I thought I’d share this month’s issue of Gypsy Wanderings to give you a taste of the kind of letters I share in my monthly emails. I enjoy writing these letters every month – it feels so much more intimate than blogging, and somehow, a lot more personal too. I imagine you, my dear Wanderers, sitting with a cup of coffee and reading these words, and I hope they strike a chord with you each month too. You can sign up for Gypsy Wanderings over on this page. xx
Hello loves!
On the 1st of every month, I spend some time journaling the highlights from the previous months and drawing some tarot + oracle cards as touchstones for the month ahead. Last month, I drew two oracle cards that prompted me to ask myself these two questions:
- What do you really want?
- What does your soul say?
{These are important questions that we should ask ourselves periodically. And they feel especially potent at this time, considering we are at the halfway mark of 2018!}
When I’m confronted with these bigger questions, I tend to take them to the painty table. As I lose myself in playing with layers of colors and shape and line, I let them percolate in my subconscious. And then answers and insights and signs start to bubble up when I am on the meditation cushion, while journaling, and increasingly these days, while I’m driving.
I’ve been trying something new on my morning drive to work – intentional breathing followed by a spoken aloud gratitude practice. And then, I turn on the voice app on my phone and start talking. I generally start by trying to untangle a creative, spiritual, or general problem aloud; or by planning out my week or month. But at some point, I can almost feel a switch, and then I know I’ve tapped into my inner wisdom. That’s when the answers come pouring out.
If you’re struggling with a particular problem, why don’t you give this a try? Instead of forcing yourself to find the answers, just be aware of the questions and start doing something creative – paint, sketch, cook, write, knit, sew – or maybe just go for a walk or a run. Then go on with the rest of your day and let that question or problem just sink into your subconscious. Over the course of the week or month, keep your eyes open for any signs or insights that may arise. This is very similar to sleeping over a problem – when you stop trying to force or actively find an answer, you often just know the answer when you least expect it.
Hit reply and let me know how it goes!
In other news, I have a special giftto celebrate the third birthday of this wee {news}letter.
I’ve been taking part in a special collaborative project called May Magick with an amazing community of women from around the world since two years. It’s a month of taking a daily pause and finding the magick in the quiet moments. The ebook below has all of the prompts and the emails that went out for last year’s project, including one from yours truly. Dip into it whenever you feel the need to be reminded of the magick at your fingertips!
{You can download the ebook + get access to all of the other goodies I’ve shared over the years when you sign up for Gypsy Wanderings}
June Oracle reading
I’m using the lovely Spirit Cats oracle deck by Nicole Piar for this month’s oracle reading.
Meet Blaze. He reminds us to remain open and curious, to look at all our experiences with fresh eyes. If you find yourself circling back to an old problem, see if you can change your perspective and look at it from a different angle. Ask yourself: What am I feeling right now? What do I believe and why do I believe it? What is my heart trying to tell me? I love how this ties in with the questions I asked you at the start of this letter!
So, what will you discover about yourself…about life…this month? If you’d like some one-on-one love and assistance, click here to book a tarot reading. I’d love to sling some cards for you!
Until next month,
I’m sending you so much love!
I hope you enjoyed this letter! Remember, you can sign up for monthly letters on this page. And if you liked what you read, please do pin this post <– {automagically formatted for Pinterest :)}!xx
Congratulations on turning 3. Your post sounded like a calming chat with a friend. So many ideas in there. Talking to yourself aloud about questions that are troubling you seems like a good thing.
Thank you! I never imagined that I could send out a newsletter consistently each month. But it’s become one of my favourite things to do.
I loved reading this the first time around and enjoyed it again today. I realize I must respond to your lovely newsletters – you put so much into them. Thank you!
Thank you so much, Corinne! I’m glad you enjoyed reading the second time around, too!
Congratulations on this milestone!
Thank you!
Congratulations on the 3 years. Keep it up;-)
Thank you!
Hi Shinjini! I am new to your blog and happy to make your acquaintance. I so agree that asking yourself those powerful questions on a regular basis is very important. And I also appreciate you method of getting in touch with your inner guidance. I’ve been doing that A LOT lately with my writing and I am so pleased how it is working–so much more rewarding than trying to think up ideas on my own. ~Kathy
Hello Kathy! Welcome to my little corner of the interwebs – I hope you enjoy it here! Tapping into our inner wisdom while writing is very powerful. And the ideas that come through often just blow me away! I know I couldn’t have come up with them on my own, if you know what I mean!
I tried to subscribe to your newsletter and got a message about a verification email, but no email came through. wasn’t in my spam folder. Congratulations on 3 years of Gypsy Wanderings.
Oh, that’s strange. I just tried subscribing and it worked for me. Could you try again, maybe? Or let me know if you’d like me to add you to the list manually.
Okay it’s done. Thanks got through this time.
Congratulations on your 3-year anniversary! I loved your post and I find that my writing follows the same path in the subconscious as other problems and questions. If I let a plot point sit in the back of my mind for a while, I often find that my subconscious works on it while I’m engaged doing other things. A wonderful thing, the mind!
Oh yes, it is a wonderful thing!! I’ve had some post ideas bubble up from things I’ve been thinking about at the back of my head. But if I don’t jot them down immediately, I find that I lose them! I hope you have a better system in place for your writing than I do!! lol!
Congratulations on the 3 year milestone, Shinjini! I love the tone of your newsletter so much. Thanks for sharing such invaluable tips for tapping into our inner wisdom. I have similar method that I follow as well when confounded by any major problem in life. Interestingly, today was one such day. Gypsy Wanderings sound so beautiful!
Congratulations for the three year milestone for your newsletter. For almost an year now, I have been trying to understand energies and the large reserve that remains untapped within us. Your post takes me a step ahead in my quest to understand the seamless energies that human conscience holds within itself. Thank you for this very wise post.
Thank you! The energies…hmm…I don’t think we can “understand” them per se, we have to be open to experiencing them. These things work in ways that we cannot always understand, predict, or control. I’m glad you found this post helpful. I write about these things often, both here on the blog and in my newsletters, so do drop in/subscribe if you like. 🙂
So true I can lose myself in a creative outlet like writing or painting. It is often just the space and time to slow down and not over think. It is being present at that moment for me that I enjoy.
Yes, that’s one of the reasons why I paint! I lose track of time, everything else falls away!
Great idea! I’ll try the questions.
Hope they lent some good insight!
I really like the idea of an on-the-drive conversation with myself. Everyone’s talking to themselves in the car anyway (or that’s how it appears when they’re talking on the phone via bluetooth) so why not? I agree that working to mentally hard to solve a particularly thorny problem sometimes just makes the problem worse. Sitting with the question and allowing the answer to emerge often works for me. It requires patience and a willingness to actually listen–especially when the answer isn’t one I actually like. I like the idea of your Gypsy Wanderings and I do think a monthly email is more intimate than blogging. Great idea.
Yes, that’s what makes it so easy to do while driving. No one knows you’re actually talking to yourself! 😉
I agree with you that focusing on a problem to the exclusion of all other things makes it bigger than what it really is. I like your idea of letting it go and doing something else while you let it sink into your subconscious. We have to learn to look inward to solve our problems instead of outward. Great post! Thanks for sharing!
And still, so often we find ourselves doing just that – focusing on our problems or complaining. That’s why I love journaling, painting, and tarot too – and combining all three really gets me out of my monkey brain and into my inner wisdom.
I’m so intrigued by tarot. How much do you charge for a reading?
Between $20 and $45, depending on which reading you choose. 🙂 There’s a link to Book a Tarot Reading in the menu bar, you can see the different readings there. If you have any questions, feel free to drop me an email! xx
Thank you!
I am so torn at the moment, I know what my heart wants, but . . . . life is complicated. This has reached me at a good time thank you! You are also this weeks featured blogger on #ablogginggoodtime