I Heart Huckabees

Oh how I love this movie. Here are three simple reasons to love it already:
1. Jason Schwartzman
2. Dustin Hoffman
3. Lily Tomlin

Do you really need to know any more? I don't think so, but I guess I'll give you some more information.

Jason Schwatrzman is a lost twenty-something looking for meaning in his life. He keeps running into the same guy over and over and wants to know if it's a coincidence or something actually meaningful. Enter Lily Tomlin and Dustin Hoffman, a married duo who called themselves "existential detectives." Hilarity and some deep lessons ensue.

Rotten tomatoes gives it 61%, but I say a solid score in the mid 70's would be much more fair.

The Volcano

I was reading for someone the other day, and she was having quite the spending problem. She was cashing in her retirement savings to pay off her debts incurred from buying unnecessary things, and she wanted to get the behavior under control. "I think I've got it," she said. "I've just been buying too many clothes. I just need to stick with what I have."

When I read further and asked her guides, they said that her spending habits correlate directly to how supported she feels in her life. When she feels unsupported, her spending skyrockets.

We all do this very often. I eat too much because I just love food. I drink too much because I just love to be happy. I shop too much because I just love a good deal. But the reason we have trouble breaking these habits is because these things, these temptations, are not the problem. They are only a symptom of a bigger problem.

This is a common complaint of western medicine. Let's say you have an anxiety problem, and the doctor subscribes medication. Great. Now you don't have anxiety. But where is the anxiety coming from? Unless you figure that out, you will be popping pills for quite a while.

These subconscious worries manifest in all kinds of ways: compulsive behaviors, aches and pains, even serious illness. So how do we get to the bottom?

Meditation. Hypnotherapy. A reading? Maybe. There are many ways to discover what the underlying problem really is. In fact, the answer is within ourselves and all we need do to discover the answer is spend a little time with ourselves asking the big questions. Then just wait for the authentic answer to come rising out of you.

To Ponder

"If you can't feed a hundred people, then feed just one."
~Mother Teresa

The Universe

This is a scene from I Heart Huckabees. Have I ever told you how much I love Dustin Hoffman? He's a dreamboat.

Anyway, in this scene he is trying to explain the connectedness of everyone in the universe. If you watch the whole movie, there's more discussion of this idea. It's really true. We're all made up of energy, and we have the optical illusion that we are contained in our bodies and that everything is separate when in actuality our energy is not just contained in our body and all of our energy is connected.

Cute CUTE Cute Kid

I wish I could embed it! But embedding is disabled. This kid is so adorable. It's worth the extra 2 seconds to click for sure.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-fVDGu82FeQ

A few of my favorite things

Dear Tea,

Oh how I love thee. Let me count the ways.

• I love that you come in thousands of flavors for my thousands of moods.
• I love that in the summer you are refreshing and crisp.
• I love that in the winter you warm me up, especially while reading or staring at my Christmas tree.
• I love that you are cheaper than wine.
• I love that you are less fattening than ice cream.
• I love that scientists have proven that you are good for my body, although I would partake anyway even if you weren't. But thanks for the bonus!
• I love that you come in cute packaging and have unique little bags to boot.

Tea you are nearly perfect, but seriously, what's with that English tea? Rough day or something?

Oh dear sweet Jesus and Buddha thank you for tea.

Love,
Brittany

Oh Universe, You Know Me So Well

As I was researching for a worthy charity to donate to this Christmas, I came across Children International.

The awesomeness sounded too good to be true. I would get to sponsor an individual child to help with medical care, food, education, and family costs. In exchange, I will get letters, pictures, and information from my child. I can even give extra gifts at birthdays, holidays, or just because. Afraid of any fraudulent scams, I checked around online to make sure that CI was a reputable charity, and they're actually in the top 10 charities in the U.S.

One divine sign seemed to be that the monthly contribution is $22, which is my master number and makes its presence known in all areas of my life.

So, here's how they got me. They said, hey, if you want to give it a shot, give us your address and we'll send information on a child that needs to be sponsored. Alrighty then. I can just check it out and see.

So my package came yesterday, and of course the child they assigned to me is from India. Oh India. I smiled and put my check in the mail without even reading the whole packet. The universe knew they would get me hooked if my child was Indian.

How do I describe my relationship with a country I've never been to? Well. It started in college when I met a group of friends who are of Indian descent. Then they took me to their dance performances, helped me try their food, and taught me about their culture and I was hooked. It also didn't surprise me when I did my first past-life regression and was taken to a lifetime in India in the early-mid 1900's. Oh India, I love thee. I watch Bollywood movies and eat samosas and am in love with a culture that is rich in spirituality and love for life.

It was fun to see the universe support my endeavors. I hope that maybe you'll consider sponsoring a child through Children International and see what message the universe has for you.

A few of my favorite things

We have sooooooooooo many things to be grateful for. All of the little things add up to a pretty charmed modern life, and I find that the more positive I am, the fuller and more joyful my life is. Also, hello, the law of attraction means that positivity attracts more positivity. Focusing on blessings attracts more blessings.

I originally thought I would just blog about things I love through the holiday season. But why not blog about it all year round? Henceforth, from now on, I shall dub thee "blessings" throughout the blog.

So today's love and gratitude goes to ONLINE. SHOPPING. Oh Lordy be, what would Christmas be like without amazon.com?! I love it. I've got my house booties on, I'm in a sweatshirt, I'm browsing and looking at reviews . . . it's shopper's heaven. If I remember that my sister likes chocolate-covered peanuts at 1am, bam, I can buy them straight away. And if I ever venture out and go shopping in the outside world, I am always wondering what I would find online instead.

If I run into what seems like a good deal on, say, a CD, I can't bring myself to buy it in the store because I always wonder,"But what's the price online? And what do the reviews/ratings say?"

I love reading reviews. I don't buy anything without checking out the reviews. I read reviews on cell phones, books, lamps . . . nothing is beyond the check-able.

Yes, there's something to be said for throwing on your cute winter coat and staring at all the lights and trees and santas as you make your way through the mall. But there's just so much stuff out there. I get so overloaded by all of this stuff. Online shopping can shut out temptations from useless purchases like "Oh! Cute scarf!" when in reality I already have five others at home.

So many of today's blessings weren't around even 20 years ago. I always marvel, thinking in wonder, "How did they do that?!" I can't imagine wandering around town for hours with my shopping list. Yet, that's how it was done for many a year. Here's to the millenium, right?

La Bella Vita

Thanks to Silvia for helping me out on that train reference. The scene was from Under the Tuscan Sun. Believe me when I say that I spent a good 15 minutes looking for the actual clip on YouTube--couldn't find it. Instead, I'll throw out the trailer and hopefully get someone to rent it this week.

What a delightful movie. This is most definitely a chick flick as I can't get my husband to sit through the whole thing. (He gives it a solid effort for about 30 minutes and then stealthily wanders away to the computer.)

When you're going through any life transition, this movie will make you feel better. Rotten tomatoes has it at 61%--I would say the solid late 70's would be a much more accurate rating.

I watched this movie two nights before my own trip to Italy just to get pumped up. The lovely truth is that Tuscany is just as gorgeous as it looks!

Destiny of Souls

As a self-proclaimed book nerd, I thought I should perhaps be including some "what's on Brittany's shelf" posts on here. Destiny of Souls by Michael Newton was recommended to me by a lovely woman at the Minneapolis Expo. I checked it out from the library and flew through it in just a few days.

Dr. Newton is a certified hypnotherapist and he uses hypnosis for the express purpose of exploring life between lifetimes. Yeah. Let that sink into your head a bit. Life between lifetimes.

This is a great comprehensive exploration of the afterlife. It includes insights into how our loved ones try to contact us after they have passed, as well as information about our soul clusters, guides, and evolution as souls. It is truly excellent.

What I found to be marvelous and affirming is that the same information derived from his hypnotherapy sessions are the same insights I've gathered from personal readings when connecting with those who have passed.

My one disagreement would have to be with his discussion of angels. In one paragraph, Dr. Newton tries to suggest that there is no such thing as angels. He explains that what at first appear to be angels turn out to just be regular souls. Okay, well, let's think about this. The only real definition of an angel is a worker for God who has never been in human form. They don't really need wings or halos to be angels, now do they? Does the absence of wings or halos mean that they are just spirits? No. It is fully possible for an angel to appear without wings. I would say this is a place where he should have just kept quiet.

This is an excellent read for anyone curious about the afterlife, reincarnation, life purpose, heaven, and/or hypnotherapy.

Gratitude

I was just thinking today about how last October I had a kind of premonition or vision of my future, even though I didn't have any information at the present time to where I premonition could make sense.

Here's the excerpt where I explain my dream:

"In my dream life, I live in a warm, inviting house in some woods outside the city. This place is my retreat. Out of my home, I give people Reiki, meditate with others, and offer spiritual guidance of the sort. My days are spent drinking hot tea, inviting people into my home, and nourshing people's souls. This is scary. I don't think afford a career like this, nor am I educated or trained enough to be able to do this. So this is kind of terrifying."

This was a vision I had over one year ago while I was still a high school teacher. It truly made no sense at the time. From my point of view, I had no logical reason to think I could do that. But over the course of a few months, my body gave out and I really had no choice but to quit my job. I thank God that my limited conscious vision didn't stop me from living my dream.

I wish I could remember where I got this story from. It was a movie. Someone help me out on this. A grandfather-type in the movie told a story about how when locomotives were first invented, the people of this mountain town built tracks over the mountains even though there wasn't a locomotive that could make the trip yet. They just had faith that one day there would be one.

This is just another example of the power of the law of belief. It's so important that we don't limit our dreams, even when they don't seem feasible.

To Ponder

"A wise person knows that happiness actually comes from an inner change, not from managing outer events."
~Rama Berch

To the Departed

I am struggling with wrapping my head around this pattern as of late. There have just been so many untimely deaths in 2009. I guess I should correct myself. "Untimely" implies that they were not at the right time, and as a medium I know we always go when it is our time, no sooner and no later. But why are so many souls leaving earth right now? And why are so many of them before we are expecting it?

Here are just the ones I can think of off the top of my head:
Michael Jackson
Farrah Fawcett
Patrick Swayze
John Updike
Natasha Richardson
Bea Arthur
Ted Kennedy
Mary Travers (Peter, Paul, and Mary)
Eunice Shriver

Then, there are the deaths of those closer to me, particularly of a 22 year old cousin and a 23 year old friend.

Many "new agey" people think that the Earth is going through an ascension process. It seems as though the energies and consciousness of the Earth are moving to a higher level, and some of this involves some energy balancing. I think Karen Bishop did a good job of trying to explain this phenomenon:

"When substantial shifts occur, it can create the departure of souls who have been carrying significant amounts of higher level energy. When Steve Irwin died, he left the energy of wildlife and wilderness conservancy behind. He had embodied this energy within himself to a massive degree, so by departing, he then allowed this energy to be dissipated to many others on the planet, thus creating a more widely spread purpose and higher energy for the planet as a whole.

Dana Reeve created the same effect when she departed. She embodied angelic energy, and thus, when she departed, we were then given the opportunity as a whole to now embody this energy ourselves.

At other times, souls carrying a significant amount of energy depart because we have evolved beyond the energy they are embodying, and the role of these souls is now over. Anna-Nicole Smith was one of these souls.

When souls depart who carry significant amounts of energy, their sudden absence can be greatly felt, and what they leave behind creates a ripple effect as it migrates and dissipates out for the entire planet to embrace and now embody in a more evenly distributed way.

Michael Jackson, perhaps the most talented performer of all time, embodied a massive amount of higher level energy. He was extremely connected to a higher level and to “the other side.” He was unmistakably a bridge; bringing this higher level energy into form and then giving it out to the masses. Remembering oh so well what the “other side” was like, he, like others, found it extremely difficult to exist within and understand the strange and many times darker energies that were on the planet while he was here. So then, he embodied massive amounts of energy relating to the other side and bringing it here.

In this way, he suddenly departed precisely around the time we experienced the solstice of June 21, because it was now time to dissipate that energy to the planet. He has now given us this energy to embody ourselves. He no longer needed to hold so much of it himself, as the shift of the solstice created this new connection for the planet to now experience on its own."

Misinformation

A few weekends ago I was in Minneapolis at the Edge Life Expo giving readings and learning all about "Minnesota nice." A woman came to me, worried, because she said she had seen other psychics who told her to leave her husband and she said she just couldn't do it.








I am always aghast at the things people have been told by other psychics. Here are just some of the doozies:

• A psychic told me that my husband is going to die in two years.
• A psychic told me that I'm going to get into a car accident that will kill my son.
• A psychic told me that I am never going to like my job.
  

This is a big fear among a lot of people . . . that a psychic may tell them something they don't want to hear. But here's why I never tell anyone what to do. We all have free will, and the future is fluid and not fixed. This means that anything is possible. We all have the freedom to make our own decisions. Even your angels can give you advice, but at the end of the day, it's advice, not a command. A reading should make you feel empowered and hopeful about the future, aware of all of your options.

Anything that is "seen" by a psychic today can be changed tomorrow because of the gift of free will and the fluidity of the future. I remember this each day as a reminder of the power of the present.

I need your help!

Last week, I was looking for volunteer opportunities and scouring the internet for inspiration. I remembered seeing a feature in O magazine about women who used their current passion or business for the benefit of others, and I had my own A-Ha moment.

Until January 3rd, you can buy $5 raffle tickets to have the chance to win an hour-long reading, hypnotherapy session, or hour-long Reiki session (you can choose your prize).

There will be two winners, and I will draw the names on January 4th and email the results to everyone. The money raised through the raffle will go to Save the Children (www.savethechildren.com). If you've wanted to do something charitable this season, please consider entering the raffle. To do so, just go to www.peacefoundwithin.com and you'll see the pay button on the right.

The Simple Beauty of Meditation

With the holidays coming, we definitely need to work on meditation!

Here's a good video. The teaching voice is great. I especially appreciate that he explains that any posture is great for meditation. The point of meditation is to have your body relaxed so that you can be with your higher self. How can you do that if you're trying to put your feet behind your head or stand on your butt or something crazy? I think sometimes people get intimidated that meditation seems complicated, but it's just not complicated at all. It's about relaxing the mind to connect with your most divine self.

Meditation relieves stress, answers our worries, and greatly improves our life. Although some people think it is aligned with eastern religions, anyone of any belief (or non-belief) can meditate.

The Curse of the Old Soul

Many times when I'm doing an Akashic reading, a client will get a belwildered expression followed by this question: "So how can I stop this pattern so that I can stop reincarnating and be done with this Earth stuff?" Usually this question comes after the realization that they are an old soul on a long journey.












Here's what I've learned from channeling the advice of angels and guides as well as my own readings and research:

• Many of us are old souls, and being an old soul is not a bad thing!
• We all have free will, even the free will to choose if/when we will come back to Earth again. There's no big guy in the clouds making you go. Each of us choose to go when we feel ready. Our souls are infinitely wise, and we know that life on Earth teaches us many lessons that we need for our soul. So we choose to come back with a willing heart ready to learn.
• We come back for many reasons. We come back to help our soul learn. We come back to help other people in our lives like family and friends. We also come back to help other souls on Earth in a way that only we can help them.

So why do we end up with this bewildered feeling if we chose to be here? Well honey, Earthly life ain't no cakewalk. Really. When we are drafting the big plans in heaven before we arrive once again, we are ambitious, wise, optimistic, surrounded with heaven's love and the love of all our guides, teachers, and angels. Then we get to Earth, it's go time, and our spiritual counselors are hidden behind a veil and the mess and beauty of life begins! It's spiritual amnesia.

Our souls' purpose for each time here on Earth is at the same time simple and complicated. It's complicated when it's analyzed for each person we need to connect with, each smaller thing we need to do; but on a bigger scale, it can usually be boiled down to one word like love, compassion, respect, power, etc. That seems to be the pattern that I've seen from my own readings, meditations, and reflections: the true beauty of the universe is both complicated and simple all at once.

I Think I'm Happy, But I'm Not Sure Because I Haven't Done a Scientific Study Yet

Today I got my December issue of Oprah magazine. Yay! The cover is beautiful and it has Ellen DeGeneres on it, which if you watched Ellen's show you know all about her campaign to be on the cover of O.



I started flipping through, scanning and skimming (I admit I can hardly keep my attention through a whole article), and started to get annoyed halfway through. Then I had an A-Ha moment (picture the trademark symbol here--Oprah has practically trademarked A-Ha moments. Should I send a check?)

What is with our society's obsession with research?! Good God, people. Maybe you've had a similar experience. You're flipping through a magazine, and from makeup to relationships to kinds of underwear, someone has done a study so that you can say that science supports your need for Spanx or dark chocolate. Good Grief.

Here are just some of the research subjects in the December issue:

• You should sit up straight because "people who practice good posture have more confidence and conviction in their beliefs than those who slouch."
• People who care about seeking revenge "have fewer close friends, were more likely to be unemployed, and were less happy" than others.
• Happy marriages hinge on "positive illusions," not good communication, happy childhoods, and determination.

Even the advertisements want to appeal to your logic:

• Such-and-such creme has 2 times the anti-aging benefits as another.
• Pantene has pro-vitamin formulas so you can be sure your hair is healthy.
• Skechers Shape-ups promise everything from improving posture to firming your butt to finding your true love.
• Arm & Hammer toothpaste removes 5x more plaque than some other brand.

Good Lord, people. It's no wonder we are incapable of following our intuition. We can't pick out lipstick or buy a pair of jeans without scientific research helping us make our decisions. So why would we leave things like careers and families and relationships up to our hearts, right?

So many people that I meet wonder why they can't see, hear, talk to their loved ones, angels, spirit guides, etc. But we all can. The problem is that around the age of 5 when we start attending school, the scientific method drives our every decisions. From a very young age we are discouraged from listening to our heart, our inner compass, our intuition. We're made to believe that our hearts can be faulty and intuition isn't scientific.

Sure there's a place for science! But do we need it every day in everything that we do?

To Ponder

"We are each given a block of marble when we begin a lifetime, and the tools to shape it into sculpture. We can drag it behind us untouched, we can pound it into gravel, we can shape it into glory."
~Richard Bach

To Ponder

"Here is a simple test to find out if your mission on Earth is fulfilled or not. If you're alive, it isn't."
~Richard Bach

A Time to Every Purpose under Heaven

Lately I've been struggling with keeping up good habits. Sometimes, it's so effortless to follow through on my intentions, and other times it's just the last thing I want to do.

Take reading. For about 2 months straight, I was flying through about two books a week. I was headed to the library about every other day. I really love to read, and always have from a young age; the mental stimulation is great. I was really enjoying myself and loving it.

But for the last month, I've been going to the library for DVD's instead. I just finished up a Tudors marathon (season one, no spoilers please!). Next I'll be on to Marie Antoinette (with Kirsten Dunst) and then I'm going to give Dexter a try.

I can't figure out what the switch is all about. I actually like reading more than watching a movie, but for some reason the thought of picking up a book makes me roll my eyes like a 10 year old boy at the library.

So here's my conundrum--do I let it go? What do you do when you lose your passion for something that's good for you, like working out or flossing? (just kidding)

When is it healthy to take a break from the activities that make us better, and when is it just being lazy? Do I force myself to pick up a book again, or do I wait until I get the urge, even if it's 6 months from now?

I really don't have the answers, nor am I really sure how I would get myself out of this rut anyway.

Here's "The Byrds." I am a total flower child . . . of the 80's; well, maybe in another life. With any luck, I was the chick flailing around in the background and dancing like she's in a sack race.

To Ponder

"Your vision will become clear only when you look into your heart ... Who looks outside, dreams. Who looks inside, awakens."
~Carl Jung

From DailyOm.com

November 5, 2009
Making It Happen
Go for It

There are times in our lives when all the signs seem to be pointing us in a particular direction. Our thoughts and dreams are echoed in the songs and stories we hear and the media we see. Maybe the message we are getting from the universe doesn’t even make sense in the “real” world, but somewhere inside, these urges feel right. Maybe you feel you are being told to move to a new city although your life where you are is just fine. Or maybe you feel the desire to pursue a new direction in your career when it never really interested you before. When we spend time getting in touch with our higher selves, our intuition sends us directives to lead us to become our best and most fulfilled selves. And when we are open and listening, the next step is to take action and go for it.

Once we make the decision to pursue our inner urgings, the universe sets into motion the means for all sorts of details to fall into place. A sense of peace will come over us, because we know that any questions will no longer make us wonder if our dreams are possible, but how to make them happen. Instead of deterring us from our goal, these questions only serve to clarify our focus to move us forward. We need not throw caution to the wind to follow our dream. The positive shift in our energy affects everything around us. Like a rush of water, it goes ahead to clear debris from our path so that we can go forward. Our new attitude also attracts likeminded people. Sometimes even the most unlikely angels arrive to help us along our way with the information and support we need.

Wherever your dreams are pointing you today, take a step. Take action and manifest your inner urges and soul whisperings.

So, um, is this evil?

Inevitably, from time to time people will ask me how I reconcile my gifts with God. The question is usually phrased in the following way: "My church says this is wrong. Is it wrong?" or "My church says this is evil. Is this evil?"

First of all, I'm glad that people are thinking critically and asking questions. Hurray for not being lemmings! Hurray for thinking for yourselves! Seriously. Thank you. If everyone in the world would ask questions and think for themselves and come to their own conclusions . . . wow. That is a world I would like to live in.

If your justification for the way you make decisions is that "a church told you so," I have trouble understanding your decision-making process. I hope that you can recognize the difference between church and God. Church is earthly, controlled by man and therefore fallible and capable of all of man's shortcomings, including lying, stealing, misuse of power, and the list goes on. I cannot think of an organized religion that is devoid of scandal. God spans beyond any one church and is a benevolent, eternal, endlessly loving being. God motivates and inspires with love, not fear.

Of course, I can't help but notice that the questions never come from within. No one has ever said to me, "This feels evil," or "This feels wrong." It's kind of crazy when you think about it. For those who have met me, I certainly don't seem evil. And the messages I deliver are always messages of love, hope, guidance, and inspiration. How could it be wrong to tell a woman who's husband has passed away that he is happy and loves her infinitely? How could it be wrong to validate someone's own intuition that their job isn't right for them?

Instead, people have said, "I've been told this is wrong." What this tells me is that our own gut instincts do not raise red flags. The only red flags that people raise are based in an institution's reporting. So once again, I ask that we all think for ourselves.

So let me answer about how I have personally reconciled my gifts with God. Well, these gifts are innate in every one of us. Intuitive gifts come standard with this model. Intuitive gifts are simply connection with the divine. Have you ever been driving and felt your gut wanted you to go left? That's intuition right there. Have you ever gone for a job interview and felt in your heart that you were going to get the job, and then low and behold you did? That's intuition right there.

This is a gift we are all born with. Every single one of us has a connection with our intuition.

Secondly, our intuition is divinely guided. Each of us have a chorus of angels, guides, and loved ones helping us throughout our entire lives.

Basically, my intuition is heightened to a more obvious point. And anyone can arrive at this same destination. So not only am I reconciled by God, but I am gifted by God (as we all are) as he made us this way! Angels, God, our loved ones, are not in some faraway place that we have to die in order to connect with them. We can find them within our own hearts everyday.

To Ponder

"Heaven is like Wal-Mart: it's open 24 hours and it has everything."
~My cousin John

How to Compose a Great Affirmation

Here are the tips for all of you attempting to reprogram your brain:

1. Use present tense.
Example: I am well organized, not I will be well organized.

Your subconscious believes everything you say. So if you say "I will be a size eight," your subconscious believes it. This means you will always be reaching for it but never achieve it.

2. State it as an already accomplished fact.
Example: I exercise daily, not I will exercise daily.

3. Be positive.
Example: I eat healthy food, not I don't eat junk food.

Our subconscious isn't paying close enough attention. If you say, "I don't eat junk food," your subconscious will hear "eat . . . junk food." Only use positive words that you would actually want to be lodged in your brain. For example, don't use the word "pain."

These are just a few tips on constructing a great affirmation.

Affirmations

Because I can't help it, just watch this throwback. I couldn't find any clips straight from Saturday Night Live skits, so this will have to do.

Spooky Scary

This may be totally cliche, but I have to say that I love Halloween. Way before I was talking to the dead, I love love LOVED it. It's what Oprah calls "the layering effect." When you have multiple awesome experiences all at once, you get layered joy. For me, it the combination of the fall colors on the trees, the kitschy decorations, the crisp electrically-charged air, the chocolate, and the costumes!

I can't wait to have kids just to dress them up in absurd costumes. I would put Rocky through it, but he totally pouts when I try to put clothes on him and it takes out all of the fun.

I hope you have a fun, safe Halloween, whatever you are doing! I'll be in Valparaiso Saturday and Sunday for a Psychic fair.

I hope you get a laugh out of this video from "30 Rock." I heart that show.

Law of Belief

The law of belief states that whatever you believe with feeling and conviction becomes your reality. Our brains are like a computer that you can program. How do we program our computer? Experiences we've had make us come to conclusions about ourselves. We store these beliefs in our subconscious and our everyday decisions are a reflection of beliefs about ourselves locked in our subconscious.

For example, maybe when you were 5 years old, you loved to sing. But then one day while belting out your own rendition of "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun," your older (cooler) sister laughed at you, exclaiming, "You are horrible! Stop that noise!" Now you have a belief lodged in your brain. I am a bad singer. I should keep singing to myself. People do not like me when I sing. I will never sing out loud again.

And just like that, a belief about yourself is formed. From birth to age 7, we absorb these experiences and beliefs like a sponge. As we get older, we get a little bit harder to program. But it still happens all the time. Then, we carry out our lives with these mantras chanting in our brain, guiding our decisions and behaviors everyday.

How can we combat negative laws of belief? With positive affirmations. When we say affirmations out loud and process them with our conscious brain, perhaps they seem silly (think Stuart Smalley via SNL). But when we lock affirmations in our subconscious, we are good to go.

For information on how to create an affirmation, stay tuned!

What is hypnotherapy?

Most of us are familiar with stage hypnosis. You've probably seen this at a party, Las Vegas, and many cheesy events. The hypnotist picks people out of the audience, induces some kind of sleep state, and then has people running around on stage barking like dogs, clucking like chickens, eating onions like apples, and all other kinds of ridiculousness to the amusement of the audience.

So here are the conclusions that we usually come to from this experience:

• Hypnosis makes you unconscious.
• Hypnosis makes you do things you don't want to do.
• Hypnosis is only good for a laugh.

Wrong, wrong, and wrong!

The state of hypnosis is simply your subconscious mind. It is the same state of mind that you are in in daydreams, prayer, meditation, and dreaming while asleep. The relationship between the conscious and subconscious is just like this iceberg. 10% is above water while 90% is below.


Conscious mind (10%)

• analyzes
• thinks and plans
• short term memory

Subconscious mind (90%)

• long-term memory
• emotions and feelings
• habit patterns
• relationship patterns
• addictions
• involuntary bodily functions
• creativity
• spiritual connection

Have you ever been driving and then realize you are at your destination and you can't remember driving for the last 10 minutes? That's called highway hypnosis. You are simply hanging out with your subconscious while your body does the driving. Slipping into a hypnotic state is just as natural as daydreaming!

For 80% of the day, we go back and forth from the conscious to subconscious. All day long. As a result, anyone can be hypnotized!

In our subconscious, we've locked away beliefs about ourselves, traumatic experiences, lessons we've learned, and basically anything that has happened to us. When a hypnotherapist unlocks the subconscious, we are free to reframe events, experiences, and beliefs to bring power back that will change your habits, beliefs, and behaviors. Very powerful stuff.

I'm baaack

Sorry there! I kind of disappeared, didn't I. Well, I've just been through intensive hypnotherapy training! Not only was I learning how to facilitate hypnotherapy for others, I was also undergoing my own hypnotherapy sessions AND learning about all kinds of things on top of that. What a week!

I'm happy to say that I think I'm a better human being as a result. I also can't wait to share what I've learned. Stay tuned for more updates.

How to Meditate (part 1)

So after all of that 2012 talk you must be freaking out, right?

Good.

Just kidding!

But just in case you are (and even if you're not), now is a great time to talk about meditation.

Don't disappear on me just yet. If your first urge is to just stop reading, I hear you. As a Catholic kid, meditation brought up very particular unfamiliar images in my mind: Buddhists, weird yoga positions, karma and dharma and all kinds of things I knew nothing about. Narrow-minded Brittany was pretty wary and uninterested in meditation.

But meditation is entry #5,163 of things that I dissed and turned out to be totally wrong.

Here's the simplest way I can explain what meditation actually is:
Meditation is an attempt to calm the mind. The goal is to become aware of your own inner chatter and improve yourself mentally and/or spiritually.

Another way I've heard it explained (for those looking to use it in a spiritual sense):
Prayer is speaking.
Meditation is listening.

Meditation has been known to reduce stress and actually has a physical effect on the body. Heart rate, metabolism, blood pressure, and brain chemistry are just some of the areas effected!

You don't have to sit cross-legged while meditating or contort your body in any way. In fact, a relaxing body position will allow you to meditate better because it will allow you to focus on your mind instead.

The best way to start meditating is to simply close your eyes, lay your arms out at your sides palms up, and be still for one minute. Sounds pretty lame, right? Oh, don't be so sure. A lot of (internal) things can happen in one minute of silence. Work your way up to 2, 5, 10, 15, 20 minutes.

I think I'll stop this lesson here. Baby steps.

2012

In the chit-chat brain-picking sessions that I usually have after a reading, I've had quite a number of people ask me my thoughts on 2012. The old cynic in me says, "Ah, Phooey" to this kind of stuff. Don't let the whole psychic medium thing fool you! I am quite the skeptic. I think it's all in our best interest that we don't absorb every idea that we hear like a sponge. As the Buddha says, "Believe nothing . . . unless it agrees with your own common sense."

Here are the most popular theories:

1. Many people believe that 2012 means the end of the world, and they base this on the Mayan calendar. According to the long count calendar's measurements, December 20/21/23 (depending on who you ask) marks the end of this world. According to the Mayans, this is actually the fourth world, meaning there have been three human-like (i.e. a planet, peoples, civilizations, etc.) existences and periods of time before this one.
2. Other people just seem to love the idea of an apocalypse and seem to be fine with it occurring in 2012. They're the people who are always preaching about the end of the world and seem happy to jump on a bandwagon that agrees that the world is indeed ending soon. Hey, why not? 2012 is catchy, no?
3. Then there's the New Age belief that 2012 is the beginning of a new era in human history, a positive shift in physical and spiritual transformation. This belief sees 2012 as the crumbling of traditional archetypes and systems (i.e. organized religion, big government) and a revitalization of these systems that will create a new order.

If I have to choose between these theories, I go with C. It seems apparent to me that there's been a lot of disintegration of old systems in these past few years and that the state of the world is in a lot of distress. It seems plausible that we are on the brink of a new era. Then again, I can think of many times in history where the world as people knew it seemed to be ending (1860's, 1920's, 1940's, 1960's). So that's why I say that if I have to choose one, this is the one I'm going with.

The skeptic in me has to question the hoopla of all of this. You have to ask yourself the question, who benefits from a belief that 2012 is the end of the world? Well, I think we can see that a lot of people are making a lot of money off the idea. If you look at the search results on 2012 on amazon.com, you'll see that many people have published their ideas on the topic. There's also a big movie coming out sure to pull in millions. There's a countless number of authors, scientists, and entertainers who can become relevant by putting an idea out there.

The end of the world has universal appeal. It's something every one of us should theoretically care about, so any writing, speaking, or acting on the topic is sure to get a wide audience.

So here's the question that I've let guide my response to the idea of 2012 as the end of the world: If it's true that 2012 is the end of the world, what would I do about it?

And the answer, in short, is nothing. I live my life trying to be the best human being possible, taking care of my family, and trying to help others. So would I do anything differently if someone said the world was going to end in 2012 or any other time for that matter? No.

Also, I can't help but think that our time is never guaranteed. I could get hit by a bus tomorrow. I could choke on my angel hair pasta at dinner. Who says I'll be around in 2012 anyway? Let's not count our chickens before they hatch, ya know?

So I want to shoot that question back at you, reader. If 2012, 2010, or tomorrow were the end of the world, would you be doing anything differently? If the answer is yes, then you got some splainin' to do! (Yes, I just made a Lucille Ball reference while talking about 2012. mmmhmmm)

Reiki question: why 1 month before?

As people have started emailing and calling about the reiki class on January 31st, some have wondered why I have a lower price for signing up more than one month in advance. From a practical standpoint, it helps me prepare better when I have a rough idea of how many people will be attending.

But from the sacred practice standpoint, one you've made a commitment to be attuned to Reiki, you actually begin to be prepared for it! Nothing dramatic will happen to you, but your angels and guides will begin helping you get ready for this wonderful change in your life. Don't worry. You won't feel, hear, or see them doing anything. They will just begin to lovingly prepare you for this great experience.

Angels 101

Since I communicate with angels so much, I thought you guys might like to hear what I can tell you about them. This past weekend, I trekked up to Northern Michigan for a holistic expo, and I was tickled to have an angel on my bumper on the whole ride there. She just hung out, guiding me, making sure I was okay. She's also the muse that made me realize that I haven't really talked much about angels yet on my blog.

First of all, I think it's amusing that I actually didn't believe in angels up until I saw one for myself. I thought it was kind of silly, really. A human-looking thing with feathered wings flying around and helping us? It sounded like the kind of cutsey idea invented by old ladies with doilies all over their homes. Even as a kid I thought it was just silly. You know what I mean? It just sounded like some imaginary fantasy concoction to make people feel better, protected, safe.

And just like many things that my logical brain believed to be true, I was wrong. Angels are all kinds of real. Seriously. I've worked with Archangel Michael on this Angel PSA because I want to make sure I inform you of what the angels actually want you to know about them, so this is 99% channeled information and 1% experience from readings. I like making lists, plus there's a lot to tell, so here goes:

• They serve God. Period. They help out any human being who is trying to carry out God's work because therefore they are helping God as well. Angels want us to do well because then it means God's will is accomplished.
• Angels actually do have wings. My personal logistics think this is silly, so I asked why they need them. They are pure energetic beings, so they don't "need" wings to get around. I asked Michael and he pointed out, "Wouldn't you just think that I'm a human being if I didn't have wings?" The guy's got a point. Physically, they look like people to me. They have arms, legs, hair, the body of a human, really. The only way I can tell they are angelic is their wings and their aura. They are always surrounded by really nice energy, something like angel dust.
• They travel at light speed and can just zoom around anywhere they want to go.
• They are ego-less beings. You can't hurt their feelings. You can't make them mad so that they will stop helping you.
• There are millions of them and they have all kinds of specializations. Angels for teachers. Angels as guardians. Angels for spiritual guidance. Angels for mothers. Angels for doctors. Angels for everything under the sun. It's very easy for one person to have at least two or three angels who help them out all the time.
• Sometimes they stick with us our whole lives, and other times they work with us on a specific task and then move on to someone else.
• Their personalities vary slightly, but they are all generally serious, patient, and loving. Their seriousness comes from their sense of duty and importance in carrying out their work.

If you forget everything else about this post, please remember this: Because of free will they cannot intercede on our behalf unless we ask for them. Free will keeps the universe turning. It's the one law that is followed above all others. They cannot cannot canNOT help someone who does not want to be helped. Does this mean that everyone who has angels has consciously asked for them out loud? No. But it means that at least on a soul level they have asked for help in some way.

I hope this was helpful! Let me know if you have any questions about angels. I asked Michael if there was anything more he wanted you guys to know, and he said, "God loves you!" I hope your day is a little brighter now.

Reiki Class!

Sunday, January 31st from 1-5pm. To learn about Reiki, read my post. Here is some information about the class:

Learning Level One Reiki allows you to use the nourishing energy of Reiki to help yourself and others maintain a higher level of balance and health. The class will consist of three basic parts:
1)Introduction to Reiki, understanding biofield energy, and the principles of Reiki.
2)Attunement, or energy transfer, that allows Reiki energy to flow naturally from your hands for giving life-enhancing energy to yourself, other people, animals and plants.
3)Learning the hand positions for treating yourself as well as the hand positions for treating others. You will practice giving and receiving treatments with your classmates so that you are a confident Reiki healer by the end of the day.

Tuition includes the one-day class and textbook. The next class is scheduled for January. Call or email to find out more details or to sign up. Classes are small, with a maximum of eight students, to allow for an intimate setting and plenty of practice. Your spot will not be reserved for you until payment is received.

Kindness

Some of you know that at the beginning of 2009 I had an entirely different blog dedicated to acts of kindness every day. It was a New Year's resolution that just like all resolutions died sometime between March and April. I am really not a creative person, and thinking of and completing a selfless act every single day got very very hard.

Now that my schedule is much busier than it was in January, I also am finding it hard to commit to a regular volunteering schedule. So my compromise is to take up my acts of kindness again. I'm not going to say that I will do one every day; it was really hard for me to be that creative.

I do believe whole-heartedly in this mission. I think it is extremely valuable to dedicate yourself to selfless acts that do not benefit you in any way. I believe true charity and unconditional love come from a place of giving regardless of any return. So my efforts are always to do acts of kindness that cannot benefit me in any way and are anonymous as often as possible.

So for today, I'm going to start with my old familiar favorite: The Hunger Site. Click, click, click, and food is donated. Anonymous, free, quick, easy. I hope you'll join me on this one today.

If you ever have good suggestions for acts of kindness, please email or comment and let me know.

Lastly, you may be wondering why if my goal is to be anonymous that I am posting it on my blog? Well, first I think it keeps me honest. When I record it and know that people are reading, it helps me keep track of how well I'm doing. Also, I'm hoping that some of these acts will be fun and easy for you as well and we can increase the kindness going around.

St. Bernadette

I first learned about St. Bernadette in second grade at St. Albert's Catholic School. I still remember our teacher Mrs. Lucarelli bringing in a video, and I was mesmerized. First of all, I think it was the first video we ever watched at school (watching TV at school! scandalous!); second, I was fascinated by St. Bernadette.

For those of you who might not know much about her, Bernadette Soubirous was a poor miller's daughter in Lourdes, France during the mid 1800's. At the age of 14, Mary began appearing to her with messages which included building a church on the site as well as tapping into a spring of water which would make miracles. In total, Mary appeared 18 times. Many people doubted it even happening since Bernadette was the only one who could see Mary. The Catholic church and many others thought that Bernadette was lying or that some work of witchcraft was going on. Eventually, her claims were confirmed. Bernadette became a nun and was canonized as a saint in 1933.

Up until even a year ago, I wasn't really sure why I was fascinated with this girl. She was from France and my dad is French; she is a girl and I'm a girl; she was a nun and I thought about being a nun; my name starts with B also; but that's where the similarities seemed to end. I chose Bernadette as my confirmation name, and it's always held a special place in my heart.

Now, with the work that I do, it makes perfect sense why I was attracted to Bernadette and her story. I can relate to her challenges in so many ways, and this weekend was a strong reminder of that.

So many, many people do not believe in me for various reasons:

• Some do not believe anyone can have these gifts, and anyone who claims to is faking it.
• Others think that these gifts are evil, scary, dangerous, etc.
• People think I'm too young to have these gifts. This is perhaps the most puzzling to me because I don't understand the logic.

Lately, I've been really frustrated with these struggles. It is so heart-breaking when you have work that you want to do and people will not allow you to help them. So this morning I asked Bernadette to talk with me, and I thought maybe you'd like to hear what she said:
What did you do when no one believed that you actually were seeing, hearing, talking to Mary?
"It doesn't matter. It wasn't up to me to convince them. It was up to God and themselves to open their hearts. I was just the messenger."

What did you do when people said that what you were doing was blasphemous, strange, and evil?
"Who cares? No one can judge but God, and God knows I was visited by the Mother. God knows that I work for Him."

How did you feel when people said you were too young, too poor, too unimportant to be visited by Mother Mary?
"We are all children of God and we all have a mission. This was my mission from God, to carry out messages that Mary wanted me to deliver to the world. God chose me for a reason and it's my job to carry out his mission."

Do your lessons apply to me?
"Yes. What others may think is not of your concern. This is God's mission for you and you are to carry it out faithfully regardless of what people say or how they might react."

Can you help me with my work?
"I will do what I can, but you don't need my help. God chose you because you can handle the task you are given."

I began thanking her but she immediately flew straight back to heaven. The saints I have communicated with are very focused people in that their egos are completely non-existent. They recognize perfectly that they are God's workers in every way, and they won't even accept thanks! They always pass the thanks on to God, which I think is why she disappeared so quickly.

Do I think I'm as great as St. Bernadette? Um, no freaking way. Obviously, she has succeeded where I have not in letting go of ego. It's not my job to be concerned with whether or not people will open their hearts to the help that I can give. But she is such a beautiful model for me and I admire her so much. She is so courageous, so fearless, and stands in her convictions and her God-given power and does not worry about how people may react. I need to take a cue from her. Pronto.

I hope that you talk to the saints with whom you feel a special connection! They are always willing to help as long as your goal is to become a better human being and do God's work.

Validation

As a healer, I am always in need of help from healing from my own wounds. In order to give to others, I need to take care of myself so that I actually have something to give. Sounds like a simple concept, but I ignored this wisdom and ended up with some nasty after effects. Caregivers, don't forget to take care of yourselves! Truly.

So I was trying a new healing therapy that I had heard about last Wednesday. It was helpful, but not as powerful as Reiki or hypnotherapy. I finished the process glad that I had tried it, but I knew it wasn't something I needed to continue. What was most bothersome was the healer's reaction to my session.

At the end, she said, "Well, for some people they really need more sessions to clear out traumas. But you really have had a peaceful life." She emphasized several times that the traumas that came up for me were not a big deal and that I have it pretty good.

On the one hand, I agree. I'm sure she has helped people try to recover from the pain of rape, abuse, neglect, and all other kinds of atrocities. Yes, I have had a blessed life in comparison.

But when someone tells me that my pain is not a big deal, does that make my pain disappear? No, not at all. Instead, it makes me feel as if my pain has been insignificant, as if it doesn't matter. As if it is invalid. Except that my pain is not at all invalid for me. It is very, very real.

So I left with a stab of hurt and a new lesson. It's extremely important as a healer that I put myself in the healed position so that I can honor what it feels like to be counseled and coached into moving forward. The whole experience made me start to run through my own experiences with others. Have I ever invalidated anyone? Have I made someone's pain feel small? Unimportant? God, I hope not. It's a pretty crappy feeling and it stings.

I share this with you not to shame the healer. I didn't provide her name or even the healing process because my point is not at all to call out someone else's mistake. Instead, I hope we can all learn from this experience. I will be very, very careful in the future never to make someone feel like their struggles are small or silly. I hope you can pass on this idea in your own interactions with others.

Oops! One More Thing. What Heaven is Like Part Deux

I did forget to mention one part of what John told me. As I said before, John died suddenly at the age of 23. No one saw it coming, certainly not John. I have been talking with his mother about the sadness of what could have been. She's been struggling so much to think that he won't be a husband or a father someday. But here's what John has said about his own passing:

"Mom, I love you very very much, but I don't wish that I was still alive. I am so incredibly happy. All pain is gone, all worry is gone, all fear is gone, and I am just happy for all of eternity. I am happier than the happiest person on Earth right now. Name someone on Earth, anyone who you think must be the happiest being alive, and I will tell you that I am happier than that person. The happiness in heaven cannot compare to even your happiest day on Earth. I love you and I am not separated from you which is why I don't feel loss like you do. Don't bother wishing I was still alive--I don't!"

And then, because John is just hilarious, he added, "You'll see what I mean one day" with a mischievous grin.

What Heaven is Like

This is a heavy post for a Monday, am I right? Well, it's just so cool what I've learned that I have to share.

As I mentioned before, a cousin of mine passed away suddenly and I've been helping his mother and siblings heal from their loss by connecting them with him whenever they need it. Of course, they don't need me to communicate with him; it just makes the messages that he sends back more clear.

It's been really awesome to get some first-hand narration about what heaven is like. So so so amazing. I will try to explain what little info I've been given:

• Everyone has their own "space." It's kind of like you have your own room in heaven. When you just want to be, you just want to exist, and you just want to feel the love and warmth of heaven, you hang out in your "room." What this room looks like to me is basically a pink fog that supports you like a chair, couch, bed, however you want to relax. My cousin can't get enough of it, and has told me several times "This is the shit, Brittany." So apparently you can curse in heaven, no problem. :)
• I can't emphasize enough that it is the most loving, comforting, happy feeling you can ever possibly have. The pink energy is like a physical manifestation of the love of the universe. It's like swimming in a big bath of love. It's addictive and it's bliss.
  
• If you want to communicate with someone else in heaven, you just think of them and you will instantly be together. Also, as you talk with them, you don't actually say anything "out loud." Basically, whatever you want to communicate to them, you think it and they hear it. It sounds like our understanding of telepathy.
• It's hilarious to hear John exclaim, "You can have whatever you want!" Each time I talk with him, he brings some kind of snack with him. His favorites so far are New York style cheesecake, a Big Gulp, Twizzlers, and a Snickers. He said that he just has to think of it and it's in his hand. He says it's not exactly like eating here on Earth, but it's pretty close.
• If he wants to visit his mom, sister, etc. he just has to think of them and he is with them. He loves visiting family, but he said that heaven feels like home and so he doesn't hang around 24/7. It's kind of like us leaving our houses for work. Home is 100% comfortable, and we might feel more like 75% relaxed outside our home.
• Time is not like time here. He doesn't really measure the passage of time, so whenever I had a question for him that involved something that happened Tuesday, or yesterday, or last week, it was hard for him to say. He passed away not even a month ago, but he told his mom, "It's so weird. I feel like I've been gone a really long time. It's like life on Earth was a dream from a long time ago in a far away place. I don't remember all the details of my life. What I remember most is the people who I loved."
  

At one point, someone wanted to know if he had met God or Jesus, and his response was really cool, he said, "Well, I had the option if I wanted to. Jesus was off in the distance and God was beyond Him. But I said, 'Naw, I'm good.'"

So of course I laughed but I also said, "What?! Who passes up an opportunity to meet Jesus Christ?!"

And here's what he tried to explain to my pea brain:
"Anyone who wants to have Jesus with them already does. Jesus' energy flows through the heart of anyone who wants to let him in. So I don't have to go "visit" Jesus because he is already with me. The same goes for God. I don't have to go see him because he is flowing through my heart all the time."

How awesome is all of that?!?!?! I feel so blessed to be privy to this information. If you've got any good questions about heaven, I will try to find out.

What it's Like to be Me. Sometimes.

So after doing a reading, a lot of people ask me what it's like for me on this end. What do I see? What do I hear? What does it feel like? So I'll try to explain as best I can. I also have explained some on my website under the common questions section.

First of all, it's multi-sensory for me. I can see (clairvoyant), hear (clairaudient), and feel (clairsentient/empathic) all at the same time. This is why I really can't talk to you or listen to you at the same time that I am being an open channel, which is why I usually say, "Hold on a minute" to allow the information to come to me in whatever manner it wants to . . .although sometimes I connect with a very chatty soul who will talk over you! Usually I will interrupt you because otherwise I will forget what they've said if I wait until you are finished talking.

To a certain extent, I don't have control over how the information is relayed to me. Some entities prefer to talk. Others like to show me symbols. Others will have me see and feel everything from their perspective so that I can relay their opinions. And most use some kind of combination of these communication styles.

So let me go into depth a little bit:

• Clairvoyance--the ability to see. If someone says "picture an elephant in your mind," that is the same way I can see. Some people will call it "seeing with their third eye," which is the chakra located in the center of your forehead just above your eyebrows. When I see this way, it is not the same clarity of vision that I see the physical world; rather, it's more like the fogginess that comes with a dream. Colors are usually muted, and the shapes of things are a little smudged around the edges. Once again, though, if an entity really wants me to understand something, it will be so large that it fills up the whole "screen" so to speak and it will be very vivid. I also can see energy with my third eye. Many times, if someone is trying to choose between different options (Job A or Job B, for example), I will have them name each job for me and then see which job has brighter energy around it. I also can see the energy around a person or place to determine how healthy or unhealthy they are, or how healthy or unhealthy they could be for you.
• Clairaudience--the ability to hear. This one always trips me out! It's probably my favorite. Just like we hear in the physical world, I hear in the spiritual realm. Everything transfers over to me very well: how fast the being talks, how deep the voice is, word choice, sarcasm, excitement, yelling, whispering, all the emotions that we convey with our voice, I can hear them very well. Very, very cool.
• Clairsentience--the ability to feel. Oftentimes I will feel like the person I am trying to communicate with. Their emotions, physical sensations, everything they feel, I will feel as if I am them.

It's such a powerful, wonderful gift, and every day I pray for guidance in using my gifts for my highest good and the highest good of everyone. Hopefully that gives you a better idea, and feel free to ask any questions!

Most importantly, know that these are skills we all have. We are all psychic! It's just that we have varying degrees of openness. But you truly can develop your abilities.

To Ponder

"When you follow your bliss ... doors will open where you would not have thought there would be doors, and where there wouldn't be a door for anyone else."
~Joseph Campbell

My Blog Manifesto

I've been sitting back over the past few days thinking about my posts. Am I too preachy? Am I coming across as some know-it-all? I hope not. In my fervor to talk about what I've learned, I hope it's apparent that I also haven't learned a great deal.

The Buddha has a great quote about wisdom that I wish I could find. The gist of the quote is that the more you learn, the more you realize that you know so little. Anyone who believes they have it all figured out might be the least knowledgeable of them all.

Ben Franklin had his own grandiose way of saying the same thing: "The doorstep to the temple of wisdom is the knowledge of our own ignorance."

So here I am, acknowledging my own ignorance. I acknowledge that in my wandering path so far, the blacks and whites have become grays. Many things I thought to be most certainly true have slipped into a gray area. I hope it's a sign that I am getting wiser. I am always leery of someone who sees the world in black and white; it seems to suggest that they haven't thought thoroughly enough to discover all of the gray area in between.

If you had asked me what I knew to be true about life when I was 18 years old, it would probably be a fairly substantial list. I wish I had done this exercise just because I wonder what I would have to say. I know that my list would be shorter today.

It makes me wildly curious about my own future self. What do I feel that I "know" now that will slip into more questions and less knowing? What will 40, 50, 60 year old Brittany "know" about the world?

So just in case you've ever thought I've gotten the idea that I am an authority on anything, I want to make it clear that I am not.

The natural snarky response would be, "Then why is someone who knows nothing writing a blog?" My first snarky thought back is, "Don't people who know nothing blog/write/talk/scream at us all every day?" Smile.

But seriously, here's the point of my writing a blog: I am doing my best to learn, share nuggets of what I learn with others, and am hoping for some verbal sparring to come my way when someone will challenge what I think I know and give me reason to pause and learn some more.

I pledge to myself that I will never stop being a student of life, no matter how much I think I've got things figured out. I hope you'll come on the journey with me and share what you believe to be true and we can chew on it together.

My Beef with the Terminology

I am a word person. I love to read, and I process things best when they are verbally spelled out in thorough detail. Thus, sometimes I think I have issues with words and concepts because I get caught up in the connotation or implications of words.

If you've been reading my blog, you'll notice that every time I have to talk about the higher power, I get tongue-tied. Here's my issue with the most common names for the mighty it.

God
It has connotations of many things that I don't believe God to be. When I hear the word "God," I think:
*male (this is silly. The higher power is so much more than a sex)
*in the clouds (I think the higher power is around us/with us/within us all the time, not removed at all)
*human-like (as if the higher power has ego-filled emotions like jealousy, anger, or an unmerciful nature)

Does this come from years of Catholic school? Not sure.

Creator
The implication seems to be that this is all the higher power has done, as if it created the universe and then said, "Peace out, guys," and now the creator is just sitting back and watching it all unfold. I believe in a higher power that is a hybrid of creating plus free will, and a higher power that is still very much with us all the time. This seems too hands-off, too simplistic, and as if it has no relevance today.

A Higher Power
Higher: up, above, that whole "in the clouds" thing is an issue again; but it is all around us.
Power: suggests that free will is questionable, or that it is unmerciful, has a wrath, etc.

Spirit
My connotations with this word are silly, really. It makes me think of halloween, ghosts, and a very small very concentrated ball of energy.

It
Impersonal and cold. How could the source of unconditional love have such a rough name?

Rather than giving the higher power a name, it is easier for me to make a list of what I know about God from my own praying and spiritual experiences as a medium. Once I compile my list, this seems to make the most sense:

Universe
The higher power is a powerful ball of energy that has a limitless source. It is benevolent, loving energy, and the closest thing to it from what I understand is that it's energy is love. This energy flows from the original source through all of the universe: through people, animals, plants, earth, actions, words, stars, every piece of matter that exists. Free will determines how much of the higher power is flowing through each of us and in the reality we have created for ourselves.

*It is around us, within us, and our energy is made of it.
*It is here all the time.
*It is benevolent, light, and love.
*It spans beyond this planet, this solar system, this galaxy.
*It can be everywhere at the same time.
*Its source is constant and limitless.

This is the closest word that I can think of to summarize what I believe to be true about the higher being.

It's important for us to sort out these questions. Language influences culture, culture influences language. Our language creates our reality and our existence. I can only imagine what my spiritual growth will reveal to me, and I wonder if I'll still come to this same conclusion in 10, 20, 30 years. Better yet, what will I know about God in 10, 20, 30 years? Will my list of what I know be longer? Shorter? Will some of these beliefs disappear?

I'm not sure. But I believe that by exploring my issues with the terminology, I can better understand this higher power.

To Ponder

"Limitless undying love which shines around me like a million suns
It calls me on and on across the universe."
~Lennon, McCartney
Across the Universe

The '3am' Part of This 'Epiphany' Thing

So if you'll note the time, it's about 3:30am as I start this post. I woke up at 1:45, laying in bed (lying in bed? good God I taught English for four years and I never got those straight), and patiently waited for sweet, precious, beautiful sleep to come back to me. By 3:15am I gave up. But I gave it a good honest try, right?

Look at this kid sleeping on the stairs. Man. I am so jealous of babies and little kids who can fall asleep anywhere. In the car. On a plane. On a bus. On a train. Do you think Dr. Seuss needs a co-author?

So being the nerd that I am, the first thing I did in writing this post was to try to find out how many people have trouble sleeping. Four lame google searches and a zillion broken links later, I have no idea. I got answers of 25%, 45%, and 90% in my five minute exploration. This is what my husband and I would file under "questionable facts dot com." 90% of statistics are fake, right? Right.

I also wonder, do mediums have a harder time sleeping than your run-of-the-mill human?

Consider these common complications that get in the way of sleep:
*being a woman (c'mon! we've got enough problems already)
*stress
*noise
*change in environment
*medication side effects
*caffeine, nicotine, alcohol
*irregular sleep schedules

Oh, and this one I really love:
*expecting to have difficulty sleeping and worrying about it

Then, I'd like to submit my psychic-related sleep issues:
*dream visits from family that's passed on
*dream visits from strangers who have messages
*intense talks with the higher realms, almost like a progress report meeting and evaluation of how I'm doing/what I could do better

When we sleep, we're connecting with the higher realms. We get a lot of personal work done on ourselves when we sleep. I've been having issues sleeping pretty much all of September, but at least Karen Bishop made me feel less crazy about it.

If you've had trouble sleeping lately and normally do not, this might be of interest to you. This is an excerpt taken from one of Karen Bishop's books:

"Insomnia occurs when we need a break from being in the higher realms, or other dimensions that sleeping creates. We need to be back on the earth plane and it appears that we need to be there or else! Therefore, no matter what we do, we are unable or "not allowed" access to the higher dimensions for awhile;even while sleeping.

One of the most common symptoms of the ascension process, insomnia, seems to affect most everyone. And it's a strange kind of insomnia at that. It begins by awakening between 2 and 4 a.m. every night for awhile. Then it will subside. It can return again, and eventually, one is awakened around 5 a.m. This can go on for several weeks and then return. Once you wake up, you cannot go back to sleep. Thank goodness the ascension process also has phases of deep sleeping and napping!

Insomnia forces us to remain on the earth plane. We don't get to go anywhere. We cannot go far or deep into other realities for awhile. When we are unable to sleep, we have to then be here. Through ascension, we have integrated much and are now vibrating higher. Becoming involved in, and allowing our energy and presence to reside in a New and higher vibrating reality, helps with the integration of a New World and reality. Our presence makes it more real and solid as we are contributing to its very New vibration.

Many times we do a lot of our shifting and releasing while in the dream state at night. Much can happen in regard to our vibrational and spiritual growth when we are asleep. During ascension, a lot is occurring for us in this regard. We are greatly changing and expanding in consciousness. Therefore, at times we need a break. We then need to be in the New space that we are adjusting to and becoming ourselves."

The good news: yay! I'm ascending! Hurray for becoming a better soul.
The bad news: I.can.not.sleep.

I left out the excerpt where Karen talks about the joys of not sleeping. "Read a book! Watch a movie! Stare at the sunrise!" Those are all great ideas, Karen, but I have a better idea. It's called sleep AKA the best thing to do between 10pm and 6am.

Ob la di, ob la da . . .