Client Story: "... Was the best thing that ever happened to me!"

You NEVER know who you are positively impacting and inspiring. This is why I love sharing client stories here on the Zen Blog. Not only with the hopes that they'll help people see how health & wellness coaching can help, how Zenergy Coaching works and to hopefully inspire action in others, but also because my clients and their stories like this inspire me!

I've mentioned in my previous client story post that some clients take advantage of the fact that they will sometimes get much more out of a "Walk n' Talk" session with their coach on a given day, than they would pushing weights around (which maybe they aren't up to on that day for various reasons). This client in this story has always taken advantage and we have some fantastic conversations surrounding mindset, wellbeing and habits.

This client has (and continues) to do PLENTY of work gathering information and trying to create positive change for her health and wellbeing. She has all kinds of things she does and enjoys to care for her deep health, but can still get down on herself as we all tend to do at times. She had a tough summer mentally this year as well which added to her emotions when it comes to her health and wellbeing.

On one of our more recent walks, SHE brought something up that I was really happy to hear that she was thinking about it. It was an "ah ha" moment for her where she began to realize that ALL THE WORK she's put into her mental health, emotional health, spiritual health and physical health over the past couple years has involved ALOT of gathering information in a VARIETY of ways... and OFTEN. Her own wellbeing habits, working with a counsellor for a number of years, going on retreats, running workshops herself, taking part in workshops, taking part in groups discussing mental/emotional health, reading books / gathering info online etc. None of this being uncommon today for so many.

What SHE brought up to me on our walk that day, was the realization that many of these efforts/activities did one of two things:

1) Reinforced things she's already discussed and learned before

She realized that in realizing she ALREADY has tools at her disposal, she now needs to USE THEM more often for HERSELF. Put what she's learned into action regularly.

2) Focused on negatives

Between her chats with her counsellor and some women's groups she's participated in where the discussions surround trauma, mental/emotional health etc it is very much a theme that is negative (and heavy). In realizing this, she mentioned that in order to move away from this herself she needs to create positive vibes too and lift some weight off her shoulders.

We discussed things further about ideas of things that were serving her in moving her health in a direction she wants and things that perhaps need to be set aside (even just for a while) so that she can help HERSELF by putting the tools she's learned over the years into action FOR HER.

She typically comes bi-weekly and so two weeks later, after our next walk n' talk session, I sent an email to check in to remind her to "keep the flow going" and that her realization about her "self-care overload" has CLEARLY been a breath of fresh air for her. You could tell just by the way she spoke on our walk. Her reply to that email included this:

"Dropping self care overload may well be the best thing to ever happen to me to be honest!!! Loving the flow right now!!" 

I replied back: "OMG - Can I use this in a blog post!!??" 😁

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This story speaks to so many things, but I want to point out TWO for you.

1) Health & Wellness Coaching isn't about "telling you what to do" or "making you do anything". Health & Wellness Coaching is about conversations, ideas, guidance and most importantly, helping the client get out of his/her own way.

2) The biggest changes in health come from the mind first. It's how we set ourself up for success that allows us to create amazing changes in our wellbeing. Not forcing "rules" and "more" on ourselves. Learning and developing a deeper self-awareness allows us to create sustainble change.

*This client quote has got to be one of my favourite quotes of the year!