Welcome to your life

I’m a change maker committed to making our world a better place. I do this by teaching people how to operate with more ‘heart’. Connecting heart and mind is what I see as the biggest challenge and opportunity for a better world, effective leadership and good self-management. My work and research shows that developing the skill of connection is vital for personal wellbeing, for individual and workplace productivity, for fulfilling relationships, for ending conflict, and for effective education. The evidence for the power of caring is truly overwhelming and yet our mechanistic world seems rigged to make us act like machines instead of celebrating our humanity. I’m on a mission to change this.

1. Human beings are not ‘replaceable’. Everyone is a unique artist and potential artisan whose core mission is to be of service and value to others.
2. Heart and mind are two critical partners that guide individuals and the collective towards full realisation.
3. The greatest suffering within a person comes when the heart and mind fail to align.
4. To continuously evolve and lead deeply satisfying lives we need to nurture our hearts and minds and help others nurture theirs.
5. Lasting transformation is only possible through conscious, regular practice of living the integrity of heart and mind alignment.

Helping people discover the magic of heart and mind alignment is my life’s purpose. I’ve done that as a volunteer, mentor, teacher, manager, leader, educator, writer and coach. I have honed the power of thinking through my academic training, rigorous scientific method and business processes, working with top leaders and thinkers, and by developing structured approaches to teach others. I understand the mind in overdrive because my own often runs too fast for my body. I have diabetes.

My heart skills come from a longing to heal the world by healing people. They originate in my own direct experience of growing up under a repressive regime, of being a working class immigrant, feeling like an outsider, struggling to feel heard, and often having to be a non-conformist to follow what’s right. I understand human struggle and heartache because I’ve experienced it. I have a talent for hearing hearts and for teaching. I bring integrity to all I do.

“To find your mission in life is to discover the intersection between your heart’s deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger.”   wrote Frederick Buechner. In 2015 London Underground ran a poster campaign along the following lines: ‘My Daddy won’t look at my homework today because his boss yelled at him at work’.

Brains on legs cause suffering and pain because it is all that they can feel inside. Their relationship with the world is rooted in self-interest of the Ego, whereas lasting satisfaction, safety and a sense of meaning come from community and connection. Heart and mind alignment creates inner peace which in turn reduces conflict. People who operate with heart and mind make better managers, leaders, parents, teachers and neighbors, allowing all to thrive.