A Life Coach Can Be Your Personal Cheerleader

Life is good. You see that simple phrase emblazoned on clothing and you can’t help but smile.

But life can also be challenging and often gives us a multitude of questions or situations that we don’t know how to handle.

Even if you have a wide circle of friends or family who are willing to listen to your problems, they may not be equipped to give you good advice. Sure, venting to your best friend can relieve some of your stress, but does that friend give you action steps to follow so you can get out of the stressful situation? Is that same friend objective or are her comments adding to your stress?

A good life coach is a unique combination of best friend, therapist and cheerleader. It might sound like a strange combination at first but when you’re having trouble in any aspect of your life you want someone who can listen carefully to your concerns (best friend), will offer a plan of action to relieve the stress (therapist), and will also encourage you that you CAN make positive changes in your life (cheerleader).

A Life Coach Can…Help in Your Home Life

Whether you’ve got a troublesome teen or a rocky relationship with your spouse, a life coach can help you improve your communication skills and, ultimately, your relationships. Role playing with a coach is a safe way to practice what you want to say to these people without being judged or blindsided by harsh responses. Even if things are good at home and in your marriage, it’s never too early to learn new or better communication skills to keep that healthy atmosphere alive.

Goal Setting & Time Management

We all like to daydream and we usually have grand ideas of what we’d like to accomplish in life. But sometimes these large dreams are overwhelming and we don’t know how to make these dreams a reality. Life coaches are skilled at seeing the “big picture” and breaking these large goals into smaller, more manageable goals, which all lead to the ultimate dream.

If you feel like you could use another 12 hours added to your busy day because your to-do list is a mile long, then you’re not working efficiently, whether you care for kids at home, work at home or work outside the home. Life coaches can help you prioritize your list and will identify why you’re not working efficiently. And if your coach wants a progress report from you, having that accountability partner will often spur you into changing your habits rather quickly.

…Increase Your Self-Esteem

Doubting yourself on a regular basis can be stressful and also crippling. Serious doubts about your skills or decision making will hold you back in life and you won’t be capable of reaching for your dreams. A supportive and kind life coach will be encouraging and will offer new ideas of how you can take care of yourself first, which will ultimately increase your self-esteem. Sometimes having an objective cheerleader in your corner is enough to raise your mood and spur you to action.

…Help You Cope with Life Changes

That word “change” often throws people into a tailspin, especially if they aren’t risk takers. But change doesn’t always have to be a bad thing or something scary. Life coaches are trained to offer support and also have coping strategies for handling stress during any big life change, such as divorce, starting a new business, or sending a child off to college.

As you can see, a life coach can help you in any aspect of your life. Having an objective third party to vent to or to run ideas by can be beneficial to anyone, no matter what your career, gender, age or economic status.

Think you can’t do much in 20 minutes? Schedule a free 20 minute coaching consultation with certified Personal Life Coach Aurelia Williams and start forming your plan of action today!

3 Tips To Ease Stress and Anxiety

Whether you have intermittent bouts of stress, anxiety and depression or it’s a chronic problem, you can change. When you adopt positive habits, they can have a powerful effect on many areas of your life. Let’s take a look at three habits you can adopt today to ease stress, anxiety and depression.

#1 Move your body –  Our bodies were not meant to be stationary, sitting on the couch or at a desk all day long. Your body was designed to move. When you move your body you release hormones and activate systems that keep you both physically and mentally/emotionally healthy.

Movement helps not only alleviate stress and anxiety, it helps your body manage it better. It can be compared to vitamin C or zinc for avoiding or reducing the symptoms of the common cold. Movement helps you reduce the symptoms or avoid, stress, depression and anxiety.

What do we mean by movement? Just that, walk, dance, swim, run, do yoga or stretch. It doesn’t matter so much what you do. What matters is that you move your body. A common rule of thumb is to take 10,000 steps a day and/or exercise for 30 minutes.

Moderate exercise is often the easiest to adapt into your current lifestyle. You can walk for 30 minutes, do yoga, jog, swim, dance, and box – whatever you desire. Find something you enjoy and get your amazing body moving like it was designed to.

#2 Quiet your mind – Meditation is the simplest way to quiet your mind. And the wonderful thing about meditation is that there is no right or wrong way to do it. You can walk and meditate. You can sit and meditate.

You can focus on your breathing. You can visualize a scene that makes you feel relaxed. The goal is to simply quiet your mind. To learn to clear away unconscious thoughts. Once you can learn how to control your thoughts and quiet your mind, you can instantly have a better reaction to stress and anxiety. It changes your mindset.

How long should you quiet your mind?  When creating a new habit, it’s best to start small. Create a habit you absolutely know you can stick to. Start with 5 minutes of meditation. Add it to the beginning or end of your day, whichever is easiest.

#3 Fuel your body – Your body needs a variety of nutrients and vitamins to help it run optimally. When you fuel your body well, you’re better able to manage stress and you’re simply going to feel better. Depression and anxiety don’t stand a chance. When you put harmful things into your body like too much alcohol, caffeine, sugar and nicotine then your body becomes stressed and it cannot manage the things life throws at you.

Take a multi-vitamin. Cut back on alcohol, caffeine and sugar. And add a serving of fruits or veggies to each meal and snack. This is an easy way to make sure you’re giving your body the nutrients it needs to function well.

Experts say that it takes three weeks to adopt a new habit. These three stress, anxiety and depression reducing habits are simple to adopt. The tough part is committing to them for those first three weeks. You can do it!  Your body and your future are depending on you.

If you’re struggling with how to deal with stress and anxiety and would like someone to talk to who can really help, contact me for your 20 minute free consultation. I would love to talk with you about how I can help you overcome stress and anxiety in your life and in your business.

Simplify Your Life

In this day and age, people tend to work longer hours, relax less, put their children into more extra curricular activities and overall just lead a busier style of life than even a few years ago. While being bus can be an exciting and enriching experience, it can also lead to a feeling of constant stress and chaos.

Here are some of the main ways you can simplify your life and reduce the stress of a life that’s busy while still maintaining the activities that are important to you.

1 – Control your time. Take a good hard look at your dialy schedule and then begin to tweak it so that it is more manageable. You may have to say “no” more often. It is amazing how cutting out just 1 activity a week can provide more down time for yourself.

2 – Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff. I know this is easier said than done, but learning to let things go once in awhile is key. So what if the house goes 1-2 days without getting vacuumed or the laundry is put on hold for an extra day. It is important to elieviate some stress that we put on ourselves to get ALL of those little things done at once.

3 – Get Help. If you get to the point where you are feeling overwhelmed with your personal and family obligations please get help. There are many places that offer babysitting swaps, you can hire a teenager to help with small cleaning tasks or go to a friend for support. Delegation of tasks is another way to get help. Be sure to use all of your resources and delegate some tasks out to others.

4 – Clear out the Clutter. I know you have heard this one before but I can’t stress it enough. Clearing out your clutter is a huge step in living a more simplified life. Make the time to go through your home and sell, donate, or throw out items that you no longer use. This is a large task, so don’t try to do it all in one day. Try to set a goal of doing some every week.

5 – Simplify your Meals. Start preparing dishes which will provide several meals. Stews, casseroles, and many other recipes are just as easy to prepare in large portions as they are to prepare in small portions. Meal planning is a money, sanity and time saver – what else could a busy person ask for? Learn how to create a great stree-free meal plan by reading this informative article on Meal Planning.

6 – Take Care of You. During the course of your day be sure to take out time to relax. Carve out at least 30 minutes a day to take a break, stretch or go for a short walk. Be sure that you are getting the proper amount of sleep so that you have the energy that you need to face each day.

Remember that your life is blessed with many different aspects. When you simplify your life you keep it all in balance, and your many tasks will all be of much greater joy and value to you.

If you need help with motivation or self doubt, contact me for a free 20 minute coaching consultation or simply sign up now one of our affordable coaching packages and allow me to help you gain more balance.

Help For Self Doubt

Self doubt and a lack of motivation are the cause of personal failure in the lives of millions of people. However there are easy to apply techniques that will help you break out of this negative state of mind. Another cause of inner discontent is not living up to your true potential. This can lead to anger and depression. Do you put off making important decisions or taking action when you know you should? This is another symptom of your inner discontent. Do not despair, there are lots of things you can do to improve your life and your happiness and the first step is an important one and that is in recognizing that you have this problem. The simple fact is you can’t cure a problem until are aware you have one. Overcoming procrastination and building a positive self-image is not impossible.

It is often your fear of failure or even your fear of success can be the cause of a lack of energy and lead to procrastination. People who procrastinate become frustrated and generally accomplish nothing. Here are some very practical steps you can take that will lead you to personal success and keep you motivated.

Change this negative behavior by first identifying the things that cause you to procrastinate in the first place. Feelings of fear, rejection, and unworthiness take a real toll on your self-esteem. Taking steps to improve your self-esteem will make a huge difference in your energy level and will motivate you to make other positive changes in your life.

Get Motivated

Two things motivate human beings: pleasure and pain. Make a list of the things you would like to accomplish and how you will reward yourself when you do reach your goals. When you are making your list, be sure to include the consequences you will suffer by procrastinating. Do this like a balance sheet, with the Good things that will result from your positive action on one side and the bad effects resulting from your lack of action on the other.

Keeping the reward in mind will make it easier to stay motivated. Overcoming irrational fears and phobias are crucial to your self-esteem and energy level. The act of procrastinating itself creates self-esteem issues. Guilt, stress, and anxiety are results of low self-esteem and lack of motivation.

Procrastination is a habitual behavior. You can break the cycle of self doubt and procrastination if you make the decision to do so. Keep a list of the things you need to accomplish, both long and short-term goals, and reward yourself for each thing you cross off your list. It is not easy to break old habits, but it can be done, it is said it only takes 20 days to break an old habit and create a new one to replace it. Soon you will find that the new behavior is habitual or second nature.

Keep in mind that your emotional health is closely related to your physical health. A sensible diet and exercise will do wonders for your self-image.

You will find that when you make an effort to change your negative behavior you will have more energy and your self-esteem will soar. Procrastination will no longer control your life and you will be motivated to accomplish your goals. As I said at the beginning, you can change your self-image and become a highly motivated individual if you take the time to find out why you lack motivation and take these steps to improve your self-esteem.

If you need help with motivation or self doubt, contact me for a free 20 minute coaching consultation or simply sign up now one of our affordable coaching packages and allow me to help you gain more balance.