“Kate, it’s hard to put into words what happened while I was in that Japanese garden. Ideas kept popping up as if from nowhere.” So said a client of mine, I’ll call her Julia, after her recent visit to Japan.
Oh the power of time and space to reflect!
Julia has a husband who’s currently studying and they have two young children. She also has a demanding, full-time role in the Finance sector. Late last year she had the opportunity to attend a conference in Japan and with her husband’s blessing, indeed encouragement, she flew up a few days prior to the conference for some time alone – a first since the birth of their second child two years ago.
Beauty and tranquility as an aid to reflection
Julia woke early on her first morning in Japan and, armed with a map and a note book, she took to the streets. In her wanderings she just happened upon what she later discovered, is a well known Japanese garden. She immersed herself in the beauty and tranquility of the place, and it was then that her mind started firing. As ideas came, she jotted them down in her note book, then wandered on. “Kate, things that, as you know, I’ve been angsting over for ages, just seemed to come clear. It was amazing.”
The value of regular reflective practice
During her next Leadership Coaching session, Julia and I spent time consolidating her reflections from that Japanese garden. And somewhere in our conversation she paused and exclaimed, “I now understand what happens in my coaching sessions – they are like regular visits to that Japanese garden because they give me the time and space to reflect.” I nodded and glowed – another human being understood the value of regular reflective practice.
