Miracles: you believe in them, right?

I sat through a Church service yesterday morning, my first one since I was a child: it wasn’t anything like any of the C of E services I remember from school; people were fainting, screaming, speaking in tongues (I won’t be going back to that Church; truth be told, it was all more than a little overwhelming for this hypersensitive).

Anyway, in an attempt to shield my sensitive soul from all that energy flying around the hall, I started to meditate in the middle of the praying. When I came out of the meditation, the pastor was speaking about miracles and how we shouldn’t just ask for/expect one miracle but, rather, we should live in the knowledge that life should be full of miracles.

I’ve still not quite processed that train of thought but, when I got back to the house, I had a message in my Inbox from Paul Jarvis, freelancer extraordinaire, who wrote something in his weekly newsletter that really touched home with me. It touched home because it’s something I’ve been thinking about myself a great deal over the past few weeks.

He posed the question of whether all the advice we find around us is actually useful. Whether it does us any good to be bombarded by self-help books and advice columns and millions upon millions of blog posts, headlines screaming, ‘5 ways to land that perfect job’ or ’10 ways to be more self-confident’.

His conclusion was inconclusive but, essentially, argued that this external advice often becomes some sort of a crutch that people come to hold on to very tightly because they’re scared of breaking out on their own, scared of trusting their own thoughts and instincts.

And that, ultimately, we must always remember that we can only ever trust ourselves and that, as it is our own life we’re making decisions about, however much advice we seek, only we can make the final decisions about where to steer ourselves.

It’s something that’s been dear to my heart because I’ve received, and acted upon, really bad advice the last few years: from lawyers, social workers, psychologists, police….you name the profession, I guarantee I’ve listened to, and acted upon, advice from within it, advice which, at the time I knew didn’t feel right but which I felt powerless to rebel against. My life, our lives, have been shaped by this hastily- and lightly-given advice and our lives are, I have to say, much the worse for it.

So, all of this hearing about living shrouded in miracles and seeking, or not seeking, advice from people foreign to you and your situation…it led me to thinking that perhaps the miracles only come when we follow our own instincts, follow where our heart tells us we should go, using the gifts we’ve been gifted.

In my experience, when I’ve rebelled against what my own instincts are telling me, that’s when the problems start. When I act in accordance with what my heart, my little intuitive voice tells me, life runs smoother, is trouble-free, it becomes akin to a series of small miracles happening, giving me life force, making life worth living to its fullest.

I’m not sure I have any profound conclusions to offer, more a series of observations…and a question for you all….what miracles have you/do you experience and what were the conditions surrounding those miracles? Were you still, had you surrendered to a force greater than yourself, were you relying on, and trusting, your instincts implicitly?

I’d be really interested to know your thoughts….I’m living a period of my life where pretty much only a series of fairly big miracles will get us out of the mess we’re in….and reading a few miracle stories might be just the tonic I need to clear the air for the Universe to set to and do it’s business….!

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Reach

Reach….

…”to be able to touch, pick up or grab something by moving or stretching”

…”to arrive at (a place you’ve been travelling to)”

…”to make an impression on”

…”to come to something”

From the Middle English ‘rechen’ or Lithuanian ‘raižytis’, which means “to stretch ones’ self”.

I’ve lived it, been there, done that, got the t-shirt. Put the t-shirt in a drawer to gather dust, along with a million other unnecessaries.

I’ve reached for external sources of happiness: degrees, material comforts, professional success, striving for comfort with an ‘on paper’ perfect partner – you name it, I’ve reached for it. Reached to have those things that society dictates will make me happy.

But, you know, I’ve realised – after it dawned on me that none of these things made me truly happy and that most of them, actually, made me actively unhappy – that the root of the word ‘reach’ represents, for me, the true significance of the word, from which I can learn and grow.

“To stretch one’s self”.

All of these things – these burdens – stretched me to such an extent that I forgot who I was, forgot me, stopped listening to me, to that voice deep down inside that, when we listen to it, tells us exactly what we should be doing to be us, to be our authentic, happy, selves.

I stretched myself thin, so very thin, I didn’t recognise myself any longer, reaching for things that didn’t make me happy, that didn’t matter, that weren’t what I wanted or needed.

I’ve come to this realisation after many long and painful processes, many long and painful hours of soul searching, of clearing the ground so I could start to hear that little voice again, so I could start to hear my intuition again.

Intuition. She’s foolproof, never falters, never fails.

Now, I realise, I just need to reach inside, to stretch in to myself to make time to listen to her and there she is, willing me on, guiding me, cheering me on from the trenches as I stumble towards my true purpose.

I will continue to reach to attain external goals but – here’s the crunch – only after reaching inside to listen to my intuition, to pay heed to my soul. It, she, has an uncanny knack of knowing exactly what I need just when I need it.

When we’re tempted to reach for things outside ourself, outside of our true needs, we forget what makes us truly happy.

Reach inside yourself, I say, to find the font of all your true – highly personalised – knowledge and wisdom.

Reach inside to find the source of your authentic happiness.

Your soul knows what you need to do.

Listen to her. She’s wise beyond knowing.

[This is the Introductory post for a series I’ll be doing about intuition: look out for the other posts popping up within the next few weeks].