Change is Possible
By Sandra Couts

Nancy is well known for her ability to stay focused and get the job done. She has a keen ability to face the challenges of her job as an assistant administrator with precision. Her attitude is always positive and customers often send letters of praise for her courtesy and kindness. Nancy loves her job and has found a way to take any negative interaction or difficulty and face it with a positive attitude. Why then can she not lose the extra twenty pounds she put on over the winter? How can she be so efficient in one area of her life yet struggle with changing another area?

The same question could be asked in regards to Tom, a massage therapist. His appointment book fills easily every week and he is never short of clients. Like Nancy, people often compliment him on his kindness, his laughter and his professional manners. Yet he struggles with his inability to take a holiday. He often works on the weekends and has not taken a vacation for over two years. Tom knows that he works too hard and too long. He understands that taking time off would improve his life, yet he continues to choose to work long days. What stops him from changing?

The answer to this question is complex due to our nature as human beings. How many times in your life have you told yourself you were going to change a certain behavior and never got around to making the change? On the other hand how many times have you made a positive change and kept changing because the outcome felt so wonderful?

The arena for change is vast. Losing weight or working fewer hours are two common focus points. Other areas for change encompass:

• Attitudes–thinking positive versus complaining
• Perspectives–what someone is sharing may have nothing to do with you personally
• Communication–not interrupting others, listening fully, speaking softly
• Interactions–learning to respond positively instead of reacting
• Habits–stop smoking, stop gossiping, stop being down on yourself

Change can be challenging. The following suggestions could assist you in making positive changes even when you do not want to, even when you understand the reasons for wanting to change but find it difficult to move forward.

• Identify what you want to change–only you know that.
• Make a list of how your habit serves you. Such as, eating potato chips comforts me or working long hours makes me feel like I am of value to others.
• Make a list of the positive results that would occur if you changed–I’ll start doing more of what I love, I’ll have more time to enjoy life.
• After you make your lists quiet yourself. Imagine that you are having a conversation with a friend who loves you unconditionally. This friend is wise, compassionate, understanding and supports your success 100 %. You trust this friend explicitly. Now ask your friend what action can you take to make the change?
• Follow the guidance of your loving imagery friend, whose suggestions will only be supportive and positive.

Reinforcing new habits is an important component for positive results. The following guidelines will help you maintain these changes.

• Every day visualize the change taking place. For instance, see your self physically fit, or see yourself enjoying a fun activity such as white water rafting.
• Be patient. Keep taking small steps every day.
• Be kind to yourself.
• Persevere. Change will come even if the results are not obvious right away.
• Open yourself to getting support. Although the onus is on you to change, support can be extremely beneficial and encouraging.
• Use self talk to fortify your changes.  

Sandra Couts MSN, RN, CNS is an Intuitive Counselor, Certified Full Wave Breathing Facilitator, Author, and a Certified Parent Coach.  For more information about her services or to make an appointment for a phone session call her toll free at 1-866-501-2555.

Operation Synchronicity
By Jennifer MacLellan

The introduction below is not what I had originally penned.

While editing this month’s article on synchronicity, a topic that I love but had some challenges in writing, I spent a moment thinking of a pseudonym to protect the identity of a friend whose story I had planned to use. For no particular reason (I thought at the time), the name “Jill” popped into my head. Since this name has no significance to me in my everyday life, no alarm bells went off the next day when I met Jill, the fitness consultant who was to initiate me into the world of fitness at the gym I had recently joined. Even when she and I randomly started talking about positive affirmations and visualization, which springboarded into a discussion about intuition and psychic ability (two of my many favourite topics on all things metaphysical), I still failed to make the connection. It wasn’t until I fell under the meditative spell of running on the treadmill that I finally got it. Jill + article on synchronicity + Jill + fitness consultant + spiritual talk = synchronous event.

So now what? Why did the world of the two Jill’s collide? What was I supposed to take away from this meeting? Are synchronicities as important as the eighteenth century German poet and playwright Friedrich Schiller wrote? “There is no such thing as chance; and what seem to us merest accident springs from the deepest source of destiny.” Being able to spot a synchronous event is one thing, but gleaming the meaning behind it is often another. Without making the link between the two events as five-sensory people often do, the meaningful connection becomes merely a fluke, a coincidence; and the significance of the synchronicity is lost.

Nothing that happens in our life is random. As multi-sensories, we use synchronicities not only to reaffirm the connection to a universal force that flows through every person and thing on this planet (and beyond) but also to validate or advance our personal evolution and life’s purpose. When we use a more multi-sensory mode to decipher signs, we are able to interpret the information much more accurately by taking what the outer world has provided for us into our inner world where we can make meaning of the physical gift.  To interpret accurately the meanings of the signs and symbols that are given to us, we benefit from becoming quiet with ourselves whether in meditation or prayer, or at the very least, from spending a few moments to check in to see if a synchronicity resonates with our higher selves.  For me, my running meditation allowed me to make sense of my meeting a Jill after writing about a Jill: move forward with the article; you are on the right track, I heard. A message I needed to hear since this article had stalled more times than a sixteen-year-old driving a stick shift on a steep road. 

Interpreting synchronicities sometimes requires us to engage our intellect along with our intuition, since there are times when our emotions cloud our interpretations of the signs, causing us to overreact or make decisions that are not in our best interest. Jill (not fitness consultant Jill, but fake name of friend Jill) received guidance in an intuitive reading to undergo an internal cleanse. The intuitive mentioned an ionic foot detox would gently do the job, a procedure with which Jill was not familiar. However, she was confident that through the powerful combination of her guides and her higher self, she would be led to where she needed to go.  So when the next day she was greeted with a rather large newspaper advertisement about a place that offered ionic foot baths, she was grateful but not surprised. Something about the ad, however, did not sit right with her after reading it. Since she was unable to identify the reason she was reluctant to call, she eventually dialed the number.  When she spoke to the man on the other end of the phone, a sense of dread shot through her body—something felt seriously off.  She thanked the man for the information and shakily hung up. Reflecting on the guidance she had been sent through a seemingly perfectly timed ad, Jill used her intellect to discern between the usual anxiety she feels when embarking on anything new and the cold, consuming fear that coursed through her body while talking to the man. Although she would never read any newspaper stories about a murderous ionic foot detox practitioner attacking unsuspecting health seekers, she did feel that if she had gone to that particular place for her foot detox, the results would not have been for her highest good. While it took several months for the right person and right place to materialize, Jill felt grateful for having used her intellect and intuition to guide her in the meantime.
Combining intuition with intellect can prevent us from overlooking an important warning or making a Chicken Little-type overreaction where we believe an acorn falling from a tree is a harbinger of impending disaster. Examining guidance through our intellect also helps us to challenge our emotions, expand our perceptions and make rational decisions for our highest good.  

There are those times, however, that synchronicity requires no rational thought and asks us to simply trust—trust that when synchronicity shows up at our spiritual doorstep inviting us to take a ride in the limousine of universal flow, we walk out of the house and get into the vehicle. Diane had been going through a period in her life where she felt isolated and disconnected, not only from friends and family but also from herself. One day the words spoken to her from a high school friend--“I’ll always be there for you”-- popped into her mind while driving to work.  She bitterly laughed thinking about the ten years that had passed since she had seen or talked to him. Three days later while staring at the empty e-mail inbox on her computer monitor, thinking about her long-lost schoolmate, a new message from the very same friend appeared on the screen: “How’s life treating you?”  Incredulous and tearful, she immediately replied to his message. The original physical communication may have been brief, but the spiritual message had a lasting impact for Diane.  Once she sent her reply, Diane opened the door to a natural flow of synchronicities that illustrated to her that she had never been alone and she never would be.

In advancing our personal evolution, synchronicity does not always show up in dire times, wrought with intense emotion. Many playfully experience synchronicities as a natural and joyous part of their everyday life. Years ago, I had been reading Ted Andrews’ book Animal-Wise in search of a totem animal that would assist me in connecting to my dream world.  I was especially drawn to what he wrote about fish and their incredible ability not only to adapt to their environment but also to offer spiritual assistance to humans through connecting us to the world of dreams. However, other animals had also resonated with me, so I was hesitant to make a choice and waited for a sign.  Two days later while at a friend’s house, her young daughter excitedly grabbed my hand, pulling me to the kitchen to show me the goldfish her parents had bought her days earlier.  Her father was preparing to relocate the fish from the mayonnaise jar it had been housed in to a regular-sized fishbowl.  In the middle of Operation Moving Day, in a scene from Finding Nemo, this little fish attempted a daring escape and landed on my arm. Although I didn’t scream (that was being taken care of by the six-year-old), I did jump and the slippery little guy plummeted to the tiled floor below. In the 15 seconds that it took for the fish to catapult itself out of the net, pancake onto my arm, splat onto the floor, spring into my hands and slip into its newly furnished aquatic home, I recognized the synchronicity that had flipped and then flopped into my life. Chuckling, I silently thanked the universe for sending me confirmation that I should work with the spirit of fish.

I was just glad I hadn’t been leaning toward the water spider.

Jennifer MacLellan, B. Ed., is an intuitive and an educator who is passionate about laughing, love, spirituality and the power of words. For any comments or questions, please contact her at jennnymac@shaw.ca.