THE POWER OF SILENCE
Close your eyes for a minute, and image yourself sitting on a beach, Your favorite beach. The blue sky is as blue as the ocean. They’re so vast and blue that they run together. There are only two white, puffy clouds peppering the sky. The surf is low, and you can hear the peaceful calm of the ocean waves crashing upon the shore.
Do you ever take time to sit in silence, and suddenly you begin to hear everything?
Last week I started reading the book Miracle Morning, by Hal Elrod. He teaches a method he refers to as Life S.A.V.E.R.S, which stands for: silence, affirmations, visualization, exercise, reading, scribing. While I was already practicing some of these during my morning routine, this book has allowed me to see the importance of completing each of these steps, every single day. Since I’ve read this book and started practicing it daily, there have been a few, “aha” moments for me. The first one being; if I allow the space for my light to shine bright, I can put my best foot forward, helping others shine theirs. So, every morning I read this little affirmation I wrote:
God gives me permission to shine my light to the world.
He wants me to use my gifts to be successful.
That's why he created me.
Shining a dim light doesn’t serve me, or the world.
By shining my light, I’ll help others shine theirs.
It feels so empowering to have the permission to do this. That if I can take 60 minutes of my day and dedicate those minutes 100% totally to myself, it’s likely that I’ll have the energy throughout the day to give more to others.
There have been a few moments during the past few weeks when the Universe, God, a higher power, whatever word best resonates with you - has been sending me messages so loud and clear. I feel like now that I’m dedicating more time to silence and paying attention to myself - I can hear things so much more clearly.
Here are a few examples of the powerful things that have happened to me during the past few weeks, that I just can’t ignore.
The Visualization Meditation
On Friday morning, I was laying down after my morning workout doing my daily meditation. This is a new “daily” for me. For a long time I was dabbling in meditation, and am now making a conscious effort to include it within my daily routine.
Anyway, the visualization went, “imagine yourself sitting on the center of a stage. There is a large purple curtain, and behind the curtain are all of your friends and family from Heaven and Earth that you love. Imagine someone walking out - who is that person?”
Immediately the image of my angel baby Sylvia came to my mind. She was three or four years old. She had on little jean short overalls, and she had long, brown pigtails. Each pigtail was in one solid ringlet. I couldn’t make out the details of her face - but this image of her was so vivid. She was bouncing around with energy, and ran up to me and said, “Mommy, I’m ok!” I think she gave me a giant hug, I can’t remember that detail either.
I was so struck by this visualization that I was immediately brought to tears. While Sylvia shows me lots of signs in earthly things, such as rainbows, butterflies and pink skies - this image and message from her was such a true gift. I am so grateful that I allowed myself to take the time to be silent, so I could hear this message from my little girl.
The Random Stranger
I’m hosting an event in September (more info to come soon!), and was looking for a partner to help lead one of the sessions. I reached out to a friend asking for a connection, and sure enough she sent someone my way. I reached out to this person, and we arranged for time to connect on the phone. Midway through our conversation, she asked the question, “do you have any kids?” but then she continued with her story, so I didn’t have to answer. Later on she asked, “have you held any digital retreats during COVID?”
Well, the answer to that question was that yes - I did have a digital retreat planned. I had all of my partners in place, I had the date, I had people signed up for it, and then I went to the hospital and delivered my baby at 18 weeks. After that, I had to take a time out. I had to take care of myself, and regain my strength both physically and emotionally.
So, I told this random stranger my long-winded answer, crying to her on the phone - when she replied, “I lost my baby at 18 weeks too.” WHAT. Are you joking? This stranger on the other end of the phone that I’ve never met before in my life also lost her baby at 18 weeks and is part of the terrible club that I’m in???
If that’s not God or the Universe bringing us together - I’m not sure what is.
Listen to Your Thoughts & Words
This morning I was doing my new morning routine, and the main message from the readings and reflection was, “help me to be attentive to my words and thoughts.” So, I wrote down as my daily intention, “to be attentive to my words and thoughts.” Done. Good one Katie, I think you can focus on that.
I moved on to reading my book, Super Attractor where she is teaching us about a “3-Step Choose Again Method.” The main steps to this are:
Notice your (negative) thoughts
Forgive the thought
Choose again
Ok cool, another message about listening to my thoughts.
And THEN, I got on a call with my entrepreneur group, where our fearless leader Ang Stocke was giving us a brief 101 lesson on tapping. For those of you who aren’t familiar with tapping, “it’s a combination of Ancient Chinese Acupressure and Modern Psychology that works to physically alter your brain, energy system and body all at once.” Here’s a little blog if you want to learn more about it.
Anyway, this tapping is all about accessing your “MPI” or, most pressing issue - and working through your fears and negativity around it, and physically altering your negative thought process by tapping.
THE THIRD THING TODAY that has to do with accessing my thoughts and words. Literally the same messages almost word for word, from three different sources. Ok cool! I guess I’ll pay attention to that.
From RBF TO BFF
This story is from a while ago, but it is literally so powerful that every time I think about it I get the chills.
I have a friend I met while I was living in Australia named Haydn. I started working with Haydn at one of my first jobs there. At first, I didn’t really like him. I thought he was a little stuck up, sitting at his desk with his headphones on, with some serious RBF.* After a few weeks, we were put on a project together, when he first started to grow on me.
Because I was freelancing, I was only at that particular agency for a short duration of time, soon moving on to another agency. To fast-forward a bit, I ended up working with Haydn at another freelance job, right before he decided to start his own company. For the last nine months I was in Australia, I ended up working for him. Now, he’s one of my BFF’s. We talk on a weekly basis, texting, Face-timing, sending Instagram messages.
I’ve been thinking that it’s just so crazy that the universe allowed our paths to cross. That someone so different from me on the outside, shares so many similarities with me on the inside. We met by chance, and decided to grow our relationship. Everyday I’m grateful for Haydn’s presence in my life.
We’ve always had a “universe” connection - where if one of us is feeling a certain way, it’s likely the other person will be feeling similar. Or, if one of us has a really bad night’s sleep, it wouldn’t be unusual for the other person to have woken up at the same time, unable to sleep. One day a few months ago, I was on a lunchtime drive with Adam to go get a coffee, when Haydn messaged me at 12:41 p.m. CST:
H: Weird. Is everything ok?
K: I think so. You dreaming?
Note: I knew it was the middle of the night in Sydney, so I was confused why he was messaging me.
H: I just woke up by a really loud voice telling me your name. It was so clear! Hmmm ok, if you’re ok. Back to sleep then!
Approximately 2 hours later, I started having intense stomach cramping. Approximately 12 hours later, I was at the hospital in labor.
This message that Haydn received, causing him to wake up in the middle of the night, message me, and then literally “predict” the future, you can’t ignore these signs. You can’t ignore the messages that are around you so loud and clear.
Right now feels like the energy surrounding me is throwing out really strong vibes of motivation and change. It feels like big things are coming. And I know the other people around me can feel it too. I’ve been on some other calls with women from an entrepreneur group I’m part of, and the conversations, connection, and energy on the calls has been unmistakable.
It’s amazing what you can hear, when you take the time to listen.
This week, I challenge you to find five minutes of silence in each of your days. It might feel uncomfortable, especially if your default mode is set to “high speed ahead.” The more I allow myself to sit in this silence (or guided meditation, or a little bit of both), the more I hear. The more I hear my intuition, the more I hear messages from God, the more I’m able to see my little girl in Heaven, the more energy I have to ignite my light - and hopefully help yours shine too.
