What is Mindfulness Coaching?
Imagine you are visiting Nepal and out of nowhere you decide to climb Mount Everest. You are the kind of person who likes to be spontaneous. So, off you go towards the summit even though your knowledge of the mountain is limited to a couple of documentaries and something you read in a magazine on the plane ride into Kathmandu. This decision to ‘just go for it’ is certainly courageous, but the likelihood is you either give up in frustration or end up way out of your depth.
A much better approach to climbing Mount Everest might be to spend a few years preparing for this challenge. You could devote this time to researching the mountain, getting advice from people who have already done the climb, and training your body so you are prepared for the task ahead. Now, you are far more likely to reach the summit, but there is still a risk that you feel confused due to all the conflicting information and advice out there. Of course, there is also the problem that knowledge about climbing a mountain is not the same as climbing a mountain.
People who do decide to climb Mount Everest will usually enlist the help of a guide. This is a person who has already made it to the summit and therefore can guide them and support them every step of the way. It is a journey they take together.
A mindfulness coach is similar to a guide on Everest. The goal is to get you to your desired destination in the smoothest way possible. This needs to be somebody who understands the terrain and had already reached the place you are trying to get to.
What is the Summit We Are Trying to Reach?
We all have ideas about what needs to happen for us to be OK but really it is only the being OK that matters. For the sake of clarity, let’s refer to this OK’ness as ‘well-being’.
Many of us get stuck because of a belief that in order for us to be OK, the world needs to change. It is only when we recognize that the problem isn’t life but our relationship to life that we even have a chance of finding the well-being that we’ve been so desperately searching for. Then we realize that it is due to a lack of this well-being that we suffer from anxiety, fall into addiction, and generally struggle with life due to dissatisfaction and lack of purpose.
How Does Mindfulness Help in Our Search for Well-Being?
Initially, mindfulness gives us the ability to see how our current relationship with life is being created and sustained. We start to see how we are prisoners to mental habits and limiting stories about ourselves and the world. This then leads to insights that allow us to change our relationship with reality. We experience a deepening sense of trust, intimacy, and wonder, and we see that this is what is meant by ‘well-being’.
Trust is the ability to remain with the stream of experience without resistance. When we are able to do this we experience profound peace and stillness. It turns out that most of our issues are due to resisting life.
Intimacy is the realization that we are not separate from our experience. This understanding brings and end to our sense of disconnection and alienation. If we are not seperate from our experience then there is no seperate self that our experiences can be happening to.
Wonder is about returning to a more innocent relationship with life. We start to see how our mind creates stories about life that we mistake for the truth but that these stories act like prison bars to just limit us and make everything appear stale and unsatisfying. Wonder means returning to a relationship with reality that is similar to how many of us experienced things as young children.
How Mindfulness Coaching Works?
Hearing about somebody’s Mount Everest adventure is entertaining, but it is not the same as making the journey with them. For mindfulness coaching to work, it involves a commitment to taking steps towards well-being.
It is the job of the coach to offer direction, assess progress, and offer suggestions for dealing with any obstacles along the way. It is all about sharing of experience and offering support.
If you are interested in doing some mindfulness coaching with me, you can contact me at: info@paulgarrigan.com You can also find out more information here.
