By Alexandra Lawrence   Intuitive Practitioner, Metaphysical Mentor, Past Life Regressionist, MetaVarsity Facilitator

I still remember clearly the day I resigned from my corporate job. For at least a year beforehand, I had been struggling to balance what I felt was a meaningless job with the growing importance of my spiritual path and my desire to make a real difference in people’s lives. I also wanted to work for myself, on my own terms and in my own time.

That day, the morning of my annual performance review as it happened, I woke up, and for the first time in several years, I felt at peace. I knew in my gut that the time was right to resign, which I did at the end of my review. As it was the best review I’ve ever had, the look on my manager’s face was priceless! I had worked through and resolved the challenging work situations I had attracted in my angst, stopped struggling with the whole thing, and I finally had my own and Universal permission to leave. My soul was so happy, I just couldn’t stop smiling!

For the first time I understood the meaning of the phrase ‘everything in time and on time’. If I’d left any earlier, in the midst of all the crises, I would have been running away. In the meantime, I had done the MetaVarsity Introduction to Metaphysics Course and had just completed the Facilitators’ Course. I was working towards a Diploma of Metaphysics, with an Intuitive Practitioner speciality, and a research project on Past Lives. I had already received some training on Intuitive Practice through a spiritual group that I belong to, and over the last couple of years, I had started to practice after hours and begun to build a small client base, which always takes time.

To support my decision, the day before my review MetaVarsity had offered me two afternoons a week of project management and two Saturdays a month of course facilitation, bringing me some fixed salary, albeit about a quarter of my corporate one. My future held very little sense of security and the promise of a whole lot of potential. Everything I had learnt about myself and the world, as well as the small amount of material security I had garnered from my corporate job, would serve me in my new life. The timing was perfect.

I can’t say that between the day I resigned, and when I gained my freedom two months later, I didn’t have some days of doubt (and still do), as in ‘what on Earth am I doing?!!’ As part of my two-month survival strategy, I made a decision not to give too much detail about my future plans to most of my corporate colleagues. They had made their scepticism about the whole subject of metaphysics quite clear in previous conversations, and I knew that their negativity wouldn’t help. Luckily I do have a core group of friends who supported my decision (although privately they may also have thought I was a bit mad). It was enough to get me through.

I should also mention that although my family, who mostly live overseas, knew I was leaving the corporate world to teach some spiritual stuff, I didn’t actually give them the complete picture of everything I was doing, and just what a risk I was taking, till a couple of years later. When I did tell them, they took it much better than I had expected, despite having different spiritual beliefs, which just goes to show that sometimes our worst fears are unfounded.

My first day of teaching a real live class was one of the most terrifying of my life. I still don’t know how I got through it, but there must have been a lot of spiritual help involved. It took me a couple of full courses before I truly believed firstly that I might know more than my students, and secondly, that I could actually teach what I knew – which, I might add, are two completely different things. They do say that the best way to check your understanding of a subject is to teach it, and I can verify that they are quite right!

The fulfilment I have received from doing what I love has been beyond anything that I imagined. I feel incredibly privileged that people trust me with the most private parts of their lives, whether in my role as teacher, intuitive practitioner, past life regression therapist or metaphysical mentor. I now understand how much more complex people are than they appear. It never ceases to amaze me when I read the homework or hear first hand about the inner life of some beautiful, confident person who appears to have everything they could want, only to discover that they also have insecurities, doubts, fears and missing pieces to their lives. Absolutely everyone has their stuff.

After nearly 5 years of teaching and facilitating people’s processes, watching someone have a ‘light bulb moment’, or change their perspective on something they have been struggling with, is still one of my greatest joys - because I know that as soon as the awareness is there, it becomes that much easier to make any other necessary changes.

That is not to say that this life is without its challenges. Being self-employed means to some extent being subject to the vagaries of world financial issues, and the seasons of people’s processes (people still hibernate in winter, in case you were wondering), and that takes some adjusting to after earning a regular salary for many years. Somehow things seem to work out though, with opportunities coming along at exactly the right time - I think because the Universe tends to support those who follow their bliss.

And the world being the perfect mirror that it is, along with the wonderful people you meet on any spiritual journey, you also attract the people who push your biggest buttons. There are always clients and students who reflect back to you exactly the issues you are working through yourself, and that you least want to deal with at any given moment.

On the flip side of that coin, seeing your issue externalised in someone else, gives you a new and unique perspective on it. It’s also by working through your own issues that you become better equipped to help others. The concept of ‘the wounded healer’ is very profound – it’s difficult to truly feel compassion for someone else’s pain, and support them through it, if you haven’t experienced and worked through some of your own. Whoever said you had to be perfect to help someone else? Looking back, I am astounded at how I have grown through taking on the role of facilitating the processes of others – and continue to do so.

For those considering taking the leap into the metaphysical world, whether you are thinking of doing the Introduction to Metaphysics Course, a higher level course, or even the Facilitators’ Course, and whether you see it as personal growth or skills development for a potential career, I would say this to you: Pay attention to how you’re feeling about it. If it feels right, then take the leap of faith that is required, even if your leap looks more like sensible little baby steps. We’re human, and sometimes we need a period of transition from one life to another. So long as you’re moving forward in a direction that feels right to you, you can always adjust along the way to make sure you stay on the path towards your destiny.

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Alexandra has a Diploma of Metaphysics (Intuitive Practitioner) from MetaVarsity, and facilitates metaphysics courses for MetaVarsity. In her private capacity, she provides several soul services aimed at facilitating personal and spiritual growth, including Past Life Regression, Spiritual Mediumship and Metaphysical Mentoring. Alexandra is running two Spiritual Life Skills workshops over the next two months. These workshops are designed to equip you with some essential and yet very simple energetic tools that are fun, practical, quick and easy to use in your daily life. If you’ve already done the MetaVarsity Introduction to Metaphysics Course, send your friends and family along. This is a perfect opportunity to give them a glimpse of what you’ve been working with.   The first workshop, on Saturday the 7th of November, focuses on Protection, Grounding and Working with Colour. The second, on Saturday the 5th of December, teaches you how to work with Affirmations and Visualisation. For further information on these workshops, please click here, or contact Alexandra on email: alexandra@cybersmart.co.za or tel: 082 214 0285.