The Power of Physiology

Do you wonder how you can be more impactful and increase your confidence as a coach? 

Would you like to support your clients to understand themselves better, take charge and increase their own levels of confidence? 

And would you like to improve your own and your client's level of communication in all life areas?

Great communication is the key to building successful partnerships and this requires we use and pay attention to all of our senses, including physiology: our non-verbal communication. If we fail to notice the non-verbal clues in our own and other's physiology, we potentially miss vital messages which can bring clarity, understanding and effective communication between parties.

In 1970, American anthropologist Ray L. Birdwhistell published his studies of human body motion in the context of inter-personal communication.  In it he shares our total communication is broken down as follows:

• The words we speak is only 7%
• Our voice tonality is 38%
• While a massive 55% is through the way we use our bodies.

At Empower World, as coaches, we are detectives supporting our clients by asking questions and deep listening to get clear about what they want. We are the mirrors for our clients, reflecting back what we notice they are saying and not saying through their spoken and unspoken ways of communicating with us. 

By being present with our client and actively listening - paying close attention to our client's body, energy and their words - we support them to understand themselves better and also create new perspectives. This new and conscious awareness must be present for our client to make choices to move towards the life they desire.

When we hear our client say one thing and we notice their body movements are incongruent with what they are sharing, we can simply reflect back to our client what we observe, which can create huge 'aha’s' for the client.

If our client wants to be happier, more confident, have more energy, have better relationships and so forth, we can support them to pay attention to their thoughts, emotions and physiology. This will also assist them to recognise their thoughts and emotions influences the way they hold their body, energy and face. If they share they want to be more confident, yet think insecure thoughts, feel uncomfortable emotions, their physiology will reflect this.

Assisting your client to change any one of these areas will have an impact on their ability to become more confident. We believe one of the keys to support your client to create change (if they are willing to do so), or support them to reinforce new resourceful thoughts, emotions and ideas, is to assist them to change their body posture, breathing, eye and body movements, facial expressions. We cannot feel sad if we hold our head up high, standing tall with a smile on our face. Try it now. It just can’t happen.

It's the same for you as a coach, if you think you are not good enough, or incapable of working with a client, then these thoughts will create emotions which will be reflected in your physiology. You will come across as nervous, unsure and lacking in confidence. Simply by making empowering changes in your body, you have the potential to attract more people to your practice.

Below is a simple way to support you and your clients to change physiology into a state to support success and fulfilment:

• Think of a goal you wish to achieve: what, when, how, who and for what purpose do you want to achieve this goal? What will it give you when you achieve it?
• And as you pay attention to the goal, become aware of your body and how is it moving or not moving. Move your body into a position of success if you are not already there.
• Pay attention to your breath. Take some long deep breaths to support you to relax into your goal.
• Notice what your face is doing. Ensure you put a smile on it and notice the difference in your body as you focus on your goal.
• Now, become aware of where your eyes are focusing. Look towards the positive future and notice what you see.
• And notice if there are any sounds, taking time to absorb what you are becoming aware of.
• And what are the emotions you are feeling? Name the emotions and pay attention to where those emotions live in your body. And in your body, what do those emotions look, sound, feel, taste and smell like?
• And notice your thoughts and the new awareness you are creating to support you with your goal.
• What are you learning from your body that will support you with your goal moving forward? What does your body want you to know?

You can practice this exercise yourself and share it with your clients to support them to understand the power of physiology in the creation and achievement of goals. The more we pay attention to our body's wisdom, the more we are able to tap into the incredible resourceful and creative unconscious mind and wise heart. Enjoy the process!

Listen to Empower World's Coaching and Leadership Podcast Episode-95 where Jeanine and Marie discuss about the effective use of physiology in coaching and leadership.

Episode-95 can be found here:
Direct link: bit.ly/2v81U6D
#itunes: bit.ly/EW-Podcast-iTune
‪#stitcher : bit.ly/podcast-episode-95

Be Empowered.