Useful lists during the spiritual journey

I like to keep (check)lists for all sorts of stuff. There are, of course, the lists which come in handy for more mundane things like shopping lists or vacation packing checklists. But I have extended this habit to other areas of my life and want to share which lists I found useful regarding the spiritual journey.

Journaling

I keep a journal. This is a list, too, even though you might not think of it as that at first. I write down dreams, messages from the inner voice, synchronicities, little signs I find along the way, and also musings and rants about my inner conflicts.

I find the journal useful for relieving pressure when something triggered me. After I write an angry rant, I try to find another angle to look at things. And maybe a channeled message from the wise inner voice comes through to give me some insight.

It is also good to keep track of things regarding what happened when. While I do remember most things which happened, I tend to forget in which order they happened. It was useful to have journal notes when I wrote down my story and shared it here on WordPress.

Books I’d like to read and books I have read

I read a lot. Especially in the beginning of my spiritual journey in 2006/2007, I devoured books during every free minute I had during the day. When I read a captivating book, it feels better than eating the most delicious piece of chocolate candy. Yummy, rich, makes me euphoric and feels deeply satisfying.

Here, I keep two lists. One with the books I would like to read. Everytime, I come across some fascinating book author, I put it on my list. This ensures that I always have a pipeline with chocolate candy equivalents filled up.

The other list contains the books I have read, just very short with title, author, and date when I read it.

Mission vs Fears

Another useful list is about my mission. Whenever I had an insight about what it was that my sould wanted me to do here on earth, I wrote that into the list. The insight could come from a dream message, from recurring patterns in daily life, or from a channeling from a psychic medium, for example.

Whenever I get confused and stuck, I can return to this list and read it again. It contains many puzzle pieces collected over the years which together give a more complete picture of where my path is heading.

Connected to the list of puzzle pieces which point to my mission is another list. Why am I not doing what I am obviously supposed to do? What is holding me back? This is the List of Fears. Here, I write down all the “what ifs” and everything which comes up as reason for my resistance to guidance ( – and, yep, unfortunately it is a long list).

Now, I don’t suggest that this is the best way to do it for everyone. Some might argue that it solidifies it to write all the fears down and that it would be better to write it down on paper (instead of electronically) and then burn it afterwards. And maybe they are right. I just share how I did it.

Writing down the fears can be a first step of getting some clarity about them. What to do about the fears would another topic entirely.

The Long List of Many Blessings

At some point in my journey around 2016, the inner voice told me regarding a good thing (the long awaited promotion at work) which had just been announced, ‚This is just the beginning of many blessings.‘

I heard that and thought, wow, I wonder what else will happen? And whether it is really a blessing or not ? Because sometimes my spirit guides and I have very differing viewpoints on whether something is a blessing or a curse.

So, I wanted to keep track of all these promised future blessings and I started My Long List of Many Blessings and wrote short entries (one liners in bullet point style) for everything extraordinary or noteworthy which occurred and for which I felt grateful.

This list is useful for reading when I have a low, grumpy mood, fretting about how much reincarnation and the recurring amnesia suck. Or whenever I am about to write a list inside my mind about the top 100 behaviors which piss me off about people trigger me, I can catch myself and go back to read that list of blessings. It tends to lift my mood and shift me into gratitude when I review it or when I write new entries into it.

Writing this blogpost was a welcome opportunity to revisit the list of blessings.

Art in nature (part 4): seeing faces

Sometimes, I see faces in trees. They might be man-made and obvious or very subtle and show up only after processing the picture with the photo app.

Some trees were marked by the foresters with two white dots and then someone else had fun with decorating them:

A face carved into a dead tree by an unknown artist:

I see a long, thin female face on the bottom part of this tree where the bark is missing. The ivy on both sides looks like it is her hair.

A chubby, doll-like face on the upper part of the purple area (which was originally greyish-white) appeared after processing the picture with the photo app.

And last, I noticed a face on a concrete cube at the side of a parking lot. There were many concrete cubes, but I didn‘t see faces of the others. Only on this one which is right across from the bench where I usually sit and take a break during my weekend walk. The weird thing is that I have come across this cube many times during many years already. But only recently (in June 2022) did I notice a face on it.

Is this just the human brain’s tendency to interpret faces into any pattern or is it something more? I don’t know. But taking walks is much more fun when I pay attention to unusual sights.

Be who you are

During the first half of June 2022, I’ve had several long conversations with different people, and the common theme was always about simply daring to be who you are and not giving in to the fear of „what if others don’t accept me?“ I realized that the fear of being ridiculed and ostracized is all pervasive and some people rather get sick or commit suicide than come out of hiding. So, I took this as the writing prompt for this week‘s post.

***

Here‘s to all the people who don‘t fit into the norm.

To all the people of the LGBTIQ spectrum who struggle to come out.

To all the mystics living secretly among muggles.

To all the introverts who are are coerced to party after work with their extroverted colleagues.

To all those who have been sexually abused by family members or by priests of the church and struggle to find someone who believes their story.

To all who’ve had extraordinary experiences like spiritually transformative experiences or alien abductions but who are ridiculed when they talk about it.

To all the black swans and white peacocks.

Be who you are. Unapologetically. Because the effort of hiding and pretense takes a huge toll.

Share your story. Writing your hero’s journey not only helps you to process your experience, but sharing it feels freeing and could also encourage and help others.

Dare to shine.

You are beautiful.

Art in nature (part3)

Here is another picture from nature processed with the photo app.

I love what becomes visible when I enhance the colors and zoom in.

Photinia

Building trust in the inner voice: the bike seat story

“We are so happy to hear that you are going to Berlin,” said the inner voice of guidance. “You will be treated like a princess. No, even like a queen. Like royalty. Enjoy your trip!”

And then they added, “And we have a surprise for you.”

In addition to this statement of the inner voice, I got an image in my mind of some people dancing or bobbing up and down with joy and excitement.

“Well, what is it? Won’t you tell me?” I replied.

“No, we won’t tell you. Because then it wouldn’t be a surprise. And the soul loves surprises!”

I had planned my spontaneous trip to my parents in Berlin for a few days during early May 2022. I wrote about it here. Some last minute concerns had been wiped away. Due to a sore throat, I had decided to take a COVID test. I would have canceled my train tickets when the test would have been positive. But luckily it came back negative. I felt relief. And now I was ready to go.

I wondered what the promised surprise was going to be.

And even more, I wondered whether I heard the inner voice correctly. I still struggle with the issue of discernment and trust in the inner voice. Most often, the guidance does not appear as an audible voice but more like thoughts in my mind. Thoughts where it is not me who is thinking them. It is more like someone is talking to me telepathically in thoughts. But it is hard to tell whether I am making this up. Is this wishful thinking? Or is it from guidance? It is often easier to discern when there is some additional guidance showing up on another input channel like in a dream, a song in the mind or showing up in the physical. So, I decided to wait and see.

As it turned out, not only was I treated royally with fantastic weather and tasty food, but there were at least three surprises. The first surprise was that the train had on-board entertainment and I got to watch a movie on the 5h train ride to Berlin. The second one was that I was contacted by a former colleague right after I had left Berlin. I am going to share now in more detail about the third surprise.

The surprise

So after a few days, I came back from Berlin late in the evening. And since I already had experienced two surprises, I didn’t expect any new ones. I got off the train and went to my bike which I had locked at the train station for a couple of days. My bike was still there and not stolen. That was a relief. But there was something unusual about it.

The first thing I noticed was a little rose flower in my basket. It was an artificial one, made from fabric. How lovely to be greeted with something like that!

Then I noticed that there was something strange about the bicycle seat. Not only was the plastic bag removed which I had used to cover the seat. But the saddle was low and the quick clamp was loosened.

WTF?

Then I took a closer look and realized that this was not my bike seat! Someone had taken my old bike seat out and put an almost new one in there. My old bike seat was very much torn on the surface. But I didn’t mind. I always used a plastic bag to cover it. And now I had an almost new bike seat with a smooth surface.

How lovely! Someone must have exchanged my saddle for a better one and put the rose in my basket. That must have been the surprise my guides promised me.

Some handicraft work required

However, after I arrived at home, I took a closer look at the new saddle and saw that there was a problem. The seat pillar was too thin. Even if I closed the quick clamp, the saddle would still move.

Darn. Now I wasn’t so sure anymore whether this surprise was really such a great gift and some resentment crept in.

Then the problem solving phase started. Sifting through ideas how to deal with this. I wasn’t going to spend money on a new bike seat because I was afraid that that one would be stolen the next time I went to Berlin leaving my bike for several days locked at the train station.

After an unsuccessul attempt to enlarge the diameter of the saddle pillar with thick fabric duct tape, we tried some handicraft with metal from soda cans. After some tinkering, we ended up cutting the metal of not only one but two soda cans and wrapping it around the pillar to make it fit into the bike frame. ( I am so grateful that I stumbled across this helpful tip in an internet forum.)

Then the saddle pillar fit and didn’t slide into the frame further while biking and I thought, finally, I can be grateful for this surprise.

Messages

But there was more. There were probably some messages to consider.

One of the soda cans was a Dr. Pepper with cherry-vanilla flavor. We usually never drink Dr. Pepper and I wasn’t even aware that this was available here in Germany, but my husband bought it because it was the cheapest soda can he could find at the grocery store. I wondered whether there was a message in that for me. Does having (Dr.) Pepper under my butt mean something similar to getting fire under my ass? I hope I won’t be pushed by my guides again to do things which I don’t want to do. Had enough of that in the past.

The other thing that might be a message was that the saddle had the inscription ‘MOODY’ on the side, along with icons which reminded me of moon phases. Was it an admonition to look at my moods and heal my moody conditions? Or should I read Raymond Moody’s books about NDEs? I am not sure. Looking at my moods of occasional grumpiness, fear, and anger and trying to get into a stable inner peace is always a good idea, but it is still work in progress.

The third thing to mention about the saddle is that is is from the brand ‘Selle Royal’. A royal bike seat. When I saw this, I realized that the inner voice which I heard before the Berlin trip had told me that I would be treated ‘like royalty’.

Not only did I have a new bike seat now, but I also had one more experience with the inner voice where I had learned to trust that what I had heard was real. And much more than any channeling class exercises, it is these little personal experiences which teach me to trust.