Reflective entry about the third coaching session by Patrick St-Pierre

In this coaching session with Leninka, I really felt more confident. In the first period, I was the coach and I noticed that I did a lot of progresses in the listening part, compared to the two other coaching sessions. Indeed, it was easier for me to stay concentrated and to understand in a deeper way what the coachee was saying. I think that two things can explain that. To start, we chose a more quite place to do the meeting. The ambiance was more suitable to that kind of activity and it was effortless to stay concentrated. Next, I find that the topic of that coaching session was very interesting and it helped me to keep my attention focused on what Leninka was saying to me. I think it normal because when you like a subject, it easier to listen someone who is talking about that. Also, I was very surprise that it was easier for me to do the process of mirroring. Indeed, this week, I was not really in a good mood with all the bad things that happened in my life and I thought this kind of mood could maybe influence in a negative way my mirroring capacity. But I was wrong because I really felt that it was simple to help my coachee to see her and her situation in a better way. Also, it was simple to adopt the same kind of mood that she had and to have a better connection with her. I think that it helped her to express herself in a deeper way and to verify that I am concerned about the talk. To finish, as a coach, for the first time, I think I succeeded a little more that before in the catalysing process. Indeed, at the end of the session, it was easier for me to give to her good advices about her situation and to encourage her. I really felt that I took a passionate interest in her situation and in the improvement of it. Also, I felt that I really made a difference for her. In the coaching context, it was totally new for me to feel that. I did not expect it.

As a coachee, I felt more confident to express myself about the topic of gratitude. I think it’s because I really like that subject and because I felt that Leninka was also more confident in the coach role. Also, in the questioning process, I really felt that the coach help me a lot to push my ideas and my reflections in a deeper way. I realize some important things about my gratitude and the fact that feeling gratefull help me to be more confident in my general life. Indeed, when you notice that you have gratitude about something, you feel more confident about that thing and about yourself. Since the beginning, Leninka was good to ask relevant questions, but during this coaching session, her questions were deeper and more targeted about my intern reflections. To finish, I really think that the fact that we know us more, either to know ourselves better and to know the colleague better, help us to do better coaching sessions.  

Leading Positive Change Journal - Leninka

This coaching assignement leaded me to a positive change in many ways. 

As a Coach, I think this session exceeded my expectations, in a way that Patrick and I found new discoveries about feeling gratitude. In the listening part, I found it was easier for me. I could look at him and I made eye contact. I think because we had a trust environment.

In the mirroring part, I was not trying to give him some advice. I told him why he felt more grateful now than before. He told me, the grateful post leaded him to positive change. For him, being grateful was an effort, but his reflective entry changed his attitude a lot. In the summarizing part, I emphasized the words of being positive and also being grateful so I can lead the coaching session to this subject. For the questioning part, I think was very important to lead the session with the right questions such as:  How his behaviour changed this week and what insights he learned about himself. After that, it was easier for him to tell me that feeling positive is the main key for being grateful. When we are positive, we can see the world in another way even when we have difficulties. Sometimes he had negative thoughts and he couldn’t go deeper about feeling gratitude. So, for him being positive all the time was for him because he is not used to. However, he tried a lot to change his attitude this week.  The Catalyzing part was easier because we had together a lot of discoveries, so we found opportunities together too. We talked about how important is staying positive even when we have difficulties. Indeed, when you see the positive side of everything, we can being grateful and find solutions to a specific problem.

As a coachee, I think was easier for me to discuss about gratitude than before. I based my gratitude in being more confident with myself. Before I was not feeling gratitude, because I saw the negative part of being here and not the opportunities. The session with Patrick made me realize that I was not seeing the advantages of living here. Patrick listened to me and asked me the correct questions in order to look deeper of my problem. I think I was not enjoying the process of being in Quebec, and I was just studying to accomplish a goal.  When I wrote the post, I started to think that I have a lot to be grateful. In the session, I told him about how being in a community helped me pass the obstacles here. Also, have the support of my parents was so important to come here. Now, I think I feel grateful with myself now. Indeed, I took the opportunity to study here and maybe in the future work too. I don’t regret my decision now. Indeed, I think feeling gratitude was the first step to have a better attitude. Therefore, I think the session was very useful to me in order to have a positive change in my life.

Gratitude journal of Leninka Lazo

Post 1

For this journal, I want to write about all the things I’m grateful. Sometimes, when we are so busy with our daily things, we don’t take time to have a reflective moment. I think what gets me out of bed, mainly, is the stress for all the things that I have to do. Indeed, I’m not giving a moment to think about me. The things I’m grateful is to have a great family even when they are in Peru. They really support me with all my decisions. When I had the crazy decision of selling my car, quitting my job and be a resident of Canada, they were there. I think without their support, I would not be studying at the Laval University.

 When I came here, things were different. You need real people who can be there in the same country. Indeed, it’s important to develop your social life and form a community. When you don’t speak the language and the culture are totally different, you start to have negative thoughts. I was kind of sad for months because the integration was difficult. I’m from a country with sun all the year, so the winter was new to me. But now, I’m grateful for all the extraordinary people I’ve met. People, who inspired me to continue and also, they gave me the exactly words to encourage in many situations. Even the university is better. When I started, I had a lot of fear, but now I think I can continue.  I have the support of other foreign students who are in the same situation as me. Therefore, even if I have a lot of pressure right now because of the school, I have this positive attitude, and I’m sure I can really get through all the obstacles.

Post 2

For this entry, I want to write about the gratitude, but not in general like before. I want to write about how I changed my attitude about studying here. Just several months ago, I was dealing with the fear to do my master here. When I began to study in the fall, I thought I couldn’t do it. I just registered in two courses of the master degree and two others in French. In my head, I had negative thoughts about how I was going to deal with that situation. Then, I was trying to convince myself that French was too hard and maybe it wasn’t a good idea to study here. In the end of that fall session, I was okay, but I was not still convinced. However, this session, I changed my attitude so I registered in five courses. I started to think that I could do it. Now, I’m very good now in school and I’m taking courses even in Spanish about my career. Also having friends, who are in the same situation, helped me a lot. We are all in the same context but we have the strength to get through. Something that helped me a lot was to remember that I made the decision to be in Quebec, nobody forced me. So, I take the nice part of being here and now I’m enjoying the process. When we have a better attitude, everything starts to change even how we deal with the problems.

My week journal about Gratitude!

In this journal, I will talk about two moments that happened during my week and which I’m grateful about them. First, I will start about the most important one. At the end of the last week, I passed through a very difficult time in my personal life and it ended by a breakup. The first days, it was very difficult for me, but I have very good friends and it helped me a lot. Indeed, in the beginning of that tough period, my friends were there to give their support and they cared about me. They took time to do activities with me and some of them even made changes in their schedule to pass some time with me. This helps me to think about something else for a while and to see what happened to me in a more positive way. Even if ending a relationship is a negative and difficult experience, there are always possibility to see some things in a more positive way in that situation. So, this event made me feel grateful about my friends and I feel lucky to have them. Also, I can say that this event made our relationships stronger. Also, my best friend help me a lot to learn about this experience and to grow up. Now, thanks to him and our conversations, I know better myself and this gives me motivation to do some positive changes in my life. Those changes could be directly in my personal life or in my way of thinking. Brief, I proud of me here because I can feel grateful about some points in a difficult moment.

Also, this week, when I was reading about gratitude and positive change, I realize that I can feel grateful about myself. Let me explain with more detail. Last fall, I did a severe depression and it was the most terrible part of my life. I was obligated to stop my studies in another country, to stop school, to go back home and to take care of myself. It was difficult and I think that you can’t really imagine how it is if you don’t pass through a depression before. At 23 years old, this disease was like a bomb in my life and I was devastated. It took me weeks to accept it and months to finally feel a little bit of motivation again. But this week, with all the things happened in my life, I realized that I’m proud of me and I’m stronger than before. But I also realized that if I can feel like that now, it’s because I let me make important positive changes in my life and I’m so grateful about me to have do that. So, it’s how I realized that the gratefulness it’s not always about other people in our life. You can be grateful about yourself. I know that I felt this kind of gratitude before, but I didn’t notice it and I think this feeling was related to the happy moments happened in my life. Indeed, each time I was happy in my depression, I was grateful to still continue to fight. It’s brought me motivation to continue, to have good moments and to be happier in my life in general. It motivates me to make other positive changes and it helps me to drive these changes. 

Patrick St-Pierre