How to be Successful in this Course_Final

>> Hello again. From our preview of the course so far, you probably noticed that we'll be covering a lot of information. There is a lot to learn, but it doesn't have to be overwhelming. Having the right strategy and mindset can make all the difference in your professional and academic pursuits. To set you up for success from day one, in this lecture, we'll go over a few tips and tools for how to integrate the information you learned. And how to utilize what you've learned when working with clients. Specifically, I'll walk you through our top five tips for success in this course. Ready? Let's jump right in. Tip number one, let go of the need to have all the answers. Have you ever felt overwhelmed navigating the supplement aisle and whole foods or your local health food store, or perhaps, discouraged by that contradicting information offered by every diet from Paleo to Ketogenic. You're not alone. Nutritionists are confused, doctors are overwhelmed, the science is contradictory, and this is exactly why your clients are coming to you. But it doesn't mean that you're expected to have and memorize every answer. Your job as a Health Coach isn't to know all the answers. Gut health as a field is in its infancy and no one has all the answers. Your role as a Health Coach is to provide support and guidance to your clients as they navigate the resources and solutions that work best for them. You don't need to wait until you know everything about gut health. It's okay to refer back to your notes from this course, in between sessions or look up answers as you go. If you wait until you feel totally ready before starting to put yourself out there, you may never do it. And that would be doing a huge disservice to yourself and all of the people out there who need your help. Remember, your clients are not coming to you because of a lack of information. They need your help to sift through it and apply what's true for them. Tip number two, utilize your Facebook group and the support from your course moderators. Beyond the material, we provide you with the biggest benefit of taking this course is the amazing community you're now a part of. We encourage you to fully take advantage of it. The absolute best way to do this is connecting with your classmates and course moderators in the Facebook group. If you haven't been there yet, I encourage you to check it out as soon as we're done listening to this lecture. You receive a link to the course Facebook group in the welcome email you were sent at the time of enrollment. If you can't find it, contact the helpdesk through the learning center and they'll get you hooked up with the new like. This group is your own private community where you can share ideas, support, information, and encouragement with your classmates. It's also a place to receive mentorship and personalize support from your course moderators. These are members of the IIN Education Team who have expert knowledge in gut health. Joshua will even be in there to encourage and support you too. We'll be using the Facebook group to hold several discussions each week on the material presented to you in that module so it's a great way to apply your learning, share your thoughts, ask for support and clarification. In fact, we're already in there chatting away right now. This group will only be as dynamic as you make it, so I encourage you to make the most of it. Tip number three, build upon concepts you learned in the Health Coach Training Program. In this course, we'll provide you with a lot of information that already fits into your existing knowledge of IIN concepts, so use what you already know as a framework. For example, bio-individuality is a concept that you learned in the Health Coach Training Program. Gut bacteria in the state of our gut health may play a large role in explaining why some foods work well for some and not for others. The condition of the gut can explain why people have strong cravings and how this might emerge outside of their thinking. Understanding the chemistry behind these cravings can help your clients relieve the guilt that's often associated and provide better solutions. We'll cover why certain foods may cause reactions for some, but not for others. This may be based on personal history. Whether the person have a lot of antibiotics, exposure to toxins, pesticides. No one person has the same gut bacteria composition and no one diet works for everyone. Now we may have the science to prove it. Now let's move on to tip number four, experience and awareness are your biggest allies. It's an exciting time to be working in the field of gut health because we're entering an age where many of the ideas we intuitively held, such as, gut feeling sending information to our brains, now have valid explanations in science. We're learning that leading full life involves being able to hear the gut and cultivate a healthy gut instinct. We'll provide you with a ton of great information in this course so you can build foundational knowledge, but the best way to truly understand, apply your knowledge, and teach your clients to tune into their gut is to learn how to listen to yours. A great way to be successful in this course is to keep a diary of your gut feelings throughout the day. How do you feel after eating certain foods or being around various people like your coworkers during a meeting? When recording your gut feelings, try to avoid judgment, just notice and record. We've included a handout in this module called "Gut Feelings" to help you get started with tracking these feelings. We encourage you to utilize this worksheet and to continue to practice throughout the course. A great way to do this is to keep an online or paper journal to write down what you need each day along with your daily observations of how you feel physically, mentally, spiritually. This is something you want to encourage your clients to do, so it's great to walk your talk and get in the practice yourself. Also, to help you apply the content you learn in this course, to your coaching practice will provide exercises and activities to help you and your clients learn how to listen to your gut because as we mentioned, the gut is your biggest feeling organ, impressions from the gut travel up to the brain and create memories. The more you can become conscious and aware of your gut feelings, the more information you're provided to make decisions and choices in alignment with your health and well-being. Over time as you begin to trust your gut, you'll find in second nature to successfully collaborate with various health care practitioners. Support your friends and your family and help clients achieve the results they desire, all without skipping over your own feelings and needs. This may take practice, but remember, experience and awareness will be your biggest allies. We know you're busy and it can be hard to get all your priorities in one day, but we encourage you not to cut corners by skipping the experiential exercises in this course that will help you build this critical awareness. You'll only get out of this course as much as you put in, so we hope that you'll take the time to reflect on what you're feeding the gut and the messages it sends you. You are your own best resource for learning. Tip number five, think of a body as an interconnected system. Throughout the course, it will be important to remember that the human body is an interconnected system, not something that's broken down into individual parts, which is how it's typically studied. We're focusing on the gut, but the key point to walk away with from this course is that the gut can communicate with various organs and systems and those organs and systems communicate back to the gut. For example, if the gut perceives something that triggers a memory of danger, it will send the signal to the brain to prepare the immune system to take a defensive stance. If you ever become repulsed by, and otherwise, delicious food that once made you sick, this is why the gut doesn't differentiate between real and perceived threats. Whether you have a work deadline or you're being chased by a tiger. It's all the same. The gut only has one reaction for stress. Digestion slows, digestive juices stop flowing, and our organs contract. When it comes to reducing stress, some of the best defenses are meditation, retraining the brain and above all, having awareness. Healthy digestion also requires an integrated approach. Only when we reduce stress can we truly hear and trust our guts. As you progress through this course, practice flexing your awareness. Think about your current clients where the people you know best in your life and start looking for any patterns they reveal about how gut health might be affecting their mood or sleep. For example, if you have a client that reports having nightmares, ask them if this happens when they eat a large meal before bed. If a client reports feelings of anxiety, take a look at what they're eating and when these feelings come up, are they anxious when they consume certain foods? It's outside your scope of practice as a Health Coach to diagnose any client, but you can play detective. Explore emerging signs and symptoms and then refer your clients to the appropriate medical professional for a formal diagnosis. This is a critical step to take before continuing your work with any client to ensure that you're minimizing your liability and ethically only providing them with the services you're trying to do within your profession. Now let's recap. The top five tips for success we went over this lecture are let go of the need to have all the answers, utilize the Facebook group in your course moderators, build upon concepts you learned in the Health Coach Training Program, experience and awareness are your biggest allies, and think of the body as an interconnected system. If you walk away with one thing from this course, let it be the desire and willingness to listen to your gut and understand the value and the power of this proposition. In turn, you'll be able to help your clients listen to their guts and this may just be the greatest gift you can give to someone. Finally, I'd like to leave you with one last tip. As we touched on earlier stress impacts the gut, so do your best to enjoy this course and not stress too much. Remember, it's better for your gut and brain function. Have fun and we hope you enjoy this course as much as we enjoyed creating it. Which one of these tips did you find the most useful? How will you implement it into your practice this week? Head on over to the Facebook group and let us know. Thanks for tuning in and see you next time.