Feeling the Magic Bubbling Within

Posted by Barbara Techel

I wanted to share my personal animal card for August with you. At the beginning of the year, I sat down and pulled a card for each month to be my guide.

I continue to be inspired by how the animal for that month has provided helpful insight, reflects what I need to pay attention to, and gently nudges me in the right direction.

Scarab Beetle Spirit – Magic Works through You

How often I can forget that the real magic is within me. All I have to do is believe in it (in me!) and pay attention to the inner whispers that call to me. 

This leads to my feeling optimistic and hopeful for being in the world in a way that fits me the most authentically.

I’ve definitely been feeling excited about potential creative projects that have been lurking within me as I’ve been bringing them to surface and writing about them in my journal. 

The magic begins by first acknowledging them to myself so that they can then begin to percolate and gain momentum.

Speaking of creative projects I’m happy to say I heard from my editor yesterday. I will have the edits for my third memoir, I’m Fine Just the Way I Am by end of the week.

But the best part of the email? She said she loves it!

I’m eagerly anticipating the magic she imbued into my book and looking forward to going through the manuscript again to shape it into another new phase of its being.

Xo,
Barbara

Card from Spirit Animal Oracle by Colette Baron-Reid

Let Go and Leap Forward with More Positive Energy: Oracle and Animal Guidance for the Week

Posted by Barbara Techel

Okay, so I’m chuckling to myself. Last week I shared with you that I would now only be recording the weekly oracle and animal guidance sessions and not include written text.

Well, try as I might I couldn’t do this today. I’m getting over a cold and each time I tried to do the recording I’d have a coughing fit. I feel fine, but it’s this last lingering cough that seems to be saying, Um, no way. You are going to have to go to Plan B. So hence the reason I’m sharing the reading this way today.  🙂

This week I worked with the Animal Dreaming Oracle Cards by Scott Alexander King and Soul Coaching Oracle Cards by Denise Linn.

To start I want to share what Scott says in his introduction in his guidebook regarding energy: “Energy exists within all things of nature and it can be accessed and incorporated into our own lives.”

Everything carries energy. This wasn’t something I understood years ago. But we are indeed made of energy, as are animals, plants, rocks, etc. and oracle cards carry energy too. It all serves guides to live with more joy and meaning.

And then a mentor of mine recently said, “We are responsible for the energy we put out into the world.”

It’s one of the reasons I continue to be what I call a personal growth junkie. Having a daily practice that helps me tune into what I’m feeling, where I may be struggling, and working with the why of it, to not only feel better about myself but so I don’t want to project negative energy onto others. I’m not perfect, but I continue to work on it. And it’s why I love working with oracle cards as a self-reflection tool and sharing with others.

So here we go…

FROG – Cleansing

This deck works not only with animal energy but with the energy of elements which are water, fire, air, and earth. The frog card carries the water element. Makes sense as frogs spend a lot of time in and around water, right?

The element of water is about our emotions. Either we take time to work with them or we drown in them. Water asks us to be in tune with our feelings and bring them into our awareness so we can heal them.

So frog is asking us this week where do we perhaps need to clean out emotional gunk. I know for me when I’m feeling emotional gunk I can feel it in terms of anxiety and like a ton of bricks are holding me down. When I’m struggling with something it can tend to play like an endless loop of thoughts that go round and round in my head. More often than not that is fear talking and that can become toxic if I don’t take time to be with what is going on.

So Frog is encouraging us to spend time in contemplation if we are feeling bogged down. This means finding a way to settle our mind in contemplation and self-reflection. Journaling is one way I do this, adding in a question of what I’m contemplating and using oracle cards to tap into myself deeper. Or meditation with a focus on my heart and just being with what comes up. 

When I sat and looked at the frog card for a few moments I felt called to close my eyes. The image of a frog came to mind, floating on his lily pad in a small pond. It’s a perfect day. It’s 72 degrees with a slight breeze. I felt as if I was the frog as the warm rays of the sun penetrated my bumpy skin.  My lily pad gently swayed back and forth with the breeze moving on the water.

This is me, I thought. Not my thoughts that are often attached to fear and rarely come true. I’m here and now. I am safe. I watched as those toxic thoughts floated away on the slowly drifting clouds in the sky.

I then open my eyes, jump into the pond, and leap onto the shore refreshed and ready to face the day without the negative gunk weighing me down.

Cleansing can also literally mean what it is we may need to purge in regards to objects that no longer carry joy for us. One thing I’m a fan of doing is that every time I bring a new piece of clothing home, I take an existing item and put it in a bin I have in my closet to donate to a second-hand store. I try to do the same with household decorative items too. 

All of this carries energy too and can weigh us down. Or perhaps it’s a relationship that no longer works for you. Those can bog us down too and we need to find the courage to move on with compassion and gentleness.

When we release what no longer works in our lives, we can then welcome in new growth and new energy. Yes!

So this week Frog asks us to look at what is no longer working and start to take small leaps toward changing it.

Anything else we need to know Frog?

Pulling a card from the Soul Coaching Oracle Cards we received Radiance – “I am a radiant reflection of God’s light.”

Love this. It’s true. When we are willing to work with what is weighing us down and let it go, we can radiate with more vibrant energy into the world. And goodness knows, we sure need more of that now don’t we?

So let’s say we all make the leap together, shall we? Are you with me? It’s going to feel so good!

Have a beautiful week everyone!

XO,

Barbara

If you are in need of a little extra gentle and compassionate support you can learn more about my one-to-one oracle guidance and reading sessions here.

Thoughts About Another Dog

Posted by Barbara Techel

It’s been almost three months since Gidget passed away. There are days I really miss her companionship. And then there are days I’m enjoying more time for myself. Though as I wrote about when she first passed the feelings of loneliness were difficult and sometimes overwhelming.

I was chatting today with a friend who will be traveling through Wisconsin in mid-September with her camping rig and her sweet, blind cat named Idgie. Mary lives full-time in her rig and escapes the cold winters of Pennsylvania to head south (If you like, you can follow her adventures on her blog at, Wildheart Wanders ).

We haven’t seen each other for quite a few years. She will be staying one night in her rig parked in front of our house before heading off to her class reunion. I’ve never met Idgie and have only seen photos of her that Mary shares on Facebook. So I’m quite tickled I’ll get to meet her in person! Or err, I guess that might be catson?  😉

Mary and I have known each other since my days when I published my first children’s book about my first disabled dog, Frankie – who became somewhat famously known as the Walk ‘N Roll Dog. Can you believe that has been eleven years?! Mary wrote a book about disabled pets and that is how we connected as I began to market my children’s book.

As we chatted back and forth she realized this would be the first time she’d be visiting John and me without us having a dog. She wondered if perhaps we aren’t planning on getting another dog as she said from what she gathered we weren’t going to.

We do want another dog someday. But when that will be I don’t know right now. There are days I feel like I may want another dog, but more often than not, I just don’t feel ready yet. When I go for a walk, it never fails that I meet up with dogs on a walk with their people. Sometimes I’ll stop and ask if I can pet their dog and that, for now, satisfies me.

John and I talk about another dog now and then and it’s often we fondly talk about memories of not only Gidget but our other dogs too.

Sometimes it feels odd that I don’t have this urge to get another dog right away as I did in the past. But I also felt this coming, that after Gidget, I’d be taking a break. As I said to my friend Mary, and something I’ve noticed, is that I don’t miss my focus being so split.

I know it wasn’t just caring for Gidget that my energy began to feel so depleted, but it was also working through a painful childhood wound and memory that took all I had the last few years. I’ve written about this and will be sharing in my upcoming memoir, I’m Fine Just the Way I Am.

In many ways, I feel like this time has been about calling my energy back home to me. Sharing with Mary about taking a break she said, “I totally get that. You’ve had a lot on you in the past decade+ since we met.”

I shared with Mary it was a path I chose. I have no regrets of having cared for three disabled dachshunds in thirteen years. Though yes, it was trying at times, I would have never experienced and learned what I did. I’m forever changed, in a good way I think, because of them.

It was the journey I was meant to walk. And while I can feel restless at times wondering what is next, and what dog will be part of our family someday, I’m reminded again to trust the mystery of the unknown.

The photo above is of pencil drawings of each of my dachshunds done by a dear lady I met when I did a presentation where she worked. They hang in my writing cottage and I look at them often. Each time I do, my heart swells with so much love and gratitude for the gift of each of them.

XO,

Barbara

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