My Philosophy
Combining psychology, human behaviour, body intelligence and breath work.
Everything is connected. Our thoughts, emotions & body influence each other. Our environment shapes us as much as we shape it.
Mindset, Mood & Movement
If you continue working flat out, you end up burnt-out and unable to function properly. And an unhealthy body is no place for a dynamic and engaged mind. In the worst cases, losing your health can mean losing everything.
I know this all too well because I’ve been on the edge of burnout. Also, I live with an auto-immune condition so I know how tough illness can be.
But, with the right mindset and lifestyle, I have the tools to be well and manage my wellbeing. I now experience robust health, great energy, clarity of mind, and a deeper sense of peace.
Drawing on my experience, as well as my extensive training in physiology and psychology, I have developed an approach to help my clients achieve holistic health.
Rather than only addressing one facet of a person, this approach works with three aspects of our intelligence:
Mind intelligence
Body intelligence
Emotional intelligence
By examining the shape and patterns of all three aspects, we can become aware of the person’s full nature. That means paying attention to thought patterns, emotional patterns, and physical patterns. Once you understand the nature of the pattern on each level, then you can bring about conscious holistic change.
Analogy & Examples
To give you an analogy, think of driving around a roundabout but not knowing which junction to take. So, you keep going round and round with no change. Mindset, belief, and behaviour patterns can be just like this metaphorical roundabout. You need to know which way to go to be able to move on.
For example, for a highly intelligent but anxious person, there’s a good chance that their thinking patterns are logical and looping. They may break their pattern of anxiety every now and again, but ultimately – when under pressure – they return to the same repetitive cycle. When we look at their emotional level it’s common to find that there are similar repetitive patterns in how they feel and how they respond to those feelings. Again, this individual is likely to display recurring patterns in their body. The way they move, the sensations they feel, and how they hold their facial expressions will relate to both their psychological and emotional patterns.
How do people usually improve their mental, emotional, and physical health?
Well, when looking to positively change their lives, some people may choose to work on their body with exercise & fitness which also has an impact on the mind.
Our emotions drive so much of our behaviour and are the place where most blocks are. So, others might work with their emotional challenges and how they feel and react.
The mental story we hold; the beliefs, perspective and how we see ourselves defines a large amount of life - positive, negative, or simply outdated. This is why many people concentrate on healing themselves by focusing on mental health.
However, change is most effective when we engage all three levels of being - Mindset, Mood & Movement. Once we can identify the connections on each level, we can make distinct change by helping them get unstuck and moving forward in a holistic way.
How does this work?
So, how does this apply to the way I work as a coach?
Well, for example, when I work with a business founder and we are uncovering blocks and problems I’ll often ask, “What do you notice in your body? What happens to you physically when you feel stuck or anxious?”
When my client knows their physiological response combined with the emotions they’re experiencing, we discover the deeper levels to support the psychological change. Most people want to change their behaviour and overcome problems, but this will only stick if you uncover the deeper meaning and feeling behind it.
Breath control & why it matters in coaching.
Science shows that conscious breathing can reduce stress, anxiety, panic, fear, and fatigue.
Emotions are physiological states that are generated subconsciously. Our body reacts to stimuli, from the world around us (exteroception) and from within our body (interoception). This creates a set of responses based on the ‘maps’ in the brain. The brain interprets this information and creates the expeerience we are all subject to; ‘feelings’.
Our emotional reactions are strongly influenced by the way we breathe. When we feel anxiety, fear or aversion, we often have the strongest feelings. Changing negative thoughts and beliefs is important and when we combine breath control, the effect is even more powerful.
If your breathing is erratic, your nervous system is likely to be dysregulated, which means your emotions can become extreme or overwhelming. So, by paying attention to our breath and learning functional breathing, we can gain control of emotional response and dramatically improve our wellbeing.
You can think of breathing as the remote control to the nervous system.
Breathing well can also improve mental clarity, emotional balance, sleep quality, mindfulness, cardiovascular fitness, and recovery from workouts.
How does breathing affect our thoughts & emotions?
Breathing, whether conscious or autonomic, influences our nervous system. Our state can range from parasympathetic (safe/relaxed/friendly) to sympathetic (fight/flight) and in some situations, shutdown (freeze/trauma). In turn this affects your endocrine (hormone) system. The different types of hormones present in the body are strongly influenced by the way we breathe, and these hormones (such as cortisol, adrenaline, oxytocin, or serotonin) influence our emotional response.
In other words, our physical reaction triggers a mental reaction. Perception, thinking, and behaviour are all affected by what is happening in our body at any one time. Breathing directly influences our nervous system, whether we're in a stressed state or we feel safe and relaxed.
It's important to say that our thoughts also affect our emotions and breathing. It is a reciprocal process so combining breathwork with mindset, can have a significant effect on how you feel and the capacity to respond differently in challenging situations.
What is Breathwork?
Breathwork is the science and practice of using specific types of breathing to regulate your emotional state.
The way we breathe can be functional or dysfunctional. Functional breathing can help reduce our stress, anxiety, panic, fear, and brain fog. As a result, our mental focus, the quality of our sleep, our hormone balance, and our emotional balance can be improved. Overall, breathing well can help you become more mindful and present. Functional breathing can also increase cardiovascular fitness and recovery from workouts. Essentially, we can think of breathing as the centre of our being.
Breathwork takes functional breathing one step further by giving you the skills to positively influence and control your own emotional response and in turn, your biochemistry.
I have been practicing and teaching breathwork for over 10 years and in 2021 I trained with Patrick McKeown at Oxygen Advantage as an Advanced Breathwork Instructor. Patrick is a world-renowned specialist using a scientific approach to ‘optimize health, mental clarity and performance’.