19 October 2017
Who is the King of Creation?
Though it happened a few times in the last days, I wasn’t entirely sure. It was only now, during our last walk, that it became so obvious I can no longer ignore it: instead of me training Django, it is him training me sometimes. And there I was, thinking I was his owner!
I can almost see his mind at work: “Mmmm, I feel like a treat. Let me give my owner a friendly command. I will walk to her left, nice and close and then I will look up to her lovingly and make eye contact. And bingo – there goes her hand, into her pocket, and here comes the scrumptious dog biscuit. She did that so well. Maybe I should repeat it a few times so she gets the hang of it. These humans are so easy to train, so much easier than that cat of mine. Let alone the hens.”
All joking aside, I sometimes really think that we humans fool ourselves. Thinking we are the King of Creation and that sort of stuff – we really are not. Another example: all those nice lawns everywhere, numerous acres of land covered in a small green plant that managed to convince humans to cultivate it carefully, fertilise it, free it from moss and other competitors, cut it nicely every week during spring and summer and even sprinkle it! Thanks to humans, this plant has done quite nicely and has even conquered the world.
We are so used to contemplating the world from our own familiar perspective and do not look beyond what we were taught at school and elsewhere. The “what if” question comes to mind again – I wrote about it in a .
What if things were different from what we have always assumed? It can make you feel very unsafe to question your normal perspective. On the other hand it also offers incredible freedom and creativity to step outside the beaten track and become curious.
I spontaneously think of Albert Einstein, a scientist who is a figurehead of this attitude. In the meantime we all know where it led him and us. Artists in all kinds of disciplines are another category of people who cultivate this ability to think and act in a radically different way.
What I’m getting at is that each of us can do this, if we are willing to let go of the familiar. At the end of the day, it is about making choices – choices that are life confirming instead of life diminishing. For quite a number of people who start a coaching journey the key question is: how can I live and work in a way that is more confirming and liberating than diminishing?
This brings me to another matter: I truly enjoy writing my blog articles and find a lot of satisfaction in inspiring other people. The frequency of these bi-weekly blogs is starting to become hard and somewhat limiting – I have so many other projects ongoing. So with some regret I have decided to write and publish a new article once every month. I have a few loose ideas to treat you to alternative inspiration in-between, but I need some time to think it over.
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Ancient Wisdom as a vaccine
In De Standaard of 21 April (one of the major local newspapers) there was a beautiful article entitled "Art as a vaccine in the post-corona era". Why wait for that post-corona era? Yesterday the parable "This too shall pass" ended up in my mailbox.
28 April 2020
The invisible dog or how being hard headed does not pay off
"Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results”. Humans excel in that. We somehow believe that if we keep trying harder we will ultimately succeed, even if we keep ending up with the same result, time and time again.
2 November 2018
From King of the Mountain to Swimming Champion
23 August 2018
What if email, mobile phones and social media did not exist?
12 July 2018
Don’t make change too complicated. Just begin.
14 June 2018
Why not take a mini-holiday
10 May 2018
Lost in deconstruction
"You need chaos in your soul to give birth to a dancing star" [Friedrich Nietzsche]
19 April 2018
How Dog had a breakthrough – a contemporary fable (part 2)
15 March 2018
How Cat & Dog should follow the example of Mouse, a contemporary fable
15 February 2018
Winter’s life lesson
21 November 2017
A juvenile delinquent dog or the price of adulthood
When we reach the age of adulthood we seem to have internalised all those responsibilities, expectations and limitations. As if the free creatures that we once were are forgotten.
18 January 2018
Lessons taught by wild geese
16 November 2017
From prey to predator and vice versa
From prey to predator and vice versa, the natural order put upside down. The animals themselves do not seem to be bothered by it - for sure Django isn’t, and the hens appear to find it quite normal to be on top of the food chain.
5 October 2017
How is your Monkey Mind?
We all have a Monkey Mind, Buddha said, with scores of monkeys, all demanding attention. The fear monkey is the loudest of them all, he is constantly ringing the alarm bell, drawing our attention to things we should be wary of and to everything that can go wrong.
21 September 2017
The parable of the businessman and the fisherman
We always have a choice: do we listen to our sabotaging inner voices or do we opt for what we really want, like the fisherman?
24 August 2017
Mr Goldberg and his assumptions
It is worthwhile to take a closer look at the assumptions you have about the persons with whom you have a relationship. You could develop the habit to ask yourself if a certain assumption is really true. And what if it is not?
10 August 2017
Help!
Asking for help is something we struggle with and we will only ask when we have no other option. We believe that asking for help and putting ourselves in a vulnerable position is a sign of weakness. Asking for help creates a warm connection between the asker and the giver.
20 April 2017
What if ....?
What if you would use a different perspective to look at what you have always assumed to be the objective reality? Does objective reality as such even exist?
9 February 2017
Frieda just asks
Asking for help is something that is hard to do for a lot of us. Self-reliance and autonomy are highly respected in our individualistic society. Another aspect of asking for help is that we build up a 'debt' as it were, We also do not like to disturb others with our problems
18 February 2016
