April 18th, 2014

Undoubtedly, many or perhaps most of you have felt the huge energy shift recently and witnessed your mental and physical momentum picking up as a result. I have witnessed the energy growing and expanding here as well. It has been an incredibly busy spring with new projects, new clients, and new ideas budding daily. And while many of these ideas are wonderful and worthy I realize not all of them can come to fruition at once.

 When we feel responsible to birth them all at one time we can find ourselves exhausted and overtaxed. When we feel spent and yet expectant for things to come to fruition we can put a lot of extra pressure on ourselves about the outcome. We can find ourselves in a place where all the magic, wonder and joy about making our dreams come true is replaced with stipulations, ultimatums and self-imposed limitations. In this environment it can be hard to allow anything to come into being naturally.

We live in a world that is incredibly impatient and very product oriented. We tend to devalue anything we cannot make into a product. Many of us start to prepare our children for college when they are in diapers. We are taught to imagine a 6 figure salary before we’ve seen our first client. We rush through the potential joy in our lives. We don’t often honour the building and we sometimes find ourselves pressured to prop up an empty edifice.

We can internalize this pressure to perform and if we are unaware it can strip us of the joy that our creative process could and should offer. This is a road I’m sure many of you can relate to and one I have addressed before. It seems to have become an increasing by-product of our culture, especially now as so many of us are being asked to speed up throughout our lives.  

So while it is true that we all struggle to find balance and speak with authenticity, it is a place many of us our still navigating, and re-navigating. I know as an entrepreneur and business owner I am often coming back around this bend. Then I find myself tweaking my self- care routine as my outer responsibilities shift and change. And so I find I often have to set aside many of my big ideas for a later time.

Conversely, some of us may hold our biggest, boldest most brilliant ideas in our unconscious just under the surface of our awareness. Although it may be harder to recognize our manifestation abilities when they are held at arm’s length at least it assures us that we are not deluged by our expectations of ourselves. And so regardless of how we perceive our manifestation abilities we are often given very few tools to recognize how our dreams really enter into the world.

I believe one of the very best ways to ready a dream to grow wings in the world is to get super clear about the details and to revel in the joy of the building. Don’t get hung up on when or even if it will come to fruition. These details are less important and often worry us unnecessarily about outcome when we could be getting excited instead about the clarity of our vision. So I encourage you to honour divine timing while tending to the exciting details of your brilliant visions.

So how can we tell which visions are ready to be birthed and which can gestate longer? How do we know which are the seeds that will help our soul’s blossom and ready us for the next steps on our journey? How can we prepare these dreams for the world and know that they too are ready to live in it?

How do we help push our dreams through the soil of our imagination and into the world as a direct intention? And when do we know to stop pushing? How do we recognize and tend those projects, ideas and dreams that are not ready to be fully birthed yet?

Well, when we set an intention we do this on a conscious level. It is an imaginative process that then gathers energy and builds momentum in the outer world. And if it doesn’t and we find ourselves pushing with little momentum building around us we can let it go and pursue another venue and then return at another time. Our dreams can remain dormant and still be enriched by the rich soil of our ideas. However, it is when the universe starts mirroring back to us little pieces of our dream in the world that we know it is playing with bringing it into being. This happened to me in a very magical way that seemed undeniably fated to come true.

This month I’d love to share with you a story about what this divine guidance and timing looked and felt like for me… I have written about this magical journey before but not with a forward about manifestation. It is my desire that you can notice when in your own lives the universe has or had your back like this! Because it does, and when it does wonderful things are afoot!  Things you couldn’t have imagined giving such strong roots or broad full wings to without the universes help.  In these moments your job is simply to allow yourself to feel the wind and rise in the current.

My story begins at the end of graduate school in 2008. After applying myself in my program and completing my final thesis requirement I wanted to regroup, get back in touch with my inner self, and  celebrate a huge accomplishment before I figured out what my next move was.

I had imagined taking a grand trip to Greece and basking in the Mediterranean breezes, swimming in the Adriatic and eating Salty feta and drinking Retsina in one Villa after another. I planned on using a portion of my school loans to finance the trip but when the time got closer to make the arrangements I realized that I'd miscalculated funding and wouldn't have enough to take this trip of my dreams.

It is true I was disappointed but I quickly regrouped and planned instead to take a trip to Niches, a local sustainable campground in the area. I would put off my dream trip toward sometime in the future and I was okay with it.  Around the same time I responded to an invitation from my family to join them for a much needed belated Birthday celebration weekend. 

I traveled to meet them at the end of October and enjoyed several days of relaxation in which one of the high points was when they shared their photos of a recent trip to Turkey with me. When I saw their photos I realized in one sweeping moment that it was really Turkey with its whirling dervishes, alien stalagmite landforms, petroglyph caves and writings of Rumi that truly called most closely to my soul. As soon as I saw the photo's I began to clear a space in my mind, heart and life for this sojourn I felt so sure I was somehow destined to take. 

I began to look into ways that I could make this trip real in my life. I decided to open a bank account for the trip. I would refer to it as the Turkey trip fund. If I had to withdraw monies for other things that was fine but I would at least bring it into being in a practical way and do what I could to make it a more real possibility in my life. 

That magical weekend of deep listening I also investigated travel options. I found out that if I booked a trip for a group of nine Globus travel agency would let me fly for free. My dream was already feeling so much closer and more grounded inside of me as well. I was doing all I could to answer that feeling by bringing it into being in the external world too.

This process of entrainment meant that the spark of this dream already had life energy. The Free dictionary defines entrainment as 1. The ability to pull or drag along after itself. 2. To carry suspended particles along in a current. It was clear this possibility, this ambition already was being pulled along in something...A curiosity, a dream, a wish? Now what could make that more real...?

That night my father took me to see Loreena Mckennitt, the brilliant singer of sacred Songs from wisdom traditions for my birthday. Loreena giddily shared her travel stories and then punctuated the spoken pieces by sharing songs written from many of her destinations. To my delight she shared stories from her journeys in Turkey.  As I listened I let the music take me away to all these places I dreamed of seeing.

After a time of listening it became clear to me that Loreena herself had taken the same tour that my parents had. It was unmistakable as all the locations she visited were presented in the same order as my parents photos on the computer. The universe clearly had a brilliant sense of humor as it mirrored back to me with such exquisite detail the lyrics and then stories of all the places I’d dreamed of visiting.

At this point I could truly feel the energy tipping toward my dream and spreading itself out in the corners of my imagination. Now I had to admit it seemed more like a when not a whether I would embark on this magical journey.

I got back to C-Bus so excited about where this energy could lead. I started telling everybody about what happened on my weekend and checking to see too if anyone I knew had been to Turkey. It turned out the next door neighbor had been on a trip to Istanbul and shared her pictures with me. And then it happened…someone in the women's group I attended asked me, "Would you like to go to Turkey this December?" I said I most certainly did but doubted it would be possible so soon. She suggested I get more information and that a trip was being sponsored by a local interfaith organization that was two travelers short this December. I agreed to speak to the host, still assuming it would be well beyond my means. 

And that is just how closely the universe listens...The trip was 10 days, easily in my budget (which really was equivalent to a long luxurious weekend in a cabin). We had one flight in Country. We stayed in four star hotels which had lobbies nicer than any accommodations I had ever stayed in up until now. We were the recipients of beautiful traditional Turkish meals made especially for our group. We were invited into people's homes and gifted with art and sacred stories about their families.

We got to worship in Mosques bowing with humbleness to the wonder of the world, our personal God and the beauty of community. We were a traveling band of flute players, poets and yes, even someone who was on the board of Jung Haus back in C-bus. This trip was hand- picked by an intelligent magical universe just for me. 

I believe I seized upon it by being a willing participant to what the universe had so lovingly and clearly set into motion that weekend at my parent's house. As if that blissful universal gift weren't enough we had the happy accident of getting stranded in Amsterdam on our return flight. The Airline agreed to put us up and for three blissful days we got to see the beauty of Amsterdam spread out in crystalline wonder under a blanket of ice.

When I asked the universe to provide the perfect trip for me I had single pointed focus and an enthusiasm that made my cheeks hurt from smiling. The universe was smiling too and I believe we just became so intimately aware of each other… Like a call and response we listened with patience and anticipation and so we told each piece to the other with brilliant clarity. 

It was this alchemical quickening that grew wings which rose more easily than each dream in isolation could. I know both the universe and I witnessed the dream rise on buoyant winds until it burst forth and told itself what to be....

I believe when we are ready to let our dreams take flight and ask them too clearly-- with unabashed vigor, joy and curiosity and we get excited as much about the possibility as the promise then such amazing things can come to pass. Do you have a dream like this? Is it a special dream just for you? Perhaps it is a dream you have held dormant just under the surface of awareness for a long time. Or perhaps it is one you have sought help with, been tending for awhile or even set an active intention about. Either way, let’s watch it rise together on buoyant wings!

So April’s affirmation Gem is Citrine. If you are drawn to join us pick up a piece at your metaphysical shop or online. I believe doing this together can help us co-create the life of our dreams. We are more powerful creators when we hold the space and light of one another’s visions in community.  

Citrine is a translucent golden stone of manifestation, imagination, and personal will. It carries within it the passionate power of the sun. It is warm and comforting, energizing and life giving. It stimulates the 3rd chakra like the sunlight of spring, clearing the mind and stirring the soul to action. Its frequency awakens creativity and imagination. It sustains the process of transforming dreams and wishes into tangible form. With its pure yellow energy, Citrine encourages fullness of life, fresh beginnings and new pursuits.

And April’s Affirmation Gem is: I feel the energy of my dream (s) growing and becoming more clear to me daily. I enjoy working and tending to all the aspects of this expression. I can see each piece easily and I enjoy my connection to it. I am witnessing a more active radiant divine expression of source energy opening before my eyes.

Until next month may all your most closely held dreams of abundance and joy follow you home!

Bio: 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 the work. She looks forward to helping you help your inner Self shine! She may be reached at:[email protected] or on her website: http://www.innervoiceintuitive.com to schedule intuitive tarot readings and counseling work.    

---