I Cried Today
Career Coaching: I Cried: Today I met with my Writing Coach, and I cried. She provided affirmation, and gentle challenge on the thousands of words I’d submitted. She offered wisdom regarding ways forward, reminding me of my purpose in setting out to write the book at all. I cried. Why? I cried with gratitude in being witnessed. I had tears of relief at My Story being lovingly held. I guess my small-self has not always been received so kindly. It’s a considerable risk to bare my soul to anyone. My soul was usually hurriedly packed away in the past.
“…when someone tells you that your experiences, wounds, and life have value.”
It is SO good when someone tells you that your experiences, wounds, and life have value. And it takes courage to take that risk, to say, “here are another 12,000 words, can we discuss them?”. Even when this is a coach I have known for years. Rebecca is both a friend and a colleague, and STILL, It feels terrifying! I noticed that I’d moved from being an utterly confident coach in the morning, working with a client working in a top London university research Department, to a woman who was tentatively revealing her hurts to her own coach in the afternoon.
Career Coaching: I Cried
Interestingly enough, this coach was emotional in the session too. She was emotional about her passion for supporting women to have a voice in society when we have been repressed for a couple of millennia. Her tears were in frustration at the loss of wisdom from the maternal lineage. This leaves women with no route map or guidance as to how to live, birth children, heal, and how to die. That took her getting vulnerable too. And do you know what? That means we are both doing soul work.
“I wasn’t in tears because I was seeking approval for my writing style”
I wasn’t in tears because I was seeking approval for my writing style. I was emotional because I received confirmation that the wounds I have sustained have value and can help others. I was helping by supporting other women avoiding getting wounded themselves or by giving them a route map back out if they did. That means those bruising experiences have value. Rebecca was emotional because she’s right on purpose with her work, and it matters, it REALLY matters!
Today I got a reminder of the value of getting vulnerable and learning that this is fertile territory. To risk exposure, to risk showing a fellow human, the deepest, darkest place in yourself and to be shown by return they this is a rich seam of gold, is a complete miracle. It’s terrifying, and it is SO worth it…
Re-reminding myself that as a coach, I too deserve that support, wisdom, and encouragement. Rebecca (& she’s fabulous BTY – You can find her at Ridley Writes) can’t write The Book for me, but she can be there alongside me, affirming the terrifying bits. That’s what I do for others. I had forgotten just how nourishing it is to receive in return. Letting people into the places where it matters is the toughest thing. It is also the most valuable risk to take if you want to work out how best to take it forward.