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NCL2- Session 5
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10 Replies
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I had a really powerful experience in class tonight when we did the wandering around exercise. I was pulled to a bookshelf upstairs and collected some books I had in mind but discovered one I’d forgotten about. I opened it up randomly to a chapter called “Write Like A Motherfucker” and read the chapter in the time we had. It reminded me that to be a writer I just need to write and write some more. It also reminded me how much I idolize the author, Cheryl Strayed (who also wrote “Wild”). I’d been interested in registering for the International Women’s Summit next weekend in Phoenix because Cheryl and another author I love are speaking there, but it seemed out of reach financially and logistically. After our class ended I researched flights and Airbnbs and booked the trip to the summit. It feels like the next step toward my vision of becoming a women’s empowerment leader. I see myself coaching, writing, guiding women outdoors, and one day standing on stage at an event like the women’s conference. I felt strongly pulled to be there, and the universe gave me some nudges, so I made the leap.
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Hi Liz,
What a wonderful thing your wander brought you to. “Write Like A Motherfucker”, eh? Sounds like you know it as, “Live Like a Motherfucker”. 🙂 I love your vision, your dream, your desire, and your willingness to put the time and energy into yourself to let it all happen. Thank you for sharing, it is a real inspiration to me. I am so glad that I could get on this call, even if it was not at the beginning of our time. I worked hard to get there so that I could see as many of you as possible, and put faces to the names on the forum. Thanks again, Liz, for your post.
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I’m feeling inspired as I read everyone’s comments. I didn’t notice email notifications of your posts this time, so I was surprised to find so many. I really enjoyed the exercises from the last session. I started my timeline in the present and included specific events. As I continued farther into the past, I began to recognize that “lakes” can happen within each area of life rather than as a stopping point in general. Each relationship has been a lake, each course or certification/education program, each job, each home, etc. I liked hearing about and practicing the “pull” in a different way than I’ve used it in past. I’ve been working with that some this week in small ways as I’ve been contemplating decisions. I spent some inspired time identifying parts after having an expanded conversation about what they are/can be. I like the idea that Vision is “right now.” It’s all happening right now, it’s in process, rather than being something that I’m always moving toward.
Over the past few years, I’ve noticed that the things I was really interested in at a young age are now things that I’m stepping into. I see this as an element of Vision. It has always been meant to be. It’s also what excites me and inspires me. I typically find it difficult to articulate and articulate succinctly. The vision I’ve held for so long involves personally connecting with Nature and Soul regularly and living with meaning, purpose and joy and the things that do that for me. Professionally, it’s a wellness center that includes tools and experiences for empowerment, inspiration and growth. Living happy and healthy to do, be and have what we want in life. I feel like I’m still moving in that direction with a variety of experiences that life has to offer.
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Awesome, Liz!! Thanks so much for sharing your experience. I’m excited to see where this takes you! I have found that the Universe celebrates with us when we take those leaps, and conspires with us to help us attract what we need to grow and evolve!! So, hold on to your hat!
What I know about my vision now is that it is something that showed up in it’s early stages a few years ago with a desire to coach people in the world who feel strongly called to transform the existing structures and systems in the world that aren’t working. These systems and structures include our money system, health care, mental health, education, etc. I felt called to work with these people, but it didn’t gain much momentum then. So I put it on the back burner. Now, I am being pulled again to work with them. I know this because they are showing up when I give Akashic Records Readings at holistic fairs. I have even been surprised to find them showing up in the therapy work I am doing as I work to transition into coaching full time. So, instead of doubting that these folks are my ideal client, I’m just realizing the Universe was planting seeds 5 years ago, and now the seeds are growing & I can help them thrive. My work with my EBI coach has helped me realize that I can use my own pain of being so strongly called to do this work and yet not quite having found a way to do it for so many years, as a tool to attract these people. So now, when I feel the pain & frustration of working in the existing system that seems so dysfunctional, I ask “What is the pain teaching me?” rather than “How can I get rid of it?” It is helping me realize I AM on the path, and this is moving me closer to living my vision more fully.
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What do I know about my vision? I really like this question because at first I want to say, “not much”. But then it starts to feel like I know everything, which is somehow pleasantly surprising. I feel that I found EBI in a very random way and just felt an opening around it when I was looking at the relatively small amount of material about the course. In the past when I have felt that way and followed that instinct I have been amazed at what I get involved in. For example, I once started an international humanitarian organization and brought doctors to Siberia Russia to do surgery on the orphans there-combining two medical teams, one from Russia and one from the US-to complete this mission. Along the way I was inadvertently instrumental in helping this area (twice the size of Texas) change a prison for those UNDER 18 years of age (can you imagine a prison for children?) into a rehabilitation center. THAT was all unplanned, unheard of until I created it, and was done from my kitchen table. I did that because I felt the calling to do it and followed that calling even though there was plenty to tell me that I should not be doing that project. And so it has been with EBI. I really have very little understanding from a rational side of me that I should have signed up for EBI. And yet I felt called. Now, I totally doubt that there will be something like the project I did in Russia that comes from my time at EBI, and yet I feel the same sense of drive to complete it. And because of the experience with the Russian project, and a few other things that are similar, I know to not just put those sensations aside. So for awhile, I think I am going with something that feels like faith. Maybe whatever happens this year with EBI has nothing to do with me DOING anything different, but I will be doing it from a different place inside. Maybe it doesn’t even have anything to do with me, personally, but something I say or do or don’t do has a meaningful impact on someone else and they are the ones that create something different in the world in some small part because of what I did or didn’t do. I have no clue at this point. So my vision is to remain connected to whatever is telling me to do this, to go here or go there or do this or do that, and be as open to the experience as possible.
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Liz, I am so excited to hear that you’ve decided to go to the summit! As a former champion of talking myself out of things that initially make me very excited, I can totally relate to your hesitancy to go. But these moments of conquering the doubt (financial and logistical issues) are so empowering and often the pictures we spun up in our heads about what something was going to cost or how we were going to pull it off were so irrational, or at least not as insurmountable as we expected. I think if we all were able to trust the following of that path that pulls at us the most, we’d doubt ourselves and hesitate a whole lot less often. I’m also very jealous because I enjoy Cheryl Strayed’s writing as well!
Lisa, reading your post reminds me a lot of a book I read at the right time last summer called The Surrender Experiment. It’s about surrendering to where life is pulling you and trusting that there is a reason for it. It sounds like you’ve been open to this concept and have seen how it can pay off. Kudos to you for listening to the calling!
Today, I know that my vision revolves around my continued personal growth and my own personal connection to nature. Nature has been my life and sometimes my life source for as long as I can remember back into my childhood. I’ve always appreciated it in my own way, honored, respected it and urged others to do the same as we enjoyed it together. I was initially steered toward EBI because of an advertisement for the coaching program. I saw this and instantly thought “this is perfect for me! I want to be a coach!” And everybody I told about it agreed that there could not be a better fit. Since that time and the weeks I’ve spent in this leadership course, I’ve dialed back the scope a little bit and truly feel that pursuing the course will be equally as beneficial to me personally, whether I end up becoming a coach afterward or not. I’ve honestly been very surprised to see that there is a whole side of nature connection I hadn’t even tapped into before now and it makes me very excited to go deeper. I want to let my experience in the coaching course play out as it should and end up in whatever direction it pulls me in as it progresses. This feels right, down to the soul level. Every day that I go out and practice my sit spot routine and do my partswork activities I am blown away by how much it evolves. I share my experiences with anyone who will listen. Something that gets me this engaged is what is calling me forward. Watching the bricks all fall into place in order for me to pursue this is what calls me forward. I’m learning. I’m learning about something I actually give a whole lot of shits about. And I’m having fun doing it!
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Thank you all for your sharing and your openness as we swim in this lake together. My favorite quote from above, David: “As a former champion of talking myself out of things that initially make me very excited.” I so relate! I am so excited for each of you and the AHA’s you are having on this journey. It has been enlightening to say the least.
Wow, it hurts, a physical ache inside to avoid this work. Haven’t acknowledged that before. I actually have physical issues I am currently dealing with that I clearly see now are due to my fighting moving forward in my vision. This has happened, not just recently but over the years of turning away from what I have been clearly guided to. It just keeps coming back, actually it never left. As my soul told my “fell off track” part; “It’s ok, I’ll be waiting for you when you come back.” Patiently waiting for my parts to get the kicking and screaming, the fear and the rebelliousness out of their system. The work through the growing pains.
What you spend your time on, pour your energy into, is your passion. (Unless you are actively avoiding it, ha!) I tell my kids and pray that they pursue their passions. What lights the fire within them. That, I believe is what God intends for your life, how you have been gifted. I have been struggling, avoiding, and I am realizing how much this nature stuff lights me up. I realized following my last coaching call how my fears are of my light not my darkness. I am shying away from that which makes me powerful. As Marianne Williamson says, there is nothing enlightened about shrinking… giving ourselves permission to shine empowers others to do the same…
I have felt lead for awhile (years) now to coach others to be their best selves, to achieve their telos. How can I possibly guide others on that path if I am not striving to achieve mine for myself? (I suppose in reality I am, just seem to be doing it the hard way!) Knowing the actions to take and taking them are not the same thing. More than that, digging deeper through this work is taking me to a level of knowing myself that I realize I am just scratching the surface of possibilities. What I thought of being my best self by eating right, exercising, making natural and healthy choices, in mind, body and spirit, mental and emotional health care, etc. Now feels very surface level compared to this soul-directed living. I see that when you enter to that depth, that connection, the rest falls into place.
Knew a spiritual side of coaching was missing for me. Desired to bring people to this place of true connection with creator – soul. A place of peace, where clarity is found. Oneness yet, uniqueness. One with all and still a very unique space to fill. Self discovery through nature connected coaching. Telos living through soul-direction.
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Hello Sheri, David, Tamara, and Liz, — I am reading through our posts this morning and feel so inspired and so grateful to see your words and feel the connection of kindred souls. I am appreciating how hard it is sometimes to be on the edges of the ways we have been initially trained to think of ourselves and the world and of possibilities. Many thanks to each of you this morning for making my day.
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Hi All!
Liz, I live in Tucson and was really wanting to go to the Summit in Phoenix too but was unable to get out of work! I hope you had a wonderful time. I love that feeling of “knowing” something so strongly that it is unavoidable, and usually then things come together in just the right way for it to happen for us. This kind of synchronicity is what I think makes life worth living sometimes. It is an incredible, inspiring and elated feeling.
On the topic of Vision, I will say that I have come a long way since the start of this course in learning to see my own Vision in new and deeper ways. I don’t know if I actually even used that word or concept before, because it feels kind of amorphous and I tend to want to pull things down into clear and defined concepts. I’m learning to let that go. I have started thinking of my own Vision as something like a “Genius”, which is not really the societal concept of being “extremely intelligent”, but more like a wonderful gift, and presence, which is completely unique and personal for each of us. It is within us but also more than us. The Romans coined this word and believed each person to have a benevolent guiding “spirit” that tends to us and leads us. This is what Vision feels like to me. A guiding presence that directs thoughts internally, and action externally, with the purpose of bringing my unique contributions to my community and the world. I can’t imaging where else this impetus and impulse would come from. I like thinking of Vision this way.
I feel my vision is to nurture with nature. I feel compelled to share plant medicine and teach others how to build relationship to Nature, because it is integral to our caring for it, and ourselves. My vision is to lead others to feel what I have felt in connection with “other”; the elements, and all living things surrounding us. I started a business called “Hearts&Bones” when I first connected to my Vision while on a hike years ago, and have never felt more inspired. Tending to this, what I now recognize as Vision, turned out to be more challenging. But having learned new tools, I feel reinvigorated on the importance of doing so. -
Love “nurture with nature”, Ash, sounds like a great mission statement. Perfect for a t-shirt! Plus your comments about synchronicity – so true – that is how I feel when living in my flow. Everything falls into place as it should. Thanks for sharing, your excitement and energy come through your writing and I feel invigorated too.
I listened to a PodCast this morning on: New Research on Leadership Coaching
Not sure if that attempt at inserting the link will work. It was a good listen to. Positive feedback on Leadership Coaching and Self-Leadership. Let me know if you need the link in a different format.
