A Transition of How We React
We are being called to transition and transform how we see certain situations and have abundant opportunities to practice making shifts.
A young woman needed someone to listen to her so I did. Seven years ago, Julia invested in making a career transition and went back to school to get certified as a healing practitioner.
Everything was going well until recently when more and more people started offering the same service as her. But they didn’t earn the same credentials or certifications as her. One even cut and pasted the wording from her website and was charging less than her.
Julia was feeling under attack and threatened by a surge of people who didn’t respect how hard she worked to build what she had. And she wanted to talk through why this was causing her so much anxiety.
After a lot of listening and talking, we realized that anyone can call themselves whatever they want to. But no one is Julia apart from her. Sometimes when we are in the midst of a stressful situation, it’s challenging to navigate and make sense of emotions that come up. And yet, it’s another time of transition that helps us become aware of how we react.
We agreed that there are three areas for her to explore:
- What is it about what she offers that people value? What is her unique gift (regardless of how crowded the market is)?
- How can she channel her frustration into being creative around her offering? Maybe she needs to connect with her clients directly and not share everything online? And now that it is easier to gather again, maybe she can host a few sessions in her studio and talk openly with her clients about why she is so passionate about helping them?
- Maybe she can invite some of the new practitioners to a session and have an open conversation about why this profession is so important to her in serving the community?
Being Ourselves
Anyone can put up a shingle, website or social media and market themselves today. But no one brings what we bring when we fully believe in ourselves.
It is so easy for us to react but how we choose to react matters. It’s also easy to tap into energy that depletes and drains us but when we are in touch with our higher purpose, we can begin to transform uncertainties into possibilities.
There is no need to be the best practitioner and win the spotlight. Our current culture has done enough damage to so many people into feeling that we are not good enough. Isn’t it time to break these cycles of competing and feeling less than?
When we feel challenged, we can experiment and not get sucked into the fear. And sometimes making a transition means that we let go of the identity we had to become who we are.
A Transition Means Never Giving Up
A dear friend of mine was interviewing for a number of jobs recently. He had some great interviews but each time someone else got the job. He didn’t see it as rejection as he knew there was a position and team that would appreciate his gifts. He kept showing up as himself and after a few conversations with a start-up, he got the offer.
The Universe is calling us to be authentic and remember that we are on a mission to live a healthy life. And in Julia’s case, the faster she can focus on her work, the more she can help her community.
Let’s never give up on ourselves! Staying in our integrity and being true to ourselves is enough.