About Me…and You
I came to wayfinder coaching after many years of working on computer projects. However, I was not a programmer. I have always been a bridge. Between business people and technical people. Between complexity and people who are looking to understand their options. People who are trying to find and recognize the path to a particular result. I’ve always landed in the roles of “translator” and “advisor.”
Throughout my life, I have been very interested in what I call “the internal subjective experience.” What I mean by this is: what is the experience of being a human being on this planet? How do people differ in their experiences of life? What is the same across many, many people? Behind everything I’ve done, this has been my real mission. It is a song that sings to me behind everything. I’m always hearing a bit of it, and heading out to explore this. Explorer.
In the meantime, I’ve had problems to solve in my own life, of course. How to deal with overwhelming experiences? How to be true to myself? How to make decisions that benefit my whole self? How to build what I want, when I don’t have an example of someone who has done what I want to do? Recovering from common injuries that many people have to navigate, which may take many months. How to deal with my many interests? Human.
When I encountered wayfinder coach Martha Beck’s books, and started applying the tools in them, I found they worked for me. This really accelerated in 2012, with the publishing of Martha’s book Finding Your Way in a Wild New World, and later, with the course I took on it. I learned how to make big and small decisions that were in my overall best interest. I no longer felt like I was selling out one part of myself to meet my goals. I learned how to consistently tune into my own inner guidance, and to act on it. I already knew how to question my assumptions and interrupt habits I wanted to change, but Martha’s tools were a little more succinct, and more effective. I started to visit peace regularly. Not every minute. But I could get back there, reliably. In mid-2015, I decided to take Martha Beck’s coach training. I met more people who apply these tools, and we helped each other learn and become more proficient in them. Wayfinder.
The very best part of life coaching in this style is that I facilitate YOU getting in touch with YOUR guidance. The guidance coming from your thoughts, your body and your emotions. To be in the presence of a client connecting with their own guidance is, in a word, amazing. During coach training, I wrote this to try and describe what it’s like:
I have reserved an expansive space on a cloud in the Everywhen for an hour, where you can better hear yourself, and better feel the gathering threads of reality. Can you see yourself there? I see you, hearing your own messages, sigh with relief when they cease pulling on your sleeve at the edge of your awareness. Then, I see you standing in the doorway, blazing in light and energy, turn once more, towards life.
Further, when I was trained, we were taught ways to approach the selection of our next action. There is a sequence that I have found very helpful:
- Set your intention.
- Give it your attention (work and figure things out as you can ).
- Let go, and do the next inspired action. Especially if it is playful.
When I set the intention to do wayfinder coaching, when I got to step 3, I was inspired to lead Stillness walks, walks in nature, and to take people to farms. I started to experiment with these joyful activities. Here’s something I wrote when I was playing with this inspiration:
I will find the places where nature obtains (prevails). I will lead people into nature, where it will have its affect on them. I will model the energy I was initiated into: deep overwhelming love poured and through everything, delighting and saturating the senses. I will serve those whose hearts and bodies and noses yearn for a nature home. And those who yearn for a farm home. This will un-do them and release them.
So, these are the ways I am prepared to serve. Inspired.
About You
Are you, perhaps, in a word, frustrated? Do you wonder what words you would put at the end of YOUR paragraphs?
I do. I am curious about you.
I want to know how you learn. What are you trying to express that feels thwarted? What does your reason turn you towards, that your inner knowing keeps turning you away from? Are you dismayed that you just aren’t doing what you are supposed to be doing? Why can’t you just DO it?!
Or perhaps there is just so much going on in your life (or in your mind), that you are not sure which impulse you should act on? Maybe you feel you’ve waited too long to make a change, and you are afraid you don’t have the energy any more?
I have been to those places, and returned. I’ve been over those hills; I’ve scouted that territory.
Read on, for the hills I can help you navigate…