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6 tips to transition from consistent, unexciting work

July 30, 2021

I shared a Wholehearted Q&A chat on Instagram live recently and asked for questions about the book, transition and self-leadership.

This fabulous question came in from Esther via Instagram:

What advice would you give to someone too scared to leave the consistency of working for the government but knowing they are no longer excited or challenged by the work anymore?

Such an excellent question! Thank you Esther. It went straight to my heart. I worked in government as a teacher and leader in the vocational education sector for 30 plus years, so I know intimately the feeling you are expressing. And I am sure it is something many women ponder as they contemplate the tension between ‘safe’ and consistent work and not feeling fulfilled by unexciting work. It certainly brings up fear and trepidation!

You can watch my live as I answer the question here (video also below at the end of this post) or read my response below. Or both! And I welcome your comments or questions too if you have experienced this situation or are experiencing it now.

I’m hearing in this question the desire for change, but also valuing the security and ongoing employment offered. It’s a very real tension and one that can keep us stuck as we work out the best way to move. But if we can make a plan to move on to better things, it can make all the difference to our mindset!

Here are 6 tips for changing from consistent but unexciting work!

1. Look at your why

A starting point would be to look at WHY you are no longer challenged or excited in the organisation or role you are in.

Journal about this to see what comes up. Is it because, for example:

  • you are no longer aligned to the organisation. 
  • it’s boring and not stretching you in the role you are in.
  • you wish to be doing something completely different.
  • you have long-held creative yearnings that you want to fill.
  • something else?

This will help you with the next step of looking at options.

2. Look at your options

If no longer challenged or excited by your work role now, brainstorm and make a list of options open to you. Self-leadership is all about exploring options and choices. Then actively pursuing what you feel is right for you with intention. Some of your options might be:

  • seeking new opportunities within the organisation you work for.
  • seeking opportunities like secondment in another government organisation or a project role where you can feel more excitement and challenge.
  • starting a consultancy on the side or another sort of side-hustle around a passion or something you’ve always wanted to do.
  • seek opportunities for space to consider options, for example: working part time, job-sharing, taking leave, working four days a week or a nine-day fortnight.
  • look at the skills you have, your body of work over time and where this might take you next.

Often we see our situations and options as binary and either/or, but there are frequently many choices. The transition to what you desire might involve a series of choices that take you there, one step at a time. It might not be one gigantic leap even though that may feel like the most desirable option. Deep transition takes time and is often incremental.

3. Get a vision of what life might be like

To get a vision of what life might look like in the future, write about what your ideal day might look like in a few years’ time. This simple but powerful activity helps to get to what is in your heart and what would help you feel fulfilled and happy. Often it’s simpler than we think and this activity helps us to see where we are already on the way.

A vision board or collage is another way to do this if you are more visual. You could start a Pinterest Board and gather images of what your new life might look like to see what themes emerge and what you are seeking through change. This process helps us to tap into what is beneath the surface of our consciousness, trying to break through.

vision board

4. Take inventory

When you want change or are not happy where you are, it is easy to dwell on what you don’t have. It’s helpful and grounding therefore to look at what you have and see how you can deploy these resources more effectively.

Areas to take stock of include:

  • skills you have, your body of work
  • skills you want to develop
  • resources, including financial resources
  • financial options
  • potential income sources
  • superannuation
  • leave
  • investment strategies
  • where you could cut back

Part of the fear of leaving a government job (and often other employment) is letting go of the security, the regular pay and the conditions. They are familiar and regular and it is not a decision to be made lightly. If you wish to leave, look at what you have to help you make a shift and how you might supplement or replace the income. Look at living differently, having fewer expenses, making income creatively.

unexciting work

5. Check your mindset – look at the fears

It’s very natural to feel fear as we make change, even if it is a change we deeply want.

An important distinction is this.

CHANGE is external – what happens to us, also what we choose to change or start.

TRANSITION is internal – how we plan, adjust, prepare, ground ourselves and our mindset as we do this.

The inner work of transition, even from unexciting work, includes looking at the fears, self-limiting beliefs and self-doubt that typically arise in times of change. Managing the internal aspects of transition strengthens our ability to negotiate change positively with self-knowledge.

If feeling scared, have a good look at your fears. Make a list of what scares you. Get it down on paper. Identify the false, overstated or imagined fears, then identify the ones that are genuine concerns. Once you have these identified, use all the tips here to work out how to address these fears in practical terms. 

6. Get support

Significant transition takes time. It feels like your very identity is in the mix even if the unexciting work is making you unhappy. Often you feel alone, lost and uncertain at such times. You need support! Get a coach – I would love to support you if you are going through transition times in a 1:1 capacity as your coach. Working with a coach helped me immensely as I went through my transition journey, and I still work with coaches all the time to keep growing and focused. A group coaching program like the Sacred Creative Collective can also be an option if you want support and connection with others while going through change.

Head to Work with me to learn how you can work with me as your coach. First step is a free Self-leadership Discovery Call so we can connect and have a conversation about your challenges and desires and where I might help. You can book that free, no obligation call HERE.

So summing up, here are my 6 tips for transitioning from consistent but unexciting work:

  1. Look at your why – so you can get some context and a starting point.
  2. Look at options – so you can widen your scope of action.
  3. Get a vision of what life might be like – see what you might really want.
  4. Take inventory – look at the resources you have for a new life.
  5. Check your mindset – look at fears and interrogate them.
  6. Get support – via a coach and community to help you negotiate the changes positively.

Watch the video here to review:

Knowing it’s time to make a plan for a transition

If you know in your heart you’ve had enough of this unexciting work and need to move on. Or there’s been a turning point event in your life that has clearly said, ‘I no longer belong here’, then making a transition plan using the above tips is helpful.

Another resource for you is to strengthen your self-leadership skills is my book, Wholehearted: Self-leadership for women in transition. It is full of practical strategies to help you with self-leadership if you are going through change or wanting something different. Plus the experience of reading the book and working through the workbook is a deep self-leadership and self-coaching experience.

You can pre-order Wholehearted and the Companion Workbook now to help you navigate times of transition. The books will be with you on 6 September. In the meantime, I’ll send you a free pdf of Chapter 1 so you can start reading now.

Plus, if you purchase 2 books, Wholehearted and/or the Companion Workbook, you can join me for a live Masterclass on ‘15 Wholehearted Self-leadership Skill to Change your Life’ where I’ll walk you through these strategies and answer questions.

So click below to find out more about the books. All the links to pre-order the paperback and ebook versions worldwide via different booksellers are there.

Learn more about Wholehearted
Wholehearted Book

Read more:

How to tap into the power of emerging at midlife

Create Your Deeper Story 1 to 1 Coaching

Stories of Wholehearted Living

Sacred Creative Collective Group Coaching

Cora Pacheco – Sacred Creative Stories of Transition

Your body of work: the greatest gift for transition to a bright new life

Image credits:

Feature image: Photo by Siddharth Bhogra on Unsplash 

Vision board image: Photo by Andy Art on Unsplash 

Laptop image: Photo by Christin Hume on Unsplash 

reading notes transcending

Ordinary People’s Mystical Experiences – a review of ‘Mystical Interludes II’ by Emily Rodavich

February 18, 2019

‘Mystical Interludes II’, collected and edited by Emily Rodavich, takes us into the world of ordinary people’s mystical experiences. Read on!

A mystical interlude, which resonates in the heart, can remind us of our spirituality and our connectedness to each other. This is why it is meaningful to take heed.

from Mystical Interludes II by Emily Rodavich

mystical interludes

You might sense a theme emerging in Quiet Writing lately.

Independently, books have come to me that focus on mystical experiences. These books arrived in various ways and means, all dealing with people having extraordinary experiences. It was quite surprising. Coincidence? I think not.

These mystical experiences are called different things: mystical interludes or NOTEs, Non-ordinary Transcendent Experiences.  Some involve a specific life-changing moment like a Near Death Experience. Others are a kind of synchronicity or meaningful coincidence, involving signs or symbols. Sometimes they are everyday occurrences with enormous significance beyond the moment. They could be events that connect over the decades. Or an experience that manifests through increased sensitivity of some kind.

It was clearly time for me to look closely into this realm of reality and reflect on my personal experience of the mystical. For it is something that just about everyone experiences and encounters if we pay attention. Often, it’s an occurrence that yields rich rewards of transformation and growth. This is especially the case if we honour the experience, feel able to talk about it and share it more publicly with others.

Reading Mystical Interludes II

I was delighted to have the opportunity to read Mystical Interludes II by Emily Rodavich to enrich my sense of ordinary people’s stories of the mystical. The backstory of this book is fascinating. Emily Rodavich wrote her first Mystical Interludes: An Ordinary Person’s Extraordinary Experiences as a memoir. Covering a series of lifetime mystical interludes, Emily seeks to make sense of encounter after encounter. These experiences include a near-death experience at 18. With the door opening to this aspect of experience, it seemed to usher in other spiritual experiences.

Emily reflects on her mystical interludes with this life wisdom:

I’ve come to realize that those powerful experiences have been extraordinary gifts that should be shared rather than closeted. It’s my hunch that the world is full of ordinary people like myself who have been surprised by similar incidents. It’s time we come forward and share them with each other and the world around us.

Mystical Interludes

So to put her weight behind this, Emily issued an invitation at the end of her memoir. She invited people who experienced a mystical interlude to submit a description of it for a new book. Mystical Interludes II is a collection of stories that came forward from ordinary people from that invitation and in other ways.

mystical interludes

Emily speaking at a book talk

Ordinary people’s extraordinary stories

The quality that I love most about Emily’s Mystical Interludes II is that it is very much ordinary people telling extraordinary stories. You sense as you read that each author is continuing to make sense of what happened as they write. The overwhelming feeling is of everyone being right back in that moment even if it was many years ago. The details are sharp. It’s as if time stands still in the moment and everything is super-charged. The senses are activated in the story and in the telling.

Nancy Aloi in ‘Love from Beyond the Veil‘ describes a series of encounters defined by intense smells including tobacco and freshly baked bread. Smells that she connects with her late father, his spirit seemingly shepherds her through a difficult time.

Canela Michelle Meyers describes the expansive, light feeling of a Near Death Experience in her story, ‘Into the Blue’. The moments when Canela is ice-skating before she has a catastrophic fall are told in crystal clear detail. It’s as if the whole day and series of events are frozen in time.

Time after time, I marvelled at being in this house, in this hospital, in this room, on this street – in ordinary places with ordinary people having extraordinary things happen to them.

mystical interludes

Overwhelming openness to experience

Each author reflects on these extraordinary experiences as a gift. They provide insights and learning that open the heart. Even when the experience was difficult or hard to understand, it resulted in a spirit of being more open.

Beverley Golden shares an “almost unexplainable experience with a past-life regression” in her story, ‘Answers from Another Place and Time.’ She concludes:

One thing I do know is that the experience has kept me open and willing to receive answers to questions, wherever they come from.

These ordinary people share conclusions from all kinds of extraordinary experiences. Conclusions about loved ones always being with us, living past lives, life beyond death and the power of mystical signposts to bring people together over time and circumstance. Each story has the effect of opening up your own experience and insight in the telling.

As Emily says in the introduction:

Just as each of us is an original one-of-a-kind being, each story is a unique, authentic revelation. The common thread throughout these narratives is that they are real. That reality is evidenced by their influences on their writers’ lives.

Extraordinary encounters of ordinary people

The authors are a rich mix of people. They include retirees, authors, physicians, integrative health practitioners, neighbours, teachers, artists, intuitives, psychologists, musicians. Authors of Quiet Writing Wholehearted Stories are contributors to this volume including Penelope Love and Maura McCarley Torkildson. Most of the authors I don’t know and some authors choose to remain anonymous.

This broad range of contributing authors reinforces the message that many people experience mystical interludes. I reflected on my own mystical interludes whilst reading this book. When reading Nicole Gruel’s book, I had an encounter experience around rainbows, a recurring symbol in my life. It’s as if in the reading of such books, our awareness is raised. We review the mystical experiences in our lives. Or they start to occur!

Suzanne Giesemann echoes this in her Foreword:

I know from my own research that simply by reading other people’s other-worldly experiences, we are more likely to experience such events ourselves.

The gathering of books and connections coming together on this topic in my life might be my own Mystical Interludes story! A whole series of personal connections has intersected during this past month or so of reading about mystical interludes. Chance and random encounters between people connected around mystical experiences. New connections made like it’s a web that extends between us. It has been an extraordinary light-filled time.

mystical interludes

Connecting with Mystical Interludes

This is the real power and spirit of Mystical Interludes II and Emily’s collection of stories. The groundswell of interest in transcendent experiences is made richer by these detailed accounts of ordinary lives suddenly taking on another form.

We know from Emily’s gathering of these 39 stories, as well as Nicole Gruel’s research, that many people have such experiences but they may not talk about them. The stigma and the feeling of not being believed means many people have stayed quiet. Clearly, as these stories show, the immediacy and impact of these experiences does not fade with time. The retelling of them gives life and energy to the spirit of the experience.

I encourage you to read Mystical Interludes II to embolden yourself to think about such experiences in your life. And to share them with others. You might find yourself reflecting on your mystical experiences – past or present – as I have. If you have had a mystical interlude of your own, you might consider contributing your story to the forthcoming Mystical Interludes III.

mystical interludes

Emily sharing her experiences via a book talk

Leadership in telling stories

The leadership of Emily Rodavich in telling her story as a role model and inviting and supporting others to tell their stories is powerful. It would be easy for these ordinary people to shy away from telling their stories. But in Emily’s very wise and inspired hands, these stories are dusted off, shaped and gathered together into a volume that speaks volumes about the nature of mystical experiences.

Emily’s book opens with a wonderful quote from Anthony de Mello:

mystical interludes

Story-telling to shed light and share truth is what this book is all about. These are quiet stories, gently told, as they narrate momentous happenings. It is wonderful that more authors are choosing to write and share their mystical interludes story. It’s exciting too that Emily has stepped up to provide leadership to gather, honour and help voice the experiences of others.

I feel indebted to Emily and to all the authors for taking the time to share their stories in such detail, often from hidden or long ago places. I’m sure many readers will feel this same sense of respect and honour in witnessing these long-held stories of the heart and spirit. I encourage you to also witness these stories, their brave telling and what they might teach us about ourselves and our place in the world of spirit and the mystical.

Book Giveaway

I’m hosting a giveaway of Mystical Interludes II on Instagram and Facebook! Let’s celebrate ordinary people’s mystical interludes in the light of the Virgo Full Moon!

Working together with Emily Rodavich and Citrine Publishing, we have one printed copy of Mystical Interludes II to give away, sent to you anywhere in the world.

So make sure you are following me on Instagram and/or Facebook and follow the instructions to win this book in my posts on Tuesday 19 February AEDT. Good luck!

Thought pieces + footnotes

About Emily Rodavich

mystical interludes

Emily Rodavich, retired English teacher, mother of three and grandmother of four, had a near death experience at age eighteen. That extraordinary event opened the door to a lifetime of spiritual happenings. Unable to share those mystical experiences with most friends or family for fear they’d think her “strange,” she kept them to herself. In recent years, realizing the ways those various mystical happenings had shaped her concept of reality and her character, she wrote her memoir, Mystical Interludes: An Ordinary Person’s Extraordinary Experiences, which chronicles ten of her stunning interludes. Believing that everybody experiences mystical interludes to some degree, she invited readers to submit their stories for publication in this, her second book, Mystical Interludes II: A Collection of Extraordinary People’s Extraordinary Experiences.  

At the end of her speaking engagements Emily found that people wanted to hang out and talk about their experiences.  The result was the formation of the Mystical Interludes Discussion Group (MIDG) starting with eight members who met in her home for the first time in March 2017.  Today the group of fifty members rents space for their monthly meetings. Emily’s mission is to do her part to support our collective spiritual evolution by bringing personal mystical events out of shadow into the light. In so doing, she foresees a day when mystical interludes will be accepted as normal human events, rather than strange or weird occurrences.

Connect with Emily by visiting the Mystical Interludes website. To express your intention to write for the next edition, click on “Share Your Experience”.

Reading Mystical Interludes II

You can use the below Amazon affiliate links to access and read Mystical Interludes II if you choose with no additional cost to you.  I receive a small commission to help keep Quiet Writing efforts, book reviews and giveaways flourishing.

For Amazon.com.au:

Mystical Interludes II: Kindle

Mystical Interludes II: Paperback

For Amazon.com:

Mystical Interludes II: Kindle

Mystical Interludes II: Paperback

For Amazon UK:

Mystical Interludes II: Kindle

Mystical Interludes II: Paperback

Image 2, 5 & 7 provided by Emily Rodavich and used with permission and thanks.

Image 3 via Pexels.com and used with permission and thanks.

You might also enjoy:

Non-ordinary transcendent experiences: a review of ‘The Power of Notes’ by Nicole Gruel PhD

Intuition: how to understand and master it – a review of ‘The Inner Tree’ by Maura McCarley Torkildson

The journey to write here: my wholehearted story

When the inner voice calls, and calls again – my journey to wholehearted living

Tackling trauma and “not enough” with empathy and vision – a wholehearted story

Personality Stories

Keep in touch + read the books that shaped my story

You might also find inspiration in my free 94-page ebook on the ’36 Books that Shaped my Story’ – all about wholehearted self-leadership, reading as creative influence and books to inspire your own journey. Just pop your email address in the box below. 

You will receive the ebook straight away! Plus you’ll receive monthly Beach Notes with updates and inspiring resources from Quiet Writing. This includes writing, personality type, coaching, creativity, tarot, productivity and ways to express your unique voice in the world.

Quiet Writing is on Facebook and Instagram – keep in touch and interact with the growing Quiet Writing community. Look forward to connecting with you and inspiring your wholehearted story!

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Non-Ordinary Transcendent Experiences – a review of ‘The Power of NOTEs’ by Nicole Gruel, PhD

January 18, 2019

Want to learn more about Non-Ordinary Transcendent Experiences? ‘The Power of NOTEs’ will help you understand and work with them as a source for transformation. Read on!

NOTEs are an important aspect of the human experience that help point towards and awaken the desire, curiosity, and courage to explore more of what life could be.

from The Power of NOTEs by Nicole Gruel PhD

transcendent experiences

Nicole Gruel PhD

Have you ever experienced something that felt out of the ordinary, super-charged or transcendent, that changed your life in some key way?

Many of us have, yet it’s an area of human experience we tend not to talk about. Often this is because we don’t quite understand what happened. We keep quiet, often for years, as we try to make sense of it and what it meant. It’s frequently a solitary, and sometimes, painful journey. But more people are beginning to talk about these non-ordinary transcendent experiences however they manifest. They are emerging as sources of positive transformation and personal power if we pay attention, talk about them and work through them.

Dr Nicole Gruel’s new book, ‘The Power of NOTEs: How Non-Ordinary Transcendent Experiences Transform the Way We Live, Love and Lead‘ is an important, research-based contribution to the field of spiritual psychology and transformation.

After a near-death experience and the sudden loss of family members, Nicole found herself deep in the realm of non-ordinary transcendent experiences. In particular, she learnt their power for positive change.

Nicole has gone on to explore NOTEs deeply including via PhD studies. Her Doctoral Dissertation  focused on “AfterNOTEs: Non-Ordinary Transcendent Experiences and their Aftereffects Through Jung’s Topology”. This involved interviewing people who had experienced NOTES and working through the psychological dimensions of their response. This deep qualitative and quantitative research, combined with personal experience and NOTEs community connection, provides the rich source material that this excellent, practical book is woven around.

So what are NOTEs?

A non-ordinary transcendent experience is a rare and unfamiliar event that takes you beyond your regular understanding of yourself and the world.

from The Power of NOTES

An acronym created by transpersonal psychologist William Braud, ‘NOTE’ captures experiences at the intersection of “paranormal research, exceptional human experiences, and transpersonal psychology.” (p3). Well-known examples include near-death experiences and paranormal encounters, but the scope of NOTEs is much wider and more inclusive than this.

In the opening chapter, Nicole explains that she groups over 500 potential NOTEs into nine categories, such as Death-related experiences, Encounter experiences, and Mystical experiences. Nicole describes each category of NOTEs, helping the reader to connect with their own personal database of experiences.

transcendent experiences

What is the power of NOTEs?

The power of NOTEs is realising their potential for our growth and insight. Nicole explains the ability of NOTEs to take us out of ourselves and our habitual ways of being:

For many experiencers, tasting our core self is the greatest gift of a NOTE. (p7)

It is a type of disruption forcing our attention in new ways and often taking some time to integrate. This is often because societal and cultural contexts make it hard for us to talk about them. Nicole explores this with examples from the lives of experiencers. She shows too that NOTEs offer wisdom and insight that has implications beyond the individual.

Greater wisdom calls for us to access the insights of NOTEs as best we can, for these experiences provide a necessary lens into other ways of seeing and being in the world. (p9)

Research shows that when people share NOTEs, it has many benefits for individual wellbeing, such as reducing stress. Nicole has made it her mission to help people share and understand NOTEs as part of the human and collective experience.

The landscape of NOTEs

I had the pleasure of attending the online launch of Nicole’s book recently, where we had a virtual tour through the book. We also heard from leaders and writers in the NOTEs community. These experiences, alongside reading the book, have helped me better understand the landscape of NOTEs.

The book explores NOTEs from all perspectives including the dark and light sides of being an experiencer and from the viewpoint of neuroscience. Nicole scopes neuroscience perspectives and evidence that shows we are hard-wired to experience NOTEs.

A fellow personality type practitioner, Nicole also looks through the personality lens at the gifts of NOTEs:

NOTEs are powerful because they put us on the fast track toward a fuller expression of who we most naturally and uniquely are.

Research shows that the specific content of a near-death experience, its impact and significance is influenced by people’s personal psychology.

Connecting NOTEs experiences with Jung’s eight psychological types, Nicole explores eight gifts or transcendent dimensions of personality using James Graham Johnston’s model of the Gift’s Compass™. For example, Introverted Thinking (Ti) connects with The Conceptual Gift.

Using this lens of personality, Nicole explains that:

Experiencer stories show that the more the natural or true self is made available through NOTEs, the more a person’s dominant personality preferences take on transcendent aspects. (p40)

This ground-breaking perspective, informed by conversations with NOTEs experiencers, helps provide psychological insights into these transcendent events.

transcendent experiences

Working and transforming with NOTEs

The second half of the book explores NOTEs as clues to our natural flow states; ways to work with NOTEs during and beyond experiences; and how NOTEs can be a transformative power in how we live, love and lead.

Each chapter provides practical tips and practices for working with NOTEs as a transformative power source. Nicole shows how we can create a NOTEs biography and Well-being Wheel, with these tools based on recent, pioneering research and experiences of people actively working on integrating NOTEs into life stories. The self-leadership framework highlights the importance of validating and appropriately sharing NOTEs.

Ultimately, no one is a better coach and guide for you than you. (p62)

The power of love and legacy are keys to the self-leadership experience of working with NOTEs in a personally transformative way.

The experience of reading The Power of NOTEs

I encourage you to read The Power of NOTEs. It is beautifully and clearly written, full of lived and researched wisdom. As Katie Mottram puts it so well in her foreword:

This is not just a book; Nicole has gifted you an experience.

I couldn’t agree more. As if to highlight this, I had a transcendent experience during my reading of the book.

I realised my experiences of NOTEs are mostly in the Encounter experiences category: a kind of synchronicity related to “something wondrous or awesome, like a spectacular view or moving music...” Many years ago, I had a series of astounding synchronistic events with rainbows at a peak time of change and transformation. They had a profound effect on me as rainbow after rainbow connected in an ongoing narrative.

I started Nicole’s book in the early morning hours of a sleepless night two days away from Christmas, the first anniversary of my mother’s death. A few hours later, still restless, I got up early and headed out to the deck. There the most stunning rainbow greeted me in the sky. Rainbows are something I connect with my mother and also my father. I chose songs and poems with the symbolism of rainbows for both their funerals as a way of continuing to connect with them.

My experience of reading the book, reflecting on my own NOTEs symbolism, seemed to open up this connection. It would have been so easy to miss this rainbow.

transcendent experiences

Connecting with the power of NOTEs

Reading this book will help you connect with the power of NOTEs in your life. As the ‘Praise’ upfront in the book, the Foreword and the online book launch all show, there is a groundswell of research, interest and support in the area of non-ordinary transcendent experiences.

Organisations such as the International Spiritual Emergence Network (ISEN), American Center for the Integration of Spiritually Transformative Experiences (ACISTE), the International Association for Near Death Studies (IANDS) and the Near Death Experience Research Foundation (NDERF) provide a touchpoint for experiences and research around them. You can find further links and information here.

More authors are stepping up to write their stories and gather, honour and structure the experiences of others as Nicole has done. You might like to read my book review of Mystical Interludes II – a Collection of Ordinary People’s Mystical Experiences, collected and edited by Emily Rodavich. The Power of NOTES and Mystical Interludes II came to me in a synchronistic way, at the same time from unique connections but covering similar terrain.

Read Nicole Gruel’s book to recognise, honour and structure such experiences in your life and also in the lives of those you love. If you have had a NOTE, this book can help others share in and understand your experience. Likewise, if you think someone you know may have experienced a NOTE, this book is a useful way to open the conversation or quietly support them. For counsellors, coaches and other professional people, this is an important resource to open up thoughts about spiritually transformative experiences in practice.

And as I finish writing, I hear the sounds of the children next door playing under the water sprinkler in the Sydney midsummer heat. One excitedly shouts: “There’s a rainbow!”

transcendent experiences

Thought pieces + footnotes

Dr Nicole Gruel is an author, speaker and transformational coach. Descendant from a long line of samurai, she has spent over two decades exploring human potential. You can connect with her at DrNicoleGruel.com.

The Power of NOTES was provided as a review copy by the author in return for a fair review. I am grateful to Dr Nicole Gruel for sharing this book with me.

To purchase, you can use the below link.

For Amazon.com.au:

The Power of NOTEs: Non-Ordinary Transcendent Experiences Transforming the Way We Live, Love, and Lead

Image 1 (feature image), 2 & 5 provided by Nicole Gruel and used with permission and thanks.

You might also enjoy:

Intuition: how to understand and master it – a review of ‘The Inner Tree’ by Maura McCarley Torkildson

“You are the authority on you”: a review of Danielle LaPorte’s White Hot Truth

Being ‘Fierce on the Page’ – a book review

Being a vessel – or working with introverted intuition

36 Books that Shaped my Story – Reading as Creative Influence

When the inner voice calls, and calls again – my journey to wholehearted livings

How to read for more creativity, productivity and pleasure

Keep in touch 

Quiet Writing is on Facebook and Instagram – keep in touch and interact with the growing Quiet Writing community. Look forward to connecting with you and inspiring your wholehearted story!

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Transforming into the new – Capricorn Full Moon tarot reading

July 10, 2017

“We surrender our old snakeskin, old forms and institutions and await our transformation and expansion into the ‘new’.”

Pat Liles, from The Power Path

  transforming

The Capricorn Full Moon invites a practical transforming of our lives. This tarot reading reflects on how we can enact and be comfortable with this change.

Here are some thoughts on this Full Moon in Capricorn from Mystic Mamma to set the scene for the energies available to us:

FULL MOON* coming into bloom in Capricorn brings core issues to the forefront of our consciousness. This is a time to strengthen personal boundaries and time to honor our feelings as we carefully navigate the delicate shores of our relationships.

This Full Moon has powerful energies for valuable insights about transforming ourselves. It’s time to tap into our personal story to find the way forward.

Chad Woodward says:

Distance and solitude may be your best tactic in dealing with these energies. In fact, this is a good time to step away from any developing, external drama to assess your own life position to gain insight into the changes that need to be made at this time..”

It’s a big picture shift. There’s an emphasis on understanding our story and the threads that connect it at a deep level. This Capricorn New Moon provides an opportunity to set intentions around creative and life practices that will help us break through, especially self-discipline.

It’s a time to ground ourselves through supports such as community.  This practical restructuring is an opportunity to move into new ways of being and feeling less hamstrung. In this way, we can be more comfortable and authentic in new levels of work, service and creativity. It signals the opportunity to shed what no longer serves us in a dramatic way.

Full Moon in Capricorn tarot reading tools:

For my reading for the Capricorn Full Moon, I worked with:

This FULL Moon tarot spread by Sam Roberts aka @escapingstars on Instagram:

And I worked with the Sakki Sakki Tarot deck by Monicka Clio Sakki which is my favourite tarot deck especially for questions around creativity.

Tarot reading: 

So here’s the reading:

Capricorn Full Moon

There was definitely a big smile of recognition as the Three of Coins (Pentacles) arrived first up in the “Where are you in life right now?” position. I had already pulled this card earlier the same day as part of my daily Tarot Narrative reading and linked it with creative solitude. And it’s the card that featured in my launch of Quiet Writing Coaching as the beautiful Three of Air. Remember the butterfly glasses? It was linked to building a solid foundation and co-creation. ‘The architecture of my dreams is becoming tangible, taking shape before me’ as The Good Tarot puts it.

STRENGTH has also popped up a lot lately, three times in a row the week before. So strength, and how we recognise it in our lives, jumps out as a key theme.

Then there are the big cards of DEATH and THE WORLD – some huge transformational energies and directions there! The NINE of COINS and KNIGHT of CUPS also provide clues around realising dreams and recognising gains already made. They provide guidance about being comfortable and pragmatic with these next steps of change.

Tarot reading – card by card:

So here are some deeper thoughts, card by card, in relation to the questions. I worked intuitively with some key supporting words from the Mystic Mamma post, the Sakki Sakki tarot guidebook Playing with Symbols, Jessa Crispin’s fabulous book The Creative Tarot and Rachel Pollack’s Tarot Wisdom.

1 Where are you in life right now? THREE OF COINS (PENTACLES)

This signals a level of reaching a special place whilst still building the foundations and working out the creative architecture. I have written about this card in my Tarot Narrative series as like building a cathedral, an image drawn from both Jessa Crispin’s commentary in Creative Tarot and Sage Cohen’s book, Fierce on the Page.

There’s a sense of laying the foundations, connecting the critical pieces and combining the essential ingredients to do our big work in the world. It’s about restructuring our practices and priorities to achieve what we want. We’re investing time and solitude to work out the collaborators, the values and the skills. As Rachel Pollack reinforces in Tarot Wisdom:

Thus, practical knowledge and spiritual awareness help to produce work of the highest level.

So, this card reminds me that I’m in a good place and working on my deep work in the world.

2 How do you project yourself to the world? What is the truth of your relationships in your life? STRENGTH

My sense of this card is around realising our own brand of strength. Strength flows from so many places: our inner resources, our family, our friends, our community, our online connections, the kindred souls we connect with each day, our ancestors, our guides, our mentors, our teachers. All of these resources combine to help us forge our way. We can focus on the lack of strength we occasionally feel, but we can also draw on these immense resources and feel strong for the transformation journey.

Part of this is realising and embracing our vulnerabilities as well. They make us authentic and strong in our own way – our learnings, our challenges and our resilience.

As Monicka Clio Sakki reminds us for the Strength card:

Inside our soft spots, where we hold our greatest weaknesses, confusions and fears, we can find hints of how to transform ourselves and manifest our ideals.

So being strong involves being grateful for and marshalling significant support and resources. It also involves embracing vulnerabilities as a source of growth, communication and authenticity.

3 What is blocking your desires and goals? KNIGHT of CUPS

The Knight of Cups arrives with his gorgeous romantic nature to remind me to be grounded and to balance self and service. It’s so easy to get wrapped up in our own work. It’s important to remember the gift of practical service and translating things into the real world. I need to make sure I am connected.

An excellent article, Bridging the online business and humanitarian worlds from life coach and human rights activist, Naomi Arnold, popped into my Twitter feed today to say exactly this:

I hope we can stand firm in our integrity and always be mindful of how we are balancing serving ourselves and others.

And Jessa Crispin reminds us:

Whatever the inspiration or connection the Knight of Cups carries, if he or she cannot translate that into something that can exist in the real world, it loses its power.

4 What do you need to do to overcome these obstacles?   NINE of COINS

The Nine of Coins suggests the need to realise gains, celebrate and recognise the riches. It’s important to operate from an environment of abundance not lack and to know our worth.

Ironically perhaps, one of the best ways to overcome the obstacles of being focused on the self is to realise the successes and what comes with that. Having reached a certain point of comfort with strengths realised and foundations built, there’s pride and also a responsibility. And with this comes a sense of moving on with the work and not concentrating on the paths to get there so much.

We can stop the machinations and get on with practical and genuine service, stepping into our power and sharing it. It’s about knowing our true worth in every sense and tapping into that to be of service through our creativity and insights. It’s a higher level view we can now shift to.

sunset

5 What can you do within yourself in order to help achieve these desires? DEATH

Finally committing to transforming means looking at what no longer serves to supports this higher purpose. Whether it be old habits, contexts, institutions, self-images or patterns, this is the opportunity to shift up a gear and beyond what might hold us back. If we are moving on, we are moving on. It’s time to get real with that and throw overboard any heavy weights keeping us slowed down.

As Jessa Crispin puts it so beautifully:

Death allows us to bid farewell to the way we were working or living before, and that change can have great inspirational impact on us.

6 What can you learn from the outside world/others to help you manifest your goals/desires? KING of SWORDS

In line with that grounding of being in service and community, it’s important to be disciplined and focused in meeting the needs of others. I need my ideas to coalesce with others, forming a connection in creativity.

There’s so much strength in community and support of all kinds as the STRENGTH card showed. It’s seeing how we can work together to achieve mutual goals. This also might mean opening up our work and platform to others.

This is exactly what I started doing last week with offering an opportunity for guest blogging on Quiet Writing via my Creative and Connected post. It’s the first time I have opened up my blog and platform in this way. I have been so excited to make the offer and for the heartfelt responses that have come forward. This shows me that our work is about collaboration in so many ways and our collective voices can strengthen each other.

The whole philosophy of being creative and connected has become a driving force for Quiet Writing. I am so looking forward to this being an ongoing, bigger and transforming part of its focus and service. I hope you’ll be a part of it!

7 The projected outcome? The WORLD

A lot of the messages I’ve received lately via tarot and oracle intuitive tools have been about the end of one cycle and the beginning of another. This card shows a culmination step, a pause in gathering and reflecting, but also one of mastery and self-actualisation. It’s really happening! It’s time to shine!

As Monicka Clio Sakki tells us:

The World represents the last step of the journey – the completion of a full cycle. We have traveled along our worldly path with discipline and devotion, joyously gathering the lessons and gifts given to us. We are now ready to dance our own Dance of Life, understanding that true freedom is commitment to a cause or goal. It is time to be whoever we wish to become.

That balance between self and service arises here again to remind us that we go through cycles of personal growth. We withdraw and skill up, working on our intuition, creativity or other talents. Then comes a time to see how this links with practical service and being of value to others. The learnings from our journey with all its vulnerabilities can be shared to help others likewise shine, share and transform. It becomes a kind of collective transformation that gathers strength from its community and moves in new directions, taking an organic life of its own.

Ways to step into the new

So are your thoughts also around transforming and stepping into the new: comfortably, practically and with a balance between self and service?

Here are some practical questions prompted by the Capricorn Full Moon and reflections on my reading.They are around realising our own brand of strength, our progress and steps into the new. They also focus on being comfortable with this so we can move on and foster increased community and value.

Journal, reflect or brainstorm around these questions to help maximise your personal change management at this time:

  • Where have you been working to build strong foundations in your work and growth?
  • What have you achieved?: What skills or products have you developed? Which courses have you finished? Which goals have you reached?
  • How have you celebrated or marked your achievements?
  • Where are you potentially focusing on self too much or at the expense of service?
  • When are you being a little too self-indulgent and it’s maybe not helping?
  • Where can you extend any significant change and learning processes to others?
  • What vulnerabilities might you share to help others on their journey and how might you do that?
  • What are the sources of your strength – people, skills, guides, spiritual support – and how can you strengthen these strengths?
  • Where can you connect up with others in service? How can you share your platform or skills to support and foster the growth of others?
  • Where can you choose to feel more comfortable with what you have achieved?
  • What creative practices can you put in place to lead a more self-disciplined life?
  • Which negative self-images or associations can you now let go of as you move on?
  • What can you build? What’s the blueprint for your big plan?
  • What does this new world look like for you and others?

Wisdom from The World

And here is some final wisdom from The World via the Art of Life Tarot:

transformation

May you build your new world on strong foundations with the help of those who can support and strengthen you. And through that, may you be of service to others and have a fun and productive learning experience!

Butterfly feature image from pexels.com and used with permission and thanks.

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