By Ellen Brenner, Certified Aromatherapist

Almost exactly two years ago, this happened:

I got in the car, turned it on and this was the odometer exactly. I could have missed it, or I could have been driving. But, that wasn’t the case. I believe the image was there to get my attention.

Up until this point, I had been seeking answers about certain life situations, but I had been spinning a bit.

The opportunity of witnessing the odometer turn to a perfect 100,000 hit me like a ton of bricks. My immediate thought was “what am I supposed to know from this?” You see, I don’t believe in coincidences. I do believe in messages. More on that in a moment.

After a gut check, I experienced an internal knowing with a sense of certainty. And, I later shared that what came through to me in this blog:

100,000 Miles In the Rearview Mirror

Essentially, the message was a much needed reminder to remain mindful in the moment. Not staying present to what is happening was hindering me from moving forward. Though I had been seeking answers, with my mind fixed on either the past or the future, I was missing out the many signposts that had been placed before me in the present.

 

Tuning In To The Message

We talk about asking for Divine inspiration, and we discuss soul searching for answers. But, what if we don’t recognize the information when it comes to us? What if it isn’t always the dramatic “aha” moments we hear about in stories and see in the movies? What if, instead, we are given gentle little signs placed along the path to help guide us along our way? This way of reaching awareness requires a sense of recognition to receive the information.

Most faith traditions and spiritual belief systems teach we are all connected to some form of higher consciousness. And, we tap into this higher connection through mindful practices of introspection such as meditation and prayer. When we can quiet the mind and keep our spirit open, our source of higher information and our sense of innate wisdom can remain connected creating a clear channel of communication.

Calming our conscious mind allows us to hear our soul speak. And, unlike learned information associated with our mind, our innate wisdom, or intuition, is often felt in our gut. It’s what many refer to as the Sixth Sense. And, what Deepak Chopra calls our “inner GPS.”  That little voice that may be telling us something so strongly, and yet many of us fail to heed to it because faith requires action without external proof.

That was me. A decade ago, I was so disconnected from my own intuition that I didn’t trust anything I couldn’t touch, taste, see or smell. Not only did I not trust my gut, I didn’t even acknowledge its existence.

Then the accident happened. And, when you experience significant trauma, it can crack you wide open. In the process of repair, the pieces don’t necessarily fit back together in the way they bound you in before. But, you can choose to restore in a way that is not only new to you, but renews how you move through the world.

Because I wanted to heal as much as possible, I opened my self to new possibilities. This is when I began learning how to reconnect with my own inner wisdom through my healing process, as well as informal and formal learning.

 

When Life Gives You Elevens

While I was learning to reconnect with my own innate wisdom, I still struggled with trusting what I felt to be true. So, I began asking for signs. Signs for answers and signs for affirmation. In retrospect, I was receiving them, but I didn’t recognize them.

Until one day, something got my attention. Everywhere I looked, I kept seeing 11:11.

It was flashing on clocks, grocery receipts, dining out totals and more. I wasn’t looking for it. It just kept being there over and over again for days and weeks. It was a bombardment of 11’s and it got my attention. So, I asked a friend who knew a little something about numerology what it meant. And, rather than tell me his interpretation, he suggested I look it up and see if the meaning resonated with me in any way.

There are many ways to interpret the messages in repetitive and sequential numbers. But, the meaning that spoke to me personally is through the approach by Doreen Virtue, who sees numerical signs as a gentle response from the angels. And, in this particular practice, the 11’s represent a reminder to keep your thoughts focused on positive outcomes because things are materializing rapidly. I think of this as “Gates are opening. Mind you your thoughts as you enter to keep to the positive path.”[1]

Because this resonated so profoundly for me, it opened my mind to messages all around me. While I do now have a daily practice of meditation, it is indeed a practice. And, so, like everyone else, I often need reminders to remain mindful as I go about the business of being busy at times.

To this day, when I see a series of the same repetitive numbers for a day, days, or weeks, I realize that I  need to look up the message and see if it has meaning for me. And, it always does. Right on the money. Right when I needed it most. In perfect response to my requests for higher information.

Fast forward to two years later. I had reached another time of significant transition. It required some major decisions for forward movement. And, again, I was seeking insightful guidance.

 

And, now this: Life was giving me elevens again!As I got back in the car after running the first of two errands, I looked down and was presented with a perfect set of 11’s. Wowza! It felt like a bolt of lightening once again. A series of elevens in a seriously significant way, which most certainly got my attention as if someone had shouted at me.

I sat there for a moment, processing another profound message. “Mind my thoughts. Gates are opening.”

This is so important for me because changes, even those that are good and exciting, can make me nervous and create a tendency to focus on everything that could possibly go wrong.

And, as you can imagine, that can trip me up on the path of moving forward until I can get my mind back to a place where I am focused on positive outcomes. So, I just sat there for minutes soaking this in.

Up until that point, for the past few days, my mind had been spinning a bit even with my meditation practice. I am still a work in progress in mastering my mind, but I can definitively say trusting my own inner wisdom has yet to steer me wrong. My biggest growth points and transitions have been based on leaps of faith. But, that faith came from a strong sense of trust in what I was feeling, rather than what my mind was telling me, and an awareness and recognition between the two.

So, when life gives me elevens, or other repetitive sequences, I pay attention. I don’t think there is any magic in the numbers. I just believe in our busy world, where we may be disconnected from a sense of higher consciousness, we are offered messages as affirmations and attention getters as a way to support our own intuition no matter how far along we are in our practice of tuning inward.

The important thing is that if you feel something is trying to get your attention, you might wish to tune in, take a look at it and see if it feels true to you. This takes an open mind, which in this case, also literally means a practice of calming and clearing your thoughts so you are reception ready in the seat of your own inner knowing without getting drowned out by the mental chatter.

 

Clearing the Channels with Aromatherapy

Aromatherapy makes an amazing ally both for quieting the mind, and for helping us to open to higher information.   Not only does it help me expand the experience, it also can help create a short cut of sorts to clear through the mental clutter more quickly because of how readily it interacts with the mind and resonates with the spirit.

Here are a few specific synergies you may wish to try with your own practices of introspection for the purpose of reaching higher information. For this approach, I believe they work best by inhalation. You can add these to your diffuser, or triple the recipe and add to your personal aromatherapy inhaler.

 

Ready Made Synergies

Higher Connection – from Plant Therapy’s Chakra Synergy Line.  You can select as an undiluted synergy, or you can choose or in pre-diluted roller bottles. You can buy each synergy separately, or as a set.

Higher Connection was created to help bring balance to our Crown Chakra. The 7th (Crown) Chakra connects us to a higher state of consciousness and self-knowledge encouraging us to reach our higher self. This synergy can help strengthen our purpose and ability to connect to higher spiritual consciousness. It invites pure, radiant, and joyful energy allowing connection with greater self-knowledge and our higher selves.

KidSafe®: Yes

Cautions: None Known

 

Synergies to Blend Yourself

 

Master Meditation

• 2 drops Buddha Wood Eremophila mitchellii
• 1 drop Elemi Canarium luzonicum
• 1 drop Frankincense Carteri CO2 Boswellia carteri
• 1 drop Palo Santo Bursera graveolens

This is a powerful synergy of sacred oils traditionally used to open the mind, heart and spirit. I like to use this blend to help find divine answers to what my soul needs to know when I feel a block. First, I set an intention, then inhale, and then call on the power of a higher consciousness to ask what I need to know as I descend into a deeper state of meditation. This leaves  my mind calm and my spirit open so I can connect to my sense of sacred innate wisdom.

KidSafe®: No

Cautions: For Palo Santo, we recommend a maximum dilution of 3% for topical applications.

 

 Meditation of the Magi

•  2 drops Davana Artemisia pallens
• 2 drops Myrrh Commiphora myrrha
• 1 drop Frankincense Carteri CO2 Boswellia carteri

The aromatics of the essences in this synergy have been used throughout time in sacred ceremonies across many spiritual traditions. This synergy is calming to the conscious mind while supporting introspection, meditation and prayer, and restoration of our mind, body, and spirit. These essences can support us in strengthening our spiritual selves through connection to higher consciousness and higher information while keeping us grounded in our bodies

KidSafe®: No

Cautions: Avoid during breastfeeding and pregnancy.

 

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References:

[1] Virtue, Doreen. Angel Numbers 101: the Meaning of 111, 123, 444, and Other Number Sequences. Hay House, Inc., 2011.