As I prepare the agenda for Week II of the Professional and Life Coach Training program at Epona in AZ, I am reminded that a plan is just a plan. Again I hear Kathleen Barry Ingram's phrase 'the sacred space of possibility'.

One thing I have come to realize is that by insisting on my perspective, or how I think things should be or even expect them to be, I am ignoring all of the other possibilities in life. That is fascinating to me. By holding on to one idea, I cancel out all others. That's powerful. Actually it gives me hope. Hope that anything is possible if I just allow it. This allowing is creating the sacred space of possibility.

How do you go about creating this opening?

1. Due diligence. Do your homework and be impeccable. You know...that stuff called work, research. No cutting corners. Quality. What does it mean to you? How can it manifest in what you are doing?

2. Do what feels right. Check in with your body's intelligence. You will know when it's clear and there are no nagging little voices saying you should have done this or that. Check out my blog on Fear and Vulnerability at http://www.metacg.com/weblogs/2007/10/strategic_planning_through_fea.shtml for more on this.

3. Connect with the other people, person or situation. You are not living in a vacuum. Are you taking into consideration their needs? In equine experiential learning we have an exercise called Embodying the Goal. It is a way for the person to become aware of their goals, embody them, and then engage in an activity in the round pen with a horse to create success in achieving this goal. The horse and person working together provides a way to develop the skill of connecting more deeply with yourself and to the situation as a means of creating success in your life.

4. Watch what is happening. A witness perspective is especially important when trying to make sense of what is and isn't happening. How can you look at what is going on from a detached place and objectively gauge its progress? This will give you on-going information for adaptation needed for successfully completing your goals.

5. Let go and let happen. This might be the most challenging part for some of you. While structure certainly has an important place in life, coaching in particular has taught me that there is much more possible than just what I have in mind. In fact, the most powerful coaching, whether in groups or individually, I have ever done have been as a result of my letting go of how I think it 'should' be.

As far as creating an opening for the upcoming coaching program I know that coaching is most often about what happens between the words; or plans in this case. So as I create the agenda for next week I will leave room for what else is possible. In that way I am creating a powerful container for the 'sacred space of possibility'.

Oh, there is this other thing called trust. It is part of each of the 5 steps. Good luck!

"Welcome to Developing Emotional Agility--a TeleClass based upon my Multi-level Systemic Coaching program."

That's how the class with 24 people on the call began! I am so excited, yet not surprised that this topic is so popular. I think it says a great deal about the evolution of consciousness today.

One of the things that made this inaugural TeleClass for MetaSystem and Equine Alchemy so fun and valuable for participants was the new technology we used. We were able to move in and out of breakout groups, 'raise our hands', take polls and learn from each other all in 90 minutes on the telephone! It truly was like being in a 'real' workshop!

First, we explored what emotional agility means. It seems there was a common idea among us. Being able to see more that just the physical, ability to move with the emotions, being able to sense emotions, were some of the responses from the breakout groups.

I was introduced to this concept as I went through the apprenticeship program at Epona. Developing emotional agility began with working on my ability to be fully present and authentic.

It was interesting for me to find out that when working with horses if I wasn't fully present and authentic, I couldn't connect with them. It was as though we were on different stations of the radio. Through my own personal transformation, my ability to be present and authentic grew and so did my ability to work more closely with the horses. I was learning about how to be in relationship in a completely different way. I needed to be emotionally aware.

I was discovering that being in relationship is being aware of both my emotions and of those around me. It was from that emotional awareness I was able to gain information that would guide me in developing that relationship.

However, emotional awareness is dynamic. It changes with the day, the hour, and the person, or horse was the case for me!

Being able to flow with that dynamic requires emotional agility.

There were 3 main steps to this emotional agility.

1. Be fully present and authentic.
2. Notice what you and those around you are feeling. Be emotionally aware.
3. Flow with the emotion that is moving around you.

One thing I can absolutely say for sure, once you are in that place,
wisdom and abundance thrive!

Simple? No. Easy? No. There is a lot of breathing involved.

Linda Kohanov discovered emotional agility in her work with her horses and applied the concepts to people. What I found was this was not only true for me, but for my coaching clients as well. In fact, it was from this place of emotional agility, the ability to be fully present and authentic, emotionally aware and flow with that emotion that we were able to do some of our most powerful work.

Linda developed a list of skills that she feels are essential to becoming adept at helping other people recognize and strengthen their authenticity and emotional agility.

I want to share a few:

1. Recognize emotions as information.
2. Be able to sit in uncomfortable emotions without reacting or judging.
3. Sense the flow of others without reacting or judging.
4. Read 'misbehavior' as a form of communication.
5. Resist the temptation to 'fix' people or situations.
6. Create the container of support, which Kathleen Barry Ingram calls 'the sacred space of possibility'. (see my blog on this http://www.metacg.com/weblogs/2009/06/five_steps_to_creating_a_sacre.shtml

• The 3 steps to develop emotional agility
  
• There are specific skills to support staying there!
  

The next step after recognizing your own and other's feelings, is learning how to interpret them. We explored this step in the TeleClass. I will share that with you in Part II.

In the meantime, remember every moment of every day you have a choice--and an opportunity to practice developing your emotional agility.