How often have you been confronted with a life-changing decision perhaps at a crossroads, looking both ways and wondering which way to turn? The countless intersections that we arrive at with our careers, relationships, geography, business, health etc can place us in a position of wonder, analysis, yearning, stress and even fear.
Throughout my decades long career, I’ve heard countless clients tell me that they were looking for a sign; a voice from the heavens, writing on the wall, meeting that special person or some other serendipitous moment that could be interpreted as the green light, the get go and go ahead on a decision that would move them forward.
Some years ago during a session with a client who was troubled by having to make a major business decision, she told me that she felt she needed a sign and if she had that she could move forward. Surreptitiously, I wrote on an A4 piece of paper “It’s a sign” and then held it up to her at which point she laughed and said “Thanks, I needed that and can I please keep it.” To which I replied, “Of course you can, it’s your sign” and the rest as they say is history. She went on to change career paths and have a successful business doing what she loved.
Signs are open to the interpretation and perception of the individual, influenced by cultural frames of reference, religious beliefs, superstitions and self-esteem all encompassing the individuals model of the world. For these reasons we need to be mindful about how we interpret the signs in our internal and external environment.
“It is the meaning that you give to the meaning that gives it the meaning” – Louise Crosby
Renowned Swiss psychiatrist and psychotherapist, Carl Jung who founded analytical psychology made the distinction between a symbol and a sign. For example, the cross is a symbol of Christianity and the amount of stars and stripes on a military uniform is a symbol of rank. Jung noted about dreams and unconscious material, that the content/images be interpreted as signs expressing something unknown or as signs of already known or knowable facts.
A friend of mine started to have dreams about tsunamis and through time discovered that a tsunami dream always preceded a significant emotional challenge – forewarned and forearmed.
When you have a preferred path or outcome then you are most likely going to go looking for and interpret signs and often at an unconscious level of mind in such a way that will reinforce a decision and subsequent action that will hopefully bring you to your outcome.
The challenge is that the greater your investment (often highly emotive) in the outcome, the greater the likelihood to interpret everyone and everything as confirmation to move in the direction that fulfils your emotional or other investment. All too frequently this can be at the cost of not having done the necessary due diligence or checked in with the possible costs and consequences of the outcome, let alone connected with the power of your intuition.
So what are some of the key elements with adopting signs into your decision-making strategy for life or business?
- Look for consistency and repetition i.e. remember my friend’s dream about Tsunami’s – does the same sign portending the same kind of event, action or significant emotional change appear consistently through time?
- Keep a dream journal with pen and torch beside the bed
- Meditation and mindfulness can enhance your present time awareness and intuition so make the time to meditate on a regular basis
- When you ask others to validate what might be a sign for you remember that they will interpret the information through their filters and not yours –be your own sign detective
- Trust your intuition
Nature is a tour de force when it comes to signs often giving us a heads up of what’s to come – think about those mind boggling ants who at the first sniff of heavy rain become even more industrious doing the heavy lifting and moving about to gather everyone to shelter.
“Signs may be but the sympathies of nature with man.” – Charlotte Bronte, Jane Eyre
Perhaps you are somewhat of a Bob Dylan with the wind as your sign such as Dylan’s famous song “Blowin in the Wind” with equally famous refrain – “The answer, my friend, is blowin’ in the wind.”
Whether it’s in dreams, animals, people or the whisper of the wind, it’s only natural for many of us to be looking for that special communication, the sign that will nudge us forward towards something bigger, better or greater.
Even as I deliberated over this article as to post or not to post (a common challenge among writers), perhaps the universe answered my question in the form of a sign during a conversation with a friend yesterday. My friend is about to move in a new direction, both geographically and with her career. She had been umming and ahhing over applying for a new job and told me that when speaking with a friend she discovered a significant and important connection via her friend to the specific position. She took that as a sign for her to move forward and apply for the job. I replied, “That’s interesting as I am finishing a post for my blog that is about signs and maybe this is another sign for you.”
In a reciprocal way, I took the conversation with my friend and her comments about signs as a sign for me to go ahead and share this article with you – maybe it holds a sign that you have been waiting for.
What are the signs that have influenced your life? Over to you to share in the comments below…
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