Competition

This past weekend I taught the first two days of an animal communication course at Anamchara stables. One of the things I like to tell my students, in any of my classes, is to see themselves as colleagues with everyone else in class. No-one is better than or worse than another. We're all colleagues. Some come to these classes with more experience, but that doesn't mean that those with less experience don't have the same potential for development as the others.

I say this to help people with self-confidence because that is such a big factor in how you approach doing a reading. If you put yourself at the very bottom of a comparison chart, then you're actively self-sabotaging your own readings. But I also say this because I think it is incredibly important to foster a sense of community within this work.

I personally do not believe in competition, in the fields of mediumship or animal communication (or any other spiritual field). However, I have experienced myself when other mediums or animal communicators view me as competition and express that jealousy in destructive ways. I have friends who have gotten some serious shade from others in this field. And I have also experienced myself feeling jealous or threatened by other people who do similar work.

But from doing this work for a few years now, I have come to realize a few things:

1. On one hand, there is no need to worry.
There really is no shortage of people on the other side wanting to connect to their loved ones. Or people who want help connecting to their animals. Or people who want guidance. Truly, there is plenty to go around. Just think about the statistics. How many people go through loss in their life and would like closure? And then consider that maybe half those people are open to receiving closure and healing through a mediumship session. That's still many many more people than there are mediums out there.

2. The right people will be drawn to me. The wrong people won't. That's OK. It's actually ideal.
That there are a lot of people who offer similar services to you is actually a good thing. Firstly, because more people can be helped. Secondly, because even if you happen to offer the same services that someone else does, what you offer in your sessions is probably not an exact copy. You and your services are likely totally unique, because you are totally unique. You have your own unique combination of experiences and teachings that you've accumulated and that you draw on in your sessions. No body can truly emulate you.

And that also means that you are probably not the right fit for many people out there, just as I am not the right fit for many people out there. I am glad that there are others out there offering similar services to what I do, because that means that we can each focus on the groups of people that we can actually be of service to and not those who our breath would be wasted on.

I also trust that what is meant for me is mine. I know the universe has a way of bringing the right people to me when the time is right.

3. On the other hand, it's important to be considerate of others.
Even if there's technically enough clients and people to go around, it's still nice to be considerate of another person's territory or work. This means generally not "setting up shop" right on top of another person if you offer the same things that they do. Not stealing a person's work, like taking their materials and offering the same class yourself. Have healthy respect for others and what they do. If you teach a class, and you've included some teachings that are specifically from people you've studied with, maybe credit them!

4. Jealousy is not just jealousy.
When we are jealous of someone or judgemental of them, it's usually because that person is embodying and owning something that we haven't fully owned in ourselves yet (or that we haven't allowed ourselves to own). For example, years ago I used to judge and feel jealous of a woman who worked as a spiritual teacher who also was adding a lot of intuition to her services. I was judgy and jealous because she was fully out of the "woo-woo" closet and owning her gift, when I hadn't yet allowed myself to do that. It was something I deeply yearned to do, but hadn't felt like I could yet. Luckily I recognized that, and in the end it was part of what pushed me into fully owning that for myself.

My suggestion would be to drop your guard a little. Open up, and see if you can learn something from this person that you would normally view as competition. I personally think making friends who are also mediums or animal communicators or psychics has been the best thing about this work. Some of my closest friends do a lot of the same work as I do. It means that I have people I can talk to who completely understand me. It also means I also have a list of trusted practitioners that I can refer clients to if they're not a good fit with me.

Here's to making many more friends and contacts, and helping each other out.