Yesterday evening someone asked me what Kindness means to me?
I said self-care.
Shortly after this I went for my evening walk, dressed up like a person going to the North Pole as it was freezing in the Netherlands. I returned with a freshness of being out in the cold and nature. As I looked at nature in winter, it also looked like it was also doing self-care, taking rest, slowing down and resting.
When I came back from the walk I sat down on my comfortable sofa, paid attention to how my body was, noticing my breathing, I observed the quality of mind without trying to change anything. As I did this the thoughts of the day flooded in:-
The remote executive coaching walk and talk which I rearranged to a zoom call because it was too cold for to be outside for an hour.
The men’s group where the themes of love, tiredness, anxiety and connection arose and where we left with hope, resilience and sensitivity.
The agile team coaching super-vision session where new scrum masters shared their vulnerabilities of helping their inexperienced teams grow and their personal, systemic and ethical dilemmas
My website crashing and having to fix it, because it was out of scope with my provider.
Facilitating yesterday evening Blend Associates Ltd. online festive celebration for the associate coaches/supervisors and Blend core team.
Recalling all of this got compressed into just a few mind moments. The observer part of my mind just noticing the thoughts like clouds in the sky. In this recognition of what was going on stillness shined through the clouds and rest appeared.
When I share like this, I imagine a response might be “but you where a Buddhist monk, I could never do that.” You can though start from where you are at and that is where I meet my clients, it is a fertile place of connection and growth.
Have a look at the slide deck as ask yourself what rest do you need today?
How do you when you are rested?
