This is a guest post by my elder daughter, Beverly.

Hi, I’m Beverly and I’m Irene’s elder daughter.  I am turning 12 next Sunday, YAY (actually I wish I’m turning 21)!  Since I’m taking a break from my homework, my momsie says it’s OK to write a guest post on her blog, as long as I don’t mess up.  Cool!

So … what should I write about?  Let’s talk a little about my momsie, my little sister and me.  We are like the cartoon characters in “Phineas & Ferb” (sometimes I think we are like the family in “The Wizards Of Waverly Place” too).  My mom is like the mom of Phineas and Ferb and Candace, who is always nonchalent.  She is too calm when I complain about my sister.  I think she is weird and cool at the same time because she’s not a typical Singaporean mother.  She doesn’t nag (much), she doesn’t cry on our first day of school, and she makes us do Dance of Shiva (which is really fun but difficult - I’ve already mastered one step, which is the whirly swirly movements of my arms but there are thousands more to conquer -.-”’).  She’s sometimes kinda tomboyish and she fights back when we get bullied by even weirder people.  She spoils me too much with good food.  She’s really weird and cool at the same time, I can’t decide which is which.

So … about my irritating little sister, Natalie, a.k.a. monster.  She’s like Isabella in “Phineas & Ferb”, the one who is always asking, “Wat ya doin’?”.  She talks A LOT.  Really.  Seriously.  A.  Lot.  She’s like the thing that won’t shut up.  If I have an enemy, I will send her after him, coz she will talk him to death.  Enough about my irritating little sister (whom everyone says is cute coz she sings like Boo in “Monsters Inc”, but I don’t think so … at all).

So … about me.  I’m like Candace from “Phineas & Ferb”, always whining.  I’m a glutton for food and I love to doodle.  I hate my passport photo … I want to lose it so that I can re-take my photo and make a new one.  I don’t think I’m weird, nor cool.  I’m just whatever.  I love scary movies but I cover my eyes and ears about 90% of the time.  I can meditate and go to my sacred garden … which is a really cool secret place that looks like the grandmother tree in “Pocahontas”.  By the way, my meditation visions are all in cartoon.  I am trying to enjoy the last few weeks of my primary school education.  I’m really nervous about going to a new school next year.  I play ping pong and I plan to go to the Singapore Sports School next year, where I will train to be a prominent ping pong player on this planet.  ^.^

So … that’s all folks!  Thanks for reading!  TTFN!

Beverly

Having a relationship with spirituality is indeed fascinating, often surprising, and at times very very weird. It is true (for me, at least) that once you’ve taken the first step towards Light, you will find it almost impossible to turn back.  It’s like going to school, and then trying to unlearn all that’s been taught and absorbed - very hard.  So even when your vibrations shift you out of your comfort zone, or when your changing energies drive you absolutely berserk, you just keep on going.  Sometimes, change will keep happening until you get the message of growth its trying to deliver to you.

Since my last episode of mini epiphanies, I’ve been pondering quite a bit.  I realized I got hooked on epiphanies, and to my horror, my psyche has decided I need more of that weird stuff.  And so I (the psyche) set out to find more ways that could trigger more of those “a-ha!” moments (with my physical body screaming in tow).  Interestingly, I found one that came with a serious warning label.  I’m a curious cat and I love warning labels, in a twisted way.  This little packet of epiphanies came in the form of a not-so-common type of yoga … it’s called Shiva Nata, a.k.a Dance of Shiva.

At one glance, it all sounds workable.  You can do this in the comfort of your own home via a DVD (and I’m perfectly the home-study sort), without having to announce to the world just how clumsy you are.  The instruction covers some - actually, many - graceful hand and leg movements, breathing and meditation techniques … you just need to learn how to coordinate them at your own pace.  No dangerous back-breaking moves nor stretches that threaten to snap you into half, so that’s cool.  This practice will not only give you more flexible and toned muscles, it will also train your brain.  I don’t know about you, but the part about training the brain appealed to me, BIG time.

And so I ordered the package, and it arrived swiftly.  I even got my kids excited about doing the Dance of Shiva!  So when I first popped the DVD into the player, three of us (me and my daughters) were standing right in front of the TV, eager to do the impossible.  The first few steps went well - the very very basics, loads of fun there.  And then came the challenging part - limb and mind coordination!  I have to admit that I’ve never felt so clumsy in my life.  The moves are not that physically challenging, really, but boy trying to catch the sequence of the moves sure does burn the brain!  Since I’m not exactly doing an official product review here, I will skip the juicy parts on the instructions, but I will sum up my brief experience.  I felt like a big fat eight-legged Tarantula with 4 legs crippled, doing a sloppy job weaving my web and getting myself entangled in it at the same time.  And my two baby Tarantulas were coming out with their own kung-fu moves.  Gosh, this dance is hard!  I was sweating and trembling after 15 minutes, and I haven’t even started on the leg work!

So what’s the point of this?  What do I like about Dance of Shiva that sparked off this post?  This yoga practice works the left brain SO HARD.  With all that ridiculous limb coordinations, you can’t afford slack in the left hemisphere, not one bit!  By the end of 10 minutes, your left brain is ready to give up, and that’s when you sit down, center yourself, breathe and allow your right brain to come in and say, ”Hello, remember me?”.  That’s the time to focus on areas in your life where you feel you’re not progressing or getting enough “a-ha’s”, and allow your right brain to chirp away while the left brain goes for a drink of water.  It was a really weird experience for me, but it felt really GOOD!  My arms were aching a little the next day … I love that achy feeling after a workout, makes me feel I’ve done something good to my lazy body.  Another plus point (well, I see this as a positive thing) is that the Dance of Shiva is something that will take me years and years to master (if ever), so I guess I won’t be getting bored anytime soon!

Just so that you know … I will never recommend anything that I haven’t personally tried before.  So if this post brings out the masochistic side of you that’s yearning for some epiphanies and toned muscles, check out Havi Brook’s beautiful and funny site.  Or you can click on the nice blue spider-woman image on the right hand side, under “Recommended Links” for more information.

Wishing you loads of fun, “struggle” (well, that’s how Dance of Shiva works) and epiphanies!

Blessings,
Irene

It’s been almost a month since my last post.  By the standards of some blogging communities, this lapse is a sin!  So what’s been happening with Irene??  I’ve been busy.  I’ve been ill.  I’ve been freaking out.  All good.

When I started this blog in May this year, I had a little chat with my spirit guides.  I told them that I was nervous about blogging, but I also wanted to reach out and connect with like-minded people, so I asked for their help to bring me new friends via the blog.  Boy, did my spiritual team deliver my request!  So happily I decided to expand my request.  I asked my team for more work opportunities - by that, I had meant more lightwork opportunities via my Soul Realignment™ readings.  Shortly after, I got connected with a local holistic center and clients started to stream in.  And then some more.  I was pleased and very grateful.  So again I decided to expand my request even further - this time, I told my team to “bring it on!”.

You’ve heard of the saying, “Be careful what you wish for”.  Some of you may already know that I have a very busy but successful day job in the corporate world too.  Well, if you didn’t know, then now you do.  Just don’t ask me how that works out with doing lightwork, because I’m trying to figure that out myself too!  Anyway … challenges started to surface at my day job.  Suddenly, everything needed my attention - new projects, pipeline crisis, planning meetings, bridging gaps - you name it.  All the projects I took on were top priorities on the management’s radar.  Time and energy were expended very quickly but replenishing them took forever.  At the same time, my Soul Realignment™ clients started to pour in in groups and families.  I began to freak out.

Then I fell ill - and freaked out some more.  Gosh I was so worried about slipping deadlines and getting fired by my boss … and I felt dreadful about keeping my wonderful clients waiting for their readings!  And you guessed it - the more I freaked out, the worse I felt.  It finally reached a point when I had to surrender my worries to the Universe and just sleep.  There was nothing else I could have done to make things any better at that point.

After some rest, little epiphanies started to hit me, one by one.  My left brain had been so busy freaking out and working herself to exhausion, so now my right brain finally gets her chance to speak!  I realized that when I had asked for work opportunities, I didn’t make my request clear to my spiritual team.  They had brought me opportunities in BOTH my day job and my lightwork - bless them!  Even though it was difficult for me to see the challenges in my day job as “opportunities” then, I realized that if I had done a good job, that would have made me very visible - in a very positive way - to the management team.  And I did say “bring it on!” to my team with a lot of certainty and gusto.

Becoming ill felt like a blessing in disguise.  It taught me a lot about balancing success and well being, but most importantly it also taught me about letting go of outcomes.  Interestingly, despite the panicky corporate situation at the office, no one was upset about slipped deadlines, and my boss and colleagues have been supportive and caring.  The clients at the holistic center whom I had originally scheduled to meet all couldn’t make it for one reason or another, and had to postpone their appointments with me to a later date!  Are these Divinely orchestrated or what?

All in all, it’s been an interesting month (in hindsight!) and I’m thankful for the opportunities and lessons.  I believe there’s more coming up … but for now I’ll take the little advice that’s been playing in my head - in the form of a song by Jordin Sparks - “One Step At A Time”.

Blessings,
Irene