Intuitive Illuminations from a Grounded Mystic…
“When things are too heavy, don’t try to pick them up.”
The previous month has been a rewarding and sometimes challenging opportunity to check in with your soul on a deeper level and make sure that the people in our circles share a similar vision and that their vision is in alignment with our deepest core values. That is, it is fueled by love and focused on growing a heart-centered collective. It is sometimes all too easy to fall into a pattern of compromising our core values in exchange for promises of greater connection, recognition and success. It is easy to grab at and reach for these external definitions when the deeper definitions of these things begin to elude us.
You know what this path feels like, right? It’s the slip and slide… We start with big dreams and find ourselves, instead, just hanging on, hoping things will turn out for the best. We find ourselves just managing to keep our head above water instead of moving toward our more soulful goals and ambitions. This can put us in a holding pattern with regards to manifesting our dreams and desires. Merriam Webster Dictionary defines a holding pattern as a state of waiting or suspended activity or progress. And while this may be okay with some of us for a limited amount of time, if you stay in a holding pattern too long, you lose vital life energy and eventually a sense of hopelessness creeps in.
This feeling of being in a holding pattern happened to many in my immediate circles this past month. The energy of feeling trapped with little movement forward definitely is uncomfortable and sparks controversy if you stay in it too long. Imagine a cork in a bottle with pressure building up underneath. Eventually the pressure is going to build up exponentially causing the cork to blow with a powerful force. Well, this, in many ways, is what is happening with our collective energy.
We have seen this cycle play out in the last two months or so, and it is definitely a time ripe with controversy in our collective. As a result, people are acting in cavalier ways that don’t always offer the best outcome toward our collective goals. Or they are blowing up or slinking off… This energy isn’t easy for any of us to maneuver. As such, it is a time of endings and new beginnings, ushering in re-organization of businesses, endings of collectives and relationships, and many new start-ups. I’m sure you have seen this energy building up, touching and affecting your own life in some unexpected ways.
It is partially fueled by some difficult astrological aspects that make people feel as though they want to break out of their shell and feel liberated and/or vindicated right now. There is a generalized feeling of collective frustration with Venus and Jupiter retrograde cycles which leaves people wanting to move forward quickly with things. We are currently being asked to tie up loose ends from the past and make sure we are moving forward on solid ground. Although we may not be able to make real steps forward until the week of March 2nd.
Know that we are all doing our best at making choices, and sometimes, no matter how observant and aware we try to be, we find ourselves doubling back and questioning our decisions and our alignment.
If this has recently happened to you, instead of bemoaning it, I invite you instead to notice the gift of where you find yourself. Don’t stuff the feelings that accompany the invitation. Instead invite them in and notice what they are teaching you about your own needs. I guarantee this will get you back on track with moving forward toward your desires.
I, too, had planned to tackle these weighty issues myself this month and I had started to write an article all about sorting out and getting to the bottom of these difficult energies. Indeed, that is the article I started, and then something happened…right in the middle of this endeavor I got tired. And just like that cork in the bottle, I started to put pressure on myself to pull this all together all at once and come up with an article that covered all the fine points of this issue.
My tendency, which I’m sure many of us share, is to make things complicated when we already feel mired in big decisions and choices. We feel that we must give them our proper due and so we imagine that, as they are difficult problems, they must require difficult solutions.
We do this almost reflexively. This is because it was something many of us were taught to think and do. How many of you heard while growing up that you had to face up to things. Or that you were responsible for more than just you? How many of you heard that to make something happen you have to work very hard? How many of you heard that to solve a problem you have to turn over every stone? All of these ideas are probably circulating around somewhere as part of your core beliefs. These types of ideas are indeed so prolific that, in many cultural circles, we never challenge them. They are, instead, just the given. They often get thrown in with other ideas about spirituality as though they were gospel.
Why it was just yesterday I sent a coaches offer to my junk mail because not 3 seconds into her video she endorsed this endless weighted metaphor, saying something like, “To do anything you love is very hard and we just have to accept that…” I found myself carrying the great weight of her assumptions with me in the first line of her message. And you know what? When I hit my junk file, I sat that weight down. And this is where and when my awareness began to change.
I wonder how many of you who are reading this are finding that, regardless of the outcome, you have to do something else other than pick up and throw around that great weight? I invite you to check in now… How many of you feel you must do something other than what you’ve been told to do? How many feel you must look for another type of truth of your own immediate creation? How many feel you would like to come up with a more creative definition for what’s going on in your life? Well, if you are feeling this multi-faceted energy of restlessness, coupled with creativity, invention and ambition, you are really onto something. Now, doesn’t it feel lighter just to address these questions differently?
Those who would encourage you to be responsible and pick up your burden are really asking you to pick up weighted energy. And this is likely something that they are feeling. These people, though well-meaning are often mired in the “what if scenario’s.” Here are a few examples: “If I don’t think about these possibilities they are bound to happen.” “It isn’t responsible to ignore a possible outcome.” And… “To be a team player we have to share the collective burden.” How does it feel to know, instead, that these energies and ideas never really belonged to you?
I come from a family where these ideas were very entrenched in my earliest teachings and experiences, so these immediate responses are a part of my core make-up. Sometimes, they become my go—to’s, especially when my energy is depleted. Although I do recognize intellectually that they are dysfunctional and, in many cases, just plain inaccurate. Like many of you, I too struggle at times with these outmoded tapes. If you find you are struggling with these types of internalized messages, I encourage you to go easy on yourself. Change happens when we are willing to look in a different direction.
The other day, I found myself posting a very different kind of a quote on my Facebook page. I wrote, “When things are too heavy, don’t try to pick them up.” Now this really is an about face for me. Instead of endorsing my parent’s ideas and the culture’s ideas about our responsibility to the greater whole, i.e. to see what’s there and deal with it. Instead, this was basically saying, I see this and I choose not to carry it. I almost erased it when I posted it. It didn’t seem right, almost blasphemous, in a weird way, to suggest it. But, I was curious, so I let the post stay there. I did come back several times to stare at it and ponder what it might mean.
What I’ve come up with takes me right back to the well-meaning inaccurate messages my parent’s and the culture gave me. In reality, when we endorse this collective weightiness and heaviness that I’m talking about. We become too heavy to move ourselves…much less the energy around our situations. We become depressed and overburdened. We eat too much and walk around with the weight of the world on our shoulders. We become secure in the idea that we know the outcome of things. We end up endorsing our own limitations. We fight for things that aren’t good for us anymore just because we can predict the outcome. This over certainty is too heavy a burden for any of us to bear and that is because it doesn’t allow us to change. Sure it’s solid and undeniable. And it proves we are there, but our ideas become immovable things. And then we outgrow them as we are beings meant to change, and our ideas and experiences and outgrown truths become intolerable to us.
This is why, when you feel something is too heavy a load, it is better to move in another direction. First, if you need to, rest and allow yourself time to adjust to the new direction. Then, make sure you’ve dealt with any loose ends of the heavier place. Have the conversation, change the times, and make your new needs known. As you do, at the same time, begin to imagine what it will be like to feel lighter, move easier, and more freely, connect more smoothly. Really let yourself get into this place.
Watch clips of downhill skiers, or take a bath with bubbles and notice how the suds sit full of air so easily on the top of the water. Imagine yourself and your new movements as airy and light as those suds. Or imagine yourself as quick and lithe as those downhill skiers. This is the way to begin to wholly embody the change on a spiritual and eventually, a physical level.
Lastly, I always tell my clients that moving through change is never as hard as we imagine it will be. Know that, when you embrace the opportunity to move through to a lighter more sustainable energy, you will have unseen helpers that will guide you in the new direction, hidden hands that will provide you with meaningful gifts, and amazing imaginative insights that will help you gain momentum toward your new vision. So, learn to trust the new energy that is trying to shift you from the place of too heavy in your life. Just don’t pick up that rock!
February’s affirmation Gem is: I easily move forward with my new endeavors. I set down those things that no longer speak to me and move in the direction of my innately inspired alignment. I am open to exploring this new feeling of lightness in myself and others.
And February’s Gem is sunstone. Sunstone is known as “The stone of joy.” It is known for bringing lightness and connection while opening up intuitive energies. This stone invites benevolent gods and goddesses to bring luck and fortune. It imparts empowerment and freedom from the effects of energy drainers. It evokes optimism and enthusiasm, encourages healing and removes depressive conditions. I am excited to carry this stone throughout the month of February with you. May our intention setting take us to unseen places carried on the winds of our most buoyant ideas! Blessings and happy envisioning and intention setting to each of you!
Jenny’s work draws heavily from the depth psychology schools of C.G. Jung and Joseph Campbell. By utilizing and refining your unique intuition she hopes to help you achieve a more peaceful, and authentic response to life, no matter where you find yourself on the human journey. Jenny brings her gifts of insight, vision, depth and a non-judgmental presence to our work. She looks forward to helping you help your intuitive Self shine! She may be reached at: imaselkie@juno.com or at her website: www.innervoiceintuitive.com to schedule tarot readings and Skype intuitive counseling work.
