Written by Tarryn James

5 January 2020

“The cruelest fate is often the greatest gift - opportunity.”

The words of Enrique Schoch da Silva, Health and Life Coach based in Johannesburg, summarise his journey from overwhelming physical, mental and emotional pain, to a lifelong journey of health and recovery. We got in touch with Enrique to find out all about his personal story as well as the importance of life and health coaching.

“This isn’t even so much a career or a job for me but an extension of my being.” says Enrique, going on to explain that his own experience of facing the fork of all forks in the road, either heal or die, he chose to heal himself. This transformational experience led to who he is today. It was during this dark period in his life that he overhauled everything – how he ate, slept, breathed, moved and even how he thought and talked to himself. ”

“I had a lot of time on my own during recovery so I had a lot of time to learn.” says Enrique, explaining that he deeply immersed himself into the ideas and perspectives of countless experts in their fields. He researched fields such as movement, motivation, mindfulness, consciousness, spirituality, meditation, yoga, transpersonal psychology as well as what cutting edge science offers in the fields of bio-hacking and human optimization. He formalized his path by completing Chris Kresser’s pioneer ADAPT Health Coaching. Chris is one of the foremost health practitioners that combines ancestral wisdom with modern technology, which paralleled perfectly with my personal viewpoint. 

“Good health isn’t about isolated parts of your body working well - it’s about the entire system working in concert.” says Enrique, highlighting the importance of connection over disconnection. His belief when it comes to health and wellbeing, is that this illusive and incredibly hyper-connected pursuit requires a holistic approach. And that requires a holistic skill set, which Enrique believes he posses both theoretically and experientially. 

When asked about the importance of Life and Health Coaching, Enrique responded that we are currently finding ourselves in a complicated time in the word. “It’s also a time of hyper-individualization, where we’re all more alienated and isolated than ever before.” says Enrique, “Combine that with a corrupted food system that has people overfed but undernourished, environments that encourage sedentary lifestyles, longer and more competitive working hours across all industries, tech addiction and our endless disconnection from the natural world and the elements that truly makes us human. All of that combined has created a culture of dis-ease and environmental destruction.”

Enrique goes on to explain that burnout, chronic fatigue and other are coming from the same places – stress, anxiety, depression, trauma, emotional detachment, social isolation and unnatural and unconscious lifestyles. 

So how does Coaching work?

Coaching works on reimagining someone’s personal future and working together to make the changes required to be the person you want to be, do the things you want to do, feel the way you want to feel and live this very precious life the way you want to live it.

The essence of a Coach can come in many forms'; parents, teachers and mentors. It is somebody to talk to, who listens, who may have knowledge you don’t have. Someone who cares and who wants the best for you. “Just like you would have a tennis or guitar coach,  I don't see what's so crazy about this idea that someone needs to be coached to live life well.” says Enrique, “That’s not what you learn in school or university. That’s something a fortune few of us get at home. How to life a full, healthy, meaningful, connected life, that’s something we’re apparently suppose to figure out on our own. How? It doesn’t make sense." 

Coaching allows you to get an objective, impartial perspective in a supportive and empowering space with somebody who hopefully has skills and wisdom to share.

Coaching meets everyone where they actually are and simply asks, “okay you’re here, tell me where you want to go from today”. And that could be in any arena of their life - maybe you want to perform better at work or maybe you’re looking to stop a habit  .

Enrique’s approach to Coaching is colored by his personal experience, beliefs and values.

We asked Enrique for some of the signs people should be looking out for when they think they are in need of coaching?

“Feeling stuck, confused or lost. Being unwell. Feeling unsupported. Feeling overwhelmed and that things are unmanageable. Wondering if there’s more out there. Being curious to try something new and test what gains can come of it. Or wanting to level up. There’s always space for growth and evolution. “

When asked to explore the role of Coaching in the greater scheme of Health and Wellness, Enrique went on to explain that his belief is that his practice of coaching falls into the scheme of self-love or self-care. “When you decide to get into a coaching relationship, you’re basically deciding to take care of yourself. To take responsibility for yourself.” Life can get so relentless that we get wrapped up in its momentum and don’t give ourselves the time and space to sit back and think about what is actually happening and how we feel about it. “I congratulate people on any time they carve out to care for themselves, whether it’s in a modality to coaching or not. And as we take the time to take care of ourselves we paradoxically can take better care of those around us.”  

To end off, we asked Enrique for his 3 Top Tips:

1. Be truthful. Especially to yourself. Observe how you talk, who you spend time with, what you do and pay attention to how that makes you feel. Ask if you’re using your time consciously or distracting yourself from yourself. Listen to the thoughts that bounce around in your mind just before you go to sleep. I have a theory that’s when your truest self gets the most airtime.

2. Take responsibility for your life. Not only is nobody going to create your best life for you, nobody can. It’s up to you and you are capable of it. The future is simply an expression of the choices you make and actions you take. So no more excuses and blame.

3. Disconnect to connect. Re-engage and re-immerse yourself in the real world. Nobody is going to look back on their years regretting that they should have spent more time on Instagram. If you look at all of the top regrets of the dying books or videos etc, there’s one consistent theme – disconnection. Being disconnected from themselves, others and the experience of life. Go on a hike but leave your phone in the car. Put in a little effort to see people and have real human interaction. If you’re lucky enough to be in love, tell that person you love them and dedicate attention to them. Spend your time with real people doing real things in real places. That’s what this human life is about.