Saturday 26 May 2012

Dealing with skepticism

Yesterday, I completed tarot card readings for 42 colleagues as part of my contribution to the Children's Cancer Foundation at my company's charity bazaar.

Most of the colleagues with whom I was familiar with, who gamely stepped forward to have their tarot cards read, were the same ones who had such fantastic enthusiasm in their day-to-day work and had displayed absolutely no fear of challenges. My working experience with some of them had bore similarities to what the cards had uncovered about them - their dare-to-do personalities and their determination to ride any rough times with persistence and plenty of courage. I was also particularly glad that some of these colleagues had initially viewed my tarot cards with skepticism and even fear. Yet, they put on a brave front when they sat through a session with me, some looking like a deer in headlights. The courage to open their hearts and minds to my cards and me, was definitely deserving of my respect.

Even my CEO, surprisingly, had a reading with me. I thought that was a career-limiting move for me but I loved him for being so sporting and feeling so comfortable with it. I think I still have a job waiting for me on Monday, thank goodness.

For the enthusiastic 42 that had stepped forward, I also had 420 skeptics who thought my tarot card reading was a "hocus pocus" party trick wheeled in to entertain the lot. One of them vehemently said to me, " No, no, I only believe in God, I don't believe in this", in spite of my protests that it had absolutely no bearing on religion and no reference to spirituality. At that point, I just thought to help myself understand their fears a little better.

So this morning, I visited a "modern day alchemist" by the name of Yvette Sitten. She runs her company Aurora Alchemy which specialized in healing and activating the chakras using hand-blended essential oils, each with beautiful names like Joyful Surrender and Queen of the Night. Each of these oil blends had specific purposes of healing, providing a sense of calmness, dispelling negativity and increasing alertness and confidence.

Like many who thought my tarot card reading was a complete joke, I had initially thought Yvette had fallen straight into the looney bin one day and got out of it only to be hit by a looney truck. A session with Yvette involved tarot and oracle cards as well as healing with crystals, essential oils, hypnosis and meditation. Frankly, even I couldn't quite explain the details of her session because I only had two words in my simple mind about it - Trust and Rest. I just trusted myself in the magical hands of Yvette in that hour and a half and I came out feeling very rested. In fact when I went home, I was so exhausted that I slept all afternoon. It felt like I had never slept for a long time, with my brain actively working overtime each night racing through dreams after dreams that I could never remember when I woke up. Yet, when I went into that deep sleep this afternoon, I swear I did not have a single dream. My mind was a complete blank. And I woke up truly refreshed. Whatever Yvette did that was unexplainable and beyond the comprehension of my simple mind, I honestly didn't care. It gave me a chance to rest my mind and heal my heart so that I can take on the world again.

More importantly, I had visited Yvette with a purpose to better understand and manage the skepticism that I had faced with my tarot cards. However, I came out of my session with Yvette, unconcerned about my skeptics and more fueled with enthusiasm to help those who were opened to my tarot cards and I. Yvette herself, had to confront skepticism when she first started on her own journey. She had never looked back since.

Yvette had a great career at CNBC as a journalist and documentary film producer only to leave it all behind to pursue this new path off the beaten track after many years of research and studies. Like me, she had faced initial skepticism from family and friends and had to " do her stuff undercover" whilst at CNBC. I was luckier. I have very supportive colleagues in the company. I was invited to do tarot card reading for charity events and I got invited to more upcoming client and partner events organized by different departments too. That's why I stepped out of my visit with Yvette realizing how fortunate I was, to be able to pursue a career in marketing that I loved and enjoyed, while helping people around me with my tarot cards. What more could I ask for?

It was humbling for me to realize that with or without the skeptics, I was putting my skills to good use. The skeptics only made me stronger in my resolve to hone my skills better and build better confidence in myself.

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