We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Rene Bogdanos. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Rene below.
Hi Rene, we’re so appreciative of you taking the time to share your nuggets of wisdom with our community. One of the topics we think is most important for folks looking to level up their lives is building up their self-confidence and self-esteem. Can you share how you developed your confidence?
In all honesty it is still something I am ALWAYS developing! Some days it is a breeze, other days not as much. Even more honesty, the work I do in the world began with me first having to do my own deep inner personal development and healing work because I had very low confidence and self-esteem. Like the lowest of low. In the process of doing the work of healing my relationship to myself, finding my truth, finding my purpose in the world, and using my voice, my confidence and belief in myself came alive. GREATLY! I believe there is a driving force within all of us, an inner intelligence, that is always nudging and pushing us to our limits so that we can be the person we are here to be. Some think this is simply evolution but I believe that there is a deeper and spiritual element to this intelligence. It is a code written on our soul and when we need to grow, heal, or expand in any way because we are not living our fullest potential, it gives us a nudge, a push, or for me it was a huge kick in the pants! To be the leader of change in the personal development space that I am here to be, it was a non-negotiable. A painful non-negotiable that turned into the most liberating and freeing aspect of the work that I get to do in the world. To say that helping other women ignite that level of confidence, belief, and personal power in themselves is my passion I guess would be an understatement. I know the deep deep suffering when we lack the connection to ourselves and I want all women that want the unwavering belief and confidence in themselves to have that too. To be able to help others I have to CONSTANTLY be developing this in myself.
Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?
Explaining what I do often feels like a challenging question to answer because giving myself a label can even feel limiting at times. I like to say I inspire and empower high achieving women (and some men) to realize their potential to experience transformation in their lives. I like to highlight that “they” are the ones that are doing the transformative work, because they are. I am just there to guide them but I in no way take the credit. When someone is ready, they just are, and they experience shifts. I cannot make someone ready and willing however I can inspire them, turn on the lights, raise their consciousness, and show them what is possible, show them their inner power.
When people ask me what transformation actually means it is a quite simple answer. It is a significant change for the better into who someone wants to be. Who they are here to be. It is helping them restore the relationship they have with themselves, come to know who they truly are, to get back in touch with their true nature, and that inner personal power, the source within them. It is also important that we look at who they are not. Simply through human development we have conditioning and outdated ways of being, believing, thinking, feeling, that no longer serve us, that hold us back, keep us stuck, disconnect us spiritually, from each other, and we don’t even realize it. So we have to do some clean up work first. I find this to be the most fulfilling part of the process. When someone taps in and they experience the realization of who they truly are at their core (and who they are not), why they are here, where they are going, and that they hold the creative power for their life, it is as if something clicks in. I like to say they are “plugged in” to the intelligence of life and everything that can mean for them. They are then able to see the possibilities in their life and take the inspired action that moves them closer to where they are wanting to go. It is quite profound and exciting to say the least.
I fell in love with transformational coaching when I left my corporate career in biotech many years ago after I experienced crazy burnout (turned autoimmune) as a high achieving professional (and perfectionist). In my own healing and growth journey is where I discovered our profound ability to transform our selves, open our hearts, heal our minds, our relationships, our health, truly our whole lives! I felt unstoppable with this discovery. And I still do!
I was deeply called to bring this knowledge to the world at a deeper more expansive level. To bridge the science with the spiritual knowledge. I decided to go to graduate school where I rigorously and deeply studied consciousness, the mind, emotional intelligence, inner wisdom, spiritual intelligence, leadership, and our human potential. There I received a master’s degree in the Psychology of Consciousness and Transformative studies and experienced my own new level of development I didn’t know was possible! Seeing even more possibilities for others as well.
My life’s work has evolved, as does everything in life. We are ever evolving and it is one of the most amazing aspects of being alive! Despite everything we are seeing in the world I hold very high hopes for where humanity is going. I believe that with every breakdown there is always a breakthrough. There truly is an amazing life to be lived when we know our truth and we are open to experience the fullness that life has to offer us. I believe this is what can ultimately heal humanity. We need a shift in the paradigm that we are currently operating in and the best place to start is within each one of us.
Our minds, our bodies, our spirit, they are an incredible source of power and untapped potential waiting to be discovered!
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
First and foremost consciousness. I say this so often-we cannot change what we are not aware of and our level of consciousness, our ability to be aware of ourselves, our thoughts, our bodily sensations, our memories, the world around us, our responses to the world, everything at play in our reality, that is our point of power. I believe growth is determined by our ability to not only be conscious as well as our ability to handle the truth that our consciousness brings, especially about ourselves. That is the essence of the work. My advice is to practice and to build that muscle of awareness. Set an intention each day to be conscious of everything as best as you can be. Set aside time each day to practice conscious awareness with even the most mundane and simple things like washing the dishes. Just pay attention and notice, without judgement, what is happening inside of you, the thoughts you think, the sensations in your body, notice how you feel around certain people and in certain situations. Practice practice practice. It is a muscle we have to build and it is well worth it. Also, be open to what you notice and don’t judge yourself. Instead have tons of compassion. Majority of what is happening within us has developed through survival in a crazy world!
Second the heart-brain connection often encompassed into the mind body connection but I like to further define this. There is a subconscious communication happening between the brain and the heart where the heart is actually doing majority of the talking to us. Unfortunately we pay most attention to what is going on in our head. When we awaken the heart and begin to listen to it, we get a lot more clue about what is going on within us. The heart is more than just your body’s most important organ. It is the essence of your spiritual and emotional being. Listening to our hearts and leaning into the heart is much more valuable than making decisions from our heads or even listening to what the mind is saying to us. So often it isn’t saying very nice things however the heart is always speaking truth. When you find yourself caught in the limiting thoughts, or too much in the mind when trying to make a decision, take a pause, place your hand on your heart to draw your attention there and ask to be shown the truth. The heart doesn’t lie.
Lastly my unwavering belief in the transformative healing process. I had a mentor once tell that my belief in the process was remarkable. I found that interesting because it was something I didn’t even realize I had until she pointed it out to me. It has always been in me carrying me forward and I assumed everyone on the path was being carried by this inner driving force that was unwavering. That isn’t to say I don’t have moments, sometimes even days, where I get discouraged or my belief in possibilities and my potential isn’t tested, however it is something I immediately have recognition of and I bring myself right back to my belief in the vision I hold for my life and what I am moving towards. Our beliefs are the most powerful creative energy we have in our experience of life. Whatever we believe, we are right. Pay attention to your beliefs; about yourself, about others, and about the world. Question your beliefs and really determine if they serve you, if they keep you connected to others (or disconnected) and if they support you in the life you want to be living.
We’ve all got limited resources, time, energy, focus etc – so if you had to choose between going all in on your strengths or working on areas where you aren’t as strong, what would you choose?
I actually think it is both. I do believe we want to round out our areas of opportunity so that they don’t hold us back in our strengths however I think there are limits to the amount of work we do in those areas as to not get too focused and hung up on our perceived weaknesses, which can keep us stuck in disempowerment. There is a lot of truth in being mindful about where we focus our energy. We are always motivated in one of two directions. We are either motivated towards something we desire or we are motivated away from something that we don’t desire. I know from my own personal experience that personal development can quickly turn into an inner witch hunt for all of our perceived faults, weaknesses, and defects which can have a counterproductive effect on our growth. It can put us in a very negative space too. When we can see the inner work as an opportunity to move towards growth we experience the expansion in the work. When the inner work is a means to rid ourselves of faults and weaknesses we can experience a contraction and that never ending pit of things to work on. Either way, however it is that we are focusing our energy, that will determine our experience of it. There will ALWAYS be aspects of ourselves that we can improve on. I believe focusing on doing the main work of improvement-our mindset, our emotional health, our spiritual intelligence, is of most importance, the rest just allow it to improve naturally and as it is necessary to improve it. Rome wasn’t built in a day!
Contact Info:
- Website: mindbodyvibe.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mind_body_vibe/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/mindbodyvibe
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rene-bogdanos-ma-7223bb37/
