From fear to shame to freedom
We have all had those nights where we cannot sleep for the fears that hound us across the landscape of our dreams. After years of being pursued by the same fears, there comes a time, hopefully called wisdom, where we finally get that we have been afraid of the wrong thing.
The surface fear was never it. Not being able to meet payroll, not getting the next client, not knowing how to navigate a falling-down marriage.
It’s the fear that lies beneath. The shame, humiliation, pain caused to others, loneliness, sense of inadequacy, isolation…
Brene Brown‘s wonderful work on shame speaks to the core issues that so many of us avoid. When we really step deeply into our shame, our humiliation, our pain…not run from it, but dive deep into it, we can find liberation.
If we are able to muster the inner warrior and follow our shame like breadcrumbs to its source, then we will be free of it. You will know you are free because what was once unspeakable becomes something about which you can speak with neutrality to anyone.
This is not easy. But true freedom never is.
