You soul has a HOW and a WHY. Guess which comes first?

Posted: May 20, 2011 | Author: | Filed under: how, soul purpose, soul values, Soul Vows, What does my soul want, why, your soul wants five things | Tags: , , , , , , | Leave a comment
Have you ever heard or read something so important, it felt like the words were alive and grabbing you? I have this experience all the time. I sit upand take notice because that is my soul recognizing something and nudging me to pay attention.
 
I wasn’t always this aware. For most of my life, I was sleep-walking under a powerful material spell. Lots of great ideas were undoubtedly whizzing past my ears and eyes, but I was so focused on making money that I missed them all.
 
Until one fall evening sitting on the floor in Charlotte Starfire’s living room. It was opening night of her 1992 Women’s Spiritual Empowerment course. I had no idea why I was there. Looking back, I think my soul was so weary of the life we were living that it gave me a hard  crack in the ribs and at long last I responded.
 
Suddenly a sentence flew from Charlotte’s mouth, landing on my chest so hard, I almost fell over. She said: “According to Theilard de Chardin, ‘We are not human beings trying to have a spiritual experience; we are spiritual beings having a human experience.'”
 
Now that may not sound all that stunning to you, but to me this was a major revelation. Growing up Catholic, I learned that we are sinful human beings stuck in a “veil of tears,” struggling mightily to have a spiritual life. And if we don’t succeed? Well, the results aren’t going to be pretty.
 
In one sentence, Theilard de Chardin set me free. Free to enjoy life in all its dimensions–physical, spiritual, mental, emotional. No wonder I almost fell over. My soul, I’m sure, was singing hallelujah! She finally heard! She finally got it! Once my soul had my attention, she wouldn’t let go. She wouldn’t go back to silently watching me be miserable.
 
Mind you, I still got up the next morning and dragged myself to a job I did not love but felt I had to do. I still went through the motions. But the relentless drive to meet goals and post profits no longer felt important or necessary. Sales contests felt ugly. And when someone in the office told a creepy joke or made fun of someone, my heart hurt. I think it was my soul weeping, “Dear, this is not how we want to live.”
 
It took me a long time and a wrenching divorce to finally stop serving the wrong master and begin to create the life my soul and I want to live. It began with long daily rants wtih the Voice on the page. There, I found guidance and comfort. I discovered that I could ask for anything and receive it, sometimes within moments of placing the request. At first, I asked for money and protection. But once those core needs were met, my soul started pushing for something more.
 
It would not let me rest until I had a  moral code, a way of living, a personal creed. With my seven soul values etched in my heart and on my wall, life began to move rapidly. 
 
UPI gave me a column. Conari asked me to write Writing Down Your Soul. Invitations to speak poured in. One telecourse begot more telecourses, culminating in Your Soul Wants Five Things.  (You can read my Soul Vows on page 22 in Writing Down Your Soul. or on the Soul Vows page on my site.)
 
Having personal values completely changed my life. As it will yours. Having a personal honor code is like giving your soul bones. With those bones, your soul has a way to walk in this world, upright, firm, eyes forward, knowing exactly how it wants to live.
 
But where is it going? What is it walking toward? Isn’t that the great question everyone wants to know: Why am I here? What’s my purpose?
 
Margo Mastromarchi, the lovely angel guidance reader who provides angel readings for members of Soul Vows, says the first thing people want to ask the angels is, “What’s my purpose?” Lauralyn Bunn, the magnificent Akashic Record reader, reports the same thing. It’s the number one question burning in people’s minds. We know the materialistic spell doesn’t satisfy. We sense there must be something more, but what it is?
 
If your Soul Vows are your how, your soul’s purpose is your why.
 
We’ll explore your why in the new telecourse, Check the Box: how to discover and live your soul’s purpose. But if the number one question everyone wants to ask heaven is “What’s my purpose?” wouldn’t you think that your soul would want to clarifty the WHY before it selects its HOW? I would have.
 
That is, until I experienced how lost a why is without the fertile strength of the how. Let me explain.
 
I was given my soul’s purpose statement way back in 1996. At the time, I was focused on building a career as a human resource consultant. So when my purpose statement, “I use words to connect people to the light,” came through, I just stared at it. Huh! What does THAT mean? It made no sense to me, so I put it away. I didn’t have the “soul bones” to walk my purpose.
 
But when I declared my Soul Vows four years later, and started to really live my personal values, my soul bones got big and strong. I had grown the how for my why. I had the skeleton to walk upright into my soul’s divine purpose. And today what do I do? Why I use words to connect people to the light! And love every minute of it.  
 
So even though you are humanly itching to know your soul’s purpose, my hope for you is that you first find your how. And then, standing upright with powerful soul bones, you will walk firmly and clearly into your soul’s purpose–your why–and bring it to life!
 
Isn’t the adventure of being a spiritual being having a human experience amazing!
  

Your soul wants five things

Posted: February 2, 2011 | Author: | Filed under: Intention Mandala, Plug In! The Intersection for Writers, Soul Vows, The Lotus and The Lily, What does my soul want, Writing Down Your Soul | Tags: , , | Leave a comment

A lot has happened in the last two weeks. Heck, a lot has happened so far this year. Might have something to do with creating my Intention Mandala on January 1st and naming 2011 “My Big Pot Year.” I had no idea what that meant at the time, but after just 31 days, I’m beginning to see.

The “big” in Big Pot exploded open last Saturday. I intended to get a lot of writing done, but instead I listened to a teleconference. I don’t particularly like the teacher or her emphasis on how to make a million bucks, so why did I give her an hour of my precious time? I have no answer to that question. Something told me to listen, so I did. And OH am I grateful.

The teleconference was about how to create a million dollar coaching program. I do not want to create a coaching program — not even a million dollar one. I’m very clear that I am not your therapist or life coach. When people ask me what they should do about a problem, I say: “I don’t know. But you do. Take your problem to the page. Ask your wise loving Voice.” So what was I doing on a teleconference on how to be a big time coach? Why didn’t I hang up? I don’t know. I felt this urgency to keep listening. So I did. Well, about 3/4 of the way through, an idea jumped through whatever the woman was saying and landed with a giant plop in my heart.

OH! All the courses I teach are part of one integrated whole. Writing Down Your Soul, Plug In, Soul Vows, and The Lotus and The Lily are four aspects of one thing — the one thing everyone wants to know: What does my soul want?

I hung up and grabbed my soul journal. The words tumbled out faster than I could write. I knew instantly that your soul wants four things:

  1. to connect with Source
  2. to commit to values
  3. to express itself
  4. to create a life

And what do my courses teach?

Writing Down Your Soul — how to connect with Source
Soul Vows — how to commit to a values covenant with Spirit
Plug In — how to give your soul full expression
The Lotus and The Lily — how to create a life

At last I understood why I had been given such clear directions last November to teach Soul Vows. Four soul desires, four courses. I went to bed very happy.

But Sunday morning, in that rich theta-drenched, not awake-not asleep state, I heard “serve a purpose.” I knew exactly what that meant. It meant there was a fifth thing our souls want. But I don’t have a separate program for that and I sure didn’t want to take on creating a new course, so I ignored it. (As if heaven would give up and let me win. You can tell how this is going to end, can’t you.) All day Sunday, I fooled around with the four things your souls wants: to connect, to commit, to express, and to create. I played with offering my four courses in that order. I went to bed excited.

Monday morning, I was awakened again with “serve a purpose.” Just in case I missed it, I heard it three times: “Serve a purpose, serve a purpose, serve a purpose.” I sat up. OK! OK! OK! The soul wants FIVE things:

  1. to connect with Source
  2. to commit to values
  3. to serve a purpose
  4. to express itself
  5. to create a life

I sighed. Guess I have one more program to design. “I’ll do it,” I said. “If you want it, I’ll do it.”

On Tuesday morning, the next piece arrived. (I have trained myself to be still in the morning and allow guidance and ideas to come to me. And they do. They always do. If you’ve taken a Writing Down Your Soul course, you know that divine access comes when you’re in the theta brain wave state. One of the spiritual practices I share in Plug In is how to expand that state throughout the day, especially first thing in the morning.)

In my not-yet-awake state, I “saw” a hand. I opened my eyes and looked at my own hand. OH! Your soul wants five things:

to connect–thumb

to commit–first finger

to serve–second finger

to express –ring finger

to create–little finger

I called Cherry Lea, the owner of Dancing Moon in Raleigh, where I’ll be presenting the first ever weekend workshop on The Lotus and The Lily in March. I told her the story about how listening to that teleconference led me to see that my courses are a connected whole. She sighed, “Of course they are.” I told her the big question is “What does my soul want?” She sighed a sigh of recognition. I told her the five things the soul wants. She sighed an ever deeper sigh of agreement. I told her about the hand. I had her wiggle each digit as I repeated the five things her soul wants. She sighed a huge sigh of joy.

Then, Cherry gave me a sweet gift. She said, “Of course, the symbol of what your soul wants would be your hand. It has to be a hand for you.” I said, “Oh really, why is that?” She couldn’t believe I didn’t see it. “Janet,” she said, “look at how you sign every email.”

OH! I cried. Of course. I’ve had this symbol of the hand for three years without understanding its full meaning. I sign every note including these newsletters: the connection is in your hand.

That evening, I stopped at my neighborhood grocery store. I’ve shopped at this grocery store for 11 years. Nothing mystical has ever happened there. But that evening, as I was pushing my cart across the back of the store, I heard a loud clink. Something had fallen and was rolling all the way across the aisle in front of my cart. I watched as it hit the bottom of the meat counter, rolled back a foot and stopped. I stared at it for a second trying to figure out what it was. I’m used to pennies falling out of the sky, but this was silver. I walked over and picked it up. It was a shiny Canadian nickel. FIVE cents! I laughed out loud and put it in my pocket. My precious five cent piece now graces my creative altar.

So here’s my gift for you: Look at your hand. Now, ask yourself: What does my soul want?