About Lynda

I am a senior coach accredited by Coaches and Mentors of South Africa (COMENSA) and the Neuro Coach Institute, I wnet on to gather more knowledge and I hold the following coaching and facilitation qualifications:

• Accredited Master Neuro Coach
• Accredited Multiple Brain Integration Coach
• Neuro Linguistic Programme Practitioner
• Mindfulness Practitioner
• Integrative Enneagram Practitioner Level 1 and 2 for Individuals and Teams
• Neurolink Brain Fitness and Agility Practitioner
• Health Coaching Academy

My areas of focus are transformational values-driven leadership, emotional intelligence, change management and holistic health and wellness. I am known to be an inspiring and engaging facilitator and speaker. My Neuroscience Coaching is strength focused and outcomes based, and my process is driven by methodologies, tools and techniques, mindfully applied to ensure identified goals are achieved for the individual, team or leader.

Both the Enneagram and Neuro-Link Profiler are developmentally empowering tools that Lynda incorporates into her leadership coaching methodologies. This enable individuals and teams to manage the emotional and physical impact of stress on themselves and their relationships, helping clients to build resilience and agility during challenging times such as the COVID-19 pandemic.

i fully appreciate and understand that coaching and development may call for clients to step outside of their comfort zone – a difficult task for some. This process is made all the more easier when facilitated by active participation and empathy. I value kindness, compassion and the importance of building relationships of trust with my clients.

Given my experience, I fully appreciate the demands of being an employee, an employer, a manager, a spouse and a working parent. As such, I easily relate to my clients who feel at ease in a safe, non-judgemental environment conducive to their personal/team growth and development, allowing them to flourish and reach their full potential.

THE ENNEAGRAM PROFILE

The purpose of the Enneagram is not to box people into a specific personality type, but to rather open a pathway to self-discovery and greater personal self-awareness. Aside from offering insight into core personality traits, the Enneagram aims to uncover the patterns of behaviour that subconsciously drive and motivate us to act in certain ways.

By uncovering the unconscious layers of our personality structure and bringing these behavioural patterns, motivations, defence mechanisms and fears into consciousness, we are able to transcend them to develop richer, more supportive ways of living.

As the Enneagram empowers us with a greater understanding of why we act and react in the ways that we do, we can in turn take responsibility for our own thought patterns, behaviours and development.

HOW DOES AN ENNEAGRAM PROFILE WORK?

The Enneagram is an archetypal framework that offers in-depth insight into individuals, groups and collectives, proving to be very useful in a working team. Incorporating an open systems perspective, the Enneagram consists of three centres of intelligence with nine main Enneagram types and three sub-types each.

The Enneagram types represent the way that we think, feel and act in relation to the world, others around us and ourselves thereby deriving a sense of individualisation, integration and development.

YOUR ENNEAGRAM PROFILE IS INTEGRAL TO THE COACHING PROCESS

While the benefits of using the Enneagram include a more in-depth, richer map to personal development, it can at first glance appear to be rather complicated. Our coaches therefore begin by breaking down and explaining the Enneagram types and sub-types to our clients, allowing them to gain deeper insight and understanding of the behavioural patterns and motivations that underpin clients’ actions and reactions.

It is important to remember that while each of us have a core type, we as individuals comprise of all nine Enneagram types to unique and varying degrees. Once clients have been equipped with this valuable insight, our coaches will use the Enneagram as a developmental tool during coaching sessions, assisting clients as they embark on a journey of integration and self development, learning how to better manage their challenges.

EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE – UNDERSTANDING YOURSELF

Exercising emotional intelligence means understanding your personality, your beliefs and values, why you do things the way you do and why you make certain choices and decisions in your life. It also includes knowing your motivators and triggers as well as your strengths and areas that you could potentially work on and develop.

Emotional intelligence speaks to the mindful ability to think about thinking and ultimately help you shape the way you want to move forward on your journey towards personal mastery.

SIX BENEFITS OF EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE

1. We develop increased agility – We become less afraid of change, understanding that this is a necessary part of life and that we have the ability to adapt.
2. We become more self-aware – We know where our strengths lie and what we are good at as well as what we still have to learn. We are not held back by our weaknesses and are open to identifying areas of ourselves that could be developed. We also know which environments are optimal for our work style and ethic.
3. We develop more empathy – Central to emotional intelligence is having the ability to relate to others. This is a powerful skill in the workplace as we develop an innate ability to understand what our co-workers or clients are going through. We can navigate difficulties and challenges calmly, exercising control of our emotions.
4. We shift from striving for perfection to striving for excellence – When exercising emotional intelligence we can remain motivated while also understanding that perfection is unattainable. We therefore begin to roll with the punches, learning from our mistakes instead of fixating on what we would previously have deemed to be failures.
5. We become more curious – By exercising self-awareness and empathy towards others, we become more curious, asking questions and seeking possibilities and solutions instead of judging ourselves and others.
6. We develop graciousness – When we have a high level of emotional intelligence, we accept that every day brings something to be thankful for. We don’t see the world as “glass half empty” but rather look for opportunities and appreciate our blessings. We feel good about our lives and we don’t allow critics or toxic people to affect us.

Mindfulness is fast becoming recognised as the most important and productive way to live a life of purpose, joy and success. The average attention span of people is decreasing year on year according to Microsoft research as well as the Emotional Intelligence in people according to the Global 2018 State of the Heart Report.

South Africa is the second most stressed country in the world according to a recent Bloomberg study and as stress increases, we are experiencing a decline in compassion and empathy.

Jon Kabbat-Zinn is someone who has been pivotal in integrating mindfulness into the West, and his role in researching the impact of practicing mindfulness on the brain and body. He defines Mindfulness as: “Paying attention, in a particular way, on purpose, in the present and with the absence of judgment.”

Thanks to neuroplasticity (the capacity for the brain to change according to what we pay attention to) the more we practice, both with eyes open and eyes closed, the more frequently and naturally this state of mind will start arising in your brain.

Mindfulness in everyday life requires us to break out of the pattern of automatic pilot through a process of stopping and waking up. When we stop, we remind ourselves to come back to mindful awareness, and back to the present moment. This usually means bringing our mind back to our body and to what we are doing and what is happening right now. It means opening up to what is already there – without preference and without judgment. Whatever is happening is happening anyway, so we may as well be present for it.

Anything in our lives can be an opportunity to practice mindfulness. The aim, wherever possible, is to just do one thing at a time, and to pay full attention to whatever you are doing. In a similar way to formal meditation practice, when you notice that your mind has wandered, or if you have drifted into multi-tasking, you can gently bring the attention back to the activity, repeatedly until you have finished.

There are four simultaneously existing fields of awareness in our minds. When we practice Mindfulness we can be aware of bodily sensations, emotions, sensory input and thoughts simultaneously:

B.E.S.T. = Body, Emotions, Senses and Thoughts

In being mindful we train our capacity for paying attention, we pay attention in a particular way. When we pay attention in a particular way, we do it on purpose. We do this while we are fully present in the moment.

We develop our capacity to ‘step back’ into the ‘witness’ or ‘observer’ part of ourselves, the part that knows where our attention is.

While initially practicing Mindfulness it may seem very challenging to remain present and focused. The good news is that the more we practice mindfulness, the stronger the neural pathways conducive to that state of mind become, and the more easily it will arise in your mind.

Eventually, it will arise frequently and effortlessly. However, we have to give it some help at the beginning, this is why it is important to practice regularly, and wherever possible, choose to step in to a state of mindfulness.

With mindfulness, we can recognise when we might be ‘stuck’ in the past or future, choose to gently ‘unhook’ or disengage from that unhelpful thinking, and use our senses, breath or body to come back into the present, and move on with our day.

The body is always present. This makes it the perfect ally in the practice of mindfulness. You can always come back to the senses, the breath, and the body.

We teach these skills through the practice of mindful breathing, full body scans and visualisation techniques.

Mindfulness is also paying attention ‘non-judgmentally’. Non-judgement is a really important part of mindfulness. I am sure you can all relate to how harsh we can be with ourselves, we can be our own worst enemies, and full of self-doubt and criticism. Practicing mindfulness is an opportunity to try another way. A kinder way.

This does not mean we say goodbye to self-discipline and ‘let ourselves go’. No, in fact self-discipline is an essential element of living a mindful life. It simply means, we stop judging ourselves so harshly. This frees up a lot of energy that we could be putting into healthier pursuits.

We can think about it in terms of the way we treat a naughty puppy. If it wanders off, disappears behind a bush, or even chews a slipper, we do not beat it, we are kind to it, and we work gently with the puppy. We are firm, but kind.

This is the kind of attitude we want to have in relation to our attention when it wanders off. Which as you experienced in the first exercise, it will do! We notice it has wandered off into thinking or some other distraction, and we kindly invite it back. Repeatedly.

It has been neuro-scientifically proven that to create a new way of “being” or a new neural pathway; it takes 42 consecutive days of practice.

Just learning to breathe more effectively can reduce stress and make us healthier.

What you practice grows stronger!

Neuro-agility refers to the brain’s ability to learn quickly and easily, to think, learn and draw conclusions quickly and to be flexible in moving across ideas and understandings in such a way that they are able to maximize the potential learning value of a given experience and apply that learning to perform well under new or first-time conditions.

To enhance the degree to which people engage in agile learning, they need to optimize the drivers that increase their brain performance and integrate the neurophysiological components of learning and thinking.

Neuro agility requires the whole brain to be ready to receive sensory stimuli and transmit bio-chemical impulses to all brain regions, establish new neural networks, retain, express, and apply information, change behaviour and perform according to potential.

Neuro agility underpins the brain’s ability to be in-flow, learning fast and effectively, committing as little human error as possible. It requires being able to concentrate while engaging the whole brain effortlessly during cognitive processes like learning and thinking.

Neuro agility is about the readiness of all the senses and brain regions to function as one integrated whole brain system, being receptive and responsive to receive and transmit bio-chemical impulses at optimum capacity under new and potentially stressful conditions.

People who are highly neuro agile have the flexibility to learn new skills, attitudes and behaviours fast and easy and unlearn old behaviour patterns quickly.

WHY NEURO AGILITY MATTERS

• It validates learning agility as it is anchored into neuroscience
• It advances the relevance, importance and impact of learning agility
• It offers an inclusive approach requisite to all global learning practices
• It serves as the point of departure in understanding how people learn
• It offers innovative solutions on developing people’s ability to learn
• It showcases a conceptual framework for potential
• It closes a performance gap
• It integrates easily with talent selection, talent development and performance improvement practices
• It offers a higher return on investment on talent development and performance improvement initiatives when grounded in hard sciences
• It separates facts from fiction, thereby solidifying learning practices
• It offers new solutions to reducing risk for error
• It significantly contributes to an individual’s awareness, growth, learning and development