Autumn Harvest: COACH

The British School of Coaching (BSC) is launching a series of new blogs that focus on different aspects of wellbeing for both coaches and their clients. BSC already hosts an endorsed Wellbeing Coaching qualification. This course provides an opportunity to understanding wellbeing rather than being seen simply as physical health. In addition there is a one day course to increase the understanding of mindfulness as well an opportunity to try out mindfulness techniques.

This wellness blog has been developed in response to extending the dialogue with coaches, as a way to support coaches to consider their own wellness as well as that of their clients. It isn’t prescriptive, but a mechanism to keep a live debate going as well as caring for the coaching community.

Wellbeing at its simplest level is about personal happiness – feeling good and living safely and healthily. This means not allowing work to undermine our basic purposes and needs in our lives, and by extension those of our families and loved ones. In this respect, wellbeing is a hugely significant aspect of our work and careers.

A new blog will available on the BSC website every two weeks throughout the next six months. It will be based on five tips for maintaining wellbeing for all coaches to contribute to. Using COACH acronym as our framework the blog will be structured in the following headings of:

1. Care
2. Opportunities
3. Action and awareness raising
4. Conversations and feedback
5. Health

As autumn began at the start of the farmers are now well on the way with harvesting, fruit on the trees is ready for picking and the hedgerows are full of berries.  So is it time to find those recipes of what to do with your hedgerow harvest?

Back in 1943 the Ministry of Food published a leaflet to get the country doing more making and mending and thus more saving of essential resources for the war effort.  For further information see here

For coaches, autumn is the beginning of a time of year to reflect on what resources are available to them on their hedgerows, whether urban or rural around and quantify essential preparations to sustain them through winter.

1. Care

 This section will cover suggested tips on how they care for themselves and clients, for coaches to share with each other.

For this blog the tip is about eye sight

It is recommended that most people should get their eyes tested every two years unless you have other underlying health conditions when the length of time between tests is shorter.

 A sight test can detect early signs of conditions like glaucoma, which can be treated if found soon enough as well as other health conditions such as diabetes or high blood pressure.

Question:
Did you know that you could test your own eye health? Please click here so you can test yourself.

2. Opportunities

As the days shorten and temperatures begin to drop it is tempting to stop exercising and become more sedentary. The opportunity is to consider what am I going to do to keep myself on the move?

Question:
Have you considered taking up yoga or going to a dance class?
It’s important to find an enjoyable way to gently move your body

Question:
Did you know that most mobile phones now have the ability to monitor how many steps you walk a day for free!
http://www.howtogeek.com/238904/how-to-track-your-steps-with-just-an-iphone-or-android-phone/

 

3. Action and awareness raising

Have you thought about DIY to prepare your home for winter?

Have you checked to see when your boiler is next due for a service and it is working properly? If you have radiators it’s also a good idea to check and bleed them too.

What about your roof and gutters? Have you recently checked your gutters to ensure there are no blockages ensuring they are kept free from leaves, nests and any other debris?

Have you checked all your indoor lights are working and you have a supply of bulbs?
http://www.careandrepair-manchester.org.uk/content/uploads/2014/04/MCR-Service-Leaflet-WEB14.pdf

4. Conversations and feedback

This section is for coaches to provide their hints and tips for maintaining wellness as well as share experiences that may also be used in coaching network supervision session. If you have any models or thoughts you would like to share in this blog please email them to: amy@britishschoolofcoaching.com

Coaching reflection – A personal example

 The inspiration for my reflection is about what autumn means to me from when coaching myself. It’s about contracting with myself to be the best I can be. I have found Jackee Holder’s ‘Top Ten Tips for Self-Coaching a helpful way of checking in with myself. I hope you do too.

5. Health

 The health benefit of berries!

Did you know blackberries are rich in bioflavonoids and Vitamin C, but other nutritional benefits include a very low sodium count and having only 62 calories to a cup. The dark blue colour ensures blackberries have one of the highest antioxidant levels of all fruits.

Ten additional facts about blackberries that may encourage you to go out for a weekend walk. Enjoy!