A Guiding Hand
A Guiding Hand is a set of cards taken from a book entitled ‘A guiding light’, in which these words and phrases are married together with images of the Northern Lights. These two aids – the set of cards and its sister book – emerged from a 10-year pilgrimage to the Artic Circle where I observed, photographed, and continually marvelled at the wonder that are the the Lights – the Aurora Borealis.
The words on each of the cards felt gifted and came from moments of deep contemplation whilst observing The Lights. I hope you will recognise how these few words and phrases and their associated images, are very pertinent to our present-day challenges and may offer insight and both personal and professional guidance.
My motivation in writing this blog came from a personal wish to further reflect upon and to translate these words and phrases into more practical guidance and so I wanted to deeply mine their value and aspire to discover and reveal their meaning.
I found myself one day deeply reflecting on all our lives as positive psychology practitioners today – and I decided to choose one of the cards – so I drew a single card from the pack – and proceeded then to write my first blog – letting these words inspire and reveal their practical guidance for the coach and coachee.
Having written one blog or conversation, I then decided to draw one card each week and repeat the process and each and every time of drawing the card, I held all of you and also myself in mind.
Maybe never more have we needed or sought a guiding hand, as in our present times in facing a myriad of personal and professional challenges as well as the crises and catastrophes of our times. My single intent and wish is to offer you through these weekly conversations … one such guiding hand.
Guiding Hand Cards
Courage – Fear unmasked
Listen to the podcast version of this article In drawing this card, you are invited to explore the extent of your courage. More to the point, if you were to be the most courageous that you have ever been – how would your life change? What difference would being...
Choose to be original or copy
Listen to the podcast version of this article In drawing this card, you are invited to explore your originality. What is it that makes you – you? And different to anyone else – original. What distinguishes you from any other person you may know? What may...
Anxiety – The extent to which we stray from our essence
Listen to the podcast version of this article In drawing this card, you are invited to explore your anxieties. To face into, rather than turn away, from them. To explore how they may be able to guide you forward and what you may learn from this experience. The...
Belonging, becoming the person you long to be
In drawing this card, you are invited to explore your belonging. Automatically, we go towards questions around belonging that include: “where do I belong”. But maybe belonging has more scope than knowing the outer place where we ideally may choose to live. The image...
Might the something more we strive to find, be who we long to become
In drawing this card, you are invited to explore more fully the person that you are becoming through your life and work. We often focus our attention much more on the ‘what’ we are doing which includes the goals we want to reach and what we wish to have. However, if...
What we accept in ourselves, we can accommodate in others
In drawing this card, you are invited to explore the nature of relationship and how your capacity to relate may be deepened. If we look to Nature and the photograph associated with these chosen words, we are taken to an evening beside the huge lake Inari in Finland....
Resilience, befriending suffering
Have you considered and or already realised what value there may be in befriend suffering? In drawing this card, you are invited to cultivate your resourcefulness and resilience as you go through life. Often the way we automatically think may be back to front. We...
Must we stray from the path, to recall our way
Many of us fear getting lost. And might avoid this experience it at all costs. But what if getting lost was just another natural aspect of being human and living our daily lives? If we were to view being lost not as something to be feared, but more as an opportunity,...
Do We Feed An Insatiable Appetite Or Soothe The Part That Hungers
In drawing this card, you are invited to look a little deeper into yourself. To consider who sits beneath your superficial awareness and how knowing this person may offer insight into what you may truly need. The words of the card talk about ‘feeding an insatiable...
Free From Logic, The Impossible Becomes Quite Plausible
This card invites you to recognise the limitation of overthinking and trying too hard to work things out and the wonderful opportunity that imagination and creativity offer you. The imagination can often be viewed and judged negatively as the ‘softer sister’ of...
Soul – That Which Longs To Live, Unhindered By Must, Should Or Ought
Consider how much the words ‘must, should, and ought’ impact and shape your current life. Do you always do, what you must, should, and ought? Consider this carefully and take time to respond. When we do what we ‘must, should, and ought’, we meet with expectation – the...
The Exit We Seek May Be An Entrance
I have always been interested in the symbolism of doorways. As a photographer, I loved taking photographs of different doorways that I am drawn towards and then I place the completed image on solid walls to create a new aperture, an imaginative way through and beyond...
Might Darkness Lighten Our Way
We often think that being in the dark is scary. As a light seeker, having travelled out and into the night many evenings with the hope of catching sight of the elusive Aurora Borealis, I have learned how to befriend the dark. The night may not be the void that we...
Trying Less, Discovering More
The world can sometimes feel like a real effort as we strive hard to be better. Whether we seek a bigger home, a better job, or to have more for ourselves and or our family. Striving seems to be central to our everyday life and work. Wanting and having seem to be key...
Stillness Moves
All of us want to change and grow, but how do you enable this prospect? What are the times when you have grown the most in your life? Take some moments to name these times if you will… Consider what has been essential to your growth during these times. What vital...
Knowing What Locks, Frees
In taking this photograph of the Northern Lights I had to scramble in the dark across rocks to get a good shot. Though at first the rocks were an unwanted and challenging obstacle, in the resulting photograph they take their place and are an essential aspect of the...
Vulnerability – The Lost Piece That Completes Our Jigsaw
In the moment I took this photograph, the Northern Lights appeared to adopt an unusual shape in the sky, not unlike that of a jigsaw piece. This left me contemplating what if life were a jigsaw? What would be the ‘picture on the box’ and if and how do we piece...
Perfection – The Only Goal We Complete After Life
Let’s start with a question: If, and how well, do you know the perfectionist in you? For many years I have worked as a coach enabling others to deepen knowledge of themselves and to make vital developmental choices fostering growth whilst developing a growing sense of...
We Live Superficial Lives, Longing For Depth
How much of our lives do we live on the surface? Presenting only a fraction of who we really are to the world outside and those we meet? When we become busy and feel the pressures of the world, we commonly experience the emotions of anxiety, fear, and frustration and...
True Power Is Realised In Letting Go Of Control
When I took this photograph the Northern Lights were strong and powerful and were being brought to earth, or earthed as if there was some huge lightening conductor. I recall musing about power as I took this image and then the phrase of words came that I am now...
Finding The Answer Be Relinquishing The Search
Our lives may often feel problematic because we are largely engaged in getting to the answer. The self to which we most commonly revert, especially when under pressure, is an avid problem solver. Rapidly seeking to judge right from wrong, this is black and that is...
Wisdom – Intelligence Of Whole Unhindered By What We Know In Part
We all wish to be wise and place enormous value on those around us who show wisdom. But what is wisdom? And are we able to find it? Without doubt, most of us may spend our lives searching. The photograph of the Aurora Borealis shows a vast Northern Lights show that...
To Quicken, First Slow
A key theme that may be emerging is How often do we take time to rest in our daily working lives? Do our homes have sanctuary spaces – where we can ‘put up our feet‘– reflect, contemplate, and restore? The little red boat in the associated image has found its own bay,...
At The Heart Of Winter The Promise Of Spring
One of our themes through a ‘Guiding Hand’ is how much we can learn about human nature from Nature herself. And not unlike Nature, we may too experience ‘seasons of self’’. Consider the times when it feels like you are experiencing your own Winter when you feel...
Silence Fills As We Empty
The world in which we live, and work can be a busy and noisy place. This distracts our attention, and we become unfocused, unclear, and dispersed. It’s important to remember that our quality of attention determines how we see, for whatever we attend to, we bring into...
In The Dark Confines Of The Chrysalis We Hatch Our Wings
How many times do we find ourselves in the darkness? Statements like ‘I am a little in the dark’, are not uncommon when we are feeling lost and unsure of the way forward. As a ‘Light Seeker’, one wishing to experience and photograph the Northern Lights, I am very...
