Article: What is Wellness Coaching?

by | Nov 6, 2018 | interviewed for articles, Uncategorized | 0 comments

Here is an Irish Life Health article  I was interviewed for on What is Wellness Coaching?

Shane Pearson from Design Your Life Coaching explains how wellness coaching is a specialist form of life coaching for your health and wellness.

What is Wellness Coaching?

 Read time: 3 mins

  • WELLBEING
    Given how busy our lifestyles have become, it’s no wonder we rarely take the time to pause, focus on life goals, and explore any patterns of behaviour that might be getting in the way of achieving them. In fact, we’re often completely unaware these patterns even exist! Shane Pearson is a wellness coach at Design Your Life Coaching, a service that helps people set goals in a supportive environment.

    Finding Your Mountain Guide

     

    “What we offer”, Shane begins, “is a specialised form of life coaching. We employ and principles to help people improve their health and wellness.” This could be around stress management, weight loss, getting fit – there are lots of different scenarios. Shane’s role is very much that of a facilitator. “You’re the expert in your own life”, he says. “An analogy we use is that we’re like a mountain guide. If a person chooses to climb a mountain, the guide will help them plan out that goal. Rather than picking them up and carrying them, we walk alongside them. We guide and support, advocate and inspire.

Overcoming Patterns of Behaviour

A big part of achieving a goal is acknowledging the aforementioned patterns of behaviour. In a coaching setting, says Shane, this is done in a very therapeutic manner. “As the person takes action”, he explains, “they may encounter internal and external barriers. However, we’ll often have anticipated these in advance, so they can be strategically worked through. With some of these patterns, we don’t know they’re there until we bump into them. We all have our own downfalls, despite our best intentions! When they come to the surface, the coach sits with the client and explores that resistance.”

Dealing with Stress

One of the things Shane sees people consistently struggle with is stress. Long office hours, meeting deadlines, juggling work and parenthood – all these things put undue pressure on us. “I think we’ve become accustomed to a moderate level of stress”, he notes. “Most of our stresses are psychological in nature; emotional rather than physical conflict. Our ancestors would have had to do things like run away from bears, or freeze when they saw a snake. We have the same mechanisms, but they don’t really suit us in the office, or stuck in traffic!”

If you do experience stress, there are some easy ways to begin managing it, according to Shane. First up, get moving. “This could be as simple as going to the water cooler”, he says, “or taking the stairs instead of the lift. It helps get rid of the stress hormone, which would be burnt off if we were running away from danger.” There’s an even easier option though. “The most powerful thing when it comes to stress is slowing down your breathing”, says Shane. “Inhale for a count, hold for a count, exhale for a count; it’s my go-to.”

Read the full article and more here.

Find out more about Design You Life Coaching here.

 

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