John Gloster-Smith Articles
To know yourself, know your shadow - Click To Read Article
It is a common experience. You speak to a friend about some strong negative feelings you have about someone else. Your friend, being a true friend, says, "but aren't you a bit like that too?" You of course don't like to hear this, but it gets you thinking. Maybe you can be a bit like it too. That's a useful admission since it then helps you to manage that characteristic in yourself. This is the sort of self-awareness that is crucial to our growth, to get that the people in our lives are in some way a mirror of ourselves. The concept of the shadow, from Carl Jung, is one of the great insights from 20th century psychology that is invaluable to those of us who seek to build effective relationships with others.
The Transformative Power of Laughter - Click To Read Article
Laughter makes you feel good. It also releases powerful chemicals in the body that bring about healing. It is an invaluable tool in helping people discover more about their potential. It is something that can be actively taught, to make a difference in people's lives
Taking responsibility - Click To Read Article
Being responsible for your life does not just mean being accountable for your actions to another. In personal growth and self-help terms it means being aware of what you feel, think, say and do, responding to that awareness and owning it as yours, rather than blaming another or projecting it on to the world. When you take responsibility you give yourself true power over your life and you become able to respond to your inner “candle flame” of truth and authenticity.
Self-enquiry and authenticity: How do you become who you really are? - Click To Read Article
To learn who we really are, to become authentic, involves a process of self-discovery, partly through the skill of self-enquiry and partly through contact with others. We learn to discriminate, to identify the parts that are authentic compared with those that are not. This is illustrated by a story, which also shows how often this process is initiated by some life or work crisis.
Self-awareness: key to growth and change - Click To Read Article
To become self-aware is to be able to notice how you really feel, think and behave. It is a self-help skill that can be learned and which, when responsibly developed and often with skilled help, enables you to use a powerful mechanism naturally available to you to enhance you life and work as you choose. It is a natural mechanism, yet most of us have through our life experience cut ourselves off from truly accessing what we have within in us to make our lives really more effective and fulfilling of our potential.
Being right - Click To Read Article
Being right can leave us with a sense of self-affirmation but it may involve conflict with others who also see themselves as right. Being right involves matters like the social consensus, received doctrine, social rules, and necessities for living together, but it is worth reflecting on how far this term can also be a trap. Insistence on being right may not always serve us and there are times when it is more useful to let go and allow another possibility to emerge.
Being authentic: How can you be who you really are? - Click To Read Article
Finding who you really are, your true identity as a person, is a key need that people are searching for now, particularly leaders in organisations. Today, if leaders are to bring people with them they need to create resonance, and this is achieved through authenticity. The process of discovery is an individual one and is best gained through self-enquiry, self-awareness and interactions with others, often with skilled help.
Being unattached to the outcome - Click To Read Article
When you're so caught up in some upset, anger, irritation, or negative pattern of engagement with someone else it can be a hard lesson, but a useful one, to learn to understand the power of recognising when you are emotionally attached to your pattern. It is like we so want something that it obsesses us and thus we in effect push it away. What we need to do is see that we are attached to it and let it go. It is a paradox but frequently a very powerful way of realising what we truly need that is best for us.
BE HERE, NOW - Being present as facilitator - Click To Read Article
Someone unexpectedly decides to leave a group. Not an unusual occurrence, but one which John Gloster-Smith uses to explore the qualities of awareness and presence that are fundamental to his style of group facilitation.
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