Ministering to Your Soul: Christian Life Coaching
What is Christian Coaching, and what are its benefits? Valerie answers these questions and more in this blog post.
You are probably familiar with the term coaching. You may have friends or family members who have a financial or health coach. In America, where sports are a big part of our culture, we are familiar with coaches of children's sports and professional sports as well.
Coaching outside of the sports world began growing in the 1980s and 1990s. Companies and individuals began to see an increase in success and productivity as one of the significant benefits of learning from the skills and methods of trained coaches.
Here, I will answer common questions about Christian Life Coaching and share with you ways this coaching can be a valuable part of your intentional life.
What makes Christian Life Coaching different from other kinds of coaching?
Christian Life coaching can come in many forms, but the best Christian coaching should be primarily informed by the direction of the Holy Spirit and aid you in a flourishing life as a follower of Jesus. They should be someone who can help you in any area of your life, professional or personal.
What is the difference between coaching, therapy, pastoral counseling, and spiritual direction?
Therapy generally attends to areas of mental health and/or issues of the past and how they affect the present. Diagnosis and desire for behavioral change are usually present. Therapists have a graduate degree and state license. Therapy is usually weekly or bi-monthly.
Pastoral counseling usually attends to spiritual or relational problems. A Pastor will often have a degree in theology or similar religious studies. Pastoral counseling is usually short-term as needed.
Spiritual Direction primarily attends to spiritual struggles, discernment, and areas of spiritual formation. Spiritual Directors should be certified in spiritual direction, and many have degrees in other areas of study. Spiritual Direction is usually monthly or bi-monthly.
Coaching primarily helps a person get from where they are to where they desire to go as inspired by God. Goals for improving awareness, effectiveness, and competence in personal life, spiritual life, leadership, or work are also present. Coaching is usually monthly or bi-monthly.
“Coaching deals mostly with a person’s present and seeks to guide him or her into a more desirable future”
How do I know if coaching might be beneficial to me?
Coaching may be the answer you need if you feel stuck in any area of your life.
Coaching topics include (but are not limited to) work, education, pursuits, prioritization, relationships, and health. Any area in which you would like to see progress and transformation would be a reason to consider coaching.
What could I expect from a coaching session?
Prayer, intentional listening, encouragement, empathy, goals, and next steps are all part of a valuable coaching session. Sessions are usually 45-60 minutes in duration. The amount of sessions needed is based on your individual needs.
Part of my training as a Christian Life Coach includes receiving coaching myself. Having never received coaching until now, I can tell you that it has been personally rewarding. Meeting with an empathic, trained listener who is able to help me move from the high view of my struggles to actionable steps has been valuable.
Christian Life Coaching can be life-giving for you and the care of your soul.
Enjoying the journey of soul care together!
Valerie
As I continue my education as a Spiritual Director, I (Valerie) am also about to complete my classroom training for certification as a Christian Life Coach from Soul Shepherding Ministries.
To find out more about Soul Shepherding, click HERE. If you would like a free 15-minute Q&A with Valerie on spiritual direction or Christian life coaching, you can contact me HERE.
The Best Apps for Intentional Living
Discovers apps and phone shortcuts to reduce screen time and focus in on what’s important in life.
Phone use is a part of every day life in this culture. Technology is not inherently bad or good, it is simply a tool for us to use. It’s something we need to steward, use well, and notice how it affects us and those around us.
In an effort to reduce phone time, I’ve been using some apps that help keep me off my phone and keep me from mindlessly scrolling. I have a few apps and shortcuts I like to use that I’d like to share with you today. I’m also going to share some apps that work as effective tools for intentional living — these apps support my goals and streamline every day activities. Keep scrolling to see my favorite digital minimalism apps and favorite intentional living apps!
My Favorite Apps for Digital Minimalism
One Sec App - I just recently downloaded this app and it has been phenomenal! It’s reduced my endless scrolling and social media app usage. Once you download this app, it walks you through setting up a shortcut on your phone. The shortcut automatically opens the one sec app when you open up an app of your choosing (Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, Mail or whatever app you’d like to stop opening up absentmindedly). The one sec app asks you to take a deep breath and decide whether you want to open your chosen app. You can choose to continue opening it or not. If you choose to continue opening the app, you can select an intention for opening the app. For me, I do some blog work on Instagram, so I’ve added that as an intention, but sometimes I’m just bored or tired and I choose that intention if that’s where I’m really at at the moment. I often avoid the apps I’ve set the shortcut on unless I really truly want to open them now!
Screen Time - this isn’t so much an app as it is a feature on the iPhone. I’ve set up Downtime and App limits as another layer to keep me off my phone at certain times of the day. For Downtime, I start by adding a schedule - I’ve set up a schedule for everyday from 8:30pm - 8am. When my downtime schedule turns on, all but a few apps essentially “turn off” and I’m unable to view them. The only drawback is I can ignore downtime limits. Sometimes this is good when I need to use an app within that schedule, but other times, it’s easy to just ignore it. This schedule allows you to ignore the limit for one minute, fifteen minutes, or ignore for the day. So sometimes I can open the app for the short period of time that I need it and then return to the app being off limits.
I also use screen time to set app limits for certain apps like Instagram and TikTok. I’ve set a limit of 30 minutes per day for these apps. Once I reach the 30 minute time limit, the app “shuts off” as with downtime, but allows me to ignore it for the one minute, fifteen minutes, and for the day as well.
Focus - this works similarly to screen time, it’s a function on my phone as well. I love using focus for work and for Sabbath/the weekend. I can choose to allow certain people to text or call and allow certain apps to push notifications to me, otherwise everything else will not ping me when the notification comes through. Whenever I open my phone I can see the notification, but otherwise I can go hours without being disturbed. I can set up a schedule for these like “when I arrive at work” or Saturdays and Sundays from 8am-8pm.
I might also add that turning off notifications for all of your apps makes a huge difference if you want to start with one small step. Social media and marketing notifications need not bother you in your journey to living a more intentional and more present life!
My Favorite Apps for Intentional Living
These apps help keep me on track for my goals and growth in intentional living. They create an ease in choosing better things in my life!
Read Scripture - this app acts as a Bible reading plan. It’s easy to follow along in the readings and catch up as needed if you fall behind. If you’re wanting to read through the Bible in a year, this app is a great place to start!
the Bible Project - this app houses all of the Bible Project’s videos and blog posts. If you’re reading along on the Read Scripture app, this is a fantastic companion to watch all of the videos that correspond to your daily reading.
Lectio 365 - this app is also a great place to start for daily scripture reading and prayer. Either turn on the audio in the car or read through the prompts each morning and evening.
Youversion Bible - this app started simply as a Bible in digital form, but it has since grown to include hundreds of devotionals as well as short teachings and prayers for their verse of the day. I love to have the Bible app widget on my home screen to look at the verse of the day each time I open my phone.
Libby - the Libby app connects directly to the local library to check out e-books and audiobooks! I’ve recently started listening to more nonfiction audiobooks and this has been a fun way to access them for free. I can place multiple holds on audiobooks or e-books at one time & have two weeks to read them. I’ve asked for extensions and they’ve been granted to me, so if you’re a slower reader, no worries!
Libro.fm -this app works similarly to Audible, but the monthly membership fee goes directly to the local bookstore of your choosing. I love that I can support local in this way! Every month, my fee goes towards one book credit. Credits roll over month to month and don’t expire, plus the audiobooks you do purchase are yours to keep and listen to in your own time.
Headspace - mindfulness has been a huge help in my struggle with anxiety, and taking a few minutes to take a deep breath in the morning has been a peaceful way to start off my day. This app has an annual fee but has an immense amount of resources (like SOS meditations and sleep sounds) and daily videos to keep you grounded.
YNAB -if budgeting is an intentional living goal for you, then give YNAB (You Need A Budget) a try! It’s a great way to keep an eye on your expenses and works as a digital “envelope system”. Designate your money into different categories, save up for big purchases and learn about your spending trends. Keeping this app on my phone helps me keep an eye on things as needed! Find out more on YNAB’s website.
I hope you try out some of these apps to help reduce your screen time or are inspired to do your own research to discover the apps that support your intentional living journey!
Intentional Attention
How are love and attention connected? Can we be intentional with where we are giving our attention?
““The first act of love is always in the giving of attention.” ”
Have you ever paid attention to what you are paying attention to? I’d like to recommend that you give it a try or at least think about it.
I came across the above Dallas Willard quote recently and well, it caught my attention and I began to wonder — what is the connection between love and attention?
Let’s start with some thoughts on attention.
Attention is defined as “the regarding of someone or something as interesting or important.”
What I’ve discovered in my wonderings about attention is that my attention is constantly being vied for from my phone, billboards (such is life in LA), ads on TV and social media, as well as a host of other places. Images are screaming at me to “regard them as interesting or important”. As you are probably aware, soon after the rise of the internet, the smartphone, and social media, we began to hear of terms like “attention economy” and “distraction addiction”. This is the world we now live in.
Now, what about love?
As a follower of Jesus, I am to be growing into a person of love like Jesus. The greatest commandment is to love God and love my neighbor as myself (Matthew 22:37-40). And there’s more!
“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.”
“Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.”
“And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony”
Now some thoughts on using our attention to love God and others. First, I need to be paying attention to God. Some ways that come to mind is through prayer, praise, and reading the Bible. What about loving others? Jesus modeled love by means of attention to all and every kind of people. When we pay attention to people, it is an act of love, because even without words, we are communicating that they are important.
In conclusion, by being intentional with our attention, we can bring more love into our relationships, our homes, our communities, and our world. I hope you will join me today in taking this small step to make the world a better place simply by the giving of your and my attention.