Why you should go with someone when you take your stress outside

Immersing yourself in nature, going into mountains is a great way reduce stress. I wrote about this in an earlier post that you can read here if you’ve missed it.

Mountains especially are a great place to gain a different perspective on life and from that perspective decide what changes you want to make in order to live your life as you want to. BUT …. 

It can be a real challenge to have a clear view of your own life when you’re smack in the middle of it. Especially when you’re over-stressed. In that state many are unable to clearly see for themselves what is true and what is not.

That’s when taking your stress outside in the company of someone else – a coach – is a really good idea!

Great listener

After all coach is trained to listen. Not just listen as a friend might do – ready to jump in with their own experiences while also dispensing advice – but trained to listen deeply to what it is you are really saying. Trained to also listen to things you leave unsaid or only say between the lines.

A coach knows when they are listening to a sob story and are not afraid to call you out on it. They challenge you to listen to what you’re telling yourself and find the kernels of truth in it while you identify and maybe even discard what’s holding you back.

Great questions

Having been trained to listen deeply, a coach has also learned how to ask really powerful questions. Going beyond the superficial they pose questions that can’t be answered flippantly, but force you to dig deep for the real answer.

As you are getting closer to your truth, you get ever more clear on the gap between where you are now and where you want to be, how you want to live. And why that gap is there in the first place.

Different, wider perspective

Because a coach has a different, wider perspective on your life they help you see which parts of the story you’re telling yourself are nonsense and which are true.

It’s a powerful experience when you suddenly see clearly how you’ve been holding yourself back and what opportunities lie before you – all because someone asked you powerful questions and challenged some of your believes.

Accountability and support

A good coach will guide you to build a structure of accountability and support for sustained commitment to support you as you return to your regular life from your ‘immersed in nature’ experience. A structure that helps you not slip back into that over-stressed state, but instead keep moving closer to the life you envision for yourself.

So yes ….

You can immerse yourself in nature, move among mountains by yourself. At the very least you will reap some of the benefits I mentioned in my previous post (reduction of stress and fatigue, increased focus and physical health, among others). You might even be someone for whom a change of environment and perspective is enough to start realising the life you envision for yourself.

But ….

When you’re not, you should consider that immersing yourself in nature with someone who really listens to you, has a different perspective, asks the right questions and provides accountability and support might be exactly what you need .

As always ….

Go dare greatly