spiritual growth

Animal Wisdom Reading for October 2021 – Practicing Gratitude & Grace Toward Ourselves

Posted by Barbara Techel

I know! It’s been a while. But alas, here I am again.

There has just been so much going on with trying to keep abreast of it all and also even more importantly practicing self-care to help roll through these times we are experiencing. So much growth opportunity for us all!

John and I were also recently able to get away for five days and took our R-pod camper to central Wisconsin. It was just the reprieve we needed connecting to nature. AND our KOA campground had many stray kitties. These two outside the KOA office just stole my heart. Yes, I wanted to take one home, but my asthma wouldn’t appreciate that.


On our trip away I was reminded once again how vital fresh air is, sunshine, time in nature, and connecting with the animals as so important to our physical, mental, and emotional health.

So for this month’s reading, I continue with the theme of self-care and how vitally, even more than ever it feels, to practice going within and taking good care of ourselves. Because from what I understand from various astrologists I tune into, October is going to be a bumpy ride – though needed in order for new and positive energy to come in. 

So I hope you find my message helpful where I share that I too experience my own struggles, but also what is helping me, along with guidance from this month’s animal ally I pull from an animal oracle deck. Click here or below to listen.

Wishing you each so much love and peace in your heart as we continue to walk this journey of so much change in our world…

XO

Barb

Two Young Bunnies Reminded Me How Fertile with Opportunity These Times Are

Posted by Barbara Techel

This young bunny above is one I saw in my garden a few weeks ago. Today, during my morning walk, I saw another small bunny hopping through a neighbor’s garden. And then later this morning, during my meditation time the bunnies came to me with a message.

The last few days I’d been getting caught up in fear in my mind with all that is transpiring in our world. 

While on my walk, wrestling with not wanting to be in this space, I’d realized that when I let fear cloud my mind, I can’t see the joy that is present. I silently acknowledged to myself the fact that these times of uncertainty shake my foundation of my wanting to feel safe and secure. But I reminded myself that at that moment I was safe.

It was then that the light suddenly looked brighter, the leaves on the trees greener and the sky bluer. I then noticed the young bunny scamper through a neighbor’s garden and just ahead I saw a golden retriever frolicking in someone’s yard. As I neared home another neighbor had just turned on the sprinkler and this feeling surged through me of wanting to be a little girl again and run through that sprinkler! 

During meditation, I was reminded that fear is the shadow part of me, but there is also the part of me that is light. I get to choose which I will play in. But only can I follow the path of the light, which is my heart, by acknowledging the shadow of fear that’s been running through my mind, and understanding what it’s about.

It was then that I saw the bunnies in my mind’s eye and they shared with me what a fertile time this is. How we are being given this incredible opportunity to face those shadows of fear when they appear. How important it is to look at why the fear is there and to ask where is it coming from. And that is what I’d done while on my walk, which helped to shift me back to the fact I was safe and there was so much good to see around me.

What a change of events in my 45-minute walk and then time in meditation that I was brought to this new space of lightness. The bunnies’ message was so true that all that is unfolding around us are opportunities to look within and be with what scares us in order to find our way back to the fact that we can create a better, brighter, and more peaceful reality.

Every moment we get the chance to see the world anew again.

xo,

Barbara

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