My Selph health coaching journey - Week 10

I’m going through Selph’s Coaching Programme and recording my journey as I go!

My name’s Sarah-Lizzie, and you might have seen my other articles on our Learn page! Like everyone, I have my own goals and challenges to overcome. I can admit my health needs improving. Holistic health coaching sounded like the right place to start. A few months later here I am - looking back on Week 10 of my Selph coaching journey.

You can read about my first week to find out why I chose to start my coaching journey. If you missed last week’s instalment, you can read my thoughts on Week 9 here.

I felt a bit ‘off’ for the first few days of this week. I tried everything I could think of that usually makes me feel better - going for a walk outside, listening to music, doing meditation and yoga. But still, there was something else going on.

I wanted to do my digital detox (one of this week’s suggestions) and I wanted to carve out that time to focus on being creative. But for several days, I hadn't done what I wanted to yet. And it was making me feel like I'd stopped in my tracks.

Amazingly, I had accomplished the core things I set out to do on the course (eating healthier and regularly exercising). But I had a feeling building up beneath all of the positive things I'd achieved so far: that I could do lots more before the end. Nearing my final weeks made me worry that I wasn’t pushing myself hard enough.

I wanted to make the most of this chance. To try even harder for these last few weeks. And that's where I found myself in a mental slump.

Because I'd put so much pressure on myself "making the most of it" and doing as much as I could, I was no longer thinking about enjoying each new week that came along, doing what energised or excited me most, or the new things I wanted to try. I needed to reconnect with myself and my values.

I sat down, turned my phone completely off and put it far away from me. Sometimes doing something for someone else can revitalise you, so I sat in silence without any technology (not even any background music for ambience) and I made a bracelet for a loved one - a surprise gift that I thought they might like.

After an hour of sitting in silence working with my hands, I felt more in control. The thoughts my head was swimming in had been preventing me from doing what I really wanted to do: my digital detox and something creative. When I finally sat down to do them, the swirling thoughts began to seem more manageable.

I spoke with my coach about my fears and worries about feeling I should push myself further. She reminded me to have grace and compassion with myself and she re-lit my mantra of "I am in control".

She encouraged me once again to lean on my strength and core value of humour and told me that I already have everything within me to continue reaching my goals, and any new ones I set along the way.

Sometimes returning to something we love and that makes us feel completely ourselves is what we need to do to reconnect with our core selves. So - yes, during the digital detox week - I sat down to watch an all-time favourite show of mine that really shaped who I am. Watching it made me feel even more connected, grounded, relaxed and happy. It transformed me back to a version of myself that I really like being around.

I started doing little things for myself again, like wearing a bright yellow t-shirt because it makes me happy or going outside in the sunshine. And in those moments of pure simple enjoyment, I was in a better place to make spontaneous choices that brought more creativity into my life.

Being creative for me doesn’t mean just making artwork or jewellery. Things like cooking can feel incredibly creative. One day we ran out of our usual ingredients so I made up a new dinner with what was available. I tried out different meditations and moved my body in new ways during yoga and while dancing. All of these things felt creative to me, embracing new experiences and challenges.

I needed to let go of what I thought the word “creativity” meant before I could absorb this week’s theme. I thought my week would be full of invention, of trying new things and experiences. I found myself so caught up in my expectations and worries that I couldn’t deliver on the vision I had.

Instead, Creativity allowed me to reconnect with who I feel is the best version of myself - the version that appreciates the little things, who can sit in silence with their own thoughts enjoying their company and who chooses things based on excitement and gut feelings. Surrender to uncertainty and find out what Creativity means to you.