I received an email this morning from a friend who has had a harrowing near death experience recently. I won't publish the whole story, but would like to share a short snippit.
My friend had been feeling rather ill for weeks and throughout that time went to see his doctor three times who continually said, "It's just a virus; be patient; it'll go away. Your chest is as clear as a bell." So, my friend would continue on his incredibly fast-paced work schedule feeling horrible waiting for the virus to pass. Listening to his body, he went to another doctor who said practically word for word the same as the first doctor, so he continued on his pace until he just couldn't any more. He had gone to two trusted doctors three times each and still kept getting a message that wasn't matching what his body was telling him.
Finally, he went to a third doctor who he didn't know and collapsed in the waiting room. He was rushed to hospital and into the intensive care unit where, to be quite clear, they saved his life as he was literally at death's door. Many praises to the medical staff at the hospital and all their amazing efforts.
My friend is recovering extremely well now, thankfully.
The biggest praise I'd like to share here is for my friend's wife who also happens to be a coaching colleague of mine. She kept saying that my friend needed to be paying as much, if not more attention to what his body was saying than what the doctors had been saying.
The message the body was sending was loud and clear, and someone needed to listen...particularly the person whose body it was!
I won't quote statistics here as the ones I have are a couple of years old now and I'd rather give current information, but I will share that my research on how doctors listen and communicate with patients, diagnose and issue prognosis is an incredibly fast process that often is accomplished in seconds, not minutes.
That can be a sobering thought, and from a coaching perspective it demonstrates also the need for patients to be far more involved and responsible for listening to their bodies and raising their concerns clearly with their medical practitioners.
This happens to be a specialty coaching area for my business partner, Sarah Hue-Williams, and I, where we often work with people to "lead" their health and wellness team as any leader would head up an organisation. In this case, the organisation is one's total mind, body and spirit.
Therefore, today's coaching questions for you:
Coaching Exercises
1. How well do you listen to your body? What do you do well specifically? What could be improved?
2. How well do you communicate with the various types of health and wellness practitioners in your life, whatever type they are? (Note: I grew up in a religion that didn't see doctors but worked with religious practitioners instead. I share this because I want to demonstrate that the definition of "health and wellness practitioners" you use in this question needs to match your life, lifestyle, beliefs, etc and that no assumption is being made on my part as to who is right/wrong for you to consult with. Just consult well with whomever it is.) What works well and what can be improved?
3. How good of a "leader" are you with your own health and wellness team? Who makes up your team? (Note: Today, my team is made up by my partner, general practitioner, chiropractor, dentist, eye doctor, physical therapist and a variety of specialty coaches.)
4. In consideration of these questions and your responses, what are you committing to?
As always, if you need any further personal support in response to any of these coaching exercises, please consider using the askacoach.com service.
All the best,
Noel
Noel Posus - Master Coach
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Noel Posus is on the Board of Directors and is the Head of Marketing - Asia Pacific for The-ECI - www.europeancoachinginstitute.org
Check out The Inaugural ECI Australasian Coaching Conference - The Future of Coaching: Embracing the Opportunities of the 2010s at http://www.europeancoachinginstitute.org/conference_2008/
November 20-22, 2008 - Sydney Australia
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