Cherrie is very energetic and full of life, a talented violinist, and deeply committed to her spiritual path. She began a wholesale business with her husband in 1984, and they had it for over 10 years, during which time they had a good deal of success. They divorced, and decided to let go of the business, as it had been waning by then. Cherrie then began the same kind of business again, on her own. And even though she no longer had as much money at her disposal as she had had when she was married, she kept spending money as if she had. She built up a lot of debt in order to grow her business, but the financial decisions she made did not work well for her, especially when the economy started going sour. She is now having difficulty paying her home mortgage and other bills.
In working with her we discovered a lot of her difficulties in relation to money had to do with her relationship with men. She had always been taken advantage of by men she was in relationship with. As she had when she was in business with her husband, she generally ended up doing most of the work, but still thought she needed the man in order to survive or do well. As is generally the case with people, most of these ways of thinking about things is an unconscious process. Consciously Cherrie knew better, but the unconscious limiting decisions had been undermining her anyway.
Some of the limiting decisions we most recently cleared through TimeLine Therapy:
- She is a failure at supporting herself.
- She is alone in the world.
- She can’t be as successful in the world as a man can.
- Vulnerability (sensitivity) is weak.
- Women are incapable.
- Reality is not safe.
- If she shines she’s taking away from others.
- The source of her survival and well-being is outside of herself.
When things started getting really bad financially Cherrie started waking up every morning in a panic and was under so much stress about surviving she wasn’t able to get herself to take actions to help her situation. After clearing limiting decisions holding that in place, she stopped waking up in a panic and has been able to take resourceful actions. The dilemma she is currently in is whether to give up her business and sell her house so she can pay off her debts, scale her life way down, move to Hawaii and live in a room in a girl friend’s house. Or alternatively, she could keep working to make a go of her business, and somehow hold onto her house. In the meanwhile her credit rating is going down because she can’t pay her bills. Part of her indecision about this is that she doesn’t have a sense of what really means home to her, so she has been unable to figure out what she really wants to do.
In general, because of what we have cleared, Cherrie now is much more empowered in relation to men, and to people in general, staying true to herself. She’s in a relationship with a man, which is more healthy than ones she has had in the past, but challenging her in new ways. She has recently gained a business partner (maybe two), so she doesn’t have to carry it on her own. She has also discovered that the larger businesses in her field are having a harder time surviving the financial crisis than the smaller ones because they don’t have the flexibility. This is giving her more clarity on what the avenues are for her business going forward. She is currently waiting for a financial loan to come through, which would give her the resources to move ahead with her business, or whatever direction she decides to move in in her life. Her sales have started improving.
(See “Cherrie Updates” for on-going updates.)
