in digital innovation, experience design, leadership and education.

I help stressed creative team leaders reclaim their creative confidence and self-belief to shape cultures and work that matters (and have fun with it again). Together, we create new possible futures. ☀️

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