Iguana Medicine by Stephen D. Farmer, Ph.D., Animal Spirit Guides. If an iguana shows up it means:

Although you’ve had a hard fall recently, you have to get up and keep going.

In planning a project, be sure to break down the details step by step in order to accomplish it successfully.

This is a good time to take action on something you’ve dreamed about doing or having but had forgotten or dismissed sometime ago because you thought it was unrealistic.

Even though you feel mired in the mundane circumstances of your life, make the choice to climb out of them and view them from a different perspective.

There are a lot of complications in your life right now, yet with intention and effort you can simplify them a great deal.

Tomorrows Another Day

The Dutch island of Curacao is a beautiful island in the southern Caribbean Sea, located off the coast of Venezuela. Curacao boasts that it is the largest and most populous of the three ABC islands of Aruba, Bonaire and Curacao with a land area of 171 square miles and a population of 141, 766 inhabitants. The daily weather forecast is 83 degrees and partly sunny with a gentle breeze floating in off the ocean, making every day in Curacao a perfect day.  I was privileged this past March to spend a week in  Curacao with my husband. Not only is Curacao famous for its spectacular weather, it is also famous for its iguanas. The island and in particular my resort was overrun by iguanas of every size, shape and variation of green you can imagine. The iguana is a type of lizard indigenous to the tropical areas of Central and South America as well as the Caribbean. Unique to the iguana is a dewlap or row of spines that runs down their backs to their tail and a third “eye” on their head. The “third eye” for humans is considered to be a mystical or esoteric term referring to an inner eye or gateway to the inner realms and spaces of higher consciousness.  The iguanas gravitated so frequently to the underside of my beach chair that I finally decided to have my husband snap a picture of the largest one and make him the star of my blog.  I soon understood the synchronicity of the iguana and the “third eye” as the week revealed itself to me. Iguana medicine is about simplification and breakthrough, an interesting combination. How do the two relate you might ask?

I have in fact spent an inordinate amount of time wondering how on any given day I manage to complicate what should have been a very simple interaction or experience.  With the absence of both Internet and phone access in Curacao, I managed to simplify quite a bit despite my best efforts to the contrary.  By the middle of the week, my biggest concern became whether to order the strawberry-banana or the berry-berry smoothie drink swimming up to the pool bar.  As the days progressed and life continued to slow down, besides watching the iguanas go about their business, I found myself contemplating my existence.  I thought about how much time I spend making decisions and working through ALL the variations of a particular drama that might be unfolding for me. How often I limited my perspective of my reality to the point where I am so caught up in the drama, I can see NO way out.  How I need to have EVERYTHING figured out from the get go before I will begin anything.  How I often CREATE obstacles for myself before I even get started.  How I allow setbacks in my life to distract me and keep me STUCK in limited rather than limitless possibilities.

Iguana medicine tells us that with intention and effort we can simplify our lives. Is it really that simple I wonder? Well with clear intention and tenacious perseverance, I managed to fit all of my clothes for a 10-day trip into one medium and one small suitcase!  It wasn’t easy, but I prevailed. There were choices that had to be made such as do I really need a second pair of sandals, a second beach hat, a heavy coat just in case, or even an outfit for every dinner? Ok, so I feel this might be a good time to mention that straight men have it so much easier than women when it comes to packing for a vacation.  My husband spent all of about ten minutes putting his one suitcase together.  Anyway, with a little effort, I managed to weed through and eliminate what I absolutely did not need. It turned out, I probably could have settled for even a few less things.  How could I apply this same process to my daily life I wondered? What could I remove from my “to do” list that was not absolutely necessary?  What could I give away that was cluttering my space?  What friendships were taking up a lot of time, but were not serving me or the other person any longer? What was redundant that I could let go of?  As we continue to weather the storm of this new earth that we are creating, simplification will be the key.  How can we better manage our time and with heartfelt intention let go of what we absolutely do not need?

In planning a project, be sure to break down the details step by step in order to accomplish it successfully. I am inherently and innately a planner.  I honed these skills well for over twenty-five years as a travel agent planning not only my client’s vacations, but my families as well. What I found in my role as a travel agent was that most people became paralyzed when it came to planning their vacations. They perceived the task as overwhelming. I helped them to break things down and see that sometimes looking at a situation in smaller less overwhelming pieces could allow you to complete the task. Sometimes we allow the enormity of an idea or task to weigh us down. We never get there because we never start.  So if you feel like life is just too big at the moment, break it down, create some small changes in your life and eventually these small changes will lead you to some big changes. It doesn’t have to be all or nothing!

This is a good time to take action on something you’ve dreamed about doing or having but had forgotten or dismissed sometime ago because you thought it was unrealistic. For most of us change is not a good thing. We are comfortable with things staying the same even if it is an unhappy situation.  It still is the known vs. the unknown.  I am certainly guilty of that myself.  Change is not safe. But what I have realized is that change is what allows us to grow. Without taking chances, we remain stuck in the muck so to speak.  On my vision board for 2010, I put a picture of a beautiful woman in a two-piece bathing suit visualizing that I would be that women some day.  Now you might be thinking how ridiculous it sounds for me to be talking about a two-piece bathing suit as I relate to taking action on a dream.  Well for me losing weight and showcasing my new body in a two-piece bathing suit in Curacao was a life-changing event. So the point is don’t limit your dreams with your limited perception of what is possible.  Dreams really do come true.  Take action on what you want, put it out into the universe, and then use discernment when the universe sends you back opportunities.  Not every opportunity will support your dream and not every dream turns out exactly the way you intended to.  Ok, so I did not look like Eva Mendes (the  swimsuit model from my vision board) walking down the beach in my two-piece, but I felt really awesome anyway!

Although you’ve had a hard fall recently, you have to get up and keep going. There are no mistakes in life, just opportunities.  Several months ago, I made a difficult transition with my business that had me questioning my direction and life purpose.  In a moment of total defeat, I told the big guys upstairs that I was going back to country club golf, online shopping and long lunches with my friends. I was done with the whole “spiritual” thing as it was all a big mistake. I told them that they must have had the wrong gal. As my glorious week in Curacao began to wind down and I began to regain my balance, I clearly heard the “big guys” say , “Sorry Maria, you can’t go back. Everything has lead you to this point.”  So I picked myself up and moved into a place of surrender and acceptance.  Not easy words for me. We are all going through difficult times right now.  And we all need to know that everything is relevant and nothing is trivial.  We can’t compare our journey to another’s and diminish our own experience in the process. Everything we experience is equally relevant because it encompasses and defines our journey no matter how seemingly small it may seem.  So although when you fall, you do have to get up and keep going, remember that before you move on you need to acknowledge and accept that your seemingly negative experience is all part of the whole that is your journey in this lifetime.  And it too will pass….

Even though you feel mired in the mundane circumstances of your life, make the choice to climb out of them and view them from a different perspective. Edwin was our poolside waiter for the glorious week that we spent in Curacao. My favorite grandfather was named Edward and although Edwin was a tall elderly black gentleman, he reminded me so much of the grandfather that I loved so dearly.  Edwin was the quintessential “no worries” kind of guy that you would expect to find poolside in Curacao. On the second day at our resort as I was just beginning to “let go”, Edwin came over to tell my husband that our $19.00 drink tab did not go through at the register. He suggested that we head up to the front desk to work things out.  My husband said that this was not possible as there was plenty of money in our bank account. Edwin gave him a knowing smile as if he had heard that line a thousand times before and said that he was sure that this was the case, but could my husband still head up to the front desk to work things out. To my husband’s credit he did not even blink.  He simply said to Edwin that he would take care of it. I on the other hand immediately moved into a hysteria equaled only by my response to the weekly calls from my sons boarding school during the “terrible teenage” years called high school.  “What does he mean the charge won’t go through?”  “Oh, my God, what if someone has stolen all of the money out of our account.  What will we do?”  Secretly thinking as the person that manages all of the finances for the household, what if I screwed something up.  Wait a second, as I try to reason things out and the answer comes to me.  When I hurriedly transferred money into my son’s account on my new IPhone before boarding our flight, I must have added several extra zeroes to the amount by accident.  That’s why there is no money in our account.  As my twenty-four year old daughter so kindly inferred the week before, nobody over the age of fifty should be allowed to have an IPhone. Or at least they should have to take some sort of pass/fail test before acquiring. I was beginning to think she was right.  From my perspective the only possibly solution to our problem thousands of miles away from home in a third world country with no money was that we were screwed and worse it was all my fault! My husband recognizing the impending signs of my melt down promptly headed to the front desk to straighten things out.  He returned a short while after saying that everything was ok.  “What do you mean it is ok?  What happened?  Are you sure it is ok?  What did you do?  What did they do?   What if, what if, what if….”.  Finally, my husband said, “Do you really want to know all the details or do you just want to know that it is ok?”  I am savvy enough to know a trick question when I hear it I think to myself.  There really is something wrong and he doesn’t want to ruin our vacation.

Maybe it was the beautiful surroundings or maybe it was the strawberry margarita taking effect, but in that moment clarity came rushing in. I took a deep breath and I realized that I did have a choice in the matter. I could change my perspective and see a different view.  A view in which everything looked beautiful and whole.  So I let go and surrendered to the perfect view.  Strawberry margaritas, dazzling blue ocean, white sandy beaches and warm sunny skies. A few minutes later, Edwin came back to say that the bill had been settled.  He looked directly at me and said “Don’t worry, tomorrow’s another day.” Oh, wow I said as another epiphany flew in. We have so many chances to change our perspective on life.  If we don’t get it right this time, well we have another chance tomorrow.  And the beauty of Curacao and it’s people is for the most part they all believe this to be true.  They are happy, carefree people who seem to love life.  I wondered as another iguana sauntered up and parked himself under my chair: What would life look like if the whole world was filled with people that had limitless perspective?