Raeesa Mahomed is a transformational life coach and her tagline 'Be the best you' aptly describes the results she gets with her clients. Raeesa has helped hundreds of clients remove negative programming from the subconscious mind and take them to a place of positivity and empowerment and create the life they want. She comes from a decades-long award-winning international career in radio, TV, and film, and her path to deep self-reflection and life coaching began when she faced a life-threatening illness a few years ago. She now also helps others heal from disease by addressing their emotional health and spirituality. She is also a writer and motivational speaker.
Tell us a bit about yourself. Who is Raeesa?
Well, the short answer is I’m a broadcaster, Master life coach, mother and lover of life. But there’s a long answer too. I live in Durban, South Africa – a beautiful sub-tropical coastal city which is also the biggest port in Africa. I’ve been in broadcasting (television, radio and film) for over 30 years, working here and abroad (London mostly). In 2010 my feature film ‘For Better For Worse’ was released in the cinemas (I wrote the screenplay and played the lead). I am currently senior producer for drama, religion and languages on Lotus FM, which is a national radio station and also a practising life coach. I have two daughters aged 22 and 16 and I feel they have been my most rewarding achievement.
That’s a fascinating profile. Broadcasting is very different from life coaching as a career path. How did you get into the latter?
Good question. Life coaching wasn’t even on my radar and then in 2013 I fell seriously ill with a life threatening disease. I was devastated as I felt I had always led a healthy lifestyle. This led me to doing a lot of introspection and reflection. I realised that I hadn’t fully dealt with past painful experiences and I set out on a quest of learning and growing spiritually. One thing led to another. I found an excellent life coaching course and this really changed my life.
I continued learning and this helped me immensely to heal and to grow as a person. I decided I wanted to share my learnings and then started practising as a life coach. I continued at the academy and did my Masters which was a gruelling programme and test. Since then I have coached and helped so many people and it’s honestly one of the most rewarding things I’ve ever done.
So tell us more about your life coaching. What do you focus on and how do you help your clients?
I help people become the best version of themselves. This is a line that has almost become a cliché, but it is the best way to describe what I do. Every single human being is filled with immense potential and power and we each have unique and special talents. We all have the ability to use that potential and talent to become highly successful and happy, living lives filled with love. But we allow negative life experiences, negative emotions and beliefs to hold us back, fill us with doubt and keep us down. All people do this at some point. I guide my clients to see what it is that is holding them back and show them how to release all of this. And then build on reprogramming themselves with positivity and empowering thoughts and beliefs; and give them a roadmap to achieve their goals.
That sounds very empowering. I’ve seen on your website that your niches are anxiety and depression, health and weight loss. Why these specifically?
I noticed that the overriding factors that were holding back most of my clients are depression and anxiety. These are unfortunately extremely common and are getting more and more widespread. So I focus on these. I trained myself more extensively in these areas and now have very successful programmes to overcome these. They empower my clients with effective tools to address both depression and anxiety and to continue doing it on an ongoing basis.
I have a personal interest in health. On the journey to my own healing, I did a lot of reading and research and realised how much we can do to make sure we remain in optimal health so that we hardly ever have to see a doctor or the inside of a hospital. And these are not just the obvious ones like diet and exercise (both crucial factors) but mindset and emotions. These are so often overlooked in the treatment of physical diseases. And I also noticed that so many people wanting to lose weight were also overlooking the crucial emotional factor. So in becoming the best you, which is my tagline, one has to look at all these aspects – overall mental, emotional and physical health and wellness
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I must add the spiritual factor. I have also found that spirituality contributes immensely to overall wellbeing and I’ve included this in my coaching. Whatever one’s spiritual or religious beliefs, connection to and belief in a higher power is enormously beneficial in lifting one’s energies and achieving success and wellbeing in every aspect of one’s life.
Sounds like a very holistic coaching system. What do you do when you’re not working or coaching? What are your interests and hobbies?
I am a water baby which is great, seeing I live at the coast. I love swimming and all water sports. I love reading, travelling, playing tennis, listening to music and am a trained kathak dancer, so like to unwind through some dance moves. And I have a passion for travelling.
Well let’s hope all the international travel bans get lifted soon. To conclude, what are your plans for the future?
My coaching is one of my main focus areas in my life. I help people heal and grow and become their best selves and I can’t think of anything more rewarding. So I would like to reach more people through international talks and symposiums, group coaching and bring out a book which I’m working on. I would also like to travel and coach.
Sounds exciting. Hope you achieve all this and more.
Thank you so much and well done to Brainz Magazine for showcasing the best ideas and articles in this field and so many excellent coaches internationally.
Want to learn more from Raeesa? Follow her Facebook, Instagram, Linkedin, and visit her website. You can also email her at info@raeesamahomed.co.za.
