¨I am constantly losing my balance.

My skill lies in my ability to regain it¨. ✨

This is what Sensei told the young student; “there is no secret”. The question is not whether you will get knocked out. You will.

The real question is whether you are able to get back on your feet and keep moving in a productive direction.

When you lose balance it’s difficult to see the way out. You might try all the strategies that have worked in the past with no success.

This brings frustration, and sadness. You get stuck.

The way coaching helps you regain your balance is by accompanying you toward making powerful choices and bringing awareness to those choices.

It sounds crazy, but it’s not so much about trying to regain balance as it is as being aware there are other choices you could have made and still can make. 🌺

Too complicated? Book a free discovery call with me and let me explain you better how this works. https://lnkd.in/egin4Aec

What strategies work for you?

Have a great and balanced day!

So many people want to increase their confidence, raise their motivation, clear up unresolved issues with others. . . but because they are not being 100% honest with themselves, they start from a weak place and it’s difficult to move forward.

When you are not the real you it’s easy to get stuck. Without radical self-honesty nothing flows. You start in a dark place with no clarity, and you feel unbalanced.

Self-awareness is about accepting your limitations, and being ready to be vulnerable. But you need to be clear about yourself first, then you move forward to get the clarity you need outside.  

Only being yourself with your flaws and powers (yes, it´s also about embracing your strengths), can you start that journey to more confidence, more motivation, and better relationships.

Being yourself is the easiest thing to do… when you know yourself!

Executive coaching can help you increase your self-awareness in a business context. 🌼

Thanksgiving is a weird celebration. 😝

The American movies show a giant turkey on a very well-set table surrounded by members of the same family. It’s like a small version of Christmas just a month before Christmas.

But of all the festivities on the calendar, this is the one with the most powerful justification.

3 things I know about gratitude:

✔ Thankfulness impacts as much the receiver as the giver.

✔ Gratitude is not attractive in the workplace. For Martin Seligman, the father of Positive Psychology, 2/3 of the interventions that have the biggest impact are related to gratitude. When employees feel valued and appreciated, they experience higher levels of well-being and their productivity increases. But when they are asked about this, they say they are not as appreciative as they could be because they feel they’d be taken advantage of.

✔ Robert Emmons, the world's leading scientific expert on gratitude proves that it can reduce stress by 28%, chances of depression by 16%, increasing optimism by 94%, and improving sleeping habits like insomnia by 66%.

And here 5 practical exercises:

1️⃣ Gratitude journal: during one week every morning for 15 minutes list all the things you are grateful for. Also add the things that are going to happen that day. 📄

2️⃣ Thank you letter: write a thank you note to that special person that has helped you in the past, be as descriptive as possible. You don’t need to send it; this exercise is for you!! 😍

3️⃣ What if…? exercise: ask yourself what would have happened in your life if . . . someone had not existed / or you had not taken a certain action / or moved somewhere. . . Be thankful for those events that at the time didn’t seem right but that helped you be where you are today. 🌈

4️⃣ Get that thing that your partner/colleague/friend likes, and just give it to them. ❤

5️⃣ Ask yourself what you most value about the person you have in front of you (your partner/ a colleague/ a friend who disappointed you…) , versus “does this person make me happy?”. 😲

What am I missing?

Thank you for reading! 😉

For a long time getting things done and reaching goals was my motto. ✨

Working at the highest pace gave me energy and I loved being productive.

But since I started my journey in executive coaching and had the privilege of listening to the stories of my amazing clients, I’ve become much more aware of the importance of patience.

"To lose patience is to lose the battle"- Mahatma Gandhi

I have a client whose saying is “never give up”. So he never gives up on his people. He continues to support them also in the toughest times. Even when the easiest would be to fire them and find a replacement. And he might, in the future. But first, he has the courage to stop and wait. And this is what allows him to make wiser choices, see the big and the small picture. His patience makes him a better leader.

Being patient you gain control of the situation, you become more empathetic, and cooperative.

Mastering the skill requires practice. But good things take time! And sometimes we have to stop to achieve greater things!

The summer is not over until we say it´s over. 💪

September is a fresh start!

How do you want to live this week? Who do you want to be?

I choose to be the best version of myself with my friends, family, colleagues and associates! 😍 

And if I fail, it's ok. I´m also human.

But that´s my primary intention.

✔ You can choose to be grateful, you can decide to be positive, you can appreciate what you have and value what you have achieved so far.

You can choose

Hello September!

Starting meditation brought a lot of frustration. ✨

I wanted to:

✔ be more present in my interactions with others
✔ increase my self-awareness
✔ have more clarity and balance

I knew I had to start at some point, but never managed to really get going. 😅

Fast forward 365 days, and not only do I meditate every day, I also include short practices in my training sessions.

Do you want to know how I did it?

By accident!

15.000 thoughts can cross our mind in just one day. So I started to calm my mind just 5 minutes before each coaching conversation; I wanted to be fully present for my clients. And apparently doing that short practice daily is better that 4 retreats a year.

In a few weeks improvements start to happen: better attentional control, emotional self-regulation, better concentration. . .

Give it a try: it’s not magic, it’s science! Or more precisely, it´s neuroscience.

Have you started your meditation journey yet?

And back!

I took a few weeks off from work and it was great.

But this morning I left my three kids at their school, and ran to my computer to do what I love the most:

Executive coaching:

Gestalt techniques: when I started coaching, I fell in love with Gestalt, these techniques work amazingly well for me and for my clients. If you are stuck and need a new perspective on whatever the topic, call me for some creativity and be ready: it can be uncomfortable and requires some courage.

Co-Active coaching: if you don’t feel so courageous, but still have changes to make, we can work on your issue with a co-active approach. We’ll take action together to build a new reality.

Ontological coaching: after 2 years fully-focused on the approaches above, I am finally starting to use this type of coaching. With oncological coaching we work from the premise that language is central to how reality is generated.

Coaching-based leadership course:

My second course starts on Friday so I’m preparing a new and better version, and I can’t wait to start. The participants will learn how to embrace a coaching-based leadership style, increase the quality of their conversations and support their team members in reaching their goals using coaching techniques.

If any of this is of interest, DM today or hop on a 30-minute discovery call here: https://lnkd.in/e7eyweXM

I´m here for you!!!!

Now, tell me: what have you been up to?

This morning I was looking out the window on this sunny Saturday asking myself¨Studying for an exam in your mid-40s?¨ 🙄Then I took my final exam of a Positive Psychology Master´s.What an incredible journey it has been!✔ 10 months✔ 61 classes✔ 244 hours of knowledge about how to learn and cultivate happiness in individuals and organizations✔ 10 pieces of coursework on different topics✔ 1 essay✔ 2 exams✔ 1 Master´s Degree final ProjectAnd all Fridays and Saturdays devoted to the cause.I discovered the world of science and it was amazing to deep dive into the subjects of this empirical study.I´m taking all that learning with me for my own benefit but also for my family, my clients and hopefully for all the projects I´m going to be part of in the future.AND. . . I got a 9 out of 10.So Virginia, out! 😎Have a great day!

Once in a while a woodcutter calls me: ✨“Hey, sorry I have no time to sharpen my axe. I´m too busy cutting trees, and I have so many left: I´m overwhelmed, I can´t think right at the moment. Can we postpone our session? Can we start in two months?”I say “yes, of course”, and I think “but you know that’s what coaching is for: to get clarity and balance back in your life”.Then I’m so busy with my things myself that I stop posting or blogging. “Well, I’ll come back in a couple of weeks. No one will notice”.Sometime we know what we have to do but we are swamped by the task, project, or assignment. We think we´ll be able to stop soon, and we tirelessly continue with our business.And that´s ok. We might need more time to think before acting. We might need our motivation to be higher to get into that other more important thing.The main thing here is to accept this, and to be aware that this happens to millions of people. Putting such high expectations on yourself is not serving you, and the lack of acceptance will block you.Embrace your procrastination, you’ll come back stronger!What’s that thing you are delaying or getting ready for?Have a great day!