Q: I’m afraid to speak in front of people. When I was a child I didn’t speak and I want to learn how to do it.
John: You have a difficulty with speaking because speaking makes you vulnerable. It makes you feel exposed and unsafe. Feeling exposed and unsafe when you speak doesn’t stop or slow you in speaking if your value in speaking is more than feeling safe.
Be in your heart and speak from your heart. Speaking from your heart will expose your self as being smaller than your heart. That’s why you don’t like to speak. You have been trained by others not to speak because when you would speak, something comes back to you: someone gives you a strange look, or says something to you that doesn’t feel good because of what you’ve spoken, so then you become apprehensive in speaking. You become afraid of speaking.
When what is true in your heart means more to you than speaking or not speaking, you’ll not speak when it is true to your heart for you not to speak, and when it is true to your heart for you to speak, you will speak.
Out of all of the discomfort that speaking puts you into, you will still speak.
