POWER & INTEGRITY: A NECESSARY CONVERSATION

I woke up this morning musing about something that feels especially alive right now. I’m watching a next layer of spiritual pedestals start to crack, wobble, and come crashing down.

With the release of the Epstein files, more spiritual leaders and public figures are being called out (and called forward), and we are being invited into a more mature conversation about power and integrity.

When a human steps more fully into the mastery of their gifts (aka. truly living and sharing their unique genius with the world), it is equally essential that they cultivate an active, evolving relationship with integrity.

Integrity is not optional.

And it becomes exponentially more important the more influence we hold.

The real issue is not mastery, or even power. Mastery of our gifts is beautiful; it heals, transforms, and inspires. The issue is what happens when mastery is not tethered to ongoing self-reflection.

Power amplifies what is unconscious.

Because of this, the more impact we have, the more responsibility we carry to examine our underlying motives, blind spots, shadow parts, unconscious desires, and yearnings to be “guru-ified” or pedestalized.

Let’s be honest here… leaders don’t build these pedestals alone. There is something in us that wants someone to be enlightened, perfect, or all-knowing. And when we hand over our discernment (because it kind of feels good to sit in the back seat, letting someone else drive), we participate in the very dynamic we later critique.

True integrity is not an endpoint. It is not a gold-at-the-end-of-the-bloody-rainbow destination we finally arrive at. It is an active, ongoing practice.

Mature Power + Integrity look like:

– Consistent self-reflection

– Openness to feedback (especially from those who do not pedestalize you)

– Seeking supervision, mentorship, & community accountability no matter how smart, rich, enlightened, or famous you are

– A willingness to stretch and re-stretch yourself to walk your talk in ALL areas of your life

– The courage to authentically say, “I was wrong. I’m sorry.”

And most importantly, integrity requires transparent self-reflection. Not performative vulnerability or curated shadow-sharing as branding (barf). But a genuine reckoning with the parts of us that would misuse power if left unseen.

True leaders are not those without shadow. They are human beings who are in active relationship with it.

These days, the teachers I trust are not the ones who appear flawless. They are the ones who reveal their humanness, their blind spots, their missteps, and their learning edges.

Honestly, I’ve personally always had a fear of my own power—of what it would look like if I fully stepped into my gifts. I think I’ve always played small-ish on some level because of a fear of misusing my power. But the solution is not shrinking our gifts (I’m saying this to you and to myself). It is not staying small so we cannot do harm. The solution is mature power.

Power that invites feedback.

Power that welcomes dissent.

Power that knows it is capable of harm in every single moment of every single day, and chooses responsibility anyway.

We are in a potent time where many are losing faith in leaders. But maybe this isn’t a bad thing. Maybe it is an opportunity. An invitation into a more adult, less enchanted, more grounded relationship with power. Both in those we follow and in ourselves.

Because every one of us, in our own way, has power somewhere. We each carry influence in some capacity.

So how do we continue to step into our mastery and grow our integrity at the same pace? That the question I’m noodling on today.