Biofocusing, health coaching, educational coaching and the significance of the individual

I've often wondered why consciousness and awareness seems to be so centred in the individual. I know I'm aware and conscious, so do you, but by definition we don't share each other's privacy, and never will. I once wrote a poem which has a brief look at this mystery:

Tree-poem.

Many leaves, one tree
many people, one poem.

We have things in common, but there's a discontinuity. The discontinuity may be ironic: in The Bond Lynne McTaggart goes the other way, showing how we are programmed for kindness and mutuality rather than ultimate separation.

For me, there isn't a huge gap between health coaching and educational coaching. A truism that's lodged in my understanding says that the meaning of healing is the healing of meaning. This sounds glib and trite, but a moment's reflection ought to register more. The heart of educational coaching deals with meaning, the heart of health coaching deals with healing. The two overlap quite a lot, but the initial point isn't the same. When I began studying at university, I was very driven to find what meaning was about. Alas, not one teacher or book could I find that addressed the vehement need of my soul or intellect in this regard. Problem was, in retrospect, that I didn't know what I meant myself, in my quest for meaning. Eventually I came across Viktor Frankl's logotherapy, and began to get a handle on the felt concept of meaning, a handle not merely cerebral, but both cerebral and visceral in register.

This may begin to clarify why the individual is so central: there may be collective and spiritual Mind, but there's definitely  singular cerebrum, cerebellum and medulla. There may be holistic Soul, yet there's no getting past the adrenal gland, the short and long intestines, the stomach, liver; in short all the guts it requires to live one day at a time.

Decision and choice are invested in the individual for the purpose of responding to the here and now.. Purpose positions the individual somewhere in the circle of life and sphere of influence.To choose to walk the path of education is to decide to open the mind, conceptually and to be emotionally receptive. To choose health is to be purposefully balanced and sensitively aware of physical signals, signs and messages, which are not only internal but also ecologically contextualised. Living under high voltage pylons is not a good choice to make. Loyalty in an abusive relationship, while noble, is not wise. Sticking to fruitless prejudices born of traditional mindsets is a recipe for repetitive patterns called problems.

The individual is like a stargate for change. This makes coaching for leadership almost unavoidable for any kind of coaching. If you know how to lead yourself, you'll soon find yourself leading others.

The stargate for change fascinates me: Lord Shaftesbury, for example, Hitler as another: change that turns the world around notwithstanding morals or ethics. Vocation, calling, profession, daring and above all, the decision to stand for something rather than be swept along. What is it that produces significant change? I'd hazard a guess in respect of individual character that rises to a particular context.

Rising through the ranks is one thing, rising to the occasion is another. I like the randomness of what comes through the stargate, like a cat emerging unexpectedly from the chimney. Move over, Father Christmas.  Each individual that I face is an invitation to exciting movement, a privacy that holds great possibility. I am reminded that coaching is not a patronising relationship but one of humble recognition.