Trapeze Experience

I said to my client while 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 cannott 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