“Not you, Jordan. You’ve already answered enough questions.” I was four or five years old when I realised that adults don't like it when you speak too loud or too often.

I remember being a confident and curious child, but there isn’t much space for individual exploration in a class of thirty boys and girls, and things only get worse as you enter into high school.

Maybe you can relate to my experience at school: you started life as a smart kid who was always lifting your hand when the teacher called upon the class, but somewhere along the journey you learned the unspoken rules of classroom etiquette.

“Pretend you don’t know the answer.”

“Let other people go first.”

“Stay silent.”

As an adult, I appreciate that it’s incredibly difficult to facilitate group education in a mixed class of unique children, and I know that teachers are genuinely trying their best, but that doesn’t negate the unconscious wounding to our bright-eyed inner children.

Today we are adults, and we have learned to conceal our curiosity.

We are self-alienated individuals who have suffocated our natural intelligence, and all the world's a stage for our feigned ignorance.

We have learned to stay silent, and we pretend that we know less than we know to be true.

School isn’t the only problem: you can imagine the same unconscious patterns of golden shadow repression being repeated in the home environment.

I’ve worked with a handful of clients with parents who felt threatened by their child's brilliance - parents who felt confronted by their child’s energy; diminished by their child’s talent; confronted by the radiance of their own creation.

These parents sadly, and often unconsciously, find ways to attack or otherwise destroy the budding potential of their healthy children. It’s tragic, and it’s a hidden wound which impacts your day-to-day decision making in your adult life.

Your inner child isn’t your true self, not all the way through, but your childhood self is typically closer to your golden shadow than your adult persona because your inner child has yet to lose access to their natural intuition and intelligence.

Whatever you do today, I want you to remember that your drive for exploration and excellence is not wrong or lost forever. Your inner spark is alive, and you can burn as brightly as you deserve.

Keep raising your hand,

Jordan