Iced Mint Tea

My anxiety had been through the roof in recent weeks. Assignments came in fast and furious, which was supposed to be a good thing. Yet, I was floundering, making careless mistakes and obsessing over I’d be delivering value and results to clients.

And then it leads me back to wondering for the millionth time whether I should be doing what I’m doing – major imposter syndrome alert.

I knew I needed to talk to someone. Someone who could cut through the clutter of my over-analytical thoughts. Someone who doesn’t lay judgement. Someone who doesn’t give me a 10-prong strategy to deal with anxiety – I can get this off Google anytime.

That someone came in the form of Lynda Woolf, an intuitive psychic and life coach from the US who has made Singapore her base for the last 20-odd years.

I spent close to two hours in her apartment on Shelford Road, and I’m glad to have made the commute. It was such a refreshing, honest chat, like a heavy downpour that washed away all of the excess weight and negative energy.

I’m not new to psychic readings, and I had been underwhelmed before. But with Lynda, I know that someday when needed, she’ll be the first one I call again, and here’s why:

(I’m sharing snippets of our conversation here. These are almost verbatim and very personal.)

1. She’s brutally honest while framing everything in a positive context
   “What annoys me is you dumb yourself down to fit in. You don’t allow people to see how intelligent you really are. I don’t see you using your brain as much as you could.”Not one to sugarcoat things myself, I’m thankful for her bluntness and for reminding me that I’m capable of greater things if I can focus on what it is exactly I wish to achieve. “It’s time to grow your plant. But the question is, do you like this plant?”
2. She has an amazingly accurate read on personalities and relationships
   Of course, she nailed it for me. Rather than seeing my extreme sensitivity as a weakness, she wanted me to perceive as a strength (stronger intuition) when paired with objectivity. This was the first time anyone framed it this way for me before. It was emotionally empowering.She also was able to describe the husband and some other people in our lives with pinpoint accuracy – I almost wanted to burst out laughing at one point because she found a certain person as annoying as I did!
3. She gets to the heart of the matter
   It wasn’t a while after the session that I remembered I did not even provide her with a question. She knew why I was there to see her and the issue I was dealing with. She tended to speak slowly and threw in snippets from her personal life – though I suppose many old folks like to do this – but she always managed to route back to the original point. Lynda was excellent at organising her thoughts verbally. I just wish I had more time with her.
4. She encourages you to do an audio recording
   This is imperative. The recording which I transcribed was therapeutic to listen to repeatedly. The transcript is almost always open on my computer so whenever I need a reminder, I go back to it.

As enjoyable as our session was, I know that it’s not a magic pill to solve my problems. The real solution comes from your own efforts. She tried her very best to provide me business guidance despite my very apparent skepticism.

We also spoke a little about spirituality and gratitude. This was perhaps the part that touched me the most.

“Even when my money is tight, if somebody else needs (it more), I have to give. I know you have that in you. For me, that’s being spiritual. Don’t let life take that away from you.”

[short contemplative pause]

“Gratitude is what you are looking for. You have, all the rest. Don’t let life take that away from you.”