Reframing

[qos]

In my previous entry, I wrote: What I need most to do right now is cultivate my own authority, speak my own truth and write my own words, not listen to or read the words of others.

a_belletrist responded: I liked what you wrote about taking the time to write, speak, and cultivate your own words, truth and authority. How exciting that will be! Energizing and empowering, too.

I replied to this encouragement with: Now I need to combine intention and will with courage and put myself out there. It's an ongoing struggle -- and as I type that, I realize that I need to change my mindset and language. I'm sabotaging myself with my perceptions. It's going to be a marvelous adventure, an exciting time of enjoying myself and sharing my gifts through my newly-found power.

Then there was a recent email exchange with _storyteller_ also around another aspect of this topic:

I was also realizing this morning that I need to work on owning the idea that I am not going into sales, trying to convince people to purchase something so I can benefit. I am making my authentic gifts available to people who need and want them. The money exchange is a way to balance the energy with these people. It's also the best way I have at this time to free myself from mental and spiritual drudgery of my day job and give myself the time and space to be available to the people who can benefit from my service. Clocking in at [my day job] every day serves no one but [that company] and the people to whom I pay mortgage and other bills.

Whatever I do with my time, I need to take in resources that will enable me to materially support myself and my daughter. I can choose what, beyond my material needs, those actions serve.

I have gifts and talents that are meaningful only when shared with others: holy listening, teaching, spiritual counseling. To a certain extent, I can make these available freely -- which I do among my friends and among the people I occasionally find myself drawn into conversations with. But to share my gifts more widely, on a formal basis, I need to ask for something in return. I am not supported by a spiritual community that provides a buffer between me and those who donate/tithe to support those whose work within it. I have to set a price on my gifts, on my service, and ask that those who seek the benefits of my gifts to pay for them.

And I have to remember that my value -- my competitive advantage, to use the language of business plans -- is that I am different from others out there offering similar services. I am special, I have particular value, because people like me, not with my gifts, but with my experiences, my perceptions, my understanding of certain parts of the spiritual map, are rare.

So I need to stop worrying about being found "strange" or "weird" or "different."
Goodness knows I accept these labels without flinching in my daily life.

Then there's the quote that wlotus shared recently from Charles Swindoll:

There is only one you.... Don't you dare change just because you're outnumbered!

And thank you to revpanthera who shared her own gift/reminder of Badger medicine with me recently, which turned out to be

If Badger pushed its way into your cards today, it may be
tellng you that you have been too meek in trying to reach some goal.
Badger asks you how long you are willing to sit and wait for the world to
deliver your silver spoon.

In this medicine, the key is to be aggressive enough to do
something about your present state of affairs. Badger is teaching you to
get angry in a creative way and say, "I won't take it anymore." You must
follow-up by keeping your eye on the goal. Honor the healing process as
you express those inner feelings.

Be aggressive, but don't cut others to ribbons on the way -- that is too
much aggression. Use your aner to stop your lolling around, so that your
doldrums of apathy are a thing of the past. Badger is a powerful medicine
when properly used.

Remember that Badger may be signalling a time when you can use your
healing abilities to push ahead in life. Heal yourself by aggressively
removing the barriers that don't "grow corn." Cut away the dead wood &
use Badger's aggression to seek new levels of expression. Use Badger's
medicine roots to keep grounded and centered in the process.

(from the "Medicine Cards" deck, by Jamie Sams, David Carson, and Angela C. Werneke)

Comments

[queenofhalves]

is your website finished? i wanted to link to it from mine, but was too lazy to go dig back through your archives. :>

[toesontheground.livejournal.com]

Keep taking steps forward!

[qos.livejournal.com]

Thanks, Barry!
You too!