Coming Home to Yourself: Theresa Gale on Self-Forgetting, Self-Remembering, and the Inner Work of Leadership

Hello, everyone. Welcome back to Telling My Story. I'm Henry Chiwetelu, and today we are talking about self-awareness, personal growth, leadership, and what it means to truly come home to yourself. My guest is Teresa Gil, an executive coach, certified En- Enneagram trainer. Did I get it correct, Enneagram?

That's correct. Enneagram, yes.

Okay. Enneagram trainer and author of The Inner Work of Love and Action. For more than 30 years, Teresa has worked with leaders, teams, and individual, exploring the patterns that can cause us to lose connection with ourself while trying to meet the expectation of life and others. She calls, she calls this self-forgetting, and her work focuses on helping people move towards self-remembering, becoming more present, grounded, and conducted to who they are. Today, we'll explore Teresa's personal journey, the Enneagram, contemplative practices, leadership, and the inner works that can create meaningful change. Teresa, welcome to Telling My Story, and it's a pleasure to have you here with us today.

Thank you, Henry.

All right, Teresa, let's start with your story. What led y- what led you on this 30 years journey of understanding yourself and helping others do the same?

Well, I think it started a lot earlier than 30 years. 30 years is when I started, um, with a business partner, our business. But before that, um, I was always somebody who was seeking to f- to be whole. Right? I, I was on this, this, my own path that led me to, you know, I, I had an early experience of, of sexual abuse and abandonment, and it just sort of set the stage for me of seeking to feel whole, feel loved. And so when I found the Enneagram, which was in my late 30s, it was, uh, just a revelation for me to understand what the patterns I had developed very early in life to survive, which all of us do, and how those patterns, while in some situations supported me, in many situations were k- kind of keeping me stuck in patterns of self-forgetting, of, of always acquiescing to everybody else's needs, to keeping everything peaceful and harmonious. And that, at times, just, you know, got me in trouble because I would sort of fade away, and I wouldn't step forward and be that leader that, that, that my, my people needed me to be. And so finding the Enneagram was just a, a, you know, a real gift. And my business partner and I, we had been working together in a training center, and both of us learned the Enneagram, and we realized how impactful it could be in the business world. One of our teachers of the Enneagram, you know, said, "You can't bring that into business." And, you know, 30 years later, we're here to say, yes, you can. And it truly is about helping leaders understand what gets in their way of being successful, and how do they break the patterns that aren't supporting them and, you know, sort of move into what we call self-remembering, right? To this being very clear about who they are, what they want, what their purpose is, why they built this business, and how they want to be a leader, how they want to show up as a leader, how they want to impact and, and oftentimes grow themselves and grow their companies. So, um, very long journey. Um, I