Ask for A Sign or a Strawberry

Recently, I had to make a decision that I wasn’t sure about. I meditated and prayed about it, and made the best choice I could make with all the tools available to me.

On Saturday I was making the 40 minute drive to my sisters house and I was feeling some doubt about my decision. Sometimes, even when we ask for guidance when making the decision, self doubt creeps in. So, I decided to ask God for a sign that I made the right choice. I said a little prayer and made the request, and heard the word Strawberry.

I began to doubt the word I heard. My sister and I were making Christmas Cookies on Saturday and we would be going to the grocery store. I thought surely this wasn’t a good sign, as I would see strawberries at the grocery store. For me a sign is something unexpected or out of place, but I decided to just let it go and see what happened.

I got to my sister’s house, and sat down at the kitchen table like I usually do. We were working on our grocery list. My sister got up to do something and I just looked down at the table, and BAM! right in front of me was a little jar with a strawberry on top of it. It was a jar of strawberry smelling playdoh stuff that belonged to my niece. I asked my sister about it and she said she had no idea where it came from, but saw it earlier that morning and decided not to move it.

There was my sign. God gave me a sign in the most random way, but there it was. I just had to laugh. Just when I think I know better, God shows me that magic is all around. Believe folks! You can do this too. To add to that, I was in the shower reflecting on this sign and how wonderful God and the universe is when the song Tennessee Whiskey, by Chris Stapleton came on the radio…”You’re as smooth as Tennessee whiskey and as sweet as strawberry wine…” How crazy is that??

Moral of the story, when in doubt don’t sit in fear and worry. Ground and center yourself through prayer or meditation, and ask for a sign. If you are not clairaudient like me and God/Spirit tells you what to look for, then you can ask for a specific sign. Make sure it’s not something that you would normally run across, but something that would be odd for the season, or space you are in.

Example: If I made the right decision about …… please show me a frog or something random that you don’t see all the time.

Why sit in worry or fear, when God is here to help.

Shift Self Judgment to Curiosity

There is one simple shift we can make in our lives that will have a profound impact on how we see or view ourselves and others. We can replace judgment with curiosity.

First, you have to recognize when you are judging yourself. This can be difficult at first, but a trick that I have found that works is being present with myself and recognizing anytime I feel shame, guilt, regret, or frustration. Those are usually the times that I am judging something I did or said. Once you are able to notice the feelings, you can get to the root of it.

Why am I feeling this feeling? Other people don’t make us feel our feelings. Feelings are a reaction of our own mind interpreting what is happening externally. Our mind filters everything through the lens of our past and our experience. If we have unhealed core wounds, then everything get’s filtered through those wounds. We end up projecting that onto the people and situations around us.

The next time you notice that you are judging yourself, calm your mind and start asking questions. Try not to assume the answer, just get curious. Be an observer. This has been the most helpful tool, and we all have it in our tool box, but it has to be developed through practice and repetition.

Here’s and example of how this works. Let’s say that you have a fight with a loved one and you do/say something impulsive that you regret later. You begin to feel regret and shame. You feel stupid. Start asking yourself why do you think you are stupid for acting impulsively? Did caregivers shame you for doing things impulsively as a child by calling you stupid. Did you see other people shamed for being impulsive? What are you telling yourself? Are you stupid, or did you just do a stupid thing? I can say with complete confidence that it’s the latter 100%. After we recognize the self judgment, then you can move on to why do you do impulsive things.

There’s so much to unpack, but the interesting thing is when we begin to unpack those things we begin to understand ourselves better, we start treating ourselves kindly, and others too, because we begin to understand we are not the judgmental things we are telling ourselves. When we have reactions to things it’s filtered through the lens of our experiences. If we can understand what we are experiencing and be present with ourselves and curious, we can begin to change behavior patterns that keep us stuck. Things that keep us reactive.

This growth doesn’t happen overnight, but I promise you it will be worth the effort. Breaking toxic patterns helps everyone; ourselves and everyone we come in contact with.

I would love to know what you all think about this idea. Leave me a comment below.

Remember to Ask for Help

I spent many years seeking out advice from others and applying their advice, only to have it all blow up in my face. I’ve learned that people only see things through the lens of their own experience.

Having compensated, I now fall into the trap of trying to figure everything thing out myself. When I have something weighing on my mind, I often feel like I need to solve it myself. Our minds are wonderful and amazing tools, but they are reliant on the things we have learned, experiences that we’ve had, and how we interpreted them. That means that if we haven’t worked on our traumas and shadow, our minds are filtering everything through them. That lead me to feel like I couldn’t even trust myself.

I have recently started to renew my faith and have been attending church on Sunday. Part of the message this week was about being a partner with God to create your life. I’m sure you’ve all heard the quote, “God won’t give you more than you can handle.” Pastor Joe says there is a word that is missing at the end of that quote, and I believe it too…God won’t give you more than you can handle together. God wants you to confide in him, to give him your worries and fears and to ask for his assistance.

I believe all spiritual roads lead to the same place, so if you cannot relate to my Christian God, apply the message to your creator. Universal wisdom is just that. Universal.

When you have something weighing on your heart, instead of letting it roll around and create doubt and fear in your mind, ask for help. Meditate, pray, talk it through with your creator, and open yourself up to receiving divine assistance.

Balance – Body and Soul

I received a message today that I wanted to share with you.

On this journey of healing and enlightenment it’s easy to get caught up in the spiritual aspect. Once you learn to tap into your intuition, and receive universal wisdom, that seems like the place to be. That is where things begin to make sense and it’s easy to get caught up in wanting more clarity. However, It’s important to balance our spiritual life with our 3D experience.

This duality requires balance and that means not neglecting our bodies. We must use our bodies to experience things that our soul cannot. We nurture them with the physical things that we can touch, taste, hear, and feel. I don’t mean indulgence and excess, but giving our bodies physical experiences. We must move them, feed them healthy food, take adventures, and form relationships. In it’s simplest form, just being present in your body, and experiencing life with all your senses in the moment.

Sometimes it’s just a change of perspective that’s needed. I know that personally I view my body and my ego mind in a negative light, but it too has a job to do. It’s kept me alive for 47 years and for that I am grateful. Today I will start considering it’s needs as more of a priority and less of a burden.

I hope you all have a blessed day.

Serendipity Strikes Again

Yesterday, I had a gentle nudge from the universe to take my normal route backwards while walking the dogs. These gentle nudges come in the form of urges or sudden inspiration to do something, go somewhere, talk to someone, etc.

We got a good ways into the walk, when all of a sudden an albino squirrel jumped out in front us on the sidewalk. There was only one other time that I have seen one. It was like a little gift, a piece of magic and wonder given just to me and my dogs. There was no one else around, just us and the squirrel.

It’s little things like that that give me the courage to trust my intuition. I have recognized lately how much courage it takes to follow these inspirations. I have always been a thinker, someone who analyzes everything. I depend on my logic and my mind to understand my world, but all that is based on my limited experience.

However, tapping into my intuition gives me far greater knowledge and universal wisdom, but only if I allow that. That small little squirrel is helping to teach me listen to and trust, and for that I am grateful.

I encourage you to follow those nudges. Surrender control of the outcome, and allow the universe to bring you something more than what you can imagine. I definitely didn’t imagine seeing a white squirrel when I started walking the dogs yesterday.

Stop Hoping and Start Trusting

In meditation yesterday I was guided to stop hoping and start trusting. This lead me to really start thinking of the two words/concepts. In Merriam Webster’s dictionary hope and trust are synonyms of each other and are often used interchangeably. So, what is the difference? Here is what I discovered:

First for me there is a difference in the energy of the two words.

Let’s look at hope first. There is an expectation that something will happen, or a wish for it to be. For me there is an uncertainty with hope though. Doubt has somehow crept into it. This was a sad realization for me. In my daily life I often rely on hope that things will get better or that I will get a good parking spot at the grocery store. It seems like wishful thinking…almost.

Don’t get me wrong I still feel like there’s a place for hope. You must always have hope in your heart for the things you desire. There is a light hearted and playful nature to hope that trust doesn’t have, and I believe that is important too.

For the big things like believing in yourself, manifesting, and choosing the right path for your life, that should be the job of trust.

Trust implies there is a force or person responsible. There is no doubt involved with trust. It is proven and experienced. An example is that I know that my sister will take good care of my babies, like there were her own. I trust her.

When I got the message yesterday that I needed to stop hoping and start trusting. I realized that I wasn’t trusting myself, or God. I was hoping that things would work out for me. I was putting out expectations, but not really trusting that they would be fulfilled. There has been an element of doubt all along.

Trust has always been a hard thing for me from a very early age. Many of us have come from broken homes and bad situations that have broken our trust. It requires a leap of faith, sometimes quite literally. Trusting yourself would be the best place to start. After that consider trusting the source of all things. I call him God, but he goes by many names. That is where I have decided to start!

Thank you for coming along on this journey with me.

-Gretchen

Synchronicities – Numbers

Today, I was going along my merry way, running errands and every single place I went I saw a license plate in the parking lot with the numbers 777.

I see repeating numbers quiet a bit. The universe is always sending me messages this way. Most people throughout their day see numbers everywhere: License plates, odometers, receipts, digital clocks, timers, addresses etc.

At one point I was going to go get myself a coffee at a place near to one of my stops. When I got there I discovered it wasn’t there anymore. Lucky for me, I knew there was another one close by and I felt the urge to take the extra few minutes to go there. When I got there, another 777. I am so grateful that for these messages. They are simple really, and something I would have chalked up to coincidence five years ago.

If you wonder what 777 means for me, and why it was such and impactful message let me explain. To me 777 is like a hug from the universe, and confirmation that I am on the right path. It means that the changes I have been making in my life through healing and personal growth, are soon to be rewarded in a grand way. That day, it was exactly what I had been questioning, and the universe provided me the answer in a fun way.

If you’re interested to find out what repeating numbers or angel numbers could mean to you, you can google it, there are many sites out there that explain. Once you do, I encourage you to meditate on it as there are lots of different ideas about what they mean and they can get confusing and convoluted. If that happens, like it did for me, let your own intuition be your guide.

When I first started looking at angel numbers, 777 always had a lucky connotation. I mean we’ve all seen slot machines with 777 across them at least in movies…However, it’s changed over the years to what I believe now.

Allowing messages from the universe to come through number synchronicities is one of the easiest ways to let the universe guide you. It doesn’t have to stop at seeing consecutive numbers either. You might see your birthdate or someone else’s, or some other numbers repeating a lot. If it means something to you and is associated with a feeling, then the message is for you.

The Fear of Missing Out

I had to make a difficult decision this weekend. I had a trip planned with my sister to visit my other sister that I have not seen in a year. She lives 10 hours away and we usually drive there together. It’s so much fun, and much needed time with my sisters.

Unfortunately, one of my dogs had an emergency vet visit last week that cost me quite a bit. In the past, I would just take the hit on my credit card for the vet visit and boarding the dogs over the weekend, and still go on the trip. This time I did the more responsible thing; I stayed home.

I felt good about not overcommitting my resources and my sisters understood even if they were disappointed. However, I woke up today, knowing my sisters are sharing the day together without me, and I got stuck in my disappointment.

Then something happened. I was laying down for a nap this afternoon, since I did still have the day off, when I realized, I am meant to have the experiences that I am meant to have. The only person that is going to look out for me, is me. Even if it was so disappointing not being there… Comparing myself to other people, and basing my value on what I see other people have or what they are doing, is not doing me any favors.

It’s okay to say No, to not give more than you can emotionally or materially. It’s okay to appreciate the things in your life that you do have. You might not get to go on that vacation, but maybe the universe has something more important planned for you.

Finding joy and gratitude for what you do have, instead of worrying about what you are missing, would be a far better use of the time, than being sad and sulking over the missed opportunity.

Identify Your Patterns

One of the Universal Laws is that cycles are a natural part of the universe.

Cycles can be seen outwardly, like in nature, but we can also see them in our own lives. We have them in relationships, in work, and in our behaviors.

Yesterday before bed I was getting a nudge from my intuition to read a journal entry from the same day 2 years ago. I was surprised by what I read and a little sad.

In this entry from a couple of years ago I was writing about a situation that I am going through right now with the same people! I’ve been working through some really hard things these last few months, and having some really tough realizations about my behavior patterns.

The most interesting thing about this is that I was getting the same advice from my intuition. I think the reason I was guided to this entry was to show me, this is a pattern and it’s time to change it. What I chose the last time, brought me right back to the same place. It’s time to break that cycle, learn the lesson, start a new way of living, and a heathy behavior pattern.

Do you find yourself repeating old patterns in relationships, at work, or in your behaviors? You will probably continue to live out these cycles again and again until you take the time to dig in there and do the healing work. If you want something different, you have to do something different.

Universal Wisdom – Feeling “Stuck” in Relationships

A Channeled Message from my spirit guide, called Teefa. He’s with me to impart universal wisdom.

Timing is important for all things. As the universe works with you to impact the lives of other people. There will always be delays and lessons along your path that keep you “stuck” for moments. These will be times of inaction, reflection, or sometimes they will feel like waiting, boredom and stagnation.

This allows the universe to align what is meant for you. It’s all orchestrated to perfection and there are so many variables it’s mind blowing for your logical minds. However, it’s a daily occurrence for the divine source. That is why willingness to believe and trust in the divine and go with the flow is so important.

Divine timing can feel restrictive and frustrating, but it has its purpose and we must understand this, and surrender to it completely. If the answers or movement is not coming for you, then perhaps you are trying to control an outcome. The more you try, the more miserable you will become. You must realize that the only one that can move the situation is the divine.