Research Paper By Doneen Barone
(Lifestyle & Career Transition Coach, United States)
Abstract
This research paper explores coaching as a powerful tool in working with individuals by developing their gut intuition through creating self-awareness, developing self-confidence and amplifying self-assurance to live a balanced and purposeful life by being in alignment with ones true nature.
Introduction
Culminating a successful 25+-year career in a high volume, extremely competitive international global corporate business development and marketing arena I arrived at Gut Wisdom Coaching as a powerful tool for transformation. Over the years I noticed a common thread among peers of high levels of stress due to high performance demands, frequent travel, competition in an ever changing market, the challenges of maintaining both business and personal relationships, compromised health and well-being, and an over-all lack of personal and professional fulfillment.
As a result of living and leading with my head and ignoring the trembling sometimes screaming messages from my gut I began my journey of transformation. I’ve studied integrative yoga therapies and meditation over the past 10 years and am currently in the process of earning my 500-hour Somatic Yoga Therapy certification. To compliment my strong business background I now find myself at the finish line with International Coaching Academy earning my CPC to ideally round out the toolbox to best serve my clients and myself. It’s been quite a journey of discovery.
More than ever, it seems that just getting through our daily lives leads to anxiety, stress and burn out. We live in a world of non-stop and unrelenting distraction. We wake up to the news (predominately negative and fear based) delivered instantaneously 24/7 on multiple technology-based delivery systems along with good old-fashioned newspaper and television. We endure the demands of trying to balance a competitive work life, maintaining loving and healthy relationships with family and friends, keeping up economically with the main stream believing we will find salvation in acquiring more stuff, better stuff, different stuff and when we still don’t feel any internal satisfaction we resort to self-medicating through television, Internet or other mind numbing escapes and addictions. With the social media platform bursting forth all around us we additionally fall prey to our own self-promoting schemes and ever-evolving life-style choices, all of which make up an all-consuming multi-leveled template of distraction, dissatisfaction and discomfort that we call life.
As a consequence of losing our way through misplaced values and belief’s , there is a national epidemic of people suffering with depression, anxiety, insomnia, stress, chronic illness of all kinds, over-indulging in food, work, alcohol, drugs, shopping, gambling and sex to further numb the emptiness of our discontent.
Our modern culture treads heavily on the value of reason and rationality above all else, creating the dominance of the head brain. Discounting our gut brain (true nature ) and what it is like to be human is not serving us well at all. There is an urgent call to take a deep belly breath, be still and go inward to listen to what our bodies are telling us. Gut Wisdom Coaching invites us to slow down and remember who we are so we can integrate our gut wisdom with our cranial brain of logic and reason to create a meaningful, purposeful and balanced life-style both personally and professionally.
Clients come to coaching because they want to effect change in their lives. They want more fulfilling and meaningful work, transitioning to a new role, dealing with work related stress, or to find better lifestyle-career balance, financial prosperity, time management, better relationships, less suffering, love, creativity, clarity, health, well-being or to simply find accountability. They come for specific goals whether that is to get a job, make a career change, transition in or out of a relationship or better health.
Gut Wisdom Coaching is about creating self-awareness, developing self-confidence to allow the client to make better choices and gain the self-assurance s/he needs to put our plans into action to affect the desired result. Getting in touch with your center is important to this process as what you do to the center you do to the whole. When your belly center leads you into action, your whole body moves easily, gracefully, and effortlessly. The whole of you moves as one into the flow and in total alignment with your authentic self, allowing you to live your true purpose.
Gut Wisdom As A Core Competency
Trusting your gut means using your intuition. In our culture today we have a tendency to rely exclusively on our mind, logic, and brain in our heads to drive our lives. What we often don’t realize is our mind can lie to us. How do we distinguish the truth from the prevalent negative chatter constantly going off in our heads? I ask my clients to get in touch with their gut wisdom for their truth and direction. Your belly – physically, emotionally, and energetically – is the center of your life. Your belly contains the vital organs that orchestrate your digestion, respiration, reproduction, immunity and more. Your belly is a wealth of emotional intelligence, container of your core issues and your power. Your belly is a cauldron of life energy storing your life force and sending it through the entire body.
My approach to coaching is to create a safe space for the client to touch into their gut wisdom – that place where deep down, you just know. We will tap into inner wisdom through powerful questions, breathing practices and written exercises that facilitate finding or reclaiming your center of intuitive power. We will then focus on specific behaviors thatcan be implemented to help a client to get to their desired goal. Replacing negative self –beliefs with positive.