"Praotes" and softness

Editorial

For the ancient Greeks,?gentleness?was the opposite of "hubris", the excessiveness of one who is prey to his impulses. The term "praotes" also means both gentleness and friendliness, it points to the question of "being together", the first circle of ethics and politics.

Sweetness is expressed through our senses. These are simple and slow gestures. We can take the example of the tender gesture of a mother towards her child but also choose the tranquility of a summer landscape where the coolness of the night appears surreptitiously. Reflections borrowed from lightness. Slow movements.

Gentleness towards oneself reflects self-esteem. It is the demonstration of a assuaged vulnerability. This way of being present to oneself, to what is happening within oneself, around oneself, moment after moment. This way of being in the moment without real expectation and without haste.

It is the artists who express it best.

"There are very beautiful purples and blues in the clouds tonight, a blue above all more floral than airy, a blue of cineraria, which surprises in the sky. And doesn't this little pink cloud also have the complexion of a flower, a carnation or a hydrangea?"?-?Swann 130/207,?Marcel Proust

With Virginie Dor, we will reflect this week on this dimension so little explored and yet so determining that is the expression of gentleness and its importance in the relationship with oneself and others. Observing the creative genius of Sandro Botticelli or allowing oneself to be seduced by a watercolor by Marie Laurencin, we say to ourselves that the softness is in the choice of light and in the expression of the gesture.

The act of coaching is also elegant and delicate. Respect for others requires a certain gentleness so as not to rush straight away and heckle the system too quickly. In coaching, we work on low heat.

Softness caresses the skin of a newborn, brushes a lover's cheek, writes an I love you on a post-it note, smells a warm bun and remembers, warms through a sunny window, consoles a scratched knee, discreetly offers a tissue, knows how to hold or just give a hand, listens to what words don't say, smiles when we are speechless, observes what we don't take the time to see, whispers to the soul...

Softness is silent for a moment, listens to a wrinkled brow, says you are always right on time when you call, shares itself eye to eye, is nourished by the sight of a sleeping child… Softness touches a relationship in its most intimate depth. It surprises by its truth. It crosses our cracks, illuminates our shadows. Softness suspends time, misunderstanding, fear, judgment, hate, ego, identity, it watches over the unexpected.

Enigmatic force, it combines tact, subtlety, reserve and discretion. Anne Dufourmantelle in her marvelous work on?The Power of Softness?describes it with depth and delicacy.

"From animality, it keeps the instinct, from childhood the enigma, from prayer the appeasement, from nature the unpredictability, from light the light." Where to find softness? "Underneath is the softness, lurking. Under every looked at thing, just the line underneath, it's there, under every touched thing, every word spoken, every gesture begun, like the melodic line that accompanies a sung line."

?What if we let ourselves be cherished by softness??Knowing how to receive it, loving to give it.?What if softness became a practice to cultivate change, to cross the abyss of indifference?

Just when we are about to pass cross through the famous "Watch your step", it would delicately whisper to our mind: "Pause", to let us be surprised by its creative energy, in family, at school, with friends and even at work...

To all Men and Women, lovers of humanity, eager for strong sensations, I make a call to experience softness!

Virginie Dor - Convincing Coach virginie@bticoaching.com