What is power? How would you define it?

Recently I read this definition: “Though power most often refers to the ability to influence people (Guerrero, DeVito & Hecht, 1999, p. 314), power is also related to dominance and status (Guerrero, DeVito & Hecht, 1999, p. 315)…”

Hunh? I spend all day focusing on empowering my clients and myself, but I’ve always thought of power as the ability to create healing changes, the kind of power that flows through you. Are we ultimately working towards the ability to influence, dominate, and have status?

Hmm… Well, sure. I like this definition because you can apply it perfectly to most valuable type of power you can develop, an ability most correlated with success — self-power. Power from within means you can influence yourself to write your novel, exercise, meditate every day, practice your art regularly, or get to sleep at a healthy time, even when all you feel like doing is sitting in front of a late movie with a bowl of ice cream.

Right, that power. The power that builds easy self-discipline. The power that takes you out of old, limiting habits and stretches for new habits, and keeps stretching, right through the discomfort stage.

This power is the ability to influence yourself to do what you know is good for you in the long run, when your head is full of reasons why not. It is the ability to dominate your “but-but-but” thoughts. And it is the status that says you honor your health, wealth, and happiness first. Good things come from this kind of power.

Then, when you use this power to take care of you (to put that proverbial oxygen mask over your own face), you will have more power to take care of others. You will empower your Inner Healer.

© 2012 Daria Boissonnas

How do you define power? What kind of power are you developing? Let us know in the comments below!

On Friday I attended a writer’s retreat and I am still floating. Because I am a writer. It’s my life purpose, the way I fulfill my divine contract. When I returned, I was quite surprised to find the pain from a recent horrible relationship blowup had all but disappeared. This was a situation where for two weeks I was so preoccupied that I kept forgetting things and taking wrong turns while driving.

It reminded me how powerfully healing it is to do what you were born to do, to step into your divine purpose, even just for a few hours.

Many artists, healers, and creatives spend a great deal of time and money fixing their problems. While this process has merit, we also can get WAY too distracted by it! I have seen great healers obsessed with pathology instead of asking how to move beyond it. I have seen them with their backs to the future, toiling over clearing their past, like Sisyphus rolling the rock to the top of the hill only to have it roll down again, or worse, like Prometheus getting his liver eaten out every morning.

You can spend a lifetime clearing the ants from an anthill by stepping on them as they emerge. Or YOU can help yourself step beyond the anthill.

Your choice.

When you are in your purpose, time disappears, your heart sings, and you create so much nurturing and healing energy that you can help clear a LOT of those problems you thought you had. Imagine what it would be like to make your living expressing your creativity! Let the fantasy roll. Think up your next project.

Healing comes from connections that nurture, and the most powerful kinds include connecting to your divine purpose, your natural gifts, your creativity, and who you really are when you are in that groove.

Over and over, my highly gifted creative clients are unhappy and stuck because they are not devoting enough time to doing their creative thing. (The second most common absence is not getting out in nature enough–another source of powerful healing!) It’s time to give yourself permission to be happy and to heal.

Stop peeling the onion. Put it down and be done with it. Go do your creative thang.

When I write, my cup runneth over. So may it be for you.

© 2012 Daria Boissonnas

~ Daria’s Wednesday Wisdom column ~

Is there some area of your life where you know you need to make a change, but you just… haven’t… done it yet?

Maybe you’ve been intending to lose that extra 10 pounds, start a newsletter for your business, finish your book, or do that scrapbook.

I bet you give yourself grief for not taking those steps. (You do, don’t you?) You might feel bad, criticize yourself (even in front of others), punish yourself subtly, or worse.

Stop it.

Right now.

Your intentions to change are actually great news, even without the action step!

Here is why. When we make change, we generally move through three phases. And any progress beyond the first phase should be applauded!

Beginning Phase: Nothing is wrong with me. I don’t need to change. What are you staring at?

Middle Phase: Uh oh, I noticed something I would like to change in my life. Ugh. Wow. How long has this been here? Why didn’t someone tell me? Oh, you did? Ack, just how pervasive is it? Oh, wow. Let me soak this in and get used to the idea. Let me look at it from all angles. I want to look around for solutions, but I’m not ready to know what I want to do about it yet.

Final Phase: I am ready to do something about this issue. In fact I am doing something! I am really excited to start a program this afternoon. I already have done the first three exercises in the workbook. I looked at a lot of options, and I do believe this is the one for me. I am committed to this change, and have created a reward system for myself. I am doing this for me, and will enjoy the outcome.

Tips for Surviving the Middle Phase of Change

Yes, it’s GREAT to want to change, even if you are not yet ready to do so. Here are five ways to make it easier to survive–and graduate from this phase.

1. Celebrate. If you know you want to make a change, but you aren’t doing anything, you are in the middle phase. It’s OK, in fact, it’s great! Congratulations! You made it out of being stuck! Pat yourself on the back. Celebrate your moving forward! And let go of all that guilt. Just because you had the idea does not mean you are ready to live it… yet.

2. Get Clarity. Discover exactly what you DO want to change. Often, it’s not what you think at first, when you first move into the Middle Phase. This phase is about clarification. You see what you want to fix or eliminate, but what do you want to replace it with?

Sometimes, your original goal (eg. lose 20 pounds) is just a hint at what you really want, and your real goal (love myself enough to find a romantic partner) is something different. Dig deep. Go on retreats, consult with proven intuitives, ponder and dig around until you identify the real dream at the core of your desire to change. Keep moving forward.

3. Look At Your Options. Look around for solutions, but don’t buy anything yet. Especially don’t buy something just because it came along–it might have come along as a form of resistance, not a godsend solution. Take a good look at its merits and costs. Try programs out first–almost everyone gives away a free recording or exercise or something to try. Are you ready to stick to a schedule and do the work?

4. Give Yourself Time. Right now, you are analyzing the situation–and it’s never as cut-and-dried as it seems. You need some time. Allow yourself to have it.

If you get antsy, set a date to decide what you will do about your desire to change. If you don’t have the information or if you are not fully connected to creating a solution, set another date and some things to do or learn before that date.

5. Get Help If You Get Stuck. Yes, it is possible to get stuck in the Middle Phase, stuck in your resistance and fears and doubts, not moving forward when you want to. Get help, bounce your fears off others, and while you are exploring your resistance, be kind to yourself.

We do not punish second graders for not knowing high school math. Second grade is a phase, a stepping stone. Enjoy it. What right do you have to be mean to any of God’s children, yourself included?

When you let go of the guilt, self-criticism, angst, and self-sabotage you are raining down upon yourself, you open up a lot of energy to constructive uses, including healing. You can progress more quickly through the Middle Phase of Change and reach your end goal. Then you can celebrate once again!

© 2012 Daria Boissonnas

Have you ever thought of change this way before? Share your thoughts with us in the comment section below!

Friends! The Sun moves into Aquarius today at 8:10 am pacific time. We leave the silence of Capricorn to rally our passionate troupes. Here’s the big question: Who do you want to be playing with this year? With whom do you feel most alive? Who inspires you, lifts you, awakens you? This month is the time to summon your allies.

Aquarius is the sign of the water bearer. Its phrase is “Water of life am I, poured forth for thirsty men.” Aquarius as the world server wants to pour forth its gift for all in need. But Aquarius is particularly interested in offering up this water of life with his true peers. This is the sign of group collaboration and nothing thrills an Aquarian more than the opportunity to build something together.

Cautionary note: It is easy to feel like the lone wolf in Aquarius as well. When we try to collaborate, all kinds of wretchedness can surface.

We might feel that there is no one that gets us, no one that sees as we do, no one as passionate about what we are passionate about. The moment we give into these inner monologues, we have begun to radically limit ourselves. We must dare to sound our most unique LEO note consistently, summoning those of like mind and heart. The response may begin with just one steadfast ally, but if our LEO song is true and generous and powerful and meant to “pour forth for thirsty men” then be patient and sing. Before you know it, you will have a whole “da-who-doray-Grinch-Who-Stole-Christmas” chorus of allies singing your song.

Carolyn Casey, one of my favorite astrological allies, suggests we speak this out into the world:

“Let the winds of change blow through my life, bringing the most radically enlivening thing that could possibly happen. I am hoisting my sails. Parasail me into the place where I can connect with my allies, and together we can do the most good.”

Here, she is writing about Uranus, one of the rulers of Aquarius. She speaks not only to the willingness to dance with change but to actually strongly invite change into our lives so that it can do its work without our resistance. Bring on the change! Bring on the allies!

And remember, Allies aren’t always our best friends. They may be someone like Carolyn Casey who whispers to me through her excellent writing and inspires me to forge ahead on my journey. And remember too the words of David Whyte as you begin to sound your call:

….anything or anyone
that does not bring you alive
is too small for you.

Aquarius is the final air sign and wants to distribute, circulate and gather. Stay open. Be curious. Talk to people. Join forces. Do it differently. Gather for salons and share your creative genius with your pals. SHARE. Come down from your mountain top and offer it up. Experiment. Improvise.

Be the lightening rod for your bolt out of the blue. Then speak that inspiration, share it, dance it, engage it, sing it. Take a breath and in that silent moment between inhale and exhale, listen for the sweet sound of your approaching allies.

Heidi Rose Robbins grew up learning the zodiac with her alphabet. As a practicing astrologer for over 15 years, Heidi takes a practical, sensitive, and inspiring approach to astrology. It is Heidi’s passion and commitment to speak to the depth of who we are and to help us grow into the next outrageous blossoming of our true selves. Her thriving worldwide practice includes transformative retreats for women twice a year in Ojai, California. GIA is pleased to offer Heidi as a regular guest columnist.

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A Poem for Aquarius

Everything is Waiting for You – David Whyte

Your great mistake is to act the drama
as if you were alone. As if life
were a progressive and cunning crime
with no witness to the tiny hidden
transgressions. To feel abandoned is to deny
the intimacy of your surroundings. Surely,
even you, at times, have felt the grand array;
the swelling presence, and the chorus, crowding
out your solo voice. You must note
the way the soap dish enables you,
or the window latch grants you freedom.
Alertness is the hidden discipline of familiarity.
The stairs are your mentor of things
to come, the doors have always been there
to frighten you and invite you,
and the tiny speaker in the phone
is your dream-ladder to divinity.

Put down the weight of your aloneness and ease into
the conversation. The kettle is singing
even as it pours you a drink, the cooking pots
have left their arrogant aloofness and
seen the good in you at last. All the birds
and creatures of the world are unutterably
themselves. Everything is waiting for you.

~ Daria’s Wednesday Wisdom column ~

I’ve been searching hard for a good quote about being a strong role model for others. It’s an important role to play. Role models shine their light brightly to help those behind them find their way. They uplift and inspire.

As healers, we need to be great role models for our clients and fans. We must walk in the shoes of our divine Inner Healer. We must care for and support ourselves so we can create as much healing as possible in the world.

That means if you recommend nutritional support, you should take it yourself. If you offer an energy healing technique, you should receive that method of healing from other practitioners yourself. If you are a lawyer, you should have your own legal ducks in a row.

The odd thing is that I discovered many of the celebrities and thinkers we admire do not want to be called role models. Keeping in mind that these are unconfirmed quotes from those junky online quote sites, here is the sort of thing I’m finding. (Do not quote these without confirming their source, just get the gist and be amazed:)

“Making me into a role model is placing too much importance on what I see as a work in progress.” –British musician P. J. Harvey

“I’m no role model.” –American athlete Charles Barkley

“In the right situations, I can try to help and be a role model, but I’m still gonna speak my mind, and if that affects the role-model deal, then too bad.” –American musician Toby Keith

I get their point. They are not perfect and do not want to be held up as such.

But who is perfect?

We seem to have a mistaken idea that role models have to be perfect. I tell clients all the time that I share their struggles, flaws, and regular dips into the dark night of the soul. What I have developed over the years, however, are strategies for catching myself earlier and pulling myself out faster and faster. I’ve also developed practices and mindsets to keep myself from falling down as often or as hard. That is the value of the role model.

What we really admire in our role models is this: they are not perfect, but in some aspect they have developed ways of being that we wish to develop, too. Practical tools, tips, and tricks like this are what we want from our coaches and mentors and role models. Ultimately, and ideal role model knows their flaws and loves themself anyway. They be themselves, their brilliant, fun salves. That creates charisma. That’s what we crave in role models: permission to be ourselves.

If you are a leading person in your field, be comfortable with the fact that you are a role model. Own it. And live it. Be yourself. Do what you admire in others. Look up to yourself. People won’t be able to get enough of you.

If you would like to inspire others, we are here help you walk your path. Our membership program offers the spiritual development and practical action steps to get you where you want to go, faster and easier. Click here for more information.

“I don’t want to be perfect, but I do want to be a role model. My mom always tells me that imperfections equal beauty. All of us are imperfect.”  –American musician Miley Cyrus

“Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great.”  –American author Mark Twain

© 2012 Daria Boissonnas

~ Daria’s Wednesday Wisdom column ~

This article series is about the many forms of human intuition. Do you know your strongest type?

To recap our intro article, intuition is a way you can receive information through the parts of your consciousness other than your physical body or rational, thinking mind.

Intuition is perfectly normal. Your job, my dear spiritual traveler, is to learn to recognize and decipher your intuition, and then use it to live a good life and help people.

Types of Intuition – 2. Clairaudience

Most flavors of intuition begin with the prefix “clair-”, French for “clear.” Not all are voluntary, able to be turned on and off, though you can get there with practice. In clairaudience, you receive information through what feels like a sense of hearing.

Sometimes, the information feels like it has actually been said aloud. Many clients and healers have told me of such events. They heard a profound and simple statement as if it was very clearly said aloud (except nobody was there or nobody else heard it). Those messages were deeply clarifying and became turning points in their spiritual journeys. This is one kind of clairaudient event.

Clairaudience can be subtle, too. When working with clients, I have heard clear messages for the client from his or her guides, higher wisdom, or dead relatives (can often tell who or describe them). It feels like I hear the entire phrase, as if it is being said to them. To me it does not feel like I’m hearing a physical sound. It often comes with emotions or the feeling of the consciousness that is “saying” it. So I pass these messages along as best I can. They are often super easy to forget, like waking from a dream and trying to tell someone what it was right away. For the client, the message is often profound. While random statements to me (tho often clerly loving), they are “wow” to the client, even to the point of tears.

You can think of clairaudience as a form of channeling, where the words of another consciousness come through you as if you are hearing them said. You are a conscious relay, shifting from your clairaudient higher consciousness down to the part of your consciousness that talks or writes. This type of channeling differs from claircognizance, which is like a brain dump: you know a lot of information in a deep way all at once.

Are You Clairaudient?

All right, I’ve had decades of practice as a psychic or empath, but I suspect many folks hear clairaudient messages and cannot tell them apart from our own thoughts. Instead, they assume this valuable guidance is just a random thought. That’s too bad when they brush off what could be a profoundly healing statement.

All the information you need in any situation is available to you. If your overtaxed thinking mind cannot figure it out, your higher guidance has an infinite number of alternatives. To create healing, we should always search with our hearts and higher consicousness for solutions beyond what the mere thinking mind can create.

To get better at recognizing how a clairaudient message feels different from random thoughts, simply listen. See if you can begin to feel the difference in how your thoughts feel. Pay special attention to statements or thoughts you hear in meditation, on nature walks, or during those wonderful times when our physical consciousness is just busy enough to let us drift into higher layers of consciousness: driving, showering, doing dishes or other routine physical tasks, for instance.

As with practicing any kind of intuition, you both need to hear it and get some feedback to test how accurate it is. Practice does not get you to Carnegie Hall — but practice with accurate feedback does. Keep a notebook handy and see how you do.

Yes, you are intuitive. All the information you need is available to you. How can you use your gifts to live a blissful life that benefits others?

Better Healing with Clairaudience

To listen is to pay attention to what you are hearing. Clairaudience goes beyond the physical ears and brain, however. It is an open state of receiving information.

If you are a healer or would like to create the permanent positive transformation that we call healing, then develop intuitive listening. Create a state of what feels like listening with your entire body and being. Then train your mind to receive it, bypassing the thinking mind’s habit of judging, measuring, categorizing, rationalizing, and rejecting. Enjoy the journey!

Next time:  clairemotional or empathic (not the same as empathetic).

What Next?

If you are looking for spiritual and intuitive development, consider a membership in GIA. Check out our benefits here: GIAwaken.com/benefits.

To ask Daria a question or share a comment, use the comment section below!

“I see the goal, I reach the goal and then I see another.”

Have things been a bit intense of late? Can I hear a hallelujah? Wow.

Everyone around me has been in the thick of transformation. The month of Scorpio is always a ride. It requires a full address of the darkness. It requires tenacity and it requires firmly holding a vision of the light.

But now…..Ahhhhhh. Now we welcoming Sagittarius. No matter how much we love Scorpio for its intensity and power, we are all ready for the  the optimism and freedom of Sagittarius when the Sun moves into this fiery sign.

(And by the way, the Sun moved moves into Sagittarius at  8:08 am pacific time today).

Sagittarius brings momentum. It brings forward movement. It brings the big, gorgeous goal and the white stallion even shows up for us to ride on toward it. Jupiter rules Sagittarius bringing good fortune, generosity and expansions of consciousness. Everything grows bigger, richer, fuller, stronger under Jupiter and the sign of Sagittarius.

The legs are ruled by Sagittarius allowing us to run, ski, jump, kick with vigor and passion. We STAND UNDER what we believe in with the power of our legs, our roots and our connection to the earth. And we UNDER-STAND the biggest ideas and visions and begin to make them our own.

Sagittarius is the physical philosopher. He wants to travel the world and come to understand who we are as Humanity. He wants to be free and unbounded and full of aspiration and desire. The KEY with Sagittarius is to gather all that gorgeous, vital energy and DIRECT it towards a tangible goal. This way we can become ‘the one pointed disciple’ of Sagittarius and harness all our vitality in the name of our vision.

Pay attention this month to Mercury Retrograde IN Sagittarius. Mercury goes retrograde on November 23rd and again goes direct on December 13th. (This might not be a ton of fun for Thanksgiving travel, but breathe and bring a good book). In general, during this time let the ride be an inner one.

Dream. Envision. Discuss. But don’t necessarily focus on huge outer action.

Mercury Retrograde is a time to turn inward and focus all your inner yearning, passion and visionary strength to rally around the goal. If you Do take action, be clear, one-pointed and lead with your JOY.

Heidi Rose Robbins grew up learning the zodiac with her alphabet, and has been a practicing astrologer for over 15 years. She has a practical, sensitive, and inspiring approach to astrology. It is Heidi’s passion and commitment to speak to the depth of who we are and to help us grow into the next outrageous blossoming of our true selves. Her thriving world-wide practice includes transformative retreats for women twice a year in Ojai, California. GIA is proud to have Heidi as a regular guest columnist.

Poem for Sagittarius

A (very) Sagittarius Song

To dream the impossible dream
To fight the unbeatable foe
To bear with unbearable sorrow
To run where the brave dare not go

To right the unrightable wrong
To love pure and chaste from afar
To try when your arms are too weary
To reach the unreachable star

This is my quest
To follow that star
No matter how hopeless
No matter how far

To fight for the right
Without question or pause
To be willing to march into Hell
For a heavenly cause

And I know if I’ll only be true
To this glorious quest
That my heart will lie peaceful and calm
When I’m laid to my rest

And the world will be better for this
That one man, scorned and covered with scars
Still strove with his last ounce of courage
To reach the unreachable star

~ Daria’s Wednesday Wisdom column ~

With energies shifting, more and more of us are becoming aware of our intuitive abilities. How about you? Do you know what form your intuition takes? Do you know how to recognize it and what to do with it?

Intuition comes in many guises. Intuition is simply a way of receiving information via the parts of your consciousness that are other than your physical body or rational, thinking mind.

Intuition is perfectly normal. We are all born with a vast spectrum of consciousness, a rainbow of flavors, which can receive information. So there are many ways you receive information, in addition to your five standard senses and your thinking mind.

Your job, my dear spiritual traveler, is to learn to be unafraid of your intuition, as you would be perfectly OK with sight or sound or other inputs you are used to. Your spiritual responsibility is to learn to recognize and decipher this additional information, and then figure out how to live a good life with it, and even use it to help people.

Intuition is a great source of objective information and guidance. When information comes in through these channels, it does not flow through the fallible human mind. It stays in its purest form, from God’s mouth to your ear, you might say. As we process or think about this intuitive info, or rationalize it, or interpret it, however, we begin to dirty the waters. A skillful intuitive does as little interpretation as possible.

To access your inner wisdom, you must first familiarize yourself with the way the extra info comes in. Learn to recognize it, and especially discern it from random thoughts — because your thinking mind can be mistaken. (Actually, the mind is quite famous for being mistaken, and for making up false stories of all kinds.)

I’m sorry to say that your intuition did not come with an owners manual. In this article series, we will take a good look at the several different kinds of intuition.

Types of Intuition – 1. Claircognizance

Most flavors of intuition begin with the prefix “clair-”, which comes to us from French, meaning “clear”. You can slap “clair” on the front end of any kind of word describing how you receive your information.  Er, that is, any word describing the way it feels like you receive your information. Er, that is, describing the most similar “normal” way of receiving information.

Oh, let’s just jump in, shall we?

1. Claircognizance — clear knowing. You just know. You know who is calling, and it turns out to be them. You know your lover will be home late, and they are. You know something bad will happen this morning, and you’re in a fender-bender. It is not belief or thoughts. You. Know.

Claircognizance may be the most common form of intuition today. I suspect it is more widespread than any survey can uncover… because you can have this form of intuition and not even know it! Ask yourself this: how many times a week do you experience or refer to what you may call: a funny feeling, impression, gut feeling, hunch, inkling, forboding, instinct, premonition or even a plain old thought! If you are not good at recognizing your intuition, claircognizance will totally feel like thoughts.

One close friend who is very claircognizant honestly believed he was a good guesser. He could find things in 20 minutes that other experts could not find for days, but he thought nothing of it. He didn’t know that everyone is born with perfectly normal levels of consciousness, beyond the thinking mind, that can gather information.

Now you know this.

For a few years, he didn’t believe me about being claircognizant. Now, he admits it. Better yet, he’s learning to differentiate this cleaner information from his chaotic monkey-minded thoughts.

When we don’t recognize the value of our intuition, we don’t benefit from it as well as we can. If he had admitted how valuable, incisive, and consistently accurate his gift was, he could have made a very highly paid living focusing on finding things that other experts could not. A great living based on one of his Divine Gifts!

Are You Claircognizant?

So think about it over the next few days… when you get a hunch, what does it feel like? Does it come with words or pictures? A feeling of calmness and peace? Or is it a random (but recognizable) blip of information in a river of thoughts?

Another clue to our intuition often comes from childhood. We tend to train ourselves to ignore our intuitive gifts as we grow up, but we can often see them in hindsight. Can you think of hunches you had regularly as a kid? Did you have a good people sense? Feel like animals talked to you or you to them? Good sense for how the grownups were feeling? Imaginary friends? Talked to fairies or your dead grandmother?

When I was little, I always had a “feeling” about trips. I knew exactly how I would feel emotionally during them, and I was 100% correct. In my early 20s, starting a Sunday night trip home, I felt like I was driving to my death. Spooked, I crashed with a friend and drove home at 4am. Even in the morning light, I almost wiped out on black ice in the mountains. We will never know for sure what would have happened, but I’m glad I listened to my gut and drove the next day.

Another gift I’ve had for as long as I can remember is being able to either predict coin tosses or know when the answer was blocked and I had no idea. 100% right when extensively tested by a disbelieving boyfriend once upon a time, LOL.

See if you can now begin to separate out your claircognizance from your other sensory inputs and mind activity. If you get a hunch about something, see if you can verify the extra information. Keep a notebook handy and see how you do. You may surprise yourself. You may completely validate what you’ve suspected for years, more like!

You are intuitive. How can you use your gifts to live a blissful life that benefits others?

Next time:  clairaudience.

Still Confused?

If you are looking for support in walking your spiritual path, consider a membership in GIA, where you learn to manage and confidently use your intuition and Divine Gifts, ultimately to make a great living fulfilling your Divine Purpose. Check out our benefits here: GIAwaken.com/benefits.

If you have another form of intuition, please comment below.

“Warrior am I and from the battle I emerge triumphant”

The Sun moves into Scorpio today at 2:30 pm. We now plunge into the one of the most intense, penetrating, deep times of the year. In Scorpio, we are all warriors and as such we all have the opportunity to wrestle with our stuff.

The energy of Scorpio carries a willingness to dive in and explore all the dark corners. There’s a look in the eyes of Scorpio warriors that says, “Yes, I WILL. I will emerge triumphant.” And this is the month we all get to have that look in our eyes. We all get to say, “I’m tired of this darkness. I insist on LIGHT.”

The wrestling is what’s interesting. It’s not an easy journey. There are tears, fears and inner turmoil. But each step–each TINY step–we take towards something brighter, lighter or better for us is a victory.

I just gathered 19 women for my Radiant Life Retreat about 10 days ago and I watched each woman breathe through her dark corners. Each woman embodied part of what I like to call ‘our wretchedness’ and got to see it transform into LOVE. Emerging triumphant is emerging with more potency, love or wisdom in our lives. It’s emerging more FREE.

I think we must wrestle with the chains that bind us in the name of FREEDOM. Our charts offer our Maps to Freedom and we must call on every tool available– every gift in the chart — to keep us on a path of liberation. Because if we are FREE, we are authentic, generous, vital and unencumbered. We are choosing our lives every moment.  We are offering ourselves without agenda or accounts. We are soaring inwardly and outwardly.

Here, however, we need a word about wrestling. There is wrestling that stays entangled and emeshed in the dark OR there is wrestling that keeps its eye on the light. As we wrestle, we must keep our hearts open and we must breathe as deeply as we can muster. We can fight using LIGHT at our sword. We can fight with the right word, the right touch, the right choice. We can be warriors — who though they may have cause to strike something dead — instead make the choice to kill with LOVE and liberate another being with that love. In Scorpio, we can set ourselves or others FREE with our ability to wield power well.

There are a few dates of note this month. On November 2nd, both Venus and Mercury move in Sagittarius taking all the depth and soul-searching of the last month and putting it in to action. There should be a surge of creative optimism and a willingness to dream big. Also, on November 10th, the planet Mars will move into the industrious and analytical sign of Virgo. Virgo and Scorpio together make for tenacious, rigorous work. Get into it and get it done.

May this month allow you to be your own alchemist taking all that is dead or lead in you and transforming it into the gold light of the soul. Or in brass tacks terms, let’s transform another small piece of the wretchedness in our lives and feel a little lighter, more generous and with more room to breathe in the beauty of our lives.

Heidi Rose Robbins grew up learning the zodiac with her alphabet, and has been a practicing astrologer for over 15 years. She has a practical, sensitive, and inspiring approach to astrology. It is Heidi’s passion and commitment to speak to the depth of who we are and to help us grow into the next outrageous blossoming of our true selves. Her thriving world-wide practice includes transformative retreats for women twice a year in Ojai, California. GIA is proud to have Heidi as a regular guest columnist.

Poem for Scorpio

The Sonnets to Orpheus, II, 29 — Ranier Maria Rilke (Mitchell Translation)

Silent friend of many distances, feel
how your breath enlarges all of space.
Let your presence ring out like a bell
into the night.  What feeds upon your face

grows mighty from the nourishment thus offered.
Move through transformation, out and in.
What is the deepest loss that you have suffered?
If drinking is bitter, change yourself to wine.

In this immeasurable darkness, be the power
that rounds your senses in their magic ring,
the sense of their mysterious encounter.

And if the earthly no longer knows your name,
whisper to the silent earth: I’m flowing.
To the flashing water say: I am.

~ Ranier Maria Rilke ~

~ Daria’s Wednesday Wisdom column ~

A client called reporting that her blood sugar levels, which had been stable and manageable, were starting to spike and change unexpectedly. “Should I come in for more healing work?” she asked.

Usually I leave that answer up to her higher wisdom. So I asked her body’s energy and higher wisdom that question.

“No,” it said. “Something in her environment has changed and she just has to change it back.”

Sounds easy enough! What was it?

…Something in the kitchen. Something having to do with sounds.

What new sounds did she have in her kitchen?

Well, as it turns out, a few weeks earlier she had started listening to right-wing radio shows in the kitchen in the morning.

“Are you enjoying it? Do you agree with what they are saying?”

No, not at all, was her answer. But it was entertaining for sure!

When we are stressed, we often think of higher blood pressure. But in this case, it was higher blood sugar. The energy of this stressful situation was disrupting her blood sugar energy, allowing it to become erratic. She thought she was entertaining herself, but instead she was stressing herself in a way that could harm her health and well-being.

She agreed to stop listening to the new talk shows, and later told me her blood sugar levels had become more stable.

You Are Your Environment

Your environment is not separate from your energy, your mindset, or your health. It is not merely a reflection of the state of your health, but completely connected to it. Your environment is continuous with (one with) the state of your physical, mental, emotional, and other energies and layers of your being.

Happily, due to this connection, you can change your environment and change your health.

Yes, really. But only if you change it in a healing way.

My upcoming book, Gift of the Healer, (due out in Decemberish) describes in detail the difference between healing change and general change, but here is one key to changing your environment in a way that positively affects your personal energy:

Permanently change how you do things. Change your method.

Cleaning up is one thing. Body cleanses and tidying up the house are lovely and important.  But I am talking about stepping beyond a cleanup. To change your energy, you must do more than just fix the clutter in a way that allows it to accrue again. You must change your process so the clutter does not appear any more.

For instance, right here and now, think of a small area in your life where things tend to accumulate. Now walk through these simple questions.

1. Find the process you are missing.

In addition to putting away or recycling that pile of papers, batteries, or broken toys, ask yourself these questions:

Is it OK for this to accumulate here? If so, put a basket, tray, or inbox there (or somewhere more appropriate. Let that be the official place for that stuff! Skip to step 2.

If it is not OK, ask: why is this here? What allowed it to languish? You may say: I need to pay this bill, I don’t know where else to put this thing, I have to file these, I have to make a phone call about this…)

What process is missing? What did NOT happen that allowed this? If there was a process in place that would avoid creating this clutter, what would that process be? You might say, “I don’t have a holding place for my “to do” papers or unpaid bills. Perhaps you used to forget about it when it was in the drawer, so you also need a reminder, either on your phone calendar, or a marker on your desk when you have unpaid bills in the desk. (You can store the marker in the empty bills folder when it is empty.)

2. Create a new process.

Write out the new “rule” for that area. For instance, “When I come home, I will decide within 24 hours where new things live.” Or perhaps, “Unpaid bills go in the red folder in the front of the desk drawer and every month on the 15th and 30th I will pay them.”

Commit to your new process. Get buy-in from roommates/family/etc. Commit to yourself, to healing this broken process that is draining and cluttering up your energy. Adjust your attitude and assumptions that are creating this problem. Yes, your home can be beautifully clean!  Yes, you are so worth it!

Put it in action. Implement what you have come up with. Mark your calendar for that bill paying, or write a sticky note to yourself to remember to do laundry every morning until you remember. It’s OK to forget once in a while when a process is new, but If the process does not work at all, review the steps that got you there. Is there a better process? Does your partner or friend have another idea?

Healing Heals

Healing other people and animals heals you.  Similarly, healing your environment also heals you. It is the healing that makes the difference, not what you are healing.

When you know exactly what turns positive change into healing, you can heal yourself and others all day long, in all that you do. Stick around here to learn more about that!

Please share the process you changed in the comments below. I LOVE to hear from you!

To receive announcements about the book’s launch and how you can get a sneak peek at it, sign up for our free kit, at the top of this page.

The first step to awakening your masterful Inner Healer is to Know Yourself. It is the oldest spiritual advice on the planet and the most important.

When you know yourself, you know what it is that you love to do that shares your healing gift with the world. You develop a groundedness and centeredness in yourself that pushes negative, draining, harmful energies and events far from you. You develop charisma and confidence. It is easier to love everyone and find miraculous solutions.

Knowing yourself connects you to the Universal Essence we all crave. This Essence or raw Potential is where all healing comes from. Knowing yourself — and holding open that connection to your greater Self as much as possible — opens your healing channels. It allow more healing and more powerful transformations to flow through you.

To be a better healer, that is, to create more permanent positive change in the world: know and love yourself.

Action Step for Healing

Yesterday, at the DreamU Inspirational Speaker conference I’m attending, branding expert Brad Stauffer shared an inspiring video from singer Jessica Andrews, along these lines. Take a listen below.

1. Jessica Andrews lists a few things in the chorous that help her remain anchored or centered in her true Self. What are they? How does she find herself by looking outward into the world? List them out for yourself and consider them.

2. Now list five things that keep you centered and grounded in yourself. Five ways you stay connected to your higher self or true self. They may be very different from Jessica’s, and that’s delightful.

3. For each of these, list two ways you can activate this more or more often.

4. Implement them.

 
You are a powerful healer. As always, I would love to hear what you say in the comments here!

~ Daria’s Wednesday Wisdom column ~

The client called out of the blue. “You have to help me!” he said, “I’ve scheduled an important event and now my astrology says it’s a terrible day where everything will go wrong!”

While some people scoff at astrology, I find that as you step onto your spiritual path and further awaken your healing gifts, you actually become more sensitive to these background energies in the universe. In a sense, your readings can become increasingly accurate (especially with a good practitioner). At some point, you may become fearful of a negative prediction like Mercury retrograde, or a Saturn/Uranus alignment that makes you want to stay in bed all day and wait for next week to arrive.

Here are three key insights you are missing if you are afraid of the big bad astrologer, and how to resolve the problem.

1. As with all intuitive senses, much depends on interpretation.

Of course it helps to have a good reader who can tune into you and the meaning you need to hear in that moment. But even smashingly good intuitives and psychics often interpret the symbols they see through their own filters, and commonly make mistakes not in what they saw but in how they described it. That means there are many other valid interpretations of meaning, on many levels, whatever a reader or astrologer tells you.

This client was looking at a general chart of planetary energies and what they could, generally, mean. That means the astrologer did not customize the prediction to him. So we looked them over. Yes, I said, Saturn is the great teacher who brings lessons. When you are resisting his teachings, you might end up learning the hard way, ouch. Or, Saturn can mean that you will learn something wonderful and new from the event in question!

Uranus is an energy of great change and turnover–out with the old and in with the new. One way of interpreting that energy is that everything will go to heck in a hand basket. Another way is to say that transformation is coming. And I knew my client intended to create transformation with this event in question. He was relieved to hear these other, more specific interpretations, to say the least.

2. Events and forces in your personal spiritual journey may powerfully override astrological or other external forces.

I once had a dream where I was falling in love in a war zone. I was not fighting the war (was too young) and could hear it going on around me. Yet I was sappily, happily falling head over heels. In that moment, the environment of war was not affecting my spiritual journey with my beloved nearly as much as the forces of love and the hormones of youth.

Back to my client. Since I speak to bodies and higher selves, I asked his energy and received the message: “Yes yes yes, go go go! Having this event on that day ranks at a 10 out of 10 for him!” Something in his personal energy wanted that even then, no matter what was happening in the skies.

At this point in his life, the worrisome event represented a new, greater way of operating for him. He was stepping it up, moving forward. He would learn something new from this event and transform not only his own path but his students as well. His specific situation required a different interpretation from the negative general one.

3. There is ALWAYS something positive you can do in “negative” energy.

This is the greatest insight of them all. Don’t sit at home waiting for better energies to arrive next week! Whatever the prediction, there is some way you can turn it into something positive or at least something transformational. You are a natural born healer, and you have the gift to turn anything — anything — a positive way. That is the Gift of the Healer, which I discuss in detail in my book coming out this fall. We each have it.

If you must stay home, why not clean out the closet you’ve been meaning to? If you are going to postpone your event, how can you spin it to your advantage and do something extra with the time? Best of all, how can you stand firm in your intentions and move through the predicted negativity with aplomb and the eternal mind of a student? Even negative energies can have a purging effect when they take you through the darkness and out the other side.

There is ALWAYS something positive you can do in “negative” situations.

And it is your job as a healer to go find them. You can do this.

~ Daria’s Wednesday Wisdom column ~

How can helping others hold you back? More easily and subtly than you think.

When clients come to see me, they are stuck, stuck, stuck. They can feel a healing gift bubbling inside them, but they cannot figure out what it is or how to fully let it out. One of the most common reasons they are stuck, which I just saw again this week, is that these spectacular healers are being held back by the dark side of helping others. This issue stops healing from flowing through you and all you do. It is important to recognize it and root it out.

What does it look like? The dark side of serving, healing and helping others comes in many, many forms. For this client, it was about satisfaction. (“Ah can’t get no…”) It was about making sure everyone around her was satisfied.  Family, friends, teachers, bosses — everyone.

But wait, you say, that sounds nice! It feels great to help each other out. True. And we healers have a natural tendency to nurture, comfort, and support others. We love it!!

Yet it does not help the world when you hold yourself back, when you focus ONLY on what others need, or you burn yourself out pleasing others. This client got stuck and “forgot” about her own needs. She forgot to figure out who she was and what kind of healing she could share with the world. (A hand analysis helped there, too.)

In childhood, we imprint our energy body with inner “rules” or beliefs. The trouble is, not all of these rules are accurate. They were created in the mind of a child. They may have worked when you were 7, or in that one event, but these inner rules can cause big trouble, stuckness, and unhappiness later in life.

You might have a rule that you must help others first, for example, even to the exclusion of caring for yourself. You feel lousy (guilty) when you don’t put others first, but you can burn out when you do. Sound familiar?

We unconsciously follow these inner rules for the rest of our lives (or until we reexamine and rewrite them). I often find that healers, who love love love to help others, almost always carry some kind of set of rules that say it is selfish to support and nurture ourselves and it is proper and even holy to help others.

Yes, it is a sacred duty to help others, but the Golden Rule says “treat your neighbor as yourself”… and that implies that you treat yourself gently and well, FIRST.

Hard though it is to think this way sometimes, the most important person in the world to you is… you. Think of it this way: you have been entrusted by God with the care of a powerful, wonderful human being and healer, a beautiful lightworker who happens to have your name and look exactly like you — oh, it is you!

When you care for yourself, and when YOU feel pleased and satisfied, chances are you will be walking your spiritual path, sharing your healing gifts, fulfilling your life’s purpose, and changing the world for the better. It is from this place of inner satisfaction – NOT from the place of being stuck and tired, but from the place of spiritual fulfillment and an easier happier life — you can help a lot more people to heal.

Take Two Action Steps TODAY to Serve Others Better

How are you nuruturing and supporting you? How are you pleasing you? Right now, take two steps to allow your healing gifts to flow more effectively through you.

1. Identify one area of dissatisfaction in your life. Choose an easy one for fun and a hard one for a nice challenge. Are you sick of that pile of clutter on the kitchen counter? Tired of a friend’s behavior, your own behavior, or a responsibility you don’t like? What eats at you, nags, and wears you down, sometimes with out words — can you identify it?

Write down five ways you could change that today. Then choose one of them and work on resolving it today. If you need an extra day or two, take it, but finish resolving it. Congratulations!!

2. Identify a dream or wish you would enjoy fulfilling. How would you like to help the world? What would you like to improve about your life that would allow you to become more satisfied? Write down (you guessed it) five ways you could move closer to achieving that goal. Decide to do it. Finish the first step today and calendar the rest.

Review your Seven Steps to Awakening (available free with our kit, above) for the complete set of 7 steps to changing any situation in your life. Comment and let me know what was holding you back and how it goes!

Today at  4:21 am PDT, the sun moved into Virgo. It’s harvest time, friends. Most of us don’t have much of a connection with sheathing wheat or gathering the bounty of the earth to prepare for the winter. The closest we get to a seed’s fruition is the farmer’s market.

But let’s take the harvest as a grand metaphor. What did you plant in the spring, that soaked in the summer’s heat and is now RIPE? Perhaps a great deal grew over the summer and your field is wild with abundance. Now you begin to gather what has grown and separate the wheat from the chaff. What will actually aid in your next life steps? Now you decide what you will store for future use. You come in out of the sun and see what you really have to work with.

The month of Virgo brings in the energy of hard work, discrimination and refinement. It works in and with the physical world to prepare the way for love to flow. It asks what systems, structures or rhythms are NOT working in your life. Virgo pays careful and systematic attention to what needs to be adjusted. It studies with care and executes with precision. There is no nonsense with Virgo. There is work to be done and Virgo loves work.

We go back to school in Virgo. We return from summer vacation. We buy new notebooks and new clothes. We prepare for the coming winter. We apply ourselves to what we love with great devotion and care. We cleanse, purify and pay attention to our health on all levels.

These are the days we sign up for a new yoga class, start to eat with great care or clear out patterns of thought or belief that no longer serve us. These are the days we assess what will need to be done in order for us to survive another winter. This is the time to clean up summer’s excess and buckle down for the work ahead.

Maybe it doesn’t sound like so much fun. But there’s nothing like making a few adjustments in our daily living that allow so much more beauty and life and love to pour through. There are many gifts that present themselves as we pay closer attention – as we freely give our attention – to what matters most in our life. Virgo pays attention. Virgo registers the most minute clue. Virgo offers herself in service to our greatest purpose.

I was always one of those children that LOVED going back to school. There was something about a fresh notebook and a fresh start. And a sense of growth and progression. Even if you didn’t particularly love to return to the classroom, ask yourself now where you’d like to apply your love, devotion and work. Let the month of Virgo launch you.

Heidi Rose Robbins grew up learning the zodiac with her alphabet, and has been a practicing astrologer for over 15 years. She has a practical, sensitive, and inspiring approach to astrology and a thriving world-wide practice that includes transformative retreats for women twice a year in Ojai, California. It is her passion and commitment to speak to the depth of who we are and to help us grow into the next outrageous blossoming of our true selves.

A Poem by Mary Oliver –celebrating the energy of Virgo

Flare
12.

When loneliness comes stalking, go into the fields, consider
the orderliness of the world. Notice
something you have never noticed before,

like the tambourine sound of the snow-cricket
whose pale green body is no longer than your thumb.

Stare hard at the hummingbird, in the summer rain,
shaking the water-sparks from its wings.

Let grief be your sister, she will whether or no.
Rise up from the stump of sorrow, and be green also,
like the diligent leaves.

A lifetime isn’t long enough for the beauty of this world
and the responsibilities of your life.

Scatter your flowers over the graves, and walk away.
Be good-natured and untidy in your exuberance.

In the glare of your mind, be modest.
And beholden to what is tactile, and thrilling.

~ Mary Oliver ~
(The Leaf and the Cloud: A Poem)

~I am that and that am I~

We roar forth into Leo today at 9:12 pm. Do you have a party invite for this weekend? Go! It’s time to cut loose. Leo is a fire sign and has much to do with the full expression of the Self. During this month, we can all take center stage in our lives and generously offer what we are here to give.

Recently I spoke to a potent group of artists who had taken the phrase, “No Apologies, Manifest, Be Seen” as their motto for the year. This is Leo incarnate. In the energy of Leo, we don’t mind being seen for what we are here to give. We don’t apologize for our gift and we offer our Selves up to tangibly express.

Leo is a sign of leadership. We lead the way through offering our particular gift — the gift we each have to singly give. We offer it to our community so we can all thrive. In Leo, we take responsibility for generously giving of ourselves, holding nothing back.

Use this month to warm those near you with your particular gift. Learn more about your true identity — who you ARE — through all forms of artistic expression. Cook, paint, act, sing, dance, write, create. Or for that matter, LIVE your life embodying a quality like grace or tenacity or courage. And let the living BE the artistry.

The phrase for Leo is “I am that and that am I.” In Leo, we discover we are always more than we thought we were. The “I” grows under Leo. The “I” grows into the we. We expand our ideas of identity and recognize that part of leadership is recognizing our oneness with those we lead. We recognize that any brilliance we express is part of the one brilliance from which we all emerge. That’s why Leo is also associated with the heart and with the true identification with another. Namaste — “I bow to the divinity in you” — is actually a very Leo greeting. “Hello Love,” my homespun Namaste, is likewise acknowledging the heart of another as part of the one heart, the one love, the love that connects us all.

So, during this month, be courageously YOU. Greet the lion of love in others and recognize it in yourself. Dare to express. Dare to stand in the light as a generous act. Offer it up.

Big love.

Heidi Rose Robbins grew up learning the zodiac with her alphabet, and has been a practicing astrologer for over 15 years. She has a practical, sensitive, and inspiring approach to astrology and a thriving world-wide practice. She offers transformative retreats for women twice a year in Ojai, California. It is her passion and commitment to speak to the depth of who we are and to help us grow into the next outrageous blossoming of our true selves.

A Leo Poem

Now I become myself. It’s taken
Time, many years and places,
I have been dissolved and shaken,
Worn other people’s faces,
Run madly, as if Time were there,
Terribly old, crying a warning,
“hurry, you will be dead before —–”
(What? Before you reach the morning?
or the end of the poem, is clear?
Or love safe in the walled city?)
Now to stand still, to be here,
Feel my own weight and density!…..
Now there is time and Time is young.
O, in this single hour I live
All of myself and do not move
I, the pursued, who madly ran,
Stand still, stand still, and stop the Sun!

~ May Sarton ~

~ Daria’s Wednesday Wisdom column ~ This post is an excerpt from Gift of the Healer by Daria Boissonnas, reprinted with permission. (Book is due out by end of 2011 — stay tuned!)

…The leaders and teachers I soon began studying and questioning – the ones producing unlikely miracle after miracle – were healers. Energy healers, in particular. But producing miracles in your life does not require energy healing! You do not even need to believe in energy healing. This gift is much deeper and simpler than that.

Because I first observed this amazing ability in healers, however, I think of it as the Gift of the Healer.

What jumps into your mind when you hear the word healer?

• A nurse or a doctor?
• A massage therapist, minister, or hospice worker?
• How about a lawyer, a scientist, or a talk-show host?
• Have you ever wondered if you were a healer?

In my experience, the word healer conjures up more confusion, discomfort, and even belligerence than it creates warm fuzzies. Even professional healers brush off the term because of the charge it carries and the confusion it triggers. I understand. When I call myself a healer, I know some folks imagine me sticking needles in dolls, hawking fake healing tonics, and dancing naked in the woods.

“Oh, that’s nice,” others say, carefully distancing themselves, “if it works for you.”

It does. Healing has allowed me to embrace possibility in my life. Better yet, it works for anyone who tries it, because we are all healers at our core. For humans, healing comes naturally, and I will show you how, every day, you do exactly what healers do to create extraordinary healing. When you learn to apply those skills mindfully, there is no telling how wonderful your life can become and how much more you can help others.

Many have tried to find a more descriptive term than healer: improvement facilitator, intention holder, possibility opener, paradigm catalyst. These seem forced to me. I like the word healer. It is short and sweet, easy to spell, and commonly used. In my book, that beats contrived phrases by a mile. (And this is my book.)

Healer is an important word with a distinct meaning. It carries power. I suspect many alternative healers avoid it because of the power it carries, but we should not shy away from this power. We cannot. We need all forms of our natural healing power, now more than ever. The world needs it. The world needs you. And you can do this.

You were born a healer.

© 2011 Daria Boissonnas
Note: Blog reprint policy does not apply to this article. Please contact us with requests.

~ Daria’s Wednesday Wisdom column ~

There is an uplifting saying that “everything is energy.” It reminds us that nothing is solid, nothing is permanent, and anything is changeable. But technically, this statement is not true. If everything were energy, you would experience a gray canvas of nothingness, the static fuzz between radio stations. Entropy would have won. The world would be an everything soup of nothingness.

But wait, you say, it really is all energy! Everything we see is electromagnetic energy. Stuff is made of physical energy stored in molecules and atoms. Alternative healers work with non-electromagnetic energies called prana, chi, subtle energy, meridian energy, or chakra energy to name a few flavors.

I agree, but there is something else, something carried by energy that creates the world we see, something very important. Understanding it, and how it is affected by healing, will help you understand healing on a very deep level.

What is missing is the patterns in that energy. Those patterns give us information. And healing can affect both these patterns of information themselves and the energy that carries them.

This makes all the difference.

What you perceive as the world around you is the information that the energy carries, more than the energy itself. Sight, sound, touch, mood, intuition—whether it arrives via your senses or through subtle energy channels, your world is made of the information you receive.

What is information? Consider a pair of jeans. The color blue is information, and the exact wavelength or dye color is more specific. Other information defines your jeans: the denim weave pattern, thread count, style number, manufacturer, size, stitching style, yardage of fabric, weight, the store where you bought them…and much more. (An even more interesting question is this: how little information do you need to represent something? What is it that makes a table table-like? What makes you, only you? What is the essence of a thing?)

Energy is the messenger of the universe, carrying information everywhere. When the information being carried becomes corrupted, so does your world. When the energy flow breaks down under stress, the information may be lost or distorted, and so will your perception of the world be.

(c) Daria Boissonnas 2011, excerpt from Gift of the Healer, due out fall 2011

In the last month I have been in writing mode, focusing on finishing my first book under a tight deadline.  I’ve never done anything so intensively in my life.

Thursday, however, I wasted the whole day barely writing.  In fact, I’ve been struggling badly with productivity for the last two weeks, running circles rewriting or blanking out in the undone chapter.  I was at my wits end.

Finally, I applied my own intuitive Clear Wisdom process to the problem (a process I offer here at GIA).  I asked the Universe what time frame is most productive for me to write in during the day.  What a difference!

When Does Your Muse Strike?

You might know if you are a morning person or evening, but do you know exactly when your muse strikes? It may not even be every day.  The last time I did a productivity schedule for someone, it was a certain number of hours per day, three days a week, and it didn’t matter which days, his choice.

The answer for me and this book was 8 am – 11:30 and 1 pm – 2:30, seven days a week.  And WOW — today I stuck to those hours and got TONS of writing done!  Better, I remained enthusiastic about the writing the whole time.  If I start too late in the day, I can’t get the level of excitement I need to write decently.  (When it’s bad, it’s awful.)

Now I can see I’ve been losing productivity by starting way too late in the day, doing other tasks first.  Next, my three regular 8 am meetings each week have to GO!

With today’s busy schedule, it seems like a no-brainer to get the most out of the time you work.  Ready to hit your maximum creativity and productivity stride?  Sit in meditation for a few minutes and then ask yourself or the Universe what your ideal schedule is.

If you like, I would be happy to download a productivity schedule for you from your higher guidance.  Click here to purchase a Productivity Pop session with me.

Full Clear Wisdom sessions are available to members of the Global Institute for Awakening.  To join, visit http://GIAwaken.com/benefits.

Enjoy your creativity!  And go heal the world with it.

In every moment, you are healing.  Your body tends constantly towards health, repairing, replacing, replenishing.  Your thinking and emotions continuously heal and you move on.  You are a walking and talking bundle of healing!  Once in a while, this process hits a snag, but think of how much healing happens in the meantime!

“The fool doth think he is wise,
but the wise man knows himself to be a fool.”
William Shakespeare, As You Like It, Act 5 scene 1

Though April Fool’s Day comes once a year, we are archetypal Fools every day of the year. 

What?  Did I just call you a fool? 

No, silly — a Fool with a capital F.  The archetypal innocent.  The one delving into new projects with optimism and enthusiasm.  The one that sees sunny skies without clouds.  The part of you simply enjoying being your genuine self.

At your best as a Fool, you life joyfully in the Now, without a useless worry.  You are present and inquisitive.  Heavy thoughts are not even on your radar — what will they think, what should I do, I don’t have enough, am I good enough, etc. 

Your inner positive Fool is excited about life, pushing forward into new adventures, fully digesting what you’ve learned, letting the icky parts go, and moving on.

This is a brilliant state of mind.  With the state of mind of the positive Fool you can find genuine fulfillment.  You can enjoy your life to the max. You can get things done! 

The Negative Fool

At its worst, however, your inner Fool can attempt to recreate these carefree feelings in negative ways.   The negative Fool is inauthentically carefree. For instance:

• Pretending things are fine when they aren’t.
• Using avoidance to goof off in a fun way and pretend you don’t have a problem that’s getting worse. 
• Using artificial means of feeling good, like substances and thrilling experiences.
• Giving up on yourself and following or conforming to others’ likes and dislikes.

Ultimately, the negative Fool blocks what brings you joy.  It blocks you from hearing and fulfilling your Highest Calling, the activity which brings you the most joy in life and allows you to help others the most. 

The negative Fool creates temporary innocence and joy, but brings worse suffering in the long run.

Your Assignment for this April Fool’s Day

You deserve to be happy, confident, and carefree.  You were born to enjoy your positive inner Fool.

I propose you take a moment today to consider where the negative Fool is showing up in your life.  The negative Fool pops up to save us from problems we think we can’t handle.  Spiritually, however, I have come to understand that if you have a problem, you CAN handle it.  And the sooner the better, so your negative Fool doesn’t foolishly make it worse!

How can you express your inner positive Fool more?  Consider just ONE tiny change you can make starting today. Look at the list of four negative strategies above and change something to stop relying on one of them. 

Whatever tiny change you choose to make, STICK TO IT.  That makes all the difference.

I’ve got my one tiny change.  How about you?