Unplug, Unleash, Rebirth: Leading Like the Light, Illuminate Your Power
- Eve Reed
- Jun 30
- 7 min read
Updated: Jul 6
Power in the Pivot: Turning Symbolic Gestures Into Systemic Change
June brings the brilliance of the Summer Solstice and the weight of Juneteenth. This month is about reclaiming joy, honoring truth, and showing up in full brightness. It’s a season to lead with light, celebrate freedom, and grow without apology. The grind doesn’t stop, but neither does the glow. June is also known for National Black Music Month, Pride Month, Caribbean American Heritage Month, Juneteenth, and the Summer Solstice. These moments represent celebration, liberation, and cultural rhythm, making June the perfect month to amplify joy, sound, and legacy.
And this month, the glow-up isn’t just aesthetic, it’s ancestral. This season, we’re not just honoring our light, we’re remembering the power we come from. June is a call to step into legacy: to shed the weight of what no longer fits and move like your future depends on it, because it does. Whether it’s reclaiming your rhythm, unplugging from grind culture, or choosing softness as strength, this is your time to radiate with purpose.
"Caring for myself is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation, and that is an act of political warfare." — Audre Lorde
Your Harmony Express
💫 Balance: Set your intentions with joy-setting goals and learn how to make rest and pleasure your most productive strategies.
💼 Business: Check out this month’s featured articles on what true workplace liberation looks like as you illuminate your power through unpacking systemic change and honoring freedom.
🎧 Beats: Stream Illuminating Your Power, this month’s playlist curated with vibes for clarity, confidence, and full-body glow on both Tidal & Spotify.
📚 Books: Check out Illuminating Your Power, this month’s booklist recommendations of bold, brilliant reads that will stretch your mind, affirm your identity, and ignite your next move.
Summer of Rebirth: Shedding the Old, Setting Goals Around Joy, Rest, and Pleasure to Embrace the New
Growth often requires letting go; that worn-out job title, that outdated story you tell yourself, or that habit that doesn’t serve you. But this summer is the time to shed all that is no longer serving you. Rebirth isn’t always flashy. Sometimes it looks like quiet clarity, slow mornings, and gentle pivots. Give yourself permission and grace to release what’s no longer aligned, even if it once served you. Rebirth requires courage, and courage often looks like rest, truth, and trust.
This season, bloom differently, not louder, but deeper. And ask yourself, when was the last time you put joy on your calendar, on purpose?
Joy-setting as a practice has to be non-negotiable. Rather than focusing solely on work metrics and performance, what happens when we create goals that center on emotional and spiritual alignment instead? This isn’t about toxic positivity, it’s about intentional restoration.
Set goals this season that include rest as a reward, pleasure as productivity, and joy as fuel.
Let your strategy include softness. Joy isn’t an afterthought. It’s a strategy. Start with three (3) small actions that bring you joy each week and track them with the same intention you give your KPIs. Growth isn’t optional; it’s demanded this season.
🔌 Wellness Tip:
Unplug with intention and consistency. Challenge yourself to create a 15-minute daily ritual that reconnects you to your body and spirit. Whether it’s through stretching, deep breathing, meditative journaling, or simply turning your phone off and stepping outside, the goal is presence. Doing these mini resets this month will help you slow down long enough to notice where your power needs refueling, and to replenish it without apology.
📚 Booklist is Ready!
Each title in this month’s booklist, Illuminating Your Power, speaks to liberation in practice, whether through voice, identity, rest, or reclamation. Choose what resonates and let these words remind you: You are the power, the path, and the proof. You’ll find stories that challenge the norm, affirm your worth, and guide you back to yourself with each page.
Are you an avid reader and want to fellowship together? Have a book recommendation? Sign up HERE and let me know what’s on your reading list, or join the list!
Freedom to Flourish: Lessons from Juneteenth on Career Liberation
Juneteenth is more than a holiday; it’s a powerful reminder of delayed liberation and the strength it takes to live fully in your truth. For Black professionals, especially, it holds a mirror to the ways we still navigate workplace freedom: freedom to speak up, show up, rest, and lead.
Juneteenth recognition in the workplace has grown in visibility, but performative actions still dominate. A day off without structural change is not liberation. Companies must move beyond symbolism and into real transformation and what freedom looks like at work, because your career should reflect your freedom, not your survival.
Real Juneteenth recognition looks like leadership accountability, career pathways for marginalized employees, flexible and inclusive policies, and truth-telling at every level. It’s the ability to say no, to create boundaries, to show up without code-switching. It’s having your ideas heard and your identity honored. And it’s not just a personal journey; it’s a cultural shift. It also looks like reparative compensation strategies and safe reporting systems for discrimination.
To truly flourish, though, we have to untangle ourselves from the workplace habits and structures built for survival: silence, overperformance, perfectionism, and self-erasure. This is about unlearning the lie that rest is laziness, or that value is only tied to productivity. Flourishing means freedom to lead as your whole self, not just the sanitized, palatable version.
Freedom also looks like spaciousness; to grow at your own pace, to make mistakes without retribution, to advocate for yourself and your community without retaliation. Liberation isn't just about personal gain; it's about collective rising. So, whether you're negotiating your role, mentoring others, or breaking intergenerational patterns, know that your career can be an act of resistance and restoration.
Let this be your reminder that celebrating freedom means creating systems where people are free to thrive, not just survive.
🎧 The Playlist is live!
This month’s playlist, Illuminating Your Power, is your audio affirmation. With freedom anthems, grounding grooves, and healing harmonies, this mix is perfect for solstice sunrises, boundary-setting walks, and unapologetic glow-ups. 25 tracks curated to help you rise, reflect, and reclaim your energy. Let it remind you that your light doesn’t need permission. Stream this month’s playlist curated with vibes for clarity, confidence, and full-body glow on both Tidal & Spotify.
🗓️ Upcoming Events for You:
Here are a few upcoming events I support that you don’t want to miss, so make sure you click the links to register to attend ASAP:
1) Sat, July 12, 2025 @ 12 PM ET: The Iris City Fit Expo (In-Person: The Historic Griffin Hotel, 132 West Solomon Street, Griffin, GA) || Register today for this event HERE. The Iris City Fit Expo is a vibrant community event designed to empower women to rebuild from the inside out through fitness, faith, and wellness. Attendees will experience energizing workout sessions, inspiring panels, and a marketplace of health-focused vendors. It’s more than a fitness event—it’s a celebration of wholeness, discipline, and transformation
2) Thurs, Sept. 11-Fri, Sept. 12, 2025: Pennsylvania SHRM 2025 Annual Conference: Shaping the Future of Tomorrow in State College, PA. || Register today for this event HERE. Be sure to check out Philly SHRM committee member @Krystina’s breakout session!!!
3) Wed, April 8-Fri, April 10, 2026: The Unplugged Experience Conference: Back to the Future in Atlanta, GA. || Register today for this event HERE. Use discount code HRJAWN for a 20% discount on the early bird ticket rates now!
Do you know a dope event we should spotlight? Submit your event details via email HERE to be shared.
Leading Like the Light: How to Shine Without Burning Out
Being a leader doesn’t mean dimming your own needs to keep others shining. The most impactful leaders know how to fuel themselves first so they can sustain their light for others. This article is a reflection on how to balance brilliance and boundaries.
Start by identifying where your energy is leaking. Are you overcommitting? People-pleasing? Doing things out of obligation?
Once you name it, you can begin to reclaim it. Start by completing our simple Energy Triage worksheet. On the worksheet, list the top five (5) things draining you and the top five (5) that refill you. From there, do the following:
Set boundaries where needed: Can you delegate that draining task? Can you create a 'no-fly zone' on your calendar to recover?
Build in micro-resets: 10-minute walks between meetings, no-phone hours, or music cues that signal it’s time to slow down.
Pair this with a weekly reflection: What gave you energy this week? What depleted it? What can you shift next week to honor that?
Leadership is not martyrdom. It’s modeling. And the most powerful model you can offer is one of sustainability. This June, lead like the solstice: show up fully, brightly, and on your own terms.
🔌 Wellness Tip:
Let go of the pressure to bloom on a timeline. Give yourself space to grow at your own rhythm.
Closing Note:
I am Evelyn Reed, also known as the HR Jawn or your neighborhood HR bestie, and the host and contributor for The Harmony Hour! I love to skillfully blend my workforce strategy, compliance, and culture-building expertise with a fresh perspective inspired by my passion for music, authentic leadership, data-informed storytelling, and human-centered solutions to drive meaningful change. You can learn more about me HERE. Until next time!
With love, power, and rhythm,
🖤 Eve Reed
"Honor the sun, the soil, and the struggle, then celebrate the joy." — Unknown
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