Trusting Inner Guidance

Posted on March 16, 2017 by JeannetteMarch 16, 2017

One question I am asked again and again is how to trust one’s inner guidance.

What I find is that behind this question is a fear of making the wrong choice or of bringing about an unwanted outcome.

The truth is that none of us know for sure what our lives will bring with the choices we make. Most of us have experienced that if we don’t listen to our hearts we may end up doing something or living a life that isn’t true to our authentic self.

Our soul, intuition, guides, angels, and departed loved ones communicate with us through our feelings and our own heart.

When we feel the desires of our heart, we know that we are listening to our inner guidance.

When we force ourselves to do things because we feel we must, we usually find that we begin to feel stifled or restrained.

Here’s an example. After I graduated from college I bought a woman’s business suit and spent many hours learning a spreadsheet program. I had been an English and art major, but I figured I had better get real and learn what I could to do work that seemed more fitting for a “real” job.

Guess what? I never wore that suit to any job and I never used that spreadsheet program.

In the end, I needed to find my own way and do work that was better suited to my personality and strengths.

Whatever it is that you would love to do, trust that spirit knows this and is working behind the scenes to help you once you decide to take action on your desire and listen to your heart.

Sensing Spirit is Something We Can All Do

Posted on March 3, 2017 by JeannetteMarch 3, 2017

I believe we can all sense the presence of Spirit.

For some this is through the beauty of nature, the feeling of a loved one visiting us from the realm of Spirit, the sense of the Divine guiding us in our life, or a synchronistic event that benefits us in some way.
It’s like there is an invisible frequency that if we quiet our mind we can feel what our heart is saying.

Spirit speaks to us through our heart.

When we surrender to receive Divine guidance, we tune into a higher frequency that transmits its messages through feelings, body sensations, symbols, and words that seem to suddenly appear in our minds.

Let me give you an example. In my twenties I prayed to be shown my purpose. Over the course of the next year I was guided to go to a section in the library where I was working and pull off the shelf a book called Embraced by the Light. At the time I was working in the children’s library and had never noticed this area of books in the adult section before. I read this book about Betty Eadie’s near death experience.

I was stunned as I had never heard of this before and didn’t know such experiences existed or that many others throughout the world had experiences similar to Eadie’s in which they visited the realm of Spirit and were met by benevolent beings and felt an overwhelming sense of unconditional love.

After reading Embraced by the Light I was guided to read books on intuition, psychic ability, subtle energy, and emotional and spiritual healing.
What would follow was the opening of my own psychic and mediumistic abilities.

I learned first through books and then through direct experience that our spiritual guides, teachers, angels and loved ones in Spirit are continuously guiding us and giving us signs of their presence and support.

It created in me a compelling desire to understand this Spiritual presence in our lives and how best to engage with it.
I learned that with practice and loving intention, that sensing the presence of Spirit in my life was something that was becoming more and more accessible.

I believe that if we ask Spirit for this assistance, we are guided to understand and learn for ourselves. We begin to see that although we live in a physical world there is a Divine force guiding us through our life journey.

All we need to do to receive help is to ask.

How to Hear Your Own Spiritual Guidance and Enhance Your Life

Posted on March 1, 2017 by JeannetteMarch 1, 2017

Even though I have been working as a professional Spiritual Intuitive since 2004, it took me many years to stop questioning myself. I did not have lots of paranormal experiences prior to discovering my abilities in my late twenties and since I was adopted, I didn’t have any relatives to turn to who could show me that my abilities were inherited. I had to figure out what these abilities were and what I was going to do with them.

I firmly believe that I was guided to know myself first and that my intuitive or psychic abilities were secondary to cultivating a spiritual connection.

My abilities allowed me to know through the many readings I would do, that a higher force was enabling me to deliver very accurate and helpful messages to my clients. The vast majority of my clients have been complete strangers to me whom I know nothing other than their name. Time and again, however, I would be given details and messages for my clients that only they would know about themselves and their lives.

I began to trust that I was not doing the work alone and that there was a greater purpose for my heightened intuitive abilities.

I came to know that this purpose was to show and teach others how they could access their own spiritual guidance and trust they are loved and supported by Spirit.

I also believe that my ability is no more special than anyone’s abilities and that connecting to and communicating with Spirit (God, angels, guides, loved ones) is something we can all do.

Over time I began to see in my own life and in the lives of my clients that connecting with Spirit brings these Benefits:

Feeling loved & supported
Feeling more at peace
Increased feelings of well-being
Trust in your own guidance
Greater self-confidence
Greater sense of purpose
Discovering new ways you can help others with your gifts and abilities
Improvement in your own self-care and self-appreciation
More consistently taking action toward your goals and dreams
More frequent and consistent feelings of inspiration and belief in yourself

So How Do You Begin this Spiritual Connection?

Give it your Time and Attention by making it a Priority
Take regular time for Quiet
Let yourself Relax
Cultivate Self-Awareness
Meditation

Keep it simple by taking small amounts of time each day to get quiet and go within. Focus on calming and relaxing your body and releasing worry or concern.

A major part of hearing the voice of your own higher self and soul in addition to spiritual guides and loved ones in Spirit, is letting go of worry, stress and self-doubt.

This is why so many of us naturally tune into higher guidance when we shower, spend time in nature, engage in an activity we love, daydream, or are otherwise lost in the moment. Our linear, critical mind is released from its incessant thinking and we open to something vaster than our everyday concerns.

Yet at the same time, we receive valuable guidance to help us with these very concerns.

I recommend keeping a journal and writing down the guidance you receive during these times. When you go back and re-read this guidance, you will likely notice its relevance and helpfulness to your life.

Consistency is key because it helps train our minds that we can receive higher guidance and that we are supported and loved. The more we return to a relaxed state the more we open to our inner wisdom and heightened perception about our lives.

Another important step is to begin to pay attention to your body and your energy.

When we are not following our inner wisdom, we may feel uneasy, anxious, afraid, stuck, insecure, or overwhelmed. We may notice our energy levels drop or have a feeling of having to force ourselves to do something. We may also feel feel restless and unsettled.

Receiving spiritual guidance was never meant to be difficult or something that only select people get to do. It does not require psychic abilities or years of meditation. It is innately within us all.

With practice, you can begin to act on your own guidance more regularly, knowing that you have access to higher wisdom you can trust.

You are Loved and Watched Over by Spirit

Posted on February 11, 2017 by JeannetteFebruary 11, 2017

I never cease to be amazed by the love and concern our loved ones in Spirit have for us. I was so moved by the power of a mother’s love for her daughter during a mediumship reading today. This mother was able to impress upon me current challenges her daughter was going through as well as other important information she wanted to convey.

All of this was done through a third person, as I have never met the daughter or spoken to her.

When we touch into our hearts, we can feel the love of Spirit and the Divine presence in our lives. Our hearts tell us the truth. It’s the love we feel for our family, friends, and our pets.

Spirit wants us to extend this same love to ourselves. Life can bring great challenges that cause our hearts pain, but these challenges can also open our hearts to others. Another’s pain becomes our own, we see ourselves in another, and we wish for them as much peace and love as we do for ourselves.

It is through your heart that Spirit will speak to you. When you are wondering if the guidance you are receiving is real, check in with your heart. If you feel a sense of peace or a pull in a direction that would open opportunity for you and add harmony, joy, or clarity to your life, then you are tapping into higher guidance.

As you follow your heart, your life unfolds like a beautiful flower, whose beauty and fragrance brings light to yourself as well as to others. With time we can see this beauty. In the moment though we may be in the midst of challenge, the flower continues to unfold, gently encouraging us to keep our heart open and allow love to light the way.

Numerology and Your Personal Year

Posted on January 13, 2017 by JeannetteFebruary 11, 2017

After 2016 many are hoping for a fresh start. 2017 in Numerology is a 1 year. The number 1 represents new beginnings and new opportunities. Numerology gives us the opportunity throughout our lives to begin anew. We enter 9 year cycles continuously both universally and in our personal lives.

In our 1 year, which we all share this year, we are encouraged to be bold, try new things, and go for our dreams with determination and focus.

Want to know where you are in your personal year cycle?

To begin, give a number to your birth month. For instance, my birth month is the number 10 or 1 when reduced or added together. December would be 12, or 3 when reduced (1+2=3). Each month January through December is a number, 1-12.

Next, what is your birth day? Take that number and reduce it, for example 26 becomes an 8 (2+6=8).

Then add the current calendar year (2017: 2+1+7=1) to your birth month and your birth day.

I’ll use my birthday as an example. October 2 is 1+2+1=4. I am in a 4 personal year. Someone born on November 12 would be in a 6 personal year. (2+3+1=6).

Here are some associations for each personal year below.

1 New beginnings, courage, determination, focus

2 Relationships, love, connections, cooperation, sensitivity, patience

3 Personal expression, emotions, inspiration, optimism, creativity

4 Foundations, practicality, organizing, managing, stability, discipline

5 Change, freedom, travel, choices, flexibility, adventure

6 Nurturing, family, friends, community, responsibility, healing, teaching

7 Wisdom, research, spirituality, introspection, contemplation

8 Career, power, money, success, harvest, leadership

9 Humanitarian, endings, compassion, completion, transformation

What are your hopes and dreams for this upcoming year?
Your Personal Year can help you determine what opportunities or areas of focus might be important for you this year. Reflect on your life and see what might be arising, what needs attention, and what your heart and soul are calling out for.

Here’s an example of how meaningful our personal years can be. In 2005 my daughter was born, which was a 1 Personal Year for me. In 2023, she turns 18, which begins another 1 year for me. The year before, 2022, she will be 17, which will be a 9 year for me, signaling a time of endings and release in my life.

It’s fascinating how right on numerology can be and how much it can give perspective to what’s going on in our lives.

Self-Acceptance: Loving All Parts of Our Self

Posted on January 6, 2016 by JeannetteFebruary 11, 2017

Being Empathic

I’ve been watching several interviews with Sounds True’s The Self Acceptance Project.

One of the guests, Karla McLaren, mentions how people who are highly empathic often have difficulty prioritizing themselves and may even have challenges in knowing what they want.

It’s an issue she sees in many women, and some men. Those of us who have no problem putting others first can find ourselves lost in the needs of everyone but ourselves. We may have learned from early conditioning that our own needs were not important or came at the expense of being punished or criticized.

Lacking self-acceptance often has its origins in our upbringing but it can also be reinforced through our culture and present relationships in our adult lives. Those of us who have had instances of harsh punishment, violence, shaming, criticizing, or other invalidation of ourselves in our lives know the effort it takes to love ourselves unconditionally. It often isn’t so simple as saying positive affirmations.

In my childhood home, my parents often used physical or psychological punishments meant to bring fear and isolation and a diminished sense of self. I came to know that they were acting from their own wounded selves.

Part of our growth as adults is learning to accept and love those parts of ourselves that feel insecure, afraid, or unsure. Too often we can lose our sense of self in accommodating others. If our sense of who we are was compromised by trauma, there may even be physiological, automatic responses that make it even more difficult to speak our truth or assert ourselves.

Body Messages

Having recently worked with a shamanic psychologist, I began to better understand how physical responses in the body can be triggered as well as how our bodies are messengers of needed emotional release.

For instance, the body may tremble or shake in response to emotions releasing from emotions that have been suppressed due to a traumatic event. Listening to the inner messages of your body can let you know that some part of yourself needs a voice and to be listened to with love and compassion. Our inner child, the part of us that felt afraid and unsafe during a painful event, may have gone unnoticed for years as a self-protective way to avoid being hurt again.

In my own healing, I have seen that self-acceptance is a journey that includes listening to my emotions and my body. Sometimes our conscious minds may not even remember the cause of our emotional pain, but our bodies do. Taking the time to hear the inner messages of our body and our emotions is healing.

While this is a bigger topic than the space of this blog, here are some tips I’ve learned to become more attuned to my body and emotions.

Listening to our Feelings

Let your feelings arise and allow yourself to feel them.
Breathe through the challenge of expressing painful emotions. The body may also shake or tremble as the energy of suppressed emotions are being released.

3. Be loving and gentle with yourself. If you find it helpful, pray and ask for divine assistance. Feel the emotion of love in your heart and let love permeate your entire body. Openly receive love and give it to yourself.

4. Notice your thoughts. Remind yourself that you are healing and that you are now safe. Let your inner child know that you are here for her/him and that you will listen to, acknowledge, and love the part of you that is hurting or in need of attention. Give love to the part of you that was abused, neglected, or otherwise hurt.

5. Feel a connection to the love of Divine Source and the love you have for others. Allow yourself to receive the same love you give to others.

6. Ground yourself. Activities such as exercise, nature, music, or talking to a trusted person can help.

9. Notice the difference after listening deeply to yourself and how you feel now. Even if you feel tired or drained after an emotional release, your emotions often calm from being given awareness and attention.

10. Self-acceptance takes courage, compassion, and consistency. There may be many more times you find that you need to love rather than criticize or reject yourself. We all have parts of ourselves that we have learned to reject. It can take a while to learn a new habit.

Now we are learning to embrace these parts of ourselves with love and understanding. You are building your inner strength and self-love. Much like exercise, consistent attention to our inner selves with love and compassion builds our spiritual strength and feelings of hope and inner peace.

Always consider the help of a counselor, therapist, or other helping professional if you feel the need. As many of the Sounds True guests mentioned, we are conditioned for connection. It takes courage to ask another to help us and to be open to reveal our hearts.

I’ve found that by allowing myself to be vulnerable and open with the therapists and healers I’ve worked with over the years, I have learned far greater self-acceptance and self-compassion than if I had attempted to cope with challenges myself.

10 Ways Spirit Communicates with Us

Posted on December 1, 2015 by JeannetteFebruary 13, 2017

Spirit, whether we are aware or not, is an essential part of life. My belief is that Spirit is infused in all of life.

While I’ve always believed in God and angels, it wasn’t until 1999, when I first read Sonia Choquette’s book A Psychic Pathway and Doreen Virtue’s Divine Guidance, that I realized we have spirit guides as well.

These and other books I read sparked in me a drive to learn all I could about how Spirit guides our lives. I entered a period of great awakening to a world I had been partially asleep to. I had been raised Christian, expanded and changed these beliefs in my 20s, and further expanded them when at the age of 28 I began reading books on near death experiences and psychic or intuitive abilities. I went from thinking these abilities were wrong to understanding that we are all naturally intuitive.

While in graduate school for psychology I continued to take classes and read many, many books on this subject. I also began meditating and opening up to an inner exploration of myself.

When I made the leap to do doing readings in 2003 and then doing them professionally in 2004,

I began to know firsthand that Spirit was in the very fabric of our everyday lives.

I was given a front row seat to how much our guides and angels knew about the most pressing issues in our lives and how much we were supported and helped.

It felt as if someone had told me Santa was real and I could believe in things that before seemed like wishful thinking. Even though I would continue to go through challenging times over the next several years, Spirit would prove to me time and again that we are not alone.

We are all born with a spirit guide or guides and guardian angels.

10 Ways Spirit Communicates in Our Lives

Dreams: A common way our loved ones or even guides appear to us is in our nighttime dreams. After my father passed several years ago he began appearing in my dreams clearly showing he was sorry for how he’d been when he raised me.

I’ve also had clients’ loved ones appear to me in dreams the day before their scheduled reading. A recent loved one made it very clear to me his height and hair color as well as a significant message he wanted to convey to my client.

Perhaps you’ve noticed that message dreams seem especially clear and poignant. This is one way our loved ones or guides can get our attention when our conscious mind is relaxed and we become more receptive to guidance in our dreams.

2. Signs and Symbols: Spirit often likes to get our attention through metaphor or symbols. Butterflies, animals, nature signs, coins, and other signs are another type of message. One way my guides validate my intuition is through license plates or signs on cars or trucks. I’ve had several of these and I always am pleasantly surprised by this acknowledgment.

Once when I used to live in the Bay Area, I saw a license plate holder that said Angel Motors twice in over a 1 week period. I had lived there for 10 years and had never seen this name on a license plate. I had been praying for signs and knew this was confirmation.

3. Physical Sensations: You may notice shivers, gut feelings, heart flutters, or other body sensations as confirmation. Often when I’m doing readings I will get goosebumps as a validation for my client. When I’m doing mediumship readings the other side will sometimes give me a tightness in my chest or difficulty breathing momentarily to signify how they passed.

4. Visions or Inner Pictures: This may be seen as your imagination, but your inner vision is another type of communication from Spirit known as clairvoyance. I am always given inner pictures of my clients’ lives every time I give a reading. I’m often shown flashbacks from their past and visions of their future dreams, desires, or goals.

5. Music: Have you ever noticed a particular song playing on the radio or in a store that seems to have meaning to your life? I’ve had this happen when I’m going through significant life changes. It’s another hello from Spirit.

Spirit also likes to give me songs that are meaningful to my clients. During one of my readings a loved one gave my client the name of a song he had on his ipod. She later confirmed that this song was on it.

6. Books, tv, or magazines: When I was in my late 20s, trying to decide whether or not to go to graduate school in Transpersonal Psychology, I prayed for confirmation. That afternoon I was guided to open a book in a local bookstore to the exact page that mentioned a woman in her 20s deciding to get her master’s degree in Transpersonal Psychology at the same school I was contemplating. It was written on the very first page I opened.

Many times we are guided to read books or watch shows or movies that have some parallel to our lives. One time I was doing a reading for a young woman whose sister had died as a young child. This sister in Spirit gave me the line of a poem to tell her living sister. My client gasped saying that she had just read this line of poetry the day before. Spirit will use whatever way it can to get our attention. Even something as simple as a line in a book.

7. Other People: I think Spirit knows when professional intuitives or psychics are available because I’ve been prompted to give impromptu messages many times. While I never am intrusive, there are times when I suspect someone is open that I’ve delivered a message. Once at a dinner following a class for past life regression I was talking to a fellow classmate about what I do.

Very suddenly I told her that I felt her grandpa was with us. When I asked her why I wanted to say Frank she told me, “because that was his name.”

Spirit may be guiding you to be a messenger with a loving gesture or kind word. I believe this happens all the time and we just don’t realize it. I’m sure you can think of times when someone told you how much what you said or did meant to them. Spirit loves to intervene in this way to be of assistance and help us and them.

8. Our Own Thoughts: I know this can seem confusing because you’re wondering, “How do I tell the difference?” Well, when the advice feels right and good, it doesn’t truly matter. However, our guides can influence us in a positive direction through our own thoughts.

Here’s a quick example. Many years ago I was doing readings at an expo in San Francisco. A man sat down for a reading and I immediately asked him what Santa Fe meant. He said that he was contemplating a trip there. I then heard to tell him he was an artist and something was stored there. He confirmed that although he worked as an architect he loved sculpting and was storing his sculptures in Santa Fe.

I told him that Spirit was validating for him that this trip was important and that he was being guided to get his art out of storage and let it be seen by others. His idea to visit Santa Fe wasn’t just a passing thought. It was related to his purpose and what would bring him great joy as well as others.

9. Feelings and Emotions: Can you recall a time when you had an uncomfortable feeling about a person or situation and you were right? These are warning messages to be careful or avoid a potentially dangerous or harmful situation.

We can also have positive feelings. A typical response I hear from clients after relaying a message about their purpose and their gifts is, “I thought that was a fantasy or wishful thinking.” I know that after doing hundreds of readings over the years, Spirit would never tell me to convey a message to you if it was just ‘wishful thinking.’

Your repeated thoughts of something you’d like to do is likely connected to your purpose. The ego likes to imagine becoming rich and famous or noticed. The spirit encourages us to listen within and follow our guidance. If we do become wealthy or famous, it would be for the greater purpose of helping others in some way.

10. Synchronicity These are times that may seem like coincidence but something extraordinary or fortunate happens that feels beyond normal circumstances. Remember the book I mentioned earlier, the one I opened after asking for a sign about graduate school? That book is titled, There are No Accidents: Synchronicity and the Stories of Our Lives.

I met my current husband as a freshman in college. The professor assigned another student in our group to give a presentation to the class. She never showed up for the two classes we were to meet. I’d never noticed him before we were in our group of two. Interesting how life works out.

I believe life is a combination of free will and Divine orchestration. There are likely many times in life when Spirit is lending a helping hand that we never know about. One of my greatest wishes in doing this work is that more people would know they are Divinely guided and unconditionally loved.

No one is ever truly alone in his or her life journey, no matter what the circumstances.

Spirit is just a thought away, closer than we often realize, ever ready to give love and guidance.

Using the Breath to Calm and De-Stress

Posted on November 28, 2015 by JeannetteFebruary 11, 2017

We often have many times during the day when life can be stressful, too busy, or overwhelming.

Consciously choosing to slow my breathing is one technique I find helpful in both my personal and professional life to stay grounded and centered.

Sensitivity

As someone who might be considered very sensitive and empathic, I needed to find simple ways to stay calm and not get overwhelmed in certain environments or situations. When doing readings or sessions with clients, I can often feel their emotions and sometimes even physical sensations they might be experiencing.

If I find myself taking on their feelings or physical sensations, I need a quick way to release the emotions and physical symptoms so as not to let these feelings linger too long and affect my own energy and well-being.

If we remain unaware, as human beings we often begin calibrating our energy in a group situation, which could mean just 2 or more people. With conscious awareness, we can choose how to react or manage our bodies in various situations.

Sometimes the most loving thing we can do for ourselves and another is to be in awareness. In this state we are compassionate yet not necessarily matching their emotions or energy.

Body Awareness

Knowing your home state, or the times when your body is relaxed and at ease, gives you a template for knowing when you feel out of balance. For those of you who are sensitive, this may also happen when you are with others who are not centered. You may also notice feeling this way in environments that are crowded or chaotic.

Paying attention to the breath can bring awareness to when your body is feeling stressed, overwhelmed, or out of balance. One area I often notice this is my chest. For instance, I might begin taking on my client’s feeling of emotional pain. Initially this can be a sign for me to feel empathy, but I need to quickly shift emotions I might be feeling that are not mine.

Another common area we may feel tension or unease is the stomach or digestive area. Sometimes this might be felt as anxiety, tightness, or even queasiness. Checking in with our physical sensations and asking ourselves what is needed is key to being able to choose our reactions to situations.

Our decisions can then be made more consciously. We may choose to remove ourselves from certain situations or people in order to regain our calm and balanced state.

If uncomfortable feelings or physical sensations persist, it is always a good idea to consult with a healing practitioner such as a counselor or medical professional. There are times when we benefit from getting help from someone else.

Using the Breath

Slowly taking a few breaths in and slowly exhaling out can be done very quickly. It releases unwanted energy from your body that you may have taken in such as environmental stress from a crowded store or a phone call or conversation with a friend who is very emotional. Even being in close proximity to someone who is experiencing strong emotions may cause you to feel out of balance.

After taking in a few deep breaths and slowly exhaling, I immediately can feel the shift in my body from feeling tense or overwhelmed to calm and centered.

Depending upon the intensity, it may take me a few more moments of slow, intentional breathing to stay centered. If it can’t be easily done in the moment, it can be done afterward. I’ve done my slow breathing while shopping in Target, driving my car, during phone calls, or even during some in-person conversations with others.

Our physical body is connected to our energy body, or aura and chakras. (I will cover this topic in my future posts.) This unseen energy is just as important as our physical body.

Having an awareness of our feelings, emotions, thoughts, and physical sensations can help us to be in more balance and better cope with stress or overwhelm.

Taking the time to slow down and breathe intentionally brings us into presence. Sometimes we may not even know what triggers our physical reactions or feelings. Slowing our breath can calm the mind chatter and the body, allowing us the space we need to go within and reflect on what might be bothering us.

Once we begin this inner dialogue with ourselves, we can begin to use the practice of breath awareness to consciously choose to alter our state from stress to greater ease. It also becomes easier to get in touch with our true essence, that wise part of ourselves that knows we are loved, accepted, and possess tremendous inner strength and compassion.

When Your Soul Prompts Change

Posted on November 27, 2015 by JeannetteFebruary 12, 2017

There are different stages or times in life when we sense a change is needed. Sometimes these phases are precipitated by a loss, job or relationship change, health challenge, or move. Other times there is no physical event to signal a change, but the need is felt nonetheless.

You may find yourself either interrupted by life changes beyond your control or you may be experiencing the desire for change without these external markers. It may seem puzzling to you that you are doing everything as it seems you always have and wonder why you feel unsettled or restless.

Paying attention to these feelings however, is key to understanding important hallmarks of growth and learning that your soul is intending for you.

The soul speaks to us through symbols, metaphor, feelings, physical sensations, and inner senses.

The more we allow quiet time for reflection the more likely we will be aware of these signals.

The path of going inward cultivates an inner language that becomes more familiar the more often we take this time develop our inner awareness. One benefit of meditation is that as we quiet the mind we engage a higher or wiser part of ourselves. This self, which I call our soul or true self, prompts us to seek joy, inner peace, fulfillment, understanding, presence, and love.

In our outer-focused culture, however, the benefits of reflection, solitude, personal growth, emotional healing, and spiritual understanding are sometimes overshadowed in favor of accomplishment, materialism, comparison, and group acceptance. Soul growth is both an inner and outer journey. Its outer nature is reflected in relationships and circumstances that cause us to pause and make sense of ourselves and our world in relation to another.

The inner journey, however, can feel lonely at times, and is often not readily supported. There are no easy rules and everyone’s life, while there are certain similar themes, is different. The religion of our childhoods may have taught us rules that provided structure and categorized perceived right and wrongs. As we mature, these rules can become rigid and stifling and hinder rather than encourage growth.

The soul asks us to accept, to withhold judgment, to be self-loving, and to remain open-hearted.

Keeping the heart open can be a difficult lesson when we’ve known suffering or been hurt by another. By staying open to our feelings, being present to life despite pain, we enter an opening into a greater connection to our soul.

My parents, who likely learned from theirs, parented with autocracy and harsh punishment. Self-assertion was not allowed and fear was used to control and demean. I contained an inner image of myself as somehow lacking and suppressed my feelings for many years. I feared that I was never enough and I felt I had to keep my needs to a minimum in order to experience approval or acceptance.

It’s a lesson I’m still unlearning. Lately I’ve been working with a shamanic therapist who is helping me unravel years of conditioning myself to over-give or question my own needs. Although I’ve been aware and working on this issue for many years, there were still areas in my life that required deeper change.

How did my soul speak to me? It came in many forms.

I noticed repeated themes in my dreams of self-denial. I experienced a past-life regression of great intensity and emotion centered around feelings of responsibility for others. Finally, my body’s exhaustion warned me that I was burning out and was accompanied by feelings of resistance to doing things that I was forcing myself to do, but I ignored these feelings and pushed on. I was staying busy but ignoring my inner signals that I was giving too much and not experiencing enough joy.

I needed to pay more attention to my body, the underlying feelings, the sadness of self-forgetting. Once I allowed myself to feel the pain and express it, the pain subsided and I could feel an inner peace that had been eluding me.

Despite doing my best to be self-aware, I had lost touch with my own inner senses.

I see this in my work with clients, whose issues often mirror my own. There is a common theme of accommodating ourselves in work and relationships in order to keep going or not make a fuss. The problem, though, is that while there may appear to be order outwardly, inwardly our soul is trying to get our attention to find a new way.

We may feel empty, tired, frustrated, angry, sad, lonely, bored, or restless. The key is to determine whether or not these feelings remain persistent. Our moods can fluctuate throughout the day.

Feelings that continue for longer periods, however, signal that we need to pay closer attention to our inner self.

Learning to navigate these times of inner development, which are often times of struggle, loss, or uncertainty, is something most of us have to learn as adults. It can be reassuring to know that we are not alone in this. The hero’s journey is a path we undertake in a quest to become more authentic and empowered in our lives.

10 Tips to Discover and Live Your Life Purpose

Posted on November 20, 2015 by JeannetteNovember 20, 2015

One of the primary questions I get asked as a professional intuitive is,

“What is my purpose?”

What people really want to know is what career would I most enjoy and make use of my talents. What I’ve found from doing many hundreds of readings over the last 12 years, is that your purpose is never a surprise. The clues are to be found in the life you’ve been living.

1. What you love to do

You’ve likely heard this many times before, but your purpose involves what you love doing. I have a friend who is a teacher. Right now she is a stay-at-home mom, but one day she will return to teaching. Every time I see her in front of a group of kids, her face lights up, her voice is encouraging and inspiring, and it makes me want to be a kid again and be one of her students.

2. What comes to you naturally

Don’t take this to mean you may not need to develop your skills. You don’t need to be a genius or superstar, but you will find that your purpose includes doing those things that you don’t have to force yourself to do. A former client was an English professor who also did her own writing.

After her reading with me she submitted her writing and was published. Did this take time and effort? Of course it did, but she persevered because she loved writing and it was something she was doing even if she didn’t get paid for it.

3. Look for clues in your current job

I’ve had many clients who during a reading with me, discover that their talents and skills are bigger than their current job allows them to express. What I help them do is discover the skills and talents they are longing to express more.

For instance, another client owned a business in which she provided personal services to her clients. She discovered that what she really loved was the business side of growing her business, expanding it, and creating new visions and ideas she could act on.

4. The painful times in your life

Every one of my clients has reached a stage in his or her life where they can see the challenges they’ve overcome and the benefits to be gained from it. Your challenges are gifts themselves. One of my clients had a severely abusive childhood. She is also one of the most compassionate, kind, loving, and spiritual people I have ever met. She uses these gifts in her sensitive work with her coaching clients who may have come from similar backgrounds.

5. Listen to your heart

I know listening to our heart can be scary. There are no guarantees in life. However, I have consistently learned that when I don’t follow my heart, I have regrets. Our heart is connected to our soul and to our purpose. Our heart tells us the truth and what truly matters. If I hadn’t listened to my heart 16 years ago, I wouldn’t be doing what I am today.

6. Make your ideas practical and doable

A lot of us get caught in the idea phase, I know I do. It’s safe here. However, the way to make your purpose come alive is to take one small step at a time. Before I opened my Intuitive Readings, (then Angel Readings) practice, I worried and doubted myself for 4 months. I had just moved to a new town where I didn’t know anyone. I gave myself a deadline to start in Jan. of the new year.

7. Taking even 1 step is better than hours of worry

Once I had a deadline, I began creating a website, brochures, business cards, and flyers. I took several cards and flyers and distributed them to many salons, bookstores, and natural food stores in my area. I placed an ad in a local holistic directory for Jan. and applied for a business license.

All of my worries and fears could not even compete with the joy of doing readings for my first paying client who called me from my ad and for the writing client I mentioned earlier who had found my card at her local bookstore.

8. Write down your goals, dreams and your fears

I’ve found that getting my ideas and my fears out of my head and onto paper helps me gain clarity and better focus. Studies have even shown that we are more likely to commit to a goal if we write it down.

Also, our fears tend to feel less overwhelming when we get them out of our head. Whether we write them down, share them with someone else, or simply have an inner dialogue with ourselves, listening to the part of ourselves that feels afraid and vulnerable is calming. When we listen to this part of us, we feel heard and our fear doesn’t have to take center stage. Our compassion and wise inner self can reassure and soothe the parts that are afraid.

9. Ask for help

By help I mean both physical, emotional, and spiritual. Ask for help from friends, family, or another professional or a consultant. Also remember to ask for help from your spiritual support team of guides and angels. The universe works with you once you decide. When you decide to make you and your goals a priority, universal forces gather to join you.

10. Remind yourself often that what you do matters

Our inner critic can be very seductive. It likes to tell us that so many other people do what we do. The real truth is that we are given the impetus and desire for our purpose by our own soul.

On a deeper level we know that we came into this life to help others with our gifts. I still remember those many teachers who encouraged me and gave me hope that I could go to college when I came from a family that discouraged it. Believing in yourself and in your purpose matters.

Your unique gifts are needed to inspire, heal, teach, uplift, calm, beautify, lead, and so on.

Please take some time this week to reflect on your purpose and your gifts.

Listen to the quiet whispers of your heart and give voice to your own truth.

Don’t let doubt or past hurts stop you from knowing that your unique contributions on this planet are an important part of what you came here to do. Then take 1 small step toward your goals and make yourself and your dreams a priority.