Integral Connections

I am hearing so many people feeling overwhelmed, spinning, stressed, not sure how to work their way through the unknown. Some coaching questions can help them stop the spin, tap into their inner resources and feel in control in leading self:

• As you navigate the complexities of these current life conditions, what is realistic, relevant and in your control to make choices around?
• As you step back and think about what is most important to put your attention and intention on, what are those things?
• As you envision the quality of life you want to create with your tribe and others, what is that for you?
• As you orient your inner compass, where to from here?

The above questions are meant to move you into a resourceful space rather than feel stuck or trapped. Take personal leadership in your choices to create change that is evolutionary rather than revolutionary. Everything becomes an ‘I choose to.’

As a Certified Professional Coach, I am in the business of creating new awareness and insight to help people move out of an arrested state. Metaphorically, I believe people don’t need to hang out in an eddy or be stuck in a strainer; they can choose to ride the flow of the standing wave.

I invite you to step into is the Six Conditions for Evolutionary Change based on the work of Christopher Cooke, rooted in the work of Clare Graves.

• Potential: The mind is open and has the potential for more complex thinking.
• Solutions: Problems related to current and previous life conditions are resolved.
• Dissonance: The inability of the active Coping Mechanisms to adequately respond to emerging life conditions leads to dissonance and a need for change.
• Barriers: The barriers to change are identified and overcome.
• Insight: New awareness about root causes and viable options emerges.
• Consolidation: Consolidations and support exists for the transition.

If all six conditions for change are met, then evolutionary change can happen. If we want to use the phrase ‘coping mechanism’, when all six conditions are met, latent coping mechanisms may be stimulated to awaken enabling evolutionary change. As human beings, we have the complex adaptive intelligence to be able to flex and adapt to changing life conditions.

Clare Graves said not everyone has the capacity to respond to change in their life conditions. All 6 conditions need to be met for evolutionary change to happen. My personal belief is that anyone can respond to a change in life conditions such as what we are experiencing with this pandemic and I hold the space for people to lean and grow into that.

Full spectrum human emergence is what I have been exploring and learning about for the past 10 years and is the newest initiative I have become involved in.

I will begin co-facilitating Stance Matters with Christopher Cooke in September. Here are links to information on the training and the newsletter.

As Christopher says, “this is not the new normal. It is a holding pattern as familiar structures are replaced by temporary ones.” We have yet to figure out what the new life conditions are, and the new life conditions that are emerging.

Here is a link to an article about the COVID-19 virus creating a space for new thinking.