Belinda Hawkins is one of the coaches that we found this month and we did a little interview with her. She impressed us with her wisdom, dedication, and positivity.
She felt anxiety and a sense of not belonging from a very young age. That lead her to try many ways of trying to find herself. Once she realized that all the time she was actually looking for her true self, the one she was before the world installed all those negative beliefs and limitations, she changed her whole perspective on Life.
She found a coach who helped her let go and heal all those negative emotions and limitations the world put on her. However, her main problem stem from her job. She was a person that took her job really seriously. But stress, anxiety in combination with her dedication and hard work, it all lead her to a seizure that stopped her heart. After doctors brought her back to life, she changed her whole life.
Her approach to coaching is all about discovering the inner conflict, the parts of you that need healing, and then helping you heal. Here is what she said.
Meet Life Coach Belinda Hawkins:
Name: Belinda Hawkins
Pillar: The Spirit, The Heart
Who is this coach for: Anyone who wants to let go of the old, heal, and stop their inner conflict so they can align with their true self.
How they can help: By using mainly two coaching systems, the Transformation Coaching System⢠and the Inner Freedom Coaching Systemâ˘NLP.
First of all, how are you and your family doing in these Pandemic times?
My family is all good now but South Africa had an extremely strict lockdown in 2020 which was tough.
2021 had a new set of challenges as the lockdown had been lifted but many of my family members contracted the virus during that year, including my parents who are both in their eighties so that was quite an anxious time but they both recovered from it fairly quickly.
We are very lucky that no one was hospitalised and everyone recovered.
I would say we are all very blessed.
How does the coronavirus pandemic affect your clients? Did it affect you at all?
I was not yet a practicing Coach during the most devastating part of the pandemic so I never had clients during that time.
I was always there as support for people I know to come to when they needed to but not as a practicing coach.
Yes I was definitely affected by the pandemic.
The additional stress added to my already stressed life is what pushed me over the edge causing me to have multiple grand mal seizures that ultimately pushed me into changing my career and becoming a coach.
I have clients that come to me now that are still suffering the consequences of the pandemic such as loss of income or strained relationships following the stress of the pandemic.
What are the biggest lessons that you learned in this pandemic?
Donât take anyone (your loved ones and friends) or anything (your freedom) for granted because in an instant it can be taken away from you.
Human beings and human contact is so important, it feeds our souls.
Be kind to everyone you come into contact with because you have no idea what hardship they may be going through.
Everyone deserves your kindness.
The Origin:
Tell us about you, your career, how you started with your coaching career?
From a young age I felt like I never really belonged, I didnât quite fit in, I hated school and for as long as I can remember always felt that surely there had to be more to life than just this!
I was a very shy and anxious child and unfortunately anxiety dominated my life until recently.
I believe it is because of my childhood that my greatest hobby in life has been self improvement so that I could become my best self and that journey started in my early twenties.
Over these decades I have done so many different courses, therapies, read books, gone on retreats, you name I did it.
Some worked some didnât, I learned a lot but I was never finding the answer I was searching for.
Then, about 8 years ago I realised I couldnât find what I was searching for because I was searching for me.
The real me, the one before the world got hold of me and gave me their beliefs and ideas about who I should or shouldnât be.
That changed my outlook and I found a teacher who could help me unlearn everything I thought I knew about me and the world.
Even though I was always working on myself that was my hobby and it was my job that was causing a lot of problems in my life.
I was one of those stable office job people who always worked late, never took enough leave and my stress and anxiety levels were through the roof.
None of that mattered though because I loved the stability of a monthly pay cheque.
I also loved my clients, I did not like the industry I was in but I loved my clients.
In late 2019 I finally decided that I was going to leave my industry as I could not cope with the anxiety any longer but I was not sure what I was going to do.
I consulted a Life Coach who said I should be a Life Coach but I was not convinced.
In 2020 when the pandemic hit I was working from home in isolation, I lived on my own, and the additional stress from work was more than I could handle.
One day, my body decided enough was enough and in September 2020 I had a grand mal seizure.
As luck would have it some of us had returned to work at the office and I had the seizure at the office and not at home.
I was hospitalised and I had numerous seizures in the hospital until my heart stopped and I had to be resuscitated.
Had I been at home on my own I would have died.
I had never suffered from Epilepsy before, it does not run in my family and the doctors could find no reason other than stress that could have caused the seizures but they would not give that as a diagnosis.
That day changed my life.
It took me some time to get back on my feet but within a month I was working with a business coach to help me decide what direction my life was going to take.
The business coach told me to be a Life Coach but it did not feel right.
I didnât want to take people form where they are now to where they want to be.
I kept thinking back to how my life had changed once I started cleaning out the old, the negative beliefs, the negative emotions, the old relationships and the baggage that was preventing me from being my best self.
In my search for my purpose, which I was now aware was going to be in the coaching environment, I looked back at my own life and realised I wanted to be a Transformation Coach.
In November 2021 I left my job, my career of 28 years, to start studying.
I was unable to work and study at the same time as my job was too demanding.
Most of my life I had been preparing myself for this role without even knowing it and from the time I resigned all the pieces just fell into place so beautifully.
What was your biggest obstacle that you had to overcome in your life that made you who you are today?
Learning that I am good enough.
My entire life I had felt that I was not good enough and it affected every area of my life.
It caused a great deal of anxiety and in different situations it played out in one of two ways.
Either it pushed me to overcompensate for where I thought I lacked and so I was over working, a people pleaser and never setting boundaries.
Or I never even tried because I thought I would never be able to do it and I missed out on so much.
I started to find my worth when I was working with my teacher.
I managed to move jobs and double my salary which I would never have asked for such an amount for before.
From then, my value grew and grew especially when I quit my job because I was standing up for myself and my wellbeing.
Doing the Transformation Coaching course amplified it once again.
The Coaching Style:
How do you innovate with coaching your clients?
I always start off with an hours free consultation so that we can get to know each other a bit and so that the prospective client can make sure that they are comfortable with me.
Spending this time together allows me to assess their self awareness and how I am going to begin our journey together.
Every client is different and needs to be met where they are in their journey.
There is no one size fits all remedy.
In the beginning, I used to set a plan of how I was going to coach my clients but I soon learned that clients surprise you in the most amazing ways so even though I may have a plan of how I am going to help heal them I always leave room for the unexpected.
I have beautiful techniques that help clients release their negative beliefs, emotions and inner conflict, just to name a few, however there are some clients for who those techniques are not what they need but rather to talk and cry and release what needs to be let go of.
Once the old hurts have been healed it is then time to build up again with all of the tools they will need to face the world now that their old âgo toâ patterns have been removed.
I like to start off by building their self love and then giving them a new self image that they have chosen for themselves and then boosting their self confidence.
Listening to the needs of my client is what helps me get the results we are both looking for.
Whatâs unique about your coaching approach?
I allow my intuition to guide me on how to help my clients.
Every client is different and every time they walk through my door I get a different version of them.
Sometimes the session goes according to my plan but more often than not I have had to abandon the plan and follow my intuition and listen and follow their lead to what it is that they need to heal on that day.
What benefits do your clients get after working with you?
When it comes to the cleaning out processes I assist the client to heal their inner conflict.
An example of this is when you would like to do something or start something new and part of you wants to do it but a part of you doesnât.
So you have two conflicting parts, one wants to move you forward and the other wants to hold you back.
I also heal negative beliefs, it is a beautiful journey and very quick.
Negative emotional healing going back to your childhood, this too is a beautiful journey and removes those emotional triggers very quickly and easily.
I can remove phobias and traumas although it is better to work with a person with trauma face to face.
Then the building up processes.
I have a beautiful and gentle unconditional self love technique to build your self love.
A special technique to change and boost your self image and self confidence.
In addition I offer regular counselling for people who prefer to just talk through their issues and find their peace that way.
Do you use any specific tools to be efficient with your clients?
I work with two coaching systems.
The first is the Transformation Coaching System⢠and the second is the Inner Freedom Coaching Systemâ˘NLP but I do not do Hypnosis.
In addition, I use Meditation.
Last but not least Intuition, my greatest asset.
The Impact:
If you had a super megaphone that, when you speak into, the whole world will hear your message, what would you say?
Thoughts count.
They either count for you or against you so become aware of what you think about.
Think about this for a moment, everything on earth that is man made first started with a thought.
Our thoughts are actually vibrational waves of energy containing information.
When you have the same thought day after day, over time it creates an effect.
When a thought is combined with an emotion the creative power increases.
Thoughts are so powerful they can bring something into existence, they create.
Your thoughts create your reality so you literally become what you think about, be that positive or negative.
Start becoming aware of your thoughts and when you find them going down a negative path, turn them around and put them on a positive path.
If you can change what you think about you, it can change your life and become the creator of your own reality.
What is the greatest lesson you have learned in your life?
Follow your heart because it knows the way.
For too many years I followed my mind rather than listening to my heart and following your mind is a dangerous thing.
Everything in the universe is a vibration or energy in motion and our energy comes from our heart not our mind.
We call this intuition.
When you do not listen to your intuition, it is your ego that you are listening to, which lives in your mind.
The ego lives in the past and works according to history so you will stay there and continue to live in your mind repeating the same old patterns.
The pandemic and the seizures taught me to listen to my heart, my intuition for the very first time and since then I am a much happier, healthier person.
Your final thoughts?
Life is an awesome journey but sometimes the path is a little rough, dark and a bit lonely.
All you need is someone to hold the lantern to light your path so that you can navigate your way through the obstacles safely and find your way home.
That is my greatest desire, to walk beside in your hours of need and to see you safely back home.
Thank you Dejan for this opportunity, it is greatly appreciated.
Where Can You Find Belinda Hawkins?
If you liked this interview and you would love to heal your inner conflicts so you can align with your true self, go to http://www.belindahawkins.com and see how Belinda can help you do that.
If you like to connect more personally with her, you can do that through her LinkedIn account or by writing her a message to her Email [email protected].
If you like to capture a glimpse of her coaching, follow her Facebook account. It was an honor having this interview with her.