Foundations of Shemewé: Values That Guide Us (Part 1)
5 June 2025
Written by Toni Hanna
The Shemewé Collective Values are the foundations that guide my life and work. They also drive the ethos of the company. Heart-centered is first for a reason.
Heart-Centered
For me, it feels like there's no other choice if I want to be an integral human being on the planet. What other way would I want to be here?
Working in a heart-centered way with clients can take many forms. For me, it means listening with heart, feeling the other person, and responding with heart. I remember times when I sat side by side with clients instead of opposite, or on the floor with our backs against the wall to increase the level of safety for people who were very vulnerable. Gifting a juice extractor to a client in financial strife, who also has a life-limiting illness, brought a smile to their face and a sense of relief. From widening a client's support by introducing them to other practitioners to sending a care package during a crisis, a heart-centered approach can take many forms. Checking in with clients who are struggling via text in between sessions, and celebrating growth, and affirming achievements are integral parts of my work. Feedback tells me that this makes a significant difference in their lives.
Being heart-centered at work means caring, listening, thinking, and acting with empathy. While empathy is crucial, I’ve learned it’s best when balanced by accountability. Heart-centeredness also involves clarity-being honest about needs, wants, limits, and boundaries, rather than relying on unspoken or unrealistic expectations of others
Being heart-centered is essential for me, so it needs to be part of my work because it is who I am. However, that doesn't mean I'm always delivering on it, or that others always experience me that way, even though it's my intention. It’s a moment-to-moment practice.
When my heart is overrun by difficult emotions, it's a signal to cleanse it. Moving forward with a turbulent heart, puts both the relationship and myself at risk. Therefore, if I experience uncomfortable emotions, it's an indicator that something is out of balance and needs my attention.
When my heart is peaceful, I can filter out the noise, and better listen to others, hearing what must be heard, even when it's not spoken. Interestingly, the HeartMath Institute confirms that the heart has a larger electromagnetic field than any other organ in the human body and can even sense events before they happen.
Being heart-centered requires commitment, especially during challenging times. To cultivate a heart-centered approach means valuing feeling, over numbness or disconnection. It means valuing humanity.
I value being a feeling, sensing being, and the first part of me that meets you or an experience is a feeling or felt sense. Whether it's felt in my heart or as a sensation in my body, it is felt. Being heart-centered in our practice and everything we deliver at Shemewé Collective means our hearts are switched on and fully engaged.
With respect to the mind, I refer to Einstein's quote, 'The intuitive mind is a sacred gift, and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift
In the 1990s, there was tremendous excitement about new discoveries regarding the human brain, particularly the frontal lobes or executive part of the brain. As we bring the heart into greater focus, I believe we will begin to really heal us and our world. Many traditions around the world, not only religious but also Indigenous and First peoples, have held this knowledge from the beginning of time. They possess far more wisdom than I do to understand the heart's central role in our human existence. I have been devoted to the heart for as long as I can remember. It is my guide.
Relationship-Led
For me, it's a reality that I am in relationship with not only everyone, but everything around me. It's not just with people; it's much broader than that. I am in relationship with the environment, the natural world, and the systems of society. I am responsible for myself and to everyone and everything I am connected to. Of course, I can also choose not to be responsible for myself, or to others, the environment and non-human entities. Is this not in part what leads to such catastrophic conditions we witness daily, worldwide?
Most values are a work in progress. The first step is to get on board. At Shemewé Collective, we are on board and are also prepared to lead the way. We emphasize and value relationships in our lives and work, focusing on establishing and maintaining them. For a relationship to succeed, mutuality is usually present. In the workplace, getting to know one another and each other's values creates a shared purpose.
I have worked with organisations experiencing rapid growth, yet internally undergoing desertification. Relationships in workplaces are often neglected, expected to sustain themselves without care or attention leading to an exodus of staff and loss of irreplaceable corporate knowledge. As a result, team morale drops, productivity declines, and service delivery takes a hit, placing the business at risk. However, I have found that relationships are the fertile ground that sustain teams and fuels the work at hand. When the foundations are strong and relationships are nurtured, workplaces thrive.
I haven’t always succeeded in maintaining relationships with others when faced with position and authority over, rather than power together. Sometimes the door is closed and it’s not something that can be forced. It takes time for defences to drop, allowing both parties to listen to each other, mend misunderstandings and seek a way forward together.
At Shemewé Collective, we accept the reality of relationships, which allows for greater choice in how we conduct ourselves with others. It's not about perfection or being right; it's about transparency, honesty, care, and responsibility, especially when it comes to misunderstandings and repairs.
Being relationship-led starts with a business agreement and continues in our work with employees across all our services and programs. Shemewé Collective offers a relationship-led approach to counter the disconnection and disregard often felt in society - an approach that is genuine, supportive, and renewing.
Multiplicity and Inclusivity
Multiplicity refers to a large number, variety, or wide range of something. At Shemewé Collective, our Values speak to the lived realities of human experience and the natural world-realities that are diverse, dynamic, and ever-evolving.
Over-reliance on singularity, homogeneity, or monoculture often limits innovation and can exclude the very diversity that strengthens our workplaces. While a single approach may suit a moment or purpose, defaulting to it exclusively can diminish collective wellbeing.
Our Conscious Parenting and Relationship Rescue groups embody multiplicity in action. As facilitators, we intentionally create inclusive spaces where diverse perspectives are heard and respected. This includes co-creating group agreements, responding to different learning styles, and using a mix of materials, discussions, and somatic practices to meet participants where they are.
Shemewé’s Values reawaken our awareness of multiplicity - encouraging us to move beyond the limits of a single perspective and stay open to diverse ways of seeing and being.
To embrace multiplicity is to expect difference, to welcome diversity, and to navigate the richness it offers with care. Rather than defaulting to the familiar, we at Shemewé Collective actively seek out the possibilities that emerge when we hold space for many paths forward.
Inclusivity pairs naturally with multiplicity. It invites us to move forward in ways that hold space for discomfort, difference, and even contradiction—whether within ourselves, our teams, or the systems we work in. Instead of excluding what feels discordant, we ask: How might it be included? How can we move ahead while honouring diverse and even conflicting perspectives, rather than defaulting to just one view?
It's not always easy to be in relationship with difference, especially when it challenges us personally. But often, deep wisdom emerges when we stay open to what feels confronting or unfamiliar.
I recall times in my own life when I moved past initial resistance-trying new foods, living in places I once disliked, forming friendships I never expected, and stepping into roles I feared. Each time, my world expanded. I grew, and so did those around me.
Take a moment to consider a part of yourself you struggle to accept. What might shift if that part were included, not excluded-welcomed as part of your whole self? Inclusivity begins there.
In workplaces, the choices that move us toward inclusivity may not always be easy-but they’re worth it. Shemewé Collective’s Values-led approach supports employers in building inclusive environments where human diversity is valued as much as productivity and business growth.
After many years of living and working alongside people from diverse cultural identities-particularly a close friend from Zimbabwe - I feel as though I’ve gained a new set of lenses through which to see the world. I’m deeply grateful for the exposure to such a diversity of views, experiences, and perspectives. This journey has humbled me, deepened my empathy, and expanded my understanding of multiplicity and inclusivity in both life and work.
Living the Values Together
A couple who both identified as neurodivergent enrolled in our parenting group. Rather than emailing them the registration form, I called them and completed the form over the phone on their behalf. I checked with each of them about how to best support their different learning needs. One of them mentioned losing focus and overtalking. I checked about appropriate cues to use in group time, to regain their focus and allow for other participants to share. Our content and language are inclusive of participants from different learning, cultural, religious, gender and sexual identities, ensuring everyone feels welcomed in our groups.
These stories illustrate how Shemewé Collective’s Values—being heart-centered, relationship-led, and embracing multiplicity and inclusivity— naturally emerge in the way we approach our work, promoting meaningful connections and fostering environments where diverse needs are met with care and respect.
The Values of Shemewé Collective string together like beads on a necklace, each one complementing and supporting the others. However, as a human being I have my biases. I strive to overcome rigid thinking, limited attitudes and to decolonise my lens of perception,even though it’s not always easy.
First and foremost, the Values within Shemewé guide me, as much as they guide the people I work with. Our Values come without expectation. Their purpose is to create an understanding of the Value system you are engaging with as an employer or employee through us and our services.
Our Values don't mean we're always doing it right, but as a team, business and as individuals we are motivated by being heart-centered, relationship-led, and encouraging multiplicity and inclusivity in our work together.
Join us at Shemewé Collective on this journey. Together, we can create a more inclusive and diverse workplace that values every individual's unique contribution. We’d love to hear your thoughts or experiences - feel free to share or reach out. Let’s see what we can achieve together. Contact us today to learn more about our services and how we can support your organisation.
