Life Coaching
The Life Coach definition is someone professionally trained to help you maximize your full potential and reach your desired results. They are like a supportive friend and a trusted adviser rolled into one. They’re someone who will push you to identify your goals, hold you accountable and provide encouragement throughout your journey to become a better version of you.
A Life Coach encourages and helps on a range of personal issues. It’s not about giving advice, counselling or mentoring as you work with a coach to help you with specific projects, personal goals and transitions.
“Counsellors and therapists look to the past for answers, Life Coaches deal with the now and the future.”
They will help you to grow by analysing your current situation, identifying any limiting beliefs and other potential challenges or obstacles you face, and will devise a plan of action to help you achieve specific goals in your life.
The areas which show the most improvement with life coaching are:
- Identifying goals and defining a vision
- Obtaining work/life balance
- Managing an important life transition
- Identifying limiting beliefs
- Articulating core values
- Learning to communicate more effectively
- Improving relationships and communication skills
- Achieving fitness goals
- Ultimately, life coaching allows you to maximize your potential in any area.
If you’re asking yourself “Do I need life coaching?” Here are some signs that indicate you do:
- Your life is out of balance
- Your inner self-talk is very negative
- You’re stuck in self-destructive habits like excessive drinking or overeating
- You’ve recently made a major life change or undergone a stressful event
- You suffer from fear of failure that keeps you from reaching your goals
What is Mindfulness?
Professor Mark Williams, former director of the Oxford Mindfulness Centre, says that it’s about knowing what’s going on inside and outside of ourselves, moment by moment. He comments:
“It’s easy to stop noticing the world around us and end up ‘living in our heads’ – caught up in our thoughts, without stopping to notice how these thoughts are driving our emotions and behaviour. Mindfulness is about allowing ourselves to see the present moment clearly. When we do that it can positively change the way we see ourselves and our lives.”
How Mindfulness helps mental wellbeing
It allows us to stand back from our thoughts and start to see their patterns. Gradually, we can train ourselves to notice when our thoughts are taking over and realise that thoughts are simply ‘mental events’ that don’t need to control us.
Most of us have issues we can’t let go of and mindfulness can help us deal with them more productively. We can ask ourselves: Is trying to solve this by brooding on it helpful, or am I just getting caught up in my thoughts again?
Awareness of this kind also helps us notice signs of stress and anxiety earlier and we are able to deal with them better.
How can We help?
We have a resident Life Coach, Julia, who offers a 5 week Life Coaching course and can also help with Mindfulness. Our feedback on her course has been excellent.
One Carer commented recently on the course:
“Absolutely wonderful – this course of Life Coaching has totally changed my way of thinking, I can’t thank her enough.”
If you’re interested just let us know and Julia will call you to discuss how she can help you.
