The Double Bind of the Spiritual Entrepreneur

Fir ring mandalaMy audience is largely made up of “lightworkers” – healers, spiritual practitioners, intuitives, creatives…

And despite the fact that many of us are “in business,”  we (I include myself) are not actually motivated by money.

We are inspired by a vision, a desire to give and help others, to create, and to contribute to a better world.

Many of us have a strong inner knowing that we’re here to contribute to a major transformation in the world, what’s been called the Global Shift or Great Turning.

We know in our hearts we’re here to help bridge Heaven & Earth.
(Some of us have known this for a very long time.)

We’re very comfortable working our craft and skill, giving our gifts.
But when it comes to the business side of things we’re on shakier ground, and are caught in a double bind.

All kinds of terms have sprung up to describe us – spiritual entrepreneurs, soulpreneurs, conscious or heart-centered business owners. 

But for the people in my tribe, the truth is, we’re not really entrepreneurs at all. Not by nature.  

We’ve never identified with that term, although we’ve gotten used to it.

In the old days healers just said we had a healing practice, or were self-employed.
When I was an exhibiting artist, none of us thought of ourselves as being in business.

It’s a foreign idea that’s been imposed on us and makes us itch a little.

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A true entrepreneur is someone who loves to create businesses, to come up with new ideas and try them out, loves creative challenges, enjoys thinking about the marketplace and their place in it, gets a rush from the game of it and from playing with ways to make money.

Most of the spiritual practitioners and lightworkers I know have an uneasy relationship with money, at best.

We’re not comfortable with it, don’t trust it, may blame it for what’s wrong with the world, may feel incompetent or inept about money. We may have judgments, resentments, fears, or feelings of unworthiness about money.

We often don’t feel like we belong in this hyper-competitive, materialistic culture that is dominated by money and values the rich, famous, and successful.

At the same time, we are in a field (and in a world) that requires that we master some basic skills of survival.

If we have embarked on launching our work in the world, and have started learning about business – especially on the Internet – we’re probably being inundated by aggressive marketing pitches telling us how we’re supposed to go about it – or else!

A whole industry has arisen of Business or Marketing for Heart-centered or Spiritual Entrepreneurs, usually offered by mentors who also call themselves spiritual.
(Although, in most cases, I’ve noticed that the Law of Attraction is what passes for spirituality, and what it too often teaches is how to use energetic laws to do the bidding of the ego.)

You would think that an industry designed to teach “soft” selling practices for the tender-hearted soulful business owner would have a gentler, more compassionate approach. But in actuality, it is often a “wolf in sheep’s clothing,” espousing spiritual principles while using manipulative fear-based tactics to sell high end programs to make us all (supposedly) rich.

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The double bind we find ourselves in is that on one side we feel disempowered by our low self-esteem and poor conditioning around money.

And on the other side we’re pummeled by these aggressive and manipulative marketing messages that not only overwhelm and confuse us (and often persuade us to part with large sums of money), but often blame and shame us for not being ambitious enough, big enough, impactful  enough, rich enough, successful enough – or for not even wanting to be.

In a word, those messages are also disempowering.

So we’re disempowered if we do, and disempowered if we don’t.

How do we get ourselves out of this double bind?

To answer that, I’ve been wondering about two questions:

Question !. What would it mean to become truly empowered? Not from the ego’s perspective, but from the soul’s perspective.  How can we access the true power and infinite potential that is our birthright as sovereign souls?

Question 2. How can we create a viable, thriving, sustainable business model that works for who we are and what we want?

Years ago I had the idea to create a High-Five Club, to counteract the insistence on 6 or 7 figure incomes as the only measure of success, and to assert the rightness of a human-scale livelihood.

True success (in my book) is being able to give our gifts, live our purpose, and provide for our needs in a way that brings us joy, ease, harmony, and creative growth.

Most of us don’t want to create empires or to maintain the complex structures and responsibilities that go with that. And most of us are not motivated by the desire to amass a fortune.

(By the way, the new justifications for focusing on high incomes by those who are selling their “think big and get rich” programs are:
a) you can do more good by contributing to worthy causes if you have lots of money;
b) the more money you make, the wider your reach and the greater your impact.

Clearly they use these arguments to persuade those who are not motivated by money but who want to do good and help lots of people. The latter argument has definitely been proven untrue – just look at the influence and impact of Charles Eisenstein, or many other thinkers and writers, for that matter. Or of my friend George Kao, whose influence grows, the more content he gives away for free, maintaining a modest income.)

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So these are the 2 questions worth considering:

First:
How to become truly empowered on a soul level?
Which is to say, how to free ourselves from the trance of scarcity, limitation, separation, and inadequacy that most humans live our lives enslaved by?

What would it mean to access the actual power and potential of our true  identity, our unlimited Essential Self?

And how can that be achieved?

In fact, there are many methods that dissolve and transform the bondage of our limiting beliefs, karmic imprints, and soul contracts, most of which are unconscious. These unconscious bonds create the delusions we take for Reality.

We can methodically release ourselves from this bondage, but it takes conscious intention and effort, as well as knowing how. (And having a gifted guide helps.)

This is part of the great work before humanity at this time – liberating ourselves from the delusions that have kept us in fear, limitation, and separation.

It is this transformation that humanity must achieve if we are to create the world we all want to live in, a world that can actually survive and in which all beings thrive.

We cannot achieve a healed world  in the same state of consciousness that created this seriously ailing one (to paraphrase Einstein).  We must raise our consciousness.

As we do the personal work of liberation we contribute hugely to the transformation of the entire human field of awareness. Each individual has enormous power to affect the whole.

Second:
How can we create on our own terms a flow of giving and receiving in which we honestly offer our gifts to the world and receive what we need for our support in return?

How can our attitudes about the transaction of offering and receiving, and the relationships we wish to establish with our audience, lay the foundation for a sustainable living business that brings joy to all?

In its  largest scope this is a question about what a new economy, new way of doing business, and new societal structures might look like. This might include a Universal Basic Income, a gift economy, and more. It may involve a shift from competing solo endeavors to more collaborative, improvisational, and playful ones, from isolated units to fluid networks of association. 

But for now we are considering what we can do in our own lives right now.

For instance: How much is enough? And how do we ask for what we need by offering to others what they need and long for, and by creating a space for them to enter that they are searching for?

How do we ground this relationship in a genuine sharing of heart energy, wisdom, guidance, support, and intelligent resources? How do we offer the magic that is our soul’s unique gift, and allow our souls to reveal even more than we know in the process of service?

How can we simplify this process so it’s as clear and basic as an offer of food to those who are hungry?

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As spiritual entrepreneurs we don’t have to be motivated by money. It is enough to be  motivated by our soul’s highest vision.

But to bridge Heaven and Earth, we also have to be grounded in the practical realities of the Earth plane that come with human incarnation.

We need to be responsible to our own human vehicle as much as we are to those we serve.

There is a middle way. It is the way of true empowerment and freedom. It is the way of our personal and global evolution. It is a vision both grand and humble.

As we embrace this way, we will discover ourselves to be both far grander than our ordinary sense of self and far humbler than the grandiose delusions of the desperate fear-based ego.

And our soul’s highest vision – the purpose we took birth for – will also be furthered by following this path. For as we start to create our own personal Heaven on Earth, we will be bringing that potential closer for all.  

 

Akashic Records – What is Success?

We are excited to be addressing you on the topic of success. That may surprise you but we may define success a little differently. In actuality what we see is the destiny of each soul, their journey, and the unnecessary struggling that so often takes place as souls lose their connection to their true self.

That is the primary purpose of life on earth – to reclaim that connection, and to uplift all with you. When you are firmly rooted in your true identity questions of success are not the issue so much as What does it really take to give all I came to give? How can I serve the highest purpose of my soul and of Life?

Where do you take your next step and who are the sacred partners of your co-emerging? That is the path and those are the questions before you. Where do I go? Who am I to serve? With whom will I travel? Why am I here? 

It is a beautiful time on earth when more souls are waking up to these questions and putting them first, even before material success.  Be assured that as you enter into your path of purpose, all else will follow. It must. You are here to complete cycles, to step into higher currents of your self-expression. The old models you have for so-called success are puny, I assure you, compared to the joy and fullness of life that await you as you are ready to move into them. 

All this and more can be yours in your life time if you dare to reach for it and not “settle” for what your world has held up as success. Go further. There is more! 

Healing Money Wounds

We all have money wounds – have you noticed?

Often we think we’re the only ones. If we feel inadequate about money – as many people do, especially women – we generally keep it to ourselves.

Money is one of the main things people feel shame about, and naturally we hide that shame. We all tend to think everyone else has it together, and we’re the only ones “pretending.”

Actually, our culture is wounded about money, so how could we not be?

Most of our wounding we inherit from our families, often passed along from one generation to the next. We absorb pain and anxiety about money as we grow up, maybe hearing our parents fight about it, or being scolded for wanting something they can’t afford.”I’m not made of money,” I used to hear as a child.”Money doesn’t grow on trees.”

Or maybe it’s the opposite problem. Perhaps we were indulged and given too much by our parents, who either lived on credit cards, or were determined to give their children everything they had lacked. Either way, we wind up not knowing the value of money, perhaps even feeling weakened, not developing the muscles of self-reliance that come  from making one’s own way. By being given too much, we have been robbed of something essential we truly need – our own strength and confidence.

There are so many wounds around money. Some of them are universal. Nearly everyone in our culture believes that they don’t have enough – even rich people feel this way, I’m told. And the more you have, the more you can fear losing.

Even though the saying goes that “money can’t buy happiness,” we act as though it can. And we’re encouraged by the media to want more, to crave things, to engage in a feeding frenzy of acquiring.

We’re taught to measure ourselves and value our worth by our money and material goods, and to compare ourselves to others. Our insecurities are exploited by advertisers to get us to spend money to feel better about ourselves. Hence money becomes equated with what will heal our ills, what will fill our lacks. By this very function of money, it becomes associated with our woundedness.

And the spiritual creative types among us, who reject material values, are just as wounded. We suffer deprivation, feel disempowered, and often lack the respect that our more outwardly successful neighbors get.

None of this is our fault. We can’t help being conditioned by the world we live in. It’s hard to find the right balance, to achieve a healthy relationship with money in our culture.

What is needed is a balance of the spiritual and the material, an awareness of gratitude for all that we have, and a dedication to serve the world in the ways our soul came here to do – and to be recompensed for our service.

Humanity is growing and changing. Our relationship to money, both individually and culturally, collectively, are among the focal points of that change.

What will the new world look like in regard to money? The decisions we make today in our awareness, our actions, and our relationships, are contributing right now to that new world!  What choices are you making? How would you like the new world to look? What choices can you make to create greater health and balance in the all-pervasive area of money in our lives?

Are You Living A SECRET LIFE?

Did you ever have a film crew invade your home? Well, I just had that experience.

Last weekend 20th Century Fox took over my Upper Manhattan street with movie trucks, trailers, and a swarm of intensely focused people.

They were filming The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, with Sean Penn and Ben Stiller (no, I didn’t see either of them). It’s based on a short story that you may have read in high school, about a man who seeks escape from his humdrum existence with fantasies of derring-do in which he casts himself as the hero.

In James Thurber’s amusing tale, Walter Mitty is as ineffectual in real life as he is heroic in his daydreams.

This got me thinking about the role of fantasy in my own life. 

It’s hard to admit, but I often have a tendency to project my plans and visions onto the future. The result is that I feel inspired and optimistic, while keeping my dreams safely at a distance. I can convince myself this future will come to pass, but for now I don’t have to take action.

It’s as though creating the vision and feeling the excitement is enough. And besides, I get so many great ideas – which one should I pursue?

Does this ever happen to you? Do you, like me, sometimes find it easier to think, plan, vision and dream than to act?

I think this is true of many creative people. And a lot of entrepreneurs, too. We come up with idea after idea. We open ourselves to inspiration and receive amazing “spiritual downloads.” But we may not be so grounded in the physical realm. It’s often easier and more fun to stay “up there” – am I right?

It’s only recently that I started using the word “fantasy” for this tendency I have.“Fantasy” does not have as nice a connotation as “vision” or “inspiration.” But if the vision never takes form, while I keep convincing myself I will do it soon, then it could be called a fantasy.

When I first confronted myself with this word, it stung a little. But it also brought much-needed clarity to something I had not been looking at.

I don’t want my creative visions to be my “secret life” – do you?  I don’t want to pretend to myself I’m really “going to do it,” all the while avoiding the real life risks that I’m afraid of. That fear is one of the largest factors in keeping action frozen and allowing fantasy to lull me into false complacency.

If you have a “secret life,” it may mean you have visions you’ve not known how to bring into manifestation. It may mean you don’t believe you can stretch that far, and be the person you’d have to be to live them. It may mean that your inner desires are at odds with your image of yourself or what you, or anyone you know, has done so far.

Your secret life may be a dream you haven’t ever spoken to another soul. Maybe you’ve not even fully admitted it to yourself – yet.

Moving from dreams to creating a new reality is not so easy. I won’t pretend it is. But here’s what I know: you CAN truly become the hero or heroine of your own life. It’s a process and there are steps. 

The most important steps are identifying your vision, knowing what actions to take, and starting to take them. 

For that it helps a whole lot to have someone to guide you, to hold your hand, and to believe in your vision... to believe in you even more than you believe in yourself!

If you want to stop living a SECRET LIFE and start manifesting your dreams right here, right now, give me a call. It’s on me.

By the way,  I am currently offering a trio of sessions to help you identify your Vision  – and to look at the first steps you need to take to make it a reality.

You can find out more by clicking on this link:
http://www.yourtimetobloom.com/springspecial/