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Activating Our Parasympathetic Nervous System to Facilitate Change

I’ve been reflecting a lot on change and transformation of late and how we as coaches facilitate growth.

Having been a coach and former coach trainer for nearly a decade now, this is certainly not a new conversation for me to be in with clients or with myself.

Some of my fundamental beliefs about facilitating change have evolved quite a bit.

And I don’t see coaches talking about or prioritizing this in their work with clients nearly enough.

As coaches, we have a responsibility to reflect who are clients are being in their lives and businesses. We also reflect whether they are in service of or in the way of what our clients want.

We look through the lens of what subconscious thoughts, beliefs, fears, and stories are holding our clients and ourselves back.

Here’s where my ‘aha’ really hit me though…

I’ve been re-reading many of my recent newsletters and noticing something. I often offer practices that to my ears seem tactically-oriented vs mindset-focused.

Now there’s nothing wrong with that per-se.

But as a mindset coach, it struck me as a bit odd. Why was I prioritizing action-based practices rather than reflection-oriented ones?

It made me question what was driving this motivation. And that’s when it hit me…

We are oriented towards growth and transformation more easily and more ease-fully by first prioritizing our fundamental personal, relational, emotional, spiritual, and environmental alignment.

What do I mean here?

Change and transformation is fundamentally uncomfortable and outside of our comfort zones. This is often why we hire coaches in the first place. Coaches champion our dreams in the face of our fear and resistance.

But often fear and resistance are louder than our dreams…

This is normal and why coaches can be so helpful in reminding us of our goals. Coaches remind us of our declarations in the face of overwhelm, procrastination, comparisonitis, perfectionism, etc.

What we forget though is that we also simultaneously experience greater resistance around what we most deeply desire.

The more important the goal, the louder the voice of resistance and our inner critic is likely to get in the way.

Our sympathetic nervous systems are more likely to prepare the body for the ‘fight or flight’ response when we lean into the edge of our comfort zone. This is naturally something we must do in order to grow and transform. We must be willing to engage with the activities outside of our comfort zones in order to grow and evolve.

But we can facilitate this process so that it’s not as ‘painful’ or resistance-laden by first reconnecting with our parasympathetic nervous systems. This helps prevent us from overworking and restoring us to a calm and composed state.

This is important because when we are acting from a calm and composed state, we are more capable of engaging with ‘risky' or ‘uncomfortable’ action than when we are operating from fight or flight.

Which brings me back to this…

We are oriented towards growth and transformation more easily and more ease-fully by first prioritizing our fundamental personal, relational, emotional, spiritual, and environmental alignment.

When we hear the words sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems, we often think about yoga or meditation where these terms are frequently referenced.

Here are two other places to look if you don’t already have a meditation or yoga practice in place:

Take stock of your environment and what needs adjusting or realigning

Now this may not be easy if you take stock and realize you're a small-town person living in a big city. However, can you buy more plants, or take day trips to the countryside, or perhaps visit with family more often? Earlier this year, I fell in love with the work of bell hooks. One lesson she really brings home in her book, All About Love: New Visions is how important it is to be in a community where you feel in communion with others and with your environment.

This lesson is also a deeply personal one for me. When my husband and I relocated to Massachusetts after having lived in Washington DC for the past decade, we realized how unhappy we had been living there. We can jumpstart growth simply by changing up our environment in big or small ways! Ask yourself this weekend, “how can I bring my environment even more in alignment with what I want for my life?

Infuse more joy and cheer into your life

Whether it’s a holiday or any day, laughter and glee help us activate our parasympathetic nervous systems. Have you heard of laughter therapy? It’s a real thing because it works! When we are doing things we love, prioritizing spending time with people we care about, change isn’t quite as uncomfortable. Ask yourself this weekend, “what can I prioritize to infuse more joy and cheer into my life?”

Curious what impact coaching can have, here’s what Jackie had to say about her experience:

Cat is an extraordinary, heart-centered coach who has a gifted way of seeing directly into your heart and helping you get in touch with your innermost passion and joy fulfilling path. She is a true model of what coaching is all about. She helped me identify years worth of BS that I'd hidden from myself. I felt liberated and full of possibilities while working with Cat and highly, highly recommend her.

She's non-judgmental and also willing to challenge you when you need a gentle nudge. I'm a better coach, leader and entrepreneur after having worked with Cat. She also helped me celebrate more and invest in my happiness and self-care in a way that is refreshing and sustainable. What a joy!

If you’re looking for a thought partner or coach to support you in developing your self-leadership, schedule a call with us to explore what’s possible. We have a team of highly trained and certified coaches. Let us support you in reclaiming your joy, sustaining your vision and elevating your impact.

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Honing Your Self-Leadership Muscle

I hope you celebrated yourself or a woman in your life earlier this week on International Women’s Day.

There’s a theme I’ve been noticing of late that I want to discuss with you today.

Whether you’re an entrepreneur or you know someone who is, there’s likely a similar story you hear of why people want to go into business for themselves in the first place.

Any guesses?

I imagine the ability to determine your own pay check or set your own schedule may come to mind…

Speaking from personal experience, those are certainly wonderful benefits of being your own boss!

But there’s one word in particular that folks share with me more often than any other.

And that word is freedom.

Most entrepreneurs I speak with desire a greater level of freedom and autonomy in their own lives.

• They desire more access to creating their own rules;
• more freedom to write their own job description;
• choose who they collaborate with;
• set their work hours;
• establish who they choose to work with and trust;
• prioritize other hobbies and pastimes that bring them resounding joy;
• and determine how much time they want to take off every year, for starters.

But what I’ve noticed over the years is that becoming an entrepreneur, developing a CEO perspective, and understanding on an embodied level that you truly get to define your work and your lifestyle on your own terms and by your own design is a mindset first and foremost.

You may not believe me, just yet, that’s fine. But take a look at the entrepreneurs you know, or if you are one, take a long look in the mirror…

• Do you honor your time boundaries around when you work and when you close the door to your office at the end of the day?
• And does that door closing also signify the mental space to not think about business until the next morning, including in the middle of the night?
• Have you built your business and your job description to support your ideal lifestyle?

I deeply believe that the ambitious empath will change the world because of how much they care about the vision and mission they went into business to support in the first place.

But I am also here to tell you that if you aspire to sustain that vision and passion for your work. Without burning out. Without resenting how much your work, employees and your self-prescribed work schedule take from you…

Then you must add to your job description the necessity to develop a CEO mindset. What I’m really talking about here is honing your self-leadership muscle.

Here are 2 practices to support you in honing your self-leadership muscle:

Practice being more authentic

We cannot change what we are not willing to acknowledge to ourselves and others. You’d be amazed by the countless ways in which we lie to ourselves, deceive ourselves and our desires, and limit the intimacy in our primary relationships because we’re unwilling to tell the truth. As an empath myself, I’m always mindful of being selective with whom I choose to trust and open myself up to for feedback, support, encouragement, normalization, etc. But this is a wonderful place to start leaning in and strengthening your authenticity muscle, whether it’s with your partner, a best friend who shares your values and worldview, or a coach or therapist who’s trained to be an empathic and collaborative thought partner.

Infuse more joy into your life

I cannot overstate what a difference this makes. Prioritizing having fun and joy in your life is infectious. When you schedule fun plans in the evenings and on the weekends. It’s that much easier to separate yourself from work. When you develop a habit and tendency of having fun and finding fulfillment outside of your business. It’s easier to honor your boundaries, maintain your confidence, and have more self-discipline and agency to disconnect and rest.

Curious what impact coaching can have, here’s what Rachel had to say about her experience:

At 39 and already a senior level professional, I wasn't sure how transformative coaching could be for me - but I knew I was willing to give anything a try to "unstick" me from my regular loop and push me in the right direction (aka. a terrifying place that allowed me to grow and fulfill my biggest ambitions). Week after week, she continued to impress me with her insights and wisdom as she helped me to shift my perspectives and challenged me to truly align my actions with my goals. Although patient and kind, she is also a firm coach who wasn't afraid to call me on my BS nor encourage me to dig deeper (and offered the tools to do so) when I struggled. I can say that my entire way of being to be more in tune to my core strengths and beliefs and thanks to Catherine I no longer feel "pushed by fear, but rather pulled by a vision" - a powerful gift. I would highly recommend her coaching services to others and look forward to our continued relationship!

If you’re looking for a thought partner or coach to support you in developing your self-leadership, schedule a call with us to explore what’s possible. We have a team of highly trained and certified coaches . Let us support you in reclaiming your joy, sustaining your vision and elevating your impact.

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Activating Our Parasympathetic Nervous System to Facilitate Change

I’ve been reflecting a lot on change and transformation of late and how we as coaches facilitate growth. Having been a coach and former coach trainer for nearly a decade now, this is certainly not...

Continue Reading

Honing Your Self-Leadership Muscle

I hope you celebrated yourself or a woman in your life earlier this week on International Women’s Day. There’s a theme I’ve been noticing of late that I want to discuss with you...

Continue Reading

The Self-Care Guide for Ambitious, Sensitive Entrepreneurs

According to Elaine Aron, a psychologist who has written extensively on the topic, about 20 percent of the population identify as highly sensitive people (HSPs). HSPs process information and...

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