Katy on Wellbeing

Collecting Synchronicities

I love synchronicities, or "meaningful coincidences".  Yesterday I experienced three within the space of two hours, so that's worth writing about.

1. Three days ago, I spent hours searching for a t-shirt dress to replace my ancient favorite.  As I tried on the too-short, -tight, -shapeless, -matronly, and -ridiculous items on offer, I wished I could just find someone to replicate the original.  Then yesterday, en route to the subway, a dress in a window caught my eye.  Turns out the store had just opened, and its business was custom-made clothing, particularly of the "bring in the dress and we'll make you a new one" variety!!!
2. Before leaving the house, I had grabbed a subway book, chosen randomly for smallness and portability.  Then during morning pages, I wrote about going back to work, and how to "look" from a place of inspiration and pleasure.  What would my ideal work involve?  What am I looking forward to?  Once on the subway, I opened the book, Florence Scovel Shinn's The Game of Life for Women, first printed in 1925.  Flo Sco, page 3:  "There is a place that you are to fill that no one else can fill.  ... There is a perfect picture of this in the superconscious mind.  It usually flashes across the conscious as an unattainable ideal -- something "too good to be true".  In reality it is a woman's true destiny, flashed to her from the Infinite Intelligence, which is within herself."  A timely reminder about the value of deliberate dreaming.
3. Last week I was in particular agreement with a Carbon Foresight blog post arguing that "sustainability" is a fear-based and reactive idea, and what is needed is a much more compelling vision for how people can live well together and with the environment in years to come.  I've been thinking about the need to find examples of that compelling vision.  So yesterday I get home and there is the new Atlantic magazine, titled "The Ideas Issue: How to Fix the World".  A great place to start!

I know these are small examples.  But they point to a larger pattern of interconnectedness that is significant and beautiful.  Jungian psychologist Jean Shinoda Bolen M.D. explains:

"The experience of the Tao or of a unifying principle in the universe to which everything in the world relates, underlies the major Eastern religions -- Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Taoism, and Zen. ....  Fritjov Capra in The Tao of Physic, postulates that modern atomic physics leads us to a view of reality that is very similar to the Eastern mystic's intuitive vision of reality.  The picture of an interconnected cosmic web in which the human observer is always a participator emerges from quantum physics.

"In psychology, only C. G. Jung has addressed this issue, describing synchronistic events as manifestations of the acausal connecting principle that is equivalent to the Tao.  He theorized that people as well as all animate and inanimate objects are linked through a collective unconscious.

"Synchronicity is the Tao of psychology, relating the individual to the totality.  If we personally realize that synchronicity is at work in our lives, we feel conected, rather than isolated and estranged from others; we feel ourselves part of a divine, dynamic, interrelated universe. ....  Every time I have become ware of a synchronistic experience, I have had an accompanying feeling (of) grace.  .... There is something awesome and humbling, yest moving and knowing about glimpsing the Tao through synchronistic events."  -- The Tao of Psychology pp. 4-7

This is why I look out for synchronicities.  Even the most mundane ones give me a sense of connection and meaning.  For awhile I recorded every synchronicity I experienced, and had pages of them within a few months.  Yesterday's hat-trick made me want to start collecting the again.  Any synchronicity stories you would be willing to share?

Law of Attraction: In Conversation with the Universe

Ask and It is Given

The circumstances of our lives mean that many of us reach adulthood having experienced any number of disappointments, and are afraid of hazarding ourselves for fear of being disappointed again.  We are terrified to hope.  And in this way, we shut ourselves off from receiving what the universe is trying to give.  What if instead we expected that, somehow, our desires were an integral and valid part of the expanding Universe, and would be fulfilled in due course?  Then we’d spend more time in a state of relaxed and appreciative anticipation, looking for evidence of our desires coming to fruition and enjoying the game.  The crazy and amazing ways things happen is as much a part of the fun as the actual manifestation.  A friend of mine met her now husband when they caught eyes passing each other on the street in NYC.  Then both did a double-take over their shoulders.  And again.  Third time they went back to talk to each other, and have been together ever since.  I mean, what are the chances?  Maybe they’re better than we think.


Be Open-minded about “What” and Forget About “How”

Our preconceived ideas of how something looks or could happen are ridiculously limited.  The Universe is working with an imagination and resources that dwarf our own.  A few months ago, I deliberately opened myself every morning to receive abundance.  My imagination tended to run along the lines of a check in the mail, or some activity that would result in one.  Instead the Universe came through with wildly on sale books and inspiration at Indigo, a free cappuccino at Starbucks, gifts of extravagant dinners out complete with cab rides home, and the gift of a new 42” plasma tv!!  More recently, I was focused on receiving a payout from my former company, which did not materialize.  But just a few days later I did my taxes, and my tax refund should be enough to live on for a year.

Be open-minded about “what” as well as “how”.  The Great Creator wears a bigger and more creative hat than we do, which causes us to miss many of the sweet and sometimes funny ways it fulfills our requests.  The first example above is a perfect one.  If I had defined material and financial abundance solely in terms of money (which initially I did, until experience and attention broadened my perspective), I’d have missed all the goodies at Indigo and Starbucks, and gifts from friends and family.  Or rather, I may have experienced them, but I would have missed their significance, missed the opportunity to really marvel at them and appreciate them, and missed the sense of being well cared for by the powers that be. 

Here is one more example about relaxing the “what”, and I include it because it makes me laugh.  I had been saying I’d like to attract more material/financial, romantic, and creative abundance.  All three were coming my way like the examples above .... in fun, surprising ways that were totally different from what I had been picturing.  Then, “Okay”, says the Universe, “how about writing romance novels?!  Hmmm?  They’re in huge demand!”  At first I was just surprised and skeptical about the suggestion.  It took me a day or so to work out that it was actually a fantastically elegant way of bringing more of all three kinds of abundance into my life!  Don’t know if I’ll actually do it.  But as I write this, I can still hear something very large giggling in the background, pleased with its own wit and efficiency.


Conversing With the Universe

So how did I “hear” the Universe speaking?  Through a new idea that just popped into my mind.  In the previous post I mentioned the dance of imagination, observation, appreciation, intuition and coincidence.  Two of the ways we speak to the Universe are through imagination and appreciation.  Two of the ways the Universe speaks to us are through imagination and coincidence.  Two of the ways we “hear” the Universe are through observation and intuition.  We discount so much as “just my imagination”.  It’s a withering criticism we’ve heard to accuse us of everything from lack of scientific evidence to hypochondria.  It’s the single biggest obstacle we face to engaging in an on going conversation with the Universe.  Because guess what?  The Universe, our souls, our intuition all speak the language of imagination.  What better way to communicate?  Why else did you think we have it?


What wonderful or surprising things have you attracted into your life?


If you would like to read more about the law of attraction, please visit my website.

Developing Intuition

(Imported from previous blogging platform, minus the comments, 8 April 09)

One thing I appreciated about both John Holland and Collette Baron-Reid this past weekend was that they talked about their process, the kinds of intuitive messages they received, and how they “got” them.  Because knowing how intuition works sometimes helps us to recognize it in our experience.

There are four main “sensory” ways we get intuitive guidance, as well as certain kinds of experience which are often rich with meaning.  In this post I will provide a high-level summary.

Sensory Guidance

1.     Clairvoyance (“clear seeing”).  This refers to visual images seen either in the mind’s eye or in the external world.  It includes seeing still images, mental movies, symbols, auras, colors, lights, dreams, signs, or meaningful items.  It is associated with the sixth chakra, the “third eye” which governs our spiritual vision and ability to see the truth.  Once during a practice reading, a woman I didn’t know asked me about her younger son.  In my mind’s eye, I had the vivid picture of a pizza restaurant.  Turns out the family had owned one until just a few months before, and the son had worked at it!

2.     Clairaudience (“clear hearing”).  Clairaudience is the voice of guidance, heard either inside your head or in the world around you.  It includes the “still small voice” within you (or a sharp, loud one warning of impending danger), mysteriously hearing a bell or your name being called, hearing a song with exactly the right lyrics to illuminate a situation, overhearing snatches of conversation, etc.  I remember driving from the Phoenix airport to Sedona for the first time.  Just as I came around the corner and got the full view of the incredible red rock formations in the late afternoon light, Van Morrison’s “Into the Mystic” started playing on my iPod!  Then about two minutes later, I passed a sign saying “Mystic Hills” .... as if I hadn’t quite got the point earlier .....

3.     Clairsentience (“clear feeling”).  These are the feeling you pick up in your body.  They are numerous and common, and include butterflies or clenching in your gut, tightening in the hands or shoulders, sudden strong emotion not related to your thoughts or surroundings, out of place smells, changes in room temperature, buzzes of joy or inspiration.  “Gut feelings” are clairsentience.  One night in undergrad I was walking home from the library alone.  I was about two blocks from my house and the street appeared to be deserted. Suddenly, out of nowhere, I had a sense of menace, so I ran the rest of the way home.  The next day we learned that another woman had been attacked on that very corner that night.

4.     Claircognizance (“clear knowing”).  This is when you “just know” something.  It includes insights and inspiration, as well as finding the right piece of guidance or information in your mind when you need it, or being able to fix something that is broken.  In the year before I left management consulting, I had a series of inspirations about what I would like to do next.  There were four or five in all, and they just seemed to land on my head at two-month intervals.  Each one showed up already formed, then I would spend the next couple of days unpicking and exploring it.  And each was accompanied by a rush of the most blissful excitement.

Generally each one of us will have one or two dominant intuitive senses.  If you’re very visual, then there’s a good chance that clairvoyance is one of yours.  If you always use phrases like “sounds good”, “sounds brutal” etc, then probably you’re clairaudience is strong.  Through years of doing yoga, my clairsentience increased because I got better at noticing sensations in my body.

Experiences

Some of the experiences to look out for if you are interested in developing intuition are:

1.     Premonitions

2.     Synchronicities

3.     Vivid dreams

4.     “Mystical” experiences or events

I will write about them in a later post.

Developing Intuition

So if you want to develop your intuition, where to begin?  There are some excellent books on the subject by extremely intuitive teachers.  I studied with Doreen Virtue, and think her “Divine Guidance” book is a great “how to”.  Also look for Sonia Choquette’s “The Psychic Pathway”, or Laura Day’s “Practical Intuition”.  The books are great, but the benefit of in-person workshops is that they force you to practice.  A lot.

There are also many things you can do on your own to get started.  Here are a few:

1.     Practice asking and waiting for guidance.  In the grocery store, ask yourself which kind of yoghurt to get, and then wait until you actually feel some kind of answer.  Instead of taking your usual walking or running route, ask yourself what route would be best today.  Then follow your promptings.

2.     Intuitive writing.  Get still and quiet.  Write down a question that you would like guidance on.  Pay attention to what you receive ..... words, images, physical sensations, emotions, etc.  Jot down your experience.  Write down your interpretation of the answer.

3.     Channel someone big and loud.  I was taught that Archangel Michael is one of the biggest, loudest folks in the Universe and is therefore easy for beginners to “hear”.  Get still and quiet.  Ask Michael to be with you, and talk to you.  Write down your question.  Without overthinking it, write down what you hear in response.

4.     Meditate.  Any practice that stills the chatter in your mind allows you to be more open to intuitive guidance.  My father has been meditating for years, and has become just a bit too intuitive!  He “just knows” when anyone in the family is spending money on frivolous things or staying out too late!!

Good luck .... have fun!

Importance of Intuition

(Imported from previous blogging platform, minus the comments, 19 March 09)

This past weekend I attended the Hay House “I Can Do It” conference in Toronto.  I’ll be digesting the experience in the next few blog postings.

Over the course of the weekend, I watched three well-known intuitives -- Sylvia Browne, John Holland, and Collette Baron-Reid -- do their thing.  I also had the chance to watch people’s reaction to what they were being told.  While some took the messages with an open mind and an appropriate level of discernment, others asked their questions and received their messages in a way that seemed to indicate a total abdication of power and authority in their own lives.  So I’ve been chewing over questions about the role and importance of intuition in our lives, how we develop it, and what it takes to use it.

We all have physical bodies with some basic level of functionality.  And we’re on a continuum with the sick and sedentary at one end and Lance Armstrong and Michael Phelps at the other.  Similarly, we are all born with some basic level of intuition, and a combination of lucky genes and life choices will either dull it down or amp it way up.  Key point is that we can all learn to access the intuition we have and strengthen it through attention and practice.

Intuition is important to our wellbeing.  Not because everybody needs to be able to perform readings on stage and talk to dead people.  But because it is the source of inner guidance.  It tells us what the logical mind or the fearful, isolating ego cannot.  When people talk about the still, small voice within, intuition is that voice.  Yes, intuition can be used to tune in to other people, or angels, or guides.  But for the most part it’s just our own inner / bigger / higher self in conversation with the part that lives in the ego and in the body.  Sometimes we need to re-learn the language of that conversation, or trust ourselves enough to act on it.  In the next post, I’ll get specific about the language.

It is difficult to talk about intuition without talking about self-confidence or trusting yourself.  My experience has been that developing my intuition also helped to strengthen my sense of self and my confidence in my own judgment and decisions.  But it’s a two-way street.  Without healthy dose of trust in yourself, you will find it difficult to hear your intuitive guidance and terrifying to act on it.  You will constantly dismiss what you get as crazy, and be afraid that it is wrong.  Do you know anyone who seems perpetually incapable of making decisions?  They analyze dozens of possible computers / cars / vacation opportunities / growth strategies, and are so fearful of making the wrong decision that they never make one at all?  This often happens when that strong sense of self is missing.

I firmly believe that intuition is to be welcomed and developed, not feared.  But there are two caveats.  First, it’s not a replacement for good research, analysis, critical thinking, and planning.  In the same way as hearing and seeing are not either/or activities, neither are thinking and intuiting.  We’ve got both faculties, we should use them both.

Second caveat is that we don’t always like what our intuition will tell us.  A good friend attended the conference with me, and her intuition was pinging at her all weekend, giving her a hard time about an apparently sensible work decision she’s about to make.  And I can look back at some of the romantic relationships that litter my past like so many car crashes, and remember clearly the intuitive yellow and red flags I chose to ignore. 

In the next post I’ll talk about how intuition communicates with us, and how to start developing it.