Back to coaching. I haven’t talked about it in a week or so, and I promised to post more information about coaching, the differences between Spiritual Life Coaching (which is what I do) and traditional life coaching, and how to find a great coach that suits your unique goals, dreams, aspirations and personal circumstance.
To get more background info on life coaching, read my article 7 Key Aspects of Powerfully Effective Coaching, which will provide a nice backdrop for this discussion. Without further ado, here are 5 key differences between traditional coaching and Spiritual Life Coaching:
1. As a Spiritual Life Coach, I openly acknowledge God as the Source of life and of all good, and acknowledge myself and each person as a divine aspect of that Source. We are One. Each client is a divine being, another manifestation of God on earth. There is no space between you and God. I bring this realization and understanding into each coaching session.
A helpful note: what each person chooses to call God or how we conduct our relationship with God are deeply personal matters. A direct experience with the God of your understanding is the power which transforms. Each of us has equal opportunity to consciously connect with the Creator in a uniquely fulfilling way. My aim as a spiritual life coach (which I clearly state to prospective clients before we begin a coaching relationship) is to guide clients more deeply into personal conscious union with the Creator.
2. Spiritual Life Coaching incorporates prayer in each session. A Spiritual Life Coach, or a coach who takes a spiritual approach, will begin and end each session with prayer. In my coaching practice, either the client prays or I do. Each and every session begins and ends with a prayer. Many times, what I pray about at the beginning of the session is just what the client has in mind to address during the session. Prayer is powerful and changes things. I use it often because the client benefits as do I from the conscious reminder that we are each and all one with our Source. I’m reminded of the scripture at James 5:16, which states that the fervent prayer of a righteous person avails much. In each coaching session (and in between sessions), we rely on the power of prayer.
3. Spiritual Life Coaching utilizes and teaches spiritual laws and principles as a means to effect transformation in the client, which equates to movement in the desired direction. We all have places we want to go, dreams we want to live, a destiny we long to create, yet we don’t. We get stuck, and are not entirely sure why. Becoming un-stuck on your own is possible, and likely, yet it may take a while because you’re trying out things and hoping they work. I’m a lover of coaching because I want to be shown what works, and then I can get to doing it now. No need to stumble around on my own for years, trying to figure out what works by the trial and error method. I’d rather hire a professionally trained coach with delivery methods that work for me so I can be shown the most direct path to what I desire to create.
Another word about the spiritual laws and principles I use in coaching: they’re not religious laws, which is why any person would benefit, regardless of religion (they still work even if the client has no religion). The spiritual principles I teach, such as trust, authenticity, courage, truth, honesty, apply to every human. When spiritual principles are used effectively, and in combination with powerful spiritual laws, such as the Law of Reciprocity, the Law of Love, the Law of Attraction, the Law of Polarity, the Law of Compensation and others, magic happens.
4. As a Spiritual Life Coach, I call upon–and submit to–the power of the Holy Spirit to lead my mind (and that of the client’s) back to a healed state of wholeness and out of pain, suffering, anxiety, fear, lack, limitation, doubt, worry, littleness, ignorance and any other ego mind state that keeps us from achieving our highest aspirations. (See my article titled Stuff Management Process for a fuller description of stuff that holds clients back and processes for moving past and out of stuff.) The Holy Spirit is ever present as a Guide to right thinking, which is a necessary prelude to right feeling, right action, right speech, right work and right outcomes.
5. In the Spiritual Life Coaching paradigm, I know that consciousness creates. In any way the client’s life is presenting and proceeding, the root cause can always be found in the client’s consciousness. Though most clients (including me when I’m not mindful) have a knack for blame and for projecting their own stuff onto the people around them, I know that the client’s consciousness has and is continuing to create the client’s situation. There are no exceptions. A quote from A Course in Miracles
“My Self is the ruler of the universe. It is impossible that anything should come to me unbidden by myself. Even in this world, it is I who rule my destiny.”
This is a powerful realization that we often resist. Yet, when this truth is fully accepted, that my consciousness creates everything in my world, it allows me to be about the business of using my power to create what I desire rather than wasting my energy complaining, passing the buck, blaming, pointing out the mistakes and issues of others and generally not taking total and complete responsibility for everything (and I do mean EVERYTHING) in my world. As a Spiritual Life Coach, I seek to uncover the root cause of issues that delay or block the client and the root cause is always somewhere inside the client. It’s never on the outside, no matter how innocent and victimized the client has convinced themselves they are. Consciousness creates.
There you have it, 5 key differences between traditional coaching and Spiritual Life Coaching. My goal and intention in writing this article is to provide greater clarity about spiritual life coaching, encourage you to engage in a coaching relationship and to continue our dialogue about why coaching is so powerful.
In an upcoming post, I’ll talk about finding a coach that suits you, and where to look for and find experienced, professionally trained Spiritual Life Coaches.
Until then, choose to live in excellence!
Valerie Love
