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Each month, following her predictions for the coming month, Deborah Ilg offers intuitive guidance in response to readers' questions about relationships, family, children, animals, health, career, finances, or the other side. E-mail Deborah at <guidance@intuitiveartist.com> or call or fax her at (206) 985-6601 if you’d like her to answer your question in The New Times. Please do not give your name when asking your question; anonymity and confidentiality are assured. I immediately get a picture of play for the month of November! The energy on the planet this summer and through the beginning of fall has been a bit intense and contracted. Growth always comes from intense, contracted energy, so that is a good thing. The energy is now shifting to a place of expansion and play, which will facilitate a natural release from the past few months. Play is an important piece to growth; without it, we would be in a state of serious stress 100% of the time. Play can come in many forms. It is simply what moves you, whether that is cooking, reading a book, walking, or even just watching clouds. Play is actually being in an intuitive state. It is being able to calm the mind, as is meditation. Notice how you see more clearly when you take a moment to do something that is fun, playful, and passionate. Change is always prevalent in the fall, adding expansive, playful energy to the mix means smooth, speedy change. I am not saying there will not be challenges this month; there will be. But those challenges will be met with a more expansive, playful, intuitive outlook! I’m having a challenge making ends meet. Do you ever see me being financially stable? I’m self employed. — Scared Moneyless The picture I get around you and money is very up and down, an old pattern. I do sense that you are able to make good money, but I don’t sense that you are always into it. I’d love to see you in more control of your finances so they don’t control you. I don’t get that you are super-organized with your money, yet it looks like you could be for someone else who needed help; funny how that happens! Creating an easy way to organize your money will help you see where your money is coming from each month, and where it’s going. It will also help you see that your finances are not as out of control as they may feel. Working with your mind will swing the situation and your emotions to a more positive place. You may want to take small steps so it doesn’t look like a huge goal that’s impossible to achieve. On the first day, write down your weekly and monthly bills plus added personal expenses. On the second day, write down your approximate income for the week and then the month. On the third day, put all this information into a calendar. Stick to this calendar for a few months in a row to start a new routine around money, keeping an eye on it and only spending what you have. On another note, it looks like you are able to manifest situations for yourself and for others through your spiritual practice. You do it so naturally — very nice! Focusing that intent on you, taking care of yourself, and asking for guidance around finances can give you clarity and direction on your path. I am going to be 60 next year, and I have been chronically unemployed for years. At this point, I do not see myself ever working again. I do not have any pension, and I do not feel I have any future. Being poor is one thing, but living in poverty is another. I have no reason to continue. I know a lot of spiritual people think one should not be concerned about money, but poverty is grinding. — Kate Tree I am going to approach your situation by looking at a way to find peace with the choices you have made around poverty. Realize you have made particular choices in life, for whatever reason and whatever the circumstance, that have lead you to where you are now. If you choose to change this in the future, that would be healthy. When I look at the energy around your choices past and present, I am not getting the sense that you were completely aware that you had other options at the time. Seeing other options and knowing you can make higher choices in life is nurturing. It is also a way to take responsibility for your own life. Learning to nurture oneself is a big thing for a lot of folks. Being conscious that you have that choice is the first step. Increasing your intuition by being aware of what nurtures you is the next step. In your everyday life, simply sense if you are nurturing yourself with your daily activities. If you are not being nurtured, ask yourself what you can do to change that. Remember to ask how you can change yourself in each situation, not how can you change the situation. That is the key. When you increase your awareness of yourself and what nurtures you in your everyday life, that will carry over into the bigger decisions, like money in your case. Taking a step in a healthier direction will come more easily for you because you have already incorporated that shift into the smaller, everyday things. It is simply about changing your mindset, gearing your mind toward a more healthy, nurturing way of life. In time, that will be the path you will naturally take each time. All of your past choices were perfect; they brought you to today and who you are now. When life gets uncomfortable, that is when you finally think there must be another way. Then you can create a healthier way, if you choose. I am presently a practicing massage therapist. I want to branch my practice out and need guidance about what fits best for me. The two areas I'm looking are therapeutic massage in my own practice or working for a spa and doing massage as an employee. — Putting My Hands to Good Use The first picture I get is that it would make sense to open your own business. I see you have particular ideas about how you would like to set up your practice. Working for someone else would therefore be hard for you. Yet when I look deeper in the direction of opening your own office, I am not seeing a solid plan. You have great intention and a fabulous goal, but the steps to take and the confidence needed to make it happen seem to be missing. It looks like you have not seen a practice set up the same way you would do it. This is good, actually, but it’s hard for you to believe it could happen since you haven’t seen an example. I like the feeling of you working in a spa for reasons of financial stability right now. If you do decide to go this route, please make sure you know what feels good to you in a work environment. It looks like social interactions are very important to you, and working with women would help you keep a better focus on your practice. What would happen if you combined the two for now (a spa and your practice) until you have a solid, rooted plan for your office? If you worked at a spa for a short time, you could gather ideas about how the spa operates and incorporate some of them into your future practice. Also, being in that environment may facilitate future connections for you. This will allow you to have a stable income while you complete your plan for your practice. If you decide to work for a spa, either short or long term, please make sure you consider what kind of environment will work for you. Writing down what you need in a work situation before you start looking for a job would be best. If you move towards opening your own practice, please add a time line or a goal date to your plan, and take small steps towards your goal so your mind can see that it really can happen. The smaller steps will be more doable than trying to accomplish the whole goal all at once. Good luck to you! Is my church a good source for new friends, dating, or other social environments? I’ve changed so much and let go of many of my past connections and friends. — Safety Net for My Heart I do like the feel of a stable group situation for you. I am saying stable because it looks like your social life may not feel very stable right now. Knowing there is a group of people you can lean on when you want to would be great. It looks like part of you thinks that you need to consistently go to church even if it doesn’t feel right for you that week. The stability of a church is good if it is nurturing for you. However, if you are not listening to yourself completely and you’re adding guilt to the mix, then something healthy can turn into something not-so-healthy. It looks like this is what has been going on for you socially in the recent past. You’ve over-extended yourself and done things you may not have wanted to do. You’ll feel more nurtured if you can learn from your past experiences and simply considering how you feel from week to week so you can make your own rules. Please do your best to listen to what feels best for you in everyday life; this will transfer over to choices around church and the even bigger choices in your life. Deborah Ilg, Intuitive Artist, uses her gift of intuition as a professional spiritual counselor and energy worker. Her practice is based in Seattle, and she offers both phone and office sessions. You may hear her talk radio show on 1150 AM, CONTACT Talk Radio, the first Sunday of every month, 6-7p.m. To contact Deborah, e-mail <guidance@intuitiveartist.com> or call (206) 985-6601. |
