soulcollage

SoulCollage® Reading for the Week for All of Us

Posted by Barbara Techel

SoulCollage® Reading for the Week for All of Us

I think many of you know by now that I LOVE oracle cards! Such helpful and fun guides to help us with life’s big and small questions. Finding SoulCollage® and making what are in a sense, my own personal oracle cards, has just helped to deepen this ritual I find such a fascination with.

The universe really does love us and is always sending us signs and symbols. Our job is to pay attention!

I have different rituals for my SoulCollage® cards and that is part of the fun of it! As I got out to my writing cottage today the thought popped in my head that I’d like to choose a card at random not only for myself, but for all of you who faithfully read my blog each day.

So here is the question I posed for us all as I shuffled my deck of SoulCollage® cards:  What do we need to know for the week?

The card I made of my favorite flower, the ranunculus, which I made earlier this year, is the one who presented itself. The answer I heard by being in silent diaglogue and journaling with it had this to offer us:

You need to know that it is going to be a beautiful week! One filled with many layers of possibilities. Just as new buds are beginning to open to the sun, so too are you being presented the same opportunity. Lift your arms and your whole being to the heavens, just like the petals of a flower opening to warmth of a new season, and embrace all of who you are. Let the exquisite beauty of you bloom and fill this world with the many magical shades of color that come from all the many layers that make you uniquely you!

I realized after choosing this card for the week, that yesterday, a friend has posted a photo of her “art studio mates” for the week, which she always has fresh flowers, and this week they are the ranunculus! Coincidence? I think not! 🙂

Photo credit: Cynthia Morris Art

Wishing you each a beautiful week!

Thank you for sharing and subscribing to my blog updates.

Practicing Silence in a Noisy World

Posted by Barbara Techel

Practicing Silence in a Noisy World

I’m being tested.

Earlier this week I listened to an online class that I signed up for to help me deepen my skills as a SoulCollage® facilitator.

This role is so different from when I did presentations for kids with my dachshund, Frankie. Kids are so open for the most part, and haven’t yet been conditioned into how they should think. While I saw myself doing workshops for women someday even when doing my work with Frankie, I didn’t know at the time exactly how that would play out.

It’s a whole new experience for me even though I’ve done quite a few workshops now. But I continue to learn, and most of all I continue to wish to be the very best I can be as a facilitator so that I’m providing a safe container for which others can explore their creative consciousness.

Listening to the instructor, Selene, a psycotherapist and fellow SoulCollage® facilitator, she talked about how everyone is different when it comes to tapping into their creative consciousness.  While some need silence, some need to be chattering to distract their cognitive mind.

She went on to say that this then becomes a practice for those who wish to be in silence because the fact is there is always noise in our world. I’d never really thought of that before, but it made sense. To be in silence within when there is noise around you and not let it distract or bother you is certainly a practice.

I’ve really been thinking about that and of course, as it usually goes when one begins to give something deep thought, it seems you are presented with situations to put this into practice.

This morning as I moved through my yoga routine, listening to a soothing, instrumental, meditative station on Pandora. all of a sudden I was yanked out of my calm and serene space when a commercial interrupted – and it was so jarring. I silently cursed Pandora for not having sent me an email letting me know my subscription had run out so I could have perhaps prevented this intrusion from happening (a subscription means you avoid the commercials).

But then I remembered what Selene said and I realized I was being called to practice being in silence among the blaring commercial ads as if they weren’t there – a conscious shift to not be annoyed or let that shake me from my calm and quiet foundation.

And then I was tested again. After returning from an errand, I came home to find a crew of landscapers working in the neighbor’s yard. They are still here. And with them they brought loud machinery. I began to feel my insides tense up and feelings of being annoyed begin to surface again, along with feeling like my personal space was being invaded as they are right outside my writing cottage.

And then I remembered again….to go within to that silent place of my own even with all the workers and noise right outside my window. This is going to take practice I must say. But I’ll bet that if one can truly do this then that is, ah, yes, the ultimate peace. I’m working on it!

Namaste.

Thank you for sharing and subscribing to my blog updates.

Dancing with the Elemental Forces of Creation & Synchronicity

Posted by Barbara Techel

Dancing with the Elemental Forces of Creation & Synchronicity

Synchronicity does not always play out immediately and something I realized yesterday from a series of events that I see now had been unfolding over the months.

I had stumbled upon a woman by the name of Lisa Michaels, a Creation Coach and Facilitator, and took part in watching a free webinar she offered a few months ago. How I initially found her, I don’t know. But ah yes, this is how synchronicity works! One thing led to another and I checked out her website.

While there I discovered a deck of oracle cards she created called Elemental Forces of Creation that incorporate spirit, earth, water, air and fire. That spoke to me and I even looked into perhaps taking further training with her. But I set it aside as the timing didn’t feel right. But I kept going back to look at those cards she had created thinking some day down the line I would purchase them for my growing collection of oracle cards.

Oracle

Fast forward to last week when fellow SoulCollage®  facilitator Stephanie Chissler of Wisdom Tending offered her first online SoulCollage® workshop on Divine Feminine. Being that I’ve been immersing myself in all that I can about SoulCollage®, I signed up.  Little did I realize she was offering a free gift for the first three who purchased her online course.

So when I got an email from her saying I had won an oracle card reading with her I was thrilled!  And even more so when, yup…here comes the synchronicity…. and she said she’d be using the Elemental Forces of Creation deck.

Um, yes, this was meant to be wouldn’t you agree?

I had the reading done yesterday. l really liked Stephanie’s gentle and encouraging guidance. What I didn’t realize is that the Elemental Forces of Creation have a word or two on each card. As someone who loves words and using them to express myself through writing, I was excited to learn more. I also like that they use what the indigenous culture have always used to guide their life with Spirit and the four elements. 

I posed my question to the oracle and reading #1 would help guide me around the question of what it was that needed my attention right now as an area of focus to help me. The two cards that presented themselves were Spirit. One said Grace and Trust and the other said As within/So without.

This was very much a hands on approach which I appreciated as Stephanie asked if those words held any meaning for me. She gave me time to think about it and I was able to tap into some insight of what was going on in regards to my question.

The second reading took it deeper with the question, “What is the issue and what do I need to do?” That revealed three cards:

Fire – Will

Water – Feeling Guidance

Earth – Stewardship

While the words can mean one thing according to good ole Webster, I practiced what was coming up for me with each of the words, trying not to dismiss my intuition. I believe in doing that, along with Stephanie’s encouragement, I was able to tap into the message I needed to hear just for me.

And alas, as in so many cases when we are stuck, it was fear that was at the heart of my question I’d posed. And just when you think you’ve moved through something, those moments return as a reminder to continue to work on what needs healing.

And so it is.

But I felt a shift in myself after the reading and felt lighter. Stephanie suggested that when we hung up that I should dance. It felt uncomfortable at first and I wasn’t sure I wanted to do that. But then, I thought, why not? Why not just try and see what happens?

And so I danced. Right here in my writing cottage. At first it felt awkward, but then I began to feel this welcoming flow as I danced what I would call Yoga dance. It felt so good. So freeing. So right.

Thank you for sharing and subscribing to my blog updates.