After an initial trickle of stories last year, there seems to be an outpouring now of articles and research concerning how yoga, meditation and mindfulness can improve mental health, not just in adults, but in children and teenagers. In the last few days alone I've read about schools in San Fransisco and in Toronto that have implemented programmes that are providing demonstrable results, and adoption of these programmes is snowballing. By demonstrable, I mean happier children who are behaving more appropriately, willingly, it seems.

This is really great news, especially when you consider that, according to The World Health Organisation (WHO) there are around 350 million people in the world who will suffer from some form of mental illness during their life. And further, according to the WHO factsheet, almost 50% of mental health issues begin before the age of 14. Frightening stuff. So it's great to see the momentum building, and more and more children and young adults being given access to tools and techniques that can help to improve their mental and physical fitness.

PHOTO: Rene Johnston / Toronto Star (c)

My initial reaction to this article was excitement, what a fabulous idea and how progressive of this council leader to implement it. Then I thought about it a little, as I read down to the bottom of the page. Life coaches do help clients deal with weight and fitness issues (frequently), but depression? Anxiety? These are not within the realms of a life coach, these are counselling areas. The two are very different. Coaching is non-directive, or should be. If someone is in the depths of depression, how can they be expected to see the wood for the trees, let alone see the path out of it?  As a professional Life Coach, I would refer them to their GP or a specialist mental health professional. I may offer them some yoga or meditation, which has been shown to help, but I would certainly not look to ‘treat’ mental health conditions.

It may just be that the story wasn’t reported clearly, and that the additional training the volunteers will receive may well cover the counselling side of things. In any case, I’m sure this initiative will help a great many people, not to mention lighten the burden on the provision of health services locally. Taking a more holistic approach to health care provision is long overdue and I salute Ian Stewart (pictured) and the team who will implement this great idea.

Life Coach for Every Resident.....

Photo of Ian Stewart, Mayor of Salford, courtesy of Manchester Evening News

How amazing is this? The world's oldest marathon runner retires, aged 101, but that's not the most amazing thing for me about this story. What I think is truly inspirational is that this man, having suffered a double bereavement within a short time, decided to CHANGE HIS LIFE aged.........wait for it.............89!

"Singh took up running at the age of 89 as a way to get over depression after his wife and son died in quick succession in India." Read all about it.....
http://bit.ly/X6GzUy