3 Remarkable Reasons to embrace Outdoor Coaching and love it!
During lockdown I decided to spend more time each day outdoors.
Walking was and is my bag.
Walking outdoors serves me well. So I was curious as to why it feels so fabulous?
Surprisingly, I delighted in reading 3 amazing books, by these 3 inspiring authors.
- In Praise of Walking: by Shane O’Mara,
- An Irish Atlantic Rainforest: by Eoghan Daltun,
- The Creativity Factor, Gerry Pratt.
Each author celebrates their proven knowledge and eye opening experiences.
Gratefully, I have formed a vision of Outdoor Coaching with Positive Health benefits.
It brings HOPE.
• Moving more, Mooding less,
• Connecting with others, equally.
• Boosting decision making and innovation.
Moving more, mooding less;
Shane O’Mara as a neuroscientist, details how connections in the brain link movement, memory and thinking.
Therefore, moving impacts our ability to think and to make memory.
Getting out and moving helps us to let go of what was. Walking is forward moving with a new direction and new hope.
Walking increases creativity in linking ideas.
Walking outdoors boosts the fluid process of mild distraction. It sets us to default mood.
Therefore we can process different ideas. This gives new perspectives.
I suggest more options with less mood!
Connecting with others, equally;
Outside the hierarchy of the office and boundaries set by roles and desks, meeting outdoors,
as Garry Pratt outlines has given opportunity for experiences that bring equality.
Teams side by side open to one another more quickly.
Highlighting the benefits of side-by-side conversation, Pratt presents 4 key themes of a pilot study done in 2020,
by Sarah Cook and Christian van Nieuwerburgh.
- Openness to experience, which promotes creativity.
- Awareness of body and mind, bringing one present.
- Love of the outdoors, bringing clearer thinking and sharing feelings.
- Being side by side, a sense of equality. I suggest that Emotional Intelligence gets a live run boost when teams and meetings happen outdoors.
Time alone walking facilitates Introspection that facilitates us to increase self awareness.
Connecting with our self is easier in calming surroundings.
Alfa waves and rhythms in our brains are impacted visually by Nature’s patterns and rhythms.
These are the patterns that bring the brain to synchronize with Nature.
Eoghan Daltun is a sculpture conservator, academic and advocate for the rewilding of native woodlands and the biosphere.
He profoundly shares this, “The essence of nature is wholeness- a wholeness woven with infinite complexity.”
In my mind he is a Champion, who engages with Nature to remove us from Climate Breakdown.
From his shared vibrant presence in Beara, I can feel the draw,
to the 75 acres where he has mostly, stood back and let Nature.
It is more about spared ecosystems than shared land.
The walking is full of opportunity for observation and distraction.
This is mind wandering.
There is an engaging sense of being present in the woods.
Daltun concludes with a message shaped in the commanding words of Ed Wilson,
“The biosphere does not belong to us, we belong to it.”
So walking outdoors allows us to synchronize with Nature.
This brings us present and we connect better with others and with our self.
Creative Decision Making, Imagination and Innovation;
Corporate trainer, lecturer, founder of innovate business and group walking leader, Garry Pratt, says it well.
“It’s time to do business differently. Take your thinking outside and start Outside Thinking.”
Pratt’s practice of delivering Outside Thinking has implications for increased creativity and innovation.
The environment sets us cognitively in default mode.
Pratt has framed the 20:3;3 Rule, as a corporate approach to boost entrepreneurial collective innovation.
Check it out! Part of paid working time:
*Walk 20 minutes daily, *Walk 3 hours every two weeks and *Do a 3 days Walking tour every 3 months.
This is the play and connection available for employees. (and all of us).
Coaching outdoors incorporates the walk and the talk and the mind- blowing learning.
Mostly it is about your experience.
Coaching outdoors empowers laterally thinking, as accredited to Edward de Bono.
Coaching outdoors opens our minds, with current scientific research
from three experts with a variety of backgrounds.
Are you seeking new reasons to support walking outdoors more regularly?
Are you seeking opportunity to step forward with active hands (maybe feet),
engaging head and reconnecting with your heart?
Of course in order for me to get out the door, I also needed some other know how…
I found it in a little book Eat That Frog, by Brian Tracy.
Now that is grit for another Woof! Walk the Talk blog.
If you are ready to discover what outdoor coaching can offer you,
Explore more in Outdoor Coaching with, https://growinganew.ie
Check out the experts
www.garypratt.co.uk
https://www.farmingfornature.ie/nominees/eoghan-daltun/
Shane O’Mara interview, https://youtu.be/2VhzbXsSaks?t=393
I would love to hear your experiences of walking outdoors wherever you are.
I invite you to leave a comment.
