You Are Here: Let’s Begin

We knew it was coming. Can’t say that I am shocked or even surprised by what is unfolding. What does surprise me — in a simply wonderful way — is the response of so many. The responses are about accountability and solid facts. If you are not one of them, that is okay. While we are all “here,” we are responding to that here in a different way. What’s important is that we show up where we are and work from there.

So, you are here. Now what? Let’s start with the what-not-to-dos: Don’t deny, minimize, or stuff what you are feeling. That leads to a potential pressure cooker explosion. The emotions come out sideways. We do or say things that we regret later.

I don’t know about you, but creating a mess that I need to clean up is not on my list of preferred things to do. Instead of denying, minimizing, or stuffing, own what you are feeling, dive deep into the messiness, allow yourself to feel it. Simply: name it. Don’t blame it. Don’t shame it. 

Honestly be with how you are. That is the first step.

Let’s practice: allow some of those tumultuous thoughts and feeling to rise to your being, breathe in, breath out, connect to your core. Don’t be concerned about all the uncertainty that is rising. Focus on the calm that emanates from your core. As you breathe, you might go for a walk (sometimes my walks help the angst leach out of my body). Or, you might sit in the quiet. Do something that will take you out of the sensory overload and into a place where you reconnect to you. 

As feelings surface, surrender into them. This is not an act of desperate giving up. It is a practice of curious exploration. As you surrender you no longer cling to the emotions, but flow through them as witness. Notice any body sensations, what your mind is saying, what emotions are lurking underneath the initial feeling. Your curious exploration is a time of noticing — nothing more, nothing less. 

Don’t despair if this doesn’t “work” the first time. If you are too tangled in the emotion. You may need to do this over and over again until you better understand the emotion and it lifts out of your being. 

What’s next? After neutralizing the feeling — or at least diminishing its impact — ask yourself one thing that you can do to make a difference. This one thing may not be an external. If fact, it may be an act of self care. In caring for yourself, you begin to heal the world. 

If you cannot surface anything, talk to a friend or friends. This is not a complaining session, but a time of mutual support and creative brainstorming. Together name something that you can do to make a difference. You may find that as you practice this letting go, you discover the courage to edge further and further toward your boundary and beyond until you are doing things that make a difference to not only you but to the world. 

Van(essa) F. Hurst is an intuitive, a mystic, and a contemplative. As a spiritual director she journeys with seekers on the ultimate quest — living into a stronger, more durable relationship with their sacred in ways that make a difference in their world. She is the author of five books and believes that through our lived experiences, we become the people we are meant to be. 

Reach out to me:  hurst.vanessa@gmail.com  vanessafhurst.com 

Soaring into the Primal Power of Gaia

This past week I looked up into the sky and noticed it blueness and the companion billowing clouds. Wow! I thought. The Canadian wildfires are no longer blowing over Louisville. I can breathe into the blue! In those moments I allowed the blue to rest in my soul and calm the disquiet surrounding me blowing away some of the haze in my spirit.

I realized yet again the impact that nature has upon me. Blue skies uplift me. The eerie haze, not so much. It bogs me down. When I peer through the haze, I can see into the beyond. A place of clarity and wisdom.

There I can focus on the scampering of squirrel or the white stripes on the wings of a mockingbird as it takes flight. Blue jays and cardinals provide splashes of color. Even the cawing of crows anchor me into the moment. Nature calms the dis-ease and kindles the wonder in my soul when I get past that haze.

Nature has another face. The wind whipping through the trees, the rumbling of thunder, the flashes of lightning that brighten the night sky. These bring a different kind of energy. I can get stuck in the fear of what if or I can move through them past the disquiet into the calm. I use the energy of their chaos to stoke the flame at my core into a frenzy. 

Inhaling these waves, I breathe into the primal power. This gives me the energy to tunnel even deeper into my self. At the core, I find the calm. Within this silence, the primal power brings me to magnificent connection. I enter into relationship with nature, the sacred, and, well, everyone. 

Mother Earth, Gaia, offers so many opportunities to enjoy her splendor — to invite me to explore relationship with each calls to move to her rhythm. That’s it! Nature provides  so many ways to be come out of my shell and just be. To feel the joy of the scampering squirrels. And to share that joy with others. 

Vanessa Hurst is the author of Imperfect in an Uncertain World filled with resources for you to live with magical conviction. As an intuitive catalyst/spiritual director, she guides individuals in recognizing and responding to their intuition. Curious? Schedule an intuitive conversation.  

A Rebellious Act of Self Love

Even a Willow Tree Snaps

Willow tree are amazing. They are so supple, so flexible as they move within breezes and strong winds. They remind me of the the saying “we are never given more than we can handle.” But, is that true? With a strong enough wind, a willow branch will break and so will we.

I wonder if there is a way for us to be like a willow tree no matter where we find ourself.  Maybe. Let’s explore that.

It is inevitable that the winds of uncertainty and upheaval will blow into our life. They might even be fierce enough to overwhelm us. No matter how flexible we may be, we may reach our limit. “No more,” we may groan. So, what do we do next? We engage in a rebellious act of self love. Sounds simple right? Maybe. Maybe not.

I was raised to believe that no matter how bad something got that I needed to rise to the challenge. I am not a quitter. I reevaluated that belief and have decided that it is not quite true. Sometimes you’ve got to step away from a bad situation before you break. Sometimes you’ve got to engage in that rebellious act of self love. 

That a rebellion begins with a simple word shouted from the depths of your soul, “enough!” Saying, “I cannot do this anymore. It is just not working.”

Let talk about an example, maybe you cannot quit your job, but you can take care of yourself  by setting good boundaries. That means taking a time out, discovering what balance means for you, and acting upon what you’ve discovered. 

Let’s return to the example of not being able to quit your job. What actions can you do that will take care of you? Do you job within the constraints of your job description. Take your breaks. Learn to notice when things are triggering. When you leave at the end of your shift, ritualistically shake the dust. Then nurture yourself in your down time. Do not give your work free rent space in your head.

Ask yourself, “what is pushing be toward a break?” It may not be a job. It could be something else. Use the above steps to be that will within the chaos. When you discover what to do, act with rebellious self love. In time those acts will bring you out of the chaos into your peace.

A rebellious act of self love is not an act of selfishness, but an act that says, I love you.

 

Vanessa Hurst is the author of Imperfect in an Uncertain World. As an intuitive catalyst/spiritual director, she guides individuals in recognizing and responding to their intuition. Curious? Schedule an intuitive conversation. 

I am awake

I am awake. Not the eyes opening at the sound of an alarm clock kind of awake. No, the awareness that comes from being in the moment — noticing how I am distracted, acknowledging the distractions, and moving back into the present moment, ready to listen to what is evolving. And, the more I am awake, the more that I discover how I am getting caught in my distractions!

This kind of awareness is not so easy. It takes practice. I remember during my coach training that the instructor told us more than once: practice does not make perfect; practice makes permanent. Isn’t that what being awake in the moment is all about? We don’t always hear that soft voice of intuition; but the more we listen for it, the easier it becomes to identify those messages. We may never be perfectly intuitively, but, with practice, we get better at recognizing how it speaks to us.

That is what this intuitive journey is all about — recognizing what we are seeing and attending to what we recognize. 

How do we do this? By noticing what is happening in and around us — by being aware. Try this: at certain points in the day, ask yourself what is trying to get your attention. This could be a distraction or an intuitive message. Don’t worry about discerning what is what. Practice identifying what is knocking on the door of your being. 

Focus on the internal:

What is spinning in your mind?

What emotions are your feeling?

What is your body telling you? 

Don’t give yourself too long. You do not want to second guess yourself. Maybe 30-45 seconds for each question. Quickly jot down your noticings. 

Next focus on the external. Use all five of your senses to identity what is vying for your attention. 

Again, don’t give yourself too long. Notice for maybe 60-75 seconds. 

Notice what resonates with you; notice what drags you down. If you have time later, journal about what you picked up. Keep your notes. Pay attention to patterns. Learn to separate, through trial and error, what is a distraction and what is intuitive. You may not become perfectly intuitive but accessing your intuition will become permanent.

Vanessa Hurst is the author of As Natural As Breathing: Being Intuitive. As an intuitive catalyst, she guides individuals in recognizing and responding to their intuition. Curious? Schedule an intuitive conversation. 

Being Your Own Crystal Ball

Do you ever want to grab a crystal ball and peer deeply into it to discover the future? To choose without a doubt the best decision to make in this moment? To know what is going to happen and ensure that you have smooth sailing? Me, too. But, life is just too fluid to know with certainty what the future will hold. 

What if I told you that you are your own crystal ball? Maybe you cannot peer into the future and see with certainty what will happen, but you can access your inner wisdom in the present moment to make choices that will impact your future self. Another name for that inner wisdom is intuition. 

Everyone is intuitive. In fact, being intuitive is as natural as breathing. Sometimes our intuition is a quiet whisper that we cannot hear. Sometimes it feels like intuition is hiding behind a great wall. Then there are the times we don’t recognize the voice of intuition as it speaks through our senses. 

First, we need to be aware of how our intuition is gaining our attention. Next we let go of the obstacles that prevent us from understanding our intuition. The final step is responding to our intuition. Moving through these steps may feel like an insurmountable task until it isn’t. I’ll say it a bit differently — accessing our intuition is hard until it isn’t. Like any skill, practice makes connecting to our intuition simpler. Practice doesn’t make perfect; it makes permanent.

Listening to your intuition is about recognizing the ways it knocks on the doors of your consciousness whispering, “Hey! I am here. Listen to me with all your senses.” It is about paying attention to how it shows up in signs, symbols, metaphors — even the words of another can be your intuition speaking. 

Being intuitive is paying attention to catch the nudge and then reflecting upon what you are given. Accessing intuition is like learning a new language and translating it in ways that make sense to you. Your intuitive awareness is as unique as you are. You build the vocabulary of intuition as you learn.

Sounds difficult? Not really. Mostly intuition is about being aware — being in the moment and attending to what is happen. Intuition asks us to be courageous. Don’t fear that you will miss a nudge. Don’t fear that you will interpret it wrong. The nudge will come back louder and louder until you recognize it. 

Try this: For the next several days, notice what is showing up in your life. It could be an animal, bird, plant, numbers, the same topic in conversations; a color — anything that says, “Hey, pay attention! Intuition incoming!” 

Noticing is the first step to understanding and responding to your intuition.

Vanessa Hurst is the author of As Natural As Breathing: Being Intuitive. As an intuitive catalyst, she guides individuals in recognizing and responding to their intuition. 

Curious?Schedule an intuitive conversation. 

thin slivers of magic

Magic. Within each of us are thin slivers of magic  — little pieces of wonder that light the world from within. These iridescent sparklies are within each of us. Their humming glow invite us into our self. They ricochet from our core calling us home, and then moving outward sing the world into a new way of being. 

The world can be a scary, uncertain place. Do you ever have days where you’d like to runaway but you just cannot figure out a safe place to go? Maybe you want to hide under the covers. Or do anything but venture out into the chaos. I know that I do.

So what do we do? Return to our core not as a safe haven but as a place to gather our kindling and spark the flames of courage and awareness. Those sparks become the iridescent sparkles that fly from us into the world. As we change, we invite others to change. Ultimately the world undergoes transformation.

We kindle those flames not by knowing all the answers but by asking questions. 

• What do I fear?
• What does my courage look/feel/sound like? 
• How am I asked to show up in the world? 

These are “starter” questions. Others will come. They soar with your intuition wafting up on the breeze of your soul. For now, we only need an inkling of the answer — a flicker of light, a spark of understanding to get started. Within each of those answers is the flame that will illuminate our core and shed light on the path ahead.

This is the path that cleaves the chaos and fills us with peace. It is the place where each of us can be our true self. All we need to do is show up as our true self. In this showing up as who we are, the world becomes a bit less chaotic and a whole lot more peaceful.  

Van Hurst, ms, is an intuitive comtemplative catalyst. She uses mindfulness practices and intuition tools to create strategies for navigating through your mundane into the extraordinary. The result of time with Van? An evolving blueprint for your life; a sustained, deeper connection to your intuition and contemplative nature. 

Van is a professional speaker & author who weaves inner wisdom into all she touches. Her books are available @ www.wildefyrpress.com. Her most recent book, As Natural As Breathing: Being Intuitive, is available on Amazon. Contact Vanessa for life coaching, intuitive consultations, keynotes, and programs. 

Website / LinkedIn Profile / Facebook / Twitter: @fyrserpent / ©2023 

Time Is On Our Side

Earlier this month, the groundhog didn’t see his shadow. We got a reprieve. Six more weeks of winter. “What? A reprieve?” Okay, hear me out. The winter is typically a time to settle into our self and breathe. A time to be. To allow our spirit to shimmer. To pay attention to what our spirit whispers.

So yeah, we’ve got time to be in these shortening nights and lengthening days. There is still time to venture onto the dark side of our moon and rest in the clues and messages found there. We have time. Take a breath. State with certainty, “Show me. Tell me. I am ready.” Because even if we are not quite ready, we still have time. Time is on our side.

We enter a place of quiet reflection. Here we align with our spirit as we listen to the words wafting from our soul. With curiosity we enter the flow that draws us toward the dark within us. With courage we go to those places that scare us. We recognize that sometimes it is the thought of the place that is scarier than the place itself. 

Aren’t you curious what you are so attached to your shadows? I know that I am. Start small. Don’t go to the places that have you quaking with fear. Step just outside your comfort zone. Then notice — the things that you cling to and the stuff you push away. Those are the shadows to explore first.

Ask, what would you tell me? Then listen without any expectations or intentions. The dark is a place of nonattached exploration. A space to learn and just be curious about you. Even if what you hear doesn’t make sense, that is perfectly okay. Journal about it. Create art around it. Just sit with it knowing that you will gain clarity. Sometimes we have to adjust to the murkiness of the dark to understand what it holds.

Time really is on your side. Trust that you will have the answer when you need it. The groundhog knew we needed more time. So we have it. 

Van Hurst, ms, is an intuitive comtemplative catalyst. She uses mindfulness practices and intuition tools to create strategies for navigating through your mundane into the extraordinary. The result of time with Van? An evolving blueprint for your life; a sustained, deeper connection to your intuition and contemplative nature. 

Van is a professional speaker & author who weaves inner wisdom into all she touches. Her books are available @ www.wildefyrpress.com. Her most recent book, As Natural As Breathing: Being Intuitive, is available on Amazon. Contact Vanessa for life coaching, intuitive consultations, keynotes, and programs. 

Website / LinkedIn Profile / Facebook / ©2023

Who is right?

How was your January? Now that we are moving though the beginning of February, that question has come up a lot. More than one person told me “it was the longest ‘year’ they had been through in a while.” I smiled. Year, not month. 

The opposite was true for me. As I wrote my daily reflection arcs and posted them to Facebook, the month flew by! Now we are in February which seems to be zipping by, too.

Who is right? The Other? Me? Neither? Both? It depends upon your perception. An awareness of the way we see the world. Lately, I’ve been realizing how fluid the world is. How it is changing constantly. As things change, the way we see the world shift. I have been trying to shift my perception, to inject a little fluidity into it. 

How do you see the world? Have you ever really thought about your perception versus the ways that others see the world? Some things to reflect upon to gain a greater understanding of how you see the world:

• Do you seen life in the big picture, the details, or a combination? What does that look like for you?  
• It life literal or figurative for you? How does that present itself?
• Is life static — you get what you get — or do you reframe?
• In this moment how do you see yourself and your interactions in the wider world?

These are just beginning ponderings. Perhaps they will provide greater clarity. Don’t feel like you need to know the answers to each questions. Our perceptions shifts as we transform. Sit with the questions. Allow the answers to percolate up inside you.  Spend time in reflection. Open yourself to an epiphany of meaning.

How was your January? As you answer that question look for shifts in how you see this moment knowing that your moment flows into the hours that become days that become weeks that become months that become years that become your life. 

Van Hurst, ms, is an intuitive-coach-catalyst. She uses mindfulness practices and intuition tools to create strategies for navigating the mundane and extraordinary. The result of time with Van? An evolving blueprint for your life that sustains a deeper connection to your intuition and contemplative nature. 

Van is a professional speaker & author who weaves inner wisdom into all she touches. Her books are available @ www.wildefyrpress.com. Her most recent book, As Natural As Breathing: Being Intuitive, is available on Amazon. Contact Vanessa for life coaching, intuitive consultations, keynotes, and programs. 

Website / LinkedIn Profile / Facebook / ©2023

Be the Light in a Shadow World

Darkness fell. As the lights went out one-by-one, I breathed deeply of the loamy silence. The awakening of the night made itself known in little scurries and breeze caresses. As the darkness surrounded me, my soul lost some of the tattered-ness. The angst unwound and peace twined within me. 

As I peered into the lengthening shadows, the world reached out to me. Courage kindled, I reached back. Fear and courage twined together changing my perception bringing doubt and clarity at the same time. To clear the cobwebs of the day, I breathed deeply into the moment. I chose to surrender into my fear. As its trappings fell away, I  took flight on the on the wings of curiosity.

Faster and faster the kaleidoscope of shadow images flew around me. Those I understood, I invited into my life. Others had me backing away in trepidation. A voice whispered, “No matter how you feel, breath deep, breathe wide. Feel your fear grip you. Surrender into the moment until your fear slips away. Stand tall. Stand proud. Walk into the moment. Trust each footfall takes your further along this path of wonder. Step by step the path that leads you home to yourself.”

Home to our self. Do you know where your home is? Each time I surrender into the moment, I reconnect to that place at my core. The wonder in each unfolding moment invites us to edge past the cracks through the crevices onto solid ground of self. This solid ground smells of magic and mystery; it sprouts wonder and glee. 

As we step onto this ground, we leave our footprint of resolve and are enveloped by the beauty of our journey. We wake up to who we are and live from that knowing. We recognize that we are the light shining through the dark.

Darkness has fallen. The moon shines upon a shadow world. This can be a place of heart palpitations and fear or it can be a place of curiosity, courage, and daring. We choose how we are going to show up in each moment. And each moment gives us opportunity to choose the path that twines us home to ourself. 

Van Hurst, ms, is an intuitive-contemplative-catalyst. She uses mindfulness practices and intuition tools to create strategies for navigating the uncertainty in your life. The result of time with Van? An evolving life blueprint that creates a deeper, sustained connection to your intuition and contemplative nature. 

Van is a professional speaker & author who weaves inner wisdom into all she touches. Her books are available @ www.wildefyrpress.com. Her most recent book, As Natural As Breathing: Being Intuitive, is available on Amazon. Contact Vanessa for life coaching, intuitive consultations, keynotes, and programs. 

Website / LinkedIn Profile / Facebook / ©2023