In this week's blog, we feature Coaching Academy graduate Carl Leroy as our Coach in the Spotlight. Carl's coaching niche is digital health. As a Digital Health Coach, Carl encourages individuals to click off and step back from the constant buzz of the online world. Read on to discover how he helps his clients take intentional breaks offline to tackle procrastination, action their goals with a new sense of urgency and enhance their overall mental wellbeing.
As a coach I work with people who want to action goals and ideas while understanding their on-line habits. Helping them to work out how much time they spend on-line and why. There Is now a whole generation who have no idea what being offline is like and have never really been off social media. On-line culture is great, and I absolutely welcome it. But it can also affect our overall wellbeing and trigger symptoms such as ADHD. And because it is so accessible people are often unaware just how much screens can both consciously and unconsciously bring up emotions such as anger, comparison, anxiety, depression, negative body image and fuel limiting beliefs and low self-esteem and cause long bouts of procrastination or lack of focus.
Believe me I know how that feels I have been there many times. These are just some of the issues that are widespread in society, especially in the under thirties, impart due to social media and screen time. We are now witnessing a fast-paced digital landscape and the way we communicate has obviously changed but at what cost to our mental wellbeing?
We have all done it, logged in and forgot the time. So, when does a quick log-in turn into many hours spent clicking and scrolling? And when does that become an obsession or addiction? Online platforms are great but there is growing evidence to suggest that absorbing information and being bombarded with a constant stream of content at all angles can leave us depleted and tired and can lower our productivity and leave us feeling anxious, confused and resentful or worse.
“I believe when we let go of who we think we are on-line we allow a space to become who we really are off-line.”
As a Digital Health Coach, I have a great opportunity to invite people to click off. Working with clients who want to tackle procrastination and improve their mental wellbeing in the process. Coaching offers an opportunity to take a step back and get off the rollercoaster that is online and allow time to reconnect with yourself and evaluate things from a different perspective. By understanding how and why they use social media they can confidently utilise their time more effectively while taking a break off-line to action their goals with a new sense of urgency. My clients are invited to step away from screens and look at anything they feel they are avoiding by being online observing other people's version of virtual reality often forgetting their own physical reality in the process. Coaching helps create order and offers a way to detox from all forms of ‘mind candy’ and move forward refreshed and motivated.
I have made it my mission to open the conversation and advocate awareness on the pros and cons of on-line culture to all demographics. Social media platforms can be great, but it is largely unregulated, and the emotional affects are only now being investigated. So, finding balance can be harder to discern or self-regulate. Through the coaching process I can support those who want to step back and take a break from screens without ‘FOMO’ (fear of missing out) and consciously reconnect to the most complex computer system of all themselves!
There is something so rewarding and organic about observing a client create a vision or develop and fine tune an idea or goal and work towards it, free from digital distractions. Coaching allows us to challenge our belief systems and put them in some kind of order. Creating the right mindset with a change and shift in our perspective allowing breakthroughs to happen. Coaching gives us an opportunity to play with ideas while getting to know our strengths and weaknesses in more detail in a safe space without judgment.
My coaching offers a unique opportunity to delve deeper and get to know your habits and triggers and minimise the amount of time spent on screens while mapping out a way to nip procrastination in the bud. While taking a break offline you are invited to delve deep and look at other areas of your life that need attention. My own experiences have got me interested in human behaviour and how are values and beliefs are shaped by what we watch and focus on.
Having ADHD I became aware how spending so much time online was affecting my mental wellbeing, causing me to be avoidant, depleted in energy and triggered my own racing thoughts, pulling me into feeling inadequate and not good enough. So, I deleted all my apps for 4 months and my focus soared. I was also able to tap into my inner guidance system and work from the inside out. Helping me reconnect to myself and work on my spiritual health. I now offer my clients a space to do the same.
When working with clients, I try and take a holistic and spiritual approach to my work. Discussing topics and changing terminology through an emotional and energetic perspective to help you gain insight of your own self-awareness and find balance. The coaching sessions can be designed to engage you to identify and overcome limiting beliefs and challenge procrastination. Empowering development, creating a clear road map to achieve goals without social media as a distraction. Because of what I do, clients can tap into their true potential and gain a higher level of self-awareness and a more authentic understanding of their uniqueness and the confidence to show up for yourself.
My clients have reported back to me, that they have felt listened to, valued and empowered. They have become more focused and activated with a deeper sense of spiritual awareness, becoming very present and using sensory techniques such as breath work, positive affirmations and meditation to centre or calm the mind, reconnecting us to our innate wisdom and harnessing the manifestation process.
Coaching challenges you to leave your comfort zone and tackles things head on. Coaching has allowed me to evaluate my own mindset and given me the confidence to go out and speak to others about the impact it can have on us in all aspects of our lives. From here I want to continue to open the concept of digital detoxing to a wider audience continue to collaborate with learning centres, schools and colleges.
While online, we rarely get to be present in the moment and answer questions that may arise within us, because we are too busy avoiding them. Our emotions should be explored, not ignored. Digital detoxing allows us space to be able to do that, getting to the root cause of what causes them to arise and acknowledge it head on.
1. If you feel overwhelmed or slumping in energy, ask yourself what is your quickest win right now?
Be intentional with your actions and get excited about clicking off and delete the apps turn off your notifications and get back into nature if you can ground yourself put your bare feet on the grass and do some deep breathing (this helps calm the mind) turn your focus onto learning about your inner guidance system that little voice in your heart that can sometimes get lost within all the noise.
2. Don't let FOMO be the driving force leading your day
You are in control not your device. Take your power back and set boundaries. If you can find a coach or an accountability buddy to do a digital detox with and have fun with it keep a diary of how you feel while offline. Chances are you won't want to go back online for a while and it’s easier than you might think.
3. Get comfortable with being uncomfortable
While we are busy online, we may neglect looking at our own belief systems often being triggered by other people's belief systems. Sometimes we are so busy moving away from those uncomfortable feelings with distractions we never really can answer the questions that are trying to come up for us to pay attention to. Be honest with yourself and write out what is coming up for you what is it coming up where does it come from and what is it teaching you? There is learning and value in every depending on how you perceive it.
Coaching has allowed me to go from a fear-based mindset to an abundance mindset dissolving the energy head on and creating space for new information to come in without entertainment platforms as a distraction. I now want to empower others to do the same!
Thank you Carl for sharing your insight and tips on the importance of Digital Detoxing with us!
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