How I developed my abilities to navigate subtle signs
This morning as I unfurled my yoga mat, I found a little bird sitting outside on our balcony, right up against the glass looking in at me. Yesterday on the same balcony, a large dragonfly was resting on the screen door. I also keep hearing songs on the radio with messages in them and seeing numbers like 111 at unexpected times. Even the weather speaks to me.
Six months ago, I wrote a story about the messages that I was just beginning to receive from the universe for the first time. That article has changed my life and many others since then. Reader responses tell me so, plus the number of people who have found me on social media and through my website to thank me and also seek more guidance.
People are hurting. People are searching for answers.
People are also opening themselves to thoughts and possibilities that they never understood before.
So, we’ve all started to receive more messages from the universe. And I’ve gotten much better at it over time. I’ll share with you the developments in my practice, and learnings that you can apply to your own journey.
Animals
For many people, receiving messages from animals is difficult because they understand the world as a place of total chaos. To them, the world is random. Animals couldn’t possibly be giving us messages from the divine if you believe that the world is meaningless, without a greater purpose, and events that occur are just the result of random collisions. “Everything is a coincidence,” many people will tell you.
I’ve written whole pieces about animals but I’ll condense these ideas for you here: your energy attracts similar energy. That’s the law of attraction. Also, sometimes animals bring messages from the “other side” to get your attention. They are either showing up to warn you or to reassure you.
The bird I saw this morning on my balcony was a sign. In ancient times, birds were seen as omens, and this was for a very good reason. Now we’re used to thinking that this is superstition, but if you are open to these ideas, you begin to realize that there is no reason why birds can’t bring you messages. We are all connected to the same field of energy and possibilities. We are all made of the same quantum stuff. It’s all connected.
If you can read the messages from birds, you are able to follow nature’s cues. That bird I saw this morning was trying to get my attention for a good reason. Birds don’t just sit on balconies up against the glass looking in at you every day.
Something’s coming. Something big.
I see all kinds of birds and other animals daily. I pay attention. That heron taking off from the marsh is a sign of prosperity and independence. That beaver who shows up when I’m stressed shows I’m working too hard. That snapping turtle is a sign that my confidence is getting high. Baby geese show me that rebirth is possible at any moment.
And that dragonfly we saw on the screen yesterday? It was a huge sign of transformation. My life is changing — I feel it, and the signs are confirming it.
Numbers
I am still seeing numbers like 111, 5:55, $4.44, 1212, and so on. They appear when I least expect it on license plates, bus route numbers, clocks, emails from my old employer, and text messages from Kimberly Fosu.
Is this happening to you, too?
My first viral article on Medium earned me a lot of money, and for a long time the numbers somehow showed up as $111 (for the month or in total), 1,111 views, member reading time totaling 1 minute 11 seconds, and the list can go on. I am not joking. It was painfully, horrendously obvious to me that this was a strong message that I must keep writing. And I just knew that if I kept writing, blindly trusting the universe by its messages, I would succeed. I didn’t believe it at the time, but I just pushed on. And you should, too. Don’t ignore those signs!
Pay attention to where you’re seeing the numbers. That matters.
Maybe your signs aren’t coming from Medium. Everyone may not be a writer in the long run. But everyone has a particular talent or value to offer this world, and the universe knows your energy. It knows how to help you bloom. You may not know yet, but that’s why we need to pay attention to the signs. They’re our guidance.
Songs
I got in the car yesterday and my Bluetooth media connection jumped to some weird part of my total ten-thousand-song library on my phone. It had never done that before and isn’t even set up to do that. I know its behavior. It always, without error, begins on the same exact song unless I choose another one. It’s rather annoying that way.
Not yesterday — no. It played a totally new song. It started with “Stronger” by Kelly Clarkson, then “Bohemian Rhapsody” by Queen, and then “Personal Jesus” by Depeche Mode. I listened to all the lyrics. These three songs didn’t seem so significant to me individually, but together they held a message.
I know this sounds crazy if you already don’t believe this stuff, but truly, I have learned to use my intuition along with the messages. It makes the message stronger. If a thought pops into my head out of the blue that these songs are telling me about my life this past year, then I don’t deny that thought. I used to. For sure, I used to ignore my intuition.
It seemed ridiculous to me just one year ago that I would be special enough to receive a message from the universe through songs on my media library.
But truly, how else should the messages come through? What better way is there for the universe to talk to me than through energetic manipulation of my playlists? And don’t forget the radio — it seems like every day on the radio these days I’m hearing “Message in a Bottle” by The Police, which is telling me I am urgently receiving messages. Why wouldn’t the universe “hide” messages for us in everyday life this way?
In the lyrics of those three songs, it was so wild how they really described my life from the past year. I endured a strange ending to my marriage where I was forced to embrace independence, then I went through a struggle with my inner truth and figures of authority determining my worth, and finally, I connected to the spiritual realm and the comfort I need at any time — my own personal Jesus, as the lyrics go.
I won’t tell you which song came next out of privacy, but I’ll just say that I took it as an omen of things to come. The next song was truly some kind of warning.
Don’t ignore the songs you hear.
Weather
Reading the weather can help you make daily choices. It can help you prepare yourself for the coming climate of your life. I view the sky as a mind that contains the consciousness of humanity. That might be a little over-the-top for you, which is why I saved it for last. But truly, the weather tells me what I need to know on a given day.
If I wake up and there’s a completely blue sky, I know there is going to be something great breaking through in my life that day. If the weather is turbulent and the sky suddenly opens to violent precipitation, I know some unexpected activity is afoot. If the rain lasts for days, I know that the fertility of potential and hope is being developed.
On the week of the 2020 US Election, I saw fog come in every single day, alerting me that the election results wouldn’t be clear-cut. On the morning of the $500 Medium bonus, I got a strong message from the clear, blue sky that something great and unexpected — literally out of the blue — would happen that day. I knew it.
Sunsets are expressions of love. Allow the sun’s radiance to encourage you. Understand in your soul how the sunset’s colors make you feel, and use your heart to decipher that message. The whole of nature makes love to the sun, and it makes love back to us. It gives us this beauty daily through sunsets, yet so many people ignore it.
Connect with the sky to receive the messages you need.
Understand that similar trends are probably happening to everyone in your area and bond with those in your community over the concurrent trends.
The Universe is Calling
Don’t miss opportunities to receive messages from the universe. Everything that happens to you is part of a beautiful symphony of existence because you are an important part of it. Stay in tune with your place in this world and the fact that the energy you’re emanating outward is attracting the attention of all things on the same frequency. You don’t have to understand how this is possible to see the effects of it.
Just stay open to receiving. This is the biggest step you can take because it means surrender is beginning. When you allow yourself to notice and process the messages all around you, you will see your life begin to change. If you allow your intuition to accompany the tangible messages in front of you, then you’ll be unstoppable.
