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Tuning In to Your Career Instead of Tuning Out at Work: 3 Easy Steps to Use Your Intuition to Get Ahead, by Melanie Barnum

(Article originally published in The Llewellyn Journal.)

So often it feels like we get up every day and go put in an entire 8-10 hours like a worker drone. We are putting the time and energy in but getting little satisfaction from it. Whether it's from a lack of interest in what we are doing or it's because we are merely working to pay the bills, it rarely will make you happy. The old adage, "If you love what you do, you'll never work a day in your life" is true. It's time to enjoy what you are giving so much of your life to! No more merely punching a clock for you—oh no, you are ready to tap into your desires and begin a career that makes you appreciate every day.

Your happiness is crucial to your health and wellness. That's why using your intuition to help guide you to your best possible career can be your greatest asset. We use our intuition all the time—the difference now will be that you'll utilize it intentionally. Recognizing and acknowledging that your intuitive wisdom will help you to discern something allows you to better pay attention to the visceral reactions you’ll attain when you practice purposefully. Activating your natural ESP, or extrasensory perception, becomes much easier without the need to focus on the process so we keep it simple in the beginning. However, simple does not mean small. Go into the exercise below without any preconceived notions of what you should feel or what messages or information you are supposed to receive. That can work against you and tend to make you feel blocked from any impressions you may have. Instead, be open to your own intuitive abilities, with a little help from the energy of the universe, leaving behind any judgment, fear, or self-doubt.

So, what would make you want to go to work, want to put in the hours that would feed your soul instead of depleting it? Who but you would know what would make your spirit soar? You want to do something that makes your heart sing, but that also gives you the opportunity to be productive and pay your bills and help support your family. So, how do you figure out what that would be? And how do you make it happen? Well, first, you read my newest book, Intution at Work, and then, you start taking your life and your intuition to the next level!

One of the best ways to begin understanding what makes you feel successful in business is to determine what you love and what you're good at and what you want to do. This, so often, can be a difficult task, so let's break it down into a few, rather simple, steps using your natural intuitive gifts. We will call them the What, the Where and the How.

1. The What. Think about the following and visualize in your mind's eye, using your clairvoyant, or clear sight, intuitive sense to discover what your answers are:
   • What do you enjoy?
   • What do you dislike?
   • What goals did you have before you were told you needed to just work and make money?
   • If you could do anything in the world, anything at all, and make money at it, what would it be?
2. The Where. Decide whether you want to stay in your current field of business and move up the career ladder or if you want to change altogether. In order to do that, sometimes it helps to use your clairsentient abilities, or to sense how something makes you feel. So, take a deep breath and think about the following questions one at a time, breathing before each. Pay attention to whether something feels good or bad, or right or wrong in your body. You may feel a heaviness or a lightness, depending on if it feels bad or good. How does it feel when you contemplate whether to:
   • Stay in your current job?
   • Stay in your line of work?
   • Change companies?
   • Open your own business?
   • Change your entire career to something new?
3. The How. Making it happen is sometimes the easiest part of the equation, when you use your intuitive guidance system to help you. Let's look at how you can get there by using a mix of your clairvoyance, your clairsentience, and your claircognizance, that intuitive ability to just know something you have no reason to know. You will also throw in some manifestation, because why not? Manifesting is the ability to create something out of nothing, or to bring about that which you've asked for from the universe to help you better yourself. And it's easier than you may think.
   • Allow yourself to relax, in a comfortable and non-disturbed space.
   • Breathe, and feel your body calming down as you focus on how your breath feels as it passes through your body. Inhale in positive energy around the new position, and exhale any negative thoughts you may have attached to what you are doing now but no longer like. Continue to focus on your breathing until you feel like you've let go of all negativity.
   • Now that you've discovered what it is you want to do, whether it's staying at your current place and moving up or making a complete change, it's time to manifest that. Focus on what your goal is, breathing it in and truly feeling yourself in that position. Imagine living your greatness, doing what makes you happy. See it, feel it, even hear any sounds associated with it by listening with your clairaudience or your intuitive hearing.
   • See, in your mind, the logistics of what having that new position would mean and the possible steps you need to accomplish it. For instance, if you are currently a lawyer but have always wanted to be a social worker, you need additional schooling. Focus on what the name of the college would be or how you'd take the classes—via in person or online, etc. Ask aloud who you need to talk to in order to move up or switch jobs in your current business (if that's what you want to do) and expect to hear or just know the answer. Based on what you have decided, there are many questions you can ask and expect to receive a response—though you may have to wait a day or two to get it or understand it.
   • Now comes the big ask. Ask the universe to put you on the path, soon, that will bring your desire, your vision, to fruition. Believe it can happen and that you will be presented with a variety of opportunities in the not-so-distant future. Then, and this is the hardest part, let it go. Know that it will happen if it is for your greatest good and don't try and figure out how it may come to be. Be present in your life—participating in it to help the universe manifest it. In other words, if you get a phone call from an employment agency asking if you want to change jobs, take the call. Or, if you see an opportunity to take a workshop or class that can increase your skills in the career you have or want, take it. Just because the universe is helping you to manifest it doesn't mean you sit it out. It simply means that you don't have to worry about how it will happen. And, thank the universe, and your spirit guides who are always around to assist you, for understanding and knowing what you want and what you need and bringing it to you.

Now that you've run through the steps, it's time to be realistic. You may not have felt 100% connected to all of the steps and everything you did. That is totally okay! Think of it like riding a bike for the first time without training wheels. It can feel a bit scary and make you uneasy; you're not quite sure how it will all come together or may even fear that you'll be able to do it at all. But, when you are able to let go of the fear and trust that you are born with natural instincts, you'll realize that you are meant to do this. Just like using your intuition—you are meant to succeed. And, as with using the training wheels, it's okay to take it slow. You will probably not be able to see or feel or know or hear everything immediately but be open to the possibility that you will receive information soon. Sometimes it will show up in the form of a sign or a synchronistic event within a day or two. Or it may come to you in a flash like a polaroid picture seemingly out of the blue or a song resonates with you in a way that makes you think it just may be an answer to what you're working on. Pay attention to these moments, these intuitive clues. Have faith that it is most likely the easiest way for you to recognize the intuitive information.

Using your intuition at work and in your personal life can bring you beyond where you are now in so many ways. Thinking of it as a tool in your toolbox of skills can help normalize it for you. It can increase your processing of information as well. Adding this tool to your intelligence, that you also work every day to increase and develop, helps you nourish your mind, body, and spirit. Changing your mindset to one of belief that there is a power within you that can help propel you to a place where you're tuning in on a regular basis instead of tuning out is the greatest gift you can give yourself. So accept it, in the midst of all of the chaos in the world, embrace your gifts. They are, after all, your birth right and are waiting for you to step into your intuitive power!

Article originally published in The Llewellyn Journal. Copyright Llewellyn Worldwide, 2021. All rights reserved.

I'm a psychic reader too, and I really respect your work. I have a question about how you ladies handle clients who come back to you time after time with the same basic problem. For example, I have a client who hates her job with a passion, and has for some four years now. I know that fear is holding her back from making a leap into something better, but I don't know how to help her create a breakthrough. Spirit offers her all sorts of great advice, but she's one of those people who always say, Yes, but... followed by why she can't act on the advice at this point in time. I often see this sort of thing in my work. What do you tell a client who comes back with the same problem month after month, year after year? I feel like she's wasting her money and my time, and I'm starting to think I should just tell her that she must not really want something new, or she'd have it by now! Thanks in advance for your advice.

- Celeste

Dreamchaser:

You hit the nail on the head with this one! Of course your client doesn't really want change, or she would have gotten it by now.

There are all kinds of reasons why people stay stuck. Most people just do not know how to get from point A to point Z, and they think that they need to have some grand plan all worked out before they start.

We readers need to remember to tell our clients that everyone who ever had a great idea did NOT know exactly how they were going to accomplish it at first - they just knew it was a good idea, and that they were going to do it.

Your client does not need to figure out the HOW or the WHEN, she just needs to focus on the WHAT. She has to choose what she actually wants in a job before anything will start to move for her.

When I bailed on corporate America and was asking the Universe for my own perfect job, I requested a situation where I could be a mom first, work at home, pay the bills and have some play money, and that is exactly what I got.

That is the point that your client has not yet grasped: She can't see HOW change will come to her, so even though she may wish for it, she doesn't actually believe that she can have it. Then she just manifests more experiences that reinforce her belief that she can't have what she wants.

She is also afraid of changing and failing, and she has come to define herself by this job, so she's not sure who she will be if she leaves it behind.

Celeste, you have to remember that you are not responsible for how your clients live their lives or any of the choices they make. All you can do is give them the messages you have for them and be there for them when they need you. You can't make anyone do anything they don't want to do.

Also, remember that if she wasn't talking to you, she could very well be talking to someone who is less responsible than you are, who may take advantage of her state of mind. She could potentially be targeted by someone who would take her money and not give her helpful, useful guidance because she is so desperate for change. You are doing her a good service by giving her your time and attention.

Her path is her path, and this struggle is part of that path. I agree that our goal is to get a client to where they are happy and prosperous on all levels, but if someone doesn't move forward, that doesn't mean you are a failure - it just means that they are stuck.

As I see it, those are the clients that need us the most. They need our strength, patience, love and concern for them. Yes, it can be maddening to see them spin their wheels for years and years. You do need to be frank with your clients, but in a very loving manner. They know when we are being truthful, and they appreciate our honesty.

I wish you peace with all your clients and reading experiences.

*****

Astrea:

If someone wants change, I can help. If someone wants to just emote, forget it! I have next to no tolerance for that.

It's hard to respect someone who is circling the drain and at the same time draining YOU. Also, once you begin to feel less respect for a person, can you really do your best work for them anymore?

If your client says they want something different than what they have, and doesn't change in a reasonable amount of time, they become a big waste of time and energy for YOU.

I have found that reading for people like this is a good way to lose your psychic gifts, so send them away to another responsible reader, and don't feel guilty about it.

When clients return time after time without making any progress or changes, I realize they're not really getting anything from me. I am not doing this work for the money only: I feel a deep obligation to every person who comes to me, and I want them to get what they're paying for. If that's for someone to just agree with them and nothing more, forget it.

On the other side of this issue is the person who simply needs to talk to someone who won't judge them for their true thoughts and feelings. We all need that sort of understanding sometimes.

Of course, I've never been the sort of person to gently tell anyone ANYTHING. Since I'm a Sag, I'm naturally blunt and outspoken, and it's cost me many a psychic reading client. If someone just wants to hear how wonderful they are and how awful everyone else is, I'm not the reader for them.

Sadly, there are hundreds of fake readers out there who will tell a person anything he or she wants to hear over and over, just to take their money. I can't do it. I think it's WRONG. Those people who don't really want to change can find someone to listen to them babble on for a price, but it won't be me.

I can't count the times I've said, I am NOT helping you! and BLIP - I never see that person again. Whose loss is that, really? I think it's theirs, because they had a sincere reader who was poised and ready to help, and they threw that assistance right back.

We can't do anything to change another person's life, and the people who come to us with the same problems year after year are simply complaining to us because none of their friends will listen to them anymore. They have to pay us to do that because no one else is interested.

Those people bore the daylights out of me, and if you're smart, you'll cut them loose. They don't respect you; you're just the help - a psychic servant. Don't fall into that role! Someone will replace them who really wants a reading and truly needs your help. Make room for the people who really want to create positive change in their lives, and drop the dead weight.

You never know - you dropping those stuck clients may be just what they need to see the light.

Astrea:

Many times in life we hear, "You will always have what you NEED, but not necessarily what you WANT." Your spirit must have needed to experience the feeling of leaving your human body, and the suggestion in the next chapter of Sylvia Brown's book was all it took to get you there.

Even though you hadn't read it yet, your SOUL recognized the title of that chapter as something it had been seeking, and your soul, knowing that you had that reference to read after your experience, got with it and out you went!

While I don't usually recommend her books, Sylvia Brown has a wide reaching and powerful effect on lots of people. A Gemini like you would be able to relate easily to her writing and put it to good use. Synchronicity - you gotta love it!

I like your description of "getting caught." That's exactly what it feels like, isn't it? One minute you're free and hovering above the room, and the next minute, ZAP! back down into your corporeal form you go!

As a little kid, I loved that "feeling of return." With practice, most of the time we can control that event, but sometimes, when our physical ears hear a distracting noise or something else occurs to knock us back into reality, back we go. With practice you will be able to control your return better.

I find it interesting that you were visiting your mother-in-law and not someone in your own genetic family. Evidently, you and your husband got married for reasons that are even deeper than love. His family's interest in "psychic stuff" will nurture your children in such matters and help them to grow into their own abilities.

You'll never have to be concerned that when your daughter visits them, she'll be discouraged from exploring her own psychic life and power. My parents encouraged me to develop my psychic senses in a time when it wasn't nice to even discuss such things in public. Heck, it's STILL not considered a great topic at the dinner table in some families!

Your kids will get to talk about it ALL and ask questions and read and study. This is going to give them such an edge in life! Talk with your husband about how you want to present this to your kiddos, so that you are united in your approach and ready to tell them their experiences are all natural and okay.

A word or two of warning: Geminis often have difficulty staying grounded in REAL LIFE. Don't get so strung out on your ASTRAL life that you neglect what you're doing here on Earth.

You are at the beginning of a long journey to learn where your power really lies. Try to be patient with this process and take your time.