Shift your life by shifting your emotions, advises Ballito transformation coach

Our relationships, self-confidence, social, financial, career, physical health and parenting are all affected by our emotional well-being, says Ballito transformation coach Claudia Greenwood. 

Claudia, who moved to Ballito about 2 years ago, and is based at Northcare Medical Centre, emphasizes that emotional health is as important to one’s quality of life as good nutrition and physical exercise. 

“In order to experience your best life, pay attention to your emotions and be aware of the thoughts that led to that emotion.”

Claudia began her journey 30 years ago, coaching and helping people maneuver through their lives in a happy and healthy manner.

Her passion lies in helping people realize their true self and how phenomenal they are, despite the impacts of their experiences in life. 

Emotion is energy, where negative emotion may be experienced as heavy and positive emotion as light, she said.

“When you are feeling good, you believe you can achieve anything. You are on top of the world and you have a zest for life. When you are in a negative emotional state, you feel tired, weak, drained and unhappy. Any task becomes difficult. It is up to the individual to decide to go through life with ease, by choosing to change their perception – firstly of the self, then other people and experiences.”

Based on her knowledge and experience with people, Claudia believes negative emotions penetrate the cells, causing diseases such as influenza, high blood pressure, cancer and immunity disorders.

“Our relationships, self-confidence, social, financial, career, physical health and parenting are all affected by our emotions,” she said.

She said the coronavirus pandemic had forced us to look within (as much of our external distractions had been removed) and take notice of our negative emotions – fear, anxiety and loneliness. 

“We can use the opportunity of our awareness to explore the causes of these emotions and discover how we can effectively manage them in order to live our best lives.”

She recommended acknowledging negative emotions without judgement and being conscious of our mental chatter – the things we tell ourselves about ourselves, people, our environment and the events that we experience.

Being in a conscious state, we could mentally ask:

Are the stories we tell ourselves really what is happening in this moment? Are these stories serving us? 

“It is what it is. Events happen in life. It is how we think about the event that determines what our experience of the event will be.”