Growth is the only evidence of life
--John Henry Newman
 
Sitting here in the lushness and vast greenery of a Tuscan-style villa in Oregon, surrounded by planted bamboo trees, a koi pond, and rose bushes, and the abundance of grand Sequoia, the Spirit of Growth and evidence of life soothes me. In this moment of serenity and inspiration, I ask myself what I’d like to write about. Immediately, I envision the Magician in the Tarot, and then the answer comes. It says: “Write about self-concept!”
 
So, today, my kindreds, I am writing about self-concept and personal Growth. I am writing about the power to move past obstacles and dissatisfying or painful circumstances by looking within and becoming conscious of that power called Growth.
 
The first thing that comes to mind is for me to ask you a self-reflective question: Do you really know, and I mean truly know, how you see or conceive of yourself?
 
If so, what would you say?
 
The second thing that comes to mind is to ask you if you feel that you’ve grown, and if so, how?
 
Are you the same person this year as you were last?
 
In my experiences, it’s usually through pain and suffering that growth occurs. As the idiom goes, “No pain, no gain.”
 
A lot of times people come to me in a state of panic or worry about the future or the state of their lives. To me, the worry usually stems from resistance to growth and resistance to the painful process of growing.
We resist, and the resistance makes growing harder. We become impatient and achieving patience becomes harder. I’m sure you know what I’m talking about. Hey! I’m human, too! We are all here to grow and partake in that process!
 
The next observation I make while sitting amidst all of this Growth is a self-reflective one. I take stock of my own life and my journey and results of my decisions; the people I’ve allowed into my life; the way they’ve impacted me and the way I’ve impacted them. I say to myself, “It’s not ill-fated karma, it’s about your purpose of being here, which is to grow. It’s about becoming conscious of the way that you have conceived of yourself, child! Those experiences show you what your concept has been and what it currently is!”
 
In this moment, I then experience a peaceful surrender, and my spirit is able to receive the life enhancing and affirming energies that are evident around me.
 
In your moments, and I encourage you to take them as often as you can, take time to surrender to growth; it is the root of your personal power. If you are unaware of your self-concept, take stock of the relationships and experiences you’re having; they will show you. Take time to embrace your own Magician, pick up that magic wand and transform and heal!
 
I am now offering weekly pre-recorded video readings (sent via cell) to help guide your journey of growth and transformation. Click here to purchase. These are prerecorded readings that include messages from your angels and spirit guides that are delivered on the same day each week. Click here to purchase. 
 
Lovingly,
 
Michelle

When life seems overwhelming it’s tempting to get caught in the circus of the mind, where fears and the endless chatter of doubt and anxiety drown out the voice of the heart, disconnecting us from the source of who we are; soul. 
 
In that state, the mind plays out every scenario that feeds on the illusions it’s created. “Am I good enough? Does he/she like or love me? Will I ever have true love? Will I succeed in my career? Am I on the right path?” And on and on the chatter goes.
 
I often refer to the mind as the place where monkeys energize themselves by throwing feces; laughing at the impact they have on us as they go along. I’m sure most of you know exactly what I’m talking about.
 
But, once we get out of the mind and stop its monkey circus, we can open ourselves to the way of the heart, which is the source of sanity, well-being, confidence, knowing, and solace. 
 
We can stop the madness of the mind and tame those monkeys.
 
How might we get there and do that, you ask? 
 
Well that’s what this blog piece is all about. It’s about how to align with the intelligence of the heart, which speaks as the voice of the soul. It’s about letting the soul play its rightful role in our lives as the anchor that grounds our minds in the intelligence and habits of the heart.
 
Now I know our daily lives are typically consumed by an array of distractions, stress triggers, and defensive interactions with the world around us. That in fact is the reality for most of us. But the beauty of the human mind is that it’s equipped with an intellect that has the power to consciously decide how it’s going to react and think.
 
So, here we are at the first step:
 
1.) Become a conscious observer of habitual thoughts, impulses, and reactions.
 
How many times a day do we react to the circumstances and uncertainties of life based on thought habits? Based on the illusions of the mind created by those monkeys? Once we become conscious of those habits, we can change them. We can exercise the power of choice, and therefore become empowered and self-controlled.
 
2.) Take time for self-reflection.
 
Self-reflection is not the same as self-blame or criticism. Self-reflection is an exercise in taking responsibility for how we are perceiving our lives. Oftentimes our perceptions are based on thought habits that are clouded by negative emotions stemming from the past or anxiety about the future. 
When we can see ourselves clearly, we can see life more clearly.
 
3.) Practice patience.
 
I get it. We are immersed in a culture of “right now” and “me”, which tends to breed and foster impatience, leading to frustration and aggressive behaviors. But the patience we need most isn’t about attaining our hopes and wishes: it’s about learning to practice patience with ourselves as we commit to our growth, transformation, and evolution in life. It’s about learning to accept our imperfections, limitations, and flaws while remaining aware that we are learning to become better versions of ourselves along the way. 
 
4.) Exercise compassion.
 
We are all coping with struggles, pain, setbacks, disappointments and sometimes trauma or devastation. That’s right, all of us. Not just you. Every person you see. So, approach the world with compassion and watch how your heart opens, shines, and brings light and love to your life in the form of goodness and inspiration. Compassion is the gateway to higher states of joy and spirituality, because it is a visual expression of the soul. Exercise compassion toward others and will break free from those monkeys in your mind that seek to hold you in captivity. 
 
5.) Commit to gratitude.
We’ve all been guilty of taking things for granted, complaining too much, and expressing entitlement from time to time. Those habits are the monkeys. The habit of the heart expresses gratitude. It says “I am thankful” not as a comparison, but as an authentic expression of gratitude for all the many good things that exist in life. How many times do we express gratitude for having an abundance of food, a home, health, income, clean water, safety, and all those things that provide a sense of stability? Gratitude expands the heart and allows us to access and hear the inner voice of the soul. Gratitude tames the mind and dispels those monkeys and their circus. 
 
They say that when life hands you lemons, make lemonade? I say when life hands you lemons, don’t become one. I say commit to studying those lemons; they come as teachers to help you grow, expand, and become a better, more heart and soul-centered version of yourself.
 
Life will always bring change, sometimes unwelcomed change. And the only certainty is that there will always be uncertainty. But by staying grounded in the habits and intelligence of the heart, we can navigate that change and all the uncertainty with grace, poise and confidence.
 
Thank you for reading. If you are interested in learning more about my coaching services, please email me.
 
Submitted with love,
 
Michelle

​I know a lot of you have an interest in the Tarot, and rightfully so! It’s a wonderful tool for self-discovery and connecting with Spirit Guides and Angels through an oracle.
 
So, I thought I’d write regular pieces on specific cards and the themes I notice over any given month.
 
This month, I’ve chosen the nine of wands because a number of people have recently come to me in search of insight regarding new and existing relationships. Questions have arisen such as: “Will this relationship work?” “What can I do to improve this relationship?” and “How does this person feel about me?”
 
Now, while there are human ways to answer those questions, being an oracle, the Tarot doesn’t answer them as a human would. The Tarot answers them in ways that point to certain lessons you need to learn in order to progress in life, reach your goals, and achieve more satisfying relationships with others – beginning with yourself!
 
Remember: The Tarot (as an oracle) is all about self-discovery! The goal is to help you transform thought habits and patterns that keep you stuck in seemingly endless cycles of anxiety, disappointment and sometimes pain. It is not simply to tell your fortune so that you can go through life relying on fate to determine your experiences and outcomes, or to constantly relieve you of anxiety.
 
The Oracle is the “mouthpiece” of sentient beings called Spirit Guides, Angels, and even your own Soul.
 
Sentient beings are not human, they do not have human mouths or human brains or names. They speak through oracles and omens. Intuitives, psychics, mediums, and clairvoyants are interpreters of the language of Spirit and oracle. We are the human decoders and mouthpieces of the invisible and non-human.
 
Lots to cover here! Hope I haven’t lost you!
 
OK. Back to the nine of wands. In the Tarot, it is a card that is depicted by a person who is holding one staff with eight others behind them. The image portrays a person who is guarding what they have and is alert to being pillaged or taken advantage of. It also portrays a person who appears to be in a holding or stationary position, as if not ready or able to move ahead just yet.
 
Without going into the history of the Tarot, and all of the many ways that this card is depicted, or even the symbolism of the number nine in numerology, I will say that this is the card of boundaries, waiting, watching, and being patient.
 
So, if this card appears in your reading, it is most likely you have lessons in one or all of those areas. And, if you want your relationships to improve, you must master these lessons. The card is telling you that your experiences have met with anxiety and perhaps letdown because you haven’t established correct boundaries with others, you have moved too fast at times, and that you need to slow down, take caution and keep your guard up against being taken advantage of.
 
Make sense so far?
 
The card says: “The fate of the outcome depends on your ability to grow in these areas of life and human interaction.”
 
Again, if you see this card: Take heed! Don’t rely on fate. Examine yourself, your impulses, and thought patterns that have caused you to question what intuition has likely already told you.
 
The Tarot as an oracle is about self-discovery and the lessons you need to learn in order to listen to your own inner voice, deepen faith in yourself, and connect you more intimately to your truest path and the Spirit World. It is an oracle designed to lead you out of obscurity, self-doubt and an over-reliance on fate -- so that you can achieve the goals you’ve established as a Soul here on earth.
 
I am now offering one-on-one in person instruction on Tarot. If you are interested in this service and deepening your intuitive abilities, please click here.

To email me for more options, click here.
 
Submitted with love,
 
Michelle
612-567-0493

So much has been written about the concept of the "Twin Flame", and so many have come to me inquiring about it, that I felt compelled to explain things from my own experiences. So bear with me.

Firstly, please allow me give a cursory definition of what Twin Flames are:

They are two souls who come to earth originating from the same soul group and source.

On the earth plane, they may lead or have led very different lifestyles, may not be immediately attracted to one another physically, and in fact may never meet face-to-face at all. The flame that unites them is inner and not dependent on the outer. Because the purpose of their reunion is to awake psychic and soulful awareness, Twins often meet while living at a distance and live distances apart. Physical distance requires them find each other, organically, across all boundaries, soul-to-soul. Sexual chemistry and physical attraction are byproducts of their connection, not causes of it.

Secondly, just because we find one or more Twin Flames while here on earth, doesn't mean we are destined to be together with them for life. To the contrary, usually we are not destined to have a conventional earthbound relationship with a Twin, and it is not uncommon to reunite with a Twin while married or involved in other earthly relationships. This is what can make reuniting with a Twin Flame so painful and emotionally and mentally taxing. Some writers on this topic have mentioned that in the Twin Flame union, there is one who is the "Runner" and the other the "Chaser." While I don't dispute that this often happens, to me, it's more accurate to say that Twins have earthbound challenges to overcome that interfere with them maintaining an earthly union. It's the earthbound challenges, also called "Karma," that brought each here in the first place, and it's what each came to resolve -- separately and uniquely. They could not resolve those challenges and those karmic lessons in the comfort of their own blissful cocoon. 

They choose others as life partners to resolve those challenges and karmic lessons.

Thirdly, Twin Flames experience love that is unconditional. It is not a love based on the ego needs, such as "He/She makes ME feel" this way or that. It is a love that comes from the Cosmos and penetrates the earth plane through the souls of two human beings. The love that is felt as euphoria stemming from ME or I is ego-based love, and is not the same as a love that comes upon us from seemingly out of nowhere and cannot easily be explained. It is the same type of love identical twins would feel for each other. Their connection is metaphysical, telepathic, felt in the spirit and soul, and life affirming. 

Twin Flames can feel each other's thoughts as bodily sensations at a distance. These bodily sensations are sexual because it is through sexuality that the flame of love is nurtured and bonded. For instance, heterosexual men will feel themselves inside the sexual organs of their Twin, and females will feel the penetration of the male Twin as if he were actually there.  The bodies unite in thought and produce the same sensations as if they were touching in real time.

Twins experience telepathic sexuality through the sexual chakras using their thoughts as the conductor, not their bodies. This type of sexual intimacy creates a pleasure that is otherworldly and immensely gratifying, especially to the soul, because that's where it originates.  

If you sense that you have reunited with a Twin Flame, take caution. This reunion wasn't designed to reward your journey with a "Happily Ever After," like a Hollywood film. It was designed to awaken you to who you truly are, and to help you learn to love from the highest plane we can experience while here on earth; the plane where truly unconditional love exists, also called Heaven. 

It was designed to unleash your soul from the captivity of your ego self and shine light on your real and truest identity.

In closing, remember that Heaven, like true love, cannot be possessed or manipulated. It can only be experienced, and if it comes, trust that you've been blessed, even if it doesn't stay very long. 

Lovingly submitted to all searching souls,

Michelle 

Every culture has idioms that contain pearls of wisdom. For instance, most of us are familiar with ones such as “Why buy the cow when you can get the milk for free?” and “Be careful what you wish for, you just might get it” and “You never miss your water till the well runs dry.”
 
But then there are the lesser known ones, such as those I heard repeatedly while growing up among African American elders. One of them has not only made its way into the popular lexicon and culture, but it can be traced back to some of the oldest of black spirituals, and what they once called “Negro slang.”
 
That idiom is: “I don’t want for nothing.”
 
Isn’t it remarkable how such profound wisdom can be expressed using so few words, and from people who never learned to read or write? From people whose ancestors were once enslaved?
 
I do marvel at the wisdom of the elders, those who were violently denied literacy and formal education. In spite of their trials and the deep suffering they had to endure, they didn’t worry and complain. They said: “I don’t want for nothing.”
 
Let’s pause here briefly to examine what it means to not want for nothing. I’m sure if you’re like most people in America, where we are taught and conditioned to want, it can be nearly impossible to imagine living without desire.
 
And do you know why?
 
It’s because we are programmed for attachment.
 
Aha! Attachment! The twin of desire, its binary. That emotion that causes suffering. Attachment to what we want, attachment to outcomes, fear, to sorrow, to the past, to the future, to the present. Wherever there is attachment, there is desire, and wherever there is desire, there can be no peace. Where there is no peace, there is suffering.
 
Allow me to break this down a little better. I’ll start by asking you to think about what occupies your thoughts on a daily basis. What do your daily thoughts consist of? Usually a combination of wishes, desires, anxieties, fears, and complaints. All of them rooted in attachment.
 
Now, imagine being in a mental place where you could affirm that you don’t want for nothing. Not because you have attained all that you imagined that you wished for, or because you have satisfied all of your desires, or erased all your past pain, or because you’re fearless in the face of uncertainty. But because you simply looked at desire and said to it: “You don’t own me. You don’t define me. You are not the master of my life, soul, or being. I don’t want for nothing, I said. I am complete. There is no void.”
 
Imagine the mental and emotional freedom and power that would come from simply giving up the desire/attachment binary, by stepping out of it.
 
Then what? What would you do with your freedom to be at peace?
 
Today I encourage you to choose freedom over suffering. I encourage you to choose detachment; to free yourself from desire and to let life be, just as it is, on its own terms.
 
Let yourself be, just as you were created, whole and complete.
 
May all be well with your soul and every blessing come to you on your journey.
 
Lovingly,
 
Michelle
 
 
 
 
 

​Life is a big classroom.
 
For human spirits and souls, this big classroom will teach us all many lessons, some easier than others, but all designed for the same purpose: Love.
 
Now, don’t get sidetracked. When I speak of love, I don’t mean the love we share with another. I mean the love we build and nurture within ourselves; a deep acceptance and appreciation for our own being. Appreciation and love for ourselves as unique souls on this planet, who came here to learn from this earthly classroom called Life.
 
We will no doubt confront many lessons, and some of them are more challenging than others, but the one that unites us all and that is universal is the lesson of self-acceptance.
 
We will confront death, we will confront change, and sometimes inexplicable trauma, but the goal is all the same:
 
To find who we truly are and accept it.
 
When we discover who we are and accept it, we see ourselves as engineers of our destinies, not victims of them.
 
We see life as full of potential and opportunity for spiritual recreation and personal reinvention.
 
You might now be asking how all of this relates to finding a good love match?
 
I get it! But trust me, patience will be your friend, and impatience your worst enemy!
 
The key to finding a solid relationship and good match in love, is to shed all the false versions of yourself that you have created as reactions to rejection from the outer world.
 
I hope you heard that.
 
So, the first step is to move toward utter self-honesty. If you have had the repeat experience of being used, for example, examine and study the version of yourself that you’ve created which has brought you these experiences; they are your lessons in self-acceptance.
 
If you have created a version of yourself that says “Love me! I have lots to offer! Take all you want!”
 
Then that version of yourself has led you to experiences of being abused and taken advantage of. And it’s time to create a better version of yourself-- if you want to attract a good match in love.
 
When are trying to prove our worth to others, and ourselves, we attract painful and self-destructive experiences into our lives.
 
That’s real talk.
 
When we accept and approve of ourselves, we attract a positive and life affirming mate and complement. The complement can be negative or it can be positive, the choice is ours.
 
Fate will deal us its cards. It’s up to us to learn how to work with them.
 
So, beyond learning to accept change and death, there are two universal lessons that all humans in this life classroom will confront, and they are:

1. Learning to cope with rejection
2. Learning to accept ourselves

 
 
When we learn to confront rejection, we learn to accept ourselves. If we don’t learn to accept rejection, we go through life attracting more of it until we do, or until we die.
 
The beauty of the human mind is that it is equipped with free will the ability to decide.
 
If you want true love and a good match to enter your life, accept who you are and change what you no longer want to be.
 
Most of all, see yourself for what you are, not what you want others to prove to you.
 
Thank you for reading. I will be offering courses in self-love and acceptance. Please continue to visit my blog and website.
 
Much love,
 
Michele

Hello, Friends and Kindred Spirits!
 
I know it’s been awhile, and I apologize for my long sojourn. But I’m back! I’m happy about that and I hope you are, too!
 
You know, life had to teach me more lessons to share with you, and so that’s what I intend to do, right here and now!
 
OK. Let’s jump right in to the subject. It’s one that I’m sure you’ve thought and read about, but please allow me to give my perspective. Ahem! It’s about … drum roll …. The Five Types of People Who Teach Us How to Better Love Ourselves!
 
Aren’t you excited? I am!
 
As we travel into the New Year, now is a good time to give some advice on how to learn from lessons from the past and apply some wisdom moving forward.
 
Don’t you agree?
 
Relationships provide the most painful experiences in life, whether they concern family, love, friends or coworkers, relationships always come with pain. Why? Because they help us to grow!
 
Now, I don’t know about you, but I’m all about growth and turning my pain into knowledge for personal development and wisdom. Most importantly, I’m all about transforming Karma--that pesky thing that follows us from lifetime to lifetime, and which brings us here in the first place--that entire force which influences our lives and ultimately our fate.
 
So, even though this topic is about types of people who teach us, it’s also about recognizing our own karmic participation, so that we don’t unconsciously stay stuck in unwanted and painful karmic cycles.
 
Now, the way I have labeled these “types” may come across as negative or with a negative vibration, but the truth is we are ALL guilty of them, and the key to transforming karma is to become aware of ourselves as both students and teachers in this big classroom called Life.
 
None of us is victim. We are at once creators and recipients of pain, just as we are at once creators and at once recipients of pleasure. How we impact that pendulum of pleasure and pain, which I call Karma, is up to us.
 
In 2018, which in numerology vibrates as the number 2 (2+1+8=11, and 1=1=2), I am encouraging everyone to engage in a process of deeper self–study. Specifically, around how we participate in the creation of Karma, first by becoming aware of personalities that exist around us, and then by recognizing the tendencies that exist within us.
 
The following is a list of “types” and tips for how to identify them before you get caught in an unwanted cycle with them, or how to learn from them if you already have. Most importantly, these types have been placed here as a tool for self-reflection. The advice is to grow and change – that is if you seek to rise above these types and transform your Karma and your life!

1. The Emotional Predator: Usually, these types are on the prowl for those they perceive to be lonely, depressed or needy. They lavish attention in the beginning of a relationship as a way to get others “hooked” on them. They study the vulnerabilities of others and prey upon them, making others feel that they “need” them, or creating codependent situations rife with emotional abuse. Beware! Always be cognizant of the vibration you are carrying so as to not attract these types; there are an abundance of them roaming this planet. They tend to be married and lead secret or double lives. They prey on others because they are afraid of being preyed upon, and because they don’t care who they hurt, as long as it’s not themselves.
2. The Constant Complainer: You’ve heard of that film “The Constant Gardner”? Well, this is the Constant Complainer. This type of personality constantly complains about the pains he/she has experienced in life. If allowed, the entire conversation will be consumed by this person’s need to complain about pain, and when given the chance to listen to others, they can’t. They are self-absorbed and self-possessed and even when friendship, love or compassion is offered to them, they cannot fully appreciate it because they are addicted to complaining. They only given when you agree to listen to their complaining. This type never stops to self-reflect on how they self-victimize. Of course, others will walk away in annoyance. Who wants a one-sided relationship? What they complain about, they constantly do to others. Bad Karma. These types have a lifetime of Karma where they cry over lost stones when diamonds are offered to them.
3. The Disappearing Act: You know these types. They disappear and reappear at will; they come around when they need something or when it’s convenient for them. They, too, are self-involved and can’t see beyond their own selfish lens in life. Oftentimes, they are at once the Constant Complainer and the Disappearing Act. Stay away from these types and don’t let yourself be misled into thinking that you can heal them with your attention or love. They don’t want or deserve it. Like Will Smith admonished: “Never chase people.” It’s emotionally dangerous to chase a Disappearing Act. Let them stay gone.
4. The Spiritual Vandal: These types will exhibit forms of micro aggression. So, for example, if you express your opinions to them, they will spray you like a skunk with the stench of self-doubt. We all need others to offer different perspectives, but these types simply want to be contrary and dismissive of your ideas and opinions. The goal is to diminish your confidence and leave your aura feeling “vandalized.”
   These types will always be ready to help you doubt, question or second guess yourself with their snide remarks. Driven by their own issues with petty competition, they are deeply disloyal in friendship and love. Stay away.
5. The Emotional Bully: This type searches out those who are in need of approval, validation or acceptance. The main tools of the Emotional Bully are: silence, ghosting (disappearing), shaming (spiritual vandalizing), and rejecting. The key to keeping them off your karmic path is to keep a high sense of self-worth. Bullies and predators seek out those they perceive to be needy or “weak.” They are energized by creating an artificial sense of being needed. Beware!

 
It is my hope that this piece assists you in navigating your way through the rocky terrains of human relationships, and the Karma associated with them.
 
Remember: We are always teachers and students here! To study ourselves is to study Karma. Those we attract into our lives appear to teach us about parts of ourselves and personalities we cannot see and that need transforming.
 
If you want to change who and what you attract, change who and what you are!
 
Wishing you every good with for success in 2018 and beyond!
 
Lovingly,
Michelle

If you’re human, you’ve experienced times of heaven and hell in your life. You’ve experienced times when things were great and bright, and you’ve experienced times when things have been painful and dark.

​What I’m here to say is that that what matters most isn’t what happens to us, it’s how we react to those things, whether good or bad.

Forgive me for not citing the original author of that thought and quote.

When I am feeling down, what I do is try my best and stay aligned with the mind of the Creator, or that essence of higher intelligence that communicates to me when my mind is free from the encapsulating and imprisoning physical world that’s full of drama, uncertainty and confusion.

The mind of the Creator cannot be accessed when the human mind is preoccupied with thoughts of Self.

​Thoughts of Self are grounded in selfishness and self preoccupation.
In the mindset of Self, I cannot experience bliss and connectivity that comes from soaring like a bird to the mind of the Creator; In thoughts of Self, I’m chained to the past or experiencing anxiety about the future.

In the mind of the Creator, I’m free.

This morning I was listening to the birds as they sang and tuning in to the messages of their songs.
And they sing songs imbibed with wisdom!

They said: “People come and go. Situations come and go. We live and we die. That is life.”
I accept their messages. We might as well all accept those messages.
If you are struggling with being chained to the past, or having obsessive thoughts about the future, here are my tips for you:

1. Learn to live in the here and now: You can’t relive a past that is dead and gone, and you can’t live in a future that is yet to be.
2. Release attachment to how you want things to be: You can’t control life. You can only accept it as it comes. If it hands you lemons, as they say, learn to make lemonade.
3. Remember that others may be struggling far worse than you: There are others among us that are struggling with death, dying, poor health, poverty, lack of clean water and natural resources. Express gratitude!
4. Don’t over-identify with your pain! Give yourself permission to be free like a bird and soar mentally and emotionally! Commune with Mother Nature and listen to her speak words and thoughts of love to you.
5. Walk away from situations that are emotionally draining and toxic to you! You were not put here to save anyone or be an angel. Angels are not human, they are emanations from God. Let yourself serve the higher purposes of Good, but don’t get attached and think it’s about you! Your birthright is happiness, not suffering.

​I will continue to write on these topics. Next one is about being too attuned to negative energy and how to work with the subconscious.
Offered in light and love,
Michelle

There are times in life when we just want the Universe to take the wheel and drive us to our destiny, thinking that if we give up our capacity to steer our lives, everything will work out fine.
Hey! I’m human. I get it!
But the truth is that we make decisions, and the beauty of being human is that we are gifted with the ability to reason and exercise free will.
Now, I know some of you have talked to other psychics and when predictions didn’t pan out, you were told is that the person changed their free will.
True as that might be, the real fact is that we may have subconsciously changed ours, too.
The topic of this post, therefore, is the power of free will and how to use it to align with the Universe to manifest what’s best for our lives.
Free will can be thought of as the mind’s ability to make choices. Sometimes the mind can act on impulse and make a split-second decision that is unforeseeable, but a lot of the time the mind is prone to habit, and makes choices in a pattern-like way until we become aware of why we make the choices we make.
Pain is usually the way this happens.
You’ve heard the old saying “No pain. No gain.” Haven’t you?
Well, that’s true. We experience pain until we become aware of the choices we make and how they impact the outcome of our lives.
When I was in my twenties, I thought I had life all mapped out. I would marry, have children, a home and all would be as desired.
But then real life hit me, like a ton of bricks!
Yes, I got married, had children, obtained graduate degrees, bought a home, etc, but once that had all been achieved, I was overwhelmed and most of the time miserable.
Why? You may ask.
The answer is because all of those decisions didn’t come from my higher self. Those decisions weren’t made based on alignment with the Universe. They were based on fear.
Fear of not experiencing what I wanted to experience in life. Fear of what my parents, peers and family thought. Fear of not being selected as a mate. And I could go on.
My highest self, in the meantime, was patient. It waited in the background until I was ready to confront it and listen to its voice.
The highest self is the intelligence of the heart, it is the soul.
The mind is the structure that organizes the messages from the heart and soul, but it is not the originator of those messages.
Once we become masters at listening to that original voice, and knowing the difference between the heart and the mind, we are free to experience what I call alignment with the Universe.
We are free to manifest that which is truly good for our lives.
The following are tips for getting into alignment and manifesting from a place of awareness and consciousness:

1. Be an observer of your thoughts: When you feel your mind take you to fear and comparison, redirect to the source of life: your Soul. Listen to what the soul says without trying too hard to make sense of it.
2. Give yourself permission to be discontent: Get off social media, which is the arena of comparison, gossip and narcissism. If you are discontent, be honest and transparent with yourself, not because you are comparing your life to someone else’s, but because you are genuinely discontent.
3. Grant yourself permission to be fully present: Most of our mental discomfort comes from trying to live in a foregone past, or a yet-to-be materialized future. Grant yourself permission to just be at peace in the present moment.
4. Adorn yourself with gifts of self-love, patience, and acceptance: You are the captain of your own ship. You deserve to have a steady head and skilled hands. Take it easy and don’t judge or become impatient with yourself or life as you weather your storms.
5. Remember: The Universe is not your safety net and will not rescue you from your own choices. It will only help you help yourself. So, pay attention to the way that it speaks to you, and send it unconditional love the way it sends love to you! Listen!!!

Submitted with light and love,
Michelle