Are You Feeling Scared? There's Hope.

Originally published in April 2020, this post has been updated to update information and reflect current realities.

Hello you, Noelle here --

I am writing to send a message of compassion. We are indeed experiencing an upsetting time. Our immediate access to news is both a blessing and a curse, especially with so much information (and misinformation) streaming rapidly. There is a global yearning for facts, hope and leadership.

We have incredible agency as humans. In the absence of leadership we can provide it for ourselves.

In America we are rarely asked to think of others and to amend our personal agenda for the common good. We saw this reflected earlier this year: shelves emptied of toilet paper, shortages of masks for medical workers, the absence of hand sanitizer, and resources being hoarded across the board.

We are also seeing real and valid fear pop up around inequality: those we do not feel safe in this country, those lacking health insurance, hourly workers, those with compromised immune systems, and families separated by distance.

The thing with fears and assumptions is that in every single one of them there is the potential for truth. If someone is experiencing a real fear: it is valid. Avoiding hard truths doesn’t help us at all in the long run.

Hope, facts, compassion, common sense, and leadership work wonders.

Just the act of naming and validating a fear eases your limbic (emotional) response and opens the floor for your prefrontal cortex (logic) to take over.

Inducing positive emotions such as love, optimism, and humor creates a broadening effect whereby our brains are able to achieve a “birds eye view,” and produce out of the box thinking and new solutions.

Likewise, positive emotions bring on a somatic (bodily) broadening impact as well: you will experience increased coordination and reduction in cardiovascular damage from stress.

This is a time to come to terms with how interconnected we truly are, how much we need each other, and how important mental and physical well being is.

Raising wellbeing, instilling hope, and holding space is the work of coaches. We have the skills and the tools to help ourselves and our community ease frenzy and rise to levels of leadership that support hope, the factual spread of information, and good old common sense.

As with all times of hardship, this will pass. It will not be without casualty and lasting impact but it will pass. And as we live through the now, we can lean into community and hold space for each other as much as possible.

Right now lots of people are looking at the news and feeling very scared. This is real and this is valid.

Let’s put some perspective to it. Before the cascading crisis after crisis that is 2020, you may have been feeling stuck, wanting to move forward in life with a new career path. Now, you might feel both stuck and scared.

The only constant is change, and even in uncertain times, we don't want to be ruled by doubt and fear.

Coaching is an important, useful, hope-bringing skill set to take out into the world. Our coaches are leaders, and develop skills that have impact far beyond what we even know as they hold space for those who need it most.

One of the best ways to beat stress and dismay is to get out of your own head and dig into learning, growth, and community as we prepare for the future.

Coaching is the business of growing people into their best selves and this begins with you. At Lumia Coaching, you will be intellectually stimulated, supported, and held through whatever life tosses your way.

If you feel called to begin your coaching journey now, take a strong step in the direction of hope, and prepare now for a brighter future we'd love to talk to you. So let's talk.

You're on my mind.

Love to you, and stay strong -

Noelle Cordeaux

Lumia CEO & Co-Founder

Lumia Coaching: Vibrant community. Evidence-based life coach training. Lifetime support.