What it means to me to be a coach

It means I am critical of and call out systems that minimize, dehumanize, and oppress people. As long as those systems exist, none of us are free.

I hold each human life to be as precious, deserving, and worthy as another.

In each human life, I see a universe.

It means I work to grow awareness of the subtle and not-so-subtle ways we’ve been taught that a few of us are welcome and many of us aren’t. That some people are worthy and others are not.

Borders. Incarceration. Conversion Therapy. Forced Sterilization. Native American residential assimilation schools. Colonization. Wage Gaps. Apartheid. Genocide.

It means I listen, carefully, for all the ways we’ve been taught not to trust ourselves and others. Taught we are not worthy. Taught to compare ourselves to others. 

I name those to bring awareness to them, because what has been placed in the spotlight cannot be hidden anymore. 

I remind people that the internal voice sowing mistrust, unworthiness, and doubt is not their own. It is the voice of oppression. The result of organized patterns of mistreatment we’ve experienced. Inherited belief systems intent on keeping us small. Confined. Fearful. Quiet. Assimilated. 

We have a choice of whether to believe those narratives. I invite people to tap into their intuition, their humanity, their connectedness with others to question that voice.

And every time we choose to challenge those lies and choose to trust and love instead, every time we believe that we are worthy, we put a crack in that system.

It means I operate with the understanding that we are all interconnected and interdependent. 

There is no “us vs them” or “you vs me”. When you suffer, I suffer. When I thrive, you thrive. Separation is an illusion.

Self-care and collective care are one. We care for ourselves so we are sustained and ready to show up for the collective. When one of us is tired, another can step up. We demonstrate how our capacity for interdependent care and action runs deep and wide.

I believe in abundance. We all rise together.

It means I foster capacity to hold the vast spectrum of emotions and experiences that make us human. 

I honor rage as much as joy. I hold space for grieving and dreaming. Feelings totally lost and feelings of immense passion both get attention. 

Because I understand that one doesn’t exist without another. Our ability to feel multiple things at once is something I honor as a sacred part of our humanity. 

What society has deemed as “difficult” emotions are most often rooted in a profound love - for ourselves and others. That love may feel hurt and violated. That love may feel misunderstood. That love may be suffocating. That love may need to scream and cry. That love deserves to be seen and held in all its forms.

Love fights. Because love knows and longs for justice.

It means I work to replace judgment with compassion and accountability.

I know in my bones that when we grow our compassion for ourselves, our capacity for compassion for others grows as well. I know with accountability comes strength, depth, and understanding.

It means I believe in the capacity of human beings to change.

I see the possibility of a different world. And I am dedicated to helping create it.

It means that I am a witness to people’s deepest fears and most expansive dreams. 

Most often, people's deepest fear is not being accepted for who they are. Judgment. That their quirky, weird, offbeat, wonderfulness that makes them who they are isn’t permitted here. They fear they’re trapped in a society that isn’t built to embrace them. And usually - unfortunately - their fear has come true many times

Most often, people’s expansive dream is to be themselves. To feel ease and joy. For their actions to be purposeful. To create and express their soul into the world. To build genuine connection with others through rituals, quality time, and being in service. People’s expansive dreams involve slowness and meaning in everyday moments. To make other people happy. To be so authentically themselves that their existence allows others to do the same. 

Change. People want change. A return to who we are meant to be, how we are meant to be. People are dreaming of a different way of being in relationship to themselves and each other - one where we are accepted, embraced, and actively depend on our differences to thrive together.

And in the changes they are creating in their lives, they are building a new world.