Culture
As a species we now stand at a turning point. With the innovations that have emerged over the past 120 years in areas such as depth psychology, neuroscience, quantum physics, imaging technology, addiction recovery, bodywork trauma therapies, and the like, we are perfectly equipped to bring about a new Golden Age of cultural evolution. We have an opportunity to create a culture that serves the needs of the people..
Transformation
In the coaching context this is equally true. Many successful professionals require a deep internal crisis to discover that `the hamster wheel looks like a ladder only from the inside´. The question of the purpose of life raises its head and the never-ending hassle of trying unsuccessfully to reach ambitious goals as a leader is tackled in the context of self-leadership which, in turn, presupposes self-knowledge. This is where `coaching from the inside out´ comes in…
Music
Dad died, the world went dark and, for a time, punk and grunge took over, The Jam, Lou Reed, and Joy Division providing the material for the crest of this wave. Through college and beyond, my tastes mellowed and broadened such that, when asked about my musical tastes today, I reply that I love everything bar operetta and Bavarian umpapa `Volksmusik´…
Imposters
I am currently participating in the PQ Training Programme developed and conducted by Shirzad Chamine and his team at `Positive Intelligence´, which is proving to be very helpful to those clients engaged in resolving the Imposter Syndrome. In this programme, reference is made to `Saboteurs´ and `Sage Powers´. The programme teaches us to identify and intercept the saboteurs – the main one being the `Judge´ – , so that they no longer hijack us, to cultivate the sage powers of empathy, exploration, innovation, navigation, and activation to lead us to right action, and to learn, by means of daily training, sufficient self-command to be able to switch from saboteur to sage whenever the need arises . By means of such training, we can begin to experience peace of mind and get closer to the goal of living the life we love.
Unity
In preparing my thoughts for this essay, it struck me for the first time that the term `unity´ is embedded in the word `community´. The healing experience of recovery is a community experience. When we arrive, hopeless and apparently broken beyond repair, we are lovingly taken in by those who know our predicament, for they had been at that turning point and had overcome their state of bondage. When they helped us, all they asked is that we `pay forward´ to the next wave of those who needed the solution, that which we were so freely given..
Annihilation
The difference between `change´ and `transformation´ has been a subject of my contemplation in recent weeks. For many years, I considered my sphere of activity to be that of `Change Management´. This description is no longer accurate. My role could now better be described as a Transformation Coach…
Restlessness
When we look at what are referred to as `Saboteurs´ in the Positive Intelligence (PQ) Programme, what we are really seeing is human behaviours and thinking patterns, in and of themselves necessary for our development and survival as young human beings, which have crossed a tipping point whereby they become destructive, ultimately leading us to the opposite of our intended goals…
False Cares
The first half of any human life is about `setting up shop´ in this material world of ours. In my case this consisted of finding and defending my place in the hierarchy of a large extended family, doing my best to `earn´ the physical and emotional attention that young children need as much as they need oxygen, in order to survive…
My Tribe
And the man told how he had been ailing so long and was still waiting to get into the bath first, upon the waters being moved, in order to be healed; but for these thirty-eight years he had been unable to get in first, others always getting into the bath before him. And Jesus saw that he was old and said to him: `Do you wish to get well?´ He said: `I wish to, but I have no one to carry me into the water on time. Some one will always get into the water before me.´ And Jesus said to him: `Awake, take up your bed and walk´. And the sick man took up his bed and walked…
Dance
The ancient Irish had a saying: ‘You don’t give a man a weapon until you’ve taught him how to dance.’ In other words, a different kind of learning is required before someone can be truly trusted with social power and potent things like weapons. If a man does not know the wounds of his own soul, he can deny not just his own pain, but also be unmoved by the suffering of other people. More than that, he will tend to put his wound onto others. He may only be able to see the wound that secretly troubles him when he forcefully projects it into someone else, in forms of abuse or violence…
