I had never really met anyone who was truly not empowered until I hosted a coaching program for women leaving prison in Kansas City. I had offered the program to an organization that provide re-integration services for these women, some of whom had been in prison for decades. The experiences I had with them, the transformation I saw in them, and the results of providing them with information on how to be empowered was inspiring and very fulfilling. If you do not think being empowered is important, you’ll understand why it has been a focus of my work for 20 years when you read or listen to this article. 

I know what it is like to be disempowered after spending 5 years dealing with paralysis, two of them as a total quadriplegic with no motion below my neck and having to spend 2 years in the hospital. Even as a child, it was frustrating and scary, and I was completely dependent on others to care for me. Incapable of doing the smallest thing for myself, I remember waiting to be taken care of because I simply could not take care of myself. 

When I volunteered to provide lifestyle coaching to an organization that worked with women leaving prison, I was not sure what I was going to encounter. I had never had any experience of people in prison and was hoping that I would be able to give them confidence, security, and some tools and resources to manage their lives. 

I would like to say that the effort was successful from the start but it was not. At first the women were quiet, hesitant, and not very trusting. That was understandable, given their history and the fact that some of these women had been in prison for 30 years or more. 

But as time went by, and I coached them twice a month for about 2 hours each session, we got to know each other and they started opening up. They saw me as someone they could trust and who was there to share information to help them. 

One day after I had been coaching for about 2 months, a woman named Mary approached me after our session and wanted to talk. She had just been released from a 30 year prison term for murdering her boyfriend, after she found him in bed with another woman. Mary was making an effort with the coaching and although she did not share much, she really listened. She asked me if I could help her manage the demands on her time and energy by the people in her neighborhood who were always imposing on her and she felt taken advantage of by. 

We talked for a while about her concerns and what she wanted to achieve with this new level of control over her connections. She said she did not want to go back to prison but she did not know how to deal with her frustration and that people simply were not listening to her when she said no. 

So I told her that I knew a way of saying ‘no’ that would stop that and asked if she wanted to try it. She was eager and would try anything. 

Read the rest of the article on the blog at enlighteninglife.com

Learn more about the Unbreakable program for energy mastery, control, and sovereignty at enlighteninglife.com/unbreakable. 

Created, narrated, and produced by Jennifer Hoffman.

Artwork by Jennifer Hoffman.

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