Coaching or Working with the Sacred? How to Discern the Right Type of Guidance?

2/1/2017

Are you a business coach, online marketer, life coach, spiritual coach, healer, practitioner or other professional in the personal development space?

Or do you consume the latter?

Coaching or Working with the Sacred?
How to Discern the Right Type of Guidance

We're a culture starving for growth.

Our Soul's are waking us up quickly. This sharing is meant to help consumers of personal, spiritual, and business development to discern wisely when looking for mindset support, coaching or guidance.

It's ALSO speaking to those who have built successful coaching or marketing businesses and have then- along their path -awoken to a more spiritual calling and now make this the emphasis of their work.

We all have a unique journey. We all came to our profession in a different way, especially those in the personal growth industry. I was healer, chemical free, herbalist, spiritual, shaman path, plant spirit communicator, activist long before I became a lawyer or then a coach.

I was a health food radical, high vibe sustainability seeking individual from the time I was seven (my family was not) and took it to a new level when I dove into activism around the age of 21. My parents didn't know what to do with me.

After years in activism, I committed to the lawyer path to protect our earth and enforce social justice. I burned out on activism shortly after and landed a cushy corporate law position. From the moment I arrived it was always, "what next?" "I must change this."

With the resources to invest in myself and continue my education, a certification marathon began. First family mediation, then health coaching, professional coaching, herbalism, energy medicine, business coaching, mastery certified coaching... on and on.

Well licensed and certified- I was stuck when the market tanked in 2008. I was scared to take my successful side hustle health / spiritual coaching practice full time. Instead what I needed was to take my spiritual life back full time and return to the truth of who I was.

I headed off to the mountains every few months to re- immerse in shamanic energy medicine trainings and healing journeys that connected me back to my soul and nature- and back to my spiritual path. From there my life was taken in a totally different direction.

I left my corporate lawyer world and moved out to the Cascade Mountains in Oregon for 3 years to live close to the spirit of earth, on a vortex on the opposite coast, and reclaim my power.

I realized I better hire a business coach since my steady supply of side-hustle clients from the firm and gazillions of people in the city dried up in my small mountain town and I needed guidance.

I share this all because i have been in the coaching and personal development industry for some time now and while all is well and clear today because I claim my work as a spiritual guide + lawyer + business coach + wellness expert- and I integrate all in gorgeous alchemy- it wasn't always so clear-it was actually quite a painful journey- and I know for many it's the same.

What I'm about to share is a result of being steeped in this personal development and coaching environment for a long time- with one foot always in the Sacred.

***********************

Being a master spiritual space holder doesn't happen over night. It's a {lifetime} journey, a process of becoming -even if you catch it young the wisdom comes with time. It's a path of learning spiritual boundaries, permissions and energetic hygiene.

It's a responsibility to carry the highest of ethics and not to be used promiscuously. A dear friend of mine likes to say "beware of spiritual malpractice." I'd add to that beware of abuse of power and here are:

2 Things...

The western world has appropriated, watered down and marketized so many sacred things. Its often done with good intention yet 'implicit ignorance' of how to work with the sacred leaves its scars.

Implicit bias ring a bell? Have you ever had to defend your lack of racial bias because of a society truly steeped in it? I do and I've had to defend my respect for the sacred more times than I can count because of the growing rate of implicit ignorance and lack of integrity from those who borrow other's cultures.

I've learned for DECADES that anything less than the utmost integrity to the lineage from which I'm borrowing or anything less than the highest use of a culture's spiritual technology -is negligence. The lineage may be indigenous or cultural or even be Spirit, Source or the Spirits of the Natural World.

#1:

Abuse of Power:

To the ALREADY healers and spiritual bound service providers who join coaching or training programs, go to live events or listen to speakers who woke up to their spirituality a minute ago-- after their hugely successful online or offline business or career -- please take note!

There are often negligent vibes emitting from those stages where speakers say, "if you haven't hit 6 or 7 figures maybe you're really not spiritual or you don't understand mindset."

That's BOGUS and a spiritual no-no. It's abuse of power.

I've seen this too many times and as an empath, we 'spiritual types' are easily influenced. I fell under that spell more than once.

It's RECKLESS nonsense. I know TONS of HIGHLY INTUITIVE coaches who came to coaching already spiritual and friggen amazing -before being an entrepreneur - who have bathed in that kryptonite for too long.

Mastery in anything is about sweat equity. To be successful in business takes sweat equity. Put in the work, grow the mindset, take action, course correct and you get there. You can master Facebook ads or online platforms in a few weeks and little known to many, the spiritual path also calls for sweat equity and its' not as linear as "do this, money follows, measure success/mastery by numbers."

Spiritual sweat equity is EXPERIENCE not measured in numbers. It's doing the inner work, journeying through dark nights of the soul, working with the unseen world, understanding and using your spiritual gifts, initiations in all shapes and sizes, and respecting what you've learned and from where it comes. And no matter the hunger or discipline in studying and practicing, while totally innate- working with the sacred is not something you master in 5 minutes.

A drive to KNOW ALL doesn't short cut maturity.

It's like martial arts.

I practiced Capoeira for 20 years. I was obsessed with this Brazilian martial art. I lived it, breathed, it. Moved to Brasil. Learned Portuguese. All for Capoeira. I trained 4 -5 hours a day - on top of studying or practicing law. My 80 year old Mestre (Master) would say, "Paciencia"- "Patience, your body may be physically ready though understanding the science and embodying the magic takes time. Learn to work with the energy, the sacred. Humble yourself and respect the practices of the lineage."

Amazing entrepreneurs who have the grit, had the drive and mastered the discipline to grow successful businesses and then woke up to their spirituality - apply their business knowledge and resources to now be 'The Guru'-- (of course not all) and many times do not have the deep wisdom and maturity to hold sacred space responsibly. I loved Tony Robbin's film title, "I Am Not Your Guru."

Knowledge on how to market- and sell, without the level of training, initiation or DEEP understanding on how to work or HOLD the sacred, ought not be license to appropriate other's cultures or spiritual technology.

Remember there are NO ROLES. From the place of the Soul, no one is better than you. For whatever master sits in front of you in one thing, you are master of another. Know yourself. Remember your strengths and hold your boundaries when an industry is doing it's best to squeeze you into a box. Remember your strengths, OWN them and discern what is being said from who.

#2:

Spiritual Maturity or Marketization?

There is a mass commoditization of spirituality underway. Be thoughtful.

Like many trends there are pros and cons. While the world is waking up and consciousness is growing (YAY!) there is also a lot of watering down of sacred principles.

The good part about this is we are speeding up our awakening process in the mass market of accessible ideas like mindfulness, meditation, yoga, shamanism (I certainly have benefited over the years from this access.) organic food. And like all of the above have been TOTALLY WATERED DOWN including USDA standards for what constitutes organic- so too have been sacred indigenous cultures and their medicines.

One area near and dear to my heart for the past 21 years is Plant Spirit Medicine- (Ayahuasca, San Pedro, Peyote .... ). The contamination and abuse of these sacred medicines is exploding out of control. Thanks to those complicit, compliant or responsible, those in sacred contract with this path are charged with implicit ignorance and the medicine itself is stigmatized and called a drug. This is reckless.

It's not just the respect missing to the lineage of indigenous people who have share their gifts, it's also about the initiations the plant spirit puts you through as a keeper of the medicine. Of course it's a calling and you know you are meant to walk that path. It's not always easy and it carries responsibility and maturity to this hold space.

*Definitely it's not something you come back from a spiritual vacation having experienced and 2 months later offer your clients to check the box on your program page if they want Ayahuasca.

The abuse I've been seeing has caused me to pause and speak up. I speak for the spirit of these powerful beings who are asking for more respect and understanding. Yes one can say it gives money and support to the local shamans- AND the truth is, it's another form of colonization. If you're holding space for this work, there's more than just "check the box" on your program offering.

There are shamans (medicine people, curanderos, maestros) who wait years before working with the plant spirit medicine, listening, learning, adhering to a sacred path. To see the simplification, inappropriate and superficial commoditization of this SACRED path be marketized HURTS.

How do you discern?

This one just may take trial and error. Listen to your gut and seek out the real deal when it comes to the frequency and type of guidance you're looking for. Be aware of representations that entrepreneurial success implies spiritual mastery. And truth is we don't have to be masters to hold space for spiritual growth. Though we must have spiritual ethics.

I have so much further to go.

With deep humility and intention,

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Stephanie Trager, esq.
Intentional Paradigms Coaching & Consulting
Personal Mastery Coach, Business Strategist,
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