Last weekend we conducted the certification process at the end of our year-long program and it left me deeply moved. Eighteen dedicated, talented and beautiful people presented their work, coached a stranger in a live situation and openly reflected on their own learnings.
Every single person was vibrantly alive and present even when it didn’t feel that way to them. The days are long and the environment can sometimes be full of the tension of performance anxiety. Yet each person stepped forward with courage and openness.
I’ve conducted this process scores of times but this particular one really got to me. As committee members we took great care in feeling deeply into our experience of the students and into crafting an expression that would show them their essential goodness and unique gift. We brought all our focus, experience and collective intelligence to these tasks. None of us were willing to settle for second best or close enough. Our work paid off in huge and unexpected ways.
As each person sat before us we took the time to say what we appreciated about the work we had read and our knowing of them throughout the year. In some instances it took a while for what we were saying to be received and for the student to contact within themselves what we were pointing to. For the most part we as people are expecting to hear bad news, negative feedback, a list of what we have to improve about ourselves. We haven’t built internal receptors for hearing and embracing what is positive, good and unique to us. So we sometimes have a hard time hearing when someone tells us about these aspects of us.
I was moved to tears many times during the day as I felt and saw each person catching onto themselves. For me there is nothing more important or inspiring than the moment when we turn toward and meet our original face. Nothing is more powerful in the individual development of someone than this event.
We could tell that we were at the essence of someone because time stopped, the student opened up deeply and a new road of possibilities into the world opened up. We were sitting in the middle of the power of our work – at the center of what Integral Coaching can be and almost always is when we attend to it with presence and kindness and awareness.
I found myself not tired at the end of the day but instead energized and eager to speak to the next person, look into the next set of eyes, feel into the next person.
Most of all I left deeply grateful that for whatever reason I have the chance to do this amazing work and share it with astounding people. I’ve done nothing to deserve it in any event but fortunately many people have been nice to me and love me and consequently these opportunities come forth.