"I wondered how I would be able to hide my emotions and talk about these themes without feeling like a complete hypocrite. I worried that some comment or question would cause my fragile façade to dissolve into tiny little pieces as I broke down into tears and limped off the stage, searching for the nearest broom closet to hide in."
"We learn more from doing something than by thinking about or analyzing it. I stepped up in front of the first group and, for the first time in my life, felt deeply connected with the suffering within each person there. While I did not mention the tide of events in my personal life, I detected what people were feeling and shared the models in a much less theoretical and much more direct and personal way."
"My teaching became my release. I spoke with a "stickiness" I had never known before; it was as if I were speaking personally to each person in the room, some of whom broke down into tears during the session. At the end, I felt like I needed to unglue myself from the participants in order to leave. At the next conference, a few days later, it happened again."
A week after a painful breakup, the narrator taught two large leadership conferences on success, happiness, self-esteem, and handling disapproval. Anxiety about appearing hypocritical and fear of breaking down accompanied preparation, but stepping on stage produced a profound empathy with attendees' suffering. Teaching became an emotional release and felt intensely personal, prompting some participants to cry and cling to the experience. Follow-up messages described significant changes in participants' lives after the sessions. The narrator acknowledges genuine connection arose not from forgiveness but from sharing and embodying personal suffering that resonated with others.
Read at Psychology Today
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