Keeping Afloat

This is the second of what is going to be a series of vlogs about helping us tap into our inner wisdom and keep afloat at this time.

To do this I'm sharing insights from a coaching tool I use in coaching and workshops. It’s called the frameworks for change coaching process * & involves exploring the words on a series of cards to help us to tap into our inner wisdom.

An inner wisdom that is able to connect us to our inner calm.

Today’s insights to keep afloat are

• Insight: You let go of some old trappings, nice going.
• Potential setback: Setback by feelings of superiority in the current situation.
• Insight: An opportunity to give truthful feedback, be honest with all that are involved.
• Mentor: Strength

Reflect on your own thoughts about these cards, and I’ve shared some thoughts on the video and here's some additional thoughts too.

Insight: You let go of some old trappings, nice going.

The one thing that will help us cope better in the current situation is looking after our mental, physical, and emotional wellbeing.

Now is the time therefore to stop doing what we know does not serve us – if ringing a specific friend always leaves you angry or frustrated then stop ringing them, if a particular food makes your energy slump stop eating it, or if a certain exercise always makes you tired could you swap it for something that uplifts you? 

Potential setback: Setback by feelings of superiority in the current situation. 

Superiority can lead to us thinking “this won’t happen to me” or “I’m better than them” and can potentially lead us to cutting corners in the belief that we are infallible. Washing hands, keeping our distance, and following guidance is for all of us not just everyone else.  

Insight: An opportunity to give truthful feedback, be honest with all that are involved.

It was hard deciding to own and acknowledge my own jitteriness here. Especially as I understand that a positive and optimist mindset is paramount in supporting us to get to the other side. That said, not owning how we’re feeling is not supportive. Once acknowledged rather pushed down and away it’s easier to deal with whatever is coming up for us at this time.

Mentor: Strength

We all have inner strength and it’s when times are hard or difficult that we discover how deep our strength goes.

Dig deep, connect in, recall someone who is a role model for strength, remember times when your strength was ever present – do what ever you can to connect into that steel and strength within. 

I'm posting on LinkedIn , Facebook and YouTube daily so pop over there to have a daily dose of insight to help keep you afloat. I'll only be sharing occasionally here. I posted the first Keeping afloat vlog over on my Purchasing Coach blog.

* The process, the insight, setback and mentor cards used here are from Frameworks for Change © Innerlinks - www.innerlinks.com.

You can get a less businessy set of very similar cards online from Amazon or in person as Findhorn Phoenix shop - the cards are called Intuitive Solutions (Amazon UK, Amazon US).

Mind or body. Which do you listen to most often?

Mind or body. Which do you listen to most often?

I was on a retreat a couple of weeks ago. My mind was not calling the shots of constant busyness, emails, and much more.

My body had nutritious food, daily exercise, stretching, massages, and rest. Oh, and sun, sea, and fresh air too.

No to-do list, no emails and not even any business planning or development for the mind to be distracted by.

Since coming home, I’ve made a commitment to not allow my mind to ignore the very structure upon which it depends. No skipped meals because I’m busy; no rushing straight into the office before I’ve even given my body some movement; and no mindless shoving food in between one activity and the next and calling that a meal!

So, do you listen to your mind or to your body?

Story: The wave

In today's blog I share a short story I wrote that others have found to be insightful, and which strays beyond my normal offering - the essence of which aligns with everything I do.

Love was a wave and she was a very lonely wave. She had travelled the globe in search of something more than the life she had. Surely there must be more to life than rising and falling and being dictated to by the bright glowing circle in the sky. 

She’d tried to ask other waves if they felt the same as her but they never stayed around long enough to give her an answer. From watching them she thought they looked satisfied enough. The sounds they made when the wind whipped them against the cliffs in far flung places certainly sounded like enjoyment to her. Although she did wonder about that as she’d never had the courage to actually have a go herself. Instead she chose to hang back and watch as other waves moved forward and took the momentum. She had tried to change her shape like some waves so that she may take the surfers into her very centre and yet she hung back scared of hurting them. She’d also tried to do that thing with the air to make her very edges all white and foamy. But she withdrew fearing she’d not be able to go back to how she was. She also envied those waves who had the confidence to carry large ships towards their destination in their wake.

It was on one such day when she’d really had enough. She really was useless she felt and couldn’t do anything all the other waves could. Either she didn’t have the courage, the experience or the expertise. She also didn’t have anywave to ask questions and share it all with. It was in this heavy and depressing mood that she felt her self dragged down. Dragged deeper than she’d ever been before. 

Deeper, darker, colder. 

If she had felt fear in the past it was nothing to how she felt now. Down and down she went,.

Deeper, darker, colder. 

Her thoughts slowed right down, as if time itself was starting to move into slow motion. 

Deeper, darker, colder.

Until she finally came to a stop. She couldn’t see anything, she couldn’t feel anything and she was struggling to think anything.

She realised she was very tense and tried very hard to relax and allow some space between every fibre of her being. As she did this she realised that she felt a little better. So for the next few  - she didn’t know what they were -  they could have been seconds, minutes, hours, days or even weeks. So all we can say is that as time passed she felt lighter. 

She practiced very hard allowing space in-between every fibre of her being. She couldn’t do it all at once. She had to pick some part of her and concentrate very hard on that part and just breathe and allow space inside. It was as if part by part she was getting lighter and brighter, and was it her imagination or was she feeling a little warmer too?

What she found however was as soon as she started to wonder about what was happening, how it was happening and try to make it go quicker she started to feel the cold, she started to emanate less light.  Each time she then had to take a breath and start all over again. Slowly working her away around each part of herself. 

Over time she was able to hold on to this lighter and brighter state for longer. She found she didn’t have to concentrate quite so hard and could still manage to maintain this lighter and brighter state.

Finally she managed to be the lighter and brighter state. It was as if she had changed. It was as if she was no longer the wave trying to be brighter, trying to be lighter she was simply a bright and light wave. She puzzled over this for some time. She felt like she was still herself but she somehow knew she was different. The added brightness and added lightness had in some way changed her.

Of course what she had failed to notice was that once she was this different state she had also started to rise. Until finally she neared the surface and noticed her own lightness reflected in the water around her. She came to the surface and took a deep breath and allowed the rays of the sun to warm her. 

She looked around her and could see many waves all with the same lightness and same brightness as her. She felt an acceptance from them that she had never felt before. An acceptance for who she was and not what she could or couldn’t do.

She stayed with the other waves for many moons. She did many things she’d never tried before. She especially enjoyed the rushing into caves and being dragged back out with the momentum of those around her. She even had time to perfect the tender holding of surfers as they danced within her very core.

After one particularly exciting day she started to feel different. She started to feel even brighter and even lighter. As if even the very binds that were holding every part of her together were being pulled gently apart. Having been in the deep, dark and cold place before she didn’t consider this scary and even felt some excitement about what was happening. And so she simply allowed the transformation to take place. Until it was as if she was everything and everywhere all at the same time. There was certainly more ease, even more light, and bright just wasn’t the word for it. She just was, and realised that she had always been all that there is - LOVE.