Who told You It Is Impossible

One of my favorite quotes is from Alice in Wonderland:

Alice laughed. 'There's no use trying,' she said: 'one can't believe impossible things.'

'I daresay you haven't had much practice,' said the queen. 'When I was your age, I always did it for half-an-hour a day. Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.' 

If you are to find your Personal Legend, or purpose, you may need to do some things that seem impossible.

Think back to the things you have learned and are now easy to you -- riding a bicycle or driving a stick shift. When I learned to drive a stick, I needed all my concentration to remember when to shift, how to accelerate without stalling and how to accelerate from a stop on a hill with the car  behind me only inches away. I could not play the radio. I could not talk to passengers. It seemed impossible to me. Yet, it somehow became second nature. However, I could see that other people could drive cars with standard transmissions so i knew it could be done. Actually that is a great metaphysical principle: If someone has achieved what I desire, then I know it is possible for me to achieve it too.

But there are things that at one time everyone in our culture believed could not be done. Think about the vision of the Wright brothers! They imagined that humans could fly and it had never been done before. Yet, today we get on planes, trusting that they will be flown safely to our destination. What was once impossible, first became possible, then became fact.

In the book, The Alchemist, many people told the Boy that it was impossible to get to the pyramids. Yet, despite much discouragement, such as having all his money stolen not once but a couple of times, the Boy was able to fulfill his Personal Legend. Something was compelling him to follow the omens he saw. 

I would say that he was following his intuition. What compelled him was his Calling or the Universe moving through him as his personal adventure story.

There is so much we can learn from the Boy. He did not give up. He kept remembering the words of both the gypsy woman and the king of Salem whose name was Melchizedek. By the way, author Paulo Coelho chose the king's name purposefully. In Hebrews, Abram gave Melchizedek a tenth of everything then the king blessed him. In The Alchemist, the king of  Salem gave the Boy advice and the meaning of his dream, and the Boy gave him a tenth of his flock.Giving this much away seems impossible if the Boy was going to get to Egypt from Spain, but he did the impossible and the story ends in his favor. 

What do you think about the practice of tithing? That is giving a tenth to the source of your spiritual good. It has worked for me for years.

How to Be Guided by Intuition

Intuition is  my favorite topic right now.

Probably because I have consciously chosen to LIVE intuitively and follow it when it talks to me.

For years, I didn't recognize it, then I started recognizing it, but didn't act on it, simply because I didn't understand it.

It wasn't logical.  It wasn't always easy.

But, as I have grown spiritually, I realized how much I wasn't living the live I really wanted to be living.

So, I knew I had to live more intuitively and act on the guidance I am given.

In a short time, many amazing things have happened and I'm demonstrating over and over why listening to my intuition is the way to go in life.

Living intuitively has made such a difference in my life that I decided to create an episode about it on my YouTube channel and thought I'd share it here:

What about you?

How do you live intuitively?  Share in the comments below how intuition has worked in your life and whether or not you feel you live intuitively or not.  

The Three R's of Intuition

Expect to Be In the Flow of Life

I think many people live in awe of the intuitive experience. I do. When it happens it's an amazing sensation and brings joy, wonder and excitement to life. "You don't still believe in coincidence?" my husband will tease.

Speaking with friends this weekend we were talking about how the same spiritual messages will repeatedly show up in various services and celebrations of all different faiths and persuasions. The message in my Saturday night prayer group is often repeated on Sunday at the Center for Spiritual Living and at times I will also see the very same message coming from other faiths as I peruse Twitter and Facebook on Sunday afternoon. It does fill me with awe.

"It means you're in the flow," my friend with strong Taoist tendencies shared. "Don't be in awe, be in expectation."

You see I thought being in awe was a show of recognition and gratitude but maybe I need to reframe this. Maybe, just maybe, I should adjust that awe to a grateful expectation of knowing. Relax into it like a river and know that this is how it should be. Recognize the unfolding and expect the flow.

The 3 R's Applied to Intuition
When you're in the flow, you're in the flow and later that evening someone shared a new set of the 3 R's. Not reading, wRiting and aRithmetic but recognize, respect and responsibility.

As we recognize we respect, and as we respect 

we become responsible. 

This morning I was thinking about how we can apply the three R's to the gift of intuition.

Recognize
We recognize that we are part of Spirit and that it's natural to be in the flow. We recognize the words, symbols and signs that come to us in our life as we mindfully go about our day.

Respect
When our intuition speaks to us we respect it. We recognize it as a gift of Spirit and we come to another level of knowing that everything is Sacred.

Responsibility
We take responsibility. When intuition comes to us we take action. Spirit wants to be expressed through us and it's up to us to let that expression take place.

"Learn to hear and trust your intuition--it's an amazing way to listen to what Spirit is trying to be--as you." ~ The Joyous Living Journal

Choosing to Live...Intuitively

Choosing to live intuitively is a big commitment.
In this Reinvention Channel show, I share an
example of a friend who was led by her intuition...
...in a not-so-logical direction, but it led to her purpose
in life!

This month's theme at the Center for Spiritual Living - Capistrano Valley is "Choosing to Live."

This is something I am very passionate about as the Creative Process of living an abundant life is something I put to the test everyday.

Let me be frank, I don't "test" it to prove to myself that I have the ability to co-create an amazing life with Spirit, I say I test it to see what I can create everyday!

Choosing to live is choosing to use the Law of the Creative Process to it's fullest extent...why not?  It's there for us to use or not....either way, it's working for us.

My definition of "choosing to live" goes beyond daily decisions and settles deeply in "choosing to live intuitively."

As humans, we are all intuitive.  It's a gift we were all embedded with.

However, very few humans utilize it.

They may get hints of it, and some even recognize their "intuitive"gifts...

...but do they LIVE intuitively?

I haven't always lived intuitively, in fact, I have only recently chosen to live intuitively, but have been very intuitive for majority of my life.

Choosing to live intuitively is knowing that our intuitive messages aren't always logical.  They don't make sense, and many times, we have NO idea where they lead.

It's scary to follow a path that is not illuminated...it's not safe...

...but, it's the most sacred path we can following because Spirit is guiding us.

So, I have dedicated my personal life AND my career to living intuitively, and teaching others how to do just that...

Last year, I launched an online, self-empowerment show called, "Life Reinvented."

It's a show that share principles to live life...reinvented.

I'd like to share the show we created around intuition.

It is my hope that it inspires you to follow that "whisper," and to choose to live....intuitively!

Episode 7: How to Use Your Intuition from Reinvention Channel on Vimeo.

Art Workshop with Psychic and Local Medium Ginger Roberts

Come explore your creativity.

The Center for Spiritual Living Capistrano Valley Women's Group welcomes Ginger Roberts, local medium/psychic, to our upcoming Girls Night Out on Friday, February 7, 7 p.m., for an art workshop designed to open participants up to information from their higher selves. 

Women of all ages are welcome to attend the group's gathering and participate in a psychic/intuitive art class with emphasis on self-love led by Roberts. Cost for the workshop is $5 for materials. The workshop, called The Shape of Emotions, will teach participants to work with color meditation and our higher selves to receive guidance and learn to love ourselves more fully.

Roberts is a local, clairsentient and clairvoyant medium who works with guidance from her spirit guides. Following in the footsteps on her mentor, famed English medium Robert Brown, Ginger has studied mediumship for more than 10 years and attended numerous Brown workshops and retreats.

For more information or to RSVP for the event, email AmyGreenroyd@gmail.com. The event will be held at our Center, 1201 Puerta Del Sol in San Clemente.

Tools For Transformation Learned Intuition

Learned Intuition: A Tool For Transformation

How is it possible for a soldier to look down an urban street in Iraq and somehow know there’s a bomb on it? How can a tennis coach predict a double fault before the player even hits the ball? Or closer to home, how can a parent know within an instant what their child is thinking? How can you predict that a car is about to change lanes before the blinker flashes? 

To those unfamiliar with these situations, it looks like magic, but it’s not. Intuition makes you superhuman. It taps into the subconscious mind to effortlessly evaluate situations faster than a mainframe. Once developed, it allows you to be the best without even trying. It gives you an unfair advantage.  

Even better, it can be learned. Intuition is a function of experience and expertise. So regardless of your goals and aspirations, learned intuition can help you become superhuman!  ~ Patrick Schwerdtfeger

And So It Is! 

How Michael Myers (the serial killer in the infamous Halloween movies) Almost Kept Me From Meditating

One of 108 individual prayer wheels
surrounding the 12 massive prayer
wheels. 

Last week I returned from a trip to Northern California.

I was visiting my mom and stepdad's new home in the mountains....DEEP in the mountains!

One hour from Redding, 12 miles from the nearest town, I found myself experiencing the most profound spiritual experience being in nature and completely disconnected from technology.

My mom picked up every tourist magazine in the area and I saw an ad for the Chugdud Buddhist Retreat Center about 45 minutes away...again, DEEP in the mountains!

They offered a 5:30 a.m. meditation and I had a silent whisper from my intuition, what I call my inner Soul Mama, that I needed to go and experience it.

So, I set my alarm for 4 a.m., got ready, and then panicked at the thought of having to walk from the house to my car in the PITCH BLACK.

I mean, living in cities for most of my adult life, I forgot how black it got outside.

I kept thinking, what are you so afraid of, Vidette?

Michael Myers!! I'd answer.

I watched the Halloween movies WAY younger than I should have when my older cousins locked me in my grandparents' living room and wouldn't let me leave until I watched the whole horror movie...the music still makes me want to hide under a pillow to think about it.

My irrational thinking was getting the best of me and I was CONVINCED he was waiting in the woods ready to cut me into pieces when I left the house.

Yes, a git gorey for a spiritual blog, but stick with me here.

After running faster than Usain Bolt running the 100 m sprint, I made it to my car and surprisingly, outwitting Michael Myers himself!

As I tried to keep my racing heart from jumping out of my chest, I drove up and down the long driveway, where, when I got to the road, sh*t, I thought! Why the hell is the gate closed?

The gate that I never noticed because it was always open, is now shut, and I have two options:

 1.  Get out and open the gate and risk giving Michael Myers a second opportunity to get me, or

2.  Back the hell up and go back to bed; However, with the steepness and windiness of the driveway, that option seemed worse. 

So, I got out ran like hell to the gate, pushed that gate open so fast, and ran to my car with a deep breath. 

  Phew! Ha-ha, Michael Myers!  You didn't get ME!! 

 On the 45 minute drive to the retreat center, every thought that could go through my mind did go through my mind.... 

What if these people aren't Buddhist at all? What if they put the front on like they are to attract naiive people like me who drive out there at 5:30 a.m. and then behead their guests never to be found again?

What if I break down? My phone doesn't work here.  No one knows where I am.  I'll be stranded in the middle of no where and will only hope to remember nuggets of information learned from watching Bear Grylls traipse around in mountains, forests, and deserts on TV. 

Oh, shit....what was I thinking?  

All to meditate?  

I can do that at home and not be risking my life! I can't turn back now!  That would be crazy! ...or would it? 

After all this, I arrive at the retreat center.  

It's pitch black. Not a light on except the blazingly obvious headlights of my car making it VERY obvious that a stranger has arrived onto the retreat center. 

DEFINITELY turn back!  

But, I didn't. 

There was this super silent whisper within.  Just trust, it kept saying. 

Finally, a glimmer of hope. I saw a light come on, then another, and another. I saw some movement. 

My heart started racing again. 

Am I REALLY going to go in there? 

One of 12, 3-ton Prayer
Wheels with over
147 BILLION prayers
embedded on them.

I finally couldn't stand the anticipation anymore.  

I walked into the vestibule outside of the meditation room and peeked inside. 

  

They LOOK normal. 

Well, sh*t, so did Michael Myers underneath the hockey mask! 

  

Oh, stop. Just go in. 

Behind me, the door opened it. 

I jumped so high with the sound of the door only to notice this totally normal-looking woman and she said, "Hi!" Woah....she's so....normal! 

"Hi," I responded, and then "I have NO idea what I am doing, I don't have a robe or anything, but I came for the meditation" spilled out of my mouth before I knew it.

"Well, come in and sit right here," Prema (I later found out her name was) said. 

I spent the next hour and 1/2 observing the most beautiful meditation ritual.  I was greeted with chanting, praying, and instruments and was enveloped with the soothing scent of incense. Most of the prayers I didn't understand, yet, I felt their power. 

Afterwards, many of the practitioners came up and introduced themselves and asked how I had gotten there. I told them the quick story, strategically leaving out the thoughts that they could be serial murderers. 

Prema invited me to have tea with them and I got to know more of THEIR stories and how they ended up living on a Buddhist retreat in the middle of nowhere as practitioners. 

My son, Rijken spinning
all 108 prayer wheels
releasing prayers to eliminate
war and famine and opening
up more compassion,
love and trust in the world.

As I sat there listening to their stories and sharing a beautiful early morning with them, my heart expanded inside. I had been led, once again, to another Soul Mama moment by that super-silent whisper that morning. 

It was almost drowned out by my ego trying to keep me safe, on the couch where I slept while visiting my mom. 

What if I hadn't gone? What if I had chosen to sleep in? What if I had chosen to make the attempt of backing up the long driveway and protecting myself from the "what-ifs" that were exploding in my head?

I would have missed a beautiful life experience.

As I turned around,
I saw Rijken giving thanks to the
prayers released.
PMM (proud mom moment) -
I didn't ask him to do it...
he simply felt led to give a bow of thanks!

I would have missed meeting these beautiful people who were so heart-warming, so compassionate, so inviting.

I would have missed the opportunity to experience something I had NEVER experienced before in my life for what? To stay safe? To stay in my comfort zone?

Where would that have gotten me?

It did get me out of my comfort zone....and VERY far out, I might add!

It got me new friends. It led me to a beautiful experience that had my heart brimming over with joy for the rest of the day.

It led me to SUCH a beautiful experience, I took my son back there the next day to experience the peace and calm of the place that I had been SO terrified to go to. What did I learn?

Fear will always appear...even when we think we have evolved beyond it, or have taken risks before and walked through fear with the misconception that we have conquered it forever.

Still, though, beyond the car alarm, the closed gate, the scary-ass drive through the California back-country, through all the what-if's, through all the fear of Michael Myers, there was this one constant in my life....whispering.... My inner Soul Mama, my intuition, nudging me on.

Not pushing. Gently encouraging.

Not trying to outwit my egoic thoughts.

Just whispering....just trust....just trust....just trust.

What more could we experience if we just trusted the infinite guidance of that Infinite Intelligence who only has our highest and best good in mind?

The possibilities are endless.

Following Your Intuition Into The World

Following Our Intuition Into The World

Last month a few of us gathered together to do a "visioning" for the month of October. We were instructed to sit quietly and listen to our intuition. What came through loud and clear, and one of the things that keeps coming back to me over and over again.

Get Outside 

Get outside of your comfort zone, get outside and meet your neighbors, get outside and interact with your friends, get outside and sing, get outside and love, get outside and learn, get outside and share, get outside and teach, get outside and practice, get outside and capture the moment, get outside and play, get outside and change your world.

Take the time to listen to your intuition today, where should you be going?

"I would argue that immersion is primarily a quality of consciousness that has to do with the capture and control of attention, a necessary condition for any interpersonal persuasion, education, or entertainment to occur." Diana Slattery.

"We are talking about directly engaging the technical material of subjectivity itself" Erik Davis. 

Intuition Tapping Writing Meditation

Intuition  - the ability to acquire representation or knowledge about things, apparently without reasoning or usage of reason in general. ~ Wikipedia

Sometimes I feel quite intuitive and at other times it feels like that part of the eye examination when the doctor is asking you to choose between lenses.

A tool for transformation that I've been working with lately has been writing meditation. I journal or free write for 30 minutes straight, perferably uninterupted.

My Writing Meditation Guidelines (as I have prescribed for myself)

• Frequency - Everyday. There's a power to doing things everyday. 

• Tool of Choice - I freewrite with a pen in hand. I still have never gotten used to doing my thinking or processing work at the computer. Maybe someday I will devote some time to spending these free writes at a computer or even go old school with a typewriter, preferably electric.

• Timer or Page Count - Time your free writes instead of measuring it by the pages. Set your timer and turn it out of view. 30 minutes. Being conscious of how much time you have remaining is an obstacle to being in the moment.

• Optimal Speed - It's fast enough that you aren't thinking too far ahead of yourself but you aren't fumbling with your pen. You're out of your head and out of the way.  

Sometimes I pose questions and sometimes I just write. There is always a discovery at the end of the 30 minutes. It's a way of tapping in that always works for me. I receive answers and sort out ideas on a regular basis. 

Listening to the Voice of God, I Know.

Have you ever found yourself not knowing what to do so you do nothing? I have and I don’t like it. I don’t like feeling powerless, at effect, limited by my conditions. I don’t like it because there really is nothing for me to do and we live in a world of doing. It’s true, when I am stuck I cannot ‘do’.  But something in me knows – I can be. Just be. I sit in the silence and listen to It. It is my intuition, the voice of God within.

Sometimes I listen for a minute, or five, or thirty. I just listen. Yes, I get interrupted, yes, I start over and yes, I listen every day.

Learning to listen to my intuition was a journey. You see, I was a doubter. I was a young person who thought answers came from what I could see, touch and know around me out in the “real world”. I did not yet trust that a valid answer to any real question could come from my gut, a hunch or simply because I felt it. It wasn't even that I belittled the idea of intuition I simply didn't acknowledge it as an adult experience. To me, knowing not feeling, proving not trusting and listening to my head not my heart was a sign of behaving like an adult.  If you know me, well you know I got over that old idea! I still appreciate wisdom and knowledge. If anything, today I sway on the side of my intuition. I might say to my husband “I think there’s something up with the car” and he will ask "what?" And I really cannot give him an answer that means anything to him or the mechanic. I respond, “I don’t know, it just doesn't feel right.”   And, in a few days he will say something like hm, I have to take the car in for “name the mechanical diagnosis”. I didn't know what was wrong but I sure sensed it. I love this example because I know that there is not a part of my life where my intuition does not “work”.  Often, I am inspired
with intuition in my work creating or presenting a lesson, listening or teaching.  I love living by my intuition and I love knowing that my hunches, my gut, my intuition are all part of my spiritual maturity.

So, when I find myself stuck with a question, a decision, a dilemma big or small I know I really can just stop. Stop in my tracks not because I can’t do, but because I can just be. Almost anytime and anywhere I can pause and listen. There are very few, if any exceptions.  I find there are many opinions, ideas and answers available to me out in the world and what I know is my best answers come from within. I would suggest that is true for all of us. The answer, words, direction is always known within each of us if we just listen. Listen to the voice within, listen to our heart, listen to It, our intuition.

This month our spiritual inquiry at our center is to connect to our intuition.  Wherever you are on your spiritual journey you are welcome to join us in this powerful inquiry. I’m excited to see where it takes me and to share it with you!

Learning to Trust Your Inner GPS

Within me is a presence that knows exactly where to go and how to get there. 

It calls to me as a whisper or a longing and it pulls me forward. 

I surrender, trust and follow it's guidance, 

discovering my highest calling and greatest joy.

And So It Is! 

Who's Your Boss?

Back in the early 2000s, I began to experience a symptom I now know as air hunger. I should say, re-experienced, because I’d had the same problem when I was in my early 20s. “It’s just nerves,” the doctor said. “Relax and it will go away.” And indeed within a year it was a distant memory. When it happened again, my doctor said, “nerves” and handed me a prescription for Xanax. But this time it wasn't going away, in fact it was getting worse.

When I was young, I believed doctors knew best…better than I did. After all, they were highly educated, trained professionals, right? So when my body didn't do what it's supposed to do, the doctor could fix it. And if the doctor couldn't fix it, then it was either unfixable, or all in my head.

But I've learned a lot in the intervening years. I learned that if I was in a relationship where my partner treated me badly, that I could choose to leave – or stay. I learned that if my employer was taking advantage of me, I could choose to leave. In fact, I learned that it was I who chose that disparaging partner, that disappointing job and if I’d listened to my own inner wisdom, I might have taken a different path.

My inner wisdom was telling me this breathing problem was not “all in my head”. It wasn't just stress. And when my tests came back normal, I trusted my inner wisdom. I kept searching. Specifically, I refined my perception of the issue and discovered “air hunger”. Once I could clearly name it, I could find the condition – Babesia, a malaria-like infection that often comes with Lyme disease, which I also have.

I’d like to say I did this all on my own. And while taking total responsibility for my health was all me, I had invaluable help. I tapped into the vast well of knowledge and experience of other Lyme patients. There’s not one symptom; one reaction to medication, one painful procedure I experienced, that someone else in my Lyme community hadn't been through. There was always someone ready and willing to share, guide and support me.

Inner wisdom, what some call intuition, is simply the Universe speaking. Sometimes It speaks so softly you have to lean in. Sometimes the inner chatterbox drowns It out, but you can learn Its voice. Inner wisdom never fails.

--Pamela Rocke