WISDOM
COACH YOURSELF TO WELLNESS By Alison Reid
In the midst of the tumultuous events of 2020, virtual coaching emerged as a popular means of achieving personal and professional wellbeing. Coaching offers guidance for those wanting to live in holistically healthy ways, and is focused on optimising meaning and potential in the unique context of a person’s life and experience. There are two ways of viewing wellness. The first is ‘below-zero wellness’, which directs us to focus on areas of our lives that are not serving us. To unearth these issues, we ask: “What is wrong?”, “What is missing?” and “What needs to be fixed?” Below-zero wellness serves to bring the person to a point of ‘normal’ physical, mental and emotional health. This is vital work, but it is about survival rather than potential and purpose. Coaching extends beyond coping mechanisms to help individuals surpass the boundaries of so-called ‘normal’. As individuals and leaders, we should all be striving for the second type of wellness, known as ‘above-zero’ or optimal wellness. It is in this space that we really start to see people thrive. In recent times, coaching has come to focus on both sub-zero and above-zero wellness. It’s been used to help people with coping mechanisms; work-life balance; and resilience in the face of the pressures resulting from the pandemic, a weak economy and global political uncertainty. But when coaching ramps up to the optimal level, it truly starts to guide people towards fulfilment, purpose and meaning – no matter what their circumstances.
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