By Holly Herring
It’s close to Halloween and I’m escaping my ghosts.
I’m running hard and fast, through the holiday season, freeing myself from troubles that were never mine in the first place.
I spent a great deal of time today in conversation with my good friend, Ross. We are great friends because we are both ambitious, self-motivated, dedicated to our loved ones, and we are genuinely good people. We also both attract hungry ghosts.
People like Ross and I embrace being really good to ourselves. He’s about a year ahead of me on that one, but it works out for me because he gave me the pep talk of a lifetime based on all the amazing things he’s learned. He told me I have a Hungry Ghost following me around.
I am a person who has a great deal of compassion.
My compassion and understanding practically pays my bills. I sacrifice a lot of myself for the benefit of others. Ross is similar and he told me that there are people who prey on people like me and him—just like Hungry Ghosts with their slender frame, and bloated bellies that cannot get full due to their small mouths and narrow throats—we are prime targets for the energy suck.
Through this heart to heart, I was lovingly admonished about how long I had l tried to feed this ghost who could never become full. I poured all my own energy, all my best assistance, and all of my love I needed for myself into this ghost. It didn’t work because a Hungry Ghost can never have enough. A Hungry Ghost will starve no matter what or how much you offer them.
I had been fighting an uphill battle that could never be won.
My dear friend reminded me that I poured so much into this Hungry Ghost that I could have actually died had I not stopped. I allowed myself to be put in scary positions, I neglected my own needs, I was losing my health, my feeling of personal safety and I wasn’t being shown respect. I was even losing respect and sight of myself. I was becoming small and quiet (again).
I did all of this in an attempt to fill someone who could never be filled. I was giving up all of the best of me.
This dark energy had consumed me. I didn’t even recognize myself anymore. My friend was watching me slip away, mourning me from a distance because I was too busy spoon feeding the bottomless ghost.
Ross is a smart man and I’m sure glad he’s in my corner because after he showed me the truth of my circumstances, he showed me the way out. He took my hand and talked of his own experiences and how, a year ahead of me in Ghost busting, he was gaining his essence back. He assured me it wasn’t too late, in fact the time was ripe, for me to change the locks on the all access pass to my life.
My friend showed me how to stop feeding the ghost and start feeding myself. That was some tough love. But, since he mentioned it, I sure am hungry.
Photo: Pexels
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Practicing Compassion for Others Sometimes Means Getting in the Mud with Them
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