Sometimes clients are surprised by how much we laugh during coaching sessions! I have discovered that a playful and curious attitude toward even the trickiest problems helps to engage the creative and intuitive parts of the brain. Albert Einstein once said, “Play is the highest form of research.”
My clients are smart, conscious individuals who would “logic” their way out of their challenges if they could…but they can’t. That is why the end up on the sweet brown wicker couch in my office. They need more than just better application of the three pounds of meat between their ears. They need perspective. They need compassion. And they need a key to get out of the small cramped box they have put themselves inside.
By TZA, shared via Flickr
One way we play together is by setting up experiments to try in life outside of sessions. By mindfully gathering evidence about their habits and self-organization, my clients gain a new level of clarity about how they have been stuck and what they need to truly reach their desires.
The lovely Geneen Roth said about her work (and this aptly applies to my coaching as well): “Our work is not to change what you do, but to witness what you do with enough awareness, curiosity and tenderness that the lies and old decisions upon which the compulsion is based are questioned and fall away.”
I completely agree with you that the most difficult problems can be dealt with easily and simply in life. Keeping a positive attitude and patience is the key to success.