For over 12 years, Amrita Ahuja has been developing a coaching and productivity system that helps people get out of survival mode by teaching them to identify their underlying pain.
Though it didn’t start that way.
Groundwork Productivity Systems began as a framework to help busy, ambitious people manage incoming information and tackle their seemingly endless to-do lists. The survival pattern identification came later when Amrita realized that no productivity management system would ever be enough, unless it was paired with a methodology for addressing overwhelm, stress, doubt, and fear at the root.
The world is not broken. It is upside down.
We have been conditioned to live in survival mode. Most of us experience low-level anxiety at all times. And why wouldn’t we? We exist under a capitalistic system bent on destruction and extraction at all costs, one that has conditioned us to consume or numb out instead of feel, by tricking us into believing that we are never enough.
We know that this world is not okay. We know that we can’t operate effectively from reactive places of denial, stress, or fear. We know that, as Einstein wrote, to surmount the fear which haunts the world, we need to become clear in heart and mind.
We know this, but still we struggle. Because the fear that haunts the world (climate change, racism, wealth inequality, you name it) triggers our survival responses and when we’re in a survival response, we can’t think clearly.
Our sweet selves do our best to get by, but we are not equipped to manage the stresses placed upon us. We are equipped to numb out, freak out, or otherwise bypass the pain that the fear so often triggers.
This is what happens in the upside down world: survival mode becomes the status quo.
Amrita came into my life at the exact right time. Even just hearing about the concept of “survival mode” made me feel seen and validated in ways I’d never experienced with other self-development, self-help, or self-inquiry modalities. It’s so simple, it’s almost difficult to explain.
Of course we’re in survival mode. Of course it’s not our fault. Of course we need a simple framework to help us to return to the state of ease and joy that our survival responses have been trying to get us this whole time.
Groundwork feels like the synthesis of everything I’ve been working towards and talking about for years. This simple realization—that unless we are in touch with our underlying pain, it guides us, is unravelling me in so many ways. I am seeing and learning all the stories my ego has fed me, the layers of doubt and confusion, all the sneaky ways my perfectionism manifests…
And I’m starting to wonder who I’ll be on the other side, who I’ll be when I no longer question my worth and my abilities. I have been so much more attached to pain than I realized. There is more to say, always, but we’ll get there one day at a time.
For now and without further ado, please enjoy our conversation. Drop any questions you have in the comments or reach out directly. I am thrilled to be working with Amrita, helping her tell the story of Groundwork, so expect to hear more soon ♥️
Amrita Ahuja, the Founder of Groundwork, speaks to Kelly about the challenges of living in the upside down world, how we've normalized to being in survival mode, the pain underneath it all, closing the small gaps, and being in service of something greater than ourselves. Follow Amrita on Instagram and LinkedIn, check out her website @groundwork.xyz, and listen to “Getting Out of Survival Mode with Amrita Ahuja” on the Climate Change in the Multiverse Podcast anywhere you get your podcasts.
Getting Out Of Survival Mode with Amrita Ahuja