Breaking Free
Healing Hearts through Words
‘You saved my life.’ The words echoed in the auditorium and rippled through me as I, and the audience, waited to hear what came next.
It's rare for someone to credit you with saving their life. Even rarer when you don't know that you did.
Never under-estimate the power of your words to change: a situation, an outcome, a life.
12 months earlier, this young woman asked me for help. She was in the middle of some very challenging and confronting situations - both at work, where she was being bullied, and at home, where similar behaviour had been presenting for years.
However, the help she sought was initially around Presentation Skills. How could she present more powerfully, more confidently, and BE present, rather than emotionally and energetically "leaving the room", her usual strategy.
We talked for some time, and I shared ways in which she could be present, while maintaining strong boundaries. I shared physical techniques she could employ that would help her ground herself in the moment, just as actors must do, in all aspects of performance.
We spoke at length about the power of owning your voice, of speaking out - and the power of words to create change, to transform, to heal.
We spoke about the potency of our intuition and our listening skills.
We spoke about a lot of things that were seemingly unconnected to the art of speaking, and yet, were.
And finally, she shared her story, and how it had kept her captive all these years, and we talked through some of the techniques she could use to change that.
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This, then, was the same young woman who sat with me, and in front of a live audience, thanked me for saving her life.
I had no idea. The tools that I had shared, the techniques we had discussed, the concept of owning her voice, her power, her very life, had opened a world of possibilities. It had given her the courage and techniques to confront those who had taken her voice, her power, for so many years.
These same techniques also supported her when she was so emotionally distraught that she was in danger of losing her life, through inattention.
All of this she shared with me.
And from one heartbeat to the next, my life too was changed. A turning point for us both.
Never under-estimate the power of your words to create transformation.
It is why I am here. It is what I am called to do.
© Simone De Haas 2024
Excerpt from my book “Cradle to Crone” (working title) publishing 2025.