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Volcanoes and I don’t have the best relationship. My first time climbing a volcano was in the 90’s in Ecuador. It was the Cotopaxi and I wasn’t told that I needed sunglasses to protect my eyes. Due to the snow and being on the equator, I ended up burning the corneas of my eyes. The optometrist said that my contact lenses saved my eyes from the tiny ice particles and possible blindness. Another volcano I climbed was Mt. Fuji in Japan. I had a really hard time due to altitude sickness and ended up with some physical ailments that took about a year to overcome. Then, there was the Villarica volcano in Chile. I almost lost my life on that one. That was the tipping point that helped me realize that maybe I shouldn’t be climbing volcanoes. Volcanoes tend to represent the duality of creation and destruction, death and rebirth. Myths are created around them, deities are associated with them. The legend of Popocatepetl and Iztaccíhuatl is one such story that is worth a read. The Izta actually does look like a woman lying down. Volcanoes can trigger earthquakes, tsunamis, mudflows, and pyroclastic flows. Pyroclastic flows and surges are the most dangerous as they are fast moving (as in 62-435 mph) hot (1800F) gas and volcanic matter. It’s what took out the people of Pompeii. I’ve been to Pompeii and warily stared at the still active Mt. Vesuvius. The largest active volcano is Mauna Loa on the Big Island of Hawaii - also a place I have visited. Within the last few years, volcanoes have started showing up in my dreams, or maybe I should say nightmares. I’m used to tornado dreams which signify for me that big change is coming. I’m still figuring out what the volcanoes mean for me. In general, they can signify a repressed emotion that, unless dealt with, may surge forward. Most typically, they represent repressed anger. They can also represent transformation. They can reflect the stress, anxiety, and upheavals of our waking life. If you find there’s a recurring theme to your dreams, it’s time to pay attention. My most recent volcanic adventure was last spring in Mexico. I woke up one morning to ashfall - like snowfall, but ash. Surprisingly, ash is really heavy and it gets EVERYWHERE. The Popocatepetl was way more active than usual. We wondered if an eruption was soon to follow.  Translation: The Popo at 7am, this is why there's so much ash. Source: unknown I was staying at a place just inside the evacuation zone. The ash was no joke, it made it hard to breathe and hurt like no other when it got into your eyes. I was pretty shocked that the mask and goggles I ordered on Amazon showed up the very next day. I had a go-bag ready, and spent nights watching the live feed cameras as material ejected from the crater. If you’re caught in a pyroclastic flow, there's pretty much no escape. There was a point when I wondered, is this how I die? That sucked. I watched interviews of people who lived the closest and in the biggest danger zones. They’ve lived with the volcano their entire lives. One woman said in an interview that she didn’t know how they expected people to evacuate when the roads were covered in potholes and speed bumps. Other than a woman who worked at the place where I was staying (and insisted we were all going to die), everyone else just went about their daily lives. I got the following video on social media and laughed a ton of the stress away. Source: unknown Thankfully, el Popo quieted down. Hundreds of millions of people around the world live near or even on volcanoes. They are a terrifying, yet beautiful force of Nature. And, for some reason, have been an integral part of my adventures and life. Heart Hugs, Adrienne :)
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 We don't need to worry 'cause when we fall, we know how to land When I first heard the song "Permission to Dance" (BTS), the above lyric really hit me. I thought, I know very well how to fall, but do I know how to land? I sure didn’t think so. One of the singers from BTS, Suga (민윤기), had spoken about this during an interview: “I’ve said several times that I’m afraid of falling, but not landing. And the difference between falling and landing is that landing means that you can take off again.” As someone who is used to falling, for me, landing meant either going SPLAT and face planting into misery or it meant the end. The end of a relationship, a failed project, an important missed opportunity - you name it. Seeing it as an opportunity to take off again wasn’t really in my vocabulary. My inner critic adamantly confirmed that with, "You’re right, you’re not resilient. You’ve been beaten down too many times. Just stay down…” The definition of resilience is the capacity to withstand or to recover quickly from difficulties. There are many kinds of resiliency: physical, mental, emotional, social, financial, job loss, divorce, failure - pretty much any area of life that can be challenging. Now, as someone who has felt like the least resilient person on the planet, I knew this was an area I needed to strengthen. I once heard a fellow student, during a class I was taking, comment on resilience and alchemy. She basically said that it’s not only about getting back up, but transforming into something greater. I began to wonder, how do we find or tap into our resiliency so that we can alchemize it? I learned that a big part of it is through awareness. You have to become aware that you actually are resilient - think of times where you’ve been resilient in the past. I made it to the top of Mt. Fuji while fighting altitude sickness which led to some physical issues after the fact. I made it up, and down, and recovered - there’s an example of resiliency. Think of how your body recovers from illness and trauma. Think of how you can find another job after being laid off or fired. Think of how you open yourself back up for love after a heart wrenching breakup. Think of how you pivot so you don’t give up on your dream. These are all examples of resilience. I figured out a little formula, that I call the 4Rs, for when I’m in a challenging situation that calls for resiliency:
The truth of the matter is we are way more resilient than we tend to believe. It’s an inner strength that we all have access to. Just as Nature is resilient, so are we. When we can tap into that resiliency we can navigate life’s challenges more easily. Let’s be honest, with as crazy as the world is right now, we need our resilience more than ever. There is another comment that Suga made in the interview that sums it all up perfectly: “So, no matter how desperate the situation is, if we choose landing instead of falling, choose not to give up, and just land, we’re ready to fly again.” Falling can be really scary, but at some point we will land and we will have that inner resilience to tap into to decide where we’ll go from there. If we can put our attention on landing instead of on the fact that we’re falling, we can direct our energy to harness what we learned and launch ourselves into something even greater. The next time you find yourself facing a big challenge, I invite you to focus on the landing, alchemize what you’ve learned from the situation, and use it as fuel to take off stronger and wiser so you can fly in the direction of your goals, dreams, and desires. Heart Hugs, Adrienne :) |
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January 2025
AuthorHello! I'm Adrienne Almamour, an empathic intuitive conduit. I assist people by detecting and clearing their subconscious emotional energy blockages. This blog is a commentary and reflection of life from an intuitive standpoint which also incorporates ways that allow us to be from our heart. |
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