Nine years ago, after completing my secondary education in hypnotherapy and behavior modification, I started spending my time working in two different types of worlds — one-on-one coaching in private, quiet, personalized settings and on-camera coaching in bustling, activity-filled television production locations. The former was a world of therapeutic insight designed to help individuals to identify and move through challenges hampering their personal and professional growth and well-being. The latter was a platform that effectively used the television medium as a form of “edutainment” that often helped not only the individual receiving the coaching, but also the production team working on the project and, eventually, the viewing audience. During this near decade of my life I have enjoyed these two worlds that I have been fortunate to work in and to inhabit.
My life has changed as everyone’s life has changed. During my time since beginning work in my field, I have moved from the fast-paced activity of the Upper West Side of Manhattan to a peaceful, rural environment tucked way up in a Los Angeles Canyon surrounded by state government protected parklands. Without fully realizing it as it was happening, I transitioned from a city dwelling, part-time personal development coach working in the “hurry up and wait” entertainment industry to a full-time, partially secluded, extremely reflective, “therapist type” lifestyle with occasional moments of group activity provided by seminars, workshops, and television appearances. Each of these living and working scenarios has come with great advantages and blessings. Each has birthed moments of contrast from which have sprung new desires for change.
I’ve discovered how much I thrive working with a team and in group settings. During those times, a lot of energy is produced and expended; energy that feels natural and like a welcomed best friend with whom to play. Playing with that much energy and shaping it in a way that is optimal for everyone concerned — self, production team, participants, viewers, etc. — requires a proper amount of rest and some time alone away from the group setting. The rest and recuperation is key to staying healthy, inspired, and motivated. I’ve also learned that there is a high price to pay for too much time spent over-analyzing any situation, my own or someone else’s. For me, too much time alone, away from community, only connecting through phone, email, or in therapeutic settings has to be balanced with group play, fellowship, stepping out of the center of the circle and taking pleasure in watching the rest of “the team” do their thing.
I think I have learned a LOT in the past nine years. I believe I am positioned to play with the energy that I adore so much in a way that is healthier and more giving and more profound than perhaps I was consciously aware of in the past. This feeling, this realization, this perspective is brewing something in my life that I am not yet able to identify in words. It is a feeling, a knowing. I welcome it. I respect it. I honor it. And, I am grateful for every step and every feeling and every experience that has brought me to this moment.
With gratitude,
Mark
Mark Edgar Stephens' Inspiration Blog 