Khun Nang, a half native Thai chooses Hua Hin for her health and wellbeing business after living and working more than 29 years in France. With a wide range of work experience in international business, including the pharmaceutical industry, she wants to see less people in the hospital halls, by introducing holistic coaching for healthy living.
What made you decide to settle down in Thailand when you have lived most of your life in France?
Well, actually the click happened more than 15 years ago, when I was on a business trip in Thailand, researching the medical imagery market for a multinational company; a global leader in the imagery diagnosis materials. I went to a hair salon for a manicure while visiting my family in Nakorn Phanom, and a lady came into the salon to have her hair washed and dried. That lady looked like a typical ordinary housewife. Suddenly, I realised that I never had a chance to do this. So I took a close look at the lady and thought that I have been a fool working like crazy and doing business without having time to pamper myself. My bank balance was healthy but I had no time to profit from it, unlike that lady who seemed to be happier with less. I realised that people can be happier here in Thailand and have more time to take care of themselves than me living in France with no time for myself. So the idea of coming back to Thailand was on the way.
What is holistic coaching for healthy living and how have you come to this?
Before telling you what holistic coaching is, I’ll tell you why I ended up there in the first place. Actually 10 years ago, when I came back to live in Thailand, I had some health problems like severe and chronic allergies. I used to take a lot of steroids but it did not bother me until one day when I took someone I knew to a hospital. It was around 4.30pm but the hospital was still very crowded. So I asked why all those people still there were that late.
I was told that they were waiting to be examined and some of them had been waiting since 5am! I had been familiar with hospital and doctors because of my health problems, but never in my life had I seen a hospital more crowded than a supermarket!! For the first time in my life, I began to panic! What if I was seriously ill? I don’t want to be there waiting for hours, what should I do? So I began thinking of taking care of myself by using my knowledge and experience gained from working with medical professionals, beginning with healthy food.
After a few months, physically I was feeling better but something was missing. I didn’t know what, but my mind was not at peace with my body. I then realised that a healthy mind makes a healthy body and a healthy body makes a happier life and when you change your way of eating, you need to change your way of thinking too. Everything is linked together to deliver a “whole”, that’s holistic and to learn about it that’s holistic coaching. Since then I have been searching, studying lots of methods to make a happy mind so to have a healthy life. Most of all, I discovered the willpower by NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming) and meditation. So I had the idea of using the combined technics to make my mind happier.
My holistic coaching program is a combination of mind care, body care by using NLP, meditation, well-living knowledge and healthy food from my French restaurant experience, to redesign a healthy and happy life. The program can be tailor made; to answer whether you need a 1 day course, 3 days, 5 days or 7 days depends on your health and expectations. Nowadays, we have professional coaching to help us be more efficient in our jobs. We also have life coaching to help us fac and solve our life’s problems.
But we don’t have one that helps us to get a grip on our health and life as a whole. My holistic coaching will help prevent health problems by changing our eating and living habits for a healthier and happier life. It also helps to prevent depression which is very widespread in today’s life. This is only possible by changing your way of thinking which is difficult to achieve by yourself, that’s why one needs holistic coaching to help one’s face modern life problems with more serenity.
When and where will your holistic coaching will take place?
Actually we are working on it in collaboration with the Lotus Hua Hin, to set holistic coaching for Healthy Living there, beginning with a one day course at the weekends. But as soon as the necessary changes in the Lotus Resort are completed, we will have 1 day, 3 day, 5 day and 7 day courses with delicious and healthy organic food and luxury spa program using organic certified skin care products imported from France. We expect the changes to be completed in November 2016 of the latest.
Why the Lotus Hua Hin when you have plenty of hotels and resorts, by the beach for example?
Lotus, Hua Hin is a small resort but big enough to accommodate small groups. It is a unique resort just outside the town set in the middle of beautiful and natural mango groves on the hill side with lots of potential to become a destination resort for those who want luxury at affordable prices. It’s calm and clean surrounding is an important part of the holistic coaching.
But to make people choose something new; you need to convince them that the “new” is really good. Also to show the difference between the old and the new, you need to make them feel the difference by their own experience; that is what we intend to do. When our planned changes are done, the Lotus will have everything that makes the difference, luxury spa, holistic coaching classes, cookery classes and healthy and tasty cuisine with a five star customer service.
How do you expect to take the coaching market share in Hua Hin?
Without disclosing the details of our plan, I can tell you that we are not going to take a share in the existing market; we are going to create a new market trend which does not exist today in Hua Hin. The existing program provides services but we will make people learn how to have a healthy and happy life. Here we are not only providing services but mostly we provide information and knowledge. Once you’ve learned it you can take good care of yourself by yourself.
What is the interest for you to teach people to take care of their health by themselves? Once they know how to do it, they won’t come back to you? Do you think it is a good way to do business?
We want to work on the modern basis of business concept which is to provide an excellent service which people want to take by choice. I don’t want to see people continuing to poison their bodies and minds with unhealthy eating habits. I want to see them enjoying a modern and knowledgeable way of living. The focus of our business is not to be big, it is to be excellent and value for money. As long as there are plenty of people still waiting in the hospital halls or suffering health problems, they would want to come to us to learn how to change their way of life for a healthy living.
What is your vision about healthy and happy life? What is the perspective for your a business five years from now?
For most of us, having a good job with a big income, a nice car, a big house, handsome or beautiful partner and smart kids, is considered as having a happy life. We think a good life is eating expensive food or sometimes with expensive food supplements. This is the way most of us think is the way to get healthy. For me, happy life is a question of having choice, having choice to do whatever you want, whenever you want and the way you want it.
You’ll tell me that doing whatever you want you’ll need money and I’ll tell you, that if you need money to do something you want, then you also have the choice not to do it, if you don’t have money. This is the choice that makes you the master of your happy life. In fact by refusing to do something that needs money when you don’t have it, you set yourself free of the need for it. For me this is taking the choice that all of us have, and it’s up to all of us to take it.
In order to have a happy life you need to put your wellbeing in the centre of all your decisions. And when you put your wellbeing in first place in all your decisions, you get a healthy life, but then again, you need to have a right idea of wellbeing. This is where holistic coaching is needed. Mental wellbeing leads to physical wellbeing and vice versa. In 5 years’ time, I’d like to see less people suffering from health problems and lots of people being members of our D4U Club that will take place at the Lotus at the beginning of November 2016.
What does D4U Club Stand for?
D1 is detox to eliminate toxins from your body to allow the diet program to work more effectively. One also needs to detox one’s mind from all stresses.
D2 is diet to make you look good physically. Here diet doesn’t only mean stop eating bad food but also to learn how to eat and to eat only good food.
D3 is dancing to help you getting fit physically and mentally ready to have a healthy and happy life.
D4 is dating to help you meet with people who have the same interest to live a healthy and happy life. This is where 4D comes from and D in Thai means good, so 4D becomes D4U; The Club for healthy and happy people. We are going to begin 1 day courses, at the weekends, at the Lotus Hua Hin, in March 2016. I will have the chance to share with all of you, my ideas of how to get a healthy and happy life, with a column called D4U in Hua Hin Today, from January on. So stay tuned and get ready to be healthy and happy with D4U Club.
