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10 delicious ingredients for Conscious Consulting

We, the CCG advisory Team explored the following question: What are important principles and qualities guiding our consulting and advisory work? How do we see our role and contribution in supporting leaders, experts and entrepreneurs? What are our key ingredients? We summarized them in 10 paragraphs and are happy we can share them with you today! We also would like to thank our friend and artist Aldo Gianotti for creating little art works to express our messages even simpler and more directly
 

1. Island of Stability – Island of Sanity

Stability is hard to find in a changing and morphing world . Whilst we cannot stabilize the world for our clients, we canoffer them stability in our relationship, our availability andour presence, so that they can rest, recover, exhale, beingan island of stability when nothing else is. Providing that anchorage we build islands of sanity for ourselves and others.

2. High aspiration and low expectations

An inordinate amount of pressure can be created by reacting to our own and other‘s expectations. Expectations can be limited by our experiences of the past and our narrow imagination.

Consequently we as Conscious Advisors expect nothing specific from our clients but we have high aspirations for them. We create a space that is free of judgements, expectations or the need to achieve.

When nothing ‘has‘ to happen, anything ‘can‘ happen – beyond what could ever be expected.

3. Reframing the narrative

Reframing is the art of reformulating a situation, a problem or a belief. We don‘t sweet-talk problems, but rather help change the perspective by adding perspectives. We enable a new and moreempowering narrative to emerge – providing a newcontext that allows content to be transformed. At the highest level we don‘t see the world as a problem to be solved but an inviation for exploration

 

4. Breaking the rules of the mind-game

Whilst our mind is a powerful tool, it can also often be a limiting factor. It is not easy to access deeper levels of our unconscious mind using the conscious mind. Therefore we use tools that break the fences of our logic and mind to unlock the power beyond. Such a tool, for example, is the I Ching, practiced and cultivatedfor 1000s of years. It allows for different parts of the brain to come into play, by using images that are not reasonable and surprising fragments, thus inviting a meaningful narrative to emerge from unexpected directions  and decisions to arise from a deeper wisdom.

5. Sitting still

We like to sit in silence with our clients. So often they are amazed at how something as simple as sitting still can have such a transformative and empowering impact on our lives.

Stepping aside from the prevailing issues for a moment – taking a break from ourselves and creating a distance between who we are, (as pure consciousness and awareness) and what we experience through our mental constructs (thoughts, feelings, emotions, problems, live situations, challenges)  – is a huge relief.

Stress fades, fear fades, anger and aggression fades and gives place to a sense of deeper connection, compassion, vitality and joy, supporting productivity, creativity and decision-making.

6. Deepening self awareness

Self-awareness is not possible from a state of judgement –  especially when our Ego gets in our way and we want – we need – to look good to others and ourselves. We will not betruly open and honest; our view will inevitably be blurred bywhat we expect and judge as good and right.

Articulating whatever is moving – ALL OF IT – recognizing its presence without being judged, or self-judgement, is the key to self-awareness. We are inviting our clients to sense into themselves, sense the environment around them, sense the universe they are in and part of and sense connection with everything that is.

The practice of presence – without thinking about the past andworrying about the future – is a rare gift, a forgotten practice. Deep looking and sensing allows emergence.

7. Cultivating a clear mind – open heart – safe space

In Conscious Consulting we prepare ourselves before we mee tour clients. Like a speaker, actor, sportsperson in a competition, we create conditions to make ourselves available to our clients. Clearly no-one likes to cook in a messy kitchen, still full ofleftovers from yesterday‘s cooking.

We clear our mind with a short meditation, we open our hearts with intention, and we create a safe space by breathing.

Then we invite our clients to do the same. They are often overwhelmed, pressured and distracted. Before we do anything, we prepare ourselves together and observe whattopic, question or answers emerge before we predetermine it.

8. Harnessing the wisdom from within

We are sure you have often heard about „wisdom from within“. As Consultants and Advisors our job is to NOT want anythingfor our clients. It is often difficult to suspend our own notion of potential, or hopes, or projections, and to listen, waiting for our clients to discover what is there already.

Few people truly recognise their innate intelligence. This has nothing to do with intellectual personal intelligence, and rather has everything to do with an universal intelligence that comes with the pure fact of being a human being, able and ready to access the present moment. The more we are attuned  – or in tune – with ourselves, the stronger our innate wisdom is able tobe revealed. Our role is to help our clients see what they cannot see, because they don‘t expect it.

9. Being a bridge

As conscious consultants we act as bridges betweenworlds: between an emerging world and lost traditions and capacities, between science, technology and business, between old and newthinking, between generations and across disciplines.Our thinking is never „either-or“ and always „as well as“ because…

…New thinking, new solutions, new ideas live in the tiny spaces between the known and these spaces subside under pressure and open up when offered openness, curiosity and inner spaciousness.

10. Slowing down – doing less

One of the simplest, yet most effective tools in our consulting approach is reducing speed and doing less. This is the antidote for Leaders, Entrepreneurs, Experts, and everyone suffering from a world directed at “More & Faster“.

We speak a little slower, we let our clients finish without pressure, we pause for a moment before we speak again. Giving space and also taking the time ourselves adds a healing quality to a conversation. Allowing silence to emerge(remember, this is where the good stuff lives) transforms the energy in the room, between people and within ourselves. We also resist overwhelming clients with techniques andactions. We don‘t need to prove our value by ‚doing more‘.

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