Short, Contained, Confidential Conversations

One of the greatest lessons I’ve learned in life is how crucially important it is to bring into the open things that may have remained hidden in the darkness for many, many years. To be able to speak about things you may never have shared before carries immense weight and significance. What is equally important is that you feel absolutely safe in that environment, and that you can trust the one you are sharing your feelings, emotions, and elements of your life experience with.

This is not about group discussion or opening up in front of other people. This is about private, confidential, one-to-one conversations. Spaces where there is no pressure, no audience, and no expectation beyond being able to speak freely and honestly, perhaps for the first time.

So many times, I have experienced deep relief and emotion when thought patterns, behaviour patterns, and belief systems—established through life experiences and decisions—have been brought out into the open. In some respects, I would describe it like being set free from a prison, a kind of stronghold that I had become so accustomed to that I accepted it as simply the way I was. I believed I had always been like that and always would be, but that wasn’t always the case.

For a long time, I carried hidden, private burdens, and it was incredibly hard for me. I carried burdens of unforgiveness, even though that unforgiveness was rarely spoken about. I wasn’t talking about it, but I was carrying the weight of it, and I was burdened by it.

The freedom I began to step into in 2019, following the collapse of my life as I knew it, marked a turning point. As I share these words now, almost seven years on, the freedom I had never known before has come through the transformation of my heart and mind. Inner prisons that had remained locked for many years began to open as things that were hidden in the darkness came into the light, and as they did, the prison door started to unlock.