Do you ever see signs or synchronicities? I keep a running list of symbols that have been showing up in my life over and over for months — like owls or sunflowers or certain types of foods.

I was once messaging online with someone who lived in a city across the country from me. As we were talking, my other friend texted me a photo of a puzzle he’d just completed. The puzzle was a picture of the city my messaging buddy lived in.

Several times a week, I’ll think of a person and then they reach out to me seconds or minutes later. Sometimes I hear messages in song lyrics or on shows I’m watching. Some days I see repeating number combinations — like 1111, 444, 1010, etc.

Have you had similar experiences?

Side Note: I’ve wanted to write about this for some time, but naturally, I’ve been nervous to do so. But I’ve had enough conversations with other people who have had similar experiences with synchronicities that I thought that it might be helpful if I shared mine.

If your mind is completely closed, I suggest that you click off of this post. But if you’re willing to come with an open mind, or have ever been curious about synchronicities (even if you’re mostly skeptical), there might be something in this for you.

If you’re religious: I was raised in Christianity, where these kinds of ideas aren’t embraced. That said, it’s important to notice how Jesus spoke in parables. The language of the divine is symbolic.

But you don’t even need to be spiritual to work with signs and synchronicities.

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Everyone is intuitive and the universe is always speaking to you. It’s just about reading the signs.

If you don’t see signs & synchronicities, it’s because you’re not looking for them. Or, when you get them, you doubt them. It’s easy to write these things off as coincidences.

But haven’t you had experiences that were too improbable to explain?

We’re all unified by a sense of oneness. You may have heard of the Butterfly Effect. The Butterfly Effect theorizes that everything in the world is connected. Even the slightest change in an event can catalyze a major shift in end results. COVID-19 is an example of how a seemingly insignificant nanoparticle can turn everything upside down.

I believe nothing is random. There are patterns & connections in everything. Throughout life, you can see repeating patterns, like fractals, from the individual to the body politic to the planet to the cosmos.

In fact, our entire lives and the universe itself could be thought of as an unexplainable ‘coincidence.’ The physical laws and constants governing the universe, like gravity or the speed of light, are arranged in just the right way to support life as we know it. Without those laws and constants, we would cease to exist. Scientists call this the fine-tuned universe.

Is that a coincidence?

And if not, then wouldn’t it make sense that the events of our lives aren’t a coincidence either?

Think about the algorithms in your social media news feeds. Are those a coincidence? No — everything you see is controlled by an algorithm that knows literally everything about you.

Psychologist Carl Jung published a paper on synchronicity in 1952 where he said:

“In the same way events can be connected by cause and effect, they can be connected by meaning.”

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These are the cheat codes of life.

All throughout 2021, I was getting signs to start a YouTube channel. They bombarded me for months but I didn’t heed them because I was worried that people would judge me. And creating videos and building an audience is hard.

But I love doing it. I’m starting to get the hang of it. And if I had listened sooner, I’d probably have a lot more subscribers and my channel might already be monetized.

(P.S. Subscribe to my YouTube channel lol)

This story illustrates a good point.

Sometimes our egos, fears, societal conditioning, or emotions can get in the way of what is best for us. But I’ve developed a little trick to help me with this.

Life is a game.

When you play a game, you obviously want the character to win. But you’re not as emotionally attached to the character’s ego as you are own, so you’re less likely to get in the way of your decision-making.

You make more objective decisions.

When making a decision, I try to zoom out and ask myself “how would I observe this situation if I were just playing a character in a game?”

When you’re playing a game, you’re also extremely present in each move you make. So sometimes when I have to do something boring, like working on something tedious for my business or doing the laundry, I try to approach it as just another part of the game so I can stay present for whatever signs/cheat codes might come through as I do that task.

You see, to get the cheat codes, we must be present and notice our surroundings.

And that makes the boring parts of life more fun. It feels like there’s always a puzzle to solve.

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Take note of the signs and get curious about them.

If you’re asking yourself if something is a sign, it is.

Sometimes signs and synchronicities are pointing you toward a specific person or an action you should take. Note the patterns & connections between the signs and other people, places, or things in your life.

Sometimes signs and synchronicities are simply confirming that you’re in the right place at the right time. Gregg Levoy has said: “When you’re on the right path, the universe winks and nods at you from time to time to let you know.”

When you get the signs, ask yourself: “what lesson am I supposed to draw from this person or experience?”

If you don’t know what a recurring sign or symbol means, keep notes and think of them like clues — like you might do if you were playing a game. I like to google the meaning of these signs and symbols, which sometimes helps me connect the dots. Perhaps you might rather get your answers in meditation. Whatever impulse you have to solve the clues is correct.

If you need more clarification, ask! It might show up as another sign or synchronicity.

Finally, if you are seeing repeating numbers over and over, take note of what you were thinking about or doing at the moment you saw the number combination.

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Sometimes the universe leads you to something bad, rather than good, for your personal growth.

This is an important one.

We’re on this planet to evolve; to learn and to grow. Sometimes that requires us to go through hard experiences that are for our greater good.

Experiences that hurt are not without value.

Xavier Dagba tweeted about this recently. He made the good point that your intuition or the Universe or God — however you see it — is not here to coddle you. Sometimes your intuition will lead you directly into the fears you’ve been avoiding.

Xavier Dagba @Xavierdagba

One of the biggest misconceptions is that your intuition is supposed to be a coddling divine guidance... and that the outcome of following intuitive insight "should" always be pleasurable... And that is not quite accurate.

Xavier Dagba @Xavierdagba

Your intuition is a redirection mechanism towards truth. And when you have been living under many illusions, the outcome of following intuitive guidance may be painful disillusionment.

I’ve had many experiences like this.

One time, the signs and synchronicities were pointing me to a specific person, and let’s just say IT WAS LOUD. This is not someone I ever really dated but we had a connection.

Naturally, because there were so many signs and synchronicities around this person, I placed more weight on the encounter. But it became clear quickly that this person was not good for me; all the observable external clues were there. That experience stung quite a bit temporarily but it was extremely valuable in the long run.

There was a massive growth lesson in it: I confronted fears that had been impacting my relationships my entire life.

It’s important that we show up for these experiences too. Our lives are infinitely better on the other side of some of those hard lessons.

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I find comfort in signs & synchronicities.

signs and synchronicities — Halford and Seamus

I got signs from both of my dogs after they died.

Halford went first, in February 2019. Halford had a funny way of peeing — a signature trademark pee, unique just to him. He’d crouch down and pee while waddling. And he was old, so he would sometimes get lazy and pee on concrete — leaving a zig-zag stain behind him.

The day after Halford’s death, I took his brother Seamus for a walk. Seamus usually peed like a normal dog with a leg hiked up a tree. But that day, Seamus peed just like Halford. And on the concrete no less. Zig zag stain and all! I’d never seen him do it before. When he finished, he looked right into my eyes with the biggest smile I’d seen on his face in months.

Within hours of Seamus’ death in January 2022, I saw two fluffy dogs walking down the street that I’d never seen before in my neighborhood. They looked eerily similar to Halford and Seamus — one brown, one white. They both made eye contact with me and smiled. All was well.

Signs and synchronicities give me comfort in knowing that everything is as it should be. That I have help when I need it. That, no matter what, I am never alone. There is an order to the chaos, even if I don’t understand it.

Have you had similar thoughts or experiences?

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Hanging in the apocalypse with Molly Beane

Signs and Synchronicities are the Cheat Codes…