Unlocking the Power of Balance: Introducing Three Point Balance
Meet Maria:
Maria works hard. She’s a fund-raiser for a very prestigious women’s college.
Maria’s job is stressful. She’s under constant pressure to do more with the Alumni, to bring in bigger pledges and land new donors. Her husband is a professor of history at the same school where Maria works. She’s just sent her youngest of 3 sons off to begin his engineering degree making her an empty nester. Maria has been serving her husband and sons for the last 30 years on top of her fund raising work-it’s like she’s had two full time jobs. Maria is very good at taking care of others but she is not so kind to herself. She’s followed the rules. Kept her head down and suppressed her own needs in the service of everyone around her. But she’s scared. Maria had a mastectomy a few years ago and knows that keeping her weight down and exercising will reduce the risk of cancer recurrence. She hates the weight she’s gained over the years and she has started and stopped exercising more times than she can remember. Maria is examining her life and in her bones she knows it’s time for a change. She’s pursued individual wellness from a hundred different directions but has never found satisfaction. She’s looking for something whole. Something that addresses the heart and mind and body. She’s tired of the diet challenges and beach body workouts. Her heart know’s that its is only in addressing the entire person that she is going to find the change she seeks. Out of balance, Maria’s center is starting to wobble.
“When the center starts to wobble, it’s a pretty sure bet that what’s lacking is not means but depth: a vision rich and sustaining enough to contain all this restless striving and shape it into a more universal and subtle understanding of human purpose.
‘Think; take stock; what do you really want?’”
Cynthia Bourgeault, Chapter I, The Wisdom Way of Knowing Reclaiming an Ancient Tradition to Awaken the Heart.
This is the ground upon which Three Point Balance was born.
Kim Parker Scheid and Michael Simmons met as classmates in Precision Nutrition Level 2 Coaching Master Class and began discussing the state of the online coaching industry. Excited by a shared vision of a company that provides for the whole person. Kim and Mike invited Laura Cristoph to join them. Kim is a PN2 Master Coach and Certified Mind Body Eating Coach; Laura is a Ph.D. in Nutrition, textbook author as well a diplomat of the National Board of Health and Wellness Coaching; Michael is an MD with years of experience in the ER and a PN2 Master Coach. They recognized that “Change can’t happen with our minds alone, or meditation or work. It requires the whole of our beings, brought into balance…to very close tolerances…no cheating, no shortcuts are possible because, in the words of the Mad Hatter in Alice In Wonderland, ‘How you get there is where you’ll arrive.’” {Cynthia Bourgeault, Chapter I, The Wisdom Way of Knowing Reclaiming an Ancient Tradition to Awaken the Heart} To arrive in the place that you want to go, to take action, to become a vibrant, flourishing, energetic person requires Body, Mind and Heart in Balance.
Thinking hard about how to deliver a life changing experience they recognized that a destination health spa is where the most comprehensive services are offered.
At the finest spas clients typically stay for 1-2 weeks and undergo a lifestyle transformation through a comprehensive renewal of mind, body and heart by engaging in physical activities, wellness education, healthy eating, nutritionist consultation and mindfulness practice-attention to the whole person. Indeed, staying at a spa is the ultimate experience in self care and luxury, but at most spas your support ends after the week or two you spend there and change takes time-up to 254 days-for a single habit according to a study reported in the European Journal of Psychology. {Phillippa Lally, Cornelia H. M. van Jaarsveld, Henry W. W. Potts, Jane Wardle, How are Habits 3 Formed: Modeling habit formation in the real world, European Journal of Psychology Vol 40, Issue 6, Oct 2010} Not to mention that destination health spa’s are generally only available to the very wealthy costing as much as $10,000 a week and requiring that you set aside your daily life to travel to location.
What was needed was a comprehensive program dedicated to balance of Body, Mind and Heart that lasted long enough to achieve real change and could be followed from home.
Enter the Boldly Balanced Signature Program: a holistic, year long online approach that looks to empower each client in identifying their unique needs and allowing them to unlock their own special powers. Through community, connection, comprehensive coaching and unrivaled personalization, Three Point Balance has completely reimagined how online coaching can support growth, promote health and guide each client in finding balance between the Body, Mind and Heart.
What does this mean? Balance of Body, Mind and Heart?
What is the body?
The body is movement, balance, perception of position in space (proprioception), sensation, taste, touch, smell, hearing, sight. Your body is how you eat, breath, eliminate waste, recreate, procreate, connect with others, give and receive love. Your body can teach your mind, it carries memories of the past, information about the present moment, and with intuition can predict the future-“gut sense”. Our bodies our how we first present to the world when we are born and they are the last to leave when we die. The body is where we experience health or illness. The body is the seat of the “mind” and the “heart”, thinking, emotion and spiritual knowledge and awareness. The body is action.
What is the Mind?
The mind is the thinking feeling I, where thought, memory, belief, imagination, conscience, consciousness, will, decision making, opinion, control, impressions, judgement, language, feeling live.
What is the Heart?
The heart is the center of a person’s spiritual life. Defining “spiritual” is tricky as “it is in the nature of spirituality to be elusive”. Let us say for our purposes that spirituality is “concerned with meaning, values and creative vision, and most importantly has the power to transform’”. We are not talking about religion here, or even God, necessarily. Religion is "the external expression of faith comprised of beliefs, ethical codes, and worship practices", and spirituality is "the human quest for personal meaning and mutually fulfilling relationships among people, the nonhuman environment, and for some, God.” So it is in the heart where one experiences “purpose, values, meaning-making, being good or ethical, connectedness, transcendence, self-actualization and other-worldly.” {A Review of Scientific Research on Spirituality Ratnakar Rajesh, Nair Shreekumar, July 4 2012 Business Perspectives and Research 1(1):1-12}
We Live in our Minds.
Having looked at the three centers we recognize that we live mostly in our minds. In fact, In the modern western world it is shocking how much we live in our minds. Our work is mental-hours in front of a computer screen barely moving. Lunch is spent staring at a smart phone hardly noticing the lunch you grabbed from the vending machines in the lobby because there wasn’t time to fix a decent lunch before rushing out the door. We get home in the evening angry at the traffic we endured, fix dinner and collapse in front of the TV with our third glass of wine trying to take the edge off. It feels like we never stop moving but in reality we’ve barely moved our bodies all day. We live in our imagination. Bombarded with shiny, perky images on social media and TV, we compare ourselves and see the amazing body Nature has given us as broken and unworthy, our enemy. Distorted body image is rampant. Likewise, many of us of are unacquainted with our heart, our spiritual selves. We're stuck. We make stabs in many directions, resolutions we can't sustain, promises we don’t keep. We begin to believe we are failures, unacceptable. Our inner critic is merciless.
The Three Legged Stool.
This is why Three Point Balance of Body, Mind and Heart so important for coaching. Humans are integral beings-Whole Persons. In order to find lasting life changes all aspects of the person must be engaged. Habits, emotions, beliefs, previous trauma, purpose and values must be considered. An exercise program or “diets” are fine as far they go, but are unlikely to result in any lasting change. To use a well worn metaphor, if one of the legs of the three legged stool is cut off the stool tips over.
Take the Journey
At Three Point Balance we believe that each individual has the wisdom and skills to navigate this difficult journey but most of us need someone to help us find the way. Think of it as living in a large city and having a guide that can take you down all the streets and to all the places you would like to go but don’t know how to get there. Our clients know where they want to go and even have many of the skills needed to make the journey. As coaches we help them find the way.
At Three Point Balance we help you find the wisdom of balancing all three centers-Body, Mind and Heart.
We help you learn to listen to the body through movement and mindfulness. We help you befriend your spiritual self. We support you as you engage your mind in finding and using your superpowers rather than let your mind lead you down blind alley ways of your imagination. We help you look into your own heart and find that spirit of connectedness to others and to the Universe, the connection that will give you the courage to keep going in the face of difficulty and setback. With our help your will find your own way to the destination you seek.
Explore RELATED Articles
