Just for Today: The Practice of Living

When I think about living in the moment, I remember my Reiki training. In every class I teach, I share the Reiki principles. Each principle begins with the same phrase, Just for today. Students are invited to live from those principles in each moment of everyday. Just for today is a reminder to be mindfully present wherever, whenever, and however you find yourself.

Although it may not be called mindfulness, many traditions invite us to focus on the moment. We are advised to be aware of opportunities that flit in and out of our consciousness. I have heard mindfulness referred to as “focusing your awareness on the Sacred.” What happens when you focus on the moment? I believe we discover that this moment is all we have. 

Our life is comprised of rolling moments one seamlessly flowing into the next. Unaware, we lose focus on our hopes, our dreams. We miss nuances of opportunity. Instead of responding, we react. But, all is not lost. In the next moment, we can regain awareness. Then, mindfully, we reset our intent by focusing on that moment and those moments that roll from it into the next.

Developing a rhythm of moving from one moment into the next takes practice. For me, there are three types of practice:

• Practice is formal. You may meditate, walk, practice tai chi or yoga. These activities empower you to focus your attention in the moment as you connect with the world around you. This practice occurs at regular times throughout your day

• Practice is informal. These are check-in moments. Perhaps you are feeling frustrated or something just doesn’t feel right. You may be distracted. You take a break — focus on your breathing, go for a quick walk, play a game of solitaire. These activities serve as a disconnect from what is distractive and pulls you from the moment. They mindfully reconnect you to present moment. 

• Practice is spontaneous. These are those moments when the extraordinary catches your attention and you mindfully engage it. You hear the laughter of a child and fully engage the joy. You notice the beauty of the sunset and breathe into it. Living in the moment, your senses come alive. You feel the sacred found only in that moment. The resulting energetic boost gives you the power to stay in the here and now for increasingly longer periods of time. 

Using those three powerful words, just for today, decide what actions edge you closer to your hopes, your dreams. Then take those steps knowing that you have the power to realize exactly what you need. That realization happens only in the present moment. 

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 for life coaching, intuitive consultations, keynotes, and programs.

Website / LinkedIn Profile / Facebook / Twitter: @fyrserpent / ©2020

The Light at the End of the Tunnel

Peering down a darkened tunnel, a  pinprick of light shines. Step by step I edge closer until it becomes a light so bright that I am temporarily blinded. Eventually my sight returns; my vision shifts. With new eyes, I recognize that light at the end of the tunnel. It isn’t out there; it emanates from the core of my being. 

Imagine that. The light that teases us, beckons us forward is us. Its rays are intuitive messages that whisper, “Be yourself.” And, then it provides hints how to reconnect to who we truly are. Within the light is the power to be our self; the power to transform; the power to shed the darkness of doubt and illusion. 

Perhaps you are doubting that you have that light of potential within you. Trust me. It is present within each of us. It ignites with each formed thought, each uttered word, and each relayed action. It can also be tamped by a thought, a word, or an action. Mindfulness is key. Transformation comes as we foster our connection to the light though our awareness. We listen to its message and respond. 

But, first, we accept that we are the light. How does your life change when you know that you have the capacity to shed light on difficulties, obstacles, barriers — those things that prevent you from realizing you soul purpose? Through this light opportunities are revealed. Your life shifts when you realize that this brilliant light reflects your truth. 

Accepting this premise, that we are the change in our life, is not for the faint hearted. In fact, it isn’t even the end of the tunnel. We don’t suddenly realize this and transform. Within this acceptance we gain the courage to take the next step and the next and the next. With each step, we become more curious about what that journey offers and more daring in how we respond to those offerings. 

You may be asking, “How do I begin?” Feel, with all your senses, your inherent goodness. Remind yourself that you are enough. Name what ignites your light. Identify what tamps it down. Open yourself to the message that flickers in the light. Act with courage, curiosity, and daring. Know that no matter the outcome each step is a success. Bathe in the light that makes you whole. Own who you are. 

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.

Website / LinkedIn Profile / Facebook / Twitter: @fyrserpent / ©2020

Painting Joy into Your World

Believe it or not, in this uncertain world artisans of joy are flourishing. They do this not through the illusion that all is well, but through living from freedom, solitude, and love. 

Let’s begin with the blank canvas of freedom. This is not the freedom of doing whatever we want whenever we want. No, this is the freedom of choice through discernment. We begin with the realization that life is not always fair, the world is uncertain, and each of us is imperfect. The is a potent recipe for disaster averted through discernment. (Discernment is the process of objectively reaching understanding through reflection and introspection. 

Through discernment we wade through the swampiness of uncertainty to find the hidden sparks of truth. Courageously blowing upon these sparks, our freedom burns bright. Within this freedom, we respond with love and compassion to whatever life gives us. This doesn’t mean that everything is wonderful. It means that while life might be tough, we find the wonder and grace in each moment. 

Finding wonder and grace may feel elusive until we rest in silence. This is not a cessation of physical noise. Within this place we notice the busy-ness within our mind and quiet it. We enter a place of clarity. In these moments of solitude we see clearly, weigh our options, and make choices. Without resting in the quiet, our internal monologue distracts us. Within the clutter, we would have no freedom. We can clear the clutter and gain freedom. With freedom and solitude, no matter what we choose, we act with love.

We discern how we are called to be love in a world that is uncertain and populated with people who are imperfect — just like us. The goal is to love our self for who we are while forgiving our self for the many ways our imperfections present. In loving our self in full acknowledgement of our imperfections, we gain the ability to love others despite their imperfections.  

Through this boundless, unconditional love, we suffuse our self and the world with joy. Ask yourself what choice you freely make today. Rest in the quiet of your heart, identify the roots of your choice. It doesn’t matter how you judge the choice — good or bad — dig deep into the roots to understand why you made this choice. Use your internal spark to burn away the illusions that have you trapped. Recommit to being/doing from the depth of your soul. Love with a purity of heart. 

Key into how you feel. Full body listen. Connect to that which raises your energy vibration. As your energy raises, ride the wave of this energy — joy. Be it. Share it. Do it. Joy is the only thing that will coax us from the dark of uncertainty into the light of our true self. 

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.

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Twitter: @fyrserpent / ©2020

The Energy of Fear: Power vs. Force

I know that you are scared, so am I. We cannot give in to the force of our fear. To do so is to cause minute cracks in our being. Unchecked the force of fear can overwhelm us, shattering us into shards. But, there is a power in our fear that cannot be denied. That power must be harvested with courage for real change to occur. 

Power. Force. Let’s star with definitions based upon the words of Mirriam-Webster:

• Power — the ability to act or produce an effect; mental or moral efficacy; to give impetus to
• Force — compulsion or constraint acted in such a way to do violence; to break open

Let’s tweak the definitions:

• Power is a response that wells from the core of who you are. It is a shout from our authentic self that echoes our courageous self. 
• Force is an overwhelming reaction that fills us with an inability to move through illusion and doubt. Unchecked it shatters us into shards.

It is key to harness the power of your fear so to minimize its destructive force. This begins with acknowledgement of how fear is speaking through your body, mind, and emotions. Name how it is stressfully impacting your body. While you may not fully understand the depth of fear, you can acknowledge its voice. To acknowledge the voice is to reduce the intensity of fear’s symptoms.

Next, be aware of your propensity to respond or react. Name how you use the power of courage to respond. Identify how you get tangled in the force of your fear. Don’t despair when you react. Remind yourself that fear based reaction is a natural byproduct of living. We get scared every day. Sometimes it is so small that we don’t even notice our fear or the subsequent reaction.

Have compassion when you get twisted in fear. To shame yourself is to drive fear deeper into the well of your being. Recognize that you are human. Know that without fear you would not birth courageous response. Celebrate each moment that you harness the courageous power of fear. 

There is no fear without the opportunity for courage. Courage speaks through moments of fear. It gives you the impetus to move through a challenging time into your true self. Start by having a conversation with courage. No matter how quiet, how timid its voice, listen to the words of courage. Decide how, with courage’s guidance, you can kindle the flame of your power. The gesture does not have to be grand; any spark of courage is enough. 

Respond with your power. This can be as simple as a mindfulness practice of breathing through your fear or it can be having a difficult conversation with someone. It can be an act that takes you out of your comfort zone. A courageous response can be present in an infinite number of actions. It may be grand or humble. No matter how you express it, your actions echo with the power of who you are. 

Fear is uncomfortable, inevitable, powerful. It is a wake up call to continue the great quest of soul. Will it wake the tangling of fear vines that cause minute cracks in your being or will it propel you to the heights of your true self? Only you can know that answer and respond with courage and compassion. 

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. 

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Twitter: @fyrserpent / ©2020

Gratitude: An Outward Expression of a Happy Heart

Gratitude: an outward expression of a happy heart.  Who doesn’t like a thank you? I know that I do. There is an art and science to being thoughtful. It involves both tangible and intangible components. Both are necessary as we ride the line between too little and too much gratitude. 

Even if the thank you might cause a tinge of embarrassment, we feel a warmth in our heart that radiates throughout our lives. As a result of gratitude, our thoughts are lighter, our words more gracious, and our actions move lively. We try a little harder, do a bit extra work, have a can-do attitude.

The opposite is true as well. If we do not feel appreciated, our approach to a person or a situation shifts. Our investment lessens. We may find our self responding less and reacting more. This change might not even be a conscious one. Unaddressed feelings of non-appreciation are strong depleting motivators. 

How do we identify when we are hooked by under appreciation? I am a big fan of full body listening. Periodically throughout the day I check in with what my body is telling me. Whatever I feel, I correlate to my current thoughts and emotions. Then, I reflect upon what is at their roots — this might be an interaction, a relationship, an ongoing situation.

What do we do with our realization? The answer is rooted in our power of choice. Once we acknowledge how we are feeling, we choose how to relate to a given situation. We choose how we prevent any feelings from negatively impacting our relationships. Then we act from our heart and not from our hurt. For me, this awareness often provides a wake up call to stop being so hyper-responsible. I am mindful about what is mine and what is another’s. Sometimes what I do is not needed nor wanted. 

Probably the most important thing that I do is to ask myself how I am appreciating myself. Naming the ways that I show gratitude to me is necessary to keep a strong connection from my heart to my actions. 

Through all of this we may recognize that while people are not grateful in ways we want, we can model and attitude of gratitude in ways that we need. This changes how we relate to our imperfections, and in doing so, make the world a little less uncertain.  

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.

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Twitter: @fyrserpent / ©2020 

Free to Be: An Artisan of Joy

Have you ever crammed yourself into an itty bitty box trying to get away from judgments — yours and others? If you are like me, you struggle not to accept the illusion that the hurt filled assumptions are true. Regardless of the truth, there is a safe complacency within those boundaries of illusion, but this complacency never lasts long.

When we happily go along with the illusion, any blimps of dissatisfaction and unrest are quenched by denial until the yearning to be ourself grows so loud we must respond. Finally questioning the falseness of these judgments, we find the strength to stand on our tiptoes to peer over the rim of the box of judgment. In that moment, we see a field of possibility just waiting to be seeded with our true self. 

With one small jump, we catch the rim with our hands and catapult out of captivity into a field of potential. We walk through the sprouts of our new growth recognizing that we have been sharing our truth all along. We blow upon the dandelion fluff feeling joy as the grace and beauty of our self take flight. We know not where our good deeds will land only that when they land the beauty of our soul is shared.

Peering over the side of our judgment filled box or leaping from it — both are acts of freedom. We choose to go beyond the illusions and shift our perception of our place in the world. With curiosity, we really see. With courage and daring we take our place in the world. We no longer deny that we gifts to share. We choose intentional interaction with the world. 

Practically, how do we break free of the judgments that hold us back? How do we take those tiny steps turned great leaps into the life we are already living? 

• Name what limits you. This could be a judgment of yourself or another or a notion you have about yourself.
• Name how this belief manifests in one core part of your life. This could be in your profession, a relationship, a habit, or something else.
• Name one thing that you can do in this moment to stretch your boundaries, break down a wall, create a space of exploration.
• Find the courage, the daring to let go of the illusion and live.
• Feel the joy that comes from stepping out of who you believe you are into who you really are.

Simple. Difficult. Just words. Start with small steps on the road to embracing who you truly are. Each time that you do, you erode that box of judgment-illusion and spread the dandelion fluff of your soul into the world.  

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. 

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Twitter: @fyrserpent / ©2020

Consensus on the Bridge Between Head & Heart

The longest night of the year wrapped me in her warm embrace whispering, “it is time.” And, I wonder, “for what?”

As we near the end of the second decade of the twenty-first century of the common era, how would you to “it’s time” as an individual and as part of community? The answer is fashioned by how we are living in the moment. 

I believe that we can all agree deciphering the meaning of “it’s time” is tough. The first step in forming an answer is to navigate the longest distance we will ever walk — that between our heart and our head. What we want logically is not always met with enthusiasm in our heart. We cannot always figure out why our emotions pull us in a particular direction. 

Through discernment, conscious reflection and introspection, we shift through the debris littering the between of our head and our heart. Crossing the bridge, we reach internal consensus. Now, I bet you are thinking, I didn’t know I could reach consensus with myself. Well, you can. When head and heart collaborate, we change our consciousness. The magic of the seemingly impossible manifests. 

We create a bridge between head and heart. On this bridge we create strategies that encourage us to be our best self without extravagance of too many wants. We are gentle and compassionate to our self as we create a space of joy and gratitude by exploring “it’s time” with our four aspects:

• Physical/body aspect: ask yourself: do I really need another sweater, that piece of chocolate, or some other material thing?
• Emotional/heart aspect: ask how you are getting caught in drama be it yours or someone else’s.
• Mental aspect: what thought(s) fling(s) you onto the hamster wheel of judgments, assumptions and mindlessness drawing you away from this moment?
• Spiritual aspect: where is your connection to the sacred manifest in your life? Or, how do you live with compassion, joy, and gratitude? 

So, it is time — not to create another movement of resolutions that may bring about change in the new year. No, it is time to create a way of life in which you listen body, mind, spirit, and heart to the  wisdom that speaks on the bridge connecting head to heart.

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.

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Twitter: @fyrserpent / ©2019 

Nonattachment: The Art of Free Falling into Me (or You)

Last night as I journaled, the words “free fall into me” etched onto the page. Instead of feelings of danger, the words resonated with fierce courage and lightness. With this epiphany a voice whispered, “How do you free fall into yourself?”

This question has been nudging me ever since I left a Tai Chi class a couple of weeks ago. I saw a maple leaf floating in the air coming to rest on the roof of my car. In my mind, I heard the lyrics of Carrie Newcomer: “leaves don’t drop they just let go and make space for seeds to grow.” The why of the free fall was answered in that moment. 

Free falling into our self is about letting go by living the art of nonattachment. While I have given presentations and written about nonattachment, a whisper suggests, “Maybe you didn’t quite get it. Maybe you haven’t been so nonattached after all.” 

The definition of nonattachment is simple: not clinging or casting away while being objective about what is happening. Being nonattached is being aware of what catches us in the moment. We discern how we get caught and create living strategies that untwine us from our attachments. 

How do you get to the place of nonattachment:

• Begin with recognizing what catches you. Think about that — how can you be nonattached if you don’t recognize the depth of your attachment? 
• Dive deep by asking yourself the whys of nonattachment — dig into your thoughts, emotions, and physical reactions to what what you cling to or shove away. Remember that clinging or shoving away are both signs of attachment. 
• Forgive yourself, in the moment, for the times you are unable to let go. Find joy in the moments of free fall for they happen more than you realize.
• Ask yourself what can I do to cling less, to have less aversion, to objectively be in the moment? Create strategies, little and big, so that letting go happens with greater awareness and becomes a simpler endeavor.
• Rejoice in the moments of letting go. Create mental, emotional, and somatic memories of these experiences. Recall these memories when you get tangled in attachment.
• Celebrate each moment of free fall knowing that you are not hitting rock bottom. Nonattached, you are falling into the loving arms of yourself.

Experiencing free fall during the art of non attachment is making space for seeds to grow. And, this transformation is the change that you share with the world. 

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.

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Twitter: @fyrserpent / ©2019

On Being an Artisan of Joy

I have a part time retail gig. I am a people watcher. During this season that can be a potent combination that triggers both reflection and introspection as I look at faces and engage guests in conversation. I listen, I watch, but mostly I reflect upon what I see and hear — who brings a joyful spirit to the experience and whose face is lined with shopping stress.

We can live with joy or subsist on stress in our approach to life. Some people are cheerful and optimistic. Others are methodically realistic while weighing the odds. I think most of us ping between these two poles. Most often we find our self somewhere in the middle.

How can we be artisans of joy this season and beyond? The answer is simple — by being mindfully real about the day. When I am in the moment, I am more likely to identify the little joys and recognize life’s bumps and boulders. I can choose to carefully navigate those bumps and borders instead of getting stuck in them.

When I am mindful, I feel the inflammation of aggravation edging me closer to the trigger. When this happens, I focus on my breath. With each breath, I acknowledge the underlying irritation. I breathe into the rising reaction to discover what hides within it. Each breath rubs away the rough edges until all that remains in its core of fear. With compassion I befriend this fear, loving it into peace.

While I may not be able to resolve the issue, I can find peace within myself. Within my sacred calm, the exterior world no longer triggers internal upheaval. I am twined by peace. Along this ribbon of peace slides joy.  I am more creative, more compassionate in my responses.

We can paint with bold strokes of joy regardless of where we find our self or we can choose spindly spikes of aggravation in this moments of reaction. Mindfully we choose. This season I hope you find your self painting the world with the bold vivid strokes of joy. 

 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.

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Twitter: @fyrserpent / ©2019 

Gratitude & The Other G-Word

The hectic pace of this holiday season kicks off in just a few days. It all begins on that day that is centered upon gratitude. On Thanksgiving, we focus on what we are grateful for — those things that we appreciate in our life. But, during any holiday season there is another g-word that creeps in, often when we least expect it. Grief washes over us with a tsunami of emotions.

Grief is a byproduct of many situations. The one commonality is loss. We may lose a person, a belief, a job…the list is endless. What twines within each loss is the knowing that nothing will ever be the same. While death is swift and permanent, all too often when an ending happens, the situation or people involved remain. We yearn to go back and fix whatever went wrong. We want to wave a magic wand and return to another time. 

Instead of trying to fixing anything, we choose to wade through the tumble-jumble of grief. Elisabeth Kübler-Ross defines the experience of grief as denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. As someone who has experienced grief, I can tell you that grief is a nonlinear roller coaster ride of these five emotions. Any of these, at many points in the ride, might slip into the seat beside us. We do not begin with denial and end with acceptance — we experience each in whatever order and as many times as we need to to process grief. 

How do we celebrate the holidays with grief as our companion? Start by accepting not the loss but whatever stage you find yourself in. Be nonjudgmental and non-defensive about how you are feeling — what you are feeling. Those two stances empower you to be nonattached. Being nonattached means that you no longer ignore the grief nor do you cling to it making it your identity. Distanced from the pain, you listen to what grief is saying.

This listening is feeling what you are feeling. Try this: set a timer for 90-seconds. Allow whatever wells up to cascade over you. Notice without judgment, without defending how it feels. Notice where you are impacted in your body, pay attention to your thoughts, and identify what other emotions are triggered. After 90-seconds, thank your grief for its monologue, roll up the residue, and blow it from your being. 

Maybe that g-word is asking you to live consciously through the other g-word. Be grateful for each acknowledgement of your sorrow as you connect with your grief. Remember, it takes strength and courage to welcome grief into your life and befriend it. This holiday season, if you find yourself overwhelmed by grief, well,  maybe your acknowledgement of that grief is what you will become most thankful of. 

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.

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Twitter: @fyrserpent / ©2019 

Self Compassion: The Practice of Spiritual Kintsugi

A hurt so deep cracks our being. Snaking deeply  into our soul, we fear a part of us will break off shattering into tiny pieces of hopelessness. Maybe we ignore the crack’s gap as it widens until we can longer leap across the growing illusion of okay. We fall into the recognition that something is askew in our life.

Eventually we take a breath and survey the suffering the crack has caused. This survey is the beginning of spiritual kintsugi. We remember that each of us is a spirit in an incredible vessel birthed after nine months in an earthly kiln. It is inevitable as the years turn to decade that our vessel cracks.

From birth, we are meant to experience life and, so, we do.  Each experience impacts at least one of our four aspects: body, mind, spirit, and heart (emotions.) When we are aware, we understand the lessons. Unfortunately, we sometimes sleep walk. In those moments the cracks form.

All experiences have the potential to make us stronger even those that crack the vessel of our being. We may even find that a piece or two of our self breaks off.  But, these pieces are not lost. When a breakage occurs, we engage in spiritual kintsugi. A simple definition: the repair an aspect of our vessel using the gold of our true self. We are stronger as a result. (Kintsugi is the process of repairing a piece of raku pottery using gold. The result? A more durable, stronger vessel.)

What is the gold of our true self? It is compassion woven with hope, courage, and wisdom. Flowing from a strong desire to understand, spiritual kintsugi demands that we forgive our self, first and foremost, for what has occurred in our life and how we reacted or responded to the happenings. Then, we identify the challenge or lesson inherent in the crack and find peace in our current circumstances. Only then can we begin to heal.

Within this peace is the power to seal the cracks with the gold of our true self thus creating a new pattern of existence. The melding of gold offers a new way that plucks our dreams from the realm of the impossible and ignites our potential. The result? We live the life we are meant to live reflected in the gold of our experience. 

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.

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Twitter: @fyrserpent / ©2019

Compassion's Power Dance: Response

Each moment of every day is an opportunity to  make choices that draw us closer to who we truly are or cast us in to the murky shadows of who we do not want to be. I believe that most of us would say that we do not want to be “that person” who lives in the margins of reaction and struggles to step into the sunny warmth of response. All of us spend time in those gloomy shadows because, unfortunately, sometimes our triggers get the best of us. 

At the root of every reaction and every response is a trigger — something that a stirs our emotions. This catalyst may catapult fear or anger or some other unsavory emotions to the surface of our being. Caught unaware it informs our thoughts, words and actions. We react. This subsequent reaction hurts our self or another. The dankness of those shadows surround us.

A trigger does not always bring about a reaction. Sometimes our triggers are noticed before they wrap us in reaction. We feel the churning of uncertainties and feel our imperfections rise to the surface. But, we are aware of the potential for reaction. Instead of allowing this percolation to burst to the surface of our being, we lovingly acknowledge it. We gently make peace with it. We choose to respond with compassion. Just. Like. That. 

Each time we are aware of a trigger and choose to respond we are empowered. There is a Reiki symbol that means “put the power here.” For me, each response is a way of affirming that we need not be manipulated by our triggers. With each response we recognize that we can live a life of compassion. With each responsive thought, word, and action, we power our self with the light of our authenticity. 

How do we get there? The power of response is seeded in the silence of our quiet mind and nourished by the clarity of our spirit. As we learn from our triggers, we get better at listening to their cries for help.  We understand that they are not bad, but lesson-imperfections that guide us to being our best, highest self. 

So, be forgiving. Be compassionate. But, never forget the triggers that force a reaction from the depth of your being. Don’t give away your power that shines the way of your true self.  

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.

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Twitter: @fyrserpent / ©2019