My Story...
Hi, I'm Maxine and here's a little bit about me. And perhaps you too...
The good-looking stuff
After leaving school with no qualifications I went on to have an 18-year career in electronics. During confinement to bed for six weeks following an accident, I started wondering if there might be more to life than electronics. It turned out there was and a few months later I found myself in Kenya for the next two years where I lived off the grid and worked my dream job coaching horses and riders. A great coach helped me make what felt like the difficult life decision to come home and some 'going with the flow' then saw me continuing to build my business coaching riders and their horses in the uk and abroad for the next 15 years. Looking good so far...
The not-so-good-looking stuff
Backstage however I was often dealing with crippling feelings of insecurity and inadequacy accompanied by feelings of disconnection and anxiety. It didn't seem to matter what I had or where I was, there was always something I didn't seem to have yet or somewhere else it felt like I should be. There was a nagging sense that there was something I really should be grateful for but I couldn't for the life of me see what it was. I wondered if this was just life.
Seeking change
Eventually, I reached a point where I was tired and disillusioned with 'myself'. The repetitive behaviour patterns, and constant chattering self-talk, none of which ever seemed particularly useful. I was divorced, unhappy with my body, I didn't sleep well, I drank too much and none of it seemed changeable by what felt like, the current version of myself.
I'd tried all the various recommended strategies for becoming a better or different version of myself and yet here I still was, struggling and not much different at all. Then in a moment of insight following a coaching session, I just seemed to give it all up. Looking back, What was the 'it' I gave up? The fierce belief I had in my own thinking and how it constantly defined me.
Transformation
I began to see clearly, that rather than living with the feelings generated by a world of circumstance in which it often felt I had little say, I was living in the feelings and emotions of my ever changing thinking. This meant that if my thoughts could change then my world could change. I saw that rather than there being a self that required improvement, behaviours that ought to change, or problems needing to be solved, it was my relationship to my thoughts behaviours and problems that mattered. It was an astonishing realisation. I then saw that if this was true for me then it was true for everyone. I saw that we are all just one fresh insight away from meaningful lasting change.
Over the past 30 years I've accumulated a wealth of teaching and coaching experience, mainly focused in the equestrian world. Sharing with and facilitating others has always been my greatest love so as I began to experience how to live with greater ease, less stress and more joy from this creative space within, it was easy to know what to do next. I saw that if this potential could awaken in me then it could awaken in anyone. I now orientate you to where your own amazingness is waiting for you. It then does the rest.
For those interested, below is a list of my qualifications after... just being me :)
-
Diploma in Transformative Coaching completed with Animas Centre for Coaching, accredited by the International Coach Federation (ICF).
-
Various course completions in '3 principles' coaching
-
Reiki II practitioner
-
Mindfullness meditation
-
Cert: Mental Health first aid