Transcription

Gwyneth:

Hello and welcome to the Writing Spirituality podcast, brought to you by the Grounded Spirit Project. We’re delighted that you joined us. Whether you’re a writer first and foremost, or write as part of your role as community or spiritual leader, this is the place to find ideas, tools and prompts to get started, to keep going and get finished, and to find a home for your writing.

[music]

G.

Let’s take a moment to focus.

Helen:

Take a nice deep breath in… and slowly exhale.

Feel your feet in contact with the floor… and breathe.

Take your awareness to your heart’s centre

and you may become aware with each breath

of a growth, or a warmth, or expansion in this space

as you become truly present in this moment, now.

[music]

G.

Welcome to this episode of Writing Spirituality. I’m Gwyneth Box, one of the founders of the Grounded Spirit Project, and today I’m going to be talking to Helen Leathers, whose voice you just heard leading us in that brief grounding. Thank you for being with us today, Helen and  thank you for that.

H.

You’re very welcome. It’s lovely to be here.

G.

it’s good to have you. Now, you sent us across a biography; I know a little about you anyway. And I’m just going to read a little bit of this bio before we get into a conversation. So, Helen’s told me that she’s been interested in spirituality ever since she was a small child trying to understand why she saw and experienced things that nobody else did. She’s been on a personal development and spiritual journey ever since, sitting in circle, learning and teaching reiki and other energy work, training in Holistic Therapies, running workshops and events, and always learning more. She’s written a collection of books on spiritual and psychic development, and has been featured a number of times in the Soul and Spirit Magazine. For a while after she got divorced in 2012, she felt that something was missing, as though she’d lost her path and a part of her own identity. And that’s when she magically happened on a particular coaching approach that brought everything together for her. She rediscovered herself, her passion and purpose, and went on to do further training as a coach and discovered more skills and tools to add to the magical mix and this allowed her to create a unique blend of coaching and training that she offers today. She describes it as a blend of old and new, of science and spirituality. So there’s an awful lot going on there, isn’t there, Helen?

H.

Absolutely, yes. I don’t like to, er, to slow down or get bored.

[laughter]

G.

I was talking to you, er, talking to Lucía, my partner in the Grounded Spirit Project, about you, and she’s very concerned that you do do too much. So she told me to tell you to slow down a bit.

[laughter]

G.

But, um, in there, and I’ve been looking at your website, you’ve got books, you’ve got audio downloads, you’ve got coaching, courses, workshops, you do many, many things but, what would you actually say your day job was?

H.

I would say that m y day job currently is as a transformational women’s coach.

G.

Would you like to give us a little bit more about that?

H.

Yes, certainly. When I discovered a particular type, approach to, coaching it was like a piece of the puzzle kind of came together, I had all this previous experience with energy work, with meditation, with Holistic Therapies, and spirituality, and the psychic development side of things as well, and the coaching that I learnt and the approach that I learnt was this missing piece that allowed it to be entirely practical, and it kind of, everything fell into place, and all of these things could be used together to help women who’d got to a point in their life where I had been, where they went. “Oh… who am I now?” And that could be for a number of different reasons, but that feeling is very common for women who get, get to that point and go, “Who am I? Wasn’t I going to change the world? What happened?” [laughs]…

G.

Absolutely. Yes.

H.

And all of those things come together and, and with them, as a combined integrative approach, women can become overwhelmed, can become less overwhelmed, sorry, from being overwhelmed with life and all they have to do, manage their energies so they’re no longer exhausted,  and find that magical space where they’re “in flow” again, connected with themselves, connected the universe or whatever you’d like to call it. And the magic starts to happen again and they can get back on track with who they are and whatever difference they want to make in the world or feel they were destined to make in the world.

G.

1. Now I was going to ask you about your audience because I wasn’t sure, but you’ve made it very clear there, that it is women that you work with. Do you ever work with men? Or is that just not something that really fits in with, with what you’re doing?

H.

So, in coaching, I do work with women. I, I work with men in terms of, if they come on workshops that I’m delivering, and that kind of thing, but with my coaching, and the approach that I take, it’s really focused on connecting with the cyclical nature of being a woman, connecting with the cyclical nature of Nature, and, um, we talk about hormones and all sorts of stuff – it’s great fun [laughs] – and it’s just different for women. And I think I provide that safe space for women to explore that, and also, sometimes, to explore that part of them that gets squashed, whether it’s a sexual part, a spiritual part, in a really safe environment.

G.

Right… OK. I was, I can see that there might be a place for a counterpart coaching for men, but not in the same space…

H.

Yes and I know of…

G.

…but perhaps explaining…yes…

H.

Yes… Sorry. I do know coaches that do that, who’ve come from the same coaching background as I have, and they taken what they’ve learned and they work with men.

G.

Yup. That makes sense. Yep. OK. Now on the Podcast, on Writing Spirituality, we take a fairly inclusive attitude to the term “spirituality”. Now, I’ve realised that you’re not afraid of using words like “magic”, words like “spirit”, “universe”… Do you feel that all the different channels that you’re working in fall within this spiritual space? Your writing, your coaching, your… is it all, all part of the same space, do you think?

H.

Um, yes, I think it is. I think that there are different conversations to be had about spirituality and some people might come to me and not really feel connected to their spirituality, and I think all the things that I do reach people in a different capacity, and so it talks to them in the language that they resonate with. So the type of people that might buy my books may not necessarily come to me for coaching. But it is all…, I can’t extract the spirituality from me because that’s who I am [laughs]. That’s what makes it an holistic approach really.

G.

Yes. Now, we’ve met in a business capacity, and, I’m finding that people are more willing to use words like “spirituality”, now. There’s, it’s not something to hide under a bushel quite so much as it used to be. But I think that some people are still shying away from it.

H.

Yeah, I agree. And, and I’ve been deliberately kind of bringing it into the conversation in the workplace work that I do, depending on the workplace setting, I do some corporate training and we tend to, um, be more cautious with that and how that’s approached. But when I’m out and about, talking about what I do, I can’t leave that out. It’s just who I am. And also that it means that the right people are attracted to talk to me, because they might ask, “What do you mean by spirituality?” because everyone has a different idea of that.

G.

Yes, indeed. It’s one of those words, as I say, here, we’re using it as a much wider word than religious spirituality, it is not religious. It’s almost community in some respects.

H.

Yeah. Absolutely.

G.

So yes, now, as I say, books, audio downloads, coaching, courses, workshops… it’s a lot of content. How much time do you spend producing content? How much time do you spend presenting it?

H.

Well, my books, I started publishing back in 2008 so my last book, “The Power in Your Hands”, I published in 2013, I think…

G.

OK.

H.

And I haven’t written books since, so those books are sat there, they’re on all of the channels, you can order them in your High Street bookstore, all of that, but I don’t focus on that, that’s just there, it’s findable online, I don’t promote them as such. So I focus generally on my coaching and training. And, um, how much time do I spend writing content? Um, [laughs] um, it depends. It depends. I have a, a stash, if you like, of different workshops that I run, and the, and I sometimes tweak them. Sometimes I bring in new ones so I probably, I create a new masterclass every month for my membership, and…

G.

One every month?

H.

Yes but it’s based in things…

G.

That’s a lot!

H.

It is, but it’s based on, on a kind of skeleton content. So I have my processes, I have my coaching tools, I have my, what’s the word, philosophy and after deciding on the content of the year for my membership group, I’ll just pull together, OK how does that work? Sometimes I repurpose other content, so I can create a masterclass, a two-hour masterclass in about anywhere from an hour to three hours so…

G.

I’m very impressed. You’re obviously a planner.

H.

No, no. I’m not at all.

G.

But you said you had your plan for the year?

H.

That’s, it’s taken me a long time to get to the point where I plan for the year. [laughs] If you saw my social media strategy, it will be a blank page, Gwyneth, honestly. My personality profile in Myers-Briggs terms is an ENFP so I’m winging it all the time.

G.

Apparently successfully, though. I guess some people do…

H.

Well, I can plan when I have to, so, yeah… The masterclasses, I do get a title, and then, on a week before, it flashes up on my calendar to remind me, “Don’t forget the masterclass next week!” and then I schedule that into my diary to plan it.

G.

So you’ve got people… how do you work with them? Is it through Facebook groups? Is it through…, what, what platforms are you using? ‘Cos you mention social media, you’ve got, you mentioned a group that you’re, you do master classes for, those are ongoing membership? Is that how it works?

H.

Yeah So I’ve got, I use LinkedIn. I have a profile on LinkedIn which I tend to keep a little bit more “professional”, shall we say? I still introduce spiritual, spirituality to it, but, so, and I do put things out on Instagram, but I have a Facebook group where I tend to encourage people to go, so from wherever I meet them, I say join, you know, join my Facebook group, it’s a Facebook group for women who want more energy and flow in their life, and I put, I do a weekly live in there, and just share various things. And then I have a membership group, because I have so much content that I’ve pulled together over many years that it seemed a shame that it was just sat on my computer, and, or in a notebook, so I put it all on an online platform and I have, it’s a small membership, but I I love them to bits, and they have a masterclass with me once a month, and they can go into that online platform anytime and look at that content. So there’s psychic development work on there, energy work, intuition course, so there’s courses, one-off workshops, downloads, all sorts of things they could possibly want, from personal development and confidence work, right through to the real kind of psychic stuff.

G.

Yes. OK…

H.

I don’t know if I answered your question, sorry! I went off on a tangent there! [laughs]

G.

That’s absolutely fine. I’m not sure I remember what the question was! [laughs] But this is not a problem. Yes, well, there are different forms and different formats for the content that you’re producing… Before I talk about that, though, I’m going to ask you now, what’s your number one tip for being such a prolific content producer, content creator?

H.

Well, I am a natural innate Wisdom seeker. I, I know this about myself, Wisdom is my number one, well, one of my top five values in life and work, and I’ve always sought out wisdom and when I seek and find things I find powerful, useful, transformative, I have a real need to share them with others. One of my other values is Connection, and so I it’s natural for me to find things that speak to me, that resonate with me, that help, that I know will help people, and then to disseminate it in such a way that makes it accessible and easy to understand, and practical, for other people, so I always try to do that. So I think my top tip would be: go with your own values, seek wisdom, and understand yourself. So if you do all of that, and you want to be a content creator, it can’t all come from just inside yourself, you have to, you have to fill yourself up, kind of shake it around… a bit like making a smoothie, right? [laughs] So, fill yourself up, shake it around a bit and see what comes out.  See what smoothie you end up with. [laughs] I’m not sure that’s a good analogy, but you know…

[laughter]

G.

I’m not sure either, but, yeah, that does sort of resonate with me. I know that people say you should only write what you know, and I think that some people use that to limit themselves, because they say, “But I don’t know anything about that, so I can’t write about it.” It’s like, well, go out and learn, and then you’ll know about it, and then you can write about it. I think that can be a very limiting idea, the, you only know so much and therefore you’ve got to limit yourself to that. And what you’re saying about seeking Wisdom. I think that that very much resonates with my thoughts there. But what I was going to ask was, all this content, do you plan and produce? Do you wait for inspiration? And how do you choose what medium? Because, I can see that you’re doing courses, you’re doing master, master classes and workshops, but I’m assuming that there still work books coming out, there are, there are different formats. Do you say, “I need a workbook for this, therefore I have to go and find the content”? Or do you say, “I’ve got this content, I need to put it across that way”? How does that connect?

H.

Oh, that’s a, a good question. I do get sudden bouts of inspiration. So with one of my books in particular, all of them were kind of like, “Ooh… I’ve got to write a book and this is what it’s going to be like.” It was like, just, it’s like someone planted the idea in my head. One of them came to me in a dream…

G.

Yes?

H.

And whatever I did I couldn’t stop this Dream from happening… kind of, every time I went back to sleep I went back into this dream and the book was there, and so I had to get up and write it. So I wrote, probably the structure of it, and the, certainly the first few chapters, from about three in the morning, one night. Just like, “Oh! Why do you have to give me this stuff in the middle of the night?!” And, and it made sense for many of those books, in terms of the content, to make audio products alongside it, because there was, especially with the spiritual and psychic development work there was meditations, there was exercises and that kind of thing, so creating an audio product alongside that, that people could access and use alongside the book, just made sense, from a, a practical and business perspective. Umm… now, I, I love doing in-person workshops, I love being in, with people, in a room. I think it’s really powerful to create that space together, and, and I’ve always coached online, but when we went into lockdown and I took my workshops online, and, so that’s replaced, for now, that in-person event, and that’s probably one of my preferred ways of getting people to access the information that I’m putting out there. But, yes, if, if it lends itself to a workbook and someone wants that, um, content in written form, if I think that would be useful, then I’ll create that. So it’s inspired thought, in terms of what the content might be, it’s inspired thought, it’s feedback from other people… it’s people saying, “Helen, what do you know about this topic?” And sometimes I’ll go, “Ooh, I know quite a lot”, and sometimes I go, “I don’t know anything but it sounds intriguing let’s go find out.” But if it doesn’t resonate with me, I will refer to someone else who I know who does talk about that kind of thing. It has to still resonate with me.

G.

Yes, now that makes sense, in the sort of thing that you’re doing, that you need to be personally involved, personally invested, in what you’re transmitting.

H.

Yeah.

G.

OK… So let’s go back, then, to those values. Because you mentioned two, you mentioned Wisdom and Connection. What else are you going to put up there in your top five values?

H.

Energy, is my, probably my number one [laughs]. And it’s interesting, because I often have this debate, one of my mentors, her top value is Love, and I often have this conversation with, you know, them upstairs, and go, “Why isn’t mine Love? That sounds really lovely.”

[both laugh]

H.

And it’s like, “What do you think Energy and Connection are?”

G.

Yes.

H.

Oh, yes! OK. That makes sense. So, Energy and Connection most definitely, because, are in my top, probably my top two, because they are about connection with the universe, connection with spirituality, connection with myself, connection with other people, and the energy is my own personal energy and vitality, and that energy that I believe connects us all. So those two are very intricately linked. Wisdom, most definitely, is one of mine, it’s definitely, it’s that I seek Wisdom. Some people, I think with values it’s really important to understand that you might take one word and everyone will have a different interpretation of it.

G.

Absolutely. Here, we’re very interested in, in words.

H.

Of course.

G.

Lucía and I are both very much word people. And I’m intrigued by what you’ve just said, that Love, actually, what you’re looking, with Energy and Connection are two different facets of what someone else calls Love. But, yes, each word, we put a single word out there, and other people will take it and run with it and take it to themselves won’t they?

H.

Yeah. Yeah. And I have two more. So I have my top five. I don’t believe you can focus on any more than five, really, at any one time. Trust in the process of life, the universe, trust in yourself, trust in your intuition, trust in flow and the natural rhythms of your body, as well, that your body knows. And then the final one is Alignment. And that’s about integrating all of your learning, aligning with your values, aligning with your truth, and then living that alignment, so using it practically, and living very much on purpose, with all of those things in alignment with each other. So they’re my top five

G.

OK… so we have Energy and Connection, Wisdom. Trust and Alignment. I like that, because I hear so often the same values. You say, what someone’s values, whether it’s their personal values, or their professional values, a lot of businesses, you know, what are your vision and values… and it always sounds very similar. Everyone goes in and says, “oh, Integrity” And it’s like, really? That’s a no brainer: we’ve got to start with that. And even Trust, I think is one of the, umm, one of the words that you put as a value that I do hear, but you seem to be taking a different take on it there. It’s trusting, it’s you trusting, and other people trusting their own natural course in life, the, trusting themselves, as well as trusting others, yeah I think, I think that seems, yes, a different take. Which is, excellent. Excellent.

H.

I also think, when it comes to values, when you ask someone their values, they generally tell you what they want their values to be, or what they think everyone else wants to hear. And I don’t think that’s how it works [laughs]. Your values, my, my belief is that your top values are where you spend your time, energy and money…

G.

Yes.

H.

So they therefore show up in your life, and if you’re… my partner always jokes, he says, “Everyone always says Honesty!” Like, that average times… the average number of people… Sorry. Let me say that again: the average person lies at least twice a day, so if honesty is one of your top values… [laughs].

G.

Yes.

H.

You know?

G.

Quite. Yes, yes, I think we’re on the same page there. Umm… I’ve made a note of something you said a little bit earlier… and I can’t read my writing [laughs]. But I wanted to get back to the fact you said about Love, you talk to “the guys upstairs” who “give you this stuff”? Can you talk a little bit more about what that means to you?

H.

Yes. I usually refer to them as “them upstairs”. Some, sometimes “the universe”… it’s all the same thing to me, really. So, I don’t know who they are, I don’t know what they are, it might be me, it might be my higher self, my “infinite self” – which is a phrase I stole off Anita Moorjani, she wrote “Dying to be me”, and I love it and now I use it –  so it might be, and probably is, an aspect of me, or it could be something else, so often times I’ve referred to it as my “spirit guides”… I don’t know what it is, but there’s this big energy out there, that I am, and I am connected to, as we all are. That’s my belief and it might be different to yours, I don’t know, might be different to other people’s, and sometimes we get two-way conversation, so I can talk to them and they can talk to me and it comes through as inspired guidance, divine wisdom, or something else, and they’ll drop the words into my mind and I just have to be open to receive them.

G.

1. I think one of the problems is that we all get so hung up on labelling things, and sometimes those words and those labels can get in the way, because you say something and it doesn’t tally with the words that I use, and that means we think we’re talking about something different, and, in fact, we’re talking about the same thing.

H.

Exactly.

Whereas, if we use the same label, we think we’re talking about the same thing, whereas, in fact, we may have very different interpretations of what that label means. So that’s very interesting and that brings me into, talking about, going back to your books for just a little bit, I realise that you’re not actually writing books at the moment, but those books were co-authored… now, because this is something that Lucía and I have done – we have co-authored books – and we found it an amazingly exhilarating thing to do, we discovered a, a potential for collaboration that I don’t think either of us had thought about, but they were also very specific type of books…  I’d like to know more about co-authoring and how you found it, because, yes, this, “Are we speaking the same language? Are we trying to say the same things?” I think that’s a nice lead in, so…

H.

Yeah. Yes, so “they” gave me instruction about the spiritual and psychic development Workbook, which was my first concept, and I, the idea behind it came to me, and it was about creating a guide for people running workshops, so like a teachers’ guide, and, and I thought, because I was running workshops, and I had all the workshops that I’d created in note form, and I thought well this could become a workbook. And I went on a “marketing your book” workshop with a publishing company, a small publishing company in Herefordshire, I think, and I realised that actually I could make this workbook quite a marketable, more inclusive, book, so I could create a workbook by all means, but I can also create this other more accessible book for general consumption, and in that moment I thought, I don’t think I can finish this book on my own, I think I need some collaboration. And my very good friend Diane was someone I sat in circle with, so I knew her really well, and we’d sat in circle for maybe three years together, and we got on extremely well, we knew we spoke the same language, we knew we had brilliant conversations around spirituality and spiritual philosophy, and, and so I approached her and said “Do you want to work on this together?” And we split, the second half of the book we split into different topics, and she took some topics, and I took some topics, and we just wrote a chapter each, and then we kind of reviewed each other’s, and went “Ooh, do you think we should tweak this?” But in the process of writing that book, we were living in different counties, and it was done by phone, and occasional visits, and then in the process of writing that book I remember distinctly, we were sat at her kitchen table, with her small children running around and, and I said, “Oh, do you know I was asked the other day this question.” She said, “I’m always asked that question.” I said “Don’t you find that people always ask you the same questions?” And she went “Yeah…” As soon as they find out the type of thing that you do in your part time, they have the same questions, like you know “Oh, so you sit in circle, do you believe in God, then?” [inaudible] Or whatever the question might be. And I jokingly said “Someone should write a Frequently Asked Questions book.” And she just went, “There, that’ll be us, then.” So, in the process of doing the first book, we came up with the second, and we came up with 101 frequently asked questions, and we did that quite differently. We both answered all the questions, and then we came together, and it was fascinating, because when we came together, there were some questions that we’d answered word-for-word identically. There were some questions that I’d answered with, in, with one with one perspective, and she’d answered with different perspectives, so we joined them up. And there were some questions where, if someone reads the book it will say, “Helen says this; Diane says this” because we have completely different takes on it, so it was just, it was a really interesting process and it was really, I, I think it was really useful. It was certainly a bonding experience for us, and it was also a massive learning experience for us.

G.

So, you talked about, you mention social media, and your social media plan, and you’ve mentioned working with a close friend on your writing… who’s helping you with things like social media, the technical side? Do you have a team? Do you, do you handle it all yourself?

H.

I do. I do it all myself currently. As I say, my social media pla is virtually non-existent, so I’m winging it all the time. I learn from people, if you like, so I, I, today I’m signed up for a workshop on reels and videos on Facebook…

H.

And Instagram. So, I’ll be watching that later. So, no, I do have people around me who support me, but in terms of doing the work, I do it.

And you have several different websites, and you’ve got so much going on, how do you keep track of it? Is it, I don’t know, is it a special journal that you use? Or is it just something that you manage to keep track of, some people do.

H.

Yeah. I don’t know honestly, Gwyneth. But I have to say, when you said earlier that Lucia’s worried I do too much, I used to do too much. And, and now, I’m very careful about replenishing my energy, balancing my time… So yesterday I, I always take Tuesday morning off, that’s my pilates morning. I’m very focused on keeping that balance, and making sure that my health and energy are right, so that I can do all of that stuff. If you try and do it all without replenishing, then you’re heading for burnout, so I don’t do that anymore. [laughs] I’ve been there done that. So, how do I keep track of it all? I actually, believe it or not, do focus on one thing at a time. [laughs] It might not look like it, but, you know, I‘ve said the books are written, they’re done until the next one, until I’ve kind of created the next one. The current course, I’ve just finished creating all the content for, which is quite a big chunky course, that will be done by the end of next week, so then I can think, “OK, what’s next?” I focus on one thing at a time. And I have, I use, I actually use Google Calendar to remind me to review things.

G.

OK, yup.

H.

So, like you say, I have a number of websites, and I manage a couple of other websites for partner as well, we’ve got a coaching project together, and every month it flags up “check the websites”, the full updates, every month I get a little reminder “review this”, so, whenever I have a project on the go, I tend to brainstorm all the things that might need to be reviewed on a regular basis, and I stick the reminders in Google Calendar, or stick the tasks in Google Calendar. I have a friend who, many years ago, when I first met, she introduced me to project planning, she’s a corporate project planner, and also extremely spiritual, and I was like, “Oh! this is amazing!” So I use this technique that she showed me to project plan things, and, and in that way I’m a lot more organised than some ENFPs [laughs] who are a bit more, umm, winging it, but, I tend to then, once I’ve done the project, I just have reminders to go back and review or check or update as needed.

G.

Right. OK. Yes. It’s, it’s clear that you’re willing to use the technologies… umm, I think sometimes there’s a, a mismatch between the spiritual and the technical, but I’m not seeing any mismatch whatsoever here.

H.

I, I’d love to say something about this, because, I find that, too – a lot of people who, I’ve been at some varied, various Mind, Body, Spirit, Holistic shows this year, promoting my current courses, and so many people say, “Oh, I don’t do technology.” And what I find really fascinating is, I, in my coaching practice, I work with female, empowering female archetypes, and one of them is the Sorceress. And the Sorceress is this wonderful archetype of, it’s the part of us that connects with spirituality, the part of us that connects with source, the part of us that, magically, can create and manifest things in her life, and one of the phrases that I will always remember being told about the Sorceress is “she is the mistress of her chosen technology.” And if you think of the Sorceress, I do liken her in my own mind to the witch, but a lot of people find that has negative connotations, but if you think about the village wisewoman…

G.

Yes,

H.

Her chosen technology might have been herbs, her chosen technology might have been to read the stars. These days, our chosen technology can be anything. So we can be totally connected with our source, totally connected with our spirituality, and be a computer geek, or you, know, absolutely be on it with whatever chosen technology we have, and it’s the thing that we can, with one-touch, kind of do things that, so easily, that everyone else is going, “How, how did you do that? How do you know that works ?” And the things that we find easy are our own innate magic, and that’s the Sorceress, so, absolutely, I believe that modern technology is our modern-day magic, and you don’t have to be disconnected from spirituality if you’re connected with modern technology.

G.

They say, don’t they… there’s some, erm, a quote about, any technology that is far enough advanced will look like magic to the person who hasn’t reached that point in their technological journey.

H.

Yeah.

G.

If you took anything that we do now, and were able to show if someone from even a century ago, they would not understand any of it… most of us don’t understand most of it, anyway, but we can use it. And I think that that’s the key, that…

H.

And people in science, that magically create like, I know that some people might find it controversial, but magically create vaccines, like, you know, in a really short space of time, from all the wisdom that’s been gained from trials and research over the years, so that when humanity needs this, they can magic it up. It’s like alchemy. It’s incredible.

G.

And we personally don’t need to understand it to be able to use it.

H.

No… Because someone else is weaving the magic so we can benefit.

G.

Now I’m going to ask you to tell us a little bit about your latest project. Because we’ve talked quite a bit about some of the things you’ve done in the past, and we’ve touched on what you’re doing now, but you’ve got a new project, haven’t you?

H.

Yes. Muy new project is, provided, providing training in spiritual life-coaching, and, um, the area of coaching is quite an interesting one, because, “coach”, that word has become really dominant in the workplace, in, online marketing, and so on, and the word has kind of morphed. So you’ll get people who say “I’m a marketing coach”, or I, what did I see the other day?, I can’t remember, it was a really odd one. I can’t remember, anyway, so, the interesting part about coaching, is it comes from two different areas, it, so it’s informed at one end of the spectrum by therapists and person-centred therapies.

G.

Yes.

H.

And at the other end by, if you like, sports coaches, who just tell people what to do. So you’ve got, “I’m going to tell you what to do” and, you know, probably shout at you if you’re not doing it properly. And the other one, “I’m going to listen; I’m going to hold this space.” And coaching can sit anywhere on that spectrum. And I do sit, kind of, more to, left of centre, so more towards that person-centred approach, but helping people to provide them with tools and resources, and new ways to think. And when I was looking at, I was looking at doing a Master’s degree, in transpersonal coaching psychology, and that is, effectively, a spiritual coaching, so transpersonal means beyond the ego, and that connection with mind, body and spirit, and how it integrates, and I tried this Master’s programme and, um, it wasn’t good. That’s all I’m going to say. And I looked at some other courses online and they weren’t good either. And they were really telling people how they should live their life in a spiritual way, right at the end of the spectrum, and I’ve always been a big believer in “you walk your spiritual path and I’ll walk mine and I will not say ‘you’re wrong’ and I will not say ‘I’m right’ and I’d love to have a conversation with you about that.” So, I believe there’s a place for spiritual coaching which allows someone to discover their own spiritual path without being told what it is or should be. But there’s not a lot of coaches out there that offer that. And so, I thought, I was thinking, ok, these courses aren’t very good, it’s a shame. And I went to bed one night thinking about this and then I woke up the next morning with “them upstairs” going “Do it yourself!

[laughter]

H.

So I, because I’m an accredited coach for the Association for Coaching and also on their Assessment Board, so I assess other coaches for their personal accreditation, and I spoke to one of the ladies at the Association, and I said, “Do you think there’s a space for spiritual life coaches?” and she said, “Absolutely there is.” So I then created these courses – a diploma and a certificate – and got them accredited by the Association for Coaching, so they blend beautifully really good foundational coaching skills with ideas, tools, resources and concepts that feed into that idea of mind, body, spirit connection and energy work and integrate everything, so it’s designed for people who want a new career, it’s designed for people who are working in the change space already, so they’re helping people change, whether that’s healthwise or other ways, so yoga teachers, nutritional therapist, that kind of thing, and they can learn these new skills that help people to transform their lives. What I’ve found is, so much coaching is the person thinking, and that does work, it works really well, but I think sometimes we need some other layers brought into play, we need to understand ourselves at different layers, we need to understand our mind-body connection, and we need to understand our connection to spirit, or the spiritual realm, and bringing those into play can really allow for massive transformation. And so many people seeking purpose, as they’re feeling lost in the world at the moment. So that’s what I’m doing. I am creating – I have created – a programme which teaches people to use these skills for whatever path they are on. And I love it. It’s absolutely been fantastic. So the purses are accredited, I’ve got people going through them at the moment, and it’s wonderful to see them on their journey and learning and developing for themselves.

G.

And so the people who go through the courses, what do they get at the end of it? Are they, are they trained? Do they get a certificate? Do they…

 

Yes. They’re certificated courses – which means I have to have a whole new level of insurance, it turns out! [laughs] So they’re certificated courses that are accredited by the Association for Coaching, which means that, you know that they hit all the criteria for Life Coaching, and they will be recognised if you want to go through then and become personally accredited as a coach, and it also means that you can get insurance as a coach as well. And, so, it’s a combination of online learning and live online workshops on Zoom, and it’s, yeah, the changes that you see in people from the start to the end, it’s just phenomenal. So people can go out and use those skills in their day job, in their daily life, or start something new. I’ve got a couple of ladies who are like, “I’m going to start off as a coach part-time, because this is just amazing.”

G.

So that’s going to be useful for people who want to be coaches, but also just people who want to live their life more completely…

H.

Yeah.

G.

More purposefully…

H.

Yeah. So I think that there’s, there’s three things, there’s people who want to be coaches, and you don’t have to call yourself a spiritual life coach to use the, the tools and resources if you think it’s scary, um, people who want to have a different career, whether it’s part time, or perhaps, eventually, to replace their existing income, people who, like I say, are already in that change space, what we find is, that people who’ve been taught something like nutritional therapy, or a PT, or a yoga teacher, they’re taught how to tell someone what to do and that doesn’t always instigate change that individual; when you bring him coaching skills, you bring out an intrinsic motivation in other people to make change happen, and so change is much more likely to happen, so they can adapt, adopt new habits, and form new ways of being. So if they’re already in the change space, it’s adding tools to that toolbox. And then the third group of people are the people that just love to learn, and want to do the work, and want to work on themselves, and, you know, explore their own spirituality, and get a qualification at the end of it.

G.

Well, good luck with that, it sounds an exciting project… and that’s happened very recently, has it?

H.

Yes, yes. So we started with the first group in January, and they’re, they’re just coming to the end of their training, and the second group are underway, so I’ve got a new one starting in October.

G.

OK, So maybe we’ll have you back later on, and find out how that’s going, or maybe we’ll have one of your trainees back, and see how that’s going, that’s also a possibility. So, just before we draw this to a close, one more thing, can you tell us a little bit about your own personal spiritual practice? What form does it take? Do you have any daily habits? Yes, your, your spiritual practice, Helen…

H.

Ok, for me, I suppose my practice is actually combining all aspects of what gives me energy, and what keeps me topping up my level of vitality. So my spiritual practice is actually a very integrated mind, body, spirit practice, because I don’t think you can have one without the other. So I ensure that I eat well, and have good nutrition. I ensure that I exercise regularly. And that’s a combination of contemplative practice like yin yoga, flow yoga, pilates, but also cardio exercise, I believe that feeds my soul as well as my body, and we only have one body to travel this mortal life in, so we have to look after it.

G.

Oh, yes.

H.

I, I am not very good at doing things absolutely every day, apart from eating [laughs] but I do try to get outside into nature two or three times a week. I try to spend a few minutes meditating two or three times a week. And, whilst I would love to say I do it every day, I don’t. I’m only human. I forget, get distracted, have too much on some days, all of that… so, but definitely the, the yoga practice. I find if I do yoga practice twice a week in a class setting, then that keeps me topped up with, with energy physically, and also that. providing that space to, you know, because of the lovely meditations you always do at the end. I also feel that when I, as and when I need to, I journal, that helps me connect and gain perspective. What else do I do… I, I think, getting out into nature is a big thing for me, and being able to, we’ve got a bridge over a river just down the road from us, and I walk down there, and I walk with the intention of seeing my heron. There’s a heron that lives, or that visits, and nine times out of ten, my heron’s there, just going “Hi!” [laughs] And, and that, for me, is a wonderful thing, and it really, I don’t know, it really reconnects me, because I’m asking for the heron to be there, the heron doesn’t actually live in that space, and then they show up, so it reminds me of that trust in the universe, of the wonders of Nature, with all of those things and I have on occasion sat on the bench and gone “Hmm. Why’s my heron not here?” and my heron has flown by me at that  moment, as I’m sulking. Just beautiful.

Birds, birds have that power don’t they? And, for different people, different birds, I think that sometimes, just the sight of one is enough to put you into a different space. It takes you out of yourself.

H.

Yeah. Yeah. Especially when it’s an unusual bird, I think.

G.

Yes.

H.

I also, each week, at the start of the week, I do a card reading for myself, as part of my as spiritual practice, but also as part of my connection to my community, I take a card for the week, and I write a little bit about that card, and I send out an email to my community, and they get that. And it’s not about, “I’m going to tell you the future for the week”, it’s about “This is a card that you might like to reflect on”, here’s some thinking around what I see in this card, but here’s a picture of it, you might see something else, but take some time to reflect. And that’s part of my practice but it’s my practice that I share, which I love to do. And I love to get little messages back from people, which I do regularly, saying, “Oh, my goodness. I needed to hear this today” or “This is perfect for my week” or something like that, so that is lovely.

G.

That’s that’s lovely how your, your personal practice now spreads out into the community. I think that’s, that’s very powerful. OK. Umm, of course one more thing we need to know: where can people find out more about you? Because we’ve talked about an awful lot of things, on, on the show today, and there is still so much more to know. So, Helen, where can they find you?

H.

So the first place is my website, which is really easy: helenleathers.com. And I have a website for the spiritual coaching as well, which is really easy as it’s spiritualcoaching.me. And I, I am on Instagram, I am on LinkedIn, you can just use my name, Helen Leathers, to find me. And I have for, as I say, for the the ladies who want to have more energy and more flow and more connection in their life I have a Facebook group which is called “energy and flow for life” and so it’s nice and easy to find on Facebook

[music]

G.

Thank you, Helen. It’s been a pleasure talking to you and getting to know you a bit better

H.

Likewise.

G.

And thank you to all the listeners for joining us on Writing Spirituality podcast. You’ll find the script, links and notes for the episode at groundedspiritproject.com. You can find us on Twitter and Instagram, and if you have any questions, tips or thoughts to share, do send them to hello at groundedspiritproject.com and we may feature them on the podcast. Don’t forget to leave a review, follow the podcast, follow and tag us on Twitter or Instagram, and share the podcast with your community. See you next week. Thank you again, Helen

H.

Thank you