Sarah Furuya Coaching Workshops Past and Present
I regularly run workshops to help people have a better, more truthful experience of life and work. If you are interested in finding out more about workshops I can run for your organisation, please get in touch: info@sarahfuruya.com
Upcoming Workshops
On January 29 from 9am I will be giving a talk with Hanasu Tokyo – you can Click here to register and see more details. I will be talking about Relationships By Design. The process of identifying and designing our most important relationships with those we love (and even those we don’t)
Past Workshops
Find Your Element: Fall Workshop- Mind Your Own Business!
Topic: “Mind Your Own Business”
Leader: Sarah Furuya ( Sarah Furuya Coaching CEO / ex-President of FEW / Find Your Element Chief Director)
Date: Oct. 17th (Wed.), 2018
Time: 7:30pm-9pm
Tuition: 4,000yen
A beloved friend once told me that his favorite phrase from last year was “Mind Your Own Business”. I loved that. It created freedom, love and a more relaxed and powerful approach to life. Did it mean that he didn’t care for or want to see his fabulous, fun and dramatic friends anymore? No. Did it mean that he cut them off and stopped loving them? No. Did it mean that he stopped listening? No. He just didn’t get into their business. He created boundaries around how far he would get involved in other people’s business. Read more here.
You can sign up here.
Each year I facilitate a couple of workshops at Temple University. I have one coming up in December. The links take you to sign up page.
Lumina Spark: Communication preferences (Saturday, December 15, 2018)
Image credit: Savvy Tokyo
Few Workshop: Radical Boundaries Thursday June 21, 2018
Every time we say yes to things we don’t really want to do or feel obliged to do, we are saying no to things that could be filling that time. We have been programmed to feel obligations where there are none. Imagine if people could actually handle life without us saying yes to everything. But we’re usually afraid that we will be ostracized or disliked or talked about if we say no to things.
Over the years, Sarah Furuya has faced this dilemma and developed some radical ways to create boundaries, stop people pleasing, and devote her attention to the things and people she really loves. That is at the heart of this special workshop. Sarah understands how hard it is to get out of these habits. To open physical space, to open space in your diary, or to open space in your thoughts for the things, people and experiences that you are truly devoted to.
But it is possible to say no to things, clearly, gracefully, respectfully and with good manners. It takes courage, practice, coaching, scripts, techniques and trust. And kindness. And compassion. And starting to say yes to the things you really want to say yes to.
In this workshop we will learn:
- How to value yourself as much as you value others (this is humility)
- How to identify people pleasing behaviors and how they are different to delighting your people
- Some ready-made scripts for saying no clearly with kindness and grace and to push back on persuasion
- How to use your body and your intuition to make decisions and identify words that come up when you are enlisting (obligation, resentment for example)
- To go easy on ourselves and realize that sometimes we might say yes to some things that aren’t a ‘hell yes’ because it might be a good idea – but hey, let’s not make a habit of it
- To enlist a trusted committee of friends or practitioners to help you say no more often and more elegantly
- To identify what you could be opening time up for when you say no to the things you don’t really want to do
- To play out the underlying fear behind not wanting to say no. There could be a really good, benevolent reason why you do’t want to say no. Or it could be a shadow of something that happened in the past, that no longer serves you
There was a write up from FEW here.
Photo Courtesy of FEW Japan. Radical Boundaries Workshop December 2018
Photo Courtesy of FEW Japan. Radical Boundaries Workshop December 2017
Jutendo University: Stay out of drama, engage in adult communication and feel calmer
On Wednesday June 13, 2018 I will be running a mini workshop for students of Jutendo University. Please note this event is not open to the public but if you would like to contact me for information about this workshop or others like it please get in touch.
How would it feel if you went through life taking 100% responsibility for your actions? And if you let other people have the same accountability? Staying out of blame, victimhood, being aggressive and trying to rescue other people is the most adult way to behave and communicate. Regardless of your background or experiences, through Karpmann’s Drama Triangle, we can identify when you are being drawn into drama by others, or when you are creating drama. In this workshop we will explore the Drama triangle and how to stay out of it in order to have more productive conversations and experiences.
FEW 20th Career Strategies Seminar, AMPLIFY! June 2nd, 2017
I ran a workshop on leveraging your strengths in your Career at the 20th Career Strategies Seminar.
“A strength is something that makes you feel stronger. A weakness is something that makes you feel weaker.”
Image Credit: Tia from Toptia Photography
I participate in Find Your Element twice a year and most recently gave a workshop on How to be Unf**kwithable.
Unf**kwithable (adj.) when you’re truly at peace and in touch with yourself, and nothing anyone says or does bothers you, and no negativity or drama can touch you. ～Urban dictionary
Being “unf**kwithable” is an inside job. The person we allow to f**k with us more than anyone else is US. The less you are messed with, the less you will mess with yourself. Things will change, people will treat you differently, but isn’t that a good thing? As a matter of fact, isn’t that a great thing??
What people were saying:
“Thank you Aya for organizing the Find Your Element workshops! I’m so glad that I could finally attend. Sarah, thank you for facilitating a huge breakthrough for me. What a great experience in a room full of wonderful people!” Geneva, FYE Participant Spring 2018
“Authentic, practical, fun, actionable and unfuckwithable.” Matt, FYE Participant Spring 2018
“Sarah was WONDERFUL! I especially loved the way she had us tune into our bodies! And the examples! So clear! And so on point!” Tish, FYE Participant Spring 2018
Photos Courtesy of Find Your Element
Find Your Element “Trick Your Ego: Playfulness is an attitude”
“The main difference between play and playfulness is that play is an activity, while playfulness is and ATTITUDE.”
～ Miguel Sicart (from “Playfulness – A BIT of Play Matters”)
How often have you been afraid to start something because you were afraid about it not turning out perfectly? How many times have you actually NOT started something or sabotaged yourself so you didn’t have to do the work and risk wild success or failure? How many times have you messed up your relationships, acted defensively, or felt like a fool? How often have you felt ashamed when you got something wrong? How often have you beaten yourself up, where you felt a deep and lasting shame, guilt or replayed the same story over and over in your head? And not the good ones. Being playful is an inside job. It’s an attitude.
Find Your Element “Use Your Intuition and Release Your Inner Champion” Spring 2017
In all the cultures I have lived in and experienced, there is some value placed on endurance, “gaman,” hard work, no pain no gain or you better suffer to be beautiful (really?). And while yes, any ambitious endeavor requires smart work, diligence and delivery, what if it were easy, fun, joyful and built on a foundation of positive intuition? Of a full-body YES?? Not just cranking, working and “gaman”?
That is what we will explore in this workshop. What that full-body YES feel like to you and what the subtle (or not-so-subtle) signs which tell you NO are. Remind you of when you have made full-body YES decisions before and how to recognize them from now on. Also, remind you of when you made a decision despite feeling an intuitive, inexplainable NO, how it felt and its dire consequences so you can identify and avoid them in the near future.
Find Your Element “Curiosity Cannot Lie, Justification Can.” Autumn 2016_
This workshop led you to:
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- Follow your curiosity
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- Lean into your intuition
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- Question what is “the right thing”
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- Use you your body (as well as your head) as a tool to register curiosity and aid decision-making
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- Dial up your intuition and more!
Temple University Lumina Spark: Communication Preferences. Saturday April 14, 201
Temple University Lifeplanning: Take Charge of your life now! Sunday April 15, 2018
Read the Savvy Tokyo Article about the Lifeplanning Workshop here
Photo Courtesy of Alex Honma, Savvy Tokyo
October 2015 FEW Workshop Recap: “Finding Your Authentic Voice: Telling Your Story Using Timeline, Technology and Talk”
Recap by Saya Matsumoto, FEW Member
On Monday, October 12, FEW was pleased to welcome trainer, facilitator and coach, Sarah Furuya, to lead a workshop entitled “Finding Your Authentic Voice: Telling Your Story Using Timeline, Technology and Talk.” And that is exactly what we did. Our first activity was to write down our life on a timeline, share our timeline with a partner and then have our partner share with us their takeaway. We then chose three ‘voices’ (various nouns such as artist, change-agent, mother, visionary, etc.) that interested us and three that described us. This activity was incredibly difficult as we had to choose three from a list of 150, yet so revealing as it made me realize that the voices that described me now, were different from the ones that I was interested in, the ones that I wanted to describe me. Lastly, we took photos of objects around the room to describe our life and the different phases of it and shared with the group using the photos in lieu of a traditional presentation. It was interesting to see how different people interpreted and related to simple objects around the room and the visual representation enhanced their presentation and gave it unique depth.
Photo Courtesy of FEW Japan
Main takeaways:
-Share and listen: What may seem like your normal life story, can be revealing to others of your character traits and your values which can be very eye-opening to hear.
-Write it down: Even if you decide not to share your story, by putting pen to paper, your inner thoughts that come out may surprise you.
-Draw it out: When words fail you, draw pictures.
-Use technology to help enhance your presentation: a presentation doesn’t necessarily have to mean PowerPoint be creative and innovative (when appropriate to do so).
It was a day of great self-reflection as I was forced to really think about my core values, who I was today, how I came to be this way (based on events in my life) and the person I wanted to become. By using simple tools such as the art of writing (with pen and paper) and photo-taking, we learned not only about ourselves but also just how profoundly different another person’s perspective may be.
Thank you Sarah for helping us know our inner selves better, as well as guiding us to discover our authentic voice.
FEW 19th Career Strategies Seminar May 2016 Photo Credit Top Tia
