We all want to be more useful. That is good for our clients and good for our practice. Coaching is about brain change. We know that this is the case because neuroscience tells us that behaviour change is reflected in the physical properties and neural functioning of the brain. This is being increasingly supported by advanced scanning techniques.
The health of the brain matters to ongoing functioning and the prospect of brain change. We want to have an optimal brain so that we increase the functioning of the brain and its ability to change. Your clients want change and so they are proposing that they change their brains. You don’t need me to point out that changing behaviour, thought patterns, emotional responses, all reflections of the brains state, is tricky for most of us and downright tough for others. Our brains find default, easy patterns of functioning. They become resilient to change for the change requires developing new patterns of brain activity that need to be reinforced over time.
Brain health matters. Having your clients aware that what they want to develop and change in their lives will be supported by good brain health will make a difference to their success.
The four main influences on brain health are Sleep, Nutrition, Exercise and Environment.
If you do anything to improve your coaching and your clients success this year then building this awareness into your coaching practice is it. All of these four aspects affect brain health and so performance and change success.
Sleep
A popular book this season has been Why We Sleep: The New Science of Sleep and Dreams by Matthew Walker. By no means the only book around on why sorting out your sleep is an urgent matter but this book really nails it. In short your brain needs sleep, and good quality sleep to both function optimally and change. If your clients are sleep deprived then you are already setting out on an uphill change process. The best thing you can do is coach them to get better sleep. You do not have to become and expert on sleep yourself but you will be a better coach too if you get your own sleep into an optimal place.
Nutrition
Your brain is utterly dependent on receiving good quality nutrition from the supplies of blood it receives. This will only be as good as your body can create from what you put into it. You are what you eat. All of you was created from food and water and the condition we are all in in large part is determined by what we eat. Bad nutrition equals bad food for the brain equals lower performance. Inspire your clients to be interested in what fuels them. You too!
Exercise
If we have improved sleep and nutrition then we are nearly there when it comes to improving the brain's ability to perform and change but we are not done quite yet. For the body needs to move and exercise in a way that complements and enhances both nutrition and sleep. They are really all interlocking. Exercise can improve sleep and nutrition can improve both. Unhealthy stress can be reduced through exercise as can insomnia. Get your clients interested in this too. Do your coaching sessions while taking a walk or at a gym or playing a game of squash.
Environment
The physical environment covers a few aspects. First of all numerous studies have shown that mood and stress is affected by the kind of built environment you are in. Drab, boring airless rooms with bad artificial lighting arouse lethargy, boredom and even depression. Chaotic homes can create feelings of being out of control which is a stressor. Where we live and work matters to how we perform tasks that require concentration and / or creativity. A brain that is constantly having to compensate for outside interference such as noise and interruption will be stressed and that lowers functioning. People are also part of our environment. Having to listen to moaners and negative people has an effect on our minds. If our brains are constantly being bombarded with doom laden scenarios ( as in most newspapers every day ) which we are individualòly powerless to do anything about then we are stimulating our fight or flight response. Fear and anxiety based people who are constantly spending their day reflecting back all the reasons why something can’t be done or how difficult things are will only serve to impact on everyone around them. If your client is in that kind of negative soup they will have to combat that before they even get to applying their minds to positive change.
You can best assist this by working with them to do a 360’ degree evaluation of the environments ( including people ) they are exposed to in their lives and then, after making the inventory, setting about changing it.
So, maybe you are thinking this all sounds like a lot to do. This is why you can devote all of this year to it: I am sure though that much of this is familiar to you and you may well be doing it already. If so I would love to hear from you what your tops tips and ideas are for bringing these four things into your coaching practice. And for those of you interested in finding out more please feel free to reach out to me.