My Spiritual practice has always been set up so that I have a good balance between what I take in as revenue and what I give back as free services. At every live event, I announce that " My Private Readings Are Paid Readings" so that everything is transparent. All my platforms clearly represent my readings, the description of what is being offered, and the price. When someone approaches me for an appointment, reading, etc. I always start with, "my readings are paid readings", so you know, now what can I do for you? Tell me why, I still get a number of people in my private message chat box, looking for guidance and/or reading or time slot of my time with no intention of paying for anything.
This is an account of one of these interactions. It is 11:45pm, I am in bed, trying to unwind from my day to fall asleep, my alarm is set for 4:00am because it is my early day at work. My phone goes off ding, ding, ding ... must be important, so I check. I have a frantic woman in my DM's commanding me to do a reading for her. I calmly answer, "my private readings are paid readings", what are you looking for? She goes into how she just needs to know if her husband is going to come back to her. She was married 38 years and he left her for another woman, and she feels as though she will die, if he doesn't return and I HAVE to tell her whether or not he will come back to her right now! As I lay there reading her overly dramatic, emergency request with one eye open. I tell her to take a deep breath, calm down and know that everything will be ok. Then I instruct her, that if she would like a reading to please see my services, pick a reading that best suits her needs, and book it. I will get back to her as soon as I can, but I am in fact closed for the night and will catch up with her when I get time. She completely ignores the part about me being closed for the night, and proceeds to tell me that all she wants is an answer, surely I can just tell her yes or no. I explain once again, that my readings are paid readings and I would not be answering her request now nor will I be meeting her demands for nothing and at this time. I offer her my lowest priced reading and tell her she can pay via Venmo or PayPal, and I will contact her at a more decent hour. I turn my phone off and try to sleep once again. As I lay there I start to think the nerve of people to think that they are owed anything from me, that somehow it is my duty and sole responsibility to tell her what he husband is doing, and immediately. It would be my guidance to tell her to let him go, if he decides to leave her after 38 years for someone else then he obviously was either going through some mid-life crisis, or he was completely missing something in his life. If he was leaving her at the time in their lives, after all these years without concern for her well being, or offer to help her get through the transition that his absence was going to create then he wasn't worth the dirt on her shoes and she needed to let him go. Judging from her co-dependent, insecure, delusional rantings in my inbox, I truly did not blame the man in all honesty. Alas, this woman will never get her guidance because as I awoke the next morning there was the worse romance novel gone bad dissertation in my inbox, Since I was not responding to her, her rantings turned into describing what a demon from hell I was to be charging someone in her state, and not be willing to answer a simple question. I was most likely a fraud because everyone says how great they are all the time, but then all they do is scam you out of your money, and I should crawl back into the dark cave I crawled out of. She was instantly block, not only because it is 1000 times worse reading something like that at 4:00am in the morning, but the nerve to think she was going to bully me into giving her a reading for free. Do I have deserving, kind souls that inquire about a reading and cannot pay, absolutely, but is it also fair to those people that actually pay for their readings for me to cave and go against my policy of no free readings. It is because of people like this woman that create the hard line I have on paid readings. You see when i first started I would have taken the time to give her an answer, No .. the answer is NO! He will not be coming back. The man left tire marks leaving the driveway darker than my apparent demon soul. He will not be back. This would not have been enough of an answer for her. We would then have to go down the road of why, and what can i do to get him back , and do a spell to make him come back. In which case I would have to explain I do not do spells to bring people back, that would be against free will and divine will. That poor man was removed from her, for his own sanity. I am not Dr Oshogoodnoggin I do not get peoples lovers back for them and fix all their relationship problems, for $100 in ITunes cards. Newsflash! there is no magic that can create Love, but that is another blog post.
The point to this story is, there are a few reasons I charge for readings. One I am giving of myself, my energy my gifts, my focus to someone specifically to help guide them through a tough time or confusion. My energy is my currency, and what you give has to be reciprocated it is the law of Universal balance. The other reason is that I can control the energy that I choose to interact with, I hold my energy sacred and do not jump in and out of low vibrational pools of muck unless I know I can help clear it up. This woman most likely, would not have gotten a reading from me for any amount of money she could have offered. She was too far gone and I do not take kindly to bullies. The other point I want to raise here is just because someone has a small business or offers a service, there is still something called, respect and manners. We are not here at your beckon call, we are not obligated to save you and although we have chosen a life of service, we are not here to solely service you . Be kind, be humble. When requesting someone's time and energy be mindful that they are also human, no matter how gifted, and are also living their own life. There can be delays, there can be issues, be understanding and give grace. We get out of life what we put out there in the Universe, if you are demanding and disrespectful you will get that back in kind. Please remember, "My readings are paid readings", I am here to help all those that are guided to me. I do require that you are respectful and kind so keep that in mind.
Lisa Ann
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