At the heart of my coaching program is something I call the Feel Good Foundations – they are self-care, joy, energy, and self-love. If these 4 foundations are strong, life is easier, achieving goals and ambitions is easier and life is a great deal more fun!
I’m writing the book on this as we speak – it’s due out in 2023.
The first thing I ask clients to do is to measure how their foundations are currently doing.
Here’s how:
Take 5 deep breaths into your heart.
Now ask your heart how is your self-care on a scale of 1-10 where 1 is ‘I’m not caring for myself at all’ and 10 is ‘I’m cradling myself in the arms of love’?
Take another deep breath into your heart, and ask your heart how much are you enjoying life on a scale of 1-10 where 1 is ‘I’m not’ and 10 is ‘I love my life’?
Take another deep breath into your heart, and ask your heart how energised are you feeling on a scale of 1-10 where 1 is ‘I could lie face down on the floor and stay there’ and 10 is ‘I’m like Tigger – full of energy’?
Take a last deep breath into your heart, and ask your heart how is your self-love on a scale of 1-10 where 1 is ‘I don’t love myself at all’ and 10 is ‘I love, cherish, adore and treasure myself’?
Things to remember:
Don’t judge the number
This is just a gauge to see where you’re at.
It’s like looking at the fuel gauge in your car.
There is no point inflating the number, because you’ll run out of fuel.
Same with your feel-good foundation numbers.
They are what they are.
It is no reflection on you or how good or bad you are as a human.
If it helps, most people’s scores are pretty low to start with.
(That’s why I’m writing the book!)
Generally speaking, most people’s self-care is not great, their level of joy is lower than they’d like, their energy is generally in their boots, and as for self-love…forget about it.
So don’t judge your numbers.
Let your heart answer.
Your brain will jump in and try to tell you what the number should be.
Ignore it.
Breathe back into your heart, and ask your heart again.
Your thoughts can get kind of shouty and loud.
That’s OK…just let them yell, then breathe deeply and listen to your heart.
Be Patient
If you’ve not done this exercise before, it may take time to get an answer.
Clients usually give it about 4 seconds before saying they don’t know.
If no answer comes immediately, be patient.
Keep breathing, and let the answer come to you rather than trying to think about it or chase it.
Trust yourself
Sometimes we’re not sure if it’s our heart we’re hearing.
Trust yourself to know.
And don’t forget this is just a number.
It’s just to give you an idea where you’re at and what you need to work on.
You don’t have to get it perfectly, exactly right.
A rough idea will do.
Trust yourself to know the number too…even if your thoughts think it should be more or less.
(This happens a lot, even to me, and I’ve been measuring my feel-good foundations since around 2008!)
Now you’ve got your numbers…
Work to improve them.
I ask clients to work on getting them all up to a 7 to start with.
7’s are a good enough level to make life a lot easier.
I do recommend you work on one at a time though – let it be nice and easy.
You could pick the lowest and work on that one.
Or the highest and get that up to a decent level.
Or the one you most want to work on.
If you need some help with any of the foundations, there are lots of articles here on donnaonthebeach.com.
Follow these links to find them: self-care, joy, energy, self-love.
And of course, the book will be out soon.
To be the first to get a chance to read it, and to get my free pdf on feel-good foundation challenges, make sure you’re signed up to my list.
If you’d like me to talk you through this exercise, you can find a video version here.
