FROM HIGH TECH TO HIGH VIBE!

I was very good at what I did, but I never planned to do it full time. Just some extra part time income doing what I loved to do. Yet even part time, I began to burn out. What I did know was that I loved the healing arts. This is where my heart called me. This is what I was ‘supposed’ to be doing. In 2007 and 2008, after meeting and going to a seminar with Dr. Darren Weissman, I did the training weekends to learn the LifeLine Technique. Still, I was in corporate America. I did not mind being a Business Analyst – I liked working with non-technical customers to determine their true requirements, and translating them for the technical team. I am still amused today when I see these skills come through as I help the clients in my healing practice create their intention - their 'requirements' for their sessions. I certainly had no plans to give up my huge salary.

Then came the outsourcing. Our work was being outsourced to Mauritius. I wasn’t even sure I believed that was a country until I watched the opening ceremonies of the Olympics and saw 6 athletes from there. We were called into a meeting and told our department of 36 would become a department of 2 – 3 programmers. Some would be laid off in two weeks, some in 3 months, and some in 6 months. Panic flooded my body, and I asked the secretary for my boss’s boss to make me the first person to be called in. I could not take the anxiety. Indeed I was on the 3 month list. This ‘boss’s boss’ was also a beloved friend and he cried when he told me. August 31, 2008 was my last day. It took nearly a year to find more work so it was good that I had severance and stock options after 14 years of employment with that company. I had to move to Charlotte, NC for my next assignment so they paid me per diem. It was a sweet six figure salary for this 18 month contract, and they let me work the last 6 months from Atlanta. Legally, they are not allowed to renew after 18 months. Back to the job search. The market was better and I had a spectacular resume’ if I may say so myself. I have some interview anxiety so I was careful not to apply for anything I didn’t absolutely qualify for. I am guessing I had put out well over 300 resume’s. I was stunned that in the five months that followed, I had not received a single call. Not one.

My mother was calling however. Often. She and my dad lived in Huntsville, Alabama - a four hour drive. He was not well, and had some dementia and she was not emotionally that well herself – it was all too much for her to handle. She would call nearly every week and say he was dying and I needed to come. Well, what was I going to do? I suspected he was not dying but I had no choice but to show up. What if she was right? I am not sure why these weekend trips were so grueling since it’s only a four hour drive, but they were certainly taking their toll. I finally decided I would just move in with them. The Universe set me up for this with the lack of work in Atlanta. I did not even tell her, as I knew she would argue. There was no bedroom for me, we turned the back patio, which was now a spare room, into my bedroom.

Her cognitive function had declined, and her short term memory was only about 7% when I moved in. She had aphasia, where she knew what she wanted to say but she couldn't get it out of her mouth. I ran Energetic Fusion sessions on her all the time and she loved it. Her memory improved significantly. My father made his transition on 10/10/11. When I would go back to Atlanta for a five day stretch, I noticed that mom's problems with speech were much worse. I realized that without me there, she had no social contact, other than her dog. I could not stay in Huntsville. She loved her home and really wanted to stay but in May of 2012, we got her to move to an apartment in an independent living facility four miles from me.

With that complete, I could get back to looking for a job. By then however, I had been out of the IT market for two years. My skills were considered dinosaur level with the technology of today. My mother, God love her, was very emotionally needy and required lots of time from me. I could not even figure out how I could give her what she needed and work any full time job. I had a few clients for my healing practice, although nothing that would really pay the bills. I thought perhaps I was to have a healing practice and work part time. I scoured the ads for part time work that paid decently. No bites. I had worked for Macy’s through a couple of holiday seasons. Maybe they’d have me. Went for the interview. They said no. I kept lowering my standards. Starbucks maybe? $7.65 an hour. I was willing to do what I had to in order to stay afloat. I interviewed at two different Starbucks and was rejected. Seriously? I sank into depression. As my healing practice built little by little, it became emotionally more and more difficult to look for work. If I had just one client, that was the same income as 6 or 7 hours of part time work. If I had low paying part time work, that was 4 – 6 hours a day where I could not take a client. I sank into hopelessness, yet my client base continued to grow. I grew my client base by offering a free session to anyone who referred a friend who got their first session. I realized I could pay my corporate taxes, give myself a salary, and pay my bills. I didn’t have money for extras, like car repairs and dental work, but I was making it. Moreover, I was available for daily care and company for my mother. I was limited to morning and late evening clients because of her but still I made it work.

As I put the pieces together I could see that the Universe conspired to bring me to the thing that I never would have done on my own. I never would have left that corporate job. I never would have stopped looking for work. I never would have marketed myself and built my practice. The Divine knew what I wanted and was relentless in bringing forth the circumstances that created it. It’s as if God was saying, “You said you wanted a full time healing practice. And by golly that’s what you’re going to have – a full time healing practice. Not part time. Not as extra income. A full time healing practice. That’s what you asked for and that’s what you will get. No shortcuts from me beloved…”

My devoted clients held out, working around my schedule with my mother, being understanding with occasional emergencies, until she passed away in 2016. Then I was able to take clients at all hours of the day, and my client base has built up so that I could almost actually have weekends off. I didn’t plan it that way. Again the Universe conspired to give me some downtime.

Clients came and went and I learned to trust. I could look at an empty appointment book and know that it was all good. That it would fill up. That at the end of the month, no matter what, the money would be there. I stopped my fear about people not calling near the holidays. That has never happened – those were my own beliefs. I stopped worrying about people not calling after my mother died – wanting to give me a break. I also sailed through that period of time with enough money to pay the bills.

I put in place the things I had learned over years of spiritual study. I learned that when I felt the fear coming, I could not indulge it. Fear makes me contract, energetically and in other ways. It disconnects me from the Divine, from my heart, from my passion. This contraction occurs at the very time that I need to be expanding out, reaching out to new clients and old, putting the word out there, bringing in more money, connecting with the Universe. I cannot expand and contract at the same time. I just had to trust.

As time went forward, my friend Mandie Stallings introduced me to Carina Hart, who had a huge Instagram following for Holistic Health. She wanted to open up a type of holistic ‘clinic’ where everything was done online, remotely. Right up my alley, since all of my work is remote anyway.

I am doing what I love and I am happier than I have ever been. I have never been let down. The money has always been there, often in the most surprising ways. I’ve never been late on a bill. I had to be really careful for a while about even going to a $35 workshop or a $10 movie, or any other thing that cost money, but not anymore. I can breathe now and really enjoy my life. I have clients on six continents (and if you know anyone in Antarctica, I’d love to talk to them!).

This is exactly what I said I wanted. I just didn’t know anyone was listening! There is nothing that compares to following your passion and making a living at it. Well, OK. I can’t say I ‘followed’. I was dragged. One way or the other, the Universe got it done. I am so grateful to be doing what I absolutely love so much. To be doing it with passion. To be doing it with integrity. To be doing it with an open heart. I am deeply and truly blessed to be living my Life On Fire!