A Time to Give

I have for the better part of 4 years now been self employed.  And of that time I have spent a large portion worrying about finances, wondering how to attract clientele, stressing because nothing seemed to be going my way and struggling with the responsibilities that come with networking and marketing myself as a healer.


Over the past 2 months I have come to realize something very, very important.  That my "business" is not going to flourish just because I have a website, or kick ass brochures or pretty, eye catching business cards.

My "business" is going to flourish because I put my heart and soul into it.

This seems obvious right?

It wasn't to me.

When I look around at the business industry, I see exactly what they want me to see.  The businesses with the big ads on tv, the best marketing campaigns and the ones that spend the most money on advertising seem to do the best.  Therefore, I felt the need to spend every penny I had (which wasn't much) on promoting my "business".  There is a business mentality that you feel you need to follow when you are self employed.  You know the sayings "you need to spend money to make money", "you gotta be one step ahead of the competition".  Those types of things.

side note:  I am putting the word "business" in quotations because I'm not seeing what I do as a "business" anymore.  I am seeing it as a lifestyle choice. 

When I placed emphasis on making money and bringing in business I was miserable and unproductive, constantly feeling like a failure if there was no response.  Which, (no matter how much self promoting I did) sent the wrong energetic message to potential clients and sent them away from me instead of towards me.


Now, when I think of myself as a healer by choice, not by necessity there is a lighter feeling.  And the ideas flow much more freely now that I'm not putting added stress on myself to maintain an unfair standard.

I have recently been guided to give away much of what I have to offer.

As you may have read in another post, this week was Reiki Awareness Week and I treated people to Reiki in exchange for a free will donation (meaning they were free to give a donation or not give a donation).

I have also been guided to offer complimentary Reiki treatments to cancer patients for the month of November.  I wish I would have thought of this last month during cancer awareness month, I suppose it's better to be late than never to offer it at all.

I have created my own calendars, filled with artwork and famous quotes that I will be selling, a quarter of the proceeds will go to the Canadian Mental Health Association.

And I recently held a Reiki awareness evening for free so that I could bring much needed education to my community.


I guess what I am saying is, if you're like me and you've tried everything to build your business, you've spent large amounts of money getting started and haven't seen any progress.  You might want to consider a different approach, if your calendar has holes in it where appointments could be booked, and you lack the clients to fill that space, offer your services for a discounted price or for free.  Or book in a free information seminar to get the word out about what you can offer to your community.

It feels way better to do this than to sit around wondering what on earth your doing wrong and in the end those good feelings are way more beneficial to the rest of the world than the negative ones.

Note to self: get out of the way!

Does it ever feel like there is always something getting in the way of your success or holding you back from getting what you want out of life?

It often feels this way to me.

I can go along for months gaining momentum with each opportunity that comes up only to find that one day I wake up to a brick wall where there was no brick wall before!

I often wondered why this happens. 

Well, maybe "wondered" isn't the right term.  I've always known why this happens, I CHOOSE to ignore it, hoping it will go away!

Does this sound familiar?

For example, the one area of my life that could use a boost is my relationship with my business.

I can pinpoint exact moments when I sabotage this relationship and to be honest I am no longer disappointed when things don't go exactly as I had originally planned because...well....I know I'm sabotaging it.

So today someone asked me the question "in the deepest part of yourself why are you sabotaging your relationship with your business?" 

My answer shocked the heck out of me.

I replied "I'm afraid of becoming successful because then I may not have the time to spend with my family the way I want to spend it". 

I equate "success" with working like a dog 24/7 because that is all I've known, it's what I was taught.  I have not fully integrated the vision of success being whatever the hell I WANT it to be.  And the reality is it would look like having oodles of time to spend with my family!

The other thought I have associated with success is "who do you think you are, what have you possibly done to deserve success?"

The moment I spoke the words it felt utterly ridiculous.  Who is afraid of success?  What a stupid fear?  I'm so ashamed that I've had this fear and it's been holding me back...

But wait a minute....

In the moment I voiced that fear.  In the moment I finally acknowledged it's existence instead of sweeping it under the rug I felt a shift in my perception.

I had been holding myself back through indulging this fear.  It doesn't have anything to do with anyone but me!

I began to notice my whole body start to feel heavy, a calm and peaceful relaxed heaviness came over me and I could feel that the acknowledgement had somewhat released the grip that this fear had on me.

To me fears indicate a missing piece to a puzzle.  It's frustrating to have missing pieces to a puzzle, isn't it?  If we dig deeper into our fears we begin to uncover those missing pieces and bit by bit we can put the puzzle together and in doing so we make ourselves whole once again.

What is your biggest fear when it comes to meeting your full life potential?

Are you ignoring this fear hoping it will go away?

What is it going to take for you to release this fear and take the next step toward living an inspired life?