Sustainability of   Shamanic Coaching
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SUSTAINABILITY OF SHAMANIC COACHING

e all have learned that just changing our mental perspective or our behavior often does not produce the results we're seeking. Something more is often needed, something on a deeper level. It is the intent of Shamanic Coaching to deliver an enduring and fuller experience of change and achievement. Deep and sustainable change occurs when all aspects of the self are in alignment. For example, if the body is unable to hold the energy, the desired behavior will often disintegrate. Specifically, if you want to be assertive, you need to embody assertiveness in some way that way conveys assertiveness to yourself and others. When you go beyond telling yourself to be assertive, to feeling assertive, you will be assertive.

Shamanic Coaching's basis

Owen Rising Elk Marcus' perspective on change work is that we all have developed behaviors, beliefs and other constructs that have allowed us to survive our stress. However, these survival skills often turn into limitations and shadows to our real consciousness. The goal in Shamanic Coaching is to extract the gifts hidden in the shadows leaving behind the restrictions. This is accomplished through an empirical approach to change.

Taking stress out

Stress takes us out - it short-circuits our bodies and our minds. The stress response is a survival response and is hardwired in us to keep us alive. Unfortunately, a short usually occurs. More often than most of us realize, we respond to situations from a place of physiological and psychological survival. In that place, secondary functions take a back seat. Pleasure, creativity, healing and intuition are not survival behaviors; therefore, they are diminished because of stress.

One of the goals of Shamanic Coaching is to assist a client in rewiring his or her stress response. When the stress response only occurs when needed, it serves us, thereby creating a huge reservoir of resources available to generate success and pleasure. Yes, this does sound simple, and in theory, it is very simple. However, teaching the body and the mind to make the shift can involve some work. But once achieved, the gain is significant and easy to maintain.

There are many avenues to eliciting the body's non-stress resources. Mindfulness — the ability to be aware and connected to the full spectrum of circumstances as they occur — is enormously valuable as it allows the body to respond from a place of relaxation. A master martial artist or an animal in the wild is always available to be aware of what is most important in any given moment. Having a body/mind capable of doing this opens up deep resources, creating a completely new set of skills for accomplishing one's goals — just as stress opens deep survival skills.

The body is our ally

“ Only one who devotes himself to a cause with his whole strength and soul can be a true master. For this reason mastery demands all of a person. — Albert Einstein ”

The body is the base for all action as it holds and transforms energy. A thought or desire may enter the mind, and the body then takes that energy to turn it into a productive action. We can choose to ignore this aspect of our existence and have it sabotage us. Or, alternatively, we can recruit it as an ally for success.

As we learn to listen and respect our own emotional and physical sensations, we become better listeners of others. The empowerment of the subtle within us becomes the foundation for creativity for others and ourselves. By fostering our peripheral awareness, we allow for our own healing and innovation.
Somatic Coaching adds to traditional coaching with the integration of the body as a resource for sustainable change and power. Shamanic Coaching builds on this powerful use of the body to deepen and expedite the change.

When we own on a visceral level our body awareness, all of our power is as natural as is the force of the wind. We begin to find ourselves being powerful without effort or thought. Power and wisdom come from some place deep within. This place is naturally in alignment with our values. Here the consort of all of our aspects aligns to create a deep presence of innate authority.

Using your secret ally

The unconscious mind is always operating in the background, observing and reacting. It is much like a hidden program on a computer. Often its memory or its hidden agenda can sabotage what we want — anything from a Freudian slip to forgetting your spouse's birthday can occur.

As with the body, we have a choice of ignoring and denying this element of our existence or using it. Coincidentally, the body and the unconscious mind are two sides of the same coin. Accessing either will open the door to our true control center. Just as Dorothy lifted the curtain to reveal the man behind the wizard, so do we reveal our root of control when we release the body and the unconscious mind.

Shamanic Coaching integrates learning and leadership by incorporating the body and the unconscious mind. Knowledge is replaced with embodied wisdom.

Embodying deep mastery

Mastery is not a finite state. It is an ongoing process that leads towards a goal that is never fully achieved; it is a process of refinement. Shamanic Coaching assists you in accessing all of your skills and passions to come much closer to achieving this goal. It is one thing to coach a client towards a goal; it is another matter to awaken a client's inner resources to achieve the goal. It is much like taking a child who is a natural born basketball player and not supplying just a basketball, but creating an environment that nurtures and inspires. Designing a place where a hidden talent can be discovered; a place with mentors who can who model the needed skills and be guides on the journey. Coaching this child often becomes a process of drawing out his or her talent and passion. The child's mastery evolves from all aspects of him or her being fully engaged in learning and life.

Just as this child develops a vision of a basketball player, a leader follows a vision. He or she is a caretaker to the vision and uses his or her mastery to assure the vision's attainment. This vision can be very personal or it can be an organizational vision. The more assets he or she is able to enlist, the more assured he or she will be of the expeditious success.

Healing with Shamanic Coaching

One of the interesting phenomena of Shamanic Coaching is that as clients make their shifts on emotional, mental and physical levels, other parts of them change without any effort. The once limiting inter-connection of all the aspects of a client develops into a synergy of change. Quite simply, stress and tension are replaced with vitality and health. Much of the sustainability of Shamanic Coaching derives from how many aspects are changed and how they support each other in restoring health. Some have used Shamanic Coaching and this ability to catalyze healing. The distinction between learning behaviors that are more effective and healing past limitations is relative to how a client frames his or her experience.

Network of resources

Owen often relies on his network of professionals to enhance his work with his clients. Professionals and organizations local to the client can augment and reinforce the changes a client experiences.

For information about innovative solutions to dealing with stress, visit Owen's blog: http://www.stressedout.org/