The Fear Beneath Being Seen

What if its too late?

Much of my career was focused solely on healing, for both my patients and my students. Healing old wounds, healing belief systems that held them back, that sabotaged their potential as well as their growth and their physical health. Over time, my focus changed. From focusing on changing the face of health care in America by educating practitioners to what was possible within their practice, to focusing on leaders and how to bring multiple levels of healing, spiritually, emotionally, and physically so that they in turn could impact all those employed under them as well as themselves.

Being human, old fears showed up. My old work was cellular; it had become who I was not what I did. Now I needed to translate decades of experience, learning, and training, within a whole new approach to a new audience. To say the least, it was frightening as well as exhilarating. Being seen differently is scary. As an entrepreneur, calling in a new or additional audience can be terrifying.

What if it doesn’t work? What if I fail? Everyone will see.

Visibility in a new context activates old fears.

What about rejection? Critics? Confusion for the audience? What is she doing?

The fear of being misunderstood... Adding to that mix, in midlife the fear evolves.

It becomes: What if I’ve missed my moment?
What if I take a risk and nothing expands?
What if I am no longer relevant?

We hear endless messages about age: What is possible after a certain age? What is expected after a certain age? What is appropriate after a certain age?

We can convince ourselves we don’t hear it, it doesn’t affect us, yet more than once there can be this little twinge. Nonetheless, the greater risk is stagnation, taking no risks, playing it safe. The status quo. Some of us just aren’t built that way. In spite of ourselves, at times, we just do it!

We were not built for maintenance. We were built for evolution. For growing and changing, becoming who we were meant to be. The question isn’t whether fear exists. It does. The real question is whether your purpose and your need to live, not just survive outweighs it.

Your next level requires exposure, visibility. Not recklessness. Just courage. Being seen in a new light is scary and yet not being seen at all can get small, depressing, isolating, and so very limiting. Whatever your next stage looks like, embrace it. Take a chance on being seen in a new light. Take on a chance of living.

In the Institute, we will examine the masks we as leaders of our own lives wear - and how those defenses quietly limit expansion. Awareness dissolves limitation.