This morning, Sunday, was a cloudless day and beautiful blue skies (welcome over Skies would be blue wouldn’t they). Off to my Vineyard Church meeting, This is a Super Sunday meeting which means there is no actual service as such. Anyone is invited and also to bring along their children for a variety of games and past times. In the main meeting Hall there is a large bouncy castle and the children have a whale of a time.

I had a variety of discussions with various people. Still fresh from my marathon diary exercise yesterday Saturday, I commented to someone how you can program the brain to produce information for you. It’s all a question of training or should we say entrainment.  I did excel myself yesterday with 2,800 words but as someone pointed out if you wrote down everything you did and said you could easily have that number of words each day. This is true but my challenge is to create something which is unique and thought-provoking.

I was talking about food sensitivity to someone who said they could not take fat in any shape all form. If they want to have a stake it’s got to be pre-cooked fat removed. He said he was once at a barbecue and not wanting to be rude had a hamburger which unfortunately had fat in. He sat down as a table and the color drained from his face and he had to be taken home. I suppose we would call this an extreme reaction but a reaction it is. He said that he used to take medication but now he relies on Prayer. I could not argue with that.

I said that from my point of view, I had got into lots of lazy habits in my life and I just had to discipline myself, boring though it may be. I made a mistake this morning when, from numerous coffees, I had a very small bun with little bits of chocolate in and that absolutely destroyed my digestion and when I got home, I had to have some medication for it

I spoke a bit about mental health. Another contact had been in the prison service for 20 years and he said he used to referee 22 people at a football match and he commented how much people’s behaviour changed when they were in a team when qualities of cooperation were required.  This gives a good clue about mental health. Perhaps you don’t have to understand, think, over worry, but just find an activity that will incidentally heal you of some of your handicaps without recourse to medication.

I met an American chap who worked for a company as a technician he says he gets four weeks of work and then one week off for what is a 24/7 production process. He gets very well compensated financially but it does not make up for the lack of management sensitivity, the box ticking mentality where human beings themselves and their feelings are disregarded. The company, Nestle, did a survey which included asking the question how happy people were with their work and they were shocked to hear that 54% of them would find another job if they could.

What makes work satisfying is continuity and family spirit. My American friend came back after a 10-day break he found some fault that he had reported had not been attended to and at this point he realized what he was missing. Pay levels are only one factor among many.

Another friend who works in the music industry as a sound technician said he’d had a very good month this month. People ask him if he worked by the hour and he said no his minimum is half a day. I would have thought for any creative work, a minimum should be a day because you got to go to and throw from the client who typically does not live around the corner. I wondered if the charge per day included travel costs typically mileage costs.

Aims and goals for a counseling or coaching session

Today I saw by arrangement a client that I have known for the past 26 years. We had the pleasure of visiting him when he was working in Dubai. I’m going to use this opportunity to reflect a little bit on how I see the whole business of counseling and coaching.

I have become a certified coach but prior to that I have always had an intuitive ability which has served me well over the years. I noticed it first at the age of 25 during a conference on health and healing. I developed the use of the pendulum for dowsing situations and more or less taught myself as I went along.

What constitutes and ideal counseling or coaching session? I have learnt that when people present, they tell us the situation as they see it from their conscious mind but you can be sure that it is not a description of the cause. The way I help is to assist people to unpack their problems and give them freedom to speak even if the account Tumbles out in an untidy way. It is my job to solve this out and present it back to them rather as one would hold a mirror up to somebody.

Human Nature being what it is, change is difficult and maybe you have to hear things five or more times for its to result in a decision to change your life. I have noticed this with alcoholism. Many people do not recognise themselves as having a problem and it is only at a crisis point when say their spouse says to them it’s either me or the alcohol and people take action. We are not very good at predictive programming.

I try to spot problems before they become big ones. This requires a degree of empathy somewhat above the average. To put myself in the shoes of the other person and speak with them rather than to them and most certainly not act to them. Threatening behaviour can take many forms and people will close up immediately if they feel they are being threatened, that is just human nature,

If I’m seeing someone over a period of time I give them homework, something about, something to do, hopefully to give them a sense of achievement when they have done it and got some results. I think it is good to give some challenge to people,  it makes a sense of achievement. I see part of my goal as encouraging people because being a sensitive being on the planet is a tough job and we are surrounded typically by people who are not on our wavelength or have no interest in being on our wavelength.

I also believe that the more you understand of a situation, the more power you have over it. Ignorance produces fear, and increases the likelihood of making inappropriate decisions. We have to be gentle with people because if they have been hurt and are suffering from the wounds, a critical approach will make them instinctively withdraw into their shell like a snail. I do not blame people for this.

When all said and done, if people are ready to hear something, they do something. If they are not ready they will just nod and smile, pay their money, and you will never hear from them again. No session is wasted because seeds are always sown, even if they take time to germinate.  I love it when occasionally, and I do mean occasionally, people write back saying how they benefited from my intervention and this just adds to the satisfaction of what is a very interesting and challenging occupation.

A disappointment over a ZOOM meeting

This evening, looking forward as was Françoise to a zoom meeting on the topic of the properties of water and it’s esoteric value. Were given the zoom code to login, we tuned in at 6:00 p.m., and we were told that the host was engaged in another meeting. We waited half an hour but nothing. We were very disappointed because the topic and the speaker was of great interest.

It beggars belief when people do not organise themselves. I have written about this before but the host and guests should arrange to link up 15 minutes before the official start, sort out all technical problems such as there may be, and then let the crowd in at the agreed time. So, and let individuals in and those not letting will be unaware of the small meeting and then you open the flood gates so everybody. It is not rocket science. Also, is it possible to rehearse the share screen protocol. I do not want to see people explaining to each other and wasting the time of all the visitors ’saying things like ‘ it’s the small button on the left’.

If you were performing a play, would you have a dress rehearsal in front of a paying audience?

For some reason we both feel cold so have taken to dressing up and yes having hot water bottles. My stomach continued to trouble me and it was after I had eaten a baguette with some jam,  so jam is out. Subsequently I ate a pork chop with mashed potatoes and that seems to have done the trick.