Integritus Prime

In 2014, meditation proved to be the most important activity in my life. Soon enough, I noticed many insights and inspirations arriving during my daily meditations.

Towards the end of the year, life gave me a major transition: closing down my previous company, d.cipher, and embarking on a new beginning.  Aside from meditation, there was one other force on my side: serendipity. Exhibit A: I met my mentor a few months before I realized that my previous company would need to be shut down, and he continues to be pricelessly instrumental in helping me make a new start. Exhibit B: I met a stranger on a plane I wasn’t supposed to be on, at 1am, who led me to the inspiration that has ultimately manifested as my new company name.

It all began, however, in the Navajo Nation last December. During a full moon, around midnight, at a sacred ceremony, the men’s chanting took me to a place where there was nothing else: only inspiration.

Since then, the pieces have begun to fall into place. What was missing before has arrived and seamlessly integrated itself into the conceptual model for my new company.

I started my consulting career facilitating change management and creativity workshops for leaders in climate change, wellness, and education. This was most rewarding, except there was a very important aspect of leadership, perhaps the most important aspect, that wasn’t being included explicitly: integrity.

The epiphany arrived gently during one of my meditations late last year: if meditation was so important, why wasn’t it part of what I was offering to my clients?

Meditation itself was missing from my approach! How else might we have the greatest positive impact if we aren’t in tune with our real, true, and full selves?

I began to formulate a new model, taking what I already had:

• behavioral sciences (so we can effectively change our behavior and practices to meet our goals),
• design thinking (so we can consistently be innovative in the way we solve problems),
• biomimicry (so we can emulate nature’s elegance and balance to create sustainable solutions),

and melding it with meditation, the art of being in the present moment, in touch with oneself, and centered in integrity and authenticity.

Ponder this: we know from quantum physics that the observer changes the observed. So if we are going to make an impact on the world, why not begin from our true selves so that we can make the most positive and genuine impact?

The model took shape and I started calling it the diamond model – inspired by the four directions and the four sacred mountains in the Navajo tradition, and the fact that the diamond is the strongest material substance on earth. At first, I called the four components Intuition, Integration, Innovation, and Transformation (which also led me to start this blog). Later, these names evolved into connect (meditation), create (design thinking), transform (behavioral sciences) and sustain (biomimicry).

Then, in January, I traveled to Ecuador. On the way, having missed two flights and barely made it onto my third plane, I met a stranger who inspired me immensely. He consults with clients to help them balance their masculine and feminine energies, something I believe is crucial for the future we are co-creating. At 30,000 feet, traveling toward a new sunrise, he and I bonded over many topics; one of them was books. Later, we wrote lists of the books that changed our lives. One of the books on his list caught my eye: The Alchemist, by Paul Coelho.

I was struck by the fact that I hadn’t yet read this incredibly famous book. I immediately purchased it and read it in one sitting. The all-over-my-body-goosebumps came, and stayed…

Soon after this experience, it was time to go on retreat with my mentor to birth my new venture. I was so inspired by The Alchemist that I chose the desert as my retreat venue; we went to Joshua Tree National Park.

There, after a couple of days of intense brainstorming and visioning, I went for my first sound bath at the Integratron and felt a spaciousness in my mind. Right after that, we went to the national park, where I wandered, communing with the teeming life in the vast desert. Inspired by nature, we returned to our work, now generating ideas for company names. After our chart paper was full of more than a hundred ideas, my mentor suddenly said: “Alchemist Prime.”

I started to smile and realized that this was poetic justice: this name encapsulated what I wanted to give my future clients: a structured opportunity based on science to become alchemists of their own character and actions for a better planet. To rise to the highest state of efficacy and service. And, the name resonated with the way I named this blog, in the vein of my hero, and leader of the Autobots, Optimus Prime.

A week later we realized, much to my effervescent delight, that Alchemist Prime is an actual Transformer, who looks to nature for inspiration! The same day, during one of my meditations, a new company name came to me, which was even more in line with Optimus Prime: Alchemus Prime. My model became the Alchemus Prime Diamond Model. We never looked back.

We also observed the seamless synergy between our approaches, and began a collaboration that proves to be delightfully creative, fearless, and evolving. We are in this for the win-win solutions that benefit our clients and the world. Alchemus Prime is about us all, doing alchemy together, to reach our prime potential as leaders called upon to protect and nourish a world in chaos and transition. We stand on the foundation of science, combining behavioral tools, processes for creativity, biomimicry principles, and the ancient and scientific techniques of meditation to hone a whole person, a well-rounded leader, a steward of the future. That’s you, and me. That’s us.

For the logo, we chose the yin yang, symbolizing the interconnected nature of opposing forces, and replaced the circles with our diamonds. We combined this image with the four elements, air, water, fire, and earth, as symbolized in alchemy.

Our vision is to align business with nature so that all life can flourish. Alchemus Prime is now operational and we are facilitating experiences that will activate the true self to empower our clients to change the world in beautiful ways.

As I continue on this exciting path, I am still on my way to finding, being, and honoring my true self. Won’t you join me?