Why not trust your instincts and follow your “excitement centre”? Excitement what? You know, the spot in your body that tingles when you feel the rush from considering something wonderful or deeply thrilling. It might manifest as butterflies in the stomach, or a tingling in the chest, pins and needles in the palms, or just a huge uncontrollable grin. However it shows up in you, It’s your intuition, your antenna if you will, trying to communicate with you and trying to point you in a juicy direction. Listen to it closer, pay attention to it and it’ll get louder, trust it’s message for you and it’ll take you down a path that leads you to a place full of what you most definitely need.

Remember, this is not a “head” based process, there’s no logic, reasoning or brain activity that needs to happen. In fact its that part of the body, the head and it’s noisy content trying to be ever-so helpful that often gets in the way of your trusty excitement centres!

What does coaching mean to me? It means making a tangible difference to peoples lives, being a real friend to fellow human beings through thick and thin, it means doing something incredibly worthwhile with my time on Earth. Something that isn’t primarily about financial gain or material accumulation, putting people back in touch with what gives them a sense a fulfilment and joy. To be utterly present as they look to what is blocking the road ahead and holding the courageous space for them as they experience it. To allow them to look at these obstructions and see that they arent the enormous dark demons they imagined them to be after all. Nothing compares to that “ah-ha” moment. This work means something, it is my life-work, it’s my truth and my amazing discovery that I want others to experience. When two individuals connect in a coaching session at a very deep, essence level there’s resonance, a combining of who we are at our core, similar to when clouds combine and merge, we become one and the same, feeling true equality and being seen are enormous healers. You are not alone, you never were, nor ever will be. The work that you need to do, the treacherous valleys of avoidance and living “safe” you need to brave in order to feel as if you are enjoying a life of wonder and variety is completely doable. Whoever you are. It’s all completely possible and ultimately available. We just forget somewhere along the way how very capable we are, dusty layers of disenchantment and suppression settle upon our being and cloud our vision, limiting our outlook and our point of view. I help people remember who they are, what they came to do and I’m there with them on the journey, every little step, every giant leap of it. I love being a life coach, it is an honor and a real privilege.

So, I made decision and  I implemented a change. I knew for a fact that personally I couldn’t get off to bed at 10.30pm each night, as I enjoy some evening before the next day, to read, watch a film, socialise etc. I knew I didn’t want to alter my life style to something as drastic as this anyway. It had got to be realistic, knowing full well that if it felt imposed whether by myself or somebody else, it wouldn’t last (typical Aquarian spirit).

What I have done is hit the hay at 11.30 instead of my usual 12.30/1.00 and, within two days I noticed a difference. In just 5 days of adding an hours extra sleep to my nocturnal slumber I feel vastly different. I feel sharper, have a much higher tollarence to everyday challenges, am able to concentrate and connect to my clients, friends and colleagues on a deeper, more focussed level. I feel a distinct increase in my optimism (especially noticible as it’s plunging into the darker half of Autumn here in the UK at the moment). Amazing stuff really and so, so simple.

I think it proved to me that my body (when I slowed down enough to listen to it) knew exactly what to do and exactly what was needed. Even when I consciously didn’t realise or rebelliously chose to ignore. I now feel a darn site better for it.

I’ve gone on and taken this one step further, maybe because I have the additional energy to do so! I’ve started blocking out regular time in my calendar for “Recharge” this recharge time should consist of nothing but that which will allow my energy levels to increase, good old r & r!

So anyway, I would love to carry on but I’ve just noticed, it’s 11.30pm and we know what that means huh? ;-)

I’d love to hear how sleep has effected you, both the lack of it and what it has enabled you to do when you have allowed yourself your required amount.

Feel free to jump on over to my Flickr page where I’m uploading new shots when I can. I’d love it if you added me as a contact and said hi, checking out other peoples work and collaborating is of real interest.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/philluminous/

I’d love to say a massive thank you to everyone involved in ECCC, those in organisation, the inspiring contributors (I haven’t mentioned all of the super-stars present today, trust me, there were lots!) and of course the attendees, every one of them brought their own unique essence and representation of what we, as co-active coaches and considerate human beings stand for in the world. It’s a truly heart warming experience and just goes to prove when we put our collective minds to creation and evolution as a community, wonderful things flourish and ripple ever outward.

You can check out the ECCC site here.

Some wonderful coaches you should include in your life and follow on Twitter include:
Kate Griffiths: @wholeself
Beth Folinni: @bethfollini
Corrina Gordon Barnes: @CorrinaGB
Lynn Serafinn: @LynnSerafinn
and of course the ever effervescent Annie Wigman! @sparkletta

You can also follow my ramblings too @philaskew

Watch in Youtube

There are numerous ways of creating mind maps, I use two. Pen’s and paper and software, both on my Mac and on my iPhone. I recommend playing with a combination that suits you most effectively. The current set up for me allows me to explore a thought or idea stream whenever I get the calling to do so. When at home, I suggest a nice big pad of paper, A3 minimum and as many coloured pens as you can lay your hands on! When the idea strikes, grab your pad and start mapping. On my Mac, I use a great piece of software called “Mind Node” which is free and incredibly easy to just jump into and get going-this is the essence of great mapping software, simple and powerful software that isn’t going to slow you down. Go grab a copy. On my iPhone (can’t always cart my A2 pad around with me on the train) I use a fabulous application called “Simple Mind” which again, is very simple to just dive straight into when inspiration strikes. Simple Mind is responsive enough that you can just fire it up and begin in seconds. Check it out here.

If you want to play with some other software, there’s a plethora of wonderful mind mapping and brain dumping title’s out there and lots of them are free: Click here

Here’s a few different styles of mind maps to get you all inspired, don’t feel limited to these though, devise your own too!

Finally, one of the beautiful things about mind mapping is that there are no rules. It doesn’t have to make sense, imagination is at play and there’s no right or wrong, this is incredibly liberating when we are so used to problem/solution thinking patterns. Have fun with it, it’s amazing what unexpected clarity and alternative idea’s sprout from these beautiful tree like structures.

If you are Cti trained or if you are trained in a different model of coaching please come along and say hello, the more members that add to the mix, the richer the content and the greater the development of our wonderful occupation/life style /hobby/interest <- delete or add as appropriate!

Come and say hello, we’d love to see you. http://cticoaches.ning.com/

Seljalandsfoss Waterfall, Iceland.

I recently spent 6 days in Iceland and the landscape was truly breathtaking. Before leaving England I had tracked down photos, watched YouTube movies and tried to anticipate the stunning sights – I was excited to say the least. But to actually witness this really is something else, actually switching my geography as opposed to just reading about it or watching videos is infinitely more powerful. Something inside at soul level shifts, permanently. New possibilities are available from this perspective, the boundaries have been moved, imagination made real and shown incredible new perspectives.

If you are sat down right now and spin your chair round 180 degrees, life appears different. For a start you won’t be able to finish reading this paragraph due to your “limiting” new perspective, but it does offer up a new landscape and different things are possible from here, also you are able to compare with your previous state and you are able to choose. We often forget that we have a choice. We decide on how we see what we are looking at.

The point is that to actually feel a difference, to empower yourself enough to change, you have to get up and physically make a shift, whether that be telling somebody you love them, taking up hand gliding or visiting a far off land such as Iceland. Switch your viewpoint and the possibility looks different. In that switch, a fresh perspective opens up, outside and in. From here on in, a plethora of possibilities make themselves apparent and the shift may be so spectacular that it takes your breath away as Iceland did with me. I’ll never see things the same way again and was inspired to write this post. I hope switching your perspective will allow some change for you today too and tomorrow and the day after that…

Photo: Ivana Nemcova

Great to see all things self-improvement being publicly explored and evolved! I shall be heading along on the Sunday and will no doubt be dropping in on a few friends who will be on the stand S54. Go and pop along if you get the chance, it might be just the inspiration you need to get those life changes underway!