Coaching Model: ASANA – A Yogic Approach to Coaching

A Coaching Model Created by Dawn Gosling
(Spiritual Coach, THAILAND)

Are you feeling lost or without purpose? Stuck? Tired? Overwhelmed? Do you dream of doing big things and are just unsure where to begin? Are you overworked and stressed? Is your inner critic constantly re-playing situations, second-guessing, doubting and believing the worst?

The ASANA method of coaching incorporates practical modern tools with ancient yogic wisdom, leading you on a journey deep inside to allow you to reconnect with your essential nature – to awaken your full potential.

Cultivating the inner connection between body, mind and soul

From your Soul, you’ll dare to dream. With your mind, you’ll translate that dream into plans, and with your whole body, you’ll execute.

We are spiritual beings having a human experience

Five ASANA‘s to move you from worrier to warrior

Aspiration

The foundation of ASANA is daring to dream big and identifying the client’s aspiration. What is her vision? Where do she want to be? The coach is focusing on building trust and creating space for the client to access her inner wisdom. The coach needs to be fully present and mindful. The ability to remain the witness and allow the process to unfold is key. The coach comes with no agenda, preconceived ideas or judgments and is not looking to find a solution for the clients “problems”.

Situation

The focus of this move is understanding and reviewing the current situation? Where is the client now? What has she tried in the past? What are her strengths and weakness? Her super powers and kryptonite? During this move the coach needs to support the client with powerful questions, active listening and lots of silent space.

 Alignment

This move focuses on looking at the situation from different angles. Coming up with new ideas, options and alternatives. The coach guides the client to access her inner wisdom and align with her bigger Purpose.

New way of being

Here we starting start translating the dream into a new way of being. The focus is building a clear plan and agreeing action steps that the client is excited to move forward with.

 Acknowledging and celebrating success

After all the hard work its important to celebrate. The client reviews her progress acknowledges how far she has come and takes a moment to celebrate her success.

ASANA and Coaching Questions

Aspiration

• What do you want to achieve from this coaching session?
• What goal do you want to achieve?
• What do you want to experience or have?
• If you knew the answer what would it be?
• What excites you about achieving this goal?
• What would you like to happen with ……?
• What do you really want?
• How does your goal make you feel?
• How do you want to feel?
• What would you like to accomplish?
• What results are you trying to achieve?
• How will we know that this is achieved?
• What outcome would be ideal?
• What do you want to change?
• Why are you hoping to achieve this goal?
• What would be the benefits if you achieved this goal?
• What is the aim of today’s session?
• Can we do that in the time we have available today?
• What do you want to achieve long term?
• What does success look like?
• What would you need for you to walk away feeling that this time was well spent?
• If I could grant you a wish for this session what would it be?
• What would you like to happen that is not happening now?
• How much personal control / influence do you have over your goal?
• What would be a milestone along the way?
• When do you want to achieve this by?
• Is that realistic?
• Is that positive, challenging and attainable?
• Will that be of real value to you?
• How will you measure it?
• What are you grateful for?

Situation

• What is happening now? (what / where / who / when / how much / how often). Be precise if possible.
• How do you know this to be accurate?
• How have you verified (or how would you verify) that this is so?
• What other factors are relevant?
• Who is involved (directly and indirectly)?
• What is their perception?
• What result did X produce?
• Have you already taken any steps towards your goal / vision?
• How would you describe what you did?
• How much energy are you willing to put into this?
• Where are you now in relation to your goal?
• On a scale of 1-10 where are you?
• What has contributed to your success so far?
• What progress have you made so far?
• What is required of you?
• What do you think has stopped you achieving your goal already?
• What do you really think was happening?
• Do you know other people who have achieved this goal?
• What did they do?
• What did you learn from ….. ?
• What have you tried already?
• What's holding you back?
• What story is holding you back?
• How could you turn this around this time?
• What could you do differently this time?
• If you asked ….., what would they say about this / what advice would they give you?
• On a scale of 1-10 how severe / urgent serious is the situation?
• If someone said / did that to you, what would you think / feel / do?
• How is the situation today different from how you want it to be in the future?
• How many time have you been thinking of this / working on this?
• How might X see this? What would Y say if we asked her right now?
• If I were in your shoes, what would be the first question you’d ask me?
• What part of what you’ve just said could be an assumption?
• And?
• What am I not asking you that you really want me to ask?
• What mistakes are you afraid to make again?
• What would the naysayers or the haughty inner critic say to stop you achieving your goal?

 Alignment

• What could you do to change the situation?
• How can you close the gap between where you are now and where you want to be?
• Tell me all the possibilities for action you see. Don’t worry about whether they are realistic at this stage.
• What are your options?
• If budget wasn’t an issue, what would you do?
• What would you do if you knew you could not fail?
• What do you think you need to do next?
• What could be your first step?
• Which option do you like best?
• Which options are of interest to you?
• What do you think you need to do to get a better result (or closer to your goal)?
• What else could you do?
• Who else might be able to help you?
• What would happened if you did nothing?
• What has worked for you already? How could you do more of that?
• What would happen if you did X?
• What is the hardest / most challenging part of X for you?
• What advice would you give to a friend about this?
• What would you gain / loose by doing / saying that?
• If someone did / said that to you what do you think would happen?
• What is the best / worst thing about that option?
• What are the benefits / costs of each option?
• Which option do you feel ready to act on?
• How have you tackled this / a similar situation before?
• What could you do differently?
• Who do you know who has encountered a similar situation?
• If anything else was possible, what would you do?
• What else?
• Wold you like to choose an option to act on?
• What else can you think of?
• What are your favourite past successes?

New way forward

• What option or options do you choose?
• To what extent does this met all your objectives?
• What are your criteria and measurements for success?
• How are you going to go about it?
• What do you think you need to do right now?
• Tell me how you’re going to do it?
• How will you know when you have done it?
• Is there anything else you can do?
• One a scale of 1-10 what is the likelihood of your plan succeeding?
• What would it take to make it ten?
• What obstacles are getting in the way of that success?
• What roadblocks do you expect?
• Do you need a plan B?
• What resources can help you?
• Is there anything missing?
• What one small step can you take now?
• What will you do first?
• When are you going to start?
• What are you waiting for?
• How will you know you have been successful?
• What support do you need to get that done?
• What will you do to obtain that support and when?
• What will happen (or what is the cost) of you NOT doing this?
• What do you need from me / others to help you achieve this?
• What are three actions you can take that would make sense this week?
• One a scale of 1-10 how committed / motivated at you to doing it?
• What would make it a ten?
• What prevents this from being a 10?
• What could you do or alter to raise your commitment closer to ten?
• What could hind you in taking action?
• What personal resistance do you have, if any, to taking these steps?
• What are you most excited about doing?

 Acknowledging and celebrating success

• How will you celebrate once you achieve your goal?
• How will you feel once you achieve your goal?
• How closer are you to achieving the goal?
• What is one thing you could do now to celebrate?
• What is one of your key takeaways?
• What part of the process haw worked best for you?
• How will you keep up the momentum?
• What are you grateful for?
• What do you want to acknowledge yourself for?
• What is your learning from this process?

Asana and the Coaching Process

Other Coaching Tools

Aspiration

• Confirming commitment and creating agreement
• Rapid fire start
• Imagine your ideal life
• Big vision visualization
• Developing an inspiring vision for the future
• Discover your purpose
• Understand your values
• Gaining perspective from bigger picture:

Situation

• Wheel of life and feelings
• Paradigm worksheet
• Relating to life
• All about you interview
• Phone a friend
• Resolving limiting beliefs
• Learning from the past
• Identifying your key accomplishments and lessons learned
• Understanding your superpowers
• Approving your weaknesses
• Getting to know your inner critic
• Getting insights from other
• Clarifying the roles you play
• Work your passion

Alignment

• Life Map
• Core desired feelings
• Letter from the future
• Build on what you know
• Mind mapping
• Creating a support system

New way forward

• SMART Goals play-sheet

Acknowledging and celebrating success

• Review your progress and acknowledge how far you've come
• Pay attention to synchronicity
• Take a leap of faith
• Maintain momentum
• Celebrate – let's get this party started
• Gratitude Journal
• Stop, Start, Continue