MandMaud
Wow, loads of replies. Thank you! Some are off-target, only because I wasn't clear - all my responsibility.
Yesterday, it occurred to me that I could read for people in the news who catch my attention, whether celebrities or crime victims or whatever. Since I feel that connection with them it may work better. And there could be feedback in tomorrow's news... I may start doing that.
I should have stated this before - the thoughts that elbow their way in are usually about something else that I would ask the cards about. Not always the case that I've had to make a choice between one subject and another - sometimes I've been thinking about something, decided to read, and then as I shuffle another thing enters my mind. (For example certain topics are life themes at the moment: parenting, finances, health; and if I've been thinking about parenting constantly while unloading the dishwasher, then I sit down to read about it, having got my question nice and clear in my head, in the middle of shuffling (and I don't try to shuffle for many minutes either), here comes money to interrupt.) I really don't think the What of the thoughts is the problem, I think it's the being In My Head. It's like getting tuned in / out of my head(!) / into the connected state* and slipping out of it, like a loose wire.**
* I hate putting these things into words, these things that don't belong to words.
** Loose wire probably better than loose screw
I know, I know this is about carrying worries. I'm inclined by nature to be more worried than I'm conscious of (come a long way with that one over the years!) and maybe that's here too. But most of the time, I can tell I'm not right to attempt reading, for instance too tired as Pamuya suggests or still "wearing" the last conversation I was in, etc.
This is more like distractibility...
Hm... ADHD wonderings...
I have a couple of new thoughts springing out of all your ideas and one is the ADD thing, another the read-for-self-vs-others thing. This question needs sleeping on!
Thanks for the link; it's a different question in fact. And generally I have no trouble staying tuned in (whether reading or something else) for 20+ minutes, except when in this state where I can't settle into it in the first place.You might just be worrying too much. Actually, there was a similar (I think) thread recently - How to keep your readings "pure"?.
If you're not a great yogi with a one-hundred-something-year experience of focusing your energy, chances are you won't be able to stay 'tuned in' and focused on the question for the whole 20/30/40-minute length of your reading.
I'm not looking for perfect... When this problem isn't being a problem, I'm satisfied with how I read.I'd say, don't bother that much. Do your best, but don't worry about not making it perfect every time. Maybe, even not making it perfect ever.
I think you make a good point and I'll pay attention to it. I "don't get out much" and life is duller than it will be by next year - transitional at the moment, between one life stage and another - and I've found practising on fictional characters etc doesn't work for me. I read for friends without them there (being careful not to trespass as it were), and have only once tried face to face for someone who wasn't immediate family.Am I right in thinking you don't read for other people - only yourself? This might be why you have trouble tuning in. Because when you "know" your life and not much is going on it could be kind of boring. Maybe do some readings for other people and see how you feel after that.
Just a thought.
Spiderwoman
Yesterday, it occurred to me that I could read for people in the news who catch my attention, whether celebrities or crime victims or whatever. Since I feel that connection with them it may work better. And there could be feedback in tomorrow's news... I may start doing that.
Weird minds think alike! I get exactly what you're talking about! And actually, while drawing is the whole of my problem. Once they're laid out, I don't feel I need to be tuned in to interpret.Are you tuned in while drawing? if so a suggestion could be to get "tuned in" draw the appropriate number of cards while in that tuned in state. My belief is that the accuracy is the same whether you draw each one and lay them down or if you draw them all at once then position them so long as you are taking the time to feel the energy of the cards when you are doing it.
maybe drawing it all at once will help you stay "tuned" to the cards, then its a simple matter of positioning, then meditating on the message of the cards once they are in position! unless you dont read like that <~< and im just being a weirdo....again....
I haven't read for a client as such... I have read advice for professionals for when you "dry" in front of a client, things such as describing what's on the cards, and just talking whatever comes out of your mouth, to get past the block. I don't think this is my problem...? When I get nothing intuitively, I start with the numbers and other "mechanical" ways that the cards can have meaning, and the rest follows. In fact often these mechanical readings are the best. But not if I was out of touch with the question while shuffling.1. Yes
2. Yes
3. Nothing, if I have a client infront of me and others waiting I push on, to traditional meanings (number and suits), there have been times when I have asked my clients what they see in the cards, at times that has "primed my intuition" and I am back in sync. If it is really bad, I pull out my trusty old playing card deck. Normally "tuning in" problems happen if I am too tired, had too much to drink, or upset.
That's funny, what you describe, losing sense of who it is etc, is what I'd call being tuned in. lolI do't ever really "tune in", in any way that other people would recognise.
When I'm reading for a person in front of me, I'm vaguely aware of the fact that I'm reading for them. When I'm reading by email or in the exchange circles here, I lose all sense of even whom I'm reading for, let alone any question they might have asked.
It all seems to work out in the end. I don't find it necessary to be rigidly focussed, screwed into the reading. It's enough that it starts flowing.
It's more fun to put the ice cream in afterwards - then it foams over the table and floor. But I know what you're saying. And honestly, I'm not thinking that much while with the cards. All the waffle in my question was because I hadn't done enough thinking to distill what I actually needed to ask - and all that thinking hadn't started until I began typing. Honest, guv.Way too much thinking going on.
Have a root beer float. In case this doesn't translate to other cultures you get a big glass, the bigger the better. You fill it with vanilla ice cream. Now add root beer. This might take a bit as the root beer will foam.
Enjoy the root beer float.
Now pick up your cards. You will be fine.
Me too...I have a synchronistic view of how tarot works, so I feel a need to be 'in tune' with the universe at the instant a card is chosen. I have no idea how this works, but it does, at least for me.
Now, if I stay aware of my breathing, I'm not fully tuned in yet. I mean when meditating for example. I usually begin by focusing on the breath, especially when needing to settle my psyche in order to "get into it". (For me visual stuff helps too.) But if I'm still thinking about my breathing, I haven't got fully into the state we're talking about. - which sounds the opposite of what you're saying, but I can't think that we're saying opposite things here so now I'm confused!<nodding> And here's how to tell if you're in tune with the universe. If you are, you'll feel an impulse to breathe, sooner or later. If you've stopped breathing for good you're even more tuned into the universe - but might find handling cards a little tricky.
(And I'm only partly joking here).
Absolutely - well noticed. I hadn't thought about it but I suppose I came straight here to put my question, while in the un-tuned state.Hi MandMaud!
The first thing I "got" when I read your post is that you were not grounded at that moment. You seemed scattered. When you started worrying about your spread positions, that felt like Ego and a "good enuff" syndrome that got triggered...
Sorry but I'm there already. And in fact, the doubt doesn't come in while I'm trying to read. Only afterwards, when I've been way off with the reading and wondering why.Do you see the Self-doubt "good enuff" syndrome rearing it's self here big time? Becoming conscious of when this niggling little self-doubt fear is creeping into your space will be VERY powerful! Then congratulate yourself when you do see it invading your space! That is a great way to deflate that doubt fear that is messing with you...
I should have stated this before - the thoughts that elbow their way in are usually about something else that I would ask the cards about. Not always the case that I've had to make a choice between one subject and another - sometimes I've been thinking about something, decided to read, and then as I shuffle another thing enters my mind. (For example certain topics are life themes at the moment: parenting, finances, health; and if I've been thinking about parenting constantly while unloading the dishwasher, then I sit down to read about it, having got my question nice and clear in my head, in the middle of shuffling (and I don't try to shuffle for many minutes either), here comes money to interrupt.) I really don't think the What of the thoughts is the problem, I think it's the being In My Head. It's like getting tuned in / out of my head(!) / into the connected state* and slipping out of it, like a loose wire.**
* I hate putting these things into words, these things that don't belong to words.
** Loose wire probably better than loose screw
I know, I know this is about carrying worries. I'm inclined by nature to be more worried than I'm conscious of (come a long way with that one over the years!) and maybe that's here too. But most of the time, I can tell I'm not right to attempt reading, for instance too tired as Pamuya suggests or still "wearing" the last conversation I was in, etc.
This is more like distractibility...
Hm... ADHD wonderings...
O-owh, yes. (There's a UK insurance ad with a dog that says that - he's pretty much entered the language - hard to do the voice on the forum though. Aha: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ZToP48Mrp8Being a healer, you already know this, but sometimes we forget to be "in-tune" with what we know... darn it...
I have a couple of new thoughts springing out of all your ideas and one is the ADD thing, another the read-for-self-vs-others thing. This question needs sleeping on!