In Europe in the Middle Ages, or India still today there are people who follow the calling of the Spiritual life, who are supported by their community. Their focus on the Spiritual is considered a service to the community and those that lead worldly lives support this with contributions.
Like many who feel called to the healing or spiritual arts, I have at times felt torn between wanting to do the work I feel called to, and making a living. In spite of what I have heard and “know” about following my bliss, there is this idea in the back of my mind that they are not something that I can hope to do together. There is a mythology of starving artists and rich business people who have lost their souls and in the mythology you have to choose.
Personally I find that there are times when things seem to flow, when I am surrendered and clients come and I am relaxed and happy (more or less). As long as the flow happens I’m OK. But when it slows or falters, or when I feel I have to pay attention to the financial side for other reasons, the part of me that does that, my inner accountant, seems to always operate from a place of fear and anxiety. He is always saying that if I have X number of clients then he will relax and we can have fun again. However, it is clear on several levels that trying to create and manifest from fear is counter-productive.
Earlier this year it came to me. I love what I do, that’s not the problem, when I am working I’m happy, I’m in touch with myself and with others, I come alive. This is where the Love is. And I need clients to be in this place. So I can follow my bliss and call in my clients without engaging the analytic, fearful, financial piece, by focusing on the feeling of the work, the joy of it, the service of it.
If I have enough clients to have a satisfying practice, then I will be “taken care of”, not magically, but as a side effect. So in this way I can let go of the part that is concerned with money, not as an act of pure faith, but knowing that by focusing on how I love my work, I will have clients and they will compensate me.
This may seem like a mental distinction, but it is subtly important for me, and perhaps for you. By returning to my heart and the joy of working with others I am in a place of Love, I am connecting to my Self and to Source, and can create from there. I can even do the promotional tasks I sometimes resist from the joy of finding the next partners in the healing dance. I can let go of the (for me) fearful side of counting clients and doing sums, knowing that it won’t help me to be in the fear that inevitably comes with it.
You can work to have an abundance of work, not because you “need” work, but because you “love” your work. The tricky part is fully releasing the fear, not just in the mind, but in the heart, so that you are truly full of joy, not simply talking yourself out of fear. Then no shadow comes into the intention and you are really walking towards your passion, focusing so powerfully on the joy that there is no room for the fear, you are pulled into the work.
Finding the bliss, the joy, is finding yourself, is being connected to your soul. This is the place of creative power. Feeding your Soul will feed your body also, but it has to come first and be the focus of your attention. Live in joy to work from joy, let go of working from fear as then you will live in fear.
(© 4/10)
