One year ago, on January 1st 2020, six months into my sabbatical after a lot of travelling – I decided (that was at a time when we were still able to make plans…) to go into ‘hibernation’. The intent was to fully focus on my inner journey, my reading, my meditation practice, my reflections. In order to be able to do that, I removed myself from all social contacts and wouldn’t leave the house (except for groceries, dog walks and sports). The plan was to do that for two months…
On March 11th my ‘hibernation’ ended as I had signed up for a 3-day meditation retreat. After driving to the site for 2.5 hours we were informed upon our arrival that the WHO had just declared Covid19 a Pandemic and the organizers of the retreat sent us all back home. On the 2.5h journey back I realized that my hibernation period will now continue… with the only difference that the rest of the world would ‘join me’ in the exercise…
Many interpretations and reflections have been written about the last year where for the first time in history the whole world went through a similar experience all at the same time. A unique moment of interdependence while paradoxically we all felt more isolated than ever before. These reflections show different perspectives and insights – yet what they all seem to have in common is a realization that this experience was a ‘journey inside’ for all of us in one form or another.
Fortunate for me, I had ‘planned for’ inner reflection as part of my sabbatical – not knowing of course that this emerged as the ‘wind of time’ which was now blowing into the sails of my exploration and what followed therefore was a highly intensive and at times very disruptive confrontation with my own inner world – mainly my unconscious.
The work of Carl Gustav Jung, Stanislav Grof, John P Milton and Thomas Huebl have been wise guidance during that time and I was lucky to have teachers who navigated me through this adventure and helped me make sense of the fog of confusion that I encountered at times. I am deeply grateful for their guidance, which has emerged out of their own courageous journeys into their own underworld.
I am also grateful to the gift of nature. She has held me, grounded me, inspired me and brought me back to center in times when I got lost in my inner maze.
The gifts of this journey have been countless and meaningful. The sacrifices have been painful and significant. It has taught me a new humility towards the humanness of life and the power of our psyche in directing our lives – be it conscious (through vision and intent) or unconscious (through unresolved trauma and old pain).
What it has revealed to me is a new calling to share the tools and practices I have learned and experienced with others – mainly leaders – to support their own personal self-discovery journeys – may they be big or small – with the intent of increased self-awareness and with that a more intentional way on how we walk through our own lives and how we guide others who we have the privilege to lead.
Therefore, I have chosen going forward to serve by helping leaders to journey inside in the hope that my experiences – both professionally and personally – may be beneficial to individual leaders, to teams and to organizations in our quest to become the best versions of ourselves we can be and with that have a positive impact on the world around us.
I will do that through offering Executive Coaching, Leadership Consulting and a four-day Leadership development journey I am currently developing. More about that can be found on my new website: www.clausradlberger.com
I am writing all this in humble awareness that we are all just pilgrims on similar pathways and walk alongside of each other sharing mutually our experiences and inspire each other with our learnings, our mistakes and our visions. I am looking forward to many inspiring conversations with you as my fellow wanderer on the journey of life…
Great article, Claus.
Loved reading it, especially the quote from Jung!
Furthermore: fantastic website. Beautiful design and highly inspirational content!