If you go online looking for any number of wellness services, you don't have to read too far before the word transformation is mentioned. The promise that the part of you holding you back, will be changed from it's old form to a new and better version. The Miriam Webster Dictionary defines the word transform, as a verb to simply mean “to change”. This could be external change or an inner alteration of character.
You may be at a point where you feel desperate for transformation. Or maybe you’ve had some time away, free from distractions and regular routines and have reflected on how you’re are really going. In a moment of simply breathing deeper, reducing the stress response, we can regain a sense of how our bodies and minds are coping, or not. We may come to a conclusion that if we keep going the current way that we are, the outcomes do not look promising. If we get honest in both of these moments and become willing to weigh up the truth of what the outcomes might be...if nothing changes.
There is a natural tendency to do this at the end of the year, as we have the time to reflect during the holidays and think about how we are feeling in our bodies and in our regular schedules. If there is a feeling of dissatisfaction and disappointment, you may find temporary renewed vision for the future and a plan for a new year’s resolution. It’s common for the initial excitement of change to vanish after a few weeks and old patterns and engrained behaviours pull us back into their current.
Researchers suggest that only 9% of Americans that make resolutions complete them. In fact, research goes on to show that 23% of people quit their resolutions by the end of the first week, and 43% quit by the end of January.
The reality is, we live in a society with freedom of choice and there's a plethora of temptations. Whether in the pursuit of pleasure, used as a tactic of avoiding pain or maybe we're driven by a need to succeed. Ending up ignoring the health implications required to attain these (often more convenient and glamourous) options.
There's no limit to those who want to encourage us (at a profitable margin) to pursue indulgent pleasures and high performance goals, at the expense of your most valuable asset, your wellbeing. Resulting in weight increasing, blood pressure and fatigue rising, health complaints growing and a general dissatisfaction with life. Marketing will prey on our desires for change promising the desired outcomes we want, happily taking our money and leaving us mostly unchanged. Turns out the magic formula of a wonder working supplement, rejuvenating float, relaxing massage, calming meditation, or exercise program can have benefits, but without a sustained committed desire to change direction, we can be fooled into thinking that buying these packages and programs will be the solution we are looking for. While they can be part of a solution, the real answer lies in the challenge of convincing our will to change direction for good and freeing ourselves from the guilt and shame we feel about ourselves when we fail.
Failure is a natural part of any learning process, it gives us the feedback we need that something is not working. But it goes without saying his cycle of desiring change, making change, and then relapsing can chip away at our confidence in ourselves, leading to our own minds becoming our worst enemy and critic.
Most often, we know what we need to do, we just can’t understand why we don't do it. I've previously coached swimming, so my initial perception was that health coaching was about giving you advice and telling you what you need to change. Putting the responsibility onto the coach to motivate us externally, through praise, correction and rewards. The wellness coach approach takes the position that you are the expert in your own life and asks good questions that lead to understanding the reason why change is so important for you. Together you will explore the reasons why failures have happened in the past and regenerate the confidence to progressively make sustainable change that lasts you a life time.
A good wellness coach understands the cycle, the sometimes difficult process of decision making and how to increase your confidence levels to finally step out of the cycle and climb the mountain of lasting change. Changing the narrative to ongoing experimentation, instead of 'all or nothing' challenges. With the reward being we can celebrate feeling and looking like our best selves and wellness habits become easy and enjoyable to maintain. Leaving you finding ease and satisfaction in looking after your wellbeing.
Contact us today to start your wellness coaching journey.
hello@selahwellness.com.au