Show your workings!

In this episode I talk about allowing ourselves to be seen in our process - not as a performance, not as a polished “final version,” but as who we are: human, messy, in motion.

I share a story from the ReWilding Motherhood Facilitator Programme, where one of my facilitators-in-training was terrified about leading a session. Instead of trying to hide it, I invited her to name it, to begin with “I’m nervous, I’m going to take a moment to ground, and I invite you to join me.” Not to get rid of the fear, but to model mindful self-compassion by actually living it.

Because somewhere along the way, we were taught to show up as the finished article. Polite, polished, perfect. Presentable. Performative. Palatable. Productive. Half a story. We forget that, just like in a maths exam, you get points for showing your workings, even if you don’t get the answer “right.”

Children know this. They don’t care about the perfect sandcastle, they care about building it, smashing it, and doing it again. The magic is in the process. Yet as adults, especially women, we’ve been trained to hide our workings, to look neat, behave neatly, speak neatly, and be consumed neatly.

But the world doesn’t change when women burn out trying to keep up appearances.
It changes because women stop pretending and start telling the fucking truth.

Because someone might not believe they can do something if all they ever see are finished performances. But if they watch you show up with your shaking voice, your messy process, your truth, your honest humanity, they might think: If she can do it like that, maybe I can too.

This is an invitation to stop hiding the parts that make you real.
To show your workings.
To tell the truth.
To let yourself be seen as a human in motion, not a product to be presented.

Not everything needs to be polished.
Not everything needs rehearsing.
Not everything needs to be perfect.
It just needs to be yours.

Come as you are.
Show your workings.
Let that be enough.

and then come tell me what you thought at www.instagram.com/emma.while. And if you enjoyed this episode please do share and tag me.