Blogs

Life Changes

Building a well-ness vision.

by Margaret Moore

Margaret Moore is the co-director of the McLean/Harvard Medical School Institute of Coaching. See full bio

July 31, 2009, Happiness

Kick-Butt Laura commits to let go of her sabotaging gremlin

Letting go of mindlessness gremlins

Listen to the 17 minute coaching session mp3 file

This was a fun coaching session and Laura's gift is bringing fun to the world. Laura is training to become a wellness coach and volunteered to work with me in a coach training class. Laura chose to discuss her desire to lose weight - a common focus for wellness coaching. I loved Laura's energy and vision of being a kick butt person who has fun and brings joy - what will happen when she feels on top of managing her weight.

What's in the way? Laura described her rebellious "gremlin" which tells her "go eat" late in the evening. The gremlin's negativity is squishing out her fun and lively "kick butt" self. She named the gremlin "a sabotaging deliberate mindlessness" and has been in her life for as long as she can remember.

As an aside, gremlins are fictional creatures - the narrators in our heads; the voices that whisper "Don't even think about it?;" the voices that scream "You should" "You need to" "You must." Gremlins promote our self-doubt, our second thoughts, our hesitations, and our fears. Gremlins take away energy, sabotage hope, and lower our expectations with the goal of quieting our truest, vibrant selves.

In the famous book, Taming Your Gremlin, Richard Carson says that the first step in dealing with a gremlin is to adopt a mindful and gentle awareness of the gremlin, simply noticing its presence. Noticing is not thinking about, wrestling with, or resisting.

Laura came up with some fun things to replace listening to her sabotaging gremlin.