Hi Celtic

Interesting that you bring up Rumi...I've heard so many recitations of his poetry and his saying and I've always enjoyed them, although I have never picked up a book or accessed a website to read his work directly. Guess it keeps falling off the to-do list or my "NSOS" (next shiny object syndrome) keeps kicking in!

I understand about blows to our confidence when we're young...they can do a LOT of damage, can't they? Although I'm moving through it, I can still hear the voices of teachers, parents, and other family members making fun of or being frustrated by my "talkativeness". Like you, I'm putting that pain to another use...which is why I am moving into coaching and speaking. Although my talkativeness was not always seen as a gift, I'm choosing to see it that way now and leverage it for the positive instead of the negative! I'm also learning how to use silence to the positive instead of feeling that I'm not being heard (which was the story I have had for years and years!).

RE: the energy of words. You asked how I came to that knowledge. I'm not actually sure where it started...I've always "known" it somehow and used that knowledge, unconsciously, in my technical writing and speeches. However, that natural understanding was enhanced as I went through many different training classes and began to notice the trends in people's speech patterns. About 3.5 years ago I was in a course that opened my eyes to lots of different things (it was called Beyond Your Best and was, with all 3 levels I took, about 6 months of training). It was called a "transformational leadership/coaching program" and it royally kicked my butt in a lot of ways! The exercises were, many times, difficult and always opened my eyes. There was also some "harm" done by inexperienced volunteer leaders...which also became a learning for me.

My most recent foray into understanding the power of words was work with the Law of Attraction, Law of Resonance and a coaching program I attended with a woman named Dr. Fern Kazlow. She is a traditionally trained therapist who merged that training with many energetic healing modalities. I combined what I already knew with her teachings and have moved into a focus on helping people rewrite the stories by looking, carefully and closely, at the stories they are telling and the words they are using to tell those stories. I have, slowly but surely, started to let myself "listen without listening" to hear the energetic feeling of the person I'm speaking with.

I can feel it in written words, but not so easily and with a bit less confidence than when I'm hearing someone speak. Maybe that is because I have always had a deep connection to the spokent word. In fact, many years ago, my teacher/therapist/friend tried to explain that the spoken word is actually how I process information...my former husband was thoroughly irritated (dare I say pissed off) about my tendency to talk through everything and how I could shift perspectives between the beginning and ending of a conversation!

I'm not sure if I answered your question, so let me know! So much of what has come to me in the last few years has been a combination of what I already "knew" somewhere deep inside and what resonated about the information I was receiving from another from the outside.

I'm finally getting comfortable in my own skin as I learn more...I've had these gifts since I was a child (or a wee one...I love that saying, did I tell you that). However, I was definitely not in an environment or society who honored intuition and non-scientific gifts.

Now, speaking of rambling!!!!!!!!!