PRACTICE DON’T PREACH THEORY U IN 7 BREATHS! INVITATION.
Guest House Facilitation unravels the mystery of how Theory U unfolds, precisely as it should be, effortlessly and smoothly with the awareness of the Life Pulse.
How to bring Theory into practice? How can we hold space for the steps of Theory U regardless of the contributions of the participants, the constellation of your group and the available knowledge within the group?
Imagine bringing your awareness to your breath. A few deep breaths metaphorically bring you right down the U in connection with Source. A few more breaths and you act as an enlivened steward of life’s brilliant potential.
What is the mystery at play here, how does Theory U unfold with such divine precision – effortlessly and smoothly?
This series of articles offers you a step by step journey through Theory U. The first article is your personal invitation into our Guest House. We present our offerings. The next seven articles engage you more and more deeply with each breath. The final article in this series weaves all of it together.
Guest House Facilitation
Guest House Facilitation is a new and refreshing practice. The basic idea is the welcoming of all inner and outer guests. The inner guests are all our thoughts, feelings, emotions and sensations. The outer guests are all the participants. Everybody who is present has a role in the bigger whole. Even the whispers in the background are important.
The Latin word “facilitare” literally means making easy. I make the interaction with the outer participants and our inner parts easy.
I use Rumi’s well known poem the Guest House as a metaphor.
I do not prepare for “Guest House Facilitation” or have an agenda. It’s not possible to make plans for people who are not yet physically present. This prevents us from underestimating the amazing power, intelligence and leadership within the group.
You can read more about Guest House Facilitation on the website Chances to Change.
Theory U is a very precious presence in our Guest House Facilitation.
Theory U
Since its emergence around 2006, the founders of Theory U understand its purpose in three primary ways. The first is to understand it as a framework; the second is as a method for profound change; and the third is as a way of being through which you can connect to the more authentic and higher aspects of yourself.
Theory U is non-linear but for ease of reference throughout this series of articles, I have structured it into its linear form in the table below which summarises all the steps of Theory U, steps 1 through to 7.
| CHALLENGE | REACTING | SOLUTION |
| Step 1:“DOWNLOADING”: viewing the world through our habits of thought, allowing our current reality to surface. | Re-structuring | Step 7:“PERFORMING”: achieve results through actions, embedding the new into the larger context |
| SUSPENDING | OPEN MINDRe-designing | EMBODYING |
| Step 2:“SEEING”: seeing reality with fresh eyes, suspend judgements, the system being observed is separate from those who observe | Step 6:“PROTOTYPING”: explore the future by doing, prototyping, enacting the new by being in dialogue with the Universe | |
| REDIRECTING | OPEN HEARTRe-framing | ENACTING |
| Step 3:“SENSING”: the attention shifts to the inner way of seeing, from object to process. The boundary between observer and observed collapses. | Step 5:“CRYSTALLISING”: the attention shifts from the inner vision to exterior action. Crystallising vision and intention, envisioning the new from the future that wants to emerge | |
| LETTING-GO | OPEN WILLRe-generating | LETTING-COME |
| Step 4: “PRESENCING”: Connection to the deepest source |
We start here and we don’t know how the process will continue to unfold. We bring the cosmic principle of the Life Pulse into our Guest House Facilitation in order for us to dance with Theory U.
What is the Life Pulse?
The Life Pulse is a cosmic principle with sequential phases, always in a sequence of stasis, expansion, stasis, contraction and again stasis.
Stasis is a moment of silence, a pause to gather momentum to travel outside in expansion toward the other, in relationship or to travel inside in contraction, inward into yourself.
You can experience this cosmic principle deep in your physical body. An easy way to understand what this means is to breath in and out deeply. You breath in, you pause, you breath out, you pause.
Breathing is one of the simplest versions of the Life Pulse.
In terms of the Life Pulse you breath in, you move inward, you nourish yourself, your blood is oxygenated, you pause in deep silence within the depth of you. You breath out, you reach out, speaking and singing happens on the outbreath –and at the end of the outbreath, there is another moment of silence, you reach another moment of connectedness.
After this stasis in connectedness you move back inward, this is contraction, you have time to integrate, to apply introspection and reflection. Your physical body is nourished.
To learn more about the principle of the Life Pulse, please see the Pathwork Guide, Lecture No. 55 – The Cosmic Expanding, Retracting and Static Principles (http://www.pathwork.org).
In the Life Pulse Mystery you can read how this cosmic principle enables us to play with the concept of creation. And a further step is to understand How the Life Pulse allows you to unfold your DNA.
And in fact it also affects the DNA of your organization. Add to that the awareness of Theory U and magic happens!
As our dance through Theory U unfolds throughout this series of articles, I offer you the experience I’ve gained from several Guest House Facilitation workshops and trainings.
Dancing Theory U
If we combine this model with the life pulse, we can perceive that stasis moments will happen inside the U and outside the U. This seems to indicate that on the inside you have the connection deep within yourself and on the outside you have the possibility of establishing a deep interconnectedness with each other. Source is as much present on the inside as it is on the outside.
The graphic representation below gives an illustration of our dance through Theory U with awareness of the Life Pulse.
- The first breath: “Downloading” is happening and we discover the immense potential we have to dive deeply into this step – allowing this step to become “processing of Self”.
- The second breath: “Seeing” unfolds and “curious asking” effortlessly brings us to the questions that truly matter.
- The third breath: “Sensing” brings us to a deep immersion into extraordinary “experiencing”’.
- The fourth breath: The “groan zone” is the next step we discover – it is our resistance to letting go just before we let go.
- The fifth breath: “Presencing” happens in a huge inward movement, graciously expanding into “letting-come and “crystallising”.
- The sixth breath: “Prototyping” becomes a “filling of Self”, an “embodying” of the future, as it wants to emerge, in the huge wave of possibilities.
- The seventh breath: “Performing” is “bringing Self into the world” in further unfolding, ever continuing, waves of the Life Pulse.
I hope you are curious!
All of this is covered extensively in each article of this series.
Conclusion
Guest House Facilitation is a way of being in which you tend to your State of Being through living Theory U; you discover unknown aspects of yourself. Your blind spot can be a potential gift, and it can sometimes be very messy –it might disturb and even destroy, and still it is an entry point into more of you.
Theory U is a framework, a method and a way of being through which processing more of “you” engages more of “you” into the world. I facilitate this fascinating and wonderful process in Guest House Facilitation through graciously bringing our attention to the cosmic principle of the Life Pulse.
Are you ready to embark on this journey with me?
The next article in the series brings more awareness to the First Breath in our process. We immediately jump into the unknown hidden territory of the Self.
Your comments and stories are very welcome. If you like this article, please share them through your favourite social media (there are links at the left side of this article). I am always very grateful for your thoughts and opinions.
With love and appreciation
Veerle
ACKNOWLEDGMENT:
This series of nine articles could only arise with the amazing assistance of all those magnificent people who attended a Guest House Facilitation workshop or training. They provided me with wonderful experiences that contribute to our dance through the U. One of the participants, Elaine McGoogan co-created in a delightful way through her excellent and fluid editing work!
VEERLE DE BOCK is a physician, healer, facilitator, trainer, coach and author of the trilogy, Becoming What is Changing. She spent nearly three decades of her life as a physician specializing in geriatric care, including a 21-year career as department head in an Antwerp regional hospital. In 2003, she began her study as an energetic healer, teacher, process facilitator and supervisor at the Barbara Brennan School of Healing, and since 2007 has been leading many other trainees to master these same skills. In 2010 she was trained in the practice of Dynamic Facilitation by Jim Rough, which she now incorporates into her workshops and training sessions. In 2012 she decided to devote her work exclusively to writing, facilitation and coaching. That same year, she devised a new integrative practice of facilitation she calls ‘Guest House Facilitation’, that helps teams learn how to listen and utilise both the inner and outer processes within their organisation, to see it as a dynamic and living organism, and to reconnect to its intrinsic purpose and intention. Her book, Becoming What is Changing: Exposition, is the first part of a trilogy aimed at managers, team leaders and responsible employees who wish to bring this kind of transformation into the workplace, so they can create an environment where people are happy, satisfied and continuously growing.
Contact Veerle about the book, or to discuss coaching/hosting for your organisation at:
http://www.chancestochange.com
http://twitter.com/VeerleDeBock
http://facebook.com/BecomingWhatIsChanging