In my last post and in yesterday’s coaching interview I introduced a process I call “Listen to Aliveness”. Since not everyone has a coach at their disposal to guide them in finding and following their lights, I want to show you two things that you can do right now to find out what lights you up.

 

Two Action Steps:

 

Observe Yourself

Use observation to find out what you love doing. Watch your body: what are the activities that make you feel good? When do you relax and when do you get tense? For example, think about one of your most pressing problems and observe what happens to your body. If you want, describe the feelings and sensations in a notebook.

Now, think about something you love doing. This can be anything from sleeping in in the mornings to having a wonderful dinner with your spouse, or watching a sunset. What happens to your body now? Do you feel the same or different from when you were thinking about your problem? Again, record your observations.

Next, apply this kind of observation to everything in your life. With time you will get a good sense of what activities make you happy and which ones pressure you. These responses are very important in finding answers to your life purpose.

 

Have Someone Observe You:

Observing yourself objectively can be very hard if you are not used to it. An easier way to do this is to have someone else observe you. In coaching, I use an interview process to find out what a client wants. While she responds to my questions, I observe her body’s responses: is her body expanding and lighting up or is it contracting and getting more tense? When does a spark enter her eyes, how is her breathing changing, etc.

You can do this process with a companion or friend. Have them ask you questions and monitor your responses to whether you light up or not. This requires some practice. We are so used to listening to words and thoughts and rarely pay attention to the subtle responses we get from our bodies.

Some Sample Questions You Can Use:

• What do you want?
• What are you passionate about?
• What are the things you do in your spare time?
• If money and time did not matter, what would you do?
• What is your desire?
• What do you do when you forget time?

Be careful to use observation rather than interpretation when listening to your body. If you want to get familiar with the process, watch one of the following coaching shows in which I conduct coaching interviews in front of the camera using the “Listen to Aliveness” process:

Life Coaching Show with Karin Lehmann

Life Coaching Show with Karin Lehmann & Nina Grenningloh

Career Coaching ‘Live’ ~ What Lights You Up?

This interview process is a very effective method in getting clear about the life you want.

As always, thank you for reading.

Karin

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