Benefits of Wellness Coaching

You have good intentions. You want to improve your health. You want to find peace and balance your life. Despite our best intentions and needs, however, often the daily agenda of life keeps us from sticking to our commitments to taking care of ourselves. Work, family, bills, social appointments, and simple everyday tasks such as shopping and cooking easily get in the way. Before we know it, our wellness and spirituality has taken a back seat. That’s where Wellness Coaching comes in. It provides dedicated, professional support for creating and leading a balanced, healthy life. It helps people develop the skills and tools to move beyond what has limited them in achieving this in the past, to make the necessary changes and stick with them. The best coaching is interactive and dynamic, says Brook Montagna, a Mindful Life Coach in Santa Rosa, California. It might also be called “wholeness” coaching, she says. “It focuses on the health of our whole being — body, mind and spirit,” says Montagna. “It’s true that one can feel better by taking healthy actions in any one of the three areas, but real wellness is achieved when all three are addressed because they are intimately interrelated.” Some of the benefits of Wellness Coaching include: • Becoming very clear about what is or is not working in your life; • Developing your own inner motivation for positive change; • Creating a personal roadmap to health with well-defined action steps; andrn• Accountability and support for taking action in the direction of wellness. Montagna believes that connecting with our spirituality, which she defines as the center of one’s life and personal sense of purpose, helps to create a healthy relationship with ourselves — which is crucial to having good relationships with other people. “Much of life has to do with relationships, and Wellness Coaching includes focus on healthy relationships,” she explains. “Connecting with your spiritual nature is connecting with the life force energy that propels you toward good self-care of body and mind. So whether you are wanting to change the way you eat, exercise, or create work-life balance, having a strong connection with your spiritual nature boosts your motivation and provides clarity and strength for making important changes and facing difficulties.” Of course, the definition of spirituality is deeply personal, and different for everyone. That is why time spent on oneself, and one’s own spiritual connection, is vital. It helps people find their own specific “why” of living — to find their own inner compass, develop greater intuition, be more peaceful and content, and to discover purpose. Montagna calls it the foundation for expressing one’s authentic self. So when do you know it’s time to seek a Wellness Coach?rnMajor life changes such as divorce, death or job loss are clear situations in which having professional help can make a positive impact. However, anyone who is feeling alone, adrift, confused, or facing difficulties can benefit immensely. The “spiritual reset” process can help you access your own inner wisdom for making important decisions, and provide strength for facing big challenges. In fact, it may just be the missing link to move beyond your limitations in life. “Strengthening one’s spiritual connection makes transitions of all types, whether career, health or personal relationships, less stressful and more successful,” Montagna says. It can help you keep in mind the bigger picture, rather than focusing on details or negative circumstances. “Contentment and happiness is more often the result of inner work than it is about trying to fix everything on the outside. The reason Wellness Coaching is so powerful is its basic assumption that you can find your own answers within, that you are connected to great wisdom and health.” Three Tips on Incorporating Spirituality in our Daily Lives: Set intentions from the heart. Strive to consciously notice and be present in a moment, and cultivate openness toward love, kindness and generosity. We may not be able to change what happens to us, but it is our choice of how we respond. Establish a practice of gratitude. It takes very little time to reflect on your day and list what you are grateful for, but it has the power to transform your life. It has been scientifically proven that feeling grateful can improve physical health. Start a daily practice such as meditation, yoga, journal writing, prayer, contemplative reading, etc. These do not need to be formal to be effective, and remember meditation can be done while walking, gardening, even petting your dog.