Your Year of Miracles

Month: October 2017

  • Following Your Intuition

    Following Your Intuition

    Today’s Miracle Moment is about cultivating our intuition.

    We view Intuition as the phenomenon where we gain insight without the use of reason. Intuition is knowledge that comes to us spontaneously before we have a chance to analyze it with our intellects.

    The word “intuition” is thought to come from the Latin verb intuaire or from the middle English word intuit, both of which mean to “look upon” or “to gain knowledge without using the process of rational thinking.” We all have intuitive potential – as a matter of fact, when you were a child you lived by your intuition, just following it freely long before you even had the ability to reason.

    In fact, I (Debra) remember a day when my daughter was a little baby like it was yesterday even though it was almost 28 years ago. Since Deanna was our first and my husband and I both worked from home, it took awhile to have the courage to leave her with a babysitter. We were probably a little over cautious and must have interviewed about a dozen potential sitters.

    There was one girl who we loved. She was charming and funny and seemed very responsible but when we handed Deanna to her – who was maybe 7 or 8 months old at the time – she would just start to scream her little head off. We were miffed but obviously couldn’t hire this girl because it happened every single time.

    A few weeks later, we read in the local paper that this girl been arrested for selling narcotics and was part of a drug operation that spanned 3 states. How did Deanna know??!?!

    Unfortunately, over time we begin to doubt our intuitive voice and shut down that channel of information. The good news is that it’s still there waiting patiently for us to open it up for business again! Just like a muscle that hasn’t been exercised, it’s still exists and if you want to build it up, you need to exercise it consciously.

    The first and most important thing that you can do to develop your intuition is to acknowledge and honor the messages you receive.

    Start noticing simple gut feelings throughout the day. Trust those gut feelings and act on them even if they might seem counter-intuitive. You’ll be amazed at the positive results that show up.

    Although the mind is sometimes a useful provider of knowledge it often throws us off course as our intuition bumps up against the mind’s storehouse of old imprints and fears.

    And if you think, “But I don’t get many gut feelings,” then you’re looking for the wrong thing.

    Intuition may not be a big booming voice. It’s more often a subtle impulse that tends to come back again and again until it gets our attention.

    Intuitive flashes often come to both of us in the bath or shower or during our meditations or when we’re driving with some quiet music playing or talking a walk in nature. And if you feel you don’t get intuitive messages, then you may simply be moving too quickly or doing too much multi-tasking. When there are 3 or 4 things going on in your head, there’s no space for that inner guidance to speak to you. Intuition is most readily available when we have silence or spaciousness in our heads. It also comes when we’re relaxed, enjoying and thinking about something else. Even Einstein said that his greatest ideas came to him when he was out for a walk or relaxing.

    So, here’s what we recommend…

    First, slow down. Intuitive knowledge cannot come to an agitated mind. When you’re running around like a chicken with it’s head cut off, stop, take a few breaths and ask for an intuitive answer. When we’re moving so fast that we’re “spinning,” we stop, take a breath and ask our higher self, “What do you want me to know right now?” 9 times out of 10, we get a profound answer because the contrast between the spinning and the silence allows a portal to open and your intuition to speak. Your intuition is a muscle that needs to be exercised or it can degenerate and then it takes longer to get it back up and running. As they say (whoever they is), “use it or lose it!!”

    And we’ll end with a quote from one of our favorite actors, directors and authors, Alan Alda who said:

    How has your intuition served you? Please share a comment below…

  • Moving From Medium To Slow

    Moving From Medium To Slow

    Today’s Miracle Moment is about the miraculous power of moving at a pace of medium to slow.

    We believe that a truly spiritual life is one where you feel deeply connected to the energy of the universe – to a power and intelligence greater than yourself – it doesn’t matter whether you call that power God, the Divine, Nature, the universe. You might experience true spirituality through your own traditional religious practices perhaps while you’re in church or temple, or maybe you experience it during rituals or chants or meditation practices.

    Or perhaps through being in the present moment…or maybe you experience spirituality during those times where you remind yourself to see the good, the God, the perfection in everyone and everything around you. Spirituality is something that can be ignited and once it is, the goal or aspiration is that it’s not something you turn off and on but rather something you live every moment of every day.

    A great teacher of ours was the renowned cultural anthropologist Angeles Arrien, who sadly passed away in 2014. A cornerstone of her teaching was that in order to live a meaningful and peaceful life, one of deep and profound spirituality, we need to look at and emulate nature and nature’s rhythm, which is medium to slow. The only time nature moves fast is when it’s in danger or when it’s pursuing its prey to survive…and then it will move fast for fifteen to twenty minutes and once again return to medium to slow.

    Since we’re creatures of nature, we’re affected by this rhythm as well.

    Angeles goes on to say that when we’re always moving fast, we’re out of sync with our nature and the result is that we don’t have the time to integrate our experience, to deepen our character, to live true spirituality – as this requires silence and reflection.

    When we’re always moving fast there’s no time to be fully present, to really listen to our hearts, to really see the God in others. Angeles suggests that we need to be aware of our addiction to those energies that have begun to dominate our lives and nullify the energy of medium to slow such as obsessively checking our e-mails or our smart phones, or cramming our calendars so there is no space to breathe, or needing outside stimulation to feel alive.

    She also asks that we take a look at the high we get from over-achieving because if we continue at this fast pace we’ll most likely be forced to slow down through business disasters, illness or accidents, and there is no reason for this to happen—or at least it is much less likely if we move medium to slow.

    Last year I (Debra) was on a safari in South Africa…and I know this will sound odd but when I was watching as the rhinos were ambling across the plains at a speed of about a few hundred yards an hour…maybe, or observing the elephant families lumbering along seemingly not going anywhere in particular, or saw the giraffes doing nothing other than munching on the treetops, or when I sat near the hippos as they just stood in the water looking at us for endless hours moving only to get out of the water and then turn around and get back in…

    On the first few days I was actually in pain and wanted to say to them, “How can you be content just standing there? Get a life! Read a book! Get a job! Go do some volunteer work if you have so much time on your hands!”

    Then as I unplugged more and more from the “real” world and surrendered to the present moment, to moving medium to slow, I looked into the eyes of these creatures and I knew that they were the ones that had the knowledge of the perfection of all that is. I felt that they wanted to convey to me the message of “just chill and see what happens. Move medium to slow and be here now and all will unfold in perfection.”

    I felt like that wanted to tell us all, “Don’t try so hard people. Everything is in divine order. We are all part of the circle of life. There is no need to try and control everything.” They had no judgement, they just had a simple message to communicate.

    So we invite you to join us in moving medium to slow, to be present in the moment and see what miracles unfold in your life.

    And we’d like to end this Miracle Moment with a quote from Angeles Arrien:

    Have a miraculous week tuning into the rhythms of nature. And please share a comment below about what today’s message means to you…