Every Thursday, I provide simple tips to help you create more pauses — with a generous sprinkling of humor — in 5 minutes or less.

Universal Nudges

As I promised in my last post, here are my seven lessons learned from the past seven days.

The lesson I've chosen to highlight from above is this: when you’re feelin’ yourself…pay attention.

In other words…

You hear birds chirping. The warmth of the sunlight coming through your window calms you. A long-lost friend you thought about the other day happens to reach out.

These are nudges of the universe, and they’re happening all the time.

Often, we're too preoccupied to notice them.

But when you’re in that flow state? When nothing can stop you? When you’re feelin’ yourself?

Pay attention.

When all is going well, it’s much easier to practice listening to the universe. Begin to learn this language during the easier times in your life, and it will be simpler to understand when times are tougher.

Ways to pay attention to the universe

The short answer is to simply pay attention as often as you can. This can be challenging.

Fortunately, as Laura Lynne Jackson touches on in Signs: The Secret Language of the Universe, the universe loves to put on performances when communicating with us.

For instance, the night after my Papa passed away, witnessing a beautiful scene of dolphins at play in the sunset felt like a message from him. Dolphins became our Sign. I asked the universe for a black and yellow dolphin, as Papa’s beloved sports teams were all black and yellow. Five days later—and I surely would have missed this had I not been open to receiving it—I biked by this:

Another common method of symbolic communication is angel numbers. Angel numbers are repeating number sequences. The universe loves numbers. It is numbers.

When I see an angel number (e.g. 1:11 pm, license plate 7PJB777, Tracking No. 333487333) I've developed the habit of immediately journaling about the most significant thing going on for me at that moment. I then add a tally to my Angel Number Counter, and in doing so get to re-read all my most important nudges.

Here’s my Angel Number Counter to date:

Connect with people! Be present and don’t stress about time! Know when to move on!

Do any of these nudges ring true for you? I’d love to hear your thoughts and experiences.

😄 Funny Business

📊 Community Poll

Results for last week’s question: When you're in a store with a shopping cart, how often do you ride it around?

I’m very happy to see most of us are finding joy in the mundane. This is literally free fun!

On to this week’s question.

To clarify what I’m asking…by “other names” I’m referring to a nickname(s). For example, I very rarely call my partner Morgan “Morgan”. I usually call her Boobies (or Boob for short). We’re both Boobs.

Similarly, a friend and reader of this newsletter goes by “Mookie" to their partner, who goes by “Pookie” to them.

So…

"Everything is interconnected, and the web is holy; none of its parts are unconnected. They are all coordinated and all work together to the same end." - Marcus Aurelius