Traveling Psychologist Blog
Date: January 3, 2022
Location: Scottsdale, Arizona
STRIKE FIVE…LEARNING TO LISTEN TO THE SIGNS
It all started with an itch to travel again. Having been locked up in my apartment alone for over a year due to the pandemic, I decided that I would “hit the road” and work remotely for the months of November and December. My original plan was to be in Vietnam in November and Thailand in December. That quickly changed when I realized I could not get a Visa to Vietnam and Thailand’s borders were still closed. My plan then switched to Cape Town, South Africa in November and Bali in December. The Universe apparently did not like that one either because it was near impossible to find a flight to Bali. Plan C…Cape Town in November and Medellin, Colombia in December.
Now, I have to be honest. I was not thrilled about going to Medellin, Colombia (first intuitive hit!) and it definitely was not my first choice. A desperation to travel made me pick the first place that met two criteria: one, I had never been there before and two, it was easy to enter the country during the pandemic. I endured a lot of smack from family and friends for deciding to travel during a pandemic. Although the warnings from my loved ones were well-intended, every phone call hit a nerve. With every phone call I received from yet another friend or family member warning me not to travel, I would look down at the tattoo I recently had inked into my left forearm that says “Live Fearless” and forge on with my plans.
Upon landing in Cape Town, a series of events began that made me think my friends and family were on to something…
The apartment I leased during my time in Cape Town was a spacious two-bedroom apartment overlooking the waterfront. I decided to opt-in for having a roommate during my stay there since part of my goal for traveling was to “be social and meet new people.” Within the first two days, I quickly realized I would have been happier if decided to room alone (long story!). Strike one…
Apartment with an amazing view in Cape Town.
As the weeks passed in Cape Town, I decided to take a 4-day trip along the Garden Route with a few friends. The whole of this trip was absolutely amazing…except for when I fell climbing up a waterfall while we were hiking and dislocated my shoulder. Two emergency room visits and one very handsome orthopedic surgeon later, the shoulder was sore and in a sling but OK. Strike two…
My Garden Route gang that after my shoulder injury affectionately got nicknamed the “Chris Crew.” <3
Upon returning from my Garden Route trip, news of the Omicron virus went viral (pun intended!) and South Africa was being put on “the list” with many countries making it hard to not get OUT of the country, but to get IN anywhere else! No one wanted someone who had been visiting South Africa in November. Strike three…
After several hours of creative flight maneuvering, I was finally able to get to Medellin, Colombia (sore shoulder and all!). The minute I landed in Colombia, something felt off to me. I could not put my finger on it, but I felt unsafe…not because I was in an unsafe neighborhood or with unsafe people, it was just a feeling in my bones I cannot explain. Strike four…
Learning my lesson well from Cape Town, I had a private apartment in Medellin. Nestled in the cute little town of Poblado and within walking distance of the local town, I found myself still not feeling “right.” Maybe it was the 90-degree hill I had to walk up every morning to get to the space I was working from every day…who knows! Hoping the feeling would pass in a couple of days once I settled in, I forged on.
You have to walk the hill to appreciate it!
After being in Medellin a little over a week, the feeling still hadn’t subsided and I woke up that next Friday morning feeling a bit “off.” I went to dinner that night with a group of friends, politely bowed out of the bar-hopping that was about to ensue, and made my way back to my little apartment in Poblado. The minute I opened my eyes on Saturday morning I knew something was wrong…runny nose, sneezing, slight congestion. Strike five…
Now, most people would get to “Strike three” and call it quits, but I tend to run on the stubborn side. I probably don’t need to tell you the first thing that went through my mind when I woke up feeling ill. What terrified me the most was not the possibility of having COVID, but being “stuck” in a place where I did not feel safe. I immediately called the on-call nurse (a great perk that came with the apartment complex!) and as I waited for her to arrive, I made a decision…if my COVID test was negative, I was flying home the next day. Thankfully, the results came back negative and I quickly called American Airlines to book a flight back to the U.S. the next morning, arriving in Scottsdale 3 weeks earlier than originally planned.
It has always been my belief and experience that the Universe has our back. We get signs in the form of many things…people, events, illnesses, gut feelings, etc., all trying to gently nudge us in the direction that is part of our higher path. We sometimes just do not listen. Our job is to listen and make a choice to take action (or not). It is in the interpretation of these signs where we get confused. Our logical brains kick in and talk us out of the direction in which our instincts are nudging us. Many times we do not realize these signs as “signs” but rather think it is just our brain playing tricks on us. Sometimes we need to see more than one in order for the light bulb to go off. Other times, more often than not, the pieces of the puzzle come together after an unfortunate event has happened and we are looking back at the signs.
Soccer game in Medellin, Colombia.
I personally look at each event in my life and if I was able to take away a valuable lesson that I can use in the future, then it was worth it. One way I could interpret these events is that I should have listened to my friends and family and not traveled to begin with. Since I have learned to not “should on” myself or others over the years, I chose not to entertain that option. What I did walk away with from this experience is that down deep I DO know what is best for me. Looking back, I had a feeling while I was still in Cape Town to just go home. Making the decision to travel to Colombia anyway taught me how much I am protected from the unknown sources above (angels, God, my guides, etc.), given all of the events I seemed to be able to get through without truly causing more harm to myself. It also taught me to trust myself whether it makes logical sense or not. Logic gets in the way of our inner voice yearnings. It is our human habit to put logic above intuition. Earth is our school and we must learn to look at each experience we have, find the lesson, and gently leave the experience behind rather than questioning ourselves over and over again. We cannot change our past choices, but we can use those past choices to help us make better ones, ones more in alignment with our highest good, in the future.
At the end of the day, I am glad I chose to travel and I learned lessons I could not have possibly learned from my apartment in Scottsdale. So to all of my friends and family who urged me not to travel, I love you for watching out for me…but I’ve got this!
Taken on my flight home to Scottsdale.
Listening to the signs that this blog is long enough…forge on listening to your own signs and Happy New Year!
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N.C.I.S.“If you always listen to the advice of others and ignore yourself, you will be living their life, not yours.“ ~Chris Sopa
Change is scary. We are not scared of the change itself, we are scared of the unknown around the change. For some reason we seem to think that if we can figure out the how that we will be guaranteed a successful outcome. HmmmI can think of several things that happened to me in my life where I had all of the details controlled and it still did not work out the way I would have liked. Knowing” does not necessarily constitute success.
I am an N.C.I.S. junkieIll admit it. It is nothing for me to sit and watch five or six episodes in a row. If you find yourself at a crossroads, feeling the need to make a major life change, follow my N.C.I.S. rules:
N = Nurture (Rule #12) Spend some time nurturing yourself some quiet time, where you can really sit and not just think, but feel what is coming up for you. How do you feel when you think of the change you want to make? There is a difference between fear of the unknown and fear because something is not good for you. You know the difference.
C = Consciousness (Rule #18) - Self-awareness, or in other words, consciousness around yourself, your habits, your patterns of behavior, etc. is the number one key to making any changes in your life. You must be aware of yourself enough to be able to read what your physical, emotional and spiritual bodies are trying to tell you.
I = Intuition (Rule #40) Intuition is not just a gift for the gifted,” it is something we all have. Those gut feelings that guide you in the right direction every time is the physical manifestation of guidance from above. Practice trusting your gut. It leads you in the right direction every time and the more you trust it, the more information it gives you.
S = Sacredness (Rule #25) The term sacred does not necessarily have to mean something religious. Something is sacred if you make it sacred. Washing the dishes can be sacred if you say so. Make your life a sacred journey. Is what you are doing right now something that brings you joy? Would you consider it sacred? If not, maybe its time for a change?
Regardless of what you choose, you will never go wrong at the end of the day if the choice is yours. Whether it works out or not, it ends up how it was meant to be. The Universe is a kind place. Nothing happens that is not meant for the ultimate good.
Think and feel for yourselfin the end, all that matters is you lived the life YOU chose to live.
Following Rule #1,
Sopa
Chris Sopa is founder and owner of Chris Sopa International, Inc. You can learn more about her at www.ChrisSopa.com. Find her at Facebook.com/ChrisSopaInternational, Twitter @ChrisSopa, LinkedIn, and Google+.
“Choosing the Life You Were Born to Live: How Changing Your Thoughts Will Change Your Life” by Chris Sopa published by Balboa Press
“You may never know what results come from your action. But if you do nothing, there will be no result.”
~Mahatma Gandhi
Those of you who have heard me lecture or read my new book know that I am a huge proponent of changing your thinking by following your intuition, or said another way, allowing your feelings to guide you. Our feelings are the one and only thing that has the power to change the world. Think for a minute about how much more powerful a feeling is than a thought. It is the feeling about something that always spurs you into action. The thought arrives, a feeling follows and then action takes place. The magnetic field of our heart, when overlaid with the magnetic field of the Earth, is identical. So what does that mean? It means that our feelings and emotions have the power to change the actual magnetic field of the Earth if we allowed it.
Gregg Braden gives a great example of how powerful our feelings really are. Our country has 2 satellites in space whose main job is, by the hour, to report back to the scientists on Earth a measurement of the Earths magnetic field. The Earths magnetic field ebbs and flows in cycles but mostly stays in a fairly consistent wave. One day, researchers were astonished when a reading showed a very large spike in the Earths magnetic field. What on Earth (literally) could have happened to cause such a massive spike?
When traced back, the precise moment of the massive spike in the Earth’s magnetic field was at 9:00am on September 11, 2001…15 minutes after the first plane hit the towers in New York and the world was informed that the United States was under a terrorist attack. A flood of pure, raw, unrehearsed emotions were set loose, not only changing the magnetic field of each individual persons heart, but the magnetic field of the Earth itself. Our hearts were not the only hearts affected on that day…the Earth heart took a hit as well; hence, the power of our feelings.
If you are of a science mind and still questioning the validity of what I am saying, that is ok. I am a scientist by nature as well. But remember, not everything can be explained and there are just some things that cannot be understood using the human mind. Some things need trust, hope and faith to understand. Some things we may never truly understand. Understand it or not, the world still goes round and round. Sometimes the things we least understand, by not understanding them and trusting, are the exact things we need in our life to change the world we know.
Embrace the unknown and with your feelings, help change the world!
We can do it!
Chris
Chris Sopa is founder and owner of Chris Sopa International, Inc. You can learn more about her at www.ChrisSopa.com. Find her at Facebook.com/ChrisSopaInternational, Twitter @ChrisSopa, LinkedIn, and Google+.
Purchase your copy of, “Choosing the Life You Were Born to Live: How Changing Your Thoughts Will Change Your Life” by Chris Sopa published by Balboa Press.
Until we see what we are, we cannot take steps to become what we should be.” ~Charlotte P. Gilman
Anyone who has coached with me has heard me say over and over again, We cannot get to where you want to go until we define where you are now.” Many of us have goals. We have aspirations of what type of person we would like to become, places we would like to visit, our ideal career, the amount of money we would like to haveyou name it, we know for the most part where we want to be in the future. Now, ask that same person about their present situation; how they like their job, why they have a habit of never keeping their word, why they cheat, or even as simple as how their marriage is and the answer is either a blank stare or a platitude of some sort to avoid the question.
Why is it that we avoid the truth of who we are? Maybe its embarrassment because down deep we know we can do better or maybe its that we fear who we really can be if we just let go of the fear? Either way, the only way you can move forward in life is to look straight in your own eyes, define the type of person you have allowed yourself to become (good or bad) and make a choice. A choice to change, a choice to move on and a choice to finally live the life you were born to live.
You know what you are here to do. Yes, you do. It is that feeling in the pit of your gut that nags at you all day long. That feeling that comes directly from the things you dream about that bring you joy. The feeling that comes when you are doing that thing” that you can do for hours, non-stop and lose all sense of time. Stop telling yourself it is impossible, that you cant” because you have responsibilities, that you are too old, that you had a bad childhood, that if your parents would have been different you could, that if you werent in this relationship you couldSTOP! What do you want to do? Who do you want to be? Start believing in yourself and do something about it instead of spending endless hours reading and watching others live their dreams. How many lives do you think you have? This is not a dress rehearsal.
Shift from Entitlement to Humility; Control to Trust; Attachment to Letting Go; Fear to Faith.
Our Deepest Fear…
is not that we are inadequate,
our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.
It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us.
We ask ourselves, “Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented and fabulous?”
Actually, who are you not to be?
You are a child of God.
Your playing small does not serve the world.
There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you.
We were born to make manifest the glory of God within us.
It is not just in some of us,
it is in everyone.
And as we let our own light shine,
we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.
As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.
Honoring the truth,
Chris
Chris Sopa is founder and owner of Chris Sopa International, Inc. You can learn more about her at www.ChrisSopa.com. Find her at Facebook.com/ChrisSopaInternational, Twitter @ChrisSopa, LinkedIn, and Google+.
What if You Were Psychic?
There is no better way to bring one to a knowledge of himself than to lead him to a knowledge of the powers that are lying dormant within his own soul.”
~Ralph Waldo Trine
We have all at one point or another wished we could see into the future. To know ahead of time how something will turn out so we know for sure we were making the right decision sounds so appealing, doesnt it? But then life would be no fun! Where would our sense of wonder be; our sense of awe when things turn out perfectly when we didnt even try; or even that shiver we get down our spine anticipating lifes outcomes. That is part of what makes life an adventure.
Ironically, we are all psychicyou just forgot how to use your psychic gifts so you think you do not have them. We are all very aware of our five senses: touch, smell, taste, sight and auditory. But we also have four psychic senses: vision, auditory, kinesthetic and intuition. We use them all every single day, completely unaware of the fact that these senses are part of our higher self and our Divine right to have and use. These gifts show themselves in unique ways for each individual and once you know how to interpret what is showing up for you and most of all trust, your world will completely change.
Your psychic vision can take two forms. Sometimes you may actually be able to physically see a spirit, a geometric shape floating in the air or colors swirling around something or someone. Have you ever had the experience of thinking you saw something move out of the corner of your eye only to look and not see anything there? That is your psychic vision. Your psychic vision uses your periphery vision, which as humans has become very weak because we do not use it to hunt” anymore. You can practice looking straight ahead, drawing your attention (not your eyes) to the right and then the left and see how far you can see. That will strengthen the rods and cones in your eyes that help with psychic vision. You can also experience psychic vision through seeing pictures, movie clip like images or colors in your mind. These usually come out of nowhere and come in and out very quickly. Pay attention because they are usually trying to give you clues about something in your life.
Auditory is an interesting one. You actually hear from inside your mind. Have you had the experience of being asleep or in a quiet place and have sworn someone has called your name? When this sense starts to develop it sounds much like you are hearing people talking but they are in another room and you cant quite make out what they are saying. Dont be freaked out by this. It is a really cool sense when you develop it.
Kinesthetic takes many forms as well. Kinesthetic is another word for feel.” You can experience this psychic sense by temperature changes, tingly feelings in your limbs or down your spine, smells or even a taste that appears out of nowhere in your mouth. Did you ever have the experience of smelling something in the air no one else around you smells? Or walking into a room and shivers go down your spine because it just doesnt feel right?” It is very important to trust this sense and not analyze or question what appears. If you walk into a room and you feel” off, walk out! I have actually not gotten on planes before because it just didnt feel right.” Ive felt before as if I should pull my car in the garage instead of leave it in the driveway and when I listened to this, found a tree in my driveway the next morning right where my car would have been. Pay attention to how you feel!
Lastly, intuition, which is the sense you have of just knowing” something and not being able to really explain why. Mothers intuition is a good example of how this sense works. Mothers just know when there is something wrong with their child and they are almost always right. I use this sense a lot when I go hiking in places I have never been to guide me along my path. Intuitive hits” will come out of nowhere and just plop into your mind. They usually nag you as well until you listen. Have you ever thought of a person and then that next moment they call you? Intuition at its best.
Today, practice trusting what you sense with these senses. Pick one of them and pay attention throughout the day to that one only. Journal what you experience and as you continue to do this you will see patterns. Those patterns reveal to you your psychic language” and how the Divine speaks to you.
We are given everything we need to live our fullest life while we are here. Just trust the process, trust your life and feel your way.
If you go as far as you can see, you will then see enough to go even farther.”
~John Wooden
Intuitively speaking,
Chris
For more information on Chris Sopa International, Inc. go to www.ChrisSopa.com.