Business as a Spiritual Practice.

Artist: Abraham Mignon

My spiritual practice is not separate from my business practice. In fact, my spiritual practice informs much of the way I do business. 

The hardest thing about growing a business for women who are deeply spiritual is the belief that you have to sacrifice your core values and become someone you are not in order to have a successful business.

I felt that way for a long time. 

Deep down, there is always a question we are asking ourselves: what about my integrity and the integrity of the work I want to create and share?

How can I grow my practice and my business with integrity in a way that feels in alignment with my soul?

Remaining in touch and intact with what is deeply true for you is essential when you want to run a business that makes a direct contribution to the well-being of your clients and communities.

This question around integrity is something you can’t escape if you're interested in growing a business that cares for and abides by deeper consciousness work.

So how do you grow and expand yourself and your business with integrity in a way that feels in alignment with your soul?

By far what I have seen that makes the biggest difference for creative (highly sensitive) deeply caring entrepreneurs is doing the inner healing work that will help you stay grounded and centered in the truest part of yourself.

The second most important aspect to growing yourself and your business is having the right kind of support for you and knowing how to keep good habits. Knowing what you need to be doing and why you are doing it.

Most practitioners are focused on (often chasing after) getting clients, which makes sense theoretically; however, this increases the chance that they rarely slow down to look at the overall ecosystem of their business. 

When we slow down and actually take a look at the ways you're managing your time and energy, pricing your offers, and working with clients, we can often find strong narratives of struggle, recipes for burnout, and a model for business that does not fit the kind of practitioner you actually are. 

Building your business is not a one-size-fits-all. It's not meant to be.

Your business is home to the way you are most unique, where you creatively express your gifts and make a valuable, purpose-driven contribution to the people and communities you care about.

Unfortunately, with things like social media there are many systems out there that have been put in place to make us feel like we are separate from one another (i.e. clients are scarce and we are all competing for the same end goal). It simply isn’t true.

The advancement of technology can certainly feel like it is fracturing our sense of what feels real and tangible, and that's why having a strong personal practice and community of support is essential.

Social media can be a blessing in that we can reach more people in such diverse, intimate, and creative ways. It's curse is that it can drive us into feelings of overwhelm, unworthiness, and isolation, creating more separation from one another and further perpetuating the illusion that resources are scarce and that you're not good enough to do the thing you came here to do.

So how do you know what the right next step is on a path of growing a business in alignment with your heart and soul?

You have to start slowing down and asking yourself better questions about what you want and what your realistic and purpose-driven goals are.

I never considered myself an entrepreneur. I never believed I could have a six figure income. I always equated money, business, marketing, and advertising as systems of communication that directly go against my native tongue: love, empathy, understanding, listening, and trust.

But what I have found over time is that growing yourself into a business model that works for you is one of the most creatively challenging, soul-giving, and spiritually transformative processes you can take on.

Looking back, I wouldn’t have it any other way.

For the majority of my career, I took actions in my business that were rooted in the fear that I was not good enough. This created less than optimal conditions and results that, in hindsight, I may have not have chosen for myself or could’ve learned from in a different way.

Back then, I had no idea that there could be a more compassionate and sustainable way to pursue what I loved doing and make a good living doing what mattered most to me. I had to step out of my comfort zone, take a lot of creative risks, and try things that were entirely new to me to learn how to face my own fears of not being good enough as a “business owner”, so that I could see (utilize and appreciate) the strong leadership skills I do have and value the work I love doing with the right clients with the utmost compassion and honesty.

What I’ve come to see now in the business coaching work I do with women is that the essential goal is not to build a six-figure business (although that desire is real for many and often hidden or unspoken) but to trust ourselves at a deeper level, so that we can feel fully and authentically expressed in our work, stay true to our heart, embody fierce leadership skills, be creatively free and financially independent.

The longing deep down is always about freedom.

Women who are deeply spiritual have tremendous capacity for authentic leadership. They want to be a benefit in the lives of others through the powerful transformative and compassionate work they do. Being able to build a beautiful life is often all they want in return.

So why is this so hard?

The collective constructs we have before us at work in the current economic system are built on the narrative of scarcity. The beliefs we have about our work and our worth often are handed down through generations. Judgments are carried over into systems of money and exchange that require our capacity to heal and transform. Discernment and resiliency need to go hand in hand when building a business with integrity, especially when we are bringing deeper consciousness work forward. 

My clients will often say that if they don’t change, if they don’t get to do what they know they are here to do, it will feel like a slow death.

Many come to me with an assumption that building their business means giving up their creative power to systems they don’t agree with. This simply does not have to be the case. 

What we want to do is help you create the necessary support systems, so that you can find the genuine authentic creative path for you.

There is really only one way to build a successful business and that is to be honest with yourself about what it is you truly want.

There is a way for you to feel fully expressed in your unique soul gifts and bring your leadership skills to the forefront of your business in a way that feels aligned and inspired for you in your life.

To be an effective, successful entrepreneur, cultivating your inner leadership skills is non-negotiable.

At every growth edge, I am asked to reevaluate the way I approach my creative output and my client work. For me, it is a deeply spiritual and resourceful practice to see my business as the home to the real impact I want to create in the world.

The inner work you do will reflect in every outer expression of your life.

I no longer believe we can avoid this integral step in growing our businesses. We have gained too much awareness by now to ignore how interconnected we are. Growing your business means knowing who you are and how you cultivate the family of relationships that constitute the ecosystem of your business.

When you are able to see your business as a deeply spiritual practice, you begin to shift the purpose of why you are in business in the first place. Rather than being self-centered, you move into greater self-responsibility for yourself and others while collaborating towards more purpose-driven, valuable work.

It's time to create a different path forward that honors the creative process as the very core of why you are here and how we heal.

With Love,
Andrea

P.S. Calling in the mystery and opening to Spirit is one of the foundational ways I connect to the creative pulse of my own work. My creativity has always been foundational to the way I develop my work for my business. In order to do this, you need to practice communing with the way mystery and guidance unfolds in your life. 

In the spirit of this season and in support of you discovering more about the depth of your own creative power and process of calling in guidance, I'll be hosting a New Moon Healing Circle for women to gather around the ritual of calling in the Goddess for support, healing, and remembrance. 

The intention for our time together will be to offer you a meditation practice to help you feel grounded in the deep wisdom of your body and give you a practice of calling in the goddess for support and healing that you can take with you and let mature over this next moon cycle. We will be working with meditation, energy healing, intuition, and channeling guidance. A much needed sacred space for moving ourselves from our heads into our hearts.

If you are longing to connect with other women on a spiritual path and feel a deep call from within yourself to commune with ancient mystery teachings this class is for you.

I hope you will join us.

Sunday, October 31st from 1:00-2:30PM Eastern Time
Theme: Channeling, Mystery + Practice
Class Includes: Meditation, Energy Healing, Channeling + Guide Work

Click here to join my free community to participate in these New Moon gatherings and more.