How to Hear God’s Voice Every Day (In Unexpected Ways)

God speaks to us every day as The Universe attempts to have a conversation with us, yet most of it passes us by unnoticed. We are no longer taught this language and so we cannot hear it.  There are many ways we can open ourselves to it and see how this will enrich our life beyond measure. It’s funny how often we pray and then miss the answer because we don’t slow down enough to receive it or learn all the ways we are getting these answers every day.

The Native Americans knew that when we seeing more of a particular bird, insect, or animal in our daily path meant we were attracting that ‘animal’s medicine’ to teach us a certain character trait that would be helpful to us at that time.  For example, a sudden infestation of ants into your yard and home may be telling you about more than weather conditions.  Try Googling “animal medicine ___” (or whatever your animal/insect/bird may be) and read about what they can guide us with to help us through a current situation or challenge.

Our bodies are the physical manifestation of whatever is going on inside us emotionally.  When we have a loss or deep pain from a relationship that we unable or unwilling to heal, we ‘stuff’ it somewhere in our body and try to forget about it.  The longer that solidifying energy remains stuck inside us, the worse we feel.   It would be one thing if we did this once in our lives, but we do throughout life!  More and more of our body turns to aches and pains, our bodies ‘age’ and we are less comfortable within our skin.  As these areas begin to hurt worse signaling us to work through the pain, we instead go to physicians and get pills for our ‘illness’ that is in fact becoming true sickness and may ultimately kill us if unattended.  Energy workers can help us begin to dissolve these areas and move the energy for us to again face the pain to learn the life lesson contained within it and release the pain.  Pills or addictive behaviors temporarily numb the symptoms, surgery removes masses, but the cure is healing that wound permanently.  Again, try Googling “metaphysical meaning ______” with whatever recurring ailment you may have and see what your body might be telling you!

Have you noticed how that certain annoying type of person keeps showing up in your life?  You get away from one and another comes along just like them? How frustrating!  The truth is they will keep showing up until we finally work through whatever annoys us and heal it.  Then the pattern is broken and life shifts.  By avoiding these people, we only prolong the lesson we’re meant to experience.

We cannot hear nature communicate with us or grow from the lessons it brings until we slow down and listen. Some ways we can attune ourselves to it are:

• Step out. Take a nature walk to silently observe nature and reflect inward. Kayak and drift upon the water in silence for a bit. Camp and commune with nature.  Sit in a field of flowers or lean up against an old, wise tree, allowing your energy to flow into this plant life and Mother Earth, and its love to flow into you.
• Shhhh.  Turn off the gadgets and be still. Formal meditation is great, but simply being still begins to heighten our awareness.
• Notice. Open yourself to new and wondrous ways that all life may be communicating with you.  Notice how animals react to you and the energy you emit. Play with your intuition and telepathy by attempting to read another person’s energy/emotion and then check in to confirm how accurate you are.  We all have gifts we don’t begin to use…including the power to heal ourselves.
• Meditate. Simply begin with 5 minutes a day.  Don’t wait until your mind is quiet to begin. That is like waiting until your bank account has money in it to go to work and earn money. Just begin. Add a few minutes a day/week until you are practicing 30 minutes a day and you’ll be amazed at how much more centered, peaceful, confident, and effective you’ll be.
• Connect. Meet other like-minded people seeking this path and get to know them through spiritual centers, meditation or exercise groups, etc. Inspire and challenge one another to live more fully and be present.

Life is indeed a magical conversation with the Divine.  Enjoy all that it has to share with you and watch yourself expand in ways you haven’t even imagined!

Namaste,

Sheryl Sitts, Chief Inspirational Officer

Journey of Possibilities

How Massage, Reiki, and the Like Can Improve Health…Even Save Lives!

Until a couple of years ago, I believed the widely advertised philosophy that if I simply “eat right, exercise, and see my doctor regularly”, I will live to a healthy old age.  While that may be good and well, I simply couldn’t get there from here.  The more I tried and fell short of that ideal, the worse I felt about myself.  The reality is that for the thousands of us carrying inside us some form of unresolved trauma (verbal/physical/sexual abuse, broken families, absent parent/spouse, divorce, death, impact of war on family, addiction, eating disorders), that is nothing more than a nice ideal we can’t achieve.  Then I discovered the power of massage and reiki in tandem with other healing forms.

I know that I carry anger and fear in my stomach.  I remember years of stomach aches beginning in childhood whenever I felt angry or scared and it wasn’t ‘safe’ to express it.  That reserve just kept growing over the years, and once I began to work through it, I would reached plateaus when progress seemed to slow or stop.  Massage, reiki and other ways of moving energy really helped me break through those barriers.

If we look at ancient cultural beliefs and even our own scientific research into how emotions and thoughts impact physical matter (like  Dr. Emoto’s work with water), we can see that  energy such as that accumulated in my stomach over the years (eventually turning into disease)  benefits from help breaking it up and guiding it into other areas of the body.   This is true for any chakra area where we have stored unexpressed emotions. Working to move energy in that region helps realign that energy power center and restore flow to support more balanced living and health.

When we restore flow throughout our bodies, what was previously a challenge (eating right, exercising, and regular exams) becomes a core desire in self-love and care.  We learn to truly love our bodies again and care for them more automatically.  So you can see that this is about more than just managing stress, the most popularly cited reason people seek massages.  Consider restoring the flow in your own body today.  You and those you love will be delighted.

Namaste and much love,

Sheryl Sitts, Chief Inspirational Officer

Journey of Possibilities ~ Inviting you to Illumination Houston 2013, Lighting the World One Soul at a Time!

The Magical Player Piano

One weekend when I was little, we took a car ride that seemed to last forever out to visit my cousins in a neighboring city.  Although I’d been told there would not be any children there to play with, I was assured I’d find a wonderful treat awaiting me.  When we arrived I saw a beautiful piano and ran over to see if I could remember how to play Chopsticks after playing it with my kindergarten teacher at school.  As I tapped the ivory keys, my cousin took out a scroll of paper and loaded it into the front of the piano, anchoring one end on a clip and then stretching it upward and placing the roll into a slot.  I told her I didn’t know how to read the dots, and she laughed and told me to just press the pedals at my feet.  Soon a most complex, beautiful song began to play itself on the piano!  I was enthralled as the notes filled the house, and any time we visited them in the future I enjoyed the piano as much as I had that day.

This morning as I awakened to memories of my wonder at that magical piano.  I was surprised by the similarities of that piano to my own spiritual journey.  As souls, we choose the musical scrolls (life experiences) we want to have here for the evolution of our Spirit.  It matters not the song, only that we attend to the rich notes of that song in the most open and loving way possible, regardless of how we may feel.  We can add a note here and there any time we want, for we also have those ivory keys (our own mind) to co-create music.  Indeed, we can take control completely and bang out a very different song, but whenever we choose or are forced to let go, that scroll (our Divine Path) resumes.  If there are pauses in the song, we can ask someone to confirm and reassure us that all is well just as God is always there and our spirit guides and angels are only too happy to help any time we ask.

There is a Divine plan at work here, even and especially when we can’t see it or don’t understand the music that is playing.  Our role is as simple as a player piano.  In this concert, we are here to be willing participants and surrender the keys any time we catch ourselves overtaking the music.  Oh yeah, and our most important job is to enjoy this miraculous experience and love each other through the hard parts of whatever song is being played.

Namaste,

Sheryl Sitts, Chief Inspirational Officer

Journey of Possibilities

(CLICK IMAGE FOR TICKETS OR VENDOR SPACE INFORMATION)

Habits: Free Will in Bondage

Lately I’ve been discovering how I unconsciously push some people away when they get ‘too close’.  It’s actually much more complex than it sounds.  When some people get ‘too close’, my mind starts playing tricks with me about what they really want from me, how they’ll probably go away soon anyway, etc. until suddenly I’m withdrawing from a perfectly good friendship, romance, etc. for no reason at all!   It’s scary to me that I can do all of this now without even realizing what I’m doing.   What began in childhood (doesn’t everything?) to keep me safe then became an option in a couple of unhappy relationships and then a habit until now I’m not even aware that I do it.  Something that was once free will has over time become something that quietly runs in the background sabotaging my relationships.

This is only one example.  Whether it’s how we drive, what we eat, vices we try, the way we are with money, how we resolve conflict, or many other things, the same holds true.  There is an initial moment of consciousness when we freely choose.  If  it’s important enough, we’ll even get nervous about the possibilities and weigh out our options before we choose.  If our choice serves us well then, the next time we may more quickly return to the same choice.  After a few times, or when we’re too busy to spend time thinking about it, we may repeat the choice again after barely slowing down to weigh the options.  Before we know it, we’re still behaving that way 5…10…30 years later!  The situation has changed, the people are different, and WE’RE different, but we’re still doing that same old thing with no idea why or even that we are!  How much of our lives are run on autopilot?  And what does it take to get our attention?  Bankruptcy?  A heart attack?  Divorce?  Something else?

Free will can only exist in this moment.  The past is history and we may not even see the future.  All we have is this very moment.  All our multitasking keeps us too distracted to be in this right-now moment that is our Divine gift.   We stay in autopilot.   We are the only ones who can make the conscious choice to live in this moment EVERY moment.  Anything else is robbing ourselves of a precious human birthright: FREE WILL!   Here’s to conscious living – right here, right now.

Namaste and much love,

Sheryl Sitts, Chief Inspirational Officer

Journey of Possibilities

ILLUMINATION HOUSTON 2013 – Lighting the World One Soul at a Time!  CLICK HERE for details, tickets, or a booth!

The Path to Health Begins & Ends With Self Love

Last night I came to a powerful understanding I’d like to share.  I saw our bodies as masses of energy, and then went into what happens to all energy (human, plant, animal) that doesn’t receive love. From there, I shifted to my own body and the parts of my body that I only attend to for cosmetic reasons or because I’m “supposed to” so I don’t get sick or whatever, rather than from a place of love. Those parts of my body that I do not love or where I store unresolved emotions actually slow to low-vibrating energy, which is where we get diseases (dis-eases) like cancer.  Doctors may cut out tumors and medicate us, but they don’t treat the root causes for us rejecting our bodies or holding in repressed anger, sorrow, etc.

Then I saw a healthy body being given nourishing foods and lots of clean water from the Earth Mother, regularly being active to keep all energy throughout the body moving and flowing, and being properly nurtured and cared for. This body is loved, and honored each morning in meditation to realign body, mind, heart, and spirit. This is not a quick-fix or beauty-in-a-bottle-or-quick-weight-loss body, craving to be good enough and driven by fear.  Rather, this is a body that is wholly loved and appreciated for the incredible gift and work of art that it is…an extension of our own Divine energy manifested to allow us to express in human form our soul’s purpose.

Our bodies are truly miracles. Let’s do our part to learn to love ourselves in gratitude.  We’re not only good enough, we’re downright amazing!

Namaste,
Sheryl Sitts, Chief Inspirational Officer
Journey of Possibilities

DON’T WAIT TO GET YOUR TICKETS TO ILLUMINATION HOUSTON 2013!  Click HERE for details.

Don’t Take It Personally – Really!

“What you think of me is none of my business.” Terry Cole-Whittaker

“Don’t take anything personally.” Don Miguel Ruiz 

What? If someone is rude to me I’m not supposed to take it personally?  When my mother or daughter, father or son hurts me, I’m not supposed to get upset?  The boss blows up in my face and it’s his problem?  Oh, and here’s my favorite – when my boyfriend/husband or girlfriend/wife says something to me in anger that really feels like it cuts me in half, that’s ok?  It’s MY problem?

I’d heard this before and thought it absurd.  My family had its share of alcoholics and codependency, so this whole concept felt outrageous to me.  We hurt each other all the time with words, and I know that pain was very real!

Years ago I was in a serious relationship that was falling apart despite all my best efforts.  Then, a friend suggested I read Women Who Love Too Much.  A couple of years later I read Codependent No More, and later down my path the powerful book The Four Agreements.  All of these helped me understand that other people do the best they can with what they know.  They love us in their way.  The behave according to their experiences and interpretations.    No matter how much something they do hurts us, they would do the same thing to anyone else in that situation because it’s what they know.  Often, they are treating us as good as they possibly know to given their understanding of what’s happening and how to handle it.

So, where does that leave us?  On our own healing path of understanding that nothing anyone else says or does is personal.  Whether they think we’re wonderful or horrible, brilliant or stupid, beautiful or ugly, all of that is just their opinion!  We didn’t create it and we can’t fix it.

Only we can choose the people we fill our daily lives with and the reality that creates for us.  Only we can decide then that nothing anyone says or does is personal.  Their judgment of us is not reality.  It is quite simply THEIR OPINION.  It also has nothing to do with how THEY FEEL about us.

Replacing our foundation with this and beginning the journey to align ourselves and our thoughts and feelings to this is nothing short of life-changing.  It is, in my humble opinion, a transformational journey that is well worth taking!

Namaste and much love,

Sheryl Sitts, Chief Inspirational Officer

Journey of Possibilities

When is Doing the ‘Right Thing’ Wrong

“Nothing exists except atoms and empty space; everything else is opinion.” ~ Democritus, Greek Philosopher

Don Miguel Ruiz writes in The Four Agreements about how we are “domesticated” by our parents, schools, and society into a story about how things were, are, and will be. We’re rewarded for complying and punished for rebelling until we are finally fully domesticated, or locked away in either a prison or an insane asylum.   How depressing to finish 18 years of school and realize I’d been a great drone programmed to succeed in the current story.  After living the corporate story, the marriage story, the community leadership story, and ending up unfulfilled, I knew I’d lived everyone’s story but my own!

When we live outside what Democritus calls opinions, we can create our own reality.  While many talk of living in faith, how much do we honestly trust our hearts and Divine Guidance, and fully surrender to find our own unique Path?  We have all these stories about how we can’t just expect money to show up without working really hard for it, the right people aren’t simply going to show up in our lives, etc.  Ironically, those things are completely possible when we live in faith and trust our spirit to guide us in the right way.  Letting go and surrendering is the challenging part!  It’s so much easier to believe the 401K, ‘secure’ job, married-with-kids, socially popular, and materially successful life we’re programmed to seek will make us happy.  If so, great!  If not, time to change it!

These stories are chains that bind us into lives that are not our purpose.  We are here today to write our own story, and the only one who can author our happiness and best path is US.  We must trust and have the courage to follow our inner compass to our own happiness, for if we live others’ stories for us, we actually prevent ourselves from getting there.  I for one am happier than ever not having any idea what tomorrow brings, for even though I have my scary and insecure moments, the joy is off the charts!

Namaste,

Sheryl Sitts, Chief Inspirational Officer

Journey of Possibilities

Photo credits:
Horse/Rider – korosy istvan
Dark Figure – Maria Li
Castle – susanne wunderlich
Sky – Julia Starr
Sky – Dimitri Castrique
All other effects – CG Textures

We Are More Powerful Than We Imagine

“The Masters accept that Buddha represents the Way to Enlightenment, but they clearly set forth that Christ IS Enlightenment, or a state of consciousness for which we are all seeking – the Christ light of every individual…” Baird T. Spalding (Forward, Book I of the excellent series Life and Teaching of the Masters of the Far East)

All around me lately it seems that folks are beginning to awaken to magical, overwhelming, and even at times scary powers that we have.  These are in fact Divine gifts possessed by all of us, and gifts which Christ came to show us how to activate and use for good.  They are beautiful, amazing gifts that give us the power to activate the Divine within us to heal ourselves and others, and work other “miracles” once believed to only be magically possessed by Christ.  However, there is no mainstream avenue to learning about these in our society.  Many are scared that the most common people might begin running around healing themselves and others.  Not only would that reduce profits to all who benefit from providing these services to a helpless public, but discovering our innate powers would reduce our dependence and surrender to other human authority.

In this powerful 2012 year, the energy is shifting.  People are awakening with some delight and much confusion to the idea that they have gifts and powers never before realized.  There are people and organizations to assist all who awaken to step into their Divine power and purpose.  A beautiful new age is upon us.  Let’s stay in communication as we embark on these new paths, and love one another to a brighter and more empowered and Loving tomorrow.

Namaste,

Sheryl Sitts, Chief Inspirational Officer

Journey of Possibilities

How To Speak Our Deepest Truth

Now more than ever it is imperative that we each find and stand in our own personal truth. Still, our truth often doesn’t match the truth of those we love in our life, and that makes it less than easy. This is increasing as the energy heightens our intuition and empathy.

We must be true to ourselves, for anything less results in us living others’ dreams for us instead of our own lives. Therefore, let us help one another learn ways to stand deeper in our own individual truths with as much love as possible for ourselves and those around us who love us, too.

This week, rather than writing about this topic, I’d prefer for YOU to share with us any helpful insights or experiences you’ve had with this. Specifically, how would you respond if your best friend in the world asked you:

How do you speak your truth to someone you love when you can feel it causing them anger, fear, sadness, or disappointment?

Thank you for sharing your best tips on this common challenge. For all who celebrate Thanksgiving this week, may your holiday be joyous while standing in your true and authentic self.

Namaste and much love,
Sheryl Sitts
Founder & Chief Inspirational Officer
Journey of Possibilities

How Chasing Forever Steals Our Joy Right Now

Our favorite childhood stories end in “happily ever after”.   We love weddings that promise love until “death do us part”.   We focus on the comfort of knowing that our deepest love and joy will last…well, forever.  Since I’m a romantic by nature, I was a big fan of all this too, until recently.  Now I’ve come to see how living in this “forever” story actually steals our joy from right now – the only moment we truly ever have.

Exploring eastern culture, I’m learning how our desires and attachments cause us to crave more of what we enjoy and avoid anything we don’t.  I see how I have written a story with each pain or loss about how I caused that by being a certain way, and how I vowed to change that aspect of myself (either my own behavior or my choices) so I could avoid that in the future.  Likewise, I did the reverse with happy circumstances to create more of those.  Over time, I got so lost in little and big stories I’d written and modifications I’d made that I wasn’t at all my authentic self.  More ironically, I wasn’t any closer to lasting happiness and I was so wrapped up in my past lessons and future desires that I wasn’t even living in the present at all.  When I looked around, I was surrounded by people doing the same thing.

It’s great to have dreams.  It’s commendable to evolve into better people through the lessons of our lives.  What seems a waste is to lose ourselves, our true selves, in the stories of our past and the desires of our future until we are not living the only moment that matters: right now.  Finding ways to return to the present moment can help us break this cycle and appreciate what we have right now.

Meditation returns us to the present moment and helps us train our chattering minds to take a break.  Slow body movement exercises or dance can bring us back to center.  Nature helps us enjoy the moment in a breeze, the rustle of leaves, the glimpse of a soaring bird.

When we love those we are with right now, give thanks for all our blessings right now, savor even our own pain as a reminder that we are fully and completely alive to feel everything right now, we are living our truth.  The past and the future are just our stories.  Right now is the joy we were trying to create and plan for throughout our distracted past.  Let’s not remain so distracted as to miss it!

Namaste,

Sheryl Sitts, Founder & Chief Inspirational Officer

Journey of Possibilities