Life is often unpredictable, crazy, and hard. Let's be honest, we've all had a bad day or even week in our lives. No one is free from ever having a life that is just happy all the time. However, we believe that these trying times are what shapes us into the amazing human beings we are today.
Why is that, you may ask? Well, there is no light without darkness. And there is no true happiness if you haven't experience sadness before. This is why having a hard time doesn't mean that it's the end of the world, it just means that you are experiencing something that will shape you for the next hurdle that you might face.
However, it is always easier said than done. We run into issues and obstacles that sometimes seem so bad that it feels like there is no real way out of it. It could be the loss of a loved one or even some serious financial problems. One of the reasons for high suicide rates is also due to financial reasons. This article is in no way trying to make it seem that serious issues are not big and can cause a lot of people to feel like there is no way out.
In this article, we want to show some of the ways you can adopt to try to stay positive when times get tough and they are particularly trying. Especially after coming out of 2020 -- a year that shook the entire world. There has never been a time that the entire human population having to go through the same issue. It allowed for a lot of empathy but also we saw some really crazy differences with reactions to the pandemic that caused some serious rifts between people.
But, that is not the main issue in discussion today. So let's see what are some of the ways you can stay positive during trying times!
According to NCBI, when we have a bad night of sleep, our body has a reduced ability to regulate our emotions. This causes us to feel a lot sadder and more depressed than we actually are due to the fact that our emotions are all over the place due to the lack of sleep. This is why the first thing you should always do if you are feeling down suddenly is to go to sleep.
It might be your body's way of telling you that you need to rest for a bit because it's been working too hard or that you just need to switch off for a bit. However, issues with sleep, be it too much or too little sleep is also an indication of depression. So, do keep an eye out on your sleeping habits if there is a dangerous tip to one side.
When things hit the fan, it can be easy to go into a mindset of "the world is against you" or "why is this happening to me?". This is what we call the victim mindset. It is always easier for you to take the role of the victim compared to being responsible for the issues you are facing. However, doing this will never solve the problem and may also push people away from actually wanting to help you.
Shift your perspective from the victim mindset to a mindset of knowing that you are in control and that there is nothing you cannot do. I know that it is easier said than done but it is much better than being a victim that causes so much bitterness and anger in your life.
Meditating is a huge part of internalizing and calming yourself down. Sometimes when things get tough, your mind goes into overdrive and puts itself in a fight or flight manner. This causes high anxiety and a serious amount of stress. This is why whenever you feel the anxiety or stress coming from the tough time you are having right now, take a break and meditate.
You don't have to do advanced meditation, just sit and take a few breaths to calm your mind down. Clear out your mind and listen to your own breathing. This helps your mind slow down and relax which will in turn free up space in your mind to rationally think about your issues and how to solve them.
This might seem like a no-brainer but it must be said. This is where perspective comes to play. No matter how horrible something might seem -- there is a reason for it. There is always a silver lining to any horrible thing happening. Most times, it makes you a much stronger person in the long run. Right now, it might seem dark and depressing but trust us, there is a light at the end of the tunnel.
Make some time to watch something that will make you laugh or go outside for a walk. Carve out that 5 minutes of happiness in every day so that you can take the time to focus on the positives.
When things seem dire and you feel like there is no more way out -- remember that you have a support system. There are people out there that care about you and want to see you thrive. If not, find people who have experienced the hardships you are going through right now. Talk to them and listen to their stories. This way you know that there is life after a tragedy or a horrible experience.
And if you can't find anyone, know that you can reach out to us by leaving us a comment on our social media or just sending an email asking for help at info@flowcoachinginstitute.com.
We would love to help.
One of the main ICF coaching competencies is creating awareness. Life coaching is effective in creating awareness and thus facilitating a paradigm shift. When you change the way you think and see things, your reaction to changes and things happening in your life will change alongside the shift in awareness.
During the FLOW Coaching certification programs, we teach how to create awareness within coaching sessions as well as through the overall coaching relationship. One of the most useful tools that help with increasing awareness is the Johari window.
The Johari window takes its name from the combined first names of its inventors: Joseph Luft and Harry Ingram. The four-paned window divides self-awareness into four different types: open, blind, hidden, and unknown.
As a certified life coach, you can use the Johari Window as a tool at stimulating your client’s established habits of looking at and thinking about how they behave and what motivates them, giving them the opportunity for exploring areas of their life they may never have thought before.
The Johari Window as seen above has these 4 quadrants that we will break down below:
What everyone knows about you and what I know about yourself.
These aspects might include: Feelings, motivation, behaviors, wants, needs, and factual information.
Things others know and see about you, but you’re not aware of. Everyone has blind spots. For example, people see you as pretty or smart, but you are not aware of your quality.
This could also include strengths that you can't see for yourself like maybe advanced analytical skills or empathy but it's something you don't realize because you are not on the receiving end of it. Weaknesses can also be showcased here by someone that sees them on your behalf.
Things only you know about yourself and keep from others. You may prefer to keep things to yourself since you care about your privacy.
In this case, your values are keeping you from sharing or revealing those, but in case you are not able to express yourself to others or make some of your qualities visible to the important ones then life coaching can help.
You are never alone in this life, asking for help to understand these parts of yourself that you've chosen to keep hidden because you might be embarrassed or scared to share them is not a sign of weakness.
One of the biggest signs of growth and strength is the ability to ask for help. If you need a coach to help you figure out, reach out to one.
Things you never have been able to recognize by yourself and no one else is aware of them either. You may now be aware of your hidden potential, and therefore that side of you might not be explored yet.
For example, somewhere in your childhood, your music teacher told you that your voice is not good enough and you stopped singing, but you met a vocal coach who helps people like you... then you developed singing abilities that surprised yourself and others.
This switch in your perspective to life is something that is super important if you truly want to grow and understand the things that are happening around you. Having the awareness to see a situation and realize that you can do, think and act better according to your strengths and weaknesses is a real-life superpower.
If you are looking to learn more coaching methods and are interested in becoming a certified ICF life coach, head on over to our program page to learn more about our next intake. Learn the science-backed FLOW Coaching Methodology while finding a great community of world-class coaching to help you on your coaching path.
It is known that silence is something a lot of people aren't big fans of. It gets uncomfortable, it's weird if you are in a room of people and it's just all quiet. However, in coaching, silence is known to be one of the best tools to use to transform a coaching session. In this article, we break down the 6 best ways to use silence as a tool in all your coaching sessions in the future.
Practicing silence is a great addition to any coaching session. It adds that magical touch that helps clients get to solutions and achieve the goal of the coaching session.
It is a good idea to make effective use of silence at the right times during the conversation in a professional coaching setting. Misuse of it may create awkward situations, in order to avoid those, we have created some ways in this article to make correct use of it.
Here are the 6 ways to use silence as a tool in a professional coaching setting:
One of the ways to use silence is to ask an attention-grabbing question and remain silent. The silence prompts the speaker to ponder, react and answer. Giving the person you're speaking to space and time to think of their answer is incredibly useful because coaching sessions are meant to be thoughtful. When you speak too much or break the silence, it might break their train of thought causing them to not give you the best answer they usually have -- it just requires some time to extract.
So give them space and respect that space so that your clients can truly think and ponder to give you and themselves an answer that is honest and true.
People have the tendency to think faster when they talk that’s why it's useful to make use of pauses at the right time during a coaching session to uncover more insights from the client. With pauses, you give your brain time to also think more and formulate your answers better.
When your client sees you slow down and speak to them with more pauses, they would also mimic you and do the same thing. Thus, allowing them to think more when they do speak.
Before making correct use of silence it is useful to pace yourself. It's best to match the pace of your client but sometimes a slower pace can be more helpful. Speaking slower allows people to understand you better as well.
Some of us tend to speak incredibly fast because our minds are working fast too -- but slowing it down helps you to think more thoroughly and also allows for much better conversations.
Showing a gesture of acknowledgment is very effective after a pause so that the client can be sure that you are all ears and listening closely. Always speak to listen and not to answer back. This is especially important in a coaching session where the attention is supposed to be on your client.
Showing interest in their response is crucial so that they know that you are interested. Most times, people just want to be heard. So doing this will help your clients in the long run so that they know that they can come to you when they need to speak and get things off their chest.
When the client is taking his time to answer resist the temptation to reframe the question, let the client hear the question, process it, take his time and then answer before you speak. If you’ve asked the right question, believe that it doesn’t need editing.
Invite your client to walk through a visualization exercise with you. Make sure at some point you remain silent so that your client can let their imagination run. Encourage them to take their time devouring the silence and visualizing.
These are 6 ways to add silence to your coaching session to help dig out more useful insights from your client. It is one of the ways of “communicating effectively” as ICF’s Core Competencies mention.
If you are looking to learn more about coaching and might want to become a coach yourself, head on over to our program page to find the next program suitable for you or just email us at info@flowcoachinginstitute.com to speak to one of our program advisors to get started!
Both managing and coaching are essential to run a successful organization, but they have different objectives and results. So, what is the difference between coaching and managing?
The key to an exceptional workforce is coach them first and then manage. Traditional methods of managing such as annual reviews are a thing of the past and do not qualify as coaching anymore as they lack the provision of quality feedback and there’s never enough time for efficient goal-setting.
The new-age coaching talks about frequently interacting with your employees and providing a way for growth and development. There is a reason why an increasing number of people now opt for ICF accredited online coaching certification programs and online business coaching training to add coaching as a skill on their resume.
It is to go ahead not only as a manager but as an online certified coach, a life coach, a corporate trainer, a business coach, and so on. An online professional coaching certificate gives you a chance to gain that competitive advantage. A coaching incorporated managing may require more time and effort, but the results are far more impressive than traditional project-based management.
A business coach helps to stimulate thinking by not telling employees what to do. Ask in-depth questions like, how can I help you to grow? What is something you don’t understand? What skills do you want to develop? Let the employee come up with solutions by himself, you can come up with ideas on how to support the solution better.
A good coach not only manages the talent but also helps them in becoming the best. A coach knows how to paint the big picture, he asks the employee about his personal goals and relates them to team goals and eventually the company goals.
This offers a bigger perspective and turns the ordinary into the extraordinary. A team may not always have the greatest players, but a true coach knows how to motivate a team by challenging them with new ideas and concepts.
Effective coaching occurs actively on daily basis. Every interaction with the employees should be considered as a potential coaching opportunity. Find out all means to give continuous feedback. If an employee did a good job, try to find out what made them deliver. This approach helps others around to learn from good examples as well.
Nowadays, coaching is all about recurring feedback and continuous improvement.
A good coach understands the game, but more than that, they care about their players. Best managers who are considerate and focused make the best coaches. A true leader is both a manager and a coach. If you can do both, you can create the winning team.
To learn more about coaching and to become a coach yourself, consider enrolling in our ICF-certified coaching programs to build on your coaching skills and become a professional business coach for personal and professional success.
Our 3-month Fast Track Core Foundations ICF Certification program (Module 1-5) https://flowcoachinginstitute.com/fast-track-online-icf-acc-coach-certification/
Our 3-month Business Coaching ICF Certification Program https://flowcoachinginstitute.com/online-business-coach-certification-program/
Does your schedule seem overbooked? Do you forget to take out time for yourself, friends, or family? Do you check and reply to emails while you gulp in your breakfast hurriedly? Being constantly on the go can wreak havoc on your stress levels and before you realize you've reached the tipping point for burnout and exhaustion.
It’s a common misconception that only overly ambitious people reach exhaustion but that’s not true. Burnout can happen to anyone and can manifest mental, physical, and emotional symptoms with continuous stress and burden. When you are really busy and distracted, you end up ignoring small signs and fight your way through the days. Your stress levels keep rising and every task seems important and urgent.
It's like paper jamming in a printer. You cant find your flow anymore and don’t enjoy activities like before. As humans, we are not designed to be always functioning 24/7. You need time so you can rest and charge yourself, energize yourself and reboot otherwise you can crash.
Burnout is very dangerous as it is incremental stress. Every day you get a little more stressed out than the day before and then one day it all hits you like a train and now it's too late to fix it fast because of the delayed effect of it.
If you wait for a burnout to hit -- it will take a much longer time to get out of it when compared to seeing the signs beforehand and realizing when to stop.
If you experience these symptoms, you should discuss them with your preferred health practitioner, therapist, or coach. There are many ways to minimize this such as living in the moment, enjoying the present, and taking care of yourself first. When you put yourself first, the rest just flows.
The pandemic and the number of changes, stress, and anxiety that have been happening around the world have shown us that a lot of people are not taking care of themselves well enough. Sure, a lot of us stay at home but that also meant that we didn't have a clear distinction between work and personal lives anymore.
This is where you need to be more aware of how you feel and what you're doing on a daily basis to take care of yourself.
We hope that this article will help you realize when you need to stop and take a break. If you don't look out for yourself, no one else will be able to.
Coaching based on a Solution-Focused mindset and effective communication can help people conquer old habits and outdated systems to then move towards a positive shift. It stimulates the beyond-conscious mind which can help the client to explore many hidden possibilities.
In a coaching setting when you ask questions that provoke visual stimuli such as “how do you imagine your future state will look like?” it brings images to the mind and engages the beyond-conscious mind. When you visualize a variety of responses you become empowered to formulate exceptional plans and take effective action.
A combination of open-ended coaching questions and curiosity to find out more can open the horizons to new possibilities. It makes the client pay more attention not only to what's going on within them but also acknowledge their surroundings.
Most humans by nature have limited conscious focusing power which we use. This capability can be enhanced to be used with much more flexibility and this is what most coaching questions aim to achieve. With the correct coaching questions, you can achieve widened access to the client’s life development system and the joy of consciously living from their values. They also get much broader access to the vast range of inner planning tools that they already possess.
Some sample coaching questions will widen your horizon and give you ideas on how they create the appropriate coaching questions suitable to your client. Keep in mind that the questions need to be open-ended and developmental.
In short, once you step into a deep coaching conversation with the client you need to awaken their genius so that they can live their highest potential.
You can do so by:
The main goal of Solution-Focused coaching conversations is to create flow states of connection with your client so they can connect with their beyond-conscious mind. As you work with this technique you will find out your own way of awakening the genius in people by effectively interlinking the mind-brain system.
If you are interested in learning more about solution-focused coaching enroll in one of our online coach certification programs.
In the current times of uncertainty and difficulties arising due to the COVID-19 virus, it is easy to become stressed which is an unavoidable and inevitable part of being human. During this crisis it's important to learn how to manage stress and act with a positive attitude which will help you to grow resilience and move ahead in life.
One of the traits of successful people is that they recognize the temporariness of stressful situations and accept them as normal and natural parts of life.
They do everything possible to avoid difficult situations despite that when they arise, successful people respond with a positive attitude, learn from situations and keep moving ahead in the direction of their dreams.
For example, If you wanted to become a certified coach and the uncertainty arising due to the COVID-19 virus is stopping you, you can respond in a positive manner by searching for alternate options such as online live classes and continue to realize your dream of becoming a certified coach.
Optimist people are the ones who have a positive outlook on life. They respond in a swift manner to adverse events and recognize their temporary nature. Optimistic people act with a positive attitude, they know how to manage stress and counter negative feelings by looking at the situation with a positive outlook.
Since your conscious mind can hold only one thought at a time, either positive or negative, if you deliberately choose a positive thought to dwell upon, you keep your mind optimistic and your emotions positive.
Since your thoughts and feelings determine your actions, you will tend to be a more constructive person, and you will start moving forward and more rapidly toward the goals that you have chosen.
Here are three ideas you can use to help you to maintain a positive attitude and manage stress:
Firstly, make up your mind that you will not let the situation affect you negatively and put you down. No matter what, you will respond in a constructive and positive manner. You will stay calm and look for whatever good the situation may bring.
Converse with Yourself Positively
Second, neutralize any negative thoughts or emotions by speaking to yourself positively all the time.
You can say things like,
“I feel healthy! I have lots of time to spend at home and spend the time constructively!”
“I am lucky I have a job that allows me to work from home”
“I can spend more time with my family”
“I can spend more time doing the things I like”
According to the law of expression, whatever is expressed is impressed. Whatever you say to yourself or others is impressed deeply into your subconscious mind and is likely to become a permanent part of your personality.
Finally, move ahead in life by keeping your thoughts on your goals and dreams
When things go wrong temporarily, respond by saying to yourself, “I believe in the perfect outcome of every situation in my life.”
Be determined to maintain positivity throughout. Resist temptations towards negativity and disappointment. View the challenge as means of growing stronger.
This pandemic has changed a lot of things for a lot of us, we also wanted to take the time to let everyone know that we are so proud of you and the fact that you have made it this far as well.
Regardless, the pandemic has pushed almost all of humanity to multiple breaking points and if you ever feel the need to speak to someone or if you need some help, please feel free to email us at info@flowcoachinginstitute.com
We are in the second quarter of 2021 and the pandemic is still a huge part of our day-to-day lives. A lot of us might have gotten used to what the "new normal" looks like but it's still a challenge every day to go through one of the hardest experiences the human race has ever had to experience.
With that being said, do you feel like you need support to get through the pandemic?
We wrote this article in hopes of it providing you key points of how to get a hold of yourself during the crisis. It is a scary situation and we are all in a loop. But Positive Psychology teaches us that we have the possibility of having positive outcomes when we focus more on the positive. You can switch to that mindset easily by asking yourself the right questions.
The sooner you start the better results you can get. With passing time you can go over them again to gain more clarity.
These 8 questions can help you transform your limiting paradigms and expand your awareness to thrive during the pandemic.
Another way to say this could be “what are you grateful for right now?” list down some things. Are you healthy? Are you safe? Is your family safe? Do you have shelter? Put them all on the list. Take your time to feel the depth of gratitude.
Make this a habit and revisit gratitude at least once a day. It will allow for a shift in your perspective when it comes to your day and finding the positives in them.
The question is not what’s the problem, but what is good about that problem? Do you get to spend more time with your family? Do you save time to do other activities you always wanted to? Can you pay more attention to your kids? When you are happy it's easy to share that happiness with others. Shift that perspective.
Imagine everything as the best-case scenario. How would you achieve that? What kind of a person would you have to become to achieve that scenario? How can you become that person?
Once you start living your life purpose it makes everything meaningful. Your purpose may have temporarily changed during this pandemic. Ask yourself “what matters the most during these current conditions?” How can you bring that change needed?
There is always a preferred way of doing things, but adversities may change the situation and you may have to come up with new ways of doing things. It is a good way to reflect on what are your strengths and how can you modify them to suit the current times.
Try to find ways on how to develop yourself during this time. Don’t let complaining or blaming become your habit. Find new tools such as meditation, mindfulness, and reading to find what skills and knowledge you can acquire during this time.
Are you looking for a new career? A new skillset? Do you want to become a coach? Online learning enables you to do that even from the comfort of your home.
Everybody is united during this pandemic. You have something that can help someone else and someone else can help you. Be vocal in what you need help with. It may seem like you are vulnerable but it's often joyful if someone gets to help someone. Stay connected with your loved ones even through digital means.
These questions might pose a challenge to some people. But a trained coach or an ICF Certified FLOW Coach equipped with the skills and knowledge of Positive Psychology can help you. Get in touch with us at info@flowcoachinginstitute.com
Just because we're isolated doesn't mean we're alone. Don't be afraid to ask for help. We are here for you.
With the disruption of the COVID-19, we all are forced into some form of an existential crisis along with social distancing and self-isolation. In such a time of crisis, the lens of FLOW coaching philosophy might help us to start to see our condition as a catalyst to our spiritual growth.
FLOW coaching sees life as a creative process, thus current reality as a form of catalyst to a better form of future. The reality that we are all in is perceived as a medium to learn and grow.
We all have choices, but most of the time our conditioning from the early years of life makes us perceive the same path as a choice. Once we change our lens, then, we are able to see other choices available to us.
Applying this core principle of FLOW coaching into our current reality, let’s see what we have and how we can use them to grow.
If you choose to follow the FLOW principles and start to see this crisis full of choices towards spiritual growth, then set aside some time to reflect on these existential questions: “Who do I want to become?” and “What spiritual practices can I exercise to become that person?”.
Intentionally directing our creative energy to what we want to create, instead of worrying and panicking, we will be able to use this crisis time for developing a spiritual practice that will stay with us for a lifetime.
Developing a spiritual practice ultimately is about learning to surrender and trusting the intelligence of flow.
Listening to our inner voice through listening to silence, asking deep questions and reflecting upon them, writing, exchanging meaningful conversations with others, and other creative acts connect us with the universal consciousness of flow.
Learning to listen is a deep spiritual practice. First, it teaches us to be patient, and in time as we keep practicing, it connects us with our inner intelligence. If we keep it as a repetitive practice, then we learn to surrender ourselves without judgment and with a deeper understanding.
Asking powerful questions is about stretching ourselves outside our comfort zone. It is a practice where our mind and heart have to cooperate. It is a practice where we conquer inner resistance and free ourselves from it. Powerful questions are indeed creative coaching questions. They allow us to align our attention with our intention. These creative coaching questions help us to reflect on our true intention;
Writing is a form of spiritual practice too. As we write we clear our mind, body, and heart from dysfunctional energy clutter that keeps us alert and worrying all the time. It also helps us to release accumulated negative energy and emotions from our bodies. Writing is a process connecting us with our subconscious. Therefore, writing is a catalyst to spiritual growth.
Social distancing means physical distancing, but it shouldn’t prevent us from having meaningful conversations through virtual platforms. One thing that we can be grateful for about modern technology is that it has enhanced our mediums to connect. A meaningful conversation makes you feel like you are in flow at the moment with a sense of meaning and fulfillment.
It develops us and creates a desire to grow. It is both an art and science. It creates a sacred space between people on a conscious and subconscious level. Therefore it is a spiritual practice.
Spiritual growth comes to the person with intention and repetitive practice. If we practice these acts above we will be able to transform this existential crisis into something that will serve us and others for a lifetime.
If you are interested in learning more about these practices by joining online live Core Foundations coaching certification, please feel free to call us at +1-888-4030707 or reach us at info@flowcoachinginstitute.com.
Fear is a very powerful energy. It either stops us from moving forward or forces us to fight and run away. A lot of us fear what we do not understand. Countless fights, wars, and misunderstandings stem from a feeling of fear.
The feeling of the unknown, or the fear that someone is not going to do what they said they were going to do or just the simple fear of failure. Fear has fueled a lot of people to do countless of not so smart things.
Fear has a past orientation. We need to switch from our past orientation to future orientation.
FEAR is your Brain’s way of saying that there is something important for you to overcome.
“F-E-A-R has two meanings:
‘Forget Everything And Run” or ‘Face Everything And Rise.’
Reflecting on your fear through creativity will change your perspective. You will realize that the meaning and intensity of your fear will shift after you express your fear creatively. It might even disappear forever.
Focusing on problems all the time will not help you to have a sense of fulfillment and happiness. On the contrary, practicing your strengths will increase your motivation from inside towards life, people, and situations.
Therefore, learn about your strengths and practice how to use your strengths in challenging situations. Knowing your strengths will help you to ground yourself and stay at your core in times of stress.
Don't let fear control your life. If you give in to fear, everything you do from now onwards will be dictated by that fear and not your will to enjoy and your life. Fear can be crippling if you do not handle it well. If it is starting to get too much, we would suggest you speak to a professional coach to help you safely analyze your fear and take steps to improve it thus allowing you to move forward and leave fear behind. Become fearless.
If you are someone who is interested in becoming a coach yourself, head on over to our program page to learn our FLOW Coaching Methodologies that are deeply rooted in the Science of Positive Psychology. We can't wait to see you.