What is Holistic Life Coaching?
Life coaching, health coaching, mindset coaching, spiritual coaching, holistic life coaching… SO many kinds of coaching exist these days. If you have a problem or a goal you want to reach, no matter how unusual, you can probably find a coach who specializes in helping you get there.
Choice is a beautiful thing but it can be overwhelming (especially if you’re looking for a coach to help you with overwhelm)!
While I’m all about being laser focused on your dream, I find that many of us don’t yet have the kind of clarity to even know what that dream looks like. I believe that clarity comes naturally when you’re living an aligned and empowered life, so focusing on building THAT often can be the best place to start.
Clarity – and your dream – will then emerge naturally, without desperation and angst.
I’m a holistic life coach. And I’ve come to call myself this based not only on my work with clients, but also on the experiences I’ve had in my own life working with coaches and healers of many different modalities. When I look at what’s made the difference for myself and my clients, I see that it’s not any one panacea, but rather a collection of approaches that are thoughtfully utilized at the appropriate times.
We are complex, multi-layered beings that exist in a complex world. We can’t separate our minds from our bodies, our hearts or our spirit.
This is SO important to take into consideration when embarking on a personal journey through coaching.
Let’s bring this down to earth a bit and take a look at what life coaching is and what shifts when you add the work ‘holistic’ to the front.
What is a life coach?
A life coach helps you to solve problems, set goals and create your life’s vision. To do this, the coach might help you to:
- shift old thought and emotional patterns
- develop healthy boundaries (with people, work, food, cravings, etc)
- overcome perfectionism, procrastination and people pleasing
- increase self-confidence
- take action on your goals
- make important life decisions
- heal emotional wounds
- learn processes and systems to help you achieve your goals
The process of life coaching usually looks like having conversations with your coach, doing home reflection exercises and taking action.
Most life coaching uses a very logical, mind-based approach to creating change, leaning heavily on mindset work. As your mindset forms the basis for how you see and take action in the world, using it skillfully can have incredible effects in your life.
However, I believe that we are much more than our minds. We are our bodies, our hearts and our connections within and without us. The health of these other aspects must be considered in order for mindset work to be effective. We need to learn to know ourselves as whole beings and to nourish those areas that experience stress, deficit or trauma.
What is a holistic life coach?
Holistic means taking all aspects of a person into account when designing a plan for change, like your:
- state of health of digestion/food relationship, sleep and energy (i.e. the 3 pillars of life)
- physical and emotional imbalances (doshas – vikruti)
- natural tendencies/constitution (doshas – prakriti)
- environment, life events and social inequity
- quality of connection to yourself, others and something greater than yourself
In my own practice, holistic also means incorporating therapies that engage the body, emotions and spirit. As an Ayurvedic Health Counselor, I will often include:
- herbs
- daily habits or rituals (dinacharya)
- meditation and breathing exercises (pranayama)
- music, dance and creativity
- energy therapies
Holistic life coaching can look a lot like life coaching in practice, consisting of conversations, home practices and taking action – from a mind, body & spirit approach. In addition to this (in my practice), I may recommend therapies for you as well as provide education in systems of knowledge that can help you to understand yourself and your experience of the world in a different way (I draw on Yoga, Ayurveda and the Vedic Sciences).
Most importantly, holistic means understanding your needs of the moment and addressing them in a way that is unique to you. It’s not a one-size-fits-all system. It’s a custom made plan that uses powerful tools that feel most aligned for you. It’s a process of discovery.
The goal of the coaching becomes much more than solving a problem or achieving a goal. Rather, it becomes a journey for you to connect and align with your truest self.
If you have questions about holistic life coaching and how it could help you in your life, I invite you to schedule a free coaching session with me. It’s a complimentary, sales-free call where you can chat about whatever is most alive in you.