An invitation

If you've been reading my blog for a while you probably have read that I've been training to be a coach. Not a football coach, voice coach or executive coach but A LIFE COACH!

Ahhhhhh, that felt good. It took me a long time to get here so it's nice to share it with you all.

This is an interest I've been pursuing for a long time--a decade almost. Even before I earned my pastry diploma I was considering coaching as a full time career.

I became interested in coaching because people would often come to me to help unwind their conundrums. These long conversations (mostly them talking and me listening and asking questions occasionally) would end with the other person feeling better and sometimes with an idea of what they wanted to do next.

What I really loved was when a conversation turned into something that resulted in a happier, more fulfilled life for the person I was talking to. I knew becoming a coach could give me more opportunities to help people as well as experience the joy of seeing someone live a happier life.

However, even though I aspired to help others, I was getting in my own way on a massive scale! I had so many negative beliefs about myself I almost didn't pursue the training at all--I put myself in the impossible position of having to coach myself out of all my own issues and difficulties before I would be fit to take even one class.

Changing those self defeating beliefs didn't happen overnight. My road to becoming a coach included a tremendous amount of introspection and self work. Reviewing my old journals I saw there were certain areas of my life that were a constant source of suffering to me--I was always running after perfection in my career or body image or trying to attain another achievement. I really believed I would finally be happy with myself once I "got to" whatever those old goals were.

I have over 1000 journal pages on my computer at home filled with an infinite loop of self criticism, plans to fix myself and anger at my circumstances (especially around my work life). It's not very good reading. There was nothing anyone could say that would make me believe I was ok and a worthwhile person just the way I was.

Working with a coach helped me break out of the thinking that created that infinite loop of misery. My life is now far less based in achievement and perfect circumstance and more based in self acceptance and connection. Because I've extended grace and kindness to myself I'm able to help others see the good in their lives as well.

See, dear reader, you don't need to be fixed. You also don't need to improve. I want to hold up a mirror to you so you can see your own beauty--beauty you have today. And if you can't see that mirror, I want to help unwind whatever it is that is clouding your vision. Because when you have that kind of clear sight with yourself, the whole world changes before your eyes. Then life becomes truly magical.

Hope to hear from you soon.  Love, Sasha