A MIND-BODY APPROACH TO COACHING

 

Human beings are a combination of two major, very complicated biological structures: our bodies and our minds.

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Please think about it for a moment. We are our minds, situated in our brains. Of course, when people think about us as people, they visualise our bodies, but when asked to describe us as people, they refer to our personalities.

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It is a symbiotic relationship; we reside in our bodies but live in our minds.

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Our bodies and their natural functions keep us alive; they provide us with food and oxygen, allow us to be mobile creatures capable of many physical things, and perpetuate the species.

Our bodies do many things for us without having to receive instructions. We don’t have to tell our digestive system to digest our food. We don’t have to remind our hearts to beat and circulate blood throughout our bodies. Barring a medical problem, all our other internal organs are quite capable of functioning on their own.

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However, when our minds face a real or imaginary stressful situation, they are quite capable of taking control of our body’s sympathetic nervous system and causing the physical manifestations of anxiety, such as rapid heartbeat, sweaty palms, stomach problems, blushing, throat constriction and a need to urinate.

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Our minds can and have created many fantastic things: life-saving medicine, digital technology, music, literature, and space travel.

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However, our minds are also very capable of producing many life-limiting thoughts that can keep us from leading the kind of lives we truly want to have for ourselves in both our occupational and family lives.

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My goal is to help my clients recognise that these negative thoughts are only opinions, not facts. By taking control of their minds, they will be able to dissipate the powerful effects of their negative thoughts and learn a new and more positive way to look at their lives.