Hello, dear ones,
yes, there is something to celebrate!
On July 13th, I completed my Wayfinder Life Coaching training with US Coach Martha Beck.
What came into my life as a spontaneous decision on a rainy October day in 2021 has kept me going for 9 months.
Can I tell you a little bit about it?
As most of you know I was already a passionate Focusing Coach at that point. And don't worry, I still am. I found a perfect match in Martha Beck's teachings of Wayfinder Coaching. Initially, I struggled with the word Life Coach because - well, it appears to be so undefined and wildly used, and somehow didn't want to belong to that unspecific group. Martha changed that (and I say a friendly "sorry" to all my professional colleagues).
So now I am a Wayfinder Life Coach. And a Focusing Coach.
Wayfinder is a term Martha borrowed from anthropologist Wade Davis, who did research on the Polynesian seafarers, the Wayfinders. These brave seafarers - without any instruments - are able to cross oceans. They read what is available to them: Swell, wind, the paths of birds and fish, the color of the water, and the sky. It's about intuition and the art of trusting it.
Martha teaches us coaches to use this intuition with our clients. She talks about finding our inner North Star so that our outer goals match our inner goals. Only then can we make essential life choices that truly come from our true nature and not just conform to the expectations of others.
We celebrate our body as our inner compass!
Each body has its own way of communicating: one speaks in pictures, the other in words. When the client's face suddenly lights up, the pool of inner knowing has been tapped. Both Focusing and Wayfinder Coaching assume that the client does not need to be taught, but only needs assistance in finding access to his or her very own deep knowledge.
Martha speaks of our time as a wild new time, of changes happening so fast that we no longer speak of an exponential curve of change but a vertical one. And no one can know where this will take us. We're seeing it live: Corona is still lurching through our ranks and has brought many changes. Most importantly, we have learned how fast things can change! Worldwide.
What we haven't learned as well is that we don't need to be afraid of change. It just wants to be navigated properly, to be kept moving instead of stagnating into gridlock.
For many people radical change in the social environment is difficult. The big, wide social web is taking up more and more space. We have access to information always and everywhere, even to information that may not be good - not even important - for our dear souls: Catastrophes here and there, bad predictions in all shades. This generates and promotes anxiety. Martha sees the enormous rise in anxiety symptoms as the reason for the growing need for coaching. Unlike therapy, coaching doesn't work with rehashing the past; it's about clearing the path from the here and now to a brilliant future.
Wayfinder coaches help to find orientation. The collaboration is partnership-based, co-creative, and brings out what the client already knows latently, but cannot yet see in all clarity.
This is how the ICF (International Coaching Federation) sees it. After celebrating, this will be my next challenge: the exam for the ICF certification as a life coach.
A lot has changed in the last 9 months. For example, I now only work as an online coach, which initially had practical reasons, because Martha's classes are international. My fellow coaching students are located all over the world and the lessons were accordingly in English. That's only possible online. And I'm sticking with it: many of my clients now come from distant parts of the world and I'm super happy with that.
I also celebrate my own change!
After many, many coaching sessions (also) in the role of the client, I have learned that I am an HSP, a Highly Sensitive Person. This is not an overly sensible or high-strung person, but someone whose brain receives information differently from birth: unfiltered via the right hemisphere of the brain and it falls directly into the emotional realm. The filters of the left brain hemisphere do not come into play. Because of this minor issues can become deeply troublesome. This is only a minimal description of a peculiarity that distinguishes us, but at the same time makes us highly intuitive people. One has to relearn oneself. I had the opportunity to do this, took advantage of it, and will incorporate this experience into my coaching focus.
To celebrate, I'm giving you, dear readers of my blog, a gift certificate for half an hour of Wayfinder Coaching.
Offer limited: the first 10 sign-ups win, until August 5th. After that, the offer is not valid.
See you here HERE
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It feels great to have made it!
Thank you to my teachers, my fellow students, and my clients!
Best regards,
Birgit
Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator
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