Indigestion?

It’s believed that the ‘middle age spread’ that we commonly experience comes about through festivals like Christmas where we over-indulge and never fully recover. Over a number of years the pounds build up to give us a ‘well rounded’ appearance. These patterns of behaviour are dangerous but are culturally ingrained. Health gradually suffers and is attributed to having had too many birthdays – never to an abusive lifestyle. With careful adjustment of diet, it is often possible to regain much of your health. The trouble is - ‘most people would rather leave the planet than change.’ A young child is totally dependent on its parents to grow safely and he does so in the mould of his primary carers. It is a time of curiosity and vulnerability. By the time the child has become adult and is starting a family of his own, he is not truly independent, but instead is largely reflecting the social norms of his upbringing. Thereafter he progressively becomes schooled to become a ‘good citizen’. As an adult he can reassess his beliefs and allegiances and choose to change if he wants, but usually he doesn’t, which leads the psychologists to muse - “Growing Old is Inevitable, but Growing-Up is Optional”. A Developmental Coaching Journey invites us to make a new beginning by entering into a state of heightened curiosity and vulnerability and to trust like a child. That said, a coaching journey is very much an adult experience as the coaching client retains responsibility at all times for her choices and her progress. Adults only learn what they want to learn, hence the ancient Chinese expression – “When the student is ready, the teacher will appear”. When it comes to Health Coaching the coachee will make the most rapid progress when she is curious enough to ‘unlearn’ what she thought she knew and to be open to new thinking and behaviour. I want my clients to think for themselves and to listen to their bodies where our innate intelligence is constantly seeking to protect us. So now let us develop a new relationship with food. Remember what Hippocrates, the first acknowledged doctor said “Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food”. Let us respect food for the life giving source it is and avoid overeating as we would avoid overfilling our cars. Indigestion is usually a signal of overindulgence or poor choices. Simply popping a pill to ignore its warning leads to other problems. Let us also avoid self medication for indigestion of the soul. Whether you’re a thrill seeker engaging in ever more dangerous behaviour to maintain your high, or you’re chronically addicted to meeting insatiable corporate demands, your lifestyle is killing you. It’s not a ‘quick fix pill’ we need, in the form of another drink, drug or job, but a full reassessment of what’s truly important in our lives. It’s tough enough to unlearn ideas about food and how it affects our bodies, but I believe this is easy compared to the challenge of examining our core values and taking the action our beliefs demand of us. Not to do so could lead to chronic VARD – Values Abandoned Reflux Disorder. Is the student ready?