life lessons
Are You Consciously Guided By Spirit?
Our guides are constantly directing us toward our highest good and the fulfillment of our soul purpose, whether we are aware of it or not. Their guidance is all the more effective and efficient when we are consciously aware and open to it on a daily basis.
We are all here to fulfill our soul’s mission in this lifetime. We have agreed to come to Earth for a specific purpose or calling. I also believe that if that mission is not accomplished, we will keep coming back to this plane of existence until it is.
Our spirit guides are with us every step of the way to assist and support us in achieving these life goals. These non-physical beings are an essential part of our spiritual journey. Just as we have teachers, mentors and protectors in the physical world, our guides provide support and encouragement in the metaphysical realms.
Everyone has one or more spirit guides assigned to them. These guides are aware of our life’s purpose, challenges and lessons, and they help us navigate these aspects of life. Every day our guides nudge us in the right direction with signs, synchronicities, gut feelings, hunches, ideas, dreams, visions, inspirations, insights and warnings as we navigate life’s challenges and pursue our goals. They are also sources of unconditional love and understanding.
There are several types of spirit guides, all of which have different roles and functions. Some are the spirits of deceased loved ones and ancestors, or even nature or animal spirits. Others are guardian angels, ascended masters, or other spiritual beings or entities who have lived many lifetimes and reached a high level of spiritual evolution and enlightenment.
Spirit Guide Teachings & Traditions
The concept of spirit guides or similar beings who assist us on our spiritual journey is found in various spiritual and religious traditions around the world. While the specific names, forms, and functions of these beings can vary widely between cultures and belief systems, the underlying idea of benevolent spiritual beings providing guidance, protection, and support to individuals is a common theme. The following are some of the promiment teachings and traditions:
Shamanism: Shamanic traditions from various cultures, including Native American, Siberian, African, and South American traditions, often involve working with spirit guides. Shamans communicate with spirit helpers, often in the form of animals or ancestral spirits, to receive guidance, healing, and insight.
Indigenous and folk traditions: Many indigenous and folk traditions around the world believe in spirit helpers or guardian spirits to assist individuals in their daily lives and spiritual endeavors. These traditions often involve rituals, ceremonies, and prayers to invoke the help of benevolent spirits.
Neo-paganism and witchcraft: Modern pagan and witchcraft traditions, such as Wicca and Druidry, may include the concept of spirit guides, familiars (spiritual animal helpers), or deity guides. Practitioners may establish relationships with these beings through ritual, meditation, and spellwork.
Spiritualism: Spiritualism, a religious movement that emerged in the 19th century, emphasizes communication with spirits of the deceased, including spirit guides. Spiritualists believe in the existence of spirit realms and advocate mediumship to connect with spirits for guidance and messages.
Esoteric traditions: Esoteric traditions, such as Hermeticism, Kabbalah, and Rosicrucianism, often include the concept of spiritual beings or guides. These traditions explore hidden or mystical aspects of spirituality and may include practices for communicating with spiritual beings for enlightenment and spiritual growth.
Occult practices: Occultism encompasses a range of mystical and magical practices that often involve contact with spiritual entities. Occultists may work with ceremonial magic, divination, or astral projection to connect with guides or entities for spiritual insight and empowerment.
New Age spirituality: New Age beliefs encompass a wide range of spiritual practices and ideas, many of which include the concept of spirit guides. In New Age spirituality, spirit guides are seen as wise and loving beings who assist individuals on their spiritual journeys through intuition, dreams, and synchronicities.
Eastern spiritual traditions: Certain Eastern spiritual traditions, such as Buddhism and Hinduism, include a belief in celestial beings, or bodhisattvas, who serve as guides and protectors. Followers may invoke these beings for help and blessings on their spiritual path.
Judaism: Angels (malakhim) are considered divine messengers and servants of God in Judaism. They are believed to carry out God’s will, deliver messages, protect individuals, and assist in spiritual matters. Although they are not personal guides in the same way as in some other traditions, angels play a crucial role in Jewish theology and mythology.’
Islam: In Islam, angels (malāʾikah) are considered beings created from light who serve as messengers of God and guardians of creation. They perform various tasks at God’s command, including delivering revelations to prophets and recording the deeds of human beings. Angels are believed to play a role in guiding and protecting believers.
Christianity: In Christianity, angels are spiritual beings created by God to serve as intermediaries between God and human beings. They are often portrayed as messengers, protectors, and guides. Some Christians believe that each person is assigned a guardian angel for protection and guidance throughout life. Christians also believe that the Holy Spirit is God’s presence and power active in the world, guiding believers, inspiring spiritual growth, and providing comfort and wisdom. The Holy Spirit is seen as a personal divine guide who dwells within believers, helping them to understand God’s will and empowering them to live the Christian life.
Are You Consciously Guided By Spirit?
Unfortunately, many people are unaware of the daily guidance of spirits and do not recognize the messages they send. Often the messages our guides send are lost on us because our lives are too busy and our minds too busy. To make matters worse, we also tend to ignore signs, synchronicities, and intuitions. This often leads to poor choices and decisions, and sometimes to disastrous, even life-threatening situations!
Spirit can only suggest, encourage and recommend. Our guides cannot force us to do anything against our free will. Nor can Spirit interfere in our lives and direct our choices without our participation and consent. In other words, our guides can only help us if we are willing to help ourselves. For the best results, we must ask for guidance and support, and then be open to receiving it.
When we are consciously and willingly guided by Spirit, we become more empowered and begin to believe in ourselves and our ability to make the best choices. Once we begin to believe, our highest good begins to unfold and we begin to manifest what we need to fulfill our mission and live our best life.
When we are open to Spirit’s guidance in making the right choices and decisions, more things begin to fall into place easily in our daily lives. Spirit can provide the pieces of the puzzle that we need. All we have to do is ask and then pay attention when the answers come.
Connecting With Your Spirit Guides
It is important that we strengthen our connection to our guides through spiritual practice and increased metaphysical awareness. We will be better for it in the end, in this life and the next.
Cultivating stronger and clearer communication with your guides involves developing your spiritual awareness, openness, and sensitivity to subtle energies and messages. Here are some spiritual practices and techniques that can help strengthen your connection with your guides:
Automatic Writing: Sit quietly with pen and paper and allow yourself to write freely without consciously directing your thoughts. You may receive messages or insights from your guides through this practice.
Candle or Crystal Work: Light a candle or hold a crystal with the intention of connecting with your guides. Focus your attention on the flame or crystal and invite your guides to communicate with you.
Divination: Use divination tools such as tarot cards, oracle cards, runes, or pendulums to communicate with your spirit guides. Develop a personal practice of divination that feels resonant and meaningful to you.
Dreamwork: Pay attention to your dreams. Before going to sleep, set the intention to connect with your guides. Keep a dream journal by your bed to record any guidance you receive during dream states.
Intention-Setting: Clearly state your intention to connect with your guides. Affirm your willingness to receive their guidance and support. Setting clear intentions helps to align your energy and focus your attention on connecting with the spiritual realm.
Intuitive Development: Engage in exercises that develop your intuition, such as guided intuition meditations or workshops. Trusting your intuitive senses can strengthen your ability to perceive your guides.
Journaling: Keep a journal to record your spiritual experiences, dreams, and any intuitive insights you receive. Writing down your thoughts and experiences can help you identify patterns and messages from your spirit guides over time.
Meditation: Regular meditation practice is key to quieting the mind, enhancing intuition, and deepening spiritual awareness. Set aside time each day to sit quietly, focus on your breath, and create a calm inner space where you can be receptive to the guidance of your guides.
Mindfulness: Practicing mindfulness throughout the day helps you stay present and aware, making it easier to notice subtle signs, synchronicities, and intuitive feelings that may be messages from your guides.Prayer: Set aside time each day to pray or speak directly to your guides. You can use traditional prayers or just speak from your heart. Ask for guidance, protection, and clarity as you connect with them. Prayer is a beautiful way to express your intentions and gratitude to your guides, fostering a deeper connection and sense of awe in your spiritual exploration.
Prayer: Set aside time each day to pray or speak directly to your guides. You can use traditional prayers or just speak from your heart. Ask for guidance, protection, and clarity as you connect with them. Prayer is a beautiful way to express your intentions and gratitude to your guides, fostering a deeper connection and sense of awe in your spiritual exploration.
Self-reflection: Spend time in nature or in quiet spaces where you can reflect and connect with your inner self. Being in a natural environment can increase your receptivity to spiritual energies and messages.
Signs & Synchronicities: Make it a habit to ask your guides for signs or symbols that they are present and guiding you. Be open to receiving these signs in unexpected ways, such as song lyrics, animal encounters, or meaningful coincidences.
Visualization: Listen to guided visualization meditations to invite your guides into your consciousness, or do your own visualization exercise in which you imagine a sacred space where you can meet and communicate with them.
Before connecting with your guides, invoke spiritual protection and set clear boundaries. State your intention to communicate only with benevolent and loving energies that have your best interests at heart. It is also important to express gratitude for your guides and their presence in your life. Thank them for their support and guidance, even if it’s not always obvious. I like to start with a prayer:
My beloved Spirit Guides, I open my heart and mind to your presence. Please guide me with your wisdom and love. Help me to recognize your signs and messages. I am grateful for your support on my spiritual journey. Thank you for being with me always.
Remember that developing a strong and clear connection with your guides is a personal journey that unfolds over time. Be open to experimenting with different practices and approaches to discover what resonates most deeply with you and strengthens your spiritual connection. Trust your intuition and inner guidance as you explore the realm of personal spiritual guidance and communication.
Your guides are always with you and working for your highest good, even if you don’t immediately sense their presence. Cultivate patience and openness to receiving guidance in divine timing. Consider working with a trusted psychic advisor, spiritual teacher, or intuitive mentor who can offer guidance and techniques for strengthening your connection with your guides.
Spirit Guides In Psychic Reading
One of the best ways to receive messages and guidance from your spirit guides is to request a reading with a psychic, medium, or trance channeler. Many of my clients seek guidance from spirit guides for personal growth, healing from trauma, or making important life decisions.
Spirit guides play a significant role in authentic psychic and medium readings by providing valuable assistance and information for the reader to pass on to the recipient of the reading. Spirit guides are involved in readings in the following important ways
Facilitating communication: Spirit guides act as mediators or facilitators during psychic and medium readings. They help connect the psychic or medium to the spirit realm and the energies of deceased loved ones or other spiritual entities.
Provide information: Spirit guides relay information, insights, or messages through the psychic or medium during a reading. This information may come in the form of thoughts, feelings, images, or symbols that the reader interprets and communicates to the client.
Interpretive assistance: Spirit guides also assist the psychic or medium in interpreting the information received from the spiritual realm. They may provide additional context, clarification, or guidance to ensure that the messages are accurately conveyed and understood.
Protection and guidance: Spirit guides play an important protective role during readings, ensuring that only benevolent and helpful energies are allowed to communicate. They also guide the psychic or medium in maintaining a safe and respectful connection with the spirit realm, and help to create a sacred and harmonious space in which to conduct readings, infusing the environment with positive energies and spiritual protection.
Professional guidance: Spirit guides serve not only the recipients of readings, but also the readers. They provide ongoing guidance and support to psychics and mediums in their spiritual development and professional practice. My guides continually assist me in honing my reading skills, expanding my psychic awareness, and deepening my connection to higher consciousness.
Setting boundaries and ethics: Spirit guides help establish ethical boundaries and guidelines for conducting readings. They help ensure that the reader approaches his or her work with integrity, compassion, and respect for both the living and the deceased.
Overall, spirit guides play an integral role in psychic and mediumistic work, serving not only as sources of information and guidance, but also as supportive allies and teachers for readers, channelers, healers, and other spiritual practitioners. Their presence and assistance enhance the quality and authenticity of readings and foster meaningful connections between the spirit realm and people seeking divine guidance or communication with loved ones beyond the physical world. Working in partnership with spirit guides allows psychics and mediums to offer profound insights, healing messages, and spiritual guidance to those they serve.
The Happiness Trinity
When a new year arrives, it is common for us to look back and wish we had done better in the previous year. To make matters worse, the past three years have been exceptionally difficult for all of us. All the more reason for us to now make a determined decision to strive for greater happiness in the coming year. But how does one achieve happiness?
The true nature of happiness has been a topic of debate since the beginning of time. Does anyone really know what true happiness is? There are many opinions, views and theories on the matter, but I believe in the end one’s personal happiness is something only you can truly define or measure for yourself.
With that said, no matter what our personal idea of true happiness might be, it will always require the foundation of three key elements: wellness of body, mind and soul. Without an optimal trinity of physical, mental, and spiritual health, one cannot truly live your best life.
A happy life begins first and foremost with physical health and self-care. Our lifestyle habits define the quality of our life. Constantly indulging in the short-term pleasures of unhealthy lifestyle choices will not ensure a happy life in the long-term. Happy people eat nutritious food, get enough exercise, sleep well, manage their stress levels, and aim to maintain a sensible work-life balance.
A sense of being happy itself is one of the countless emotions we experience in life, and while it’s not possible to always feel happy, we can still choose how we respond to life’s challenges. Choosing to see a difficult situation as an opportunity rather than an obstacle, and choosing faith over fear, are common traits among many accomplished people.
Never Allow Regret To Hold You Back
Recently, I attended a celebration of life gathering held in memory of a friend who died under tragic circumstances. He was an incredible energy healer, and also exquisitely crafted Native American flutes and drums. We had been friends for decades, but over the years we saw less and less of each other. The relationship between us was, however, a matter of ‘out of sight, out of mind.’
Our individual schedules were such that life eventually got in the way. There was however an unmistakable mutual respect and heart-centered connection between us facilitated by Spirit whenever we did meet. We would offer each other guidance, support, and fresh perspectives in those special moments.
My friend and his wife met about two decades ago at a spiritual event and eventually became an incredible spiritual team. Before they met, I remember his future wife asking me to swap readings with her.
“Sure, why not?” I said, although I was actually quite nervous and still new to doing readings on a ‘professional basis.’
When I read for her, the information that came through included various confirmations regarding her spiritual work, including her music, becoming an author, teaching, and her increased spirit connection. Last, but not least, there was also the indication of a potential romantic relationship, including a timeframe for approximately when this might unfold. Soon after, the two of them met. Over the years, it was great to see their relationship blossom and thrive. They truly became partners in life, love, and business.
Nothing Tastes Sweeter Than Gratitude
During the holidays, most homes and businesses have their festive lights and decorations up. One of the parking lots in my neighborhood is currently featuring a flamboyant set of beautiful red lights that really struck me as I was driving by the other day. In fact, it caused a strong emotional reaction within me.
Now, what might be so profound or special about a display of red Christmas lights, you may wonder. It is, after all, a typical holiday decoration seen everywhere this time of year. So, what’s the big deal? Well, those lights set me off so much because it brought back precious memories of my childhood.
I grew up in a very small town in New Brunswick, Canada. My family struggled and we were very poor. However, that did not prevent my parents from ensuring that we still enjoyed a few rare luxuries and treats on special occasions.
The most memorable of these were the “barley toys,” as we used to call them. Every Christmas, it was the tradition for each of us to receive a packet of barley toys. Now, this has nothing to do with actual toys. Instead, a barley toy is a kind of clear sugar lollipop or sucker shaped like a toy. These translucent, glass-like candies traditionally come in whimsical shapes, including various animals, as well as ships, trains, cars and, of course, Santa Clause.
According to the Startup Candy Factory in Provo, Utah, one of the earliest clear toy candy makers in the United States, German immigrants brought this holiday tradition to America and original recipes for it can be traced back to the 1700s. It was originally called “barley candy,” because cane sugar was very scarce at the time, so early candy makers used the cheaper and more readily available barley sugar.
Is Your History Repeating Itself?
Are you feeling stuck making all the wrong choices and decisions? Are you repeating the same make mistakes? A study at the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences analyzed the processes that occur before the human brain makes a decision. In this study, participants were asked to press a button with their left, or right hand. They were able to do this at whatever moment they decided, however, they were asked to remember the specific time they recognized making their decision and to relay that information to the researchers.
By observing the participant’s brain scanner, it was discovered that the researchers knew the participant’s decision seven seconds before the participant knew, based on observing electrical signals within the participant’s brain. This is important information, because it validates how much our subconscious minds are making decisions without us fully being aware of the choices we are making.
Although this research is based on making immediate decisions, how often are you aware of where their decisions are being based upon? How can you know if you’re making a decision based on old thought patterns and habits, rather than based on higher, conscious awareness?
The philosopher George Santayana famously said, “Those who do not learn history are doomed to repeat it.” While this is true on a global scale, this is also true in our personal relationships. My interests in psychology and consciousness originated from observing my family, their unhealthy patterns, and observing the resulting choices I’ve made myself, in response to those patterns.
May Our Souls Continue To Rejoice
We have indeed so much to be grateful for today. May the joys and rememberances of this post-pandemic holiday season keep our hearts alive with hope, faith and gratitude throughout the coming year.
May our souls continue to rejoice with the miracles of joy, hope, faith and love of the Christmas of the Christians; Yule of the Pagans; Candle-mas of the Celts; Hanukkah of the Hebrews; Eid ul-Fitr of Islam; Pan-African festival of Kwanzaa; and Hindu celebration of Diwali.
In the old days, before the reformers came, the Old Oak King conquered the Holly King every year around this time. Mother Earth would then sleep under a white blanket of snow, the quiet ice of still waters, everything waiting for the Summer Solstice, when the Holly King would win the battle in turn.
We face the same battles of duality in our own lives. At times we are happily progressing along our own path, expanding, learning, growing spiritually, when suddenly an impasse comes along that requires us to become still, to be patient, to wait, to rest, to contemplate, to accept. We are seldom thankful, as we would prefer to continue rushing towards our goals, our dreams, our desires. We grumble, we complain, we resist, we fight the wait, and then we wonder why we are waiting so long.
Sometimes we are meant to just take the time to rest, draw strength, find ourselves. The true lesson and miracle of this season is the wait, the peace, the rest, until we once again see our dreams more clearly.
How To Achieve Inner Peace This Holiday Season
I recently did a deep meditation to ask Spirit how we can achieve inner peace this holiday season, as well as throughout the rest of the year. Here is what Spirit revealed to me.
Self-Care
Take better care of yourself – mind, body and soul. This is key, because if you are not taking care of your own health and well-being, then you won’t have much to offer others.
Do not neglect your spiritual practice. Pray. Meditate. Chant. Journal.
Eat a healthy diet. Get enough sleep. Exercise. Moving the body helps with circulation and helps with all kinds of pain. You will feel better for taking an hour to exercise. We are happier when we feel better.
Take some time to relax and have fun. Read. Reading is very relaxing and is a healthy escapism. What interests you? Find books on subjects you enjoy and start reading. Someone once said that books make good friends.
And most of all, don’t neglect your daily spiritual practice. If you do not have a practice, get one.
Goodwill
Think about this past year, and make a list of those that were naughty and nice to you. Pray for both. Ask for happiness, joy and goodwill to enter everyone’s lives, and then also visualize this. Visualize each person and open your heart. Wish each of them goodness.