I was recently at Irina Benedict’s weekend for Spiritual Entrepreneurs on Becoming Truly Free.
She is brilliant at working with people’s inner child wounds as the
barriers to success on the path of entrepreneurship. She offers various activities and coaching
that helps the participants have really profound insights. (I highly recommend
you check her out if you are thinking about entrepreneurship or are in a
business and feeling stuck and you want a spiritual approach). And I definitely
was someone who had the benefit and challenge of having to face some core
barriers within myself.
The one of many insights was my resistance to business for 2
reasons – I hate being busy and I have some wounds from when I was in business
school in my 20s. (Now this isn’t to say I judge people who are running
a business – this is all my internal, emotional stuff I’m grappling with). I’ll explain my personal experience.
Firstly, I’ve been the one in the family who was considered “lazy”. I’d daydream, sleep in for as long as I
wanted, wanted life to be simple, and got overwhelmed easily by too many human
dynamics and conflicts. In my family,
being busy was considered to be a “good thing”, close to godliness (those
darned Protestant Ancestors, I tell you!).
Instead of relating emotionally or asking how we were really doing, the question
would be something to the effect of “are you making money?” and “you must so
busy, right?” and they would understand if you couldn’t make it to a family
function if work were the excuse. So
long as you’re busy doing something, and you’re making money doing it. Workaholism is another type of addiction
rampant in our culture and it has done more damage to the soul than some of the
other addictions – because it creates loneliness, fierce independence, stress,
exhaustion, burnout and abandoned relationships. When you break down the word “business”
it means “busy ness”. Crazy, eh? So no
wonder I was procrastinating when it came to doing the entrepreneurship
program. The last thing I wanted was to be busier than I already was. “Stop the bus, I want off!” was what I wanted
to say.
I believe that our culture is too busy, over productive and
missing out taking the time to cultivate the soul within. Imagine of more people just stopped, breathed,
were mindful and did less? Our earth and environment would greatly benefit, and
our personal relationships surely would, as well.
I want to show a different way of living and being that can
be abundant and lead to a feeling of well-being and peace, and to incorporate
this in how I work with clients.
Then the other reason I was resistant to doing the program
or making a fully functioning business for myself had to do with my experiences
in Business School in my 20s. I went
into the program thinking it was something practical, and not because it was in
my heart (I would have preferred taking English and Sociology). I spent 4
gruelling years in the program, volunteering in so many other capacities so I
could get a degree that could get me a job.
I was the weird kid in the program who cared about the earth and
believed in ethical, eco, co-operative practices (which is now trendy), and I
preferred wearing jeans and a t-shirt rather than a suit to school. I didn’t like the cliquey nature of the
school, where you were valued based on what business connections your parents
had. It just smelled of pure greed and it felt like I was so stuck in a see of
people where I didn’t belong.
So my association with the words “business” and “entrepreneurship”
was one that made me cringe and something I tried to run away from after I
graduated (even though my degree haunted me on my resume where everyone assumed
I wanted to do their marketing when they hired me at a job).
The reason I started
a small business 8 years ago was because I had a supportive partner at the time
who encouraged me in that direction, showing me that it is a place where a
holistic practitioner can make a living.
Going into it, it spoke to me about the possibilities of freedom, ability
to choose who you do and don’t work with, and the chance to grow spiritually
and personally while doing it. I saw the
plus side of running a business and preferred to call it a “practice”.
So at this past weekend’s retreat, I was asking my angel
guides to show me how I could come to peace with this word, knowing it had all
these negative connotations for me.
Immediately the word “livelihood”
popped into my mind and that felt right.
So instead of saying “I own a business”, I can say “I make my livelihood
doing…”.
Then I realized that one of the sacred
8-fold traits of the noble path
in Buddhism is “right livelihood”, which means “any occupation that does not cause unnecessary harm to
other living things. It also means to being honest and ethical in
business dealings — not to cheat, steal or lie, and in general make one’s
living in an upstanding way.”
Through this window of
understanding, I could embrace being a
spiritual entrepreneur, knowing it is
supporting my path of peace
and integrity to reduce harm and also support and
uplift other living beings. This is an
especially important trait for me, because my father was an unethical salesperson
and I carried a lot of shame in my lineage because of his actions. From him, I learned the value of an honest
living because of the suffering the choices he made had on me, my family and
others.
So, thank you, Irina, for
providing the space, presence and understanding to guide me towards the deeper
meaning of
entrepreneurship and how it can be a tool for spiritual transformation
on our planet.
And thank you to my
clients for believing in me, entrusting me, and allowing me to support you in
your process towards greater peace, well-being and love in the world.
Irina offers a free 4-day
online training series that is a beneficial
beginning for those who are
starting out or are wanting more
support as spiritual entrepeneurs. You can click here for more
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