Coaching News & Notes

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Counting the Breath Meditation Practice

Counting the Breath Meditation Practice

Counting the breath is an age-old meditation practice you will encounter in Yogic, Taoist and Buddhist traditions, and one that remains a mainstay of Zen Buddhism today. Monks entering Zen monasteries, or new students at Zen centers the world over, typically learn to count the breath as their introductory meditation practice. Counting the Breath by the Numbers Counting the breath is usually conducted in a cross-legged position on a meditation cushion (zafu) or while seated in meditation position in a…

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Humility: The Ultimate Cross-Platform Killer App

Humility: The Ultimate Cross-Platform Killer App

This blog post is a coaching case study involving a senior marketing executive in the medical technology industry, a client of mine about ten years ago. He agreed to my using this case, provided that his name, title and company remined confidential. Let’s call him Wayne. A mid-level manager in his late 30s, Wayne was referred for coaching by senior management and the human resources department at his firm after a 360° assessment revealed that, basically, peers and subordinates didn’t…

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The Five Attainments of Meditation Practice

The Five Attainments of Meditation Practice

Occasionally I come across a piece of writing so pure and resonant that I simply want to share it—and say as little as possible. This is one such case. Written in China during the Han Dynasty, it’s one of the most straightforward guides I’ve found on training the mind—an aim of meditation—and on how this training manifests in everyday life. Enjoy. Therefore, when the mind is not worried or overjoyed, virtue is attained.When it is fluid and does not waver,…

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The Three Vital Breaths Meditation

The Three Vital Breaths Meditation

The Three Vital Breaths are a cornerstone of Taoist and Qigong meditation practice. I like to teach this breath-based practice to new meditation students because it helps to restore natural breathing, not to be confused with normal breathing You also may encounter variations of this practice in yogic traditions. Essentially it retrains your torso’s respiratory muscles to expand and contract with greater fluidity. Such optimal muscle relaxation and coordination induces a more complete inhalation and exhalation, the crux of meditative…

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The Most Effective Medical Treatment Ever Devised

The Most Effective Medical Treatment Ever Devised

Look far and wide and you won’t find more effective medicines for preventing and treating disease than physical activity and exercise. Some people watch the Super Bowl each year just to see the entertaining commercials. I never watch the game live, because I can’t stand what those “creative” commercials are selling. First in line are the fast food giants, selling the saltiest, greasiest, fat-loaded industrial-processed substitutes for real food on the planet. Next come the factory-made salt-fat snack bombs, containing…

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The Rise and Fall of Bottled Water Quality

The Rise and Fall of Bottled Water Quality

Though drinking bottled water may once have been favorable to your health and wellness, those days are long gone. Not long ago, say 50 to 100 years past, bottled spring water was actually drawn from natural springs. It was bottled at the source in glass bottles and delivered to customers, first in horse-drawn wagons and, later, in motorized trucks. This spring water was naturally pure and pristine, as it had surfaced from underground through many layers of clay and sediment,…

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The Role of Meditation in Weight Loss

The Role of Meditation in Weight Loss

Meditation can play a vital role in weight loss and improve an overweight or obese person’s ability to achieve weight-reduction goals. Recent studies indicate that approximately 70% of the U.S. population is either overweight or obese (body mass index [BMI] ≥ 25.0 kg/m2), with 40% classified as obese (BMI ≥ 30.0 kg/m2).1 What we are witnessing is an unprecedented public health epidemic. Sad to say, only a small percentage of these people will ever achieve sustainable weight loss, somewhere between…

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Is the Water You Drink as Pure as You Think?

Is the Water You Drink as Pure as You Think?

Few things are more important to your health and wellbeing than the purity of the water you eat and drink. After all, the human body is 60% water on average, with most of it located inside cells. Every cell in your body runs on water, even hair and bone cells. Water provides the medium for the transport of nutrients and other molecules within the cell. Without water, cells can’t conduct their vital functions, and life wouldn’t be possible. Basically, your…

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The Healing Arc of the Coaching Process

The Healing Arc of the Coaching Process

People who are thinking about hiring a professional coach and who have never experienced coaching naturally have questions about the process. What will happen? Will I be judged? Analyzed? Is coaching like therapy? Can it really help me? Of course, it’s hard to predict exactly how it will go, since every person has different needs, values, goals, and challenges. Even so, there seem to be some general steps that occur in the coaching process—and they are nothing new under the…

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An Introduction to Breath-Based Meditation Practice

An Introduction to Breath-Based Meditation Practice

Breath-based meditation is foundational in many meditation systems including ones from Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism, Jainism, Sikhism, and various yogic schools. The reason the breath makes such a good meditation object is that it’s ever-present, immediate, vital, and links the unconscious and conscious mind. In other words, you can breathe automatically without even thinking about it; and yet, you can also consciously control your breath whenever you choose to. Breath-based meditation is also handy because you can perform it in different…

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