The Martyrdom Scam: Why I’m Done Giving For Free

For years, my online spaces were run as a teaching, encouraging, and uplifting service page. I gave and gave. I taught and taught. And do you know what that open-door policy got me? People who extracted what they wanted and left. No feedback. No likes. No shares. No follows. No subscriptions. Just silence once their own cups were filled. I did my good deeds, and true to the old saying, no good deed goes unpunished.

The door is now officially closed.

Entitled People and the Myth of Free Spiritual Labor

There is an entitled mentality floating around that spiritual work shouldn't cost anything. People expect professional metaphysical services for free, assuming practitioners should walk around in burlap sacks while using up their own time and energy. They expect practitioners to buy expensive supplies and use them to do free work, or offer it all up for pennies while dealing with constant freeloading.

Meanwhile, phony church schemes demand tithes and donation money just so a pastor can ride around in a brand-new car with his mistress or, worse yet, a private jet. Society has no problem funding the luxury lifestyles of religious grifters, but the moment an independent practitioner wants compensation for their time, labor, and energy, suddenly it’s "not right" and "unspiritual."

Cheap Spells and Unruly Clients: You Ruined a Good Thing

For example, my Return to Sender spell. That service should have never been offered at such a low price to begin with. It is an immense amount of work. I routinely sent out four to eight photos of the candles burning in stages with the name papers clearly showing, which is a hell of a lot more than what other folks charging forty dollars and up are doing.

The instructions were simple: provide a name and a date of birth. Instead, people constantly tried to push the envelope just to see how much extra labor they could squeeze out of me. I bet they don't clock into a job and work for free, yet they expected me to sit over a hot altar for hours for absolute pennies. They had a good run with that discount, but they abused it. It is officially gone.

No More Free Emotional Labor or Trauma Dumping

From here on out: if I provide a service, I expect to get paid. Period. The end. I have given enough of myself throughout the years for little to nothing. I have bettered enough lives to last a lifetime.

My inbox was flooded with messages from people telling me how much my work helped them, yet a simple social media follow was completely out of the question for them. My inbox is no longer an open psychological ward for trauma dumping at all hours of the night. It is not a 24/7 free counseling hotline. I am completely done providing uncompensated emotional labor for people who expect everything for nothing.

My boundaries are non-negotiable. If you want the expertise and the energy, you respect the professional fee. The era of the endless free buffet is over.

Lastly, I do want to acknowledge that I have had some truly amazing, genuine customers who valued my time, respected my boundaries, and even tipped me. You know who you are, and you will always be blessed for your reciprocity. 

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For Sparkle Ray Distance Reiki, visit www.spiritualdiversitymagic.com