Coming Out of Isolation: How Listening Life Coaches Bring You Back to Connection

Posted on July 31, 2023 by Robin Sibley, One of Thousands of Life Coaches on Noomii.

How are you feeling? What’s your life been like over the last three years? What’s your level of connection with others? How about your connection with yourself?

I don’t know about you but in my world, it seems like it is one blow after another. Yes, the pandemic is over, but what about the ongoing climate of strife, uncertainty, rampant animosity, and fear of the next big calamity? Have you had time and space to process it all? Of course not, because it just keeps coming. How are you coping? Are you trying to reinstate the activities and interests that were normal before all this started? Does any of that feel good to you, or does it just feel weird and disappointing?

More importantly, who in your life listens to you, and do you feel deeply heard?

Chances are you really want to sit down with someone and just talk it out. Maybe cry it out. You might be feeling overwhelmed and wondering about the value of all those “normal” activities you’re striving to complete day after day and week after week. I’m guessing you’re feeling worried and confused. And as you look around at the people who are closest to you – the ones who used to listen to you, the ones you’ve always been able to turn to – they look just as shell-shocked as you do. We may be out and about in the world, but in the most meaningful ways, we’re still in isolation.

Here’s the good news. You probably don’t have to go find a therapist – which is good because most of them are booked up and exhausted, too. Life coaches can be wonderful resources for help and personal support. Life coaches are trained listeners and, depending on their specialty, some have developed very strong listening muscles. They know how to do the heavy lifting and they enjoy it. Like me.

You wouldn’t know it to look at me. Honestly, you might not even notice me if you walked past me in the grocery store. I do the opposite of “stand out”. I blend in. Why? I’m an introvert, I’m highly sensitive, highly intuitive, and being in a crowd wears me out. But, by some strange quirk of nature, I shine when I connect with someone one-on-one. Listening deeply charges my battery rather than draining it. So as hungry as you are to be heard, I’m just as hungry to hear you.

Here’s what I believe. When one person listens deeply to another person, with true interest and no judgment, hope is the result. Validation, connection, and the will to keep going are the door prizes. You probably don’t need someone to fix you or solve your problems. You’re smart and capable and pretty scrappy when you need to be. Maybe you just need someone to help you sort it out – while you talk it out.

Maybe that first step is all you need.

Robin Sibley is a Listening Life Coach who specializes in spiritual and personal growth and development.