The use of Mindfulness in coaching – coaching for inner awareness and stress relief.

Mindfulness means inner awareness but the word mindfulness is more closely associated as a meditation technique within Buddhism than coaching.  When used as a form of meditation, Buddhist monks focus attention on their steps as they walk, their food as they chew and their breath as well as chanting mantras. Since Buddhism is a philosophy rather than a religion it is easy to incorporate the techniques into everyday life.

Benefits of Mindfulness

• When used in everyday life mindfulness is an effective stress buster.
• Very effective relaxation technique good to use when moving from work to home life.
• It can assist in removing the excessive chatter that goes on inside ones head.
• Changing negative thoughts into positive thoughts.
• When practiced it can assist with focusing on a single task.
• If practiced well practitioners can experience transcendence.

Some simple mindfulness Self coaching Exercises.

How to add mindful inner awareness to your day.  Try practicing for 20 minutes twice a day.  It is important to remove all other interruptions for the period you choose to be mindful.  For your body to be truly mindful it is beneficial to practice prior to eating a meal rather than just after.

• Raise your awareness of a positive topic or assignment and focus only on topic.
• Sit with your eyes closed and hum like a bee taking a breath through the nose when necessary or repeat a sound in your head which resonates positively with you.  Om is a commonly used mantra in meditation.
• Sit with your eyes closed and concentrate on your breath. breath in for the count of 10 and out for the count of 1o.   It is important that when you take your breaths you are not only filling your chest but your stomach is rising and falling with each breath.
• When cooking be mindful of what you are doing focus on the ingredients and cook with love and nutrition in mind.

In coaching

Experienced practitioners can offer guided meditations which can assist people with using mindfulness in everyday life.

Clean coaching techniques use a focusing technique which allows you to zone in on a topic or area you want to improve allowing you to tap into your inner knowing and intuition and discover new ways to approach situations.

Try a new perspective coaching session for the promotion of inner awareness.