My Mindfulness Journey

At the time I discovered coaching, I also discovered mindfulness. I did my first ten-day, meditation retreat and came out completely transformed. I discovered the source of happiness was within me, rather than something I needed to create on the outside. There was a moment about halfway through the retreat when I discovered how much my mind created suffering and that I had a choice about whether to suffer or not. With this awareness came a deep sense of peace and joy.

Soon after this first retreat, I went to India for the first time. I immersed myself in the chaos of India, staying in ashrams to connect more deeply with myself, experiencing a multitude of different types of meditations and therapy workshops. It was an awakening experience of opening my heart fully to life and fully surrendering to existence.

Towards the end of the trip, we had an opportunity to take on a spiritual name, as a way to continue committing to this path of meditation. This was a way to remind us to stay true to ourselves, even when it becomes challenging within everyday life. The name I was given was ‘Satyam Vinya’. Satyam means ‘truth’ and Vinya means ‘discipline’. This name was perfect for me and resonated at a deep level of my being.

Mindfulness is a commitment to truth, to the discipline of staying here in the moment with what is true. The name quickly caught on and has been a powerful reminder on a daily basis to stay true to myself and come back to connect with myself whenever I feel I have been swept away by my stories about the past or future.

Since then, mindfulness has been a daily practice, both on the cushion and within every moment of the day, to support me to be mindful. Mindfulness is an easy enough technique to learn, however, it is much harder to sustain and practice. The mind is often referred to as the monkey mind, jumping all over the place. It takes time, focus, and practice to be mindful, particularly in very stressful situations. However, we are now discovering, through breakthroughs in science, that we are able to retrain our brains, create new connections, and embed those new connections until they become hardwired. So with practice, mindfulness becomes a hardwired habit.

Of course, as a coach and seeing the benefits mindfulness has given me, I wanted to share this with my clients. So over the years, I have been introducing and supporting clients to develop mindfulness. It has been almost magical to see how this simple practice has transformed their lives. When both coach and client can be mindful, it adds a whole new dimension to the coaching, however, the real joy is in seeing my clients share their presence with others.

In 2008, I started sharing mindfulness with other coaches who have discovered the multitude of benefits for themselves and then shared this with their clients. I have had the absolute pleasure through my virtual program, ‘Mindfulness to Coaching Mastery’, of connecting with coaches from around the world, coming together to support each other to be mindful. All of these coaches are kind, generous, supportive individuals, committed to making a difference in the world. Through developing their coaching presence using mindfulness, they discover how much greater an impact they can have through coaching.