How do you stay in touch with your role as a flagbearer for thrive? I reach into my community for support, remember that leading the way is not always easy, and touch the place deep inside that knows this is what I am meant to do. All the jobs, trials, illness, growth and learning have made me who I am- a strong teacher, healer, coach and a flagbearer for my community.

Carrying The Flag

I sometimes compare being a health coach to being a world level olympian. I feel a thrill when I watch the US Olympic team enter the stadium during the opening ceremony. Before each Olympics the team bestows the honor of carrying our country’s flag. Flag bearers are members of the team as well as leaders chosen by teammates and coaches for their exceptional qualities as people and athletes. Yoga Health coaches have a lot in common with high level athletes- more than you might think.

Yoga health coaches are flag bearers for health. Carrying the flag is an honor in the military- the flag bearer carries a symbol of identity and hope rather than a weapon. As yoga health coaches, we bring our community hope and concrete tools to identify and align with wellness. Awakening to the true freedom and power we have to change people’s lives for the better is a gift. Share that gift and lead your community towards the victory of vibrant health.

“Being nominated to carry the flag at the Opening Ceremony is one of the greatest honours that has ever been bestowed upon me. – Todd Lodwick 2014 Winter Olympics flag bearer

How Yoga Health Coaches Carry The Flag

Yoga health coaches choose to wave the flag of health to direct others onto the path of thrive.  Since most yoga health coaches are householders, they make every-day life choices based on habits of health like the 10 habits of Ayurvedic Dinacharya taught in Body Thrive. They prioritize health in the same way Olympic athletes build their lives around optimizing performance. They embrace habits that deliver capability and health. Yoga health coaches lead and teach from a place of passion to help members of our community thrive.

Waking up every morning and embracing a daily structure in support of a goal takes a lot of dedication, hard work, and consistency. It has to spark joy. For a yoga health coach it is all about embodying the habits and authentically sharing insights to teach others. Being a health coach springs from a deep desire to help yourself and others.

World Class Athletes wake up passionate each day and work hard to achieve their fitness and performance goals. Internal fire and desire fuel the path of an Olympian and a health coach. Athletes who excel in their sport and demonstrate a high level of personal excellence might be chosen to be a Flag bearer.

“Do activities you’re passionate about – which make your heart and soul feel perky – including things like working out, cooking, painting, writing, yoga, hiking, walking, swimming, being in nature, being around art, or reading inspiring books.” – Karen Salmansohn

Yoga Health Coach Flagbearer Characteristics

Often the first things we see when we look inward are our faults. Here is suggestion: forget the term “fault” and instead identify opportunities to get better at what you love to do. Athletes analyze their performance using video and slow motion replays. With the help of their coaches they identify where they need to place their focus to get to the next level. Look at yourself through a similar lens and honor your desire to excel and serve.

Do you see great characteristics and mad skills in yourself? I am sure that your peers and clients do. When I interact with yoga health coaches -and I know many- I see amazing qualities in action. Check out  the coach of the month to meet a someone with these capabilities. While none of our coaches will be standing on the podium with the national anthem playing any time soon, they earn the right carry the flag of health everyday. As Yoga health coaches you live what you teach, you lead your community, and have you have some amazing abilities.  

You are able to:

• See and plan with a long view.
• Orient towards defined goals and success
• Take consistent steps to actualize goals
• Practice integrity- and expect it in your clients
• Shape lives with dedication and discipline.  
• Hold space for client progress
• Grow & evolve in leading your community

Which of these strengths do you see front and center in coaching your community? Celebrate and tap it for success.  Where are you focussing your energy in your desire to become a better coach? Reach out and get some extra training to keep refining your gift.

Each Olympic Games or world cup is over within a couple of weeks.. The walk and work of vibrant living goes on. Are you a flag bearer for thrive?  I’d love for you to share a victory in your journey as a health coach in the comments below.

Listen in on today’s Yogahealer Real Life show and learn more about welcoming prosperity into your business and making money teaching others about your passion!

What you’ll get out of tuning in:

• How to welcome prosperity in your healing business.
• How can money and spirituality work together?
• What does having your own business space look like?

Links Mentioned in Episode:

• Amy’s website
• Amy’s podcast – The Abundant Yoga Teacher podcast
• YHC Have a conversation
• Watch the Masterclass NOW

Show Highlights:

• 1:30 – Amy and I chat about how did we made the transition from our previous jobs to our current health coaching lifestyles? Our friends asked us for advice and moved us towards this path of wellness and helping people be heal and grow.
• 7:30 – How can you make a living teaching yoga without getting burned out on doing what you love? The business model that Amy works with to help people succeed teaching yoga to prevent burnout and low ojas and the difficulties of owning your own yoga studio.
• 15:00- What does it mean to have your own space to grow your business? Are yoga and spirituality mutually exclusive? What would you do with a ton more money?! Amy and I dive into these big questions in the second half of today’s podcast.

Favorite Quotes:

• “If you don’t root, it’s tough to rise.” – Cate Stillman
• “Any time I up my earning game I’m going to up my impact game.” – Cate Stillman
• “The more money we make is directly proportional to the more we’re serving people and the more people are being healed and transformed.” – Amy McDonald

Guest BIO:

Amy McDonald is a business coach for Yoga teachers. When she’s not travelling the world sipping chai and nerding out about Yoga she lives in a historic town in Australia’s goldfields with her terrier Stephen and a garden full of kangaroos and lizards. Find her online at amymcdonald.com.au or on her Abundant Yoga Teacher Podcast on iTunes. Connect Amy on her Facebook page and website.

Writing a book is about more than just getting your thoughts down on paper. It is a transformational journey about finding yourself and your voice, learning to speak your truth, and tapping into your natural talents and confidence. The more you tap into that which is deep within you, the more you tap into your message that you desire to share with the world.

What you’ll get out of tuning in:

• How do you know if your ready to write a book?
• How do you find your own voice?
• How does writer’s block show up and what to do with it?

Links Mentioned in Episode:

• Pitch-O-Rama for writers- Pitch your book in San Francisco!
• Brooke Warner- She Writes Press
• Carolyn’s website
• Elise’s website
• Monetize your wellness business with Free 4-video series

Show Highlights:

• 1:45- Carolyn tells us about her background living in an Ashram and studying the Indian culture and then continuing on to become a book editor.
• 4:00- How will a writer know if they are ready to write a book? How does the writer gain the confidence to do so? And when a writer is ready, how do they develop a book concept?
• 16:00- Caroline shares some of her editing stories from her work.
• 26:40- We hear the answers to more important questions about book writing. How does writing a book help you to develop your own platform in order to market it to the right audience? We all have hesitance or resistance to doing something we truly want to do- where does resistance come from within you? Where are you stuck and how can you work through that in your writing?
• 37:30- Elise and Carolyn answer the creative chat window questions asked by live listeners.
• 42:00- Batool, from YHC, joins the call to share how she feels about book writing. She says it’s important to be disciplined, stay committed, and give yourself deadlines.
• 47:00- Writing Blocks! How they show up and what to do with them.
• 1:00:00- Carolyn mentions her interest in taking a small group of people in September through a course based on the 5 step process of book writing. She would love to coach you through the book outline and book concept process in order to help people develop these skills themselves. If you are interested please contact Carolyn Bond at carolyn@carolyn-bond.com!

Favorite Quotes:

• “We tap into our prakriti and our unique blueprint….the more we do this, the more we naturally find that confidence and find that urge to express our true voice.” – Elise Collins
• “If you want to convey what you know to someone else, it takes a lot more effort and you need to articulate it and step outside of it a little bit to articulate it. But there are huge gifts in doing so.” – Carolyn Bond
• “I love the writing process because I think it is transformational.” – Elise Collins
• “When the timing is right, the book just shows up. Don’t start with a title, the title gets born within.”  – Batool
• It’s important to set that time for yourself to write, to create.” – Carolyn Bond
• “Writing helps me to become a more clear speaker and speaking helps me to flesh out my ideas. They kind of go hand in hand.” – Elise Collins

Guest BIO:

Carolyn Bond, after obtaining a BA in anthropology from Stanford and later an MA in Indian philosophy and Sanskrit from University of Pennsylvania, developed her nascent love of exploring worldviews and thought systems. Her love of books and fascination with exploring worlds converged in the late 1990s as she took up the art of editing. (Each book, after all, is its own world of thought.) She did not seek out editing; it claimed her when the executive editor of a small publishing house offered her a project; she of course said yes. In 1998, she moved to southern Oregon and started out as an editor. Since then, she has been privileged to bring her systems-thinking and word-crafting skills to every book project, collaborating with the author to produce the book he or she truly wants to write. Check out Carolyn’s website.

“Last week, we covered Healthy Eating Guidelines. We agreed to focus on avoiding snacking between meals. Who’s hit a problem with this habit?”

Susan speaks up,

“How can I possibly stop snacking? I just can’t do it. My hunger is like a raging fire. If I don’t eat every 2-3 hours, I’ll lose focus and bite someone’s head off!”.

Yikes!

Susan’s problem has roots spreading in all directions.

Where do you start digging for a solution? Do you automatically shift to problem solving mode and try to incinerate the problem?

You feel the tension rising from your heart to your head.

Easy, firewoman! Back away from the heat.

You’re about to discover the X factor of problem solving and boost your coaching skills.

Shhh…Are you listening?

Habits (Good and Bad) Have Ancient Roots

Do you get fired up every time your boss or colleague points out a mistake you made? Your chest burns, heart races, fists clench. Your fiery tendency is not something you picked up last week. Your habitual response has a history that may be rooted in how you were scolded as a kid.

Now, when you feel those flaming sensations rise up, you dive into a pint of Chunky Monkey. Cool and sweet to the rescue!

You see what I mean? Deep Roots!

As you guide members through the 10 habit changes, you expose gnarly patterns.

Back to Susan… So what do you do?

Do you stay on the surface? Insist that Susan sticks to the “no snacking rule” or do you dare to dig deeper? Maybe you don’t do either.

The Unspoken Phase of Problem Solving

When you’re laser coaching in a group or one-on-one setting, you’ve got 15 minutes (max) for problem solving. No time to waste, that’s why it’s called laser coaching!

You can S.O.L.V.E. any problem with the right formula:

• S.tate the problem
• O.utline the problem
• L.ist possible solutions
• V.iew the pros and cons of each solution
• E.xecute and evaluate your solution

But sometimes we need to back off the heat and allow more space for transformation. Like a plant that needs air and space to breathe and expand, deeply rooted problems need the same care.

How can you offer air and space to your members’ problems?

Deep Listening…

“Deep Listening is a way of being in the world that is sensitive to all facets of our experience—external, internal, and contextual (body, mind, and speech). It involves listening to parts we frequently are deaf to.”

David Romek, Deep Listening.

Our tribe knows the value of Deep Listening, it’s one of our Ground Rules for Dynamic Groups.

Listen Deeply:

When your group meets, practice and receive deep listening. Listening deeply means you participate in 100% receptivity mode. When a member speaks, you connect with the essence beneath their words. You turn up your care and allow yourself to be impacted by their learning. Deep listening is the glue that holds an evolutionary conservation together. Your listening has depth that you should actively dive into when you’re with your group. If you do, an evolutionary tension arises that propels your group into dynamic growth.

Amen.

David Rome shares that the quality of deep listening is “generous, empathic, supportive, accurate, and trusting”, David Rome, Deep Listening.

Sounds great, eh? But how do we actually practice Deep Listening?

The Deep Listening Experiment

David Rome offers a multi-layered model for deep listening, called “Embodied Listening”. While I have not completed his training, I was intrigued.

So, I developed my own experiment and tested it with my accountability partner. I linked my expertise (movement science and behavior change) with Embodied Listening techniques.

The essence is to create a safe space for deep listening and connection to felt senses. Energetically, this approach gives a problem air and space to breathe and be expressed before adding the fire of transformation.

During the process your role is to be a listener. It’s not your job to “be helpful,” to problem-solve or commiserate or evaluate, but simply to be mindfully present.

Tough, right? I know!

You may not arrive at an answer or a specific action plan, rather the goal is to focus and listen to the problem.

Trust. In time, you will ease your member to a solution.

Listen to our experiment here. (Heads and hearts open, it’s a 40 minute exchange.)

The 6 basic steps of the Deep Listening Experiment are:

1. Express the Problem: Ask your member to present a problem.
2. Move with the Problem: Guide your member through a few minutes of gentle movement. I chose qigong-based movements. Choose your own preferred movement form. Deep listening is subtle. Flowing, spacious, expansive movements facilite a softer energetic quality. Less heat, more space.
3. Connect with the Felt Sense: Ask your member to sense the energetic quality of the problem.
4. Name the Problem: Ask your member to allow a phrase or an image come up from the felt sense.
5. (Encourage silence during the sensing and naming steps 3 & 4)
6. Express the Experience: Allow the member to share the quality and phrase they connected to the problem.
7. Cleanse the Space– Guide your member through gentle movement to ease the tension that may surface with the problem. Given its roots, gentle movement through space can lighten the energy before you transition.

Optional Step 7: If time permits, offer space for an action plan. Ask your member if they are ready, willing and able, to share a next step for transforming the problem. As you’ll hear in our experiment, your members (or partner) may come up with a next step on their own. We often find our own solution when offered the space to be heard.

When to Use Deep Listening

A deeply rooted problem likely extends beyond one specific habit. The types of problems that benefit from deep listening have old roots. When you stumble upon these problems, you may lose your breath.

Gasp!

Let your reaction cue you to open up space for deep listening.

Deep listening is a comforting fit for habit challenges that have received little attention. Those problems rotting like old cheese in the back of the refrigerator. Damn that rotten resistance.

Or try deep listening with challenges that are fresh, yet feel foreign or difficult, like the green coconut your neighbor gifted you. You’ll often find these early on in the habit changing journey. So, when you scratch your head, thinking ”How the hell do I cut into this?”, this is the time for deep listening.

Be creative, flexible and receptive.

Practice and Receive

Deep listening is a skill we all need to practice.

Design your own experiment with subtle elements of air and space. Give the problem gentle movement and space to be sensed and held, without feeling like you’ve got to scorch it with a blowtorch.

Use our Deep Listening Experiment as a loose guide to create your own experiment with friends, family and members.

Deep listening takes your coaching to a more spacious, higher vibration.

You’ll feel it and your members will too. Everyone loves to be heard.

Enjoy and share your experiments with our tribe.

We are here for you.