I have visions of me sitting in a boat trying to see the fish in the water. I need to eat to survive but I can’t catch anything… nor can I see where to try. In comes a calming force. A force that settles my thrashing attempts. Before I know it the waters around my boat start to calm, the ripples and chop gives way. Amidst this moment of stillness, I can now see through the crystal waters below. My focus can now be channeled, my lines appropriately cast….
Life Coaching…. 101.
I reached a point in my life where I knew that if I didn’t start doing something I was going to come apart at my own already straining seams. Life Coaching with Karen was suggested. I agreed to give it a ‘try.’
I had no idea what to expect. At first I thought it was some form of glorified Psychotherapy…(Hmm, not really going to be into this. My mind was set.) Then actual panic set in when I realized it was to address the building blocks and foundation of my ‘happening’ life. (Good Lord, do I really have to address this?! Air my laundry, disclose my flaws? Do I really have to share my private chaos?!) I struggled with my own ability to get in the room and lay my ‘stuff’ out… but I, at last, did.
What I found interesting with Life Coaching was this……me.
Rather than sink back in to the depths of the years, Karen and I floated… and sorted… and navigate obstacles… and organized… and addressed… the here and now, the surface. It was as if all my years of ‘stuff’ had formed a shell over me… like the shell that is formed over molten lava -all it does is create more heat and a more volatile pending situation. Not until you crack that shell can the steam be let off… and better to crack the shell in calculated areas, where you can control it… as opposed to it happening via a massive explosion.
Funny things began to happen as I sat thru my sessions. Yes, my ‘old junk’ came floating up – but Karen kept me from falling into the pit of its grip. Lo, no more paralyzing stagnation. I had moments of shear tearful panic, “I can’t do this! It’s too much!!” Karen brought a calming presence -or maybe more appropriately for this time of year, a present – to the moment. Rather than continuing to be caught up in my whirlwind of ‘stuff,’ the extra pair of fresh eyes and the clear, calm approach put me on a viable path to address all areas of my ‘Me’ that were stuck. Karen turned out to be my well needed ‘kick in the pants.’
What surprised me more, was the further I -we – worked thru the top layers -of my self-fabricated onion – the faster the changes and addressing happened. The more I got done, the more clear I was… back and forth this see-saw goes, and continues to go! This is truly a ‘Don’t give a man a fish… Teach him how to fish’ scenario. Though she was guiding me, it was me making the flowchart of steps to take. Go figure, I had it in me all along?!
Even when Karen is not around -though with trepidation I will admit I still hear her in my head I am more able to come up with workable, viable plans. I now hear myself saying, “I can do this.” Maybe it’s just that I had a helping hand getting thru the worst of it… maybe.
I still schedule my Life Coaching sessions. So much for ‘I’ll just give it a try…’ My lone strides can’t compete with the strides I take following a session with Karen. I walk out ‘Seeing the Forest from the Trees’ …and because of that, the time it normally took to address whatever is significantly cut down to a manageable, doable feat.
I am much further than I was months ago. Yeah for me. Rather than dreading what is to come, I am now so excited to see where I am going. That, in itself, is huge!
Nancy Lopez
Massage Therapist & Human Bodies Workshop Trainer
www.humankneads.com
