What if embracing the fear and excitement of change could be your ladder to success? Join us as we swing on the metaphoric trapeze of life, exploring the thrilling yet terrifying moments of transition. Dr. Celia prompts us to face our fears, take the plunge and appreciate the expansive moments that accompany these changes. She shares some of her journey from poverty to renowned academic as a testament to the power of embracing change and relentlessly chasing your dreams.
What if embracing the fear and excitement of change could be your ladder to success? Join us as we swing on the metaphoric trapeze of life, exploring the thrilling yet terrifying moments of transition. Dr. Celia prompts us to face our fears, take the plunge and appreciate the expansive moments that accompany these changes. She shares some of her journey from poverty to renowned academic as a testament to the power of embracing change and relentlessly chasing your dreams.
You know the why human trafficking work is needed To fight for the freedom of modern day slaves. But love, passion, commitment isn't all you need to be an effective and successful anti-trafficking advocate. Learn the how. I'm Dr Celia Williamson, director of the Human Trafficking and Social Justice Institute at the University of Toledo. Welcome to the Emancipation Nation podcast, where I'll provide you with the latest and best methods, policy and practice discussed by experienced experts in the field, so that you can cut through the noise, save time and be about the work of saving lives.
Speaker 1:Welcome to the Emancipation Nation episode 193. I'm Dr Celia Williamson, and today I want to go back and focus on ourselves for just a moment, and I want to talk about fear, the type of fear that prevents us from living our dreams. So this week, on our episode, I really want to talk about fear, and it's the fear of change, right, the fear of transformation, the fear of growing. And so I'm taking this excerpt out of the Essence Book of Days, and it really talks about life being like a trapeze, and it says sometimes I feel my life is a series of trapeze swings, right, I'm either hanging on to a trapeze bar, swinging along for a few moments in my life and then I'm hurdling across space in between trapeze bars. Right, I feel that way most of the time. I'm hanging on for dear life to my trapeze bar. At the moment it carries me along at a certain steady rate of swing and I have the feeling that I'm in control of my life because I'm hanging on to that trapeze bar. I know what's going on, you know. I know most of the right questions and even some of the right answers in my life. But once in a while I look ahead of me into the distance and I see another trapeze bar swinging toward me. It's empty and I know this is the new trapeze bar that has my name on it and it's my next step. It's my growth, it's my aliveness coming to get me In my heart of hearts.
Speaker 1:I know that for me to grow, I must release my grip on the present well-known bar and move to the next one, if you ever had that intense fear. But you know life is coming to get you, to take you to the next trapeze bar. Each time it happens to me, I'm filled with terror. It doesn't matter that in all of my previous hurdles across the void of unknowing I've always made it. Each time I'm afraid I will miss and I will be crushed on the rocks below, but I do it anyway. Perhaps this is the essence of what the mystics call the faith experience no guarantees, no net, no insurance policy. But you do it anyway because somehow to keep hanging on to the old bar is no longer on the list of alternatives. And so, for an eternity that can last a microsecond or a thousand lifetimes, I soar across the dark void. It's called transition. I have come to believe that it's the only place where real change occurs.
Speaker 1:I've noticed that in our culture, this transition zone is looked upon as a scary, confusing place that must be gotten through as fast and as unconsciously as possible. What a waste. Transition zones should be honored, even savored. They are the most alive, passionate, expansive moments in our lives. So let's give ourselves permission to hang out in the transition between trapeze bars. It can be terrifying, but it can also be enlightening. Hurling through the void, we just may learn how to fly.
Speaker 1:Hey, I wanted to break into this episode to let you know that if you're interested in getting ahead of the problem of human trafficking by engaging in prevention and changing the trajectory of the lives of at-risk youth, then listen and learn about what really works in the field of anti-trafficking prevention curriculum. Follow me here. The first issue is to understand that every youth is not at the same level of risk. There are youth at higher risk than other youth. Second, for those at higher risk, education doesn't necessarily translate into lowered risk. Youth at high risk will be educated and will remain at high risk because there are other factors keeping them at high risk. Third, understand that sex traffickers don't commonly snatch youth off the street and chain their risks and ankles. They manipulate them and chain their minds and hearts in what we call trauma bonding. If that's true, then we need to train youth to see the manipulation coming, assess it for what it is and do something preemptively about it. My Best Life Human Trafficking Prevention Curriculum for At-Risk Girls uses the safer method to teach girls how to see risky situations and risky people, assess the situation, find suitable and safe solutions, evaluate those solutions and respond. We talk about support and relationships and boundaries, and we reduce the risk factors that increase the opportunities for someone to remain vulnerable and to be trafficked. If you're interested in lowering risk and perhaps changing the trajectory of someone's life for the better, check out my free webinar on the Best Life Curriculum at CeliaWilliamsoncom Learn how to become a trained Best Life facilitator.
Speaker 1:Today and now on with the podcast. I remember somebody telling me a story about his baby dying and how he felt like he was holding onto that trappy swing and then, through the force of the death, hurling onto the next trappy swing and in that moment, in that 48 hours, those number of days, he grieved greatly and learned the most about life. So I don't wish tragedy upon anybody, but as you transition, as you transform, hopefully, from one great trapeze to an amazing trapeze, whatever that transition is in life, that you grab hold to that next trapeze, but as you are transitioning, that you take the lesson, learn the lessons that are there to teach you, to give you the wisdom that you need as you move on to the next trapeze. So, whether it's going to back to school and the terror and the fear of doing that, whether it's trying to learn how to open your own business, whether it's like me, starting a podcast no, nothing. I never even listened to podcasts. I had no idea of the equipment you need, I had no idea how to make it record or any of those things. Tremendous fear, but I knew I wanted to grab hold to that next trapeze swing. I wanted to learn, have that skill, have that knowledge and speak. And this is the second podcast. I actually do another podcast called Amant's Patientation, focused on human trafficking, and I've had almost 200 episodes there. But I wanted. It was a fear, it was an excitement.
Speaker 1:But some of us are so afraid we won't even allow ourselves to dream. Right, we won't even allow. And if we did dream, we wouldn't dare say it out loud and let another person hear, for fear they might laugh at us, they might think we're ridiculous. You can't ever do that, and so we squelch our fear, our dream, we push it down, we hang on to that same trapeze swing that we've hung on to way too long. And so I just want you to think about what are your hopes and what are your dreams, and are you using fear to hold yourself back? Are you still hanging on to the same trapeze swing when you know there's one coming at you, but it requires you to let go of the familiar trapeze swing and, for a moment in time, to be hurling through the space without a net to grab on to that next trapeze swing.
Speaker 1:Don't cheat yourself out of life, don't cheat yourself out of dreams. You know the guy said get in the game and play. You know, sometimes we want to go to the game, we just want to be a spectator, we want to sit in the stands. But you only have one life. Get out in the field and play, be who you dreamed of being. It's okay, do it.
Speaker 1:You know, I went from living in a very poor neighborhood welfare, food stamps whipped it to having a PhD right to becoming a distinguished full professor, which less than 25% of professors across the US become, and even less are women and even less are people of color. But I had that dream and I was willing to put the hard work behind it. I was willing to fight the fear every day. And that's what you have to do. You have to fight that fear and fight through that fear. You know, sometimes people say, oh God, she's having a breakdown. And no, sometimes there's a breakthrough.
Speaker 1:You know, sometimes you're becoming something that you know you want to be, but people around you saying, oh my God, what is she? What is she? She can't do that. What is she doing? She must be crazy, must be having a breakdown. You might be having a breakthrough. So surround yourself with people who encourage you and inspire you and motivate you to let go of that trapeze swing and grab, hold to that new one and breathe new life into the life you have. Until next time, the fight continues. Let's not just do something, let's do the best thing. If you like this episode of Emancipation Nation, please subscribe and I'll send you the weekly podcast. Until then, the fight continues.