Today’s guest is a badass for sure — she opens up the interview with, “Listen, I started out wanting to change the world,” when I asked her what her vision for her life was. These are the kind of women I resonate with very quickly!
Annette Dubreuil was my guest today and what we really dived deep into is this concept called ‘focusing.’ Focusing is a tool to enable us to understand and interpret the feelings we have in our body as they relate to our current mindset or psychology. Focusing is an incredibly interesting and useful tool that can enable all of us to gather more information to make decisions with respect to our lives. It is the perfect complement for an entrepreneur when they’re looking for insight into the types of decisions that they need to make in their lives.
This is what started her career as an environmentalist and she very quickly learned that it wasn’t necessarily the ideas but the systems, the businesses, the organizations, the stakeholders, and the environmental movement that required a new framework in order to be effective in a rapidly changing world. These pressures and understandings caused her to change her career and that is how she discovered ‘focusing.’
Annette is a consummate professional and was an absolutely fascinating guest to have on today’s podcast.
Key Takeaways:
[1:27] All about this week’s badass guest, Annette Dubreuil.
[3:03] Welcoming Annette Dubreuil to the podcast!
[3:23] Annette’s journey that got her to where she is today, her original motivation to become an environmentalist, and how she got introduced to focusing.
[4:38] What is exactly is ‘focusing?’
[6:00] The six steps to focusing.
[8:16] How long do these steps take?
[8:49] What does the ‘unpack’ stage mean in the context of focusing?
[10:55] How do we get into our body, opposed to our head? As a focusing newbie, how long does it take?
[13:04] What are the common ways our body speaks to us that we’ve been blocking off or ignoring?
[15:18] How do focusing and other naturopathic remedies (such as food, medicine, or strategic movement) work together?
[17:38] What does it actually mean to be in your body instead of your head? And how to get ready to focus.
[19:25] Is the concept of connect to the work and ideas of Louise Hay and Gabor Maté?
[21:45] Do things happen in the body, in turn creating a result or do things happen in our awareness then travel to the body? Or can it be both?
[25:35] What type of people do really well with focusing?
[27:00] Is focusing a tool about resolving physical issues or is it a tool that enables physical issues to draw your attention to a mindset or psychology?
[27:43] Annette’s commentary on how men and women experience focusing differently.
[32:27] How is focusing going to leverage Annette’s original mission of ‘changing the world?’
[35:53] What Annette would like her legacy to be.
[36:28] Annette’s key performance indicators!
[38:42] Where to find Annette and her work online.
Mentioned in This Episode:
Love Warrior: A Memoir, by Glennon Doyle
Amy Edmondson on Psychology Safety
A Process Model, by Eugene Gendlin
Focusing Retreat in Niagara Falls
More About Annette Dubreuil
Annette is passionate about sustainability and has been since she was little and growing up on the northeast shores of Lake Superior, in Wawa, Ontario. She began her education in environmental science, wanting to better understand the planet in order to help “save it.” She quickly learned that we knew quite a bit about the planet already and that it was our organizations that needed to change. After completing an MBA in sustainability and strategy, it became apparent that for organizations to change people need to change first. The use of focusing as a catalyst for personal and professional growth is Annette’s current area of interest.
Annette’s professional career has been focused on advancing and disseminating cutting-edge sustainability research and practice. Currently, Annette is the Communications Director at Canada’s Ecofiscal Commission. She is also a marketing and development consultant with Learning for a Sustainable Future, an organization focused on integrating sustainability concepts into the education system. (Focusingonborden.com/annette)
Connect with my Guest:
Website: Focusing on Borden
Focusing Retreat in Niagara Falls
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MONTHLY QUIZ
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CALL TO ACTION
This week’s call to action is to check in with yourself using focusing! Focusing is a great tool to in facilitating a new standard of alignment for yourself. It’s an amazing, quick way to understanding systemically whether or not your actions are really aligned with who you are and what your values are. Share your commitment on the Entrepology Podcast Facebook page. Because when you are accountable, you are helpable.
Tweetables:
“[Focusing] really helps us connect to — what you could call — your higher self.”
— Annette Dubreuil
“[In focusing] we’re really just being curious with whatever’s there.” — Annette Dubreuil
“Most of the time people are using [focusing] to work on something emotional — but you’re accessing it through the body. The body stores things until you’re ready to work with it.” — Annette Dubreuil
“Not only do we need to learn things like focusing to be connected to ourselves and be more ourselves individually — but there’s a huge opportunity to have better conversations and be more safe in groups.” — Annette Dubreuil
“It’s exciting to see how our relationships in business will be able to change as we use these different kinds of tools that are more embodied … and make it safe to pause.”
— Annette Dubreuil