It’s me again sprinkling some love to help you prepare you for the New Year. Last time we talked goals and knowing what you want. Since so many people have trouble knowing what they want and what to do next, I have a shortcut for you. It works for everything.

It’s called silence.

It’s called inner or outer listening.

The Silence Test. It’s the ultimate way to know if you’re going in the “right” direction.

So when you do this practice, what are you listening to?

Nothing.

Absolutely nothing.

Instead of focusing on sounds of a door closing down the street, or a child playing, or music in the background, I want you to find the space, the absence, the gap in between noises.

If you like you can make a silent request to Spirit, God, Goddess, your Higher Self to be with you and guide you in this quiet time.

Once you’ve sat in the silence for a little bit, thirty seconds at least, now ask yourself a question.

You could use this for any question, but right now, I invite you to ask yourself:

What do I really want?

You may have a lot of thoughts running through your mind, but just try to listen to the silence. Keep going back to the silence. That is where you are going to find your answer.

When you’ve really allowed yourself to be in the silence, then something will occur to you. Trust that you will know it when you hear it. It will feel or resonate differently than the thoughts trying to distract you. When it comes to you, you will know it. Grab it. That is your answer.

This is how you know if you are going the right direction: silence. This is how you will know what you really want most of all so that you can make faster progress and get that.

Silence always has answers for you, if you take the time to listen.

This is your intuition. God, Goddess, or that wise presence by another name, speaking and giving you the answer.

So now I invite you to spend five minutes (or less, or more if you wish) and be in the silence today. Just take your questions or challenges or prayers or concerns about what you really want to happen in the New Year and just spend a moment inviting an answer to come into the silence with you.

I use this technique with my clients, having learned the power of silence from my Master’s studies in Spiritual and Pastoral Care from Loyola which is a Jesuit institution. I’ve been translating their methods of Spiritual Direction to a “Spiritual but Not Religious” way of being, like that of most of my clients.

Sometimes my clients sit in the silence and suddenly know exactly what to do to break through their resistance around that thing they know they have a clear download to do. Sometimes they know what to do in their business. Sometimes the steps to take their creative projects like song writing or even just taking care of life problems–suddenly the way seems clear and calmer.

Because they stepped out of their brain and into the silence.

So take this invitation to hit a pause button and whatever it is you are grappling with, let’s take five minutes or so and sit in it together. Starting with that question, “What do you really want?”

Go.

How was that for you? Feel free to comment

Blessings

Sofia Wren

PS Try it!

If you want to make faster progress then you need a goal– but don’t just pick any goal–PICK SOMETHING YOU ACTUALLY WANT!!!

Who tells you what it is ok or realistic to want?

Society?

Your parents?

Your sister or brothers?

Your uncle?

Your neighbor?

Your spiritual community?

Your business community?

Your school?

Your friends?

Your God, goddess, angels, guides?

The quiet voice that speaks in your private time?

Who is it that directs the force of your life?

Today I want to talk to you about something really important that I work with clients on all the time. With the New Year coming up, we are already reminded of the passing of time. Maybe you’re already thinking, “Where did a year go?”

We are all assessing our goals for 2017 and whether we got there and looking at our goals for 2018. But you know what I think first before I even talk about goals at all? We need to look at what we want.

We need to go a little bit deeper than just asking, “What is my goal?” Deeper than people usually go. And I’ve learned this the hard way because when I was growing up the goals I set were for other people – not me.

(This is the problem, because when I was growing up, doing what I could to achieve goals and be successful and get things done-get As, get into college, get a boyfriend, whatever, whatever, whatever–I never stopped to really think about what I was doing.)

Most people aren’t even aware of what they want.

I used to always operate on autopilot, pursuing goals that were important to everyone around me, that I thought they would approve of. These are things that I thought would make me “successful.” In fact I had no separation between myself and those other people and their opinions. I never asked myself, “What is success? How do I define it personally? And does ‘success’ by anyone else’s definition really matter to me?”

I want to want to ask you, “Do have separation between your thoughts and other people’s thoughts of you?” Still to this day I can inflate or deflate depending on who I am talking to and what they have going on in their mind about me.

But here’s the thing: I consciously know when this happens to me now, and I have practices to help me tell the difference between me and them. I’ll be talking about this more in an upcoming email.

But today I want to give you the verbal equivalent of a shake– HELLO!!!!!

DO YOU EVER STOP TO THINK ABOUT WHAT YOU WANT??

Yesterday I was literally talking to someone and asked him, “What do you want? I hear you talking about being pulled in a million directions from all these other people tugging at you? What about you–what do you want?”

And do you know what he said? They said, “Wow, I really don’t sit around all day and wonder what I want. I just sit around thinking about how to make other people happy.”

I said, “Well, have you tried writing about it?” (Because I know this person has found journaling and writing down stuff helpful in the past.)

“Yeah I think if I wrote about it, I’d probably have about one sentence.”

“Well that’s ok. Today you have one sentence. Maybe tomorrow you have another sentence. You don’t just figure out what you want. You keep inquiring. You keep looking. You find out. You know what is there today, and maybe it’s not a whole lot, but tomorrow there might be more.”

Clearly not enough people are asking this question: WHAT DO YOU WANT?

I mean it. For YOU.

As a spiritual person there are so many things that I “download” and that I consider to be like a personal mission, so today I feel called to ask you to BE SELFISH. BE SELF CENTERED.

I’m serious– will you think about what you want please????

As a coach, this is part of my job: to help you figure out what you want and listen to yourself because really only your opinion about your life, your work, your creativity, your relationships, your spiritual path, etc. only your opinion matters and the rest of them can stuff it because this is your life, and only you can live it.

Open your heart. Love. Live. Ask what you want.

Look for my next post in a couple days, where I’ll say more about ways to know what you want and go get it.

Blessings

Sofia Wren

PS Please think about what you want and maybe journal on it, or doodle or mindmap or make a painting or a song, etc. !! It will help you greatly, I swear. xo

This month’s message makes me laugh. This card is oh-so-familiar to me as it has been in my own personal readings for several months. I’ve been working and working with the energy of this card, and now it looks like I’ll be getting company!

However, this Reversed position is new for me, and in this case is a good thing. An energy is opening up in places that have felt limiting or small. We are suddenly becoming more propelled to us outside the box and fast and now, rather than trapped in our stuff.

It truly can be joyful. There is a fun and free energy to the reading this month. Can’t wait to experience it myself!

Feel free to comment with your insights, news, feedback or intuitive urgings as well! I love staying in touch with you.

Below is the message for November to help you know what to do next and make faster progress on your projects and in expressing more of who you really are to the world.

{The image of this card above is from the Wildwood Tarot}

This spiritual message of this month is based on the Tarot card 4 of Wands Reversed. Take a moment to be open to any positive shifts that may occur as you read this sacred writing and remember to breathe.

Prepare for a new energy. Maybe you’ve feel an unfurling, an unboxing, a releasing, happening in your life already. But it is only the beginning. How far can you allow yourself to grow. Can you approach the unknown with an open mind? Can you be vulnerable, can you lean into your fears and your strengths? Who will you become? What are you becoming? Maybe you don’t know–and maybe that is ok.

This is a time for fun and freedom. This is a time to touch base with your emotional and creative rituals, to go beyond what you have gone before. My feeling is that this opportunity to unravel what’s not working and dig into the truth and messiness of who we really are (in a good way that is sometimes scary) will be occurring all year as Jupiter is in Scorpio. It could be good, it could be bad, but whatever it is that you’ve been avoiding or hiding from yourself is sure to come up, so you may as well lean in. Rediscover yourself.

Remember I offer more Extra insights each month only for email subscribers

Inspiration of the month: 

Something that has been inspiring me lately has been the music of Tash Sultana. She’s young, she’s dedicated to her craft and she’s an amazing musician and performer that has found success.

If you like that, you might also like my Music I Like Playlist on youtube as well. The most recent additions show up at the bottom of the list.

Want to make faster progress on your goals? Trying to set a daily goal and make it a habit you do every day. (That’s what I recommend for writers so that you are always primed and ready to go when you need to make progress.)

But when we set goals it is easy to get discouraged or bummed out about missing a day–because we are tired or played hookey or whatever reason. The truth is it happens. Or maybe you owe someone an assignment, a job task, etc. and you start to feel guilty or upset that things are running late. What do you do?

You might know it is a good idea to move on and focus on what you can do today, but what if you are still holding on to those negative feelings from being off track.

Watch the video below: I guide you through a powerful process to let go of the past and get motivated to make faster progress right now.

PS Contact me if you’d like to chat about how I can help you make faster progress on your business or writing goals.

If today’s post looks familiar, it’s because I pulled a similar card for the month of April earlier this year. In some ways this month will be same old, same old, repeating similar patterns. On another level, it is entirely different because your energy levels, enthusiasm, your point of view and inspiration will all be different. It’s like a spiral- we can circle around back right to the point where we were before, earlier in the cycle, and yet experience it all and a higher and more transcendent level.

On one level, seeing this card, I feel frustration. I wanted a new energy. I was hoping to draw the Fool. But the Ace of Wands really is a new energy type of card- as an Ace it is the beginning of a cycle, and as a fire card it has a generative fresh energy that can inspire many new things. But as an Ace it also embodies the entirety of the journey. Like the saying, “The way you do one thing, is the way you do everything.” So any patterns from the past you have been battling are likely to make an appearance–make sure to keep yourself aware so you don’t fall into the same old traps as before if you really want to turn over a new leaf.

This makes it difficult for me to get excited but then I remember other things that have lit me up for some time in my creative world: singing, playing music, art, the ocean, going on walks with colorful leaves, a fire pit. What lights you up and gives you inspiration? What new things do you want to explore? How can you combine old and new in your life as you move to the next level?

PS Make sure to follow me on social media as I post videos and inspiration all month long. My favorites are:

Facebook

Instagram

This month has certainly made it’s mark on me already, not what I expected at all.

Read on below for my tips on flowing with the changes this months, as there will probably be a lot of them. It has already been up and down for me, and I hope this message not only helps you make faster progress on your business or creative projects, but also helps you find more peace in your life and off time.

Enjoy the beach if you can get there! I’m about to head over there now.

Below is the reading for July to help you make faster progress and hear your intuition clearly so you always know what to do next.

(Note that email subscribers get even more insights! Subscribe for more.)

{The image of this card is from the Mythic Tarot}

This spiritual message of this month is based on the Tarot card The Moon. Take a moment to be open to any positive shifts that may occur as you read this sacred writing and remember to breathe.

This illusive and mysterious card signifies that something is running under the surface that creates changes, variation, and may be unknown or mysterious.

This brings to mind the lesson of “We do not know what is good or what is bad.” Change always creates emotions but specifically in this case, we have to keep our minds open to being present and riding the wave of whatever is going on. There is so much that we don’t know that we don’t know. Just the lack of control itself can bring up a lot of feelings and may be the biggest lesson of this month. Go with it, feel it, don’t try to resist or push it away. Be here now, even if it seems bad, you won’t know how everything will fall in the end.

In the vein of staying present, it is important to note that if we have no control over what changes, and know only that things will change, then we need to enjoy the moment as much as possible before it slips us by. Practice gratitude for all that you have because you may not realize what you will miss; often times we don’t see things coming. (This past week one of our sweet cats passed away suddenly, such a reminder not to assume anything will continue and to savor the present as much as we can.)

Another theme of the month is that of mystery and hope. The moon has always been a sign to me of hope, because when all is dark, a time of fullness will always come. There are unspeakable mysteries in the world, things you can’t quite put your finger on. At the same time you may feel emotional lows this month from things being out of control and variable, you can also feel expansive and connected to spiritual states of being which bring hope or beauty.

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Recently I was interviewed on the topic of habits. We all have those practices and routines that keep us grounded, centered and making progress on our goals. But some times we fall off?

Listen as I coach Bettina on how to get back on track with her habits.

It could be that you need more freedom from the structures you have created. Often times creative types thrive on novelty, and you may need to figure out a way to have a balance of freedom and structure.

Then there is also the consideration of what really works for you–why did you have your habits in the first place? How can you carry forward the best of what was working to help you make faster progress while leaving behind things that may be bogging you down?

And how can you use supports like apps or planners to help you feel on track without getting off track or distracted?

Finally I share my number one top on what I do when I have fallen off of my habits!

I can’t wait for you to listen to this short podcast!

I’m very excited for the future path in June.

There’s a lot to do this month, and the important thing is not to get too stressed about it–as you can read below, there might be some tension that will take effort to release.

I’ll be making a visit to the beach, family, and saying goodbye to my childhood home with a party. My latest writing class in Annapolis went well. Look out for another in the future.

You can also listen to my latest radio interview on Life Simplified about getting back into habits when you have fallen off (listen here) and watch videos I’m putting together on facebook and youtube. And I’m available for consultation, too.

Please enjoy the message for the self and share it with a friend.

Below is the reading for June to help you make faster progress and hear your intuition clearly so you always know what to do next.

{This card is from the Wizard’s Tarot}

This spiritual message of this month is based on the card 5 of Swords. Take a moment to be open to any positive shifts that may occur as you read this sacred writing and remember to breathe.

This card can represent mental conflict. But it’s our choice whether we stay in a place of tension or not. Each sword represents a different thought or direction you could go in. Something difficult or challenging this month will be the issue of mental focus, or choosing which sword (goal) to pick up and carry.

For the last several months we have been attempting to go into a linear direction to accomplish goals or achieve happiness in some way. This month that may be difficult. In fact if you haven’t already you may make faster progress by embracing a nonlinear path. Sortof like the old “road less traveled.”

You may no longer be able to set your sights on a singular goal or end, or achieve a focus without either becoming overloaded or forgetting something important. However, you can achieve a balance between a number of factors. Anytime you set down a goal or sword for a time, it is not “good bye forever,” instead things may just pause until you have more energy or space to address it more efficiently. Also switching up what you are working on and relaxing into such a rhythm will help you to think more creatively and trust your intuition to help you make faster progress.

Try picking 5 focuses for the month, and trust yourself to work on what seems more important each day, even if you don’t hit all five at the same time.

In the picture of the card you can see a man choosing between five swords. Some lay on the ground and some remain in his arms. If you carry too many goals or thoughts at once, you will drop them all and end up harming yourself or self-sabotaging. However, if you are able to list out your major priorities, then you can address a handful of the most important ones at any time. You can’t do everything all at once, and this month you will feel aware of these time, energy and focus limitations despite having energy or desire to tackle it all.

In order to know which things to focus on at any given time, you will need to listen to your body and intuition.

Extra insights only for email subscribers:

Some people have asked me if I still offer personal Tarot or intuitive readings, and I do! As well as other healing work to help you make faster progress and hear your intuition. If you are feeling drawn to that kind of spiritual and emotional support contact me to let me know!

Once again it’s a rainy day as I write to you about my feelings about the month ahead so you can tune into something to create faster progress on the life, business and creative projects you want to create.

It’s been a wild ride. April has been very intense for me, as I faced writing deadline after deadline, both at the end of my semester for grad school (I’m getting an M.A. from Loyola in spiritual counseling), and in my business as I’ve been writing everything for a huge marketing launch through a new partner. It’s been exciting but I’m ready for a little space.

May feels like a different kind of month than we’ve had all year. I’m not saying it’s all peace, butterflies and rainbows but it feels like a gift from the gods, or divine, or whatever you call it. As you may have gathered, I’m open to however you want to language inspiration (or don’t want to language it), but I do know for sure that it is there.

This month, doors are opening to new insights, read below for my thoughts, and please feel to leave a comment or contact me with your thoughts.

Below is the video reading for May, followed by a write up to help you make faster progress and hear your intuition clearly so you always know what to do next.

I’m excited to debut a ton of new extra special insights just for you email subscribers! This includes words which have never been published before, make sure to sign up for more updates if you like this by clicking here.

{The card pictured above is from the Wizard’s Tarot}

This spiritual message of this month is based on the card Page of Swords. Take a moment to be open to any positive shifts that may occur as you read this sacred writing and remember to breathe.

Breath new life into your mission. Take a step forward in a light and new way. A sense of ease is streaming through, follow it’s pull to meet what is next. Side step challenges more easily now.

Change is upon us, new freedoms of voice and guided ideas are coming to you. It is easier for you to focus and communicate, and will continue to be so in the future. Share your heart, passion and mind with others! Oddly a new feeling of desire for better things is strengthening your core resolve to push aside unruly thoughts and fears, as easily as walking around them.

You may receive new ideas and inspirations from an unexpected direction. Trust yourself enough to follow the next steps which appear to you. Something has opened a door for you and the timing is right for you to pursue new directions and avenues on your quest.

Focus and clarity are the most important currency this month. Something may become very clear to you which will begin new lines of thought and action perhaps in areas that have previously been blocked. Sometimes we have to re-do things or start over. Mostly this card indicates a sense of fresh new energy sweeping through. Make the most of it, be ambitious. To do that you may need to take strategic actions on a recurring, consistent basis and at least part of this will make you feel like a beginner.

Trust your inner wisdom. Make sure you can pull away from others to focus on what truly matters.

Have a great month! May you make beautiful progress on your projects and always be inspired xo

Blessings

Sofia Wren

PS Not making the progress you want? Contact me to know what to do next and maximize your time because you can hear your intuition that clearly. Examples of projects I can help with are books, ebooks, email newsletters, writing, blogs, videos, product development, videos, blog posts, Shoot me a reply to this email if you want to make faster progress in a way that feels authentic to you and always know what to do next because you can hear yourself that clearly.