Health - and mental coach Barbara Luigs is a great fan of Egypt. Besides offering a programme in partnership with German tour operators here, she often takes a personal break and recharges her batteries at the Red Sea. During her recent stay, we had the chance to interview her and find out more about her strong connection with Egypt.

Red Sea Bulletin: Mrs. Luigs, how did you start with doing what you do today?

Barbara Luigs: After having left corporate life behind me several years ago, I started with a training to become a health and fitness coach. Having been exposed to a severe burn-out myself, I realised how important a healthy balance between tension and recreation is. After my own recovery, I wanted to pass my newly gained knowledge on to others and help prevent them from going through the worst. In order to offer a qualified programme, I went through an intense training and am now a certified personal and wellness trainer and mental coach along with diverse training licenses, e.g. for Nordic walking or Masai barefoot walking.

RSB: What is the core programme that you offer?

Barbara Luigs: There are two different types of training and coaching available from me. My initial programme is more of a personal, customised coaching and can contain elements such as health and fitness coaching, elements to improve a person’s posture and so forth. The newly created programme is a group programme in powerful locations such as Egypt, which are conducted as vacation seminars. The one week programme includes personal coaching, mental exercises combined with exercises to both challenge and relax the body. Ultimately, the seminar is designed to achieve an attitude of serenity, concentration and energy in stressful situations along with the insight of the importance of a healthy body and mind and how to maintain this in the daily routine.

RSB: What exactly is health coaching?

Barbara Luigs: When you do health coaching, you will (re-)discover your own resources and how to optimally use them to develop a constant feeling of well-being. The coaching includes learning techniques to relax yourself, how to optimise your nutrition and also develops a plan how to easily integrate healthy food in the daily life. It is a very personal and customised process, as each client has a set of different issues they would like to address and change.

RSB: Can you please give a few examples of what exactly you are doing in the vacation seminar week?

Barbara Luigs: The morning starts with an “active awakening”, which could be a meditation at the beach, a barefoot exercise or a cardio training. During the morning, we usually spend some time on lectures about stress, stress reduction and personal values. Each day also contains at least one active element, such as swimming, snorkelling with dolphins or some walking exercise. To round the day off, we review in form of talks or mediation exercises which new insights the participants have gained. Another important factor are the personal coaching sessions where we can work confidentially on the personal issues and challenges of each person.

RSB: Why is Egypt a perfect location for such a programme?

Barbara Luigs: In order to break the daily routine, my programmes in Marsa Alam and Soma Bay strongly focus on breaking the habits of the attendees and to use the natural elements such as sun, wind, desert and water. The contrast of the elements in Egypt is very strong and has a tremendous effect on the results. Also, the abundance of sunshine increases the positive atmosphere and adds to the relaxed feeling I want to create with the offer.

RSB: What is the biggest benefit you believe your customers get from the programme?

Barbara Luigs: The style of the programme is very much designed to enable a “self-help”, pragmatic approach. In other words, the participants go back to their daily routine, but with a new perspective. And they take along a bag full of tools to make adjustments to the factors that induce stress and if accumulated contribute to risking a burn-out. For me, it is very interesting to observe how the attendees assume a higher level of personal responsibility at the end of the week.

RSB: Many thanks!

For more information, please contact Barbara Luigs directly at kontakt@sinnundwerte.de.