Category: Shame and Guilt

AWARENESS – Update on a Scam

Awareness

Top scams that will be targeting you in 2025…

With our theme for February being – “What’s Going On?” I realized I am coming up to the 2-year mark of a scam I fell prey to in 2023.

It was emotionally devastating and a loss of funds. I have chosen to carry a story of empowerment from it and free the intensity of the overwhelming judgment and condemnation upon myself that occurred and I carried for months.

Here is the post I shared 2 years ago on Facebook with updates to now:

Dear Facebook Friends

A significant amount of my bank funds was lost due to a scam.

I acted out of fear, believing I had caused Amazon to lose money owed to them. I thought I was dealing with a real Amazon representative, but I wasn’t.

I did what they requested of me and when I asked questions, they gave me answers I believed were true. The one individual I dealt with was courteous and won my trust completely. He even said what a beautiful man I was to be dealing with this so respectfully and with integrity. Because I had quantum trust, I refused to see all the red flags.

Although I reported the fraud to my bank too late to recover the lost funds, I managed to get through that month with the help of two cherished friends I’ve known for 30 years. Grace saw me through as it always has.

I felt stupid, naïve, humiliated, violated, and ashamed. I had to let myself feel those emotions. I can now look back with compassion and forgiveness.

I also sent prayers to all those working without conscience and taking such advantage of others that they would find their way to higher ground and love in their lives.

Last year, I underwent deeper personal therapy using the EMDR modality. I didn’t realize how much pain and guilt I still carried. I came to understand more of how I fell into the emotional quicksand of that scam. I observed the extensive scope of the fraud industry and noted that it affects people of all ages.

I continue to work on the full observance, not judgment, of my life and give myself credit for personal growth and insight.

Mind Your Own Becoming is about transforming our experiences into personal growth, emerging as a victor where we gain new insights and self-worth.

Had I stepped back two years ago – allowed the process of keen observance not reaction out of fear, I would have had a different outcome. Had I consulted two or three of my close friends, they would have immediately advised me to stop and report it as a scam. Shame and guilt took over and I can own that now and have worked on the deeper soul work of forgiveness.

Our times require us to step back and observe not out of reaction and divisiveness but observance and inquiry – “What can I bring that contributes compassion and awareness?”  We are in a time that we must inquire “What’s Going On?” and do what we can to build bridges together of honest and open communication that can lead to new understanding and healing. I do believe in my heart that our views are not as opposite as they seem.

Respect, value, and care for all individuals are essential humanitarian goals. We have a chance for true enlightenment if we focus on building bridges, not walls.

With Love, Charles

Monthly Theme and Weekly Speakers.

Every month, we take the Key Principles of MYOB and put them into practice in our lives. Looking at the deeper call before us — What are we each to “Be” to bring about societal change through our soul evolution in ways that establish justice, love, and care for all – without exception. Please join us weekly on Thursdays at 7 p.m. EDT for our virtual program.

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

Shame and Guilt

Shame and Guilt

Shame and guilt go together. I learned shame early on with an unconscious mantra – “Shame on you.” Shame can be something we carry through our lives and never address. Early on we learn guilt and shame in religious paths that are meant to be about enlightenment.

PRE-DEFINED ROLES

We are born into pre-defined roles. Shame and guilt can emerge for not living those roles as society prescribes them. As I grew through adolescence my sense of shame and guilt became the root of overwhelming sorrow and pain as the complexity of my sexuality continued to deepen.

I entered ministry because I felt if I did enough good for others I could make up for the shame and guilt I had for being born in the wrong body and the complexity of emotions around that.

Shame and guilt can also be the root of how easily we fall prey to emotional manipulation that brings up all those feelings of inadequacy of doing something wrong when we have not!

I inherited guilt and shame, and I am the only one who can free what has not been mine to carry. Guilt has a place to make amends where it is a soul healing factor for self and others. Individual and collective shame is when we do not take accountability for what we are passing on to future generations when we could awaken and be aware. I choose not to pass on shame but accountability through how I live my life now.

VICTORY IS

My personal victory is when I no longer feel shame for the soul I am meant to be and can look in the mirror and genuinely feel love for who I see.

Clearing that learned shame opens my heart and mind to live a life of integrity, authenticity, and self-regard for myself and others. Shame not addressed, creates only darkness and behaviors that keep us in judgment of ourselves and others and at war with life itself.

I will be addressing more on these posts on shame and guilt. There is a great healing catharsis in my sharing.

Monthly Theme and Weekly Speakers.

Every month, we take the Key Principles of MYOB and put them into practice in our lives. Looking at the deeper call before us — What are we each to “Be” to bring about societal change through our soul evolution in ways that establish justice, love, and care for all – without exception. Please join us weekly on Thursdays at 7 p.m. EDT for our virtual program.