Clarity and Quiet Time, blanketed in white...

The title sounds poetic right!?!  Lately, before I snuggle in to dream what dreams may come I have been pulling a couple, 3 cards from a Doreen Virtue Healing with the Fairies deck that I keep on the bed side table.  This is a little ritual that I started a week or two ago to help me start journaling every night.  It is really interesting the cards that are coming up in a repetitive manner, one of those cards is "Quiet Time".  This card speaks to taking time for yourself in whatever manner you would like to take it. Really doing something for you that you WANT to do and not that you need to get done. 
So today I honored that and have been blissfully inactive, reading and snoozing off and on while the world outside also appears to sleep while blanketed in white.  It's like the snow muffles the world and suddenly it gets quiet too.  In this state of blissful nothingness I spent some time thinking about clarity and the rash of confusion I feel I had been living in for the months since I lost my mom in August. 
Losing someone who is such a fixture in your life creates a hole and if you are not careful it can act as a black hole pulling into it anything and everything.  I have worked very hard to combat this by pushing forward in my life and almost forcing myself towards my goals, yet with the confusion and grief that was sitting on my heart, I fell a little off track and had to learn some interesting lessons to pull me back to my center.  I had to re-learn how to stand up for myself and what I believe in.  I had to re-learn that if the energy is not a good fit for me I am allowed to walk away, and finally I had to re-learn that my intuition is right, to follow my gut and that there is nothing more important than my happiness. NOTHING!! 
In learning these lessons I have had to swallow my pride a couple of times and instead of admitting defeat, I have accepted change, I have walked through my fear of making choices based on my heart instead of my head and I am still working with and learning to trust daily.  It has been amazing the doors that have opened and are starting to open for me since this year began.  I am incredibly grateful.
Now don't get me wrong, I am still grieving for my mom and I still have my moments of having a heavy heart but it is an easier load to carry with a little clarity on where I want to go and the trust to follow that intuition and my heart.
Soooo I do want to talk a little bit about different ways to clear your personal energy that can help to clear your head...
One very common way to clear your energy is to use sage, you can burn it and waft it onto and into your personal space.  The smoke will clear out any negative energy that you may be carrying, and if you set the intention to also release anything that is not serving you or is not yours to carry this energy will fall away as well.  You can also use sage to clear your home, office, car or any space where the feeling is heavy or negative.
Another excellent clearing or clarity technique is visualization.  There are many great CD meditations that offer clearing meditations that are simple and easy to use.  (Doreen Virtue has some great ones). If you prefer to do this on your own, I recommend that you find a quiet space, sit comfortably and turn your vision in, visualize what your personal energy looks like and then you can use white light to clear out any dark areas or you can ask the angels and archangels to come in and help you clear. (I personally ask Archangel Michael to come in and he shows up with a vacuum and vacuums all the negative energy off of me)
You can also use visualization while in the shower as the sensation of the water running off of you can help with the visualization of the energy being cleansed. 
If you prefer to use sound, Tibetan and crystal singing bowls are great for clearing personal energy and spaces.

And finally (and this is one of my favorites) you can lie down and focus on your physical body.  Tense up each area of your body and then relax and release, with the release you are also clearing the energy of that area of the body.  I recommend that you work from your head to your toes as this encourages the energy to flow down into the earth.  An example is to tense up all the muscles in your face and then relax and release, then move onto the muscles in your neck.

All of the exercises that I have mentioned are also a form a meditation and can really help bring clarity into the mind, especially if you are struggling with a specific decision or situation.
So feel free to give some of these a whirl and if you have any questions or suggestions of your own on clearing please comment, I would love to help or hear yours. After all these are just one girls thoughts...

The music of a new generation

Lately I have been noticing that many of the songs that are popping out into the main stream have an amazing message of one kind or another.  They carry messages of hope, love, perseverance, the strength to leave desperate situations and the determination to move forward with life with joy and love.  Now it could be that I am in a place to finally notice these messages within the music and that they have been present all along OR this could be an indication of the shift in energy that we are globally participating in.  This shift appears to be bring an amazing faith in positivity to the forefront of our minds, allowing us to rejoice in so many different areas, and I gotta say I am stoked that it has hit the main stream music market.  Some of the artists that come to mind and currently have songs in the top 20 (I think, lets not quote me here ok) are Hedley with One life and Invincible, Nickleback with When we stand together (I know, I can hear the collective groans but hey, the song has a good message), Rhianna with We found love, and Flo Rider with I've gotta good feeling.  Many of these songs have moved me so strongly it is like they have imprinted onto my soul.  I cannot help but feel so happy when I hear I've gotta good feeling by Flo Rider, and I have taken up Invincible by Hedley as my own personal theme song for the current phase in my life.
I know I am not alone in music moving me and speaking to something deep within me, but I do wonder if anyone else has noticed a shift in the current themes our main stream music has been putting out there.  Are we collectively moving away from the angst-filled music of my teenage years into a movement of hope and unfailing positivity??  Or is this just where the Pop music scene is headed?? 
I am by no means an expert in anything music so any other ideas from those of you who are musically oriented or more involved in the current music scene would be appreciated.  Cuz as I am sure you are aware these are just the thoughts of this one girl...

Well Hello

So this is the first entry on this page one of this one girls thoughts, and I have to say this is a little easier than I thought it might be.  I mean if I am just rambling then, well, ok maybe not so easy...
As I sat here and looked at the daunting blankness of the computer screen before me I am reminded of how it is like to journal.  Often I have gone for a reading or a healing and one of the messages that comes through is, "Nicole you should really start to journal, it will help you organize your thoughts and be great for getting in line with your gratitiude." but it seems that these people who are asking me to do this are natural writers.  They understand how to put words on the page while I on the other hand sit in my bed, staring at the blank page asking myself what in the heck do I have to write about anyway...  so my journals end up having a general feel of "here this is what I did today" no special insight comes through, no AHA moments for me to feel I have really had that great breakthrough that I keep being told journalling will bring to me.
Soooo I have made a deal with myself and the NEW journal I bought just the other day.  The deal is this, I will pull 3 cards from my Doreen Virtue Healing with the Fairies deck each night and in this journal I will write what those cards are and what message each has that really stands out to me and if any of it relates to my day or where my thoughts are at this time.  I think I am hoping that I will be able to look back and read that WOW I was actually on track when I thought I was so lost in the woods.  Maybe just maybe this will lead to an actual journal experience that I keep reaching for and keep feeling that I am missing as my thoughts turn to "what the heck do I have to write about anyway"
The funniest part of all this mind jargan is that it really is my personal expectations of what journally should be that are really holding me back, oh perception how you foil me. haha.
So I hope any of you who have decided to read this have been in the very least a little entertained by the ramblings of this one girl.  Maybe these ramblings have even made you think, and maybe you will even pick up a journal today and try out a not so in the box way of journally.  If you do I would love to hear about it, just leave a comment below :)

Happy writing everyone!!