October has been an amazingly busy month and I have really missed writing my blog as I have worked my way through so many other activities.
A few weeks ago I did my first professional singing since February, recording some beautiful music with The Sixteen. It was wonderful to sing with my talented singing colleagues again. Making music to such a high level is a privilege and I have savoured every moment of it.
However, my other wonderful experience has been completing the first module of my diploma course in ‘Transformational Coaching’ and beginning my practice as a coach. This first module involved a weekend of thought provoking webinars and workshops to practice new coaching skills. Coaching can have an incredibly positive affect on peoples’ lives. The course has also given me the opportunity to meet some amazing people with so many different life experiences.
I have wanted to do a diploma course since February when I first looked into coaching and discovered the positive impact it could have on personal performance in so many areas of our lives. However, even now I still find it difficult to fully find the words to express exactly what coaching means to me. I captured a glimpse of my feelings when I was recording with The Sixteen earlier this month.
We recorded a piece called ‘The Blue Bird’, which is a magnificent setting of Mary Colleridge’s poem to the music by Charles Villiers Stanford. Although I first sang this serene and beautiful choral work as a student in Cambridge some 40 years ago, it was only when recording it with The Sixteen that I was prompted to think about the meaning of the poetry.
The lake lay blue below the hill, O’er it, as I looked, there flew Across the waters, cold and still, A bird whose wings were palest blue.
The sky above was blue at last, The sky beneath me blue in blue, A moment, ere the bird had passed, It caught his image as he flew.
As I read the poem I couldn’t help thinking that the Blue Bird was like each us, freely flying through our lives, but also blissfully unaware of our full potential. The lake of water ‘cold and still’ for me represented the depth of our unconscious, negative automatic thoughts and assumptions that so often prevent us from achieving. Through coaching we have the opportunity to see ourselves and reflect so that we can ‘catch our image’ in the lake.
Coaching can help us to move forwards in our lives. It can help us explore the things that we really value and truly want and to put actions into place that will help us find fulfilment and happiness. A coach is not a mentor or therapist, but a careful listener who may reflect back our own words and ask questions. This can bring us to examine ourselves and to come to our own conclusions and therefore make our own decisions. Coaching is a journey of self exploration through conversation.
As I did my first coaching session recently, I felt the privilege of being privy to another person’s desires and values. Over the next 6 months I look forward to learning from the experience. Learning more from the course. Learning more from the people I coach and learning more about myself.
I’m afraid The Sixteen recording of the ‘The Blue Bird’ isn’t out yet, but I found this recording by a vocal ensemble in Helsinki. I think it does the music justice. Enjoy.