Newsletter Archive

• Back to News
• 2008
• 2007
• 2006
• 2005
• 2004
• 2003
• 2002
• 2001
• Newsletter signup
• Unsubscribe from Newsletter

October Salon

Oct 20, 2004

Here is a Sample of the OCTOBER SALON:
THE SYMPTOMS OF “GUIDANCE OVERLOAD”

Too Much Guidance May Have You Going In Spiritual Circles; A New Spiritual Crisis; And Five Ways To Move Through Your Spiritual Congestion

I am still in the middle of my book tour with INVISIBLE ACTS OF POWER and I can tell you, book tours are absolutely exhausting. But they are also opportunities to meet with hundreds if not thousands of people in the close atmosphere of bookstores, which allows for interactions of the sort that do not happen in ordinary workshops. I love this kind of atmosphere because I absolutely love to engage with people and to find out what they/you are thinking about and what is on your mind and in your soul these days. Subject matters shift with the changing times, and as the years go by many of the topics that pressed against the walls of your minds and hearts ten years ago have since evaporated. For example, I rarely get questions anymore about whether organic food makes a difference in the treatment of illness. Perhaps that topic has been dealt with by other authors or in the abundance of research on the subject, but it no longer comes up in my workshops. Either that or I have teased so many vegetarians in my audiences through the years that they all fly under the radar, thinking that I will only have something sarcastic to say if they ask about the healing power of a tomato. Whatever the reason, questions about nutrition no longer arise.

Other topics, however, always come up no matter the subject of the book I am discussing. My bookstore routine is that once I finish chatting about why I was inspired to write my new book, I open the forum to questions of any variety from the audience. Inevitably people return to a group of questions that I now consider core to the journey of the human soul:

How do I more forward with my life?
How do I know what to do with my life?
Where do I begin?
How do I avoid making mistakes?
What do I do if I make a mistake?
What do I do about the other people in my life?
How do I make sure that making a change in my life won’t lead to bankruptcy?
How do I know that I am receiving clear guidance?
How do I get clear guidance in the first place?
How can I make my mate support me better?
I cannot even begin to calculate how often I’ve had some version of these questions presented to me through the years. Now, once again, as I am crossing the country on this book tour, I am listening to people explain their reasons for not moving forward in their lives. Simultaneously they share with me how devoted they are to their spiritual lives and to their meditation and prayer practices and that they always listen to their inner guidance. Their inner guidance “works,” they tell me, when it comes to alerting them to when something is wrong with a family member or a friend. (Note: people rarely remark that their guidance alerts them to when something is right or when something good or positive is going to happen. Generally people associate intuitive hits with forebodings as opposed to the onset of enchantment – curious, no?)

However, when it comes to relying on that same channel of intuitive guidance for clear instruction as to what to do in terms of their own life path, they come up blank, empty, and at a complete loss for direction. No matter what they do, it seems, they cannot seem to get clear or feel absolutely certain beyond a shadow of a doubt about what to do next with their lives. Many have told me about going on retreats precisely for help in finding a life direction. Others have undertaken long fasts or other forms of spiritual discipline, hoping that engaging in a spiritual practice will heighten their capacity to receive guidance.

But invoking guidance or finding methods of spiritual expression is not what is lacking when making contact with guidance. The problem is that guidance flows continually into a person – into every person – with or without prayers, meditation, fasting, or retreats. It just flows. Prayers and the like are methods of perceiving guidance, not earning the right to receive guidance. We are guided – period. The challenge is not whether we are worthy enough to receive guidance, but whether we are courageous enough to respond to it. The absence of courage causes more suffering than can ever be calculated.

People are born intuitive. You were born with all your intuitive skills and wiring in place. You know when you have come to the end of a cycle of your life and when it is time to begin another. Your entire energy system – your mind, your body, your nervous system, your emotions, all of you -- becomes overloaded with energy when it’s time to “get out” or “move on.” Just think of how you feel when it’s time to leave a party – you can hardly stay in your body any longer. You just have to get out and get going. Your spirit has “already left the building” and the rest of you has only to follow. All people become exceedingly frustrated – spiritually frustrated – when they intuitively realize that changes must take place in their lives but they lack any sense of the essential “what, when, how, and where” guidance. The need for long-range guidance is so tied to our sense of physical safety that we end up not acting on any of the immediate guidance at all, no matter how much someone like me explains that guidance is NOT a long-range form of information. It is ENERGETIC in nature, meant for the “here and now,” not for your SEP IRA account and your pension plan. Guidance works based upon what you need NOW, TODAY. Why would the gods give you guidance for something that is not even in your world yet?

People need to understand that when they pray for guidance, the answer to all prayers contains energy. In other words, guidance IS a form of energy. That energy is meant to be invested in making changes in your life, such as giving you the enthusiasm to work extra hours on a new project. Enthusiasm is a form of grace. If you decide to ignore that guidance, the energy inherent in it must seek another path of expression. People who have discussed their frustration with asking for guidance on how to move forward as part of their spiritual practice all admit to feeling one or more of the symptoms or on-going conditions listed below. The list of “Symptoms of Guidance Overload” is the result of countless conversations I’ve had at workshops and during this book tour, plus e-mails and letters that I decided to compile as a result of the tour. It also has a direct bearing on the subject matter of INVISIBLE ACTS OF POWER, and so I felt the time was right for me to introduce this subject.

Continued.. in the On-Line Salon

I won’t have a chance to write to you again before this very, very vital election, so let me say one more time that every vote counts. The world faces a desperate future and hopefully America will awaken November 3rd with a chance for a new start.

God bless you all.
Caroline

Link to Caroline's Interactive Courses and web streams.

Checklist of Health Issues and Illness The purpose of the CHII is to allow you a fast and easy way to identify your own personal blocks and to allow you to work on removing these blocks should you care to do so. You will receive an individual profile that shows your score for each chakra as well as for three themes: vitality, relationships, and spirituality. You will be given specific ways to address issues for each chakra.

Personal Nutrition Provider The purpose of the PNP is to allow you a fast and easy way to identify your personal chemistry. You will receive an individual profile that shows you your score for each area and then a food plan with selected foods that support your well being on all levels: physical, emotional, psychological and spiritual. We sampled over 500 adults in the United States, both people who are familiar with Susan's work and people who know nothing about it. We will continue to work on researching the PNP based upon the information we receive from this web site. Your individual responses will, of course, be totally confidential and held in strictest confidence as with a counselor or doctor.

Travel with Caroline to INDIA

Link to Travel to India with Caroline Myss

A New CMED Institute Workshop Series:
From Intuition to Mysticism: A Personal Journey into Our Passion for God

Since we introduced our first CMED Institute on "Sacred Contracts and the Study of Archetypes" in 2002, it has been a remarkable success. People from as far away as Turkey, Great Britain, Australia, and New Zealand make the trip three times a year to participate in a program that explores their archetypal patterns and the agreements they made with the Universe prior to this life -- agreements that determine their experiences and relationships in the physical world.

In the past year, many of these students have asked me, "What's next?" They wanted to know how they could continue this work after their two-year CMED program is completed. I have given a great deal of thought to that question and, motivated by their interest and by extraordinary recent experiences, I am announcing with deep excitement a second CMED program: From Intuition to Mysticism: A Personal Journey into Our Passion for God. This program was inspired in part by the profound changes that have occurred in my own life during the past two years, beginning with the first CMED Institute and continuing into the subject of my most recent book, Invisible Acts of Power. This book is a compilation of more than 1,200 letters sent to me by wonderful people who shared their experiences of acts of service that they received from family, friends, and strangers, as well as acts of service they provided to others. As I organized this book, I met with one extraordinary discovery after another about the nature of generosity: why we are giving, why we must be giving, and why we cannot be generous. I came to understand many aspects of the human spirit that I had never encountered before, not the least of which was the realization that generosity is a biological necessity.

Link to From Intuition to Mysticism