Easy Goes it; Card of the Week, 14th December 2015

Two cards this week  (including  one “jumper”)   and they go so perfectly together and are great clues about how to be our most giving and receptive selves.

Being easy going is something the adult, productive, disciplined get-things-done side of ourselves doesn’t usually embrace, but that skill is  plays a huge role in  things coming to us easily!  You can get more done, see more opportunities, and be more receptive if you let go a little bit.

This week being flexible might be a necessity.  December is an intense energy month and an intense time when a lot of people celebrate holidays and there’s more “hubbub” happening than normal. There are parties to go to, food to make, presents to wrap, family to deal with… and even if you don’t do any of those things, you have to deal with the people who do.    Things might not go the way you originally think or hope that they will.   Being flexible will let you roll with what’s going on and get things done anyway.

No matter what the situation, not expecting things to be a certain way can help you embrace things as they are and that can help you enjoy yourself a lot more.  For example, we don’t always get the wonderful family and friends of TV sit-coms, we get the human, flawed ones we’ve got.   Not every gift or meal can be Martha Stewart-esque and not every get together is going to be like a Hallmark movie where everyone hugs and sings at the end.   But, some of the very  best things come out of imperfection.

Playfulness sees innocence where our reasoning minds are hardened and practical.  Playfulness is not only about having fun but also in seeing the humour in every day things.  One of my favourite winter/holiday memories is of a terrible blizzard that hit one year as we planned to visit an out of state aunt.   What began as a huge disappointment ended up being a snow-fort building, hot-chocolate making, casserole building great time.

The best way to RECEIVE (and give) is to not have a rigid and inflexible idea about how things should be. This week, budge and give a little bit. Be playful, let life surprise you, make messy but delicious cookies and do something unexpected.    Or maybe you can shake things up and introduce a little bit of flexibility and fun to your family and friends.

Have a great 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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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.

Measuring UP; card of the week 9 November 2015

 

 

Sometimes we’re guided to view judgment and critique as something really negative.  After all,  “don’t judge others,” was a universal mom warning.    And blessedly, our culture is making overall strides in discouraging negative forms of  judgement (this is better than, you know, the days of pitchforks and Inquisitions)   — we have, don’t judge your feelings, don’t judge your weight, don’t judge people for the colour of their skin, don’t judge yourself for not liking pumpkin spice lattes, JUDGE NOT LEST YE BE JUDGED ….

This is a good thing too – because so many people and groups  are STILL so hell bent on judging and condemning others.  Any perusal of comments sections on  the web will net you boatloads of haters about anything and everything imaginable.  Looking at world  news (condemnation of whole groups of worthy people by religious organisations)  will be proof enough that we have a ways to go.    (And bonus extra credit spiritual growth, the thing that is so hard to do:   being mindful of how we judge those doing the negative judging!)

This week, though, it might just be beneficial to judge.  Before you come after my P.C. card, this isn’t about the run of the mill negative ego, “you’re wrong and you shouldn’t be doing this” kind of judgement.  This isn’t being a meanie and the judgement that we use against ourselves when we weigh an  extra 15 pounds, this is positive judgement;  measuring our progress, being honest about what we’re not doing completely or correctly, and taking stock of what we do RIGHT.

When it comes to our “getting things done” theme for the month, this piece of guidance can be invaluable.  We’re not going to get anywhere by harshing on ourselves or chipping away at our self esteem.  Ditching habits that don’t work well (for example procrastination) means accepting everything about yourself, positive and negative.   It also means celebrating what you do well, or do right!

Celebrating successes, and reminding yourself about progress you’ve made is essential to making new habits stick.  Don’t skip this part. It’s just as important as honestly sizing up whether something is lacking in your efforts. Don’t be modest or shy, the code/key for the week is just being really HONEST with yourself about what you’re doing great at as well as just seeing (without attacking yourself) what still needs to be improved on, and being excited about tackling new tasks.

This week, it’s time for being clear about what we’re doing.   For Justice and Judgement to be true and pure,  it’s time for seeing things honestly, not in the gauzy half-light of daydreams and wishful thinking or avoiding what is real.

The most important thing, though, is to use this positive judgement energy for the forces of good (getting things done, finding out what to do next, being excited about accomplishments and enthusiastic about more to come)  and not in the service of darkness (beating yourself, or others, up — being pessimistic, seeing impossibilities, judging yourself harshly for what you’re doing or not doing).

You will DEFINITELY know this week whether your judgements/measurements laser-beam  are poised towards goodness or not.  If they are – you’ll feel light, more jazzed up about things than you have been in awhile, more focused on what you can do to improve things.  If they’re NOT, you’ll feel little fits and spells of losing faith and hope, feeling overwhelmed and really just not wanting to deal with it all.   It will be easy to judge OTHERS harshly and to size people up as not being good enough in that light too. Dissecting people and being the negative “judgemental” has its roots in how we judge ourselves, after all.   Measuring UP leaves you energized,  judging and focusing on the small stuff leaves you weighted down like that pork chop.

And what if your judgement/measurement energy lands on the side of darkness?  What if you’re seeing yourself and others in that shady light of false reality? That’s ok!  All is not lost.  It’s just a reminder to get back on track.  Start by taking another accurate measurement (funny how those measurements get so TOTALLY SKEWED when we’re in pessimism/harsh judgement mode.. nothing is measured accurately and everything will be a whole lot “worse” than it really is) —- see what you’ve done RIGHT and what is working as clearly and in as much detail as possible; really look at the things that are triumphs where you’ve done good deeds.  Next, gently measure some realistic areas in which you could make new efforts, or more consistent efforts.   You get a do-over to turn that beam to the forces of good!

 

About this deck:

The Housewives Tarot by Paul Kepple and Jude Buffum is published by Quirk Publishing.   This is really a fun deck  which comes in a recipe  box style container with 78 cards and a great book.    This writing, illustrating duo (graphic designers) have put together one of the cheekiest  odes to the Tarot, Mid-Century Modern and 50’s cultural kitsch ever!  You get unique spreads  (like the “Martini”)  and the deck even comes with vintage recipes.   Way gone, Daddy-o!