Episode 17 - How I Balance & Navigate the Corporate-Spiritual Journey with Confidence
Today we're diving into the topic of balancing corporate work life with our spiritual selves. In this episode, I'll be sharing my own experiences and insights on how to navigate these two worlds and embrace authenticity in both. From dressing like your true self to setting boundaries and prioritizing self-care, we'll uncover the key strategies for achieving harmony in the corporate realm. So get ready to flip the script and discover a new way to approach your corporate life.
Let's jump right in!
Read the full transcript here:
Speaker A [00:00:02]:
Welcome to Flip the Script with Vic, your weekly pep talk to expand and shift your perspective. I'm your host, Victoria Nielsen. Together, we'll unwind all the things you thought you knew and awaken to what's possible when you flip the script and take control of your own life. Are you ready? Let's jump on in. Hi, loves. Welcome to another episode of Flip the script with Vic. I'm your host, Victoria Nielsen. Sin.
Speaker A [00:00:25]:
Today we are going to be talking about corporate work life, spiritual life balance. And I have a little bit of imposter syndrome. I feel like recording this because I don't have it figured out. I don't think anyone really has anything figured out, but I'm going to just share what I have been doing to feel more balance in these two disparate worlds, right? Our spiritual self and our corporate self tend to be two different people. And I think that's where most get it wrong. You need to be 100% yourself, whether you're in the spiritual space and following and doing your spiritual practices or you're in corporate America. And I think that's where I am finding some ease is now that I'm back in the corporate world after being home for a year on maternity leave with my youngest and deepening my spiritual practice, my spiritual self, and really realizing that the woman that walked out of those corporate doors is not the same person that is coming back. And actually, if you've been following the podcast, you know that I had not been in a corporate office since before my first son, Sebastian was born, before the pandemic.
Speaker A [00:01:47]:
And so when I went back to work in June, there was part of like a return to office scenario. So I had to go back into the office three days a week after previously working from home and then, of course, not working at all during my maternity leave. And so over this time period, I've become a completely different person. I am not the same person by any means who was working in the corporate world before. And I get this question a lot because people are like, wait, you still work in corporate? Like, you seem fully into your spiritual self, your spiritual business. And I am. I do both. And right now, the reason I think that that is possible is A, I have a bit of a flexible job and schedule, but B, because I show up as myself no matter where I am.
Speaker A [00:02:36]:
And that could mean in the way that I dress or the way that I behave. Yesterday, I literally wore like a jumpsuit romper thing to work. And a couple of weeks ago, I wore this all white flowing dress after recording a Kundalini meditation. And I wear my crystals every single day. And I meditate at work. I'll go find like, a tree outside to go meditate under during lunch. And I have gotten rid of this idea of different personas. So I don't put on a mask anymore.
Speaker A [00:03:07]:
When I go into the corporate office, I'm just Victoria, and I'm that same Victoria who's with my family, who's with my friends, who records podcasts and Kundalini meditations, who wears crystals, who does all of these things. It's me. It's all me. And I think that I know that's why it's more easeful is because I'm not trying to be someone I'm not, and I'm not trying to fit into an old version of myself. And I had to be okay with that, because really, it's about me, right? As long as I have the confidence to be myself, that's what matters. And I admitted to some coworkers that I was, like, going to meditate under a tree, and some of them looked at me like I had ten heads, and others were like, that's pretty cool. So you never know who you're inspiring just by being yourself. And honestly, most people don't give a shit.
Speaker A [00:03:58]:
Like, they're wrapped up in their own world, so they don't care that maybe you dress a little bit differently or act a little bit differently, as long as it's coming from a true place inside of you, that you're not putting on a front or heirs or trying to be someone that you're not. Because that's what's going to cause the dissonance in your field. That's what's going to cause the spiritual whiplash, emotional whiplash, right, because you're not being true to yourself. And that's felt within the body. All of the emotions, all of the things that we go through are stored within the body. And so you're going to create distortion in your own field by not being fully yourself in these different environments. And I think for the rest of the balance, it is hard depending on the corporate work schedule. So I have a lot of boundaries now that I didn't used to have.
Speaker A [00:04:57]:
I used to be the one that wanted the gold star, wanted the promotion, was staying super late, was working all the time, and for what, right? I again had to realize that the validation had to be internal. It didn't matter what the hell my title was. It didn't matter if all of my coworkers thought I was, like, the best person ever or could always get stuff done. You don't get a gold star for burning yourself out or for overworking or over giving. And actually, that over giving comes from people pleasing and wanting everyone to like you and wanting to keep everything calm. Maybe you had a rocky childhood. Maybe I'm a child of divorce. I don't remember a lot of yelling in my house when I was younger, but there had to have been tension and energy for them to ultimately get divorced.
Speaker A [00:05:51]:
And you can feel that as a child. And I do think I put on that mask in certain scenarios, right. Of trying to just appease everyone so that Mommy and Daddy wouldn't fight or trying to be the good girl. I think that's the one. God, I definitely feel the deepest was this good girl. The striving for the good grades and always wanting to be perfect and the best. That's a trauma response that comes from having to put on that mask, that layer, that shell, if you will, that I have begun to peel off and take off because it's no longer serving me. And I want to ask you, as you're listening to this podcast, are there masks or areas in your life that are no longer serving you, that you are wearing, or stories that you tell yourself or others tell about you that are no longer true, that it's time to just throw out the door? Because then you're able to have a healthy relationship with yourself and a healthy boundaries with others.
Speaker A [00:07:00]:
Because the good girl, the people pleaser, she has no boundaries. She does whatever it takes to make someone else happy, puts her feelings last, worries about herself last. And we're not about that on this podcast. We're about putting you first, your feelings first, your emotions first, your well being first. And so I had to come to that realization, right, that work was not the end all, be all, and that I had a finite amount of energy and I was going to put that energy towards things that were more meaningful to me. Because I realized my worth and I realized that as long as I loved myself, it didn't matter. Anything else didn't really matter. So I do not look at my work phone after 05:00 p.m..
Speaker A [00:07:53]:
I don't do it. I used to oh, my God, I used to check my emails all through the night and be the one to first respond immediately. Nah, you're going to hear from me at like 09:00 A.m. The next day. I'm literally not available after 05:00 p.m.. And that's been a big game changer for me because then I shut it off, right? I'm like, okay, I'm done. And same for just having boundaries throughout the day. So I manage my calendar to a point where I give myself breaks, I put blocks in my calendar, I schedule time for myself, and I hold that standard unless it's like with my boss who absolutely needs to talk to me.
Speaker A [00:08:35]:
I'm not going to move it, I'm not going to change it. I'm not going to adjust for someone else unless there's like a really good reason for it. I mean, I'm not an unreasonable person, but you've got to hold yourself to that because if not, then the corporate job and life can take over your calendar. And those two things, I feel like, have made the biggest difference, the the boundaries and the being myself. Holy and completely. But I also this third one, I'm a little nervous to admit I care a lot less. And that's not to say that I don't do my job to the best of my abilities every single day. But again, in healing that good girl people pleasing part of myself.
Speaker A [00:09:19]:
I realized that there was places that I was going way above and beyond and for what? I wasn't getting any more money. I was maybe getting recognized, but probably not. A lot of the time I feel like those people that work their asses off aren't recognized in the way that they should be. And so I've cut back on that a lot. Like I'm going to be a good team member, you're going to get the work from me, the job is going to get done, but I am not going to spend a whole bunch of extra time. And maybe that makes me a shitty person, but it's not my priority anymore. And that big shift came not only with the spiritual awakening, but with having children and just realizing that I work to live, I don't live to work. And that is a very big distinction and I have integrity and I want to do a good job and I do.
Speaker A [00:10:21]:
But I've come to realize that you don't always have to put in that extra effort, that sometimes good is good enough and we are the ones that make ourselves crazy by trying to do more than that. And for me personally, that was also a bit of the healing of my South Node in Virgo. So if you know anything about astrology, you'll know that the nodes and the node placement or nodal placement in your natal chart can tell you a lot. So your South Node is all of the skills and traits and things that you have mastered in previous lifetimes and your North Node is what you have come to master and learn and lean into in this now lifetime. And it takes the entirety of our lives, right, to journey from that South Node to the North Node. But when I started to see the ways in which that south node in Virgo was playing out and how I wasn't letting it go so the perfectionist tendencies, the looking at presentations or going over things like 10 million times and having it have to be absolutely perfect before I hit send or agonizing over emails and grammar and all of that. Once I was able to let some of those things go and realize I don't need to read this email a 10th time, two times is probably enough, that's going to get my point across. It helped me maintain a better level of energy, right? So I'm not wasting energy on these things that kind of don't really matter.
Speaker A [00:12:07]:
I used to work for a pretty big burrito chain in their corporate marketing office and one of my coworkers always used to say like we're just selling burritos, we're not saving lives. And I really love that because I think that can apply to any job that is not like a job in a hospital or a high stakes job like a firefighter EMT, any of those things. If you're working in a corporate office, selling a product, working in it in the legal department. I don't know any of those. I don't want to say basic jobs. I feel like I'm going to offend someone, but you know what I'm saying? Any of those kinds of jobs. It's not rocket science. You're not like saving the world.
Speaker A [00:12:50]:
It's okay. I think the corporate culture of urgency also is something that I have really unraveled. So in my spiritual practice, I have learned so deeply that slowing down and rest are important, not just for my personal energetic being, but just for life. That the pace that we're at is a very frenetic pace that we set. For what reason? What reason is this email fucking urgent? It's not. Someone else is breathing down your back. Is breathing down your back, is breathing down your back. And now all of a sudden this thing has become so urgent it has to get done right now.
Speaker A [00:13:32]:
No, it doesn't. No, it absolutely does not. When it gets taken care of, it gets taken care of. And that's how I think of my entire schedule now, to be honest, that I have goals and things I want to get done in my own personal business and I do my best not to beat myself up about my productivity level and how much I get done in a day. If something doesn't get done that day, I truly believe it's because it wasn't meant to get done and it'll get done when it's supposed to. And that is a little bit laissez fair, but I truly believe that. And I'm laughing to myself because I feel like throughout this episode it's showing me ways that I still can go deeper in this unwinding of corporate culture and the frenetic pace of life. Because I keep feeling like I have to give disclaimers and explain myself, but fuck it, I don't.
Speaker A [00:14:25]:
These are the things that I believe and I have found them to be true for me and maybe they're not true for you. And that's how I am able to live a more balanced life. And that's not to say that things are always balanced, right? Sometimes work gets really crazy and there is nothing I can do about it, and I have to just lean into that. And then I prioritize my rest and my well being after that by taking a mental health day or clearing my calendar or doing what I can to relax after a really busy week. And again, it's all within your own realm of control, right? The things that you can control are the ones that I do, that I set boundaries for, that I shift what's happening. Because you can't control anyone else around you. You can't control the boss that's telling you this thing is urgent. You can't control all these external factors, but you can control how you react to it.
Speaker A [00:15:24]:
And whether you're coming from that place of reaction or are you coming from a more balanced and centered place. And you're the one that is changing the energy because you have the power to do that. You have the power to change the energy if you stop and let yourself be in the moment instead of just shooting off another email or responding and reacting because that's the energy that's been given to you. I think maybe that's the final thing I'll say in this balance of spiritual and corporate life is the spiritual practices matter. They matter, and you have to make time for them. And that's how you're able to come back to this place of neutrality. That's how you're able to control the energy around you or control your own energy, is because you have this baseline of a practice that you come back to every single day and you show up every single day differently on the mat, right? But it is a microcosm of the macrocosm. So the way that you show up for yourself is going to be how you show up for yourself in the corporate world.
Speaker A [00:16:35]:
So if you're dedicating time to your practice every single day, no matter what, doesn't matter if it's 15 minutes, five minutes, it's something and you deserve it and you're worth it. And then you start to do that in the corporate world as well. You start to make the time for yourself, to take up space, to set your boundaries because you've practiced them on the mat. Because you have shown up for yourself and said, no, this 15 minutes is non negotiable. So that 15 minutes on the mat is now turned into, okay, there's 15 minutes in my corporate life that is non negotiable, that this is what I'm going to do. So I hope that's helpful. Like I said in the beginning, I don't have all the answers. I'm flying by the seat of my pants here.
Speaker A [00:17:16]:
Who knows, two weeks from now I could be like, corporate spiritual life balance, like, what is that? Balance is an illusion. But in this moment, I feel like I am in the driver's seat and that's what matters. I'm the one choosing what I give my energy to, and I am the one that balances the scales when things get wonky or when things get out of whack because I'm unable to control certain parts of corporate life. And I also think I'll leave you with this, that everything is an opportunity, right? So in this return to office, I was pissed. I didn't want to go back to the office. But there has been a silver lining in that it's allowed me to change my scenery. I go a different way to work every single day. So I'm seeing something new.
Speaker A [00:18:03]:
I'm not stuck in the rope monotony of routine. Getting dressed, getting out of the house, like doing my makeup. Those were all things that I kind of took for granted. I was like, oh, I'm a hippie spiritual girl now. I don't need to do my makeup every day. No, it's actually really kind of nice to dress up and do my makeup, and it feels empowering to me. And then, hey, I miss my house and I get to come back to it. And I don't take those things for granted anymore because now I'm having to go back out into the world again.
Speaker A [00:18:35]:
The reason it's easeful is because I've let it be easeful, because I've looked at it as an opportunity and said, how can I turn this into my best life? How can I turn this to my advantage rather than sitting here saying, oh, I'm the victim because I have to go to a corporate job or I have to go into the office when I don't want to? It doesn't mean I don't have my moments of kicking and screaming. I absolutely did. But I came around to it and I realized that I could make this work for me. And if you get anything from this episode, it's that. I want you to know that you can make any situation work for you if you let it, and if maybe you let down those walls or think a little bit differently about how you have to do things. Just because something has been done the same way over and over and over again doesn't mean it's the right way and doesn't mean it needs to continue to be. So can you be the rule breaker? Can you be the one who does things a little bit differently in your office? Can you stand up for change and maybe putting forward some different initiatives or things that are outside of the box? We need people like that to be able to change the system. The system isn't going to change if we continue using it the way that it was built.
Speaker A [00:19:44]:
So with that, I will get off my soapbox and I will take a deep breath and remind you that the Portal collective my On Demand, Kundalini Yoga and Breathwork Membership is available for you to do virtually every single day. If you need support in that practice, if you need a quick practice to help you come back to yourself, all of these videos are short and impactful so that you can do them and get on with your day and you can find a link in the show notes. I can't wait to chat with you again next week. I love you. Be good to one another. I'll see you later.