Breaking The Chains

Today I coached two amazing women, separately of course. What I learned is that there is a lot of unlearning required to be free; free emotionally, financially, even physically. I say physically because illness seems to follow closely on the heels of unrest, and fear is an unwanted companion that looms large and ugly in the imagination, a learned fear taught by overly protect parents or people in our lives that project fear or a reaction to circumstances that no longer exist. This fear grips and constrains and holds captive, a real living breathing entity that appears to make the decisions for the victim. Grip, constrain, captive, victim.  This is a fascinating scenario because inside each person there lives and breathes a thief, stealing confidence, security, peace. The battle rages until voice is given to the fears and then, something breaks, chains clang to the floor and the grip is no more. In silence there is suffering, in sharing bondage is broken. The thief tells lies and isolates the victim from community, perpetuating the loneliness of a fear that no one should endure alone.  The expression "it is never as bad as it seems" comes to mind because each time I coach or am coached, speaking fear never kills my clients and it has never killed me.  I witnessed today two amazing women, vulnerable, honest, concurring their own fears, stepping out in faith and learning that while fear can be acknowledged, they will not let it shut them up, shut them down, or stop them from living their lives in a rich and powerful way. Speaking their truths shut the liar up.