Jessica Shepherd's Blog, page 3

When people ask me what I love about living in Hawaii, I usually say: the tropical weather, the ocean, and the connection to the land.

Hawaiian culture, as a whole, regards the relationship between land, creatures, humans as sacred and interconnected, and this fact is as palpable and all-encompassing here as the salty island air.

So when Mother Earth sends up lava from deep within, rest assured *something* is happening.
Especially for those who feel this interconnection with the land, or ‘Aina.
****

The last time a volcano erupted in Hawaii (Kilauea) something deep simultaneously erupted inside of me. For 7 days, I grieved the loss of my marriage; I fully thought I had to leave my husband. It was one of the most emotionally devastating periods I’ve ever experienced.

I didn’t actually want to leave him (and I didn’t).

It turned out, my childhood conditioning was erupting from the deeps; the message “there is no room for a ME in WE,” erupted in tune with Kilauea and possessed my perception entirely. I never thought something like this could happen to me. Ever. Not me, being of such a strong and sound mind. After all, I’ve survived so many difficult things with my sanity intact. But boy, I was wrong! The conditioning was stronger. It was like being blindfolded to the Truth, then having the blindfold removed, and the lie revealed.

….Because I woke up. I finally saw the dark message for what it was: an old relic I’d been carrying around with me for far too long. Like an unwanted family heirloom, it didn’t belong to me, yet needed release through me. The tension of holding that false idea had been creating pressure inside. It had to come up and out.

Fast forward to today. Mauna Loa has just erupted on the island of Hawaii. While I live in Oahu, and cannot see it, I felt it coming. The papers kept saying ‘it could happen at any moment’. Yes. This timing felt right. The pressure had been building but for me, I’m happy to say, this time release happened on my own terms, without having my perception scarily hi jacked.

****
None of us are islands. The land we live on affects us. The people we come from, what they told us about our self, it affects us. We are connected to it all …and even if it’s possible to live an entire life believing a lie, and recreating an old story…none of it defines who we truly are. Hopefully, we break free.

Enter: Pele.

Pele, goddess of volcanos, had notoriously hot relationships to her own family. She was temperamental. She is known to dramatically test certain people who visit Hawaii but forget to bring their respect, reverence, awe.

In a sentence, FEARLESS PELE REALLY GETS THINGS MOVING…

(She is the face of the Divine Feminine that demands TRUTH above all.)

….Especially, if you are ready to shift old stuff out of your energetic field.

Come to Hawaii for the Mai tais, they said.

Come to Hawaii to sit on the beach, they said.

LOL.

Of course, you can do that, too. But if you are in the right space, if you are of the inclination and persuasion, it offers so much more.

The way I am tied to this land, after only living here less than five years, inspires my awe and respect. Hawaii continues to protect and shelter me (Honolulu translates as sheltering cove) while asking that I live in my most Authentic Self. This means releasing all that is untrue within me, all that keeps me small and blindly following patterns that are not mine to follow.

Pele is helping me with this. Clearly.

Eruptions need to happen from time to time— to clear the space.

Fortunately, me and Madame Pele, we are in agreement on this.

Maximum freedom is what I most want for myself, too.

The post PELE IS MOVING ENERGY (Mauna Loa volcano is erupting!) appeared first on Jessica Shepherd.

“There are two sides to every story” is a popular phrase,
but it easily diminishes, or makes fuzzy logic from, our Inner Knowing.

The fact is:
Truth doesn’t take sides, or have a side at all.
It simply is.
Like a circle, or the Sun,
there are no edges, or sides, to the Truth.

Others may attempt to convince you otherwise, so they can stay in their story.

You may even tell yourself: How can I insist that I am Right? Perhaps I’m being arrogant?
(when, actually, they are the one who is being arrogant by denying the Truth)

Let’s get underneath all of this,
cut to the chase,
and get right to the bone-feeling of Truth.

Truth has a feeling to it:
neutral,
clear,
calm,
peaceful,
when a light knowing-ness moves through you,
as clear as a pristine mountain spring,
that’s how you know you are in it.

When you FEEL this way,
you are in a deep state of Inner Knowing,
you are in TRUTH.

That’s not arrogance.
That’s not a story,
or “one of many different perspectives.”

That is how Truth feels inside your very being.

Others will have their response,
they may argue with you.
But argue yourself out of this,
and you argue with your own Truth –
which, like a mouse arguing with a cat, is pointless and stressful.

They say there are two sides to every story.
I say: That’s how you know you’re in a story.

Stop trying to consider all the perspectives.
Instead, aim for the Truth.
Because the Truth has no sides.
Like the noonday Sun, it shines –
pure, clear, and without shadow.

The post THE TRUTH TAKES NO SIDES appeared first on Jessica Shepherd.

If I’ve one best practice about how to best feel good (I’ve so many, it’s hard to narrow down) over the holidays, it is: Only do what YOU WANT to do. I know, easier said than done, but as with most habits, it gets easier the more you do it.

Why is this my number one strategy for feeling good at the holidays – and, frankly, life? When we compromise our Self -and by this I mean override our needs, wants and desires- we make our self really vulnerable. Vulnerable to illness, stress, picking up strange energies, making even more bad choices, falling into old habits, and just generally feeling badly.

Since the holidays can put us in more situations that can trigger compromising ourselves, stress, and also picking up a bug or flu, it’s worth recommitting, or setting the intention, to really hold boundaries around your personal sense of satisfaction.

Learning to be more selfish; drawing boundaries on my time, energy, and expressing my desires and needs, has been such fertile ground for my growth – I’ve worked so hard on it – that I’m proud to say that today you won’t see much evidence of this having been a difficult issue for me.

It hasn’t always been this way. It’s taken years. In thinking about this, I remembered a key moment when I knew I HAD TO change:

My husband and I were in Santiago, Chile. It was his work trip. One night we had a dinner engagement with his colleagues, something I am rarely in a “Divine Yes” with. We sat down to eat at 6 pm and by 7:30, our food still has yet to be ordered. Up until about 7:30 I had been making conversation. But somewhere around that time I began to get angry – really angry.

At this point, I excused myself to go to the restroom, and sat in the stall taking some long deep breaths. Why was I so angry? I scolded myself. What’s wrong with me? Can’t I make it through one tedious dinner? Actually, no.

I was receiving intuitive information, which I did not act upon. The dinner continued. By night’s end, the energy had totally collapsed. Everyone was tired. The next day both my husband and I got really sick, and for the rest of the trip.

In hindsight, I evaluated my mis-steps, to prevent from making the same mistakes again.

-I had judged myself for the “irrational” way I was feeling (my sudden flare of anger) –a surefire way to create disconnection from the inner listening intuition requires. Anger was a signal that a boundary had been reached… but it wasn’t only about me (and as an energy sensitive, it rarely, if ever, is just about me)… Everyone was feeling this way.

-I also know that when I’m already feeling compromised, I can only minimally tolerate certain social situations without consequences. In hindsight, I had only about an hour and a half’s worth of oxygen in this situation before it expired.

-My old conditioned habit of people-pleasing kicked in: I didn’t want to make anyone else uncomfortable. While I knew I wanted to leave, I didn’t want to deal with my husband’s negative feelings about this, which as an empath, I would feel.

-I also didn’t want to appear selfish, so I squelched my needs. Putting my needs first made me feel selfish and guilty!

In hindsight, I could clearly see a lifelong habit of appropriating sensations and feelings as evidence that there was something wrong with me instead of psychic intelligence about my needs, the environment, or people around me. I could also see how my habit of deferring to my partner was hurting me. This was a HUGE awakening. So many things were at play, for which I was feeling consequences: old conditioning; people-pleasing, deferring my needs for others, judging myself for how I felt- and criticizing myself for being overly sensitive. And, when I honestly asked myself, I had decided to go on the trip because John wanted me to…because I was mildly curious, lukewarm, about it… I had not really WANTED to go.

I was not in alignment with my DIVINE YES. That full-body feeling of “THIS, RIGHT HERE, IS WHERE I WANT TO BE.”

When you are out of alignment with your own desires and needs- your “YES”- it opens the door for many things to go awry.

Honoring your desires and needs is the ultimate form of psychic protection. I think of the astrological symbol for the Sun -a dot inside the boundary of a circle. Your only job, as a human Ego, is to stay in the bullseye of your needs, desires, wants. This means listening to yourself, really listening; not allowing distractions of conditioning to take you away from you.

When you do this, you are protected by the circle surrounding. But if you are not listening to your Self…if you are deferring to others, saying yes when you mean no, or gritting your teeth and bearing situations you don’t like… there’s no one “home” to protect you. You don’t have a boundary any longer, so anything and anyone can get into your energetic field and disrupt you.

So, we arrive at the holidays. Whether you are feeling badly over the holidays, or want to prevent yourself from feeling badly, I suggest you keep it simple for yourself: Make a vow to only do what YOU WANT. Decide to be more selfish. Stop making decisions that feel lukewarm, or flat out unwanted (and then wonder why you are feeling badly later).

If you aren’t at “home” in yourself, protecting your own interests, who is?

Stay “home” for the holidays, friends.

For more resources on how to stay healthy over the holidays…

-protect your energy with a luscious abhayanga practice.
-come back into your own energ y practice.
-listen to my FREE energy reconnection MP3.

 

The post Feel Good Over the Holidays appeared first on Jessica Shepherd.

Sometimes astrology is fun and useful; other times, because it names so many potentials (and not all of them good) I find it stimulates fear and foreboding. Today, because I have always deeply enjoyed this rich time of year, I wanted to bring LIGHT to the way this sign of Scorpio serves us all.

First, this recent solar eclipse sheds light on your deepest resources, and delivers empowerment (even through loss, change, transition), especially when you take a particular approach to what is happening in your life right now:

-be psychologically courageous and emotionally honest with yourself
-face the tough questions with investigative curiosity and grit
-lightly hold the intention to ONLY know and align with TRUTH
…and be willing to release any defenses or resistance to doing the above.

…Any and all of us can do this right now, to receive benefit.

…We may even discover new inner and external resources when we do.

***this longer bit is for those of you who know your birth chart***

SCORPIO SEASON & WHERE DOES SCORPIO (& PLUTO) FALL IN YOUR BIRTH CHART?

Scorpio season is a perfect time to align with your innate resourcefulness. This sign governs all things invisible and outside of your control, and paradoxically these situations teach us how to sit in our power amidst tumult, loss, mystery, change.

In your birth chart, the house(s) in which Scorpio falls show where you are infinitely resourceful; where, like a starfish, you can lose a limb and, in time, grow a new one. Loss serves you here, since it ALWAYS gives rise to personal transformation. In this area: Your psychological courage, and relentless self-honesty, are rewarded in fascinating and magical ways.

Here, you are tried and tested many times by situations that arise that are outside your control. These burn up any impurities or things you don’t need, allowing you to move forward empty, open. These challenges cause you to discover areas of inner resource previously invisible to you- rich, inner, wealth that you wouldn’t have otherwise discovered or sought out.

~note: these descriptions also apply to natal Pluto, so you can read for: Pluto, Scorpio in the house(s) and also for the recent eclipse, 2 degrees Scorpio– which holds a more immediate key to your experience right now.~

Scorpio/Pluto in 1st house -transforming your physical body, going it alone/being a lone wolf, mastering the art of self- reinvention, benefits from psychological introspection and willingness to explore self-change, empowering yourself through acts of self honesty and courage, choosing to look more deeply into yourself instead of blaming others/the world

Scorpio/Pluto in 2nd house– the tools, skills, abilities you cultivate when you are pushed to do so, what you have and own- including a truer confidence gained through what loss and trials have shown you, transforming your ideas about self-worth/money/abundance, turning losses into gains by aligning with your truest values and allowing that to show you magic

Scorpio/Pluto in 3rd house– the mysterious and fascinating subjects you are here to observe, explore and teach, gains through esoteric and psychic studies, exercising your curiosity about what’s truly going on underneath things, nervy explorations into areas that might scare you – or you have initial resistance toward, seeking Truth in a variety of situations

Scorpio/Pluto in 4th house– the way family has shaped you, healing your attachments to control/out of fear for freedom of Truth, transforming your home life, your ability to psychologically regenerate through inner work/healing, investigating your inner world, psychological introspection as alchemical gold, reclaiming lost/repressed memories, reclaiming family bonds

Scorpio/Pluto in 5th house– transforming your personality, the transformations and empowerments you receive through people you love/your love life, reinvention in the ways you create and express yourself, releasing any defenses you have to openly sharing/loving/giving, being affectionate and open in ways that foster safety and trust for everyone you meet

Scorpio/Pluto in 6th house– crisis through health, the body and work, integrating more psychological honesty and awareness of energy into your mind/body connection/health, releasing need for control, allowing a deeper inner power to move through and guide you, owning your abilities/gifts without making yourself a slave to them- or another, your master

Scorpio/Pluto in 7th house– partnering, seeing into different agendas of others’ without judgement, self-investigation through complex relational dynamics, healing partnering wounds, mastering the art of interpersonal boundaries, no longer replaying old wounding and power plays in relationship, creating mutually rewarding & fully healed partnerships

Scorpio/Pluto in 8th house– benefits received through crisis, death, inheritances, discovering true freedom through letting go and loss, creating valuable resources for other people to use, empowering others’ life transformations through offering what you own and have, discovering the joy of giving what you own away, the benefit of totally starting over

Scorpio/Pluto in 9th house– investigating into the meaning you give things, researching complex patterns, letting go of beliefs that do not serve you, seeing perception as the creator of your entire reality, transforming shadow of religion/guru into light, releasing dogmatic Ego or religious structure for compassion and tolerance, getting unstuck- widening your perceptual lens

Scorpio/Pluto in 10th house– your contribution to the world, ongoing reinvention sought in mission and calling, naming the taboo in a public way, works of empowerment in a public way, giving up a role in your community in order to pull inward and feel safe, valuing and protecting one’s own privacy, knowing when it’s kinder to keep a secret than share what you know

Scorpio/Pluto in 11th house– the intensity you experience in friend groups, constant reinvention of your dreams/Vision, offering your resources to solve collective problems, future survival preparation, steering clear of agendas that aren’t aligned with your own values, working to heal collective wounds and falsehoods, seeking Truth as Vision quest

Scorpio/Pluto in 12th house– relentlessly developing and working on your spiritual and inner life, receiving empowerments from confinement and situations you have no control over, trusting in the power of your Divinity/Spirit in all things, the transformations and magic you experience when you surrender totally, reclaiming power through hardship

Remember:
We are all RESOURCEFUL… but sometimes we need to be reminded of this!

*Please feel free to share your experiences with this, in the comments!

The post SCORPIO THROUGH THE HOUSES: YOU ARE RESOURCEFUL appeared first on Jessica Shepherd.

Sometimes astrology is fun and useful; other times, because it names so many potentials (and not all of them good) I find it stimulates fear and foreboding. Today, I wanted to bring LIGHT to the way this sign of Scorpio serves us all.

This solar eclipse sheds light on your deepest resources, and delivers magical empowerment (even through loss) especially when you take a particular approach to what is happening in your life right now:

-be psychologically courageous and emotionally honest with yourself
-face the tough questions with investigative curiosity and grit
-lightly hold the intention to ONLY know and align with TRUTH
…and be willing to release any defenses or resistance to doing the above.

…Any and all of us can do this right now, to receive benefit.

…We may even discover new inner and external resources when we do.

***this longer bit is for those of you who know your birth chart***

In your chart, the house(s) in which Scorpio falls shows where you are infinitely resourceful; where, like a starfish, you can lose a limb and, in time, grow a new one. Loss serves you well, here, since it ALWAYS gives rise to personal transformation. In this area: your psychological courage, and ruthless self honesty, is rewarded in fascinating and magical ways.

In this area(s) you are tried and tested many times by situations that arise that are outside your control, but also burn up any impurities you are carrying and this allows you to move forward empty, and open to new potential. These challenges cause you to discover areas of inner resource previously invisible to you- rich, inner, wealth that you wouldn’t have otherwise discovered or sought out.

WHERE DOES SCORPIO FALL IN YOUR BIRTH CHART?

~As you look at this list, please also look at the house with 2 degrees Scorpio, the eclipse degree, since it holds a key to your current experience, right now.~

1st house -your physical body, going it alone, the art of self reinvention, psychological introspection and willingness to explore self-change, empowering yourself through self honesty and courage

2nd house- the tools, skills, abilities you cultivate, what you have and own- including true confidence gained through challenges, loss and trials, turning losses into gains by aligning with your truest values

3rd house- what you observe, learn and teach, gains through esoteric and psychic studies, curiosity about what’s going on underneath, explorations in areas no one else dares tread

4th house- family, home, your ability to regenerate through tribal bonds, investigating inner world, psychological introspection is gold for you, reclaiming lost/repressed memories, never throwing away a family bond

5th house- your personality, reinvention in ways you create and express yourself, releasing defenses to openly sharing/loving, being affectionate in ways that foster safety and trust for everyone

6th house- crisis through health and work, releasing need for control, allowing a deeper inner power to move through and guide you, owning your abilities without making yourself a slave or another your master

7th house- partnering, seeing into different agendas without judgement, self-investigation through complex relation dynamics, healing partnering wounds, creating mutually rewarding & fully healed partnerships

8th house- benefits through death and inheritance, finding freedom through loss, creating valuable resources for other people to use, discovering the freedom of giving what you own, away

9th house- investigating the meaning you give things, researching complex patterns, belief, transforming shadow of religion/guru into light, releasing dogmatic strong Ego belief structure for compassion

10th house- your contribution to the world, ongoing reinvention sought in mission and calling, naming the taboo in a public way, knowing when it’s kinder to protect a secret than share what you know

11th house- friend groups, constant reinvention of dreams/Vision, offering your resources to solve collective problems, future survival preparation, steering clear of agendas that aren’t aligned with your values

12th house- developing your spiritual and inner life, confinement and situations you have no control over, trusting in your Divinity/Spirit, the transformations and magic you experience when you surrender totally

Remember:
We are all RESOURCEFUL… but sometimes we need to be reminded of this!

*Please feel free to share your experiences with this, in the comments!

The post SCORPIO NEW MOON ECLIPSE: YOU ARE RESOURCEFUL appeared first on Jessica Shepherd.

When I went to take a vitamin and cut my finger on the aluminum wrap, I asked myself: Now, what does this mean? Am I moving too fast? Angry? Hmmm…Perhaps I am not meant to be taking this vitamin. It was actually hilarious how quickly I tried to give this simple accident meaning. Apparently, it is that hard-wired into my subconscious; I’m sure being an astrologer, a person who can read symbolic meaning into everything, helps/doesn’t help in this.

I had to laugh when my higher-level response said: That’s called life, my friend. Truth.

I am seriously conditioned toward interpreting ALL things, giving them meaning.

Especially physical symptoms.

I think this is a hangover from the New Thought Movement, and Goddess bless her, Louise Hay -who led the way in giving a psychological meaning to every single ailment you could ever have.

But you know what?

…Not every single thing has a capital “M” Meaning; including physical symptoms.

…And not every symptom needs to be regarded as a reflection of a deeper wound to heal.

Sometimes symptoms are simply blocked energy- perhaps the way we are holding our energy needs more Awareness -or- we are registering dis-resonance in our environment, and people around us -or- the physical body’s attempt to calibrate to new levels of Conscious Awareness both individually, and collectively -or- we are working through hormonal or bodily aging issues -or- we are learning something new about ourself.

Some of us respond to stress differently, more acutely/immediately, than others. Ever notice that? That’s sensitivity.

And sometimes physical symptoms reflect the WAY WE ARE HUMANLY BUILT TO PROCESS ENERGY.

There is nothing wrong with any of this. Ever (many of my physical symptoms give me intuitive information).

…What I’m saying is, if this offers you relief to know, it’s worth considering: There are many more options – beyond the model of every ailment reflecting a deeper knotty psychological, or spiritual, complex – for you to unravel.

I have been having a lot of extremely painful headaches, lately. Instead of exploring this compulsive tendency to attribute meaning to, “figure out” or “fix” what ails me, I find paying attention to what helps me feel better and then regarding that as the truest form of information I need to know, most helps.

I’ve been noticing my inner energy flow. Because of the headaches, I am feeling inward more, noticing when my energy feels flowing and integrated, and when it feels choppy and congested, I am proactively doing energy practices and breathing to get back into flow state. As a result of the headaches, I’m practicing an energetic form of inner listening. I’m also using all my tools, and all my channels, to inquire into what I need, what would help me feel better.

Which, to me, is the point – not the aside. The means IS the end, if you catch my drift. The journey is the destination.

(Often the message is to simply reach for your healing tools, and explore those.)

…Plus, I am a healer, so it makes sense that my buttons are pushed in this way. This is the roadmap of my journey. I would never have created the Divination Deck, for instance, had my sensitivity buttons not been pushed so strongly.

Sometimes I do find the meaning of organs and energy centers useful; at other times I do not.  If the line of inquiry causes me to feel worse, loaded down with guilt, judgment, shame, it’s wrong for me. That’s my bottom line. The same goes for exploring childhood wounding, or psychological dynamics, or the original source of the injury, as a source of a symptom. Often all of this just drops me right back into old energy, and I immediately feel worse for it.

And, sometimes my mind still fixates on fixing me! Pain does this. In an attempt to get out of the emergency state, the amygdala sends emergency “fix this” signals. Mind then regards symptoms as problems in need of fixing, and from that precarious state, it’s a very short jump to that panicked state: Something is wrong with me, or “I’m broken”.

That’s when I pull something from my let’s-confuse-my-amygdala bag of tricks, to help. Like this one:

Funny story: When I get too caught up in trying to figure out what -the-fresh-hell-this-symptom-is -about, I recall something I read in the book Souls on Earth. A man regressed and learned he had asthma from youth because he was the equivalent of a human transmitter for his home planet; every time Earth’s energies got too conflicted, his asthma would act up, send a signal back to his planet, as an alert so the beings there could offer us energetic help.

Ha! Maybe my physical symptoms MEAN something beyond what my brilliant brain can even conceive!

The post The Meaning You Give Things appeared first on Jessica Shepherd.

It’s a question I’ve thought about how to answer, for some time now. It’s kind of like, If you know you know. The truth is, though, for a long while I was a card carrying member of this club, yet I didn’t know this club even existed – so I really didn’t know, you know? (yes, I was about to reach for a Fight Club quote, or did I just?). Also, and anyhow, I think it’s important to tease out what it means to be energy sensitive because a) we are ALL energy sensitive to varying degrees and b) identifying HOW we feel can illuminate WHAT we feel. And help us address elusive emotional and physical issues that are hard to put our finger on, but nonetheless effect us through sensitivity.

What does it mean to be energy sensitive?

We FEEL things differently than most. Not WHAT, but HOW. Okay, this may sound tricky, but in practical terms I can go pick up on an energy simply by thinking about an event, person or date in the future. When I leave my center, or when I think of a future or past event, I can suddenly find myself awash with anxiety, or feeling badly. This can be independent of what I think or feel about the event or person, but it can also be a reflection of my feelings, too. It’s on me to sort out whether I just went out of my energy field, or I’m holding an opinion or thought about it – or both.

This is because our Awareness is not attached to our body. This is True for all of us humans, not just energy sensitives (or empaths). When we are sensitive to energy, we are more easily able to sort of time travel- to use our vastly sensitive Awareness to scan, energetically, and we’re not always aware we are doing this. If you’ve watched time travel shows, like the Time Travelers Wife, you may recall that it doesn’t feel good to time travel. Ever.

This leads to my next point. It never feels good to leave your own embodied Awareness. You energetically pick up things you don’t want to pick up- like someone else’s bad day, their grief, self-doubt or self-criticism. Then, you end up having to figure that out. Likewise, you can also pick up on or feel collective emotions and energies. If you are really sensitive, you can even feel when someone else is thinking about you (there are certain people who, when they think of me, I know it). LSS…If you are not aware that you’re energy sensitive, you wind up with a lot of energies and emotions that aren’t yours, which you keep mistaking for yours so keep trying to figure out how to resolve. Do you have any idea how maddening this is?! If you are aware that you’re energy sensitive, you know this one well…

Early on in my journey, I recall visiting a healer who exasperatedly told me I had 8 energies/emotions in my field he had to clear. I had no idea what he was talking about, and he didn’t have an explanation for me, just exasperation at the task he had in front of him, apparently. Anyhow, all I knew then was that I felt REALLY, REALLY, BADLY. I felt physically sick. That’s what carrying around 8 energies can do to a person. Also: I didn’t go back to that healer (I really don’t like it when people make me feel badly for feeling badly. I do that to myself, enough! That is a hard NO for me.).

As I’ve awakened and grown, so has my sensitivity. On this point, many healers and teachers tend to agree: The degree to which you are “awake” is the degree to which you are “sensitive”. Expanded Awareness is quite literally that: Expanded Awareness. You notice more. My teacher used to describe it to me like this. As you wake up (clear your false perceptions, clear out old stuck energies, become more conscious), you will feel more sensitive, not less. The metaphor was that of a white wall with a black dot on it. You are now more Aware, and sometimes excruciatingly aware (!), of that dis-resonant black dot in your energy field because there aren’t any other black dots there anymore.

This explanation of sensitivity takes a lot of the rub out of being “too sensitive”, doesn’t it? I mean, we already have to deal with the icky energies that are not ours, which feels badly, to begin with, so why feel BAD about ourselves?!

Which brings me to my next point. If you feel so much; if, sometimes leave your energy field and feel badly, -or- sometimes you are totally in your embodied energy field and STILL feel other people’s yuck (oh yes, that, too), what can you do about it? It’s essential to have practices to help you through this, so you can lead a somewhat normal life. Yes, I said “somewhat”; you are energy sensitive. You aren’t normal. I hope that’s okay with you. You are different from the rest. You pick up energies, you sense things, you feel things strongly -whatever you want to call it. This is who you are. It is not something you can fix, or if this happened at a certain point, turn back time on the clock.

The only way is forward, with oodles of self-acceptance, self-care and learning how to properly care for your Sensitive Awareness. Energy practices help you to know what your field feels like (versus someone else’s energy), release any gunk you’ve picked up, and help you to recenter into your own energy field  -so you can feel like yourself again. Practices also are an anchor, a way for discerning when you are right here, and when you are not here. In my experience, the practices that consistently work for me involve coming back into my own body (embodiment).

Which is why I feel the key for navigating energy sensitivity with success is staying in your Embodied Awareness. You have an Expanded Awareness but you also have a body that is interacting with what you are feeling. It’s a very finely tuned instrument, and a resource, but it will express quite a few uncomfortable symptoms, and perhaps not want to move at all, if you don’t respect what it needs. Similar to driving around in a high-end Maserati that will require oodles of care and fine-tuning, your sensitive vehicle is very high performance AND for this reason also requires excessive levels of self-care. When you learn to take care of your instrument, and by this I mean really honor that this is how it’s going to work for you – you are driving a high performance vehicle with that marvelous Expanded Awareness of yours – inhabiting your body with exquisite tenderness, care and curiosity becomes your biggest ally for your journey.

If you are energy sensitive, your body is your biggest resource. Learning what it means to be: inside of your own energy field, be inward, how to reconnect to YOU, and release tension, congestion, emotion that isn’t yours, are key.

Of course, there is also the question of who is doing the interpreting of energies, and experiences. The Mind. What we think about how and what we feel is as relevant as anything else, so learning and being curious, here, is essential.

I think this is a good place for me to end this discussion by saying: I created the Intuitive Energy Divination Deck to help myself navigate energy sensitivity, including the tricky pitfalls of self-trust and “&*$%&*%?… What fresh Hell is this?” This deck has been my lifeline. No joke. I created it; yet I STILL use it, I STILL learn about myself through it. It helps me to understand what I’m feeling on those tough days when I STILL don’t know what it is I’m feeling. So much Truth reverberates through this deck! And so when I use it, it energetically clears stuck energy I’m feeling.

I’m not going to put a pretty patina on it, because that has not been my experience; energy sensitivity can be a bona fide and total drag some days, and yet it is the other side of the coin when it comes to being Aware and Awake. It has certain terms and requirements that we must respect in order to get to the good stuff. You know… the good stuff.

I hope this brief exploration brought clarity, comfort, camaraderie -maybe a little smile (?)- to you today!

 

 

 

The post What Does It Mean to Be Energy Sensitive (or an Empath)? appeared first on Jessica Shepherd.

Today, in my Intuitive Energy class, I relayed this slice of life about what has been going on for me these past three weeks (Mercury’s RX cycle). Afterwards, my cohort said it was a great story illuminating how Intuition works.

So, I thought I’d share the story -with you!

The story begins… several years ago. I was on a call with a hotel chain we patronize and afterwards I was asked if I would be willing to take a survey for 1000 points for a vacation property pitch stay (John loves points, so, an easy yes).  Listening, the unexpected happened: I found myself saying YES. When I checked in with my body, I made sure I was Grounded-Rooted-Centered, because this is how I KNOW my YES is for real. YES, YES, YES. I felt that lovely sensation I always feel in my energy body in the presence of something *just right, for right now*.

Fast forward to a few weeks ago, when Mercury turned retrograde, and we went to redeem that stay. A few nights prior to our trip, I had awakened out of a peaceful sleep with an uncomfortable premonition “I’m will not enjoy this trip.” Huh? I was very distressed about this information, but didn’t know what, how or why. It turned out to be true; from the moment we left our house, we had flight delays, rental car mix-ups that led to strange interactions with a conspiracy theorist Lyft driver, and so on. When we arrived at the hotel I could’ve been at Epcot center; it had a monorail! We walked 20 mins. in the heat from the parking lot to our room. I could go on.

The trip kept sending me constant irritations; weird people interactions, wrong meals served at restaurants, closed restaurants, lots of walking to and from cars, and just not being the type of trip I ever wanted to have.

For me, inner listening (Intuitive Knowing) is a form of self-care, self-honoring -and- self-protection; this is why decision-making is so vital for me. In the past, when I’ve made decisions that aren’t in alignment with my Soul it has essentially been the equivalent of transgressing my own personal boundaries, and there have been consequences. Some of those consequences have played out in verrrrryyy difficult ways for me.

So, historically, a YES has led to resonant, generally flowing and pleasant, experiences. This time it did not! Which greatly concerned me — based on past happenings, I didn’t want to get sick, pick up dis-resonant, icky, energies (this typically happens when I violate my own inner boundary), or suffer any other grave misfortune.

Naturally, so many discomforts caused me to existentially question my whole intuitive framework, and my Intuitive Knowing. Had I fallen under the spell of the sales person? Had I misinterpreted my full body YES; maybe I had been picking up on something else? Doubt is tricky. With Intuition, there is no room for doubt and hesitation. I call it one of my four horsemen of the apocalypse (along with Shame, Guilt and Judgment). Because one small doubt can quickly turn everything to inky black … gradually, or quite suddenly, self-trust disappears entirely.

To my point, in the middle of one night I think I actually “made up” a physical person standing outside the hotel room banging on the door! When looked through the peephole, I saw the shape of a man standing there. Looking to the bed, I realized John was not in the room, so called him on the phone. He had been working down in the lobby. When I looked back out, the person was gone. The knocking? It could have been the ice maker. The person? I think my mind actually invented a person, in front of the peephole, to “explain” the odd knocking.

This arrives us at the sales pitch. By now, I was not in a “good space” -LOL. When one of the sales people started applying pressure, I did something I’ve truly never done in public: I called him out and told him to back off (to the point that he actually gathered his things and started to leave)! Yet, thirty minutes later after re-centering myself (whilst talking to a different fellow), John turned to me and asked whether this would be a good fit for us, and I got a YES. Yes, while traveling I’ve been needing a reliable home base with comforts (kitchen, good bed) to count on. Yes, we needed a place for the kids to stay, because as of this year there are too many of them to fit in our house.

I got a full body: YES. Oh. It suddenly became clear: My Intuition HAD led me in the right direction. Three years ago, tuning into my Awareness beyond time + space, my Soul KNEW that I would WANT this to happen.

Since then, I’ve had a similar scenario play out that has highlighted similar learnings around self-trust; another historical YES …followed up by inconvenience, discomfort, complications, and outright confusion. In a nutshell, I’m producing a second print run in China and I’ve run into potentially expensive complications with shipping (ever heard of China Trade Wars?). Last week, I suddenly found myself learning I would need to hire a customs broker and freight forwarder (huh?), and be paying many different taxes and tariffs to get these decks to me in Honolulu.

It has ALL been enough to give a girl major anxiety. But you know what? This time, I did NOT doubt or question my YES. I certainly checked in with my YES (YES working on my Intuitive Energy Decks with China was and is still a strong YES).

Once I felt my resistance to not wanting any of this to be happening right now, I decided that I will work it out.

I have been learning so much about Trust with a capital “T”. I’ve recognized that following my Intuition doesn’t mean the journey will be easy or comfortable; but lack of ease or comfort does not mean it’s a NO.

I think, when challenges appear many of us can fall into this idea that we’ve made a Wrong turn with our Intuition. When it gets uncomfortable, inconvenient, expensive and confusing, it is easy to turn to self-doubt and questioning.

Yet if our Soul wants to help us get from points A to Z in the most effortless and graceful ways possible, sometimes discomforts and inconveniences we experience ARE the easiest ways available- at this moment. Spirit/our Soul has to navigate multiple factors, too, in order to give us the experiences we want most.

Like: China Trade Wars, and an experience with a blazing hot hotel the size of a small country!

All of this has certainly helped me to upgrade my own perception and understanding. I realized I’ve been really quite excellent at tuning in, listening inward and utilizing my Inner Knowing. I also really get this now: A YES remains a YES until it’s a NO. And that is something we can always check-in with…if we know how to do that.

I’ve set up some pretty fantastic experiences for myself, lately; I credit this to years of honing my skills with inner listening, my card deck and energy work. Even if the journey to claim them has been tricky, I am definitely on a journey with my Intuitive Knowing, and it is magical. In this part of the journey: I am navigating the YES.

 

The post Navigating the YES appeared first on Jessica Shepherd.

I choose where to place my Awareness,what’s worthy of my precious presence is determined only by me when the fire alarm du jour rings; when another inconvenience and discomfort threatens my peace, AgainI ask myself:Do I want to suffer death from a million tiny papercuts?…little annoyingly uncomfortable things that for some reason, just. keep. coming.?(and does any of this really matter to me? Truly?) I decide.to re-anchor my Awareness into the ground, the soft, cool grassto remember the ones I love,and actuallyenergeticallyplace them in my heart Yes, instead of allowing IT to move me, I move MY AwarenessI decide to not allow what’s “outside” to yank me to and froI call my Self backto all that I love and value, to all that I AM for my Awareness is my ship,and I am in COMMAND steady in this resolve,one: love,remembrance,sunset,sweet gesture- a kindness toward myself, at a time,~I pause ALL else~so I can guide my ship away from the stormy weather,and back into the grace, ease, and peace that I AM in this light-drenched calm I soon discoverthe weather can no longer find me, not anymorethe dark clouds go elsewheredistractions, irritations that once followed me,now do not …my Awareness cannot be commandeeredwhen I am in command of my Awareness. image: Waikaloa Village, Kona, Hawaii

The post HOW TO AVOID DEATH BY A MILLION PAPERCUTS appeared first on Jessica Shepherd.

It’s VIRGO season; a very busy time of year when many are doing more of…just about everything… and we are also keenly interested in learning, improving our lives and changing unhealthy habits.

As you seek to improve yourself, instead of asking your willpower and discipline to help you make the changes you want to make, qualities which you’ve been conditioned to believe you need and must have in order to get things done…I invite you to employ your: DEDICATION & INTENTIONALITY.

****
The difference between discipline and dedication is day to night, or masculine to feminine.

Discipline is the learned skill of being able to, for example, sit in a chair in order to write a book, or study for a test. It is how you have been trained to think (or conditioned) you must approach anything that requires your sustained time and effort.

Dedication is the art and skill of allowing your sense of devotion to lead the way in this effort. It has loving determination in it; in the same way a careful gardener tends to their prize roses, or the way you care for a beloved animal or child, you align your heartfelt-ness with *what matters most to you* and allow this to inform your sustained, steady, actions.

The difference is approach. Discipline is masculine, and dedication is feminine. And some of us, especially heart-centered and SENSITIVE PEOPLE who really EXCEL at DEDICATION and DEVOTION, tell ourselves we need discipline …when the reality is — we can call on our more innate and natural skill set.

****
Likewise, you have been taught that you need willpower to accomplish the diet, exercise regime or shift you want to make in your reality. How about a more natural, more *just right for you* skill?: INTENTIONALITY.

Willpower pushes and strives; assuming there is difficulty, a hard surface to break.

Intentionality softens and eases into things, like water slowly loosening the earth’s soil in order to help the seedlings grow.

Willpower gives orders, and makes demands for something to happen.

Intentionality, gently, humbly (and yet firmly), invites something to happen for you.

Willpower doesn’t trust that this good thing we want is possible, so uses negative statements to “motivate”, and while this can call forth changed behavior, it doesn’t usually feel good.

Intentionality trusts… that once we are aligned with our highest and most positive vision for ourselves, that all good things are not only possible, they are already happening for us. We adjust our perception. We decide to feel good, first. Because we know that feeling good is the highest intention we can hold for true self-fulfillment. Then we can act and receive from this space.

****
I have made my most profound shifts in life using this combination of DEDICATION & INTENTIONALITY. Again, dedication employs my ability to devote myself fully to something I love, similar to how a monk or nun demonstrates steadiness and sustained effort through tender devotion and purity of intent (to which you may relate).

Intentionality approaches all that I want for my life, as a prayer that has already happened because I have decided it is so. Intentionality asks me to relax, engage ABSOLUTE TRUST, as well as my practical discernment about how I direct my energies. As I get specific about what I want to grow in my life, and what most matters, I can act in accordance with this.

****
So, which do you want to use: Discipline or Dedication? Willpower or Intentionality?

Each are appropriate for different situations. However, it may be helpful to know that we have all been culturally CONDITIONED to favor the former, neglect the latter, and depending on how wrongly you have been taught about yourself and your unique gifts, this oversight may add up to the equivalent of gross self-neglect.

To own your beautiful intentionality and dedication DECIDE to no longer overlook these beautiful feminine aspects you possess. This is your rightful FEMININE skill set; one you can employ in service of living your best life!

*Both image and inspiration for this post is from the Intuitive Energy Divination Deck. Click here to purchase.

The post VIRGO SEASON: UTILIZE YOUR DEDICATION AND INTENTIONALITY appeared first on Jessica Shepherd.