Have you ever asked for a sign from the Universe or God? Maybe you wanted to know if you should accept a job offer, leave your marriage, or sell your home. So, you asked to see something indicating that doing so was in your best interest.

Did you receive the sign you requested?

Seeing the Signs

I’ve always believed in getting signs from the Universe or God. However, I haven’t ever received them. More accurately said, I haven’t seen them.

Either I didn’t notice or discounted the signs I received. Maybe I even put on blinders so I couldn’t see them when they appeared. After all, knowing “Someone” was listening and responding to such requests felt a bit scary.

So, I blocked my ability to receive those signs. When they arrived, I didn’t notice.

As with most challenges we face—including receiving a sign from the Universe—the problem lies within. That’s why working on yourself—engaging in personal growth—is so important. It gets you out of your own way.

In this case, the result of getting out of your own way is an increase in your ability to receive…or see…signs from the Universe. As a Certified High Performance Coach and someone involved in both personal and spiritual growth for 30 years or more, I knew I was the problem…not the Universe.

Why I Didn’t Receive Signs

Not receiving a sign could mean that it’s not in your highest interest to do something. However, it’s possible to ask for a sign to do and not to do something.

I’ve done that and still not seen anything. The reason for that was simple: I blocked myself from seeing the signs. To solve that problem, I had to take a good look at my beliefs and understand why I didn’t see the signs.

For many years, underlying my spiritual beliefs lay negative ones, like signs aren’t real, the Universe won’t send me signs, or I won’t see the signs. There were likely other negative thoughts in my head as well. But the thoughts that contradicted my belief in signs and my ability to receive them prevented me from seeing the signs.

As long as those beliefs remained active, I wouldn’t recognize the signs, or I would discount them.

I needed to change these negative beliefs to more positive ones. So I began affirming that I could…and would…receive signs if I asked. I reminded myself that I was worthy of receiving signs and could see them.

Then I decided to do a test and ask for a very specific sign.

The Owl Sign

I clearly remember sitting in the locker room of a hotel gym looking out at the largest Christmas Market in Dresden, Germany. It was December 2019, and I had been trying to decide if I should begin working on a new program I wanted to launch early in the new year or if I should wait until spring.

I said aloud, “God…Universe…guides (I wanted to cover all my bases…), If it is in my highest good to launch this new program early in 2020—maybe in January, show me an owl. If I see an owl, I’ll know to start this program soon is in my highest interest.”

I then spent two days looking for owls. The Christmas Market was full of ornaments and gifts, and I felt sure I’d see an owl there somewhere. But I didn’t… Not until the third day.

I stopped at a booth filled with carved Christmas tree ornaments and other wooden items, and there I saw it: an owl ornament.

I gasped and let my eyes scan the booth. There were lots of owl ornaments and carved items!

I had seen my sign. And I had proof that signs do appear and I could receive one. In fact, I saw many more owls in the market over the next few days—in booths I’d walked by numerous times since my request for a sign.

More Signs

When I returned to the United States, I started work on the project but soon put it aside. I didn’t have enough time to launch it well by the beginning of January, and I wanted to get my website redesigned first.

So, I forgot about the owl sign and put my attention elsewhere until May 2020. At that point, I decided to move forward with the program.

As I geared up to finish the items necessary for my team to put the program together, I began wondering again if going forward in this direction with my business was the right thing to do. My doubt caused me to move slowly, but I made some progress.

Then, one day, my husband called me to come out to the garden. “Look what I found!” he said with excitement in his voice. When I got close, he pointed to two Great Horned owlets. One was perched on a log and the other in the tall grass. Both were staring at me.

I didn’t see this as a sign…not yet.

Over the next week or more, we became obsessed with these “fuzzy bumpkins,” as I called them. I went out every morning to look for them, and, in the evening, my husband and I would both go out to find them.

And most days, we did see them. After about two weeks, they began flying a bit. It got harder to keep track of them, but now—almost a month after the day we first saw the owlets—I can report that we have seen the two fuzzy bumpkins practically every day. And when we didn’t see them, we could hear them calling to each other and their parents.

Great Big Owl Signs

For the 15 years that I’ve lived in my home in the Santa Cruz Mountains, I wished to see an adult Great Horned Owl. I could hear them every night hooting in the redwood trees, but I’d never seen one.

About 10 days after the first owlet sightings, however, my husband and I began to see the adult owls almost daily. We discovered that blue jays hate owls. They squawk and dive-bomb the big bird, making it easy to find the owl.

Plus, the adult Great Horned Owls remained close by their fledglings. Even during the day, we could find them. And in the evenings they came to feed the owlets.

After seeing an adult owl for the third time in as many days AND noticing a stuffed owl on a television show, I remembered the sign I’d asked to receive five months earlier. “Show me an owl.” The Universe was sending me that sign several times a day—and at that moment, I finally recognized and acknowledged it.

Not long after that, we saw the two owlets joined by another. We had three owlets, not just two!

That clinched it for me. I knew I could receive signs from the Universe.

Alignment Signs

Last week, I decided to join a virtual manifestation challenge. One of the assignments during the first week involved asking for a sign from the Universe that I was in alignment.

However, I was instructed not to ask for a specific sign—no owls this time. I just had to tell the Universe to “Show me a sign that I am aligned.” Then I was instructed to open myself to receive that sign.

What kind of sign was I to seek? I was told it could be a feeling, a song, the clock showing 12:12, or meeting someone. It was up to me to see and acknowledge the sign.

I watched the video lesson and listened to a related podcast while exercising. Then I asked for my sign. And I promptly forgot about this exercise.

I showered and got ready for a quick strategy call with a potential client. When she told me she, too, was a Law of Attraction coach and began talking about manifestation, I didn’t bat an eye. After I ended the call, I went to the kitchen to check the landline for phone messages.

I was listening to a message when the phone rang, interrupting the recording. Assuming it was a sales call, and feeling frustrated that the message recording was interrupted, I answered the phone and immediately hung it up again so I could continue listening to the message.

The phone immediately rang again! Recognizing that it was the same number, I now assumed it wasn’t a sales call and, still with a little irritation, answered.

I listened in wonder as a woman I’d never met before told me she had been referred to me by a man I didn’t know. He thought I would be a perfect speaker for the Law of Attraction conference she was putting together in the Bahamas, and she wanted to offer me this all-expense-paid speaking gig—with a speaker fee paid as well!

What? Really?

Of course, I told her I’d be happy to speak at her conference. Then, I went back to my desk, and began to work. As I thought about what had just happened, it hit me: I’d received my sign of alignment.

I have been working hard to align spiritually. I’d fallen off the spiritual path for about a decade and was intent on getting back on and moving down that path fast!

Plus, the new program I mentioned includes both personal and spiritual growth. I feel called to offer both and doing so feel aligned for me.

The first phone call, I realized was also a sign—one I did not “receive.” I never considered that the discussion of the Law of Attraction, which is central to my spiritual beliefs, said anything about my alignment.

So the Universe sent a second message…one I could not ignore.

One More Sign

To convince myself all of this was “real,” I asked for one more sign. I asked to be shown that focusing on personal and spiritual growth coaching was in my highest interest. (Yes, I could have assumed that from the other signs, but it can take more than one bit of “proof” to form new beliefs.)

That very same day, I landed a new Certified High Performance Coaching client. After that, I received a call from someone convinced this same coaching program was the right one for her, which meant I had to do very little selling.

Another sign…clear as day. I saw it.

Ask for a Sign from the Universe

Now it’s your turn. Ask the Universe for a sign, and be open to receiving it.

Ask yourself if you have any negative beliefs about your ability to receive a sign from the Universe. Write them down. Then, turn them into affirmations. Repeat these to yourself often.

Every time you hear yourself thinking or saying, “I won’t get a sign,” or “I never get signs,” “Or that’s not a sign,” or anything like that, repeat your affirmations. You can say, “I always receive signs,” I always see and recognize signs,” or “The Universe (or God) hears my requests for signs and responds.”

Try both asking for a specific sign—like my request to see an owl—and a non-specific sign—like my request for any sign of alignment. Don’t do both at the same time, though! Take turns. Consider it an experiment.

Then be open and pay attention. Not only did I see real owls and a stuffed owl, this past week, I also got two emails from a company whose name includes the word “owl.” If I hadn’t been paying attention, I wouldn’t have noticed the company name or made the connection between the emails and the sign I’d requested.

Signs are everywhere. They come in the form of a hummingbird who mistakes you for a flower, the wind on your cheek, a series of numbers that mean something to you, a book that someone tells you to read, or an encounter with a stranger. Signs can appear as feelings, conversations, ideas, or colors. In fact, a sign can come in any shape or form—but always mean something to you.

Ask for a sign. Then consciously receive it…see it…when the Universe responds.

Have you asked for and received signs? Tell me about your experiences in a comment below, and please share this post with someone you know who would benefit from reading it.

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