by Caitrina Cody

As more and more of us grapple with working from home, the separation between our 'work selves' and our real selves grows blurry. Holistic life and business coach Rebecca Caution doesn’t believe we can work on our personal lives or our careers without considering the whole picture. Here she talks transformation and pandemic-inspired positivity with ALHAUS magazine.

ALHAUS magazine: As a life and business coach, what's your daily routine like?
Rebecca Caution: I get up when my alarm clock goes off at 5:30am, go downstairs, light candles, meditate, do breathwork and journaling before either my three or six-year-old come to join me. Once my kids and husband join me downstairs, things get more chaotic! We have breakfast and dash around getting ready for the day. Once I’ve dropped my kids off, I usually take a walk before starting my working day, which typically involves a client call or two, some content creation and replying to client voice notes via Voxer (a walkie-talkie app we use to communicate between fortnightly sessions). 

I try never to have more than two client calls in a day, as my working hours are quite short because I work around school times. I take a quick break at lunchtime and often take dance breaks, especially before and after client calls, to shake off the energy. Around 2:30pm I stop work and walk to collect my kids and then the afternoon is chaos again before dinner time and getting them into the bath and to bed. Evenings are mostly spent tidying up, reading books and studying (I’m taking a year-long course in breathwork facilitation), though sometimes I’ll watch something with my husband if we can agree. On Fridays, we generally eat pizza, drink beer, play musical statues and dance and sing.

AM: Tell us about your background and how you came to embark on this chapter in your life.
RC: Before having my children I worked as a project manager for design and innovation consultancies; I loved the variety and being around creativity. After having my daughter and finding agency life pretty unconducive to life with children, I was considering starting my own business when I got made redundant from my job, shortly after returning from maternity leave. As luck would have it, I’d just applied to train as a coach. That was in January 2019 and I’ve been building my business since then.

AM: Define your philosophy as a life and business coach.
RC: I guess the crux of my philosophy is that our lives and work don’t exist in silos. I don’t believe it’s possible to work on our personal lives or on our work without considering the whole picture. One impacts the other. If we have an emotional issue, it will affect our work and vice versa, because we are human and to be human is to be emotional, whether we are aware of it or not. 

AM: What has changed for your clients over the course of the last year?
RC: People have become more aware of stagnation. The pandemic amplified issues that were already there; people felt flat or unfulfilled before, but bumbled along ignoring it, distracting themselves with planning holidays, drinking, shopping, life! The periods of confinement and solitude have meant that lots of people have been forced to face their demons and for some, that’s meant new or renewed commitment to transforming their lives and/or their work. The past year has really hammered home the point that life is now. Not some time far off into the future, when you decide to give yourself permission to stop and have a look around you.

AM: Is there a way to find opportunity and positivity amidst the challenges of the global health crisis?
RC: Absolutely. My clients tend to be entrepreneurs, designers, coaches and consultants and for many of them, as self-employed people, this year has been hugely challenging and a real test of the positive mindset that’s vital for building and maintaining one’s own business. At the same time, the break in normality has allowed them to more deeply reflect on how they’re living and working. 

There’s a tendency for people who run their own businesses to be so passionate about what they do, they never stop and can run themselves into the ground. A central part of my work is guiding clients to explore their own values and motivations and their vision for their life as a whole, not just their business. It feels like during this year the process I take clients through has been even more potent. So many have found themselves in incredibly difficult circumstances and managed to find the gift.

AM: Describe EFT Matrix, a central part of your work.
RC: EFT Matrix is a type of energy psychology. It’s a very simple and effective modality that allows us to connect with past issues, emotional traumas and core beliefs at a subconscious level and transform them into supportive platforms for life and business. 

AM: How important is engaging content creation to a business?
RC: Expressing who we are, what we do and for whom, and providing value is vital to building an engaged community and establishing a brand. I think it’s becoming more and more important with the sheer volume of people starting businesses as a result of redundancies due to the pandemic. Sharing engaging, inspiring and valuable content is crucial in differentiating oneself amongst a plethora of shouting voices!

AM: What advice would you give creatives and entrepreneurs during this challenging year?
RC: Although it seems counter-intuitive, I really believe that personal development supports business growth. The more you can make space, tune into your body and care for yourself, the better, for you and your business. You are your greatest asset.

Rebecca Caution is a holistic life and business coach who supports coaches and consultants to find self-belief, create impact with integrity and thrive personally. She combines over a decade of commercial experience in client and project management for design and innovation agencies with holistic modalities like EFT, Matrix Reimprinting and breathwork in her practice.

@rebecca_caution
Rebeccacaution.com
Linkedin.com/in/rebecca-caution
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