Several times this week I’ve gone for a walk with coaching clients. It wasn’t particularly planned, but each time we discovered new perspectives that we wouldn’t have found if we’d sat down indoors together. I know those insights will already be loosening what seemed to be knotty problems.
Solvitur ambulando, translated as ‘it is solved by walking’ is often attributed to Saint Augustine to describe a problem being solved by a practical experiment. It’s an ancient tradition that we are beginning to reclaim as a way of helping restore mental well-being. I adapted the idea some time ago when I began walking coaching with clients in London art galleries and museums, and then outside along the Thames pathway, and then off the beaten track to find urban farms, old walkways, tiny churches, quiet spots hidden in plain sight. It was definitely experimental. Even the suggestion to get out of the office was novel! It always worked though. I can recall many of the ah hah moments clients had because I know where we were at that moment. The shift in the environment, the natural metaphors that are all around us when we’re walking, the different pace, the movement of walking beside each other all contributed to seeing new possibilities for whatever it was we were working on together. In the last couple of years I’ve adapted the idea to walking and talking on the phone while the pandemic has kept clients physically distanced.
I’m not sure what prompted several walking coaching times in one week. At some deep level, maybe conscious of the turmoil in the world, I sensed we were more prepared than usual to be bold, to experiment, to know the truth of that old adage, ‘if you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you’ve always got’ and so were ready to make changes, to work in a different environment.
Once out in the fresh air, walking, the conversation flowed in new ways:
· I had to know the route and gauge the time, but other parameters weren’t fixed.
· The rhythm of walking slowed our breathing, calmed any anxious thoughts and opened up new thinking.
· The big skies served as a metaphor for new possibilities.
· Walking the perimeter of a wood and then a field meant we could view the same issue, the content of what we were working on, from different points of view which brought clarity.
Walking intentionally like this several times in one week has prompted me to think how extra-ordinary the coaching relationship is:
· In this case, we literally steadied each other when it got muddy and slippery several times. That was a great leveller and any imbalance between us, real or imagined, went. Mutual trust is distinctive in any coaching relationship but was really evident on these walks.
· We were away from the usual comforts and there was no chance of keeping up any appearance. That rawness not only helped us to work well together but it enabled us to imagine what life is really like for others involved in the issues we were working on.
· While we were walking we were fellow travellers and there were interruptions as we negotiated fallen trees, dog walkers, the occasional narrow path and the odd rain shower. Our individual responses and our shared walk gave us much more to talk about as we related the experiences back to the content of the coaching conversation.
We definitely freed up our thinking by walking, it wasn’t neat at all, but the breakthroughs and insights were rich and memorable. I also truly appreciated the kindness that we showed for each other. I felt that, in a week where we’ve been shocked to our core, those walks were full of hope. It’s not fanciful to say they nourished not just us, both those others we have then gone on to meet and are impacted by our thinking.