So many of us, particularly in the spiritual industry, feel compelled to take on everyone else’s “stuff.” It’s usually under the guise of being a healer, a light-worker, or someone who is above the baloney (so to speak). The truth is, when we don’t honor how we are really feeling, i.e. because we say yes to everyone and everything (only because we think we should), we can create an emotional deficit; feelings of being undervalued, taken advantage of, or even resentful. Those emotions are not conducive to what most of us are trying to achieve. We cannot fully help or serve if we are plagued by guilt or anger. What can eventually happen is the complete opposite of what we stand for in the first place.
Below is a little mantra for those of us who are perhaps challenged with some of these issues. Feel free to share it!
I will no longer allow anyone to take advantage. I have a big, caring heart but that does not make me a target: it makes me a human being. A good one. Not a martyr however, either. As I am not a victim to those who see me as “soft,” but rather, a person who has not listened to their inner-voice saying, “No, this is not for me to do.”
People (including me at times), will do what they must- or what they think they must- in order to fill a need; a void emotionally or otherwise. That is not my problem, and no one has the right to make it mine. And no one, not even me, should inflict guilt. I can choose to say yes, or I can choose to say no. I will not be less of a person for whichever.
I take full responsibility for making the wrong choices in the past, but I will not take it into my present- nor my future. I forgive, understand and move forward. But I do it without judgment- for myself and others. I learn from the experiences, but I don’t live there anymore. I live here… with the joy, the peace and passion.
…And the me, without apology, who still cares deeply, but no longer stands just to give, but to also receive.