July, 2006                                                                                Carol Adrienne, Ph.D.

    Last month I traveled to Amsterdam to facilitate a workshop on synchronicity, leadership, intuition, and presence at the invitation of Felix Brabander and Platform Synchroniciteit.  Fittingly, I experienced a grand synchronicity of my own, which I will describe below.

    The workshop was attended by many life coaches and corporate trainers, as well as people starting their own practices and businesses.  It was a high-energy group! 

We Can Be Leaders In Those Areas We Value--Where We Feel We Have Something To Gain And Something To Offer.

    People were asked to evaluate their current satisfaction with sixteen areas of life—such as employment, relationship intimacy, income, savings, fitness and so on.  In delving deeper, they began to make connections between those areas in which they were most satisfied and the factors that they thought accounted for that success.  Most often, it seemed to be that people were simply paying a lot of attention to what they did in an area in which they were satisfied, such as friendships.  For example, they made sure to keep in contact, they asked people to social events, supported them through crises, and generally maintained a sense of flow—without a great deal of inner resistance, fear, or low self-esteem.  In short, they were motivated to make friendships a priority, active in their involvement, and not very worried about friendship.  You might even say they were leaders in the area of friendship. 

    In other areas—for example, savings--people again found that the significant factor was purposeful attention--setting goals--plus acting with consistent behavior—in addition to an overall positive attitude.  Not surprisingly, intention (to be successful) and attention (to details and commitments) were key elements in creating success.

    After identifying specific success factors or strengths, people began to imagine how they could apply those ideas to another area that they wished to improve.  Voila! Suddenly, it was clear how they could increase finances by being as attentive and consistent as they were, for example, in their health care.  Success was no longer such a mysterious outcome, but the result of positive energy coupled with action flowing toward an issue.

Leadership Emerges out of Being Authentic, and Responding In The Moment To What Is Needed

    Leadership is the attitude of being willing to take on a challenge and step out of the familiar into the unknown. For example, one of the women who helped organize the seminar, Ingeborg van Meggelen, is an entrepreneur and coach with a passion for helping other women develop their businesses. Van Meggelen is now moving towards putting together a resource center in the Netherlands, which she hopes will help support women in practical ways by providing meeting space and Internet resources, as well as networking support and education.  “I make a point of listening to my intuition,” says  van Meggelen, “and I love it when synchronicity opens a new door that shows me the next step.”

Leadership Listens to Intuition—Priorities Emerge
    Another participant, José Brouwer, forty-two, described how she made a big transition from the corporate world to establishing a foundation called Join!forkids.  It wasn’t easy, she said, but she kept following the subtle messages of her intuition.  A few years ago, her husband was transferred to Scotland, so they sold their house and she quit her job.  Within three months things changed unexpectedly. They decided not to move to Scotland, and suddenly they had no house, no jobs, and no idea what to do with the rest of their lives. After travelling for thirteen months, Brouwer and her husband came home to face a family tragedy, and again felt at a loss as to what the future held.  “I made a list of what is really important to me—traveling, networking with good people, photography, and children, but I didn’t know what to do with it.  I think I was afraid to make up my mind on anything, because I felt then I would have to stay with it forever.” 

Strong Leaders Know How to Be Firm and Flexible
    Brouwer raises a common problem people face when searching for their life purpose—that is, making life purpose about finding the right “job title.”  Many people yearn to find a definite niche or defined life purpose so then they can go “do it” and be happy.  The search for purpose can all too often be a wish to pin down that one magic role that will give us our true identity and take away the confusion.  Urgency to find that special something is even stronger if we feel that we’ve made mistakes in the past.  The pressure not to “waste time” makes it even more important to find one thing and stick with it—‘forever.”

    One’s purpose—and the opportunity for leadership-- is to be found virtually in each moment.  Ask yourself what needs to be done next?  Then what?  Then what?

    After studying many accounts of past life regression sessions, and reading a broad range of spiritual teachings, I have come to believe that our overall life purpose is selected before we are born, and that our job is to discover it as we live each moment.  Our life is an unfolding, unique process that started the moment we drew our first breath—and our parents, early circumstances, physical attributes, and natural tendencies, as well as the important people we encounter are all part of the purpose.  Nothing is accidental—and yet outcomes are not pre-determined. 

Trying to name a life purpose may or may not clear the confusion of what we are here to do.  It’s almost as if the sense of identifying one’s life purpose comes after getting involved with something.  If something clicks, then you feel it is purposeful.

Leadership is About Commitment
    "Once I committed to the idea of starting a charity foundation for Dutch people who left everything behind in their home country to start a project for children, I couldn't believe how effortlessly I met the right people. I continue to experience the feeling that the less I do, the more I receive. I just have to trust that things will come out alright, but not necessarily the way I want it."

The emphasis of her foundation is to become a brand for small-scale initiatives for children started and run by Dutch people, who are inspired to support less fortunate children by giving them a home, a safe place to live and sleep, self respect and self trust, education, and assistance in learning a profession.. The website of Join!forkids not only supports and gives credibility and exposure to the various projects for children, it also helps to raise funds.

Synchronicity is a Response to Something We Need or are Destined to Encounter
    Brouwer recounts, “When I started Join!forkids, I was uncertain about everything, and then in the first month I had a lunch with someone whom I had only met once before. She brought me in contact with a women’s club for marketing and communication. They invited me as a guest speaker, and helped me with marketing the program. Another time, at a reception where I was not much in the mood for talking, I was taking pictures.  Because of that that I ended up meeting a man who had just sold his company and was looking for a charity foundation in which he could express his network and fundraising skills.”

    Demonstrating the ripple effect of work done with passion and flow, Brouwer says, “Everyone who volunteers and participates feels the benefits of getting involved, not just the kids.”

Synchronicity and Timing
    For the lunch break at the seminar, we ascended to the top floor of the building.  By the time I got my plate of food, the big table was filled.  My boyfriend, Robert, and I decided to sit at one of the side booths.  We were joined by two women and a couple, Karel and Marjanne de Vries.  During the introductions at the beginning of the class, Marjanne had said that she was a past life regression therapist—something that had caused a frisson of energy when I heard it. 

    At lunch, as she spoke about her work, my memory stirred again, reminding me of the Dutch author that I had studied some years ago on the subject of reincarnation and past life reports from people undergoing regression.  I was struggling to remember the name (which normally I would have easily done,) and when I mentioned my interest in this special author, Marjanne said, “Oh, do you mean Hans TenDam?”  “Yes!” I said, “That’s the name.”  Karel said, “He’s one of our best friends,” and Marjanne said, “That’s who I studied with.”  I told them enthusiastically how much I had enjoyed his book, Exploring Reincarnation, when I was writing the Tenth Insight Experiential Guide, the second guidebook for The Celestine Prophecy.  After a pause, Karel said, “Would you like to meet Hans?”  Without thinking twice, I said yes.  Karel put through a call on his cell phone, and within thirty seconds, I was speaking directly with Dr. TenDam.  As it turned out he was available to see me four days later. (He is frequently traveling internationally.) I am still amazed at how easily this introduction was made, with no effort on my part—something that seems to have taken about ten years to happen!

    Robert and I took the train out to the village of Ommen, about an hour outside of Amsterdam, where Dr. TenDam met us at the station.  I had a two-hour session with him, in which I was able to access what I believe to be one of my past lives.  This was a lifetime as a rank and file soldier—a sort of palace guard—a life of no particular significance, which nonetheless, gave me a chance to “cool out” between more strenuous lifetimes.  Analyzing that lifetime turned out to give many insights into some questions I have had.  Meeting and talking with Dr. TenDam allowed me to expand my knowledge of the regression process, as well as throw some light on current life issues. 

    Thank you Holland, for all the wonderful and synchronistic opportunities! And kudos to Amsterdam’s restaurant Nam Kee at Zeedijk 111-113, for some of the most delicious Chinese food, I’ve ever eaten!

Happy July!

Carol Adrienne

Contact Information:

Felix Brabander   felixbrabander@synchroniciteit.nl

Ingeborg van Meggelen   i.v.meggelen@worldonline.nl

José Brouwer, jose@joinforkids.org      www.joinforkids.org

Karel and Marjanne de Vries    devries@snafu.de

Dr. Hans TenDam   www.tasso.nl