This article is aimed at helping Coaches progress in their journey of self awareness, self acceptance & self love. The article can also be used for supporting the Client’s progress, thus helping them see for themselves the effectiveness of Coaching in a more tangible manner (other than what they feel).
According to the definition provided by Wikipedia, the word Charity means:
- Charity (Practice) - the practice of benevolent giving and caring
- Charity (virtue) - the Christian theological concept of unlimited love and kindness
Even if our main intention is to be a great coach, we can’t stop helping ourselves because, if we intend to provide total support & love in the form of whole hearted acknowledgement & non judgmental listening, we will have to begin @ home which means start with loving self first.
And unless our love starts flowing from inside out (first for ourselves and then to the rest of the world), it will always be adulterated by some kind of judgments.
1. My Top 20 List :
This exercise simply needs one to start making a list of all the awesome. attributes about themselves.
Tips:
2. Mirror Test :
This exercise is all about looking into the mirror, and appreciating oneself. Though the first thing one notices is stuff that makes one unhappy, (like thinning hair, patchy skin, receding hair line etc) try to ignore these and look at other aspects. May be slightly tough in the beginning, but it’s all a matter of habit.
Tips:
- Feel free to appreciate oneself from the bottom of one’s heart, and feel the love while doing so. Smile before you look into the mirror.
- Look at your eyes, nose, eye brows, ears, palms or the one’s which we don’t give any ‘look time’. This is just to get used to taking off our attention from our aspects we don’t like/appreciate
- Appreciate those aspects (by observing them, thanking them ) for which others often complement you
- Feel free to complement others too wholeheartedly
3. Gratitude List:
This exercise is to thank the Universe/ god/ Love for all the beautiful things happening in one’s life. One may start off saying something like, there’s nothing gr8 about my life. So for starters, we can start by thanking for being alive and kicking!
After making the list, another step forward is to pass on the happiness by sharing one’s gratitude list with others (may be on one’s blog or simply emailing it to list of contacts), so they can explore their list too ☺
Here’s my Gratitude list (copy paste the link in your browser) in case anyone wants to take a look:
Tips:
- Wholeheartedly thank the giver while making the list, also thanking for enabling you to make your list.
- If you come up with 10 or 15 or 20 or even 5 bullet points, try to add more by thinking deeper.
- After you have come up with your gratitude list, don’t hesitate to share yours with the rest. May be your list reminds others to make theirs.
- Do not think of what others may think of you, if you share your list. The ones who really matter will always be filled with joy on reading what makes you happy.
- Loving yourself includes loving yourself irrespective of what others think of you, so this is a right stage to prove your love for self. ☺
4. A Celeb introduction – of yourself:
This exercise simply involves one to write down a self introduction, visualizing oneself as a celebrity, receiving a grand introduction on a huge stage with thousands of people looking, listening and applauding. How then would you like yourself to be introduced?
Imagine this is you, standing in front of a beautiful audience, being introduced on stage. What would the lines say? What aspects of yours would be highlighted? Which of your skills would you want the entire world to know?
5. ‘Face your fears’ Game:
This exercise is the simplest one to read yet the toughest one to execute.
Select one of the fears that has followed you for a long time, that makes you feel like a pawn. Example- Being in the presence of a cat
- Describe the fear on a piece of paper, writing detailed description of the same as in what do you think makes you fear this action. Example- The cat’s eyes seem very scary & looking at the cat around me, makes me scream and shout, fearing that the cat will pounce on me
- Now explain how running away from your fear is protecting you. Example- When I take the elevator instead of the stairs; I can easily avoid the presence of the cats who loiter around the staircase.
- Question yourself with a scenario wherein running away from your fear isn’t possible. Example- The elevator isn’t working
- Imagine that you are in this situation right now. It’s time to face your fear like I did & the poor cats didn’t even try to scare me off. Instead I happened to scare them.
- Replace your fear with love, by visualizing the exact opposite of your fear-
- Example: Playing lovingly with cats and being open to receiving love from them. Once faced, the fears are nothing but a weird idea we have been feeding energy into.
- Fears eat out on the love that we truly deserve for ourselves, making us feel puny. Getting rid of them is a wonderful way of bringing back love into our life.