If you listen to Simon Mayo on Radio 2, you will recognise the 3 word challenge. You have to sum up your day in 3 words.
I can sum up my weekend as ‘Not as expected.’ I’d set off to Samye Ling monastery for two days of writing and walking, followed by a 2 day Leadership programme (or so I thought) entitled Resilient Leadership. As a licenced Heartmath practitioner and experienced business mentor, I regularly fuse together Heartmath practices (which enable busy and often stressed people to top up their inner battery i.e resilience) with Leadership methods; so this course sounded perfect. After a wonderful bracing Thursday, walking in the breezy sunshine and a day writing my book on Friday as the rain fell on the peaceful gardens of the monastery, I was ready and refreshed and eager to learn. On Friday evening we met our course leader, Amanda Ridings and our 14 co-learners and we all became intrigued. Our course was not what we had been expecting. We were going to switch off our minds totally and use our bodies’ energies to understand presence and empowerment and we weren’t going to talk at all as we learned the techniques. Now those of you who know me, are probably wondering why I didn’t check out there and then and head home down the M6 – I can talk for England! But over the past 18 months, I have learned much about the value of silence and stillness, so I knew the weekend would be good for me. Our mind has developed over our lifetime and responds to situations and information by rote. It has learned responses and reactions and resorts to habits, which are deeply embedded in our consciousness. Amanda referred to our mind as our ‘personality’. Our ‘self’ on the other hand is the essence of who we are. The practices and techniques, which were beautifully and gently delivered by Amanda, are based on the principles of Aikido and Mindfulness and bring awareness of the body’s reaction to stress and pressure. They enable individuals to connect with ‘self’ and move towards goals or purpose. The founder of the course, Wendy Palmer has taught many leaders throughout the world, using her techniques, which she developed in the 1960’s. By Saturday evening we were exhausted and Sunday morning we all looked dazed. To ‘switch off’ your mind and listen to your body and keep centred and keep relaxed and breathe correctly is tiring stuff. But even scratching the surface of this practice was amazing. When you are faced with something which is not what you thought it would be and you feel anxious or wary, give it a go. It might just be so much better than you originally thought it was going to be. I was so pleased that the weekend was not just another Leadership course. Instead, it was another fascinating step on my journey to liberate the real Wendy. The one who writes poetry, the one who walks on the hilltops, as well as the one who uses her skills to help businesses grow and the people in them to flourish. When you think about it, great leaders are the ones who, not only connect with their followers, but truly connect with their own self and purpose, so the course was 100% about Leadership. If you’d like to find out more about Amanda Ridings and her amazing courses follow this link https://www.originate.co.uk/about-originate/ If you’d like to talk to me about your business, your busy life or indeed who you really are, you know where I am.
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If you enjoy my blogs, you can read more of my work in my book available here www.amazon.co.uk/Words-Walks-Wisdom-Wendy-Bowers/dp/1671172353
AuthorWendy Bowers, Archives
June 2022
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