Introducing Cardamom Coaching

What I love about my work is the transformative positive and healthy effect the ancient practices of Ayurveda and yoga have on myself and others. 

For the past few months on the business front, I have been learning about balancing AI technology with my need to feel anchored and rooted to the past, between showcasing my skills and values in the public domain to staying hidden.  To re-affirm to myself that I have enough resources, skills and knowledge under my belt to share.

I have been producing marketing material and have at last settled on a final feel of the website.  I totally forgot along the way, that the website is meant to drive traffic and sales, getting lost in the creative process for hours at a time.  I sometimes think that I should have employed a marketing company years ago but then I would not have learnt a lot about myself in the process.  I have an obsession to detail, a strive for perfection, I procrastinate a lot, I go down rabbit holes marvelling at what others have done or created.  It is both an enjoyable and frustrating journey as I bounce from idea to idea, not quite settling. It is in part it is a safe place but also lends itself to my invisibility as I constantly tinker behind the scenes not actually making connections or in very real terms making a living. 

Trying to capture who exactly I am and what I am about in the virtual world has been nigh on impossible and that is, because I myself keep changing.  Though when I quieten the mind with meditation, I know there is an anchor.  It is the same for all of us, working from the soul.  When we function in alignment with it, it feels just right.  For me, the true authentic self is revealed and parts of me are expressed in my website.

I came to learn that my sense of feeing stuck in my professional life has nothing to do with lack of skills, training or expertise but rather is something else altogether.    This journey of self-discovery has been facilitated and continues to be illuminating, mostly through self-reflection, meditation and a yoga practice. 

Self-referral and investigation has led me here, along with the support of my Chopra family and friends in the yoga sphere.  I have peeled back some layers which have enabled my true, organic self to be hidden for so long.  Losing my father as a young child definitely had an impact as did my lack of cultural identity.   Roll forward five decades and my lack of focus, uncertainty, inability to ask for help and I'm sure other trauma response qualities have, held me back from realising my potential.  I kept myself small and I have unwittingly followed this pattern throughout my adult life.   For several decades it offered protection however it also meant that I have not been as impactful as I could have been.  I recognise now however, that invisibility no longer serves me and it is time to show up, believe in oneself and give it a go.   It is after all what my work is about, helping clients recognise the light they have within them and giving them practical tools and strategies to realise it in their day to day living.

Ayurveda in particular has helped me to flourish is realising what my true organic state is.  A mind-body (dosha) assessment serves as the baseline to assess whether you are in balance in your mind/body or if you are imbalanced.  From there you can learn practices which will move you towards optimal well-being.   In my case, I have a dominant dosha, a Vata personality.  In Ayurvedic terms this reading of the mind-body composition is one of the elements of air and space, responsible for movement, thought and perception.  A pitta dominant personality features fire and water and kapha is earth and water dominant.  Though we all have these energies (air, space, fire, water and earth) to greater or lesser degrees which also ebb and flow during the lifecourse.

A Vata personality, when in balance is charming, inquisitive and creative, fun loving, raring to explore and a tendency to just go off piste at the drop of a hat.  The flip side of this restlessness, may come difficulty with focusing and impulsivity, an anxious disposition and tendency to worry. I wonder if modern Western science may label it ADHD or suchlike, though I don't much care for knowing if I am honest, I have come to terms with myself and rather like being me. 

Consistently drawing upon ancient practices when life or my thoughts bounce around enables me to feel grounded, much needed for those of us with a Vata dominant dosha.  I practice Ahimsa, one of the eight limbs of (Patanjali's) yoga: this is self-compassion.  Invaluable when my thoughts or projects run off in all directions and I give myself a hard time for not finishing a task.  I remember that I am simply doing my best with what and who I am and that is good enough.  A practice of relinquishing attachment to outcome also reminds me that am not in control of everything.   I have a notion that the Universe has a path laid out before me anyway, so this helps me to worry less; in modern terms 'what will be, will be'. 

And so to my new name for my website: introducing 'Cardamom Coaching', Holistic Health and Well-Being.  The reason for this change is that someone I know, who has been in the coaching game a few decades mentioned that the phrase Life Coach is out of synch in what was and has been an unregulated field (a bit like yoga - you can do a weekend course and call yourself a Yin Yoga Teacher for example, not strictly untrue but the association with yoga implies a lengthy and established connection to the discipline). Or you can hot foot it off to India, come back with a 200hr certification and do the same, the ability to put one's legs behind one's head apparently testament to how good at yoga you are and thus expert to teach. 

So I have ditched the rather uninventive initials and 'Life Coaching' title.  Instead plumping for something nearer my heart, 'cardamom' or 'cardamon' as it is also known. It is a lovely little spice which originates in the Western Ghats of India used medicinally and in cooking in South Asia especially.  

My mother is from this area (Kerala) and I worked in small rural villages dotted along the coastline as an anthropologist in the 1990s when I was documenting the migration patterns of child labourers for a non-governmental organisation.

According to Ayurveda, Cardamom is tridoshic, which is good for balancing all doshas (Vata, Pitta, Kapha).

Cardamom is considered an excellent digestive, especially beneficial in reducing bloating and intestinal gas, expelling excess Kapha and Vata from the stomach and lungs, which can help soothe respiratory pathways and support optimal breathing. The seeds are often chewed to refresh the breath also. When combined with milk, cardamom is said to help relieve stress and anxiety and helps to induce sleep.

So my business name blends East and West, and my approach to life aims to provide you with relevant personalised strategies and tools you need so that you can overcome obstacles and achieve your fullest potential.  This means, calling upon whatever it is from wherever it is from to help you live optimally, healthily, happily and authentically, enabling you to make the most of your time on earth so that you flourish.

Your journey to self-discovery is my priority.  I express gratitude that you allow me to walk this path with you, I see it as continuing the work of my ancestors.

My role is to listen with patience and grace, to observe, to provide knowledge and guidance and to support you so that you may explore your own creativity and imagination to evolve.  My hope is that collectively we can counter the many stresses felt in modern life by creating good health and well-being, fostering an environment of patience, kindness, love, respect and generosity in the pursuit of peace at not only an individual level but a wider global level. 

Drawing of Cardamom Pods