Moving Through Change

“A path is a way of making sense of the world”

~ Robert Moor, from On Trails

I have been reading Robert Moor’s On Trails and have been struck by his exploration of the fundamental nature of the “trail” in human experience.

There have been many times in my life when I felt I was setting out into an unknown landscape without much in the way of a trail to follow – floundering in what Moor might call an “oceanic” kind of freedom, rather than the “riverine” freedom offered by a trail. Those trail-less times heralded times of enormous change for me. They were often difficult, and I did not always rise to the challenge offered me. But when I did, when I allowed myself to stand in that uncertainty, to really look at what was around me, and to listen for the whispers of guidance available when I was still – the tiny deer tracks that could help me make sense of the ground beneath my feet as I felt my way toward a new relationship with the world – I was invited to transform. I came to know myself, and the world I love, better, and I stepped more deeply into my own gifts.

One of those trail-less times led me, after a lot of thrashing about in the underbrush, to train as a co-active coach and start doing this work that I love. And as I tried to still my racing mind and listen for that soft voice of wisdom inside myself in the last couple of weeks, seeking answers about what to do in what is for me, and I think many others, a time of deep uncertainty, I heard “stand in your gifts.” And then I began to see a path open up in front of me. This group I will offer, starting in January, is one piece of the path I am building by walking on it. If this group feels like something that would support you in listening for your own whispers of wisdom, I invite you to join me.

Moving Through Change – a coaching group for women standing in uncertainty

There are times in each of our lives when the things we think we know about who we are, and who we are becoming, are called into question. If you feel like you are trying to chart a path through an unfamiliar landscape, and find yourself questioning your assumptions about who you are, and who you want to be, this group is for you.

Are you asking:

How do I get through this?

Who am I now? What do I want?

What are my gifts? What do I offer the world?

What are my truths? What life do I want to be living?

How do I do this?

What are my strengths? My resources?

As humans, we find uncertainty deeply challenging. It is easy to fall into fear, but there are gifts in these times of upheaval:

• Distractions fall away — we can see the bigger questions and discover what is most important to us.

• Previous assumptions about who we are disappear, allowing possibilities to emerge that we would not have seen.

• Where there is fear there is power; times of chaos show us where our power is.

• These times invite our courage and our passions to emerge, and invite us to open to our own wisdom.

Will you lock down, or reach out for who you are becoming?

Making good use of the invitations offered in these times of huge change requires a space in which we can focus on ourselves in a proactive way — not “woe is me” but “what is here for me?” If we don’t have that space, our energy is being poured into surviving, not creating.

Having that space allows us to move through this crucible actively; to use it as an opportunity to

• Face our fears
• Examine our assumptions
• Think differently
• Try new things
• Rediscover our passions and our deep wisdom

When we do this work, we gain access to our best selves and step into our gifts and our power. The world, and the people we love, need our gifts and our power. And when we stand in those gifts and that power, we are joyful.

The path is made in the walking of it.

~ Zhuangzi

Join me, and a group of 7-10 other women who are also standing in this place of uncertainty, for three months of every-other week gatherings where we can listen to our own hearts. We will use interactive facilitated exercises, writing, art, and gentle movement, to explore where we are now, and what we want to create in our lives going forward.

What is here for you in this time?

What will you construct your foundation with?

What will you build on that foundation?

What will you plant in the garden around it?

Join us. Together we will create a space where we can discover what we need to discover and design the actions we need to take to build the path we want to walk.

The Details: This description is from the winter/spring 2017 session. I will likely offer this again. If you are interested in joining that group, please email me and let me know. I’ll most more details here once I get the group set up.

The group will run on Monday nights* from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m., every other week from January 23rd through April 17th (seven meetings total). It will meet in my home in outer SE Portland (roughly SE 92nd and Johnson Creek Blvd.)

The cost for the group is $215. It can be paid in a single payment, or in three installments. Group participants also get a special rate of $45/hour for individual coaching sessions done between January 15th and May 30th. (The normal rate is $65/hour.)

Public Transportation: The house is roughly 1/3rd of a mile from the Flavel Street Max station (Green line), but the walk from there includes a long, steep hill.

Allergy Alert: We have cats. They will be excluded from the space we meet in during our meetings, but if you have a severe cat allergy, this is probably not the group for you. Sorry.

*If you are interested and Monday nights don’t work for you, please email me to let me know that. If there is enough interest, I might start a Wednesday evening or Friday afternoon group as well.

Questions?

If you have questions, please give me a call or email me. I am looking forward to this new group.