Come Out of the Closet with Your Gifts
Discovery and hiding
At first, I didn’t know it was anything. I’d go into a meditative state and words and images began to flow. Occasionally I would do this with fellow spiritual journeyers. Amazing insights would show up. And – what both thrilled me and frightened me – things would begin to change in my life and in the lives of others who were with me.
Did that have something to do with my gift? It took me a long time to acknowledge that it did.
Like many who have an unconventional gift – especially a gift in the spiritual realm – I was discreet about how I shared my gift and with whom. A few close friends who were also on a spiritual journey, and selected individual coaching clients – that’s who seemed “safe enough” to expose my gift.
I didn’t openly share this gift with my organizational consulting clients, colleagues, friends or family. In my private meditations, I used the gift to provide positive energy support to clients, friends, family and some public figures I will likely never meet. I always asked “cosmic permission” and specified that “only that which is for the highest good” was allowed to be part of my visualizations. I didn’t tell anyone about them.
Discreet sharing
About twelve years ago, I began to offer guided visualizations as a service to an online audience. I guessed that people in my “regular” life probably wouldn’t stumble across my online offers so it would still be sort of private. (Billions of strangers might see my online offers, but that felt private!)
I learned more about my gift. “Guided visualization” does not quite describe it. I’ve come to believe that when I am “in the zone,” – that very deep space – I am tapped into powerful divine energy that transmits to other people too. I’ve been humbled to see people let go of lifetime blocks, dissolve barriers, attract seemingly impossible opportunities, get more clarity than ever before about their life purpose, and truly begin to love themselves and express themselves in the world.
I loved the work, but it was not financially viable. I shut down the business through which I’d offered that service. I continued to use the gift in my private meditations but did not share it in a public way.
It is time
This year, I’ve had a few wake-up calls.
1. On my birthday last fall, it really hit me that I am a time-limited vehicle! That fact of life and death was more in my face than ever before.
2. In January 2021, I received a cancer diagnosis. After five months of medical adventures, I’m now feeling healthier and more energized and optimistic and forward-looking than I have felt for several years. But still. Another reminder that I am a time-limited vehicle.
3. I began to feel practically unethical in not sharing whatever gifts I’ve been given – abilities, time, opportunities, whatever…
4. I’m now more concerned about how awful I’ll feel if, on my deathbed, I haven’t shared my gifts than I am concerned about my gifts being ridiculed, disapproved of, discounted or ignored.
Three useful questions
I asked myself three useful questions. (These questions are useful for almost any decision or opportunity.)
1. If not why not? Because I’m self-conscious? Because someone might think I’m flaky? Some people already think that and I haven’t died of humiliation.
2. If not now, when? At my age, “later” might not be an option.
3. If not me, who? Like everyone else on the planet, I am the only person with my specific combination of gifts.
Perhaps you too have gifts that you are almost afraid to recognize or are not yet comfortable sharing. Perhaps my story will encourage you to come out of your closet.
Eventually, we discover that denying or hiding our gifts is even more risky than sharing them.
In these changing times, the world needs all of our gifts.
Reflection questions
What gifts do you have that you have not felt comfortable sharing
with others, or with only a few select others?
What would it take for you to be willing to share more of your gifts?