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Up until now, energy psychology in business has focused on just “fixing” the problem. So we clear the fears and worries that get in way of success. While this is important, it misses out the part about feeling aligned with our vision for business growth.
“Vanessa” came to me with the problem that she couldn’t focus on the vision of growing her communications business. Diligent and pro-active by nature, she wasn’t getting results to match the effort she was putting in. As a spiritually focused businesswoman, she sensed something else was happening. She couldn’t see what it was.
She used a telling image to describe how she felt running her business. In Greek mythology, Sisyphus was forced to endlessly push a boulder up the summit of a hill, only for it to roll back down again. Curiously enough, she felt the pain of pushing her business along in her shoulders. Vanessa had tapped and tapped by herself on these ideas, but wasn’t seeing any improvements. We decided to use Business Energetics to draw on her inner wisdom and find out what was happening.
Over the last 2 years, Paul Zelizer and I have co-created a tool to help people move forward with their careers and businesses with ease and sustained momentum. Business Energetics draws on an adaptation of psychotherapy tool Family Constellations and joins it with EFT. It is easy to use by yourself or in a session with another.
We draw a simple map of relationships involving you and others. By looking at the map we can identify where a relationship is tangled. It is then easy to use ordinary EFT to evolve this situation. Doing well in business rests so much on having healthy relationships. In Business Energetics we also let your inner wisdom speak up to guide you in your business or career. This wisdom comes from the client, rather than the therapist.
Vanessa and I talked a little about significant events in her parents’ work lives. Within days of her birth, her father experienced an astounding level of success in business. Much as he wanted to, he couldn’t be present at her birth because he was opening his first shop in a distant city. Within weeks of her birth came his first car ever. A couple of years later he bought a beautiful home for his family. Those first few years of business were some of his best. He would speak proudly about how Vanessa had brought with her new wealth. She was his lucky charm until the day he died.
We looked at Vanessa’s relationship with her dad in a constellation. In a constellation we can better understand the dynamics to important relationships with relevant people, dead or alive. In the constellation it became clear to her that she was standing behind her dad holding him up. All her strength was going to him. Usually in a constellation, it’s a parent’s role to support their child and they do this out of love. In Vanessa’s case the natural order was reversed. We tapped to smooth out this tangled up relationship.
Even though I thought I had to support him, and I did this out of love for my dad, I soothe and comfort myself
Even though I thought I was responsible for him, and forgot I was the child, I love and accept myself
Even though I’ve not had much energy for growing my business, I now choose to let my passion for my work show up in my life.
Vanessa left feeling like she’d shifted a major issue. What happened after was startling. A week after her session she was invited by a major media company to work with their team as a consultant to develop a product launch. She’d been seeking work with this company for a couple of years. Her previous attempts had come to nothing. Moreover, she was working more smartly, choosing projects that felt like the right match for her vision for her business.
Vanessa accessed the power of her inner wisdom using Business Energetics. She’d tried tapping on the pain in her shoulders and the story from Greek mythology, but hadn’t seen any results. When we found the deeper insight about her relationship with her dad she connected with an entanglement she’d not noticed before. Then it made sense to her why she was behaving as she was. After that one session she experienced a deeper level of ease and momentum in her business that let her move forward from merely surviving.
This is an example of how Business Energetics can help us find the deeper truths behind a problem, and empower us to find a healing solution that delivers an exciting result.
Sejual Shah is an EFT International Accredited Certified EFT Master Trainer and Advanced Practitioner in the UK. She helps execs with career growth and confidence issues. Since 2008 she has pioneered ways of delivering business EFT courses to large companies at home and abroad and loves coaching other practitioners to do this as well. She is the co-founder of Business Energetics. Her website is www.healthyinmind.com
From the EFTfree Archives, which are now a part of EFT International .
Originally published on February 22, 2011.
Sejual says
That’s beautifully put, Paul. I like the symmetry to your suggestion. And maybe that’s part of the new world outlook we’re moving into?
I had an earlier career in the business world where there was constant chatter about glass ceilings for women’s careers. But shifting completely the other way would create imbalance. I much prefer bringing in the influences of both to create something with strength and fluidity . . . and hopefully some fun mixed in too!
Paul Zelizer says
Carna: Yes, I think you’re on to something. My internal conflicts with my father kept me stuck for years. As I cleared these, things really started to take off in my business.
Bernadette: Thanks for that Business Energetics shout out!
Sejual: I love the way you bring presence, gentleness and ease. Got me thinking, perhaps one of the reasons Business Energetics is so powerful is the male/female balance built in. For example, you and I both have words that summarize our intentions for 2011.
My word is MOMENTUM. It’s a more masculine energy focused on results and change in the world.
Your word is EASE. It’s a more feminine energy focused on gentleness and comforting ourselves in the change process.
Most healing approaches value one of these more than another. They focus on MOMENTUM so much that people get triggered. Or, they are so attuned to EASE that people get frustrated with the slow pace of real world results.
By creating Business Energetics together – with deep respect for the synergy of what we each bring to the table – we have co-created something more powerful than either energy would be alone.
Awesome conversation everyone! Thank you!
Sejual says
Bernadette – Thanks for your warm words! Your words reminded me of an element to this tool that I was thinking of the other day. So I hope I can share this using your helpful comment as a tangential springboard?
Paul and I love the power of this tool. Equally, we’re mindful of the need for gentleness in dealing with issues as they come up. Relationship dynamics can bring up a powerhouse of heavy emotions. Our core skills in EFT to do with pacing, always reducing intensity the moment it shows up and others are still vital here. We’ve found when we do this through mindful listening magical transformations occur.
My feeling is that if we use Business Energetics in any kind of forceful way to engineer a result, then it doesn’t work.
I know you weren’t asking about this, and I reckon you’ve got a great handle on the sensitivities involved in gentle work with EFT, but felt inspired to share.
Sejual says
Carna – thanks for the kind words about your experience of Business Energetics! I feel a resonance with what you’re saying about the role of fathers. Here’s something I shared on Facebook in a similar vein:
I think the male archetype as breadwinner and business owner has a huge influence on us. In Europe, it was only after the 2nd world war that women started to assert their freedom to work and earn a living. In the generations before that money flowed through the male ancestral line. And we’re still noticing the the experiences of those earlier generations. In Business Energetics Paul and I have adopted some of the wisdom of Family Constellations work. So we’ve found it’s always good to look 3-7 generations back at the family line.
Bernadette Hunter says
Sejual, what a wonderful article! – well written and so clearly demonstrates the power of your Business Energetics process with this specific example. thank you for sharing this!
I know this process is powerful!!
Carna Zacharias-Miller says
I was a participant in the first online Business Energetics retreat that Sejual Shah and Paul Zelizer presented in February 2011. It was very inspiring! In a follow-up private session with Sejual, my father came up too. So I wonder how connected our business success with our (sometimes absent)father, or our perception of him, really is…