Things to Bear in Mind As We Round 2009

I’ll be on away the first week of the New Year, taking a mini-vacation from blogging. So, I’m writing ahead some thoughts to bear in mind as we enter 2009.

January 1: This is the first day of my inner journey.

It’s a new day, and a new year. The whole world is making resolutions, thinking about a new start—a new slate.

I’m going to suggest that you reconsider.

Our Gregorian calendar has led us to live off-cycle with nature for nearly 500 years. The natural New Year begins at the Spring Equinox, on or about March 20. A diet, a new project, or new beginnings are much more on cycle with the seasons and rising energy in spring. They’re more likely to work for you then.

We, too, are part of nature. Our figurative seeds need to be planted at the time of year when they are most likely to germinate, flower in summer, and be ready in autumn for harvest.

Then what is this winter change of calendar all about, like the changing of the guard?

It’s another way of counting things, often more worldly things. Happiness comes from taking time to connect with All That Is and your innermost being. Here is where your spirit meets the Great Spirit and your Higher Power. The right thing to do in winter is to take a cue from our friends the bears. Hibernate. Take quiet time. Be introspective.

This year, put the inner journey on your calendar from Day 1. Give yourself one precious moment—one minute—to make your day with a short meditation. Here’s one I love that works any day of the year:

Take three deep, healing breaths—deep inhale, deep
exhale—three times, slowly. Ask Spirit—what do you want me to know—and what do you want me to do—today?

January 6: Breakfast at Epiphanies

In addition to celebrating the visit of the Magi to Bethlehem and the conclusion of the Christmas Season, epiphany is a word that means an aha or a flash of insight. Visit last year’s post, Epiphanies, to learn more about this wonderful day and why the everyday usage of the word makes Epiphany the official holiday of this blog.

While I’m called Hot Flashbacks as the short form of this blog’s title in my e-mail address and on most social networking sites, the real emphasis in both my book and on my blog are the cool insights. I write about my insights all the time, but today, I thought I'd put the insights in your court. Let's do some exercises together to get some new aha’s. This is something we can do, like a guided meditation, as you read this post. Just pause to get some writing materials—and open a notebook or computer file. (Don’t forget to name and save the file right away to avoid accidentally losing it.) Alternatively, you could print out this post and do it later in a quiet moment.

Meditation: Imagine you are at the manger scene, coming to visit the baby Jesus. You have been following an awesome star for weeks. It is brighter, more spectacular, and shaped unlike anything you have ever seen. You know it’s a sign! You are one of the wise astrologers, an expert at deciphering larger meanings in life. This is just like a time machine, and you can create it however it would happen because you’re you—and only you have your unique gifts to give.

* What are your most precious gifts that you bring to the baby—and why?
* What will Jesus do with your gifts?
* What gifts do you get back?
* What gifts will you bring into 2009 because of this magical experience?

This is the first week of the last year in the first decade of the Third Millennium. Think of all that has happened since we worried about the Y2K crashes and food stashes on the cusp of the Year 2000! May you find some new tools and perspectives in this post to shine the star of your own inner light. The key is to slow down, rest, and visit the “manger within,” the rebirth of Love accessible inside us every day of our lives. Spirit can only speak to us when we stop talking--and listen.

A sweet, soft New Year with many moments of replenishing silence …

Believe Everything You Hear

Last time we talked about two simple tips to begin expanding your intuition—alone time, especially spent in meditation, and learning not to criticize your creations, thoughts, or ideas. These include strong feelings or a sense of knowing that might crop up as you develop your inner eyes and ears. Same goes for any funny little messages you might pull out of thin air.

Let me give you a couple examples. When I used to do tarot readings, using the Motherpeace round deck, I had a special way of using the cards with my clients. First, I’d ask them what images jumped out at them, while I listened carefully. Next, I’d say what jumped out at me. Only last would I consider any classical meaning of the card. Between us, we very often got a closer, more personal interpretation than “going by the book.” The blend of my stand outs and my client’s would give a profound reading of his or her subconscious. My observations often added a perspective or insights--what s/he was too close to a matter to see clearly. The cards simply pulled out the client’s inner knowing with a little help from me as interpreter. Synthesis of an experience isn’t so easy while you’re in the middle of it, especially when it involves strong emotions or complex situations and choices.

I remember one reading in particular where my client drew a card—which one I couldn’t tell you now—but as she did, the old train tune started ringing in mind, The Atchison, Topeka & the Santa Fe. The process made it mandatory for me to spill the beans on anything I “got.” I felt ridiculous telling her about this goofy song.

As we began exploring the context of her situation, it became clear that she was feeling railroaded to make an unwanted change by her love interest. So, that’s what the train song was saying! The mere realization that she felt coerced was the key to empowering her to get out of a gnarly dilemma.

Second, and most dramatic, was my intuition on where I’d find my birth mother. (Complete details of that drama will be in my second book, COMPLETE CIRCLES: More Hot Flashbacks from My Lost & Found Life.) From the beginning of my six-month search, I “knew” she was in San Francisco, only 90 miles away. In the beginning, I pooh-poohed this thought as wishful thinking. “You just want it to be convenient,” I said, talking to myself as though I were completely delusional.

By this time in my life (1986), I was tired of ignoring intuitions that turned out to be true. I figured I had nothing to lose to give it a shot. San Francisco is exactly where I found her, even though she was originally from the East Coast. I had no conscious reason to believe she would have conveniently relocated nearly next door to me. Finding her changed both our lives for the better in a big way. What I would have missed if I hadn’t listened to myself—at last?

Let me reiterate, both of these intuitive “hits” sounded ridiculous to me! Consider believing everything you hear with your inner ear, and if it seems goofy, take notes and realize you just may not have put it all together yet. These intuitive scraps are like puzzle pieces that you learn to fit together with time, trial, and error.

About once a year, I have what I consider a seminal dream—one that lays out something big that’s going to happen to me in the months to come. My dramatic dream in 2006 had a lot of symbols about being on a one-way road straight up. It was lighting up all my fears of success and the responsibilities that would go with it.

But in that dream, a Mervyn’s store was prominent. It drove me crazy for months till I finally figured out what it meant. MERVYNS turned out to be an anagram. Rescramble the letters and you get MY NERVS. I was struggling with high interocular pressure and a possible diagnosis of glaucoma.

To protect your eyesight with glaucoma, you have to lower the (interocular) pressure to avoid damage to the optic nerve. Suddenly, I saw the double entendre! To protect my vision, I had to lower the pressure. This applies to my creative vision, too, and lowering the pressure is why Mervyns—MY NERVS—was beside my road to success. I’d have to tend to my nerves, keep the pressure in my life down, if I were going to pull off this writing life and all that goes with it.

Journal everything! Dreams, crazy things you think or hear. The only way to learn your personal symbology and messages from “The Supremes” is to play with these tidbits. In one of my favorite books on the subject, Higher Creativity by Willis Harmon and Howard Rheingold, the authors pay much homage to how answers bubble up when we’re “offline”—playing, dreaming, or doing something else other than what we normally do. Something right-brained and non-linear. This works the same as the meditation and quiet time mentioned in the last post.

Of course, this is unlikely to happen with one mediation, long-distance run, or ride on the Ferris wheel. Inspiration/intuition loves repetition, even ritual, and I have a hunch this is one reason why knitting has become so popular again. Gathering that wool into a lovely creation allows for woolgathering of another kind. My own Messages from on High are so hilariously delivered, at times, they also keep me in another kind of stitches.

Let me know about your progress in amping up your intuition by slowing down your thoughts … and allowing those really helpful and life affirming mind messages to jump up and be heard.

Insighting a Riot

Ever since I started writing HOT FLASHBACKS, COOL INSIGHTS: I have tried to remember when I first realized I was highly intuitive and how I developed this useful skill. And I do mean skill, not gift. While some of us are better wired from the get-go for transmissions from the cosmic soup and collective consciousness, I believe anyone can rewire their house.

Granted, certain hormonal events took my transmissions off that chart, but the wiring was already there and in frequent use. My complete hysterectomy just flipped the switch. It stuck ON. I sometimes wonder how I can run this much intuition without a brownout, blackout, or an electric bill so high, I’d be tempted to move to Amish Country.

One way I learned to listen to myself and put my ear to the ground of extrasensory perception, a good name for simply heightened senses: I spent a lot of time alone as a kid. (That old photo is me at three.) I was raised as an only child until I was six, during my most formative years. My brother was much older, left the nest early, but I was the oldest kid in my neighborhood. When you’re four and the kid next door is two-and-a-half, you have nothing in common after the first five minutes. Out of boredom, I would start lording it over the little kids. If I didn’t get sick of myself, their mothers shooed me away. I needed to go pick on someone my own size—except that there were only six houses within walking distance and only two of them had children.

So, I spent lots of time learning to entertain myself. Don’t remember what I did before I could hold a #2 pencil and write. (I can barely imagine such Dark Ages before written language.) I remember a lot of crayons, construction paper, blunt-tip scissors and coloring books; also being glued to the Tube. Early TV shows were so wholesome and creative. Some of my faves were Kukla, Fran & Ollie, Tom Terrific, and, of course, Ding Dong School. I annoyed my mother to tears with “time to go get your mothers.” She was busy playing Betty Crocker, doing whatever ‘50s mothers did to make homemaking a full-time career. She couldn’t have cared less about Miss Frances and her overly cheery, daily dose of what we did at boob tube school each day. I think Mom considered rewiring her, as in pulling the plug.

The late, great Betty Bethards, a San Francisco Bay Area psychic, was my first spiritual teacher in the late ‘70s when I began seeking something to fill the void when I left the Catholic Church. Like most gurus, she is a staunch advocate of daily meditation. She taught a wonderful, simple style that is great for the newbie. Whether it’s Christian contemplative prayer, Buddhist meditation, or Transcendental Meditation, so popular in the ‘70s, you have to spend time alone and much of it quiet time, to hear yourself think-- and to listen to hear Spirit or Inspiration talk back.

I believe this quiet time or any other form of being alone with your mind is the one necessary environment for developing intuition. We need techniques to let go of our own mind chatter, then to allow free-flowing input of thought forms. Some of them will be our issues sorting themselves out—but sort they will, and you’ll find the nuggets of answers versus a ball of confusion. If you’re quiet a little longer, inspiration and true genius will pop in, along with directions about what to do next to make your life work. Call it creativity, intuition, the Holy Spirit—whatever you call it, it’s the nectar of a fulfilling life. Guess you could say I believe God is in your own head; however you perceive Him/Her/It/Them. (I like the expression God/Goddess/All That Is.) Intuition is merely a pipeline to divine direction, one you can tap into by sitting still.

Another way I was lucky: I didn’t have a lot of early critics. My mom thought the sun rose and set in me, that anything I created was a masterpiece. Just like my mom, your Inner Mom has to be supportive of you, if you’re going to start reading in-between the lines of life. It shocked me that grown-ups lied so much—that I could tell they were lying. I wouldn’t dare call them on it, when a person was bigger or more powerful, even if I knew they were completely full of it. Actually, my intuition—and yours-- will lead you to solve your own problems without having to embarrass them or make them lose face. Let the law of karma take care of them while you rock on. However, once I was older, wiser, and in my own power—all bets were off. When the stakes are high, I’d have to call ‘em on their crap.

I feel a little subversive sharing these tips! Especially since, at various times, I’ve used these skills to make a living. Thank heaven there’s not a teamsters union for psychics or I’d be kicked the truck out of the place for giving away trade secrets.

Yet I figure, I’m like the Do It Yourself Network—DIY. There are those who will take the time and trouble to do it themselves. Others will hire a repairperson. I have done both, and doing it yourself when it comes to seeking direction is much more empowering. Imagine access to divine inspiration and cosmic repair 24/7!

But if you’re a do-it-yourselfer who’s dying to make your life work better, stick with me. We’ll really start to see things together. This is how I think it should be, people having this skill so highly developed, we have direct conversations with Spirit like Tevye’s chats with God in Fiddler on the Roof.

All other fabulous applications of intuition and insights aside: Imagine what a riot it would be, if everyone developed their inner lie detector.

NEXT: Believe Everything You Hear