Trapeze Experience

I said to my client whileMarch04_01 during our coaching session that this feels like my trapeze experience….A couple years ago, I was in a resort and they had trapeze. I was watching people do it since I am afraid of heights. Someone on the line said, why don’t you come and try with us. I said I am afraid of heights. He said who cares. Where else are you going to get this experience, try it…He continued to say, I am a lawyer, I never do risky things, if I am doing it, you need to give it a try…And I did.

Let me explain the experience for those of you who never tried it. You climb on a rope ladder to stand on a tiny step. Before that, I was ready to go back down while climbing up to it, but I could not do it as they were other people behind me on the rope ladder!! Anyhow I managed to get to that step. The instructor was holding me, I was also roped and all, it is safe but my mind does not care about those at all. At that point I cannotMarch04_012t convince myself with anything due to the magnitude of fear…After that step, they send you the swing for you to let go of holding the edges of the rope ladder lean into the space to catch the swing so you can jump…That was the scariest thing ever for me…First of all, like that lawyer, I do not like taking risks, I like my environment to be something I can have control over. Secondly, I do not like heights…And thirdly it is hard for me to let go. When I make changes, I like to keep one foot in the new, and the other one in the old so I can take my other foot and the other leg when I am ready…That’s why I practice yoga so I can stretch long. J

In this experience, you really need to let go of all your safety nets, let go of known, jump into what is coming towards you, and I did not like that at all…It required complete trust and faith in what was coming to you…I had no other options to jump as I said, since other people were behind me. So I somehow managed to do it. And I tell you, once I did, I didn’t want to get off that swing. It felt weightless, so free, fun and most importantly so much in alignment with who I was at that moment not who I knew to be.

Once I shared this story with my client she was able to relate to her experience with the new eyes. When we are face with major life changes and realignment requests from our soul it feels scary, so disconnected from how we know ourselves to be and it is often we don’t want to climb that rope, but somehow we find ourselves on it. We could not go back, and at the same time we do not want to jump into this unknown thing…As a mater of fact, some of us do chose to stat on that bench and never jump into the new and wondering the rest of their lives how it would be like to jump…

I am noticing that many of us having this trapeze experience last couple of years not only among my friends and family but also on my clients…Know that you are not alone on this one…It feels very hard but remember very fun and freeing at the same time while you learn to let go of your needing to control things. While you start to make progress on letting go, releasing the fear (see my blog Exorcism, the choice between fear and faith) and replacing it with the faith that creates space for the possibilities so that through the new engagement style you start giving birth to new you. And you start enjoying the new outcomes. They feel more loving, effortless, caring, joyful and most importantly much more in alignment with who you are in this vey moment in your life.

During transition coaching sessions, I explore with my clients to understand how would it be like allow themselves to have the trapeze experience by designing mini jumps to explore the new part of themselves that is not ye developed….I recommend you to do the same. In fact, if you have a place that you literally can take a trapeze class like I did, do that. Because it does help you to learn to let go and trust…If you don’t have a place to try it out, then create some small letting go and trusting experiences for you and see what happens. This could be following your team mate’s new idea, taking a new road while driving, going to a new grocery store or whatever, just be little bit more free…As you become more comfortable you can design larger experiences…See where that takes you…

May you fun as much fun as I did on your trapeze experiences…May you learn to let go of the fear and dance with the unknown with harmony and grace…

Namaste,

Tijen Genco, PCC, MS, MBB

Genco Coaching

Executive and Life Coach

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Published by Tijen Genco

Tijen Genco is a certified Professional and Life Coach. Her client portfolio include C-Level senior executives, division heads, and chiefs of staff across wide variety of fortune 100 companies; country managers of non-profit organizations; entrepreneurs, lawyers, and seasoned coaches. Tijen holds Master of Science degree in Management with concentrations in Organizational Behavior and Coaching from the University of Texas at Dallas. She has obtained Master Black Belt in Lean/Six Sigma Productivity Improvement Methodology from Merck Sigma Center of Excellence. Tijen’s engagements as trusted advisor and management consultant have resulted in multi-million dollars in productivity benefits for fortune 100 companies. Tijen holds certification in various Yoga methodologies, Pilates and Meditation. As a wellness coach she has been instructing mind-body classes at prestigious clubs in the US since 2008. Tijen specializes in Executive Coaching, Organizational Development and Cultural Transformation along with Process Excellence. She provides individual as well as group/team coaching and workshops to corporate clients and private audiences worldwide. Tijen is passionate about social issues and participates in Social Responsibility efforts. She extends her specialty of cultural transformation and behavioral changes in the healthcare industry to non-profit organizations for enabling desired behaviors towards better health. In 2013, she served 3 months in India helping to improve the quality of Maternal Health services in the rural areas, coaching non-Government Organization resources. She has served at the board of International Coaching Federation (ICF), Philadelphia Chapter, as the VP of Education and Professional Development. Along the side of her coaching business, she is chairing the Global Executive Coaching Community of Practice of ICF, and instructing mind-body classes.

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