Groundwork Collective

Building inner capacity for outer change - Meditation, movement, and contemplative practices for navigating complexity, uncertainty, and change.

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Building inner capacity for outer change Conversations on meditation, movement, and contemplative practices for navigating complexity, uncertainty, and change. thegroundworkcollective.substack.com

Oct 13

Who pays when we are stretched too thin?

The last time you were stretched too thin, someone else felt it. Maybe it was a sharp answer. A flash of impatience. A conversation you no longer had the capacity to stay in. I know, because I do it too. Our personal depletion doesn’t stay private. It travels into our relationships, our workplaces, and the systems we’re trying to change. In this video, I share why I built The Groundwork Collective, and why it couldn’t wait. Drawing on 15+ years in international peacebuilding and about 25 years of Tibetan Buddhist meditation practice, I explore the place where personal capacity and systemic change meet. I also walk through the four practices at the heart of Groundwork, and the capacity each one builds: Meditation → PresenceMovement → RegulationCreative practice → ClarityCommunity → Connection We do this for ourselves, and for everyone affected by how we show up. The world needs our participation. Our participation needs support. If you want to texplore more, sign up for your free Groundwork Baseline assesment here. Which of these four capacities needs the most care in your life right now? Tell me in the comments. I read every one. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thegroundworkcollective.substack.com
Mar 17

Movement That Builds Capacity, Not Burnout: Why Your Workout Might Be Making Things Worse

The Groundwork Collective helps people lead and live with clarity in complex times. Drawing on more than two decades working in peacebuilding and humanitarian systems — alongside a long-standing Tibetan Buddhist meditation and teaching practice — I share field-tested tools for staying grounded when things feel chaotic, thinking clearly when the stakes are high, and sustaining meaningful work over the long term. Our work centers on four integrated practices: meditation, movement, creativity, and community. Not as self-care.As infrastructure. The weekly teachings shared here are free. Deeper practice happens inside the Groundwork Collective community. If you’re ready to build the foundation that will carry you through what’s ahead, join the waitlist for upcoming programs or schedule a conversation with me directly. Thank you for being here. Movement and connection to our body is a fundamental part of our contemplative journey. But for years, I treated my body and something to be controlled, optimized and constantly improved. 5am runs when my body was begging for rest. HIIT classes when my nervous system was already maxed. “Discipline” that was actually depletion. I thought I was building strength. I was actually borrowing against capacity I didn’t have. And I kept burning out. Every three months like clockwork. Here’s what finally shifted when I started listening: The Fitness Industry Teaches Us to Override Our Bodies’ Wisdom Let’s be honest about what the fitness industry sells us: Push through exhaustion. No pain, no gain. Track every metric. Optimize your body. Earn your rest through suffering. And underneath all of it: Your body is a project that needs fixing. This approach works... if your only goal is short-term performance. But if you’re trying to sustain meaningful work over decades? If you’re navigating the complexity of actual life while trying to show up for what matters? This approach breaks you. Because it treats movement as one more place to perform. One more thing to optimize. One more metric to track. And when you’re already running on empty—when your nervous system is maxed from work, caregiving, navigating a chaotic world—adding more activation doesn’t build you up. It depletes you further. The Difference Between Movement That Depletes and Movement That Builds Here’s what took me way too long to understand: Exercise is not the same thing as embodied movement practice. Exercise often: * Activates your already-stressed nervous system * Treats your body as a problem to optimize * Requires performance and metrics * Adds stress on top of stress * Disconnects you further from your body’s signals Embodied movement practice: * Regulates your nervous system * Treats your body as the ground you stand on * Requires presence, not performance * Builds capacity you can sustain * Reconnects you with embodied wisdom The difference matters. A lot. If you’re enjoying this reflection, you can subscribe to receive new essays each week exploring leadership, resilience, and grounded living. What Changed When I Started Listening I stopped asking “what’s on my workout plan?” And started asking: “What does my nervous system actually need right now?” Some days, my body needs to move fast. To run in the woods, lift weights and push hard. But some days, it needs to move slow. To walk without destination. To stretch. To regulate down. And I stopped judging which one was “better.” Here’s what shifted: I stopped burning out every three months.When movement met my body where it actually was—instead of where my plan said it should be—I could sustain my work. I had more energy.Not from doing more. From doing what my body needed. Clarity and insight arrived during movement.When I was present with my body instead of pushing through, wisdom emerged. Ideas came. Problems solved themselves. Movement became sustainable.Not impressive. Not Instagram-worthy. But it held me. Daily. Through chaos. The Five Principles of Movement That Builds Capacity 1. Listen to Your Body’s Actual State Before you move, check in: Am I activated? (Heart racing, mind spinning, restless, anxious)Or shut down? (Numb, disconnected, lethargic, collapsed) If you’re activated, your nervous system needs to calm down: * Slow walking * Gentle stretching * Flowing, grounded movement * NOT: HIIT class, intense run, more activation If you’re shut down, your nervous system needs to wake up: * Dancing * Faster walking * Movement with energy * NOT: More rest, more stillness, staying stuck Movement should meet you where you are. Not override your body’s signals because “it’s on the plan.” 2. No Destination Required Walk without tracking your steps.Dance without learning choreography.Move without measuring performance. You’re not trying to get anywhere. You’re arriving here. In your body. In this moment. The point isn’t the destination. It’s the presence. Every morning, I walk or run in the woods. No tracker. No podcast. No goal. Just movement. Just attention. Just being in my body. And this is where everything important arrives. Ideas. Clarity. Knowing what needs to happen next. Not because I’m trying to figure it out. Because I’m present enough to hear what my body already knows. 3. Let It Be Boring This might be the hardest one. Because we’ve been sold the idea that movement should be exciting. Varied. Impressive. Something you post about. But sustainable movement practice? It’s boring. The same woods trail every morning.Dancing in your living room where no one sees you.Stretching on your floor. No impressive variety. No performance. Just practice. Boring is powerful. Because boring is sustainable. Boring doesn’t require motivation. Boring holds you when everything else is chaotic. I gave up trying to make movement interesting years ago. Now I just show up to the same practice. Every day. Whether I feel like it or not. And it works precisely because it’s boring enough to last. 4. Movement as Meditation When you’re fully present with the sensation of your body moving— Feeling your feet touch the ground.Attending to your breath.Noticing how your body moves through space. Movement becomes meditation. Not just exercise. Not just stress relief. A practice that trains your capacity to be present with whatever’s here. This is where wisdom lives. In your body. In sensation. In the present moment your thinking mind keeps missing. And when you access this through movement, something shifts. You’re not just working out. You’re building the capacity to stay grounded when everything around you isn’t. 5. Move With Others When Possible We are wired for co-regulation. Your nervous system doesn’t just regulate on its own. It regulates in relationship with other nervous systems. Dancing with others. Walking with friends. Moving in sync. This isn’t just nice. This is biological. Our systems sync. Our breath synchronizes. Our capacity expands. Some of my most grounding movement experiences have been: Dancing with friends in living rooms. Not performing. Not trying to look good. Just moving together. Walking with someone whose presence helps me regulate. Whose pace matches mine. Whose nervous system reminds mine it’s safe. This is ancient. This is how humans have always moved. Together. And it’s healing in ways solo fitness culture never touches. What Movement Practice Actually Builds When you approach movement this way—as regulation, not optimization—here’s what becomes possible: You build nervous system capacity.The ability to meet challenge without collapsing. To stay present with difficulty. To recover faster from stress. You access embodied wisdom.The knowing that lives in your body, not your thinking mind. Insight. Clarity. Decisions that feel right at a level deeper than logic. You create sustainable infrastructure.Not motivation-dependent practice. Not willpower-fueled discipline. Just daily groundwork that holds you through chaos. You reconnect with your body as home.Not a project to fix. Not a performance to optimize. The actual ground you stand on. Where to Start If you’re reading this and realizing you’ve been treating movement as one more thing to optimize— If y… This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thegroundworkcollective.substack.com
Feb 24

Why your morning routine keeps collapsing

February has felt lighter than January, hasn’t it? We’ve had some cracks in the arctic tundra here, and I can feel myself getting ready for some type of spring reawakening—that urge to clean out and clean up and start to make change in a different way than we try to do in the new year. Today is also the Lunar New Year—Year of the Snake. A colleague told me that if you’re a Horse (which I am), this is supposed to be a powerful year. Strong energy. And I found myself wondering: what does it actually mean to work with energy instead of trying to control it? Because I want to talk about habits today. Or maybe not even habits so much as the patterns that shape our reality. In Buddhism, habits aren’t just behaviors you stack into your morning routine. They’re called bakchak—imprints. Every action you take leaves a trace on your mind, makes it easier to take that action again, harder to do something different. Over time, these imprints become grooves. The grooves become roads. The roads become your reality. Your habits aren’t just what you do. They’re what you become. They shape what you see, what you notice, what feels possible. After 22 years of practice, I can tell you: this isn’t metaphorical. It’s visceral. You really do create your reality through the patterns you repeat. The Tuesday problem Which is why so many of us try to control our energy and environments through routines and perfect schedules and productivity systems that let us crank more. And they work. For a while. We feel organized. Efficient. Like we’ve finally figured it out. Then life gets chaotic. A kid gets sick. Work explodes. Something unexpected happens. And we realize how much energy it actually takes to hold those routines together. The whole thing collapses. I know you’ve been there. I’ve been there. You read the book. You follow the influencer. You set up the perfect morning: Wake at 5am. Meditation. Journaling. Green smoothie. Workout. Cold shower. Perfectly curated playlist. And for a week, maybe two, it feels amazing. You’re doing it. You’re that person. You’ve cracked the code. Then Tuesday happens. You didn’t sleep well. Your kid had a nightmare. Your partner is traveling. You have an early meeting. The dog threw up. And suddenly the routine is impossible. So what do you do? You skip it. Just for today. You’ll get back to it tomorrow. But tomorrow is also chaos. And the day after that. And before you know it, the routine is gone. And you feel like you failed. But here’s the truth: you didn’t fail. The routine failed you. Systems vs. ecosystems Because routines are optimized for ideal conditions. They’re built on the assumption that life is predictable. That you have control over your schedule. That nothing unexpected will happen. But that’s not real life. Real life is messy. Unpredictable. Full of interruptions and emergencies and things you didn’t plan for. And if your entire system collapses the moment conditions aren’t perfect, that’s not sustainability. That’s fragility. This is where wellness culture has it completely wrong. It’s selling you optimization. More efficient. More perfect. More controlled. But what you actually need is resilience. And resilience doesn’t come from perfect routines. It comes from integrated ecosystems. You were trying to optimize a system. But what you actually need is an ecosystem. One that holds you up when you need help, not one that cracks under pressure. Systems are fragile. They require perfect conditions. They fall apart under stress. Ecosystems are resilient. They adapt. They hold you when everything else is chaos. What an ecosystem actually is In nature, an ecosystem is a community of living things working together in a specific environment. It’s not one perfect element. It’s multiple elements supporting each other. If one part struggles, the others hold it. If conditions change, the system adapts. That’s what you need. Not one perfect morning routine. But multiple practices working together to hold you through whatever life brings. Your essential ecosystem is the specific combination of practices that keep you sustainable. Not someday when life calms down. Right now, in the chaos. At The Groundwork Collective, we work with four integrated elements: Meditation. Building mental capacity to be present with difficulty. Movement. Reconnecting with embodied wisdom. Community. Sustaining through authentic connection. Creativity. Accessing insight beyond analytical thinking. These aren’t separate practices you add to an already-full schedule. They’re an integrated framework that becomes how you live. And here’s what makes it an ecosystem instead of a routine: Flexibility. If you can’t do one element today, the others still hold you. Adaptation. The practices adjust to meet you where you actually are, not where you think you should be. Integration. They work together. Each one supports and strengthens the others. Sustainability. They build capacity over time, rather than depleting you in the short term. This is infrastructure, not inspiration. Why meditation alone isn’t enough I teach meditation. I’ve practiced for 22 years. And I’m telling you: meditation alone isn’t enough. Because you can have a solid meditation practice and still be completely disconnected from your body. You can meditate every day and still be isolated, trying to build capacity alone. You can sit for hours and never access the creative wisdom that lives beyond your analytical mind. I learned this the hard way. For years, I focused almost exclusively on meditation. And it gave me a lot—mental clarity, presence, the ability to work with my mind. But I was living entirely in my head. I didn’t know how to listen to my body. I pushed through exhaustion because my mind said I should. I mistook mental discipline for real capacity. And I was lonely. I was doing all this inner work in isolation, thinking that was the path. That I just needed to sit more, practice harder, figure it out myself. But humans aren’t wired that way. We’re wired for connection. We build capacity in relationship. We hold each other through difficulty. And there was a whole dimension of wisdom I wasn’t accessing because I’d abandoned my creative practice. The part of me that knew things my thinking mind couldn’t reach. The part that needed to make things, to play, to engage with beauty and mystery. When I finally started building an actual ecosystem, everything changed. Not overnight. Not dramatically. But I became more sustainable. More resilient. More capable of actually showing up for the work that mattered to me. Because I wasn’t trying to do it all with one practice. I had multiple supports working together. How the four elements work together Meditation builds your capacity to be present with difficulty. To work skillfully with your mind when stakes are high. But meditation can keep you in your head if it’s not balanced with movement. Movement reconnects you with your body. With embodied wisdom. With the ground beneath all your strategies. But movement alone can become just another way to push and perform if it’s not held by community. Community reminds you that you’re not alone. That you can’t sustain this work in isolation. That humans are wired to hold difficulty together. But community can become an echo chamber if it’s not opened by creativity. Creativity accesses insight your analytical mind can’t reach. It connects you to something larger. It opens doorways to wisdom you forgot you had. But creativity can become self-indulgent if it’s not grounded by meditation. See how they work together? Each one supports the others. Each one fills a gap the others leave open. This is why you can’t just pick one. You need all four. Not in perfect balance every day. But integrated over time. Some days meditation carries you. Some days it’s movement. Some days you need community to hold you. Some days creativity opens something you couldn’t access any other way. And on the really hard days? When everything’s falling apart and you can’t do your full practice? You do five minutes of o… This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thegroundworkcollective.substack.com
Feb 9

Calm Is Not the Goal: What Meditation Actually Builds

Calm is not the goal. I know. I teach meditation. I’ve practiced for 22 years. And I’m telling you that if your goal is to feel constant calm, you’re setting yourself up for failure. Here’s why: Calm is a state. States come and go. You can’t control them. You definitely can’t hold on to them forever. But capacity? Capacity is a skill. And there’s a massive difference between building the capacity to be present under pressure and chasing the feeling of being relaxed. One keeps you dependent on conditions being just right. The other changes how you live. The Calm Trap Let’s start here: What is calm, actually? Calm is a temporary state where your nervous system has downregulated. Your heart rate is slower. Your breath is deeper. You feel relaxed, peaceful, like everything’s okay. And look, I’m not against calm. Calm is lovely. When it shows up, great. But here’s the problem with making calm your goal: It’s completely unreliable. You cannot control whether you feel calm. You can’t force it. You can’t maintain it when life gets hard. And if calm is your metric for whether your practice is working, you’re going to think you’re failing most of the time. I see this constantly. Someone starts meditating because they want to feel calmer. And for a little while, maybe it works. They have a few peaceful sessions. They feel like they’re getting somewhere. Then life gets chaotic. Work explodes. A family crisis hits. The world feels like it’s coming apart. They sit down to meditate and... nothing. No calm. Just noise. Anxiety. Racing thoughts. And they think: “This isn’t working anymore. I’m doing it wrong. Maybe I’m just not good at meditation.” But that’s not what’s happening. What’s happening is they’ve been measuring the wrong thing. Because calm is not what meditation builds. Presence is what meditation builds. And presence doesn’t require calm. Presence is the capacity to be with what’s actually here, whether it’s calm or chaotic, comfortable or difficult, pleasant or painful. Calm says: “I can be here when everything feels good.” Presence says: “I can be here no matter what.” And if you’re doing work that matters in the world, if you’re leading through complexity, if you’re showing up for people who need you, if you’re navigating uncertainty and difficulty—you don’t need calm. You need capacity. Regulation vs. Avoidance Before we go further, I need to make an important distinction. Because there’s a difference between nervous system regulation and avoiding discomfort. And wellness culture has completely confused the two. Nervous system regulation is real. It’s necessary. When your system is genuinely dysregulated, when you’re in threat response, when your body thinks there’s a tiger in the room, you need to downregulate. That’s not optional. That’s biological reality. But here’s what I’m seeing: We’ve pathologized all discomfort. Any time you feel stress, anxiety, restlessness, discomfort—the message from wellness culture is: That’s bad. That’s your body telling you to stop. You need to regulate. You need to find calm. But sometimes discomfort is just growth. Sometimes stress is just challenge. Sometimes the hard thing is exactly what you need to build capacity. And if you treat every uncomfortable sensation as a sign that something’s wrong, you’re not building resilience. You’re building fragility. Our bodies have a natural threat response, but they also have a challenge response: your body mobilizing energy to meet a demand. If you’re in challenge mode, what you need isn’t regulation. What you need is to stay. To be present with the discomfort. To build the capacity to work with it. This is what meditation actually trains. Not the ability to feel calm. The ability to be present when you don’t. Presence Under Pressure Let me tell you what this looks like in practice. For over 15 years, I worked in high-stakes environments. Peace negotiations. Humanitarian crises. Situations where people’s lives literally depended on the decisions being made in the room. And here’s what I learned: The people who could actually function in those environments weren’t the calmest people. They were the people with the most capacity. They could be present with overwhelming information without shutting down. They could hold multiple conflicting truths at once without collapsing into certainty. They could feel their own fear, their own doubt, their own exhaustion—and still show up and make the next right decision. That’s not calm. That’s capacity. And capacity is a skill you build through practice. When you sit in meditation and your mind is noisy, when you’re restless, when you’d rather be anywhere else—that’s not failure. That’s the training. Because you’re learning: “I can be with discomfort. I don’t have to fix it or escape it or make it go away. I can just be here.” And that skill? That transfers to everything. When a difficult conversation comes up at work, you don’t shut down. You’re present. When your kid is having a meltdown and you’re exhausted, you don’t check out. You’re present. When the world feels overwhelming and you want to collapse into doom-scrolling, you don’t escape. You’re present. Not because you feel calm. Because you’ve built the capacity to be here anyway. This is what meditation is actually for. Not to make you feel better. To make you capable of more. What Sustained Practice Actually Builds Now, here’s something important I need to clarify. Because I don’t want you to hear me saying that meditation doesn’t help with anxiety or that you’ll never feel calmer. After 22 years of sustained practice, I can tell you this: You will experience more consistent calm. A regular meditation practice does regulate your nervous system over time. Your baseline anxiety decreases. You return to center more quickly. You have more moments of genuine peace. That’s real. That happens. But here’s what’s different: You’re not calm because you’ve eliminated difficulty from your life. You’re not calm because nothing bothers you anymore. You’re not calm because you’ve transcended being human. You’re calmer because you’ve built the capacity to be with anxiety when it shows up. You’re calmer because you know how to work with discomfort instead of being hijacked by it. You’re calmer because you’ve developed the skill of presence that allows you to meet difficulty without collapsing. I still experience anxiety. I still have moments of overwhelm. I still face situations that trigger my nervous system. But here’s what’s changed: I don’t spiral. I don’t get lost in it. I don’t believe every anxious thought my mind generates. I can feel anxiety and still make clear decisions. I can be uncomfortable and still show up for what matters. I can experience difficulty and know it’s not going to swallow me whole. That’s not because I’ve achieved some permanent state of calm. It’s because I’ve built capacity. Think of it like physical fitness. If you train consistently, you get stronger. Your baseline capacity increases. Things that used to exhaust you become manageable. But that doesn’t mean you never get tired. It doesn’t mean exercise stops being hard. It means you’ve built the strength to do hard things. And you recover faster when you do. The same is true for meditation. Sustained practice builds your mental and emotional fitness. Your baseline improves. You’re more regulated, more grounded, more present. But you’re still going to face difficulty. You’re still going to experience anxiety and discomfort and uncertainty. The difference is: You’ll know how to be with them. And that changes everything. What Leaders Actually Need If you’re leading, if you’re building, if you’re doing work that matters, here’s what you actually need: tolerance for difficulty. Not constant ease. Not feeling good all the time. Not calm as a permanent state. You need the capacity to stay present when things are hard. When the decision isn’t clear. When the stakes are high. When people are counting on you and you don’t have all the answers. This is what 22 years of meditation pr… This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thegroundworkcollective.substack.com
Feb 3

Wellness isn't working—and it's not your fault.

Why Wellness Doesn’t Work (And What Actually Does). I need to tell you something that might be controversial: wellness doesn’t work. I know that’s a bold statement, especially coming from someone who teaches meditation and contemplative practices that look a lot like wellness from the outside. But here’s what I mean. The wellness industry has become this massive machine that promises transformation but delivers temporary relief at best. A brief sense of calm before you’re back on the hamster wheel. I’ve been teaching groundwork practices for years, and I’ve watched so many dedicated, sincere people—leaders, changemakers, professionals navigating impossible complexity—get stuck in what I call the wellness treadmill. And the worst part? They think it’s their fault when it doesn’t work. Today I want to talk about why wellness culture fails us, and what actually creates lasting transformation. Because there’s a difference. A big one. The Wellness Treadmill You know this cycle. You download the meditation app. You try the morning routine. You buy the supplements, the journal, the special pillow. You follow the influencers who seem to have it all figured out. And for a little while, it feels good. You feel like you’re doing something. You’re taking care of yourself. You’re being proactive. But then... it stops working. Or maybe it never really worked in the first place. So what do you do? You try something else. A different app. A new routine. The latest breathwork technique. A better journal prompt. And when that doesn’t work either, you start thinking: “What’s wrong with me? Everyone else seems to be getting results. Why can’t I make this stick?” Here’s the thing wellness culture doesn’t tell you: It’s not you. It’s the approach. Wellness skims the surface. It treats symptoms, not root causes. It gives you tools without teaching you foundational practices for overwhelm—the actual capacity you need to navigate complexity. Many dedicated professionals find themselves constantly consuming new apps, routines, and techniques without building actual foundational capacity. This approach treats symptoms rather than developing the grounded leadership practices needed for sustainable contribution. It’s like trying to renovate a house while the foundation is crumbling. Sure, the new paint looks nice for a minute, but it doesn’t address the actual structural problem. And because it doesn’t address the root, you end up in this perpetual cycle. More techniques. More trying. More feeling like you’re failing when you can’t maintain it all. This is the wellness treadmill. And paradoxically, it becomes another source of stress in your already chaotic life. Why Wellness Falls Short I’ve identified three core reasons wellness culture doesn’t create the lasting change leaders and changemakers actually need: 1. Product-Focused vs. Practice-Focused Wellness sells you things. Apps, courses, retreats, routines. It’s all about consumption. But real transformation—sustainable leadership practices—don’t come from consuming more. They come from cultivating capacity building for leaders. Developing the actual skills and internal resources that allow you to navigate your life differently. You don’t need more tools. You need to develop your ability to work with what’s already here. Your mind. Your body. Your actual lived experience. 2. Quick Fixes Over Deep Work “Ten minutes to calm.” “Seven days to a new you.” “The one simple trick that changes everything.” This isn’t how human beings work. This isn’t how meaningful change happens. Real transformation—building your essential ecosystem—takes time. It requires consistency, not intensity. It needs space to develop, to integrate, to become part of who you are. Not just something you do when you remember to open the app. Wellness promises rapid transformation instead of the foundational capacity building that actually works. 3. Divorced from Real Life Wellness culture often presents this idealized version of self-care. The perfect morning routine. The pristine meditation space. The hour-long practice before the kids wake up. But what about when life is messy? What about when you’re overwhelmed, exhausted, navigating impossible workloads and family demands and a world that feels like it’s coming apart at the seams? Wellness presents idealized scenarios rather than contemplative practices for professionals that function in actual chaotic contexts—the contexts where you actually need grounded leadership practices that work. Wellness says: “You’re not doing it right.” Transformation says: “Let’s work with what’s actually here.” And that’s the fundamental difference. What Real Transformation Looks Like Real transformation isn’t about adding more to your plate. It’s about building infrastructure—the foundational capacity building that allows you to sustain meaningful work and show up for your life, even when it’s hard. At The Groundwork Collective, we don’t teach wellness. We teach groundwork practices. What’s the difference? Groundwork is about developing fundamental skills that become integrated into how you live—not tasks you have to remember to do. It’s building your essential ecosystem through practices that actually work in real life. Meditation for Changemakers This isn’t about escape. It’s about developing capacity for meaningful work by learning to work skillfully with your own mind. Not to make it calm or positive or anything else, but to actually understand how it operates, so you can navigate it skillfully. Meditation for changemakers means engagement, not escape. Nervous System Regulation for Leaders This isn’t about being calm all the time. It’s about understanding your body’s signals to maintain presence under pressure. Developing a sustainable relationship with your body—not to optimize it or perfect it, but to inhabit it fully, to sense what it’s telling you, to let it be the grounding force it’s meant to be. Nervous system regulation for leaders supports presence under pressure, not perfect composure. Sustainable Contribution Practices This is about building capacity for sustained work through integrated, flexible practices that meet you where you are. Not someday when things calm down, but right now, in the chaos. Instead of a meditation app that guilt-trips you when you miss a day, you develop an actual practice that becomes as fundamental as brushing your teeth—not because you’re supposed to, but because you’ve experienced firsthand what it gives you. Instead of trying to fit in a perfect morning routine, you learn practices that are flexible enough to meet you wherever you are—ten minutes or forty-five, first thing or midday, calm or completely frazzled. Instead of consuming more content about self-care, you develop the skills to actually care for yourself in the midst of real life. The Groundwork Approach At The Groundwork Collective, I teach infrastructure over techniques. These grounded leadership practices focus on: Foundational capacity building that integrates into how you live. Not tasks on a to-do list, but skills that become part of how you move through the world. Contemplative practices for professionals designed for real, messy life. Not idealized scenarios, but practices that work when everything is falling apart. Building your essential ecosystem—the specific elements that make YOUR life sustainable. Not a one-size-fits-all routine, but the practices and rhythms that actually nourish you. Leadership without burnout through practices rooted in centuries-tested traditions. Not the latest trend that will be gone in six months, but wisdom that has sustained people through impossible situations for generations. This is what building capacity for sustained work actually looks like. It’s what allows people who are doing meaningful, difficult work in the world to keep doing it without burning out or checking out. The Invitation If you’ve been on the wellness treadmill—if you’ve been trying all the things and feeling like you’re failing because nothing sticks—I want you to he… This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thegroundworkcollective.substack.com
12/23/2025

The Old World has Died. The New One Hasn't Been Born Yet.

I’ve been thinking a lot about why it feels so difficult—almost impossibly difficult—to embrace some of the most basic human forms of grounding and centeredness in our modern lives. Why it feels so hard to fully relax. To carve out time to move our bodies. To truly be present with people we love. And, probably most importantly, to be fully engaged and intentional about the lives we want to create. And in this thinking—reading, listening to podcasts, conversations with other thinkers on this subject—something has become clear: We’re living in a time between frameworks. The Old Frameworks Are Dying In this heated cultural and political moment where everything is moving so quickly, we don’t have consistent frameworks to fall back upon anymore. With all of the progress we’ve made in our material lives—and so much of that progress has been genuinely incredible, we also have to acknowledge that there has also been a price paid. Here’s what we’ve lost: We have so much information now, but almost no context to process it. All the old frameworks we used—religion, community-based structures, cultural traditions—they’re diminishing in our lives. And we have not fully birthed whatever is coming next. This in-between stage feels groundless, scary and very uncertain. But (isn’t there always a but) there’s this really interesting opportunity to create new frameworks or ecosystems—we could even say a spiritual ecosystem—that works for us. But wow, do we have to be intentional about this. Because if we just allow ourselves to go with the flow of modern life, we are going to be completely overwhelmed by all of the noise, all of the information, and constantly pulled away from the very fundamental things we need to be grounded. What I’ve Learned From Peacebuilding This has been a powerful inspiration for me to share the idea of the Groundwork Collective. I’ve worked for many years in peacebuilding and international development—really looking at some of the stickiest, most acute, most complex problems humans face. And here’s what I’ve realized: If we as human beings—from the nomadic herder in Nairobi to the president of France—do not have some sense of humanity, some sense of compass, some understanding of what guides us and how we relate to each other, we are never going to solve our problems. It doesn’t matter how much policy expertise you have. How much technical knowledge. How many resources. Without that fundamental groundwork—without presence, without capacity to be with difficulty, without the ability to relate authentically to other human beings—nothing sustainable gets built. I’ve seen this over and over: The people who sustained their work in impossible contexts had groundwork. The people who burned out didn’t. It wasn’t about who was tougher. It was about who had built foundational capacity. So I feel like I’m returning to these fundamental questions of relationship, place in the world, understanding of the world through the Groundwork Collective. The Future Is Uncertain—But We Know What It Needs When I look at the future right now, I’ll be honest—it feels uncertain at best. Some might even say dystopian. Climate crisis. Political polarization. Economic instability. Technological disruption. Social breakdown. The list goes on. I think right now, as human beings, we’re having a really hard time imagining what a good future looks like. What a thriving future looks like. And that feels daunting. It feels scary. But here’s what I do know: The future is going to need critical thinkers. The future is going to need people that know how to relate across difference. The future is going to need people that are grounded, people that are wise, people that are calm, and people that can make decisions from a place of stability—not a place of fear and reactivity. The future needs people with groundwork. And that’s not some distant, abstract future. That’s next year. That’s next month. That’s tomorrow. Your family needs you with groundwork. Your workplace needs you with groundwork. Your community needs you with groundwork. I am so happy you are here, because we are all in this together. The Groundwork Collective helps people build foundational capacity for what matters most: sustained leadership, meaningful contribution, and a life that’s worth living. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thegroundworkcollective.substack.com
12/10/2025

The Groundwork isn't optional: Essential Practices for Modern Lives

Launch of the Groundwork Collective. Welcome! Modern life has become relentlessly chaotic. Constant connectivity. Endless demands. Information overload. Economic uncertainty. Political upheaval. Climate anxiety. The pace of change keeps accelerating while our capacity to keep up stays the same—or shrinks. That’s why this episode matters. Over 20+ years of meditation practice and 15+ years supporting people in conflict zones and humanitarian work, I’ve learned something essential: The people who sustain demanding work aren’t tougher by nature. They’ve built foundational practices—groundwork—that hold them when everything else is chaotic. Groundwork isn’t optional. It’s not extra. It’s not something you add on top of an already overwhelming life. It’s the infrastructure that makes your life sustainable. In this episode, we’re exploring: Why groundwork isn’t just another wellness trend. You’re not adding something to your overwhelmed life. You’re building the foundation that makes everything else possible. When there’s no groundwork, everything takes longer, feels harder, and leaves you depleted. The achievement trap that sabotages your practice We bring our Western “I’m going to master this” mindset to meditation. But meditation asks us to do the exact opposite—to stop striving and simply be with what is. This is why so many people struggle at first. What meditation actually is (and isn’t) Meditation is not about stopping your thoughts or achieving a blank mind. It’s about noticing when your mind wanders and gently returning your attention. That moment of noticing? That IS the meditation. The science behind sustainable transformation Consistent practice literally builds new neural pathways that change how you relate to your thoughts. You’re reshaping your subconscious mind—the part that drives your automatic behaviors and reactions. Listen now to understand why groundwork isn’t optional, and how to start building yours today. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thegroundworkcollective.substack.com
04/15/2025

Turning Poison into Medicine

This whirlwind we call 2025 has left me breathless, as I'm sure it has for you. I sat down to write a post in early January, and just weeks later, watched in disbelief as my professional field—international peacebuilding and development—began unraveling before my eyes. And that was only the beginning. From basic assumptions about economic stability to America's place in the world, everything now feels uncertain and up for debate. While our country certainly needs change, this chaotic approach represents a truly irresponsible way to understand the complex global system of which we are a part, or to exert power to transform it. Yet this post isn't about political finger-pointing. There's enough of that everywhere right now. Instead, I want to explore alternative ways we can approach our current situation—politically, culturally, personally, and collectively. Yes, immediate actions are necessary in the short term, but we'll never reach lasting solutions through blame and anger. A Buddhist principle that has guided me through many difficult times, and that I'm leaning on now more than ever, is the concept of turning poison into medicine. I encountered this concept years ago, but the past decade has taught me to truly embody it. This philosophy teaches that we have the opportunity to transform something truly toxic into a healing elixir. It doesn't mean the process will be easy or that we'll enjoy what's happening, but transformation remains possible. Unlike the simplistic notion that "every cloud has a silver lining," this approach acknowledges that transformation requires confronting our pain and grief head-on. It's about more than finding the positive—it's about creating value from adversity and emerging with greater wisdom than before. When Personal Transformation Feels Impossible The strongest example from my own life came when I left my urban, progressive lifestyle to live in a small ex-urban community about an hour from Chicago. My husband, who grew up there, wanted to move back to be closer to his family. I agreed for various reasons, but upon arriving and beginning this drastically different lifestyle, I experienced such tremendous culture shock that I questioned my decision entirely. Living in exotic, far-flung places had been central to my identity, and the Midwest—where I originally came from—was precisely what I had tried to escape during my younger years. I had prided myself on having lived abroad, then in New York City, then Chicago. Moving to this small town felt like a complete blow to my ego and sense of self. The poison was strong for the first year (not going to lie), but as I wrestled with it and gradually appreciated this new existence, I realized this move was actually one of the best things I could have done for myself. Far from being my personal nightmare, I developed an incredible sense of strength and resilience by facing my fears and moving through them. I also cultivated a much wider, less biased worldview, understanding that people across the political spectrum were much more like me than I had thought. I discovered I agreed with them on MANY things. A Pathway Forward When Everything Seems to Be Crumbling Whether you're trying to process our current political reality or facing personal challenges, I want to offer a pathway forward when everything seems to be crumbling. I challenge all of us to turn off the news and start asking questions of ourselves. Qualities of Transformation Ask questions and get curious - One of the great lessons in both personal and communal life is to become more curious about each other—even curious about those we might consider enemies. We can also explore why we have such strong reactions to certain situations. The answer almost always lies in deep-rooted, habitual thinking or childhood experiences. Sit with the energy—and grieve if you have to - As a culture, we react too quickly. Our rapid responses don't allow our brains and bodies to absorb or understand what's actually happening. We see this in our politics, our personal relationships, and virtually everything we do. The more we learn to sit with uncomfortable situations, the more we feel them, understand them, and can move forward more effectively. Take a long view - Yes, life is short, but it is also long (the ultimate paradox). What's happening right now in our lives and culture emerges from a long chain of events. The decisions and actions we take now will affect our future far down the line. Understanding this perspective helps us make more thoughtful choices that may create a different future. Tap into our deep resilience - Just like transforming poison, challenges can help us develop profound resilience. We build strength by getting curious, sitting with what is, and taking a longer view of the world. This resilience manifests in both our personal and communal lives, enabling us to move ourselves and our communities forward.rd. Moving Forward Together When I see the incredibly reactionary, and honestly, childish behavior in media and politics, I crave something different—and I know I'm not alone. Many of us struggle to understand how our country reached this point or how we move forward. Just as I once viewed my small-town move as devastating to my identity, many see our current political reality as unbearable poison. But like my experience of discovering unexpected strength, broadened perspectives, and surprising common ground with those I thought different from me, our national challenges can become medicine. By getting curious about "the other side," sitting with our discomfort rather than reacting instantly, taking the long view of our shared history, and building resilience through this difficult process, we might discover that this political poison contains exactly the medicine our divided nation needs to heal. Three things I am currently listening to/reading: The Emerald - Oh Justice Deep Work Podcast - The Good Life Algorithm Niall Ferguson on Honestly This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thegroundworkcollective.substack.com

8 Episodes

Building inner capacity for outer change Conversations on meditation, movement, and contemplative practices for navigating complexity, uncertainty, and change. thegroundworkcollective.substack.com

Creator

Building inner capacity for outer change - Meditation, movement, and contemplative practices for navigating complexity, uncertainty, and change.
Years Active

2025 - 2026
Episodes

8
Rating

Clean
Show Website

Groundwork Collective

Groundwork Collective

Episodes

Who pays when we are stretched too thin?

Movement That Builds Capacity, Not Burnout: Why Your Workout Might Be Making Things Worse

Why your morning routine keeps collapsing

Calm Is Not the Goal: What Meditation Actually Builds

Wellness isn't working—and it's not your fault.

The Old World has Died. The New One Hasn't Been Born Yet.

The Groundwork isn't optional: Essential Practices for Modern Lives

Turning Poison into Medicine

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