Wisdom of Healing from Mourning Dove

Posted February 1, 2017 by Barbara Techel

By embracing love, instead of fear, we become an example of the compassion and strength needed to help change the world. Peace was never won with violence and faith has never been met with darkness. Let us share hope with others through our intention to make the world a better place, one moment and one action at a time. ~Louise Hay

I woke with a heavy heart today. As an empath, I have to be careful that I don’t surround myself with too much anger or negativity. It does not mean that I’m ignorant to what is transpiring in our world, but in order for me to be my best self and serve the greater good in what I believe can add to the world in a positive way, I have to not get caught in a downward spiral of anger or fear.

And this means sometimes separating myself from the anger and fear, and doing the work I need to do to keep myself in balance. I don’t always remember to do this and can get caught up in the fear of which I found myself beginning to spiral down into this morning.

Lost is this whirl of emotions I was feeling, I glanced out onto my deck to see two mourning doves. To me, they represent love and peace – and my heart lightened realizing this powerful message that I needed to be reminded of in that moment.

Researching further into their symbolism I found this: But far from representing death, the symbolism of mourning doves gives us optimism with its spirituality. Beyond their sorrowful song is a message of life, hope, renewal and peace.

While there is so much poison of fear being spread wide and far these days, I still hold onto hope, even when it’s hard, and I feel it quite heavy in my heart, and all I want to do is not function.

I had a choice this morning – I could let my heavy heart lead for the day – or I could work through my feelings to help them to begin to shift. The mourning doves were that needed symbol for me.

Taking a moment to expand on this, I sat down and picked two oracle cards for the day, plus one of my SoulCollage® cards. They were further confirmation of what I needed in working through all my feelings.

From The Nature-Speak Oracle – Rose – Love & Healing: The appearance of rose, indicates an opening of the heart and the ability to touch the hearts of others. Your ability to express love now has great healing potentials – for yourself and others.

From Wisdom for Healing – Observe Your Conversations: Observe the conversations you engage in today. Are they productive or mean-spirited? Are they filled with gossip or stimulating information? Your goal: to recognize the quality of information you feed your mind each day.

My SoulCollage® card: This card represents peace and honor to me. Striving for peace and honoring that in myself and helping others to find that within themselves, which means I have to (and want to) be that example.

While I kept gradually shifting back into the space of my own truth and what I believe, yet another sign appeared from a friend who posted this image this morning saying: This is the month of love. I’m tired of all the anger and I think the we need more love!

And so it is.

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Please Don’t Look Away. Invitation to a Different Perspective.

Posted January 30, 2017 by Barbara Techel

I thought about whether or not I should share this SoulCollage® card I finally made this past weekend. I know so many have a fear of snakes – and I worried I may upset others or that they may judge me for sharing this – and the thing is, I’ve had a fear of snakes for a long time, too.

And then I recall last year having shared the wisdom of Wolf from the Animal Wisdom Tarot card deck and how a reader of my newsletter was so upset with me. She couldn’t understand how I’d advocate for wolves when they have attacked and killed livestock on her farm.

And this is the thing, I guess ….there are many different perspectives – and I meant no harm in the Wolf card I shared, just as I mean no harm or discomfort in sharing this card – my only intention to help us see past our fears and look a bit deeper….for I do believe that all animals have wisdom to share with us.

And I truly can’t say I would have said this about Snake five years ago. But I’m learning to open to animals that are often not deemed as cuddly and cute. Not that it is always easy. But as I often say, I am a work in progress.

Honestly, I’m thrilled with this card I made of Snake. It’s been in the making for over two years…simmering in my mind…waiting to be born onto this card as a reminder of the healing that snake brought to me over two years ago.

It was seeing a mama snake, in beautiful shades of iridescent greens and blues, lying dead a few feet off the end of my driveway behind my car, and her unborn, dead babies beside her, and two a few feet from her, that I couldn’t look away…even though I couldn’t understand at the same time why I felt compelled to look.

In sharing this occurrence with my friend, Dawn, an animal communicator, she helped me to look deeper into what the message might be that Snake had for me.

It wasn’t an easy one to look at – though Dawn guided me by gently suggesting that I imagine as if I was in a dream and what it may represent that I came upon this dead snake and her babies.

While it is a personal healing that took place from working with snake in this way and not something I wish to share… I will say that it was a vital shift that needed to take place – one that had been begging to be addressed for a very long time.

It helped in many ways to set me free of something I’d carried as a deep wound that wanted desperately to be released. And honestly, if someone would have told me that by seeing a dead snake and her dead babies, then working with it as a dream while opening myself to a message of healing, well, I’d have thought they were crazy.

But I no longer think that. I feel truly grateful for the experience. Working with the images as seen on the card above came together so easily for me. And when I look at it, I feel a kinship with Snake and think of Snake as my friend.

And one last bit of honesty here: I don’t know if I could actually pick up or hold a snake… though I think I could maybe do so with my friend Dawn’s sweet snake, Chloe. She has really grown on me. 🙂 And Chloe is great at recommending good books such as this one in the photo with her, of which I had to order.

So there it is…if you made it this far… and accepted the invitation to read about a different perspective regarding snake….BRAVO!!

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Moments of Serenity through Creativity

Posted January 27, 2017 by Barbara Techel

I had such a meaningful discussion with my friend Rachel, this past week. She and I are co-creating some workshops we will be offering this year. The wisdom that comes from this young woman in her early 30s just fills my heart with hope for our world.

Whenever we get together we have deep conversations, which feed both our souls in such a positive and nourshing way. We were talking about how there are many ways to find moments of serenity. But so many get stuck thinking inner peace has to be this or that way or that there is a right or wrong way, or it is strictly only when one tries to meditate…and then people quit if they thinking they are really meditating because thoughts run through their mind.

But I’ve come to realize even more the many ways in which inner peace or moments of serenity happen for me. One of which is writing. When I write, I’m in a different place. Even if it is something difficult to write about, I lose all sense of time and the space I’m within.

I’m realizing it also happens when I’m doing other creative things, such as creating SoulCollage® cards or just this week, working on chalk painting a piece of furniture I was gifted. The photo above is after shot of the finished piece. I also chalk painted the mirror which was white before. Below is the before.

I’ll bet if you think about something creative you do, or time you spend out in nature, if you really think about it those are times when you easily lose sense of time.

Just something to give thought to next time you do something nurturing for you soul, pay attention to how you feel afterwards.

It’s not always about sitting cross-legged in complete silence and meditating for a half hour – though there is something quite powerful about that if you can achieve it. I’ve not yet achieved thirty minutes as ten to fifteen minutes is tops for me. But there are days when the alarm on my phone rings and my mediation is done when I think, wow, that was absolutely delightful. Where was I? And of course, then I want more, more, more.

And more serenity I truly believe can be found in creativity, nature, and spending time with animals, just to name a few.

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