Meaning-full Coaching

As a coach, I've often been privileged to hear "this has changed my life"
There's not much better endorsement than that in relation to the service I'm providing. It's the kind of coaching experience I love. I didn't learn about that kind of coaching through traditional training methods though.......I discovered it by searching  for a different kind of guidance when I was lost, after a trauma, a diagnosis of chronic illness & then again when I survived major surgery. My life's work has been to use my 'traditional' coaching skills & expertise combined with this 'other' awareness & guiding, when it's called for.
Change can happen at many levels of experience; behavioural change is what we & others notice, but attitude (beliefs & values) identity & purpose change begins deep inside & often when we have the courage & the support to face those moments of lostness or questions that wake us in the dark hours.

We know that change happens first in the unconscious & is followed & supported by changes in our internal & external realities that we & others can witness to.
It makes sense that this kind of change is often symbolised by metaphors of seeds, seasonal nurture, growth.
One of my favourite quotes from Robert Dilts, NLP giant is:
"Remedial change is like pulling weeds. Generative change is like planting new seeds. Evolutionary change is like altering the landscape on which the weeds & seeds are growing"
Coaching can often start from or look like purely behavioural change, especially in corporations, but underneath the behaviours we exhibit is the foundation of who we are................and that's where the real questions live.
Rumi, the 12th Century Sufi mystic asked;
"who is this that lives here in the centre of my chest?"
Soul Centric coaching is my passion. Its focus is on the inside out. Different from navel gazing or self obsession, it honours the wisdom of your unconscious, soul, essence.......the core of you & it responds to the big questions we ask which are often only barely concealed behind the moments of our lives.
"I slip through gossamer membranes, down & down into the mulched soul space of the garden. There I find the bulbs, & seeds of self; dormant, unattended. It's high time to water, & make fertile & caress that inviolate core of my being" Jeanne Achterberg
What are the questions that wake you in the middle of the night? Where do you go for your answers? How's your relationship with the unknown?
Joseph Campbell pointed out that there's only one theme, found in all human centred stories & myths; the Hero's Journey. Here you are, going about your everyday life..........until something unexpected happens.
Career transitions or approaching retirement.
Relationship conflicts or breakdown.
Medical diagnoses
Midlife or chronological Rites of Passage.
Events on the world or local stage that prompt us to wonder, or worry.....what does this MEAN?


At that point, we have a window of opportunity ~ to respond to the invitation to whatever transition calls us, to actually experience that unknown territory, struggle with inner or outer obstacles, find out what we're 'made of' or......... do whatever's possible to avoid dealing with it.
Buy a motorbike, get an addictive habit,  go on a very long & expensive holiday.................?
Soul centric coaching responds to the questions you as an individual ask by using your own life, philosophy & ways of making meaning as the route map for your journey.
You are a completely unique example of your genes, character traits, thinking, interests, talents, awareness. Your entire life is showing you signs, posing questions, inviting transitions, offering challenges that no-one else's ever could or would.
The way you respond to the challenges, the questions & the opportunities  hidden within the everyday events of your life shapes the choices you make & the quality of the journey you have. Make it meaning-full.
Each of our lives is constantly in transition. Transition means to 'go across' & we are always crossing from one moment, one day, one event to the next. Part of our psyche has already gone ahead into that new territory. Why not let our conscious minds follow?
"What is it you plan to do with your one wild & precious life?" Mary Oliver

It's why my coaching business is called ENIGMA......with a multi faceted diamond as its symbol. You & I are SO much more than the events of our lives. The mystery & wonderful combination of all that we are,  could be & will be, shine through those events. In coaching, I might be charting the course, but you're the one who makes the journey! You are awesome & amazing. Let your  life moments lead you to unlock more facets of the light you carry!


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