Shift Your Spirits

The Spirits of Memory

Slade Roberson — Sat, 18 May 2013 20:54:14 +0000

What are the spirits of the dead if not the memories of the living? The part of those you’ve known that you carry within you, like a program downloaded into your own heart and soul, which can, at any present moment, be opened, run, played like a song.

A client named Lisa expressed her regret to me that she lives too far away from where her parents are buried to put flowers on their graves for Memorial Day. Lisa said that every May, year after year, she feels that she is “failing” to properly honor their spirits. She does technically remember them — but with a deep sadness and guilt, picturing their markers bare except for weeds. She worries that they wonder why she is not connecting with them.

I assured her that the physical location of their remains isn’t nearly as relevant to that connection as she has chosen to believe. Contrary to the pop culture creep factor of ghost hunting in graveyards, spirits don’t hang out around the places where their bodies are interred — they may never have even visited that location during their lifetimes.

Spirits return to the places where they have lived — and, even more so, they are drawn to the souls of those who love and remember them, wherever the living may be.

How to Be Your Own Medium

There are powerful alternatives to putting flowers on a grave in order to connect with a departed loved one:

Look at photographs
Get together or call those who also knew them and revisit shared memories
Tell stories about them — especially to your children or people who did not know them in life
Write about them
Wear a piece of jewelry or clothing that you inherited from them
Hold a treasure that belonged to them
Read their letters, diaries, or a book you know they loved
Cook a dish they used to prepare for you
Listen to their favorite music
Go to a special location or a view that they loved
Rent their favorite movies and watch them with someone who’s never seen them before
Research your family tree and give copies to younger generations
Throw a party and create new wakes, now more thankfully distant from grief
Buy flowers for them, but display them in your own house
Sit in someone’s favorite chair
Take a nap with a blanket that they made
Display their artwork
Make scrapbooks or publish your own book about them
Plant trees in your own yard that will be continual reminders

My parents planted a weeping willow tree in the yard of the house where I grew up. My Mama told me that it was my grandmother’s favorite kind of tree, and although it’s hundreds of miles from her grave or anywhere that she ever lived, it makes me think of her every time I see it.

Just like your computer can open a document or image or file that was created on someone else’s computer, your heart (your mind) is a medium for spirit — your own spirit as well as the spirits of others.

The key to opening that spiritual file is not just any memory but a specifically a joyful one.

Who would want to come around just so they can revisit only the painful moments from their lives, or witness your grief, sadness, and regrets?

If you want to connect with your departed loved ones, the magic password is laughter-through-tears:

When you recall the memory that makes you laugh out loud, or at least smile — even as it follows those painful emotions — that’s the frequency, the vibration, the signal, that reconnects the eternal, the timeless, with the present.

Image credit © h.koppdelaney via Flickr

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50 Ways You’re Already Psychic

Slade Roberson — Sat, 11 May 2013 20:14:56 +0000

The word “psychic” describes entirely natural, fundamental, inherent instincts that we all experience. Intuitive or psychic information automatically manifests in everyday life. You may not even consider psychic experiences to be all that unusual.

You Might Be Psychic If…

How many of the following do you recognize?
Here are some examples of common, everyday manifestations of psychic ability. As you read through this list, keep count of all the examples that have happened to you.

You have an object, piece of jewelry, or article of clothing that seems to attract “luck” or protection whenever you have it with you.
You believe yourself to be, and describe yourself as, “a good judge of character.”
You have an immediate sense of comfort or discomfort when meeting certain people for the first time, and that feeling is more important to you than anything they may say or do.
Some people just seem to “glow” or radiate good vibes, while others have energy that feels dimmed.
You see lights around people’s heads.
You see floating orbs or blobs of light and color.
Your photographs are full of orbs.
You perceive shadows or smudges in the air.
You’ve seen, heard, or felt what you can only call ghosts or spirits.
You have family members who claim to have had psychic experiences.
You have a profound sense of dislike or distrust of someone (for no “good” reason) that later proves to be justified.
You have some sense of people’s “stories” or you find that you know details about their lives before you get to know them.
You seem to have a sign floating above your head that invites strangers to tell you their personal histories or to discuss their intimate problems.
When you meet animals (pets) for the first time, they always respond to you positively, relative to other people; their owners remark “She must really like you; she’s usually not this friendly with strangers.”
Your own pets always know when you’re about to arrive, even when it’s off-schedule.
Babies either smile at you readily or cannot seem to stop staring at you.
You know a friend’s mood the moment you see her or hear her voice.
You notice the atmosphere of a room change when someone new enters it.
When visiting a building of historical significance you can “see” people and events taking place there, almost like flashes of scenes from a film.
You feel “hot” or “cold” spots inside houses that are independent of drafts or vents.
When you travel, you sometimes feel a sense of familiarity with a place you’ve never been before — you may feel an overwhelming emotion, a sense of deja vu, or seem to instinctively feel your way around without a map.
You are repeatedly drawn to a certain historical place, time period, or culture.
Your family and friends “joke” about how you’re psychic.
You can correctly predict the sex of unborn children.
No joking aside, your family and friends always want you to weigh in on their important decisions and personal issues.
You think a lot of people you meet “look familiar,” look like someone else, or you feel that you’ve met them before.
You attract other people who share the experiences we call intuition or psychic abilities.
You know who’s calling the moment you hear the phone ring.
You see sequences of the same numbers over and over again, often enough that you wonder what they must mean.
You suddenly find yourself thinking about someone who hasn’t crossed your mind in years, and soon after you receive a call or email from him, or literally run into him on the street.
You’ve had to change hotel rooms or move to a new home because you felt uncomfortable or unsafe in a certain space, for purely “psychic” reasons.
You often call your friends and family and the voice mail or call waiting shows that you are trying to call each other at the exact same moment.
Your dreams often come true.
You dream that you are people other than yourself.
You dream that you are speaking a foreign language (one you don’t know in your waking life).
You hear your children calling out for you, even when they are too physically far away for you to hear them.
You often hear someone calling your name, even when there is no one there.
You hear music playing in the distance that you can’t seem to locate.
You hear the muffled rumble of people carrying on conversations through the walls.
You often have to turn off the shower because you think you hear someone calling, the phone ringing, or music playing.
You notice cars following you while driving that suddenly seem to have vanished.
You “lose time” while walking or driving and find yourself farther along your route that you think you should be.
You change your regular route, on a sudden impulse, and later discover that you avoided a traffic jam, accident, train crossing, etc.
You become physically ill before an event or cancel plans at the last minute, finding out later that it was a “disaster.”
You stop at a store on a whim and discover something you’ve been looking for, as if you were led to it.
You feel the need to call, text, or email and “check on” someone who is on your mind. You find out that something has indeed happened or that something significant is going on with her.
When you were a child, you had imaginary friends with elaborate back-stories, and you knew very specific, detailed information about who they are.
You sometimes suddenly smell a perfume (or a scent such as tobacco) that is familiar to you or that you associate with someone you used to know.
You often feel watched, or you could swear that someone is about to enter the room, even when you know yourself to be physically alone.
You have the sense of an idea trying to break through, or feel like a pattern is about to emerge, like the sensation of having a word “on the tip of your tongue.”

How many more of these types of examples could you add to this list?

How many are true for you?
If you found that twenty (20) or more of these statements resonate with you as true or familiar, you already have a high degree of natural, inherent psychic ability. Even if you only identify with about ten (10) of these examples, you still probably have powerful intuition that simply lies latent, dormant, or undeveloped.

Anyone Can Develop Psychic Abilities.

With good intentions and a practical approach, especially in the context of serving other people, you can develop your intuition. If you want to learn how to practice your intuition for your own personal use, check out the courses on Talking to Your Spirit Guides and Automatic Writing.

If you’re ready to learn how to do psychic readings for others…

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If you’ve been wanting to take your intuition to the next level, and make it your career, now is the time!

Check out the course description page:
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Higher Ground

Slade Roberson — Sun, 05 May 2013 03:32:55 +0000

It’s way too easy (for many of us) to choose to feel badly as a means of ensuring that we feel Something. Anything at all.

Is it really that much of a wonder why weakness of spirit and lack of self-esteem allow people to choose “drama” in their lives? You don’t understand the origin of that motivation? Come on.

We choose drama for fun — stories, music, gossip, entertainment, sex, voyeurism, creation and death… The mind loves drama. The brain lives to solve problems. As a machine, it’s highly specialized. That is exactly what it evolved to do.

And, so, we can’t seem to exist without a challenge…

We’re afraid that the effort and the commitment that our dreams require might not pay off. What if we work our asses off and only get halfway there?

It’s damn easy to be right about getting Nowhere.

How “right” do you need to be? Or how how badly do you need to be right?

A crazy attempt never hurts as much as you fear.

Go ahead. Wear yourself out climbing up onto the high road.

The view is worth it.

Image credit h.koppdelaney via Creative Commons on Flickr

Professional Intuitive Training — $250 OFF until May 31

If you’ve been intending to do Automatic Intuition, now is the time to take your intuitive abilities to the next level!

Please check out the course description page:
http://automaticintuition.com/courses/professional-training

The Souls of Our Pets

Slade Roberson — Sat, 27 Apr 2013 23:01:20 +0000

This week, we lost a beloved family member, my mother’s cat Hannah, who was twenty years old.

With all the strays that have come to us, and the older cats we’ve adopted from other people over the years, Hannah was unique in that she was the one who was adopted from her feline mother shortly after being weaned, lived two full decades in love and abundance, and peacefully left this world in Mama’s arms.

As my friend Seth describes it: “a life loved to completion.”

Driving home, pulling into Mama’s neighborhood, a tiny bright orange fox crossed the street right in front of us. This was only the second time in my entire life that I’ve seen a wild fox in person. In suburbia, it’s not a common occurrence. No one else in the world saw it but the two of us. Only minutes after leaving the vet, the timing was special.

One of my life long friends and animal lovers, Catherine, shared the meaning of Native American fox medicine. It meant a lot to my mother, who interpreted the sighting as Hannah’s confirmation that she had safely made her transition.

This is the happiest ending any of us will ever get. And boy, does this reality suck when you’re living through it. It feels like a bill that has finally come due on years of joy.

It’s worth it.

In honor of all our “angels with fur,” here are some of my thoughts, feelings, and beliefs about familiars.

What is a Familiar?

Some of our pets are guardians incarnated in animal form.

In Wicca, the elevated relationship between human and animal souls is called a familiar. This is not to be confused with an animal totem or a “spirit animal.”

In a literal, tangible way, there are no relationships on earth that teach us more about the benevolent spirit entities who attend us in this life than our animal familiars. Not all our pets or domesticated animals are familiars — the designation is special and unique.

The cat familiar is the most popular or well-known — the “classic” — but this spiritual relationship is not limited to pagan faiths or to any particular species of animal.

I believe:

When you connect to an animal as your familiar, your love elevates her spirit to the human sphere of consciousness. You willfully lift the soul of your animal companion up to our level. You know the ones you’ve done this with — they stand out clearly among your pet/caretaker connections; they become more human than animal.

As a kid it greatly disturbed me that most Christians tried to teach us that animals do not have souls. There could be no doubt to me, that, if there are souls to be had at all, period, by any living entity, then animals have souls. And familiars have a spirit markedly different from wild animals.

Like a spirit guide, ancestor, or guardian angel might do for you, you become the patron of this creature’s spirit. Unlike a human child who emerges from your physical body, but has an independent soul — and so only requires a temporary dependence — you bring your animal familiar into your spiritual body. You lend a piece of your aura to her — she actually becomes part of your soul.

Your animal familiars are the most obvious, visible form of “guardian angel.” They may even be the only kind of spirit guide that manifests a form you can easily perceive.

When she leaves her physical body behind, her spirit remains tethered to yours in a unique way.

You are here to learn how to love, how to transcend suffering, and how to experience joy.

Your animal familiars are pure, unconditional love incarnate. They are “sure things” — their love transcends human judgment. Anyone — no matter their physical appearance, personality, handicaps, abilities, talents, grace, or lack thereof — can have this relationship.

The miracle you have manifested with your familiar in this lifetime is one of your greatest love lessons learned. It can never be reversed. It will never go away. She is your guardian and guide for good. Her form will one day change, but then she will become a small piece of your love — your power — that is no longer bound to the physical world.

Image credit Matt Richards via Creative Commons on Flickr

Advice for the Young Artist

Slade Roberson — Sun, 14 Apr 2013 03:20:28 +0000

That “official,” grownup, professional state that you think established creatives are operating from … it’s exactly the same as what you call attempting, experimenting, learning, rehearsing, trying.

These states of development don’t end so much as you just get tired of waiting for them to give way to some magically confident Other.

Your work is work — it usually sucks a little bit more than you wish it did; paradoxically, nobody else notices nearly as much as you might fear; it’s not yours anymore once you give it to the world; and it continues to get better no matter how, when, where, or at what point you accept that the only “official” or “professional” thing about it (that there will ever be) is the cycle of starting and finishing.

If by “finishing” you think feeling done, feeling you’ve arrived, feeling it’s perfect … that’s all a myth.

Following through is everything — and the only thing — that counts.

And there is great joy to be found in it.

Keep making. Start putting it all out there now. Observe the feedback (with constructive detachment). Pick up your check (if you’ve got one coming to you). Push on.

As humble as the reality of the creative process may be, there is one thing (for sure) that is magical, miraculous, divine about it — no one else on earth can manifest your vision.

Image credit h.koppdelaney via Creative Commons on Flickr

How Your Best Can Hold You Back

Slade Roberson — Sat, 06 Apr 2013 23:43:00 +0000

The concept of “only your best” can hold you back.

Your “Big Ideas” are encased in solid potential — in a time capsule of Someday — like a hatchet in a glass cabinet that should only be smashed in case of fire.

And maybe you’re not sure your goal really warrants an action that can’t be taken back.

Is it important enough to commit the energy?
Should you wait for something bigger, more worthy, before you even try…?

Your greatness has always been in your future — because that’s where you need it to be.

If you don’t test your potential in the present, then you can’t be disappointed. And if your best wasn’t good enough, you can’t regret the past.

But this paralysis — this frozen hope — is responsible for most procrastination.

Your light won’t burn any brighter just because you waited to shine.

Image credit h.koppdelaney via Creative Commons on Flickr

Proactive Spirit

Slade Roberson — Sun, 24 Mar 2013 00:37:37 +0000

Compassion
It’s somewhat easy, really, to respond with compassion. Empathy takes direction from whatever is asked of you. The circumstances tap your heart, and you open it in response.

You say you’re sorry, you pledge prayers and thoughts, your heart goes out… You hurt for others, you feel their pain. You console and comfort.

But compassion is always, at best, slightly after-the-fact, a moment too late.

What do you call this energy when it’s given in advance of need?

Generosity of Spirit
Simple acknowledgment — the little things that make others feel visible and heard, worthy and important.

It’s holding doors for everyone. It’s the stockpile of free smiles that you never run out of. It’s complimenting a stranger on her style in the morning, before she could ever have a bad hair day. It’s remembering to tell someone he’s loved, before any doubts can creep in.

Noticing someone’s efforts before he ever runs out of steam. Giving a push and a pat on the back when there is already great momentum. Encouraging someone to try while she still feels brave.

The personal rewards of handling light are warmth and illumination.

Compassion is reactive. Generosity of spirit is proactive.

Image credit h.koppdelaney via Creative Commons on Flickr

Standing in Your Own Light

Slade Roberson — Sun, 10 Mar 2013 02:26:07 +0000

You’ve always had the power.
You’re not missing anything. There’s nothing to add.

You are already everything you’ve ever wanted to become.
You fulfill your life purpose with every breath you take.

Your mission is hidden in your shadow.
And the shadow you’re standing on is cast by your own light.

Instead of going forward, or making the right turn, or taking flight — drill down.
Dig deeper, right where you stand.

It’s not up, it’s in.
It’s not over, it’s into.
It’s not around, it’s through.

Image credit John Camessiotis via Creative Commons on Flickr

The Positive Side of Mercury Retrograde

Slade Roberson — Sun, 24 Feb 2013 00:27:17 +0000

If you participate in any kind of social media, befriend new agey people and follow spiritualist topics, you’ll be blasted with cries of alarm and dire warnings every time Mercury goes Retrograde. Feel free to spend all day googling “The Meaning of Mercury Retrograde” and “What To Do During Mercury Retrograde.”

…3 weeks, 3 times a year (4 times in some years) = 2 to 3 months per year…

That’s a huge chunk of your life to spend in fear of taking action.

More than anything, Mercury impacts communication. Writing, computers… Um, I don’t have 3 weeks to put the core my working life on hold, do you?

And this is, after all, Shift Your Spirits, so let’s reframe all the Chicken Little bullshit posted online and make Mercury Rx work for us:

How Mercury Retrograde Can Be a Blessing

Breakdowns. Delays.
You can see exactly where things are not working properly. This is a totally effective, practical diagnostic. You have a chance to fix problems and issues.

Procrastination. The Someday Pile.
You can take those big ideas left simmering on the back burner and bring them forward. Finish something you started a long time ago. Complete items on your nagging long-overdue list.

Introspection. Reflection.
You can jump in the deep end of a big ol’ woo woo bubble bath. Journaling, vision boarding, meditating, day dreaming. Self-help, personal development, spiritual evolution. General navel gazing is favored.

The Positive Side of Mercury Retrograde

During Mercury Retrograde, there is absolutely no good reason to suspend plans you’ve already made, or stop working on important projects you’ve already started.

Engage in activities associated with words that begin with Re- :

Re-build.
Re-check.
Re-connect.
Re-consider.
Re-decorate.
Re-discover.
Re-establish.
Re-evaluate.
Re-file.
Re-finish.
Re-flect.
Re-frame.
Re-fuel.
Re-join.
Re-juvenate.
Re-lax.
Re-lease.
Re-new.
Re-negotiate.
Re-organize.
Re-pair.
Re-plenish.
Re-solve.
Re-turn.
Re-unite.
Re-view.
Re-vise.
Re-visit.
Re-vive.
Re-work.

Each individual Mercury Retrograde, at a specific time of year, varies from others according to the House and Sign in which it occurs.

For current Mercury Retrograde information relevant to specific months and years, connect with me on social media.

I post links and additional time-sensitive info on Facebook, Twitter, and Google+.

Image credit Thomas Hawk via Creative Commons on Flickr

No Matter What Happens

Slade Roberson — Sun, 17 Feb 2013 02:59:39 +0000

Whether or not the lover leaves you, or the bank forecloses, or the blood test comes back positive, or the dream gets deferred a little while longer… or you are asked to endure an even more unspeakable loss.

Sometimes real triumph looks like quiet survival.

There is a thin line between pessimism — expecting the worst, drawing it to you, and creating self-fulfilling negative prophecies — and being okay. Whatever you choose to believe, you’ll eventually be right. Pessimism improves your odds of being right about a lot of things going wrong.

Choosing to be okay acknowledges that you are always You — transcendent, resilient, still here. Hopeful.

The shortest way out of just about any situation is simply to go through it.

When you focus on being okay, no matter what happens, you affirm that external circumstances do not determine your strength or control your inner peace.

You are not defined by the shit you find yourself smack in the middle of — even your greatest challenges assist you in expressing who you truly are.

Image credit Gabriela Camerotti via Creative Commons on Flickr

Please, You Must Be Eccentric

Slade Roberson — Sun, 10 Feb 2013 02:26:44 +0000

You should reveal your authentic self now.

Immediately.

I mean, how could you possibly benefit from waiting?

It would be terrible if you chose to hang around until you were old enough to show the colors of your character, and for some awful reason never got the chance.

We believe that eccentricity is tolerable on the elderly, but imagine what energy and power your (relative) youth could lend it.

Don’t be dim. Be a bright glittery spangled thing. Right away, for God’s sake.

Give your light insanity a chance. Take your jaw-dropping inner spectacles out for a walk in the sun. There you go, tripping over treasure, making happy noise in the street!

If you can’t be a little crazy in public, then… Oh my. An unknown fallen tree in the forest, and all that. No one to applaud or give you a hand up.

Now there’s a pity.

Image credit Eddi van W via Creative Commons on Flickr

Manifesting 100 Percent

Slade Roberson — Sat, 02 Feb 2013 20:03:44 +0000

“You are 100% responsible for everything you manifest in life.”

I’ve put that in quotation marks because I do not believe it.

I just don’t believe it’s that simple. I don’t believe you have that much control over reality.

You were thrown into a mortal suit of flesh and blood and sweat and tears, and with skill and soul and talent and creativity and love, you seek to find your way through a maze of phenomena and experiences. Other people’s shit still affects your life — you’re not living in a virtual reality bubble where everybody else on the planet is a holographic extra in Your story. They’re all lovestruck stars in their own romantic comedies too, you know. They’re all dodging bullets as the heroes in their own action-adventures.

“You are entirely responsible for 100% of what you manifest in life.”

Really? The good, the bad, the in-between… Do you honestly think so?

Why do people believe this? Is it simple religiosity, or the desire to compartmentalize complex answers to big questions in little boxes?

“You are 100% responsible for everything you manifest in life.”

I believe it’s a message whose authors intend to control you, the same way fundamentalists teach that God is watching everything they do and judging them with Job-worthy punishments at the ready.

So, the better question might be “Why do people teach this?” Because I’m not convinced that even those who put it out there really believe it. I’m pretty sure a good number of them are grooming you to consume their teachings on The Law of Attraction. Or covering their asses for when you fail to duplicate the results their Prosperity Gospels claim.

“Apparently your spirit chose to learn a lesson from being poor, sorry, broke down, and ugly.” (Just so we’re clear, that was sarcasm.)

You can still practice practical manifesting techniques with significant results. I just personally believe you’ll be disappointed if you proceed with the expectation of creating 100% of what you desire.

You can manifest anything, but not everything.

You know in your heart that you agree with me. Some of you may not. We don’t all have to believe the same thing. I would personally like to throw out approximately 83% of the New Age bosh and blather that I’ve been exposed to.

I don’t have a problem listening to other people’s opinions and theories. But I reserve the right to disagree. And I get to discern for myself what feels like Wisdom. So do you.

Shit gets thrown at you. Life happens and you’re in it. People die in accidents. You get cancer. You lose your job. Somebody breaks up with you. Your car gets broken into… It’s not always a reflection of your personal power or the very essence of your soul.

I believe that we’re here to practice transcendence. What is a reflection of your spiritual effort is the level of meaning, purpose, joy, and love that you can find, infuse, or muster, in spite of it all.

Manifesting is more like gardening than architecture. You can influence the elements; you do not control them.

And leave it to Dolly Parton to nutshell my entire rant with a single plain-spoken line of elemental wisdom:

We can’t direct the wind, but we can adjust the sails.

Image credit AlphaDesigner via Creative Commons on Flickr

Manifesting for Pessimists

Slade Roberson — Sat, 19 Jan 2013 22:00:00 +0000

From everything claimed about manifesting, you’d think a bullish certainty of outcome and an inexhaustibly radiant positive attitude are absolute necessities.

That even the slightest hiccup of word choice — even in your most silent thoughts — can magically unravel the fabric of reality … creeping insidious semantics like trying instead of doing, focusing on what you don’t want instead of what you do, or failing to insistently “glow” at all times…

Any chink in your armor of white light, gratitude, and positivity could doom your desires.
(Right? So we’re told…)

But reframing, even after the fact, catching and releasing, and recasting your intentions at any point in the process… I’ve come to believe that’s okay. It’s enough.

Those who suffer and fail are the ones who are not conscious of their pessimism. And of course they’re still great at creating their reality — at finding a reflection of their worst fears all around them. But then what do they do? How do they respond?

Observing your fears without engaging them is very powerful. You don’t have to become them or eradicate them — allow them to wander in and roam about. Treat your fears as ghosts, as informative and interesting spiritual phenomena — recognizable, indicative, directive — capable of bearing messages and diagnoses, yet unable to move matter in this dimension.

There is a transparent veil. A window. A screen. A mirror. But it still functions as a protective barrier.

Like watching a horror film or reading a really good ghost story, you can scare yourself half to death and walk away unharmed. Emotionally rebooted. Invigorated. Strengthened in your decisions and in your resolve. Fine.

You can be still be haunted by doubts even as you make your dreams come true.

Image credit Simon Pais via Creative Commons on Flickr

Simple Intuition

Slade Roberson — Sun, 13 Jan 2013 05:18:23 +0000

It’s easy to dismiss intuitive answers or impulses as being too simple, too commonplace, too ordinary, or not significant enough. The information can range from tiny breadcrumb clue to big picture overview.

When you meditate, pray, use divination tools, or communicate with spirit guides, simplicity is a typical quality of the kind of answers you can expect to receive.

Guidance doesn’t have to be arcane, complex, difficult, or esoteric to be profound. Allow the practice of receiving it to be easy.

Intuitive answers can be extremely brief — a keyword, a phrase, a sentence exhaled on the back of a single breath.

Intuition may not even be a word — an inkling, a flash, a feeling.

Intuition may seem obvious — an insight that closely resembles common sense.

When compared to the blather of the ego and the over-analysis of the intellect, intuition is automatic, fast, and succinct.

The answer you seek already exists; the goal of intuition is simply to retrieve it.

Image credit mcbridejc via Creative Commons on Flickr

How to Test Your Intuition

Slade Roberson — Sun, 06 Jan 2013 03:33:52 +0000

The most reliable way to develop, practice, and test your intuition is to do readings for others and evaluate their feedback regarding the information you receive.

Discernment — being able to tell the difference between your intuition and your imagination — is challenging when you’re working within the vacuum of your own mind.

There’s always the potential for some small nagging question of

“What if I’m just making this up?”

When you have the external feedback of another person — especially one you do not know — discerning between intuition and imagination becomes instantly simplified and quantifiable.

Even if you don’t intend to become a professional intuitive, you can still learn the same skills for personal intuitive development. Knowing how to read others, how to connect with their spirit guides or angels, how to retrieve information from Spirit — what it feels like, looks like, and sounds like when you receive a psychic hit — it all allows you to retro-engineer the experience to use for yourself.

You can practice this very informally:

Find a few partners to read for (social media friends make excellent practice sitters for readings — people you are connected to, but not in everyday, physical contact).
Exchange questions and employ the same meditations, techniques, or divination tools you use when seeking guidance for your own life.
Jot down your impressions and email them, chat, Skype, or share them over the phone.
Provide each other with constructive feedback about any accurate intuitive hits.

If you practice with multiple people, and use the same process or techniques with each one, you will have a more valuable set of data to evaluate. Look for patterns — there you will find confirmation and affirmation of your intuitive abilities.

Image credit h.koppdelaney via Creative Commons on Flickr

A True Sense of Purpose

Slade Roberson — Sun, 30 Dec 2012 01:52:08 +0000

We focus so much on Starting and Finishing, Beginning and Ending, A and Z… when all the work and all the joy are found in between.

If you believe Heaven is an eternity, forever is a mighty big Middle.
If you’re an agnostic existentialist, then you really best be Present.

What could you live with — within — every day?

If Finishing wasn’t the point and there was no such thing as a Goal, what would make you quietly happy to always find undone and needing your attention?

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The Secret about Energy Shifts and Goals

Slade Roberson — Sun, 23 Dec 2012 05:04:00 +0000

At this time of year, more than any other, you’re considering how to make a shift in thought, behavior, and energy that will allow you to accomplish a quantifiable goal.

The “big secret” — i.e. the obvious and often overlooked truism — about creating an effective energetic shift is that completion is not required.

You don’t have to finish, you just have to start!

As you set your intention and fuel your initial commitment, keep in mind:

Taking the first step on the path IS being on the path.

Inertia — neutralized.
Momentum — initiated.
Repeat Step #1.

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Do You Feel Bad about It?

Slade Roberson — Sun, 09 Dec 2012 01:00:31 +0000

Our hyper-connectivity and pervasive media access allow us to witness so much suffering. We could easily feel a constant survivors guilt’s if we did not disconnect or attempt to psychically protect ourselves.

(…But then you feel guilty for not being Aware…)

You change the channel, avoid the news, or respond in conversations with:

“I feel so bad about that…”

If you’re empathic, compassionate, sensitive, intuitive… it all hurts your heart. These stories make your relative trials seem petty, your blessings seem garish.

If you can’t actually help, you wonder what can you do but pray, mourn, donate, commiserate…

I believe that what is demanded of us is the exact opposite of pity, grief, or regret:

Hold what you love tighter.
Don’t dim the lights, hush, or muffle your voice.
Turn up the volume on joy.
Live loud in the name of all those who cannot.

Crossed over, they continue to cheer us on. The living and the left behind are the heroes who defeat pain and carry the victory of memory.

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If You Intend to Make Progress

Slade Roberson — Sun, 02 Dec 2012 04:24:55 +0000

The most important components of progress are effort and intention.

Finish lines come too late in the game to be useful measures of progress.

Reaching…
Leaning toward…
Little beginnings…

At any present moment, progress may feel like the smallest of steps.

Any action combined with effort is an expression of your will. Any physical evidence of your will is enough to jump-start a daydream’s progress into reality.

Achievement — Attainment — Completion — Success — these are most often the inevitable “side effects” of the repetition of the simplest actions.

If you intend to fly, start running.

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Regarding Your Lack of Motivation and Productivity

Slade Roberson — Sun, 18 Nov 2012 03:02:42 +0000

There is a season. A tide. A breath. A rhythm.
There is a season. A tide. A breath. A rhythm.
There is a season. A tide. A breath. A rhythm.
There is a season. A tide. A breath. A rhythm.

Next time you have a day (a week, a month) where you panic about your lack of motivation or productivity, remember that there are also times when you effortlessly roll.

Divine timings have space between them just like bad timings. Instances are openings — breaks — within infinite streams.

Sometimes what you call “procrastination” is powerful intuition.

It’s okay to wait for the perfect time.

Relax into that message and see how you fold and fall beyond it.

Hold on…
Quiet now…
Wait for my signal…
On the count of three…

There is a season. A tide. A breath. A rhythm.
There is a season. A tide. A breath. A rhythm.
There is a season. A tide. A breath. A rhythm.
There is a season. A tide. A breath. A rhythm.

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What Might Divine Protection Look Like?

Slade Roberson — Sun, 04 Nov 2012 03:48:27 +0000

You pray for warnings, for options, for protection, for guidance…

And then you find yourself hitting walls. Held back by circumstances beyond your control. Unable to move forward in the direction you were heading.

The new boyfriend who’s such a great communicator suddenly texts that he’s not ready for a relationship.
The interview that goes so well for the job that seems so perfect for you goes to someone else.
The slow car in front of you catches every red light and makes you ridiculously, steering-wheel-poundingly late.

Rejection is God’s protection.

You will never know the alternate universe where the original trajectory of your path continued — that perfect guy was a decade of heartache waiting to happen, that business went bankrupt, that was the road where the train derailed that morning…

Nothing definitely defines a new direction quite like a dead end.

You asked your spirit guides for assistance, and you got it — maybe the block you’re cursing is exactly what divine protection looks like.

Image credit h.koppdelaney via Creative Commons on Flickr

Your Mission, Should You Choose to Accept It

Slade Roberson — Sun, 28 Oct 2012 03:12:38 +0000

You’ve incarnated into an environmental wetsuit of flesh that allows you to interface with the third-dimensional world.

Your mortal soul, mind, and body are connected to a Universal Collective Intelligence through a form of bio-technology we call intuition. Your intuitive abilities can be developed through training and practice.

You’re already (at least a little bit) psychic.

And you’re not alone. Your mission is attended by a benevolent team of spirit entities — your allies — agents of light and shadow who act as guides and guardians.

Your mission is not preordained. You do have free will.

You may willfully choose to ignore the signs of greater purpose. You may have been overwhelmed by this physical life experience or traumatized by events to the point that you cannot fulfill your mission — you’ve forgotten, or been brainwashed, or been taught to believe something else.

But you have an inkling that there is something you are meant to do. That there is something more.

Deep down, whether or not you would ever admit it out loud to anyone else, you believe you are special. You are Chosen.

Or you choose to believe. And you choose to participate.

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Agent of the Creator

Slade Roberson — Sun, 14 Oct 2012 00:21:03 +0000

You are already everything you’ve ever wanted to become. There’s nothing wrong with you. You’re not missing anything. You fulfill your life purpose with every breath you take.

You’re not “broken” — Your sense of power, your sense of purpose, your self-esteem, your self-speak, your perspective… All that can be changed. Rediscovered. Shifted.

I believe the very thing (you think) you most want to change about yourself may be a clue to your mission and a source of your true power. What you want to be when you grow up and the talents you bring to this dimension and the training you endure are wired with karma, implanted with life lessons.

Your ideal career may be part of your mission. And your j-o-b (especially if you hate it) probably (at least) makes a great cover.

Discovering your mission is as much a choice as it is an ability.

I believe that you can choose to create the life you want to live. Your creativity is your divinity. You are an agent of the Creator.

Image credit Simon Pais via Creative Commons on Flickr

How Big Is Your Glass?

Slade Roberson — Sun, 07 Oct 2012 03:28:43 +0000

You’re convinced that, when it comes to manifesting, a bias toward optimism is critical — how you choose to perceive what you already have is crucial to discovering more of it in your life.

But there’s a follow up question that may be even more important than:

“Is the glass half-empty or half-full?”

It’s a question about the glass you’ve chosen to use.

Abundance flows like a fountain.
And the Universe can fill whatever vessel you choose to bring.

Your glass represents your intentions.

How much do you intend to receive?
How much are you worthy of taking?
How much wealth can you carry?
How much joy can you stand?

You can bring a bathtub, a bucket, or a thimble — it’s really up to you.

When you go to the Well of Abundance, the Universe will whip out a hose if you ask.
So, that other really important question is:

“How big is your glass?”

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All That Effort, All That Trying

Slade Roberson — Sun, 30 Sep 2012 02:41:28 +0000

Imagine that the problem your mind is spinning over is not a raging river at all, but simply a shallow pond or a still pool. And let’s say that the solution you wish to manifest is a bright coin resting on the bottom.

Your thrashing around — all that effort, all that trying — only stirs up mud and churns up foam — particles of anxiety and complication that obscure an otherwise clear surface.

Whatever your intentions, your actions are no longer “helping.”

You’re making the waters murky.

The sun still shines. And that bright coin is there somewhere within your grasp.

What happens if you just stand still long enough for the waters around you to calm and the silt to settle? Let it be — for the next hour, the rest of the day, this week — live like you already have everything you need.

Let your solution reveal itself to you.

Image credit Simon Pais via Creative Commons on Flickr

The Missing Component of Your Life Purpose

Slade Roberson — Sat, 22 Sep 2012 22:03:05 +0000

You’ve approached living your purpose from all the obvious angles:

do what you love
turn your greatest challenges into tools and treasure
take something you know how to do and teach others how to do it for themselves

And of course you probably know your purpose does not exist in a vacuum, it doesn’t touch much in a bubble, and it’s really better if, instead of simply broadcasting wishes, you come down from your Tower and serve.

But there is one other intention you may not yet have considered:

Identify a tribe to which you belong and ask yourself how you will lead it.

Image credit h.koppdelaney via Creative Commons on Flickr

A Most Unlikely Grace

Slade Roberson — Sat, 15 Sep 2012 21:43:32 +0000

Aberrations are as much a part of nature as grace.
Toni Morrison

Deviate. Wander. Wonder.
To deviate is to wander to wonder.

You are in a state markedly different from the norm. Thank God you are strange and wonderful. You’re a masterpiece. The parts of yourself you most wish to change may actually be the sources of your greatest power, clues to your true mission.

(The parts of yourself you most wish to hide at least make an excellent cover.)

The Grace of Horns
God doesn’t make mistakes. Clearly She adores making all kinds of creatures. She must have great plans for the likes of you and me.

Image credit Simon Pais via Creative Commons on Flickr

I Spy on Angels

Slade Roberson — Sun, 19 Aug 2012 03:26:15 +0000

I spy on angels.

I have since I was a kid. I first saw one at age six. At seven, I checked out a book about Joan of Arc. When I read that the voices she heard turned out to be messengers from God, I figured I probably wasn’t going to Hell either. And it was even less likely that anyone was going to arrest me and burn me at the stake. I felt relieved.

I was so relieved that I kept checking the book out, over and over again. Maybe the school librarian knew why — she showed me illuminated books by William Blake and told me that when he was a boy he saw angels standing in the trees.

I thought YES! I see them there too…

But the angels I’ve seen don’t look a damn thing like Barbie with wings.

Maybe a bit like Secret Service Ken. You know, men in black, crew cuts and shades, suits of armor and muscle, muttering into their cuffs…

Guardians can be intimidating as hell. Good thing they’re on our side.

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Do Spirit Guides Lie?

Slade Roberson — Sat, 28 Jul 2012 20:37:00 +0000

“Is it true that spirit guides often lie to you?” Virginia asks. “I just read in an article on another psychic’s website that she does not ask her clients’ guides for information when she does readings for them because they often lie. Do you think this is true? And if they do lie, why would they?”

No, I do not think that is true. I disagree.

All intuitives are people and we have our own subjective experiences and opinions, which clearly can differ greatly. I can’t say how the psychic you speak of might have arrived at such a conclusion, but it does not make sense to me.

It’s simple logic or semantics:

By definition, a spirit entity who lies is not a “guide.”

That would be a complete contradiction to the entire relationship.

Can spirits generally lie to you? Yes, I’m sure they can; you can potentially contact and communicate with all kinds of random spirits — that doesn’t make them guides.

Ghosts are spirits, not spirit guides. This is why we constantly warn against using Ouija boards. A spirit entity pretending to be a guide … is not a guide.

Spirit guides might sometimes be vague, give an answer that is hard to decipher, or they may be unable to properly communicate a specific concept … but intentionally lie?

No.

I have never encountered that.

Communicating with Your Spirit Guides
You’re not likely to encounter deceitful spirits either if you approach your guides with the right intentions and proper techniques. All of the meditations, lectures, and tutorials at Shift Your Spirits — beginning with the free ebook Contacting Your Spirit Guides 101 — are designed to support you through the specific process you intentionally seek — simply, practically, safely.

Talking to Your Spirit Guides

Talking to Your Spirit Guides and Automatic Writing Lessons are two of the most popular courses on this topic.

Click the thumbnail cover art or use this link —
http://sladeroberson.com/shop

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Are You an Architect or a Gardener?

Slade Roberson — Sat, 14 Jul 2012 20:15:03 +0000

Intentions are much more like seeds than steel beams.

A blueprint would be peachy. An exact plan that you can hover over and predict. Control often seems like it would be the best tool to wield.

But maybe what you most want to manifest in your life right now cannot be assembled or built to order.

And maybe it doesn’t even need to be.

You’ve put it out there, you’ve seeded the clouds, you’ve danced with the rainmakers, and you’ve collected drops from brainstorm after brainstorm, saving them in barrels and staining the pages of notebooks.

Does what you most want to create have a life of its own?
Does the Universe have a plan that you couldn’t manage if you tried?

Maybe this stage of what you’re making needs a guiding hand, not a hammer. Or maybe all you need to tend is your patience.

Intentions are seeds — are you an Architect or a Gardener?

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Tune in to Your Purpose

Slade Roberson — Sun, 08 Jul 2012 03:32:08 +0000

The advice comes from so many sources — to be able to access your intuition you have to “tune out the external noise.”

Intuition doesn’t necessarily require “quiet” or “inner peace” or “silence” — your mind can be a busy, noisy place. Your mind can be full.

You’re allowed to be mindful and noisy and a little bit looped — but the “external stuff” probably is what’s throwing you off the most.

Can you listen only to what is being generated within you?

What steps can you take to exclude the external interference?

Stop comparing yourself to others.
Stop watching other people do what you want to do.
Stop waiting until you “know” before you take action.
Stop waiting until you’re “sure” before you dive in and find out.

Considering everyone else’s opinion devalues your wisdom.
Listening to everyone else’s voice drowns out your authenticity.
Worrying about everyone else’s feelings muffles your truth.
Seeing everyone else’s point of view takes away your focus.

There comes a point at which you lock the door, go up into your Tower, blast the stereo (or put in your earplugs, depending on the work), and declare:

This is what I came here with.
This is what I’ve got.
This is what I most want to give.
This is what I can’t ever stop giving.

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The Spirits Who Walk Among Us

Slade Roberson — Sat, 23 Jun 2012 21:01:05 +0000

Corporeal Angels
Spirit entities of all types are most commonly perceived by intuitively sensitive people, who experience them intermittently or regularly through the subtler psychic senses. But there are beings who manifest physical bodies that all of us — absolutely anyone — can see and interact with.

It takes enormous power and ability for a spirit to assume a corporeal form, even temporarily — it is unlikely that ghosts, earthbound spirits, or dis-incarnate human souls acting in the roles of guides can pull this off.

Beyond just being around us everywhere in some “ethereal” way or in some “other dimension,” corporeal angels walk around among us. Even though you may see them and speak to them, you usually dismiss them as random strangers.

It may never even occur to you that they are not human.

Roles of Corporeal Angels
It was one of these entities called Jesse who told me that angels who take the physical form of human strangers commonly appear to be doctors, nurses, EMTs, police officers, firefighters, and the like, because of the event context.

You may have brief and meaningful interactions with people in these roles who you never see again. Others of their kind can’t account for them and will likely not know who you’re talking about if you ask about them.

Corporeal angels may also assume the guise of homeless people. Jesse pointed out that many panhandlers are aware of this lore, regardless of their personal beliefs, and may strategically exploit the perception for their own ends. He advised that the best means of discernment is simply your gut — that you know or at least suspect on an intuitive level : their vibration is usually quite high, and the feeling that you get in their presence should never be threatening, though it could be uncomfortable or intense.

Some Qualities that Might “Give Away” the Incarnated Angel

they seem “rooted” to a particular spot — able to interact with you, although they may remain standing or seated in one place
they move around normally, but are limited to a specific physical location or time
their clothing may be “anachronistic” — the style of the clothing is oddly out of fashion, yet appears “too new,” without normal wear and tear
their clothing may appear unusually put together or hastily chosen
there is an anonymous quality to their overall appearance — they blend easily into crowds
they may be unusually tall or extremely diminutive in size
they may appear to be of an indeterminate age — whether they are young or old, it seems almost impossible to guess
they are “plainly beautiful” in an unremarkable way that has more to do with “newness” than the handsomeness of features — “beautiful” in the way that all infant creatures are beautiful; even though their features are not interesting or necessarily sexually attractive, their skin is often colorless or without variation or blemish
their smell may be unusually strong or noticeable; pleasant but pervasive
they speak without recognizable accent or dialect
they are emotionally even-keel or undemonstrative in their expression — perhaps even “robot-like”
even though other people may be able to see them as well as you can, they have no known connection or relationship to anyone else
you feel their presence before you notice them; they are always aware of you first; by the time you make eye contact you realize that they have already been staring at you

Significance of Their Names
They are not quick to introduce themselves or to volunteer their names; if you ask, they will provide you with a single first name.

The names they claim will often be of recognizable significance to you — a name that you particularly like; that you have known many people to share; that appears often in your family; one that corresponds with a figure of importance to you.

Even when their names don’t seem to be coincidental or meaningful, they nevertheless correspond to some pattern.

(Have you noticed the commonality among the names of the characters I have shared in this series of memoirs, not to mention the names of some of my guides that I’ve talked about in others? It’s the only thing “curious” or noteworthy that stands out, by the way… Although it is a very simple pattern, it is a constant.)

More important than the “type” of entity or the details of their physical appearance are the roles they play or the circumstances in which they may interact with the living in a corporeal form.

Circumstances Where Angels Tend to Intervene

Miracles
Transitions of Birth/ Death
Physical Danger
Direction Regarding Life Path and Purpose
While Traveling

I specifically recall that “while traveling” was the last thing that Jesse mentioned — combined with the list of odd physical attributes, it was The Trigger that finally made me say “Okay — wait a minute…”

This is how and why the series of experiences I’ve shared with you in the Paranormal Memoirs connects. Before that day, I had never related to another person the mystery of the stranger who had followed me from London to Paris to Amsterdam….

To read the whole story, go to Stranger Angels — Part 1

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Maybe You’re Not Afraid

Slade Roberson — Sat, 16 Jun 2012 22:43:26 +0000

Ruts are comfortable.

Any change worth making will likely produce feelings of discomfort.

Be careful that you do not confuse fear and excitement – they produce nearly identical biological states :

shallow breaths,
speedy heartbeats,
belly flutters….

Butterflies accompany the brave.

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You’ve Been Chosen

Slade Roberson — Sun, 10 Jun 2012 03:47:51 +0000

You have to honor the ideas you’re given.

Regardless of how they might be critically received, whether or not they will sell, whether they become a replacement career or remain a hobby, if the Divine is delivering plans and ideas to you, it is your duty to execute them, to bring them through.

You’ve been chosen.

You’ve been interrogating your divinity (your creativity) about your purpose:

What should you do?
What should you make?
Who should you make it for?

And if these questions have only left you spinning in hesitation — paralysis, blocks — then ask your Work what it needs.

How can you best honor the Inspiration itself?
What is the Idea asking you to do?
What action does your Art require your inner Artist to take?

If you’re going to be true to your creative gifts, then that part of your life must be given the authority, instead of being treated like a pretty, vapid mistress that must forever answer to your Ego and Its position in “the Real World.”

Image credit h.koppdelaney via Creative Commons on Flickr

One Thing We All Need

Slade Roberson — Sun, 03 Jun 2012 03:54:24 +0000

Everyone you pity, everyone you love, those with whom you empathize or despise — the wretched and the blessed — all most need to be acknowledged.
Noticed.
Heard.
We all need a witness — to both our joy and our pain.

To recognize the spark behind the eyes of another is our most eminently worthy gesture of humanity. To withhold such a small instant of focus from any living person seems … cruel.

We focus so much on gaining acknowledgement for ourselves that we miss the easiest act of grace and power — even gods notoriously pass it over — to look into the eyes of another and simply allow ourselves to see …

the flash of mirrors there.

Image credit Simon Pais via Creative Commons on Flickr

How to Alter Your Reality

Slade Roberson — Sat, 19 May 2012 21:32:52 +0000

A Mythically Brief History of Modern Magic (not really)
One Sunday afternoon in the late 1960s, Academic Feminism threw a spiritual potluck and invited some of her best frenemies — Anthropology, Environmentalism, History, and Political Science — and they each brought either a hippy or an English major as their +1.

There was a lively discussion that day which meandered past a number of topics starting with Joseph Campbell’s The Masks of God and ending up in the reemergence of Goddess-based religious traditions.

Several attendees went on to head Women’s Studies departments at institutions of higher learning all across the Land….

Ten years later, a feminist psychologist named Miriam Simos, under the pen name Starhawk, published The Spiral Dance — to this day, one of the most deservedly beloved books about the concepts of God-as-a-Girl that underpin the revival of neo-pagan shamanism.

The Definition of Magic(k)
Starhawk, admittedly echoing many others, succinctly popularized the modern definition of magic as:

“the practice of altering reality by changing consciousness through will.”

In other words:

Intentions rule
Thoughts are things
You (co)create your reality
You attract the vibes that you project
Everything you do comes back to you, threefold

Karma was re-mixed for the Western World and some authors gave magic a “k” to reflect this contemporary upgrade.

Somewhere along the way, mainstream New Agers — probably to ease the discomfort of their liberal Christian compatriots — airbrushed out the witchy woo woo bits by effectively merging them with (yet another) re-introduction of the 1915 “Law of Attraction” vocabulary and blathering on about some ill-kept “Secret” that humanity has actually known about for millenia. Oprah helped.

This is essentially how the Sacred Elements ended up in my manifesting practice.

If you are already familiar with the different brands and concepts of ritualized co-creation with the Divine — prayer, creative visualization, spell-casting, vision-boarding, manifesting — you might say their overlapping traits are obvious, that they are all basically the same thing. You may be predisposed to prefer one dogma over another, having explored the options and made a conscious decision about the path you prefer, or you may waft from one way to another, going with the flow and an open heart as a truly mindful eclectic.

Spiritual concepts like Prayer, Magic, and Manifestation are not necessarily “All the Same Thing,” but they’re definitely laid out beside one another on Life’s Sideboard of Abundance.

You don’t have to grab heaping helpings of any one thing — go for a bite of every thing.

Program Your Consciousness
Training yourself and your reality to obey your intentions is all about reprogramming your consciousness — creating the experience you desire with mindfulness, care, and will — and altering your behavior over time to resonate with the change you wish to find in your environment.

You know the bumper stickers / pop song lyrics:

“Become the change you wish to see in the world.”
“If you want to change the world, change your mind.”

Think of a spell or a magick ritual as the installation of a new program; think of manifesting — applying the Law of Attraction — as running that program over and over again.

Installing a new program — initiating change by choosing to add a new behavior pattern to your consciousness — often starts out with great fanfare and enthusiasm. Consider the concept of (failed) New Year’s Resolutions….

Actually using that new power on an on-going basis — sticking to the repetitive, productive actions that create results — is certainly not guaranteed by an initiation ceremony.

Manifesting is the practice of acting on, maintaining, and developing the willful power of the change that began with the ritual observance.

Manifesting without a ritual is kind of like going to the courthouse to get married — it works, for all practical purposes, but there’s not a lot of magic in it. And no party.

Manifest Anything

Manifest Anything is not a “secret” — it’s a system you can use to simplify and practically organize your efforts to manifest.

Click the thumbnail cover art or go to this link —
http://sladeroberson.com/classes/manifest-anything

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The Dandelion Wish Protocol

Slade Roberson — Sat, 12 May 2012 21:39:16 +0000

I sat outside the Stone Cup cafe on the balcony overlooking a strip of sidewalk and grass that leads away from the carousel at Coolidge Park down by the Tennessee River.

Leaning on a stroller that acted as an aircraft carrier for a toddler unlikely to need to land anytime soon, a young woman lagged behind two brothers with identical little-boy bowl haircuts. I would have guessed their ages were two- and four-years-old.

They had obviously been briefed on the basics of making Dandelion Wishes — the older boy yelled “There’s one!” and left the sidewalk to retrieve the “flower” that’s technically called a clock. He pinched it off carefully, low on the stem, and held it up like a lollipop for his mother to verify.

“Yeah, that’s a good one,” she said. “Now, make a wish, and then blow on it, really hard.”

He hesitated, squinted up at her, and then looked back down at the magical tool in his hands, studying it with a serious expression. His brow folded in worry — he was either deep in the process of deciding on his wish, doubting the execution, or possibly considering that there might be a civilization of tiny entities on a mote of dust whose entire world depended on his actions in that moment.

He began slowly walking back to join his mom on the sidewalk, like a tightrope walker carrying a candle.

His little brother zoomed up and made to snatch it away from him, shrieking instructions “Blow it out! Blow it out!”

The older boy yelped in panic and held the treasure high above both their heads.

Their mom patiently pointed out that there were plenty of others, successfully diverting the little brother’s attention to all the possibilities waiting in the grass. In a flash he was leaning over in that precarious pose that toddlers assume when they find something on the ground, the one that reminds me of a miniature sumo wrestler — pigeon-toed, squatting with their butts out…. You could literally hear the Pull-Ups® Training Pants rustling under his overalls.

The older boy still brooded over his dandelion clock, his mother trying to convince him that his wish wouldn’t come true until he blew the seedpod apart. “… I don’t want to mess it up …” he said.

It was a perfect specimen — enormous, spherical, without a single blemish or missing seed — a computer-generated prop straight out of the film adaptation of Horton Hears a Who.

Meanwhile, his little brother tore any trace of white fluff off the stems with both fists, clapped his palms together, puffed out his cheeks, and huffed with all the cartoon might he could muster. He even threw handfuls of the yellow companion flowers, along with green gobs of clover and grass…. He soon ran ahead of a small tornado of swirling spring confetti.

He became a comet trailing wishes, screaming “I got another one! I got another one!” At one point, I believe his wild manifestations even included gravel and mulch — just in case, he intended to rip up the entire ground and fling it away from him, in a full blown AK-47 assault of desire.

Their mom chuckled and cheered him on.

The older brother’s face fell in horror at the extreme technique. “Can’t I just save mine for later?” he asked.

“You can wait, but eventually, you’re gonna have to blow it apart in order to make your wish.”

The little brother sped on away down the border of weeds, dive-bombing nature and announcing wish after wish after wish, dragging his mom behind him with some invisible rope like a water skier behind a boat, her steps all but buried in a foaming wake of fluttering petals and blades and sticks and stones.

The older boy lagged behind in a tip-toe zombie walk, shielding his intact specimen with one hand, as if the blowback from his brother’s reckless magic — or even his own breath — threatened his entire future or the population of miniature beings who prayed back to him.

I wondered if it might be a “birth order thing” — I could see myself and my own younger brother at that age employing very similar approaches to wish fulfillment. At the age of four, I would most definitely have been fearful, reverent, serious about the preservation of a single wish — afraid that by blowing my wish into the world without careful consideration, I might blow it in some other sense of the word.

But today, I have carefully trained my intentions toward that mad, abandoned method of the younger. For me, maturity resembles a regression, a relaxation … an evolution moving in the direction of learned spontaneity (if there can be such a thing).

I have come to recognize the intuitive wisdom of the toddler, that puts immediate action — and quantity — ahead of contemplation and expectation.

Manifest Anything

Manifest Anything is not a “secret” — it’s a system you can use to simplify and practically organize your efforts to manifest.

Click the thumbnail cover art or go to this link —
http://sladeroberson.com/classes/manifest-anything

Image credit MJorge via Creative Commons on Flickr

Manifesting More than the Material

Slade Roberson — Sun, 06 May 2012 00:27:54 +0000

It’s been a while since I’ve written a personal post — full of I‘s and me‘s and my‘s…. (Along with reader comments, on-going details about my personal life migrated to Facebook and Twitter a few years ago.) Indulge me. There are at least a few good reasons for it — both for me and for you.

Joy only happens in the present.
Right now, I have everything I need to feel full and at peace.

My parents are living and healthy. They are both retired in relative prosperity. They are emotionally close to me and available. They are proud of who I have become.
My brother is successful in a creative career that coincides with exactly what he wanted to be when he grew up. He is loved by a sweet woman who is like a sister to me. He travels the world, and is about to start his fourth decade of outdoor adventures. He still looks up to me.
My pets are a daily source of joy and unconditional love. I know the Universe loves me because it sent me my Sam. I am in awe of the synchronicity involved in finding this creature on my doorstep. I know I’m on the right path because it brought us together in this time and place.
My friends are diverse, loving, clever, funny, interesting, and loyal. When I moved here six years ago, it was hard to meet people. I spent a few lonely years, isolated and focused on writing Shift Your Spirits. Simple hellos in cafes led to conversations, to invitations, and the momentum eventually became exponential. Today, I find myself in good company. I am surrounded, enfolded, included.
My romantic life has been virtually non-existent for eleven years. But, hey, what do you know? Someone with whom I’ve been shyly exchanging smiles across a cafe for several months just came over to my table and asked me out to dinner. Regardless of whether or not that leads to anything, one of the best romantic moments for me is the one when I realize someone likes me back.
My environment is magical. My home backs up to a fairy tale wood with a creek where I go for walks with my cats after supper. The view I see coming and going every day is the edge of the Appalachian Plateau that stretches from Alabama to New York. It hangs on the horizon, a tsunami wave of tree-bedazzled stone, hiding the sunsets.
My body has never been this strong. I’ve never been this comfortable in my own skin. At times during the past five years, my health has been a scary roller coaster. Now, in my early forties, my workout schedule would be absolutely daunting to a younger version of myself. I am physically powerful, and it energizes every aspect of my existence.
My creativity feels like living with a more-interesting twin. Somewhat manic-depressive, yes — when he’s uninspired, he’s exhausting to be around … but when he’s turned up and on, he’s a starship captain.
(Incidentally, the creativity of others sustains me. Trailing only food, water, and air to breathe, novelists provide the most important substance in the Universe. A perfect afterlife for me will be an infinite stormy spring day on a screen porch with Heaven’s equivalent of a Kindle connected to an Amazon gift card that never zeroes out….)
My writing reaches tens of thousands of people all over the world every week. It is my magic. It expands my existence. It takes my mind and my heart beyond my edges and becomes part of others. My previous article “Pushing the River” was shared, retweeted, linked to, and republished hundreds of times. It has already received about a quarter of a million views — a record for a new post. Just this week, I completed revisions of a piece of fiction that will introduce readers to a world I’ve been working on — visiting and recording — for thirteen years.
My partners are amazing. I believe one of the main ways that Spirit answers our prayers is by sending us other people — my personal trainer, my fitness class teacher, my yoga instructors, my psychic, my therapist, my mentoring students, my peers, my editors, my beta readers, my sounding boards…. My co-creators at this time and place rock.

Does this all sound a bit too self-congratulatory? Damn right! Shouldn’t it at least be celebratory?

What if that elusive Place and Time I’m always striving to reach … is Here and Now?

There are three reasons I need to share this with you:

I need to acknowledge my blessings with gratitude — loudly, proudly, at least once with great feeling.
I need you to think about how Right Now you too have (at least some sliver of) everything you need to be happy and at peace.
I need you to see that not one thing on the list above has anything to do with manifesting money.

No amount of money could buy what I most value. No amount of money will allow me to experience more of what I most cherish in this life.

Synchronicity.
Serendipity.
Peace.
Love.
Family.
Friends.
Children.
Consorts.
Motivation.
Inspiration.
Attention.
Teachers.
Partners.

Can you make your own versions of both these lists?

These treasures can be drawn out and expanded by your simple acknowledgement of even their faintest traces.

Even when none of what I’ve shared here today is true for me, it is still potentially true. Its essence is still there, waiting for me to pull it into this dimension like a magician’s rope of knotted silk scarves.

Manifesting More than Money

Money may actually be the easiest thing to manifest — we know what it looks like; it’s a global language; it can be held in the hands or weighed in the mind; it can be valued against all kinds of things that have physical form, that you can lift and throw from your balcony….

I have a hunch that money may even be a side effect of all the others — it is drawn to the gravity of massed blessings or attracted to the attitude that accompanies meaning and purpose.

Maybe money kind of grows in the soil of your priceless joys. Just for the record, my financial situation is flush and more fertile than it’s ever been in my life.

Manifesting money is not enough. It is not enough for me. Is it enough for you?

What I require, what I desire, the abundance that I gratefully revel in, can be manifested. We can make anything happen.

Money is just one thing — one facet of experience. Is it really your soul purpose for being here?

Surely, among everything available to you, there is at least something amazing you realize you either do not have to buy or cannot buy.

Seven years ago, I could not have made the first list. None of what I’ve shared here was true in my life — in many cases, it was the complete opposite.

In 2005, I decided to practice manifesting the second list using a system based on the Sacred Elements. The Sacred Elements — Earth, Air, Fire, Water, and Spirit — are the simplest and most flexible set of filters I could identify.

The system works for me and it works for others too.

There’s a difference between manifesting the money to buy a Thing, and simply manifesting the Thing itself. Which is especially important when you want to manifest anything that cannot be bought.

Manifest Anything

Manifest Anything is not a “secret” — it’s a system you can use to simplify and practically organize your efforts to manifest.

Click the thumbnail cover art or go to this link —
http://sladeroberson.com/classes/manifest-anything

image credit Terence J Sullivan via Creative Commons on Flickr

Pushing the River

Slade Roberson — Sat, 14 Apr 2012 18:53:53 +0000

Are you struggling to make something happen?

Are you torturing your consciousness for a sense of the right direction, begging the Universe for assistance with a difficult decision?

Are you interrogating your guides, trying with all your might to listen to your heart, but hearing no clear answers?

You know that trying too hard only makes it worse, so you beat yourself up about that too… Spinning your wheels in a Purgatory of Indecision — or maybe it’s a Special Place in Hell just for perfectionists, over-analyzers, and hand-wringers.

Recirculation
If you’ve ever been white-water rafting or kayaking you’ve heard about the dangers of recirculation. This is what occurs when you’re dragged into a hydrodynamic phenomenon where water falling from a shelf of rock goes to the bottom of the river, and, instead of moving downstream, is pushed back up, under, and behind the fall.

Kind of like undertow at the beach — only it never stops. A whirlpool, turned sideways — just like the Wheel of Life — and you’re stuck beneath it.

It’s terrifying. Your fight-or-flight response kicks in and every cell in your body demands that you struggle upwards, toward the air and light — which is against tons of physical resistance.

You don’t stand a chance of kicking or pushing against this.

Everything your body knows about how to swim is challenged. If you keep trying to swim, you’ll drown. This conflict of instinct and training and logical decision-making is taking place in a heartbeat of time, beneath dangerously cold water, against the force of being hit by a bus hundreds of times per second.

If you fight — if you continue to struggle — you’ll die.

If you react to the river’s force as your enemy, it becomes one.

It’s no accident of vocabulary that the captains of your white-water rafting voyage are aptly called river guides. They will instruct you when to paddle forwards or backwards, where to shift your weight… and they will tell you what to do if you fall out of the boat and, God forbid, find yourself recirculated.

The remedy for the situation is actually extremely simple and requires absolutely no exertion of strength whatsoever. The challenge is a mental decision — one that must transcend physical action and the survival instinct of the body:

Do Nothing
Do not struggle; do not try to swim; do not push with your legs; do not grasp with your hands; do not pull with your arms. Do not even think about breathing. Curl into a fetal position and release control.

The river will spit out a recirculated object — especially one wearing a life jacket.

No effort is required on your part, yet doing nothing is the hardest course of action to take.

The Universe — the Flow — is a river and your soul is a flotation device. The mortal vessel — the body — is a machine that will obey the mind and the will.

Is your thinking mind dragging your spirit under and keeping you there?

The Art of Surrender
What happens if you stop pushing the river — get out of your own way, and let yourself be carried in the direction of the answer you seek?

The most challenging action you may ever be asked to perform could be surrender.

For most of us, surrender is simultaneously the easiest and the hardest thing to do. The art of surrender is most critical at times when all other options — even the ones you think are the only way to survive — amount to suicide. Or something worse than doing nothing.

Maybe the turmoil, the churning waters of the Flow in which you find yourself right now, are not life-or-death — you can still breathe, can’t you? If you can breathe, you’ve got everything you need to make it through this moment.

Surrender does not mean you will never do anything again. Surrender doesn’t mean that you “turn it over to God” and that you have no further role to play, or that you won’t be required to wait for your cue and then act with focus, intent, and rested power.

You’ve seen the silly scenes in movies or cartoons, where someone who can’t swim falls in the water and thrashes about in a screaming panic… before realizing the water isn’t deep enough to drown in, and all he had to do was stand up.

You can drown in a bathtub. You could — technically — drown by sticking your head in a bucket, a sink, or a toilet.

Are you acting out of desperation right now? Slapping the water and stirring up drama and screaming and spluttering “Show me! Where is it?! Where’s the answer?! Oh God, I can’t see it, I can’t find it — I’m blind!”

Chill.

You don’t have to change your life right this minute. (You can’t.) You don’t have to decide today. You don’t have to move a mountain right now. The river can move mountains; over time, it can level them and turn them to rubble. But even if it starts immediately, you won’t miss a thing by letting your pillow take your troubles, just for a few more hours…

Stop pushing the river and damning your flow. Wait, gather information — play — and let the Universe show you its hand.

Allow yourself to be carried where you most need to go.

The Universe is change.

You will be moved; it’s inevitable.

You can float and rest, or you can thrash and scream — it changes nothing except the level of suffering that you choose in the interim.

image credit Peter Voerman via Creative Commons on Flickr

The Fire and the Spirit

Slade Roberson — Sun, 25 Mar 2012 03:06:28 +0000

If we all step up, with lighted candles in our hands, to a house-size pile of timber, touch it with those flames, and then step back away from the resulting blaze, it’s too easy to look at the fires we still hold as individuals, compare them to the bonfire and say “That’s not my flame. My flame is small.”

Or, in reverse, if we all light our cold candles from a bonfire, no matter how many of us there are, the bonfire will never shrink.

It can be duplicated, cloned. It can be massed, moved. It can be given away without our ever losing any of it.

It’s all the same flame.

We are the fire and the spirit.

image credit Cindy Andrie via Creative Commons on Flickr

The Only Thing Stopping You

Slade Roberson — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 14:56:44 +0000

There’s really only one thing that determines when and whether or not you develop your intuitive abilities — your decision to do so.

No one has come back to me on a Second Mentoring Session and said “I can’t do this. I tried, but I can’t.” No one.

Those who devote themselves to the very practical process laid out in the Automatic Intuition Professional training program come back in a few weeks for Call #2 with stories of confirmation and affirmation of their innate ability to do Readings for others.

Your decision to become a professional intuitive happens at the perfect time.

You’ve felt a nudge from Spirit to do this. You’ll keep on receiving those winks and taps and nudges until you follow through. You can trust that impulse — you may not be able to predict where it will take you, but it’s somewhere you’re meant to go.

There’s something you’re meant to learn. It’s part of your Path.

I remember what it feels like to say “What the Hell! Let’s explore this, once and for all…” I remember what it felt like to take that leap of faith. I also remember what it felt like to manifest the finances, out of thin air, to sign up for professional mentoring.

It was a stretch for about, oh, a minute, maybe a month … and then it changed my life. The guidance of another person already doing this work led me very, very quickly to the most successful, purposeful, and enjoyable “job” I’ve ever had.

So, if it’s your time to make that decision, I would be honored to walk with you for a little way along this part of your Path.

Automatic Intuition Professional Intuitive Development

Please check out the course description page:
http://automaticintuition.com/courses/professional-training

Epiphanies

Slade Roberson — Sun, 18 Mar 2012 03:07:18 +0000

Epiphanies are like fireflies.

Once you discover one, you begin to see others. They attract one another. They begin to coalesce, to mate and to multiply.

But, like the lightning bug right in front of you one moment, an epiphany may shift location, reappearing and winking at you again from a slightly different perspective.

You could try to collect them all in a jar, to light a dark interior room, but that never works out like you hope, does it?

Insights don’t survive in captivity.

The one thing you realize, with your twilight spaces lit up by constellations of low-flying eureka sparks, is that witnessing brief moments of wisdom is not the same thing as acting upon them.

Having epiphanies is not the same thing as applying them.

Epiphanies are not guarantees.

These moments of illumination come and go.

Epiphanies inform change, but they can’t make anything happen, in and of themselves.

Right, mindful action is a constant, on-going collection of your creative choices, always shifting, ever so slightly, as you chase the next liberated pixel of enlightenment in the night.

image credit W P via Creative Commons on Flickr

Making Change

Slade Roberson — Sat, 10 Mar 2012 23:42:24 +0000

There’s a difference between working more and being more.
A difference between having more and living more.
Between holding more and allowing more.

There’s a huge difference between hanging onto what you cannot live without and making space for something so great you can’t even imagine it yet.

Creating change and manifesting more in your life require so much effort compared to the grace of the ability to experience true wonder.

Plans don’t result in nearly the degree of joy that surprises provide.

I’m not a vacuum, I’m a magnet.
I’m not a hook, I’m a hand to hold.
I am not the savant’s instrument, I am the song.

I am not just one of God’s children, I’m one of Her latest works of art.

I am so much less — I am so much lighter — than I would ever have predicted I needed to be. I desire all kinds of things, I want for very little.

I haven’t changed my goals, but I have relaxed my expectations.

Go back and read all that — out loud. Right now. Mean it.

Then, take this smaller affirmation forward. Even if you don’t believe it yet, walk around saying it for a day or two and see what changes:

In this moment I have everything I need.
In this moment I am full and at peace.

Notice what changes — the Stuff or you?

image credit Simon Pais via Creative Commons on Flickr

A Small, Profound Shift

Slade Roberson — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 23:22:04 +0000

A shift implies that all the necessary components are already present.

What is required is a movement that does not necessarily gain or lose anything internally — the context changes, your perspective changes, the environment around a Thing changes, or the level at which you experience the Thing changes.

You may not be required to change that much at all in order to make a profound shift.

image credit Simon Pais via Creative Commons on Flickr

If You Feel Lost on Your Path

Slade Roberson — Sun, 12 Feb 2012 00:46:21 +0000

Some Assembly Required
Some professions have very specific paths — with official maps that show you the way and blueprints that show you how to build what you need once you arrive. The certifiable roles — such as those in the medical profession — doctors, nurses, medical technicians; or those with a course of study and a big test to pass at the end, like lawyers and nuclear operators…

Of course, there is always going to be some assembly required in establishing yourself in any career and discovering any sense of purpose. But some jobs and life purposes are blessedly parallel — interlocking, intertwined…

Complete the detailed checklist
Step through the dance
Move through the game
Arrive at the designated finish line
Pick up your diploma

Congratulations — here’s your tiara (with adjustable tabs).

Your name is now adorned with a title on a sash announcing your worth… This kind of neat simplicity — in communicating who you are, what you do, and why you’re important — is usually the most important prize.

Hack Yourself a Way
Spiritual paths and creative identities are often indistinguishable. For many of us, creativity and spirituality are the same ways and means.

The artist does not have the luxury of purchasing a blueprint to success.
The spiritual seeker cannot beg, steal, or borrow a map that will show the Only Way.
No one can tell you how to become You with a capital Y.

…especially when finding your own way is the Meaning and the Reason Why.

The artist’s way cannot be duplicated. The path of another’s map can be shared in great detail, but, ultimately, it can only inspire you to travel your own.

When you become You, when you get There, you will arrive by your own road, a race no one else can run. It can be lonely, because really there aren’t even any competitors.

This is why it’s such a waste of time to compare yourself to anyone else.

You can absorb Everything from Everybody — it will always result in a unique synthesis — You.

Give everyone the same ingredients, elements, environment — they apply their unique creative divinity — and the resulting works are as numerous and diverse as the souls who participate.

If you feel lost, it may be because the Path you’re on doesn’t lead to You.

If your destination mimics that of another so well that it appears to be identical… You may be well on your way to becoming someone other than who you intend to be.

image credit h.koppdelaney via Creative Commons on Flickr

The Art of Questions

Slade Roberson — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 00:47:29 +0000

When attending a performance or a public display of visual art, many people approach their role as a Member of the Audience with confusion and anxiety — as if it is a Test and that to pass the Test they must solve the riddle, find the treasure, and leave with Answers.

Art is more about creating Questions than it is about finding Answers.

Creativity is our link to the Divine. We are most like God when we act like God. A work of art is a third-dimensional manifestation — the residual, physical form that results from the creative act of the artist’s communication with the Divine.

A work of art is not necessarily a Message.

A work of art is a communication device — it’s more like a phone number for God. It’s the strand of connection to the great web of consciousness that an artist used to have a conversation with God. It’s not like a voice-mail “Here, I called God, and this is what He told me.”

A work of art is not a puzzle you have to solve if you want to know what was said.

Art is not the voice-mail; Art is the phone.

Creative expression is an infinite variety of numbers you can use to get in touch with Spirit.

An artist is saying:

This number may work for you; it worked for me. It allowed me to have a conversation with a greater power. It allowed me to connect with, to commune with, to question a vast consciousness… Results will vary, but you are welcome to try this number to make a connection of your own and to ask your own questions. That may be as close as I can take you.

A work of material art is a shared device by which others may connect to their own divinity.

It’s like the artist is saying “Look! I found a short cut…” The physical work itself is a path, a vehicle, a vessel that can take you to Spirit; but to be delivered there, you must travel.

You must move yourself along the path. You must use the shortcut. The glorious built-in surprise bonus, of course, is that the journey itself is what you came for.

Or maybe, like me, you came for the Conversation.

image credit Eddi van W. via Creative Commons on Flickr

How to Make Decisions

Slade Roberson — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 23:19:02 +0000

“Have you ever had to make one of those decisions in life where you know that 20 years from now you will either look back happy or look back in regret?”

A friend of mine posted this on his Facebook wall. It’s a question I get asked a lot by friends and clients.

Here are some of the bits of advice that I share most often about how to make decisions when you become stuck in over-analyzing your options.

Random

When you cannot choose between multiple options:

Pick a direction, any direction — even if it’s at random — and begin moving in that direction. If it’s wrong, the Universe will throw up really obvious roadblocks.

Staying still never flushes the birds out of the bush, but even the wrong decision will scare things into the light.

If you really screwed up, you’ll know it pretty quickly and you can course-correct.

If you made the right choice, the path tends to continue unfolding before you.

Neither

When you cannot choose between two options:

If you’re truly stuck between Door #1 and Door #2 — like, you can make an argument Either/Or and it’s a dead tie — your best answer is usually… Door #3.

When you’re perfectly stuck between two seemingly equal options, the answer is usually Neither. There’s a third option you haven’t considered or that has not presented itself yet.

I can’t say this always proves to be true — but I find it to be the right approach more oftentimes than not. Even just considering that there might be a third option is enough to interrupt the analysis paralysis, to inspire you to back away from forcing a decision that doesn’t want to be forced.

The Emotional Body
Having made a choice, how do you feel?

Your body will provide confirmation of your decision — if not immediately, then after a sort of “emotional trial period.”

Do you feel relieved? That’s usually the best sign that you’ve made the right choice.

The body is one of the most accurate divination tools you have — you might augment this ability through the use of a pendulum or muscle testing.

image credit Mariano Kamp via Creative Commons on Flickr

This Damaging Lie about Success

Slade Roberson — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 23:41:44 +0000

Western culture’s concept of Success is grievously founded on the notion that human beings should be — can be — defined by their job titles as opposed to the size and function of their hearts.

This damaging lie — that we are the jobs we do and not the creative spirits we are behind the actions — is so off-base, so far off-target … don’t even bother spitting — you’ll miss.

You are already everything you’ve ever wanted to become.

You fulfill your life purpose with every breath you take.

You are not missing anything.

You cannot miss what is meant for you.

image credit Simon Pais via Creative Commons on Flickr

How to Manifest Momentum: Steps 1 – 5

Slade Roberson — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 21:54:03 +0000

Trying to go from a stand-still to momentum?
Inertia is the first (and perhaps the greatest) hurdle to overcome.

Stan, a Shift Your Spirits reader, writes to me:

I have big intentions for the New Year. I want to set some big goals, but, quite honestly, my life has been stagnant for a while now.

I don’t even know how to begin to start to decide how to choose where to start!

What are the best first steps I can take to raise my vibration and set things in motion?

The Sacred Elements
In terms of the Four Elements, the Earth element of the physical realm is where true action is taken and also where true outcomes present themselves. Earth is the element of the body, of the third-dimension, of reality.

All the inspiration, imagination, intuition, emotion, and passion in the world won’t translate into reality without the physical component.

So, the simplest, most basic, most important, first step in shifting your vibration, setting intentions, and manifesting momentum is to get into your body.

A musical instrument that is out of tune will sound terrible no matter how talented the person playing it or how brilliant the song.
A computer without a power source is a box of plastic.
A car without gas or decent tires is a very sturdy… tent.

Step #1 — Move Your Body
Light physical exercise is an amazing way to build momentum and shift energy.

It may sound simple and obvious, but don’t discount it.

Start wherever you are and tick up to the next notch of challenge in terms of physical activity.

Be kind to yourself. Do only that one more thing you know you can.

If for you this means some really basic wellness and physical therapy exercises seated in a chair — perfect! That works.

I recommend yoga because it is the most forgiving and flexible to the most ages, states of health, and physical circumstances — yoga allows just about anyone to start where they are, wherever that may be, and improve.

Set a goal to do a simple 15 minutes of stretching and a 15 minute walk outside every day for the next few weeks and see what kind of change in energy level you experience. That physical movement changes brain chemistry which affects your ability to manifest and operate in all other areas of your life.

Step #2 — Set Your Intentions
Setting intentions and establishing a clear vision is not the first step — why? Because more oftentimes than not, if you’re stagnant, confused, paralyzed by over-analysis, or trapped in hesitation and indecision, you’re missing the clarity required to set an intention and plan an effective course of action.

Or maybe it’s the inspiration that you’re waiting for — the bolt from the blue, the big idea, the sense of purpose, the Something to put your head and heart into.

Being in your body, being present, becoming aware of your physical environment — being plugged in — are all aspects of Step #1.

Light exercise is the absolute best brainstorm rainmaker there is — the creativity and clarity behind the best intentions often come on a nice walk around the neighborhood (or in the shower afterwards, if you work up a sweat).

Step #3 — Identify the Sacred Elements
Ideas and thoughts and visions, no matter how sparkly and inspired, are ephemeral.

Emotions and passions and drives are pure fuel — they still require a vehicle, a destination, good directions, and someone capable behind the steering wheel.

Action, action, action — yes, yes, yes — you have every intention of taking action. You’ve heard about this. It’s a pretty freaking crucial part of making anything happen. You know. You get it. You’re ready. You’re on it.

You can pray and vision board and meditate and chant and mantra-tize and stick sticky notes on every mirrored surface in your world…

Manifesting with the Sacred Elements is not a “secret,” it’s a system. A harmonious recipe — identifying all the parts and putting them together in balance, in context, in relation to one another.

Step #4 — Simplify Your Actions
Break your goals down into the smallest components you can.

Whenever possible, identify the one simplest action that, when repeated, will result in achievement of your goal.

Err on the side of slack-ass. I’m a big believer in establishing daily actions that are the minimum of doable, as opposed to pushing yourself. Why? Because success builds self-esteem, and self-esteem lends itself to bigger and better successes, and the repetition of this cycle is that elusive and heady wild ride of momentum — surfing the Flow.

Even the smallest success produces the kind of brain chemistry and higher vibes that replicate themselves.

Example: Successfully writing 250 words a day is more powerful and productive than trying and failing to write 1000 words a day — any day.

Step #5 — Focus
Once you’ve completed all the brainstorming, identified the components of your goals according to the Sacred Elements, and simplified your goals into the smallest repetitive course of action — it really comes down to focus.

Forget about the future and the past, stay present, and do the one thing that’s right in front of you.

Huh — look at that — one foot in front of the other. Reminds me of Step #1.

image credit Simon Pais via Creative Commons on Flickr

You’re Not Doing It Right

Slade Roberson — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 15:47:47 +0000

It’s hard not to compare yourself to others.
We learn from others.
We mirror, we model, we emulate.

We’re told “Find people who are doing what you want to do and mimic them.”

How else can you

measure your progress?
establish a baseline of expectations?
define the parameters of realistic goals?
identify the rules you want to break?
determine where the boundaries of healthy rebellion lie?

We look to others for inspiration, for reminders of our own potential, for what is possible.

But so often your interior monologue snatches at the vocabulary of envy, guilt, and shame. Insecurity seizes on the measures of another to hurl as barbs of unnecessary self-judgment and unhealthy self-criticism.

It’s important to remember that when you run across a difference — a place where you’re tempted to feel you don’t “measure up” — what you really may be uncovering is a distinction.

All that makes your path adventurous, your experience unique, your contribution original.

When think you’re “not doing it right,” maybe you’re just doing You.

image credit Simon Pais via Creative Commons on Flickr