I can’t do it! I just can’t do it! I can’t market my craft, ideas, and skills. I can’t try to convince anyone of anything, let alone try to convince them of my or my offerings’ importance or how much they need it and/or it’s superiority over others’ offerings. I can’t try and convince anybody that I know something that they don’t know even if I do. I can’t continue trying to tell people that my products and offerings will help them or heal them or shift their life towards a benevolent direction, even if I think they will. I can’t keep saying good things about myself and my offerings; self-promotion just doesn’t feel right.
I certainly cannot go to the degree of lying or exaggerating the benefits of my offerings simply to make a sale or to make money. I can’t tell people how bad off they are or what they’re missing in their life or how much better they would be, or how much better they would feel if they would just buy my products or offerings. I can’t take my shirt off, showing my lean and muscular body, subliminally showing them the body that they could have if they just followed me. I can’t capitalize on people’s fears and insecurities to market myself overtly or subvertly. I don’t want to manipulate anyone, just as I don’t want anybody to manipulate me. I don’t want to create a need within their psyche for what I am offering (that’s manipulation). People are dealing with so much, and many are so stressed out and have so much on their plates, and have so many problems and issues. I don’t want them feeling bad; I want them feeling good. I want to be supportive and uplifting. I want to put a positive spin on their difficulties and challenges. I don’t want to contribute to those difficulties or negative feelings.
I can’t do business like this. I don’t even want to do business. I just want to share my craft, my passion! I love my craft, it’s my Dharma. I am so passionate about yoga, and I am so motivated to practice it myself, as I have received untold benefits and well-being and I want to share that! Sharing Yoga is offering something of the upmost value, and while sharing, I get to lose myself within the whirlwind of the present moment. It feels like myself and who is with me tap into an energy that’s profound, truthful, and healing, and we ride that energy like surfers ride waves, and I love participating in that! I love giving that, and I also love that people can partake in that via online classes. Where people all over the world, from all walks of life, can enjoy the benefits of yoga!
But I don’t want to push people towards me. I don’t want to sell myself and what I’m doing. It doesn’t feel right to praise myself or my craft, and it doesn’t feel right trying to convince others to practice yoga with me. People know what they’re interested in, people know what they want or need. If they don’t all on their own, they will start looking for what’s missing. I don’t need to use psychology on them! I don’t need to make them feel like something is lacking or inadequate or wrong with where they’re at and what they’re going through. If people think that something is lacking, inadequate, or wrong, they will look for something that will help them, and when they’re ready, if what I’m offering seems to them like it may be helpful to their well-being, then somehow, someway, eventually they will find me or what they need.
Much of marketing today uses subtle psychological tactics to create a need or desire in people’s minds for the products being offered. It’s manipulation, and it’s just part of this rat race that’s making all of us stressed and sick! When I was young, there was something called “advertising,” which was basically just letting people know where you were and what you were offering. Now it’s evolved into “marketing,” which is something more sinister and sicker, something more selfish, cold, and calculating. It’s no longer about improving people’s lives; it’s about generating money at all costs!
I won’t participate in this, and I hope you join me.
sincerely, bryan