My Friday Flurry - Autumnal Camera Roll Snippets, Mindful Self-Compassion & Grumpy Crows

A brilliant friend and colleague of mine is launching her Mindful Self-Compassion course - which, if you're not familiar, is a standardised 8-week programme, which has been validated by a ton of research. I mention mindful self-compassion a lot because it is so at the core of the work I do - it's the element that I find creates the real transformation. Being able to see all parts of yourself, acknowledge your struggles, recognise your common humanity, and provide warmth and kindness for yourself - you would be amazed how powerful this is. I found the 8 week mindful self-compassion course to be one of the most impactful trainings I've done, and I can't recommend it enough. Check out the free intro sessions in Dec & early Jan to see if it's the right thing for you.

And here are some photos of leaves being caught by other leaves after a rain shower. It made me think of compassion and community!

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On the themes of serendipity and outdoorsiness, I am happy to report that I did my first official WALKING COACHING session this week. And it happened quite serendipitously - I had been working on my business vision & planning for the year ahead, and identified that I want to be doing a lot more 1:1 coaching, and would even love to get the walking coaching idea (that I had mostly forgotten about) back on the cards. Then a day or two later, meeting with a new potential client, he spontaneously asked me if we could do our sessions walking! And we did, a couple of days later! Being outdoors and on the move was great. So if you're interested in trying this out (or know someone who is, and is based in/near London), send them my way!

And for the more stationary/indoors-inclined, I still offer sessions via…

…Zoom (Spooky the cat does occasionally pop in)…

…and in person at the lovely Dulwich Therapy Rooms (East Dulwich).

And since realising that I really want to spend a lot more of my time doing 1:1 coaching, I am working on some new promotional materials which I will share when they're ready. Below is a work-in-progress for a leaflet which says…

• ‘Self-Compassion Coaching’: I'm experimenting with this heading for the work that I do. Like I said before, I've found that building self-compassion is the key transformative element of this work, so I'm exploring how to get that across in a way that makes sense. I previously have had ‘preventing burnout’ front and centre.

• Some other scribbled thoughts (including debates about whether the wording is cheesy).

Obviously I won't be hand-writing these but a little behind-the-scenes nugget for you. And I'd love to know what you think, since you're the people who know what my work is about!

Anyway, all that to say please send people my way if you know anyone interested in exploring coaching! Thank you

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Crows Really Get Me (and us?)

And a fun little factlet to leave you with - I heard this on the radio the other day. Apparently crows can hold a grudge for 17 years. I have no idea how this was measured, what defines a grudge, or why specifically 17 years. I'm not sure if it's aspirational (keep going!) or a cautionary tale (you could end up like one of those embittered crows), but I'm enjoying feeling like crows understand those deep grumpy parts of my soul.

And I don't have a photo of crows but I did spot these parakeets pottering about after my walking coaching session the other day, so here you go:

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Ps - if this posts looks odd, it's probably because I made it on my phone in a (surprisingly relaxing) flurry (if such a thing exists, if not maybe I need a different word) of ‘let’s get things done now!’ energy. Have a lovely weekend, if you're reading this hot off the press. And thanks for reading. As ever, it's lovely to hear from you if this has sparked any thoughts or if you want to join me in celebrating crow grudges.

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Update: Posting this from my phone did not work, so - hope you’ve had a good Saturday, and let’s see if it works this time!