Summer Coaching 2025
As the pace of life slows down and the days stretch a little longer, summer offers a natural opportunity to pause, reflect, and realign. It’s a season not just for rest and sunshine, but also for clarity and gentle growth. In this latest blog post, our experienced in-house life coach, Cathy Eden, shares her insight into the power of setting intentions and meaningful goals during the summer months.
Whether you're looking to cultivate more balance, reconnect with your values, or take steps toward personal or professional aspirations, this guide offers practical tips to help you create a summer that feels purposeful and fulfilling - on your terms.
Let’s dive in.
The Importance of a Mid-Year Summer Stock Check
Summer affects us all differently. For some people, the longer days mean sunshine, good times and a chance to unwind. For others, this time of year means extra pressure to be available, busy and socially 'on'. Many of my coaching clients find themselves at this stage of the year feeling overstretched and depleted. It's common to fall into patterns of putting everyone else's needs first whilst neglecting our own. Before these habits become entrenched for the rest of the year, late summer gives us an opportunity to pause and reassess how we're coping.
3 Steps: A Summer Check In – Reflective Practice
Make yourself an iced drink and take some time out to journal about the following
reflections:
1) Ask Yourself: Start with a gentle but honest evaluation of how you are. Consider these reflective questions and make a note in your journal. "When do I feel most stressed or frustrated ?" and "If I allowed myself to slow down, what activities would I let go of? and “What would I do more of?"
2) Be Aware: Notice if your mind immediately offers resistance. You might notice thoughts like "I can put myself first. Other people depend on me " or "Everything is my responsibility". If thoughts like this show up, take a moment to see if you can recognise whether these are thoughts and not necessarily facts.
While sometimes, these thoughts reflect our reality, at other times, these responses are reflections of values that we hold about caring for other people. These values of wanting to hold it all ourselves is admirable, but these values can also become rigid rules that keep us making choices that exhaust us.
3) Reframe: Instead of immediately accepting or disputing these thoughts, ask yourself: “What would it look like if I was able to honour both my care for others AND my own wellbeing? What would I be doing more of, or less of ?”
Ways to Stay On Top of Work/Life Balance
Self-care, self-care and more self-care! I don’t just mean bubble baths and spa days (although that could be part of it). What I mean is committing to doing more of the things that restore your wellbeing. It could mean 30 minutes of gentle movement every day, improving your sleep, putting in some boundaries, eating well, taking screen breaks or spending time with supportive people and limiting your time with people who drain your resources. Whatever you need to help you recharge your mental and physical batteries. In coaching, I often meet people who struggle with guilt around looking after themselves. Sometimes, people view the idea of self-care as being 'selfish'. If this resonates with you, it might help to reframe self-care as 'self-preservation' instead.
Looking after yourself doesn't take away from what you can offer others. It actually helps you to become better resourced, to take care of yourself and those you care about. Pay attention to your energy patterns throughout each day and week. Are you running on fumes without acknowledging it?
Focus on small, manageable changes. What realistic boundaries or limits could you put in place? Perhaps you could put some time aside one evening a week for yourself, even if it's just for an hour? Could you set a limit for work-related communications during time at home?
Practice saying ‘no’ to requests or commitments that don't serve your wellbeing. Try it. It might be easier than you think! Remember that healthy boundaries demonstrate self-respect and teach others valuable lessons about how to take care of themselves too.
If you’d like to hear more from me, check out this podcast, Finding Magic, where I talk about my approach to coaching (see the episode Finding Magic Within). Do tune in – it’s a chance for you to find out more about me and how I work so you can see if we might be a good fit to work together.
More Info
The shift from summer to autumn is great time to think about making meaningful changes. If you’d like some support to move things forward you can book a free introductory session by emailing [email protected]
