“What you resist not only persists but will grow in size” ~ Carl Jung
How often do we find that the one thing we are resisting is the one thing that is key to our healing or transformation?
Whether that’s a particular food that isn’t good for us that we stubbornly keep eating or a resentment that keeps us stuck in the past and unable to enjoy our present (see my previous blog about Dennis and the White Parrot!), resisting something does the contrary job of keeping it intensely alive within us.
Carl Jung articulated this perfectly in his timeless, “What you resist not only persists but will grow in size” quote.
I genuinely wasn’t surprised to see Jung’s philosophy alive and well in Olivia’s ‘Money Types’ Guidebook: where we are introduced to Anthea, a woman who is – on the surface at least – is happy, carefree, and lives life to the max.
Anthea doesn’t worry or plan for tomorrow, and all would be well if it wasn’t for the fact that her bank balance is dwindling. We learn this is due to several unscrupulous business owners convincing her to part with large sums of her inheritance to fund their ‘can’t fail’ ventures. Olivia also learns that on more than one occasion, friends in Anthea’s life have used her for her money.
We discover that Anthea has High Joker in her ‘Money Type’, and she reveals that she considers any form of structure, planning or routine ‘boring’. Hearing these words, Olivia immediately intuits that Anthea needs to call on her inner Architect for precisely those strengths: to set boundaries in place to prevent her from being taken advantage of again in the future and, ironically, to create the structure for her to continue a fun-filled life.
‘Structure’ and ‘fun-filled’ sound like words that shouldn’t go together in the same sentence; however, without structure, Anthea’s Shadow Joker runs the show and leads her into unhealthy and, quite honestly, exploitative situations.
But luckily, help is at hand, and it’s closer than she thinks.
Olivia demonstrates to both Anthea and us, the reader, how previously unowned parts of ourselves (in Anthea’s case, her Architect) can come forwards and support us where we need it most.
For Anthea, dissociating from her Architect – the part of her that is logical, methodical and calm – has meant that unscrupulous people had come along and taken advantage of her. In historical terms, embracing and owning her Architect would have meant Anthea spotting problems with those dodgy business deals a mile off. Instead, her Joker gets swept up in the excitement before she is able to take a breath, reflect and say ‘no thanks’.
It feels like through her work with Olivia, Anthea is given a rapid initiation into ‘growing up’ and owning a powerful adult part of herself that will prevent her from being taken advantage of again.
Taking this one step further, I wonder whether Anthea owning her Architect will prevent those unscrupulous people from showing up…
Because once we own our own power, we stop attracting people who want to own it on our behalf.
Perhaps you’ve noticed this in your own life? I know I have. Until I owned my own authority when it came to how I wanted to live, I was surrounded by people who were always trying to put rules in place and tell me what to do! When I started to live life on my own terms, those loud (and quite frankly, bossy) voices disappeared, and I was left with my inner authoritative voice that knew what to do all along.
Dormant power
What I love about this story is understanding that even though Anthea has a Low Architect, it doesn’t mean she can’t draw on the strength of that archetype to help her. Just a little bit of Architect where previously there was none got Anthea focused on not losing any more of her inheritance… and she left Olivia’s consulting room with a plan to seek out independent financial advice.
I imagine that all of the archetypes are, at some level, lying dormant in us, waiting to be roused by a situation or challenge that calls for their strength. This offers the hope that while we may not have a strength or a particular enjoyment for a certain way of being, these talents are not lost to us entirely. We can tap into a different kind of strength, and often, the thing we least expect to be our saviour is the thing that will create the greatest of transformation.
And even better, it’s been inside us all along.
And this loops us perfectly back to the crux of Olivia’s work and her teaching: that money is a medium for life.
By working with Olivia, Anthea understood her emotional relationship with money, and from this vantage point, her previous hurts, let downs, and financial mistakes began to make sense. Money is a lens through which Anthea could view the relationships and decisions that had taken her down many wrong paths. By uncovering her ‘Money Type’, Anthea could get to know herself in a new way and begin to uncover some unknown gifts and talents.
Pretty incredible, eh?
What are the three key learnings from Anthea’s story?
These are big, life-changing lessons that invite us to genuinely change. Here’s a summary of what I took from this small yet mighty story:
- What we resist can often be the one thing that we need to embrace
- That structure can be a platform for genuine enjoyment in life
- The key to transformation is dormant within us and just waiting for the moment to awaken
Those are my reflections, but perhaps you have some of your own too? What parts of you are holding at a distance that, if embraced, may be the key to transformation? If you’d like to share, both me and Olivia would love you to leave a comment for us here…
Take the Money Types Quiz
Olivia’s Money Types Quiz is so helpful in helping us see where our strengths lie, financially speaking, and also where we may need to develop. Click here to get started.
Also…
When I spoke to Olivia about this, she said that if there’s a wave of interest, she may even offer a Zoom session to take us further into the depths of the ideas introduced in this piece. So, if you’d like to learn more, drop us a comment here or an email, and we’ll keep you posted on what’s brewing.
See you next time,
Ann x
To read my previous blog: Letting Go of Resentment: the True Price of Freedom, click here.
