Landscaping Your Life

Landscaping Your life is a tool I use in my coaching and facilitation with clients. Since its conception in 2000 there's been many different ways that landscapes and nature have been used to obtain insight on situations whether for teams, boards, managers, leaders or personally.

I've shared a number of the different ways previously on this blog - going for a walk, envisoning changes to a landscape, short story, observational video blogs, coaching sessions in nature, and using sayings such as can't see the wood for the trees to find the antidote.

Here I'd like to go back in time and return to the first ever time I used it - which involves choosing a picture that best describes the current situation and then making changes to it until it's just right. (you can do this in your mind but using real pictures and cutting them up adds something to the process).

I can't tell you how you'll know 'it's just right' but you will know. It's as if as you make the changes your mind makes sense of the original situation, and the changes you make to enable it to become clearer as a result.  

Here's an example 

I then decide what to add or take away from the picture

and then realise I need to cut even more away 

That's better - and then add something

and again

and again

You may end up with very little of the original picture left - there is no right or wrong - it's as if you've gone on a journey from where you are to where you want to be and your mind will now make sense of what that means in reality. Of course you may never know what it means - you may just feel differently and the situation may just change.

Have a go yourself and notice what you notice - and let me know how you get on. Just a word of warning I've found for 99.99% of people it's useful for the landscapes to be on earth rather than out of this world. That is the normal rules of gravity apply.

I know a number of those early guinea pigs who still have their end landscape, even 15 years later, and it's on view in their office as a reminder of the insight they gained. A sign I always think of a truly profound process - even if I say so myself :-).

Individual coaching and group facilitation sessions using Landscaping Your Life or a number of other tools are available so do please get in touch if you've been grappling with a challenge for some time and would like a different perspective. alison@alisonsmith.eu +44 (0)7770 538159.

More can also be found on Facebook, Pinterest and YouTube.

Postscript: a Landscaping Your Life website was launched in November 2015 - so for more on this effective process do please go and visit.

Open or closed

I travelled to York yesterday with Virgin trains and when we got there I was at the front of the queue to get off. After a few moments of pressing the button someone whispered from behind me "try pressing the top button".

I got off very embarrassed, and as I walked towards the exit someone came along side me and said "you were so confident I didn't think to check which button you were pressing". That observation in and of it self would be worth a blog post!

It wasn't until I caught the Cross country train home that I realised I might not just have been having one of those moments!

You see the buttons on the way home looked like this:

Of course we should read the instructions each time - but we don't. We generalise and, if more often than not the open button is on the bottom, why would we think to check it wasn't. 

Years ago you could get into different cars and find the lights and indicators in different places (although not the brake and accelerator thankfully). More recently I don't recall having to relearn where they are when I've driven hire cars - so perhaps car manufacturers have learnt not to fiddle about with basic instrumentation (too busy fiddling with other instrumentation it seems!).

A great reminder that we do many things on auto pilot. We do however need to check that it's still relevant to the outcome we're wanting - otherwise we might be a long time waiting for the door to open!

The Dark Hedges

The Dark Hedges in Northern Ireland have made it through to the short list for #treeoftheyear. I hope since they've become part of the Game of Thrones history that they're better signposted than when we visited a number of years ago. 

I wondered as I looked at the pictures on Twitter how the hedges could be used for Landscaping your life (LYL). 

LYL is a process that uses landscapes and nature as a metaphor for our lives. Along the lines of being as grounded as a tree, going with the flow like a river, as deep as the ocean, as changeable as the weather and so on. 

There are a number of different ways LYL can be used to help you get out of a rut and back on track, or help you to see the wood for the trees etc.

Let's see what how the Dark Hedges might be of assistance.

First think of a situation you'd like more clarity on - you may be stuck or simply want to get on track quicker or more easily, or you may not quite know which direction you want to go. What ever the situation bring it to mind and get a sense of what level of clarity and satisfaction you currently have for it.

Now put the situation to the back of your mind and join me as we explore the landscape. We'll come back to the real life situation later once we've allowed nature to provide us with some insight. 

As you look at the picture of the Dark Hedges what come to mind? For example you may notice:

• The straight road up the middle
• The crooked branches
• The connected branches 
• The green leaves
• The grey bark

If you imagine this image representing the current situation what do you notice? Has it improved your ability to understand the solution that's needed? Does the image feel more or less satisfactory or clear?  

If it's feeling more satisfactory already you may want to see if any of the following suggestions increase your level of satisfaction, or simply return now to the original situation and notice what you notice. 

If nothing has changed, or perhaps satisfaction has reduced, consider what changes you might want to make to the image. These might include (and feel free to try each of the suggestions as you read through the list)

• Adding more or less colour or even making back and white
• Changing the size of the image
• Changing the location of the image 
• Zooming in or out 
• Making it more or less focused
• Making it into a movie so you can explore the landscape more fully
• Adding sounds
• Changing the weather
• Changing the time of day
• Changing the type of tree
• Adding or taking away trees
• Making the road longer or shorter
• Making the road more bendy

In other words keep changing the image until satisfaction with the image has increased, and stop once satisfaction has peaked. 

Don't worry if this feel strange - especially if you can't make sense of why making these changes can change your level of satisfaction. Basically your mind is able to make the connection and is doing all the hard work for you. 

Relax and continue to explore the image knowing that as you do so different connections in your brain are being made that will enable you to view the original situation differently.

How satisfied with the image do you now feel? 

If you're still not feeling any more satisfied you may want to imagine moving around the landscape - either by walking or even flying (as a bird or bee) or even using a mini camera drone. 

Or perhaps you need to imagine travelling into a completely different landscape? 

Just keep making changes until clarity and satisfaction have improved.

Now return to thinking about the original situation - notice what you notice? What is clearer now, and perhaps more importantly what actions can you now take to move forward?

I'd love to hear how you get on with this - it's always harder to explain how to do it remotely like this - much easier in person as we walk through a landscape. 

Perhaps that's my next task to do a video blog demonstrating it in practice. (I will add a link here once I've done that). 

Although there's plenty of other LYL video blogs using nature to get insight about life on my LYL YouTube channel. There's more on Facebook and Pinterest too.

Do get in touch if you're interested in knowing more about individual or group coaching and facilitation using this process, or other innovative tools that enable you or your team to be more inspired and get back on track alison@alisonsmith.eu +44 (0)7770 538159 

Postscript: a Landscaping Your Life website was launched in November 2015 - so for more on this effective process do please go and visit.