​By now, you know I often talk about how important it is to slow down.
 
To pare the schedule down.
To get rid of the distraction of busyness.
To stop running around, and simply Stop. Right. Where. You. Are.
 
One of the interesting thing that happens when we first start to slow down like this, when we first start to try it on as spiritual practice, is that we find slowness unbearable.
 
It’s as if we’ve been eating sugar every hour, and suddenly we give up sugar.
And we eat a carrot.
 
And of course the craving for the sugar, for the addiction, for the distraction, for the sense of busy-means-I’m-doing-something really takes us on a ride.

We feel antsy, we feel bored, we feel less than, we feel exhausted… as if once we stop moving, we can’t ever start up again.
 
If you’re in a personal detox from distraction, take heart. The feelings of utter exhaustion, numbness, flatness, flatness will go away soon. Once the addiction to busy-ness gets out of your system, you’ll start to move to a new groove.
 
Time will lose all meaning for you.
You’ll pay attention to the easy things.
You’ll chop wood, carry water.
You’ll chop wood, carry water some more.
 
And pretty soon you’ll find that the simple stuff is just as fascinating and far more interesting than all the distractions you used to do because you thought you were supposed to.
 
There is more peace and ease in heading outside for a mind-clearing walk, than in all the meetings and activities you can think of.
 
There is more beauty and grace in simply hanging out, than in all the non-stop schedules you can think of.
 
We think we’ll get bored if we stop doing stuff.
We have FOMO.
We think we’ll stop existing, if we aren’t in constant motion.
 
But once you get the addiction to busy out of your system… you find that by doing less, you exist more.

​Sometimes we get paralyzed by the past.
 
We start to mull and muse, and suddenly we’re lock step with the old memories, the old stories, the old habits of mind leading us down a trail of darkness.
 
We start to think about this relationship that went sour; and when we look at it from conscious mind, we realize that it wasn’t just this terrible, horrible other person who caused all our pain in that relationship…
 
It was us, too.
 
We start to think about all the opportunities we blew, or the choices we made out of fear, or the ways we didn’t show up to life fully ready to take advantage of all that we could of, of all our stupid choices.
 
And it gets overwhelming sometimes: this pool of regrets.
 
Some days it is very tempting to just dive in deep, and ruminate and feel all that pain, all over again.
 
Something comforting about it, in a sick and strange way: returning to the pain of the past, instead of sitting with the discomfort that even now, we still don’t know what we’re doing.
 
We still don’t know what we’re doing.
We’re still going to make mistakes.
We know more than we did… but we don’t have it figured out.
 
When you’re in this place, trying to shake free from the past but having uncertainty about where you’re headed, it’s useful to think of this:
 
Life is meant to be a mystery
Life can’t be anything more than a great, vast, unknown.
 
We are never given the whole map; that would be dull.
We are given the next breadcrumb on our path.
 
That’s all you need to do: go to the next breadcrumb.
The Universe has them scattered all over on the forest floor.
 
Surely you can slow down and breathe and allow yourself to spot one? 

​At a certain age, and I’m going to peg it around 50, we start to understand that we are past the mid point.
 
We look back, and we see all the years and decades we’ve experienced where we were unconscious, doing things that other people wanted us to do, doing things because that’s how they’ve always been done.
 
A lot of us at this point have raised kids, been in long-term relationships, been part of mainstream community.
 
And now, suddenly, we find ourselves in the midst of great change.
 
We are divorce.
We’ve lost people to death.
We’ve brushed with illness.
We’ve had shifts in work.
Our money’s gone up and down.
We’ve gotten older, and we can see it.
 
And there’s this sense of loss at first… this desire to linger back in memory and try and pull it all back.
 
And after we sit with that, there’s this sense of… okay, now what?
 
How do I want to live my last 1, 10, 20, 40 years?
Now that I’ve gotten this far, and learned all I’ve learned the hard way…. How do I want to live the rest of this lifetime?
 
There are no rules, folks.
You can live exactly how you please.
 
You can hang out in the past wishing for what was.
Or you can move forward, starting this minute.
 
If you are in your mid-life, you might want to sit with this idea of a Universe of Unlimited Expansion, and see what you want to create going forward. 

​Sometimes we wonder if we are selfish or self-absorbed to do our inner work, when so many in the world are suffering.
 
How can it be important to work out our addictions, when people are starving?
How can it be important to release our rage against a family member, when people don’t have water to drink?
How can it be important to let go of the pain of an abusive relationship, when there is war?
 
The thing is… it’s all related.
 
Remembering the Oneness Principle: that all is One, and this includes you, helps you to see that whatever you shift in yourself, is shifted for the bigger One, the collective soul that is all of us.
 
You doing you, the best you can, shifts the whole world… the whole Universe.
 
Of course, we want to help others.
But sometimes, in certain stages of our lives, the most important way we can help others, is to help ourselves.
 
We’re all One.
What helps one, helps All.
We’re part of collective soul, and we rise together.
 
This includes you. 

I love it when students show up to my group teaching from all over.
 
Not just from all over the United States, which is of course terrific…. but from all over the world. Canada. China. Africa. India. Australia. Europe. South America.
 
All kinds of people, of all different races, religions, cultures, genders, ages.
 
To me, it is heartening to know that so many people on this planet are interested in spiritual intuition; that so many people are beginning to understand that the biggest thing we can do to change the world, is to change ourselves.
 
One way to do this is to study intuition, which leads us to spiritual growth. Another way to do this is to study spiritual growth, which leads us to intuitive opening.
 
One path, traveled from two different directions.
 
Every time we walk this path, we connect with the Divine/God/Univeres/One/All that we perceive as outside of, above, or bigger than ourselves.
 
And of course, when we do this the result is that we open and expand the Divine that is within ourselves.
 
We are doing this now, all over the world.
 
Opening to the Divine all around us. Opening to the Divine within us.
 
Soul growth may not be the majority view yet.
But consciousness is growing.
 
Wherever you come from, I welcome you on the soul path. Together, as One soul, we are changing the world. 

There are people you know who are sunk so deep in misery, there’s nothing you can do to pull them out.

Lend ‘em a hand, and they’ll just pull you down.
They’re stuck in the muck.

We can talk all we want about becoming awake and aware in our own lives, of living from our soul—but we can’t force the view on others. It’s something we each have to grow into on our own.

There’s a progression to awareness, too—we don’t wake up one day and suddenly everything’s a miracle. We don’t say affirmations and instantly win the lottery. We don’t start a gratitude journal and immediately become enlightened by putting pen to paper.

Instead, we grow into our soul awareness—we move slowly from an initial outlook of misery to a false positivity to the authentic awakening that seeps in and becomes our true reality.

We each have to move through this progression.

It’s our soul’s journey.
And, it's our choice. 

Nobody says you have to grow your soul. Nobody's forcing you to be aware. It's your choice:  to stay in the muck, or  pull yourself out. 

Soul growth isn't always the easiest path. It pushes all your buttons, and makes you uncover every hidden part of yourself and present them to the  Light.  But it's the only way to get there.

If that's what you decide to do. 

​So maybe you’re not where you want to be yet.
 
Maybe you weigh too much, or you spend too much, or you have addictions, or you’re mean to your friends, or you are in a relationship that you really don’t like, or you don’t look the way you want to, or you love someone who doesn’t love you back, or you don’t get along with your parents, or you suck at your job, or you don’t have any money or….
 
You get the idea.
 
We think need to be perfect to be whole, and we don’t.
 
We don’t need to be perfect.
We don’t need to get A’s.
We don’t need to be good.
We don’t need to be better than.
 
In most cases, it’s plenty good enough to be good enough.
Many times, the best thing you can do is do the minimum.
 
This goes against most of the mainstream, be-your-best rah rah that we’re so accustomed to hearing.
 
But sometimes, giving yourself a break is the kindest, most compassionate, most loving choice you can make.
 
Are you perfect?
Is anyone you know perfect?
​
Didn’t think so.
 
Love yourself: shadows and gunk and all.
This is how you open your heart. 

At some point—maybe when we’re young, maybe when we’re old—we finally stop playing the blame game with the Universe as our target. 

We gradually begin to adopt a new perspective, a soul perspective. As in:

• What would this situation look like if I were to view it from spiritual perspective?
• What would I think of this situation if I were trusting the Universe?
• If I’m infinite soul, that is this particular situation so terrible?
• If there’s no shame or guilt or fear, only lessons, what does this stuation show me?
• What if  looked at this with curiosity, instead of misery?
• If I can’t mess up, only learn, what would this situation mean?

You get the idea. 

It can be fun—for a while—to pretend we're helpless, blown about by the winds of fate and circumstance. 

But when you really begin to accept yourself as soul first... you realize that view isn't actually all that fun after all. 

Much more fun, and real, and worth, to step into your own life with full responsibility for all your actions and thoughts... and see what you can create from that point of view. 

Might not be perfect.
Might not be as good as you'd hoped.
Might not be where you wanted it to be. 

But you will at least be on your journey, learning and growing and free. 

​Today, we continue with more from Simeon, a student in our group training, currently living in the forests of Italy.
 
“Hi Sara,
 
Though we have had animals in my family when I was small, I never became affectionate to them such that I never kept any animal in my own personal home till now. Here I have come to LOVE one dog and it is amazing the relationship that has grown between the two of us.
 
Can you imagine that I am able to know when this dog is hungry just by the way it comes to me? And the most amazing thing for me now is that this particular dog when it is hungry and comes me and I take its plate and go into the house to prepare something for it, I would wave to it to wait for me, it would lie down outside the door and would wait for me for all the time it takes me to get its food ready.
 
You can’t imagine how happy it is when it sees me: it would jump on me, lick my hands and brush itself against my legs, though it is not mine.
 
I have never lived in such a close contact with a dog before.
 
Simeon, walking the path of the Saint, is having enormous growth in his ability to connect with animals: he has developed animal communication or telepathy, as many of you do.  
 
When you can communicate with animals, you have opened another door in your awareness. 

​Today, we have a note from Simeon, a student in Intuition University’s small group training, currently visiting the forests of Italy.
 
“Hi Sara,
 
I had wanted to share a lot of things with you but one of my great weak points is that I don’t keep a diary or journal of events. Consequently I have forgotten a lot of episodes I wanted to share with you. Some of those I remember might seem irrelevant but I can assure you that they have made me become more conscious of how the Divine works to my favor and consequently helps me live in gratitude much more than I have ever done in my life.
 
Since I moved away from my former location (Rome) to my present one, where I am immersed in the forest and removed from easy contact with people, I can tell you that I have come to appreciate a lot of things. I have grown in my awareness of the Universe and nature in which we all live. For instance, over the last six months I have need to go into the forest on a daily basis, in the company of others, in search of wood for heating and baking.
 
Gradually I began noticing that each time we went in search of wood and somebody cuts a small plant around to make it easier to reach the plant we want to cut for wood, I felt bad about it. Gradually I began protecting these small plants from indiscriminate and unnecessary cuttings. You can’t imagine how good I felt each time I was able to save one of them. Gradually I began chatting with them in my mind.
 
My awareness continued growing to the extent that I even began apologizing to them for the harm we are doing to them. I was growing in my awareness about even the wild flowers around and each time I went into the forest, I was always watching carefully not to step unnecessarily on them. I could stop and gaze at their beauty especially when I was alone in the forest.”
 
Simeon, walking the path of the Saint, is having enormous growth in his ability to connect with nature: to feel it, to be with it, to have compassion with it.
 
When you can hear the plants speak to you, and you feel yourself speaking back to them, you have opened another door in your awareness.