Gina Brady, ASI SUP Instructor and the Imagine Oxford Experience

Gina Bradley, ASI SUP Instructor and SUP School owner, from East Hampton NY USA, was invited to attend the IMAGINE transformation leadership experience in Oxford, England.   Attendees were challenged to come up with 3 action points to implement in their own business.   Gina’s first action point for her SUP School, Paddle Diva:    “I would like to change the way people think about paddle boarding, so that it is not a sport for those with ocean front access, but rather a gateway to a deep connection with the water and the world around us.”     

 

Gina provides us with her own reflections on the experience 

 

Gina Bradley's Reflection
 

In late September I had the privilege of attending the IMAGINE Transformational Leadership Experience in Oxford, England led by Valerie Keller (IMAGINE Co-Founder). This was no ordinary conference. It was a five-day immersive journey led by an inspirational group of world leaders that gave me the opportunity to develop my leadership skills. What I loved most about the experience was being encouraged to imagine a future that focuses on caring for ourselves, those around us and our planet. I was among forty “cohorts and fellow travelers” who were government leaders, senior executives, and business founders—all with the passion and power for systems change.

 

I got to this opportunity through encouragement from my mentor and friend, Susan Rockefeller. Susan often calls me her mentor, which makes us a perfect match. Over the past 12 years we have taught each other the importance of preserving the oceans and staying connected to our health and the planet's health as a clear path to the future. When I first met Sue, she was eager to try stand up paddling and was one of my first clients. As we explored the bays of the east end of Long Island, she introduced me to the notion of ocean conservation, and I introduced her to a new perspective you get while standing on the water, on a paddle board looking to the shore. Over the years, she has encouraged me to use my brand and sphere of influence to become engaged with the environment, and to protect it. I even had the honor of helping her produce a film, “Mission of the Mermaids—A Love Letter to The Ocean”. She invited me to attend this experience, and as a result, this work will continue with more momentum, passion, and support than I could have ever imagined.

 

The week put me outside my comfort zone, which is something I continually ask my students to do. Allowing myself to be comfortable with discomfort meant spending five days in an immersive academic environment where I was listening, learning, and being forced to challenge my brain systems. I typically use movement to solve problems and athletics to challenge myself. Here I was asked to sit, to question, process, and integrate. At the end of each day my brain was exhausted—, usually it’s my muscles and my body that are over extended—and this shift was quite refreshing.

The days were filled with panel discussions, experiential learning, leadership training and plenty of time to discuss with our fellow cohorts. And they all took place in academic settings that were visually inspiring and we felt like we were part of the Oxford institutions. Gothic buildings with gargoyles greeted me each morning out my dorm-room window as I sipped my morning tea. I spent the days in rooms with vaulted ceilings and stained glass. I wandered in courtyards filled with fountains and gardens.

 

I met people from places I have only heard about in the news: Tel Aviv, Ukraine, Brazil, Dubai, Iceland and even places in the USA like Arkansas and Austin. This gathering made me feel as if I had actually traveled all over the world through the people I met and the meaningful connections I made.

 

We focused on how leadership—and leading from where you are in your company, country or your community—can change the direction of the world. One small step can have a ripple effect. One tiny impact can grow into a movement. Inaction is not an option.

 

With all that fresh in my mind, I flew back and came up with three actions that I will now take out to the world around me. I ask that you as my clients, students, friends and family hold me accountable and join me as we make whatever impact we can on our planet, our health and our very lives:

 

I would like to invite you to join me for an hour-long session, (date and location to come) where I will share some of the highlights of this week. Along with methods, ideas, and intelligence that I learned from leaders from almost every continent. I will share my experiences learning about:

• NeuroLeadership—the science of mastering mind-body practices,

• Constellation work—a process that quickly provides clarity and resolution,

• Mythodrama and Archetypes—a new form of experiential learning, and

• A Net Positive World and what that means to us in the future.
 

I have always valued water conservation (that is another thing that brought Sue and me together) but now I will more intentionally take on improving the water quality of Three Mile Harbor, the very location of Paddle Diva. This will start with the formation of a small task force so a focused group of us can explore what is needed to improve the water quality from the seabed up to the bay, which feeds into the larger bay, which feeds into the ocean. My goal is to inspire others to think about any small body of water that they live near or use for recreation and do one thing to improve its quality. This ripple will bring a sea of change to us all.

 

I would like to change the way people think about paddle boarding, so that it is not a sport for those with ocean front access, but rather a gateway to a deep connection with the water and the world around us. I will use Paddle Diva to bring people to the water—the ocean, bay, lake, river or reservoir—to more deeply understand their connection to the ecosystems that are crucial to understanding the need for climate change. I will develop innovative programming that uses paddle boarding as the vehicle to get people from wherever they are closer to the water, literally on the water, to help them have a healthy mindset and a healthy relationship with our planet. Water will be that gateway to help them better understand the mind-body connection, and to connect the individual mind and body to the world around us.

 

The gathering was called IMAGINE, and although we must start by using our minds to wonder, envision ideas and create possibilities, that is not enough. We must use the energy we get from the mind exercise we call imagining to lead us to action. One small action, born from something we create in our minds, can lead to something beyond what we can imagine: real change and real outcomes to help ourselves, our communities and our planet.