If you like in Bristol in the UK and are considering making some serious and positive changes in your life, chances are you have plenty of questions about the process and what to expect. To get you started with life coaching in Bristol, here are some answers to common questions.

Q. Is there anything I need to do to get ready for life coaching?

A. The most important thing you can do to get ready is to cultivate in yourself a feeling of openness, honesty and willingness to change. Remember, coaching services will not give you the answers. Rather, it will give you the tools to discover the answers for yourself. Also, you need to commit a certain amount of time, usually about 60 to 75 minutes per session, to your Bristol life coach. You also may want to set aside a specific place for the sessions that’s quiet and free of distractions.

Q. Is life coaching like psychotherapy or counseling?

Although coaching shares some of the same goals as psychotherapy and counseling, such as the health and wellness of individuals, it should not be confused with more formal and clinical processes like psychotherapy and counseling. You may ask, “Isn’t my life coach counseling me?” The answer is yes, but not in the traditional sense. While many types of therapy focus on understanding past issues and experiences, coaching is firmly rooted in the present, with a strong vision of a positive future.

Q. How long does life coaching last?

A. That’s completely up to you. Bristol life coaching services are available for as long or as short a time as you wish. To be successful, though, it would be best to commit a substantial block of time to the process — perhaps 3 to 6 months. The length of time also depends somewhat on the type of coaching you elect. For example, there are popular and effective executive coaching courses that fit very well into a busy schedule. It’s even possible to engage in on line life coaching when it’s most convenient for you.

As you can see, the topic of UK life coaching in Bristol is rich and complex. Since most coaches offer free sample sessions, it’s best to participate in a few free sessions with a several different coaches to be sure you and your coach will be compatible.

Quick–Do you want to be “right” or do you want to be happy and successful? I will explain what I mean later, yet for now I want to get you thinking about something just as important.

You probably have heard the phrase, the good, the bad and the ugly (great film, too!) so the subject of this article is related to the famous phrase.

The reason for this is because there is good news, bad news and ugly news and it all leads right back to you and you alone.

So if your life is not all you want it to be, we have some good news–you can change it!

If your life seems boring, or awful, we have some great news–you can make dramatic improvements as long as you are willing to do some things correctly.

Ironically, the bad news is that if your life is not all you want it to be or it is horrible, YOU lead yourself to that place. Cheer up because you can make it better starting Now!

You have a lot more power over your life than you realized and so you need to take a close look at your surroundings, your lifestyle, your relationships and ask yourself how happy you are.

Blame and regret are a waste of time, however taking responsibility is like getting the keys to the kingdom! The keys let you open ANY door. You could say they allow you to open the doorways of possibilities for you.

The close cousin of Responsibility is Trust. No one gives you the keys to their car or their telephone number or the job to head a major account unless they TRUST you.

Trust generally comes from someone feeling they can depend on you to do your best, be honest and come through if at all possible. Also, if it is not possible, they feel that you will take responsibility for your actions/lack of actions and be accountable.

Whether your life is AMAZING or total crap, YOU have the ability to change it and make it better!

However, only rarely will someone come along and do things for you. You need to take charge and do what it takes to improve things in your life or be willing to settle for how things are and then stop complaining.

It starts with you!

First it starts with what you think inside of your head and what you say to yourself when you think no one else is listening or paying attention.

What you believe is crucial to any type of happiness and success. Deep belief in yourself and your abilities and skills will fuel your actions towards success.

Half baked beliefs will barely fuel your actions and so you will only get half baked results.

You need to know what you want and realistic paths that will lead you to that place and then continue on that path until you get what you want (while being flexible to changes)

In my experience, the biggest poison addictions to happiness and success are two traps:

TRAP # 1: “knowing about” something (knowing about something that has proven successful for others, yet never applying the knowledge)

or

TRAP #2: “trying” any of these proven methods of success and then getting lousy results and settling for being “right” about not getting the results they “claim” they want and deserve. We have a saying “trying is lying” because it sets yourself up to fail and feel ok about failing.

You probably know the type of person I am talking about—they would rather be able to say “See, I told you it was a scam and it would not work and sure enough, it did not work. I was right!”

So now that you understand what I mean you can ask yourself:

Do you want to be “right” (about not getting successful results because your “special”) or do you want to be happy and successful?

The choice is yours. Pick wisely!

One question that is not asked enough by people under stress is how to relieve stress. Unfortunately, people who are under stress tend to simply take it as a matter of course and simply accept its existence as though it was some sort of natural occurrence, or even a boon! Thus, people who are feeling the effects of stress do not actually take the time to notice that they are under stress and need relief. And when people are under stress, the first part of tackling the problem of how to relieve stress is actually realizing that there is stress that needs to be relieved.

Are you having trouble concentrating? Are you struggling with a project that doesn’t seem to be going anywhere? Are you dealing with people who simply will not listen to sense? Are you frustrated with the way things are going? Congratulations, you have stress. Okay, this is not really something to be congratulated on, but it is important to understand this fact. After all, the beginning of the “How to relieve stress” problem begins with recognizing the warning signs. Then, once the warning signs are seen, healing can begin.

The first thing to do when you want to know how to relieve stress is to learn how to walk away. That’s right, get up, go someplace else, and just cool off. It is often vital to hit that reset button and take a few deep breaths away from the action. The work will still be there when you get back, but being there beyond your breaking point will not get it done. An overabundance of things to do will not be helped by a clouded mind, so give your mind a break. Then, once your head is clear again, you can head back and bang out the projects with the greatest of ease. Or at least more ease than when you were sitting in front of a pile of work and wondering how you would get through it all.

Okay, so you need a break, you have walked away, but you are still so stressed that you are ready to pop. Unfortunately, the previous lesson on how to relieve stress has not worked and you need something more powerful. Well, you need to pull out a better method. This means that you need to simply concentrate on nothing.

When stress is way too much for a simple period of walking away, you need to practice an exercise in meditation. This means sitting down, closing your eyes, and thinking about absolutely nothing. Unfortunately, it is very difficult to think about nothing, so you should think about your breathing. Take a deep breath in and feel the air moving through your nostrils, down your windpipe, and into your lungs. Then push that breath out and feel it moving all the way up from your diaphragm, up into your lungs through your windpipe and out of your nostrils. Feel every motion of the air and notice how it feels as it exits. Imagine your tension flowing out with the air, evaporating into the endless space of the atmosphere, diluting into a complete dilution of oxygen. Think about nothing but breathing and notice every moment of the experience. Then, after about 3 or 4 breaths — or as many as it takes — open your eyes. You should feel as refreshed as though you just took a quick, refreshing nap. If you don’t repeat the exercise until your mind is clear and you are able to concentrate on your work again.

These activities are very effective for a short period of time, but you will also need a method for relieving stress in the long run. After all, it is taxing to notice that you are under stress and it takes a great deal of will to make that leap and push away all those feelings. Thus, you need a way to relieve stress in the long term.

In the long term, the best method to choose, when you want to know how to relieve stress, is to do what you always say you are going to do: eat right, exercise, and get enough sleep at night. Yes, we all say that we will do it, but none of us every actually follow through. But, if you eat right, you will feel better during the day, if you exercise, you will feel better during the day and sleep better at night, and if you sleep enough, you will actually clear away all that fogginess that can lead to stress. So do your body and your mind a favor by taking care of those little things that you keep telling yourself you will do tomorrow. After all, today was yesterday’s tomorrow.

When you want to know how to relieve stress, you should begin with a few simple methods as you slowly build up your will power to tackle the larger work of exercising, eating right, and getting the sleep you need. By doing all of these things, your mind will be cleared up, you will feel better during the day, you will sleep better at night, and you will not have to worry about stress nearly as much. After all, once you are relieving stress routinely, you won’t have to worry about how to relieve stress.

Copyright 2005 Trevor Dumbleton

Let’s face it; life can be incredibly hard sometimes. Finding that point in your life where you are truly happy with what you have done and where you are going is a very hard thing to find. People defined personal growth as several different things, but the bottom line is that personal growth is when you feel like you are on the right track, but sometimes the track can be filled with forks and bumps in the road.

Why bother with personal growth? So many people think of this as an optional part of life and either don’t want to spend the amount of time it takes, or just don’t know what to do to improve their lives. The thing is, personal growth is one of the most important things you can do with your time, and wasting your potential is exactly that, a waste.

Personal growth isn’t measured in success, and I think this is where people can get lost. Too many times we hear about successful or wealthy people not happy with their lives, getting into trouble and being involved with other various negative activities. Being successful is great, but you have to evaluate what it takes or took you to be successful and ask your, are you happy with where you are at and how you got there?

Life doesn’t stop, and if you do stop you could be missing on so many things that make life great. Life hands us many opportunities to learn and grow. Don’t look at a problem as something negative, look at it as a chance to learn and grow from it. Problems are basically a blessing in disguise because solving them and contribute to some of the best learning experiences in life.

The key to personal growth is improving your quality of life. Once again I am not talking just about income. However there are many things that can get you off track that it can stunt the growth you are trying to achieve. Procrastinating important things, and even the little things can get you off track and cause a domino effect and disrupt other things in your life.

Not acting on every opportunity that comes to you is another barrier. This causes the biggest feeling of regret, so speak up and take charge and don’t let things slip by. Falling into a safety zone is another barrier you need to break. You don’t learn anything If you are always playing it safe. Personal growth is a choice, a choice to break down these barriers and be all that you can be.

There is no doubt about it: many college students feel the effects of stress. Here are some easy to use stress management techniques to help you with your stress and health.
For many this is the first time on their own away from home. Often the college is far from home and nearly everyone is a stranger.

On top of that, there are often financial struggles, relationship issues, academic challenges and just the day to day problems of young adulthood in general.

Not all stress is bad

If we had no stress, not much would ever get done! That adrenaline boost you feel when you need to perform in sports, or that helps you finish a paper, or meet any challenge is a positive form of stress.
Once the challenge has been met, the short-term burst of energy subsides and you return to a more balanced state. This is healthy and helps you cope with life.

Chronic stress is a killer

Chronic stress is when you are not able to return to a relaxed state once the challenge has been met. This drains your hormonal system and weakens your immune system. Now the stage is set for mental and physical health problems.

Chronic stress occurs in primarily two ways:

The stress is relentless. A bad relationship, a class that is just too difficult, or a schedule which is too demanding can all cause chronic stress. Poor ability to manage stress. Have you ever noticed how some people just fall apart under stress while other people glide right though? Often the difference is knowing stress management techniques, even if it is not a conscious thing.

A holistic approach to stress management

A holistic approach means that you take every aspect of your life into consideration when seeking a solution. Rather than merely taking an anti-depressant to treat symptoms, effective stress management techniques for college students will enable you to live a more balanced, healthy and productive life.

Some of the components of a holistic approach are
Good attitude Healthy diet Adequate exercise Learning to relax your mind and body Getting enough sleep Having healthy relationships Good time management Alcohol and drugs Money management Tobacco Healthy spiritual life