What makes meditation important for the client?
The client is the central person in all of the session. During a coaching session there is another person actively listening to the client. It is important for the coach to understand what it is the client is saying with words and without words. Within the session the client can speak up and out loud what their thoughts and dilemma’s are. Where they would like to go and what the blocks are that they are encountering on the way towards their goals. With the feedback of the coach it will give the client the insight of blocks and also point out the wins for the client. It is not always easy to see your own wins and how you have grown over a period of time.
To learn to keep track of where it is you are as a client it is important to learn different kind of tools. To learn how to use meditation is an individual way of working with yourself. It takes you on a different journey that is all about you, but from the inside. It gives the client an opportunity to look at where they are and why. First the client will work with meditation within a coaching setting. It will calm down the client and bring them back to the point where they need to be. Then they can let go of a lot of the noise that is not important in order for them to reach the goal they have set out. To learn to meditate will give the client an opportunity to work with their hidden knowledge even when the coaching session is over and they continue forward.
Implementation of meditation as a tool in your practice
The best way to implement mediation into your own practice is to implement this into your own routine as well. To get totally familiar with the process of meditation it is best to experience this yourself. It is very important that you are able to understand and feel what mediation does to you. This way you are able to explain and guide your client into the process of meditation. When you start to use meditation as a tool it will bring up questions and struggles for oneself as well. These are important to work through. It is important to teach with your own experience and the information you learn from books and other teachers. Your own experience will help you to understand the questions, hesitations and resistant’s that may come from your clients.
Meditation is something that will give the most benefits if done regularly. This can also be said of course not only with meditation, but also with our other tools. If you like to become healthy you need to move and have a healthy diet. This is not something you do once a week or once a month. It needs to become part of you life style.
There are many different styles of meditation just as there are many different clients in your practice. Meditation can roughly be divided into two groups.
These are:
- The kind of meditation that allows you to sit still and become quite. This way you are able to go in deep.
- The kind of meditation that will introduce movement. You go into movement to create a quiet environment for yourself and to get in touch with the quiet inside of you.
To find the meditation that fits with your own personality is key to implementing meditation into your own life style. This way you can feel the benefits that meditation brings into your life. This sounds very logical of course. Not every one is a runner or a tennis player. The same with meditation, although it is very beneficial to introduce, at the same time it needs to fit in with the energy you have. When you introduce meditation in your client’s daily routine it is key to take your time to explain and introduce the different styles.
There are a lot of free website and apps these days that you can use to help to give more information to your client. This way they can get themselves familiar with this tool themselves. This will take a way a lot of the fears and preconceptions around meditation. Take note to introduce meditation slowly there is no need to start meditating for 30 minutes from the beginning. To have a taste of its benefits can start as simply as 5 minutes a day. This will grow naturally with the routine until it finds its natural place into the daily routine.
Conclusion
With implementing meditation into your tool kit, it creates an opportunity for you as a coach to connect more to your own inner knowledge and to be able to connect with the inner knowing of your client. On a personal level, you learn more and more to trust your own intuition. This will help you to become and be the best coach. To be empowered as a coach is of course a gift towards yourself, but also towards your clients. On your coaching level meditation will give an opportunity to teach and hand over this beautiful tool to your clients, which will help you to build an intimate relationship with your clients and create a safe environment where it is easy and comfortable to work towards the goal that are set out to reach. To be able to move forward and have these tools to take home and work with in the present and future. For the client to take this with them and implement this in their own life will empower them. This will help them to alter their lifestyle. To be able to maintain the changes they have started and make this in to accepted tool in their daily routine. Even after the work relationship with the coach is over.
References/bibliography
* http://medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/meditation
Nuttier spiritualities By Jolene de Grins
http://www.the-guided-meditation-site.com/write-a-guided-meditation.html
http://www.meditationoasis.com/
http://www.pnas.org/content/104/43/17152.short
http://www.meditationcoach.com/