Why Space for Insight?

It is important to explain how integrated yoga, meditation and coaching are and why I set up Space for Insight at the end of 2013. I had been engaged in a lot of coaching and facilitation processes in the lead up to becoming a coach myself and founding Space for Insight. Not only did I have a couple of coaching processses before I left organisational life, I also organised several Action Learning Sets of CEOs of children’s rights INGOs. I discovered that, as a CEO, I was incredibly tough on myself and, indirectly, on others because I over-worked and expected others to do the same. I judged myself and others unrealistically.

I had these insights through working with others; saying things out loud; and holding myself to account, as a coach or a group listened.

I headed up an organisation that supported some of the world’s most vulnerable children: street children, children displaced by war, children who were forced to work and denied their right to an education. Surely my hard work was justice at play: it was easy to build a case for my over-work and over-activity to myself and to others.

Ironically, what gave me the endurance to over-work and not stop much was my yoga practice. Yoga was my super power! I had practiced yogasana almost my whole adult life and I started a daily meditation practice in 2005. Yoga woud bring my body back into balance after my over-work. I was no longer flooded with stress hormones. I felt good after a yoga class and never experienced an adrenal burnout. So in some ways, yoga was keeping me in the over-work.

Something else that must be explained simply here is that meditation actually is part of yoga. I need to talk about Iyengar Yoga and Transcendental Meditation as two separate things because of trademaks, brands, and capitalism. However, Patanjali’s eight-fold path, codified in the Yoga Sutras, includes: Yama, Niyama, Asana, Pranayama, Pratyahara, Dharana, Dhyana (Meditation) and Samadhi (Transcendence). And Patanjali also advocated our relating to others as part of our spiritual practice. I think he would have be an advocate for coaching in the modern world.

Now I am committed to helping others use yoga as a super power wisely! I deeply believe that the best healing is done through different modalities. Not all of my coachees practice yoga. I do always recommend a movement practice and meditation. Coaching and a yoga combined will help you to manage your energy better, which is essential for success.