A woman’s nurturing soul is unlike any other, and a child is a most innocent being. Women and children should be cherished, but through history and throughout the world, they face many challenges and barriers.
Modern-Day Women and Children Face Outdated Systems
While more youth have access to education today, more than half of the remaining illiterate youth are girls. While more women can work today, rising to be half of the American workforce, most of them hold part-time jobs with lower wages.
Child marriage still exists, with 12 million child brides being given to marriage every year. About 81% of women have experienced some form of sexual harassment at some point in their lives.
While there’s progress in improving lives over the last few decades, it’s clear that we all have a long way to go. Outdated beliefs, age-old systems, and problems still exist for them today. These not only restrict women and children, but these also endanger their health and lives.
This is why UC1L wants to help women, female youth, and children in facing those barriers in the everyday. UC1L seeks to equip them with vital life skills to improve their health. We believe that by serving women and children, they can be empowered to live better lives.
Breathing Techniques and Exercises Improve Health and Mental Health
The very act of breathing keeps us alive. It’s the first thing we learn to do as we enter the world, and it’s one of the last we do when we pass on.
As breathing comes naturally to us, it’s easy to take it for granted. Most people don’t know the benefits and wonders of using their breath properly and mindfully!
For starters, a surprising number of people breathe through their mouths when breathing has to be done through the nose. We explain this in more detail in this post. We promote nose breathing as well as learning deep breathing to improve physical and mental health because of the health benefits that come with it.
First, many people are aware that breathing deeply helps people calm down when they’re angry or upset. Taking deep breaths tells your brain to:
- Slow down your heart rate
- Lower blood pressure
- Control your stress hormones
All of these activities coax both your mind and body to relax. You feel calmer and your muscles release tension.
But it goes beyond that calming moment. Proper breathing can also improve your posture, immune system, and alertness in the long term.
UC1L teaches proper breathing and offers breathing meditation services for all ages. You can read more about it here and you can check out our breathing course here.
We also publish breathing GIFs and videos to help you take a quick breather in the middle of your day! You can find us on Facebook and Instagram.
This is one example. Why don’t you give it a try?
Emotional Intelligence Helps Us Understand Ourselves and Others
Aside from healing with the breath, we also want to help people reach optimal wellness. One way to do this is by building up important life skills.
Emotional intelligence is a person’s ability to understand and manage emotions. This applies to our emotions as well as the emotions of others.
There are four components of emotional intelligence:
- Self-awareness – Emotional intelligence starts with being aware of what you feel, and identifying it.
- Self-regulation – Emotions can be overwhelming at times. It’s important to know how to manage, control, and cope with them in healthy ways.
- Empathy – Everyone feels emotions and faces struggles. With empathy, we can identify and understand others’ emotions to some extent.
- Social Skills – It’s important for us to have skills related to interacting with others and forming relationships with them.
To get through life, we need to face difficulties, trials, and the overwhelming emotions that come with them. To live life healthy and well, we need to be connected with ourselves and others. These skills are not the only ones we need to achieve our goals, but they are helpful tools for everyone.
Effective Coaching Practices Improve Life Skills
UC1L uses research-based coaching practices like motivational interviewing and neuro-linguistic programming to help build life skills like emotional intelligence.
Motivational Interviewing
Motivational interviewing was designed as a counseling style respecting the client’s values and goals.
A question: what motivates you? What drives your day?
Or, what do you want to do…that you can’t find the motivation for?
Motivational interviewing starts with the question of your motivation. UC1L coaches guide your way through your thoughts, behaviors, and motivations, to help you navigate towards positive changes in your behavior.
Neuro-Linguistic Programming
Sometimes, we don’t know what we think ourselves. Our thoughts can be a jumbled mess in our head, making us feel confused about the way we feel and act.
Did you know that you communicate with yourself too?
With neuro-linguistic programming (NLP), UC1L coaches seek to help you understand your thoughts. How do you see the world? What do you do based on what you think? How do you process information and emotions?
UC1L coaches will be your partners in recovery. They seek not to instruct, but meet you where you are and to build up on your strengths.
Online communities and resources provide support
With the rise of digital technology and rising globalization, distance is no longer an impossible barrier.
We can reach each other with a few clicks, and we can support each other within a safe space.
Social support, online and offline, helps provide hope and relief from distress. It is an essential part of recovery and it serves as a protective factor for good health.
As UC1L grows, we seek to connect with each individual that seeks this safety and support to complement the coaching services and course offerings. We not only empower women and youth to grow, but also provide them an avenue to help others that come after them.
Free Resources Promote Growth and Learning
Learning is the first step in improving. It always helps to know and understand ourselves and the science behind our bodies.
Our Facebook and Instagram accounts publish quotes and quick facts from studies. We talk about breathing, emotional intelligence, and how these relate to life. We also occasionally nudge our viewers and remind them to relax and release their tension during the day.
Our website and blog serve the purpose of explaining topics more in-depth.
Through these resources, we hope to connect people with free educational materials and other tools they can use for their health and well-being.
Change for Women and Children Changes the World
We can transform our lives, one breath at a time. We can transform our world, one life at a time.
But, we should all be given the chance to do so.
Women and children should be cherished and given the opportunities and resources they deserve.
In UC1L, we wish to provide a safe and supportive space for women and children to explore the paths they want to take. While we are a start-up, we believe that each effort counts.
Women and children can make a change. But we need to make a change for them too.