Category: Article
Somatics Were Key to My Healing
I heard the word Somatics for the first time during the Professional Coaching Course. Every day after lunch, our group would reconvene for fifteen minutes of dancing before starting the afternoon session. It seemed to me that everyone else looked forward to this part of the afternoon – whether they could move with abandon or…
To Love This Much
I never wanted to love this way. The way in which the heart is wide open and you can feel the rawness of the flesh be touched by the gentle breeze of the morning. I never wanted to love this way. The way in which my heart worries about the wounded coyote I saw this…
Midlife, COVID-19 and Climate Change Crises: What Are We Learning?
Jett Psaris, PhD has written the most beautiful book I know about midlife crisis: Hidden Blessings: Midlife Crisis as A Spiritual Awakening. It is a book I recommend often to clients needing guidance in that stage of life. In it she writes: “Some experience their entry points into midlife as maximally disturbing, with overwhelming levels…
I ➙ We ➙ It: Integral Coaching in Corporate Leadership
This is a case study of an Integral Coaching program that my company, Praxsys Leadership, introduced into a mid-sized construction company. When we began our work together, the leadership team consisted of a half-dozen directors, each managing their individual functions in a siloed fashion. There was little collaboration and even less trust among the leaders.…
The Deeper Invitation in the Story of the Empty Boat
Like the Taoist Farmer story, the story of the Empty Boat is often used by coaches to help their clients gain perspective. Here’s a short version: A fisherman is on the water at dusk with poor visibility. He sees a boat coming right towards him and starts getting frantic and yelling for the fisherman steering…
Autumn’s Concerto
First Movement: Reminiscence The avenues were lined with gold, and the cobbled pavement, buried in brilliant scarlet. Poetically, that would have been how I’d like to describe the scene. Spending my third fall in the US and that clichéd touristy image of fall with its rich amber maple trees remains a fantasy. One reason was…
Shaping Our Presence to Be More Supportive
This article was originally published on the Mindful Leader Blog in June of 2020. In these days of heightened anxiety and insecurity, many of us are drawn to be a safe and reassuring space for those who are in crisis and afraid. And, when we’re in that often unavoidable place ourselves, we’re grateful to the…
Chatting with Your Inner Critic
In a recent post on my blog, I offered some thoughts on how shifting mindset from a place of fear to possibility can help during challenging moments. It certainly helps to approach change and uncertainty with an expansive, adventurous mindset, but doing so doesn’t mean that we pretend we’re not scared. In her book Big…
Sitting in Squares
I now meditate every morning in a little square, my green meditation cushions backed up against the wall under some forest photos my aunt took. I’m the first up in my house, save for the cat playing with my feet. The same friends I meditated with at work meditate, plus some new people. Now we…
In Our Eyes
I had been staying with my mom for a month, nursing her 98-year-old body back to a relative state of health after a downturn. I am not sure what really happened prior to me getting there, but I think she had kind of thrown in the towel. For almost every moment of her life, she…
Balancing Ourselves Using the Six Streams of Competence
This post was originally published on the Mindful Leader blog in April 2020. In these times of massive change and disruption, many of us are looking inward to see how we can be of greater support to our communities and the world. Integral Coaching, which is a sustainable, self-generating framework for developing ourselves and others,…
Our Commitment to Anti-Racism
Dear friends, We live in a society plagued by injustice. The past several days have shone a bright spotlight on just how insidious, systemic, historical, evil and dehumanizing many of these injustices are for the black community. As an organization whose purpose is the flourishing of life, we stand for the flourishing of black lives.…
Turning Toward Sorrow
In the midst of all the suffering that our world is feeling—with the current events in the United States that reveal clearly the ways in which our communities of color continue to suffer directly from discrimination and oppression, while we continue to be in the middle of a pandemic that has people fear not only…
A Call to Heal Together
“Hope is not the conviction that something will turn out well, but the certainty that something is worth doing no matter how it turns out.” —Václav Havel, Czech leader Our country is hurting, and it has been for a long time. It is just now with the demonstrations that have given voice to the desperation…
Self-Leadership in Unprecedented Times
In the last months, our worlds as we knew them have shifted and changed, and we are all making sense in our own way. To quote a friend: “The challenge is to find a balance between being pollyanna-ish and alarmist”. As I participate in conversations with different groups – coaching community, executives, leaders, global and…
When Productivity Takes a Backseat to Survival
Since early February, we’ve all been dealing with extreme stress and uncertainty. No one knows how the pandemic will affect them in the short or long term. The virus can feel simultaneously very far away and right at our doorstep. You may be worried about money or toilet paper or what will happen if someone…
What We’re Finding Out About the Virtual Learning Space
As we have been doing more and more programs online, we’ve been learning that there is value in both online and in-person programs. The virtual space is bringing some unexpected gifts to our teaching that is actually deepening the experience of our students in ways that have been surprising and enlivening. There is a particular…
To See Together
The morning asked today If I will still remember her After the virus is gone. The sparrows’ chirps Whose audience I’ve served Expressed the same concern. Eyes that meet six feet Apart on late day walks Seem to ask that too. So I check the Latin roots for Covid: Co means together Vid – to…
The Interruption Opportunity
As the coronavirus is wreaking havoc with our lives, I have been reflecting on what opportunities can be found in this tumultuous time. One powerful idea from my Integral Coach training is the value of an interruption. When we are living our normal lives, we are adapted to our current routines. We don’t see a…
Sitting
A wrap around desk takes up at least three quarters of the room. We each sit some distance away from it on stacked meditation cushions, one of us on one side, one on the other, and two against an adjacent wall. There are enough of us that it is the desk, and not the meditation…