Why should you listen to me?

“Pain is inevitable, suffering is optional.”

According to those people who created NLP, If I treat life like it’s a learning laboratory, then there are no mistakes, only feedback.

But here’s what I have learned;

Feedback can be wrong, and it can be brutal, undermining and malicious.

I have found out, through cold, hard life experience, that we have to be extremely careful what feedback we take on board, and the reliability, character and intentions of the source.

When I retrained as a counsellor, I had an unexpected challenge.

Essentially, pressure was being applied on me to quit. To just give up. It seemed to come out of nowhere and slowly built over time. Slowly but surely, the temperature ramped up.

I felt like a frog in a pot, starting in a comfortably warm pond, only to realise I was being slowly boiled alive.

Ultimately, I was faced with a choice;

To abandon all the work I had put my heart and soul into up until that point, or push through and emerge with the rewards I set out to gain.

It got tough for a while. A good while.

But at my lowest point, something wise and strong began to kick in. And I started to fight my way back. Bit by bit.

Out of a very strong sense of darkness, and faced with a slow, relentless crawl, I found a new strength and conviction to head back towards the light.

And ultimately, I made it through.

I really detest the idea of other people having to go through what I went through, but the sad reality is that the problems I faced then affect many, many people in all walks of life.

And it is said that what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.

I was forced to pursue my own truth, and that meant ignoring other people doing their best to present an alternative reality, which was an offensive, blatant lie.

I figured this would be a good place to start to tell you a little bit about it…

Wouldn’t it be nice if life turned out a bit like a Sunday afternoon boat trip with a close friend…

Instead of travelling that Road to Hell, and feeling like you are unable to escape.

But here’s the Good News:

Although it may feel you cannot escape…

The truth is, you absolutely can, once you begin to trust yourself, and put your safety and your needs above those who have an agenda of their own which for whatever reason, seeks to undermine the very fabric of who you are.