I just spent two weeks in a place of disconnection. Perhaps some of it was recovery time, after an emotionally intense CTI training weekend called Synergy. I hadn’t expected to be emotionally walloped at the last in the series of five weekends, and perhaps that is exactly why I was walloped. But for two weeks after re-entry into my normal life of packing school lunches and helping with homework, I felt like I had no ability to conjure up a sense of awareness or connection to myself. I felt connected in my relationships with family and friends, but I felt like my inner landscape had dried up. I would sit down to write in my journal and no words would come. I would take out markers and have no desire to put color to paper. Emotionally, I was not able to be present with myself and my inner experiences. And even though I could recognize it intellectually, the sense of disconnection persisted.
Yesterday, I put on my R. Carlos Nakai Pandora station. The peaceful sounds of Native American flute music began to wash over me. His soft, spacious flute sounds began to anchor me to a place of presence, a moment of grounded awareness and gentleness. I had planned to sit and meditate for a short while. But as soon as I walked over to the cushion, I felt an intense yearning to reach out my arms and stretch. Thus began twenty minutes of movement and stretching. It wasn’t exactly yoga and it wasn’t exactly Tai Chi, but it was authentic movement of opening my body. I listened to what my body needed in that moment. Arms reaching up, then out, chest open, and a deep breath, making room for another stretch and another breath. And so it went.
Stretching my body means stretching my soul. Letting air and light touch those places that have been holding tightly, both physically and emotionally. It was a delightful mix of stretch and surrender. I found myself energized and grounded in the same experience.
I few weeks back I wrote about Coaching as a Yoga Practice. And now I have the inside out version of that: Yoga as a Coaching Practice. Since that twenty minutes of movement and stretching yesterday, I have been alive to myself again. Ready for exploration, hungry for possibility and growth. It seems yoga is my newest coaching practice.
Yesterday, I put on my R. Carlos Nakai Pandora station. The peaceful sounds of Native American flute music began to wash over me. His soft, spacious flute sounds began to anchor me to a place of presence, a moment of grounded awareness and gentleness. I had planned to sit and meditate for a short while. But as soon as I walked over to the cushion, I felt an intense yearning to reach out my arms and stretch. Thus began twenty minutes of movement and stretching. It wasn’t exactly yoga and it wasn’t exactly Tai Chi, but it was authentic movement of opening my body. I listened to what my body needed in that moment. Arms reaching up, then out, chest open, and a deep breath, making room for another stretch and another breath. And so it went.
Stretching my body means stretching my soul. Letting air and light touch those places that have been holding tightly, both physically and emotionally. It was a delightful mix of stretch and surrender. I found myself energized and grounded in the same experience.
I few weeks back I wrote about Coaching as a Yoga Practice. And now I have the inside out version of that: Yoga as a Coaching Practice. Since that twenty minutes of movement and stretching yesterday, I have been alive to myself again. Ready for exploration, hungry for possibility and growth. It seems yoga is my newest coaching practice.
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