Cyclicity
One of the joys of coaching now for almost 13 years is the opportunity to glimpse such diversity in how we compose a life.
I am currently soaking up late summer on the tiny farm.* My spring chicks are now are big enough to free range. I feel like Mary Poppins when they all come running up behind me, in the hope of their favorite treat: mealworms. We moved in two years ago, and I remember how exhausted I felt when we first arrived. The lush trees in our yard planted by others before us, the creek we can hear bubbling from the front porch and the mountain view all felt like life-lines helping metabolize the accumulated stress.
I know rural living isn't for everyone and I revel in the opportunity to work intimately with people from such a variety of professional fields, locations and life stages. I've coached doctors and lawyers, nonprofit leaders and corporate human resources experts. I’ve worked with ministers and students and scientists. With mothers and fathers, with people who are single and partnered. I have worked with librarians and academics and teachers and people developing their ‘third act’ after retirement (volunteer or paid) and young adults figuring out their life in their 20s and small business entrepreneurs and musicians and people moving or living in other countries and people working on behalf of the earth and conservation efforts and many other brave and beautiful people doing brave and beautiful things in the world.
What I have observed is that most of us live ‘in between.’
In between the world as it is and the world as we yearn for it to be both individually and collectively.
This deep pulsing hope and desire for change is honestly one of the human attributes which inspires me the most.
As best I can tell, we all live in this creative tension:
It can look like needing to sort out work that pays for our necessities in the material world, but wanting to do so in a way that doesn’t generate harm or participate in extractive economic systems. (A tall challenge for any individual to sort out by themselves.)
We also need work that doesn’t harm us, either by paying us too little or by asking us to turn into a human robot: always doing/producing.
We need cycles in our work and in every part of our life and room to expand and to change and shift.
And people who see us for who we are becoming and have room for that evolution, rather than requiring us to stay who we have been.
Work and money are just one facet of life where we hold this creative tension (or are held by it.) It shows up in all seven 'life gardens.'
And of course our starting point vis-à-vis these deeply human questions is wildly unequal.
It is such a privilege to have room to hold them and ask them on a planet where many people are locked in survival mode. But that doesn’t mean the confusion or pain we feel when trying to ask and answer them by ourselves isn’t real suffering. Because it is.
Today I want to share a new free audio resource on the power of Cyclical Living.
LISTEN HERE
Cyclical living generates more energy in our days. It helps us flow with our life and schedule rather than fight against it.
Cyclical Living is the choice to consciously sync our life within the cycles that influence us. Starting with the body we attend to our circadian rhythm and our need for activity and rest, our productivity cycle (every 90 minutes or so we need a 15 minute break), and our menstrual cycle (if we are cycling.) We also tune into the natural cycles of the moon and seasons: spring, fall, winter, summer or rainy/dry season, as well as agricultural harvests and local/seasonal eating patterns, and cultural or religious traditions that we celebrate as we move through the year. This is an excerpt from my nature-based coaching program Sunshine in a Bottle. (Sunshine in a Bottle distills coaching resources into mini recordings, like a private podcast, for busy humans. Learn More HERE.)
Warmly, Courtney
PS *What is a ‘tiny farm’? 1.5 acres of chickens, vintage apple trees, a big garden and a field we currently use to play badminton but where I have dreams of one day hosting miniature llamas.
PPS. Whether you are new here or have been with me for over a decade, I would love to be on your support team. This could be as simple as you checking out a free resource, reading my book, enrolling in Sunshine in a Bottle or scheduling a conversation to learn more about coaching options.
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.
