The Servant

Selfless Service for the Self

I know when I received the servant archetype, my stomach fell. I knew it was true. I have played the shadow aspect of the servant for so long. My actions can resemble a walking doormat. I am fortunate enough to have a CONTRACT with my husband who is quite the opposite. He has unknowingly pointed this out to me for years and I am grateful for his message. I have heard him time and time again, “Don’t do that for that person. They are ungrateful and shouldn’t have your time.” The question that remains are “How does this affect my life? Does it affect my health? What’s the benefit of change?”

The Servant represents being available to others to assist them to benefit their lives.

In my life, I have a deep belief (unconscious in fact) that was set from early age that everyone should serve each other as God would want it that way. That’s what we do. We serve each other to honor God. If you want to get to heaven, you serve. This was shown to me through the church and endless service projects I would do as a child. But the irony of the Servant is the shadow side. Having the Servant in my archetype, I not only took on the role, but I went to the shadow with the belief I created that to “get to Heaven, you must serve (and then I added in my belief system) without serving myself.”

Yes! The irony is that of all the serving I do, I have the hardest time serving myself. This is the shadow aspect and one of the reasons why I contracted my husband for soul growth.

Last year I hit a plato. I worked so hard that on November 1st, I decided I needed a break. I was stressed out from overworking every week. On November 4th, I had a multiple sclerosis relapse. I knew it was the stress that sent me over the edge, but at the time I didn’t recognize that I was in the depths of my shadow side of the Servant archetype.

How Does this Archetype Affect Health?

Servants are natural in caregiving and it can be exhausting if we are constantly playing that story. Burn out can cause complete exhaustion, fatigue and in my case a relapse! Stress in your mental field can cause stress son your physical body too. Compassion fatigue is a real thing. Too much service to others can cause the Servant to harm themselves through negative talk or even actions. I have seen anger appear on the energetic field in the liver because the person is angry with themselves for not saying no and putting themselves first.

In order to achieve this archetype,

You will need to create balance in your life. In the shadow aspect, this archetype will swing into selfishness when the Servant is running on low energy. When there is just not enough, the light may go off and they will do acts which appear selfish to others. They can also get caught up in reputation rather than the service that is provided. They can be of great support to other people, yet horrible at making decisions as they want to satisfy the all.

To be EMPOWERED, the Servant needs to become aware of how much energy they can give for themselves and for others. In addition, how much action should be offered. Sometimes the Servant gives out more than is required.

We can even look deeper into the INDENTURED servant or the INVISIBLE servant.

ASK YOURSELF THESE QUESTIONS:

• Do you give yourself away? If so, in what ways?
• How do you serve others?
• How do you serve yourself?
• Do you feel like you are always doing hard work without getting paid?
• Do you feel like you give yourself but never receive?
  

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