Recently, when I was de-cluttering our basement, I came across a box filled with correspondence from family and friends, many of these letters dating back over twenty years. One letter from a beloved aunt applauded me for seeking "a more rewarding and inspiring way of earning my living by helping others" and agreed with my statement, "the business world is completely absorbed in materialism and not worth one's potential." Reading this now, I realize that my identification with the healer archetype goes back a long way and that, for many years, this reinforced my former belief that business, financial abundance and humanistic service are mutually exclusive.



The Financial Shadow of the Healer Archetype

Thankfully, I've come a long way in healing my limiting, dualistic beliefs about money, business and service, and in anchoring the new belief that I can help others heal and, simultaneously, make an abundant income as a business person. But the financial shadow of the healer archetype still, occasionally, rears its head within me, challenging my new belief system.

While listening to the Essential Guide for Healers, a Caroline Myss audio program, her perspective on healers and money caught my attention. According to Myss, many of us who embody the healer archetype often succumb to "one of the greatest social myths" that "healing is a spiritual service and, therefore, one cannot earn a living at it." This myth exists within and amongst healers themselves, as well as in the world at large. An example Myss cites that illustrates this is "if I say, 'I'm really good at this, and I charge $500 an hour', somebody will think I'm terrible because if I'm helping, I can't make that kind of money." She asserts that, as a society, we need to transform this way of thinking and healers need to develop financial clout and become an economic force in the world.

How to Identify This Pattern Within Yourself

As a wellness professional, developing financial clout may seem like a formidable challenge to you right now, and it may even scare you or "turn you off", so to speak. But this is useful information, because these reactions give you some clues about how the financial shadow of the healer archetype operates within you.

Here are some other ways of identifying how this pattern may be affecting you and your business:

- Ask yourself, "what do I believe about charging money for my services?" and "what do I believe about the level of income I can earn?" Write down your answers.

- Become mindful of how you talk about money both in your professional and personal life. What do you say? Document these statements.

- Monitor your feelings regarding money. How do you feel when you tell someone what your fee is? How do you feel when you think about managing your business financially? Journal your feelings.

- Look at how you act financially. How do you manage your finances for your business? Do you have financial goals for your practice? If so, what plan do you have in place to help you accomplish these goals?

Three Ways to Initiate Your Financial Healing Process

Awareness is the first step in healing the financial shadow of the healer archetype. If you're ready to commit to transforming limiting financial patterns affecting your business, consider taking these steps:

- Set an intention that you're going to heal this pattern in yourself. Then tell a friend about your intention, pray, do a ritual...anything that will help you to anchor this intention.

- Start re-programming your mind and emotions. When you catch yourself making scarcity-oriented comments or feeling uncomfortable emotions about your business's financial situation, stop, take a deep breath, and consciously choose a higher thought that feels good and reflects your business's potential for financial abundance. Speak this out loud or write it out on paper frequently!

- Start behaving like a business person who makes an abundant income by helping others heal. You can't give from an empty cup, and you can't truly get your gifts out to the world and help lots of people, if you don't give sufficient energy to the financial aspects of your business. So, set an income goal, write/revise your business/marketing plan to reflect that goal and put your revenue/expense projections on paper.

Taking these three powerful steps will jumpstart your shift away from the old, limiting archetypal experience of the impoverished, self-sacrificing healer to the new paradigm of the empowered, prosperous healer.

Copyright 2008 Mary C. Davis