Case Study: Group Coaching and Meditation
From: Magali Peysha
San Diego, California
San Diego, California
Have you ever wondered how you could use Group Coaching to teach people and transform lives?
Here’s one way I’ve used it.
I love meditating. It’s how I connect with my deepest truth and universal flow. I often felt it was too difficult to share this with others without being seen as a “Teacher” or “Guru.” At the same time, I wanted more than anything to create community where practice and experience could be treasured and shared.
Often when you go to learn meditation, you’re discouraged from sharing the experience with others. This can make it feel both lonely and frustrating. It turns a lot of people off from practice and does nothing to increase connection with others.
So I kept feeling this inner nudge, saying, “Share your love. Share your hobby. It has helped you. It can help others.”
But I also had a big resistance. Most people know me as a teacher of coaches. What would it feel like to share my spirituality with a professional audience?
I braced myself against what felt could potentially be an enormous embarrassment – and decided to create the impact I wanted. I made a New Year’s resolution in 2019 to start offering an Online Meditation Group through the Zoom platform.
So how would I do this? My plan was to make meditation more accessible by applying the principles of Group Coaching. I have a set of strategies for helping people learn any topic in a group environment. So I took the leap into the unknown and invited everyone I could to a group meditation meeting.
Was I nervous? Yes!!!
After some experimentation, I found a Session Plan that worked for teaching meditation, incorporating experiential exercises to help create relaxation, energy and acceptance along with time for sharing, questions, and processing.
I start the session by discussing a theme for the meditation (about 5-10 minutes).
Then I lead the group through three exercises focusing on breath, energy, and creativity. This takes about 10-15 minutes. This way, participants know they won’t be “left hanging” trying something for the first time.
It’s always so touching for me to see the faces of my participants, each in their own corner of the world, with their eyes closed, meditating with me. Here’s what my class looked like recently.
Then we discuss and process those exercises.
Next, we go through a guided meditation with minutes of silence. This is where I allow my creative unconscious to take the lead and connect with everyone else’s creative unconscious. I get the thrill of being surprised. A great feeling.
Then we break for discussion. I might give some individual coaching to participants who raise their hands. Or simply appreciate and encourage their own discoveries and truth. We often end a session on a shared group intention for the world.
In less than an hour, my participants have had a powerful experience from the comfort of their own home! Here’s a screenshot of the group shares from just one minute of a recent class.
It’s very gratifying to see that this was the first enjoyable experience of meditation that many of these people had ever had!
It’s an example of how Group Coaching can become partners with meditation and create real positive impact in the lives of community members all over the world.
I’m always amazed to see where people are joining from. Many people from countries I’ve never had a chance to visit – and yet here we are, conversing like good friends.
Often people are waking up in the middle of the night, participating from their beds, in order to meditate with us! It’s that important to them. It’s an incredibly powerful and inspiring group.
I started teaching meditation out of my personal passion for the topic, not as any kind of business decision. I had no idea where it would go.
However, I’ve been able to lead more than 50,000 people in person through their first positive experience of meditation. To think that, until then, nobody knew that I even liked meditation!
Is there something that you’re passionate about that you’d like to share?
Perhaps it’s time for you to step up to share it with the world!
Maybe you could teach it using the principles of Group Coaching, like I did!
This is part three of a teaching series on Group Coaching – you can get previous episodes here:
Part 1: A Guide to Group Coaching
Peace,
Magali Peysha
Mark Peysha
Magali Peysha