Inner Work Learnings from Working at My Favorite Community Space in SF
A two-month experience in applying my inner work learnings and healing my relationship with work
A change in my life recently is that I’ve started professional work again after job hunting for a bit. I previously went on a sabbatical to do inner work and learned a ton about myself, and had then been applying that inner work to the job hunt. The job search did feel like a spiritual journey where I applied my inner work learnings. Then at the point I was itching to actually start applying the inner work to professional work, a temporary opportunity arose to work at my favorite community space in SF, The Commons.
The overall takeaway to my question of wondering if my inner work would actually apply to my professional work is undeniably yes. I took a leap of faith while on sabbatical to try to work on what I felt were more of the root causes of challenges I ran into in work and life more broadly, but a part of me wondered if it would work while I sacrificed money in the meantime. Now I can see that I’m able to handle work situations from a totally new approach and understanding of the root cause.
I ended up working with the Commons for two months total. In that time, there were numerous ways that I’ve felt growth in how I approach professional situations because of my inner work:
With the healing of my people-pleasing part I’ve been doing, I was able to set boundaries and express my needs from a secure place rather than feeling anxious about how they’ll be received. I was able to push back against some of the people I most respected when I had a different opinion and speak my heart’s truth, and see that it went well and was mutually beneficial for everyone involved, instead of letting things linger.
I was able to be more confident to speak to people 1:1 and speak to groups from a place of strong self-worth and self-trust rather than willing myself there through willpower.
I was able to take in feedback without taking it personally and really understand the truth of what was being said so that I could iterate and improve, rather than being triggered by and stuck on my insecurities.
I was also able to continue to be able to use my tools of Internal Family Systems and somatic work to understand much more of the root cause of addressing my needs when I feel misaligned or tired. In the past, I mostly just rested, and even then had trouble convincing myself that I deserved to rest. In 2023 I worked on giving myself rest and unlearning my past conditioning I had ingrained in me that I didn’t deserve it, learning that it benefited me in the long run. Now, I’m able to rest and get more to the root cause. In the past, I’d try to rest and then when it wasn’t enough, would maybe wonder if I needed to take a longer break from work like a sabbatical lol. Now I just feel like I have so many more tools to get to the root cause of problems, like the previous approaches I had were addressing the leaves of a tree and now I’m able to address the actual roots where everything else arises from.
Some more specific examples of growth that I felt:
Facilitation of events isn’t something that I’ve really thought of myself as good at, but some experiences from my Commons role now have me believing I fully have it in me. At New Member Orientation where we welcomed 70 new members in February, I facilitated 4 breakout sessions in a row for new members that I only found out I was going to do an hour before. I felt really present, and felt like all of it took way less energy because I felt less rigidity around how it was “supposed to go”. I felt trust in my ability to handle things, and felt more harmony with the forces of the universe and acceptance of things I can’t control. Growing up, I always thought the more you prepare, the better. But now I’ve realized that some of that preparation in some scenarios might be a sign of a lack of self-trust. In this case, I didn’t have time to really prepare in the first place, so different from playing at a piano recital from my childhood days. My energy was spent focused on coming up with a breakout session idea that would benefit new members, allowing it to unfold, and holding space for what arose.
I felt a similar level of presence when facilitating a trust-building exercise at our team retreat where I had everyone draw out their life journey as a river and present it. This level of self-trust applied to other aspects of the role like answering the door at the Commons when someone knocked. Previous me would have done a lot of thinking on different scenarios. Now, my mentality is more “Why would I think if I can just do”? Just go answer it, be present, take in the information on how the interaction goes, and trust in my ability to help the person and/or set boundaries.
My tenure at the Commons also involved hiring someone and being told by leadership to then let them go shortly after due to evolving business priorities, and navigating those conversations too given that person is also a friend. Overall, there were some emergencies and sudden changes I didn’t expect or couldn’t have planned for. My internal growth though was in my ability to focus on doing the best within what I could control, feeling less affected than I would have in the past, and allowing things to unfold.
I also felt the ending of my role came on good terms too. It involved some of the most powerful conversations I’ve had in 2025 because of my internal growth from them - my ability to be heart-led, self-aware, and see the beautiful human imperfections of the other party. I have some traumas around leaving roles from the past, so I felt like this was an opportunity to heal some of that too.
Overall, I’d say it was a great two-month experience. To get back into professional work and apply my inner work, contribute to a community I care about, and work with people I respect. The leadership team I worked with of Cissy and Patricia were also honestly two of my guiding stars when I went on sabbatical, and I’m grateful for the opportunity to work with them as well to come full circle.
I’ve heard about how the transition from sabbatical to professional work can be abrupt, with it being easy to fall back into old habits as things get busy. I hope that this two-month work experience allowed me an on-ramp to apply my inner work and heal some of my old work habits. That was part of the agreement my manager and good friend Cissy made with me in the first place on what she hoped this opportunity could provide, and I feel I definitely got that, and so much more.