I had a phone call with someone recently who shared this:

“Staff meetings at work have been tense lately with management pitted against employees around just compensation. I always have something to say, especially when my buttons get pushed, but I feel no one listens to me and I feel dismissed – I’m afraid they see me as weak and ineffectual. Then, later, I feel frustrated because I realize I didn’t say what I really wanted to say. What’s going on here? How can I change people’s perception of me?”

Here is how I responded:

The real power of our words comes from a place of neutrality and our commitment to speaking absolute truth. From this place there is no agenda and no investment in making someone right or wrong, or good or bad. This kind of egoic positioning actually blocks access to our intuition and higher intelligence and to our highest expression.

In a hierarchical set-up like at your workplace there is no level playing field. Those at the top may give you a voice, but they do not see you as an equal. And as you are seeing, when you come from an egoic, reactive place and they sense that you are making them wrong or attacking them in some way, they throw up a wall by tuning you out, behaving dismissively towards you, or cutting you off completely. But if you can speak from a neutral place with no agenda other than to speak your truth, the words will come and your colleagues will take notice. By doing this you are actually holding an alignment in your core, which is a direct conduit to Source and your Higher Self. It is speaking from your heart. Others may not agree with what you are saying, but your words will heard and felt because they will ring with the power of your personal truth and authenticity.

This neutral state is actually centered outside of the push/pull of our desires and fears. It holds the position between the negative and positive spin of our egoic patterning . It is higher consciousness. In fact, the more we practice living our lives from this neutral witnessing place in the face of perceived adversity, the more we will build our light and connection to Source.

So in a heated staff meeting at work, your neutral witness would watch the drama unfold while your higher mind holds the intention of being neither attracted or repulsed. You would tune in to your emotional body throughout the conversation and allow your emotions to move through, maintaining your center by holding your witness all the while. The breath can be your lifeline here, especially if anger comes up. When we feel threatened in some way, the hormone adrenaline is released by the adrenal glands and our nervous system becomes activated. It is our primitive “fight or flight” response to impending danger and it can quickly knock us off center. Use the power of your breath to hold the witness. Consciously breathe. Taking slow, deep belly breaths in through the nose and releasing out though the mouth will gradually tame the adrenals and allow you to maintain neutrality.

…. you are above the fray, holding your neutral witness and emotional center and when it is your opportunity to speak, your connection to your Higher Self and intuitive voice gives you access to the words you seek. Emotional triggers are usually unconscious, so it may take some practice familiarizing yourself with the neutral witness position in order to override the trigger. But be forgiving of yourself and keep trying! – your witness will strengthen over time. You will not only begin to change other’s perception of you, you will grow your consciousness by identifying more and more with your true nature between the spin of opposites, which is Divinity itself.