Embracing Holistic Coaching: Your Path To Wholeness
Embracing Holistic Coaching: Your Path to Wholeness
Today, I want to dive into a topic that has the power to transform lives and bring about profound personal growth: holistic coaching.
Picture this: You're sitting at a crossroads in your life, feeling a bit stuck and unsure of where to turn. You might be grappling with career decisions, struggling to maintain a healthy work-life balance, or simply seeking a greater sense of purpose and fulfillment. Traditional coaching has its merits, but what if I told you there's a coaching approach that considers the entirety of who you are, not just isolated aspects of your life?
Holistic coaching has the power to be a game-changer in the world of personal development and well-being.
Mercy
Mercy
About a month ago I was given two lessons that I would need to learn and embody to continue my own personal expansion. The two words were mercy and humility. Now, like most people, I had a good idea of the meaning of the words so as I listened, I accepted the lessons. Every day, throughout the day I repeat these two words to myself. Earlier this week I felt I should look up the meanings of the two words to fully understand how I would embody them.
Humility – a quality of being humble
Then I found 6 Attributes of Healthy Humility
They acknowledge they don't have it all together. ...
They know the difference between self-confidence and pride. ...
They seek to add value to others. ...
They take responsibility for their actions. ...
They understand the shadow side of success. ...
They are filled with gratitude for what they have.
Forgiveness
Forgiveness
Do you forgive easily? How about hold a grudge?
Have you had others hold grudges against you?
I enjoy my work. One of the main reasons is that I like the journey inward. It is not always comfortable, actually, it rarely is! However, it is through this journey that I can see myself clearly, release and learn from past experiences, and give my Self permission to expand.
One thing that makes me cringe is hearing the words “they will never change or can never change”. How do you know?
Have you ever experienced being treated like your younger self, even though the behaviors or choices are 10, 20, 30 years in the past? How do you feel when you are kept in an old box?
So often we don’t realize we do it, or the ones doing it are unaware of their own behavior. This is not just family (although very common) but friends and coworkers, etc.
The Glass Table
The glass table
Who am I?
When I first asked this question, my answers were listed in every role I played, from daughter to mother to jobs. But the more I asked this question the more the answers changed.
A few years ago, I read a book called The Untethered Soul. In it, the author does a fabulous job of describing all the things we are not – body, mind, senses, intellect. This was a life changing moment for me as it would really catapult me into my spiritual quest of needing to know who I am.
Here is what I see…
We are each born as pure perfection. Imagine a crystal-clear glass table. All our thoughts, senses, emotions, actions, and those of others are like dust and debris. Each day some of this settles on the table. When we meditate, or go inward, it is like dusting or wiping it off. But, day after day, year after year, we don’t learn to do this, the clutter and debris pile up. After a while all we see is a table piled with junk. We identify the table with the clutter on top.
Self Care
Self Care
Are you a caregiver?
What I mean by that is, do you care for and take care of all those around you? Are you often burnt out; your energy stores completely depleted?
On the spiritual journey there is a lot of guidance towards putting others first, to be selfless vs. selfish. Even the Dalai Lama spoke about the root cause of anxiety being a state of constantly thinking of yourself, the cure, he stated, altruism. To put the welfare and needs of others ahead of your own.
In the Gita, this is also a reoccurring teaching put forth as Karma Yoga or the path of selfless service. To be in service to all those around you, starting in the home first, then working your way out to friends, work, community, and so forth.
This got me thinking, what about yourself though? At what point do you put yourself first? When do you fill your own cup?
The thing is, if we are all doing this, you never have to because everyone else is putting you first. I realized that one of the reasons my cup is rarely empty (brain injury aside) is because I am surrounded by people that live this way. I wasn’t always, but just as I have grown and healed so have those around me. Some have left and others have come into my life. I have learned to be more nurturing by the osmosis of those I surround myself with.
What is self care then?
What is Spiritual Coaching?
What is Spiritual Coaching?
First, I think it is important to understand what coaching is. A life coach helps you move from where you are to where you want to be in life. Whether I am working with a client on business or personal goals, I am constantly supporting a mindful, balanced approach. As a person who was way out of balance in my previous life chapter, I am hyper aware of the importance when coaching and supporting the journey of others.
Where all forms of life coaching (business, mindset, vocation, relationship,etc.) are about asking powerful questions and supporting your journey from point A to B on a conscious level, spiritual coaching uses a blend of techniques - powerful questions as well as sharing guidance, wisdom, and often forms of energy healing and intuitive therapies - to go beneath the identity of mind and body or self, and explore the who you really are, the Self.
We are often trying to change behaviors and patterns without understanding that these are symptoms of something deeper at the subconscious level. However, when we learn and understand who and what we really are we are able to go to the source of a pattern to create lasting change.
Emotional Hoarding
Do you hoard your emotions?
What do I mean by this? Well, do you hold on to your emotions even after the experience has passed? Do you keep them ALL? How about some?
As I have expanded into my life, I have become fascinated by somatics, or trapped energy, and how it plays out. Not only in personalities, but in each person’s personal reality. Subconsciously we tell ourselves that we are keeping the emotional ties to past experiences so that they don’t happen again. Or maybe so that we can stay alert for the next enjoyable moment, just like the last one. When we remember our past experiences with emotions attached, they etch deeper into our memories. Add smell or taste and you can pretty much guarantee yourself that you will never fully forget.
Freedom in the Little Things
This morning as I was reading on detachment my awareness was drawn to the coffee beside me. Slowly the awareness unfolded. We think of attachment often as big things like addiction, but attachment is really about senses and how they create our expectations and compulsions. Drinking a cup of coffee that you enjoy is fine. Needing to drink it is not. Whether that need is because of the outcome of drinking caffeine or the habit that changes your mood if you can’t have it; you, the Self, is not in control, your senses are, and they are directing your mind and your body.
Healthy Boundaries
I definitely did not have healthy boundaries when I was younger. Low self-esteem had me willing to take the scraps of other people’s time and attention. Wow, that sounds really sad! But, it is the truth. It wasn't until I started to work on my self-worth that I was able to start setting boundaries, and at first I didn't handle it in a healthy way. Usually it was done with resentment, pissed off that I had to set it and people didn't just 'know'. This is really confrontation as opposed to setting boundaries, let alone healthy ones. This passive-aggressive behaviour often ‘bit me in the ass’ with relationships falling apart and my own self-disappointment.
To be able to set a healthy boundary we must first journey inward.
Are You Your Thoughts?
In short, no.
Quite often, when I am working with clients, I suggest they name the voices in their head. The narrators. You know those voices, the criticizer, the congratulator, the righteous one, the scared one, the bitchy one, and so on. The reason I ask for people to do this is so that they can understand that they are not those voices but the One who hears or experiences them. We are also the one who chooses to hear them or believe in them or not.
New Years’ Resolution 2023
I have never been great with making new year's resolutions. I can’t really explain why but they always felt unauthentic when I tried. I would try to make a list of things I wanted to change about myself, and then either start off feeling crappy about myself which would often lead to lousy self-talk, or I would start strong for a month or two before going back to old habits. Truthfully, if we want to make changes in our life, the best time to begin is now (no matter what day of the week or year that is.)
It is not that I think new year’s resolutions are bad by any means. It is just that I wonder at our intention behind them. What are we really trying to achieve? Usually there is a deeper desire beneath the resolutions we set. But also, the question begs to be asked, who’s setting it?
5 Steps towards Self-love
We are in the midst of a worldwide self-love crisis. The reason is that we don’t truly know who we are. We are no longer at peace with ourselves, let alone others. The result is that we don’t feel comfortable or safe.
When we feel uncomfortable and unsafe we can have a tendency to give our power away to those around us, or, we can hoard it behind defenses that cause us to become disconnected from ourselves and others.
So how do we cultivate Self-love?
In this article we offer five steps to assist in nurturing Self-love in your life and the live of those around you.
Welcome to the Light-side!
“There is so much Light in you. I see it. I want you to see it too.” ~ Dawn
The Secret to Happiness
Most of us, when we were young, were taught to look for happiness outside of ourselves. Maybe not directly, but indirectly by the things that we were encouraged to do and attain. Things like the importance of the career we chose, the importance of secondary education, or a job. Or the push of a relationship, marriage or having children, and even owning a home. There is also the stuff we own and the experiences we have, such as travel and vacations. What about the importance of how we look - nip, tuck, and maintain along with diet, sweat, push, and drive. We do all in an effort to seek happiness. If these things are supposed to make us happy, then why aren't we?
So what is the secret to happiness?
Justifying My Existence
…through all of this there has remained a silent subconscious belief that I am not worthy. No matter how hard I work I don’t deserve my success. No matter how hard I try to be a good mom, I feel like I am failing. No matter how much I love my hubby, I don’t deserve him... No matter how loyal I am, people will always leave. All of this has caused me to work longer hours, try harder, push through pain and illness, and silently beg to be accepted and loved.
Daily Living Rituals of a Spiritual Journey - step 8
With so much mass media being presented to us these days I have learned that it is imperative for me to start each day by reading something that helps support the direction we want to grow. Unintentionally, I took a year off from this practice in 2021 and noticed a change in my daily mental and emotional health.
Daily Living Rituals of a Spiritual Journey - step 7
Many of us struggle because our families and long term friends are not interested in our journeys (YET!); so it can feel very lonely and isolating. I encourage you to keep chatting to others about what you are reading and looking for. The more open you are about what you desire to become, the more intimacy you create - we are weaving our intuition in with living with an open heart and awakening mind.
Daily Living Rituals of a Spiritual Journey - step 6
It cannot be ‘us versus them’ AND ‘we are part of the whole’ without causing self-harm.
Each time we put our own needs first or dwell on ourselves we strengthen the separation between us. This is a huge conflict with our true purpose in life, which is to remember or re-member.
Daily Living Rituals of a Spiritual Journey - step 5
Whether it is the food we eat, the books we read, the entertainment we watch and listen to, we are being pushed and pulled by the dictatorship of rigid likes and dislikes. So wouldn’t this mean that we are being manipulated by our past experiences and sensory stimulation?
Daily Living Rituals of a Spiritual Journey - step 4
I used to wake up with my mind already flying through my list of tasks to be done. I would begin on the fly with my heart rate going up and tension in my body. I wasn’t even aware of it, it simply was my existence. Most days I would go to bed worrying whether I had done enough, or if what I had done was right. This would all bring on the gifts of tension headaches and a stiff aching body. Sound familiar?
Daily Living Rituals of a Spiritual Journey - step 3
“When I started to dedicate myself to my healing journey one of the biggest adjustments was the commitment to my spiritual journey. I have looked at many ‘styles’ trying to figure out what resonated for me, what was my truth. As I touched each path of belief I grew to understand that there is a vast difference between ‘right and wrong’ versus ‘for me or not for me’. “