Can You Coach My Body Please, not My Mind?

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If you ask master coaches what they are proud of, most will tell you that they transform clients. Ask how, and they will tell you they explore clients’ thinking. Neuroscience says changing thinking doesn’t transform. Here’s why.

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Some coaches say they listen deeply. Deeply to what? Possibly non-verbal communication through voice and body language, in addition to a deep, empathetic and generative listening process. These help tremendously. Some adopt ontological approaches of exploring the ‘being’ level through existential questions leading to deeper reflection. They are doing right.

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None of these is enough if a coach wishes to uncover traumatic impressions buried deep as the Titanic is, within the human brain’s iceberg. A few I knew, really masters of their art, work with the somatic approach with visualisation. These are some of the most powerful coachings I have witnessed as an assessor of almost a thousand conversations.

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I wanted to go deeper and systematise this with neuroscience, psychology, quantum physics and my obsession with Vedic scriptures. Over the last few months I have used AI as well. Here’s how.

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At long last, after 5000 years, scientists recognised what Veda said about mindbody being one intelligence system of sensing, feeling, reflecting, discriminating and then acting on that intelligence. The mind had four parts in the Veda. The Senses, called Gnanendriya, captured the metadata through the sensory receptors in the brain, skin, nose and tongue. Veda terms these inputs as food, which you avoided if you wanted to evolve spiritually. What the mindbody senses moves to the Memory, Hippocampus, which processes the metadata based on stored conditioned memory experiences. This comparative secondary data was identified by Ego, the limbic brain comprising Thalamus, Hypothalamus and Amygdala, as emotions. These emotions went to Intelligence to be converted to thoughts. The cognitive output activated the action-oriented HPA system the Veda called Karmendriya. Even the Self of the Veda has now been identified as an entity called the anterior precuneus?or aPCU at Stanford U as the overriding disengaging moderator.

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We have neural AI tools to interpret voices and facial expressions into emotions. What we need in addition is a process that helps the client articulate what they sense in the body, instead of in the brain as emotions and thoughts. These body sensations are metadata, which are far more authentic. They are energy-based, not yet corrupted by matter in the brain. Sensory Awareness coaching can work with AI inputs as a powerful exploratory technique.

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We are not talking only about somatic and ontological exploration. This is far more holistic that integrates thoughts, emotions and senses holistically. When used in exploring client interaction with others causing stress, and often trauma, the process becomes systemic. In the hands of a compassionate master coach, this process is cathartic, healing, and spiritual.

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This is the evolution I see in the coaching process.

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·?????Survival or transactional

·?????Cognitive, exploring thoughts

·?????Emotional, exploring feelings

·?????Ontological, exploring purpose, meaning, being

·?????Sensory, holistic exploring metadata

·?????Systemic, exploring interaction with others and system

·?????Spiritual, cathartic and healing

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This is the transformation every coach wishes to achieve. Just as ‘What are you sensing in your body now?’ instead of ‘What are thinking/feeling?’. We term this the LASIE/SET approach in Coacharya as our proprietary process in Sensory Awareness Coaching.

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·?????Listening and observing the client’s verbal and nonverbal expressions

·?????Acknowledging appreciatively client expressions creating trust

·?????Sharing what’s sensed empathetically, generatively

·?????Inquiring and exploring Sensations, Emotions and Thoughts

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With this process, the coach does not need to know transactional data. The client's sensation can be generic and explored to create awareness of self, situation and solution without the coach having to know details. This is true coaching empowering the all-knowing client.

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Just Do It!

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Reflection

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Spend a few minutes daily reflecting sensorily on the day’s activities. Become aware of what comes up from the body. What is it saying to you? What is empowering? What’s disempowering?

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Please subscribe and share with your network. Please do write in, resonant or dissonant. Let’s have a conversation.?

Ram is a co-founder and mentor at Coacharya?https://coacharya.com. Ram's focus is the integration of Eastern wisdom with modern science, spiritually, systemically and sustainably. Visit Coacharya.

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