The GGA Project -- Day #331 "The Gut"

When my Mom is done with her magazines, she passes them on to me.  There are a number of subscriptions among them, and I only use most of the magazines for cutting out pictures for some future dream board I'll make (more on that later).  But I do read through the O and More magazines front to back, even though the limited time I have to do so may mean reading August's issue in November, as I found myself doing today.


I was reading an entire feature in O Magazine during my lunch today about awaking your intuition.  One of the stories contained therein had exercises meant to give voice to your quieter wisdom, which the story said can sometimes be drowned out by the judgmental and stressed-out, loud voice of so-called reason.  I decided to complete one of these exercises for


Today's New Activity: Vocab Rehab


The person completing this exercise is asked to spend 10 minutes writing down a description of his or her life, then look for all the words that have fearful or negative connotations, determining whether or not those words could be changed to others that were still accurate but less limiting.


I have to say I was not happy in seeing what came out when I set about describing my life.  I was quick to judge myself and to point out all the negative or dissatisfying aspects to what I've got going on.  This surprised and saddened me.  It seemed this exercise would be good for more than just awaking intuition's purposes.


And taking only 10 minutes to change all the negative wording to more positive, hopeful wording (basically to spin the story of my life) was pretty magical.  It's a trick for sure, a slight of hand.  But if it works I say go for it!  The fake it 'til you make it concept did not gain such popularity for naught.


The thing is, this exercise was not about feeling better about your life but about listening to the calmer, more accepting and open-minded voices within you.  And I'm not sure how effective it was toward that second end after just one experience with the exercise.  But in any case I think it was definitely worth my time and I would recommend the article to anyone who has getting (re)connected with his or her intuition on the mind.


I've had the phrase Everything is Illuminated swimming though my mind for a few days now, and I'm looking forward to seeing how the truth of that idea makes itself known to me.


P.S.  On dream boards (a collage composed of images that represent what you'd like to see happen in your life): yesterday, feeling rested after getting an extra hour of sleep, I woke up refreshed and finally ready to compose the dream board I've been gathering images for for almost a year now.  The cool thing was what drove me to want to make a dream board now was the realization that everything I'd put on the dream board I made about the same time last year came to pass in my life!!  I'd made it, put it up in my room, and then pretty much forgotten about it.  A few months back I took the time to really look at the imagines and words I'd pasted to the board and saw that all of those things were now part of how I lived.   Pretty prominent on the board--taking up one whole corner--were images related to getting started writing again.  What a great start this project has given me on that front! :)