How many of you have looked at others who are up on stage or speaking on a microphone and had a weird feeling go on inside?
Is it gratitude that its them and not you? or is it a desire for that to be you that you have not yet acknowledged?
This last week I CHOSE to step up and be heard!
As a teenager I really enjoyed being on stage and over the years I have stepped further and further away from the “limelight” until I have been avoiding doing anything that would have people look at me or give them a chance to judge me.
Over the past couple of years I have attended short ‘Right Voice for You’ tasters with amazing facilitators such as Delany Delaney and Blossom Benedict. Just short classes that have been between 1 and 4 hours. These classes have bought up and cleared many of my points of view that have contributed to this hiding away and I made the demand that this year I would attend one of Blossom’s 2 day classes.
On Tuesday my 9 year old asked me to come to school and help with the cross-country. To me that meant putting on a high viz vest and pointing the runners in the correct direction. On arrival the PE teacher came up to me and said “I am looking for someone to be on the microphone, get the kids organised and do the welcomes and thank yous. Would you like to do it?”
My throat closed, my heart raced and …
“Sure!”
Why not apply the tools I have learnt in Access and Right Voice to a real life scenario?
What if now is the time?
Immediately the thoughts ‘I can’t do that’ and ‘i wouldn’t know what to say’ all came flooding in and I used that basic easy tool of “Who does that belong to?” (for more about this tool check out http://youtu.be/v3_3a1kG-ZY) and they all went away!! MAGIC!
As I turned to the group of parents beside me they were all looking at me and I grinned ‘I know who those throughts belonged to’ I thought. Out loud I said “How many of you are glad he didn’t ask you?” and they all agreed. How does it get any better than that?
As I stepped up to start the days proceedings I had this energy show up that in the past I would have defined as fear and allowed it to slow or stop me. I looked at that energy and asked a question (hint: questions open up the possibilities) “Is this fear or excitement?” WOOSH! I felt like jumping up and down like a kid on Christmas morning! Oh so I’m excited!
As the morning past I kept asking myself what could I say here that would contribute to more consciousness, more kindness, more caring and more joy to this day?
The words fell out of my mouth including fun manipulation that kept teachers from taking their children back to their classrooms and instead allowing them to celebrate the other children’s achievements!
Last year when the final “runner” arrived, the finish line had been taken down and there were only a handful of kids standing around. This year from my contribution the end of the proceedings were far different to last year. When the final “runner” came into view I encouraged the others to cheer him across the line for the choice he made keep going and complete what he had chosen to do. He had nearly 20 of his peers running with him, over a hundred parents, teachers and kids lining the home straight and cheering him on.
What if you being willing to have your voice heard could contribute to people choosing more ease, joy and glory in their lives?
I know by me choosing that day to step up and be heard I made a difference in the world.
Thank you Gary Douglas for gifting us these tools and thank you to all the facilitators in the world who make it possible for people like me to create what we know is possible in the world.
