Hello , I hope you are keeping all right, and that things are going well enough for you. I know I talked about Attention last time, but it's such an important
subject that I'm going to continue with it today. You'll recall that I said, Attention is about where we choose to put our focus, within the enormous stream of information that comes to us all the time through our senses. But the work of Dr Iain McGilchrist show that it's more than that. He quotes the poet and artist William Blake, who wrote, 'as a man is, so he sees', and this has a bearing on what we find when we look. It's like the old story of the
man with a hammer - everything looks like a nail. And when you've just bought a red car, well, they're everywhere.
Going back a bit, Dr Iain reminds us that the brain is divided into two halves, left hemisphere (LH) and right hemisphere (RH), and whilst there is no hard and fast distribution of what's done in each side, there is a definite tendency to employ different kinds of attention. Imagine, for example, that you are a little bird pecking away at seed on the ground for your birdy lunch. You need focussed attention (LH) so that you don't eat pebbles instead of seeds, but at the
same time you do not want to be something else's dinner. And so you also need to keep a look out for predators, who might come at you from any angle, which is the tendency of the RH. Hence the RH has a wider, more diffuse, more encompassing attention. Both kinds of attention are needed, in their place, but in our modern
24/7 wired culture we tend to vastly overvalue the focussed, LH, digital, mechanical kind of attention to the detriment of the RH, which is more intuitive, whole, perceptive, able to experience wonder and awe. We don't just see what's there, although that's clearly part of the experience;
ultimately we see what we make of it. And we can become aware of that, and change the way we see. That's enough of a rabbit-hole for now, and by way of illustration, I'll end with a curious experience I had which convinced me of this. In a culinary moment, I was on a hunt for the salt cellar, and I
finally saw it on the top shelf in the cupboard. As I reached up to take it, it literally dissolved in front of my eyes and became a pot of garlic salt. This was an amazing insight into my brain in action!
I said I would keep you posted about anything helpful in a course I'm currently doing, with Frances Masters, of Fusion Coaching. This course aims to bridge the gap between coaching and counselling, recognising
that there is a spectrum of mental well-being and that we all move up and down it at different times.
There are a number of resources that I think will be very helpful once I get to them, but one of them I can use at this stage. This is the SAFE SPACE model and it's designed to give you a quick snapshot of how you are
doing at present, revealing the bits that you can change for maximum effect. With Frances' kind permission I have put it into the same format as my other self assessment quizzes that you can see on the buttons below as usual. Feel free (and it is free!) to try it out on this button, and share it if
you think it's useful. I'd be glad to know what you think about it.
We don't have to be perfect
|
Today's book recommendation is from Brene Brown, who started out, improbably, as a researcher into the experience of Shame. It is 'The Gifts of Imperfection: Let Go of Who You Think You're Supposed to Be and Embrace Who You Are', a powerful and compassionate book helping us to get out of that sense of feeling we're not good enough. She's written several more
books that have had a huge and positive effect on peoples' self- perception. I really admire and appreciate her work, and hope you will find something in it for you as well.
What's going on at This Coaching Business
|
- I'm working on a new ebook at the moment, bringing together a lot of the themes around well-being, resilience and effectiveness in life and work, drawing on the topics that often come up in coaching
sessions, and I'll let you know when it's ready. It will have lots of practical resources and bonuses too - it's not just a book. Watch this space!
- I'm available for individual clients and my coaching packages are open again in my Shop. See here for full details. Many combinations are possible, depending on what you need now. I usually work remotely these days, on Zoom or Google Meet, although if you are local it's often good to meet in person at
least once. Please note I am still in New Zealand until mid April, and there is overlap mostly for early evening for the UK. My calendar shows UK appointments from
April, so feel free to have a look and book in advance. (NB I don't work in the US or Canada.)
- Harrison Assessments is a
comprehensive system based on enjoying your work (how radical is that!!) which can investigate the whole of the employment life cycle and beyond, revealing 'deeply rooted insights that determine essential high performance traits and those that will accelerate or hinder performance related to specific positions. It reveals a person’s work preferences and behavioural competencies that pinpoint developmental opportunities and career planning to achieve personal satisfaction and measurable job
performance'. I now have a dedicated website and a new package in my Coaching Shop based on Harrison Assessments. And I've added some more brochures in Dropbox below to show the range of services that are offered. You can get in touch for a free call to find out more, on the booking link at the end of this email.
- Job Success Formulas - if you are
involved in recruitment, this shows how HA helps you get the best person for the role
- Organisational
Analytics - this gives a snapshot of where to target staff development across the whole organisation
- I'm still happily working through my course on Fusion coaching , which looks at the integration of coaching and counselling. As Frances, the trainer, says, 'Sometimes we are in the ‘OK’ zone and sometimes we slip into the ‘not OK’ zone. It's just part of dealing with the
inevitable ups and downs of life'. This course will give me some additional skills in this area, so that I can provide more value. I'll let you know when it's complete and what it means for my services - see the bit about SAFE SPACE above.
- From time to time I write for a couple of websites, such as the Life Coach Directory. You can access all the back issues of my updates, with different themes over the last few years, on my website. There are two archives; one up to May 2018 (don't sign up for this one as it is archived, just view it) and one since then - when the world changed with GDPR!
- You can access the rest of
my website here, with various free goodies, especially the Personal Life Analysis, which gets you started with the best places to make changes in your life. You can use it as often as you want, perhaps to track your
changes over time. I'm aware that there was an issue with the graphic displaying. This has now been fixed, so do have another go if this affected you. There is now a new one, linked to my work with Synergy Performance Associates, and it looks at your leadership capabilities.
I always do a free 15-30 minute intro online call to make sure coaching is right for you before starting work with you. You can check my availability on the button below. (If it isn't right for you I'll try to signpost you to something that is.) And if you can't see a suitable time, contact me anyway and I'll
find one for you. Important - please don't phone me on your ordinary mobile line between now and April while I am in NZ as it will probably cost you a fortune!! Email or What's App instead. I won't have voicemail on, for the same reason.
That's it for now, - have a great weekend. I'll be in touch again in a couple of weeks or so, All best wishes, Barbara
P.S. if you like this update and you got it elsewhere, you
can get your own personal regular copy by subscribing safely here. Please feel free to share it with anyone you think may like it; just keep the attribution to me. You also get a free email course on sign up that will help you increase your well being, effectiveness and resilience. |