{"id":1158,"date":"2019-09-19T10:39:13","date_gmt":"2019-09-19T09:39:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.canterbury.ac.uk\/staffdevelopment\/?p=1158"},"modified":"2019-09-19T10:39:13","modified_gmt":"2019-09-19T09:39:13","slug":"a-labyrinth-coaching-walk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.canterbury.ac.uk\/staffdevelopment\/a-labyrinth-coaching-walk\/","title":{"rendered":"A Labyrinth Coaching Walk"},"content":{"rendered":"

One day last week I was troubled. Not in a dramatic way, but I had a work issue that was bothering me. I was finding it distracting and it was making me cross. I managed to shove it to the corner of my mind for the morning as I was running a training session and needed to be present for those people in the room. But once that was over, there it was front and centre, and I needed to give it some focus before returning to the office.<\/p>\n

Fortunately I was at St Martin’s Priory and the sun was shining. I had visited the Labyrinth there before and knew it to be a grounding experience to walk around. So I headed up to the garden, discarded my bag and shoes, and stood at the labyrinth entrance. I shaped the question I wanted to ask, my thoughts drowning out the sound of traffic and regular life. As I slowly followed the meandering path towards the centre I stripped back the layers of the issue, cast away the emotional frustrations I was feeling and dived into the core of the problem. The closer I moved to the centre of the labyrinth the closer I felt to pinning down what was\u00a0creating my feelings of irritation. And there, just before the I reached the middle, I found it. What was bothering me. I caught the thought and smiled. Yes, that’s it.<\/p>\n

I paused at the centre; turned and slowly made my way back outwards; building my thoughts back up as I stepped along the path; identifying my next steps to taking the issue forward in a constructive way; leaving any unhelpful emotions behind.<\/p>\n

The labyrinth offered me structured space and time to think. It did not fix my problem or tell me the answer. But it\u00a0held me,\u00a0gently and safely, while I tapped into my own resourcefulness. It acted as my coach.<\/p>\n

\"CCCU
Photo credit: Barbara Wallace of Pilgrim Paths<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

About the Labyrinth<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

The St Martin’s Labyrinth was designed by Sonia Overall, Senior Lecturer in Creative and Professional Writing and is lovingly maintained by our Grounds and Gardens team.\u00a0Sonia says:<\/p>\n

“I made the labyrinth as a temporary installation for a conference. I have used labyrinths in teaching and for writing, and have published about this in the conference proceedings and in a book about using labyrinths in HE (‘Writing and walking the labyrinth’ in\u00a0Learning with the Labyrinth: Creating Reflective Space in Higher Education. Sellers & Moss, eds. Palgrave, 2016).”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

You can visit the Labyrinth anytime in the garden at St Martin’s Priory (unless there is a wedding or other event taking place).<\/p>\n

Juliet Flynn, Organisational and People Development Advisor<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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