The experience of coach Dirk
Dirk Swaegers is currently testing our Mindstretch app. As a coach, he facilitates company workshops about personal energy, rest/unrest, resilience and motivation.
During workshops, Dirk’s own monitoring results with Mindstretch are most of the time green. He enjoys doing this very much and does not feel tense. But when he starts worrying, it can change to orange. This is the mental aspect of Mindstretch which is clearly visible.
A tool for coaches
When we asked Dirk what he finds most valuable about Mindstretch he said: “Showing recovery and energy consumption together in one overview with the green and orange colours. You can see your own energy balance on daily, weekly and monthly basis.” In the previous app called “Stress@Work”, it was not possible to see “recovery” and therefore Dirk finds this new feature in Mindstretch a good improvement.
Planning activities based on his results is not his main focus. He is curious about the ‘why’. What is the reason that my body reacts like this in that situation? He finds these questions interesting to increase awareness. Dirk considers using Mindstretch as a tool for coaches to support them in the future so that they better understand recurring patterns in lifestyle and see the effects of actions taken as a result of coaching.
Besides his coaching work, Dirk is starting up new projects. One project is called “De Rustverleners” (= rest providers), in collaboration with ‘De Wingerd’, a residential care centre in Leuven. In this project, busy business people are immersed in the world of people with dementia. Dirk and his colleagues have noticed that much can be learned from people with dementia. “They mirror us: when we are restless, they also become restless. Very interesting is that people with dementia can be very direct in what they say. We are not familiar with that and may get stressed by this behaviour,” Dirk said. The main goal of these workshops is to help people become more aware of their own inner peace or stress. Participants learn and experience what makes them feel the way they feel. Mindstretch might help participants become even more aware of their reactions by linking what just happened with the Mindstretch measures.
Thank you Dirk for this interesting talk! We are taking into account the useful feedback you gave us and hope to hear from you soon!
If you want to find out more information about Dirk, you can always take a look at his website.
