Hero's Journey -- Life Coach Life Coach -- Hero's Journey

As a Tai chi instructor, I meet many people who enroll in my classes hoping to gain better physical and mental health. Some people are just looking for a way to bring more peace into their lives and others are looking for a physical regime that will help them mediate the seemingly uncontrollable aspects of their lives. One of the reasons that I like to have all my students tell a little bit about why they enrolled in my class and what they believe they can achieve through Tai chi is that it affords me opportunities to be of more help than just through my formal Tai chi instruction.

I am always a little hesitant to initiate a conversation about life changes with someone who is older than me, but most of the time, an older person is more aware of the benefits of good advice -- both the giving and the receiving. By giving advice, I am made more aware of my own personal filters through which I view life experiences -- both my own life and others' lives. And having to articulate what I believe and describe what I practice helps keep me on point in my personal and professional lives. So, you can see why I am interested in helping people take the principles of Tai chi to the next level -- it helps me as much as it helps them.

Goal Identification

I read some good advice recently. "Be clear about your purpose and even write it out in a sentence…[and] try to...

317). Before I approach someone about deeper Tai chi experiences, I do write down the purpose of the contact and my intention with regard to helping my student. What I wrote down for you was this: Assist my student to explore other avenues to reduce her pain, reduce her weight, increase her mobility, and increase her inner peace. All of these objectives can be achieve to some degree through Tai chi ("Harvard Magazine," 2010). But the objective that will have the most impact on your ability to achieve the other three objectives is reducing your weight. In fact, Peter M. Wayne, assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and director of the Tai chi and Mind-Body Research Program at Harvard Medical School's Osher Research Center, says that "A growing body of carefully conducted research is building a compelling case for tai chi as an adjunct to standard medical treatment for the prevention and rehabilitation of many conditions commonly associated with age" (Harvard Health," 2009).
I propose that you might like to attend additional tai chi sessions that are particularly geared toward students with weight issues. At these sessions, the group devotes time to discussion of activities and life changes from which they are deriving positive benefit. The combination of support from like-minded people and focused Tai chi sessions imparts the energy…