Mindfulness and Coaching
A study conducted in 2019 by Julia Basso C. showed decreased anxiety, depression and negativity after just 8 weeks of mindfulness meditation training. Imagine being able to use a technique like this alongside your coaching to help you get even better results with your clients.
Mindfulness can help increase positive emotion, decrease unnecessary suffering, and create
a life of personal growth and meaning.
But what is mindfulness and how could it help you?
Core Principles
There are seven core principles of mindfulness:
- Non-judging
- Patience
- Beginner’s mind
- Trust
- Non-striving
- Acceptance
- Letting go
Whilst it may take time to put all these principles into practice, when you do, they can make
such a difference to how you experience life.
Imagine being able to approach a new activity or task with a ‘beginner’s mind’ – really
experiencing it and taking in all the new learnings. Without prejudgement of whether you
can or can’t do it, as well as what others might say and letting go of the outcome. How
refreshing and freeing!
How exciting to be able to fully immerse yourself in the experience, rather than what is
going on around you.
Active thought life
Do you know how many thoughts we have a day? Research shows that we have around 60-
70,0000 thoughts a day.
A lot of this happens automatically and bearing in mind we as humans have a negative bias,
a lot of these thoughts might be causing anxiety, stress, and depression.
Imagine simply being able to let go of some of these negative thought patterns. Imagine being able to experience a thought but then being able to simply put it on a leaf, or balloon,
or whatever resonates with you. To be able to just let it go. What difference would this
make to you?
Mindfulness can be informal or structured
Mindfulness doesn’t need to be structured, you can be mindful when you are brushing your
teeth, when you are in the shower. You could put it into practice when you go out for a
walk; paying attention purposefully, noticing the leaves, the patterns and sounds of nature.
Alternatively, you can make it into a formal practice by setting aside dedicated time. Where
you can either practise being present and experiencing the moment, or even listening to a
guided meditation.
Mindfulness is whatever you want to make it. Whatever fits in with you and your lifestyle. It
doesn’t need to take up lots of time, or lots of effort. It’s about being present. Not worrying
about the past or being anxious about the future – just living each second of life to the
fullest, and experiencing each moment.
Your mind is likely to wander, and when it does, just gently bring it back to the present
moment. You can build your mindfulness muscle bit by bit.
How can mindfulness help?
Mindfulness practice is essential for healthy self-regulation and fully engaged living (Deci
and Ryan, 2008). In the volatile and uncertain world that we live in, mindfulness can offer
so much to help with our emotional and mental wellbeing.
Research shows that higher levels of wellbeing are associated with more positive than
negative emotions and higher levels of life satisfaction, as well as personal growth and
meaning in our lives (Carruthers and Hood, 2007).
It is very rare that we aren’t either rushing through life or experiencing tough times. I have
heard many stories about high levels of anxiety, stress, and depression, and have even
experienced this myself. It’s perfectly natural to feel unsettled and even overwhelmed, but
mindfulness can help bring a sense of peace and freedom from anxious thoughts.
Mindfulness and children
There have been numerous studies on the benefits of mindfulness for children and
adolescents, with literature supporting the effectiveness of mindfulness interventions
growing quickly.
Mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) and mindfulness-based cognitive therapy have
been shown to be particularly effective in improving the quality of life, academic
competence, social skills and reducing somatic complaints, internalising symptoms and
externalising behavioural problems when utilised for children and adolescents (Baer and
Greco, 2011).
There are so many ways you can introduce mindfulness to your child or adolescent, it can be
fun and interactive; giving them tools that would benefit them both now and in the future.
Starting your mindfulness and coaching journey
When starting your mindfulness journey, it is important to first adopt a non-judgemental
and a flexible approach. There might be times when you set out to practise mindfulness daily,but things get in your way. Be kind to yourself. Remember mindfulness doesn’t have to be formal and so planned, it can be taking a walk at lunch time, or simply being present in the moment.
If you would like to adopt a more formal approach and make use of some of the great
guided meditations out there, I would highly recommend the Daily Calm Youtube channel,
where you can explore lots of free resources and mindfulness recordings.
