If your purpose on earth is to teach, when is the right time to start sharing what you know with others?

About two months ago, I was walking out in the cold, the sun barely up over the horizon. It was about -15 degrees outside, but it didn’t bother me.

Several years prior to that, after hearing the advice in a Michael Singer lecture that a simple way to grow spiritually was to stop complaining about the weather, I had stopped complaining about the weather. As I did, I stopped noticing it all together.

During my walk I called a friend. She told me of her progress with her book and I shared ideas I had to help others heal themselves. As the conversation progressed, I mentioned some recent struggles in my own healing process.

“Wait, you have health issues?”

She was the second person in that week who had been surprised by this.

“How can you teach other people to heal themselves if you aren’t healed yourself?”

I had just gotten over the fear of ‘not knowing enough’ to help others. I had been paralyzed by my internal conflict over this exact issue for months. I had made tons of progress, but wasn’t fully healed yet. Her words felt like a test.

“I know a lot and what I know can help others. If I keep the information to myself, I’m only helping me. Besides, look at all counselors. They’re fucked up. That’s why they get into it. They still help people while being unhealed.”

My friend was skeptical. For the first time, I didn’t immediately assume I was wrong because someone else questioned my actions. My process to heal was working.

Change and healing take time. Sometimes it helps to hear ideas from someone who is in the process too. And just because you’re in the process of changing/learning, doesn’t mean you can’t help others with the experience you have so far. Realizing it is one thing, integrating it into your life is another.

I first realized this was the case when I was at my first Joe Dispenza week-long retreat. I watched Joe on stage, admiring his ability to inspire. He seemed enthusiastic and genuine in what he was teaching. I loved it. He had experienced what he was saying many times. People were idolizing him and I just watched him. As he shifted into contorted positions in his chair on the stage, I saw what I see in everyone if I choose to look: humanness.

I watched further and out of curiosity thought, is he really a fully ascended and developed human being? Does he really feel joy like he describes to us?

He never claimed to be that. He never said he knew everything. It was naive to assume that because he was teaching something, that he would be a perfect iteration of what he was teaching. Maybe he is, maybe he isn’t, but he is amazing at what he does and has the stories, success and experience to back it up. But even someone as skilled as Joe Dispenza started his own experiment somewhere.

Personally, because of my own insecurities, I am more motivated by seeing someone in the process of changing. I have a tendency to look at others and assume that I’m less than them. It’s been an effort to break this habit. I’m in the process, but almost there. Sometimes I wonder how many times I’ll need to see evidence that everyone is just figuring it out as they go to really accept that you don’t have to be a fully-formed human to teach something to others.

This being said, others are motivated by seeing the end result: someone who is completely being what they are teaching. It all depends on where your thorns from the past are. Both are ok.

This weekend I took a class on Bodynamic Therapy. The instructor touched on being in the learning process.

“The great therapists were fucked up in their own way, but they were good therapists because they were aware of their flaws. And they strove to be better.”

If you want to help others, how much you know or if you are a perfect example of what you realize to be true are reasons to hold yourself back, but they don’t have to be. Knowledge can be built as you go and you become more experienced as you learn.

Self-awareness, transparency and your commitment to consistency when it comes to your own growth are important, however.

You can lead by example by being what you preach or being committed to becoming what you preach. Both can be inspiring.

Several years ago I developed a strict practice of self-observance. I figured as long as I could see what I was doing and why I was doing it, I would always be able to make conscious choices. If I freely chose to do something that was against what I knew, I was ok with that.

So even when I’m not acting exactly in the way that is in alignment with all that I’ve learned, I feel good about it because I am trying my best to follow it and it is always done with awareness and patience, and a commitment to improve. I’ll still write or tell a story to a friend if they ask me for my experience, even though I don’t have everything figured out. I am careful with giving advice. My aim is to share my experience and ideas, not to tell others what to do.

I can’t say what will help people. It’s not up to me. It is up to the reader to decide what resonates with them. I’m just filling a role the universe gave me, one post at a time. All of this is just practice.

Still, you never know what obscure thing will change a person’s day or even their life. You definitely won’t know if you stay in fear. From someone who is still building courage in sharing what she learns: be honest, be brave and just go for it! Learning to be a teacher takes practice and you won’t get it if you don’t try.

So when is the right time to start sharing what you know?

1. Is it fun to share?
2. Do you feel like in sharing you can overcome a fear?
3. If you share, is it likely that someone out there could use the knowledge you have?
4. Are you aware of yourself and your intentions?
5. Are you living and practicing what you want to share?

If you answered yes to those questions, the time could be now!