Yes to Me is one year old!  So this is a special celebration edition of my gratitude report.  Thank you my readers, thank you my subscribers, and thank you my fellow bloggers.  (Photo by Mr. Greenjeans)

My Spiritual Make Money Scheme

My business is doing pretty well, and I started writing what I believe to be the secret of my success so that you can learn from it and make money yourself.  And I typed and typed and . . . realize it’s really worth to be published as another independent post.  So here, let me just quickly share my business’ January financial record to give you an idea of how my 9 month old service is doing.

I wanted to insert the screenshot of my Paypal statement, but I can’t figure out how to, so you just have to trust me.  Here is the breakdown:

Gross revenue: $6205
Paypal fee: $214
Expense paid through Paypal: $193
Revenue: $5798

This is before tax and overhead.  The expense I paid through Paypal last month includes donation and web design work.  So these are not ongoing overhead.  My ongoing overhead is very low – they are internet and phone connection, web hosting, e-junkie seller account fee – well under $100 per month.  I may have incurred some other expenses (I haven’t really worked out the numbers yet), but you get the idea.

Pretty good for a new business, huh?  (Did anyone say recession?)

And here is a preview of my next post on abundance and spirituality:
The shortcut to abundance is to develop your spirituality so that you see abundance instead of lack.

Do you see lack?  Are you afraid your needs may not be met?  Or are you enjoying abundance?

Yes to Me blog growth

Here is a quick summary of this blog’s journey of this past year:

First post on February 4, 2008:  Why I Couldn’t Become An Entrepreneur Earlier
I started Yes to Me to share my adventures as a new entrepreneur.  With me as an author, however, it couldn’t avoid the spiritual flavor . . .

First post of Interview With Successful Entrepreneurs series with Christine O’Kelly
Like likes the like.  She may not realize how spiritual she is, but her interview nonetheless emphasizing the inner working of entrepreneurship . . .

Dodging The Many Forms Of Psychological Manipulation
This is one of the most popular posts, drawing traffic from SEO even now, 10 months after its publication.  Wish all my posts performed this well!

Soul Shifting And The Light Ascension Of Maybe 2012
By far the most commented, perhaps most controversial post so far . . . There have been so many questions that I had to give up responding to each of them individually and wrote another Q&A post.  And I wasn’t even attempting to be controversial – I was trying to help some people.
The second most commented post is Living Your Life Purpose

Again, thank you, thank you, thank you!

My anniversary gift to my readers

I wrote an eBook titled Stop Craving Sugar! Despite the title that reads like a headline of a women’s magazine, this is not only about nutrition, not only about emotional eating –  it addresses the issue from all four levels of our existence, physiological, emotional, mental, and spiritual.  Yeah, spiritual, too.  Everything we do is spiritual, including eating.

I asked some of my friends to read the eBook and here is one of the reviews:

“As a registered holistic nutritionist, I can truthfully say that Akemi has done a fantastic job of putting this eBook together. It is a yummy work for the body, the mind and the spirit. You will explore the truth about what you are feeding your body, what you are feeding your mind and how these influence each other. After reading this eBook you will realize that you have the ability to stop fighting sugar cravings and start living well.”

– Davina Haisell, RHN, Vancouver, Canada

I will be building the sales website and finalizing all the sales details this coming week.  But the book is ready, and I’d be happy to give away the copy to five commenters of this post.  Please write your comment below by Monday and if there are more than five commenters, I will do the drawing and contact the winners by email. (The eBook will be selling for $29.)

And today I am grateful for the sunlight, for the trees that I sense to be waking up soon, and for my wonderful spirit guides.  Hope you have a great weekend!

My dear friend Hunter Nuttall wrote “What The Hell Is Value?”  and gave me a special treatment of homework.  A very special attention to me out of his thousands of readership!  What an honor.  I feel obliged to reciprocate.

In this article, I will first take you back to the beginning of time so we know how the Universe and any and all things in it, including this stuff we call life, started.  This is a critical knowledge to understand the lightwork and darkwork, or lightworkers and darkworkers. (Second link love to Hunter.  Think abundance.)  This leads to our discussion of what value is, and I will wrap up by explaining how we can make money by delivering value in our daily work life.

It’s a long post.  Please bookmark.  (Photo by siderean)

We all came from Light

First there was Light.  Or a mass of energy.  Everything in the Universe (or maybe Universes), including the Universe itself, came out from this original Light.  Scientists call it the Big Bang.  Light became atoms and formed substances.  And the stars.  And life forms.

Even today, many people, such as those who experienced near-death or after-death episodes, report seeing bright white light that they intuitively recognized as the source of life energy.  I think visible lights, like sunlight, are part of this Light that illuminates the whole Universe, in all dimensions.  It is the Light that provides us with vital life energy.

All came from the one Source of Light, so there was no lack. Everything that was was just that, and everything was in harmony.  This was great, but somehow, the Source, which has intelligence of some kind, decided to try something different.  Why not create an illusion of lack so we know, by contrast, we are truly abundant?

I don’t know when this happened, or if it took place on this Earth when humans were already inhabiting.  But for now, I am going to pretend it did so I can share some stories that illustrate the case.

The original utopia

So we were living in this original world where everything there was simply was.  Again, this may not have been this Earth and we may have been different life forms, but for the sake of simplicity we will pretend it was.  You may wish to visualize a round faced petite woman called Akemi, living happily in harmony with others.

She picked berries and ate them, but there were so many, so after she had eaten plenty, she went out and shared the rest with others.  Both my alter ego and her neighbors were happy.

She was not very good at fixing things, so when there was a leak in her hut, she asked her neighbor if he could help, and of course he did.  He liked doing this kind of work and was pleased looking at his clean work.  Both were happy.

Notice she didn’t ask for the repair work as a “return” of her giving him berries.  They just did what was natural to each of them, and all were served.

It was the same with relationships.  When my alter ego saw a nice cute guy, she went up and told him she liked him.  If he liked her, too, they made love, and both were happy.  If he liked staying around, they had a long-term relationship.  If he didn’t, it was no big deal because there were other cute guys.  No drama, just love and joy.

All kids were looked after by all the villagers.  For women, the children she gave birth were special, and for men, their women’s children were special, but really all kids were well loved and cared.  In fact, not just kids.  Everyone was loved for who they were, and everyone loved all there was.  All in harmony and peace as it was.

They may or may not talked about spirituality, but they were highly spiritual anyway.  They knew they came from the one Source and still connected to this Source.  They also knew they were all interconnected.

Even death was not something to be feared.  It was sad because it was about separation, but they intuitively knew it was a temporary separation, so after a while, they moved on.  Some lived long, some died young, but all were well.

The “Fall” and the birth of darkworkers

Then something unusual happened.  Someone came up with the idea of getting more than there was by seeding the idea of lack to people’s mind.

Say, one day, there was a traveling merchant who showed pretty red stones to my alter ego.  She liked them and wanted one of the pendant.  The merchant said she had to pay.  So she offered a basket full of berries.

. . . and to her surprise, he said “That is not enough to get the pendant.”

He wanted something more.  The next door guy offered him big chunk of dried meat and could get a pendant for his wife.  My alter ego’s berries were valued less because they didn’t store well.  She was shocked.  Until then, she never even thought something she had to offer may not by “enough”.

The merchant also told everyone that there were only limited supply of red stones.  So the value of the stones would go up – that next door guy was lucky to get it with five pounds of meat.

This affected my next door neighbor’s mind.  He started to think he is “better’ than others.  He began saying things that put others down and stopped doing kind things for them.  He “fell” and became a darkworker.  At first, he just did a little bit of darkwork occasionally.  Eventually, however, he became good at manipulating others.

The idea of lack and scarcity affected relationships as well.  Suddenly, there was a rumor that there weren’t enough cute guys!  Any smart woman was to “keep” a guy so that he would bring the paychecks to raise their kids.

Things were even worse for men.  Suddenly there was a rumor that there weren’t enough good women, so they had to secure a woman who would bear their children.  It became important to make sure their woman weren’t seeing someone else because resources were considered to be limited and he could afford only to raise his own kids.  The village was no longer functioning as community of care.

Our health deteriorated, too, because of the increasing negativity and stress.  And death became the ultimate limitation and cause of fear.  True spirituality was replaced by fear inducing religions.

The beautiful sense of connection to all that was was replaced with the painful sense of separation.  Love was no longer a basic condition of life but became a commodity.  Sex became a dirty word tainted with shame.  Joy and gratitude evaporated and jealousy set in.

This change to negativity is commonly referred to as the “Fall” in various legends.  (Legends are our soul memories told as stories.)  In the beginning, we were all lightworkers, but with the Fall, some became darkworkers whose main interest was to serve themselves at the expense of others.  Darkworkers use the idea of lack and manipulate others with negativity such as fear, anger, guilt, shame, etc. to manipulate others.

Some well-developed lightworkers knew this was just a BS, but many many lightworkers fell prey and got confused.

The difference between lightworkers and darkworkers

There is no substance called darkness. Darkness is the lack of light. So we all find ourselves somewhere in the spectrum of light.  On one end there are those who are fully aligned with Light, the lightworkers.  On the opposite end are those who are completely shut down from Light, the darkworkers.  In the middle, there are confused lightworkers who often engage in negativity and wishy washy darkworkers who can’t engage in negativity full time.

Now remember this Light is also the Source of life energy?  So darkworkers have serious problem for survival – they need to get energy from sources other than the true Source.  The only way they can do this is to suck up the energy of others.

Again, they do this by seeding negativity such as fear, anger, guilt, shame, and jealousy in others.

What is value?

Basically, whatever someone else wants is value.  Nutrition for the physical body is value.  Education to train our mind is value.  A beautiful song that brings out tender feeling is value.  Spiritual healing is value.

As a business owner, I want accounting service to free up my time so accounting service is value.  The computer, internet, and all the programs someone wrote are value.

Flattery for ego boost is also value, whether it’s an honest one or not.  Weapon is value to darkworkers – a very tangible one, it kills people.

However, I am a lightworker.  So here, we will talk about lightworker value, or positive value.

What is lightworker value?

Lightworker value is about releasing the energy that are stuck in negativity and bringing it back to Light. Currently there are a lot of energy sucked up by darkworkers.

For example, think of someone who wants to become an energy healer, like the Reconnection practitioner, but is afraid of quitting his corporate paycheck job.  Lots of energy stuck in his fear.  Let’s say he reads my article on entrepreneurship and gets inspired enough to let go of his fear.  Now the energy that was previously captured in the darkness of fear is freed up and it will shine in the world.  His energy has converted to something valuable and useful, and I delivered value assisting this process.

Any work that releases the stuck energy from negativity such as fear, anger, guilt, shame, and jealousy and
bring it back to Light, to positive energy flow of love, joy, peace, harmony, and spiritual awareness is of lightworker value:

• When you write an article that inspires others to overcome their fear, or an article that educates others how to recognize the BS of manipulation, you are bringing lightworker value.
• When you create a beautiful piece of art that resonates deep into the viewer’s heart and reminds them our original state of harmony, you are bringing lightworker value.
• When you build a successful business that saves customers’ time and energy, thereby freeing up their energy for better use, you are bringing lightworker value.
• When you assist other lightworkers who are bringing value to others, such as doing administrative work for them, you are indirectly bringing lightworker value.

Hunter uses the tale of two bricklayers to illustrate the last case.  You could be just mindlessly laying bricks to get paid or you could be a member of cathedral building team.

Personally, my mission is:

1. Assist the more or less confused lightworkers liberate themselves from negativity. One way I do this is through my Akashic Record Reading and its clearing.  I also hope this Yes to Me blog aspires the readers.
2. Assist the wishy washy kind darkworkers return to Light, if they so wish.  Again through my Akashic Record Reading.

But how can we make money by delivering value?

Here is a secret of making money:  De-focus on money.

Because money is like a shadow.  It’s not real.  Sure the greenbacks are real, but that is not what you really want, right?  You want what money can do, the purchasing power of the money.  Because of this purchasing capability of money, money also represents security or freedom.  But I am yet to meet someone who likes greenbacks themselves, except for hobby purpose.   They are just crinkly sheets of paper. (Photo by TW Collins)

If money is a shadow, what is casting the shadow?  What is the real thing?  Value.

In your effort to make money, you can take one of the following two approaches:

1. Chase money, which is like chasing shadows. Depending on how the light is cast, shadows move a lot and confuse you.  And even when you come so close and believe you have caught it, it escapes you so easily.  It’s a shadow.  You can’t hold onto shadow.
2. Focus on value. Value is invisible but real.  Figure out what kind of value you can deliver, and deliver it.  This may take some time and soul searching effort, but leads to real results.

How does delivering value bring in money?

Because everything in the Universe is energy, value is a form of energy.  We can’t really “create” value.  That is just a way of saying.  Crating value means creating products or services that deliver value.  (Even I, who has little idea of math and physics, know energy only changes forms, but can’t be created nor eliminated.  Energy only circulates, changing forms.)

What we really do, as lightworkers, is to assist someone release their energy from negativity.  Or assist other lightworkers do this.

When we deliver value, a form of energy, it creates flow of energy. Outflow invites inflow.  Another form of energy comes along, either from the recipient of the value or from other sources.  This is where it gets really fun.

We all know receiving money in exchange to the value we deliver.  But we can also receive money from other sources.  Ad income for popular bloggers is an excellent example.  I bet there are other ways as well.

On the practical level, we need to set up a way, a system, to deliver value – consistently high value, hopefully.  This is where business experts like marketing whiz Naomi Dunford comes into the picture, delivering her value.  But she can only assist you when you have decided to make money this way.  It’s your job to choose which money making approach  you want and what kind of value you want to deliver.

My new soul’s resolution to show abundance to the world

I know some people are still thinking, “Well, that all sounds nice, but I’m not sure. . .  I’m afraid.”  So I want to show that I, as a lightworker, can make good money.  This is my new soul’s resolution.

I have completed my new year resolution of extending love in my business and beyond.  Maybe that is why I had the honor of getting a new soul.  I now know there is nothing in my life that is not love.  Love is a foundation, not a special day treat.

So I’d like a new resolution (can you tell time is speeding up?), and that is to show spirituality and wealth can be, and are, compatible.

Lightwork and Light Ascension

Some say that, when we restore sufficient amount of energy to Light, the original blueprint of Earth will be restored, and we will see a new version of utopia.  This is one way of defining Light Ascension.  I find this idea interesting and inspiring.  I don’t know this for sure, but I am observing so many soul situations like the special soul shifting cases in my practice that were previously considered – well, previously it was not even considered or imagined in any way really.  So I figure anything can be possible.

Another notable thing that I just noticed recently is that many of those wishy washy darkworkers (there are more professional sounding terminology, but let me keep things simple for general readability) are returning to their original lightworker blueprint.  I don’t know why or how they are doing this, so don’t send me those “Why SHOULD they . . .” questions.

And just to make sure, this utopia is not the communism.  Communism is about totalitarian control, based deeply in fear.  On the contrary, I am talking about the kind of utopia where each of us express our unique gifts, which immediately and naturally serves others.

Take your side and polarize

We all had enough learning experience with this illusion of lack.  By now we know what abundance is in contrast to scarcity and how fun it is to invite and enjoy abundance.  I think it is time to complete our learning by leaving negativity and polarizing in Light.

This is where taking side matters.  Staying in the middle of the light spectrum, being neutral or mix, doing lightwork sometimes and darkwork at other times, means messing up the energy flow and therefore effectively stuck.  No good.

So take your side. Choose if you want to deliver lightworker positive value or darkworker negative value.  Choose love, joy, abundance, and harmony or choose lack and fear.  Polarize consciously.

This post is part of Jeremy Day’s group writing project on creating value.

The post that I promissed to Hunter in the comment below is now published as My Spiritual Make Money Scheme.