6 powerful mindfulness practices for coaches
To be a great coach, and get the best results, you need to be confident, focused and present for your clients and mindfulness can be a powerful tool in helping you achieve this. But, of all the meditations out there, which ones should you choose? There are so many different ways to meditate to suit you and your situation. If you have issues with your breathing (asthma, respiratory problems, covid even), if you have too much energy or agitation to sit still, or if you’re not in a convenient place to pause and shut your eyes, e.g. sitting in a meeting point waiting for your client, you still have lots of options. In this post, I will give you six powerful meditations you can try and I’ll explain how and when to use them to let go of mind chatter, gain clarity and give you confidence and impact in your coaching.
1. Mindful breathing – try this before a call or workshop.
You don’t need to wait until you’re stressed to do some mindful breathing. This meditation will help let go of any overthinking to feel focused and concentrated before your calls or workshop.
There are MANY benefits to mindful breathing.
➡️ It helps you feel steady and calmer by downregulating your nervous system – a good one to do before a coaching call or delivering a workshop.
➡️ It’s a way of disengaging from persistent thoughts that dominate your mind. A busy mind when you are coaching is particularly distracting and unhelpful.
➡️ Your breath is a moving object, so it can be easier to keep the focus on.
➡️The breath can tell you about how you are feeling. If it’s fast and shallow, you may be stressed or anxious. This might seem obvious, but we tend to be very good at ignoring our stress signals.
Follow the guidelines below and try one of mine. Here is a 10-minute breath practice
How to practice mindfulness of breathing?
1. Simply stop for a moment and notice where you feel the breath most in the body. It could be in your chest, belly, nose or throat. If you struggle to feel the breath, then it can be helpful to put one hand on your chest and the other on your belly and sense the rise and fall.
Please note that there is a difference between ‘thinking’ about the breath and ‘sensing’ the breath. If you find yourself thinking about it or visualising it, acknowledge it and then move your attention to the physical sensations, i.e. the movement of the body, the stretching of the skin etc.
2. See if it’s possible to sustain your attention on the movement of the breath and notice when the mind wanders. When it does (and it will), simply bring your mind back to the breath—no need to judge yourself for having a busy mind. Thinking is what minds are designed to do! When you move your attention this way, you train your mind to be focused and flexible. It doesn’t matter if the mind wanders a hundred times. Keep bringing it back, over and over again.
3. You can try this for a few minutes and build up to longer sessions over time.
If focusing on the breath is uncomfortable for you, try one of the other practices below.
2. A Body scan – try this when your body is feeling the stress and you need to relax.
Do you ever wonder why your shoulders are stiff, your neck aches, or why you get regular headaches? We tend to ignore or distract ourselves from discomfort in the body rather than deal with the cause, even when our bodies are trying to tell us important information. This body scan can be very powerful when you’re feeling stressed or overwhelmed and you want to feel calm and in control for your clients.
A body scan is a great practice to help us reconnect with our bodies. You can do it either first thing in the morning when you wake up, or before you go to bed.
➡️ Stress can show up in the body before we have recognised it in our mind, so being fully aware of our body can act as an early warning system. Have you ever noticed stiff shoulders or necks after an intense day of work? You may not necessarily think that the day was stressful, but your body is telling you otherwise!
➡️ The body scan can be used as a way to unplug the mind and relax the body before going to sleep at night. When you run your own business, it can sometimes feel like you’re always working, and it can be hard to switch off.
➡️ When we get used to tuning into the body as an anchor to the present moment, it can act as a “safe haven” to move our attention to when the mind gets embroiled in overthinking or self-criticism.
➡️ It also trains the mind to focus and be flexible with our attention so that we can move away from unhelpful thinking.
How to practice a body scan?
1. The body scan is usually done lying down, but if you’re at your desk and there are other people around, you can do it sat up with your eyes open. Firstly, move your attention to the contact that you have with whatever you’re lying or sitting on. Notice the weight of the body and how it presses down into the support. On the out-breath, let go of any obvious muscle tension or holding and allow the body to feel heavy and grounded.
2. Direct your attention through different parts of the body, perhaps starting at the feet and moving upwards slowly to the top of your head. Take your time noticing as much detail as you can for each body part, e.g. you might notice tingling, weight, temperature, contact with clothing, tight muscles or pain etc.
3. When you have moved through the body, return to noticing the body as a whole again before opening your eyes if they have been closed.
4. Throughout the practice, the mind will want to keep wandering off to the past or the future but just keep bringing it back over and over again. No need to criticise. It’s what our minds do.
5. Spend a few minutes practising moving your attention through the body and building up to longer practices whenever you feel ready. Research clearly shows that the longer you can practice, the greater the benefits.
3. Self–compassion practice – try this when you’re beating yourself up and your confidence is low
Being a coach and running your own business can be hard and can trigger the inner critic. You not only have the pressure to coach well and be successful, but you also have to wear all the hats (no more IT help desk or accounts department) whilst dealing with imposter syndrome and comparisonitis.
This means it can be easy to be self-critical or feel overwhelmed and lose your confidence. The brain is wired this way to try to give us a kick up the backside in the hope that we might improve or do things differently, but this only makes us more miserable. A self-compassion practice in these moments can be really powerful in changing your mindset so that you can show up with the greatest impact for your work and your clients.
A self-compassion practice helps you be kind to yourself regardless of the circumstances, e.g. whether you have made a mistake or if you’re feeling stressed. It has so many benefits:
➡️ Talking to yourself as you would a good friend helps you to let go of the critical thinking that can cause your low mood.
➡️ People who practice self-compassion are happier and healthier because they care about themselves.
➡️ You can bounce back more easily from mistakes.
➡️ You gain inner confidence and are better able to show up for your clients.
How to practice a self-compassion meditation?
1. Take a moment to pause and reconnect with your breath and body, moving your attention from thinking to your physical sensations.
2. Silently in your mind, send yourself good wishes, e.g. that I may be peaceful… happy…kind to myself…accept myself as I am. Repeat these phrases silently in your head.
3. There is no need to have expectations of any particular feelings or sensations. Simply notice what arises, if anything, as you say these words to yourself, knowing that they don’t always make us feel better, and that is not the intention. The intention is simply to send goodwill to yourself in times of need, bringing acceptance and kindness to our situation than trying to get rid of the feelings.
Practising self-compassion regularly supports you in cultivating this as a default response to your struggles. Try this short practice specifically designed for coaches to tame the inner critic
4. A mindful pause – the STOP practice – try this before you take on a tricky task or before a call.
As business owners who tend to be super busy, we can spend much of our time on autopilot, rushing around from one thing to the next, ticking everything off our to-do list and by the end of the day, we are completely exhausted. So that you don’t fall into the trap of constantly doing, try this short pause to bring you back to THIS moment to restore your clarity and confidence and make the best impact.
➡️ Short pauses help you to step out of the hamster wheel for a few moments so that you can calm the mind and body and take stock of where you are at and possibly change perspective if it is needed.
➡️ You can quickly notice where you might be holding tension at any given moment so that you are able to address it.
➡️ It can activate your parasympathetic nervous system and bring down your cortisol levels (stress hormones).
➡️ It gives you an opportunity to take a micro rest and supports recovery.
How to practice the STOP meditation
S – is for STOP – take a moment to stop whatever you are doing and change your posture so that you are making a point to be present.
T – Take a breath – it could be a deeper breath or tune in to how it feels in the body right now. Stay here for a few breaths.
O – is for Observe – notice what’s here for you now. What is your mood or mind state? What kind of thoughts are flying around in your head? How do you feel physically in the body?
P – is for Proceed – after your mindful pause, see if you can be present for the next few moments as you carry on with whatever you were doing.
If you’d like an audio version of this practice to download and keep, click here.
5. Standing in Mountain – try this when you’re waiting for your client.
If you find yourself standing in a queue or waiting for a client to arrive, this short practice will help ground you in the present moment. It’s important that you start any meeting with a client feeling steady, grounded and present so that you can give your client the full attention they deserve right from the start.
How to practice the mountain meditation
1. Feel the contact of your feet against the floor, noticing the sensations of any shoes, socks or bare feet. Sense the weight of the body and the pressure channelling down into the floor. Perhaps seeing how the body makes micro-movements as it balances to keep you upright. Move your attention through the body, checking that the knees are soft, the pelvis tucked, and the spine tall and directing the spotlight of your attention to the top of the head.
2. Have a sense of the height of you, the crown of your head rising up towards the sky and the weight of you channelling down into the earth.
3. Once you have established this posture, feel yourself standing like a mountain, your base rooted and grounded to the earth, your arms on the sides of the mountain, and your height is like the peak. Breathe deeply with a sense of feeling strong, tall and grounded with a panoramic view of your surroundings.
6. Mindful walking – try this when you’re too busy, too agitated or just need to get somewhere!
Many people find mindful walking one of their favourite practices. It can be done anywhere, out in nature, in the street or your own home. It can also be great whilst you’re walking to an important meeting.
How to practice a walking meditation
1. Before you start to walk, pause for a moment and adjust your position so that you are alert, as if setting an intention to meditate whilst walking. Have a sense of your feet on the ground and the weight of your body.
2. As you take your first steps, pay close attention to how the souls of the feet peel off the floor from the heel to the toes, also notice how the weight transfers from one foot to the other.
3. Keep your attention here on the rhythm of your footsteps. You don’t need to look down, nor do you need to walk slowly. Simply pay attention to the changing sensations in your feet as you walk, and when the mind gets distracted, keep bringing your attention back.
4. Keep going until you get to your destination or until your time is up.
To feel at your best, brimming with confidence and getting those results for you and your clients requires a calm, clear presence. Allowing your mind to time travel into the past or the future can cause huge amounts of stress and sap valuable energy – energy that could be better spent on your clients. There is always time to practice mindfulness to get you in the zone, no matter how much or little time you have. Try each of these practices at different times and see which ones work best for you to help settle your mind and body and help you to be a present and confident coach. Notice how you are with your clients after each meditation, which one has helped you get the best out of your clients? Which one has helped you gain the best outcome?
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