What makes us uniquely human?

This moment — and the ever-expanding territory of AI — is pointing us, again and again, to this poignant question.

And as technology continues to speed up, the invitation that’s at the heart of our answer is to slow down.

To dive deeper into our capacities to sense, to feel, and to discern between the noise of infinite information and the wisdom of what is worth attending to at all.

And that requires a different kind of intelligence.

One that can only be accessed through the human nervous system, and is distinct from the strategizing, optimizing, and information processing where computers now clearly outpace us.

Being able to access this dynamic intelligence is something that sets us apart as transformational coaches — and I believe it’s the future of our field.

We’ve talked about slowing down, tuning in, listening, being patient, and practicing consistently.

These are the fundamentals.

Today I want to take the next step — to explore something that opens the aperture and amplifies the signal, so we can better receive and embody this intelligence.

Coherence

Coherence is a word I expect will become a cornerstone of coaching in the near future. But what does it really mean?

The word itself comes from the Latin cohaerere — “to stick together.”

A coherent argument flows clearly and makes sense.
A coherent story holds together as a whole.
In music, coherence is called harmony, and it emerges when different notes resonate together instead of competing.

And in physics, light is coherent when all the light waves are in phase with each other in both time and space, with their peaks and troughs perfectly aligned — a laser beam.

In all of these examples, coherence creates power.

Alignment creates a synergy that amplifies the signal.

And it’s the same with us.

The more we amplify our coherence, the more we grow our capacity to both receive and transmit the dynamic intelligence we’ve been talking about.

And this makes us more powerful coaches, better friends, more expressive creatives, and happier, more fulfilled people. 

What is human coherence?

I think of human coherence this way — when attention, emotion, body, and intention are all aligned.

You’re coherent when you feel centered and present — when your mind, heart, and gut feel in sync, and you’re attuned to a wider field of perception.

Maybe you’ve felt this in coaching sessions, or in deep connection with a loved one, or maybe when you’re sitting still in nature or meditation.

It’s a beautiful place to be, but not always easy to access.

Because in many ways, modern life pulls us into fragmentation.

Technology is always present — pulling on our attention.
The uncertainty of the world can be overwhelming to our nervous systems.
And it’s easy for our minds to race ahead of our bodies — causing stress and dissonance.

So how do we amplify our coherence?

Bruce Tift beautifully articulates two important pathways to deepening our coherence in his book Already Free. They’re meant to be followed simultaneously — as one is a moment-to-moment practice (and has immediate results), and the other is a longer term endeavor.

1. Become aware of your state — This has been a central practice in my life and by far the most impactful. By noticing when I feel stuck, and this is key: not making that wrong, I automatically begin to shift into a more expanded place. This allows my aperture to widen, and I immediately have greater access to the dynamic intelligence available in my body and the subtle field around me.
2. Engage in coaching and other modalities — As we metabolise the patterning that co-opts and contours our consciousness, we liberate our perception and expand our range of wise seeing and action. This creates a gradual integration that fundamentally deepens our coherence over time.

As I said above, these times have created conditions that pull on us — so it’s easier to find ourselves fragmented, reactive, and falling out of coherence.

It’s important that we don’t use this as a way to make ourselves wrong. Any time we advocate for one state over another we put the opposite pole into shadow. The practice is to notice, value, and accept where we are. Paradoxically, this often accelerates the shift into deeper coherence.

And the very act of valuing incoherence creates a shift — which is incredibly liberating. 

In my own life, I practice blessing incoherence when I find myself there. Sometimes this creates an immediate shift, and sometimes it doesn’t. But over time, it serves a deeper purpose — accepting and integrating all parts of me.

And that’s really what coherence is — the quality of forming a unified whole.

With care,
Joel