Why I failed as a "Health Coach"

Throughout my journey coming into the career I find myself pursuing today I continuously returned to what I wanted to help people to feel... and that is Self Love and Self Worth. This initially brought me into the field of health and nutrition coaching. I went to an absolutely fabulous school that did a fantastic job of touching upon the spectrum of diets and lifestyles out there that people embrace in the pursuit of health. They also thoroughly explained how my mind-spirit piece places into the body piece. One thing that stands out from the whole training program was a short discussion one day of how there are plenty of people who eat well and exercise yet they still don't have health, and there are those who eat whatever they want and never get sick. This moment jolted me back into the original reasoning for joining this program: I wanted to help people to live a healthier, happier life and this doesn't come from a regime of diet an exercise, this comes from love. 

Soon after I began working with people the flaws of the system began to emerge. People came to me because they wanted better bodies, more energy, fewer health issues, etc. Ultimately, most people that I work with know what they want and roughly what they need to do to get there, what they are seeking is someone to hold them accountable. To which I often wonder, why can't you hold yourself accountable? Who are people looking to change for- themselves or those around them? I don't want to be standing over your head bullying you into health, I want to stand beside you and remind you that you are such a beautiful being and you should take the best care of yourself possible. I want to give you a reason to love yourself so much that the only person you need to be accountable to is you! Having someone to hold you accountable can also be a form of victimization, if I am the one holding you accountable, and you "fail" then somehow it's my fault and you are the victim of my own failure as a coach. An empowered individual recognizes that they hold their reigns to their life, they want a hand to hold not a boss to keep them in line, they are the boss.

While in my training I became increasingly aware that just about everyone these days is coming out with a diet or lifestyle book. They all offer vastly different ways to get to the same end point: health. It's crazy! Diet is a science that cannot be defined and you know why? Because everyone is different and every day is different! It's a beautiful thing to be reminded that every Soul is unique. You can thrive on a vegetarian diet for years then suddenly carbs don't work for you anymore and you jump back to meat. I struggled in working with diets because I felt there was a lacking in personal awareness. I cannot tell you what to eat, you need to eat, then feel your body's reaction to the food over time, then make the call for yourself. The best diet in the world is the one that you create for your own unique body and how it's feeling today. The more you box yourself into a set list of items that you can eat, the less likely you are to hear your body if it's asking for a change. We spend so much time thinking and rationalizing that in many ways we have lost our intuition and ability to sense our bodies reactions to everything we put it through.

The final point of contention with my career as a health coach was that you spend so much time experimenting with different tips and tools to figure out which worked best for each individual. This makes perfectly good sense, but it was frustrating to both myself and the clients. It took months of trial, error and patience to slowly figure out what needed to be done. This is a fantastic way to explore the "unique you" and how to keep you uniquely healthy, but the process was often very drawn out because the client didn't even know where to start. There was a general lack of personal awareness, it's hard to know what you need when you don't necessarily know who you are. It's also hard to fix a physical condition when it actually stems from a mental or emotional one. You can't create a beautiful flower if you ignore the soil from which it grows. This process seemed as though you were starting at the surface and working inward, what I wanted to do was to start within and work your way out. Connect clients to who they truly are, understand why they are this way, accept and love who they are, become more empowered to authentically live a life that reflects who they are AND THEN build a life of health around them to support this new authentic life. 

This is where Soul Realignment changed my practice completely. I work with people to reconnect to themselves, find love and acceptance for themselves, and authentically live a life of abundance. It is from that space of true self love  creates motivation to build practices that honor and nourish the physical body. Let go of the negativity and the blocks that start in the mental/emotional body and affect the physical body. You become accountable to yourself once more because you are the boss of your own life, you are empowered. 

Everyone needs something different on their path to sustainable health, some are fine doing it all on their own and some people want help. Health Coaches do a world of good in supporting individuals to find a method that works for them, but if you feel like you just keep hitting dead end roads with your process of physical health then maybe it's time to check in with a different line of health. Reconnecting with yourself at Soul level, going back to starting point and working your way back out to create Mind Body Spirit health. Once you create this connection you will never have to go back, because you cannot lose the love you  have for yourself that fuels the fire of health.

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