Becoming a Health Coach

Within the next 6 months I will be a Health Coach. And this is the journey that made this decision happen: As I was struggling with 24/7 back pain, I had to be honest with myself. How am I really doing? Yes, I have back pain and can’t go to work and even have trouble with household chores. But how am I taking care of myself? I couldn’t accept being young (27) and struggling in life due to a physical condition. I believed that healing was possible. What I once heard, that if you ever hear of one person recovering from any condition, then it is not incurable. Therefore, I set my mind to the belief that healing is possible. Which for the first time let me see how important mindset is for any journey.
Foods
Besides mindset I started to check in with my overall self-care. How healthy am I eating? Are there certain foods that will have a lighter load on my body and might actually strengthen the healing processes of which our smart body is capable? Yes, there turned out to be, there are. Certain foods, like a lot of processed foods, can be hard for the body to digest. Which means that this will take energy, that the body actually needs for the our immuun system and healing. Then there are also certain foods that can help the body to fight inflammation and can reduce sensation of pain.
Relationships
I decided that I had to put taking care of myself on numero uno. But in the process I got lonely. I lost a lot of friends, because I couldn’t go out with them. About 2 hours was my maximum before my back pain got excruciating. However, I noticed that I needed support in my healing. Just a listening ear. Or a little social distraction and attention. Therefore, I decided that after taking care of myself, I need to work on my relationships. Because without them, I would not be able to make it through my healing journey.
Career
As I slowly figured out what nutrition and taking care of myself meant, and my relationships grew stronger, I got some space to think about working again. About finding a job. Thinking about what that would mean to me. I already figured out quite a lot about dealing with my scoliosis and I noticed my back was healing at its own pace. I was just trying to give it the space, support and love it needed. Throughout may journey so far, I noticed how there was such a lack of knowledge about scoliosis with specialists and even the community itself. Thus how wonderful would it be, if I could find a way to give back.
Health Coach
I am now a Yoga for Scoliosis teacher, and feel grateful to share this knowledge with my students. However, as you read briefly in my story above, it is not just about the physical part. Yoga also takes the mental part into account, yet there is so much more to self-care. So I have decided to become a Health Coach and started the training with Integrative Nutrition. During this program there is a huge focus on personal health in general and not just foods. Or as they say at IIN, we can differentiate between primary foods (spirituality, relationships, physical activity and career) and secondary foods (nutrition). This really resonates with me and I recognized the steps that I took in my healing journey.
I can’t wait to start helping more and more others with scoliose as a Health Coach. If you are interested in my help, just shoot me a message. If you are interested in the program itself, check out the links below.