Renier Jooste is one of the coaches that we found this month and we did a little interview with him. He impressed us with his wisdom and experience.
He is a Sensitive, meaning that he is open to perceive a lot more information from the world around him. He can see patterns where others can’t. He can sense energy more acutely than a normal person. This can be a great burden because you FEEL the world intensely and deeply. But this ability can also teach you great lessons if you don’t run away from your emotions. It’s like learning life lessons on steroids.
His coaching approach is definitely the culmination of all the lessons he learned through his life. His skillset and toolbox for coaching are vast. But the path was far from easy, filled with pain and healing.
Through this journey Renier found a formula that can help anyone open their heart and become the highest version of themselves. Here is what he said.
Meet Life Coach Renier Jooste:
Name: Renier Jooste
Pillar: The Spirit, The Mind, The Heart
Who is this coach for: Anyone who wants to heal, change their mindset, beliefs, open their heart and embody their highest self.
How they can help: Through customized coaching, they combine various tools and techniques to guide you within, applying NLP, breathwork, walking and breathing and various other practices that all guide you back to your unique teacher within, practising their formula, the Open Acceptance Method (OAM). Through customized coaching and by using various techniques and tools like breathwork, NLP, meditation and, in some cases, plant based medicine, just to name a few.
First of all, how are you and your family doing in these Pandemic times?
We are doing well, thank you.
As the only certainty in life is change, the pandemic has been a fantastic reminder to accept what is, and take responsibility for what can be changed, our internal world.
This has been a unique opportunity to restructure many parts of our personal, business and family life during the âretreatâ of the pandemic.
We are blessed and are truly feeling the rewards of this new rhythm and lifestyle.
How does the coronavirus pandemic affect your clients? Did it affect you at all?
What has become clear to me through 23 years of facilitating personal development journeys and various inner transformation work is that there are many roads that lead to Rome.
It has become the trap of the information age and âself helpâ world, thereâs always something bigger and better on the buffet table.
But the truth is it really doesnât matter what you do.
It matters much more that you actually do it.
When you do, you begin the process of undoing the blocks and clearing your energy centres so you are able to show up in the now, be present.
We like to say, chop wood, carry water because the work happens in the daily grind of life.
This is not a quick fix.
It is an authentic path of undoing the thought patterns, habits, and addictions that keep you stuck in suffering.
By showing up consistently, for yourself, and putting one foot in front of the other, meeting lifeâs challenges (like the pandemic) with acceptance rather than resistance, learning adjusting and listening instead of forcing, controlling and taking, will increase the level of love, joy and peace you expereience inside yourself, rather than depleting it (which makes you sick).
This is why our work is Self Love.
I use my grammar intentionally to highlight the distinction of the âSelfâ I am speaking of.
The Higher Self whom is one with all, rather than the ego self who is separate from all.
Happiness cannot be found âone day whenâ, it can only be experienced in the present.
Covid was an oversized example of how resistance to something you have no control over takes away your inner peace, weakens your immune system, and makes you more suseptible to illness.
Our clients practice OAM (Open Acceptance Method), which is simply the art of accepting what is with an open heart, so that it is done authentically.
Personally, I am very sensitive to the world outside but my journey has given me the tools and resources to be guided from within.
Because I value myself, I am very selective over what I put in my body.
This includes the food I eat but it goes much deeper than this.
I am intentional about the environments I go into, what I put into my mind, what I read and what I believe.
I think that is a big reason I was saved from much of the fear and suffering caused by the pandemic.
The pandemic was a time of deep introspection, looking, learning, looking again. Followed by a time of creation where we had the unique opportunity to focus on just one thing, recreating my formula online in a way that is easy to understand and apply, from anywhere in the world, at any time.
What are the biggest lessons that you learned in this pandemic?
The pandemic wasnât this super significant event in my life because of all the practice Iâve had in acceptance.
I stand by the fact that the only constant in life is change and when we try to control the world of change to be how we want it, we hurt ourselves and the people around us.
It is much more loving and effective to open your heart in acceptance of what is.
During the pandemic the world stopped and everybody got a significant opportunity to turn inwards.
It was like a mass awakening and expansion.
There was so much light, love and healing that emerged through that time that it showed us on a grand scale, how everything is always changing and the importance of healing from within.
Everything comes at a price and because we live in the world of duality, the darkness that came from this virus was inevitable.
However, the real tool is to use these opportunities to get fit for change, which is to regulate your own reactions inside yourself, so you can show up for yourself (and the whole) from a place peace, love and power.
The Origin:
Tell us about you, your career, how you started with your coaching career?
I was sensitive as a child and the environment I grew up in triggered all my sensitivitites which made me angry.
Shy and observant I spent much time on the outside looking in.
The patterns I saw showed me stories of suffering, pain, hurt, sadness and anger plastered on the faces of the people around me.
At a young age I decided I wanted to change peopleâs faces for a living.
Of course, that meant I would have to experience my own wounding.
My sensitivity to the world around me made the pain I felt so intense that I had no choice but to find a way out of it.
At age 22 I made a decision to find another way.
My journey started with Reiki and Kinesiology, which gave me a good foundation and an experience of relief from my sensitivity.
Next, I found NLP, which really changed things for me.
From a young age Iâve had a gift of seeing patterns, and it didnât take long to become obvious to me that most people donât actually change their behaviour.
It is easy to understand stuff intellectually but much harder to actually do it.
Few choose something different.
For me it was different.
I could see, and I could feel (a lot) so my motivation and ability to choose something else were really high.
10 years into my own personal journey I began my career as a coach and went on to became an NLP Master Certified Practitioner and Hypnotherapist.
In the early days of my coaching business, I experienced a completely natural, almost altered state of mind, an incredible peace and stillness that started to come over me consistently when working with clients.
Everything else ceased to exist and I was just there, in the moment, being of service.
The results I saw from that space were miraculous.
I understand how the mind works and so I knew that if I had this incredible mental clarity in this one area of my life, I could have it in every area of my life.
My mission was set.
This has really been my lifeâs work and daily, moment by moment practice.
During my 17 year practice in NLP coaching, I studied and branched into anger management, conflict resolution, mediation, firewalking, breathwork, human behaviour, body language, microexpressions and more.
As I practised, and the patterns began to emerge I started to see how everything could be pointed back to a blockage in energy in one (or more) of the three major energy centres in the body: the head, the heart and the gut.
These energy centres are significant as they connect the upper three chakras (world of spirit) to the lower three chakras (world of form) in the heart.
When this energy is in flow, the heart is open.
When the heart opens, love, joy and peace are experienced.
When these three energy centres are in alignment, you align with the flow of life (energetically), which is just a fancy way of saying, youâre able to be present with what is.
Today we call it open acceptance, or OAM, but it really started in my little coaching office back in 2010.
In 2014 I found plant medicine (actually, it found me) and immediately I experienced the energy I already knew and understood in the human body, but amplified and in everything.
I understood the power and interconnectedness of it all and experienced I am one with all, and all is one.
I started using the medicine on myself as a way of studying it.
Together with my understanding of energy, the subconscious mind and mental reprogramming, the medicine started to show me a formula that significantly shortens the time required to experience breakthrough.
In 2016 I started incorporating plant medicine into the work I was doing with clients and the results were incredible.
The first client I worked with suffered from several ailments including obesity, addictions to several prescription medications which had left her hearing and sight severely impaired, and to top it off her mental and emotional state was depressed and suicidal.
In just 3 months working together, integrating my NLP process with psilocybin, she was completely free from all her pharmaceutical addictions, lost 15kg (33lb), was happy, healthy and full of life.
I went on to work with hundreds of clients over the following 4 year period (until the pandemic), refining and tweaking my process to became a formula for awakening: clear the unconscious blockages in the mind (beliefs and thoughts) with the unconscious blockages in the gut (trauma and emotions) in order for the heart to feel safe enough to open.
When the heart is open, the mind is still and able to awaken into the awareness of the Self greater than the little âIâ, the separate self, identity of the ego.
You could call this your Higher Self, Holy Spirity, God, or simply love.
Theyâre all the same.
The formula works and has achieved awakening in every person who has truly wanted it and shown up for it.
However, not everybody showed up for it, and I got frustrated as I saw how the âmedicineâ gets used as a misguided shortcut or magic pill, which of course, it is not.
Yes, the medicine severely shortens the time and deepens the impact, but unless you show up differently, because the only constant in life is change, the change you experienced will slowly slip back into old ways.
I saw many people get stuck in an endless cycle of going back for more without listening and practicing what their experience showed them.
When the pandemic started in 2020, the timing was good for me to stop medicine work and take time for me to go within, a forced closure of my coaching business due to the pandemic that has resulted in the blessing of an international coaching business today.
In the beginning of 2021 I started a personal and business relationship with Kathryn Woolf, who traveled her own 20 year journey in personal development.
Together we restructured and remodeled the formula into a completely online, no medicine required, formula for awakening: OAM or Open Acceptance Method. And an online course called Game of Life.
When the travel restrictions were lifted we could finally bring the 2 parts together and offer private and group online coaching, as well as private and group in person retreats and experiences, both using medicine (where helpful) and without it (because you do not need it).
What was your biggest obstacle that you had to overcome in your life that made you who you are today?
I was a super sensitive person that learnt through many painful experience that this world was dangerous and hurtful.
My experience showed me I needed to protect myself, which closed my heart and mind to everyone and everything.
This made me angry and unhappy and lead to several addictions in the outside world.
I experienced deeply the suffering of having a closed heart, mind and gut (body) and my greatest obstacle within myself was learning to let go of my fear, trauma and judgements to open my heart.
The Coaching Style:
How do you innovate with coaching your clients?
As I understand addiction and see patterns in the way I do, I can help you pinpoint the root of the problem or blockage in your mind, heart or gut and show you how to undo it, in order to install a new powerful behaviour in your subconscious mind.
This results in new, powerful patterns, and an experience of authentic breakthrough in your life.
Also, what I really do is teach presence.
That is all any of us need to do, be present, curious, listen and learn.
You will see that you are being uniquely guided by your unique teacher within.
I cannot do it for you (neither can the medicine), nor can I tell you, but I can show you (as my energy centres are clear), the power of being present with love in the now.
The healing that happens from this space always innovates, because only the present is eternally relevant.
Whatâs unique about your coaching approach?
The thing is, everybody is unique.
And nobody can tell you how YOU works.
How do you feel love? How do you give love? How do you feel happiness? Peace? Joy?
Itâs one thing experiencing these things momentarily, with the guidance of something or someone outside yourself, but quite another to carry this with you through your daily life, off the mat, meditation chair or retreat.
This is where we are different.
We wonât give you anything that you canât use in real life, when the rubber hits the road.
We share with you an experience that you will remember, so that you actually change your behaviour, not because youâve been told what to do, but because you REMEMBER YOU.
What benefits do your clients get after working with you?
I think the best way to do this is share a real life story of a real life client in her own words.
Jonessa came to me looking for confidence and mindset coaching before her first marathon.
We had a total of 3 sessions together, including 1 in person private day coaching.
I think youâll see how this is so much more than âlife coachingâ.
This is a part of her testimonial:
“It was important for me that we could have a pre session online and I could build a bit of trust and share my expectations and fears with him.
The work he gave me in preparation was certainly unusual.
I knew from the get go that I had to keep an open mind.
Everything he did was unusual. But he made me feel safe and I was open to him and felt I could trust him.
I didnât know what to expect but the unusual preparation and homework, got to set my expectations up that this was going to be different and I kept an open mind to the process.
I felt very definitely and beautifully guided in the process.
Because of our first online meeting, I had the ability to just trust a fellow participant in the process.
I really felt I was being partnered with and could be an active participant in the process.
I felt that I wasnât alone.
There were so many synchronicities on race day to the day we spent together but the analogy of the puppet on the string really helped me see how the whole process works.
I saw what to allow and what not to allow in my mind, which really enabled me to react differently when things went wrong.
10km before the finish I tripped and fell.
If I hadnât had seen Renier I wouldnât have had the courage to continue.
I also wouldnât have been so rested and calm, especially the night before.
Iâve never been able to control my thoughts, Iâm a worrier. I look at what can go wrong and try prepare myself for every eventuality.
Because of that, by the time I start Iâm normally a ball of nerves.
This time I had a relaxed experience.
When the start came I knew I was prepared and calm and had the resources to handle anything.
My intent was very clear and my day had purpose, which carried me through some difficult times.
I found myself in a position where I could be more present.
Iâve seen that life will still happen, its just what we do with when life happens.
How we react.
On the mountain Renier said to me once you experience you can never go back, and I now understand that that shift has taken place permanently.
This is not a plaster that you stick on or an affirmation that you put into your mind thatâs a superficial layover.
This is a deep belief thatâs going to ultimately, on the day, when its crunch time and when it counts, help you move through a difficult experience successfully. â Jonessa De Bruin
Do you use any specific tools to be efficient with your clients?
Yes! Breathe! Deeply, in your stomach.
In fact, you can take 10 deep, conscious breaths right now!
Iâve explained the importance of having an open heart, mind and body, and that there are many techniques that can help you achieve this.
Breathe is one of our most powerful practices and the easiest tool (thatâs also free and abundantly available) to bring yourself back to the present moment.
The mind is fueled by oxygen and without it, it is more likely to become overactive and not shut up.
The Impact:
If you had a super megaphone that, when you speak into, the whole world will hear your message, what would you say?
Love is inside you!!!
Shout it from the rooftops.
Open your heart and receive it.
First within, then without.
You can only give what youâve got.
You cannot love another until you love yourself, because until then where is your love to give?
Wake up and love yourself by valuing yourself, listening to yourself and being kind to yourself and youâll finally find the peace, joy and happiness youâre really looking for.Inside you.
Nowhere else.
What is the greatest lesson you have learned in your life?
To live in the abundance of life, and be super grateful and humble to receive the oxygen that I breathe, the water that I drink and the light I receive every single day.
We make life so complicated with what we think we want but when we come back to only to what we need, suddenly our perspective changes from lack to abundance.
Your final thoughts?
Everybody just wants happiness and love, but its so easy to walk around feeling hurt and angry because we donât feel happy or loved that we forget the fact that we can only give what weâve got.
If we do not give it to ourselves, we cannot give it to anyone else, and giving it to ourselves is the only consistent and relyable way to experience it.
In fact, the truth is, itâs the only way to experience authentic love, peace and happiness.
We like to make it all so complicated but itâs really not.
In fact itâs in our making it complicated that we move further away from the very thing we seek.
Love is inside us.
Itâs the only place it exists and it can only be accessed through the present moment.
Hang out in the present and the experience is yours.
Where Can You Find Renier Jooste?
If you liked this interview and you would love to open your heart with Renier’s help, go to https://www.oammethod.com/ and discover your next step.
If you want to peak a glimpse of his coaching, check his YouTube channel where he shares powerful videos.
And if you like to connect more personally with him, follow his Facebook profile. It was an honor having this interview with him.