My Approach
My coaching model is a modern interpretation and reinvention of the yogic model of body, mind, spirit. I call it UpWiseZen.
up
When you are upbeat and positive about life, you can be more objective about our own behaviour and the behaviour of others. Hence, the first step in the personal development journey is bringing your nervous system back into balance. While it’s out of balance, you are in fight/flight/freeze/fold mode and more reactive than responsive.
During the UP phase, we’ll be looking at concrete internal and external triggers, and develop plans to deal with them, as well as exploring the various levers you have available to you e.g. diet, breathing, relaxation techniques, energy coaching etc., all with the goal of helping you to put your best foot forward every day.
Now that physical, concrete triggers have been addressed, we can turn to more subtle, mental triggers i.e. our thoughts. Modern neuroscience has established that the chain reaction of thought-emotion-action happens in an instant and the work here is to create space between them.
The goal is to become capable of observing your thoughts and then to question the belief systems that underly them. In this way, you start to bring unconscious bias and other conditioning to the surface, and develop a much deeper understanding of what drives your behaviours.
WISE
ZEN
At the level of Zen or Spirit, you have greater awareness of your patterns of behaviour and the conscious and unconscious conditioning that has been the driver for them. You have greater perspective on yourself and how you show up, and also greater compassion for yourself and others. You are no longer locked into your conditioning and operating on auto pilot. Over time, you can make more conscious choices about how you respond to situations, choosing how you want to live your life and gradually rewiring your neural pathways and changing your muscle memory so that events no longer trigger you in the same way.