Spirit Guides.....

Spirit Guides are sacred sources of Divine energy often personified as Beings or animals monitoring our every move. Many people believe or teach that accessing our "Guides" can be complex and limited to the holy anointed ones, mystical workshop leaders, the lucky ones, or those who have a perceived direct line to the Divine, but this is not so, everyone can access their Guide, and I am dedicating the next few weeks to assisting you in discovering your connection with your Spirit Guide.

My journey...

Until my mid thirties, I had no idea what "Guides" were, I merely knew that I had forces within that assisted me along my path in life. I knew that if I remained in connection with those forces I would embark on a journey intended for me. I also knew that I could one day, through Divine guidance, free myself from the shackles I had built around my wounded wings. Guidance from Spirit plays a significant role in my life, in this blog post I would like to share with you parts of my life journey that assisted me in learning to embrace Guidance from Spirit. So, for the sake of staying focused (a challenge for me!), I will start from the beginning of my personal story about connecting with my intuitive self and developing a connection with my Spirit Guide. I will try my best to give you the Coles notes version of my journey!

Sacred Memories, simple gratitude

My most sacred encounters with Spirit's guidance occured as a result of spending childhood moments on my Grandparent's farm in rural Manitoba. My Grandparents farm was a virtual playground of creativity, offering a beautiful connection with nature. My Grandparents lived a very simple life, they owned a small farmhouse full of love and vacant of the essentials of modern day living. The home had no running water until the mid 70's, and minimal lighting, oil heat, water hauled by hand summer and winter, all food consumed by our family was grown or canned on the farm, all meat came from our friend the chicken, the cow named Bossy, or the pig from the neighbor of which my Gigi traded eggs for our bacon and ham. My Gigi was a spirited European immigrent with the longest, thickest eyebrows I had every seen. He was an entrepreneur specializing in chicken farming. On his business trips to town, my Gigi would dress up in a fine suit and tie, head to the big city and sell his eggs to his regular customers. While adjusting his hat and lighting his home rolled Export A cigarette, he would beam a brilliant smile at the prospects of bringing home some cash for his eggs, spending time at the York Hotel eating hamburger steak, and of course enjoying a shot or two of 5 Star Whiskey after his meal. My Gigi had a high level of gratitude for the simple things in life, a vision for his business, and a creative way of approaching joy in life, to him, life was meant to be lived, played with, and embraced. He knew the value of gratitude for even the simplest of gifts, he followed his gut and trusted his intuition. Because of his gratitude for the simple life he lived he was Spiritually open to accept Guidance and whispers of wisdom from his Guides with regards to his business and life. My Gigi taught me that Gratitude is the doorway through which I am able to connect with my Divine source, stay focused on the gift of the present moment, and open myself to Divine Guidance. Gratitude is the first prayer (meditation) I do before every Intuitive Reading and at the start of my day.

The space for creativity

We had virtually no toys on the farm, so our creative juices were forced to flow. The simplicity of the life my Grandparents lived and shared made room for me to have minimal external interruptions of my sacred creative time. There were no distractions from TV (unless the rabbit ears had enough tin foil on them and directed just right), life was simplified, distractions were minimal, all prime conditions for connecting with intuition and creativity. Out on the farm, the main place I could find creative moments were found in the exploration of the bushes that surrounded the old farm site. I would spend hours in the bush, imagining the life of a pioneer, or the expertise of a hunter, some days I was Laura from Little House on the Prairie, and other times I was Daniel Boone, hunting the local beasts. My time alone in the bush provided me an opportunity to connect with nature, to observe the flying squirrels, prairie chickens, and wolves. During this sacred time in my life, I developed a strong sense of knowing that more existed then I and I embraced a connection with the animals and land. I learnt to rely on my instincts to find my way home, and to trust my gut in situations that were somewhat dangerous. This was the beginning of opening my intuitive doorway...a simplified life with minimal to no distractions,trust, as well as developing a fine tuned skill for living in the moment and observing within that moment the messages held within it. Today, in my practice as an Intuitive, I am asked daily, how did I become intuitive. I did not have a formal education in order to learn to be intuitive or communicate with my Guide, I did not sign up for a class or spend a gazillion dollars on intuitive lessons, ....instead I took time to connect with nature, love the simple life, trust my gut, take chances, believe, and live in the moment, this was my training ground. Today I still take time to have peaceful simple moments. I rarely if ever watch TV, I take time daily to connect with nature, and have many creative outlets which assist me in awakening my intuitive self. When I am creatively involved in a project (be it running, making chocolate, cooking a meal) my mind is silent, in the present moment, and I am connecting with the energy of all that is around me, in this space, I find my Guide Nathan, in this space of silent creativity I am able to do readings for my clients. Gratitude, silence, peace, creatively engaging in meditation to open my higher connections, trust, these are all the major components that assist in making a connection with my Guides.

Guidance from Spirit Guides...

The guidance from Spirit Guides manifests in many forms. These forms appear as opportunities, lessons, and experiences focused on assisting you to ascend to the highest possible vibration (or expression) of your Spirit. Remember, a guide is not difficult to access, is not located as some sort of superior being located way outside of you, nor is it only access able through quasi ascended masters, mystical mystics, workshop leaders, books claiming to know all of Spirits way, or anyone else outside of you. YOU HAVE all that it takes to access your Guidance, or essential vibrational attunement with Divine intention (thats what Spirit Guides are really all about, attunement with Divine intention for your life), there are merely a few steps to get there. Here are three that assisted me, perhaps they will assist you too....

Three key components to developing your intuition and connection with a Spirit Guide

1. Gratitude when you need to access wisdom, intuition, guidance for a life situation, sit quietly and feel gratitude for the moment at hand, no matter how difficult it may be, feel gratitude, for in gratitude you become attuned with the vibration of the Divine grace all around you, an awareness develops outside of your situation, you become focused on the Light of the challenge or question at hand. As demonstrated in my story, the moments of solitude, silence, the simplicity of life, living in gratitude for the simple act of selling eggs, having joy love and peace while living in simple conditions, the stillness that existed on the farm combined with the gratitude for all, gave way for the three main pillars of intuition, that being clarity, creativity and peace. With clarity, creativity and peace, the process of awakening your intuition and following guidance can begin.

2-Invoke your Higher Self (or Spirits Guidance) to assist you. This can be done by either prayer, meditation or simply asking for assistance on the matter at hand, then move your awareness to the present moment, watch around you for changes in perception, shifts in your world, messages from people, animals or words all around you, be in the present moment. In my story, I shared with you how in the bush out on the farm, I needed to be aware of my environment. While trusting my instincts on how to return home safely from a tour of the woods, I would need to also be aware of the trail ahead of me, animals and predators around me, the weather, the time of day, the direction and so much more. The farm taught me to ask for help from the energies of my intuition and higher self, then to stay alert, aware and follow the path ahead of me, never judging if I took a wrong turn, if that happened I would merely get back on track, but I would always go back and forth from instinct to invoking the Guides around me.

3- Trust, ah yes, now that's a big one, for me anyway! Trust that you are being Guided, that you are connected to Divine source, that your life has a purpose, the trials you are experiencing are for the highest good. Trust that your Guides are alive and active within you, they are not a royal regal being floating outside of you, but a strength, an intuition, gut feel, knowing, a silent whisper, a loud call, a beckoning, a challenge to move, shift, change and grow.

Exercise for connecting with Intuition and Guidance

For this week, practice the 3 key components to developing your intuition and guidance, ...sit in silence and with an attitude of gratitude, invoke your Guides to assist you, ask for help, be humble, kind and full of gratitude for the presence of your situation and the love that surrounds you. Journal your thoughts, and words of guidance that come forth while you meditate, become a scribe for your higher self. Become more aware and leave your meditative state. Engage in your daily life in a new way of awareness that allows you to be present and alert to all leads, clues or messages from your guides with regards to your situation or question. Trust the process of Guidance and know you will be shown the path, surrender and know that it may not be exactly as you think your path should be, but you will be shown if you are open and filled with trust and gratitude. Journal your experiences, and in the journaling see the correlation, messages and gifts of your awareness of the interactive moments you have with your Guides.

Next week I will write about my experience of meeting my Guide Nathan, why the name Nathan was given to my Guide, and how you can meet and be with that special connection known as your Spirit Guide. As well, I will continue the discourses from Nathan about demystifying Spirit Guides.

Until next week, I wish you many blessings along your path of discovering your connection with your inner Guidance...your Spirit Guide.

Denyse

Here is a picture of the "campus" of my "intuitive university", the farm!!