To cure tinnitus, take nose off grindstone

Since I'm offering shamanic services now a friend of mine decided to jump on the bandwagon and book a consulting session with me. As with any good career move he started out by procrastinating and then formulating a concept document on Google Docs, which made me smile (don't tell him- oh wait, he's going to be reading this). The gist of the matter was that he felt incapable of letting go- which he took to mean that he felt unable to reduce the amount of gigs he was doing in his current occupation, in order to really get to business with his potential new occupation, which pays much better, but is unproven to work. He wanted to, like, really, really go for it. Like, really bad. Like, he wanted to let go so really very bad that he got pretty darned uptight about letting go. It all felt really confusing and when I felt that way just by reading his words- and they really felt like they had been hammered onto the computer screen by lifting keys on a keyboard made of marble bricks- I was like, okay he's in trouble. Not trouble trouble, but surely some kind of block towards where he wanted to go. But I couldn't quite tell what it was all about- did he he feel so much tension because this new thing isn't right for him? Or because he is resisting the old thing too much to get rid of it?

So like any good shaman I started with the common sense advice part. No, I would not advise that you bet the ranch on an unproven idea (there are exceptions to this rule but I'd need a really clear hunch). Yes, you may immediately quit your current occupation if it is absolutely unbearable, but if it's just boredom then we reduce your resistance instead, and you can do both for a while until the new idea is off the ground. No, it is not absolutely crucial that you do your new thing full time right from the start. No, 100% of your funds is not an appropriate amount to invest as seed capital in an unproven idea, even if it is to be executed by you (there are exceptions to this rule but I'd need a really clear hunch). You can live of your funds for a while if you need a break, but then enjoy yourself, don't call it a venture, and assume it will be gone when you're done. There, clarity. How's that for conservative wealth advice from a dude who talks to plants? I suppose you could get some really great investment advice from plants, now that I think about it- they constantly need to balance out where to move the most sap, whether to grow new buds, how many new little roots to reach out and where. I'm going to have to look into that. In any event, as with any sound common sense advice, he didn't like it.

So the next part was to figure out what do do about his particular situation. I could sense he was really in terrible anguish, and I couldn't tell which part it was coming from- the perceived need to go crazy with his new idea and be done yesterday, or his old gig, which had gone into a rut. I got a sense that his idea of what he needed to do to get ahead was a problem- committing to work endless ours and the solution to some corporate problem just didn't quite square away with his usual lifestyle of getting lucky business breaks that involve little to no hard labor and large paychecks, living at a waterfront house, going stand-up-paddling, spending long days with his girlfriend (who likes to wind down with him from her rehearsals, gigs and photoshoots). His natural habitat is a super upscale bar holding a drink that tastes so good you can measure it in dollars- wearing tie die- because he can. It's very easy to hold with him a conversation about the depths of the illusory nature of the mind- or about whether a Porsche Panamera would be an enjoyable vehicle to go on a road trip with ("comfort, speed and room- what is there not to like?" he can be very hard to argue with- "I never actually considered it" doesn't really count as a point).

If you ask me, he might have missed the college lecture on entrepreneurial calvinism.

Interestingly, he somehow pulls all this off without actually owning large amounts of money, or getting into trouble.

Yet somehow, this guy feels it necessary to abandon his own miraculous lifestyle and consider a life full of hard labor to take himself to the next level. That was weird! I wouldn't have thought the thought would enter his mind. So I was on to something- but what was it about? His current gig? Or his new idea?

So as with any decision, if you can't tell which, try both. And, if you don't know which spiritual technique to try, start with symbol healing. So I told my friend how I perceived the situation, and asked for permission to get to work on his belief system.

I few days later I hadn't got a fully reply but I got a feeling that it was fine, so I got started. I was still in bed after waking up, nice and comfortable, my daughter was still asleep and I felt great. I turned on my La'a Kea with pink light for clearing to energize myself, took a couple of breaths, and connected to my friend, asking him if he's ready. I got a feeling that seemed like yes. So there I was.

I asked his subconscious mind for a symbol of the problem, one for each- anxious about new gig, anxious about old gig, for different reasons.

What I got was exactly the same symbol- I saw my friend, full of sweat, colored like a movie with a very artistically minded cinematographer, dressed in a rag for a loincloth, in a cave lit by torches or fires. He was on  an aerobic style treadmill, and he had his nose on a grindstone, gritting his teeth. His expression was like Charleton Heston on the Galley in the 1959 film Ben Hur, only not as upbeat and cheery. You know, there is this idea that subconscious imagery is supposed to be hazy and hart to interpret, but my friends subconscious would heartily disagree. Especially since I got the same image for each problem.

Now I let that imagery just sit there for a little while, admiring its descriptive power. No, it wasn't enough to run the treadmill or have your nose on the grindstone, my friend's subconscious perceived both his old and his new gig to be both. I broke out laughing. It mirrors my experience- doing averagely paid work, or putting in a whole lot of work for a potentially large reward, it feels almost the same, and it doesn't feel particularly miraculous.

So, still comfortably in bend and enveloped by pink light, I sold the grindstone to a swordsmith and the treadmill to a long distance runner, who were very happy with them and there were already a bunch of euro notes next to my friend. Then I let it rain bank notes, and my friend was happy. Where, exactly, does work factor into the idea of riches? It's got to be the oldest scam in the world- let the masses believe that work is required to acquire wealth, then break promise, turn around, and require wealth with ease. I can tell you that I found out for myself that this is true- the experience of wealth is created in the mind, and if you leave out work, you don't get it, you just get the wealth, and you can still have the ethics. There is no shame in being lucky, now is there? Now the conspiracy theorists may have a point when you combine creating wealth for yourself, and trying to tell others that their position has to be that of an underpaid worker, but why would you do that? I would be perfectly happy as a wealthy person among lots of other wealthy people. Maybe that's what I'm writing this, it would be so nice.

So closed my connection to my friend by sending his change symbol back to him in my imagination, and stating "Pau"- a really nice way to say "it is complete".

I got up and got some coffee and had already received an e-mail that said I should please go ahead with my work and that he might possibly agree with what I said about how hard work and self-sacrifice didn't exactly square well with his present lifestyle. I told him I already had and it felt right to tell him about the symbol image I got of him, and my changes.

He wrote back to say he was doing some of his own work and he'd come across that feeling I described in my symbol, bent forward and suffering, and that he repeated my changes of selling the grindstone and treadmill and raining euros, and that he felt oh so so relieved about the situation- and that his Tinnitus was gone.

Wow, that's pretty cool. I didn't even know he had Tinnitus, but I could imagine that if you put your nose to the grindstone too much, you can get a ringing in your ear.

To cure Tinnitus, take nose off grindstone.