self discovery

Magic is in the Mess

Posted by Barbara Techel

Magic is in the Mess

If you’d rather listen to the audio version of my latest blog post, just click here. So far, I’m really enjoying doing this!

In continuing to be in awareness and in the months that have followed after a personal pivotal healing this year, thanks in part to my attending Oracle School, what I’ve learned through the wisdom of animals and my wise dachshund Gidget, plus many who have been here for me, honoring my journey and supporting me, this is a message I received yesterday…

and from all places, under a dark chocolate piece of Dove candy and written on the foil wrapper that read, The magic is in the mess.

I used to think that being positive all the time (even when I didn’t feel like it) was the way you dealt with challenges and that was where the magic was. Meaning, you just pushed through and smiled, not letting on what you were truly  feeling. Being positive in the face of challenges, after all, was what I learned years before from Frankie, who was my dear dachshund who was paralyzed and in a wheelchair.

But then it was my dachshund Gidget, with special needs of her own, who recently really helped me to understand that in opening to all my feelings during a difficult time with resentment and anger being at the forefront of my emotions, and was something I felt both shame and guilt for feeling. But I had to accept this and work with them. So in reading this quote yesterday it is yet another step of integration for me in that indeed, there is magic in the mess.

Because when we look straight on at our challenges or our fears, we can begin to see them as a sign that we are being called to grow, and as our perspective shifts, we find that when we come out the other side we have more clarity and grace. And might I add the fact that the name of the candy is Dove and Dove symbolizes peace which we also are granted more of when we face our fears and challenges.

It’s in doing what feels so very hard…that when we step fully into all of that difficulty, feeling ALL of what we are experiencing, that we are able to release, integrate, and let go…thus opening a new channel of understanding…and  experience what true magic is.

Magic is both pain and joy, light and dark.

XO,

Barb

Oracle Cards as Self-care for My Soul

Posted by Barbara Techel
Oracle Cards as Self Care for My Soul
Cards from Wisdom of the Oracle

If you’d like to listen to this post as an audio, I’m beginning an experiment and recording some of my posts. You can listen here.

Life isn’t fair. It’s all I could think about after adopting a special needs dog, Joie, and her passing away ten months later.

I was numb. I didn’t want to talk about it. I didn’t understand. A writer, author, and blogger for over six years, I suddenly had nothing left to say. I was scared and didn’t know what my future would look like.

The truth was I’d been ignoring that voice within that had been urging me to slow down, take a break, and re-evaluate what it was I wanted next for my life. But I ignored it.

Until now. Here I was in this space with the one thing I needed to do, but pushed away for the past two years because I was afraid to look because of fear—fear of the unknown and fear of judgement.

The best thing I could do, and I now know looking back, was to honor that nudge that had been trying desperately to get my attention. And so I dropped everything in my professional life, and took a two month sabbatical. Even though it felt extremely uncomfortable the first two weeks to do what felt like nothing. 

But with an empty calendar and hours looming before me each day, I made the commitment to journal my thoughts, feelings, challenges, and disappointments in hopes the excavation would reveal my next best step.

It was on the second day of this sacred time that I was guided to pick up a card deck I’d had for quite some time called Grace Cards. While I’d not classify them specifically as an oracle deck, they would introduce me to how there is always a benevolent force of energy guiding us.

Just like many of the dogs in my life have been a reflection for me, guiding me to be my best self, the cards were uncanny in matching my words on the page and what was going on in my inner world as I moved through this time of learning to just be.

It was during this time of transition I’d come to see a deeper meaning to true self-care. While bubble baths, spending time in nature, yoga, and meditation is part of my self-care routine, it was pulling a daily oracle card and journaling with it I was able to move deeper into finding the courage to express what mattered to me.

While I’d write and publish, Wisdom Found in the Pause – Joie’s Gift about this inward journey I took in 2013,  I didn’t put any effort into marketing it like I’d done with my previous books. I’d eventually come to realize it was because of fear of judgement that people would think I was wonky for working with oracle cards as a tool for personal growth, as if it wasn’t valid. I’m grateful I now know better!

And it would be over the next few years, and continuing the journey of going inward, working with an animal communicator, a therapist, a pet counselor, and going through Oracle School, I would come to understand how old stories and past wounds I’d carried with me for far too long caused me to repeat patterns with my inner critic leading the way. The one who wanted me to believe I wasn’t good enough, smart enough, that others would judge me, and that what I said and believed didn’t matter.

Self-care came to be about owning all my feelings and emotions and then working to integrate them into pearls of wisdom. And that the wisdom I’d gained from those past hurts and old stories were part of what was integral in helping shape me into who I am. Without those experiences I wouldn’t be the person I am. So I could either continue to curse them, or I could learn from them, understand how they influenced my life, and then release them.

This is what true self-care means to me now. It’s about the willingness to continue to be with my feelings and emotions, even those times when it’s uncomfortable and I’d rather resist and push them away. While I’m not perfect at this, I continue to be in awareness of the gift of this new perspective and trust that these are signposts are guiding me to more compassion, love, and understanding of self.

The three cards I purposely chose to go along with my thoughts on true self care are from The Wisdom of the Oracle deck. They speak to how different our lives can be if we open to the truth in our hearts, remember that a higher power has our back, and how we are then granted more blessed moments when we live in this way.

XO,

Barb

Oracle Card as Self Care for My Soul

The Wild Woman Who Lived Downstairs

Posted by Barbara Techel
The Wild Woman Who Lived Downstairs
Me and my wooden doll who has an uncanny resemblance to the “Wild Woman” card from the Mystical Shaman Oracle deck.

Just the other day, a flash of remembrance flew across my mind.

I was pretty sure she was still there. But would she remember me? Down the stairs I flew to my studio, which has been vacant for most of the year.

She still stood exactly where I’d left her — off to the side of the large window that looks out over my rock garden. She hadn’t changed a bit, made of sturdy wood, colorful paints, soft feathers, and her feathered friends perched in her hair and hands.

I can’t recall exactly when, but it was well over ten years ago I made her. It was a mother-daughter outing spent with an artist who taught us the art of making these unique dolls.

Looking at my doll with the blue-green eyes and wild hair, named Eartha Azure, I wondered if she’d been a mirror to my subconscious that held the tale of what was to come.

I scooped her in my arms and happily marched her out to my writing cottage, its space full of light with windows that grace every side.

It was on my 55th birthday this past July during a practice session with a fellow Oracle School student that she pulled the “Wild Woman” card for me from the Mystical Shaman Oracle deck. I still recall how my hand flew to my heart. It hit home.

The card and the wooden doll a reflection of who I’ve worked diligently to become with a major leap I’d taken this year.

A year of going inward to embrace the parts of my inner child that needed to be acknowledged, heard, and healed. Hugging that little girl before I drifted off to sleep one night telling her I’d always be here for her. She was safe and I loved her.

It was then, that Wild Woman began to emerge little-by-little. She was bravely making herself known. She no longer wanted to live in the dark. She was ready to be seen.
She was ready to show others who she was becoming and who she had become—embracing all of who she is as she stepped into the light and claimed her space in the world, no longer afraid.

That Wild Woman is me, but my friend, it is also you. I know she lives within you and she is strong and beautiful. And I just wanted you to know.

ORACLE WISDOM TO PONDER

What is it we most need to know to embrace our Wild Woman?

XO,

Barb

P.S. Come join me on Facebook if you’d like more wisdom and guidance from Oracles!