What about coaching in a mindful fashion: Ever thought about it? – did you even believe that such a thing was possible?
If it spiked your curiosity, just continue to read and share your insights.
First of all, let’s define what is what:
Coaching
Coaching is the art of creatively engaging with client facilitation, reaching the proposed goals, and maximizing the individual’s potential.
Mindfulness
Mindfulness is maintaining your awareness: being aware of your thoughts, your feelings, your body, and the environment that surrounds you.
Quite simple at first glance, isn’t it? Yes, and no.
Like coaching, being mindful is like working out at your gym to build up your mental muscle. Meditating should be consistent, everyday practice, and cumulative one – each day, you’ll learn more, and become more aware of yourself, dealing better with the thought and body as if you’d have practiced it since you were born.
Now, let us see how we can put it into practice:
1. When you coach someone, you have to be receptive to the client, and it’s not supposed to express your opinion. You will listen without judging your client; you are there to facilitate, not to judge, right?
The same principle happens in Mindfulness, being not judgemental: listening to the other side (person) without expressing your thoughts towards what you are listening to.
Sometimes people are caught up in their thoughts, don’t listen attentively, and lose valuable information.
2. Patience is a virtue – people say, and from my point of view, they are right.
This principle appears in Coaching as in Mindfulness; you are supposed to let your client say what s/he wants, pause, and then ask compelling questions.
The same thing happens with you on the mindful path: you are at service, you are not hasty, and your let time lead its way.
3. There is a principle in Mindfulness called ‘Beginners Mind’ that could relate to Coaching as active listening/curiosity, the will to go deeper and deeper into the matters that you have at hand.
It’s like when you look at a flower for the first time in your life, as a child: first, you see the color, and then the smell, feel the touch, and everything a discovery – the same thing applies to a client, don’t you think so?
4. In both realms (Coaching and Mindfulness), you should have trust, from your client, as in real life, with any person that you come across. It’s a step-by-step process that needs nurturing, but when you get it, you’ll have a sturdy bridge, a link almost unbreakable.
5. Can you force things in a coaching session? Of course not. The same goes with Mindfulness: Why?
Well, each path takes time to be built, and each person has their own timing to open up and trust that can never be rushed.
There are much more ways to apply these principles in your coaching practice; here are just some to make you think and take the first step into the Mindfulness ‘world.’
I’m entirely sure that you will benefit profoundly from using it in your daily life, as in your practice, with astonishing results for you and your client.
Dare yourself to discover Mindfulness Coaching.
