Yoga and Coaching = Same thing?

Do you love yoga?

I do. And I’ve been reminded of it again in the last few weeks just how much I love it and how powerful a tool yoga has been in my journey through life. Especially during times of trials, tribulations, trauma and the rapid growth that often accompanies the 3 T’s.

What a rollercoaster few weeks it’s been here at the MacIntyre Malone residence!

We’ve been locked down, self isolating, back to no childcare and in our little home which soon became a pressure cooker. There’s been powercuts, clients cut off mid coaching call, delays to our house extension being built and let’s not talk about the blocked and overflowing septic tank 😳

Luckily I know and accept it all as part of the inevitable crumbling that happens when you set BIG new goals and intentions in your life so we’ve been taking each day as it comes and focusing on lots of time in nature and self care! I’ve also been leaning in to my support network in the form of my amazing coach Lenka and the Mastermind I’m part of.

Right before COVID hit our beautiful wee island of Eriskay, I was away for a few days working with Lenka attending a special intensive coaching day at a beautiful, luxurious hotel outside London. 

It was an incredibly expansive event and I left filled with inspiration and a pile of life changing revelations (that’s what a great coaching experience and business mastermind will do for you!) Hence life as I knew it started falling apart! 😂

Our great friend Jules travelled back with me as I had invited her to stay with us to heal from a recent injury and surgery. Jules is a yoga teacher (a bloody good one at that!) and as she got stronger, yoga on my decking in the morning became the order of the day. 

Soon I was falling in love with yoga all over again, wondering how I had gone without it being a regular feature in my life for so long.

On my deck in the Indian summer (we’ve had amazing weather over the last 3 weeks!) with the wind in my hair and the sun on my face I felt myself sink into my body and find a level of presence and peace that I have never been able to reach before.

As I let myself be led (which for me as a reforming control enthusiast in itself can be a challenge!) I found a level of serenity, balance and self acceptance that made everything in my life feel easier.

I often use yoga as an analogy in my coaching work.

The path of transformation involves surrender and letting go of your need to control.

It requires you to allow yourself to be supported and trust your path as it unfolds.

It requires leaning into discomfort and relaxing into the unknown to make your breakthroughs.

All such unfamiliar feelings and qualities in this world of 'need, must, if I don’t who will...'

Yoga shines a spotlight on the areas where you’re white knuckling it through life, which can lead to immense breakthroughs and huge transformation.

I remember when I was a few years into my yoga journey, realising that the less I tried to push myself into a pose, the easier it became.

That by adopting the rough shape of the pose, breathing deeply and allowing myself to relax before I knew it I was deeper into the pose than I ‘thought’ I could go.

By trusting and releasing my grip on what I thought I should do or should look like it became easier.

By not focusing on how hard it felt or on how I thought I might look or what anyone else might think and by focusing on the feeling and releasing my expectation, without efforting, I was doing it already.

It was pretty mind blowing.

What about you? Does it resonate?

Are there areas in your life where you are white knuckling it and it’s completely sabotaging your ultimate goal of living a fulfilling life filled with more ease, balance and impact?

How could adopting some of the qualities we’ve talked about help you to achieve your ultimate goals and cope with the smaller day to day realities of childcare, showing up for your clients, septic tanks or COVID?

It’s my heartfelt invitation for you to consider...

Where can you surrender to life?

How can you trust your path more as it unfolds?

Where can you release your grip on control and allow more?

I’d love to know what you uncover, come and share it in our community or leave a comment below to let me know.

Yoga is such a powerful tool to help in these areas, I’m now incorporating it as a bonus for my clients into their coaching programmes so they can experience the power for themselves.

I can’t wait to see the results of this experiment over the coming weeks and I'll be sure to keep you posted on the results as they unfold!

With so much love, Mel x