Recognizing the divinity within: WFWP Toronto held the first of a three-part Leadership of the Heart seminar

Inspired by the excellent educational content of the Leadership of the Heart curriculum, the WFWP Toronto chapter launched the first part of the seminar, “Discovering the Leader Within”, with an introduction and a session on the topic of spirituality, on September 7th, 2019.

On a beautiful Saturday morning, the participants were greeted with some refreshments and as they mingled around the room, they engaged in informal discussions on various subjects, from our city and the upcoming elections to concerns about the world situation.

Turning everyone’s attention to the start of the official program, the emcee Yulia Tarasova, a board member of WFWP Canada, set the stage with some pertinent opening words. She shared her view on the importance of peace, unity, harmony and love in our troubled world.

Lilly Tadin, the president of WFWP Canada, began with a brief introduction and shared what it means to be a leader of the heart. In her presentation, she challenged the audience to reflect on how Leadership of the Heart is different from other forms of leadership and how they can practice it: “We all agree that if we want to bring peace in this world, it needs to start on the individual level. What kind of qualities am I as an individual demonstrating to the world and to the people in my circle of influence?” 

To help answer those questions, Ms. Tadin handed out the Peace Leadership Survey forms to all the participants. The objective was that through this interaction, they could more easily uncover their areas of strengths and weaknesses.

After the survey, several people came forward to share some of their thoughts on what makes a good leader. The discussion was quite engaging, with a good number of testimonials and comments.

Ms. Tadin then continued with the first session on Spirituality: “The Divine is Calling”. It’s important that we recognize the divinity within ourselves and others, as this will help us to overcome the many barriers we have created in our own minds. Furthermore, she added, it is essential that we have our daily relationship with God, so that we can deal with some of these challenges, be they emotional or spiritual. 

Each of us also needs to discover our own and unique God-given gifts, develop them and nurture them further. Ms. Tadin encouraged participants to explore their inner selves through prayer and meditation and discover those inner “gifts”. With this discovery, we can connect to God and more easily recognize the divinity within the self and others.

With quiet and relaxing music, Ms. Tadin led the participants in a meditation by reading words of empowerment and love, to help connect them to our Creator God and find that special gift(s) that each one of us holds inside. After the meditation, some participants shared how they implement meditation in their daily life, saying that it gives them more spiritual strength and a deeper connection to God.

To conclude the session, participants were invited to write a personal letter to God. Some of them wrote this letter by expressing their situation and struggles. By connecting to God, they found inner strength and a way to overcome those challenges.

It was a powerful end to the morning seminar, and we are looking forward to continuing this empowering program with the next two sessions.