Soulful Coach

The Invitation

At one of my Leadership retreats right before we began our climb up 40 ft in the redwoods, a wonderful person recited this poem for us.  I hope you enjoy it as I did:

The Invitation

It doesn’t interest me what you do for a living.
I want to know what you ache for
and if you dare to dream of meeting your heart’s longing.

It doesn’t interest me how old you are.
I want to know if you will risk looking like a fool
for love
for your dream
for the adventure of being alive.

It doesn’t interest me what planets are squaring your moon...
I want to know if you have touched the centre of your own sorrow
if you have been opened by life’s betrayals
or have become shrivelled and closed
from fear of further pain.

I want to know if you can sit with pain
mine or your own
without moving to hide it
or fade it
or fix it.

I want to know if you can be with joy
mine or your own
if you can dance with wildness
and let the ecstasy fill you to the tips of your fingers and toes
without cautioning us
to be careful
to be realistic
to remember the limitations of being human.

It doesn’t interest me if the story you are telling me
is true.
I want to know if you can
disappoint another
to be true to yourself.
If you can bear the accusation of betrayal
and not betray your own soul.
If you can be faithless
and therefore trustworthy.

I want to know if you can see Beauty
even when it is not pretty
every day.
And if you can source your own life
from its presence.

I want to know if you can live with failure
yours and mine
and still stand at the edge of the lake
and shout to the silver of the full moon,
“Yes.”

It doesn’t interest me
to know where you live or how much money you have.
I want to know if you can get up
after the night of grief and despair
weary and bruised to the bone
and do what needs to be done
to feed the children.

It doesn’t interest me who you know
or how you came to be here.
I want to know if you will stand
in the centre of the fire
with me
and not shrink back.

It doesn’t interest me where or what or with whom
you have studied.
I want to know what sustains you
from the inside
when all else falls away.

I want to know if you can be alone
with yourself
and if you truly like the company you keep
in the empty moments.

oriah mountain dreamer

Coaching Inquiry:  Who are you deep down?  What sustains you?  What do you bring to the world - this world that needs your talents and gifts?  Will you stand in the fire with me? I am here to aid you in your journey.

Namaste,
Sheila

We are all Artists as Children

Picasso said, "“Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up.”

I've been thinking of this lately while spending time with my niece, Molly.  She is warm and wild and loving and funny and smart and loves to draw...all this wrapped up in a beautiful little package...of joyfullness.

I took some HUGE Sharpie markers with me the last time I visited and while we were coloring, she said, "Give me that Big-booty red one!"  I called her Big-Booty Red all weekend and she just cracked up!  You see her below having some fun in the tub!

Molly is 4 and just began riding her 2-wheeler!!!!  Seems like a big accomplishment at 4...I don't remember when I did, but it seems like it was more like 6 or 7...

*****

A friend shared a video of the Omo People.  Take a look.  It is so beautiful...

They say children are in the alpha and theta brainwave stages more often than we as adults. We spend our time mostly in beta.  How might we spend more time in these lower frequencies? Meditation often puts us in alpha.  Theta is usually associated with the dream state; however, I've recently found myself hovering on the edge of both at the same time..it is surreal.

Being in alpha and theta engages our creativity and intuition; and,it's nice to have beta to make sense of and take action on these ideas later...quite left hemisphere...

What do you think?

I'm leading an Artist Way workshop via teleconference beginning early October.  I want to keep the groups small - no more than 7 people. It will be a 13 week program and will include a one-on-one coaching session. Email me at:  sheila@lifevisioncoachingllc.com for more details.

Cooking..Food Movies

Was going to catch "Julie and Julia" and changed my mind.  I am more interested in only Julia's fab story.

I have so many favorite movies about food and cooking.  How about "Big Night" and "Babette's Feast"?

Here's one of my most loved movies in general that also features the love that goes into cooking for people.  Check it out and let me know what you think.  It won best film in the Cleveland Int'l Film Festival in 2000...it's beautiful!

Big Eden

Hmmm...think I'm going to make a "Simply Ming" dish tonight...

Holy Body Day

My friend and colleague, Kathy Loh, recently began her blog - Full Moon Path

Kathy is a gifted coach and brings so many talents to her clients.  I had the pleasure of getting to know here when she assisted a Leadership Program that I attended.

Her latest post describes honoring our body wisdom.  Within the integral perspective, we have 3 bodies - the gross, subtle and causal.  The gross is our physical being; the subtle is our energy systems (chakras) and the causal is the "witness" that sees and holds all.  It is in the honoring of al three that we begin to experience our "body."  

I'm new on the path of my "Integral LIfe Practice" and will learn more and share it with you.  Please visit Kathy's blog and bookmark it!  I am inspired by every post.

Namaste,

Sheila

The Shadow - What is your Good? What is Your Evil?

I have been studying Integral Theory for a while now.  Part of my newly designed integral practice includes "shadow" work.  This type of examination can be attempted alone or with the assistance of an analyst or psychotherapist.

The shadow has always intrigued me.  Since I was a child, I have always remembered my dreams and have many in the course of a night. While in grad school in psychology, I favored a Jungian orientation to dream analysis and therapy in general.

Some believe the shadow is our dark side.  I like to consider it merely as the "trickster."  There is so much valuable information here for us.

The Shadow is a moral problem that challenges the whole ego-personality, for no one can become conscious of the shadow without considerable moral effort. To become conscious of it involves recognizing the dark aspects of the personality as present and real. This act is the essential condition for any kind of self-knowledge, and it therefore, as a rule, meets with considerable resistance. Indeed, self-knowledge as a psychotherapuetic measure frequently requires much painstaking work extending over a long period of time. CG Jung

Jung developed a technique called "Active Imagination."  This practice is varied and described in various ways in the literature.  I am finding it fascinating and have begun utlizing this on my own.  I noticed a while back that as I was drifting off to sleep, I would actually be an observer or "wittness" to both states - unconsciousness and consciousness.  At first I thought I was just imagining it; however, now I believe I was not.  And, this is actually a way to use Active Imagination.  The key, however, is to record what you observed and since I often have trouble getting to sleep, I hate to wake myself to take notes!

I would love to hear from you on this topic. What AI techniques do you use?  How has shadow work improved your waking state of consciousness?

Sheila

Coaching - I Offer You....

Coaching...what is it really?  When I told my Dad I was becoming a "coach," he asked if I was working for the Cleveland Browns!  The idea of it is perhaps hard to define.  Tiger has a life coach..  He's a nice example.  He knows all about all sorts of coaching.

In my Leadership Program, they offered us some promises that really resonated for me and I'd like to share those with you knowing that I hold these promises.

I promise to hold you bigger than you hold yourself.

In pursuit of your most powerful self, I promise to make you uncomfortable, call you forth and demand your best with fierceness, dignity, respect and compassion.

I promise to be a model of full permission.

I promise to fail hugely and have great learning occur from these failures.

I promise to be authentic, messy, human and real.

I promise to have a low tolerance for your shit and huge compassion for your humanity.

As a result of your full-out participation in coaching:  

I promise you freedom from old limiting beliefs, a deeper understanding of intimacy and a new relationship with trust.

I promise that you will have a wider range of self-expression, the flexibility to dance with whatever shows up, and the strength to stand in your power, regardless of the circumstances.

Coaching also is primarily about deeping our learning of ourselves and forwarding the action towards what we want.  So, setting goals it key.  

I will hold "your" agenda of what you want.  We will design an alliance to get you where you want to be in your life.  

Trust that I have some "skills" to shine the light for you to examine what it is that you really want and who you are and what you bring to the world.

Please feel free to write to me and we can talk!

I would love to have you sign up for my blog updates (you can do this above).

I have learned that it is through connection with others that we grow and move forward. AND, this is a big thing coming from an Introvert! 

Until we meet...Namaste,

Sheila

Don't be a Hobgoblin !!

"A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines. With consistency a great soul has simply nothing to do. He may as well concern himself with his shadow on the wall. Speak what you think now in hard words, and to-morrow speak what to-morrow thinks in hard words again, though it contradict every thing you said today. - 'Ah, so you shall be sure to be misunderstood.' -- Is it so bad, then, to be misunderstood? Pythagoras was misunderstood, and Socrates, and Jesus, and Luther, and Copernicus, and Galileo, and Newton, and every pure and wise spirit that ever took flesh. To be great is to be misunderstood."

Lesson:  Don't be a Hobgoblin!!!

Validation

This little movie cracks me up with respect to the coaching world's endless acknowledgements and validations - that often are way too much and become meaningless.

This movie, hovwer, illustrates the power of the simple acknowledgement and a sweet way...

Enjoy!

Spending our Lives

"I don't want to be saved, I want to be spent."   Fritz Perls

"This is the true joy in life, the being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one; the being a force of nature instead of a feverish selfish clod of ailments and grievances complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy. I am of the opinion that my life belongs to the whole community and as long as I live it is my privilege to do for it whatever I can. I want to be thoroughly used up when I die, for the harder I work, the more I live. I rejoice in life for its own sake. Life is no ‘brief candle' to me. It is sort of a splendid torch which I have a hold of for the moment, and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it over to future generations."  George Bernard Shaw

"Most people never run far enough on their first wind to find out they've got a second. Give your dreams all you've got and you'll be amazed at the energy that comes out of you."  William James

Coaching Inquiry:  When do notice you have the most energy?  How do you gain your energy.  Tell me about a time that you were in "flow."  What were you doing?  How did it feel?

Namaste,

Sheila

Everything is Amazing, Nobody is Happy !!!

Soo funny! This is so true. Love this guy!

Self Awareness - Some Questions to Consider

Journaling. It's always been difficult for me. I think it's partially because I wonder who I'm talking to... I'm better at talking...out loud...to myself. Doesn't make sense, I know.

Another problem is I have different things/topics and therefore separate journals. So I have all of these (unfilled) journals laying around. I have one for my dreams (as in nightmares or at least the ones that happen when I'm asleep) to discuss with my analyst.  Another is for my business ideas...another for just writing what Julia Cameron calls "morning pages"...and the list goes on.  

Perhaps it would help me just to have one running at all times for all of these things; however, How could I then find what I need in them...maybe color coding with different colored pens?  See, this is what I do and why I never pick up the journal and just write.  

I would sure welcome some advice from anyone out there!!!  I'll offer a free coaching session to anyone who comments...with some advice.

I am going to look at the following questions and make an appointment with ONE of my journals to explore these.  I invite you to do the same and please as always, share your thoughts!

1. If you were absolutely guaranteed to succeed, what would you dare to do?

2. What are you most passionate about?

3. What are your greatest talents/strengths?

4. How can you get paid doing what you love?

5. When (what circumstances? Around what people?) Do you feel most alive? This is a big one for me!

6. What were your 5 greatest accomplishments over the last 5 years?

7. What will be your 5 greatest accomplishments over the next 5 years? The next 25 years?

8. How can you best share your gifts with the world?

9. What would you do if you weren’t afraid?

10. What other questions should you be asking yourself?!?

The new me...except..where's the pen???!!!

Namaste,

Sheila