Uncategorized

  • Learn Tarot, Uncategorized

    Working With Tarot To Relieve Your Anxiety

    For those of us who have anxiety and depression, struggling to get through a Bad (with a capital B) day can be excruciating.  We start to spin negative thoughts in our heads: What if I said the wrong thing to my neighbor? Why don’t I feel successful? Do I pay enough attention to my kids? Was that the right way to handle that situation? I should be weeding/folding laundry/dusting. I can’t do anything right. I’m a failure….

    As someone with acute anxiety, I’m familiar with the soundtrack that sometimes repeats all day. It expands and contracts according to my mood and the season, what I’ve been eating, how much stress I’m under, and for various other reasons.

    When the walls start to close in on me, I’ve learned to reach out for support. Sometimes support comes in the form of a conversation with a good friend.

    More often though, especially when my anxiety is crushing my social skills, I reach out to my Spirit Guides as the first wave of support to get me out of a funk. I get out my cards and have a nice conversation with my Higher Self and my Spirit Helpers.

    Create Rituals to Ease Anxiety

    Making a little ritual out of connecting with your Higher Self and your cards can be super calming. I take a moment to light a white candle, get settled into a comfortable position, take a few deep breaths… really get into the moment.

    Inhale deeply, filling your lungs and belly. Exhale fully, til there’s no air left. Repeat the process a few times.


    Here’s my ritual for starting to work with my cards:

    • I invite Archangel Michael and my Guardian Angels to protect my space and my being, keeping out any negative influences—including my own thoughts—that would disturb my reading.
    • I ask my Spirit Guides to join me.
    • I tap out my cards and focus within myself.
    • I really get into the moment, grounding myself, focusing on my breathing and the cards helps me to stave off the peaks of my anxiety.

    Get Clear On Your Question

    Then to bring a moment of clarity. I ask: 

    What am I stressing about? or What do I need to know about (what is stressing me out)?

    Pick ONE Card

    Pick just one card—maybe two MAXIMUM—to keep the message simple and straightforward.


    The cards that come up are usually quite clear in their messages and a bit cheeky, if you ask me. Yesterday, it was the Seven of Pentacles reversed. The fact that I feel like I have sowed seeds and nurtured crops and tended fields, yet I have yet to see an abundant harvest. Part of this is due to self-worth issues, I know. And part is honestly due to grit and consistency—or a lack thereof.

    And part of it is sheer overwhelm; with Covid and back to school, regular mom-stuff, being an entrepreneur, and feeling like I. need. To. Do. It. All. RIGHT. NOW!! No rest for the weary here.

    OK. Message clear. Got it!

    *You could stop there, especially if you need to meditate on your answer or how the card fits into your current situation.

    What Can You Do To Ease Your Anxiety?

    If you want to explore potential solutions or find a way to deal with your anxiety, you can ask:

    What can I do about it?

    Pick just one card again.

    The Page of Wands comes up to tells me that I likely have to light a little fire under my tush, first. Second, focus on the things that get me excited, the things that fire me up. I have to look at things from a new and innocent perspective, finding wonder in my work again.

    And I might need to take a day off to pursue ONLY those things that light my fire.


    Is There A Shadow?

    I might also look at the bottom card on the deck after pulling a card for the above-mentioned questions. This would be the Shadow of the situation, or what I am avoiding.

    Oh, hello Six of Wands reversed. Fear of failure, big time!

    Am avoiding defeat and not looking good to myself and the others around me by not giving 100%?

    After working with my cards yesterday, I came down from an upwardly anxious spiral. I got the message about what I needed to do to put a dent into what was bugging me. I also got some clarity about what my problem was to begin with.

    My Higher Self spoke to me through the cards. Honestly, it was easy to decipher what the cards meant for me because they were so on point.

    Now I know what the issue is, I know how to solve it. I know what I am avoiding.

    Get Out Your Tarot Journal

    From here, I can get out my journal and write about exactly what I want to accomplish, getting rid of the “shoulds and the musts”, focusing on a few things that truly move ME (3 maximum for the day). 

    I also take a moment to recognize the negative voice in my head that makes everything so urgent and wants it all NOW! NOW! NOW! I can even talk to that voice in my journal:

    Dear Sue,

    I know that you want to help us get to a better place and that is why you are scared that if I don’t do everything right now, we won’t get there. I want you to know that we have to take things one step at a time, with purpose and focus. If we do things step by step, we’re less likely to trip and fall and more likely to really feel good about what we’ve achieved. It will also help us to do better work, as we’ll be much more mindful of the work we do. Thank you for caring so much.

    With love,
    Sue

    When you are facing life with anxiety and/or depression, tarot can be an excellent tool to use to really take a moment to get in touch with your Higher Self. 

    Don’t overcomplicate things. Just pull one card at a time. 


    Get your journal out and write a summary note to yourself based on the cards you pull… and enjoy the moment. Breathing. Connecting. Focusing.

    Conclusion

    The practice of working with tarot can bring you into a much calmer, more connected state of mind. If you are spiraling out on a bad day, working with cards can quickly show you what the root of your issue is and how to resolve it. After you sort out the details, you can return to your life with a focused plan and a little more peace and calmness in your life.

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  • Uncategorized

    Love and Light Isn’t Afraid of the Dark

    Some people want to act like the High Vibe/Love and Light crowd is a bunch of airy-fairy pansies who are spiritually bypassing everything, avoiding the shadows, and not doing the work in general.

    Those people think that we have our heads in the clouds, we are delusional, and we definitely aren’t grounded in reality.

    They think we are sitting in judgment of them and their choices. And honestly, we might be in some cases.

    But, well… they are being a tad bit judgy too, right?

    Some think we leave a whole lot of energy and power sitting on the table because we choose not to feed our craft—our lives—with feelings like jealousy, rage, pettiness, competition, envy.

    WE CHOOSE. That’s the thing.

    You see, a lot of us are far too familiar with the darkness. Many of us come from violent, abusive, or traumatic backgrounds. Many of us are fighting demons on the daily.

    We are doing the work, making friends with our demons if we can’t slay them, actively choosing the characteristics of the energy we want to work with and amplify.

    Personally, I have to full on fight the urge to be crass, sarcastic, bitter, vile, VENGEFUL.

    C’mon now. I am a Scorpio. You think I’m not actively plotting revenge?

    I don’t avoid the negative urges when they rise up. I explore them. I sit down and examine them from all sides.


    I give the urges space to express themselves and show me what wounds they are grounded in, what paranoid, sad trips they are on.

    And then I tame them. Like many, many others on the Love and Light side of things, I recognize those temptations for what they are and do everything in my power to see their origins and work toward healing them.

    I try to see what’s triggering me and either shift my perspective or just do my damndest to chill the fuck down and let. it. go.

    Me and lots of other folks from the Love and Light side of things don’t want to continue giving power to energies like competition, comparison, exploitation, fear, jealousy, control and manipulation, shame, ANGER, rage, war, the patriarchy.

    We know that if we use those energies to feed our magic, our spells, our power, we amplify them.

    Personally, I am not willing to do that. I see a better future for the world. And if that means that I leave some energy sitting on the table, you can be 100% sure that I choose to leave it sitting there. For real.

    Like I said, it isn’t that I don’t see or feel those emotions, that the energy doesn’t well up inside me, seeping into wounds that have yet to heal. It isn’t that I bypass it. It isn’t that I don’t feel the raw, pulsing power behind it, because I do and I know I can use it, if I want to…



    It isn’t that I sprinkle fairy dust all over the energy, like rolling a turd in glitter. I see the shit. And I choose not to use that shit as my power source.

    I can only speak for myself when I say that I am not immune to “low vibe” feelings. Dark Sue and Light Sue wrestle daily. It takes conscious effort to keep Dark Sue in check—she definitely wants to come out to play wayyyy more often than anyone knows.

    But Light Sue—the one who wants to help make the world a better place—is the one I feed, the one I nurture, the one I give more leeway. She’s the one who sits better in my consciousness, who represents the ideas and principles I embrace.

    Light Sue is the person I want to be—my best self—the ideas I want to stand for and bring more of into the world. Dark Sue represents the hurt, truamatized Sue who hasn’t fully embraced her gifts or truly stepped into her power yet. Light Sue is healed and healthy (or as healed and heathy as she can be in the moment). Dark Sue isn’t interested in getting better; she’s unhappily stuck where she’s at. Light Sue is trying her best—that’s all she can do.

    So, the next time you throw shade at someone who is sprinkling high-vibe energy on everything, focusing on the positive—more publicly in tune with the love and light side of things—remember that person has probably experienced things that would break you, or maybe she’s just isn’t interested in being the kind of person who gives negative energies power.

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  • Meditation, Uncategorized

    Making Meditation a Morning Ritual

    What my morning meditation feels like.

    Hey Dove,

    I started a new morning ritual for 2021: Morning Meditation.

    Even though I often have to tend to my kids and get their homeschool work clarified and turned in, I make at least 10 minutes per day to sit and focus on my breath, root myself into the earth, strengthen my connection with Source and with my own center.

    I have vowed this year to make my mystical practices a bigger part of my day-to-day living, and morning meditation is a part of that. Even though I live and breath symbolism and intuition, I sometimes often get distracted by or overwhelmed by life around me, so I need to bring myself back into my center. Meditation helps with that.

    Meditating first thing in the morning—or as close as possible to first thing—does a few things for me.

    1) Grounding. In this crayyyy—zy world we are a part of right now, it is essential to ground yourself often. News headlines and distractions pull us deeper into the rabbit hole of the media (social media is a part of that, too). It actually feels like it pulls your soul out of your body sometimes. Instead of living outside of myself all of the time, I want to really ground my soul into my mind and body so I can focus on what I want to do with my day, not whichever way the breadcrumb path or ranting mob leads me.

    I also want to ground into the earth to be able to use her energy to fuel my life. Rooting myself in my meditation practice has connected me so much more to the world around me and the magic I find in every nook and cranny of life.

    2) Focusing. I am super easily distracted, hyperactive, and easy to lead off course. For real. Like SQUIRREL! When I start my day with meditation, I get really focused on my breathing. I learn to let all of the distractions go and focus on my breath. Then on my energy centers. On my visualizations. On nothing, really.

    Even though you aren’t really supposed to focus on anything when you are meditating or even to have thoughts, I am just not there yet! If I get a deluge of thought when I am meditating, I simply return my thoughts to breathing, to my mantra for the day, to letting go and settling into the energy.

    When I practice pivoting from distraction back into focus right at the start of the day, it helps me do that throughout the day. It’s like a muscle that gets stronger when you work it.

    3) Connecting with Source/Inspiration. When you meditate, you put yourself in a state to commune with the Divine. You open yourself to inspiration and insight—intentionally, purposefully.

    One of the mantras I often use in my meditations is Inhale inspiration. Exhale creativity. I see what comes up after my meditation. I also note what comes up DURING my meditations as well.

    I’ll have to tell you about Unicorns and DNA healing another day!

    This connection to Source is essential for me as a creative, as a healer, as a writer, and in my business overall. I feel like the work I do is more divinely guided, more connected to my mission, or what the Universe needs me to do.

    4) Centering in my self. After I connect with Earth Energy and the Universe, I bring all that juicy energy right back into my center. I understand I meditate as a part of a practice to be my best self. To start from a centered and peaceful place.

    It makes me much more conscious of NOT being centered, too. Given my tendency to be like, “OOHHHH WHAT IS THAT BIRD! OMG. What was I doing??” — the more centered I am, the better it is for my productivity.

    What meditation do I do?

    At the end of last year, I started a daily meditation practice and I used Dr. Joe Dispenza’s Morning Meditation, which is available on Apple Music or you can get it right from his site.

    Now, however, I am doing a much simpler focus on breathing in, focus on breathing out. Inhale for 4 or 6 or whatever floats my boat for the moment, exhale fully (like til I canNOT exhale any longer). I do that for a while, til I’m calm and mostly clear.

    Then I might do a variety of different exercises, including clearing out my chakras or energy centers, running energy from my root up to my crown and holding it there for 30 or so seconds, opening up for healing, running Reiki to myself… or whatever kind of happens during my meditation.

    I might try some more meditations this year. Are there any you would recommend? If so, please feel free to comment below so I can check them out.

    Adding meditation to my daily practice has been a positive way to start my days in 2021. Lord knows we need more centered, focused, connected people doing all the things at the moment. I highly recommend you add meditation to your morning ritual and see how it changes your life.

    Take care,
    Sue

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  • Money Mindset, Spiritual Biz Basics, Uncategorized

    Exploitation Dynamics In Spiritual Business

    One of the things I think we need to talk about is exploitation in business. Part of the social and civil unrest we face in life is directly related to the exploitation of people and resources.

    People who are desperate will work in poor conditions for very little money. They will feel like they have to compete for the scraps they are being offered. This fuels Us Versus Them dynamics and civil unrest.

    Countries that are desperate for money will allow their resources—people included—to be exploited. They won’t protect the environment, either, because their focus is on money, not conservation.

    And, generally speaking, the people who are doing the exploiting are sitting like little dictators over their repressive regimes.

    Take Amazon, for example. They pay meager wages, have questionable work practices, like tracking their employees when they are at work to ensure that no time is wasted—even frowning on bathroom breaks, causing employees to wear adult diapers on the job. As we know, Jeff Bezos is one of the wealthiest men on the planet.

    I’m not pointing Jeff Bezos out for his wealth. I say BRAVO to people who earn tons of money doing what they love. What I am pointing out is the fact that he exploits his workers and oftentimes the communities they work in (little tax liabilities, low wages, etc.). He has the ability to pay his workers more, give them better benefits, maintain a healthy work environment, and even contribute more to society, but he doesn’t. Instead, it seems like his business is set up to funnel money to the top and increase inequality, fueling even more exploitation of the people who work for him and creating a negative impact on the communities where he builds his warehouses.

    Don’t get me started about Walmart. OMG.

    On the other hand, you have companies like Costco who are offering a livable wage and more benefits to their employees. Trader Joe’s is also considered to be a good employer, including perks like affordable medical benefits and a retirement plan, along with their ethically sourced products and attention to the social and environmental impact their company has.

    You can check out sites like Business Insider and Glassdoor.com for more information about different companies and how they rank as employers.

    Exploitation in the Spiritual Community

    We face exploitation in the spiritual business community as well. People would like us to charge little to nothing for our time and energy, saying things like, “It’s a gift! You shouldn’t charge for your gifts!” or “This other reader charges less. I can get a reading from her.” OK, bye! Seriously. If you want me to work for you or do a reading for you, then pay my rate. Period.

    Exploitation is happening within the spiritual community as well. There are far too many people who don’t want to pay a graphic artist the going rate for a well-designed logo or images to use within their business. There are people who don’t want to pay for background music for their meditations. There are people who want to hire a Virtual Assistant (VA), but who aren’t willing to pay even minimum wage for their services or account for the actual time it takes to do a specific project. There are people who are pirating tarot decks and/or buying decks from sites like Wish for a fraction of the cost, knowing (or not knowing) that they are purchasing a pirated deck that the artist isn’t getting paid for.

    One of the things that fueled this blog post was a conversation I just had with another spiritual entrepreneur. She wanted to refer people to work with me, but she also wanted me to reduce my rates AND give her a 40% referral fee for client work she sent me. She wasn’t willing to budge off the 40% and I wasn’t willing to work for a discounted rate MINUS 40%. Thanks, but no thanks.

    Even some of the psychic hotlines work in a predatory manner. I’ve seen companies pay out as little as 10-20% to readers. I understand that the companies do have to run the tech side of things, pay their internal employees, and also deal with refund requests (from people who are exploiting the psychic readers and the companies themselves), but still! 10-20% payouts are kind of ridiculous, IMHO. But if they can find people who are willing to work for that, then…

    What can you do to ease or heal this trend of economic exploitation?

    1. Be honest with yourself. Really get connected with your values and your value. Try to make your purchasing and pricing decisions from a place of conscious consumption and price setting.
    2. Research the companies and people you work with. Make sure that the companies you spend your money with have values that you support. Look at their social, environmental, civil, and economic values and make sure they align with your own.
    3. Quit asking for deep discounts and freebies. If you don’t want people to ask you to reduce your rates, don’t ask others to do it. This goes for trades as well. You can find out more about what I have to say about this here: I don’t have any more energy for you…
    4. Quit GIVING freebies and deep discounts. Or at least save freebies and discounts for your best clients; use them as gifts and thank yous! When you are giving your services away for free, you make that a standard. Giving deep discounts and freebies also hurts you and your business, because you are pandering to a crowd that doesn’t want to pay for your time, energy, and skillset.
    5. Learn to say no with tact and stick to your no. I have a great list of canned email responses you can use here: Swipe Text for Tarot Readers

    When you are setting up your spiritually based business, I know that you will have to learn to stand up for your value, along with your beliefs. Standing strong against being exploited can be difficult—especially when you truly want to help society change and heal the planet and people are always pestering you to back down—but standing firmly against exploitation can be one of the ways you help change your own life and society as well. Don’t let others take advantage of you and don’t take advantage of others.

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  • Meditation, Uncategorized

    How Doing Daily Meditation Can Empower Your Mind

    Man meditating in chair
    Close Up Of Peaceful Teenage Boy Meditating Sitting In Chair At Home

    Many individuals have resorted to doing daily meditation nowadays, as they have discovered its amazing benefits. Meditation need not be associated with a particular faith or religious philosophy. It refers to a process of training your mind to redirect your thoughts in order to gain a profound sense of focus.

    For the majority of people who swear by meditation, it has become a part of their quiet time. Right before they start their day, meditation is what enables them to attract positive thoughts. Developing a positive mindset allows them to face any difficulty they might encounter throughout the day.

    If you’ve heard the phrase, “It’s all in the mind”, there is much truth to that, as the mind is what shapes most people’s outlook on life.

    That said, daily meditation can play a crucial role in empowering your mind. This article offers details on a few ways it can do that.

    1. It Brings About A Higher Sense Of Self-Awareness

    When you go about your routine daily activities, it can often feel like you don’t even know yourself anymore. Your children may have become the masters of your body, and your employers could seem like the boss of your time. When this feeling starts to grow, your sense of self-awareness can be affected.

    Daily meditation allows you some quiet time to assess or take inventory of your entire body. This quality time lets you better understand where you stand at the moment.

    For instance, through meditation, you can answer questions such as the following:

    • Is there anything that I can do to finally find relief from the body pains that I’ve been experiencing?
    • How does my body feel right at this present moment?
    • What are some of the things that my body is capable of doing or achieving?
    • Have I been feeling weak or strong during the past several days?

    By having the time to create this assessment of yourself, you’re also able to foster a deeper sense of connection between your mind and body. This can help keep you present and grounded in the current state of your life. Better yet, this heightened sense of connection can also help to keep you inspired to carry on despite all your challenges.

    2. It Reduces Stress

    Stress is a prevalent problem experienced by many people today. It is also one of the pressing reasons why people choose to meditate.

    Stress is a mental issue, so it begins in the mind and that is also where it starts to fester if left unresolved. Mental strain can also cause your body to produce more of the stress hormone known as cortisol.

    When this hormone is released, it affects your mind in a lot of negative ways – you will feel anxious, you won’t be able to sleep or eat well, and you will tend to lose focus. Hence the need to meditate arises, so you can empower and train your mind to focus more on the positive aspects of life.

    Meditation space
    Be mindful of your meditation space. Set it up for maximum peace while meditating

    3. It Improves Your Mental Clarity And Focus

    For you to be fully engaged in the present moment, your mind must be sufficiently clear and focused on the present. However, your thinking can often become clouded. You may feel like time is passing too quickly with all the things that must be done every day, so it can be easy to lose mental clarity.

    Before you start your day, meditation can allow you to practice mindfulness that can help you regain your determination. Imagine all the work that you can accomplish if only your mind did not wander off quite so frequently.

    Daily meditation lets you develop a better sense of focus by being more attuned to everything that runs through your mind. Over time, this becomes a habit that can help to improve your mental clarity.

    4. It Controls The Onset Of Anxiety

    Another common mental health issue universally experienced by a number of people is anxiety.

    Often, anxiety is an after-effect of stress that has been allowed to build up. Rather than immediately taking anti-anxiety pills, a better choice would be to opt for something natural that is not harmful to the human body. This can be achieved through meditation.

    In this regard, you will want to reduce the job-related anxiety that may have affected your mind negatively, especially if you’re employed in a highly stressful work environment. When you can achieve this, not only will you empower your mind by not focusing on anxious thoughts, but you’ll also reduce the likelihood of other mental health issues developing.

    Conclusion

    When you say “meditation,” there are many ways for a person to experience this powerful practice. Some may resort to prayer and faith-based rituals, while others may choose yoga or other means to avail its advantages. Whatever form of meditation it is that you decide to opt for, there are many benefits that it can bring in the pursuit of further empowering your mind. Once you become familiar with this practice, you’ll realize how effective meditation is at shaping one’s mind for the better.

    Author Bio

    Gabriel Alvarez is a health coach who teaches clients to meditate and find their spirituality. Most of Gabriel’s clients are individuals who see themselves in too much stress and feel like they have nowhere else to go.   

    During his free time, Gabriel publishes articles about these topics online to help more people.   

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