About me

My name is Inese Podgaiska, and I am a certified Mindful Coach. I am also the Secretary General at the Association of Nordic Engineers.

Everything I have achieved in my life, both professionally and privately has been one long process of self- development. I have felt insecure about my future. I have felt on my own body what it means to be an immigrant and what is required of you to build a new life and a career in a foreign country. I had self-doubt about my professional skills; I had self-destructive thoughts and a feeling of being stuck. I was about to collapse emotionally and physically in my constant need of recognition from others and my striving for perfection. My drive, considered my engine, which had led me so far, became too exaggerated and drove me to physical exhaustion and loss of happiness in my life. I know from experience the price you pay when you are driven by your inner critic and how vulnerable and frightening it is to change and get out of your comfort zone.

Now it is my turn to repay the favours I got from my mentors and assist You in recognizing your strengths and create soft changes that will give You a better life filled with joy.

My academic background and professional choices have been defined by my ambitions, my drive, and my logic - the qualities I relied on to build a successful career in the corporate world and the diplomacy. My need for perfection and being the very best has had its toll. For many years, I was hiding another side of me – the intuitive, empathic, and spiritual side. I was only using them as my hobby or as a counterbalance to my constant need to invoke change and challenge the status quo. I was not only hiding these qualities, I was also resisting them because I was so afraid of judgement and rejection. The more I tried to disconnect the two sides, the more disharmony I was creating around and within me.

I grew up in Latvia, the Soviet Union at that time. I witnessed the collapse of the regime, I travelled to study in Flanders and Paris, I worked as a diplomat in Brussels, and since 2007 Denmark has become my home. Ten years ago, a few years after I moved to Denmark, I was forced to walk the journey of change. The insight it gave me was my way to accept and trust my spiritual abilities. I participated in a lot of workshops and classes. I learned healing techniques, strengthened my clairvoyant skills and learned new modalities, including NLP, release of old and negative patterns, stress, traumas and fear. I started my mindful coaching training, which was the last piece of the puzzle to melt my two separate sides together, finally meeting my true and whole Self.

As C. S. Lewis’ said: “You can’t go back and change the beginnings, but you can start, where you are to change the ending.”

I hope I can inspire and assist You in your process of change.

I am a certified Mindful Coach from BeChange, accredited by The International Coaching Federation, ICF.

This coaching training is based on: NLP - Transformative coaching - Mindfulness - Powerful communication - Positive psychology – Shadow work - Body awareness

Mindful coaching

Mindful coaching can help You with:

• Support in defining, setting and fulfilling your goal. Encouragement to clarify who you are, what you desire and what you are passionate about.
• Exploring your past as a means to understand your current life experiences and move beyond issues and barriers.
• Changing your perspectives, thought processes and self-limiting beliefs. Helping to develop a sense of self-observation in particular situations.
• Guidance of how to develop and integrate a mindful practice and awareness techniques in the daily routines.
• Improving your self-identity, boosting self-confidence, increasing emotional well-being, reducing stress and sharpening focus.

Mindful coaching is a process of self-discovery and empowerment, where You shift from being in the action mode to a state of being in the present moment. In the action mode, the stress, worrying thoughts, the autopilot reactions and control are defining the everyday life. When mindfulness is allowed to enter the room, a person starts to pay attention to the present moment, calms down, begins to learn to nurture own needs and allows the creativity to flow. It helps to develop compassion, tenderness and kindness towards others and ourselves.

Mindful coaching is a conversation geared towards goal setting through an active listening, encouragement, centring, and mindfulness practices. Mindful coaching makes You aware of your emotions and actions in the now and creates a space for You to make choices for tomorrow. It is also a self-reflective and self-motivating practice.

A Mindful coach is like a mediator capable of moving the client by asking questions to find the answers that are hidden beneath the thinking patterns and self-limiting beliefs.