What Are You Pretending Not to Know

Welcome

Hi, I'm Dr. Barbara Eaton—business coach, speaker, and author of Two Streets Named Hard. I help faith-driven entrepreneurs break free from patterns that keep them circling the same mountain so they can build lives overflowing with purpose, peace, and sustainable growth.

If you're here, something in you longs for more—not just more success, but more alignment. More truth. More of what matters.

Today's message comes straight from my own journey through resistance into freedom.

The Moment Everything Shifted

Her voice carried the familiar weight of frustration as she walked the well-worn path of reasons why change felt impossible. Each explanation more intricate than the last, each barrier seemingly insurmountable.

I nodded, offered guidance, asked questions designed to spark insight. Just as I had in our previous sessions. Just as I would again next week, and the week after.

When we hung up, the silence in my office felt heavier than usual. My shoulders ached. My coffee sat cold and forgotten. My body had been trying to tell me something long before my mind was ready to listen:

This relationship had crossed the line from coaching into something else entirely—a comfortable loop of validation without transformation.

The truth had been whispering for weeks. Maybe months. But I'd muffled it beneath the sound of my own good intentions.

I wasn't helping her grow. I was helping her hide.

And in that moment of clarity, my breath deepened. The tension across my back released. My mind quieted as if relieved to finally stop maintaining the charade.

The Weight of Pretending

We don't avoid truth because we can't see it. We avoid it because acting on it carries consequences.

The mind creates elaborate justifications to postpone difficult choices:

"I need to be absolutely certain before I make this decision."

"Maybe next week the breakthrough will finally happen."

"Their potential is just beneath the surface—they just need more time."

These aren't outright lies. They're comfortable half-truths that protect us from what feels too difficult or disruptive to face directly.

Meanwhile, your body carries the burden of this disconnect. Your nervous system registers the gap between what you know and what you're pretending not to know. It responds with subtle signals—tightness in your throat, insomnia that keeps your mind spinning, fatigue that no amount of rest seems to touch.

Energy that could fuel momentum drains away into managing the dissonance between truth and pretense.

The Freedom of Alignment

When we align with what we already know, our physiology transforms. The brain releases its vigilance. Muscles soften. Creativity flows again. Ideas connect in ways they couldn't when part of your mental bandwidth was dedicated to maintaining the illusion.

This isn't spiritual woo-woo. This is your nervous system returning to its natural state of congruence.

Pretending splits your focus. Truth unifies it.

Breaking Through Resistance

That afternoon, I drafted a message to my client. Kind but clear. Direct without being harsh. I acknowledged that our current approach wasn't creating the change she deserved, and that continuing would only deepen patterns that kept us both stuck.

Then—before my brain could craft a better excuse—I pressed send.

The space that opened on my calendar wasn't just time. It was energetic bandwidth that could now flow toward relationships where growth was not just possible but inevitable.

When we honor what we already know, paths clear that weren't visible before. Not because circumstances magically shift, but because our perception does.

Your Turn to Choose

Take a moment. Close your eyes. Let your body speak:

Where does tension live when you think about certain relationships, projects, or commitments?

What truth has been patiently waiting for you to acknowledge it?

What would become possible if you stopped resisting and started responding to what you already know?

You don't need to see the entire staircase. You don't need perfect certainty or flawless timing. You just need enough courage to take the first step into alignment.

Because the moment you stop pretending, every cell in your body realigns toward what matters most. Energy returns. Focus sharpens. Momentum builds not from force but from flow.

And that flow creates possibilities beyond anything your mind could have mapped while trapped in resistance.

Ready to Take the Next Step?

In Two Streets Named Hard, I walk through this journey of alignment in full detail, especially in Chapter 2. The book offers both the framework and the permission you might need to move from knowledge into action—from what you've been avoiding into what you've been seeking.

Get your copy of Two Streets Named Hard today (and leave a review, please), or join my newsletter here to walk this journey with me.

Already have the book? Leave a quick review on Amazon, then reply here or email me. I'll send you access to an exclusive training where I share what didn't make it into the book but might be exactly what your journey needs next.

Let's stop circling the same mountain. Let's start climbing a new one.

Dr Barbara