Daydreaming with God Archives

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Living in Flow: Being Well Used by God

Posted on November 17, 2015 by Andrea Hylen Leave a comment

Day 48 of 100 days of Blogging

One of the things on my ongoing list of 100 desires is to, “Be Well Used by God.” I ask God to show me all that I must do. This desire is a driving force in my life.

Questions I ask myself:

*What am I excited about?

*What are my dreams showing me?

*What skills and talents do I have that I am not using?

*What intuitive clues, signs, and people are crossing my path?

*What topics are my clients most interested in learning about from me?

*What skills and talents are my unique expression and how can I use them more?

I spend time noticing, listening and meditating. I Daydream with God about the possibilities. Then, I take inspired action and assess the feelings and notice the impact.

There is a song we sing every week at Agape International Spiritual Center in Los Angeles describes that feeling and the desire of wanting to Be Used Well by God. It helps me to stay in touch with this desire, to feel it in my body, to cultivate the longing and yearning and live in the flow of being in this space…waiting…ready…able…

Use me, oh God,

I stand for you

And here I’ll abide as you

Show me all that I must do.

…Needing us to shine it’s light as me, as you.

Command my hands.

What must they do.

Command my life.

It’s here for you…

Show me, all that I must do.

Are you being well used by God?

What does that look like?

Share with us in the comments.

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Andrea Hylen at Agape in Los Angeles

Andrea Hylen believes in the power of our voice to usher in a new world. She is the founder of Heal My Voice, an organization that inspires women and men to heal a story, reclaim personal power and step into greater leadership. Andrea discovered her unique gifts while parenting three daughters and learning to live life fully after the deaths of her brother, son and husband. In addition to serving as Heal My Voice’s Executive Director, Andrea is an Orgasmic Meditation Teacher and Sexuality Coach.

She is following her intuition as she collaborates with women and men in organizations and travels around the world speaking, teaching and leading workshops. Her passion is authentically living life and supporting others in doing the same. To connect with Andrea and learn about current projects go to: www.andreahylen.com and www.healmyvoice.org.

Posted in Daydreaming with God

Recess: Taking time to Play

Posted on October 31, 2015 by Andrea Hylen Leave a comment

Day 31 of 100 days of Blogging

“We all need a little bit of a recess. It’s a necessity and we’ve been treating it like a luxury.” @TempleCLA‘s Hirsh-Pasek to @NBCNews

I cut this quote out of a Temple University Alumni report and it ended up on my co-creative vision board for the month of October. At the beginning of the new year, I create a series of pages to give me some insight into the 12 months of the year. Randomly reaching into a bag of words and expressions cut out of magazines, I close my eyes and ask for guidance for the month of ____________. I do that for every month to create a year of inspiration. It is one of the ways I Daydream with God.

So, here is this random quote during the month of October which has reflected to me a week of play in New York for my birthday and my granddaughter’s birthday, a weekend in Pennsylvania leading a workshop on Tuning into Deeper Listening with an afternoon at the Grotto and now a week of pet sitting with a sweet doggie named Hattie. The messages all month is to stop and PLAY! Play with laughter, community potluck in New York, walking in beautiful, sacred places, playing music and dancing, sweet conversations over pots of coffee. Pausing to look at the moon, the changing seasons, listen to the birds and PLAY!

I think the little doggie, Hattie, was put on the planet to remind us all to play. Hanging out in the backyard, she brings the ball to me over and over with a commanding bark to throw it. Tearing through piles of leaves falling from the trees all week, she skids to a stop to grab the ball with her teeth while quickly turning to make a beeline back to me. Dropping the ball and barking, AGAIN, AGAIN!

Occasionally the sight of a fallen tree branch or the wind blowing the leaves will halt her ball retrieving as she explores the thing that is right in front of her. Running towards me at a full on gallop with ears flapping and a mouth stretched full of a yellow tennis ball. No agenda other than PLAY!

I have been reflecting on how much value we give productivity and how little we value the power of play in our society. The common question of Doing. What are you DOing tonight, this weekend, for the holidays? What do you DO for work? I notice there is still a part of me that feels like I have to have something tangible to prove my worth on the planet. I don’t have the answer for that right now. Just an awareness and keeping it visible as an exploration.

Spending the week with Hattie has me letting go of figuring anything out and just playing. Throwing the ball. Taking walks. Pausing to watch the leaves falling off the trees. Looking at the moon. Sitting in the backyard with a cup of coffee. Filling up with the simple pleasure of being.

And sometimes jumping up on my lap and showering me with wet, juicy dog kisses is more important than throwing the ball.

Hattie reminding me to play also reminds me to love and be loved. Now, shut up and kiss me!

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Andrea Hylen believes in the power of our voice to usher in a new world. She is the founder of Heal My Voice, an organization that inspires women and men to heal a story, reclaim personal power and step into greater leadership. Andrea discovered her unique gifts while parenting three daughters and learning to live life fully after the deaths of her brother, son and husband. In addition to serving as Heal My Voice’s Executive Director, Andrea is an Orgasmic Meditation Teacher and Sexuality Coach.

Posted in Daydreaming with God, Living in Flow

Deeper Listening: Grotto of Our Lady of Lourdes

Posted on October 28, 2015 by Andrea Hylen Leave a comment

Day 28 of 100 days of blogging

At the Warrior Women’s Empowerment and Wellness Retreat last weekend, we had time for contemplation of questions during a Discovery Walk. The National Shrine Grotto of Our Lady of Lourdes devoted to Our Mother Mary in Emmitsburg, Maryland was a short 15 minute drive from the retreat center so it seemed like the perfect time to visit.

The words on the Grotto website: It is a beacon of light, hope, courage and inspiration for those who visit this sacred spot.

http://msmary.edu/grotto/index.html

It was a gorgeous fall day and I spent the afternoon in silence. Deeper Listening. Emptying myself. Reflecting. There were no big AHA’s or revelations. Sometimes in the process of deeper listening, we just need a space to be. To give time and space for digestion and integration of all of the thoughts and signs and input around us. I drank from the Holy Grotto water, walked in silence and reverence with the hundreds of people who were kneeling, praying, and on a pilgrimage for healing and sat in the chapel in silent meditation for 30 minutes.

There is a powerful, sacred energy at the Grotto, a place that honors Mary who has appeared in different apparitions around the world. Different cultures. Different ethnicity. All with the energy of love.

Some of the Shrines:

Our Lady of Guadalupe

Our Lady of LaVang

Our Lady of Lourdes

Padre Pio

For some reason, you were drawn to this blogpost today. I encourage you to sit with the energy that was captured in the photos. Let the love and healing wash over you today. I invite you to share your personal insights and requests for prayer in the comments.

Blessings to you all.

And a bonus. A song by Rickie Byars Beckwith, Agape Spiritual Center:

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Posted in Daydreaming with God

WEEK 1- Tools for Dreaming, Open to Inspiration: Step 1- Listen to your Heart

Posted on January 8, 2010 by Andrea Hylen Leave a comment

This is a follow-up blog to my first USTREAM show: Open to Inspiration. It is a written list of the ideas and the tools I presented with a few more details.

The first step is Listen to Your Heart. On the first show, I am encouraging you to create an environment to dream and listen to your heart. Your heart is filled with thoughts, desires, longing, ideas, wishes and dreams. This month, we are spending time visioning, dreaming and listening. If you have done this before, inspire yourself to dream again and again. Expand on your dreams. Allow the ideas to flow and take you to your highest good.

You are on an adventure with yourSelf! And this is forever. Dreams continue to evolve and grow along with you.

To stimulate the environment of dreaming, get some magazines. You can buy them or find people who are finished with old magazines (friends, neighbors, Dr’s office) You can borrow them from the library for daydreaming (no cutting the library magazines!) Find pictures and words on the internet. Scrap booking stickers are great, too. Sometimes you can find stickers with pages of inspiring words.

Look for articles, pictures and words that are interesting to you or make you feel good. You may even have a physical response to some of the things in the magazine. Curiosity, familiarity, joy, excitement, wonderment. Sometimes I find that my heart will do a flip flop or the palms of hands will start tingling when I find something I feel a connection. Observe any reactions you have to things in the magazines.

You are collecting data about yourself. Some of this will feel like it is from your mind. Always check back in to see how your heart is reacting.

With the magazines, you can do a series of activities.

1. Treasure maps/Vision or dream boards. Use a piece of poster board, scrap booking paper or even a page in a journal. Pick out things you want to vision. Several of the things on my vision board for 2010 are:

A) a picture of a cat with the words Good House. I am looking for a home for my cats or learning how to live on the road with them. I love them. They stir my heart. The care of them is a focus for me.

B) A picture of a woman exercising with Yoga. It reminds me to take care of my physical body.

C) A picture of the Jonas Brothers with the words “expressing your heart ‘n soul.” They inspire me to be creative and stay connected to my heart. I feel a connection to their music.

D) I also have the words Discover, Doing+good and Oh, yes I can!

2. Vision or dream journals. A friend of mine, Karen Porter inspired me to put my vision board into my journal. Her idea is to buy composition books, cover the front cover with pictures from magazines, cut out words and place them at the top of each page of the journal.

This journal can have a specific purpose like a travel journal, ideas for a project or a business or a place to record daily activities, dreams, quotes, and ideas.

This year I am using mine to record things every day. It will have ticket stubs, brochures, quotes, to-do-lists. It will include happy and sad moments. I will work through things in my journal to like the next steps on my move to California or my relationship with my family.

By placing words and pictures at the top of the all of the pages, I am surprised each time I turn the page to see a message for me on that day. I love how the words and pictures connect with what is going on in my life.

3. 12 month intuitive reading for the year. Another friend, Jayne Howard Feldman inspired me to do a 12 month reading journal. I cut pictures and words out of a magazine and put them into a bag. I closed my eyes and thought about January 2010 and pulled out a few of the clippings. Then, I used a glue stick to attach them to a page in a spiral notebook. I left 8 pages empty to record things during the month. Then, I created a page for February, March, April, and so on. It is another way to dream and vision what I want.

4. Building a dream in your journal Make a commitment to yourself to spend 15 minutes a day for one week and write the life you want to create or expand on. In 1991, I wrote the life I wanted to create including a description of my family, children, activities and house that would be big enough to gather communities of people. In 1998, I bought that house. By the time my husband and I found the house, we already had most of the rest of the dream. The community of people I had buildt relationships with for 7 years were already there. When I wrote the dream, it came from a heart’s desire, pure and full of love. I didn’t think that owning the house or having these things would make people love me more. There was nothing in it that was ego driven. There was a deep calling to live that life. And I did.

Rev Michael Bernard Beckwith, the minister at Agape International Spiritual Center in Los Angeles, California, posted this on his Facebook Status the other day. “I am inviting you to be still and discover new territory in your own soul. You will find that this new territory will be the answer to every issue you may be facing. Peace!”

And I am inviting you to take the time to explore, dream and discover.

Next USTREAM show is Saturday, Jan 9 8pm EST. http://www.ustream.tv/channel/open-to-inspiration

Posted in Andrea Hylen, Conscious Choices: An Evolutionary Woman's Guide to Life, Daydreaming with God, Jonas Brothers, Listen to your heart, Live A Life Worth Celebrating, Open to Inspiration

A New Journey begins

Posted on December 5, 2009 by Andrea Hylen 4 comments

A new journey is beginning.

My daughter, Hannah and I are leaving Baltimore in 11 days. Our car will be loaded with clothes, books, and music. All of our furniture has been sold. The cats will have found a new home. Everything we own is in a small storage unit.

We are leaving the community that has been my home since 1981. Our intention is to live on the road for a year. We will explore the world by living in hostels and with friends. First destination is Scottsdale, Arizona and celebrating the holidays with my daughter,Liz, her boyfriend, Ari and their two dogs.

My intention is to continue to write about all of the things that happen and to share this through video blogging, Ustream TV and on this blog. I have changed the name of this blog to Daydreaming with God. I am co-creating this journey with Hannah and with inspired action from within.

I moved to Baltimore in Oct 1981, after marrying my college sweetheart. Getting married seemed like the next logical step in our relationship. We had been dating for four years. My love of Bill and the dreams of creating a life together brought us here to Baltimore. We created two beautiful girls together but our marriage and all of our dreams together came to an end in 1987.

My true community in Baltimore, the one that held me, nurtured me and gave me a space to develop my voice began at an Insight Seminar in March 1989. I met a few friends, Susan, Kater, Terry and Hurley (my future husband). They became the cornerstone of my life. My community has grown to hundreds of people in the last 20 years. With them all, I discovered myself. They were mirrors of love, understanding and acceptance.

I have lived a full life here with a 2nd marriage, the birth and death of my son, the birth of Hannah, a life threatening illness, community based learning (home schooling), peace ceremonies, book groups about spirituality and creativity and the death of my husband.

In the last 20 years, we laughed and cried together. We loved and fought with each other. We sang and danced and celebrated our lives.

The people in my community were the witnesses of my life.

In 11 days, I am leaving the safety and comfort of my home and community to go out into the world and explore life in a new way. I am Daydreaming with God, Opening to Inspiration, and Living a Life Worth Celebrating.

Come along for the ride…

Posted in Conscious Choices: An Evolutionary Woman's Guide to Life, Daydreaming with God, Live A Life Worth Celebrating, Opening to Inspiration