From Pamela Bruner of Make Your Success Easy
www.MakeYourSuccessEasy.com
888-736-0620
pamela@makeyoursuccesseasy.com
Should Healing Be Free?
I received an email this week from one of my subscribers, saying that he wouldn’t participate in a very low-priced tapping offering because the people that he worked with (people with addictions, depression, etc) couldn’t afford it. He also said that the spirit of EFT was to be given away, not sold.
I hear this frequently from healers. There are some who believe that healing should be given away, and that to make money, especially to make more money than you need for subsistence living, is just wrong if you’re a healer. I disagree with this, and here’s why.
1) Just because some people can’t afford something doesn’t mean that it should be given away free to all. Some people can’t afford to shop at Walmart. Should Walmart give away their wares? I’m not arguing against charity – I believe strongly in giving back. I believe that businesses have a responsibility to charge for the transformation that they provide, and then give back in some way as well. But if you give it all away, you’re broke, out of business, and have NOTHING to give back. Jack Canfield taught me ‘When you’re poor, the good that you can do is limited to your physical presence.’ Jack taught me how to write multi-thousand dollar checks to charity. Wouldn’t you like to have more reach?
2) People value what they pay for. Period. I’ve seen it over and over again. Free resources go unused, dismissed, and de-valued – no matter how valuable – just because they are free. Giving tastes of what you do for free is great – it allows people to sample, experiment and lower their risk before they invest with you. EVERY wealthy EFTer I know, and unfortunately there aren’t many, gives away free support in some form. But giving everything away – or underpricing it – means that the transformation you provide will in many cases be ignored. And that’s a real shame. (It also creates an attitude of entitlement, which is currently rampant in the world and further disempowers people.)
3) You have to take care of yourself to do your work well. It may be true in healing that the work comes through you, not by you, and that you’re acting as a channel for Spirit. But if you’re constantly overworked, stressed about money, or not practicing good self-care because you don’t have the time or the resources, you’re not an effective healer/coach/practitioner. You do actually need to live well, take time off, eat good food, etc, in order to do your best work – the work that truly serves your clients and the world.
4) If you’re a healer, and you’re broke, it’s probably not because you’re chock-full of clients and not charging enough. It’s because you don’t have enough clients, which means you’re not helping as many people as you could. In order to truly help people, you need to get out, market yourself, grow your business, talk to people, be confident in what you do, and so much more. This takes time, energy, and yes – money. To do good, it takes cash. It’s been said ‘It took millions to keep Mother Teresa poor.’ She was constantly attracting money, although she didn’t choose to keep it for herself. Is your system working that well?
5) Poverty is not a status-symbol. Humans all have a need for status (this is a psychological fact.) There is always something that you are better at than someone else, and something that others are better at than you. Too many healers are claiming poverty as a status symbol, i.e. ‘I’m a better person because I’m not rich, in fact I’m barely scraping by.’ I’ll admit that I used to hold this mistaken, disempowering belief back when I was a musician. Because I couldn’t make that much money, I would denigrate those who did. It was petty. It’s not noble to be poor. Look for another way to feel good about yourself, rather than poverty.
If you want to be poor, you can. If you want to make more money, you can do that as well. Be aware that it’s a choice, and empower yourself by honoring both the choice that works for you, and the choice made by those who want to do more good in the world by becoming wealthy, and sharing their gifts.