JOY – Journey. Ocean. Yee-ha!

A Coaching Model By Malindar Jit Kaur, Mindfulness and Wellbeing Coach, MALAYSIA

The JOY  “Journey. Ocean. Yee-ha!”

If you carry joy in your heart, you can heal any moment. – Carlos Santana

JOY Model – The Journey

A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step – Lao Tzu

Thousands of years ago, in Thailand, a towering statue of the Buddha was made of gold. The monks would pray before it, people would behold its beauty. All the passers-by would revere the remarkable masterpiece. Then, word spread of a coming great invasion from foreign attackers and it became clear the idol could be stolen.

So, the monks hatched a plan to hide it, placing layers after layers of soil over the Golden Buddha. Until it became unrecognisable. The invaders marched right by it, to the relieve of the monks.

Centuries later, a visitor caught a glimmer of gold emerging from a small mountain of earth. As more people dug away at the covering, more gold appeared. Eventually, they found it was the Buddha, made completely of the precious metal.” Robin Sharma, The Everyday Hero Manifesto

The JOY coaching model is a holistic inwards journey that you will take to REMEMBER that you are the “Buddha” or the Authentic Self or the Joyful self, thus, eliminating the layers of ignorant dust that have been accumulated over time. You have within you all the infinite potential to live life joyfully, fearlessly, healthily, and magnificently.

This is the journey for those who want to lead a purpose-driven life by choosing joy, leading a 200% life by striking a balance between inner growth and external success. The model encompasses:

• Creative mindfulness exercises and practices
• Topics of joy in different categories leading to self-development and self-awareness

JOY Model – The Ocean of JOY Categories

Every time I slip into the ocean, it’s like going home. – Sylvia Earle

The JOY Coaching Model sees the ocean as the place of unconditional love and joy and the client being a functional drop in this ocean. The client takes a dip in this inner ocean and brings JOY outwards in different categories of life, for example:

• Joy in self-love
• Joy in letting go
• Joy in humanity
• Joy in relationships
• Joy in silence
• Joy in health and wellbeing

JOY Model – Living from the state of Yee-ha!

The present moment is filled with joy and happiness. If you are attentive, you will see it. – Thích Nhat Hanh.

Yee-ha! focuses on “BEING” Joyful in every area and stage of life. The benefits that can be celebrated from living in this JOY state are numerous, for example:

• Being the creator of your own destiny
• Be accountable for your own actions
• Being grateful and joyful for all that is already there
• Gain the understanding that “like energy attracts like energy”
• Have improvements in self-love and self-care leading to better relationships
• Transform at every given opportunity
• Be more appreciative of the present moment
• Be curious, open, and receptive to life
• Looking at yourself from the loving eyes vs. the judging eyes
• Balance the material and spiritual planes easily
• Improve total wellbeing and reduce negative emotions
• Be more mindful of thoughts and actions
• Enjoy a better quality of life by being grounded and centered
• Regain your sense of purpose
• Be alert, focused, and more productive throughout the day
• Make better use of the energy body to diffuse the thoughts and connection to the breath
• Have strong support systems to help stay on track with goals and actions
• Continuously work on self-development to achieve goals
• Make appropriate lifestyles changes
• Improve performance and productivity
• Enjoy being healthy
• Make more conscious choices
• Letting go and having freedom from limitations
• Finding your alignment
• Experiencing more peace and calmness
• Looking at each area of life and understanding it from the Joy perspective gives more meaning to life
• Foster better relationships and serve humanity better

There is a diamond hidden in every problem. The JOY Coaching Model helps clients to look for that diamond, celebrate the present moment that is filled with joy in every area of life, mine their gifts, refine their talents, reveal their eminence, and make a difference in the world by being your true Authentic joyful self.

JOY is the over-arching coaching model; however, I am using WANT which is the first step to the JOY to describe my coaching steps.

What. Awareness. NextSteps. Today

Step 1: What Do You Want?

Want is such a short word, and yet it can encompass so many infinite things – Katy Evans

What we are creating consciously or ignorantly eventually gets manifested and that’s the experience that we endure in the physical plane. We often hear people complaining or being victims of circumstances rather than creating what they want for themselves. The most pertinent question that one should ask ourselves daily is “What do I want?”

In this step:

• The coach understands the client’s situation to be worked on
• The coach understands what is the client’s desired outcome and ascertains the client’s agenda per the coaching session
• The client addresses issues that are preventing them from leading their desired life
• The client gains clarity on their present state, current reality, and values

It is useful to ask the following questions:

1. What joy category do you want to work on?
2. What brings you joy?
3. What do you want to achieve in this session?
4. What would you like to resolve in order to achieve your goal?

Step 2: Awareness Shining Through

Be your own light – Buddha

The client is healthy, whole, and resourceful, and thus has all the answers to their questions and solutions. In this step, the client takes an inner journey of being the book and the reader of their own lives, allowing the clients to face and resolve limitations, leading to the light shining in through new awareness and insights.

In this step:

• The client gains awareness of their belief systems, thinking process, values, emotions, feelings, limitations, and perceptions
• The coach helps the client to go deeper to reframe the client’s perspectives and see new opportunities
• The client learns the lesson about the joy category topic that they brought up, has deeper learning about themselves which can be applied to other areas of their lives
• The coach shines a light on the clients’ energy shifts and acknowledges the client’s awareness

A coach can ask the following questions:

1. You went very quiet, what is opening up for you?
2. What is your perspective now?
3. What is now possible for you?
4. What are you learning about your joy topic right now?

Step 3: Next Steps?

If it’s what you want to do and it’s within yourself, then try to get momentum out of it to do it for the rest of your life. – Jake Gyllenhaal.

Once awareness sets in, the momentum helps the client to move forward with actions, gain support and takes account of their own personal joy journeys.

In this step:

• The client is ready to lead a new life based on the goal that now seems possible
• The client gets into a robust action planning stage, breaking the goals into bite-size pieces that are realistic and sets timelines to execute the goals
• The client works on the obstacles that can hinder their progress
• In order to execute the action steps, the client seeks strong support systems, either, externally using technology or persons around or working with their own inner ocean of guidance
• The client realizes that they are the creators of their own destinies and take accountability for the joyful life that they want for themselves

The coach may ask the following questions:

1. What is the first baby step you will take?
2. When will you take that step?
3. What can come in the way of you executing this step?
4. What resources will support you?
5. On a scale of 1 to 10 what is your commitment and confidence level for walking on the path you are designing for yourself?
6. Having identified your action steps, how are you feeling?

Step 4: Today I Consciously Choose to Live Joyfully

The point of power is always the present moment – Louise L Hay

The client is empowered to lead this new leaf with joy and makes conscious choices to embrace and seize the present moment.

In this step:

• The client is taken away the jewel of lessons with themselves
• The client takes responsibility that the present moment is all there is and finds ways to continue making conscious choices, working continuously on small wins, thus promoting better wellbeing and a life filled with internal and external joy.

The coach may ask the questions like:

1. What are your thoughts about the goal that you wanted to achieve in our coaching session?
2. How will you use this joyful energy going forward?
3. What are you learning about yourself?
4. How will you apply your learnings to the larger picture of your life?