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Hello Subscriber First Name, wherever this email finds you! The temperatures cooled off here in Chicago the past couple of days and I’ve already experienced leaves crunching underfoot along sidewalk paths. I mentioned in previous newsletters how much I enjoy routine. And now here we are, mid-September and still adjusting to this phase of the year. Even my husband has a new job, and with our kids back to school, I have found myself remaining in this familiar role as caregiver, an overly-ripened remnant of the summer. I have been taking care of everyone in their comings and goings and making sure everyone is fed. However, this week feels slightly different. A new rhythm and cadence surrounds me, as though I finally found the key to that pesky door that wouldn’t open. It’s that September sun, working its wonders. The members of my home know where they are going now, and a renewed energy surrounds me, its onset both sudden and hopeful. So that is me. How are you, as we dip closer to the fall equinox? I wanted to take a few seconds here, in my third newsletter, to chat a bit with you about what health and well-being coaching is. I am asked this question a lot, understandably. One of the best places to start is in talking about the pillars of lifestyle medicine, defined by the American College of Lifestyle Medicine as: What are some of the ways that these pillars of health are brought to our attention? We leave our doctor’s office with instructions to eat more fruit and vegetables or to engage in more physical movement throughout the week. We’ve been prescribed a medication but don’t want to be on it in the long-term. A close friend or family member has an experience with their health that is a wake up call for us to start paying attention to our own habits in a new way. We consistently stay up late watching TV because it’s the only time we get to ourselves after the kids go to bed, yet we find ourselves constantly fatigued and short-tempered from lack of sleep. A combination of life stressors leaves us feeling anxious, isolated, and stuck.
We all have areas in our lives and with our health that need some extra love and attention. A health coach is someone that we can meet with for support in developing a new vision for ourselves for the future, and accountability as we practice switching things up a bit to get closer to that vision. They also work with clients who are not entirely ready to make a change yet but are open to exploring what might be possible, in a setting where they feel able to voice their resistance without judgement. Changing our habits is hard. If it wasn’t, then we’d all be where we want to be with our health without issue. Health coaches do not interfere or take the place of our healthcare or mental health providers, rather, they are another individual on our support team. In conversation with a coach, we can practice setting up experiments. Maybe a plan doesn’t work out exactly as we had hoped. This is not failure, it is feedback, more data that we can use to try something different next time. Our health coach is there with us as we take these steps. I am always happy to chat more about health and well-being coaching. Every single one of us is different, and we want to be understood and respected as we explore new possibilities in our day to day experience. If you or someone you know wishes to have a quick call with me, feel free to book a free session here. And hot off the press- I am entering a program in culinary coaching this fall, and am excited to share what I learn. If you have friends or family who might be interested in additional support as they work on their cooking and eating habits, perhaps through preparing more meals at home, send them my way! Now let’s talk about THE NEWS
For today’s newsletter, let’s focus momentarily on the state of our world and the upcoming midterm elections here in the United States. This all falls under the pillar of stress management for sure. I think many of us feel we have to do our part in this crazy world by staying plugged in to everything going on. But think about that for a second– what that means in today’s world. It was different when we consumed our news through the daily newspaper, sitting at our kitchen table in the morning with a cup of coffee. The news was presented to us in a single delivery once or twice a day in printed form, or through Tom Brokaw from 6:30-7:00 pm each evening. Compare that to how it is today, where we are bombarded by EVERYTHING, literally ALL the time, and let’s go back to that feeling of doing our duty as citizens by staying informed. Is there an opening in which we can slightly alter this belief, that we NEED to know everything that is going on? After doomscrolling or reaching for social media in the evenings, how do you feel? Are you better equipped to go out into the world and make a positive contribution? Or are you left depleted, discouraged, and scared? Cheryl Richardson is a life coach who I really like (she is often interviewed on the Tapping World Summit). I heard her give a talk in the summit last week where she asked, “What are the activities you will engage in every day that will strengthen your emotional and energetic immune system? What do you need to let go of?” It is worth really thinking about this. She writes in a similar tone in this newsletter from April, 2020, a time period where we also felt the uncertainty of the world. She writes: I need to rest more than I think I should. Blows to the emotional immune system take physical energy and we’ve all been knocked down. Not to mention the collective anxiety and fear that has infected each of us whether we realize it or not.
-Cheryl Richardson
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