She gained more of my respect that day, but then she managed to toss most of it out the window when I overheard her loudly making fun of a client in another office (with the door cracked open).
In a very immature manner, she acted as though she was the client, and said, in an exaggerated, whiny tone, “I’m Enneagram number ______, and I’m… [she went on to list some negative qualities].”
I wondered what her expression might be, had the client walked in on this entertaining, yet disturbing, circus act, though I wouldn’t want him to get devastated by it.
Note: Image on right above found in link => verdenews.com
Before working at this company, I thought it’d be nice to do a retreat there, but that interest quickly vanished after being turned off by her insensitive way of being.
One of the things that I observed about the owner and staff of this company is that they seem to take the Enneagram of Personality a bit too far into right field.
After the company Christmas party at a restaurant, and while heading out, two Angel Guides (who are also Master Practitioners) approached me and asked what enneagram number I am.
I told them that I didn’t know, but that I prefer not being placed into boxes. One of them enthusiastically said, “Oh she must be a 7!” to which the other one inserted, “or a 9!” I just smiled and shook my head side to side as I left.
One of my coworkers (the most experienced one) once asked me if I could check out this sheet of paper that had questions on it, so that she could find out what enneagram I am; I noticed that she, too, uses it to figure people out.
But after reading it at home, I realized that I didn’t feel any of them enough to comfortably place my whole self into those categories; so I left it alone. Related video inserted on 3/26/20, “You Will RETHINK Who You Really Are After Watching This | Sadhguru | Mystics of India | 2018“
Though the owner did mention in her book that there’s both positive and negative qualities associated with the enneagram, I noticed that she seemed more biased towards the negative qualities (mentioning more of it throughout the chapters).
Whether it’s the eeneagram, zodiac signs, Chinese astrology, etc., I trust that these are all meant to be guidance tools, not set in stone, earthly, categorized boxes to place people into that can limit their full potential.
I’ve heard enough people—throughout my life, and especially in Sedona—state narrow-minded expressions like:
- “I could never date someone who’s a _______ (whatever zodiac sign)”
- “Since she was born in the year of the _________ (Chinese astrology sign) she will always experience hardship”
- “He must be this way since he’s enneagam number ______ “
- etc.
While working at my second job in Sedona, at a crystal store, I had a conversation with a guy who does angel card readings, among other spiritual and creative things (to include beautiful photography).
Because his mother’s a Leo, and he had an overall, unhealthy relationship with her, he had come to the conclusion that ALL Leos must be shut out with their mostly negative qualities—which isn’t true, since there’s a combination of positive and negative qualities, like all other zodiac signs.
I shared with him what I mentioned above about these guidance tools; and that when we put people into these small boxes, we don’t give them a chance to change (for the better), learn, grow and evolve on all energetic levels—physically (like DNA upgrade), mentally/intellectually (developing a more positive outlook on life), emotionally (learning to unconditionally love all aspects of whole self), and spiritually (unconditionally embracing interconnected Life within this Universe and way beyond, which connects to self-love as well since one’s cup needs to be full to overflow to others, and ultimately, self and “others” is One).
I also asked him, “What if we ended up missing out on getting to know amazing Beings, because we decided that they were no more than what our logical minds reasoned they were, according to their zodiac signs?”
He seemed to be receptive to the information (aka Light)—his eye contact was strong yet gentle, and his body language was relaxed while he was nodding his head up and down (to seemingly imply agreement).
I trust this applies to what I’m about to share as well, since I have met one spiritual teacher so far, who was wonderful via her website, and in person as well (matched); my unforgettable experience with her was soul-igniting, deeply heartfelt and many other amazing adjectives listed below (which I shared in this post series).
On the other hand, I’ve also noticed a pattern so far that intrigues me.
I’ve met a total of seven spiritual teachers in person—via an event, retreat, or session—who seemed to be the opposite of the way they portray themselves via their YouTube videos, books, or videos (within their websites) to varying degrees (i.e., very personable, sweet, super lovable and loving, unconditionally kind, warm, deeply understanding, empathetic, compassionate, encouraging, thoughtful, humorous, playful, free-spirited, uplifting, profoundly wise, empowering, trustworthy, overall positive, passionate, assertive but not arrogant, honest, and/or outgoing, etc.).
I get that we all have many aspects to our whole selves; however COMMA if you share and sell a certain, overall image via YouTube (especially via this mode), I guarantee you, there WILL BE understandable expectations from others; and when not even half-way delivered, there will also be some discontent.
And you can’t say baffling things like, “Well, you should’ve told me you wanted the friendly, loving version of me!” [as opposed to the: very serious, distant, judging, demanding, controlling, “I’d rather be elsewhere”, pressuring to sell more products, rushing, Marine Corps drill sergeant version??] after a paid session.
I basically replied, “One shouldn’t have to ask for another to be kind, compassionate, deeply understanding, encouraging, etc., especially if that’s the only version one got to know of that person via their videos“; she apologized, and agreed that I had a valid point.
Now it’s completely understandable if a spiritual teacher isn’t feeling well that day(s); but even then, one can still be somewhat present with another, at some point, and show gentle kindness and genuine caring.
Like the famous saying by Maya Angelou goes, people may not remember what you said or did, but they will always remember how you made them feel.
Also, why would one put so much effort to gain the respect, admiration, and support from their fans, followers, students, admirers, etc.—and even manage to convince them to subscribe to their videos and/or newsletters, and even come to their sessions, events, retreats, etc.—only to make a not so pleasant first impression during an in-person meeting, which has a high probability to permanently drive them away?
I had a desire to experience hypnotherapy for over a year now, so I reached out to two, different spiritual teachers—at different times and places within this year of 2020—who advertised being a Master Hypnotherapist.
I had made it clear of why I was interested in hypnotherapy within the spiritual field, mainly because it’s known to help with more quickly transforming unconscious beliefs (especially core beliefs), that one may not be aware of, and that no longer benefits.
Though we seemed to have an understanding (prior to the sessions), they both managed to convince me (at the beginning of the sessions) that it was more beneficial to not do hypnotherapy, but an awake, conscious, version of it.
I wondered if they weren’t confident in performing hypnotherapy, or they were truly looking out for my best interest; but since I didn’t get a strong, negative, gut feeling, I just went along with it.
The lesson I take from those two experiences—besides certain beneficial aspects to them—is that, if I truly and strongly desire to experience hypnotherapy, then I need to be more assertive about it, regardless of who tries to talk me out of it; it’s as simple as that.
That way, there’s not even a tiny degree of not so good thoughts and feelings lingering around.
As implied at the beginning of this post, I have no doubt how important it is for any client to have trust in those who are helping them with whatever service.
Therefore, if a client found out that this trust was misused or abused, they would naturally think and feel something of negative nature (e.g., disappointed, betrayed, shocked, heartbroken, crushed, traumatized, etc.).
While working at my last job, I was informed by one of my coworkers that the owner had mentioned in the past that she doesn’t feel like others have any loyalty to her.
Even my former coworker, C______—whom I shared stories, observations, and insights about in the previous, related post—-told everyone at the office that our owner can’t be trusted; she basically confirmed what our manager had already shared with us.
I initially took what they had said with a grain of salt, but I gradually learned that loyalty, didn’t appear to be one of the owner’s strengths.
And sure enough, after being a witness to the owner’s obvious lack or absence of loyalty to a client, I was reminded of the importance of giving, as well receiving, loyalty.
In other words, the owner expected loyalty from others, but perhaps didn’t always give this to others as well.
The owner asked all the Retreat Coordinators one day, before the staff meeting, if any of us had read her book. That moment was a bit awkward, because even the crickets had checked out.
So she said she would pay us to read her book during work hours (at least an hour per day), which I thought was sad (because her employees should want to read her book), and a great idea (though the work days were usually busy).
The truth was, not a single Retreat Coordinator—to include the ones who worked there the longest (for over four years), like the Manager—had the desire to read the owner’s book.
Why? Like the manager said, the owner should read her own book so that she doesn’t show up miserable everyday to work (true).
There were even times when the owner would return from one of her vacations with her husband, and complain about all the things that went wrong (which is ironic considering her main theme of her book).
One day, I reminded her that millions, or even billions, of people would probably love to go on all the trips she’s fortunate enough to go on; and she did a half-smile while slowly walking out of the office, and appearing somewhat uncomfortable.
One day, when the owner texted me to bring one of her books down for a client, I rushed downstairs to her car while hiding the book inside my cardigan sweater.
When she rolled down the dark, tinted window, she had a big, genuine smile on her face; and it was so free-spirited, innocent, and beautiful with her adorable dimples; I wish I had witnessed that more often.
It didn’t occur to me until moments later that she was giggling because I was being all secretive about delivering the book so that a client couldn’t see me.
Often times, the tone of a company or organization’s morale is set by the highest member; hence, why ‘leading by example’ is so effective and important (aka “Do as I do” rather than, “Do as I say, but don’t do“).
If you often tell your employees that the company needs to radiate positive energies in order to make great sales, but yet, you don’t do a good job representing, then you can’t be surprised or shocked about a mostly negative work environment and/or low sales.
I noticed a pattern of the owner sending out happy emails when sales were up, but nothing that I recall that was encouraging, uplifting, motivating, inspiring, and/or empowering, in some way when sales were down, which made me wonder what is most important to her.
Our manager informed us that even the Marketing guy—who gets paid $10K per month—is extremely pushy with sales; which explains why he, too, would only send happy emails out whenever sales was up, but he was too busy to even take a moment to reply to holiday email messages from employees.
This is why one, of many, of our tasks included: making a phone call, sending a text message, and sending an email every day for four days in a row.
We all felt that it was excessive, and that it would more than likely cause many people to mark the company email as spam.
And sure enough, we received some very angry messages (and understandably so).
However, both the owner and marketing guy apparently told our manager that it wasn’t enough people complaining to negatively impact the company; but I had a feeling that it could rapidly catch up one day.
The manager apparently warned the owner that this marketing tactic isn’t a good idea, but was told that the marketing guy knows what’s best for the company since he saved it from nearly plummeting down once.
She also said that the owner only listens to males—like the marketing guy, her husband, male Practitioners, etc.—since she has daddy issues as well.
Besides that, which sounds pretty spot on, I wondered if such fear-based ways would highly benefit a company and interconnected humanity in the long run:
- fear-based intentions (making concerns or worry about making money a priority, that stems from poverty consciousness)
- fear-based expressions (I have read messages that people sent stating that some of the newsletter emails were very manipulative and pushy)
- fear-based actions (like very aggressive sales tactics) .
The owner’s husband made it crystal clear what was the most important to him when it comes to the company—which explains why the manager mentioned several times that he’s a con artist who’s just using the owner for her money.
She gave several reasons how she came to that conclusion, which made sense, though I don’t know 100% sure how accurate it is.
One day (shortly before I left), and in the presence of other coworkers, he whispered to me that it’s all about the technique of sales—not being concerned about providing too much information, but quickly transferring the potential customers to the Angel Guides (who, by the way, need to stop complaining so much and do their job, he added with attitude).
Then he caught himself—probably from the look I gave him that conveyed, “So it’s all about the numbers, eh?“—and then added an insincere, “Oh, and we want to take care of customers as well,” which was followed by his usual, eerie smile and wink.
I—and the rest of the office staff—noticed that the owner’s husband’s words, actions, and behavior, have been habitually questionable; but that’s the next post.
I’ve read the owner’s book after leaving the job, since it was given to me for free when I started working there, and I was curious; and it was overall pretty good.
I found her personal stories the most interesting, and one of them deeply moved me (i.e., what a family member said for the first time).
I also enjoyed how she was straightforward with a lot of her expressions, and how she took me back to certain time periods and places.
I even highlighted points that I resonated with, and discarded the rest—something I do with anything that I read, watch, see, hear, etc..
Granted, though I wouldn’t mind skimming or scanning through the highlights in the future, I wouldn’t fully read it again like I do with certain, few books that are soul-igniting and deeply heartfelt.
The owner did admit in the book that we’re all human, and what matters is that we do our best to live our truths.
But that’s the thing…the key is to do one’s best…meaning, live by example of one’s book at least a quarter to half of the time.
I’m very grateful for this contrast, because it taught me how important it truly is to represent your spiritual book and spiritual company—or any other type of book or company—by how you live, a fair amount of time; it doesn’t have to be perfect, but at least somewhat close to what you preach.
After reading the owner’s book, I also gained more confidence that I, too, can finish writing my first book in Divine perfect timing and order.
Despite the seemingly long list of life challenges that comes with our soul growth/evolution—especially in Sedona where the energies are amplified, and much old wounds resurface to be healed and integrated into whole self—I’ve learned a lot from the so-called dark valleys or caves.
My manager, along with other coworkers, informed me that she (the manager) was much worse (at being very negative) before I started working there in August of 2019 (until January 2020).
I told them I had a hard time imagining that, and they all smiled.
However, I later had a flashback that reminded me that I know exactly what “MUCH WORSE COWORKER” is like; as a matter of fact, she was HANDS DOWN “THE WORST” coworker I had ever worked with, and I’ve been working for over 30 years (15-17 years old only during summer hire).
I wrote a post about it titled, “Negative Shadow Aspects of Self that Seem Damn Near Impossible to Accept“ (from Sedona job #4 post series) in the category page of this blog, Earthly and Otherworldly Puzzle Pieces.
I realized that my manager was basically an upgraded version of K______ from _________.
The work environment from the 8th/last job was so “bad” that certain Practitioners refused to come by the office since it was known for years to be a place full of very negative energy (which was a bit funny to me, like it was a haunted house or something).
One of my coworker’s sisters refused to step into our office when she came by to drop off a bottle of water.
Though she’s apparently spiritual, like many residents within Sedona, she’s highly sensitive to energies (like me and other coworkers); so it’s understandable why she would prefer to avoid places that don’t feel good.
I’m grateful that they all mirrored this unhealthy fearful (rather than healthy cautious) contrast, because it made me realize that the actual LIVING of profound spirituality isn’t avoidance (being in a safe bubble), but being able to BE within any space, and around any being, without allowing their low/dense/negative/fear-based energies to cause one to spiral down; but rather, have one’s powerful, high vibrational frequency TRANSMUTE the lower energies. It may not always be easy, but it is doable.
However, I’ve learned from all 8 Sedona jobs that it’s, indeed, wise and unconditionally loving (to self/others), to discern when it’s time to leave a habitually, unhealthy environment (and relationships).
As a matter of fact, during my interview at my 8th job, I informed the owner, her husband, and the manager, that I trust that I will be wherever I need to be for however long Spirit wants me there.
Despite sharing that info, I was surprisingly still hired.
Though something did feel off—about the owner’s husband’s verbal and non-verbal expressions (which became further revealed later)—I respected and admired what the owner herself shared with me that interview day, which I needed to hear for the first time, and deeply moved me.
Continuing..
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