Life Coaching.

Supplemental mindfulness skills for moms to be. Are you taking a birthing class and preparing for baby? Training mindfulness and biofeedback can be a go to tool during pregnancy, labor and beyond. During times of pain or sensation, you cannot make the stimuli go away. But you can practice your reaction to it. Breathing and being open vs tense and avoiding can make a huge difference in the subjective experience. The skills can be really helpful in the worries and discomfort that may come up during pregnancy and fully experiencing the beautiful yet tiresome moments that come once baby arrives. It’s easy to wish away the littleness but being with them at each step helps you see the good you may have otherwise missed. 

Optimizing your time and connection in parenthood. It feels like you have no time to ‘do’ anything. Every second is taken up caring for little people and even when you do get a minute away it takes too long to settle down or get organized that the time has passed. Using awareness, openness, and refocus skills you can learn to feel more efficient so you can both enjoy your time with the littles and accomplish tasks. It’s the same amount of time in the day but it can feel very different when you loosen your hold on what you cant control and be fully present to what you can. 

Learn foundational skills and increase awareness before starting therapy. Maybe you know you want to make some changes but aren’t quite sure if “talking” about it all is for you. There are many types of therapies and some focus on the present not the past. But spending time becoming aware and learning skills such as breathing, refocusing detaching and accepting can be really helpful in connecting with yourself and building your confidence in the reflection process which can then benefit therapy when/if you are ready. To be really clear therapy and coaching are not the same and I cannot work with someone in both roles. Each has a clear set of boundaries and goals that make the process work. But you may have a use for each at different times in your life. 

Awareness. It’s all about stepping back slightly and seeing how your thoughts feelings and actions interact. When you notice you are upset- ask what is my reaction? What was I thinking before I felt this way? Or, how do I feel now that I did that? 

Getting in touch with the breath. Breathing is something we do automatically yet it is a hack to our physiological regulation. Or put another way- regulating our breathing in a certain way can help activate the relaxation response which is opposite the fight or flight response. Often stress and worry can put us into that fight or flight state more often than we think leaving us stressed, fuzzy mentally and disconnected among other things. 

Biofeedback. Biofeedback takes breathing practice to a whole new level. It actually uses a sensor (ear clip, chest hr monitor like for workouts etc.) to see the effect of your breath on your physiology so you can learn in real time to “relax”. 

Meditation. I utilize mindfulness meditation to practice to loosening the hold of intense thoughts and feelings as well as learning to listen to yourself and what is important to you. I also believe in not only sitting meditation but moving meditation and seeing it as a way of thinking and not only a sitting activity. 

Detachment. Has it worked consistently to replace your unhelpful thoughts with helpful one?Probably not. Detachment in about learning to see thoughts as ‘just thoughts’. Thoughts are good and natural but we do not have to believe or get caught up in them. You can choose to let them come and go which frees you focus on your life in front of you. 

Acceptance. Acceptance is similar to detachment but is more associated with a feeling or emotion. “I feel embarrassed.”  Using acceptance to make room for the feeling you might say “I feel embarrassed about how I sad that. That sucks. And I can still refocus and enjoy this time with friends.”