self-love

Dove Guides Us this Week to Grace In the Stillness

Posted by Barbara Techel

It’s a week that Dove is encouraging us to make sure we set aside time for self-care. Just like anyone else, I too fall off track sometimes and this week’s message from Dove speaks to me. I hope it will be helpful for you too.

I really appreciate oracle cards and animal wisdom as tools for my own self-care. It’s a way to open to perspectives I might not consider, and both have helped me time and again with shifting my awareness and gaining insight I’d not have in any other way.

To journey alongside the message from an oracle card or the wisdom an animal shares always helps to shift me from a stuck place to a new opening and seeing something I’m struggling with in a way that guides me to be proactive instead of spinning my wheels and not getting anywhere.

It’s hard not to see a Dove and feel a peaceful shift come over you, don’t you think? While birds, in general, are symbolic of connecting earth to heaven, whenever I see Dove I feel that even more deeply because there is just something so spiritual about the dove.

This week I asked the question, what will be of help to us this week?

Toward the end of last week, I was carrying a heaviness on my heart because of so much that is going on in the world. Talking with a few friends, they too, have been feeling the same. Many said they feel helpless and aren’t sure what they can do to help change things. For me, I didn’t listen to the news at all over the weekend or check any online news sources. I just needed a break to clear my head and connect back to myself.

I see Dove as such a beautiful guide of reminding us that the way to true and lasting peace begins with each of us. I’ve said this time and time again here on my blog and in my general readings and one-to-one readings because it is what I believe at my core. And it’s something I continue to practice also. Even though again, I sometimes also fall off track, but now that I’m more aware of that feeling that comes over me, I am able to jump back on track much quicker these days.

When we feel helpless it’s good to also ask ourselves why that is. So much of what comes up during challenging times as we are experiencing in the world right now are actually clues for us to look within and why it is that we are feeling triggered – and not to make light of what is transpiring in our world as it is some tough stuff to witness. But where is that coming from for each of us as individuals in our own lives that I see as what we need to ask ourselves?

Dove guides us to go within and to not only connect with our wise inner self but to also connect with that energy of the divine (no matter how you define it). Take time to really listen to what your heart is trying to convey to you – even if it is hard to look at or hear because it may feel painful. But just allow whatever that is for you to be heard or seen. Perhaps write it down in a journal or speak it out loud to yourself. So often just doing this is all the release we need to become aware and then begin to let it go.

The world is being shaken up, that there is no doubt, but it’s also helping to serve as a reflection of what we need to heal within ourselves when we feel scared, angry, helpless, etc. I see Dove as the great encourager to find grace in the stillness within ourselves – that this is where we can receive the message we need to hear in order to move forward. The more of us that can do this, the more positive vibration that puts out into the world, and the more chance we have of shifting our planet to a more peaceful place for all.

Dove – the symbol of peace – just being with her energy as I sat with the image on the card and then writing this post I already feel a shift of serenity within myself. 

Wishing you each a peaceful and gentle reflective week…

xo,

Barbara

I recently gave my one-to-one oracle readings a name: Wisdom in the Pause. If you are in need of support and someone who will gently hold space for you to explore what is on your heart, please don’t hesitate to reach out to me.

Card from The Ark Animal Tarot and Oracle Deck

Owl Asks Us Who We Wish to Be

Posted by Barbara Techel

As the world shakes and rumbles with its deep state of pain and fear being unleased all around us, Owl beckons us to remember to come back to what is our truth – tapping into that wise inner self when things around us feel out of control is what we can take control of as a way of enacting peace.

An owl can turn its head 270 degrees. I like that as a reminder for us that we too must see and look all around us and while we may not agree or understand the different views or what is transpiring, we can work to accept that it is all playing out as a way for each of us to come back home to ourselves and what really matters. The more each of us can do this, the more we can tilt this planet back to a place of peace.

Looking at the Owl card, part of the background design caught my eye – no pun intended – as I saw what looks to me as many eyes closed. I heard in my mind, sit as still as you can among the chaos and uncertainty of the outside world and be assured that true and lasting peace only, and always, comes from within.

What a different world it would be if we hadn’t lost our way so many thousands of years ago when we knew then that the only true and real answers come from trusting in our intuition. It’s the tool of navigation I believe owl is trying to help us get back to and we can begin right here and now.

Owl is also reminding us we can each play our part in practicing being in the darkness by closing our eyes, feeling what we need to feel within our own space of self – instead of projecting it – and to trust that in time this will greatly contribute to humanity making a positive shift.

Who are you going to be? Observing the world around us, we see, we experience, we feel, and we acknowledge the darkness that is here. We then close our eyes and for a moment it is dark within us too as we acknowledge how at times we can feel so helpless. This is our cue to tap into those times in our own lives when this has personally played out – it’s our opportunity to feel those times of pain fully so we can release and heal them. This is what will allow the light to enter within even with our eyes still closed.

There was a time when I would have looked away at something happening in the external world that I simply could not handle because it was too horrific. But I realize the more I am able to look, take it fully into my being, allow it to move through me even though at times it feels excruciatingly painful. But to really feel and acknowledge that this darkness exists, I’ve come to experience that this is the way of actually expanding my heart to feel all that it needs to feel. When I don’t allow all those myriad of feelings I’m experiencing to flow through me it actually stunts the growth of my soul.

We are each so wise beyond what we give ourselves credit for – Owl wants for us to take it all in – eyes closed and accepting the darkness – and eyes wide open to let in the light.

Turning to the guidebook the last paragraph really jumped out at me:

“The solitary owl invites us to deepen our spiritual practices, turn inward for answers, and to develop a trusting relationship with our own intuition. They show us that a stealthy, still, and quiet spiritual practice can be more beneficial than those who take a more ‘loud and proud’ approach.”

Owl asks of us to ponder, who is it we wish to be and become?

xo,

Barbara

Hedgehog Guides Us Gently Within to Find Peace

Posted by Barbara Techel

The oracle cards and the message for us this week are from Hedgehog and Peace.

I was immediately drawn to the light glowing from within the hedgehog as well as the orbs of light surrounding him. I felt an immediate sense of hope, centeredness, and calm flow through me just by gazing at the card for a few moments.

What a perfect card in conjunction with the peace card as that is what I was feeling also as I took in all the beautiful colors and twinkles of the light surrounding the hedgehog as well as the soothing colors of the peace card, along with the dove which is often symbolic of serenity.

I see the hedgehog as reminding us that when we are feeling off balance and the fact he is a nocturnal creature and curls up into a ball until he feels safe, that we too must be willing to go into the darkness within ourselves and sift and sort through feelings we are unsure about.

This message from Hedgehog was definitely reflecting my own inner state this morning as I’d been waffling back and forth wrestling with some things that had me feeling off-balance the last few days as I worked on deciphering what was mine and what wasn’t.

On Saturday I spent some time digging in my gardens planting some new perennials. This required digging down into the earth deep enough so the new plants will have their best chance at taking root and blooming and thriving into their best selves. The dirt was still cold as it will slowly begin to warm as the temperatures continue to increase as we move from spring to summer. This feels in alignment with the message from hedgehog and how we have to do the work to get to a state of peace also when we feel off.

Peace feels warm and comforting, just like the roots of those plants will soon experience as they take root and then feel more stable and nourished as the days begin to warm.

My hands digging in the ground and planting new life was helpful as it took me out of my busy, overanalyzing, and what can be sometimes a critical mind.

This morning moving through various exercises on my AeroPilates machine I began to feel even more grounded while I also began to feel the heaviness I was carrying begin to lift, too. I knew meditation would be what I’d end my workout with, and I curled up on the platform of the AeroPilates machine which I now see symbolic as the hedgehog curling up and then showing up as he did today for this reading.

As the meditation music played in my ears I felt called to list everything at that moment that I feel grateful for. The list was quite extensive, and all simple things really – a roof over my head, food in the freezer, gardens to nurture, a husband who loves me, a writing cottage to come to, and share my heart through my writing and other work, etc.

I now think about the hedgehog and when he emerges from within himself you see his sweet pink face – he is glowing and radiant! Just like when we take time to be with what is bothering us, rummaging through all the thoughts of why that is while being gentle with ourselves, to then eventually emerge feeling more in alignment with who we truly are…. and then we too glow and sparks of twinkles surround us just like the Hedgehog card. Another reminder that it’s an inside job to true and lasting peace.

So if you find yourself in a space of feeling off-kilter in the moment or encounter that this week, remember Hedgehog and find a place to curl up and just be with it all and soon enough peace will find its way to you too.

Have a beautiful week!

xo,

Barbara

Cards used: Archangel Animal Oracle by Diana Cooper and Wisdom of the Oracle by Colette Baron-Reid