What stage 1 looks like

Well hello! When it comes to visibility, it’s time to really see yourself. The focus at this stage is on healing and clarity. When you’ve worked through this stage and really embodied it, here’s what it looks like:

I see myself. I understand my strengths. I feel confident about using my voice. 

I know the message I want to share with the world and I’m ready to share it. 

I understand how the construction of my identity impacts my experience of being visible in the world. 

I have a growing awareness of how my voice has been silenced and I know how to turn that around.

Here’s what School of Visibility founder Samantha Nolan-Smith has to say about her own journey through that stage.

“I’m a highly sensitive person (HSP). This means my central nervous system is particularly sensitive to physical, emotional, and social stimuli.

In a world that isn’t set up for HSPs, this has caused me many problems in my life.

Many times the world has felt ‘too much’ for me. Too loud, too intense.

• The pressure of engagement in social settings, and in cities filled with too many people, has often felt impossible.
• Other people’s emotions can be overwhelming. I’ve had to learn to allow them to move through me, rather than be processed by me, so I don’t end up a puddle on the floor each time I go to a sad movie!
• I’m introverted as well as an HSP so you can imagine how much I love parties with big groups of people! My brain is on fire trying to process the space I’m in, while my energy is slowly draining out of me by virtue of all the interaction.

Fortunately, I came to personal development work early in life and the more clearing work I did, the more confident I became in saying yes to what works for me and no to everything else.

That’s how my HSP and introverted nature transformed from ‘challenging problem I needed to fix’, to ‘superpower I’m here to share with the world’.

HSPs, for example, have the exact right make-up to facilitate healing in others. I’m able to hear things that others don’t hear and feel things others don’t feel. This means I can be more responsive to the needs of my students. Also, because I’m processing so much data in my environment, I’m able to see patterns that others aren’t attuned to.

Seeing myself clearly has helped me lean into these skills. It’s helped me create an environment that nourishes rather than judges my natural way of being.

Such is the gift of visibility.”

Stage 1 fears and limitations

At each of the four stages of visibility, there are specific fears and limitations to work through. To confidently embody this stage and move onto the other stages of visibility, these are some of the common stage 1 fears. If you don’t uncover and address them, they’re likely to create visibility blocks that can stall you for months if not years, if left unattended.

Here are the fears to focus on and explore:

• Lack of clarity around what you want to say and to whom.
• Feeling intimidated by other people’s confidence or feeling self-conscious about what people might think if you show up, speak up, promote your work ‘too much’. 
• Fear of success; ‘What will other people think if I’m hugely successful?’ 
• Fear of being seen and judged; a fear of doing live streaming videos, sharing photos, or anything in front of a camera.
• Fear of saying ‘the wrong thing’ (which, at its core, is a fear of upsetting other people, of disharmony or conflict).

Want to dive in further?

We’ve shared a bunch of resources below plus we’ve a full report for you around stage 1. In the report, you’ll learn the energies to embody, the shadow energies to overcome, and the habits to develop to move through stage 1 with ease.

Stage 1 resources

We’ve also collated a bunch of resources to help you move through stage 1. Scroll down the page to check out the resources and gain access to them.