We all talk about balance, such as a work-life balance. This phrasing is a bit of a misguided metaphor that ignores the nuances and hard realities of our human experiences. To truly achieve balance, we are each forced to contend with the trade-offs. It’s almost as if our client feels that they have to give up one part of their life for another part to emerge… a better part. But we also know that we can’t have everything.
So you cannot have it all, at least not all at the same time. No one has everything at the same time.
Coach your Client to Have More Harmony
You can coach your client to have more harmony in their life, especially if you have the skills to support your coach actions. A yoga instructor working as a Certified Holistic Life Coach is a perfect example. A yogi has the skills to develop harmony through yoga for the client to absorb.
Let’s dive into the principle of balance to understand the idea more clearly. This will help us determine what skills we use in our coaching model with each unique client.
Now to continue here, try stepping outside of your coaching desk – taking the coach hat off – so that we can put a different lens on the matter. This lens is focused on trying a new way of looking at what’s possible.
Four-Way Wins
Instead of thinking about balance, conceptualize the visual for what we will call four-way wins. The scales and balance serve as more than a graphic; it’s also a metaphor for how to structure coaching so that your client is able to integrate different parts of their whole life in a way that works for them, maybe like a symphony. This is truly a holistic model. It allows for anything to be on the table. But emphasize reflection for your client to consider life in four different parts, all different parts of a symphony; with a symphony, some- times you only hear the strings, other times the percussion; you hear instruments at different times and it can even be simply one instrument playing – sometimes it’s just the piano. Or the piano and the drums. The pieces are playing at different volumes, sometimes they are silent. This is just like the different parts of our lives.
Shifts in Perspectives
Now, we’re going to hand over our new lens to our client and instruct them on its use. When we do this, we are still assessing our client. We have a dialogue based on curiosity and we are asking open-ended questions for anything that needs to be clarified. “When you look through this new lens and shift your thinking you will have a different sense of what four different parts within your world that you can influence.” The likelihood of your client creating positive change and feeling like they are leading the life they want is now more likely to become a reality. Just by talking to our client about a shift in perspectives, they can start to boost their self-esteem and confidence immeasurably.
The skills and principles that we’re talking about here can be learned. Newer coaches are cautioned that you may not be able to learn all of them immediately. You can choose which ones you want to focus on. But the opportunity to grow your capacity to lead through developing the skills include a wide range of possibilities to match your diverse client base.
Act with Authenticity
What does it mean to be real? This is another way of saying “be authentic.” To be real is to act with authenticity, by clarifying what matters most to us. This includes our values and our vision of the world we are trying to create. To be whole is to act with integrity. And the root of that term integrity is one, whole, coherent. So to be whole is to respect the whole person, and to realize that we are not just our work or not only defined by our family dynamics. We are not just parts of our social life, community, friends, religious, political groups – or really any easily defined construct. We are all so much more than just these “things.” The Certified Holistic Life Coach is tasked with finding out all of this.
How You Can Help
When we have an understanding of how our client views their “selves”, we are on the right path to know our client holistically; this is not a private self, mind, body, or spirit, but instead, the client is all of these things rolled into one. Some of what we come to know of our client might matter more to us (as coaches, especially) than others, but all four are indeed part of who your client is. Recognizing these different parts and how they affect each other is part of the growth of your leadership capacity that we require to excel as coaches.
Become a Certified Holistic Health Coach. Holistic health and well-being are essential to overall life success. Now you can earn a credential and gain the skills to help your clients achieve this success.
Becoming a Certified Wellness Coach is the perfect addition for the fitness professional who wants to offer more all-inclusive wellness services to clients.
The time is now for you to enjoy this exciting and rewarding career, which offers you personal fulfillment while improving the lives of others.
Our programs are open to anyone with a desire to learn and help others. There are no prerequisites.
That’s it for now.
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