Mood: Sad
Context: Pulled an oracle card that said: Share your voice + A negative experience on social media
“Share your voice. Come out of the cave. Persecution. Expression… As we shed the layers of our personality and start letting our unique soul speak through us, we discover that we actually have a very clear message that longs to be shared. The more we speak it, the clearer it gets… Work Your Light Action: Express yourself. Share your voice. Speak to those who can hear you.”
---Rebecca Campbell, Work Your Light Oracle Cards
I have been getting this card over and over again for the past couple of weeks. And every time, I get inspired. Also every time, I don’t really truthfully do anything about it. But I am here now.
I just wanted to say that “Share” is my word of the year. I have been, in my own ways, sharing my voice. It has been fun and sometimes challenging as there have been many blocks hindering me. But actually, those blocks were simply my old beliefs.
As I journaled, I realized that I wasn’t just sharing my voice. I was sharing. I was sharing myself. Generously sharing what was in my heart.
Sometimes, people will not understand where you are coming from. They have their own reasons and beliefs and you can’t do much to change that. But if you also come at them with the same negative energy that they’re putting out, peace and forgiveness become far, far away.
Remember that, in Math, a negative added with another negative will always equal a negative. But if a bigger amount of positive is added to a negative, you will get a positive sum of all the amounts. That is to say, I choose love to be the “bigger amount of positive.” I choose forgiveness and peace, if not for others, then for my own mind and mental health.
I say this because something has been said about me that was not good at all. And how many times do we encounter this in our lives?
It never feels good to be talked negatively about, but it also does not feel good to negatively talk back (it might at the moment, but doesn’t really serve you long term).
And counter-responding with a positive is hard. It’s difficult. It’s against human nature not to fight to back and I feel like this is what makes choosing love so special. Not everyone does it. And if you can, props to you, and may you continue to be a light in this increasingly dark, online world.
Going back to the oracle card that I pulled. What’s the chance that I keep getting this card out of (52, I think) other cards in this deck? That’s 1 out of 52 (I think). And yet I kept getting it and kept ignoring it. The inspiration served me for a while, but without doing anything about it, it kept me in a cycle of frustration. And it probably adds to this feeling of sadness.
In this blog, I wanted to focus on the feelings. Not just the positive ones, but also as important, the negative ones. Sadness is the main thing that I deal with almost regularly. And in doing business online or offline, this sad feeling can come over you when, at times, you deal with someone who is all about business.
Why is business personal?
I want to say, compartmentalization is good and there is a place and reason for everything and for everyone feeling feelings in their own ways. But business being personal is inevitable.
You are dealing with other people. You are trading something with other people. You are holding space for the abundance that is not just for you but for others too. And in that interaction, feelings and emotions are often involved.
And so business is personal. It’s you + your client, your superiors, colleagues, and everyone else involved. Let’s not forget, that they are people, too.
You are serving a person
I get it. It’s difficult to serve someone who is irate, frustrated, and beside themselves with anger and other emotions. That’s the beauty and privilege of being a human amongst other humans.
And still, you get to serve them. Still, you get to have the chance of serving them and sharing all the love you can muster not to appease them or get back their business in return, but to actually make your experience even more special. It’s not about them, it’s about your experience with them. And you get to have a say, a vote, and a decision in that interaction.
There is a person behind every business
Every interaction is a chance to practice everything you’ve ever learned about yourself in personal development books, resources, even posts on social media that you agree on and re-share. That is where the true application of principles shines. What you say can sometimes be different from how you act and that’s okay. The key is to be self-aware and to learn, little by little and step by step, from your previous experiences.
“It’s hard” is a line that often re-surfaces when you encounter someone whose values conflict with your own. And it is hard to remember that there is another person at the other end of the relationship (business or otherwise). It’s so much easier to blame them, to make up our own stories of why we’re only doing the best we could to treat them better. And the thing is they might also be doing the same. It’s difficult to see that when we only hear ourselves.
And it gets to be easy anyway. It gets to be something that we can do for ourselves. It’s not selfish, It’s choosing to love people, including yourself.
Business is interaction and connection
There’s this opportunity that is often misunderstood as something that’s only on the surface, and it’s called business. I feel like a business can be done with so much integrity, authenticity, and love for the other that it can even transcend the whole transactional nature of a business. It’s creating a community, a team of supporters and leaders, a collaboration of hearts and minds.
Holding space for others is also an act of holding space for you. You get to have that special experience of converting energy that doesn’t serve to one that does. It is possible, I have to believe it is. I may not immediately eliminate the sadness of some experiences but, armed with this belief in kindness and love, I know I’m on my way there. I hope you are too. ❤️