Welcome to Wellness Weekly coming to you every Wednesday. This will be a weekly series, sort of like a Letter from the Editors that will rotate between Morgan, Lara, and Luigi with the occasional guest. We’ll hold space on the Dirt to check in on our Sixth Sense: the term we use to refer to our spirit, our intuition, our inner power. And because while we exist in the world alongside our other Five Senses, we’ll do a check-in of those, too. Wellness Weekly: how to listen to the universe when you’re seeking opportunity.
This week we invited team member Robbi Hess.
It’s been said that “opportunity comes when you’re not looking for it” or “you need to open the doors to let opportunity in.” I embrace those philosophies on opportunity and more.
There are people in my life who:
- Try to force an opportunity.
- Refuse to see an opportunity when it’s right in front of them.
- Look at the potential for an opportunity as black and white. If it’s not clearly bopping them over the head, they won’t delve into a subtle message the universe is sending them.
Prior to my breast cancer diagnosis and battle (ten-year survivor!) I was closed off to opportunities. I also believed if an opportunity didn’t come right up, grab me by the shoulders and shake me, I let it pass by and missed out on things I would dearly have loved to have taken part in.
Opportunities, I have found are subtle. They don’t just fall into your lap, you have to work for them. Opportunities are a “reward” for having done the work, for having shown up and for having opened yourself to the universe.
Remember — the path to opportunity may be twisty and “turny.” It may have forks in the road and might toss obstacles in the way. But if the universe offers an opportunity — take it, work for it and be grateful because you’ve been blessed. This is especially true if you’ve been asking for an opportunity.
Listen To The Universe When It Hands You an Opportunity
How can you use your five senses to open up to opportunity? Here are my thoughts:
Sight. In the past, I believed I needed physical evidence of what I wanted. Honestly, I didn’t know how to visualize. This has been a road I have been traveling for the past several years. I write down the opportunity I am seeking. Several years ago I wanted the opportunity to speak at a conference about my favorite topic, but told myself I didn’t have the skills but was going to be bold. I wrote down the opportunity I was seeking. I put it in my journal. I pulled a tarot or oracle card and asked a question about it. Within a few weeks, I had the opportunity to speak with someone who was friends with the woman who was putting on the conference. She put us in touch and my opportunity manifested.
Sitting by the water helps open my thoughts and my mind to opportunity and to just sitting in stillness.
WELLNESS WEEKLY: HOW TO LISTEN TO THE UNIVERSE WHEN YOU’RE SEEKING OPPORTUNITY
Hearing/Sound. “I’d really like what she has” or, “Wow, he’s really got it made.” Once I stopped and heard what I was truly saying and how I was operating from a mindset of “lesser than.” I started reframing my questions when I sought opportunities. Rather than focusing on other people I turned my thoughts inward and said, “what do I need to do to have a chance at this opportunity?” Kind of off topic, but I count my blessings, not what I don’t have. Would I like a million dollars? Sure. Am I happy, housed, loved and fed? Yes. That’s a blessing.
Touch. When I am considering a new opportunity and I pull my tarot cards and ask a question, I make certain I am in tune with the cards. I run my fingers over the almost velvety feeling of the back of the cards. As I am shuffling I am talking about the opportunity I’m seeking. Most recently I wanted the opportunity to collaborate with an author and write a series of books with her. I asked the question, “how can I bring this collaboration to life?” or “what is the best way for me to approach her about the collaboration?” For two weeks, I asked a variation of those questions, I pulled a card. I interpreted it.
I also touched the Tiger’s Eye stone I keep on my desk or in my pocket and asked for clarity on building my confidence for the opportunity I sought. I also paid attention to the heft of the stone, how smooth it was, how cool to the touch and I’d close my eyes and think about the opportunity.
Planting my herbs and working on my gnome and fairy garden also help me get in touch with the universe and clear my mind for welcoming any gifts I may have been seeking.
Taste. There have been times when I strove for an opportunity, a job, a trip and when it was proffered, I felt that queasiness in my stomach that something wasn’t right. I’d feel a burning in the back of my throat and my intuition was telling me — physically that all was not as it seemed.
WELLNESS WEEKLY: HOW TO LISTEN TO THE UNIVERSE WHEN YOU’RE SEEKING OPPORTUNITY
Feel. “I’ve got a bad feeling about this…” So many times in my past I ignored that a “bad feeling” and I regretted it. My first job out of high school was very prestigious for an eighteen-year-old… so everyone told me. Against my feelings, I accepted it. That opportunity brought more money than my eighteen-year-old self thought I’d ever make, but that job hurt my soul. It took me many months to get untangled from it. Another time, I was offered a job at a local newspaper. My job was to write obituaries and file police reports. The two most despised jobs in the publication. The pay was worse than what I was making at the job I’d currently had. The hours were horrible. The building the newspaper was in was a firetrap. And the publisher was a tyrant… BUT that opportunity was what started me down the path of my career as a full-time writer. Oh, and that tyrant boss? He’s still a friend today and he mentored me in journalism and when I started publishing my own magazine.
If I had said no — and any sane person would have — I may not be living my dream career today.
This goes hand in hand with my tasting of fear and the knowing that an opportunity isn’t in my best interest. Many times in the past red flags have gone up and bells have clanged in my head when I knew beyond a doubt that I should have said, “thank you but no thank you.” I didn’t listen and I regretted it almost immediately. When I have a feeling in my shoulders that they aren’t hiked up around my ears, I know I am on the right path. When I feel like I can take a breath without feeling like there is a weight on my chest, then I know the opportunity is right.
Before I changed my thinking I always looked for neon signs when it came to opportunity or many other areas of my life. Now I don’t look at something and say, “well, that’s not exactly what I imagined I’d manifest with this opportunity.” I meditate on it. I pull a few oracle or tarot cards and ask clarifying questions. Maybe I wasn’t clear in what I hoped the opportunity would be. My Baby Boomer self has come late to the game of spirituality, meditation, tarot, oracle and crystals, but opening my mind, thoughts and heart to the universe have brought me opportunities beyond measure.
Here’s a little exercise about an opportunity you are seeking.
- What is the opportunity? Give it a name.
- Why do you want it?
- Are you truly ready to receive it?
- Would you be aware of subtle signs that let you know the opportunity is knocking if only you open the door?
- What will you do with your opportunity once you get it?
- What opportunities can you pay forward?
