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Natural Awakenings Atlanta

Take Your Life to the Next Level: Consider a Coach!

Jan 01, 2022 06:00AM ● By Paul Chen
Happy New Year!

With this first issue of 2022, we deliver two things I’ve wanted to deliver for some time: a special section on coaching and a new coaching column!

I’m sure I’ve previously mentioned that my primary motivation for publishing this magazine is to encourage self-development and personal evolution. While improving our professional skills is important, I’m talking about enhancing our capacity for love and compassion and growing our connection to God/Source/Infinite Intelligence/All There Is—whatever you wish to call whatever is responsible for our existence. 

Coaching may be the most common way people enhance their personal evolution outside of pursuing a spiritual path. Granted, achieving one’s goals—which writer Sandra Bolan reports is the most cited reason for turning to a life coach—does not sound useful when it comes to raising your emotional quotient (EQ) or connecting to all there is. Still, many of the other reasons do align: to be happier, to find one’s purpose, to do what one loves, to increase confidence, to help improve relationships. Contributor Diane Martinez even reports that coaches list “growing spiritually” as one of the nine top issues clients bring to work on, as well as quelling the inner critic and nurturing self-love. 

Although I have not personally used a life coach, I feel more than comfortable recommending that more people should give it a try. To begin with, engaging a coach is a big step in one’s commitment to oneself. Taking that first step might be the hardest part since doing so entails overcoming some fear and a lot of inertia. Just deciding to engage a coach is progress in and of itself. 

Another reason I feel comfortable encouraging people to consider coaching is the success we hear about. Our third article tells the stories of four coaching clients. Any one of us would be thrilled to make the progress these four Atlantans have made. While I have no idea what the overall success rate of coaching is, the truth of the matter is that success lies in our hands, not the coach’s. As coaches will tell you, it’s the client that has to do the work. 

Perhaps the biggest reason I’ve wanted to promote coaching is my awareness of the need for seekers and strivers to have a companion, a champion—a “champanion”?—to walk the path with them. I don’t know if it’s impossible to make big progress in personal evolution without such a person, but I do know that the effort is far more arduous and lonely without them. Moreover, engaging a coach practically guarantees you’ll have someone to lean on and be there for you when you need them. 

So, in this season of resolutions and renewals, consider giving yourself the best gift possible: a better you!

Ask a Coach

As an ongoing commitment to encouraging personal evolution, we’re introducing our new column, “Ask a Coach.” It is an opportunity for you, our readers, to ask a coach about anything—well, preferably something they can answer—but that covers a lot of ground!

Our “Ask a Coach” column will be a monthly feature on our website and will also appear in our print magazine once a quarter. To submit a question to one of our coaches, go to bit.ly/naa-ask-a-coach.

We’ve engaged three coaches to write once a quarter for the column. We decided to use more than one writer simply to spread the “wealth” of the Natural Awakenings platform and to help expose readers to more coaching resources. As we provide insight into multiple approaches and styles, we hope it encourages more of you to consider coaching!

The three coaches who will be writing for us in 2022 are: Adele Wang, who was a guest editor for our energy healing special section in April 2019; Diane Martinez, author of the second article in this month’s special section; and Terri Kozlowski, an author, blogger and podcaster, as well as a life coach. 

We’ll get to know all of them better in the months ahead. In the meantime, send your questions here: bit.ly/naa-ask-a-coach ❧

Paul Chen has been owner/publisher of Natural Awakenings Atlanta franchise since January 2017. He is a practicing Buddhist and a founding member of East Lake Commons, a cohousing community.
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