The Identity Shift
3 practices for reclaiming the belief that your voice belongs.
Something happens in a room before anyone opens their mouth. I notice it every time I work with a group of women.
The way someone arranges herself in her chair before speaking, the way she glances around to read whether her moment is welcome.
The words haven’t started yet, and already the question is visible: Do I have permission to take up this space?
This isn’t about nerves. It is something quieter and older than nerves. And it’s where power leaks out. Not in the words, but in the hesitation behind them.
In this week’s free piece, I wrote about communication as identity work.
Here we go deeper into why the hesitation forms in the first place, and what it takes to get back to a voice you recognize as yours.
What creates the hesitation
Psychologist Dana Jack spent years studying what she called self-silencing:
