While health coaching focuses a great deal of the time on nutrition, it is counterbalanced with attention paid to all the other parts of a person's life. Because the reality is that even if a person is eating a fantastic diet, if they are in emotional distress over a relationship gone south or are in a job they really hate or are stressed out by a medical condition, it is unlikely they will be able to achieve the status of health they desire. Each area of our life, physical, emotional, career, spirituality, home environment, relationships, financial situation, etc. contributes to our overall well-being.
Holistic health coaching strives to help individuals help themselves into better habits and out of situations in which they feel hopeless and helpless. This is done by periodically checking on each of these areas. As areas are identified as needing change, modest, doable goals are created for the individual to work on over a period of time. The commitment for health coaching (for coaches trained by the Institute of Integrative Nutrition - IIN) is six months. Because it takes at least this long for lasting, permanent change to occur.
Health coaching also helps redirect people to begin to ask different questions. The initial question new clients ask is: What can I do to be healthy? When strides are made, goals are being met, energy returns, and health begins to be regained, the new question becomes, What do I do with my health? This is because the goal of health is not for its sake alone but for the betterment of the world. Good health is a gift, not a prize. It's not a trophy that sits on a shelf to be admired. Healthy people, each in their own way, contribute to the health and well-being of their communities in real and powerful ways. With health comes the motivation to inspire others and to have the inner reserves to keep at it.
The amount of illness being experienced in the world today is unprecedented. We are not supposed to suffer with chronic disease for years. We are not supposed to succumb to illness in the prime of our lives. We're not supposed to spend the last years of our life slowly fading away in a nursing home. For many, the question is not if they will get cancer, diabetes or heart disease, but when. None of this is normal. And it is alarming that we accept such things as just being part of some natural progression. This is not to say that sometimes these things do occur even under the most perfect of circumstances. But it is abnormal for mass chronic illness to be the norm. Our bodies are wonderfully designed to deter illness and to heal itself. We are supposed to be healthy, strong and vibrant. We are intended to be lean and physically fit. And we should be active in mind and body long into old age. And it is not only possible to address the health crisis that we are in, but as individuals to stack the deck overwhelmingly in favor of good health. This done by addressing all the food that feeds us - not just what's on our plates.
This is what motivates my work as a health coach: To help people reclaim their health so that together we can share in creating a ripple effect of health and wellness that really will transform the world we live in.
Next time: The new normal.
No comments:
Post a Comment