The Power of Appreciation: Practicing a positivity bias toward yourself and others

We believe coaching is about helping people go from potential to performance. In this episode, we share a very special conversation and coaching session between Brian Schubring and Nathan Freeburg. Brian walks Nathan through our appreciation-focused coaching session, one of 12 different processes we use with clients. They discuss appreciation, different ways that we can appreciate ourselves and appreciate others, and how that can help bolster our self-awareness and knowledge around Strengths.

If you have questions about our conversation, our coaching process, or any of our coaching services, please reach out to me at nathan@leadershipvisionconsulting.com. We’d love to hear from you!

The Power of Appreciation

When we appreciate and honor ourselves, we are recognizing the people and causes who have helped nurture and support us along the way. Appreciating ourselves provides us with resiliency and confidence. Most people find it easy to express gratitude and show appreciation to others. But what about expressing gratitude toward ourselves? Self-appreciation is not selfish, it is a way to see ourselves more.

Sometimes when we look at ourselves in the midst of our relationships and associations, we are trying to balance what we bring to the table, and what we don’t bring. Sometimes we often focus on trying to get rid of negative thoughts or mediate them at the expense of really recognizing what we bring to the situation. This process of appreciation really explores more holistically who you are and what you have to offer as a person.

To appreciate ourselves, we need to give ourselves the chance to press pause and reflect on the journey that has brought us here. The journey that has brought us here isn’t just experiences or choices and decisions that we’ve made. It’s also the outlying or outer resources have also helped shape us and get us to where we are today. The opportunity to focus and reflect on appreciation can reveal areas of your life where you’re paying attention to things that are truly life-giving. Maybe you’re paying attention to things that are noisier, more distracting, or not that clear.

Reflection, Awareness, and Influence 

Our process of reflection, awareness, and influence is about appreciating how we have overcome challenges or obstacles, taken advantage of opportunities that are given to us, and how we’ve been resilient through the process.

We encourage you to lean into this self-appreciation as it helps provide a sense of confidence and assurance for what you are to do in the here and now, as well as provide you with a healthy sense of pride. Remembering these things can give us a sense of courage, a sense of greater confidence that we’ve been through before, and that there could be some more wisdom to be learned from this time of reflection.

In our appreciation-focused coaching session, Brian poses the following questions to reflect on this healthy sense of pride. Use them to guide your own reflections on self-appreciation.

Reflection

• What 3-5 qualities do you appreciate about yourself? 
• How do these qualities make you feel proud? 

Awareness

• What people or causes helped nurture you along the way? 
• If you could thank them,  what would you say? 

Influence

• Where and with whom do you feel most appreciated?  
• Who can you express appreciation to today? 

The Practice of Self Appreciation

Part of the practice of self-appreciation is to appreciate not only the holistic, whole-person way of seeing yourself but also to appreciate the moment where you can be present now without the need to strive into tomorrow or critically reflect too much on the past.

• How can we be anchored in an appreciation of the opportunity that we have right now?
• How can we have a healthy sense of self-appreciation for the unique, gifted people that we really are without getting stuck or trapped in limiting beliefs?

There are so many ways that we can view ourselves. Why not view ourselves in a self-appreciative way when we’re honoring the person that we really are and recognizing where we’ve received help along the way?

If you’re interested in learning more about this practice of self-appreciation, our coaching processes, or any of our coaching services, connect with Nathan at nathan@leadershipvisionconsulting.com, or visit us on social media.