surrender

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

Each in-breath you take is a renewal of your being, an infusion of fresh air, permeating every cell of your body with life-giving oxygen, circulating the life force (also known as chi) through you. Each out-breath is a release, a letting go of airborne toxins and stale energies from your body, a cleansing, making way for the next inhalation. This cycle of inhalation and exhalation is life itself.

Can you slow down and tune into your body for a moment? As you inhale, pay attention to the flow of cool air into your nose, your airway, your lungs, then on the exhalation as you empty your lungs, notice the warmer out breath flowing over your tongue and teeth and lips, and out of your mouth.

Your breath is an everyday miracle of renewal that cleanses and refreshes your being, then releases what is no longer needed.

Sunset Evergreen
Photo by Nicola Tasic on Unsplash

As you prepare for sleep, your brain slows down and withdraws from daily worries, anxieties, looping and spinning thoughts. This rest period allows for deep repair, for fresh new energy to enter, an opportunity for the renewal and resetting of your mind and heart as you wake to the new day. As the old energies are released, space is made for new thoughts, new ideas to enter your consciousness.

Your sleeping body repairs itself at the cellular level, reweaving the inner energy of heart and mind. All systems are renewed and refreshed as you sleep, surrendering consciousness, allowing the bed to support you, letting go of your thoughts and any resistance. You wake, refreshed, renewed, energized, ready to move, live, create!

Cycles of Renewal. You Inhale, exhale, Inhale. tides ebb and flow and ebb again. Seasons move through their yearly cycle. Underground life wakes when conditions permit, roots stir and seek nourishment, seeds germinate and begin to grow and send out shoots reaching to the light. They grow to maturity, flower, produce seeds, then decline and die. All the while, seeds and roots rest underground, waiting for spring to warm them so they can begin the cycle once again.

It is possible to consciously let go of the stale, stagnant, unneeded energy, attitudes, beliefs, and negative patterns in our lives. Then we can renew ourselves with fresh energy, attitudes, activities, and inspirations. This is an unfolding process that takes time, focus, and patience. It is a vital cycle of renewal in our lives like inhaling and exhaling, sleeping and waking. It is called healing.

You can set an intention to bring fresh new inspirations and creative ideas into your life when the timing is right. Let them percolate in your heart and mind. Let them energize you. Let them bring you life!

Then later, when you feel stagnant, tired, or stale, gently release and surrender what you no longer need in your life and make room, once again for the fresh and new.

Shamanic Healing of Ames

Tips for working with your spiritual guidance