Sensemaking in February: my monthly reflections
In my monthly reflections, I share how the 4 qualities that inform my coaching and courses – arts-based, trauma-informed, reflective and meaning-focused – are showing up in my work and life.
This month: how my non-dominant hand writing & drawing project surprises me with the deepest joy I’ve felt in a long time. As part of my reflective group program, we’re looking for how people speak about meaning in things we read – I’ve included some of my finds…
Leo Lionni’s book Frederick was one of my favourites as a child. This collage was made with my non-dominant hand as part of my 2025 100 Day Project.
Arts-based & Trauma-informed Coaching: my non-dominant hand experiment
23rd February marked the first day of my 100-Day Project 2025. I first completed the 100 Day Project in 2019 and since then, each year has been a great experiment in exercising my creative muscle: observing my response to boredom, monotony, the lack of inspiration and learning ways of encouraging myself to keep going.
This year, I decided to write and create with my non-dominant hand. Some research claims that writing or drawing with our non-dominant hand is a way of accessing our inner child or younger parts and I was curious about this. I didn’t want to get all that deep into the research as I was keen to leave the project wide open and see what would emerge without creating expectations of what should be happening.
I’m glad I approached it this way. On Day 3, I wrote a list of favourite childhood books in wonky letters, one of them being Frederick by Leo Lionni. Out of nowhere, the desire to recreate the book cover arose and the process of cutting these few simple shapes felt so joyful – for my adult brain the joy felt really disproportionate to the activity I was engaging in. It felt so inconsequential, yet it was So. Much. Fun. Since then, I’ve created a few more book covers. Interestingly, my brain keeps releasing some long-forgotten fragments of children’s books.
In trauma-informed work, when we are curious about re-connecting with younger parts, we often intend to understand more about possible hurts that have been experienced.
We think of younger parts having been burdened and left alone with a situation too big and overwhelming – and this can be true and I’ve witnessed important shifts by creating a deeper connection between the adult in the coaching session and a younger part who needs protection and love, and often an update on how old (and capable and competent!) the person actually is.
What I’ve been experiencing through my 100-Day Project so far is less of an unburdening, and more of a tapping into childlike joy and wonder.
Through the activity of cutting out and assembling my non-dominant hand collages I’m feeling what my adult brain would class as a ‘ridiculous’ amount of joy. I realise how conditioned I am to look at my joy in relation to the experience: is this experience big enough, wonderful enough to feel such joy?
For now, I’m savouring the ridiculous amount of joy I’m feeling. Like falling in love, I hazard a guess that this level of joy isn’t sustainable over a long period of time, but it’s absolutely wonderful while it lasts!
The fact that I’m currently witnessing my creative and joyful child emerge and that this feels deeply healing, reminds me of Bonnie Badenoch’s wisdom:
“[…] it seems good to stop here and wonder if it is possible for us to begin to let go of our expectations about the shape in which healing may arrive, to trust the treatment plan lying dormant and waiting within our people, to cultivate a gradually gathering stillness so that, in the safety of the space between, healing pathways have the possibility of revealing themselves.””
Meaning-focused & Reflective Coaching: listening for meaning in everyday life
On 24th February, it was my absolute pleasure to welcome a small group to my program Reflecting on Meaning.
Over four months, we’ll be connecting with what gives our lives meaning. In this process, we use the Map of Meaning® as a sensemaking framework, and weave arts-based approaches into our inquiries to ensure our reflections don’t get stuck or remain limited to our thinking brain.
Getting curious about the language around meaning is a great way to get started with our explorations into meaning.
Over the past few days, I focused on noticing meaning-related language in various things I read: news, newsletters, books... I noticed how many of the examples I spotted are linked to how we can face and be with reality without losing hope and while standing strong in our integrity. For this post, I’ve picked just a couple of examples…
When life gets too much
Our current reality is overwhelming and engaging with news can feel like a lot, yet if I avoided the news, I’d somehow feel complicit in the disastrous status quo and that I’m trying to sit things out because I’m privileged enough to do so. The following words are from Samantha Clark, a visual artists who writes from the Orkney Islands. She reminded me how connecting with something bigger than me can uplift me, feel regulating and calming.
“When the news that comes at me through my screens gets too overwhelming, I put on my boots and coat and walk to the sea. […] There is nothing to the west of here but sea and sky as far as Newfoundland. Facing out to such an immensity of wind and wave and light, exhilarated by the sea’s heave and yet safely on land, I feel the sense of dread and calamity begin to ease.”
When we wonder what we can do in the face of reality
Poet Andrea Gibson offers us two questions that touch on a pathway to meaning the Map calls Expressing Full Potential. These questions can be helpful when we wonder what to do and how to act in the face of reality:
“I keep asking myself, “What is my job in this moment? What do I specifically have to offer?” It’s empowering to ask those questions because no one’s job will be the same.”
Their questions serve as a reminder that action is not a one-size-fits all. We all need to find our own way of responding to the world’s challenges, using our strengths, talents and unique gifts. A ‘divide and conquer’ approach might not only be more realistic, but also more effective. Inviting us to focus on the different roles we can play in social change and pick the ones we’re most suited to helps create personal responses that are sustainable and it facilitates collaborative movements and initiatives.