October 2012 - Creating Space for Creativity

A time for evaluating and creativity.

You could be evaluating almost everything this month: Finances, work, environment, relationships, career, projects, health, practices, routines, home, your physical environment, your reactions to things, your beliefs, your spiritual life etc. The big question will be, “How important is it in your life, and does it serve you?” If not, there are adjustments to be made.

In order to evaluate anything you need to have the space and time to do it. There is a breather this month as the very yang action influence backs off a bit and allows us more clarity about what we have been doing and what we have involved ourselves in. If adjustments are in order don’t be afraid to make them. This is about putting yourself first and trusting that the right decisions will lead to the creativity needed to implement them.

One of the challenges will be to face the truth in your evaluation of something that may be a hard truth to see. If you allow yourself to be deeply disappointed, you will be. A great deal of neutrality this month will serve you better around facing some of these difficult but necessary truths. Remember that no matter how hard these adjustments are to make, they will bring great rewards of creativity and expansion.

How do you evaluate something in your life?

The first clue is that it does not feel right. It does not serve you. It gives you no satisfaction and it is an energy leak. When you put energy out, something has to come back. If it doesn’t, there is something wrong with the picture. If you feel drained instead of just simply tired after a day’s activities, you were not nurtured and fed by your experiences. Always ask yourself, “What am I getting out of this?“

True service towards others always feels good. Service offered out of ego, ingratiation, fear of rejection, Self-deprecation or Martyrdom is doomed from the beginning and will not end well. Learn to be discerning and to differentiate between right service and ego driven involvement.

The other big energy leak is getting overinvolved in other people’s drama. Evaluate this with neutrality and practical truth. Remove yourself from this unhealthy waste of time no matter how deliciously it may beckon you.

How do you make adjustments?

These will be different depending on each individual circumstance. The key is to adjust gradually by weaning yourself away from activities, relationships, practices and habits that do not serve you. Once in awhile it is appropriate to change something completely and dramatically but often it is too much for the ego to handle all at once.

Think it through. There is enough intellectually centered support to bring clarity and mental problem solving into the picture this month. Beware of impulsive decisions and give everything just a bit more time to sort itself out before making an adjustment. If there is no clarity, wait until there is before moving ahead.

You may run into something that needs to be adjusted that seems overwhelming to you. Start with the baby steps and do at least something towards a greater adjustment that may take a much longer time to accomplish. This would be the case in a huge change such as changing careers or making a big move or ending a long-term partnership. Sometimes just the decision to finally make this adjustment in your life is enough as long as you are committed to it.

So how does creativity fit into this picture?

We are still under the influence of the Artisan with Creativity as a major theme for the year. What blocks creativity is the encumbrance of all those things and activities that don’t serve you. Once you have cleared the decks and made space for something new, creating is the next natural step. In fact once you feel unencumbered, you may begin to feel more creative. Use your creativity as the inspiration and fuel for what you want to manifest.

The opportunities are for getting yourself realigned, for seeing great results in your creative endeavors and for manifesting more balance and well being for yourself. In other words, you could end this month feeling really great.

The challenges as usual will come from fear, resistance and confusion. As we mentioned last month, action always cures fear. Decisiveness around taking action towards adjustments will keep things flowing and not taking everything personally will keep you neutral.

How the month shows up:

YOU PERSONALLY

This is a great opportunity to make profound changes and adjustments in your personal life that will serve you better. You have support for ending this time frame feeling better and in a better situation than you have ever experienced before…

The above is an excerpt from the monthly forecast.

The author of this commentary, Lena Stevens, is the co-founder of an international school and consulting firm dedicated to the study and application of shamanism and wisdom.  Lena Stevens has co-authored books with Jose Stevens, Ph.D., such as Secrets of Shamanism:Tapping the Spirit Power Within You.

Click here to access the full forecast on their website to  learn more wisdom, specific power days of the month and to learn more about creating space for creativity.

December 2011 – Get Ready for Acceleration and Be Prepared to Relieve Stress

The monthly forecasts not only empower you with wisdom, they can help you relieve stress and feel more optimistic.

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In order to shift into the next gear, there needs to be acceleration and an increase of speed. With the increase of speed, and just before you shift, the lower gear is overworked and can no longer maintain the acceleration and the speed without effort and being hard on the engine. As you shift into a higher gear, you are able to maintain a greater speed with less effort.

This month you are very much like a vehicle that needs to speed up in order to keep up with the flow of traffic. But as you accelerate in your lower gear, at some point you will need to shift into a higher gear, the next level of consciousness or the next frequency. Shifting into a higher gear means accepting the accelerated times as standard and allowing the current level of activity to feel normal, effortless, familiar and balanced.

We have an opportunity to work with “time” this month, to shift and reinvent how we perceive it. We have an opportunity to move beyond our old concepts of time and the limitations that those old beliefs and concepts have imprinted us with. Don’t be surprised if this month you have some kind of experience where you feel you are in a time warp, or you experience a feeling of de ja vu. One minute you feel as if there is no time at all to accomplish what you need to do, and the next minute you feel as if there is all the time in the world. Some days will go by slowly, like molasses, and other days will speed by so quickly you will not know where the day went. Things you did yesterday will seem like you experienced them a whole year ago, and things you are doing today may feel like you have been doing them your whole life.

Everything is accelerated. Events that come together, situations falling apart, new projects that get started, decisions that get made and changes that occur. What if you woke up and your hair was 2 inches longer overnight? What if you lost or gained 10 pounds overnight? What if were able to learn or grasp something new in a fraction of the time you would have expected? What if something that used to take 2 months only took 1 day? Creativity and destruction both are accelerated at this time. A healing process can be accelerated as well as disease and death. And we also have the opportunity to begin to use a greater percentage of our brain as the quantum field opens its mysteries up to us and we wake up our DNA.

Remember that our belief systems and our perceptions create our reality therefore the reality that has been our taskmaster of “time” is going through a change. We are directing this change. Time is stretching, accelerating, slowing down, becoming elastic, and moving towards being a multi dimensional experience instead of a linear one. The key in changing how we create time is in letting go of the mind’s need to control, to know, to track, and to organize. In the acceleration of the month, the mind in fact will not have an option. It will have to simply give up its need to track, organize, categorize, and understand. It cannot keep up.

Think of yourself sitting in a train and watching the environment out the window as you speed by. It is impossible to freeze a view or get anything more than a sense of what you are seeing. However it is an accepted belief that the brain actually records everything even when the mind cannot process it in a linear way. So we are in fact moving from a linear way of operating and understanding to a non-linear or multi-dimensional experience. This will take some time to get used to. In the meantime you can do your part through acceptance, non-judgment, compassion for others and setting your own good boundaries.

“Boundaries” is a theme carried over from last month. When you find too much on your plate, only you can decide what is a priority, what is important, what you can delegate, what you can say “no” to, and how you can bring balance into the acceleration. It is most important to set boundaries around habitual expectations of others that no longer serve you or that are no longer appropriate for you to deliver. There will always be someone who is not happy with your boundaries. Allow them to be unhappy and set your boundaries anyway. Beware of becoming frustrated, argumentative, feeling out of control, anxious and unsettled. The only thing you can control is yourself. So this is a time where you can practice taking control of your life, setting your own boundaries, becoming responsible for yourself in ways you have not been before, and treating everything around you with acceptance and neutrality.

When you don’t resist the acceleration and you flow with the movement it feels productive, inspiring, ecstatic, effortless, exhilarating and evolved. When you resist, it can feel off center, sluggish, out of tune, and like the energy is moving in fits and starts. The high-octane fuel you need at this time is your own trust in your intuition and your willingness to leave the controls of the mind behind. Once you taste the exhilaration of being in sync with the acceleration, be careful not to move into impatience when you see others struggling around you. Remember to be compassionate and neutral.

Many will be challenged this month. (Some of you may need to do more practices to relieve stress). When things spin out of control, there are many responses and reactions. Fear, hysteria, denial, withdrawl, confusion, impatience with others, martyrdom and blame, stubbornness (the “I won’t” syndrome) and a general sense of being on the edge of going off the deep end. You will witness people behaving unlike themselves and having meltdowns as they look at where their agreements are, feeling overwhelmed with what they think they need to accomplish, and struggling with their own belief that things are moving too fast. (suggested helpful audio: How to Deal with Stress and Melt Downs, link here to order).

Too fast for what? If you catch yourself saying “things are moving too fast”, change the affirmation to “things are moving at a perfect pace and I love it“. If you find yourself saying, “I have too much on my plate, too much to do and I can’t do it”, change the affirmation to “I have the perfect amount to do, plenty of time and energy with which to do it, and what I do is exactly what I need and want to be doing”. Use the visual image of shifting into a higher gear to take the stress off the transmission and the effort out of the movement. Take a deep breath and relax.

Your intentions and affirmations this month especially during the first ten days carry a lot of power as we begin the month in the window of two eclipses. So be sure to focus some time on what you want and don’t be afraid to dream big. Anything is possible during this accelerated time and things can happen more quickly than you could ever have imagined.

Click here to access the full monthly commentary packed with tips to help you strengthen your relationships, health, relieve stress and more. Print out the full forecast and reference it throughout the month. (The above is an excerpt from the commentary.

The author of the monthly forecast, Lena Stevens, is an author and co-founder of an international school and consulting firm dedicated to the study and application of shamanism and wisdom. Lena Stevens has co-authored books with Jose Stevens, Ph.D., such as Secrets of Shamanism: Tapping the Spirit Power Within You and The Power Path: The Shaman’s Way To Success in Business and Life.

P.S. If you feel stress during the month and want to relieve stress, one thing you can do is reread this forecast and reflect on messages that you think are important for you.

May 2011–Influences To Take Advantage Of and To Beware Of

This month begins a much larger cycle of bringing all the disconnected parts back into communication with each other. In the name of individuality and based on the model of competition, the right hand has not known what the left hand is doing for a long, long time. The masculine has been disconnected from the feminine, our personalities have been disconnected from our essences, the mind has been disconnected from the heart, systems of the physical body have been disconnected from each other, and we have been living in an uncooperative, separate, lonely, dysfunctional world. There is no communication, everything is secret, and we guard our ideas, hearts, generosity, emotions and energy, measuring them out in small amounts and then only for the highest price. We are just as stingy with receiving as we are with giving, guarding ourselves against the danger of exploitation and the fear of annihilation. What a sorry state we have found ourselves to be in at this juncture of our evolution.

With all that said, we now have a great opportunity to change this pattern around from one of separation to one of cooperation and community. The theme of getting two sides of the same edge to communicate and work together is a huge one. This is just the beginning of a process that will probably take years but is necessary and inevitable as the next step in our evolution on the planet as a species. When was the last time your heart spoke to your little toe or your liver spoke to your pancreas? When was the last time you spoke to your food with gratitude for where it came from? When was the last time you asked for help?

We have been fed an illusion that power comes from being able to stand alone and to not rely on anything or anyone else. To some extent it is true that being self -sufficient is preferable to being overly needy, however this applies more to how you run your energy rather than to what you accomplish in the world. It is a known fact that when you have help and support you can accomplish a great deal more than if you don’t. What would it be like to have all your body parts cooperating with you in accomplishing a physically challenging endeavor? What would it be like to have help and support come easily, naturally and without conditions? And what would it be like to be confident that your intentions will always manifest because you trust 100% that it will be so? It is time to change our approach to life from one of effort and mistrust to one of believing in the cooperation of the universe.

There is a focused energy to the month that will work well with the aggression mode of the year when used in conjunction with your clear intentions. Intentions should be set very specifically and with plenty of flexibility for cooperation and support. Intentions should always be set around how you want to end up feeling and how satisfied you wish to be in your life. So when you are setting an intention for prosperity, instead of a dollar amount, set your goal to be what you intend to feel and what you imagine that amount will give you in terms of satisfaction. That way you give the universe more options for cooperating with you on manifesting your intention. Likewise if you are looking for a relationship, be specific on how you wish to feel in that relationship instead of what you think it ought to look like. The points of reference for the achievement of goals and manifesting are outdated and we are just now in the process of creating new ones. We have not yet experienced what it would be like to live life from a fully supportive and cooperative place where there was never any concern that an intention would not manifest. These are uncharted waters and a very exciting time on the planet where anything is possible provided we keep eliminating our attachment to old ways.

One of the aspects of this month is focus. Focus is important if you want to harness the engine that will drive your intention into being manifest. There can be no distractions and you have to be clear about what you intend. This is not a time to sit around and wait for something to happen. This is not a time to become frozen with fear like a deer in headlights. This is a time to move, to act, to intend, to ask, to pray, to get support and to be cooperative. Cooperation is a two way street. You must be cooperative yourself if you want to have cooperation. Part of this process is simply coming into an awareness of all things being connected. Set the intention to do your part and everything else will fall into place. Consider yourself and all that you have around you that supports you in life. Think of that support system as being a connected community of parts and pieces that need to work together to synthesize your life. From your car to your house to your clothes to your plumbing to the food you eat to your body functions to your friends, work, nature, time, your bank, grocery store etc.; they are all connected and form a cooperative community of sorts that supports your life.

Many of you have the illusion of being separate, alone, disconnected and unsupported and yet you are not. If you begin to focus on how everything is connected then you will begin to experience a greater sense of support, belonging and harmony. You will begin to streamline your intentions and trust the universe to deliver. Your life will become richer and you will feel more active and participatory rather than passive and victimized. So be aggressive about what you want but be a cooperative participant in the setting and manifesting of your intentions. One of the biggest lessons of these times is to learn to communicate and learn to trust. The fear of disillusionment and disappointment has kept most of us from communicating our deepest wishes. We don’t want to be seen as arrogant, foolish and unrealistic so we have kept ourselves small and secret. It is time for that practice to be done with and time to turn our sights towards a more intimate, trusting and cooperative pattern where so much more is possible. Instead of asking why, we should be asking why not.

Whenever you are working with a theme, the opposite of the theme shows up to illuminate the lessons. So in the case of cooperation what you may experience first is the uncooperative aspect of your life. You may be shown where you are disconnected and where there is effort. You may experience life as being very uncooperative. Should this happen, acknowledge the reminder and get to work changing your attitude. We have a tremendous opportunity right now to connect up the dots, to heal the rift between opposing forces and to get ourselves back on track. When you think of cooperation think of connecting right and left, behind and in front, up and down, inner and outer, the heart and the mind, masculine and feminine, giving and receiving, the body and spirit, all with the intention of getting them to communicate and cooperate.

Click here to access the full monthly commentary packed with tips to help you strengthen your relationships, health, finances and more. Print out the full forecast and reference it throughout the month. (The above is an excerpt from the commentary).

The author of the monthly forecast, Lena Stevens, is an author and co-founder of an international school and consulting firm dedicated to the study and application of shamanism and wisdom. Lena Stevens has co-authored books with Jose Stevens, Ph.D., such as Secrets of Shamanism:Tapping the Spirit Power Within You and The Power Path: The Shaman’s Way To Success in Business and Life.

For a more complete discussion on the themes and influences for 2011 link here to order a download of TRENDS 2011 (link here).

February 2011–A Powerful Time To Manifest Using Unbending Intention

The main theme for February is Commitment.

It is time to get off the fence and really commit to your intentions and goals without the need to know how you will accomplish them. There has been a tendency to get bogged down in the need to know and the process of trying to understand whatever present situation you are in. The mind has entertained itself long enough with the creation of stories to try and get a handle on this understanding. All this processing and storytelling has thrown conditions into the mix and kept true commitment at bay. “I will commit to this if…..”

This is the month where the “ifs” or conditions around your intentions need to be put aside and relegated to a position of less importance. You know on an intuitive level what you truly want and it is only the fear of not getting it that keeps you hesitant to commit. It is the mind that comes up with the reasons that feed the fear and keep you imprisoned in your story. Are you willing to give up your story? Who would you be without your story? This is not an easy opportunity to deal with. It demands trust, courage and intuition. Use the aggression mode of the year wisely to cut through the bullshit of the mind and begin manifesting that which you have fully committed to. Remember that we are also in an emotionally centered time and headed for experiences that don’t necessarily make linear or logical sense.

For more details about the trends for 2011 (link here).

Belief systems are probably the most challenged this month as they create the foundation of our stories. Belief systems are anchored in the past and will continue to affect our future unless they are disconnected. They are instruments of the mind and only geared towards survival. They will continue to feed you false information until you examine them and give another instruction. This is a great time to examine your beliefs and see how absolutely divorced many of them are from what is really going on in the present. It is important to stay out of judgment as you realize how outdated your beliefs are and the enormity of what needs to change.

Everyone has specific beliefs about what will make them happy, healthy, loved, successful, well, tired, sick, sad, strong, stressed, depressed, anxious, relaxed, good, bad, responsible, irresponsible, forgiven, spiritual, productive, unproductive etc.. Take some time to examine each of these categories and ask yourself what your personal and specific belief systems are regarding each one. Sometimes it is easier to write in a stream of consciousness exercise unless you are able to do this with a partner where you simply express the stream of consciousness regarding each belief. This is not about judging anything to be either right or wrong. This is about uncovering what’s there so you can see what has been running the show. Emptying the mind in this way is very powerful and you will get to see where your fears are hidden. Belief systems are very limiting in that they constantly create the reasoning behind why you can or cannot do or be something or someone. There are many examples in history of people who have accomplished extraordinary things because they did not buy into the belief that they could not.

We have talked before about the power of the collective belief system that guides the evolution of all living things on the planet. In order to change the collective belief system, each individual must first change their own. It is the hundredth monkey effect that dictates that when enough individual belief systems have evolved to a less limited function, the whole collective will be free to evolve as well. So all of you out there that wish to be of service to the planet at this time can do so by working on your own belief systems.
Along with beliefs come expectations. Expectations are different from committed intentions as they are usually attached to a specific outcome. They are fed by your beliefs and their success or failure becomes part of your story. A true “don’t know mind” leaves a lot of room for your intentions to manifest in interesting and wonderful ways. When you commit to something one hundred percent, without the need to know how you will get there, the universe will begin to weave it creatively into the physical world.

All information about everything already exists in the quantum field and that information will respond to the instruction it gets that comes from unwavering commitment. The minute you try and control how something is going to happen you diminish the power behind the intention that is necessary for the quantum field to respond. And if you commit with conditions (I will do it “if”) the quantum field is a bit confused as to what you really want and will end up creating chaos from mixed messages. Sometimes you have to make a choice. Here is a good example of that. If you are involved in legal negotiations for damages for health reasons (accident, environmental pollution etc.), there is an attachment to your continuing to be in poor health as part of the argument. All the energy you are putting into the legal process is reinforcing the fact that your health and well-being are compromised. The quantum field takes that as an instruction from your belief system. You need to continue to be compromised in order to receive compensation. Therefore the other intention of actually getting well is clouded by the need to remain ill.

Regardless of the other players involved, you may have to examine your original motivation and intention and commitment. If your primary intention is to end up completely well then that is what you intend even if it comes to you in a different way than winning a legal battle over compensation. Beware of giving the field mixed messages. Committed intentions that are not compromised are indeed powerful and have the ability to become manifest almost overnight. If your intentions are compromised or clouded with doubt, mixed messages or conditions it will be much more difficult to see results.

We can’t stress enough the power of these times and what they afford to everyone in terms of opportunity if you can commit, stay in present time and get out of your mental trap that needs to know and control the how of things. You don’t need to know how, you just need to know what. In fact there is very little information available with regards to “how” these days. And what is available is outdated and doesn’t work. So be a pioneer of your own life and decide what you want. Then commit to it one hundred percent without the need to know how you will get there. The early explorers did not have a map. They followed their intuition and they followed signs. They paid attention and stayed present. Signs are different than conditions. You can always ask for signs to guide you so you know you are on the right track. Signs appear as support and provide synchronicity and magic. Conditions are what you place on your intentions that keep them from being fully committed.

Let’s talk about the aggression mode of the year as it relates to and will be filtered through the obstacles. This is something many of you will have to deal with perhaps on a daily basis and it may not be pretty. It will be important to stay out of judgment and to practice compassion and neutrality instead of reacting. All the obstacles will become more aggressive. For example someone who has martyrdom can become aggressively blaming and complaining and demanding; those in stubbornness, aggressively obstinate, argumentative and defensive; those in impatience, aggressively intolerant, dismissive and inconsiderate; those in self-destruction, aggressively destructive and self-destructive and belligerent; those in greed, aggressively hungry, hoarding and ungrateful; those in arrogance, aggressively going for attention and trying to make themselves special; and last but not least those in self- deprecation aggressively withdrawing, giving up, rejecting support and acknowledgement. Remember that self-deprecation is also one of the obstacles of the year and will be manifest by everyone in varying degrees. All the obstacles are nasty, do not serve spirit and will derail your good intentions and commitments faster than anything. So beware, try not to react to others and watch your own tendencies.

The author of the monthly forecast, Lena Stevens, is an author and co-founder of an international school and consulting firm dedicated to the study and application of shamanism and wisdom.

Click here to access the full monthly commentary filled with wisdom tips and practices, which you can print and reference throughout the month. 

(The above is an excerpt from the commentary).

Welcoming January 2011!

In this month’s forecast, Lena Stevens, author and co-founder of an international school and consulting firm dedicated to the study and application of shamanism and wisdom, reveals influences and opportunities to take advantage of.

Click here to access the full monthly commentary that you can print and reference!

Below is an excerpt from the commentary.

The main theme for January is RESETTING PRIORITIES.

We are now under a new set of influences and themes. As the trends of 2010 have started their exodus as primary motivators and the new trends have begun to settle in, we are inspired to take the creative artisan energy of the last year and begin to use it in realigning our relationship with service. We want our lives to not just be creative but purposeful, growing us towards a deeper satisfaction around what we are actually doing here on the planet. In December, the influences were internal, transitional, re evaluating, and very focused on maintaining on a personal level.  The moving center of 2010 stepped aside allowing the emotional center to flow in as the primary influence for 2011. Many of you may have felt unfocused, unproductive, aimless, tired, subdued and possibly even un-inspired as the moving centered artisan influence of 2010 released its primary position. Now we have an adjustment period as we realign ourselves with what we have chosen for this year. For a time it may still feel like we are under the influence of the artisan as there is definitely the creative desire for expression. However the artisan is not running the show but rather becomes part of the foundation that is in service to the server role of the year.

One of the first things on the agenda for 2011 is to reset your priorities. Spirit has given you many clues and messages over the past months regarding what should be important in your life, where you should be putting your energy and intention, what needs to be let go of as it is of an old paradigm, and what you should be doing and with whom. Some of you have been better than others about listening to these hints and actually taking the steps to reinvent yourselves in a way more aligned with spirit. Therefore some of you will feel a surge of energy this month that should enhance this alignment and open opportunities for self-expression, support and the experience of service. The experience of service is not only related to how you can serve others and the planet, but also addresses how you can be served and how you are presently served by spirit, your allies, the elementals and all of nature.  There is definitely a potential in this alignment for a higher centered experience of life, connection, and all things being really “right”.

If you have not been great at listening and feel your life is somewhat less than you would like it to be, it is never too late to discard those attachments and to choose resolutions that will put you back on track. We are still under the influence of the very powerful winter solstice, eclipse and Full Moon, and will be until the New Moon on January 4 that comes with a partial solar eclipse. The time frame between two eclipses, especially when they are accompanied by other very powerful alignments, is always very potent and should be used proactively to set your intentions and to get things moving in the right direction. If you have been feeling unmotivated, lethargic and unfocused, that could change just before this New Moon when we should experience a surge of energy. Make sure this surge does not scatter you into chaos and negativity, but rather gives you some needed fuel to move forward in the right direction. If you have your priorities set straight you should experience more energy, enthusiasm, inspiration and movement. Pay attention to the intuitive wisdom of the emotional center and the synchronicity it produces. Don’t let the questioning mind get in the way of what you know to be emotionally true. Pay attention to the signs of spirit and don’t argue with or resist what is obvious.

The resetting of priorities this month will definitely be addressed, whether proactively by your decisions and choices, or not so proactively where you end up at the effect of someone else’s decisions and choices. For example, if you know you are in the wrong work situation but have not had the courage to do something about it, a decision may be made for you where you end up out of that work situation through a medical condition, being let go or some other unpleasant circumstance. Take the resetting of priorities this month seriously as there is a rather large engine of energy that wants to propel all of us in the right direction.  Evaluate where you are with your priorities and be truthful about what needs resetting. It may be that you will have to give something up or disappoint someone or take a risk. But if it is the right decision, you will know it.

Since we are under the influence of the emotional center, these decisions of what is “right” for you cannot be fully intellectual. The knowingness must come from another more intuitive place. This is especially challenging for those of you who are not as comfortable with the emotional center and who are used to relying on your rational mind for your answers and problem solving abilities. This is a time when little can be actually solved by “thinking it through”. It is better to use the capacity of the mind in support of the decisions of the intuitive self. Watch out for the obstacles of Self-deprecation and Martyrdom as they try to discourage and disregard what you feel as insignificant, wrong or unworthy. Watch the mind as it strives for control through these obstacles. Trust and hope may be uncharted waters for you but they may be all that is left in some situations.

Remember that what is right for you will also be influenced by the server role of the year.  Re evaluate your motivations for anything you do and any situation you are in. Have the courage to change your mind, say no or yes, and to open yourselves to receive the support and service available to you. The era of going at it alone to prove your strength, power and independence from others is over. This is a time of building trust, receiving support, and collaborating with others. Resetting your priorities should always include putting yourselves first in line to be served by spirit and to receive what is available to you.  Sometimes it is difficult to see through to what is your priority over what is someone else’s priority. In partnership you may have to compromise and support and honor another’s priority at the same time as supporting and honoring your own. This requires a balance so that there is an equal exchange. Often to make a collaboration work, all parties need to be supported equally in a give and take exchange especially when it comes to what is most important. What is most important to you may not what is most important to another and vice versa. Coming up with a balance where everyone gets their needs met and their importance honored will create a balance and bring the spirit of service into any partnership. The main thing is never to give all your power away and compromise yourself completely as this will only lead to resentment and Martyrdom. At the same time, if you are a person who does not make a point of considering what is important to others, this could be an opportunity for you to improve your partnerships by doing so.

Let’s look at some of the specific areas you may need to reset priorities and what it may mean for you if you do it successfully and what it may mean if you don’t.

To read about the influences this month on your finances,

relationships and health, click here to read the full commentary.

December 2010 Forecast–How Will This Month Play Out?

In this month’s forecast, Lena Stevens, author and co-founder of an international school and consulting firm dedicated to the study and application of shamanism and wisdom, reveals influences and opportunities to take advantage of.

Click here to access the full monthly commentary that you can print and reference!

Below is an excerpt from the commentary.

The theme for December is MAINTENANCE.

This is a month of putting time and energy into all those aspects of your life that require maintenance at this time. Maintenance is not only about changing the oil in your vehicle or drain opener in your pipes, although that may be right on target for some of you. Maintenance also refers to your physical and emotional health, your home, your spiritual life, your relationships, your car, your things, your work environment, your routines, practices and disciplines. This is an excellent time to review what is out of balance or has been neglected and to take action or make a plan to take action. It is a good time to scrutinize your environment to notice what is broken or in need of cleaning, elimination or an upgrade.

December is characterized by an energy that is local, ordinary, somewhat inward and close to home. Keep good boundaries against putting too much expansion on your plate, as this is not the month for it. Look to what needs doing in your own back yard. Fix or upgrade the things you already have rather than expanding into new territory. The influences are pulling the energy inward and some of you may feel restricted or confined by it. Beware of impatience and becoming agitated or antsy around the illusion of limitation. Think instead of this time as catching up to yourself through the process of maintenance in the areas that need it.

Things in your life that do not function are an energy leak. If you have a broken toaster that is waiting to be fixed, either fix it or get rid of it. We learn to live with things around us that do not function. They get stuffed into a closet or put into the garage. Part of maintaining balance in your life is to address these items that are not functioning or are no longer useful and to do something about them.  They create dead weight and take up valuable psychic space. It does not matter what you paid for something or who gave it to you. The price of having these things around holding energy is not worth it. Either fix them and put them back into service or give them to charity or to someone who can fix and use them. A good formula if this task feels overwhelming is to take one thing every day and either fix it, take action to fix it or decide to eliminate it. How many items of clothing do you have waiting to be mended or waiting for a button to be sewn on? Do it or get rid of it.  Look in your closets and junk drawers and basements, attics and garages and just pick one thing every day.

Then take one thing everyday in your physical environment that simply needs maintenance like cleaning the fridge or your oven, or weeding out a bookcase or changing the oil in your car, and do it or take action to do it (like calling the housecleaners or making an appointment with your mechanic). Then take one thing that could use an upgrade and take an action step towards that upgrade. This could be buying a higher quality food item or something inspirational such as flowers for the table, or something to support your health. It could also include refreshing the paint on a wall or replacing a ratty piece of furniture. All of this activity sends a message to the quantum field that you are taking Maintenance seriously and you will definitely be rewarded for it.

An equally important part of the Maintenance theme this month is to look at the aspects in your life that need more from you at this time. If you have neglected your health due to a busy work schedule, this would be the time to do something about that. Whatever it is that you require for more balance should be included in your daily routine and program this month. Whatever you need more of, whether it be rest, exercise, healthy diet, a hair cut, teeth cleaning, body work, etc., work it into your schedule this month and make it a priority. Many of you have a tendency to put yourselves last. This is a month where you need to put yourselves first on the list of things to maintain. Since the influences of December are consolidating the energy towards self and the home front, always think of what is best for you and resist the tendency to want to please others. There will always be someone who is disappointed in your choices. Don’t take it personally and avoid reacting to the projections of others. Beware of your energy leaks. Identify them, eliminate them and focus on re charging yourself.

Some of the less obvious and more intangible areas requiring maintenance are the areas of relationships, personal growth, spirituality and intentions. Regarding relationships, this is a good time to make note of what relationships need some attention and to do what is required. If you have not been spending enough time with your family, pets, employees or good friends, this would be the time to remedy that. If unimportant people are unreasonably demanding of your time and energy, you may have to set some boundaries in order to maintain a balance. Pay attention to old relationships that cycle back into your life with unfinished business or karmic history. Do what it takes to get things back into balance. Be honest with yourself and others regarding where your responsibility lies and where it doesn’t. You can’t fix it for someone else, only for yourself.

The area of personal growth and spirituality has to do with your relationship to self. Only you know where you are in this area and what it means to you. Maintenance may include professional emotional help, the support of putting into practice bits and pieces you have collected over the years in the area of personal growth, and perhaps some discernment of what you do and where you go from here. Most of all it is important to pay attention to your emotional and spiritual well being, to practice good spiritual and emotional hygiene, and to do whatever you can to stay connected to spirit and to follow your own intuition. Don’t worry if you don’t feel like you are making any progress this month. This is not about feeling expansive and higher centered but rather about getting all your ducks in a row in preparation for what’s to come. All the work that is being done under the surface is creating a stronger and deeper foundation that will carry you through future times. And it does require attention, discipline and maintenance.

Your dreams, plans, intentions and desires also have to be maintained. If you have a practice of visualizing or affirming your intentions or setting goal or wish lists, this practice also needs maintenance and attention. Anything that becomes too much of a routine where you are no longer present with the process needs to be re evaluated. Try going over your practices in this area and re inventing them just slightly so they become more meaningful to you. Whenever you make a change, you are likely to be more present with the process until it becomes routine again. This is also a good month to re evaluate your current goals, intentions, dreams and plans to see if they are presently viable, appropriate or something you still really desire. Remember to make sure they are yours and not in consideration of someone else. You can never set goals and intentions for someone else, only for yourself.

The downside of this month is that you may feel overwhelmed with how far you have let things go in the area of maintenance. Don’t be hard on yourself. Take it one step at a time, do one thing at a time. Watch the tendency for procrastinating and make a little sign for yourself that says DO IT NOW. Watch self-deprecation as it wants to judge you for being so neglectful. It does not serve to wallow, complain or be depressed. These are energy leaks. Just do one thing at a time that does not feel overwhelming to you, like polishing a pair of shoes or doing your laundry. Remember that part of this practice of maintenance is symbolic therefore polishing a pair of shoes has an energetic ripple effect that will begin to form a pattern of momentum around other maintenance tasks. The other challenge this month could be a tendency to feel flat, bored, impatient, and like nothing significant is happening in your life despite the numerous activities of the day. You may feel like you are spinning your wheels especially if you are person somewhat addicted to the drama of high level activity. Relax, there is a lot happening in the mundane day to day and this is an important time to regroup, recharge, maintain and rebalance.

To read about the influences this month on your finances, relationships and global issues, click here to read the full commentary.