The continuum & Contentment

The purpose of my coaching is to facilitate reflection, changes, healing and growth that lead an individual to live a life of contentment. My coaching is evidence-based and focuses on improving three critical components of life that I believe is the core of living a life of contentment. The three components are emotional wellbeing, physical wellbeing, and pursuit.
 
In my coaching, I work towards an individual's contentment instead of satisfaction because a life lived in pursuit is never really satisfied. At no point do we kick up our haunches and decide that is good enough, I can stop here when we are in the pursuit of something greater than ourselves. The Merriam-Webster dictionary (2020), defines contentment as "the quality or state of being," whereas satisfaction is defined as "the fulfilment of a need or want." I believe that by focusing on the quality of our lives and our state of being is a much more precise and attainable goal than seeking something as fleeting as happiness or satisfaction. We all know the feeling satisfaction that comes after achieving something, and how quickly it fades. 
 
There is a great deal of variance in their ways of achieving positive outcomes in each of the three components to contentment, and the amount of time or energy each area requires. To begin, I believe starting with the evaluation and development of the pursuit, and then moving into emotional and physical wellbeing. Once all three components are evaluated and further understood, we work fluidly through each part, dealing with what opportunities and obstacles each day brings.

The Pursuit
We begin by creating an idealistic identity-based goal that is the foundation for all other goals, behaviours, and attitudes. This overarching goal is value-based, it is something we strive to embody but never truly achieve because it is not an end state, it is a state of being that is dictated by our daily choices, behaviours and attitudes. For simplicity's sake, we will call this goal the pursuit.
 
An individual's pursuit will dictate what goals are set, what habits are created, maintained, or changed, and how we live our lives every day. In coaching, I use the development and understanding of and individual's pursuit to help them improve the other two components of life contentment.
 
Emotional Wellbeing
Our emotional wellbeing encompasses different things for different people; common focuses are relationships, self-compassion and care, and overcoming life changes. Reflection, compassion and care are at the core of emotional wellbeing.
 
Physical Wellbeing
Most of us understand that when our bodies are unwell, it is challenging to feel well in any other area of our lives. Our physical bodies are not separate from our minds; they affect each other bidirectionally. By creating wellness in the physical body, we can affect positive change in the brain and vice versa. Coaching in this area focuses on creating healthy habits and practices that improve overall physical health. These can include starting a new activity, improving nutrition, enhancing sleep quality, changing environmental circumstances, and implementing recovery practices.
 
 Coaching works through this continuum with fluidity and seeks to meet the individual where they are at that moment. Coaching is client-driven, meaning the client dictates the focus, sets the goals, and decides on protocols. As a coach, my job is more of a facilitator, I ask the hard questions, I offer resources and guidance, but I will not tell you what you should do.
 
If this process of self-discovery and the pursuit of contentment interests you, please book a free consultation, and we can discuss what coaching could look like for you.