ego

Are the messages you receive coming from your spirit helpers, or are they just thoughts in your head?

As a beginner on your spiritual journey, you may experience some uncertainty in trusting the messages that start coming through. This is part of the learning process and happens to everyone. How can you tell the true messages and genuine guidance from some random thoughts in your head? – Are they truly from spirit, or generated by ego? This is a very common dilemma when starting out.

Learning to trust yourself and the subtle information you receive is vital to building and deepening relationships with your spiritual guides and helpers. This truth or lie exercise will help you discern which messages are trustworthy and ring with the feeling of truth, and which do not.

Remember, you are a being of both spirit and a physical body. This exercise helps you discern the truth of spiritual messages in your body.

Truth or lies exercise

Find a comfortable seated position in a quiet place. Ground yourself by massaging your feet, rubbing the soles of your feet with a stainless steel spoon, or tapping your cheekbones and upper chest.

Take several mindful breaths to relax yourself and bring your awareness to your heart. Pay attention to the physical sensations you feel there. Can you sense your heart beating? If it helps you tune in, place both palms over the center of your chest, your heart chakra, as you breathe.

Truth:

When you feel relaxed, think back to a time in your life when you knew the truth without a doubt. For instance, this could be when you first knew you were in love with a person, the first time you met your newborn, when you saw a breathtaking landscape in nature, or another amazing situation you remember.

Now tune in and pay attention to the feelings in your body as you remember this significant moment of truth in your life. Where in your body do you feel the feelings of “truth”? Can you describe them? What qualities and emotions do you sense in the feelings? Pay attention to the sensations, the feelings that move through you while holding the memory. The memory is in the past, but the feelings are moving through you now as they did originally in response to that peak moment in your life.

You might write or record what you noticed and felt about the your physical response to the truth to help you remember these feelings.

Lies:

Next, tune in to a time in your life when you were lied to and you knew it, or when you yourself told a lie to someone. This could be a betrayal by a friend or partner, something that happened at your job, or the first time your mom caught you in a lie…

Once again, focus on your body as you remember the past lie. Pay attention to the feelings and physical sensations moving through you as you remember. In what part of your body did you feel them? What qualities did the feelings have? How did you know without a doubt that what you experienced was a lie? Write down or record what you noticed and felt.

How are the feelings of truth in your body different than the feelings of a lie?

Use this information for discernment as you begin receiving messages from spirit. Let your body and heart react to the information you’re not sure of by paying attention to the subtle energy moving through you. How do these messages feel in your body? When you believe spirit is giving you a message, does it feel like the truth in your body and heart, or does it feel like a lie to you?

If it feels like the truth in your body and heart, allow yourself to trust it. Now, pay attention to what happens when you trust the message and follow your guidance. Does it work out for you? How does it feel?

If a message feels like a lie in your body, it is probably not coming from spirit. Try letting it go and asking your helpers to clear any interfering thoughts. Next time you tune in, ask them for the truth.

Don’t try too hard, push or strive to get the “right” answers. If something isn’t clear, ask for clarity, go on about your day and come back to this later. Learning to discern by attending to your subtle body sensations is a basic skill in connecting with spirit, part of the learning process.

Have patience! You’ll get this. Trust your body to know the truth!

Photo credits: Sunset water person – Mohamed Nohassi on Unspash; Colored Night Sky – Greg Rakozy on Unsplash

Dear friends, this blog post is an excerpt from my upcoming eBook (as yet untitled) about how to connect and work effectively with your spiritual guidance.

In the shamanic worldview, everything and every living being has a spirit, and we can communicate with them to improve our lives and bring our visions into physical reality. They have wisdom, knowledge, practical advice, and unconditional love to share with us.

Spirit is the energy and consciousness of any object or organism. Every human, every physical object and living being is composed of energy, and has an invisible energy field containing the innate intelligence of that being. All have wisdom and supportive guidance to share with us.

Connecting with your spiritual guidance is not difficult to learn or practice. However, your connection to your helpers will be much more effective when…

...your intention to connect with spirit is sincere and heartfelt

…you approach this work with curiosity and flexibility, letting go of preconceived expectations or a need to control outcomes.

…you seek to discern and understand the messages of spirit with both your heart and mind.

…you carry out the directions and advice of your spirit guides as best you can.

…you have patience with the process

Your non-physical helpers are ready to help you. Trust that they hear you, know you, love you. But they will not act on your behalf until you ask for what you want. I repeat: You must ask for what you want!

To ask for what you want – converse with your spirit guides, share your heart, your concerns, your challenges. Share your joys, your deepest feelings, your intentions. Ask for the feelings you want to feel! Make this a habit. Form relationships with your spirit helpers.

You might sit in meditation, drum, sing your words, connect as you walk , write, make art, dance, listen to music that quiets your mind, find a book on the subject, all with the intention of connecting with spirit. Know that you are heard!

Now, be open to the signs, answers and messages your guidance sends you in response to your asking. Spirit communicates quietly in symbols, metaphor, telepathy, signs in nature, feelings, humor, and through your senses. The meaning of some messages may not be clear to you immediately. You will gain clarity with time as you let them percolate quietly in the back of your mind. If, after a time you are still unclear about the meaning of a message, ask your helpers for clarification. Keep asking until you understand.

(True spiritual guidance will never ask, suggest or command that you harm any person or any living thing, cause damage, put a curse on someone, lie, cheat, or steal.)

Spirit Works in Divine Timing.

Unfortunately, there is no rushing the process of receiving advice and information from your spiritual guidance. Patience is called for! When you work with spirit, part of the process is living with some uncertainty and possible unanswered questions for awhile, because spirit time is non-linear. Your intentions may not be manifested in 3D reality on your preferred timeline!

Because of this, surrender, or letting go, is often called for after you’ve asked spirit for your desires to come into physical reality. This means asking for the feelings and experiences you want, giving it your all, pouring your heart out to spirit. Then, knowing you’ve asked, and made yourself clear, do not push, strive, or try to control outcomes or set deadlines.

During this period of waiting, stay open to what does come through no matter how small. Notice any movement toward your goals, thank your helpers and celebrate each victory no matter how small! (A little happy dance works!) This shows spirit you are paying attention!

While spirit works for you behind the scenes, go on about your daily life, living mindfully, enjoying yourself. Your spirit helpers work for you in unseen realms, drawing together all the threads and connections, meetings, and coincidences needed to bring your visions to life. Give the seeds of your dreams time to germinate and begin growing!

When we connect with spiritual guidance, we are not in the “logical zone”.

This means temporarily releasing the ego’s need to control outcomes, letting go of left brained logic and a need to think rationally. One way to let go of your ego is to visualize it as a toddler, and take him or her to the babysitter while you ease your mind, and let go of worries, fear, and doubts. Then your mind is free to relax, become playful, open like a flower to new insights and feelings, and connect with the magic and wisdom of spirit.

When we partner with our non-physical helpers, we connect with unconditional love, practical advice, fearlessness, true power, acceptance, healing miracles, and limitless potential!

photo credits:

evergreen forest Photo by Joseph Young on Unsplash Evergreen sunset Nikola-Tasic on Unsplash – Everygreen sunrise – Les Anderson on Unsplash

Shamanic Healing of Ames

Truth or lie? Your body knows.