Openness; Card of the Week, 7th December 2015

 

This month’s theme is about giving and sharing, and this week’s card is a great reminder of one of the best gifts we can give to ourselves and others: OPENNESS

Sounds great… but what exactly is openness?   Openness manifests in all sorts of different ways but it always does one thing:  invites energy IN instead of repelling it.

Think of someone with an open mind willing to listen to your side of the story, or think about how some people feel really open and accepting and have open, friendly faces instead of pinched, closed or angry ones.   Or what about the person who is open to ideas?  Openness is all about having an open and willing heart.

Why is that so important? Because if we are going to get what we want (new relationships, jobs, opportunities, abundance, etc.) openness is required to attract what we want and to take the practical steps needed to make progress.  If you’re not open, after all, you’re going to feel that energy manifest as boredom, frustration, pessimism, feeling hopeless, lost, agitated, antsy, or dull.

Giving the gift of openness is a great way to increase your OWN open heart or help yourself open up if you’re feeling closed down or pinched up.   Spend a little time this week brainstorming about how you feel when you’re open and how you have given that openness to other people in the past.  Next, think about some ways that you could give the gift of openness to others and yourself.

Maybe for you that means being really open with your spouse and having a great conversation. Maybe you’ll decide that being frustrated is holding you back and you want to give yourself permission to wiggle your toes in the sand and just be open to whatever is coming, whenever it comes. Maybe you’ll open your wallet or heart or kitchen to someone who needs you this week.  Maybe you’ll open yourself up to the possibility of having fun doing something totally different than your normal routine.  Maybe you’ll open yourself to possibilities you haven’t known or seen yet.

Being open means you’re not focusing on what hasn’t worked before, or on  the timeline or manner that your mind suggests, but rather that you’re up for what’s coming without judgements or preconceptions about what that will be.   I hope you get and GIVE the gift of openness this week

 

About this deck: The Original Angel Cards: Inspirational Messages and Meditations by Kathy Tyler and Joy Drake is a set of 72 playfully illustrated, tiny cards for inspiration, creativity, meditation and more.  It is published by Allegro Corporation.

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Coming around; Card of the week 12 October 2015

 

 

This week’s card  (little piece of cardstock about the size of a penny) is from a series of little bug cartoons I made ages ago illustrating some of the most simple (but tough to relate to) energetic principles … kid-style.    [ Part of me….ego….. didn’t even want to use these in the weekly cards blog, “No! Don’t show these off… I’m an ‘artist’ now!”   but I didn’t listen and here they are! LOL)

This one was inspired by one of the  favourite sayings of elders in my clan, “What goes around comes around,” meaning, roughly, you better watch your butt because if you screw up, you’ll get what’s coming to you. It’s typically a phrase of karmic retribution. Or is it? Here I imagined it as a bug patting another on the head and that this act of intention gets passed forward, on and on.  The energetic principle here is one of balance and of, “what you give, you’ll receive.”

How does this relate to this month’s theme of communication?   Most people mirror one another in communication. It is part of evolutionary social science, or instinctual, but its almost a sure thing that if someone is upset, it’s really hard to not take on a testy tone yourself, for example.

The good news is that mirroring can be a conscious choice.   If you were feeling fine until you started talking to Debbie Downer the bank teller, you do have a choice about whether you carry this energy forward.  No matter how others around you are feeling and no matter how others are portraying themselves (say, in a difficult conversation with a family member or partner)  you can still make a choice to be conscious and have the intention to learn and to understand as well as communicate your true feelings instead of matching their crazy and flying off the handle yourself.    You can put a different ingredient into the mix this week and get a better outcome!

 

Even though your every instinct might be to mirror your partner, or even to take on their emotions as your own, you can make your own choices and if you are honest, compassionate and considerate, the chances are much better that the other person will be too. Other ways to think about “what goes around comes around” this week is to take a look at what your objectives are for the month and overall.   Are you looking for love? Then maybe you can BE a loving source to others. Are you looking for good customers? BE a good customer.   Do you want people to see your hurts? See theirs.  Do you want abundance to flow? Be on top of your money game, respect your finances and share with others.

 

So much energy focus this month is in how the world mirrors what we feel and how we relate to the world.  “The world is what you are,” as the saying goes.  What are you putting into the machine? How are you feeling? How are you treating yourself?  Is it with anxiety, impatience or dissatisfaction?  If so, is it reasonable to expect that the world will somehow mirror back to you something DIFFERENT than what you are?

 

Have a great week!

 

 

Friday Toon: Showing Love

Click on the photo to view larger.

This week’s cartoon illustration is about something we all feel from time to time;  the person we care about doesn’t care about us because they’re not demonstrating how they care in a way WE would, or in the way we think they should. That doesn’t mean that their caring is truly diminished though.  They may use different words to express love than you would, or  cook instead of writing epic, thoughtful emails, or  they may rub your back and listen instead of buying a gift, or the reverse could be true – they could buy you fancy plates instead of listening to a story you wanted to tell.  Sometimes it’s best to look at another person’s unique expression of love instead of our own.  Mom might be a hugger, sis might be a listener and our partner might like to mow the lawn for us.   Expressions of love of all kinds are often around us if we would choose to see outside our expectations and our own way of doing things.

Every week I do a new illustration or cartoon, so stay tuned!