The Benefits of Teaching Life Coaching at Senior Cycle Level in School

Published in Kingstown College Coaching Magazine 2020/2021

Being mindful and flexible in thinking strengthens the immune system, increases the body’s capacity to handle stress and is accompanied by a general increase in physical wellbeing.

The vision and ambition of the Department of Education and Skills in relation to Wellbeing Promotion sets out to ensure that by 2023 the promotion of wellbeing will be at the core of the ethos of every school and centre for education. Catherine Connolly proposes fundamental elements to be included in a Life Coaching Programme to support wellbeing and flourishing of students.

Introduction

Life Coaching is a thought-provoking and creative process aiming to maximise personal potential. It is emotional intelligence in practice, a way of being, leading, thinking, of treating people. It creates an environment where people are inspired to flourish and to do the right thing. Life Coaching removes internal obstacles such as fear, doubt, self-criticism, and limiting beliefs or assumptions, to unlock people’s potential. At Senior Cycle level in schools in Ireland, life coaching would be very beneficial to many students as it enables a focus on strengths, solutions and future success, not on weakness, problems or past performance.

The vision and ambition of the Department of Education and Skills in relation to Wellbeing Promotion 2018 sets out to ensure that by 2023 the promotion of wellbeing will be at the core of the ethos of every school and centre for education. Covid-19 is one of those crises that drives our lives into before and after; there is no known end date, and the consequence is permanent change. So, it’s not surprising that psychological wellbeing has taken a big hit.  Many adolescents felt during lockdown that they had the worst of it because they were separated from friends for months, had no part-time jobs, were stuck with their family all day, bored and lacking motivation.

Looking to the future, we cannot yet assume that there is certainty, it’s just not there. More certainty would make life more tolerable and manageable. Prolonged uncertainty affects wellbeing and creates a low level, free floating anxiety interspersed with bouts of worry and mood swings. How can adolescents deal with this uncertainty, especially those in Leaving Certificate years? Teaching life coaching might help. It could assist them in setting goals, developing a passion and staying motivated. It might prevent them from losing their sense of direction and hope.

Covid-19 is one of those crises that drives our lives into before and after; there is no known end date, and the consequence is permanent change.

Flourishing

Martin Seligman’s Flourish is an insightful guide into introducing a programme of positive psychology and wellbeing into schools. He describes PERMA and the Signature Strengths test, both of which would benefit many senior cycle students. All young people need to learn workplace skills, but we can also teach the skills of Flourishing. Maureen Gaffney’s book Flourish could also be instrumental in any programme on Life Coaching. Her exploration of optimism, post-traumatic growth, resilience, among others, are fundamental to the teaching of Life Coaching to adolescents.

In wellbeing theory, there are 24 strengths that underpin all 5 elements of PERMA. Engaging in activities and work that deploy your strengths leads to PERMA:

• Positive emotion
• Engagement
• Relationships that are positive
• Meaning
• Accomplishment

and additional features:

• Self-esteem: the life force of the personality – if that is suppressed or diminished, so is the person.
• Optimism: in order to flourish, we must build and sustain an enabling but realistic optimism.
• Resilience: this is high among the qualities we admire in others, long for in ourselves and hope for in our children. Resilience is the ability to bounce back and to go on with life. Strong, effective ways of coping with stress form the foundation stone on which resilience is built, but if you do this often enough, resilience becomes internalised as an enduring personal quality. Knowing ways in which to generate and maintain positive feelings and thinking – even under great pressure, is also a crucial part of coping.
• Vitality: approaching life with excitement and energy. Flow according to Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi is the experience of full and deep enjoyable involvement in what you are doing. Only 20% of people experience flow on a daily basis.

Flow

The major components of Flow are:

1. You take on an activity that is challenging and requires skill.
2. You are concentrating fully on what you are doing in the moment.
3. The activity has clear goals.
4. The activity provides immediate feedback.
5. Deep involvement removes from your awareness the frustrations and worries of everyday life.
6. There is a sense of control
7. Self-consciousness disappears.
8. The sense of time is altered.

All of the above would be included in a programme, but I would also like to develop questions and tools around the 4 elements of Emotional Intelligence:

• Self-awareness requires that we recognise our own emotions and how they affect our thoughts and behaviour; we know our strengths and weaknesses and have self-confidence.
• Self-management requires that we are able to control impulsive feelings and behaviours, manage our emotions in healthy ways, take initiative, follow through on commitments and adapt to changing circumstances.
• Social awareness involves understanding the emotions, needs and concerns of other people, picking up on emotional cues, feeling comfortable socially and recognising the power dynamics in a group or organisation.
• Relationship management is when we know how to develop and maintain good relationships, communicate clearly, inspire and influence others and work well in a team.

Mindfulness

Mindfulness is a valuable tool, taught in many schools at primary and secondary level. When we are mindful, we break up our automatic patterns of thinking and of behaving and instead, we look at the world in a fresher, more novel way.

Mindfulness enables us to:

• Observe ourselves and what is going on in our minds
• See the bigger picture
• Pause before we act
• Modulate our responses
• Resist the pull of those powerful automatic processes

Being mindful not only connects your thoughts and feelings in the moment, but it also attunes you to your higher self – the essential self that is there behind your thoughts, emotions, your routines and habits of your life, and even the everyday story that you use to explain yourself to yourself. In addition to mindfulness, developing a flexible state of mind is also crucial. This is a style of thinking and learning that involves actively keeping your mind open to the novelty and uncertainty inherent in all situations, rather than approaching things as fixed.

Resilience is the ability to bounce back and to go on with life

Conflict Coaching as an element of Life Coaching can be taught, which will develop a mindful style of thinking:

1. Focus on what is happening in the moment.
2. Focus on new aspects of what is happening. How is it different? Is there a subtle difference? Is mood or emotional tone different?
3. Focus on the context rather than the person.
4. Focus on other perspectives.

When you think in a more flexible way the quality of your thinking and learning improves dramatically. You reduce the automatic tendency to jump to conclusions.

Mindful and flexible thinking leads to greater awareness of thoughts and feelings without getting lost in them. In difficult situations they are able to pause without immediately reacting. They have the great gift of staying focused on what is happening in the present and are less susceptible to distractions and lapses in concentration. We tend to be less judgmental and critical of ourselves and others. Being mindful and flexible in thinking strengthens the immune system, increases the body’s capacity to handle stress and is accompanied by a general increase in physical wellbeing.

The future state of normalcy! 

Covid-19 has taught us, among other things, that the short-term thinking that existed for a long time has led to a frayed fabric of society in places. People were too busy to get to know their neighbours and work colleagues, which has cost society dearly. Social capital is the effective functioning of groups and communities through interpersonal relationships, a shared sense of identity and a shared understanding. The teaching of life coaching can contribute to an environment in which people learn to trust and understand each other. In times of Covid-19, people have loved helping and being helped. We have realised that Healthy Social Capital has led to Social Resilience. A fundamental part of Social Resilience is how well people know each other and care for each other. The companies and communities that have workers and citizens who care about each other have thrived.

Finally, Covid-19 has forced us to conduct some massive real-time investigations into what education is and how it works. The pandemic reminds us that at least half of the education is not on the course or curriculum, it is the ‘hidden curriculum.’ Online technology is a great tool but without the intimacy of being together it can produce only a very limited and impoverished educational experience. The present pandemic has reminded us that if schools and colleges do not remain open, neither society nor the economy can function properly. The importance of socialisation and schooling has been appreciated more. It has also reminded us that programmes that include life coaching with resilience, optimism and emotional intelligence at its core are needed now as much as ever in schools.

By Catherine Connolly

Catherine Connolly is an experienced professional coach of conflict, life and executive coaching. She has worked in the education sector on managing change in schools and introducing positive psychology into the classroom. She is presently working closely with Leaving Cert students on time management, study skills and college options. Through her conflict and life coaching practice, she has assisted individuals and management in small business organisations throughout Ireland. Catherine has coached young people in the workforce in identifying their strengths and values in order to maximise their personal potential. She is passionate about helping people to flourish in their education, professional and personal life; by aligning with their strengths and building emotional intelligence and resilience.

To learn more, visit https://coachingservicesireland.com.