This dimension emphasizes the sacred and gives a central place to the emotional aspect and creativity. “The vital principle is understood as the creative, animating force in self and/or world and/or universe. In these definitions, vital principle transcends or integrates subject-object dichotomies. It is a non-personified, incorporeal, common element that ‘vitalizes’ the whole person and/or the cosmos” (McCarroll, O’Connor, and Meakes 2005, p. 47). This vital principle works in mysterious and awesome ways.
In coaching, this dimension is echoed in the use of the laws of the universe, and particularly the law of attraction. It resonates, among others, with many creative and shamanic approaches.
4.5 Transcending the Self and personal development
Words from this spiritual dimension include a search for ultimate truth or highest value, a personal transformation, personal and private, self, transcendent self, personal life direction, accent on interiority, quest for fulfillment, personal development.
Here, spirituality is a tool to transcend the self. In medical settings, spirituality can be what helps to transcend or give meaning to emotional and/or physical pain. It is the quality of empathy, of feeling other people’s emotions. It is an anthropocentric transcendence that also leads to personal development.
We’ve arrived at the core of coaching. If coaching is about supporting people in creating real, lasting changes, then all coaching is transformational in nature, whether this is achieved through continued behavioral reinforcement with Marshal Goldsmith (Goldsmith et Reiter 2008), through shadow work with Deepak Chopra (Chopra, Ford, and Williamson 2010), through the power of intention with Wayne Dyer (Dyer 2004), or any of the coaching tools found in the many books and training available. Can we then assume that coaching is spiritual by nature?
As you go through this list of concepts and words, you might think about times when coaching was so fulfilling that you felt a quasi-spiritual emotion. Likewise, other personal experiences such as holding a baby, creating artwork, or simply being deeply happy in a given situation can bring up deep emotions. But is it spiritual? Hill and his associates disagree with too broad a view of spirituality and warn about “the danger of losing the sacred.” They contend that words like “fulfilling,” “moving,” “important,” or “worthwhile” are not substitutes for “spiritual” insofar as they refer to “ideologies, activities and lifestyle.”
Those can be fulfilling, moving, and important, but they don’t have to be spiritual. They only become spiritual when they are in resonance with something sacred. The authors define the sacred as “a person, an object, a principle, or a concept that transcends the self. Though the sacred may be found within the self, it has perceived value independent of the self” (Hill, and al. 2000, p. 66). Thus, one can be profoundly happy without linking it to an experience of the sacred; and a coaching session can be moving and worthwhile, but, according to this definition, it would not be in the realm of the spiritual unless it brings, uses, or calls for a concept that transcends the self.
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