Uplifting Practices During Turbulent Times
The complexity of the events that surround us, the toxicity of the excess of information and the exaggerated stress that accompanies them, invite us to take “breaks” more frequently. Figure out what is really essential and somehow take responsibility for what really depends on us. Our leadership will gain in power and legitimacy, far from individual and collective dramas.
Giving yourself time to observe yourself is undeniably an inexhaustible source of inspiration. The times have come to know how to pay attention to what really matters, without worrying about what others will think. Coaching is there as a reminder and to guide us in this exciting journey.
“Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom”
The “Prajñāparamitā” expresses the search for perfection of the “great knowledge.” It is called transcendent wisdom (prajna, from “jñā,” which means “to know” preceded by the prefix of insistence “pra”). Wisdom is mainly an acute perception allowing us to recognize the fundamental nature of all things and concepts like emptiness.
Everything is only perception for the brain. We all wear glasses, and we don’t even know their graduation. Our blindness is sometimes staggering. Recognizing this is already the first step towards wisdom which requires “restraint,” certain prudence in the conscious interpretation of our perceptions.
Developing consciousness consists in choosing our representations and being able to read the phenomena that surround us. It means being attentive to the biases that lie at all times. The wise leader imbues with a specific form of discernment, strength, and lightness. He is consistent and aligned with his values and with others. His knowledge inspires others.
This knowledge reflects specific know-how to distinguish what is essential. What is critical is to free ourselves from an ego that poisons us and creates mental confusion. This ego has allowed us to socialize and gain confidence since early childhood, but it is time to get rid of it with some kindness. Let’s start by nurturing that ego rather than repressing it. “The bird that comes out of its cage does not renounce its cage; it frees itself from it”, says Christophe André.
Wisdom demands that one be able to understand all aspects of a delicate subject without allowing oneself to be disturbed by one’s emotions or personal feelings. With open-mindedness comes empathy and the realization that everyone has a past that influences their actions. Buddhist wisdom advocates detachment. It is a question of taking note of the fundamental interdependence of all the elements to focus on the only actual room for maneuvering the individual, mastery of his mind.
The Wisdom Of Coaching
Wisdom is a term that we do not use or so little in the world of organizations where leadership considerations seem more appropriate. So instead, we refer to wisdom to describe the moderate spirit of an intelligent and prudent spiritual leader.
Is wisdom the reflection of a spiritual quest or an art of living?
Loneliness of Power
Today’s bosses are under pressure of all kinds and must respect extreme confidentiality on a large number of topics. Because of this loneliness, the leader may tend to turn away from reality and look for an escape. Since time immemorial, men and women have sought to escape this loneliness by any means whatsoever. According to Blaise Pascal, everyone is prey to entertainment, which consists of the desperate search for consolation in the face of the difficulty of being oneself. Henry Laborit will praise flight: “in times like these, escape is the only way to stay alive and keep dreaming”.
To accept one’s responsibility is in large part to sublimate and transcend this loneliness. Coaching will provide a window of opportunity to accompany all those who are faced with a certain isolation and wish to contribute to their personal fulfillment through a satisfying relational life.
Many studies have shown that being surrounded, being able to exchange and share has a positive impact on both our mental health and our physical health. Our hyperconnected society has contributed to the emergence of a very paradoxical loneliness. Isn’t that reason why Coaching emerges to reconnect with oneself and others?
The construction of a relationship linked to conditioned co-production
One of the great principles of professional accompaniment and so little expressed, is the construction of a relationship linked to conditioned co-production. Indeed, our work consists in basing ourselves on this model borrowed from the Buddhist canons.
Look at your hand. She looks the same as a week ago. Yet almost all of your skin cells are dead and replaced. Your hand is not the same as a day ago. Neither does your body. Your proteins are constantly changing. Your hemoglobin molecules don’t live longer than a day. However, they always remain in a fixed quantity in the blood network. The body of man (like that of a bacterium) is constantly regenerating; however, from within, from an incessant movement, a stable organization is created… an autonomy. It is the Chilean Francisco Varela who, with Maturana, underlines the self-organization capacities of the living with the concept of autopoiesis. He works on body-mind relationships and charts the course for a reconciliation of Buddhism and science.The conditions are renewed every moment. It is therefore useless to seek continuity and justify consistency over time. It’s just an illusion. That’s why I’m more interested in what you want to talk about today than what we talked about last time.
At any time, a new set of specific conditions will contribute to the precise contextualization of a new need. As a Coach, I will therefore ensure that the problem or simply the need of my coachee is contextualized. Otherwise, there will be no Coaching. My responsibility is to better live the present moment in order to explore the conditions that will contribute to the appearance of phenomena that will occur at every moment. I am in observation and feeling. At the same time, I try to put myself in the place of the other. This dance of any moment which is of a certain complexity, describes quite well this permanent movement of co-creation in the present moment.
Paticcasamuppāda (in Pali) is the Buddhist concept of conditionality, dependence, reciprocity. “Sam” associates and connects. The spirit of dialogic invites us to combine what arises from the specific conditions that co-produce it. Conditioned co-production is in a way the metaphor of the coach who integrates and connects seemingly contradictory concepts at the same time. We get out of duality and we are interested in the compound and conditioned phenomenon which is related to the circle, to motherhood, to renewal.
A process is recursive when the result of the process itself has an influence on its beginning. The principle of organizational recursion constitutes one of the three bases of complex thought developed by Edgar Morin, along with the dialogic principle and the “hologramic” principle. These three concepts are interrelated. Recursion is inspired by the idea of a retroactive loop (corrective feedback loop) formalized in Wiener’s concept of cybernetics. To this notion, Morin adds those of self-production, regeneration and permanent reorganization. It is a process born of order and disorder that could be infinite, because it is self-generating. The beginning feeds on the end of the loop, the end therefore becoming the beginning.
Conditioned co-production can be understood as the origin of an action.To simplify, we will say that “nothing is without cause and nothing is its own cause” or:
“When this is, that is;
This appearing, that appears.
When this is not, that is not;
This ceasing, that ceases.”
Conditionned Co-Production In Coaching
Transdisciplinary research is useful for giving meaning to our action and reconciling knowledge. Conditional co-production is a hallmark of Buddhist philosophy and an inexhaustible source of inspiration for today’s leaders. This area of reflection was decisive in the work of “philosophers of the mind” such as Francisco Varela and Maturana who underline the self-organization capacities of the living with the concept of autopoiesis. Edgar Morin will in turn consider the recursive principle as being one of the three useful means of managing complexity.
“The coach is not someone who contemplates, and it’s not even someone who thinks. A coach is someone who creates”.
“The coach is not someone who contemplates, and it’s not even someone who thinks. A coach is someone who creates”. Paraphrasing Deleuze allows us to highlight the importance of acting and creating. These are the common traits of the coach and the philosopher.
When we have a subject to deal with, we construct a concept which is similar to an amalgam of ideas and stacked aggregates, whose composition is completely original and in a certain way arbitrary. We give ourselves the means to explore a specific need in a contextualized framework. It is the encounter with the other in a space-time that triggers the whole process. The body unites with the heart and the spirit. The accompaniment is physical and the exercise is felt in our whole body. It’s not just mental.
There is no great or bad work. There is an intention which expresses itself, which also evolves over time and an idea whose plastic moves like an amoeba which deforms by emitting its protrusions.
Like an abstract painting integrating several necessary layers of paint, their superposition and their entanglements will reveal emergences that will give meaning to those who engage. We tend towards the beautiful, the sublime. Gestures can be incongruous, daring, they are never hesitant. Each gesture has its raison d’être. We are moving forward, but we are also going backwards. Creation allows mistakes and missteps. Our hypotheses make it possible to relaunch the action and will facilitate a change of perspective.
In the pursuit of the creative act, one follows one’s intuition so that the composition reflects the essence of the subject. The synthesis will redefine the contours of the concept by describing its characteristics. We must dive into the depths of the other to bring out hidden treasures, but these discoveries will be fully returned to him.
The creative power compels us to a result. It is the vital energy and our desire for performance that will accompany us on this journey.
The Coach Is Someone Who Creates
Artistic creation has a power of revelation just like Coaching. It allows us to access certain truths and catalyze certain ideas. The artist and the coach having another look on the world, a disinterested approach mixed with doubt and perplexity, not guided by the concern to know, are able to see truly (with their body and their eyes) what is offered.
And yes it is a good idea to distance yourself so as not to stray from reality! Accept that only a dispassionate approach will contribute to renewing our vital momentum. The creative posture integrates and weaves the links. It connects and brings people together. We teach the Coach to listen and ask the right questions. What about his creative posture? Understanding it, practicing it will allow us to become a “fertile soil” and to enrich what emerges here and there.
“Praotes” And Softness
For the ancient Greeks, gentleness was the opposite of “hubris”, the excessiveness of one who is prey to his impulses. The term “praotes” also means both gentleness and friendliness, it points to the question of “being together”, the first circle of ethics and politics.
Sweetness is expressed through our senses. These are simple and slow gestures. We can take the example of the tender gesture of a mother towards her child but also choose the tranquility of a summer landscape where the coolness of the night appears surreptitiously. Reflections borrowed from lightness. Slow movements.
Gentleness towards oneself reflects self-esteem. It is the demonstration of a assuaged vulnerability. This way of being present to oneself, to what is happening within oneself, around oneself, moment after moment. This way of being in the moment without real expectation and without haste.
It is the artists who express it best.
“There are very beautiful purples and blues in the clouds tonight, a blue above all more floral than airy, a blue of cineraria, which surprises in the sky. And doesn’t this little pink cloud also have the complexion of a flower, a carnation or a hydrangea?” – Swann 130/207, Marcel Proust
With Virginie Dor, we will reflect this week on this dimension so little explored and yet so determining that is the expression of gentleness and its importance in the relationship with oneself and others. Observing the creative genius of Sandro Botticelli or allowing oneself to be seduced by a watercolor by Marie Laurencin, we say to ourselves that the softness is in the choice of light and in the expression of the gesture.
The act of coaching is also elegant and delicate. Respect for others requires a certain gentleness so as not to rush straight away and heckle the system too quickly. In coaching, we work on low heat.
Take a picture
Photography is the very expression of a moment frozen in time. As a Coach, it is necessary to live in the present here and now. Nothing like taking a picture of this unique and irreplaceable moment and freezing for eternity our emotions, thoughts and bodily sensations. I see it as a metaphor for what is desirable in order to experience reality and gain wisdom.
Photography allows you to look at yourself differently, without filters, by letting emotions emerge in order to identify them, accept them, free yourself from them and reclaim your body and image.
We take a picture to extend the happiness of an ephemeral moment. Coaching will reveal these unique moments and will allow the creation of powerful emotional anchors.