Shadow Warrior

“New year, new you. We can help…” 

Dee reached up and turned off the radio. What a load of bull, he thought. It astounded him that people actually bought into the rubbish that a date change could lead to a better life. It thought it disgusting how advertisers viewed this belief as a means to exploit people that were vulnerable and willing to spend their hard-earned cash on things that, quite obviously, were not going to change their lives for the better in any way, shape, or form. 

He pulled up to the gates of the townhouse complex and pressed 3. After a few moments of ringing an impatient voice answered, “Yes! What is it?” 

“It's Dee, I’m here for our meeting.”

“Oh. Ok, I will let you in, park next to the fountain.”

Dee drove in and parked where he was told. Before he got out he took a few seconds to center himself and breathe deeply. This one is going to be a tough one, I can feel it. 

As he locked his car he saw what appeared to be a mountain of a woman trudging uncomfortably towards him. She was easily over 6 foot and had the build of a WWE wrestler, but not the trim and muscular kind. More of the large “I can slam and pin you down with my weight” kind. The reason for her pained gate was her lack of shoes, a rather silly decision on her part due to the parking ground looking rather rough and most definitely scorching hot due to the Summer Sun. She had blonde hair, with a couple of centimeters of dark roots showing, piled on top of her head in a badly done messy bun. She had made the effort to put on makeup and she was not unattractive, albeit unkempt and frumpy. Her ill-fitting blue jeans were partially hidden under a big loose tee-shirt that had the intention of covering a muffin top but failed. 

When she got to him she shoved a hand towards him and introduced herself, “Hi, I’m Kate. Thank you so much for coming. I hope you found the place alright and you weren’t stuck in any traffic. I recommend that you don’t take the highway on your way back as there will most certainly be traffic by then. Follow me, my place is down this way.”

This one babbles when she’s nervous Dee noticed as she led him to her front door. She opened the door and held her hand out motioning him to walk in first. “You have a nice place, the architecture is quite unique.”

“Yes, thank you, it is a lovely complex, almost feels like we at a holiday resort by the beach here. Haha. But I do think the architect was on something when he designed the entrances. Haha. Why he had to put two front doors in I will never know.”

This session is going to take a while Dee groaned inwardly.

“Please sit down, can I get you anything? Coffee? Tea? Water? Juice? Tequila? Haha.”

“I’m fine thanks, I just had a coffee. Let’s get down to business.” He sat himself down on the couch and waited until she made herself comfortable opposite him. “I want you to tell me why it is you called me.”

She looked down at her hands as she fidgeted “Well, I saw my Facebook friend, Byron, posting about how much you helped him become such a success and that you are the best thing that ever happened for his business and I was hoping you could help me. I’ve been working my ass off for a few years now and no matter how hard I work my business just doesn’t seem to be getting any better” She whined.

“Ok, I see. Tell me did you have a happy childhood?” This question always gets them in a tizzy.

She stared at him, taken aback, her already large eyes, growing surprisingly larger as the full weight on the question sank into her already anxious mind. “Excuse me?”

“Tell me about your childhood? Was it a happy one or did you have difficulties?” He reiterated.

“I don’t understand how that is relevant to a discussion about my business.” She said, a hint of irritation in her voice.

“It is extremely relevant to your business, and everything else about your life. You see Kate, my work is holistic. I don’t just advise you on how to run your business, I help you to deal with the shadows of your past so you can transform yourself for your future.”

Dee could see the inner turmoil on her face, it was the same for most of his clients. They couldn’t see the connection between the past and an unhappy present. He could read this chick like a book and there was no doubt in his mind that she had a ton of baggage that had left her unhappy and unfulfilled, which in turn affected any money generating prospects she had.

“Mr. Dee, I don’t see how telling you about my unhappy childhood”, Hah! Called it, “will help me improve my income. Are you not a business coach? I was lead to believe you were a business coach. There must be some kind of misunderstanding. I don’t go for this self-help inner child mumbo jumbo. I lost a lot of money because some other self-help guru said he could help me make my life better and it turned out to be a massive con. I just need…”

Dee threw up his hands “Woa! Calm down Kate. I need you to take a few deep breaths and listen to me” he lowered his head slightly and creased his brow while maintaining eye contact, “can you do that for me?” She nodded as she tried hard to calm herself. This chick is wound up tighter than a homophobe’s butthole after he took a wrong turn and ended up in a Gay Pride parade. 

“Ok, now as I was saying, I approach people holistically. An unhappy childhood may be the very reason your business is failing. In fact, it will be the reason no business will work for you, you will have problems with relationships of all kinds and why you are, overall, quite an unhappy person. And you are unhappy Kate, I can see it. I need you to understand that in order for my methods to work, we need to start working on you. Not your business. You.” He paused to read the subtle movements in her face. She got it but she didn’t like it. No surprise there.

As he continued he soften his tone a little to help her feel more at ease. “I have helped hundreds of people reach their full potential. My clients have gone on to earn hundreds of thousands to millions because they did the work. You have to decide now if you want to continue floating down the same path repeating the same cycles, or do you want to be happier, be better, and create more wealth?”

The uncomfortable pause made her fidget until she softly answered with her gaze lowered “Of course I want to be happier, I will do what you say.” 

“Great. Now let’s get back to my original question, tell me about your childhood.” He said as he slapped his hands on the tops of his thighs.

She told him of her youth. It had been an unhappy one filled with tyrants and abuse. It was no wonder she had issues, but such stories were not new to Dee. Everyone has a story and everyone is dealing with pain. She was not unique in this.

They spoke for well over 2 hours. He would ask the occasional question, but he mostly listened as she spoke. Holding space, he called it. It was a sacred thing in his opinion, to hold space for another. It allows the speaker to find some healing and for their words to reach the ether so that the Universe may begin to respond with blessings and abundance.

Once he was happy with her confessions he moved on to the next step of his process. “I am going to read aloud a list of sentences, regarding certain self-beliefs, and I want you to rate each one, that holds truth for you, out of ten.”

She nodded.

He went through the list, all the time noticing that she could not look at him. She either stared at her hands or would stare past him. Shame. That was a big one.

Out of a list of 20, she had rated 15 at ten or more. That was a lot but it would not hamper his process in the slightest. He had been right that this client was going to be a challenge. 

“The reason we did this exercise is not to point of all of the negative beliefs you have about yourself. We needed to ascertain what they are so we can begin the work on them. I call each of them a Shadow Belief. These are beliefs that we formed about ourselves in our childhood and then hold on to into our adulthood. They are not true. I am here to guide you through the process of bringing down the trueness of each Shadow for you, so you can start to live your life the way you are meant to. Do you understand?”

She nodded again. She looked completely beaten. This was the hard part and he genuinely felt for his clients as they went through this process, it drudged up an enormous amount of pain, but he knew the process worked and even Kate would reap the benefit.

“Now the hard work begins.” 

Her shoulders visibly sank even more.

“I know this isn’t what you signed up for Kate, but I want you to know that it will be worth it. I will be with you every step of the way, and once you come out the other side of this, you will be a completely different person.”

She looked up at him for the first time in 3 hours. Her eyes filling up with tears. There it is. The gleam of hope. 

“You are going to be just fine Kate. I know you will come out of this a superstar.”