Sparks in Wisdom's Fire: September 2020

Tuesday, September 29, 2020

A Time of Rubber Bands & Bubble Gum

Sometimes it feels that my life is held together by brittle bubble gum and stretched-out rubber bands. 2020 has been a year; it is a true example of our challenges screaming at us even when we have identified them and are responding. Within the seemingly constant tumult, I find myself wondering if I have the courage and the strength to navigate through the increasing chaos to a place of peace.

As long as I take this journey mindfully, step by step, I believe that I do. I believe that you do, too. Because life is truly lived in those little moments. Sure, we can ride on the energy of the big stuff — a new job, a new relationship, the birth of a child. The energy that flows from them is a brief energizer of our life. Soon enough these uplifting feelings diminish. Energy depleted, we find our self exactly where we were before the energy burst.

When we are aware in the mundane moments, our eyes are intuitively drawn to the extraordinary. By extraordinary, I mean those things and situations from which our intuition speaks. These may present as a message of hope, a message of direction, or a message that reminds us to breathe. The extraordinary reflects the sacred manifest in our self, others, and all of creation.

An amazing thing happens when we focus on our breath. We hear the messages hidden within our body — the tensions, the relaxed, the memories that surface through movement. We feel as our breath interacts with these messages empowering us to formulate a response. For example, when I focus on my breath, I feel muscles releasing and thoughts clearing. My intuition gently wafts to the surface nudging me to listen, understand, and respond.

I might not be able to change all of the uncertainty in my world. I can only identify that one more thing that threatens to break my fatigued rubber band and shatter that brittle chewing gum. This identification is the beginning of taking care of myself. In my self care I gain the strength to be the beauty of who I am regardless of the forces that would ask me to be ugly.

So, sometimes life feels like it is held together by brittle bubble gum and stretched too thin rubber bands, but by focusing on my breath, I am the calm that releases fatigued hopelessness and brings a new day. And, you, too, can be that calm.

Vanessa F. Hurst, ms, is an Intuitive-Coach-Catalyst, who uses mindfulness practices and intuition tools to create strategies for personal and relationship transformation. She is a professional speaker & author who weaves inner wisdom into all she touches. Her books are available @ www.wildefyrpress.com. Contact Vanessa (vanessa@intentandaction.com) for life coaching, intuitive consultations, keynotes, and programs.

Tuesday, September 22, 2020

A Refractive Reflection

Life is a kaleidoscope of colors; a never-ending growing into our self. On this nonlinear journey, we discover time and time again that we don’t have everything figured out. Life is in the figuring not in the out. For the out is the end of this journey; a respite before we begin the next. But, we have many twists and turns and joyous shouts before that occurs.

Our kaleidoscope refracts creating a new vision of the challenges and possibilities in our life. Through this shift we view a never-ending display of possible colors shapes. Reflecting upon what is revealed means listening with all of our senses to intuition wafting up from our core. That voice provides a wealth of information that can only be discerned by being nonattached to the message and being nonjudgmental about the information itself.

Once our connection to intuition is recognized, how do we strengthen this connection? By being nonattached and nonjudgmental. This is HARD! So, I recommend beginning with a big dose of self-compassion. Recognize that you are not always going to interpret your intuition accurately or even hear what it saids. Be gentle, be kind with yourself as you connect more fully to your intuition. Self-compassion reduces performance anxiety while increasing your intuitive awareness.

Then listen to the voice of your intuition. Is there something that is just a step out of the ordinary? Perhaps the intuitive clue is easily identified. Begin with whatever you notice. Breathe deep. Connect with your inner calm. Then with curiosity and without expectation, follow the thread of your intuition to wherever it leads.

Here is an example: early this morning, 3:30-ish or so, I was awaken by a doorbell. Now my home doesn’t have a doorbell. But the sound was insistent enough that it woke me up. I listened as it faded away. I wasn’t sure what to make of it. I felt no fear. Just a knowing that something was attempting to grab my attention. Although I could not decipher the message in that moment, I knew that I would later.

I often process my intuition, enter into refractive reflection, when moving. As I walked later this morning, I reflected upon the message of the doorbell. As I followed the refracting kaleidoscope, I recognized that I didn’t need to struggle. I could stop trying so hard. The ground work for my next great adventure is laid. I needed to continue on the path for something was coming to me. That was the message in the ringing of the doorbell.

We engage in refractive reflection more often than we realize. Sometimes those moments are truly brief and spontaneous. Other times, like my morning walk, we intentionally set the stage to decipher the message. However we decipher the message, we do so by listening to our intuition and following its guidance.

This sounds simple, right? Well, not necessarily. That is where the self compassion comes in. There are times that we do not understand or even misinterpret this guidance. We may be just too caught in the bending light as our life kaleidoscope shifts. That is perfectly okay. A fortune cookie once reminded me that “we learn more from our failures than from our successes.” That is a truth I chuckle about over and over again.

Refractive reflection is a willingness to actively and curiously engage whatever we find in our life. We quietly listen to the message in whatever we find. It is a call to courageousness; to willingly enter our life adventure over and over again as we discover exactly where we are meant to be.

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Tuesday, September 15, 2020

Catapulting from Grief to Your Message

Lately a great welling of grief has flooded into an unsuspecting world. Who would have realized on January 1, 2020, that the world would experience so many challenges and face so much loss in less than a year? We often have to remind ourself of the many avalanches that have happened this year. Through the fatigue we are challenged to recognize our grief, stand in our power, and do everything we can to alleviate the suffering that percolates around us.

All is not dire. We as individuals and as community have an opportunity that cannot be missed. That opportunity is to grow into our message. Gandhi, when asked by a reporter what his message was, simply said, “my life is my message.” Do you know what your message is? How do you discern your message when you are bombarded by the grief that overwhelms both you and the world?

Grief is a powerful shaper of the articulation of our message. Let’s use the five stages of grief — denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance — as defined by Elizabeth Kübler-Ross in this discernment. What follows is my take on using grief as a discernment spring board.

As you go through each step use full-body listening to get a detailed image of how your grief is expressed. As you answer each question, use your primary senses: sight, hearing, sensing (feeling), smell, and taste to formulate your response. Notice how your body, your mind, your spirit, and your emotions are impacted by the questions.

Let’s begin:

Denial: What in your life are you not accepting of? What do you avoid, minimize, or misinterpret? What, in this moment, would you name as the most important denial? How is it stopping you from sharing your truth with the world?

Anger: Reflect upon those things that tangle you in denial. How does your anger stem from each? Dig beneath the anger to its roots; discover what triggers the anger inside of you. How is that root impacting your internal monologue, your emotions, your physical body?

Bargaining: How often do you make the “if this, then that” deal? What do you bargain for? How is your anger a bargaining chip? What is the impact of this bartering on your body, mind, spirit, and heart? What triggers are you willing to neutralize by not bartering?

Depression: Let’s look at depression as feelings of hopelessness that result from reactive anger. Name what you are particularly hopeless about. How can you use the power of your anger to share your message with the world? How is your anger a nonviolent power that triggers transformation?

Acceptance: Look at the answers to the questions regarding the first four stages. Create a panoramic view of what you discovered. Recognize that while you cannot change the situation, you can shift from reaction to response. How are your reactions and responses to grief impacting your message? What is uplifting in the lessons you are learning? How might you use this knowledge as the foundation of your message?

Past. Present. Future. It is not just 2020 that catches us in grief. 2020 has stripped away the veneer of normalcy and asked us to peer deeply into our suffering and that of others. This exercise is not one that is meant to trap you in despair. It is meant to give you the power to catapult from the depths of your grief into your message. It is meant to clear the path of hope and compassion in an uncertain world.

Here’s to realizing your life as your message!

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Tuesday, September 8, 2020

Shake It Up: Living An Adventuresome Life

When I walk, I take the same the same route. That is, until about two weeks ago. My inner voice grew increasingly more vocal about taking a different path. I argued, “it is easy and predictable." I continued taking the same path until one morning when I woke up and thought, “this is it! I am going to take a different route.” That morning, my trek was spontaneous as my intuition guided me.

Since that time my walk has become anything but rote. I have shaken it up. I have walked through uniques neighborhoods that I didn’t know existed. I’ve seen a fence created entirely by live trees, hoofed up and down hills, and peered into wetlands from a raised walkway. Shaking up my walk opens new vistas to me. I wondered, “What would happen if you shook up other parts of your life?”

Now, I am not talking about a shake up for the sake of shaking. I am talking about letting go of the stale and old. This shaking up occurs through discernment or objectively listening to the voice of your intuition, creating a plan, and then acting upon it. For me, this means paying attention to what is no longer working in my life. I full-body listen to gain clues what is outdated and needs to be shaken up.

Notice that I say shaken up not thrown out. Often our life doesn’t need to be radically changed. It just needs to be tweaked. Discernment through full-body listening helps us decide what we can keep, what needs to be let go of, and what needs to be shaken up.

Let’s return to full-body listening. (Find out more about it here) When we listen with our senses to the four aspects of our being — body, mind, spirit, and heart, we gain critical information. How do we do this? Let’s practice:

Choose something in your life — it could be big: your job, a relationship — or something small: your hair style, your interaction on social media.
Objectively reflect upon this piece of your life. Don’t make judgments or defend what you discover. Just gather facts.
Ask yourself how you are impacted by this piece of your life. (For example: you may feel fluttering in your stomach, have a thought that repeats over and over again, or an emotion may surface.) Use your five senses to formulate your answer.
Create a multi-dimensional image of what you are sensing. The image takes form as you discover what the piece of your life looks like, sounds like, feels like, smells like, and tastes like. Shake up how you are experiencing this life piece.
Note how this life piece is impacting your body, mind, spirit, and heart separately and collectively.
Ask yourself what needs to be shaken up and to what degree the shake needs to happen. Sometimes a shake is slight; other times it creates a seismic shift in your life. There is no wrong answer. You choose how the change will manifest.

Now an example: my hair and I have had an uneasy relationship for quite some time. Added to this uneasiness is the temperature at my workplace. The heat, humidity, and subsequent sweat result in my hair becoming what I refer to as “old lady frizz.” This description was only the beginning of what my internal monologue said about me (mind). It triggered emotions (heart). I wanted to make a change but feared how I would look in shorter hair. The voice of my intuition (spirit) grew louder and louder, until I could not longer ignore the stale in my life. I got my hair cut (body).

That haircut was the shake up that I needed. I feel more powerful; more of who I am. In fact, I tell people that I am rocking my Jaime Lee Curtis who I view as a short haired, incredibly powerful, together woman. As a result of that haircut, I have begun to shake up other aspects of my life. This includes a new website and painting aura portraits. I in this shaking up, I am becoming exactly who I am.

So, how are you shaking up your life? How are you rocking your Jamie Lee Curtis? How are you becoming exactly who you are? I’d like to know.

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Tuesday, September 1, 2020

The Wild Ride of Your Heart

When I was younger, my family would drive to the Ferdinand State Forest. Mostly we would take the curvy, hilly road at a meandering. Every once in a while my dad would be adventurous. What a thrill it would be to whip around curves and sail across the dips! On those wild rides the thrill was part fear but mostly a lot of daring.

Lately it seems that life is taking us on unexpected wild rides. The gas pedal never seems to let up as we whip around curves and sail across dips. I grapple with what is triggering my fear. In moments of reflection, I remind myself to acknowledge the possibilities as I sail across the dips and take the hairpin curves. With introspection, I reframe this wild ride into an opportunity for growth reminding myself that transformation is only possible through a wild ride of our heart.

Whether we are meandering or racing in this wild ride of our heart, we show up as our best, most honest self. Ask yourself, “How does my best, most honest self feels?” Get a multi-sensory image of what your best, most honest self is. Let that image seep into your core. That image is the vehicle in which you ride into the wild.

Although aspects of a wild ride are scary and filled with dark, this happening need not be terrifying. A wild ride is an opportunity to shift perception — to see our self in a new light. We are invited, no matter what the circumstances, no matter what our reaction or response, to glimpse beneath illusion into who we truly are at our core. That is key. Each time we sail across those hills and whip around the curves, we gain insights into who we are and who we are not.

Who are you? Not the labels and the roles but the true self that you share with each beat of your heart. Notice how that clashes with how others see you, how you show up with your friends, your family, at work. The wild ride is a reminder to be yourself however, wherever, and whenever you find yourself. Using this reframe, the wild ride becomes less scary and more daring.

This wild ride invites you to never stop being who you are — to show up as your best, most authentic, most honest self. So, I dare you to ride the ribbon road of dips and curves not because it is the only way to get to your destination, but because it offers you the best way to experience life. Here’s to those wild rides between here and there that lead you to exactly where you need to be.

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