The promise of practice
This may sound obvious but it can be a massive pitfall for many of us. Here goes …
If you’re not practicing something different, you’re practicing staying the same.
Not to overwhelm you. But every thought you have, every choice you make, everything you say, the way you say it, what you don’t say, how you respond, what you put your attention on is practiced. For all of this and more – you’re either practicing reinforcing old patterns or practicing toward something new.
There’s nothing wrong with reinforcing an old pattern. That pattern may be serving you very well – in fact, that pattern came about to take care of something for you at some stage in your life. But if, actually, you want to shift something in your life, you need to start practicing something different. Like actually. And regularly. And on purpose.
In order for change to last, it requires repetition. In somatics they say that it takes 300 reps of something to learn it. And 3,000 reps to embody it. OK, that’s a lot. But it’s the promise of practice. The promise that if we identify the skill we need to develop, we can get better at it over time. And that after enough time, we won’t have to really try as hard anymore – it just becomes part of how we live.
Another thing about practices. It doesn’t really work that well to layer new practices on top of old ones. It’s kind of like building an addition on top of an old foundation. Under enough pressure, the foundation will collapse and the old ways will come through. This is why real, lasting change can evade us.
For this reason, somatic coaching is layered not just with new practices, but with building somatic awareness (what is happening in that foundation) and also something called somatic opening (the reorganization of the foundation to create space for something new). These other pieces help to create the conditions where new practices can start to stick.
Somatic coaching is FULL of practices. It is through practice that we become more aware and we begin to create pathways for new ways of living.
It’s not easy work. Let me be transparent about that. There are very good reasons why we protect our foundations – and we protect them fiercely. But there are ways to work with this so we aren’t stuck in the same patterns our whole lives.
I’m still practicing toward my certification in somatic coaching and I’m looking for 1-2 new somatic coaching practice clients. It’s a 10 session commitment. 50 minutes per session. Held weekly or every-other week. $75 per session (with sliding scale). Sessions are recorded (so I can get feedback from my mentor). I’m offering these sessions at less than my typical coaching fee because I am still learning this methodology.
If this sounds interesting to you, I’d love to tell you more and answer your questions. Book a call (no cost) to see if this is a fit. Hoping to hear from you.
And in the mean time, I am still taking on clients in my wider coaching practice – individuals who are looking for support to create or navigate a transition in their lives with more clarity and choice. A recent client just shared:
“Thank you again for taking me on as a client. I found the coaching experience to be genuinely invaluable in helping me gain clarity on what I want out of my career.”
Click here to book a no-cost call. When we find our practices, all of a sudden we are on a path. No longer stuck … sounds good, right?
Learn more about the organization that’s training me – the Strozzi Institute for Somatics. They’re pretty cool.