LIVING INTEGRAL COACHING

Too often in our lives, are senses are bombarded by the fast-paced demands of the world. We become overstimulated and our conscious mind gets overloaded by the activity. Consequently, we close ourselves, shut down a bit, filter our experience, in order to cope with the onslaught. We limit our awareness just to get by. Our performance is negatively affected since we are not operating at full capacity.

In my last post I wrote about how developing awareness can help with problem solving and change work in your life and business. Not only does awareness benefit you in these situations, it benefits you in all aspects of your life.

Limiting awareness and information limits our ability to respond appropriately. We don’t have the resources available to make good decisions. Additionally, the speed required to make these decisions is oftentimes to fast for us to keep up. Our conscious actions then become unconsciousness reactions.

But this trend is reversible. We can practice working on our awareness and develop the skill of Presence. Presence is the ability to take in all of life’s stimuli, assimilate them, and interact with them appropriately. It is something that one can learn to do, and over time become better and better at it.

Through meditation and self introspection I’ve been able to develop a deeper understanding about myself and my “world.” The more I worked, the more aware I became about what I was doing and what was going on around me, and the more positive changes occurred in my life.

Riso and Hudson in The Wisdom of the Enneagram, write:

“If we are present to our experience, the impressions of our activities will be fresh and alive, and we will always learn something new from them. But if we are not present, every moment will be like every other, and nothing of the preciousness of life will touch us… But when we learn to be present to the blockages [in our lives, our natural way of being] start[s] to emerge spontaneously and become[s] available to us as [it is] needed…”

In an effort to get back in touch with ourselves people have pursued a variety of
practices such as meditation, prayer, chanting, exercise, going on retreat.

Diane Dreher in The Tao of Personal Leadership writes how through “Centering,” people have found “renewal” as a result of their practice. “Through our centering practice, we break through all those layers of dust, debris, and self-doubt that diminish us. Renewed and refreshed, we realize once more all that is possible.”

It frees us to respond to life’s challenges without the usual baggage that negatively affects our perceptions and behaviors. We see new solutions and new possibilities.

Life proceeds as a result of our actions and behaviors in response to situations. How we respond to these situations determines our success or failure. When we are totally present to situations in life, we see clearly and react wisely.

Performance at a higher level

Developing greater capacity of Presence greatly improves our performance and ability to operate at a higher level. Take a look at the leaders today in business and politics. They have the ability to handle the system complexity at that level. They can take in the information, process it effectively, and act accordingly.

Leaders did not jump into their current level right away. They build themselves up developing their skills along the way.

Even if you do not operate at such high levels, you can work on operating more effectively at the one your at. If you expand your capacity to take in more, you can consciously respond to life’s situations rather than react.

Developing Presence

Presence is a skill and it is able to be learned. It just requires us to do the work. Practice.

First developing a centering practice is necessary to get in touch with what is going on inside us. We need to begin to make sense of all the clutter and noise contained in our minds. A practice to quiet the mind of meditation or prayer, would go a long way understanding ourselves better.

Once we understand how our inside world works, we can observe how the outside world affects our inside experience.

1. Begin by observing how outside events and experiences affect your inner world of thoughts and emotions. Don’t make any opinion about it, just observe. Notice how some things cause you to contract, close down, and avoid certain experiences. Notice where you feel free, open, and powerful.

2. Then, develop your capacity to remain Present and open in all situations. If you notice yourself closing down and avoiding something, open again. Continue to stay in touch with your powerful resources and continue to act. Keep at this. It won’t feel good or easy. It is a habit that we have developed to avoid pain.

BUT, it is worth it. By developing our capacity to remain Present we are able to operate with all of our resources in systems of increasing complexity without shutting down. This improves our performance, our satisfaction, and enjoyment in life.