Stacy Prater-Vigil
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Module 3, Lesson 2. Stacy Prater-Vigil 7/1/2020
Map out a plan for one of your clients that shows how you might work with them over 6 month period:
Client X- Single parent, wants to increase her finances to support her children after losing her job to during Covid-19.
Client has begun to contemplate that her life is not working the way she needs or wants it to. She needs to make money, is confused about next steps and this pattern of not knowing what steps to take or being confused is all too familiar to her.
As her Nature Coach I would initiate Ceremony, Release Breath and Wander to acknowledge where she’s at and where she wants to be and that the in-between “stuff” is currently a mystery. Initiating release breath would support her in getting present and start practicing that she can access that release at any time moving forward. The Ceremony would acknowledge where she’s at and honor her present situation and her presence in the process. The Wander would have a set intention potentially, an intention of clarity and confidence. There would be guidance and support during the Wander for things to possibly get hazy before becoming clear and reveal themselves to her. After the wander, we can identify some of her current programming and access some of her emotions that were activated. This guidance, will allow her to move forward in her transformation to new programming and open up some ideas to increase her finances.
All through-out her 6 months with me as her Nature Coach I would always practice Deep Listening and Sacred Questions. I would also initiate a check-in, or maintenance session every month so that she could keep her new programming alive! -
Guiding Another. Experience Reflection 6/22/2020.
“Reflect on your guiding experience, how did the process go? What did you learn?”My client has a mother who has dementia and has just moved in to my client’s home. It has been a disrupting, frustrating time for my client.
She went on a wander to find some answers to how to cope with her mom.
It was tough to get her to one statement about what she wanted from the wander. There was so much going on in her brain and coming out her mouth.
We sat under an oak tree and I gave her space to let it all spill out. Earth takes it all. After she let all the things out that were bothering her about her mom, I guided her back to coming up with one sentence. She had a tough time with reframing what she wanted NOT what she DIDNT want. After her one statement intention, there seemed to be a great shift to my client and to me as the energy shifted to more expansive.
She wandered with me next to her, we utilized the 7 breaths and she said that the wildflowers were talking to her. Using open ended questions, she went deeper into her connection with nature, each step seemed to create more peace for her.
She remembered some tools from Landmark Worldwide that helped her to detach or sever herself from the experience she was having with mom. What she finally got to was, She was making herself RIGHT (self righteousness) and making her mom WRONG for being so forgetful. She said she could see herself and her mom as a wildflower, one not being “more right” than another one, she felt there was space for some compassion for her mom and she felt freedom for herself to not be bogged down by anxiety and frustration.
This was exactly what her two intentions were at the start of the wander! I learned to continue to stay in a place of curiosity, keep breathing, don’t try to sway the outcome and trust the process.
Rumi has a quote, “Out beyond the idea of wrong doing and right doing, there is a field, I’ll meet you there.” -
Module 2, lesson 2. Stacy Prater-Vigil
In this session what I really connected to was The Deep Listening. It correlates with a book I’m reading from Michael Bungay-Stanier-called, The Advice Trap. It’s all about listening, and practicing refraining from offering advice or one’s own interpretation. I like what Michael Joseph said about the ebb and flow of clarity then questions, clarity then questions. It also correlates with my writing from last week the allowing and the action…the ebb and flow.
This also brings to mind the ebb and flow of the natural order of things. When I am super inspired or happy I know that it will eventually subside into a more reflective, darker mood.
In allowing or giving space to this tide, we can allow a bigger world to exist within and without ourselves. When I practiced deep listening with a client this week, I noticed all the times I wanted to interject with my own perceptions, opinions, feedback, etc. Refraining and going back to deep listening, staying curious and BREATHING…there was SO MUCH SPACE for real problem solving from the clients own wisdom, not mine! There was a time when I felt scared that wasn’t doing enough for that client so I bravely asked if they were interested in my feedback. Of course they said yes and we got to move forward, deeper into the “issue”.
I used my own nature connection by remembering to use my soft vision, or my soft listening, like not trying too hard but just “BE” in the presence of GREAT NATURE!
I also have the Sacred Questions posted on my coaching works space and they are indeed sacred to aways use as an anchor to move things forward, especially used in synchronicity with DEEP LISTENING. -
Stacy Prater-Vigil. Module 2. Lesson 1
I started my WANDER with an intention and quickly slipped into an ease with what was so. I allowed my vision to soften and it soothed me into “oneness.” My intention gurgled in the background…What are some next steps for my coaching career? As I looked around at all the weeds that “needed” to be pulled, the word, “ALLOW” showed up. Without judgement, I continued on my wander and felt like I went deeper and deeper into myself which was outside myself and was really everything I was looking at. In front of me, a bee buzzed towards the giant sunflower I had started from a seed only weeks before. ASI maintained my soft vision and did a few release breaths, I wanted the Bee to “be” there but I didn’t want to hyper-focus on it. I wanted to continue to allow it to show me what it wanted to show me… after what seemed like hours of watching it (in reality maybe five minutes), I recieved some clarity.
The wander was about allowing answers to my question of next steps for my coaching business – What I clearly got was, allow it to take action. So I am taking action in sharing what I do with authenticity and grace, working on my website when I can, and then allowing that action, or that energy to percolate around me, in the universe, I allow the Action to do its work. With that dynamic happening- I have gotten two new, coaching clients in the past few weeks!
I also chose to take action by donating my services to two people for the rest of the year who in the black community, and are looking for long term coaching and are challenged financially. That is what came out of the wander and I am grateful. -
Mod 1, Lesson 2
What did I notice? What does that show me? What does that teach me?I noticed that underneath the initial peace and quiet of my daily Sit Spot,there was some agitation and/or anger at ANYTHING that disrupted my peace. Haha, this is a great insight for me because it showed me how I’m always searching for “just the right spot” that has just the right sounds, etc. This showed me that I can ALLOW all sounds into my awareness even the ones that perturb me. As I practice more consciously, and allow my awareness to expand, then there is enough space to allow those sounds and or disruptions to co-exist with me and we are in it together.
The next time I did the Objective Awareness exercise including the Release Breath, I had great sorrow arrive. Sorrow and pain for habitat destruction, planetary pollution, Political greed, etc. This sorrow is nothing new to me but when allowing it to be there in conjunction with the release breath, it allowed me to just be with the sorrow and breathe with it, again, allow it. In allowing it, there was a natural release. The divine paradox yet again!! -
Module 1, Lesson 1- Nature Connection
Stacy Prater-Vigil 4/2020
Nature connection for me is a way to align with pure possibility like a seed, like stars, like an old oak standing still, almost stopped in time. Everything is possible in nature. I like what Mike said in our opening call, that everything is made up from something that is from nature. Of course, many things morph into things that don’t look “natural” but at its core IS nature. Some people SEEM so far removed from nature and others do not. I think it’s always a choice. I am always at choice to be in connection with the primordial creation, uncertainty, mystery, sounds, rhythms of the natural world or not. The ABILITY to connect and how deep becomes MY PRACTICE. My practice is personal AND connected to something greater than myself, that sweet paradox that IS life.
I loved living and working in the cedar filled mountains outside of Kyoto, Japan. I hiked alone, among the cedar trees everyday, managing some of their growth systems. I deepened my learning of how to shift my energy to a receptive or connective space instead of a dominance stance and the trees “told” me where to go next, which tree to give my attention to. In that receptive space, many times the “energy” would be so great that I would get sleepy. In that sleepy space, the forest floor would be my bed, and the leaves , sticks, and soft delicious smelling duff would be my pillow. My dreams were my medicine, my dreams would guide me deeper into unknown consciousness, into the deeper realms of mystery. I accessed my version of the nothingness that is the fodder for all creation. After waking, there would always be some sort of “gift” or “proof” that the dreams were real for me, my greater awareness expanded.
Accessing that space is a state I often get to sitting in quiet contemplation next to rustling aspens or a crinkling creek. I believe everyone has their own “source” and I, as a “guide” cannot define what that is for another human being but can guide and support people finding their own way….to their own nature connection. A challenge I may have in accessing my greater connection, is taking the time to do it, to choose it. Sometimes I get lost in the busy thoughts and actions of our society and I forget to consciously connect to my Nature Energy. This is where it becomes my commitment (or not) to My Practice. A practice that nourishes me, that is always available, is sustaining, and the more I practice, the more it grows from within and connects with all life. Spider Medicine becomes part of my practice. -
Hello all-
I am Stacy Prater-Vigil and I am an environmental educator and a certified coach through IPEC. Until recently, I was teaching special education for students who have Autism, or were are developmentally disabled or vision impaired. My husband and I have just moved to San Diego after living in Nevada City, California for the last 12 years. I am currently employed at Ocean Discovery Institute as an instructor. I am looking to lead retreats at my friends’ retreat center where we can contribute to making a difference on the planet by helping others to connect with our natural world. I look forward to getting to know my classmates.