Holistic health can be used to grow our health business as a therapist, coach, yoga teacher and in any business!

Awareness tools

Holistic health tools can give us insight, inspiration with new ideas and AWARENESS of the processes that we are going through. After all, building a business is all about growing and expanding in new ways that require us to learn, to be open and create routines that will help us thrive.

By using holistic health tools to build our business, we can also tap into ways to practice daily self-care. On a personal level, this will also help us manage our energy and gain clarity in our current experiences. Too often, as business owners, we can get caught up in giving a lot of energy to our work and forget how important it is to recharge our own energy resources.

Holistic tools for planning your next step forward. Inspired action is important, but first comes the planning part! The holistic tools that I am going to share with you are perfect for planning and building a foundation for the next steps in your business – whether you are at the beginning of planning your business or in need of inspiration to make changes to your current business.

Holistic Tool 1 – Visualization

Visualization is a powerful tool. I like to see it as being a valuable way to walk our hearts and mind through a journey. We can start using visualization to build a fuller picture, engage in our creative Selves and allow our Self to have a safe space to connect to possibilities.

Visualization is often used as a tool in Sports psychology. Yes, elite athletes do use visualization as part of their training. Think of a runner who has trained hard for their 100m race. By using visualization (also often referred to as imagery and guided meditation), they would walk their mind through each part of the training… from stepping up and getting their body into position at the starting line through to the end when they cross the finish line. It is not just about visualizing the goal of getting the gold medal – The crucial part is using this to go through the whole experience and set your mind and heart into the process. Experiencing the small details and getting familiar with how it feels.

So how does this work for planning and growing a business? In the same way that an athlete picks an area to visualize and go through the details, we can also use this in any area of our business. I will give some real examples so you can see how this can be put into practice in a health business setting.

Examples of visualization in business:

► A therapist who is seeking a new therapy office to work from.

Jane is seeking a therapy office to start seeing her psychotherapy clients. She is getting ready to see a few places where she is planning to rent the therapy space in an existing therapy clinic. She is unsure what she is seeking in an ideal space so she uses visualization to explore the experience.

For this, she starts to visualize the experience as a therapist walking into the therapy clinic – Reflection questions she uses: What would my experience as a therapist look and feel like when I enter the door? What would I like to see and feel as I walk into my therapy space? What would the ideal reception area look like? Do I feel happy in a small or big clinic? What would my ideal therapy room look and feel like? These are the types of questions she asks her Self as she allows her mind to walk through the ideal space she would like to work from. She also uses this to visualize the client’s experience and gain their point of view.

By doing this for a week, she starts to become aware of the small details that she may have easily missed out on – For Example: The type of lighting she would like in her office, the ideal size of the reception area and what they offer. As Jane started to visit different therapy clinics, she could now easily spot and connect to the details that she was looking for in her ideal space.

► A health coach who is re-designing their website and branding.

Andrew is not happy with his website and wants a complete rebrand. He already has a website, logo etc but he feels that there needs to be a change – to reflect more of who is and to enhance the client’s experience.

Through visualization, he starts to imagine that he is already looking at his new website… He walks his imagination through the home page first. Starting from the top, he allows his mind to explore what kind of logo he would like to see. Reflection questions he uses: What colours would I like to see? What would the layout be? What images am I attracted to? He slowly goes through each page, getting a mental image and feeling for what he wants. After this, he realises that he wants to have a more neutral minimalist website using lighter neutral colours and that his logo also needed to be simplified and clear.

What happens if you are not a visual person and struggle to visualize?

Good question! Each person is unique and will experience visualization and imagery differently. A good way to start using visualization when you don’t know where to begin and/or find it hard to visualize naturally is to start to bring in other senses. From the previous examples, both of them could use their sight sense by collecting images online or through magazines to get an idea of what they wanted (in a form of a vision board or collections of pictures online). This is a good place to start. We can be as creative as possible to find ways to add other senses to the visualization method.

Simple works best! Start off using just one simple area and work your way through it. Try the same steps with the same area for a set amount of time (for example: for the next 10 days)to get familiar and build on it gradually. Create a daily habit that is consistent around it. Make this part of your relaxation time. Don’t complicate it and soon it may start to get easier to do.

Holistic Tool 2 -Journal Writing

Writing a journal is perfect to use alongside the visualization. By keeping and writing a journal every time you do your visualizations, you will be able to track, reflect and explore your progress. It is a way of releasing what we are feeling inside in a physical form, which is very grounding. I always recommend using pen and paper as a journal method (no technology, old-school).

There is no right or wrong way to journal. It does not have to look perfect or neat as it is for your own personal use and you can have a lot of fun trying new exercises as you get inspired. Track how you feel, experience and imagine your business ideas to turn out.

Holistic Tool 3 – Energy Management

You might have already heard of time management, stress management and anger management… There is also our own energy management. How are you managing your energy each day? Do the things and tasks you do for your business inspire you or drain your energy? And if you find that one area is always draining your energy, what can you do to change this? This is something you can try with visualization and journal writing. Explore what is coming up for you when you do reflect and visualize certain parts of your business.

Getting out of your own comfort zone to grow a thriving business. This is my favourite way of bringing all of these 3 holistic tools together… Getting comfortable with being uncomfortable when we are doing new things that often scare us. Visualising something that feels exciting to try next, building all the pieces of the picture together, writing down ideas of how to take action and then seeing how our energy grows out of our comfort zone along with my Self-confidence.

With energy management, I suggest writing and feeling why there are resistances that come up. Don’t skip this part! A common example is the fears and blocks that often come up with our money and abundance mindset when we start to plan something for our business. We often get in our own way because we need to work through belief systems that may be holding us back. How you feel and your energy levels will tell you a lot about your connection to resistances and why you feel them.

You can also use your existing daily routine in your business (and any area of your life) with these 3 tools to see what still makes you feel inspired inside. Or if you start to feel your energy levels drop every time you do a certain task, connect to a certain situation or person etc then you can explore why you feel this way.

Final thoughts…

As you can see, the possibilities of using these 3 holistic tools are endless in how we can plan and grow our health business. If you make this part of your regular routine, it usually becomes easier with time – and often may start to feel like second nature! So start the first step now…

What is one area of your health business which you would like to focus on and explore today using these tools?