Coaching

Coaching is:

• a way to embrace positive change
• a commitment to excellence
• a forward movement
• a priceless partnership to structure dreams, vision and goals, and watch them unfold!
• a journey  to success
• a propelling force
• a better future

… and more!

What do I offer as a coach:

• a great interest about you, your skills, your potential, your goals
• an attentive, listening ear
• a creative outlook on challenges and how to confront them
• a sounding board
• a supportive process to acquire clarity and focus to reach your objectives
• a safe environment to explore deep questions, new ideas and possibilities
• a definite passion for growth

If you’d like to contact me for a free session, you can write me at:

withinyoucoach@gmail.com

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What people say:

“I got lot of support from Maria: very caring, supportive, paying attention and being always close to me, giving me the space to talk and move around my ideas, asking good questions, challenging me, letting me go to the inner truth.”

-Doina Bratu, business woman- Romania

“All the coaching process was a pleasant surprise for me but the highlights were definitely the times where I realized how much I was hiding from myself and giving up of things creating excuses.  My coach facilitated the process for me to recognize that defenses that I was creating even unconsciously, and helped me to move forward or to reframe my way of thinking.”

-Paula Arrais Velez- Portugal

Vision without action is merely a dream. Action without vision just passes the time. Vision with action can change the world.—Joel Barker

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Art of Living course

This is a course made for groups of a minimum of 4 persons.

The themes for each module and workshop are:

• Making the most of our will-power
• You can heal from your wounds
• Communication can work wonders
• To work, with no stress!
• Benefits from meditation
• Enhancing relationships through appreciation
• The leader in you
• Creative journey
• Being authentic and unique
  
• Is happiness a reality?
• Trained to win


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POWER TOOL:

Gain vs. Loss

Whenever you fall, pick up something. – Oswald Avery

Topic 1: How to win anyhow.

One definition from Webster Dictionary on the word GAIN is “an increase in wealth, earnings: profit; winnings; improvement. “ or “to make progress; improve or advance. “

To the contrary, the word LOSS means “ damage, trouble, disadvantage, deprivation, caused by losing something.” And being AT A LOSS  is “in an uncertain or perplexed state; puzzled”

Though there are times in our lives when we experience deep losses, we can still learn to face these times with a winning attitude. We can make the most of every single circumstance by being aware that there is always something that can be learned, acquired or treasured.

When we are living in celebration, and we are appreciating everything in our life, even what’s most challenging, difficult or painful, we gain. We learn to value every relationship. We become aware that circumstances or people we may personally dislike, are there to teach us something precious.

On the other hand, when we are blaming circumstances &/or people for problems we may be facing, even though we may have been actually hurt, we suffer loss.  When we let ourselves become trapped by bitterness, and we refuse to let go of ill feelings  and past grievances, we lose hope, power, enthusiasm , and the courage to start again.

Winston Churchill once said, “Difficulties mastered are opportunities won.” He is also the author of this well-known saying: “A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.”

Discussion:

When do you experience loss?

How do you confront it?

Assumption vs. Attitude

The first step in gaining a positive attitude is to discover the benefits of the negative situation.

Undoubtedly, it takes discipline to stay motivated, to work against discouragement, and to face competition and challenge.  A special ingredient found in motivation is the ability to work against discouragement and to keep on going. Attitude counts for so much.         Everything you are and do is a product of your attitude about life. Positive attitudes are the foundation stones of successful living. All that you are and do today is the sum total of your thoughts and attitudes of yesterday.

Psychological tests reveal that our responses toward others are determined more by our attitudes than by what others actually do. It’s all in how we look at things.

The weight of a thing is determined by our perception of it. If you are having a hard day, how do you tend to respond to others? Positive, pleasant, full of enthusiasm? Or withdrawn, self-absorbed, maybe a bit negative? If your perception of yourself is not very positive, how do you suppose you relate to others? Do you spend your energy building people up, complimenting them, focusing on their positive ways? Or do you relate to them in less positive ways, focusing on their faults, making hurtful comments (although they might be unintentional), and conveying a negative attitude in general?

What seems nasty, painful, evil, can become a source of beauty, joy, and strength, if faced with an open mind. Every moment is a golden one for him who has the vision to recognize it as such. -Henry Miller

Your perception will determine your attitude which will determine your effectiveness. If you assume that events that occur to you are negative, and a loss,  it will become so. That perception will take a toll on your attitude, which will take a toll on your effectiveness, which will probably slowly degrade you.  Assuming is accepting a perception as a reality, without first checking it out!

DISCUSSION

When you are asked to describe yourself, what answers do you give?

Have you ever been involved in an exercise where you are to list a certain number of positive traits about yourself? Did you find it difficult?

A thermostat or a thermometer?

Some people are thermometers. They merely register what’s going on around them. If the situation is tight and pressurized, they register tension and irritability. Others, however, are thermostats. They regulate the atmosphere in their homes. They are the mature ones, the agents of change who don’t let the situation dictate their behavior.

So when things get hot at your house, don’t just reflect what’s going on-change things for the better. Be a thermostat, not a thermometer!

-Mark Merrill, The Family Minute

A thermostat is an example of a feedback mechanism. It gauges the temperature in the room & regulates the operation of the furnace based on the desired temperature set by you. By changing your actions, you can actually change your attitudes and the way you think.

“Acting as if” allows you to transcend and transform your own nature–to do what’s unnatural until it becomes natural.  As you exercise the qualities you want to acquire, you’ll soon find yourself actually becoming like that.

Reflection and Application Which qualities have you gained lately, that have added quality to your life? Write a list of them, and explain in what way they have made a difference for you.

Power in being vulnerable

Withholding our emotions makes healthy communication impossible and creates distance in relationships. The part we hold back–our authentic selves–constitutes the very richness that others would find appealing. There is hidden power and magnetism in vulnerability–and in the willingness to share deeper feelings, whether to express love or to acknowledge fears and needs.

When you are honest and open, you will find others inviting you into their private worlds.

Whatever your qualities are, let them fly. People respect, and empathize with, vulnerability–because we all have it.

Think about the people you enjoy and admire. They are not super beings. They err, they cry, they despair. They are real–and vulnerable–human beings.

Once people begin exposing their true selves, you can’t help but care about them.

Vulnerability has startling beauty and power. When you let the real you shine through, you will enjoy more love and acceptance than you ever dreamed possible.

Reflection and Application

1. 1. What do you think you can gain by being vulnerable?

1. 2. In the past week, how many times have you covered up your fears?

1. 3. From 1 to 10, how difficult is for you to share your true emotions?

1. 4. In the next four days, see if you can let go of bottled up feelings, hurts, tensions or frustrations, and replace them with a new perspective you may have gained through opening up and risking to be vulnerable.