Back in 1999, I was training to become an Empowerment Facilitator. In one of the experiential exercises, we were each given a large piece of paper and some markers and told to find a comfortable spot anywhere in the room for a guided visualization experience. We’d be led through a review of every area of our lives and what vision we had for each area.
Every one of the 40 participants got up, got their stuff together, found a spot, and made themselves comfortable. Everyone except me. I sat in my chair, frozen. And I didn’t know why.
One of the very kind and compassionate leaders came toward me and said, “It’s time to go find your spot in the room.” I just looked at him, speechless. Then he asked me a question that changed my life.
Coming closer, getting down on one knee so we were eye to eye, he asked, almost jokingly, “What’s the matter? Don’t you think you deserve to have the life you want?”
The question was like being physically shaken awake from a deep sleep. Tears sprang from my eyes, although I hardly even knew why I was crying. I only knew, without a doubt, that something really important had just happened.
In a way, that question did wake me up from a long sleep — from the trance of the deep, old, limiting belief that everyone else deserved to have the life they dreamed of, but not me.
It didn’t matter how I’d gotten that idea. What mattered was that, all the while it had been unconscious in me, it had been running my life — keeping me from taking risks, from asking for what I wanted, and from honoring my gifts and dreams. It kept me from seeing possibilities, it kept me small and unsatisfied.
I did go on and do the exercise, but the most powerful part of the whole experience was to see how, literally, that limiting belief was paralyzing me. Only when I could see it did I have a chance to make different choices from that moment on. Once woken up, I could choose to stay awake, and to claim the life I wanted.
My mission as a Life Coach is to ask you empowering questions, ones that bring to light your deepest truths, and to offer strategies and tools for you to live into the truth you uncover.
That’s why I’ve created the FREE 28 Day Empower Yourself Challenge.
Those 28 questions are designed to help you uncover what’s meaningful, important, and true for you. Only then do you have a chance of creating a more fulfilling, authentic life. I hope you’ll join me for this adventures.
FIND OUT MORE AND SIGN UP HERE.
All My Best,
Annie
P.S.
I’d love to hear about an empowering question you’ve been asked, or one you ask yourself and others. What wakes you up to your own truth?