A life coach will definitely motivate you in any direction in life, be it career, relationships, family, spirituality or personal growth. They may be able to encourage you in the arena of health and fitness too. The difference is, what is their background?
I have been coaching and facilitating healing with people since 1995 in the field of Holistic Health Care. As an HHP, Holistic Health Practitioner, everything I advise in any of these arenas has a Holistic twist on it.
In recent times, I have heard people toss around the word “holistic” in marketing, business and even HR culture. I appreciate their desire to express their all-encompassing approach, but it’s not what the term actually means.
By the original definition, Holistic actually comes from the word “wholistic” meaning looking at the body, mind and Spirit as one WHOLE entity.
It was how we in the wholistic health care field differentiated our approach from allopathic, or medical, industry. For example, Let’s say Beth comes in with pain in her wrists. An allopathic doctor will most likely take an x-ray and/m or prescribe pain medication. If that doesn’t work, they may send the patient to Physical Therapy or to a neurologist for further testing or surgery for carpal tunnel syndrome.
Whereas, a Holistic Health Practitioner like myself will first ask what activities have you been doing to create the problem? What hurts it, what relieves it? We then will assess the tension in the neck, including the soft tissue (muscles and tendons and fascia) connected to that area. From there I would massage (do therapeutic bodywork), recommend drinking more water and assess if Beth may need to change her diet if she is inflamed or dehydrated. If all these don’t work I might recommend acupuncture, ice, herbs, therapeutic stretches, and evaluate her work posture.
There are so many options to recover and get to the root of the problem long before any consideration medication or surgery. Looking at lifestyle, work posture, nutrition are all holistic approaches to relieving the issue and preventing it from happening again. The holistic health care approach is designed to bring a person to a place of wholeness where one feels fully connected and empowered.
Be sure to ask your potential coaches and health practitioners what their backgrounds are, so you make sure you are a good match with your beliefs and goals.
