February 24, 2026

February: Pathfinding in Chaos

Each month (or thereabouts), we share insights, reflection questions, quotes, and book recommendations on a key theme, as well as update you on new experiences in our community.

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Welcome. The theme for this month is Pathfinding in Chaos.

I remember a time when I was living in India. It was 2003.

I had walked up a hill in the Aravalli Mountains with my then-2-year-old daughter, a leader I was working with, and someone from the centre where we were staying.

We were going to visit the Sadhu (holy man), who, dreadlocked and sparsely clothed, lived in a small temple on top of the hill. We had walked there several times before and shared chai and conversation with him. Recently, a large litter of puppies had been born to a female dog who lived with the Sadhu. My daughter was keen to see them.

After playing with the puppies, we made our way down the hill.

It was evening, and a mist rose. Soon it was impossible to see even half a metre ahead. An hour into what should have been a 20-minute descent, we were clearly lost.

We had no phone signal, and even the local man couldn’t find the way.

We were beginning to despair that we would need to spend the night wandering the mountains just to keep warm. My daughter was asleep on my shoulder.

In that moment, like someone recovering from a momentary amnesia, I remembered my training.

I asked my companions to be still for a moment.

I brought my mind to stillness and found the quiet space inside.

I asked my higher sense to guide me. I asked my fellow walkers to trust and follow me. Within ten minutes and with a clarity of movement, we were back at the centre. I was grateful. My companions were astounded.

Alison at the centre in India in 2003.

For many, attempting to navigate the current changes in our world, you may find that your normal path-finding capabilities are not sufficient. The roads are not visible or are different to those you had imagined.

Your well-worn neural pathways are no longer able to find a clear or certain road.

You might be searching for clarity in condemnation, polarisation, victimisation, apathy, or a claim of certainty where there is none.

You may have surrendered to the mist, to the reality that you may need to wander through the mist until the sun rises and illuminates your path.

Perhaps you have enough mental training to hear, trust, and follow your higher sense, without any certainty of where it is leading you.

When the world is more obviously turned on its head, how do we find our way? Where is a productive and spirit-enriching place to be?

Uncomfortable exposures

There is enough being said about the challenges to a once-held and, for many, believed-in world order, the shattering of illusions, and the exposure of evil.

That which was buried, the unpleasant truths are coming to light.

For that, we can be thankful – it reveals a path to enlightenment. We cannot change that which we do not see.

Yet for many, including me, these exposures are not shocking. They provide a small glimpse to the masses of what many have always felt, noticed or even experienced.

As the dark is exposed, we have a choice about where to position ourselves, in our minds, hearts and small worlds within the broader world.

This newsletter is an invitation to be very conscious of this choice. To carefully determine how you navigate and find a generative space in all of this.

If you get too carried away by the indignation of the collective, you are likely to miss an opportunity to place yourself in a more enlightened and emboldened position within yourself. You’ll miss the opportunity to see the bigger patterns at play. You’ll miss the opportunity to expose yourself to the light within you, which, through your thoughts, emotions, energy and intention, is capable of holding a steady position for the world you chose to be part of.

Individuals do need to be held to account; this is true and necessary. Yet what is also critical is how we address the systemic patterns that allow violence, coercion and misogyny. How do we address the thought patterns that result in such a huge lack of social and value cohesion across different social classes, worldviews and realities? The lack of cohesion that makes the raping and pillaging of the earth and of each other possible?

Self-similar thought forms have justified colonisation, bonded child labour and child sex exploitation. They continue to justify shareholder primacy, extraction from the earth and people. They allow us to somewhat blindly invest in AI without a real conversation about the impact on energy and water resources, not to mention on human flourishing.

The thought forms that glorify winner-take-all and progress at all costs (despite noble attempts at greenwashing) may take different forms across time and generations, yet manifest in similar ways. They enable all the dark elements you now see exposed on your screens.

The work should we choose to accept it

The work is to investigate the roots of the thought forms of domination, possession and extraction in the world around you and in your own psyche. If you search, you will find them. Perhaps you see them as you justify taking the car space someone else was waiting for. Perhaps they are illuminated through noticing a scarcity mindset that leads to hoarding more than you need. You might see them through the choice to enrol your children in elite private schools, land “ownership” or the sentiment of owning your partner. I have observed most of the above in myself.

For as long as the enemy is a human, a race, a nation, a sex abuser, we fail to see the mental prisons we, too, have been captive to and that inform our conditioning from birth till now.

To dismantle the systems of oppression, we need to own the oppressor within our minds, face it head-on, feel genuine, open-hearted remorse and align with thought forms filled with greater compassion, love, courage, and abundance.

I have learnt that, with the development of an observant mind, we can see the oppressor as it attempts to dominate our psyche, and, with practice and self-kindness, we can learn to intervene.

This must be done with self-compassion, which is different to self-justification. It is the art of loving and owning one’s psychological shadow, conditioned by the collective shadow, which can make it less dominant as we practice living from the soul.

By doing your own shadow work, you can find a place within the light. From this place, you can navigate the mist and chaos and be a way-finder for others.

The place we need to occupy now is one of light. This is the way to navigate confusion, complexity and chaos – with light. This is the way to find a new path for yourself and, in doing so, open it for others.

And yet this light should not be the light of naivete or a love-and-light New Age sentiment, but rather the light that exposes reality with clarity, so that we can see both the darkness and the light in our humanity and make an informed choice about where we choose to stand.

Generative Questions to expand and explore

Light brings exposure. What might you be afraid of exposing to yourself or to others?
What are you keeping in the dark so that you can remain in a comfortable status quo?
What do you consciously block out of your awareness due to fear of overwhelm or inability to act? What impact does this have?
How could you be bolder in holding light in your own world?

Quotes on our theme: Pathfinding in Chaos

“The heart of dissonance is deeply ironic: the mind wants to protect itself from the pain of dissonance with the balm of self-justification, but the soul wants to confess.” – Carol Tavris and Elliott Aronson

“One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious”. – Carl Jung

“For nothing is hidden that will not be disclosed, and nothing concealed that will not be made known and brought to light”. – Luke 8:17 Bible

Book Recommendation on this theme

🤓 Mistakes Were Made (but Not by Me) By Carol Tavris and Elliot Aronson (social psychologists)

Explores how the mind self-justifies avoiding admitting errors, including a lack of moral or ethical judgment.

For more inspiration, you can find previous newsletters here.

For soulful reflection you can download my very popular annual New Year Reflection Journal.

Upcoming Events and Opportunities

Would you like to learn more about the New Millennium Leader Academy?

In 2026 we are re-launching the New Millennium Leader Academy with an upgraded experience integrating online live workshops with cohort and community learning.

On March 17th we are offering a complimentary 90 minute masterclass with Alison.

Dive into the world of New Millennium Leaders. Experience insights into your own leadership and learn a simple yet powerful practice for aligning with the next-level leader you choose to be.

The experience is followed by an open Q&A about the New Millennium Leader Academy where you can understand more about what New Millennium Leadership is and how the Academy can support your evolution as a Leader.