Summer 2002 - News in Psychic Counseling

 

METAPHYSICAL STICKER SHOCK

We all know what it's like to experience sticker shock on the car dealer's lot.  And the older we get the more of a shock it becomes.  There are other areas in our lives where we deal with the same kind of issue, particularly in buying tangible objects.  I remember in 1955 when my brother built a house for $20,000 and my grandfather snorted and fumed that it was pretentious and totally unnecessary for someone to live in a house worth that outrageous amount.  But that figure got stuck in my mind as a symbol of success, and forever after I hoped that one day I would be able to afford a $20,000 house.

My first teaching job in 1966 paid $6500 plus free housing and meals valued at another $2000.

We all have stories like this that we tell our children or grandchildren and we amuse ourselves with the aging process.  But in the past few weeks in my coaching practice, I have dealt with this 'sticker shock' idea in a variety of ways with a number of clients and I think it bears some discussion.  I know it's had the effect of making me rethink several areas of my life.

In dealing with several clients wanting to change careers or earn more money, we had to discuss the down-and-dirty details of money: how much do you think you're worth?  What do you think you could earn?  What do others in your line of work earn?  I was frankly surprised to hear several clients who had no answer to most of the questions.  If they did, the answers were usually woefully inadequate or pathetically meager.  Is that all you're worth, I heard myself asking!  So I sent several of them on a data collecting adventure to find out just what do people make these days?

This kind of surface information can be easily attained, but I wonder about the deeper issues where we have sticker shock that has not been updated.  Are we perhaps stuck back in childhood with dreams that have never really been reexamined or updated?  What about something like body image?  I know many men and women who grew up fat as children and are forever doomed to see themselves this way, even though by any current measure they are healthy, fit, trim, etc.  Or the reverse.  I grew over a foot in the 8th grade and was a 6'2" beanpole.  I always see myself that way, even though I'm now 250 pounds.  Are we stuck then with an unrealistic image from our past?

What about emotionally?  Many of us grew up in dysfunctional homes and have spent a lifetime trying to therapize ourselves out of it, usually to little avail.  How can we reexamine our current life and see what kind of emotional surroundings we have now?

Or partners.  That's always a good one to examine.  Am I really stuck with the June and Ward Cleaver picture of relationship that I saw on early television?  Am I perhaps looking for a relationship type that didn't exist then, doesn't now, and is a type of relationship I don't even really want?

So…  how do I get over these various types of sticker shock?  Any time I buy a new car, I reluctantly am forced to update my sticker shock because the world has moved on whether or not I like it.  But this is not the case with internal sticker shock.  There is rarely occasion to make us reexamine the issues and update the data.  I think we need to take on that responsibility ourselves every decade or so.  Perhaps we need to mark on our daytimers yearly to examine at least one of our issues.

There are several techniques I might suggest to get the process started.  One is simple real world data collecting.  If it's financial, do some digging of facts about what people make.  Diplomatically find out what people earn…  friends, colleagues, family. Most people are surprised at what they find.  The point here is not to make yourself feel bad that others make more than you, but rather to give you a new picture and new perspective.  I don't want to be a teacher again, but if I did, I would want to see if teachers still make $6500 a year before I start looking for a job.  If it's a body issue…  take stock.  What are the facts here.  What is the reality.  Perhaps you need to dialogue with your subconscious about what your old body images were and then get clear on what you what them to be now.

Another technique that is so simple and effective many people won't use it, is making a collage.  A collage is a simple collection of pictures taken from magazines or elsewhere that represent in picture form what you are desiring.  It can be used for any issue…  body image, finances, career.  It's a simple way to constantly remind your conscious and, more importantly, your subconscious mind of what you want.  You probably have spent years reinforcing the old patterns with pictures in your subconscious, so this is a way to overlay them with an updated version to help get over the sticker shock.

Visualization is probably the best and easiest way to get over sticker shock.  This tool also is explained at the website, and I've discussed it forever in these pages.  The main point is to work with the subconscious on getting a new picture of your desire, overcoming any internal objections you have to it, and releasing it to your higher power.

Doing a simple 'grape cluster' could be a simple and fun way to get started.  Details are at the website.  It's an ancient Huna concept that we can use today to arrive at new pictures of what we want.

Whatever the techniques you chose to use, I suggest you do some thinking on what issues you may have that need to be updated with reality rather than living with them 'just because' you always have.  The market place will simply not allow you to avoid sticker shock with such issues as car prices, so why should we allow ourselves to be stuck with outdated and outmoded values in the other, more important areas of our lives?

Back   |   Home