By: Marcela Grobet Vallarta

Dear Karen,

First of all, allow me to congratulate you on your progress. When we started only 4 months ago, you told me you were a beginner, so we started building up your knowledge from the simplest structures and vocabulary. I can proudly say that you are now able to speak English! Slowly? Yes. With simple structures? Yes. But you CAN speak English now!

However, this letter isn’t only to let you know about your progress regarding English; more than anything, it is to congratulate you because I feel you are conquering your fears. On our first session, you told me that your heart was pounding so strongly that you felt it might pop out of your chest. For our second session, you didn’t even show up because you had a nervous breakdown. Then you let me know about your panic attacks. It is not my intention to take credit on this, it has only been yours. I simply shared some knowledge about the brain, the amygdala hijack, I shared some tricks on how to calm the brain in order to make you feel more relaxed and confident during our learning sessions. My job as your Neurolanguage Coach® isn’t only teaching you about the English language, but, more importantly, about giving you the tools you need to learn it.

And last week you swam with whale sharks!

I was deeply and honestly thrilled to hear you share —in English, by the way— your beautiful holidays in the Mayan Riviera and how you dared to sail out to open sea for eight hours and then take the courage to overcome your fears to jump in and swim with these fantastic creatures. I wasn’t lying when I said I had goose bumps!

As I have shared with you, it’s good to have some fear. Fear is one of the basic feelings we have and it protects us from danger, it helps us survive. But we need to be aware of it in order to control it. It’s not an easy task, I know, but you have managed.

You have lovely friends and family around you who will always give you a hand and help you become more confident about anything you do and learn in your life. I hope you consider me one of them. I’d be honored.

Just always remember: Relax. Enjoy. Trust.

Love,

Marcela