February 22, 2012 / by suefrederick / Make A Comment / Filed under Blog Posts, Career Coaching
Do you believe in intuition? Do you realize you can tap into your own future and “see” your next successful career step?
Maybe you’re smart, successful, practical, realistic and don’t believe in what you can’t see. But then why are you in this mess? Why are you rethinking your life? Why did you get laid off? You carry the solution to all of these problems right inside of you.
What did you dream last night? Sit down and remember. Conjure up those lost memories. Honor what your soul is trying to tell you. Be your own shaman. Your inner wisdom is banging on the door of your practical, logical left-brain as powerfully as it can. Are you listening?
Did you know that in the 1900 edition of Sigmund Freud’s book Interpretation of Dreams, the father of modern psychology, wrote about his own dreams and what he thought they meant? One of those documented dreams clearly foretells his future illness 28 years later and eventual death from mouth cancer. The dream even offers a solution (to stop smoking cigars). But Freud interprets this dream in his own narrow parameters of sexual metaphors rather than seeing the divine gift of premonition and solution that the dream offered.
Are you doing something similar with your dreams?
If life really isn’t as “realistic” as you imagine it to be – what are you missing?
Maybe you’ve had glimpses through the cracks in the façade of our physical world. Perhaps it was at the birth or the death of a loved one. Maybe you’ve taken a breath, had a moment where you knew there was something more, and you heard your higher guidance, your divine wisdom whisper: “Life is not what you think it is.”
This is your powerful higher self reminding you of what you already know but choose to forget because it’s not what the world tells you is true. Yet that’s the same higher self that can reveal your new life and new work to you as effortlessly as a dream in the night.
Are you afraid? Are you worried about your future? Then you’re not listening. You’re tapped into your fear instead of your intuition. Do you see the difference?
Fear is a low, negative energy and it resonates in the pit of your stomach, in the clenching of your hands, the tightening of your throat, and the weariness of your thoughts. Your intuition and divine guidance speak up in the quiet moments when time stops and you just know what’s true. Just know it in your bones. But first you have to stop and be quiet for this to happen. When was the last time you did that?
Sit down, shut up, and quiet your monkey mind. Shut down the part of your brain that you always listen to. You can pray, meditate, or just breathe. Think nothing and do nothing. Just wait. In the spaces between your breaths it will happen.
What is your soul whispering? Did you see that quick glimpse of an image from your future? It’s there in the corner of the room, in the corner of your eye when you look away.
See, you’re there working at something new and exciting and loving it. Did you notice that feeling of “YES” that spread through every cell in your body when you saw it? Did you notice the smile spreading across your lips even as you fought the image with your logical mind?
Go back and look again. Feel it. Did you hear a voice whisper, “You’re a teacher. You’re a writer. You’re a healer.” Write down what you heard.
Could it really be true that your soul ordered up this lifetime to get to you this point where you would have to wake up? Could it be true that your soul came in on a mission to bring your talents to the world in your unique way to help raise the consciousness of the planet? Is it possible that we really are all connected, part of the same energy membrane, and we all signed up for this together?
Could it be true that every failure, pain, challenge and victory from your past has been on purpose exactly as you preprogrammed it so that you would discover your great potential and live up to it through your work – which is your gift to the world?
The mere thought of this possibility wakes up your soul, pulls you out of fear, paralysis and grief, and allows you to see what’s coming next. Now you can remember your dream.
In your dream, you’re standing in a new world – this world – and you know it’s all on purpose. You know that you’re here to share your talents fiercely through your work.
You don’t “go to work” anymore. You give yourself to others in ways that are needed. And you’re paid for doing this. You lack nothing. You live on purpose, and make your money by offering your soul’s true gifts to the world. You honor your intuition in every moment.
This is my dream and you’re in it with me.
Sit down, quiet your mind, and tune out the fear.
When you open your eyes, you’ll see your next step.
Take it.
February 15, 2012 / by suefrederick / Make A Comment / Filed under Blog Posts, Career Coaching
I’m standing in John Lennon’s childhood bedroom at 251 Menlove Avenue in Liverpool, England, admiring its sloped ceiling, small twin bed, and lovely window looking out over the street. This is where John lived and created music for 18 years. Posters of his favorite 60s actress Brigitte Bardot line the wall above his bed, and John’s own art sketches and writings adorn his other walls.
From this tiny room was born music that changed the world – especially my world. Yet it’s such a small cocoon – this room that fits only me and one other adult – the custodian hired by Yoko Ono to protect the home she refurbished to look exactly as it looked when John lived here until 1963. Yoko donated this home to the National Trust so that it would be forever preserved as part of history.
Colin Hall, the well-educated, soft-spoken custodian tells me that John spent many hours a day sitting on this bed dreaming up a better life – sketching his visions and writing music while he gazed out of this window at the tree tops – all the way to Strawberry Fields – an orphanage a few miles away.
It makes me cry to imagine how John’s powerful dream for a better life reached across the Atlantic Ocean in 1964 to touch me – a lonely, young girl growing up in Alabama – and how his dream traveled around the globe awakening so many other people.
It makes me cry to remember the moment I first heard a Beatles song and how deeply it rocked my world. Standing in this room, I can imagine the birth of that powerful music and the pain that inspired John’s genius. Closing my eyes, I feel John’s creative brilliance burning up these walls, his restlessness, and his dark and powerful grief – the pain that fueled his work.
This room brings many people to tears,” says Colin standing beside me. And yes, you can feel the sadness that hung over this bedroom when John was brought to live here in his Aunt Mimi’s house at the age of five – already abandoned by both parents.
By then, John’s father had long disappeared. And his mother, Julia, had gone to live with her new boyfriend. Young John was brought to this house to be raised properly by his mother’s sister, Mimi, and her husband George. John’s mother continued to visit him here and tried to maintain a relationship with John. But she soon started a new family with her boyfriend, and John was never brought to live with them.
In this house, John’s new life unfolded. He grew to love Mimi’s husband George who became a nurturing father figure to him. But when John turned 15, Uncle George died suddenly – leaving Aunt Mimi broke and desperate for income so that she and John could stay in the house. Mimi took in student boarders – as many as five at a time – to help pay the rent for this two-bedroom house. And John, once again, felt the devastating loss of someone he loved and needed.
It was in this abandoned, struggling world that John spent his hours sketching, writing poetry, playing guitar and writing music. He excelled in art class at his local high school, but flunked his other subjects -which caused endless arguments with Aunt Mimi.
Mimi was convinced that John’s fascination with rock and roll would ruin his life, and she only allowed him to play guitar on the front porch. This didn’t stop John from pursuing his music passion; in High School he started a rock band called Johnny and the Moondogs – which soon became The Quarry Men.
When John turned 17, his mother Julia, on a visit to see him, was hit by a car while crossing the street in front of Mimi’s house. She died instantly. John was, once again, devastated by loss and poured his pain into music.
That same year, John’s band was invited to play for a local church feast and after the gig was over, John was introduced to Paul McCartney, a young musician who was also grieving the death of his mother.
Just a few blocks across town, in an even poorer neighborhood and smaller house, 15-year old Paul McCartney had lost his mother, Mary, to breast cancer. She had been a loving presence in Paul’s life and was well-respected in the community as a nurse and midwife.
Her death had devastated Paul, his father, and brother Michael. The McCartneys comforted themselves with memories and music; Paul taught himself to play guitar and write music in the living room of his cramped home in this poorer section of Liverpool.
When John invited Paul to become part of his band, the Lennon-McCartney genius was born. Even though they were still young high school boys, they quickly began writing music together – hanging out in the front porch of Aunt Mimi’s house, smoking cigarettes, exchanging lyrics, laughing and dreaming up a better life.
Their inspired music that the world came to love so passionately didn’t come from privilege, opportunity, brilliant teachers and all the advantages of life today. Instead, their music came from dreams that were launched in loneliness and grief.
From grief, came their longing to uplift and inspire others who needed love, who felt lonely, or abandoned. This passionate music that spoke of love reached across the universe – to millions of people longing for connection.
When Beatle music first began filtering into my local Alabama radio station and filling the airwaves of my world with a new sound, a new dream – I was only 12 years old. Yet it spoke to me in ways that John and Paul, light years away, could never have imagined.
From their brilliant new sound, I understood that life was expansive and carried endless possibility. When I heard their voices in harmony, I realized we were truly all connected, and that anyone from anywhere could have an extraordinary life – even me.
How that inspiration was delivered around the world in simple words such as “She Loves You” – was the miracle of the Beatles. Somehow their pain, dreams, and energy carried hope to anyone who felt alone, confused, or lost.
The Beatles created an intuitive connection between people everywhere that started a shift of consciousness in the early 60s. Their simple heart-felt music changed millions of lives for the better. I was one of those people and the Beatles were truly the miracle of my early life. I’m forever grateful for that.
Now, as I turn to leave John’s small room and follow the custodian down the stairs of Aunt Mimi’s house, I offer a simple prayer of gratitude to John for turning his pain into music. I tell him that I can’t imagine a world without his lyrics. And I can’t imagine the course my life would have taken without the Beatles. I blow a kiss into the empty room and say “Thank You John.”
How ironic it is that my husband Paul died only months before John died in 1980 – two of the most influential people in my life exiting within months of each other. And now, today, I get to come full circle and thank the first man whose extraordinary gift changed my life.
Whenever you feel lost, alone, depressed, or hopeless, consider this: That dark, powerful pain is your gift. Dig deep and feel it, then use it as your fuel. Make the world a better place by offering to others what you wish had been offered to you.
Take a moment right now to imagine two teen-aged boys from Liverpool living in poverty, with no opportunities for a better future, and grieving the losses of their loved ones.
Now picture these boys hanging out on Aunt Mimi’s small front porch, playing guitar, laughing, and writing music about love – in spite of the grief and pain in their lives.
Imagine their pure fearless intention, their innocent inspired joy turning itself into magic, into love, and spreading across the universe – changing everything in its path. That was the gift of the Beatles.<.
Now, YOU try it… See if you can imagine taking one small step in a brave new direction – in spite of all your pain and losses. That step will be your greatest gift to the world.
I recently had an amazing interview with Marie Manuchehri of Energy Intuitive. Listen in to this great call below.
It’s essential to our well-being that we learn to quiet the mind and control our thoughts. The most essential part of us – our souls, spirits, inner selves (use whatever term you prefer) is much deeper inside of us than our thoughts. We are not our thoughts.
