by Nick Polizzi: Have you ever noticed certain patterns in your life that keep happening over and over again?
Maybe it’s a number. Like when you see 11:11 on a clock multiple times in a week, for example. Maybe it’s the repeated mention of a book or song.
One of our team members, Bonnie, was recently contacted by three different friends who had encountered a live bear in the wild – separately – in three different states. At first, she thought, “Oh, how interesting—the spirit of the bear is trying to reach that person…and that one too.”
It wasn’t until the third sighting that Bonnie experienced the “Aha!” moment.
When she finally sat with it, her intuition took over and gave her the full scoop. She had been so busy in the hustle and bustle of city life that there was no way for the bear spirit to find her via a run-in with an actual bear. So instead, it touched her through her friends.
Bonnie then dug into the native wisdom surrounding the bear archetype and realized there was a vital message in what she had experienced. To many northern tribes, the bear represents power and the hunt (amongst other things) – which she was in sore need of right now, as a new life calling had recently found her. She had taken one bold step toward this dream when her bout of bear synchronicity occurred – seemingly showing her that she was on the right path.
We hear of coincidences like this all the time. So often in fact, that we sometimes sweep them under the rug and go about our lives as if they never happened.
But are we missing out on something sacred? A momentary beacon of understanding from a higher power, perhaps?
The prominent Swiss psychiatrist, Carl Jung, coined the term synchronicity a century ago, believing strongly that we are all intimately connected via a collective universal consciousness. While the term has stuck around, many scientists believe this is just a trick our mind is playing on us via a tendency referred to as confirmation bias.
The gist of this second theory is that the human mind has a knack for seeing designs and making connections in seemingly random patterns. For example, if you subconsciously think bear energy is important, you might begin to notice bears more, even though your daily exposure to these majestic beasts is the same as it always is.
The shamans we work with would tend to agree with Carl Jung, viewing synchronicity as a cosmic sign that you’re headed in the right direction. Personally speaking, the “s” word springs up all over the place when I’m being true to myself and it dries up immediately if I step out of alignment.
What do you believe?
Are these unusual and unexplainable patterns really the universe’s way of trying to communicate with us? When we see something over and over again, is it a message for us to pay closer attention to the infinite amount of information that is right in front of us, just waiting to be acknowledged?
All I know is this – there is something deeply reassuring when these divine beacons show up in your life. It reminds you that our species really knows so little about the complex inner workings of this reality. And anything is possible.
In the spirit of bringing more synchronicity and sacred connection into our lives, I wanted to share a few ways to get clear and make space for more of it to happen.
3 Synchronicity Secrets
1. Remove the word “coincidence” from your vocabulary. If you think of something simply as a coincidence and not divinely tailored for you, you will not look for its deeper meaning, and then the messages may stop coming if they keep falling on deaf ears.
2. Be willing to put something out there to the universe. Maybe a dream or a goal. These are often the times when you’re most open and present. Perhaps all of this is somehow tied to inspiration—which may be a form of synchronicity. For example, when we start creating a new project, we almost have to open ourselves up and start trusting the universe to help bring this thing forward, which helps open the floodgates of synchronistic messages. It’s almost like the universe is telling us, “Okay, now that you’re going to put this out there, you need to start paying attention.”
3. Follow your inspiration. The next time you feel at all curious about something, don’t question it. Take one step forward and see what happens next.
Try the above for a few weeks, and pay close attention. You might find yourself suddenly flooded with all sorts of magical, wonderful synchronicity.
“All of us, whether or not we are warriors, have a cubic centimeter of chance that pops out in front of our eyes from time to time. The difference between an average man and a warrior is that the warrior is aware of this, and one of his tasks is to be alert, deliberately waiting, so that when his cubic centimeter pops out he has the necessary speed, the prowess, to pick it up.”
