The meaning, significance and experience of the word LOVE

In july of 2021 I began the journey of becoming a certified coach through iPEC. This past weekend, 3 months later, our teachers led our class through the 2nd of a total of 3 intensive training weekends. Training for this profession is a humbling experience, an emotional rollercoaster, but overall nothing but an empowering, beautiful and enlightening experience.

Diving into the depths of our human nature reveals our greatest fears and flaws but also brings the insight that despite our seeming differences we are all alike, if not to say the same. Meeting another who’s truly present and deeply listening, holding a space for exploration without judgement or advice, while at the same time managing the skills acquired by this profession is not only powerful but overwhelmingly beautiful. The word that sums up this experience is LOVE.

Love can’t exist where there is a me and a you. In this process it seems like there’s an us but in reality the coach is merging him- or herself with the client while not merging with the story. The degree of excellence of the coach is therefore first and foremost dependent on the extent of which he or she is able to do this; to be fully present with the client while detaching from their own ego. In this way the coach’s gift to the client is the opportun

ity to experience love, but so is the client’s gift to the coach. It is a joint experience, one of sameness, not to be confused with the conventional term of the word. This experience is also the aim and purpose of yoga where the word yoga comes from the Sanskrit root of yuj, meaning to unite. The practise is pointing to how to have this experience. Love is the word describing it. Therefore, love is not an emotion; it is an experience of a “mode, or a way of being”.

The greatest gift you can give, to another fellow human being but also to yourself, is to open up to the full experience of the meaning of this word. This is the word I would use when summarizing this weekend. Extremely grateful for the many hours spent with my classmates and teachers all over the world. Everyone has their own role to play and contribution to make in this joint adventure called life.