Judgements and labels -oh my!

I was asked to speak at an event this past week to women who are going through chemotherapy. At first when they asked me I was very reluctant to accept the invitation -for one my inner self wanted to run. What would I say to them ? They are going through an intense treatment and I was suppose to come in and create an uplifting talk -I was so afraid to accept the invite but then I realized I had to become uncomfortable and do it. These women want knowledge, these women want inspiration and they want to feel confident about coming out of there treatments as a survivor.
I prepared some things to discuss and really needed to come out of my thinking -like " This won't be fun they are sick", " I won't be able to inspire them" - among other thoughts I realized this was holding me back from being authentic - holding me back from being the coach that I want to be for them. As a coach I am usually adding value to peoples lives because I connect with them from my own personal experience. I began to start my talk out by telling them that I didn't want to do the talk and that I wasn't qualified but that I did have an aunt who had breast cancer and survived. And that was my personal experience and that was enough.
I knew the truth would set me free and they knew I empathized with them as well as not trying to downplay their cancer challenge.
At the end of the program I realized I learned so much from these women -they were brave, thoughtful and human.
I was labeling there illness and not forecasting positive expectations for them from my own thinking and judgements.
I knew at the end of the day I was so grateful to have this experience and meet these wonderful women that battle cancer and chemotherapy. They lose their hair and still have a smile on there face. It taught me a lesson -to continue to do work on my thinking when I feel so much judgement and to treat people as human beings, no matter what each of us is going through. The bottom line is we all want human connection -wether you are surviving breast cancer or survived financial distress - there is no doubt in my mind that beneath all of the judgments and labels , we are all the same at our core. Kind, open hearted and a need to feel connected.

For more info on Chemoflage -go to www.chemoflage.com

It is a wonderful organization for helping women take care of themselves while going through chemotherapy. The meetings take place in a Nordstrom location one a month or quarterly. A wonderful woman name Cookie is the Founder.