Self alignment: getting over jetlag

“This exercise is like taking yourself to the chiropractor. You have to get realigned every so often, especially when you’re making the kind of big changes that you’ve been making over the past weeks”.

I was doing this exercise with a client lately and it was a good reflection of what we are going through with the Covid-19 situation, that I had to pause for a moment.

“Using your wheel of life, take a value or a new system that you’ve created and look at the impact it has on all the other areas of your life.”

This exercise is part of the Academic Life Coaching Program, a curriculum I’ve been using with high school and college students for almost 7 years.

Let’s rewind and talk a little bit about Leo (my client). Leo is 22, soon to be graduating from college (in June). We were working together for a couple of weeks already when confinement started. He needed some help to know what to do after graduation. We were talking about Values, Making Decisions and Visualizing himself in the future, after he graduates from college. Like all of his peers, he had to make important decisions over a short period of time, such as leaving everything behind without knowing when and if he was going to return; saying goodbye to friends without knowing if he was going to see them again; going back to live with his parents with whom he had not lived for 4 years, without knowing for how long. Like all of his peers he will not have a graduating ceremony this year. Like everyone else, he stopped everything he was doing, he helplessly witnessed many changes and he does not know what impact this confinement will have on his future. It causes uncertainty, a little anxiety and a lot of questions that remained unanswered. And nevertheless like everyone else he will leave his house in a few days or weeks, make decisions and take actions. Previously in the program we talked about his strengths, what he was passionate about and how he motivated himself through past experiences.

This week, we were doing the self-alignment: getting over jetlag exercise and the first value that came to his mind was managing jetlag! Leo is a French expatriate, who has been living in the US for 17 years. He knows what it's like to be jetlagged. He knows what it’s like not to be in the same space/time (being in Paris while still being on California time). He knows that he must resist sleep to enjoy his days in Paris. He knows that recovering 9h of time difference will take time and that he must adap this week and his outings to take full advantage of it. He knows that he needs structure, discipline and to manage his time well if he wants to make the most of it.When we came to talk about how to use the “managing jetlag value” a little bit more once confinement is over, the keywords resistance, slowing down, adaptation, structure, discipline and managing time properly came out.

And you, what is the self-alignment value you would like to have a little bit more of in your life after confinement?