Tag: #heartcenteredleadership

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Trusting Your Heart: Encounters That Change Your LIfe

Sometimes, when you follow your heart, things happen that you could never have planned. You meet exactly the people you need to make a real impact. I still remember clearly how, during a Young Leader Expedition, I took a moment to rest. For two nights, I had barely slept to ensure that all 18 volunteers arrived safely in Hoedspruit, South Africa. While they were on an excursion, I decided to take a break on the stone ground in front of the Reserve’s office.

Suddenly, I felt a gentle tap on my shoulder. I opened my eyes and saw a friendly man standing there: the Reserve’s general manager. He laughed and asked why I was lying on the ground. I had to laugh quietly and I thought: “This must be meant to be“. We started talking. I told him about our plans to support the local community and our vision for the project’s future.

We got into a conversation. I told him about our plans to support the local community and our vision for the project’s future. To my surprise, he invited me to stay at his house for a while to sleep and rest.

During that conversation, he said something I never expected. He knew someone who had the same mission as we have. A person who would exactly help to make our plans a reality. Not knowing that this person was Barrie, now our Director of BOOST The World Africa and the key pillar of everything we do there. From the moment I met him, it became clear how essential he would be for our projects.

What this moment taught me is something I would like to share: when you are aligned with your heart and follow your spirit, you naturally meet the right people. Especially at moments when you least expect it, or don’t plan it. The universe, or whatever you want to call it, puts you on the path of those who can strengthen your mission.

Trusting your heart does not mean that it is always easy. It means that you dare to listen, to step into the unknown, and to be open to the people and opportunities that come your way. It takes you exactly where you need to be – often in ways you could never have imagined.

So my call to you: listen to your heart. Follow that calling, even if it feels scary or uncertain. Because when you do, something magical can happen: you connect with people who share your vision, you build impact, and you discover that you are never alone on your path.

With love,
Rosanne van Zalingen
Founder of BOOST The World Foundation

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When everything falls silent

We were in the midst of the Covid-19 crisis. I still remember well how we stood there in South Africa. With 19 people. Waiting for hours in line to get a swab up our noses. Because without a test, we weren’t allowed to go back home.

It felt like the beginning of a lot of misery. Volunteers stopped helping. People were afraid to give money. The world was turned upside down. And everything seemed to come to a halt.

However deep down, Barrie and I knew: we must not stop. So we kept going, often working behind the scenes, managing our projects. We worked double hours. Worked extremely hard, also for our own family. While everyone around us switched to survival mode, we chose to keep pushing forward.

And believe me: it wasn’t easy. Following your heart doesn’t mean everything will work out on its own. It demands sacrifices. It demands perseverance. It requires trust, especially when everything around you is uncertain.

That’s the Power of the Heart. It whispers, sometimes almost inaudibly: “Don’t stop. You have to get through this“. And exactly at those moments when life feels heavy, when you think you can’t handle it anymore, that is the call of your heart. Then you discover that you can bear much more than you think. And yes, after that period of struggling and holding on, a turnaround came. Slowly we got into the right flow. We met exactly the right people, at exactly the right moment. Some call that coincidence. I call it synchronization.

The lesson from that time

What I learned during that period is that the heart always guides you, even through storms. Sometimes by making you persist when everything inside you is screaming to give up. Sometimes by opening doors that you would never have imagined yourself.

The path of the heart is not an easy path. But it is the only path on which you truly remain faithful to yourself. And that is also the reason why we help others to learn to hear the voice of their heart again. Because when you listen to your heart, not only does your life change, but also the lives of the people around you. So when life feels heavy, don’t just ask yourself: why is this happening? Instead ask: “What does my heart want to tell me now?“

With love,
Rosanne van Zalingen
BOOST The World Foundation

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The Way of the Heart

The way of the heart is not always easy. It requires courage. It requires trust. And often it asks you to step into the unknown, without certainty or a plan.

Years ago, when I first spoke my dream out loud—against my neighbor, no less—I truly had no idea what would come next. I told him that I felt called. A dream, an inner voice that kept returning.

A week later, I was in South Africa. Without experience. Without knowledge. Without my own network in that country where I did feel a deep calling. I did not know where to start. I did not know whom I could trust. And honestly? I did not know if I was “good enough” to make a difference. The only thing that kept me going was the voice of my heart. Some call it the spirit. That gentle whisper inside that does know what you are meant to do, even when your mind can think of a thousand reasons not to. That little voice says: “Go. Trust. Take that Step“.

And so my journey began. A journey that was anything but easy. Full of falling and getting back up. But that was precisely what was needed to learn that strength does not lie in perfect circumstances, but in daring to listen.

The Heart as the Temple of the Soul

The heart is more than an organ that pumps blood. It is the temple of the soul. It speaks. It feels. It guides. But the question is: do you listen?

We often live in a world of noise: the opinions of others, external expectations, the speed of life. And because of that, we forget the softest, yet most powerful sound: our own heart’s voice.

Why we do this work?

Through BOOST The World Foundation, we help people, especially young people and students, to reconnect with their hearts. Because I know from personal experience what can happen when you dare to follow that path. Your life changes. Your choices change. And the impact you make on the world becomes greater than you ever imagined.

It is not always the easiest path. But it is the truest one. And so today, I ask: “When did your heart speak last? And… did you listen?“

With love,
Rosanne van Zalingen
Founder of BOOST The World Foundation

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YOU can make a difference

“You can’t save the whole world”

I have heard those words often. And maybe you recognize them too.

But you know what? You don’t have to. Because imagine if every person helped another person. With something small. A meal. A glass of clean drinking water. A safe place. A listening ear. Then the world changes. Every day, a little bit.

In the beginning, I sometimes felt discouraged by such remarks: “There are already so many foundations“, “You won’t achieve anything with it“, and “You’d better just focus on your own country“.

But deep down, I knew: this is a calling. A voice that says: go ahead. Do it anyway. And today, I see what happens when you follow your inner voice. BOOST The World Foundation started small, messy, with trial and error. It was not an easy start. But we kept going. And slowly it grew, stronger, more impactful. Now we see results that change lives:

  • Healthy food on a plate that otherwise would not have been there
  • Drinking water that gives hope and saves lives
  • A safe place where people come together, grow, and laugh.

For you, perhaps, self-evident. For many, a miracle.

Heart-centered leadership

All this begins with heart-centered leadership: living and leading from your heart.

Not from fear or lack, but from trust and connection.

Because when you truly live from your heart, you naturally become a good person for those around you. Your neighbor who feels seen. Your colleague who gets a listening ear. A student who learns how to stay closer to their own heart.

Helping one person can create a ripple that touches dozens of others. This is how a chain reaction of love and impact arises.

Your role

That is why my call to you today is: choose where you will make a difference.

  • Perhaps by becoming a volunteer at our foundation here in the Netherlands, where you can directly impact multiple lives
  • Perhaps by extending a helping hand to someone in your own street or village
  • Or simply by living more from your heart yourself, so that your children, friends, and colleagues take that energy with them.

We provide training to students to make them aware of that connection with their heart. Because a new generation that lives from love and awareness has the power to truly change the world.

And it doesn’t start far away. It starts today. Right here. With me. With YOU!

So… what difference are you going to make today?

With love, Rosanne van Zalingen
BOOST The World Foundation