{"id":666,"date":"2024-02-02T16:44:57","date_gmt":"2024-02-02T16:44:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/icfchennai.com\/blogs\/?p=666"},"modified":"2024-02-02T16:44:57","modified_gmt":"2024-02-02T16:44:57","slug":"building-inner-conversation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/icfchennai.com\/blogs\/building-inner-conversation\/","title":{"rendered":"Building Inner conversation"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\u201cTalk to yourself once in a day, otherwise you may miss meeting an excellent person in this world.\u201d \u2013 Swami Vivekananda<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When the invite to write a blog from Suba reached me a few days back, I considered whether to accept or reject it.   I was anxious, unsure whether I could complete this ‘action’ within the desirable time limit.  There was a conversation happening within my mind.  This inner conversation made me reflect and see the complexities involved in such a conversation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Based on my three decades of multiple industry experience in different functions and my coaching experience, I have synthesized a few insights, which I am sharing \u2013 that could be useful \u2013 to my fellow coaches or non-coaches.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is an inner conversation?  What do we need to do for a meaningful Inner conversation?   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I realized that an Inner conversation is a transforming experience.  In the process, the mind attempts to<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022           Ascertain what is ‘true’ knowledge – discerning facts from lies<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022           Understand new ideas, and<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022           Understand the nature of the inquirer<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another exciting perspective while going through this experience was an insight that the appreciation of and understanding of inner conversation happening within one’s Self is imperative to build a sense of higher awareness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I further learned that appreciation of inner conversation and understanding its nuances helps an individual develop a reflective, conscientious mind.  Such a mind can create an imaginative vision and make contextual decisions more effectively and harmoniously.  However, another question popped up  \u2013 How do we know we have a \u2018reflective mindset\u2019?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Post-Covid, I was working on developing a new learning process \u2013 \u2018Reflective Learning\u201d, and hence synthesized six elements to identify whether one has a reflective mind. An affirmative response to the following questions could help identify this.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

On a 10-point scale,  lower the score,  lower the reflective mindset.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n
  1. <\/em>Am I sensitive? – Do I have the ability of keen observation and active listening skills<\/em><\/li>\n\n\n\n
  2. <\/em>Can I understand my Self and others?-  Do I accept and own up my actions and behaviour even in adverse situations?<\/em><\/li>\n\n\n\n
  3. <\/em>Can I realise what is reality(not getting confused with the make-to-believe situations ? \u2013 a mindset to experiment, be inquisitive, and be innovative?<\/em><\/li>\n\n\n\n
  4. <\/em>Do I have the ability to appreciate the feelings of Self and others with a sense of happiness?<\/em><\/li>\n\n\n\n
  5. <\/em>Am I resilient? \u2013 Can I bounce back from failures, while continue upgrading my ability to seek and learn<\/em><\/li>\n\n\n\n
  6. <\/em>Can I be vulnerable with a mindset to accept and own up  failures<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    While experimenting with the process, I found that we mainly use very loose meaning for ‘reflection’.  A profoundly reflective mind can have a higher self-awareness through effective inner conversation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    I further realized that it is impossible to think with a closed mind.  There are two types of conversation – Competitive  and Collaborative. In the former, people are more concerned about their perspective, whereas, in the later people are interested in the perspective of everyone involved.  In both types of  conversations, I realized the following characteristics exist:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \u2022           Mutuality<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \u2022           Equality to express divergent views<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \u2022           External perspective<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Therefore, the first step towards building a growth mindset is to initiate a meaningful conversation within so that you will be ready for an external conversation.  It is a conversation within a conversation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    How can we make the inner conversation more meaningful?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Do accept and appreciate the reality \u2013 move away from illusions\/fa\u00e7ade or self-pretention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    We always interplay between two opposing tendencies -the up-going creative process (Pravrtti) and the down-going destructive process (Nivrtti).  When the perplexed mind does not know where the duty lies, the Self needs to listen only to the Inner conversation to find the answer. While doing so, let:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \u2013          The differences arise; explore them<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \u2013          there be confusion; search for the underlying meaning<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \u2013          it not be in a hurry; Slow the pace of conversation – pace it with pauses<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    My take is that the coaching process starts with the Coach \u2013 be prepared to create a sacred space for the Client.  I also learned that a coaching conversation is a reflective process by the Client with himself, facilitated by the Coach.  Here, the coach helps the person navigate within the self and learn all the intricacies one may be unable to do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    It is an intricate and wonderful experience once we learn the art of inner conversation.\u00a0 Using metaphors and visualisation processes could be very useful to dwell more.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0I am sure that my fellow coaches also might have experienced this journey. Would love to learn and relearn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    You can connect with Baburaj Nair Click Here<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    \u201cTalk to yourself once in a day, otherwise you may miss meeting an excellent person in this world.\u201d \u2013 Swami Vivekananda When the invite to write a blog from Suba […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":667,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-666","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/icfchennai.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/666","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/icfchennai.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/icfchennai.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/icfchennai.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/icfchennai.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=666"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/icfchennai.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/666\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":668,"href":"https:\/\/icfchennai.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/666\/revisions\/668"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/icfchennai.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/667"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/icfchennai.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=666"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/icfchennai.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=666"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/icfchennai.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=666"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}