Let the Sunshine in!

"I have a core of me that's confident" said a client recently "but I'm not sure it's reached my head yet."

The clue of course lay in the language being used about a 'core' of confidence. That is my client had an internal representation for their confidence that was a 'core'. Since it had a description, and was only a construct anyway, playing around with the image of the 'core' might enable it to include, rather than exclude, their head?

The Skype call went something like this:

"How would you describe this core?"
"It's around my stomach"
"And what qualities does the core have?"
"It's like a sun"
"Can you tell me more about this sun?"
"It's yellow, and the beams spread out around my arms, legs and body but stop at my throat"
"What's stopping it from extending beyond your throat?"
"There's clouds in the way"
"What might enable the clouds to move?"

Which result in much hilarity as we "wooshed" and generally tried different strengths of wind to move the clouds away. Once the clouds were no longer in the way I asked:

"Can the sun now extend into your head"
"Yes a little - it certainly feels warmer"

We then 'played' around with the image until it felt just right, and the sun was streaming through into my client's head.

Just as we started speaking about 'the sun streaming' the actual sun here in Scotland (yes we do get some) started to stream in through my window, and my head on the screen had a halo around it - which helped us further enhance the image my client had for their core of confidence.

My final question was then "And how does your confidence feel now?"
"Much better" was the reply.

We then went on to discuss how they could keep the image of the streaming sun alive until it became the norm for representing their confidence.

Such a great example of why metaphors are so powerful when coaching others. That is they often bypass the barriers and resistance we have to change, and certainly provide a much less stressful and content free means of releasing unhelpful thoughts, habits or behaviours.

You can read about other Landscaping your Life case studies by following the links : Perfection, Business Strategy Development, Burning Bridges, Superman in the north pole of inaccessibility, Lava or Magma, and The Dark Hedges.

Do call if you're stuck, and would like help to explore a situation using the Landscaping Your Life processes (although other coaching tools can and are used too).

Alison Smith
Landscaping Your Life
Inspiring Change Inside and Out
+44 (0)7770 538159 alison@alisonsmith.eu