Individuals have masculine and feminine energies but, in most cases, we choose to embody more of a single energy. In this episode, we will understand the duality of the masculine and feminine energy and how we can work within these energies. Arnaud Saint-Paul, an award-winning serial software finance, social impact entrepreneur and philanthropist, shares his insights on the masculine and feminine energies that individuals embody. He expounds on the constructs that we fall into. We draw from the concepts as an individual, or as a company, with the core aspects of our experience. Tune in to this episode and gain a new understanding of harmony and how to gain it inside and out.

 

GUEST: Arnaud Saint-Paul | LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/arnaudsaintpaul/ | Visit their Website: https://arnaudsaintpaul.com/

 

HOST: Janine Hamner Holman | [email protected] | LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter |

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How Do Masculine and Feminine Energies Serve Us? A Conversation with Arnaud Saint-Paul

What am I paying attention to? I was having a chat with our guest and we were talking about conscious choice so I am paying attention to the conscious choices that we make.

There was an event for Matthew Cahill, a dear friend of mine from San Francisco who has also been a guest on this show, who came down to Irvine, which is about a one and a half or two hour drive, depending upon traffic, from where I live in Pasadena.

I decided that I was going to stay in a hotel so that I could enjoy dinner, have some wine and not worry about it. That choice also allowed me to get a good night’s rest so that I could be here with you all. Life is full of opportunities for choice. Sometimes we make them consciously and sometimes we make them unconsciously. One of the things that I’m up to with this show is bringing more things into our conscious awareness so that we can make a choice about them. That brings me right to our guest.

Arnaud Saint-Paul is a philanthropist, an award-winning serial software finance, and social impact entrepreneur. He’s been doing this for many years and he also lives between Los Angeles and Paris. When he was thirteen years old, he went through an awakening. I don’t know yet exactly what that means but we’re going to find out. While he was having a successful career in finance and technology across the country, he has been traveling throughout the world to study different religions and philosophies in his relentless quest to understand himself. At this point, his life purpose is to open billions of hearts and help them find harmony inside and out. How juicy is that? Welcome, Arnaud.

Janine, thank you for having me.

You are so welcome. I’m glad to be here with you. Our first conversation was wonderful. I want to start with that little teaser that was in your intro. You had this awakening when you were thirteen. Tell me more about that. What does that mean?

When I was thirteen, I started to realize the truth that we can hold inside ourselves where the world is bringing us its own truth. At some point, we have a choice. That was my first conscious choice of saying, “No, this is not mine. My truth is something else.” That’s a definitive moment where you are born from a consciousness standpoint. That led me to the quest of answering the question, “Who am I?” which brought me to these philosophies, religions and practices.

Masculinity and femininity have a very pragmatic application to day-to-day work-life. We embody both these two energies. Share on X

This became the Heartful Method which, after 30 years of research, brought together some charts to explain how we are having this human experience. These charts were to help me. They happen to help others at the same time. We’re doing our best with the tools. I crafted the tools for my conscious growth. That’s what that awakening was about.

I want to get more into the tools and how folks can find them but I’m going to put a pin in that idea. One of the interesting things that you and I talked about in our first conversation was the masculine and the feminine that is within all of us. In me and you, there is both masculine and feminine.

In our society, men are supposed to be tough, macho, strong and never show weakness or vulnerability. Never let on that they’re not 100% clear about what’s happening and where they’re going. There is a hopeful shift occurring as some of that is starting to loosen up. I want to get into some of what you learned about the duality of the masculine and the feminine.

The masculine and feminine are these two polarities through which all our experiences and our reality translates into. That means that when we have too much masculinity, we get into war and stuff like that. When we’re overly feminine, we are too passive and that doesn’t work out either. It has a pragmatic application to day-to-day work-life. To start with a simple concept, we all embody these two energies. As a matter of fact, in our physical body, all of us have the feminine on our left side and the masculine on our right side.

You’re a woman and I’m a man. Technically, you choose to embody more of the feminine aspects and I choose to embody more of the masculine aspects, but that could be reversed as well. Also in your life, some moments are connected with different people and you will find yourself being more masculine or feminine depending on the situation, the topic, or other details.

In other words, there is a constant dance between these two polarities that we choose to embody, whether it is in a relationship with ourselves, with someone, or a situation. When reality is the embodiment of the feminine energy, we act as the masculine polarity. You can see that there is a constant interplay of polarities.

 

Let’s look at society for a moment. If we look at the US society, it’s slowly opening up to the feminine principle of polarity. The past few hundred years were about conquest and creating new spaces so a lot of masculine energy was needed. As we mature as a society, we begin to open up to more feminine energy, which is about collaboration, working together and being vulnerable. At the same time, we need to continue to stay focused, which is a property of masculine energy.

Also, we start to let go a little bit of the need to conquer whatever enemy is over there. Society as a whole, as a trend, and worldwide as well, is moving towards a more feminine balance. We’re not losing one energy for the other; we’re complimenting each other. The same thing is happening at the individual level but that’s more of our choice on a moment-to-moment basis. This can happen in a company also.

I worked with a company on the Nile in Egypt. There were 60 change-makers. They were all about fighting the Googles and the Facebooks of the world because they are in technology. The enemy is there and we’re going to vanquish them. The fact is also that these stakeholders and people in the company were not in tune with each other. It’s not necessarily related to that but it’s like the Tower of Babel. Everybody was speaking and they were not in alignment. We started to work on two aspects: trust and balancing the masculine and the feminine.

Using the technology of the temples because we were on the Nile, we did it in stereo. We were able to bring these people to a place where all of a sudden these mighty enemies start to become focused on a goal and not all over the place. The thing is, when we’re too masculine and going against the enemy, we are also creating resistance in our reality in general. I have to find an enemy so therefore, the enemy is found and there will be a lot of effort, struggle and hustle, which costs a lot of money for the company.

It translates into a lot of suffering, or a bad culture, in the company, starting with the founders and followed by the whole team, to accept and allow only the feminine energy to activate itself. It’s essential to have a balance between the masculine and feminine. The key is to have the team bring about the feminine energy so that all the tools and events are happening in a seamless fashion, balancing with the masculine energy which is like an arrow. It goes in a direction. It’s all about moving and focusing.

The feminine is about, “Is the cloud coming together?” We are all in it together and at the same time. The core principles of the feminine energy is matter, abundance and prosperity. It wants to give to the masculine energy but it cannot if it’s not allowed to. Instead of just moving, why not move a little bit and then allow the feminine to come about, bring what is needed, and then continue to move forward? The whole idea is to be part of the dance between the masculine and feminine so they can move forward together.

We are moving towards a more feminine balance, where we’re not losing one for the other, but we’re just complementing each other. Share on X

I remember when you worked with this organization on the Nile, you were talking about bringing in more feminine energy. I am curious if there is a difference, when you’re working on creating trust, if you’re pulling in feminine energy versus masculine energy. I’m curious about how building trust gets fostered inside each of those different energies.

There are many ways to answer your question. The property of the masculine is an arrow, and it is on its own. It’s all about competition and the idea of being alone and “going in my direction on my own.” When we are open up to our feminine aspect, we’re opening up to the idea of “we and collaboration”, coming back to this cloud that has all the possibilities available. Therefore, what goes along with that is trust. In other words, I am letting go of being only that arrow, the masculine energy, and coming back to the center where the cloud and the arrow meet. I am being more the balance between the family and the masculine.

From that place, I am able to trust not only the world and others but myself more importantly. There is no more need to run beyond myself, which is the case when I am only an arrow. I am ready to be part of something, a collaboration, a team, working together and trusting that whatever happens is an amazing opportunity for me to be a better version of myself and, therefore, bring about better results for me and my team at the same time.

I’m thinking about the shift that is happening, not in all but in many organizations as we are moving through this global pandemic. One of the things that is a hallmark of organizations that have managed  well is the leaders of the organizations have been honest, transparent and willing to be open and vulnerable.

I remember when the CEO of Airbnb released a statement, “I have never been through a global pandemic either. I don’t exactly know how we’re going to work through this. I know we will and how we will get through it is together.” It is a wonderful example of bringing in vulnerability while still showing strength and being an arrow pointing in a direction.

Also being willing to say, “I don’t know.” What I do know is that our strength as an organization is in our people and together we’re going to figure it out. More organizations and leaders are beginning to be willing to explore that duality, which is one of the things that made me interested and excited about getting to talk with you because that’s a big part of what you and I talked about in our first conversation. Do you share that perspective? What have you learned in working with leaders around that duality?

 

If we want to create a metaphor, think of a piano. It has 88 keys. Imagine that 44 are on the feminine side and 44 are on the masculine side. Let’s say that the lower keys are masculine and the higher keys are feminine. The second octane of that piano is where most of the companies are playing because they are all about hustling but what if we open up to the 88 keys? All of a sudden, not only do we have a more efficient company, not only are we able to achieve more and better, but more importantly, everybody is happier.

Opening up to that duality is important, more so in the world in which we’re living. The pandemic opened up an opportunity for many to reinvent themselves and, more importantly, ask themselves the question, “What is important to me as an individual within the context of work?” We’re seeing that it is possible to work, be efficient and, at the same time, be in an environment that is pleasing. For example, we can work remotely from the countryside, which is also a huge transformation at a society level because we are letting go of walls that seemed to be impervious but suddenly amazing opportunities have opened up so that everyone can grow together.

To get back to your question about leaders, what I’ve seen are too many in their masculine, for instance, who, unconsciously, will limit the growth of their company because of that imbalance skewed towards the masculine. The same would apply if we were on the other side skewed to the feminine. It’s all about finding the right dance. It’s all about cycles and patterns. The masculine will push a bit, show a direction and focus and then the feminine brings about the gifts, then we do the same and continue.

I’ve seen companies growing a lot faster that way, because the CEO was aware of that and was able to enact that dance consciously. As you said at the very beginning of this session, it’s all about conscious choices. Becoming aware of that dance is a wonderful way to become aware of ourselves and the different cycles of the individuals, teams, and companies.

I love where this conversation is going and this concept of duality. While I spent several years getting interested in neurobiology and brain science, it was originally from a personal perspective. I was trying to understand what is happening inside men’s brains that might be different from women’s brains.

It was all inside the context of dating. I was going through a time where I was interested in meeting the person with whom I would spend the rest of my life, which has happened and we’ve been married for several years. One of the things that I found out took me down an amazing rabbit hole of studying how our brains collectively work and how men’s brains are wired differently from women’s brains.

I am ready to be part of something, a collaboration, a team working together, trusting that whatever comes is always a new, amazing opportunity for me to be a better version of myself, and therefore bring about better results for me and my team at the… Share on X

The idea of duality makes a lot of sense to me not just in terms of our biology and the way our brains are structured but also in our energy and beingness. Some men are more skewed toward the masculine while others are more skewed towards the feminine. Some are more harmoniously balanced. The same applies to women. All of which is fine. Nature wants a balance.

One of the things that has been interesting to me in working with companies and organizations is bringing that balance. I did not have it distinguished until our first conversation about the masculine and the feminine. I love that concept. I spent almost ten years working in the trash and recycling business and I have two different clients who are in that business. As you can imagine, it is a more masculine business, picking up trash.

One of my clients in particular is more skewed. The company’s energy is more skewed to the feminine. We had a great victory and it was interesting seeing the way that the company created that victory and then celebrated it. Both ways was in the collective, with the questions “How are we going to achieve this? What’s the opportunity for us as an organization? How do we stand apart from the people with whom we’re competing but not in an us-versus-them way?”

These are outstanding companies and people bidding for these contracts. There are some differences between them. The bidding was about highlighting the differences while not saying, “They are bad. We are good/better,” or those type of constructs that we can often fall into. I sent a text to my other client who had originally planned on bidding on this contract. I wanted him to know that we had had this victory. Given the fact that he had referred me to the company that had the victory, he and I are going out to dinner so that I can acknowledge and celebrate him and his contribution. It’s a very different concept and experience.

Until this conversation with you, I had not realized that the difference was that it was much less masculine energy and much more feminine energy throughout this process. If people are reading this conversation and thinking, “This is interesting. I am realizing that either I am, or my organization may be, too collaborative. We may have a hard time getting things accomplished because the process and conversations about it have become cumbersome,” which can also happen in organizations. How can people start to get more of a balance? What ideas do you have about how people can begin to work towards that, in addition to reaching out to you?

In the past years, the US started to talk about diversity. That’s a great way to start where we start including more women on the board and the C-Suite. It’s not just that because, unfortunately, some women had to cultivate more of their masculine and less of their feminine in order to be there. Clearly, this is by no fault of their own. It’s about culture in the end. It is about finding a new balance. This recycling business is an amazing example and you have the same in any social impact-driven type of company, conscious capitalism type of company, or B Corp that will be more open to a masculine/feminine balance.

 

The first thing is becoming aware. When you look at your company organization or team, look out for the main characteristics of these teams. Are they more about hustle, struggle or running through difficulties? It is always the same so we have a pattern there. It is about, “Everybody is for themselves.” It’s about individuality or, on the other side of the spectrum, it is about, “We’re not moving. It’s all great. We’re such happy friends.”

Maybe becoming aware of that will start a journey that includes ideas like, “If my team, company or organization community are more geared towards one side or the other, first and foremost, it is a great reflection on where I stand as a leader. Is there something that I could tap into?” In other words, instead of playing on 2 octaves, let’s use 8 or 10 octaves altogether. Start to test new ways, incorporating new ways to communicate with the team or to help the team communicate between them.

The most important part that we’ve seen is fostering trust between the members. It’s also useful to help the individuals to connect to their feminine and their masculine side, understanding what is what, not in the knowledge or the mental aspect but more in experience, what is one aspect and what is the other? That usually changes lives and fosters a stronger balance within the individual and the team, or the teams for that matter. That would be the first step I would advise someone to take. That’s what we did on the Nile for that company. We’re happy to do it for any company.

I remember we were talking about charts that you have developed. I don’t want to lose that thread. Tell me a little bit more about these. Is that something that people can find by going to your website? What are they and how can people find them?

These are concepts that I was able to draw to allow myself to understand core aspects of our experience. How to go from the mind to the heart or what is the masculine and the feminine energy as it is an arrow or a cloud. I created all these things in a very illustrative way, “How do I deal with that, that is repeated so many times a day?”

Figure out that whole map. In other words, it ends up being a visual map, with a foundation on the different religious practices, quantum physics, and science. It gives a new understanding of our lives as a company or as an individual. In other words, to help you or your organization to go from a state of cacophony to a state of the symphony where all the musicians play together in complementarity rather than two staves fighting against each other. It’s a caricature.

We usually are the biggest constraint to our own business. And when we get ourselves out of it, then everything starts to thrive. Share on X

How to get them? First, there is a page on our website Tapuat.com/Harmony where you can leave your email and get access to four workshops that are based on the Heartful Method using these charts. You can go from a place of struggle to a place of ease and peace. With these four workshops, you’ll have a journey and, at the same time, learn more about the Heartful Method. Beyond that, if you want the whole thing, the most likely scenario is one-on-one guidance with me, which is a twelve-session program or going to one of our retreats where we go over many core concepts as well.

Do you have a retreat coming up?

It’s November 26, 2022. It’s during Thanksgiving. People who are not going to Thanksgiving could come to this event. For eight days we go on the Nile. We visited some temples in a very intimate and VIP access. We do some Chi-Kong. Each day is about the specific team. We work together, connect deeply and experience harmony from a place to be present ourselves. We organize that for companies or organizations as well. The maximum number is sixteen people.

We will also have information about how to get in touch with Arnaud, links to his website, information about accessing these charts and maybe even about the trip.

Tapuat.com/Egypt.

I am filled with gratitude for your energy, your smile and the mission that you are on, to touch the hearts and minds of people and to create harmony both in the way that we have been talking about and in many other ways as well.

I want to give you an opportunity. If there was something that you were hoping that we might talk about that we haven’t yet touched on, is there something else that you want to bring in before we wrap up?

 

I’m talking to our audience who is about helping their business to thrive. Let’s face it. We usually are the biggest constraint to our business. That’s what I’ve seen with all the CEOs I’ve helped so far. When we get ourselves out of it, then everything starts to thrive. Getting out of it doesn’t mean that we part ways and don’t take care of the business but we start to become a more crystal clear mirror that is not adding more constraints to the business and we allow the business to thrive on its own.

Getting back to the title of the show, I wish to talk about the business’s biggest opportunity and biggest costs, not from a financial standpoint but because we are imposing without consciousness. Allow me to illustrate. The way we work with the Heartful Method is that the CEO reports to me what are the events that happen throughout the week and what was noticeable.

Out of that, usually, we see a pattern that illustrates the existing belief system that is active within the CEO’s reality. In that context, the CEO’s reality shows up that he needs to control his company, which happens more often than not. Even if we don’t necessarily think we are, in some way, we are afraid that the company thrives because life is all about thriving and chaos. It’s not about being controlled. Any woman will know that.

With that controlling aspect, he was not able to sign seven-figure contracts and more. In that session, we are able to let go of that. The week after, he signed nine-figure contracts and they are piling up the contracts. It’s a beautiful illustration that the bottom line of the company is related to the CEO’s belief systems and how one is related to the other. I have many examples of that. It’s pragmatic. We are not here about talking about love and anything woo-woo but this happens to be very real.

There’s a huge difference between the bottom line and everyone’s day-to-day experience of being in the company.

It works 100% of the time.

Here is a thing that works 100% of the time and is going to have your company grow and have all your people work together more harmoniously and effectively with more joy and pride in their work. Why would you not decide to take that on?

This has been an amazing conversation and eye-opening for me. I hope it’s eye-opening and creates some new possibilities and perspectives for our readers.

Arnaud, thank you so much for the juice that you bring to the world, and to this work, for your mission, the heart and mind, yin and yang duality that you are helping us all understand and live into more consciously and fully. It has been my honor, truly.

Remember, great leaders make great teams. Until next time.

 

Important Links

• Matthew Cahill – Past Episode
• Arnaud Saint-Paul
• Tapuat.com/Harmony
• Tapuat.com/Egypt

 

About Arnaud Saint-Paul

A philanthropist and award-winning serial software, finance, and social impact entrepreneur for more than 20 years, living between Los Angeles and Paris, Arnaud went through an awakening when he was 13. While having a successful career in Finance and Technology across continents, he has been traveling throughout the world to study the different religions and philosophies in his relentless quest to understand himself. His life purpose is now to open billions of hearts and help them find harmony inside and out.