Navigating in Difficult Times

People who have never sailed can easily picture that a sailboat is pushed forward by the wind catching in its sails. An amazing fact for those who have never sailed is that you can also sail into the wind, in the opposite direction it is blowing. This all has to do with tacking.

Today, our worlds are changing faster than they have in the past. Many of us have found ourselves suddenly facing changes in our careers and jobs due to unforeseen circumstances and decisions that were not of our making.

Many of us have also faced unexpected developments in our relationships or our health. In each of these instances, we have to change course in order to survive and regain our sense of balance.

Sailors on wind driven vessels, both large and small, refer to changing course as "tacking." This refers to changing the set of the sail so that the direction the boat is going changes.

The unexpected chambers that we find ourselves in can be navigated if we are willing to consider the unusual or outside the square options as well as the obvious directions. And this has become increasingly necessary as the doors that used to be open to us now close.

So if we take a lesson from sailing, we turn a setback into an opportunity. In order to do that, first must come the vision. One we have a goal and a desire, we take actions to get there.

Doors open into unexpected chambers when we think with our hearts and listen to our intuition. Moving in the direction of love rather than fear, we may find unexpected pleasures behind the doors we now open. We find solutions where we did not see them before.

It is like looking at the image on a tarot card and suddenly noticing a detail that we had overlooked before and realizing that it is providing us a much needed clue for what we need to do next.

Tacking into the wind is a great analogy for using different ways to achieve our goal. If the wind is no longer carrying you in the direction you wanted to go, you must shift the set of your sails because that is what you can control. You cannot change the direction of the wind. You can only recognize what has changed and then adjust your settings in order to maintain your balance. It is challenging, but of course it can be done.

Are the winds and waters of your life calm or troubled? Can you navigate to more tranquil environments? If you don't know how, there are people who can help you. It increasingly involves thinking outside the square, and the doors may look like tarot cards, or runes, crystals, invisible movements of energy or a person whose eyes can see things that you cannot see yet.

If you are willing to do open these doors, you will find yourself sailing toward your destination.