3. When We look at ourselves closer we see...

A story of dragons, mirrors and people.
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What would happen if we allow ourselves to truly be seen? 

​This is a series of stories about the village life of Pelion Homes and how we evolve as people and community together. 
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I see dragons. Do you?

Around my second week with the team at Pelion Homes, an interesting word started to pop up in various conversations.

Dragons.
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This word came up again and again as people were sharing their experience and feedback of working together.

And it was clear that it referred to our personal, unique combination of beliefs, emotions and actions.
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We all had dragons. 

Our personal dragon is a powerful creature.

​Think of dragons as all our strengths, and fears, and weakness in one.
Dragons are great protectors, they protect everything we care about.
And although good servants and protectors, when left untamed and unconscious, they spit fire and can cause a lot of damage. We all have dragons to tame.

Interestingly, the dragon metaphor is a good way to address friction without making the conflict personal. From team coaching perspective, especially for someone who is coming from the hardcore corporate environment where we use words like feedback, performance evaluation, this language was brilliant.

‘I see a dragon coming out from you right now’

is a rather objective way of acknowledging something is brewing, without making stories. We witness and give the person an opportunity to share with us what actually is happening for them.

The thing about conflict often is not only what they other person is doing or not doing. But also, the stories we make about it. The stories we create about their actions and who they are.

The dragon metaphor allows us to do three things:

• acknowledge and witness that there is something shifting in the other person
• admit that we are somewhat afraid or feel threatened with what we observe
• hold non-judgement until the person shares what they are experiencing ​​

The most interesting thing about dragons is...
they are invisible to their owner.

We have lived with them for so long, in the shadow of their protection.

​They have been by our side and
kept us safe. We never see them really.
Except when they are reflected in another person.

​So when we catch a glimpse of our own dragons, we get scared. 

But.
This is where mirrors come to save us.

We all mirror each others ́ insecurities, fears, and strengths.
There is no person walking this earth that has not experienced feeling insecure, feeling powerless or lost. We all have our journey of accepting ourselves, loving ourselves and embracing ourselves.

And it is important to remember that any reflection we see in a mirror belongs as much to the mirror, as much as it does to the person standing in front of it.
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It takes courage to ask ourselves as we are standing in front of it:
how much of what I am seeing is actually mine? 
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There is immense power when we dare to look at ourselves in the mirror. There is immense power when we can hold space for dragons - ours and others ́.
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And to trust that whatever we see is beautiful. 

In the next newsletter...
An organisation based on  flow.

Deliver a team workshop? Easy.
​Do that barefoot, with no wifi, and no powerpoint?

How do you design a team workshop for a team and business that works off-grid?

And that has values that are based on taking things organically, as they come.

In any other setting in the corporate, we would talk about best practices, bottlenecks and establishing structure.
But...
​
How do we go from corporate to co-operate? 

Do you like this article?
Read this one and more about self leadership and wellbeing.

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