Your Life is an Eco-System. Plus 4 ways we can work together in 2024
This week I listened to a powerful training with women climate leaders from all around the world.
Watching these women and their allies gave me hope: both the specific projects they are engaged in and the way they so clearly amplify and support one another.
It started me thinking about the layers of relationships that we are each a part of -- Our unique life eco-system:
First, there is our relationship with ourselves. Coming to know and create easy friendship with ourself is an unending journey. It requires practices, like the Enneagram, that nurture an inner equilibrium, so that we make decisions and take action from our most inspired, resourced self.
Then there is our relationship with our beloveds, including those we may live with (partner, pet/s, children etc) as well as our larger family, chosen family and spiritual community or guides.
The next layer includes our home as well as outdoor areas we enjoy and inhabit. This could be a yard, nearby greenway or park, or a broader area like our watershed and the relationships we have with others who share it, including the more-than-human world.
And finally we layer in our contribution/s, through our work and community networks. In an ideal world these relationships involve reciprocity: we share our gifts and we receive, financially as well as through an experience of meaning and purpose.
When one of the layers of our eco-system is hurting, it draws our attention and energy and can put a strain on the other layers of our life.
For example, if you are struggling with a toxic work environment or are burdened by an unsustainable work or family schedule, that can burn through all your resources in other areas of life.
Or if you have inherited or internalized patterns of self-criticism or perfectionism, that can keep you from feeling at ease in your own company and from fully sharing your gifts.
Or if you don't feel seen by your partner or other intimates, that can stir an ache of loneliness that drowns out the other connections.
The good news? When we get the support we need in one area, we often experience renewed breathing room and vibrancy in every facet of life.
In fact, when I reach the end of a first session with a new client and ask them how they feel, the word I hear most often is 'relieved.'
We are each the center of so much. And it can make us feel a little crazy to hold it all by ourselves. This is only more true if you care passionately about your growth, work, life and everyone in it.
I love this line from Dr. Claire Zammit: 'We can't become ourselves, by ourselves.'
We all need support, especially if we are committed to expressing our full potential.
I hope this reflection on life as an eco-system helps you to navigate the complex interplay of all these layers with more ease and self-compassion.
It is also an invitation to consider the people in your life who amplify and encourage you. Not the person you have been or are currently, but the one you are becoming...
Yours, Courtney
Ways we can work together in 2024:
For Individuals
Private Coaching. Book a free resource conversation here. In this no pressure conversation, we can talk through coaching options (including self-study & 1:1 coaching) & answer any questions you have. I also love to be a human-to-resource matchmaker and will share any books, podcasts or other ideas I think might be a good fit!
Sunshine in a Bottle. Accessible, nature-based coaching to grow your most joyful life & powerful impact. I've distilled the BEST teachings and resources from 10+ years of coaching into a series of 'conversations' you can listen to in small increments, 10 to 30 minutes at a time, like a private podcast.
Sunshine in a Bottle includes:
✓ Holistic time management tools that create ease & flow
✓ Botanical recipes & medicinal herbs to metabolize stress
✓ Guided meditations & Enneagram-specific somatic practices
✓ Written guides, recommended resources and journal prompts
✓ Seven+ hours of audio recordings in 10-25 minute sessions
✓ On-going access to all the above resources in a private members learning space
For Organizations or Groups
Social-Impact Organizations. Are you are a leader in a mission-led business or nonprofit who wants to enhance the well-being of your colleagues AND collaborate with more ease toward shared priorities?
I've worked with businesses, non-profits, schools, hospitals, and spiritual communities to design custom trainings, workshops or wellness programs. Please email me at cp@courtneypinkerton.com or schedule a conversation to talk more about your organization's needs.
I am also offering a new workshop on personal and planetary flourishing. I’m co-hosting this event with Dr. Bob Cabin and Carrie Coleman and together we bring together science, spirituality, and story-telling to build inner resiliency in the age of climate change. You can read more about my work with Overstory LLC, and my coaching colleagues right here. We work in person and virtually with organizations.
Book Clubs & Podcasts If you want to host a group read of The Flourish Formula please reach out! I am also available as a podcast guest to talk about resiliency and resources to help us slow down and accomplish and enjoy more.
Reach out to me at cp@courtneypinkerton.com for more info or to explore any of these options for working together.
Courtney Pinkerton (she/her)
Courtney combines nature and coaching resources to help clients boost resiliency, avoid burnout and create their legacy work and lives. She is a is a certified Wayfinder coach and member of the Climate Coaching Alliance. Courtney holds Masters of Divinity and Public Policy from Harvard and is the author of the Amazon best-seller The Flourish Formula: An Overachiever's Guide to Slowing Down and Accomplishing More. She lives with her husband and three children on Apple Balm Tiny Farm near Asheville, North Carolina.
