Amy is a status quo challenger who’s been intuitively reading energy since she saw a yogi floating outside her classroom window at age 7. She’s a public speaker, writer, and founder of the Wisdom Gathering, an event for the deep thinkers, the secretly sensitive, and those seeking to gain inspiration and clarity through self-discovery and intuition.
Amy Vasterling
In Amy’s Own Words
I speak frequently about Intuition, The Highly Sensitive personality-type or how the future looks. I bring all of this to a very human level and shy away from typical spiritual thinking sharing my unique way of seeing things. My ideas are conceived via watching patterns in my clients and our world. For over 20 years I’ve been tracking these patterns (complexity science) to bring a core message about the importance of following one’s own knowing.
Lastly, I am a fun and energetic person and speaker. I was critiqued by the 2007 National Speaker Association President Mark Leblanc in 2019. His response to my speech snippet was “I want to sit in the front row. You are by nature a magnetizing speaker. You’re going to go all the way in speaking, Amy!”
This has been an extremely full week for me with college club meetings, teaching and podcast tasks. I’m of two minds about being busy. On the one hand, I like being with people. On the other hand, it’s emotionally and physically taxing to be in crowds. I find it exhausting. Which means I need down time in between to recharge. In all honesty, I don’t know how I worked full-time with little time for relaxation.
This is something I’ve struggled with my entire life, balancing being busy with the right amount of time to recharge. I haven’t figured it out yet. But these times of intense activity make me appreciate the lull times more. Next week might afford me some time to relax.
How do you balance your work/leisure life?
I wish I had time to write a longer post, but I’m off to another meeting this afternoon.
Until next week …
I hope you get the proper balance of activity and rest this weekend.
Lucinda is the author of The Space Between Time, an award finalist in the “Fiction: Fantasy” category of the 2017 Best Book Awards.
Have you ever experienced life shattering events? Yeah, most of us have. In The Space Between Time, Jenna Holden gets slammed by her fiancé walking out, her mother’s untimely death, and losing her job all in one week. But she receives unexpected help when she finds her three-times great-grandmother’s journals and begins the adventure of a lifetime.
The Space Between Time is available in all ebook formats at Smashwords and for Kindle at Amazon, or you can find the ebook at iBooks or Barnes and Noble. If you prefer a physical copy, you can find a print-on-demand version at Amazon. Stay tuned for news when the audiobook version is published.
Lucinda is also the host of Story-Power a new podcast where she and her guests discuss the stories in all formats that have changed their lives. It’s available here on Sage Woman Chronicles and on Apple, Google, and Spotify podcast apps. Please rate and leave a review. It helps people find me.
I don’t know about you but I’m so tired of toxic masculinity and I’m praying it’s on it’s last legs. There are hopeful signs that it is. The end of the Afghan War is just one of them. There are so many naysayers about ending the war but there are supporters as well. I won’t go into all the political ramifications of that one situation. But the fears that the Taliban will take revenge on the population did get me thinking about toxic masculinity.
There are too many other toxic groups and individuals to name here. You probably know some within your family, at work, or school in any case.
Here’s my list of what a toxic person looks like, because women can display these traits as well.
No matter what the endeavor, toxic people have to win at all costs. This can, and most likely do, involve the use of violence, physical and/or emotional. They thrive on conflict.
They employ a double standard when it comes to rules. One set for others, that they try to control, and one for themselves.
They think they are meant to dominate over everyone and everything within their purview and they think this dominance is a God given right.
They cry that their freedoms are being taken away when their dominance over everything is challenged.
They have little regard for the plight of others. They want to end up with all the wealth, toys, etc. As long as they are comfortable that’s all that matters.
They expect everyone to adjust their behavior so that their sense of wellbeing is protected.
They can say any outrageous thing they want to anyone else, but if someone challenges their point of view, they end the discussion.
There are probably a lot more toxic traits I could name and that you can think of but you get the idea.
To me, at their core, toxic people are deeply afraid, and maybe even wounded. But their behavior can also just be part of their personality type.
Years ago I read a fascinating article about the difference between Alpha and Omega men. I think it was published in Psychology Today but you can type “Alpha vs Omega male” into your search engine and find lots of articles about the different male personality types with varying takes on which type is best.LovePanky.com is one that carries an article written by Dr. Carol Morgan. It closely resembles the article I read all those years ago.
The descriptions of Alpha males I wrote above were pretty close to the article I read. But as I recall the article was posing the idea that Omega males are much more powerful and more needed than their counterparts.
An Omega male has some similar traits to the Alpha. For example, they are confident, but they don’t need to be at the head of the pack. They can lead just as well from the back. Their confidence comes from some inner strength rather than accolades from outside.
They don’t go along with the crowd, but they don’t shout about it so everyone notices. They just do what they want and don’t care what anyone thinks about it.
While most Alpha males are extroverts, Omegas are most likely introverts. Being alone to recharge helps them come up with creative and innovative ideas.
Omega’s are kind, compassionate, and empathetic. They prefer deep relationships rather than being the center of attention. They are genuinely interested in what other people think and feel.
They don’t have big egos which means they can pay attention to other people and their needs.
As I’ve written before, I’ve been blessed to know lots of Omega males within my family and among my friends. And I can say that being around them is relaxing and even nurturing. While Alpha males make me feel tired at the least extreme and angry at the most extreme, I don’t associate with them if I can help it. It’s too exhausting.
Maybe it’s the worship of the Alpha/toxic male type that I wish would die out. There are so many different types of people with different kinds of talents. We need to come out of being hypnotized into thinking that only one personality type is valuable and can make good leaders.
My ultimate hope is that men and women can begin to honor each other and work together better, (and put Alpha males in their proper place).
It’s been a busy week for me. I’m glad to have a few days off to rest and recuperate before the next busy week begins.
Blessings to you all. Thanks for your support of this blog and my podcast. I appreciate it very much.
Lucinda is the author of The Space Between Time, an award finalist in the “Fiction: Fantasy” category of the 2017 Best Book Awards.
Have you ever experienced life shattering events? Yeah, most of us have. In The Space Between Time, Jenna Holden gets slammed by her fiancé walking out, her mother’s untimely death, and losing her job all in one week. But she receives unexpected help when she finds her three-times great-grandmother’s journals and begins the adventure of a lifetime.
The Space Between Time is available in all ebook formats at Smashwords and for Kindle at Amazon, or you can find the ebook at iBooks or Barnes and Noble. If you prefer a physical copy, you can find a print-on-demand version at Amazon. Stay tuned for news when the audiobook version is published.
Lucinda is also the host of Story-Power a new podcast where she and her guests discuss the stories in all formats that have changed their lives. It’s available here on Sage Woman Chronicles and on Apple, Google, and Spotify podcast apps. Please rate and leave a review. It helps people find me.
Teacher, dad and talker. I tend to over analyze children’s media and I’m absolutely fascinated, excited and a little scared for where the next generation of story tellers are taking us.
Stories Can Help Us Navigate the World
Harry Potter series, J.K. Rowling, Movies various directors and screenwriters, those mentioned, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
Toy Story (1995) John Lasseter, Director, Original story John Lasseter, Pete Doctor, Andrew Stanton, Joe Ranft, Directors, Joss Whedon, screenwriter and three others
Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood, Scarlett Wing
The Little Mermaid (1989) Ron Clements and John Musker, Directors, Story by Hans Christian Anderson, John Musker, Ron Clements, Screenwriters and 4 additional contributors
Superman, DC Comics June 1938, Original Creators, Jerry Siegel, and Joe Shuster, Later, Wayne Boring, (1978) Richard Donner, Director, Mario Puzo, and 4 other Screenwriters
Mickey Mouse, Created by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks, 1928
Wonder Woman DC Comics, October 21, 1941, Created by William Moulton Marston and H. G. Peter
Dracula, Bram Stoker published 1897, multiple play and movie adaptations
West Side Story (1961) Robert Wise, Jerome Robbins, Directors, Ernest Lehman, Screenwriter, based on Romeo and Juliet, William Shakespeare
Ben Hur (1959) Novel, General Lew Wallace, William Wyler, Director, Karl Tunberg and 4 other Screenwriters
Superman Bus Light Superman Birthright, (Korean Edition) Mark Wade
Man of Steel (2013) Zack Snyder, Director, David S. Goyer, Screenwriter
“All matter originates and exists only by virtue of a force … We must assume behind this force the existence of a conscious and intelligent Mind. This Mind is the matrix of all matter.” ~ Max Planck, Theoretical Physicist
“When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.” ~ Wayne Dyer
The world is in so much turmoil right now that I feel squeezed and pummeled by all the bad news. I long for something good to happen and I know I’m not alone in that. We wait for something good to happen but it feels like it never does and we fall into despair. But what if we could orchestrate the change we want to see? What if instead of dwelling on all the negative, we sat for a few minutes every day daydreaming about a better future?
I got this idea from a NPR post on Instagram. Dr. Srini Pillay, author of Tinker Dabble Doodle Try: Unlock The Power Of The Unfocused Mind,” believes that 20 minutes of daydreaming helps improve our focus. He believes that we must leave time every day for “positive constructive daydreaming.” He may be thinking of how to help us maintain good focus throughout the day; I want to use daydreaming in a different way.
If you’ve been reading this blog for any length of time, you know that I’m all for thinking positively and seeing the world, and all of us upon it, as moving to a more loving harmonious way of being. But we can’t get there unless we change the way we look at the world. To paraphrase Einstein, insanity is doing the same thing over and over expecting to get a different result. We can’t moan and complain and get depressed by the state of the world and expect things to get better. We have to start visualizing the world we’d like to live in.
I feel deep in my bones that Max Planck was right. There is an Intelligent Mind behind the force of existence and I also feel that we are all a part of that Intelligent Mind. It’s all of our minds linked together and something even greater we are a part of that creates the world in which we live. But right now the greater mind is very fragmented creating chaos.
Yes, but I’m only one person, you say. Yeah, I used to think that too. What can I do? I’m just one person. But as I’ve contemplated that question over the years I’ve gotten little snippets of insight from books I’ve read and spiritual teachers I’ve listened to. I’ve had moments of clarity in my meditation or moments of daydreaming. We’re all made up of energy and if we combine our energy we can influence events. If we want to change the world for the better, we have to do a couple of key things. First, we have to believe we CAN change the world. We have know that our efforts matter.
Second, after we put in our order of what we want, we let the Intelligent Mind do the work. We practice what the Buddhists call non-attachment. To me one important aspect of non-attachment is letting go of the need to control the outcome. It’s trusting the process, that what I’m envisioning will come about one day. It may not be in my lifetime, but it will happen.
Think of the Abolitionists and the Suffragists. They combined their efforts to change our society for the better. The original people who started those movements are no long with us, but their hopes and dreams grew and drew in other people to their cause. And even though we still have lots of work to do, much has been accomplished because of the efforts of many thousands of people working toward the common goals of equality for blacks and women.
It feels so daunting to change the flow of history. But we can’t get discouraged. We have to find our place in the grander scheme. Some of us who want a better world will be on the front lines. Others of us will support them by doing little things like being kind to those around us, or by supporting worthy institutions with our money, or just daydreaming and envisioning the better world we all hope for.
I don’t know about you, but I’d rather be working toward a better world than wallowing in despair. Daydreaming helps, but also rather than dwelling on the sensational negative news, I look for hopeful signs of positive change. The positive news helps keep me focused on the world I want to create.
I amazed to announce that this is my 501st blog post. It’s hard to believe I’ve been posting since 2013. I write these posts mostly to get clarity for myself, but I’m happy you have joined me here. I plan to keep writing. I hope you keep reading.
Lucinda is the author of The Space Between Time, an award finalist in the “Fiction: Fantasy” category of the 2017 Best Book Awards.
Have you ever experienced life shattering events? Yeah, most of us have. In The Space Between Time, Jenna Holden gets slammed by her fiancé walking out, her mother’s untimely death, and losing her job all in one week. But she receives unexpected help when she finds her three-times great-grandmother’s journals and begins the adventure of a lifetime.
The Space Between Time is available in all ebook formats at Smashwords and for Kindle at Amazon, or you can find the ebook at iBooks or Barnes and Noble. If you prefer a physical copy, you can find a print-on-demand version at Amazon. Stay tuned for news when the audiobook version is published.
Lucinda is also the host of Story-Power a new podcast where she and her guests discuss the stories in all formats that have changed their lives. It’s available here on Sage Woman Chronicles and on Apple, Google, and Spotify podcast apps. Please rate and leave a review. It helps people find me.
Sage Woman Chronicles 