When I began training as a coach specialising in sex, love and relationships, I was still working exclusively in pharma.
I remember wondering whether to keep it quiet. Then I decided to be bold and I shared it with a few trusted colleagues.
I was nervous. How would people perceive me? Would I be punished? Would I be shunned?
With each of them, there was a pause... a moment of stunned silence. And then, almost immediately, excitement. “Yes, this is so you... you will be so great at that!”
I was the one left stunned.
Their response gave me the confidence to share it more widely... and to stop hiding. From then on, I could truly show up as myself at work... not a carefully edited version, but all of me.
In my last two posts, I shared what happens when the body doesn’t feel safe, and what it means when someone makes room for us. This was another layer of that safety.
We hear so often that we should bring our whole selves to work... and so often, it’s only words. This time, I felt I actually could. I wasn’t just accepted. I was encouraged.
Lately I’ve been considering how our careers can ask so much of us, and the work often follows us home. For that to feel worth it, what we do has to matter to us personally. And if work can come home with us, then who we are at home needs to be welcome at work too.
Real balance isn’t about time, or how much we give on either side. It’s about the quality of our relationships with our employers and colleagues.
With each person I told, I felt two things. Safe to be seen, and fully supported. That feeling imprinted in my nervous system, and I carry it with me into the work I do now.
