Recent coaching sessions have been addressing fear in one way or another. Surely, fear is pronounced in these times — with threats coming from many directions; with uncertainty, suffering, and crisis amplified; and with cruelty, cuts, and a coup all central to everyday experiences.
In this week’s writing group, one member said that they’re having to make decisions about how to show up at their institution, and this question aligned with questions I’m hearing in coaching as well. For example — to know that you’re in good company and not alone — in the past week, coaching has addressed:
- engaging in career discernment and specifically decision-making about how to show up as an educator now, when students are seeking extra support with their decision-making — not only around coursework and future careers but also when-where-how to agitate and what might be the (upside and downside) risks involved
- creating a comprehensive résumé, choosing resonant keywords, and considering how much to frame and front-load activist and political work
- offering feedback on a dissertation that’s really playing with and pushing genre expectations and, therefore, pushing institutional expectations as well
- considering how to make consulting one’s full-time work — with a focus on how to work with the many uncertainties of this time (not only of variable income but also of alignment with organizational missions and how organizations’ funding sources are changing too)
- embracing intuitive guidance and working with fears, especially fears when making life changes in the midst of collective crises …
As a glimpse into what this time means, these descriptions hopefully highlight the deep, potentially life-changing, and wide-ranging questions so many of us are asking. They also indicate the willingness to come closer to fear.
With appreciation for this willingness to work with fear’s insights and teachings, whether whispers or screams, let me share an accompanying photo from childhood:
I searched for it yesterday after a coaching session where we ended up talking about our child selves. I mentioned my favorite purple skirt, which I loved and wanted to wear daily. When I searched for a photo of that skirt, I found this one with my back to the camera and the mountains all around. I notice how I’m standing cautiously away from my dad and the fireworks. This must have been one of the early roots of my fear of fireworks. Fireworks are loud and dangerous and definitely scary.
Perhaps this is a time to remember “kid fears” as we confront big fears in the scary environment we’re navigating. As I’ve been reminded this week, there are solid reasons for hypervigilance showing up, and our nervous systems are frayed, needing extra support. Fears are also friends: if we can cozy up to them, we can ask how to respond, build backups, invest in community, and detach from the ways things are … and more.
I’m certainly reflecting on fears, past and present, and I’m also here, if/when it feels right to connect for coaching. In the meantime, I send much love. <3
Beth
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Beth Godbee, Ph.D. (she/her)
Heart-Head-Hands: Everyday Living for Justice
A Few Highlights:
- Open Enrollment: “Career Discernment for Academics: Aligning Career with Commitments”
- Related Blog Post: “The Coach as Ideas Editor: How Coaching Facilitates Transformation”
- More on Working with Fear: “Journaling and Drawing Exercises for Times of Transition”
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