Spiritual Awakening and the Corporate Salary Trap
In the corporate world, there is a lot of talk about imposter syndrome. People who feel imposter syndrome feel like their success is undeserved, and they are coached to reframe their beliefs and to look for evidence of their competence.
But what underlies imposter syndrome is the feeling of being an outsider—the feeling that you don’t belong. Discernment is needed to identify the cause of this feeling. When imposter syndrome is rooted in insecurity, it’s time to follow that insecurity as a trailhead to your deeper, subconscious root system of unworthiness and dig it out piece by piece. This is the healing journey so many of us have undertaken.
The gut-wrenching process of healing gives way to the delicious process of awakening. When you learn that you are a being of light and love, and when you understand that we aren’t separate but connected—a different version of imposter syndrome takes hold. Not one rooted in unworthiness, but in wisdom.
Waking Up and Wanting Out
In this case, imposter syndrome was your intuition all along. Unhealed, your wounded ego did not understand why your corporate career felt unnatural to you, so it told you it was because you weren’t really all that smart or competent. But when you dug deep, healed your wounds, and emerged in wholeness, your feeling of being an outsider in your corporate career did not disappear but intensified.
The voice is no longer saying “I’m not good enough for this.” That was the voice of your ego.
The voice is now saying “I have outgrown this.” And that is the voice of your soul.
Today’s corporate world is built upon two inherently contradictory principles: first, that scarcity exists; and second, that endless growth is to be expected. These principles not only contradict each other, they contradict the cosmic principles of abundance and the cyclical nature of all existence.
When your soul awakens to these cosmic realities, you plainly see why your corporate career no longer feels like a worthwhile use of your energy. Your soul screams “get me out!” because you’re vibrating at a delightfully higher frequency than the fear-based system surrounding you. Continuing to work in this environment feels like imposter syndrome at the deepest level of dissonance.
And yet, there is something still holding power over you: the salary.
The Thought Trap of Salary Replacement
Those of us on the corporate track have been effectively trained to rely on a single source of high income to support ourselves and our households. On top of that, we have been trained to accept an extremely high level of consumerism as normal in our lives, requiring big and constant income to sustain. With these factors at play, a corporate career feels like your best option.
But once you are awake, what used to feel like your best option now feels like a trap. And when you feel trapped, you feel resentful.
Resentment is a difficult vibration to escape. Being angry at your job is a way to separate yourself from it, which is what your soul truly wants to do. Unfortunately, carrying the low vibrations of resentment and blame in your energy field will only manifest more of whatever you don’t like about your job.
As satisfying as it would be to walk out of corporate tomorrow, you don’t because you you would have to find something to replace your salary. And that’s the trap: thinking you have to replace your salary.
More specifically, the trap is thinking that you have to replace your salary with another single source of income. You will free yourself from this thought trap when you realize that your salary will be replaced by multiple sources of income, which will flow to you as a natural byproduct of pursuing the things you love.
I currently work as a director in the tech industry. I want to teach yoga for a living. I want to help people heal. My trap is thinking that I can’t leave my job because I can’t make the equivalent of my $180K salary as a yoga teacher or a healer. So I continue to work, fantasizing about the day I will shut my laptop for good while simultaneously making that day feel unreachable by believing my thought trap.
Having spent many months journaling and learning what makes me feel alive, I know my future income will flow from a mix of the following:
Teaching yoga and dance in my community
Building a shala to host community classes, events, and retreats
Opening a holistic healing practice with my partner, who is a massage therapist
Selling goods that I cultivate in my home, e.g. cheeses, sauces, eggs, pickles, baked goods, and tinctures
Building a cabin on my property that can be rented out
Copywriting and channeled writing
Instead of being dependent on one big salary, I will build income across a variety of sources. Each requires a consistent investment of my energy over time to build the path out of corporate. And unlike corporate, the thought of giving my energy to these activities makes me feel expansive and alive.
Chase the Feeling of Expansion
Expansiveness is the feeling of love. Contraction is the feeling of fear. Do you feel your energy contracting or expanding when you think about your future on the corporate track?
Chase what feels expansive. Your escape route from corporate lies in your acceptance that you will not be able to replace your salary with one income source (at least not right away) and that acceptance opens you up to infinite new pathways to pursue what you love.
The universe will provide you with abundance as a natural byproduct of doing what your soul is calling you to do.