There are not enough words in human language that accurately characterize the stress and barriers people with chronic conditions face throughout their lifetime. Medical practitioners with limited time, tools, or inspiration; mainstream tests and interventions that provide few answers and poor outcomes; debilitating fatigue and pain symptoms progressively worsened by unforgiving workloads that spill into evenings and weekends; marriage, parenting and fluctuating family demands; divorce, coparenting or single-parenting; aging parents and the pressure to manage their lives when your own life is falling apart; financial stress, household responsibilities, the ups and down of feeling emotionally overwhelmed and physically unwell. Yet I know, I’m barely scratching the surface.
If this is YOU, your soul is here to learn to manifest a meaningful life with half a tank of physical energy. If this is you, AND you have found a way to infuse more light, love, joy, and healing energy into the world amidst these storms – congratulations – you are a lightworker of the highest ranking. The challenge for this very special group of souls is converting spiritual energy into physical energy, shining your light inward to promote self-healing, turning down the volume on physical symptoms, and releasing any guilt associated with self-care.
As a survivor of two rare conditions, a single parent, a health & wellness business owner, and caregiver for an elderly live-in parent, I have some wisdom and inspiration to share with other lightworkers:
Balance & Transparency
Rarely, if ever, will anyone express concern about you working too hard, even those who love you. This is two-fold. First, as a “cheerful giver” who hates to see others suffer, refuses to delegate and often pushes through debilitating fatigue, it misleads others into believing you are superhuman and your own needs are negotiable. Second, even those who express appreciation will continue to lean on you for things they could learn to manage independently. Lightworkers pride themselves on making the lives of others easier, while their own lives become more scattered and chaotic. What we often fail to realize, as lightworkers, is that by rescuing others, we may be impeding or interrupting their own spiritual and emotional evolution.
Bottom line: you matter, too. Your thoughts matter. Your feelings matter. Where, how and with whom you invest your time, energy, and resources matters. Be honest with yourself about any unhealthy or codependent patterns you’ve developed with others and why you are slow to relinquish your celebrity/superhero status. Perhaps inner-child is seeking validation, acceptance or distraction from your own unhealed trauma. Maybe subconsciously, you are overcompensating for less enlightened choices from your past so that guilt becomes the overarching theme. Keep in mind, your emotional, mental and physical health are contingent upon establishing boundaries, communicating honestly, forgiving the “former self,” and recognizing when your energy tank is low. There are times your own needs must come first.
Relationships that Complement Not Complicate
Lightworkers are highly sensitive people, which is a gift not a deficit that warrants special consideration. They experience everything in high definition – others’ energies, sounds, sensations, memories, thoughts, feelings, moods, etc. This is why they are such brilliant intuitive healers and why they need time alone in an emotionally safe space to decompress. Managing a chronic condition, along with sensory overload, means there are few reserves in their head or body for emotional vampires or toxic environments.
The formula for quieting your physical symptoms is keeping your life emotionally calm. Living with addicts; maintaining relationships with narcissists; walking on eggshells in your own home, workplace or within the context of friendships or clinging to someone who is emotionally abusive or neglectful will amplify your body pain and weaken your immune system. This means being more intentional in choosing relationships and social activities with those who complement rather than complicate your life.
You Are Not Here to Raise Your Parents
Most lightworker have a history of childhood trauma. Although this serves to deepen their level of compassion for others, it often creates blind spots when it comes to self-compassion. As adults, it’s ironic that the parent who creates the greatest disruption to our early emotional development often expects the most support from us as they age. Not to mention the timing of this typically occurs while we’re moving through our own major life transitions and challenges.
When clients ask for advice on managing elderly parent relationships, I tell them the formula must come from within. I will offer this, if the level of support provided to a parent primarily evokes feelings of anger or resentment, chances are you are doing too much, you are operating out of guilt and/or there is more healing work to be done. Unless you can function from a higher frequency of forgiveness, love and compassion without compromising your own mental health, you may need to limit your exposure to a parent. The other piece is knowing when shifts or changes need to be made in your relationship with a parent to support your own healing journey. You are not here to raise your parents. You are here to overcome unhealthy intergenerational patterns and rise above them. This requires an unwavering commitment to your inner child in gifting back all the things s/he deeply deserved in his/her early beginnings but did not receive. The Higher mind will guide you on this path.
Your Earth Parents May Not Be Part of Your Soul Tribe
Ideally, we could rely on our parents for spiritual and emotional guidance and life wisdom throughout our lifespan. Unfortunately, this isn’t always the case, particularly for those with a history of childhood trauma. Clients are often surprised when I challenge them to change their perspective by asking them to consider if they are here to demonstrate higher frequency patterns to their parent(s). Even if they endorse this philosophy, it’s exhausting to deal with a parent who just can’t seem to pull it together, is a “slow learner” or is married to their victimhood. Do not lose hope if your parent(s) appear to make little observable progress in their own growth and evolution here on earth. Any high frequency energies you exercise in your own life or within the context of your parent relationships will indeed have a latent positive impact on their embryotic souls.
The silver lining is that lightworkers have a knack for manifesting high frequency relationships in their adulthood. Their “Soul Tribe” and surrogate family share similar core values, love deeply and unconditionally, protect each other’s hearts, are attracted to each other’s light and committed to supporting each other’s growth and development. It is helpful to realize we can experience maternal and paternal love and nurturing energies from multiple sources outside our nuclear family. Place your focus and energy on these synergistic and reciprocal relationships. As lightworkers, we need them!
Financial Abundance as a Byproduct of Aligning with Your Soul’s Purpose
Lightworkers with chronic conditions often spend more time worrying about money than any other subpopulation. Many unanticipated life circumstances can easily amplify their stress levels, like divorce, being a single parent, contributing financially to adult children, serving as caregivers to elderly parents or assisting parents, siblings or extended family members who immigrate to the United States. Having multiple generations living under the same roof may be a blessing, but it requires incredible emotional maturity and spiritual wisdom to create a culture of cooperation that benefits everyone.
Employers who do not share core values, are unwilling to provide flexible schedules and are unreasonable or unaccommodating given your unique set of circumstances are not likely the best fit for lightworkers. The difficult part is being willing to explore, and manifest options more closely aligned with the authentic self and empower you to balance multiple roles.
It takes courage to walk away from the 3D model of employment which measures success by the size of your paycheck and position of influence. Yet, many lightworkers with disabilities and chronic conditions thrive financially, as well as emotionally and physically, simply by connecting with their soul’s mission and purpose and embracing the formula of the greater good. They realize that in the spiritual economy, abundance comes in many forms – the freedom to be creative, to bless others, to self-accommodate, to invest time in family and friendships, and to build partnerships and alliances with other awakened souls. Moreover, by giving themselves permission to live by their own rules and follow their own chosen path, the service they provide not only promotes healing in others, but within themselves. Over time, this paradigm shift and spiritual mindset sets the stage for sustainable living as it acknowledges and celebrates the many layers of depth, wisdom and gifts your multidimensional being has to offer planet earth.
Creating Your Own Utopia
For many years, I’ve watched lightworkers with compromised autoimmune systems navigate the demands of conventional lifestyles and careers. Nurses, teachers, directors, financial planners, retail managers, IT professionals and others who are overworked, overwhelmed and paralyzed by a perceived lack of choice. I call this the “golden handcuffs” or financial incentives that tether us to a system we’ve long since outgrown or simply doesn’t align with our physical/emotional/spiritual wellbeing.
People are afraid of the unknown, which is understandable but hardly an excuse for not entertaining other options. When clients consider leaving one job for another, they often say “what if my new job is worse than the one I have?” Or “I only have 8 years to go before retirement, maybe I can just stick it out.” How many people do you know who work so hard that when they finally retire, they are too unhealthy to enjoy their golden years? The reality is that often your ideal position does not readily exist in the mainstream marketplace. In this case, you have a couple choices: either create or adapt a position that can be housed under an existing corporate umbrella or break out on your own and market your services to your current sphere of influence.
I started my own company at 46 years old with literally no seed money. Not a cent. I had no choice but to leave a high paying corporate position to accommodate my own disability (years away from being formally diagnosed) while balancing multiple other personal roles. And although I would never recommend jumping ship without a transition plan, one of my earliest mentors said “that’s the best time to jump ship” because failure is not an option. However, depending on your age, health and a variety of other factors, you may want to invest some serious time into exploring options that adapt well to your life circumstances and future aspirations.
Winston Churchill said, “success is the ability to move from one failure to another without loss of enthusiasm.” When I read this, I laughed at the humble nature of his assessment and the fact that even the most influential leaders in history experienced feelings of inadequacy and self-judgment. Yet these moments offer an opportunity to create in each of us, the level of mental resiliency and spiritual introspection needed to keep us on our chosen path.
I tend not to think of life in terms of failures, but rather lessons and teachings with wisdom to help align us with more desirable and productive outcomes. I also believe it’s easier to maintain enthusiasm for life and work when we are using our skills, gifts and talents productively to serve other high frequency and spiritually awakened beings. In addition to serving as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Winston Churchill also won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1953 and painted over 500 pieces of artwork displayed in various places around the world. This highlights the many ways in which our soul can educate, awaken and inspire others outside the confines of conventional roles. Who knows what great contributions we can make to this world simply by giving ourselves permission to engage our inner artist and creative spirit.
For lightworkers with chronic medical conditions, our work and lifestyle choices can either promote or impede healing.
Amy is a hypnotherapist, spiritual counselor & trance healer with a passion for helping other lightworkers find and follow their soul’s highest calling. With a background in childhood trauma hypnotherapy, she works extensively with nurses, teachers, health & wellness practitioners, business owners and community leaders in releasing unhealthy patterns, recalibrating to the frequency of the Higher self, and finding a formula for life that celebrates their unique gifts.
You can connect with Amy via email at [email protected] or book a free consultation online at sensoriumhypnosis.com
Master’s level Rehabilitation Counselor, certified Hypnotist, Energy Worker, Humorist, and Recovering Chaos Addict.
I value intuition over formal protocol and textbook explanations; clients over clinicians in identifying the most effective formula for recovery; joy over suffering – as most of the pressure we place on ourselves is simply unnecessary, misguided, and masochistic.
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