What's Working: Six Month Update

Noticeable shifts in daily and weekly life through six months of focused self-development.

“This very moment, this very point in your life, is always the occasion.”
- Chogyam Trungpa

Along with the long-awaited arrival of spring in Maine (hello, daffodils!), I’m celebrating the half-way point of my year of study, self-development, and building my coaching practice. Last October, I began the professional coaching course through New Ventures West. At that time, I barely understood how much of the work of this year is my own self-development to build the body, mind, and heart of an integral coach (read this post for more details).

Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash

My self-development over the last six months has taken the form of regular practices: meditation, journaling, exercise, reading, and a new activity. I’m inspired to share what that actually looks like for me, in my daily and weekly life. I’m truly amazed at all of the shifts that I’ve made.

Meditation

Despite my initial hemming and hawing, I’ve fully integrated a sitting meditation practice into my daily life. It’s not even a question anymore. I sit first thing in the morning before I do anything on my phone or take on any tasks of the day. I’ve organically built my stamina up to an average of 10-12 minutes and have plenty of room to grow into the suggested 30 minutes daily.

I also occasionally do longer, guided meditations. A friend leads virtual meditations on Tuesdays that I attend when I can. That group is exploring heart practices, such as lovingkindess, self-compassion, and forgiveness, which is a different style of meditation than my daily practice.

Self-Reflection and Journaling

I journal for longer sessions about once a week rather than writing for a few minutes each day. I created a journal database template in Notion and find that more accessible than handwriting. While the recommended practice from my program is to journal by hand daily, that just isn’t clicking for me right now and I’m giving myself grace to do what works rather than force it.

I have found myself frequently turning to writing as a way to process my thoughts, feelings, and sensations when something is really happening for me. As a result, in addition to my longer weekly session, I find myself writing and processing in the moment a few times each week. This has been a nice way to have a record of interesting and intense moments, as well as to bring some clarity to my own thoughts.

Exercise

I came into this year with a well established exercise practice. I haven’t messed with my existing routine, but have found the addition of yin yoga one or two times per week to be one of the most rewarding shifts that I’ve made. I take an in person class once or twice a month and do the rest of my yin practice using the Peloton app. Yin is the perfect through line to connect my higher intensity exercise to my daily meditation practice. It has taught me so much, and continues to be restorative every time I practice.

Reading & Information Diet

I’ve always been a reader, so this change in my reading practice has simply been a shift to focus on specific content. While I continue to always have a novel or “fun” book that I’m reading, I am delving into deep study with coaching books. I read my “study” book in the mornings a few days per week and typically take notes in Notion on what I read that day. The books that I’ve read so far are: Shambhala: The Sacred Heart of the Warrior by Trungpa, Leadership Embodiment by Palmer & Crawford, Soul Without Shame by Brown, Difficult Conversations by Stone, Patton, & Heen, and I’m in progress with Focusing in Clinical Practice by Cornell. This material is incredibly diverse and I have already pulled from each of these in my work with clients.

I’ve added a few podcasts into my weekly feed that I’m finding complementary to my study and practices as well.

• From other coaches: Now We’re Getting Somewhere, The Art of Accomplishment

• On related topics: On Being, Psychologists Off The Clock, Pulling the Thread

New Activity That Requires Me to Be Coached

Now we get to the juicy bit, and have no fear, there will be a full essay on this “new activity.” The philosophical goal of undertaking a new activity is to be in the beginner’s mindset and develop empathy for my clients, whom I ask to do new and challenging things on a weekly basis. When I first learned about this component of the program, I figured I could do something relaxing like pottery, or maybe something productive to get better at a skill like swimming or olympic weightlifting.

But then, at the end of our first quarterly intensive in October, my faculty mentor coach suggested that I take singing lessons. While I didn’t express it aloud, my immediate reaction was, “there is no way I’m doing that.” This felt like the opposite of a relaxing or productive activity for me!

After many months, I overcame my initial resistance and am now meeting every other week with a vocal coach. It’s highly uncomfortable. In fact, my throat seizes up at the beginning of each lesson, so I am quite literally learning how to relax those muscles. It’s also been quite productive and practical: I’ve already noticed a difference in the strength of my voice.

Bonus: This Substack

Writing and publishing this substack is an entirely new and somewhat unexpected practice. It’s been a joy to reclaim and explore writing as a nourishing activity with the primary audience being myself. I joined and will now be hosting a virtual co-writing group that meets on Wednesdays. I relish that container of support to journal and pull out larger themes to explore here, where I’m experimenting with how it feels to put my content out into the world. Thanks for following along!

Rundown of a Typical Week

These are all the new practices that I’ve cultivated and built into my weekly schedule over the last six months:

• Sitting Meditation: daily, 10-12 minutes

• Guided Meditation: weekly, 30 minutes

• Journaling: 1-2x/week, 30-60 minutes

• Yin Yoga: 1-2x/week, 20-60 minutes each

• Reading for Study: 2-3x/week, 30-45 minutes each

• Vocal Lessons: biweekly, 60 minutes

• Long Form Writing: weekly, 90 minutes

Each of these practices has been incredibly supportive in shifting my way of being in the world. I intend to maintain them indefinitely (perhaps with the exception of vocal lessons!). In an upcoming essay, I’ll explore what I’m noticing in terms of outcomes of all of this dedicated time and energy. As a teaser, the most profound result so far is my strengthened sense of self, which enables me to be more present with others, and has increased my capacity to identify—and take action—on what is essential to me.