meditation
End Your Day With A Restorative Evening Ritual
How we end our days is just as important as how we begin them. Yet this time of the day is often overlooked as an opportunity to promote our personal and spiritual well-being.
Especially when navigating stressful situations or busy schedules, being intentional about how we transition into rest can significantly improve the quality and restorative nature of our downtime.
Creating a simple, personalized nighttime routine allows us to check in with ourselves and make sure we’re taking care of our mind, body, and spirit. It helps relieve the stress of the day and sets the tone for a restful night’s sleep.
There are countless ways to create an evening ritual or routine that resonates with your spirit. The important thing is that your practice feels authentic and meets your needs. It only takes a few simple steps to create a daily practice that helps us release the stress of the day.
Whatever practice you choose, make sure it works with your schedule and is relaxing, rather than feeling like it creates more daily tasks to complete.
Choose activities that help you relax and that you look forward to. Whether it’s journaling, listening to soothing music, or lighting a candle, choose activities that help you intentionally transition from the busyness of the day to the calm of the night.
Many people complain that they don’t have enough time in their day. For them, a daily spiritual routine is a frivolous luxury they cannot afford to waste time on, yet these same people often spend hours each night binge-watching television or endlessly scrolling through their phones. This modern paradox highlights how easily we prioritize mindless distractions over meaningful self-care. By consciously reclaiming even a fraction of this time, we can nurture our spiritual well-being every evening in a way that renews our body, mind, and spirit far more effectively.
What It Means To Align With Your Higher Self
The term “higher self” is a term often used in spirituality, metaphysics, and psychic work, but it can be very confusing. What exactly is it? Is it our subconscious, our conscience, our alter ego, our soul, our spirit?
While these aspects are all related in some way to the higher self, it’s best understood as the most enlightened and transcendent part of our being.
Our soul or spirit is the conscious, evolving part of us in this lifetime, while the higher self is our soul’s highest potential. It is our divine blueprint and our eternal spiritual essence that exists beyond our physical self in the non-physical. It’s the timeless, eternal part of us that embodies the divine essence of who we are.
While the incarnated aspect of soul is the conscious experiencer throughout our lifetime, the higher self is the permanent aspect of the soul that exists in the higher realms.
The higher self is not a separate personality or individual being, but a deeply integrated, higher foundation of our soul. It is like a spiritual archive of all the wisdom, experiences and lessons accumulated from our past lives, as well as our soul contracts and higher purpose for this lifetime, serving as a blueprint for our soul’s evolution and life journey. It reflects the highest aspects of our being.
When we connect with our higher self, we align with this elevated aspect of who we truly are and what we intend to accomplish in this life and the next. This connection gives us clarity and insight into our soul’s path. It allows us to see life from a higher perspective and guides us to make choices that promote personal and spiritual growth. Connecting with the higher self helps us navigate life’s challenges with greater ease and purpose, allowing our soul to evolve and expand.
Everything Happens For A Reason
Challenges, setbacks and disappointments are inevitable in life. Sometimes it can even feel like the entire universe is conspiring against us!
But this perspective is an illusion born of our human experience. Spirit doesn’t desire our failure or suffering. Instead, it seeks to lead us to joy, abundance, and fulfillment.
Many of us, however, fall into the habit of blaming God, Spirit, the Universe, or others for the hardships we face. But to truly grow, we must change this mindset. Instead of dwelling on blame, it’s important to examine the lessons hidden in each challenge. By asking why these situations arose and what we can learn from them, we transform pain into wisdom and setbacks into stepping stones.
Consider the heartache of losing a long-term partner. You may have built a life together – marriage, children, shared dreams – only to wake up one day to abandonment. Questions arise: Why did this happen? What could I have done differently?
It’s important to realize that in most cases these events are not your fault. Free will governs each person’s choices. While her decision to leave may hurt you deeply, it is a reflection of her own path, not your worth. Self-doubt often creeps in, especially for women, as thoughts of inadequacy arise. But self-esteem cannot come from others-it must come from within.
Instead of focusing on what you could have done, consider this: their departure may have been necessary for your growth. Spirit often removes people from our lives to make room for greater blessings. In hindsight, you may realize that staying with that person would have hindered your potential or delayed the arrival of something better.
Inner Journey To The Mystical Isle Of Avalon
Sometimes when the pressures and demands of modern life become too much, I retreat to one of my favorite places in the universe: the mythical island of Avalon.
This legendary island of Celtic mythology is steeped in legends of healing, psychic learning, sacred crafting, and the life and times of King Arthur. Its name translates as “Isle of Apples,” emphasizing its association with fertility, abundance, and otherworldly beauty.
In folklore, Avalon, or Insula Avallonis, was a sanctuary of deep spiritual and psychic knowledge and was known as a training ground for pagan priestesses dedicated to the Great Mother Goddess. These women dedicated their lives to spirituality, honing their skills in clairvoyance, herbalism, weaving, and deep devotion to the Divine Feminine.
But Avalon was not only a sanctuary for women. Men were also an integral part of its story. Merlin the magician is inextricably linked to the history of the island, having trained the young Arthur there for his kingship.
Avalon is also entwined with many other tales woven through the lives of King Arthur, Guinevere, Morgan le Fay, Merlin, Nimue (the Lady of the Lake), and others. Legend also has it that King Arthur was brought to Avalon by his half-sister, Morgan le Fay, to heal after being badly wounded in battle.
The question of whether Avalon really existed straddles the line between myth and reality. Some historians and researchers speculate that Avalon may be based on a real place. Glastonbury, England, is often associated with Avalon because of its mystical aura and ties to Arthurian legend.
Embracing The 12/12 Energetic Portal
Today, we have the opportunity to align with the powerful energy of the 12/12 portal, a sacred gateway traditionally celebrated in the esoteric community for its symbolic themes of unity, completion, and integration. This portal offers a chance to reflect on the lessons of the past year and prepare for the transformative energies that lie ahead.
The number 12 represents cosmic order, harmony, and wholeness. It’s a complete number tied to cycles such as the 12 months of the year, the 12 signs of the zodiac, and the 12 disciples. On December 12, this numerical energy doubles, amplifying the vibrations of balance, completion, and unity.
The 12/12 portal marks the final energetic gateway of the year, offering a moment to integrate the wisdom we’ve gained in 2024. It encourages alignment with the universal flow and the bridging of personal growth with collective evolution. Unity isn’t just about external connections — it’s about uniting the different aspects of ourselves. Consider this portal an invitation to balance your mind, body, and spirit, fostering inner peace that radiates outward.
As the year draws to a close, the 12/12 portal serves as a moment of reflection. What lessons have you learned? What challenges shaped you? This energy threshold encourages embracing both your triumphs and setbacks, recognizing them as essential parts of your personal growth. Integration is key at this time — taking a step back to evaluate how you’ve grown and how you can carry those lessons forward ensures that you will enter the next year wiser and more aligned with your higher purpose.
The Spiritual Wisdom Of Butterflies
My grandmother was a poet. When I was a child, she wrote a beautiful poem about me. It was about a fairy girl who spent all her time outside chasing butterflies. The poem had a poignant message:
In time, the pendulum swings,
and you can’t hear the butterfly’s wings.
It was her way of reminding me to hold on to my youthful passion, to nurture the light within, and to resist life’s inevitable disappointments.
This wisdom has stayed with me long after her passing, and in the years since, butterflies have become more than a reminder of her — they’ve become her messengers.
Butterflies often appear in my life when I’m feeling overwhelmed, under attack, or grieving a loss. They flutter around me, landing gently on my skin and hovering close as if to whisper a reminder: “Don’t let anyone steal your light.”
These delicate creatures have become symbols of resilience, hope, and the enduring connection between my grandmother’s spirit and my own.
Butterflies hold deep spiritual significance across cultures and belief systems. They are seen as symbols of transformation, freedom, and the soul’s journey.
Their life cycle — from caterpillar to cocoon to winged beauty — mirrors our own processes of growth, healing, and self-discovery. They teach us that even in our most confined and vulnerable states, there is the potential for magnificent change.
Spiritual Self-Care For The Sensitive Soul
For those of us who are highly sensitive, including psychics, mediums, healers, and empaths, practicing consistent spiritual self-care is essential to maintaining our overall well-being.
If you identify with this group and neglect the daily maintenance of your energetic health and spiritual hygiene, you leave yourself vulnerable. This can manifest as emotional, mental, and even physical health problems. The good news? You can safeguard your well-being with a dedicated spiritual self-care routine.
Spiritual self-care is about nurturing your inner being and maintaining healthy energy flow and balance. It includes practices that support your spiritual well-being and ensure that you stay grounded, centered, and connected to your higher self and the universe.
Regular spiritual self-care is also a matter of health. Research strongly supports the positive effects of spirituality on our overall health. Studies show that spiritually active people tend to live longer and enjoy better mental and physical health. For example, spirituality has been shown to correlate with a reduced risk of Alzheimer’s disease and cognitive decline.
Spirituality is associated with better mental health, including lower levels of depression and anxiety. Studies show that spiritual activities promote positive emotions such as hope, forgiveness, and gratitude, which contribute to resilience to stress and emotional challenges. It also promotes healthier lifestyles, including reduced substance use and better stress management.