How to Coach Yourself: Applied Mindfulness

As a life coach, part of my job is helping people develop the tools and skills to be able to do something really crucial to their own long term growth: coach themselves.

Yes, I am here as a sounding board, a listener, a co-conspirator and a co-mastermind in helping my clients create the lives they want and deserve, (as a kick in the you-know-what if that’s what they need!) – but I cannot do the work for them.

We all have to do our own groundwork to free our minds, so that we can free our lives.

Self-coaching is a tool that I use on myself daily, and it’s also a model that I teach to my students in Freedom School and use regularly with my clients.

In practical terms, it is a way to apply many spiritual teachings while off the cushion, or off the yoga mat.

Really, self-coaching’s power is that it shows YOU how to understand your own mind.

And best of all, you can use it on the fly.

Today, I dig into why unlayering your mind, deliberately easing into new thought patterns and building a reflex of self-compassion in the process is essential to creating the life you want to live.

I also offer up a tool us life coaches use – called The Mindfulness Model – to help you begin to break down and understand your problems (through an approach that parses out your circumstances, thoughts, feelings, actions and results) so that you can create real, tangible change in your life.

It may sound kind of abstract right now, but you can start to think of The Mindfulness Model as a form of active meditation, or applied meditation – a practical way to engage mindfulness.

One of the biggest mistakes people make with mindfulness of thoughts is that they think thoughts, in and of themselves, are true. They are real – but not true. Coming to understand this distinction may just be one of the most important elements of thoughtwork you ever do.

So, I invite you to take this in today.

:: I invite you to consider different ways of thinking about your past that actually serve you.

:: I invite you to learn how to use these tools in a way that really works – for YOU.

If this is your first introduction to this model – or it’s the first time you’ve ever even heard about it – you may very well be like, “Ana, what are you talking about?”

I get it. It’s often unsettling because it often means you need to be willing to be wrong about your old worldview.

But if you are willing to open to that, then you’re going to be willing to adopt new ways of thinking about your life and about yourself and those in your life…

And this will help you create the life you were meant to live, to less suffering, to more joy, more compassion for yourself and for others, and to not wasting this one precious life on believing things that no longer serve you, on regrets and resentment and anger.

It will help you free your mind, and free your life. I want to share this gift with you in this episode.

In This Episode You’ll Learn:

• What The Mindfulness Model is and how to use the tools it offers to free your mind so that you can free your life
• About the components of the model (circumstances, thoughts, feelings, actions, results) and what they mean
• Why any problem can be categorized into The Mindfulness Model – and how this can empower you to become a pro at working through your shit as it comes;)
• How to build self-compassion into your reflexes – and get rid of the negative self-criticism that isn’t serving you
• Why paying attention to what is going on in your brain takes a lot of effort – and is absolutely essential for real personal growth
• What the process of ‘unlayering your mind’ looks like, in real time
• Why, when you start understanding your mind, you’ll develop the ability to change your feelings, change your actions, and change your results in your life
• How to get to the place where thinking really positive, nurturing, nourishing thoughts comes naturally to you – and why this takes lots of practice

Resources:

// Click here to download a visual of the mindfulness model and a sample model form

//See a visual of The Mindfulness Model at

// Check out Episodes 3 and 14, on how to change the past and learning how to believe new things – both offer tools applicable to the teachings in this episode.

// If you need any help with starting to use The Mindfulness Model, please go to RebelBuddhist.com and get access to the private Facebook group where you can ask me questions! Once you join, there’s also a weekly FB live called Wake the F*ck Up Wednesday, where you can ask questions that come up as you do this work – in all parts of your life.

// Enrollment is currently closed for Freedom School, my one-of-a-kind membership program that helps you free your mind and free your life. We deep dive into everything I teach here. If you want to be the first to know when enrollment opens, go here to get on the waitlist.