August 2020

The planet that rules cars Mars is going retrograde soon. Statistically, the rate of car accidents go up during Mars retrogrades and for people in the midst of LifeQuakes, even more so. Recently while being interviewed on The Aware Show with Lisa Garr, I shared having had three car accidents myself within a 6 day period and what it meant for me. I’ve also certainly referenced it in my keynote speaking. I realized however, that although I go into more depth about the symbolism of car accidents in my book The LifeQuake Miracle: Awakening to Your True Purpose in Times of Personal and Global Upheaval, I haven’t discussed in greater depth what they can symbolize in my blog. Judging from my clients who come to me in the midst of LifeQuakes, it seems to be a common experience that most people don’t register as an early symptom.

Have you ever had a dream where you are the driver of a car and the brakes go out at high speed or you are a passenger and the driver is navigating recklessly all over the road? The first of these can mean you feel your life is out of control and moving too fast. The latter can mean you feel that someone else is in control, recklessly in the driver’s seat of your life.

 Cars in dreams often symbolize how we are moving through our lives. In the second stage of one of my client’s LifeQuakes, he received four parking tickets in a two – week period and then his car brake disengaged while parked and rolled into the street. My interpretation of this was that he was over parked in his life and needed to move on from a career he no longer wanted.  Like life transitions, career transitions can feel overwhelming.  

In my case, I needed to leave my marriage and was hit from behind three times to push me forward. You really know you need to move on when you think the answer is to stop driving and then get hit while you’re a passenger in the back seat of someone else’s car! This was the third and final experience that got me to realize I was holding onto a life that was over.

In big cities, people are very identified with their cars. A car accident can represent a structural change. When a person incurs a back or neck injury, they see a chiropractor unless it requires the medical intervention of an orthopedic surgeon. The opportunity that seeing a chiropractor during a time of great transition provides is that you have to get off “the hamster wheel” and lay still while someone re-aligns your neck and spine three times a week for six weeks. The combination of this pause and restructuring can be used to contemplate the meaning of your accident and what it is trying to tell you.

I would suggest that any illness can be used to turn inward and ask what the function of this is for your life. Besides car accidents, I have found that when I’ve had the flu or a head cold that kept me in bed, I would do this little exercise, but you can do it anytime. I submit, that even if you begin having symptoms indicating a more serious but acute condition like a virus, this exercise can enhance your immune system. 

Imagine there is a beautiful ball of green light three feet above your head. Breathe in this light through the top of your head. Focus its energy on your neck and spine if you’ve had an accident or are in pain there. If your chest or head are congested, focus the light there. For five minutes, just breathe a warm, golden light into your body and then bring your awareness to your heart. 

Breathe the light into your heart. Now, once you feel a little peace and quiet there, imagine a spiritual guide that you either see or feel the presence of. Ask the guide this question, ” what do you want me to know right now? What is the next step I need to be taking in my life?  Ask for a symbol. And then listen patiently for the guide to give you an answer. It may come immediately or it may come at a later time when you least expect it like in the shower.

When you are back on the mend, you will now be more awake and pro-active. The key to no longer needing wake up calls like car accidents and illnesses to make you pause and reflect, is to develop a daily practice of turning within and asking this question of your heart: what is my next step, just for today? And then act. Taking action from your heart builds trust from practice, but everything comes from your decision. It is all you need to know, because it is all you can do next.

Dr. Toni Galardi is a licensed psychotherapist, life transitions/career coach, futurist, and speaker. She works with people all over the world by phone and Zoom classes. drtoni@drtonigalardi.com

In the opening chapter of The LifeQuake Miracle: Awakening to Your True Purpose in Times of Personal and Global Upheaval,  I wanted to share with you,the reader how sociological and environmental crises  occurring on a grand scale are directly linked to your personal psychological, health, and career crises, and are in fact, catalysts prompting each of us to evolve in our own lives and as a global family. In describing our collective chaos in evolutionary terms, the reader is reassured that they are being pushed toward greater crisis resilience and adaptation to accelerated change.

The concept of a “LifeQuake” is introduced as the emergence of the self into its next level of evolution, accompanied by inevitable birthing pains. In its first- stage subtleties, a LifeQuake often goes unrecognized. Telltale signs include boredom, restlessness, and irritability. What is misunderstood, if not totally overlooked, is that these are symptoms of an outgrown life, not evidence that you are cracking up! You are merely operating ‘defunctionally’, not dysfunctionally.  Not surprisingly, this is when resistance to change is strongest. We’re not uncomfortable … enough yet.  Without understanding this phenomenon, it may be hard to identify that these symptoms signal the dawn of a more authentic life and higher level of consciousness if you have a roadmap that addresses all aspects of you – body, mind, and spirit.

Through a questionnaire that has been given to thousands of people over the years, this chapter helps readers identify which stage of their LifeQuake is operative. Then it reviews the impact of Stage One on lifestyle, workplace, relationships, and health, while providing tangible strategies for mastering change, and developing resilience in the midst of crisis driven transitions in each of these areas.

How to start building a new ‘faultless’ foundation when the old one starts to crumble is described and accompanied with an explanation of the building elements for that stage.

In Chapter One, the building elements are Keen Observation and Listening. Each chapter contains a toolbox section with practical exercises to assist in transitioning into the next stage.  For example, the toolbox exercise in Chapter 1 is called LIGHT, CAMERA, ACTION (a guided meditation to start your day).

As with all heroic journeys, there are distinct tasks that help with developing change mastery. At the end of this chapter and those that follow, these tasks are shown as bulleted checkpoints summarizing each leg of the LifeQuake journey. These are meant to be guide posts not judgmental criteria for how well you are doing.

On her new website, LifeQuake.com, Dr Toni is offering free guided visualization  tools for this stage as part of signing up for her newsletter. There will also be other tools not shared in the main site, in the membership section of the site that are not in the book.

The concept of a “LifeQuake” is introduced as the emergence of the self into its next level of evolution, accompanied by inevitable birthing pains. In its first- stage subtleties, a LifeQuake often goes unrecognized. Telltale signs include boredom, restlessness, and irritability. What is misunderstood, if not totally overlooked, is that these are symptoms of an outgrown life, not evidence that you are cracking up! You are merely operating ‘defunctionally’, not dysfunctionally.  Not surprisingly, this is when resistance to change is strongest. We’re not uncomfortable … enough yet. Without understanding this phenomenon, it may be hard to identify that these symptoms signal the dawn of a more authentic life and higher level of consciousness if you have a roadmap that addresses all aspects of you – body, mind, and spirit.

Through a questionnaire that has been given to thousands of people over the years, this chapter helps readers identify which stage of their LifeQuake is operative. Then it reviews the impact of Stage One on lifestyle, workplace, relationships, and health, while providing tangible strategies for mastering change, and developing resilience in the midst of crisis driven transitions in each of these areas.

How to start building a new ‘faultless’ foundation when the old one starts to crumble is described and accompanied with an explanation of the building elements for that stage.

In Chapter One, the building elements are Keen Observation and Listening. Each chapter contains a toolbox section with practical exercises to assist in transitioning into the next stage. For example, the toolbox exercise in Chapter 1 is called LIGHT, CAMERA, ACTION (a guided meditation to start your day).

As with all heroic journeys, there are distinct tasks that help with developing change mastery. At the end of this chapter and those that follow, these tasks are shown as bulleted checkpoints summarizing each leg of the LifeQuake journey. These are meant to be guide posts not judgmental criteria for how well you are doing.

On her new website, LifeQuake.com, Dr Toni is offering guided visualization tools for this stage as part of signing up for her newsletter. There will also be other tools not shared in the main site, in the membership section of the site that are not in the book.