Sylvia's Journal

We finished part one of the coaching course on a high note with an exercise that turned everyone into a poet – quite wonderful. This group of 13 people who didn’t know each other 30 hours earlier had started to gel…we will be going through the 8 months coaching program together. I am a lot less hesitant than I was on Friday morning.

We left in a gentle snow storm, Axel hurrying home to see the game while I couldn’t care less.  Back home I fell asleep on the couch until Axel nudged me to bed.

Today I said goodbye to the hand doctor who says I don’t need him anymore, but with every doctor scratched off the list a new one comes around. There is the doctor to check out the nerves in my right foot to figure out the cause of the abnormal sensation that has been with me since the accident.  I also scheduled surgery for the left ankle (March 5).

I had my fourth acupuncture session in a row which confirmed that something happened this weekend that was visible in my body according to the acupuncturist. The way it showed up for me is that I quickly went into deep relaxation, needles and all.

One of my resolutions after the weekend was to re-start my yoga practice at home, using the DVD that kept me in shape in Afghanistan and which I haven’t touched since I got back, now a year and a half ago. With my hand healed enough for a down dog or plank, I was all set up when none of my computers would play the DVD. Hours later, downloading programs that didn’t fulfill their promises, the yoga mat, spread out in my office, sat there, unused and I was none the wiser.

One of my new mottos is, tomorrow start over again. So that is the new resolution.

Axel and I completed day one of the coaching course. It is exceeding my expectations. The biggest insight from yesterday was about people pushing one’s buttons – my reflecting about this has always been about the people who are doing the button pushing, but I came to realize it is not about them. First of all, I can’t change them, but secondly, and more importantly, it is me that is providing the button to push. Visualizing this made me laugh – me, with all these buttons spread over my body that are blinking and are waiting to be pushed. Ha!

We have an interesting mix in the group – it is the cohort that we will be working with until we complete our classroom work sometime in September. I am sorry that the guest invitation, extended to Axel, ends on Sunday night, but at least he knows what this is all about.  Experiencing these three days of reflection reminds me of our Cape Cod Institute days – learning in the morning and digesting everything (alongside with some great meals) in the afternoon and evening. Then, at night, we further digest the material in our own in our dreams.

Yesterday was all about ‘down energy’ – the kind of energy that drains, saps and pulls self and others’ down. We could all think of lots of examples. We are promised that today is about ‘up energy’ and I already feel that way when it is only 8 AM in the morning.

Against the strict orders from our daughters, who had Axel promise not to let me put on a pair of cross-country skis, I disobeyed all and loved getting back on skis. I was careful not to fall because I wasn’t wearing my hand splint – it wouldn’t allow me to wear gloves in 0 degrees Fahrenheit weather. We took it easy and skied like old people for about 45 minutes on flat terrain in a freezing cold wind. We had our skies waxed by a professional. He taught us some tricks and showed us how to wax one ski, after which we were on our own for the other three. We learned things we had forgotten. We had also forgotten where we had stored out supply of ski wax at home and so we had to buy from scratch, a costly affair. Only after we came home did we find our old stash. I am ready for more.

Since then another week has gone by and we are getting ready for a second weekend away from home, this time for the first of three training weekends that are to transform me into an executive coach. MSH has decided this would be a good investment. I was allowed to bring a guest and bringing Axel along. This will be a completely different adventure.