Silence

Feeling a little bit like silence. Except for short bouts on Facebook. Goin' with it.

Mercury Retrograde Re-Run

In honor of Mercury Retrograde (and the insane amount of things I have to do around my house currently), I'm rerunning a post I made about Mercury Retrograde last year. Enjoy!

From September 24, 2008:

Mercury turned retrograde today.

I feel compelled to share this with people. If you're not familiar, check it out here.

Anything starting with re- is generally a good thing to do during Mercury Retro. Read, relax, revise, remember, restore... You get the idea. (I've already re-vised this entry like 3 times!)

Generally, weird things happen that you think could be really bad and take a lot of time and sometimes some money, but usually aren't too serious in the end. Mercury is the trickster.

For example, today already, I dropped my coffee twice in the car on the way to work. It was a bother, but didn't hurt anything and I still had plenty of coffee left (thank goodness for lids)! A co-worker called in with a mysterious illness. She wasn't sure if she could make it in or not. She was trying to get in to the doctor, but didn't know if she could. She got to the doctor and they said they've seen this weird thing (We've seen it on her, too, she's not faking), but they have no idea what it is. She wasn't able to come into work. We had to cover her clients. There was some hustle, but it all worked out. One lady ended up coming in 25 minutes early for her appointment, which was perfect because that was the only time I had available to help her. It all works out.

My favorite watch-words for Mercury retrograde:
Patience
Humor

I decided that humor sounded like more fun.

My affirmation today is:
"Lots of funny things happen during Mercury Retrograde"

I've seen it happen already today. It's been pretty funny. I choose funny! Right as I decided that my affirmation for the day is "Lots of funny things happen during Mercury Retrograde," one co-worker who DID make it in, did the funniest little dance in greeting me. Law of attraction, Baby.

Intense-city

I guess the title of this is a throwback to sometime in my youth (the 80s?) when we added "city" to things a lot. At any rate, has anyone else been noticing a lot of intensity lately? I know some of the astrological configurations that could be contributing to this feeling, but I won't bother going into that here. There are so many factors that can create intensity in our personal lives and society at large. I just tend to notice it because I see themes in the lives of the people I consult with on a daily basis. It's interesting to watch everyone coming in with the same issues in droves. Often mirroring my own issues, of course. (Law of Attraction, that one!)

So, what to do? It's simple, really. But not necessarily easy. The best thing I have found is: breathe, drink water, take walks, just be. If you can, try to find the positive in whatever situation you are in. If you're not feeling that, just be. It will help. The more you can be the calm center, the more you will attract calm.

I've found through trial and error that losing my calm doesn't generally help. Especially lately. I'm not sure if it's where I'm at or just the evolution of our planet, but I find lately especially, if I do what I call "throwing a tantrum", it all generally gets worse before it gets better. (For me, throwing a tantrum is going off on an angry rant, either to the object of my ire or someone else. Sometimes it involves crazy sobbing.)

There are a lot of schools of thought out there that will tell you how helpful it is to "get it all out". I guess that could be true. Thinking in terms of Abraham's emotional scale, if you are in depression (anger turned inward) and you move up to anger (anger turned outward), you are making progress! You will feel better. So, I guess for some folks, a good, old-fashioned tantrum IS progress. However, I'm usually hanging out a little more in the boredom - appreciation range (1-7 on the scale). So, going down to anger (17) or rage (19), doesn't make things better. I love the wisdom of the Abraham material. (See, there I go into appreciation! Yay!)

In addition to breathing, drinking water, and walking, I'd say to check where you are on the emotional scale and do whatever you can to find relief. Move up the scale in steps. Wherever you're at, it's ok. Wherever you're at is temporary. You always have a choice as to how you will react to things. Just stopping and letting everything swirl around you can help you realize that it's really all fine. You might even begin to enjoy the show. And then you will attract much better circumstances.

God is a Detective?

This really cracked me up this morning. It's from Creativity: Unleashing the Forces Within (Osho, Insights for a New Way of Living.) I'm trying not to mention that I was in the bathroom when I saw this...

"The idea of God is that of a Peeping Tom who does not even allow you privacy in your bathroom, who goes on looking through the keyhole, watching what you are doing. This is ugly! All the religions of the world say God continuously watches you -- this is ugly, what kind of God is this? Has he got no other business but to watch everybody, follow everybody? Seems to be the ultimate detective!

Humanity needs a new soil -- the soil of freedom....Of course, you have not to interfere with anybody -- but as far as your life is concerned you have to live it on your own terms."

I'll take some abundance thinking with my fish and chips, please

On Friday, I performed a rather mundane, usual task for me: picking up food for my family at a little burger dive. My mother, who lives with us, usually just gets a cheeseburger. This time, however, she decided she wanted the fish and chips. As I was waiting in my car in line, I looked at the big menu. $7.50? $7.50! $7.50! The cheeseburger is just $3.00. What is she thinking? (Well, she doesn't know.) We have 5 people to feed. And on and on and on. I really don't want to reactivate my first thoughts (I can feel it happening!), so I will stop there. I just wanted to give you an idea of what those thoughts were and how they felt.

Then I noticed how I felt as I was sitting there fuming about my mother's huge extravagance. Not good. Tight. Constricted. And, as I searched for new thoughts, a little relieved. What were the new thoughts? First, "She doesn't know this costs double." Second, "This is silly. We can certainly afford this." Third, "Why shouldn't she have what she wants?" And better and better.

I've been working on the abundance thing for a while. I sometimes get tripped up because I'm also the family bean counter. So, to a certain extent, I have to watch the dollars. (It got kinda bad when no one was watching 'em fly around.) But I don't have to watch 'em feelin' like that. And really, I imagine there is a future for us with feelings so abundant and in tune that the money can fly around and it will all work out beautifully. (See, just got myself to an even better feeling thought!) I think the watching of the dollars helped me feel abundant for a while. By this I mean, planning a budget and tracking every little thing in financial software. Because I had a plan, I KNEW it would work out. It made me feel better. And then I got to feeling constricted about the plan. So, I had to back off on it a little. It's a work in progress.

The point is, whatever your issue, it's an ongoing process. Being conscious of your feelings in the small moments can really helpful in identifying where you're at, and making a change for the better.

Fish and chips for everyone! (Hey, is this getting biblical?)

Following the clues from your inner being: grinding

So, as you may have noticed, I've been mostly setting up the services I want to offer here at Manifest Laboratory. I wanted to take a moment and create a post that was not about that in the midst of all this set-up, though!

Basically, I like to post things as they are happening to me, as they occur to me. I like to live in the now and share that. What is happening now is that the universe seems to be coaxing me into all of this. It's really quite lovely. And a little bit scary. I'm being coaxed away from my day job, which is part love and part grind. I'm being coaxed into creating my own way, which will hopefully be all love, no grind. (Well, that sounded wrong! Ha. Don't tell my husband.) I guess I do hope there is some grinding. But see, this is exactly why I want to have my own thing. If I want to discuss grinding, let's do it! Whoa. Ha, these verbal plays are just rolling right out of me. But, I digress.

The real point of this post (I think) is to watch for clues from the universe and act on them. I have been enjoying that immensely. When I discussed that with my husband this morning, he agreed that he is doing that as well. When we do that, life tends to flow for us. It is mysterious and lovely and fun. Things happen in the most interesting and beautiful ways. I just realized I titled this "clues from your inner being" and now all I've talked about is "clues from the universe". I guess to me they mean the same thing. Everything you see "out there" is really a reflection of what is on the inside.

Having said that, what clues have you followed? Where have they led you? How much grinding have you done? (That last one is rhetorical. ;) )

Open-ended Vibrational Tune Up

As I've been working with the 15-minute Vibrational Tune Up, it's come to my attention that sometimes more time is necessary! To that end, I'm also offering the Open-ended Vibrational Tune Up. The concept is the same as the 15-minute Vibrational Tune Up, but without the time limit.

Basically, our goal in the session is to raise your vibration and help you find a better-feeling thought on whatever subject you choose. (Or perhaps even more than one.) We can also explore ways to keep the new thought active in your consciousness. My guess is that these sessions will find their natural end time. We will know when we are done. I doubt many will go beyond the 45-60 minute range. However, I'm willing to play it by ear and give the process the time it needs. Either party can choose to end the session.

Partially because I'm leaving the time open-ended, I've decided to offer this service on a donation basis. (Suggested donation is $1/minute.) Give what you can or what you feel the service was worth after the session. This policy subject to change.

Wanna give it a go? Schedule your session

I look forward to working with you!