Embracing Health, Embracing You

Different ideas exist about what it means to be healthy. 

• Traditional Chinese Medicine views health as the ability of vital life force energy (qi) to flow through the body through the balance of yin and yang (opposite and complimentary forces). 

• Ayurveda (India’s traditional system of medicine) conceptualizes health through the idea of universal interconnectedness and the balancing of an individual’s constitution (pakriti; comprised of the elements: ether, air, fire, water, and earth). 

• Numerous Tribes indigenous to North America and Canada utilize culturally specific medicine wheels (also called the Sacred Hoop) to symbolize interconnectedness and dimensions of health that correspond to directions, seasons, stages and aspects of life, elements of nature, and more. 

• Traditional African Medicine, born in the Cradle of Humankind, incorporates the interconnectedness of spiritual, physical, mental, and emotional stability for oneself, one’s family members, and community in the recommendation for healing; notably, psycho-spiritual properties are considered prior to treating physical symptoms. 

• In Europe and North America, health is often viewed in terms of the function of organs, the presence or absence of disease, a state of mind, how we feel emotionally, actions that our bodies can perform, numbers on a chart, etc. 

Amid their differences, many of these health concepts are complimentary. There is no one pathway to peak health. We all have unique perspectives and needs that may change depending on our physical and social locations, throughout the course of a day, and over the course of our lifetimes.  Wellness coaching provides an opportunity for you to be curious about what you need to feel healthy and fulfilled. It is an avenue to think about your physical, mental, emotional, social, and spiritual needs, and to consider questions, such as:

• What would you like for your life to look like in one month?

• What would you love to let go of?

• What would you love to let in?

• If each day you took one, courageous step – What would that look like?

Some clients use the wellness coaching relationship as a partnership of informed accountability to work towards a specific goal. This may be a self-care goal, or a goal that stems from a medical necessity, a chronic health condition, or a social affliction. Others feel empowered by pursuing factual-based goals, such as: learning about ways to decrease inflammation in the body, understanding food labels, or finding credible health sources in the media and in local communities. For many clients, wellness coaching is an avenue to better understand their unique mind-body constitution (i.e., which lifestyle choices suit them, how they experience and want to prevent and respond to stress, the impact of certain relationships on their wellbeing, ways of aligning financial choices with values, and practices to integrate and embrace parts of themselves that they’ve learned to disavow).

Regardless of whether your goal is concrete or exploratory, wellness coaching is essentially about aligning with your authenticity in the context of a short-term, supportive relationship. Click here to learn more.