Self-Leadership

Today we are experiencing increasing levels of uncertainty, complexity, and instability at work, in our personal lives and in society. We need a different approach and new resources to face the challenges of rapidly evolving scenarios.
In this situation, it is necessary to make choices with more clarity, courage, and creativity, in tune with our authentic being, without relying on external rules or guidelines. We also need to develop our relationships and find a better way to connect with others to create a sense of stability and serenity for ourselves and the people we care about.
If we make space for Self-Leadership, we find ourselves in a state of greater presence and wisdom in which we can more easily experience qualities such as: Clarity, Compassion, Connection, Calm, Creativity, Curiosity, Playfulness, Trust, Strength, and Courage. This is the reason why today – more than ever – it is important to develop Self-Leadership.
Self-Leadership enables us to:

Have greater awareness of all the parts of our inner world, which define who we are;
Develop and integrate our resources so that we can express our talents;
Transform inner conflicts, obstacles and repetitive patterns which limit the expression of our life energy;
Bring harmony to our inner world, so that all our parts can work together for our benefit;
Guide our parts so that we can master our lives rather than being driven by those parts that often repeat old patterns, which are no longer useful. As a music conductor guides the orchestra to play beautiful music, we can guide our inner parts to fully express ourselves in life.

Self-Leadership helps us to live with greater awareness and harmony both in the external system – our relationships and our projects in the world – and in the internal system – every part of ourselves that makes us who we are.
The practical result of developing Self-Leadership is a higher level of presence and flexibility in behaviour that allows you to respond to situations rather than react, thus overcoming undesirable, automatic behaviours.
To develop Self-Leadership we can use both Constellations and Internal Family Systems (IFS).

Internal Family Systems (IFS)

IFS is an integrative systemic approach developed by Richard C. Schwartz.
It envisions the mind as made up of different Parts (or subpersonalities), each with its own goals, memories, qualities and behaviours.
Parts are like the players of an orchestra where each member plays an instrument: if they play together, they produce beautiful music, otherwise it is a cacophony.
You are the conductor. The conductor doesn’t play any instrument but plays through players. In the same way you live your life through parts.
Many Parts are ‘obedient’ resources, always available to you when you need them: like a player who plays what you want, every time you ask for it. Other Parts have ‘extreme’ behaviours. Sometimes one takes control of your life by jumping on your conductor’s podium and taking your role of orchestra conductor. Some of them fight other parts: like a player fighting another player, so that the musical outcome is a mess and they waste a lot of energy fighting each other, instead of focusing on your music, your life.
Parts, including extreme ones, always have a positive intention towards you, even if their actions are counterproductive. Extreme parts protect you from uncomfortable feelings: they cannot be eliminated but they can be transformed and become resources. The IFS method promotes internal connection and harmony to bring the mind into a state of higher balance.
The purpose of IFS work is twofold. First, to create more awareness of your parts and a higher level of harmony among them so that they can operate better together for your own benefit. Then to develop self-leadership so that you can be the master of your life rather than having your extreme parts running it.