What Really Matters
Over the last five years I have undertaken a journey of self discovery. During this time I have had many insights and revelations, but things only changed for me when I started moving out of my head and into my heart. This encouraged me to feel, think and behave differently. Now I feel clearer than ever before about where I’m heading and my life has taken on meaning, purpose and direction. When I started my journey I was working as a Head of Management Development in a large London corporate and had just completed my MBA. I intellectualized, rationalized and logically discriminated between pieces of information – I operated a lot from my head.
During my journey I attended courses run by the latest guru and developed my skills to become a life/business coach, NLP Master Practitioner and Transpersonal Psychologist. I followed Carl Jung’s individuation process, the Enneagram and Murphy and Leonard’s ITP programme. I took coaching to clarify what really mattered to me and discovered how my beliefs, habitual patterns of behaviour and past conditioning stopped me from achieving my dreams. I learnt how my feelings, thoughts and behaviours are all interconnected.
Over time I developed a strong inner ‘observer’ which gave me the ability to witness my thoughts and emotions without so much judgement and identification. I saw how the mind, body and emotions are inextricably connected. For example, negative thoughts can create physical tension, and an inability to relax physically can interfere with concentration, clarity and confidence. In addition, I saw how emotions such as anxiety and anger can produce physical symptoms, such as tendonitis. Now I use techniques such as meditation to still my mind so I can hear the ‘messages’ from my body.
The journey has left me feeling more authentic, grounded, peaceful, relaxed and calm. Like most people, I can still avoid, deny, rationalize, act out of habit, or blame others to avoid truths that I find unpleasant. But I recognize that this is just self-deception and if I learn to be more aware and honest, I spend less energy defensively, releasing more energy for other projects.
My search has led me to believe that if we all acted more consciously in every area of our lives, then collectively we could work together for the good of the planet and our own evolution.
I am skeptical of teachers and gurus who claim that they have all of the answers or who suggest that we can fix things quickly through participating in a simple exercise or technique. Many of these teachers emphasis focusing on one aspect of life, such as mind control or diet and exercise, whilst excluding others, such as our spiritual needs.
I believe in an approach that integrates the needs of the mind, body, emotions, soul and spirit. As the famous psychologist Abraham Maslow once said, “If you set out to be less than you are capable of being, I warn you, you will be deeply unhappy for the rest of your life.” My own experience is that a comprehensive, balanced and integrated path is required to achieve true happiness and live a full life.
Kim Phillips
During my journey I attended courses run by the latest guru and developed my skills to become a life/business coach, NLP Master Practitioner and Transpersonal Psychologist. I followed Carl Jung’s individuation process, the Enneagram and Murphy and Leonard’s ITP programme. I took coaching to clarify what really mattered to me and discovered how my beliefs, habitual patterns of behaviour and past conditioning stopped me from achieving my dreams. I learnt how my feelings, thoughts and behaviours are all interconnected.
Over time I developed a strong inner ‘observer’ which gave me the ability to witness my thoughts and emotions without so much judgement and identification. I saw how the mind, body and emotions are inextricably connected. For example, negative thoughts can create physical tension, and an inability to relax physically can interfere with concentration, clarity and confidence. In addition, I saw how emotions such as anxiety and anger can produce physical symptoms, such as tendonitis. Now I use techniques such as meditation to still my mind so I can hear the ‘messages’ from my body.
The journey has left me feeling more authentic, grounded, peaceful, relaxed and calm. Like most people, I can still avoid, deny, rationalize, act out of habit, or blame others to avoid truths that I find unpleasant. But I recognize that this is just self-deception and if I learn to be more aware and honest, I spend less energy defensively, releasing more energy for other projects.
My search has led me to believe that if we all acted more consciously in every area of our lives, then collectively we could work together for the good of the planet and our own evolution.
I am skeptical of teachers and gurus who claim that they have all of the answers or who suggest that we can fix things quickly through participating in a simple exercise or technique. Many of these teachers emphasis focusing on one aspect of life, such as mind control or diet and exercise, whilst excluding others, such as our spiritual needs.
I believe in an approach that integrates the needs of the mind, body, emotions, soul and spirit. As the famous psychologist Abraham Maslow once said, “If you set out to be less than you are capable of being, I warn you, you will be deeply unhappy for the rest of your life.” My own experience is that a comprehensive, balanced and integrated path is required to achieve true happiness and live a full life.
Kim Phillips
