Morning sickness metaphor

Have you ever wondered why we get morning sickness when we're pregnant?

Lots of theories, and no conclusions make my friend Sally Harker's theory all the more intriguing. As the fetus starts to grow, Sally has suggested that our body issues an "intruder" alert, and begins to attack, just as the body does with germs, viruses, even organ transplants: morning sickness is a casualty of war.

Those of you with a scientific bent may be cringing, but stay with me.

As I've visited with a number of executives this week, people with whom I dealt while working on Wall Street, I've wondered -- is it possible that morning sickness is a metaphor for what we undergo pscyhologically/emotionally when we dare to dream?

Let me explain.

When I was last here in Mexico City, I was Whitney Johnson, Merrill Lynch equity analyst, a woman who, with an upgrade or downgrade of their company's stock, could affect these executives' net worth. Naturally it was in their best interest to be nice to me.

Today -- two years later -- as I visit with these same executives, I have set my former identity and attendant power aside.

What is my identity now? What do I do in this new role? Will I be received?

To be clear, I made this choice. I freely dared to dream, to find a new piece of my self. It is unnerving, discombobulating, and pit-in-the-stomach-ing, nonetheless.

Which is precisely why I find morning sickness as a metaphor for dare-to-dream so compelling. Morning sickness can be almost unendurable for a time. However, as we cradle our newborn baby, the months of sickness seem but a small price to pay for the miracle of bringing a child into the world.

Isn't this what happens, admittedly on a smaller scale, when we dare to dream?

As we set out to discover a new piece of ourselves, we may feel that we are losing something in the process, and it is profoundly discomfiting, even nauseating. But once we've found that new piece, becoming more of who we are, it has indeed been a small price to pay.

As you are undertaking something new, do you find yourself uncomfortable, unnerved, sick to your stomach at times?

When you make room for a new piece of yourself, do you feel diminished or more of who you are?