12 Ways to Find Your Dream Job

If you feel content with the work you do, great!  But if you feel restless and are looking for something more fulfilling, here are some bread crumbs to help you find what might make your soul happy.  They might lead you to a job that pays the bills, or they might help you find something that adds meaning to your life and balances out your “day job.”  Explore with a light, playful, curious heart and see where your soul leads you.  And once you find something, see if you can find a way to offer it for the benefit of other people, animals, or nature in general.

Here are some suggestions to help you get you started:

1. look into the mirror of your surroundings – what’s around you at home?  what have you surrounded yourself with that you love?  you might be surprised to find out what you’re really interested in
2. what’s around you at home that you don’t love, that needs to be cleaned out to make room for a new phase in your life
3. what activities do you do that make time stop for you? what makes your heart sing?
4. make a prayer stick (see my previous post http://wp.me/p1FkFN-2S)
5. if you know how to journey, journey to your helping spirits for suggestions; ask to meet a helping spirit who can help you in this process; if you don’t know how to journey, meditate or spend some quiet time focused on your intention to connect with a way of expressing your soul in your everyday life
6. another good journey to do is a soul remembering journey
7. browse through a bookstore (brick & mortar, or virtual) and see what catches your eye
8. browse through the classified section of a newspaper or magazine and see what interests you
9. get your feet wet by doing some volunteer or part-time work in the area that is catching your eye – you don’t need to commit to something long-term right away – to begin with, just explore and see how it goes
10. look through a continuing education, Learning Annex, community college, or similar curriculum and see if any classes grabs your attention – take a class if it does!
11. traditional career counseling can be helpful, as can books like What Color is Your Parachute by Richard N. Bolles
12. set aside some time to get away from your normal routine to focus on your intention – this can be anything from a long, one-day hike in the mountains to an official Vision Quest – the important thing is to focus your intention and give yourself the space for your soul, for Spirit, to respond

This process isn’t about finding outside yourself, but connecting with what’s already in you and bringing it out.  If you feel anxious and stressed for time, use that energy to fuel the process, but do know that you can’t make something happen before its time, so please don’t try to force this process.  Put energy and discipline into it along with whimsy and play, but don’t force it.  It’s about shaking up the energy in your life so new things can be born.

And as always, the healthier you are when you start the process, the better chances you have of finding something you’ll truly love, because more of YOU will be involved in the process.  Shamanic healing practices such as soul retrieval and extraction can be very helpful in making sure you are clear and power-filled.

Remember to breathe and enjoy your day-to-day moments as you look to your future.

Yes, remember to breathe.

Balancing Your To-Do List With Breathing

Our minds race with our to-do lists and things it thinks we should be doing.  We are multi-tasking as fast as we can, no sooner pushing the send buttons on our smart phones than we are updating the status on our Facebook pages and blogs.  Minds racing, hearts racing, always feeling behind, feeling less than enough.  This leaves us vulnerable to negative self-talk, accepting unwarranted criticism of others, and being overly critical of others as well.

To balance this out, and to actually help us be more productive, I suggest taking regular breathing breaks.  Set a gentle hourly timer on your computer or phone, and when the crickets or chimes or the silent pop-up reminder goes off,

• check in with your body – relax any tension in your face – roll your shoulders and straighten your back – unwind yourself from the constricted position you might have gotten yourself into

• take a deep breath, from your belly – now take another one – then, take one more

• if you’re feeling particularly anxious, close your right nostril with a finger on your right hand,  and breath through your left nostril for a few breaths to calm down your nervous system

You can keep it that simple, or you can add a smile to your breathing break, or perhaps a thought or two of gratitude.

Remember to unplug and take a walk outside daily if you can.  Let your eyes focus on something other than an electronic screen that’s a foot in front of you.  See the trees, the sky, the grass.  Put your to-do list in perspective – so much has already been done, and most of it not by you!  We are part of all that is, not in control of all that is.

Take a few deep belly breaths and enjoy your day.

The Spirits Where We Live

My husband and I are getting ready to do some landscaping, to take out the grass and replace it with drought tolerant, native plants.  We’ve been talking about doing it for a long time, and are finally moving forward.

I journeyed this morning to the sprit of our property to let it know of our plans and to see if it needed or wanted anything in particular.  I connected with it after only a few minutes of drumming, and its voice was very clear.  What it wanted was for me to develop a stronger relationship with it.  I acknowledge the spirit of our land every morning, but it wants something deeper than this, especially during this upcoming landscaping project.

I learned when I started gardening that it’s important to connect with the spirit of the plants you are working with to let them know you will be weeding them so they can retract their life force for an easier transition, or so they will feel blessed and welcomed if you are planting seeds.  I have learned to connect to the spirit of our house on a regular basis, smudging after vacuuming to make sure things are cleansed energetically as well as physically.  And I thought I’d paid attention to the sprit of our land as well, but it wants to ramp things up a notch.

I encourage everyone to get to know the spirit of the land where you live.  If you know how to journey, journey to the spirit of your land, introduce yourself, and see if there’s anything your land would like from you.  Develop a ritual, even (or especially) a simple one to honor it on a regular basis.  For instance, our land wanted me to go around its perimeter today and scatter cornmeal, something I’d told it I would do a long time ago but finally did today.

Another thing you can do is set aside an area, even a very small area, that you leave untouched, an area just for nature spirits.

If you don’t know how to journey, you can meditate or center yourself in some other way and set your intention to connect with the spirit of the place where you live.  Focus your energy in your heart and perhaps walk around the boundaries of your land saying hello.  Even if you live in a rental apartment it’s still important to connect – otherwise, it’s like living in someone else’s house without ever acknowledging them, or having roommates your never say hello to.

So, say hello to where you live.  Welcome it into your consciousness and develop a relationship with it.  After all, it was there first.

Sunflowers, © Lynda Skeen

Squash blossoms, © Lynda Skeen

“We’ll See” – A Zen Parable About Staying Open to What Is

There is a Taoist story of an old farmer who had worked his crops for many years. One day his horse ran away. Upon hearing the news, his neighbors came to visit. “Such bad luck,” they said sympathetically.

“Maybe,” the farmer replied.

The next morning the horse returned, bringing with it three other wild horses. “How wonderful,” the neighbors exclaimed.

“Maybe,” replied the old man.

The following day, his son tried to ride one of the untamed horses, was thrown, and broke his leg. The neighbors again came to offer their sympathy on his misfortune.

“Maybe,” answered the farmer.

The day after, military officials came to the village to draft young men into the army. Seeing that the son’s leg was broken, they passed him by. The neighbors congratulated the farmer on how well things had turned out.

“Maybe,” said the farmer.

Art made from nails, bones, glass and other scraps I found buried in our yard. © Lynda Skeen

Core Shamanism

Sometimes I think it would have been really nice to have been brought up in a tribal community.  But part of the beauty of what’s become known as “core shamanism” is that it gives access to those of us who weren’t brought up in any specific shamanic lineage to have access to the shamanic way of connecting to Spirit shamanic tools and

As much as I sometimes would love to have a label to describe the lineage of my healing practice, Spirit has made it clear to me that what my ego is actually whining for is twofold:  some kind of “diploma” to hang on my wall, which wouldn’t prove anything about my connection to my helping spirits anyway, and permission to have the relationship with them that I have.

We don’t need to have a label or a lineage to have a connection to Spirit.  We don’t need permission from anyone else.  This is about our soul’s journey, which is between us and Spirit.  No diploma or seal of approval needed.  (And if we go back far enough, we all come from tribal / indigenous lineages anyway.)

I want to give a big thank you to The Foundation for Shamanic Studies (http://shamanism.org/), founded by Michael Harner.  FSS teaches a distillation of shamanic techniques found in common in shamanic cultures all over the world, which is where the term “core shamanism” came from.  Since they don’t belong to any one culture, we don’t have to worry about pillaging another culture, or pretending to belong to a culture we don’t have any relationship to.  I want to thank FSS for all that they’ve offered those of us who don’t belong to any one particular lineage.

Regardless of what tools and techniques we use, if we’re connected to Spirit, our practice will organically evolve, regardless of its roots.  It’s a living relationship with the universe.  Nothing will stay still, and Spirit will be our Teacher.

Have a beautiful, Spirit-filled week.

“My religion is kindness.”

I’ve been thinking about prayer a lot lately, about how we pray and what our expectations are.  I watch “good” people get sick, “bad” people get rich, and of course vice versa.  I watch shamanic healing sometimes result in physical healing, sometimes in my client “just” developing a deeper connection with the non-physical universe.  The variations are endless.

It seems to me that if we embrace whatever is happening with compassion and love, and a big dose of humility before the ultimate Mystery, we’ll be doing the best that we can.  There is plenty we can “do” to be healthy and happy and alleviate suffering in the world, but that doesn’t mean we’re all going to be perfectly healthy and wealthy all the time.  I think it’s about co-creating with the universe, about saying, “Here’s what I think I’d like, and what I think would be best for everyone involved, but I’m open to suggestions,” a la the “Thy will be done” of the Christian “Lord’s Prayer.”

We need to realize, regardless of what is going on, that we’re still connected to All That Is.  In this realization, we can act with compassion and love – the glue of that connection to the rest of All That Is – towards ourselves, towards other people, to our helping spirits, as well as our animal brothers and sisters and all other life forms.

As I was thinking about this, I thought of something the Dalai Lama’s said on 9/11: “My religion is very simple. My religion is kindness” (see http://www.wildnesswithin.com/dalai.html for his whole statement).

Stay conscious of our true nature and our connection to all that is.  Treat everything and everyone with kindness, including ourselves.  Set our intentions to do the best we can; act accordingly.  And release the outcome to Spirit.  I’ve got to break it down that simply for myself, especially when things get too complicated and my mind and my ego want to take control and figure it out, which they can’t.

“My religion is kindness.”  I like that.

Petting a possum in our garage; © Lynda Skeen

a possum in our garage; © Lynda Skeen

Developing Your Intuition

I believe we’re all intuitive, because on a deep, basic level, we’re all connected.  It’s basically a matter of clearing out what’s blocking us from knowing what’s us and what’s coming from someone else.  This means getting to know ourselves, not falling prey to our ego’s power tripping when we do connect intuitively with someone else, and learning how to have appropriate boundaries so that we’re not overwhelmed by other people’s energies.

Get reconnected to your soul parts, release energies you’re holding onto that aren’t yours, do whatever psychological work you need to do, start meditating, and pay attention to your dreams.  For starters.

A simple exercise:  intend to go to a restaurant you’ve never been to before and order a meal that your body will enjoy and be nourished by.  Just get in your car and start driving.  Follow your instincts – your intuition.  Play.  Where do you end up?  What feels good to you?  It’s good to start with exercises like this that don’t have much consequences.  Just start listening to your heart, to your gut feelings.

I’d also like to give a shout out to the work of Judith Orloff, who can be found at www.drjudithorloff.com (I especially recommend her book Second Sight) and Ann O’Brien, who can be found at http://floweringsol.com.