Connect with Maggie
Wholeness is Holiness
Maggie Owens held senior level positions in Human Resources and Organizational Development, spearheading talent optimization for mergers, acquisitions and business start-ups and turn-arounds. Maggie's expertise aligns behaviors across groups to enhance well-being. Whether as a keynote speaker or a workshop leader, Maggie's insights and techniques will help you and your community break through boundaries and adopt no-silo thinking.
Plan Be
We are all born whole. We've learned to isolate, segregate and judge ourselves and others. Things are readily categorized as Good or Bad, Right or Wrong, and Worthy or Unworthy. This shadow-making process divides us and our lives because we do not sort by virtue or value, rather we cast off that which does not fit comfortably in our community. We negatively label the parts and pieces that must be put away. But these refused and unsanctioned aspects do not go away - they fester and fuss until suppression becomes depression or other maladies, real or imagined. Here they take on a life of their own - the shadow life. These despised parts of ourselves long for completion. Maggie's sessions will help you and your team build elasticity and pliancy through life's ages and stages.
Workshops and Keynotes
Maggie is an international best-selling author and award-winning motivational speaker. She believes you compel meaningful change from inspiration rather than desperation. Connect with Maggie here to design a workshop or session that fits your needs.
Thought Leader
Wholeness is Holiness
We are all born whole.
But early on we learn to separate things into Good and Bad, Right and Wrong, or Acceptable and Unacceptable. This shadow-making process divides us and our lives because we do not sort by virtue or value, rather we deride that which is unacceptable to our community, labeling the parts and pieces that must be put away. The refused and unsanctioned are cast off where they fester and fuss until suppression becomes depression or other maladies, real or imagined. Here they take on a life of their own - the shadow life.
Why is it that typically the uninteresting and mundane are called normal, while the unconventional and uncommon are labelled 'less than?'
Can't we see that ultimately derision gains mastery in this great leveling process which throws away more than it keeps? When the heap becomes too substantial it will demand jurisdiction. For the shadows - these despised parts of ourselves - also long for completion. And as the rejection accumulates, it erupts in overpowering rage and other indiscretions.
What to do? What to do?!
Call forth the shadows, I beg you!
Elastic and pliant to life's stages and life's ages.
Mindfully enter your BE-ing and ask 'what will restore my wholeness, Dear One?'
You see - the shadow is not the problem. The source of my disorder is merely my separation from parts of myself, from my neighbor, and from God.
For from my wholeness comes Holiness.
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Reclaim your Shadow
We learn to isolate and segregate. From our earliest years, we give our kids choices for ‘this or that’ and readily identify their behaviors as good or bad. By teenage years, we’ve internalized the lesser choices as our identity, perhaps even feeling shame or disgust for ourselves when we demonstrate a lack of willpower by eating dessert or hitting the snooze button instead of working out. We reward consumers for evaluating everything from movies to yelp reviews for hotels and eateries, star ratings for Uber and Lyft drivers, end-of semester professor evaluations, and employee or customer satisfaction surveys.
In short, we judge.
As such, we create the very shadows we deplore.
We cannot be surprised to see the outcome, for the only way to belong, to affiliate, to fit in is by compartmentalizing and hiding the parts of our self we deem unworthy,
We also carry a collective shadow which varies by family and country. The family stories we share tell others what we most value. Where I was raised, it was religion, athleticism and academics. In the United States, we prize individualism, self-expression, competition, conformance, and the head over heart. We deride our vulnerabilities as weak and label strong emotion, inclusivity, consensus and self-care as an aberration that borders the histrionic realm.
When we dissociate from the shadows, we create chasms within one’s self and between neighbors, races and cultures. The shadow-judgements are dangerous constructs of the modern psyche. Insanely, we all decry war while collectively marching toward it. As Jungian psychologist Robert Johnson explains, “It is not the monsters of the world who make such chaos but the collective shadow to which every one of us has contributed.”
Let the healing begin within me. When I learn to embrace my own dark side, I find a silver lining! For it was never dark at all, but merely a shadow revealed when the light is at my back. I wrap my arms around myself holding it in.
Breathe in.
Acceptance.
Breathe out.
In this place of wholeness – this Holy place – there is no residue of strife, hardship and affliction. There is no remnant that tolerates economic inequality, imprisoned refugees or racial intolerance.
After all, there is no real choice to be made. We must integrate our shadows deliberately before the slow but steady acculturation from the unconscious shadow envelops us all.