You can’t reach your full potential if you feel discouraged, upset, bitter about the past, or fearful of the future. At the same time, mental health alone won’t get you where you need to go. You may feel motivated and optimistic about the future but struggle to reach goals if your body is tired, run-down, sick, or feeling achy.
Moreover, there is a genuine connection between your physical and mental health. If you’re physically unwell for an extended period, your mental health may start to suffer, and you may experience problems such as depression and anxiety. If you don’t care for your mental health, it will take a toll on your body’s immune system and energy levels.
When life happens, you may not always be able to get back up, dust yourself off, and keep going.
What’s more, even if you could, you find that reaching your goals is faster and easier when you have someone to help you than when you try to go it alone. This is especially true if you struggle to overcome long-term challenges and/or bad habits. When you’re feeling physically unwell or have injured yourself, you likely immediately seek medical help from a doctor. Your mental health deserves the same level of attention and care.
What Is a Wellness Coach?
A wellness coach is someone who helps various clients reach goals related to their emotional, physical, and behavioral health. A wellness coach offers advice, practical tips, and personalized counsel. They are also an accountability partner who can keep you on track when you’re about to fall back into bad habits.
Wellness coaches work on clients one-on-one but can also work with small groups as needed. Companies often hire wellness coaches and/or create wellness programs in order to enhance employee health and well-being, aiming to improve office morale and productivity.
Unlike other types of coaches, a wellness coach takes a holistic approach to goal-reaching. This is wise because focusing on a single aspect of life won’t get you where you need to be long-term. For example, if you only focus on overcoming an emotional problem but don’t pay attention to your physical health, you may find your mental health declining because you’re not eating the foods your body needs to work correctly.
Conversely, if you’re trying to reach a business-related goal but are working too hard and need more sleep at night, your cognitive abilities will improve, and you’ll make mistakes that will need to be fixed before you can complete a project.
Wellness coaches use various strategies to help people reach realistic goals. They often spend a lot of time simply listening to clients to get to know them. Listening sessions also help clients better understand their feelings and wishes so they can make appropriate goals. Wellness coaches will explain the importance of physical health and well-being in empowering people to reach their goals and offer nutritional advice to help you create a healthy eating plan that aligns with your tastes and budget.
If you fail to reach a goal, your coach will praise your efforts, help you figure out what went wrong, and then either set new goals or come up with new plans to reach your current goals.
Why Go Virtual?
A single human wellness coach can’t meet all your needs. Who can you turn to if you need help in the middle of the night, on a weekend, or in the middle of a Christmas event? What happens if you need wellness coaching but can’t change your schedule to meet with a coach at a particular time? What about times when a single coach can’t meet all your needs? Virtual coaching is the answer you need in such instances. App-based coaching is particularly convenient because the app can be easily downloaded on your phone, and it provides you access to wellness resources 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year.
Another benefit of going virtual is that you won’t be limited to wellness coaches in a particular area. Instead, you would be able to choose a coach from anywhere in the world. This enables you to find the individual with whom you’ll have the best connection. It’s not easy to explain intimate details of your life and feelings to a total stranger. What’s more, not all wellness coaches may have experience helping people work through the particular problems they’re going through at the time. Going virtual is particularly ideal for businesses looking for wellness coaching because a single coach may not be able to meet all the company’s needs. Working with coaches over the Internet helps a business get targeted help for different groups of employees to maximize results.
What’s more, an app can also connect you with like-minded individuals so users can help and encourage each other to reach their goals. You’ll be able to make friends with people who are facing problems similar to what you’re facing. You’ll be able to exchange ideas and work together to reach your goals.
Is It Safe?
Virtual healthcare is becoming increasingly popular and safe. You don’t need to worry about your private information because virtual coaches use HIPAA-compliant apps and platforms. No one will be able to see your confidential communications with your wellness coach except you and your coach. One-on-one discussions with a wellness coach are also confidential, even if the coach is hired by your employer to provide services to your entire department or office.
Getting Started
There is no reason to allow physical and/or mental health problems to hold you back from reaching your goals. If you have goals but are struggling to reach them or want to set goals but don’t know how or where to start, click here to find out how virtual wellness coaching can change your life for the better. There is no need to settle for the second best in your life and/or relationships when you can improve your mental and physical health with just a few clicks of a mouse.
