Purpose is your Anchor: Centering into your Power as a Public Leader
Written by
Melissa Andrada, MSc (mel - they/them)
CEO & Cofounder
Edited by
Dr. Suzan Ahmed (she/her)
Clinical Psychologist & Executive Coach
Interactive Keynote: Stepping Into Your Power As A Public Speaker to 500+ queer leaders
Out in Tech’s Annual Leadership Institute
Brooklyn, New York
An Embodied Trauma-Informed
Approach to Purpose and Leadership
Dear reader: As you reflect on the impact you’d like to have over the rest of this year of the fiery horse, I invite you to call in your purpose and higher self, your most compassionate and courageous expression of self. The Essential Self. Take pride in your purpose and who you are.
Purpose is a life force that enables us to fall and get back up, even amidst devastating loss and trauma. Purpose anchors the nervous system, amidst the inevitable waves of work and life. Purpose connects to an untouchable courage and power that sees no stranger. Purpose is a timeless love song that inspires us to keep us moving, singing and speaking our truths, even when our hearts are racing, our shoulders are clenching, when the primal instinct in the subcortical region of the brain is begging us to hide, to stay silent, to stay small. You will not destroy us; love always wins. We are the champions.
Public speaking is a practice people fear more than death. In fact, 77% of the general population has a fear of public speaking — and for survivors of big T trauma and sexual violence, this fear of ‘being seen’ is even more pronounced. In the fall of 2025, I co-delivered an interactive keynote alongside my colleague and clinical psychologist Dr. Bree McDaniel on Stepping Into Your Power As A Public Speaker to 500+ queer leaders at Out in Tech’s annual leadership institute. In the days and hours leading up to the keynote, I experienced Rumi’s Guest House: waves of joy, grief, excitement, shame, fear, anticipation. I’ve held a decade-long career presenting, teaching and facilitating for thousands of individuals and organizations across the world, yet this time was different. Lift every voice and sing. Lift every voice and speak.
Lift every voice and sing
“Lift every voice and sing,
Till earth and heaven ring,
Ring with the harmonies of Liberty;
Let our rejoicing rise
High as the list’ning skies,
Let it resound loud
as the rolling sea.”
I felt a spiritual calling to share the story of our family on stage for the first time. Purpose was bigger than fear. Love was bigger than fear. Amidst the current attacks on queer, trans and human rights, now more than ever, we need a message of love and optimism. We’ve got you. We are still here.
The surgeons at the hospital described my father as ‘tough.’ This is a photo of my dad and me when our family summited part of Mount Rainier, the tallest mountain in our home state of Washington. Dad managed to keep up with his daughters, over 7 hours going up 7,000 miles of elevation. His determination courses through our veins.
Photo by Jesse Whiles
Some of my regular readers know that in 2020, amidst the height of the pandemic, the day before Thanksgiving, my beloved father and I were in a devastating car accident that led to his painful passing. The psycho-somatic trauma of our accident and the death of my dad impacted my ability to speak when I so longed to hear him speak.
After heart-breaking trauma and tragedy, it was hard to show up publicly on stage, when my private inner world and nervous system was in the process and practice of being re-constructed from the inside out. Stay on Hope Lane always.
Because I had survived, it became my leadership responsibility to use my voice to help others heal and reclaim their voice. Our sacred wounds can be our deepest superpowers. Our crucible moments can be transformed into love and life force. As Harvard professor Bill George shares, crucible moments can define our purpose, our North Star.
“The serious challenges that we all face in life are our crucibles. These are the real test of your character. If you explore your crucible deeply, it can be a transformative experience that enables you to reframe your life’s meaning. You can look back and draw strength from a crucible experience and use its meaning to shape your path going forward. ”
This essay is an homage to resilience and survivorship, a spiritual and strategic reflection on how to uncover purpose and act in accordance with our most important values, even when we are challenged at our core. May this essay be an embodied prayer of love and liberation that helps you connect more potently to purpose. May it be a bell tower of radical hope and dreaming that takes you back home.
Our living Theory of Change is inspired by the latest research and practice in clinical psychology and somatic art therapy, bringing a holistic approach to transformation:
Understand Your Life Story: Sacred Wounds and Superpowers
Capture the Essence of Your Why: Make Meaning and Magic Through Purpose
Ground into the Body: Consistently Center into Compassionate and Courageous Purpose
Fall 7, Get Up 8. Purpose is An Embodied Practice of Resilience.
PRACTICE / VISION MANIFESTATION
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Breathwork is a form of embodied release that completes the stress cycle. Let’s take three deep breaths together before beginning. Inhaling deeply through the nose, filling up the belly and lungs, exhaling out through the mouth, sighs and sounds welcome. An invitation to repeat this breathwork twice more, to the rhythm of your breath and body. You can always come back to this practice whilst reading this essay.
Understand Your Life and Leadership Story: Sacred Wounds and Superpowers
Sayulita, Mexico: Honoring Los Muertos
Photo by Spencer Ian Harris
April 2022
Nia Dance Teacher & Intuitive Somatic Healer Stephanie Parker shared this beautiful activist proverb during our weekly dance class in honor of Black History Month
Life stories define purpose. After earth-shattering experiences, they help us make sense of the incomprehensible. You don’t need to have a heart-breaking loss, devastating trauma or near-death experience to connect with purpose, you can start now. An invitation to spend an afternoon, a day or weekend on a personal leadership retreat to reflect on your life story and experiences. If you need more structure, look for transformational retreat centers at places like Spirit Rock and Esalen in California, Xinalani in Mexico, and Plum Village in France.
Studies show nature can help regulate the nervous system, particularly as we prepare for high-pressure leadership and public speaking environments. “When in nature our brain emits alpha waves that help calm the stress response and reduce anxiety levels, allowing the brain to enter a more relaxed, clear, and creative state.”
Lejos de la cuidad. Nature supports in clarity of intention, going beyond the ego and limited sense of self. When nothing makes sense in the world, I turn to nature. An invitation to literally ground your retreat in nature — whether it’s by the sea, in the forest, at a park, on a mountain, in the desert, amidst a garden. For me, it’s the South Rim of the Grand Canyon, the seaside in the surf village Taghazout, Morocco, Playa de Los Muertos in Sayulita, Mexico, the cliffside sunset vistas in Ericeira, Portugal. The ocean is where I feel most connected to my father and our collective purpose. An invitation to spend time in meditative solitude and silence. Silence can feel incredibly uncomfortable, yet over time the discomfort softens into a clarity of purpose and power. Breathe deeply.
Once you get clearer, music can support your awakening and transformation. As professor and music therapist Stacie Aamon shared, “the effectiveness of music therapy lies within its uncanny ability to bypass the natural defense mechanisms of the mind, allowing the client to discover and heal unconscious negative patterns.” Music is strategy and scale, creating a shortcut to purpose and the prefrontal cortex. You can bring instruments or create a playlist that begins to somatically root into your purpose.
In music therapy, song becomes an embodied metaphor for transformation. In yoga, we invite our students to reflect on their sankalpa, their intention to guide the movements of their practice. Our sankalpa, our purpose can extend beyond the mat to guide our movements in everyday life.
Sayulita, Mexico: Transmuting Tragedy into Art and Healing
Photo by Spencer Ian Harris
April 2021
An invitation to journal to these questions listening to a song that evokes the possibilities of primavera and this year of the fiery horse:
Leadership and Life Story
Bringing the gift of compassion and care, as these questions can evoke tenderness and big emotions. Imagine a big fuzzy blanket holding you as reflect on the harder question. <3
What is your story? What have been your most life-defining experiences and realities?
How did they shape who you are today?
Values
Values are the concepts that guide the way we move as leaders and inspire our colleagues and communities.
What impact do you want to have on your family, your neighborhood, your organization, your community?
What legacy do you want to leave behind?
Aliveness and Flow
What gets you up in the morning? What makes you come alive?
When do you feel in the greatest state of flow? Music Therapy Bonus: Create a playlist the brings you into a flow state.
“Flow is being completely involved in an activity for its own sake. The ego falls away. Time flies. Every action, movement, and thought follows inevitably from the previous one, like playing jazz.”
Strengths and Superpowers
What are your strengths and superpowers?
What are you uniquely good and gifted at?
If you’re feeling stuck, ask a friend or family member what they think your strengths are. It might not always feel obvious, it could be something that comes so ease-fully it doesn’t feel like a superpower: empathy and reading the room, sleeping on command, resilience and silliness, being consistent and on time, speaking multiple languages. Let yourself be surprised.
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You are resilient AF. An invitation to embody a shape that embodies your superpowers and resilience, with a verbal affirmation that re-enforces your resilience. Keep repeating the shape and affirmation every day until its patterned into the bones, imprinted into the most ancient and subcortical parts of the brain.
For me it is, rikshasana, tree pose. It is an asana de los muertos, a joyful somatic offering for my late father Tito Pamplona Andrada. It reminds me of my courage and resilience even amidst life-altering trauma.
Sayulita, Mexico: Healing After Loss
Photo by Spencer Ian Harris
April 2021
Crucible Moments
Let’s take a deep breath and gently hum together before reflecting on more tender moments. As licensed marriage and family therapist Katherine Woodward Thomas shares, “Where ever you have suffered the most is where you now have the opportunity to contribute the most.”
What have been your crucible moments? How did you move through those experiences?
Can you reflect on a time of life when you faced a difficult experience and how you integrated it into your life?
Congratulations on taking the time to hold space for yourself, and move closer to your leadership story, your purpose and the values you hold most dear. You’ve got this. Feel free to eat some ice cream or freshly baked cookies! :) Cookies are essential for courage!
2. Make Meaning and Magic Through Purpose: Capture the Essence of your Why
Interactive Keynote: Stepping Into Your Power As A Public Speaker to 500+ queer leaders
Out in Tech’s Annual Leadership Institute
Brooklyn, New York
September 2025
Once you’ve had generous time to reflect on your leadership and life story, an invitation to find meaning and magic in your story, to notice patterns and possibilities to inform your purpose. An invitation to capture the essence of your purpose through a word, statement, a movement, an image, a painting, a sound, a song. Our work in somatic psychology places more attention on nonverbal communication and ways of knowing, particularly as it more effectively connects to the subconscious stories that might be stored in the body, particularly after experiences of trauma. As Dr. Bessel Van Kolk (who I’ve had the honor of studying with), author of The Body Keeps Score shares, the body is the fastest way to recovery and resilience. The body is a shortcut to purpose and transformation.
“Death itself might seem meaningless, but the lives we shared with our loved ones and the way we continue living after their passing are full of meaning.”
Your purpose does not need to remain static, it can ebb and flow as the seasons of your life and the world change. Let intuition guide your anchor. Inspired by my beloved late father Tito Pamplona Andrada who once told me, “You were born to be loved and accepted,” my purpose is to supporting survivors of big T trauma and sexual violence in coming home to themselves: alchemizing trauma and suffering into healing and belonging.
Co-Dreaming for Social Justice & Revolutionary Love
Groundfloor Los Angeles
Photo by Jesse Whiles
December 2024
This personal purpose inspired our larger organizational purpose at our mental health & wellness collective Fairground. Ohana, no one gets left outside the circle of care. We bring a trauma-informed, healing-centered approach to leadership development at organizations that value creativity and community. A compassionate invitation to place on your heart and reflect on your unique purpose.
Complete this sentence
I am a commitment to…
We are a commitment to…
I exist to…
We exist to…
Purpose is an embodied practice; not a catchy tagline. I say this as someone who worked in corporate brand strategy for half a decade. Make it tangible and visible to the eye -- place it on your computer, your bathroom mirror, your fridge, your front door. Make it a daily ritual, recite it aloud to yourself before and after critical moments in your career and community, love and life. Purpose is bigger than ego. If I’m experiencing big emotions before an important public speaking engagement or during a difficult group facilitation setting, it reminds me that a talk isn’t just a talk, a workshop isn’t just a workshop, a retreat isn’t just a retreat; it’s a powerful tool to provide people with empowerment and transformation.
To reinforce the practice of purpose, I keep a scrapbook (yes, scrapbooking is a tactile strategy) of client and community impact, as well as testimonials. Some of the words that landed most with me were from my designer and creative director, Maria Spitaleri, based in Buenos Aires, who wrote, “You inspire me to do work that matters to me, to make changes despite the fear it might bring. You are a reminder for everyone that we have the power to transform ourselves in a positive way.” When my inner child wants to hide behind ChatGPT and Claude AI, I turn to personal and collective history to turn back to purpose and pride. Welcome home.
Listen to your heart
"I urge you to answer the highest calling of your heart and stand up for what you truly believe.”
-John Lewis
3. Ground into the Body: Consistently Center into Compassionate and Courageous Purpose
Catalonia, Spain: Centering into Purpose in the Forest
Photo by Ruudu Rahumaru
May 2023
Once you’ve captured the essence of of your why, an invitation to develop a consistent practice of centering into presence and purpose throughout each day. Inspired by the signature somatic practices of the Strozzi Institute, an institute for leadership development and somatic healing, I spend at least five minutes every morning in nature, centering into my purpose.
This is a beautiful capture of centering explained and demonstrated by Staici Haines, author of The Politics of Trauma: Somatics, Healing and Social Justice, who I had the honor of being guided by on a course focused on Somatics, Trauma and Resilience.
Centering supports us in acting from a place of presence, guiding our actions and speech -- in leadership and life -- with clarity, compassion and courage. Initially, this practice can feel boring or awkward, yet if we can sit with uncomfortable feelings, it can be a powerful tool for leadership.
Before I get on stage, I center into my commitment, feeling my feet firmly rooted into the ground, the crown of the head as high as a mountain, my spine lengthened vertebrae by vertebrae, placing my hand on my heart, connecting to my antepasados and boldly vocalizing my purpose: Ohana, no one gets left outside the circle of care. If I find myself experiencing strong emotions on stage, I keep compassionately centering into my purpose, my reason for being present and alive. At the Strozzi Institute, they intentionally call it a commitment, more than just purpose, as it carries the energy of determination, no matter what might show up on on our personal and collective path of transformation.
An invitation to develop a practice of centering at least 3x a day, not just waiting for an anxiety-inducing experience, such as a difficult feedback conversation, tender heartfelt request or vulnerable public post on LinkedIn. You can center into purpose right as you get up, between meetings, while you’re at the grocery store or waiting for the train. A gentle reminder: it takes 10,000+ hours to master a craft. We cannot expect to access purpose and instantly regulate our nervous system if we only center in moments of high pressure; we need to re-wire neurobiology and nervous systems by practicing under all kinds of conditions regularly. Like preparing for a marathon, we need to practice purpose with the compassionate diligence of a gold-medal winning Olympic athlete.
4. Fall 7, Get Up 8. Purpose is an Embodied Practice of Resilience.
Interactive Keynote: Stepping Into Your Power As A Public Speaker to 500+ queer leaders
Out in Tech’s Annual Leadership Institute
Brooklyn, New York
September 2025
There’s a beautiful Japanese proverb: fall seven times, get up 8. Develop a resilience strategy and practice to re-connect to your intention. As you move towards your purpose, you will encounter inevitable setbacks and challenges that may shake you to your core.
How can you stay anchored amidst adversity? How can you move from conditioned tendencies to aligned purposeful action? An invitation to develop a somatic practice that helps root into your purpose. In April 2025, I attended a seminar at the Trauma Research Foundation Conference, facilitated by Mariah Rooney on Weight Lifting as a Healing Strategy for Trauma Recovery. They described how what we do in the weight room can translate to different parts of life -- the capacity to pull ourselves up, lift up a barbell, bear more weight than we think is possible, becomes a somatic practice of resilience.
Embodied Metaphor
“Embodied metaphor is the practice of using physical movement as a symbolic expression of emotional and psychological experiences.”
-Mariah Rooney
As Mariah shared in the seminar, weightlifting allows individuals to engage with a strength training in a way that reflects their personal narratives, transforming movement into a tool for self-awareness, healing and agency. Through intentional movement, lifters can externalize emotions, reframe challenges and create new relationships with their bodies and strengths.
One of my embodied metaphors is the aikido practice of Jo Kata 1-31, inspired by the Strozzi Leadership Institute. You begin the practice by centering into your purpose, your commitment then moving through a series of 31 movements that represent the journey of healing and resilience, moving past barriers internally and externally.
Grief Ritual: Jo Kata 1-31, Point Lobos, California
Photo by Todd Erickson
November 2023
1, front strike, fear of failing. 7, overhead strike, fear of rejection. 21, backhand strike, fear of abuse. 31, front strike, fear of death.
Let’s take a deep breath together, as I know these words may evoke bigger emotions and sensations. How is your body feeling? What do you need?
As a survivor of sexual violence, jo kata has been a powerful and potent practice for moving through unbearable, post-traumatic fear and hyper vilgilence , born from experiences that decimated my sense of safety and dignity from a young age. You will not destroy us, be not afraid of love. Let it be.
My declaration. Rooting into a commitment to helping survivors of trauma thrive — and lead with unshakable joy and love, no matter the outcome, no matter the situation. In moments of high-pressure tension and conflict when I’m facilitating for bigger groups and organizations, I call on this image as a somatic anchor, as a reminder of my own resilience, accessible in any moment of time.
Jo Kata is an embodied prayer of purpose and resilience, moving me towards the values and impact I hold most dear, even amidst challenge and conflict. Fall 7, Get Up 8.
Clay and Constellations
“And so, I shape myself carefully
as a potter at dawn shapes clay,
as a poet shapes breath into verse,
as my ancestors shaped endurance into ritual.
I am what I choose to carry:
the ache of absence
alongside stubborn light,
the taste of tamarind and resilience,
the stitching of saffron into my seams.”
-Shreya Mandal
In Conclusion: Lift every voice and sing. Lift every voice and speak.
Interactive Keynote: Stepping Into Your Power As A Public Speaker to 500+ queer leaders
Out in Tech’s Annual Leadership Institute
Brooklyn, New York
Somewhere over the Rainbow. The interactive keynote with Dr. Bree McDaniel on Stepping Into Your as A Public Speaker for Out in Tech was one of the most powerful expressions of love and courage I have ever shared on stage, rooted deeply in purpose: ohana, no one gets left outside of the circle of care. Every person deserves to have a voice and take up space.
“Thank you for shining your light so brightly on stage for our community at Leadership Institute! Your blend of candor and vulnerability was incredibly powerful and refreshing.”
Courage begets courage. Purpose begets purpose. I share with an open heart both on stage and even in this essay because I see the impact on my colleagues, clients and communities — the capacity to scale meaningful connection amongst strangers, to see and be seen, to speak and be heard. And amidst our current reality where our basic humanity is under attack, I want to make a contribution to returning our communities back to love. Lift every voice and sing. Lift every voice and speak.
Beating Bloom
of Purpose
Inspired by Shreya Mandal’s poem above I wrote an aesthetic response
In my feet, I feel the home and
hum of hummingbirds
In my spine, I see the pride of
poppies and possibilities
In my ears, I touch the sound of
monarchs and social change
In my heart, I hear the beating bloom
of grief and extraordinary love
Dear reader,
Thank you for being on this journey of purpose and resilience with me.
If you’re still feeling stuck and purposeless, that’s also okay and know clarity will come with time and patience. We are with you. The liminal spaces, the awkward and uncomfortable in-between spaces where purpose might not be as clear can also be periods of deep learning and insight. An invitation to trust the process.
If you’re going through a major life crisis — loss of a job, divorce or end of relationship, death of a loved one, or unexpected tragedy, know you are not alone. You have the capacity to find meaning and purpose, to access strength and resilience, even when it feels like the world is falling part. An invitation to take time to slow down and exquisitely love yourself.
If you’re processing the grief of our current shared community reality (plus all of the personal experiences above) of war, genocide, violence, you are not alone. When we root in a shared sense of purpose, we are able to achieve far more together than we are alone. An invitation to practice purpose in somatic community — whether through a public protest, neighborhood canvas or private grief ritual.
You’ve got this. We’ve got this. We are here to support.
With love,
Mel
References & Recommended Reading
Andrada, M. (2025, December 21). Gentle ambition is radical ambition. Melissa Andrada. https://www.melissaandrada.com/blog/gentle-ambition-is-radical-ambition
Andrada, M., & McDaniel, B. (2025, June 23). The future of psychological safety: A trauma‑informed vision to safety within the workplace. The Fairground Collective.
Cameron, J. (1992). The artist’s way: A spiritual path to higher creativity. TarcherPerigee.
Cacciatore, J. (2017). Bearing the unbearable: Love, loss, and the heartbreaking path of grief. Wisdom Publications.
García, H., & Miralles, F. (2017). Ikigai: The Japanese secret to a long and happy life. Penguin Books.
Haines, S. (2019). The politics of trauma: somatics, healing, and social justice. Berkeley, CA: North Atlantic Books.
Hemphill, P. (2024). What it takes to heal: How transforming ourselves can change the world. Random House.
Hendricks, G. (2009). The big leap: Conquer your hidden fear and take life to the next level. HarperOne.
Mohr, T. (2014). Playing big: For women who want to speak up, create, and lead. Gotham Books.
Rubin, R. (2023). The creative act: A way of being. Penguin Press.
van der Kolk, B. (2014). The body keeps the score: Brain, mind, and body in the healing of trauma. New York, NY: Penguin Books.