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CONTENTS
1) High Heels to Flip
Flops
2) Living from the
Inside-Out
3)
Quotable quotes
HIGH HEELS
TO FLIP FLOPS
It’s official: the High Heels to Flip flops retreat
(aka HH2FF) is all set for take off! I am incredibly blessed and excited to be
working with my amazing friend and coaching partner, Anna Stowers. Since we
first met at our coaching training program in Vancouver two summers ago, we
realized there was a magical complicity at work (and especially at
play!). Here then is the first of what we intend to be a long list of
joyfully inspired collaborative offerings.
HH2FF
is an exclusive 4-day Coaching Retreat for discerning women who want more from
life; it is a kick-off and kick-back strategy for well-heeled mid-life
professional women who want to lighten up and liven things up!
Limited to only 10 participants to allow personal one-to-one
attention from Anna and myself, the retreat will take place from July
22-25, 2010 at the beautiful Serenita Spa in the enchanting countryside of
Quebec, Canada. It will be an exhilarating chance to challenge one’s personal
status quo, to look at the big picture with a renewed vision, and to access
deep inner resources leading to less stress and more joy.
Four daily sessions of workshops providing self-coaching
tools will be balanced with exquisite healthy food and time for reflection and
play in a beautiful natural spa setting at the edge of a lake. For further
details, daily timetable and program offerings, please check out our blog at http://highheelstoflipflops.wordpress.com/ And be sure to
subscribe or return to it regularly, as there are updates many times a week.
While you’re at it, we invite you to join in the fun and vote for us on “The
Best Coaching Blog” contest: http://www.schoolofcoachingmastery.com/best-coaching-blogs-2010/
In addition, Anna and I will also be offering a 2-day
program in Montreal entitled “Coaching Mastery for Leadership”. This
workshop will follow the four-quadrant outline of HH2FF, that is: Inspiration,
Implementation, Integration and Celebration. The workshop will be held on
July 19-20, 2010 at the Padua Centre for Urban Spirituality, and will be
offered without charge. Voluntary donations will go towards the inner city
Padua Centre and its Black Youth Leadership program. Registration is limited to
30 participants, so be sure to reserve your spot in advance. We are pleased to
be offering this pro bono workshop as a way to live out our value of sharing
with the community (while still being true to our other deep values: teamwork
and having fun while continually learning!).
If you or anyone you know of anyone who fits the portrait as
an ideal client for HH2FF or “Coaching Mastery for Leadership”, please do them
the favour of passing this link along:http://highheelstoflipflops.wordpress.com/upcoming-events/. I look forward to
hearing your feedback, comments and suggestions … and to making this a
life-enriching experience for all!
LIVING
FROM THE INSIDE-OUT
“Inside-out” or “outside-in”? What comes to mind as you
relate these words to ways of living your life? I would dare suggest that
“outside-in living” is actually upside-down living, and that “inside-out”
living can turn this way of thinking on its head!
Our society presents a linear model of living from the
“outside-in”: that is, the events that happen to us are considered to be
responsible for dictating how we feel. You know the reasoning: “I'll be happy /
secure / peaceful / OK when ...”. Fill in the blanks – it’s about doing
or having something in the outside world. And as soon as that situation has
been reached, other criteria inevitable arise to further delay attaining our
inner goals. In other words, “outside-in” puts us at the mercy of events rather
than being an active player in our own lives. And what is most important to
notice is that we end up responding not to the events themselves, but to our thoughts
about them.
Thought then is the origin of feeling; it is the vehicle by
which we create our individual experience of life. Just as a group of witnesses
will all have slightly different perceptions of the same event, a variety of
viewpoints exists depending upon how our thinking processes the event. With the
“outside-in” model of the world, there is an unarticulated sense of needing
something from the outside world in order to be well or to experience abundant
life.
Contrast this with the belief that happiness and wellbeing
are our natural way of being – that they exist independently of external
circumstances. What gets in the way of this clarity is in fact nothing more
than our thoughts. Like clouds passing in front of the sun and masking its
brilliance, our thoughts obscure our inner light without erasing its existence.
As the old Zen poem states:
“The mind is a clear blue sky.
Thoughts come and go, like clouds in a windy sky;
but the mind is a clear blue sky”.
With the “inside-out” model, there is a sense of peace, a
connection with our own inner wisdom and deepest resourcefulness. There is an awareness
and an innate trust that our well-being depends upon being who
we really are. This understanding recalibrates the elements of doing, having
and being, so that being flows into doing which results in having.
There is still a desire to accomplish certain things, but only those goals that
are driven by deep values are motivating. This is why in a coaching
relationship there is such great focus on defining one’s core values, and
realigning one’s actions and priorities accordingly. And most importantly,
there comes the awareness that one’s inner security is not dependent on the
success of reaching any outside goal … We no longer run after peace and
happiness; we simply make space and allow them to exist in us.
“Be yourself. Life is precious as it is.
All the elements for
your happiness are already here.
There is no need to run, strive, search, or struggle.
Just be.”
Thich Nhat Hanh
Making the decision to become more in touch with living from
the “inside-out” is an all-important first step. Once this has been done, how
will you structure your life to support this decision and build in momentum?
Perhaps it’s time to consider partnering with a certified professional Life Coach
who understands the importance of your goal…
QUOTABLE QUOTES
Creating from the inside out turns everything around,
awakening an ever-expanded awareness of our true nature and its capacities, all
the while inviting the heart to open more and more fully.
-- Jean-Marie Hamel
The
“Inside-Out'' approach to
personal and interpersonal effectiveness means to start first with self; even
more fundamentally, to start with the most inside part of self - with
your paradigms, your character, and your motives. The inside-out approach says that private victories precede public
victories, that making and keeping promises to ourselves precedes making and
keeping promises to others. It says it is futile to put personality ahead of
character, to try to improve relationships with others before improving
ourselves.
-- Steven Covey
Your vision will become clear only when you look into your heart. Who looks
outside, dreams. Who looks inside,
awakens.
-- Carl Jung
When we are alone on a starlit night, when by chance we see the migrating birds
in autumn descending on a grove of junipers to rest and eat; when we see
children in a moment when they are really children, when we know love in our
own hearts; or when, like the Japanese poet, Basho, we hear an old frog land in
a quiet pond with a solitary splash--at such times the awakening, the turning
inside out of all values, the "newness", the emptiness and the purity
of vision that make themselves evident, all these provide a glimpse of the
cosmic dance.
-- Thomas Merton
If you want significant and lasting change in your life, you've got to (…)
start living inside out. Define what you want in life. Write it down. Get clear
about it. Get serious about what you want in life, otherwise you're just
wasting time. There is so much to be, do, and have, but if all you can see is
what's out there (and you don't like what you see) nothing's going to change
for you. Ever.
-- Laurie Bren
Life
is formed from the inside out. What I am inside determines the issues in the
battle of
life.
-- Dr. William Hornaday
