Founder of Owenell Global Consultancy and a partner at coaching firm Evolution, Christine Owenell is an Executive Coach who uses novel techniques and methods to guide CXOs on a path to fulfilment and success and helps their companies scale with “soul”.
Christine’s newest venture, Alchemy of Chaos, was created in 2020 while she was in lockdown due to the COVID-19 vaccine. “I had a lot of my identity attached to being the intrepid Voyager.” She continues, “I had a story that I gained all of this vitality from travelling, and then I come home, and I integrate that with my work – I had a story in my mind that my good work was because I was always out in the world learning new things.”
The sudden cancellation of all travel and in-person facilitation led her on a path of discovery while remaining seated at home in Nashville, “I just started writing and this idea came to me of doing a group coaching programme called alchemy of chaos – Those words just landed in my mind, and it never would have happened if I had not gotten that sudden space and stillness.”
“So I went to GoDaddy and typed alchemyofchaos.com and you will never believe, it was available! I thought that this is going to be the name because I could not ignore the synchronicity and the fact that it was available. I then looked up the etymology, the history of the words alchemy and chaos. What I found for alchemy was pretty much what I thought about alchemy, which is a process; an alchemical process that’s a little bit magical, scientific and spiritual; you take something like metal, for instance of lower value, you apply the practice of alchemy, and it turns into gold. She continues, “So there’s that metaphor of taking what you already have and applying this practice of alchemy, and then it suddenly becomes something else that’s more valuable to you.” And what about chaos? “Looking up the original definition of chaos, I learnt that it is a non-linear void from which all possibilities arise. Chaos is the space where everything is created, where everything that is formless, achieves form.”
Speaking about her programme, “Everyone’s trajectory through the coaching process is very different. People think ‘I need to transform to become this new thing in order to have or achieve, but that’s actually the opposite of what my work is – It is not about telling someone who you are right now is not working, so let’s make you someone else. It’s who you’re being right now isn’t what’s most true. So let’s do the work to uncover who you already are.”
“The core of my work is unearthing what’s already present.”
Christine shares certain habits people can adopt to get them started on their journey, “The first practice is having the discipline and diligence to not only be aware of what stories are operating (in your mind) at any point in time that make us scared of something, but then having the courage to put it on hold, and just experience them.” She continues, “Personally, what held me back was that to avoid a sense of being scared, I would create stories, and suppress aspects of who we are or who we could be.”
And to help people who’ve already made a conscious decision to keep working towards progress, she adds, “This illusion, the more you work, the easier life gets. Yes, life gets more integrated, full of vitality and presence but that doesn’t mean that nothing bad is going to happen. That fantasy of it being only peace, love and joy all the time, that belief, I think holds a lot of people back.
Christine concludes by listing out habits that would help people stay aligned to the progress made: stream of consciousness writing, get involved in a creative endeavour, share your story, and walking in nature, ideally barefoot.
According to Christine, her superpower is “doing the scary thing”. For us at Forming Impact, it is her ability to inspire. We’re proud to know this superwoman who is creating a healthier, happier world, one mindset at a time.