When you need guidance, follow these 10 ways to connect with spirit guides.
My clients, friends, and family often ask about spirit guides. “Who are they?” “How can I communicate with them?” “How can they help me?”
We all have spirit guides, protecting and leading us to become our most enlightened self. I have a deep connection with my spirit guides. I have turned to them for guidance to navigate difficult periods in my life, whether a challenging relationship, painful loss, or major life transition. But I am not unique, this unconditionally loving support and wise guidance is available to all of us. Here are some easy techniques you can use when you want to communicate with the other side of the veil.
When you need guidance, follow these 10 ways to connect with your spirit guides.
1. Ask
Even if you can’t always perceive them, spirit guides are around you, protecting you and leading you down a path of self-realization.
Liberate yourself from feeling that you are alone. We forget who we are at the level of Soul and instead stay imprisoned in our personal drama, fear, and illusion. We need to remember that guidance constantly flows from within and around us from our guides - and what's more, they want to help us.
This might sound strange to you if you have a more logical approach to life. But think about it: much of what we know exists, such as infrared light or atoms, a human cannot perceive with the naked eye. We must use tools to detect them. In a similar way, you can use methods to connect with your spirit guides.
Humble yourself to know that you don’t have to do everything alone. You are supported and carried in grace. Open your heart and simply ask for help. You will be amazed at how quickly you receive an answer. Small shifts in your perception will send waves of change, as you learn to open yourself to the messages from your spirits and ask for help.
The more you ask, the more you receive. It is universal law.
2. Listen
On a day to day basis, we often disconnect from our conscious connection to Source - and revert to a default mode of operation—acting as if we have to do it all by ourselves and remain in control all the time (this default mode kicks in when we forget who we really are and why we came here). When this happens, mind chatter takes over and it is challenging to become still and quiet enough to truly hear messages from our guides.
“But how can we stay conscious and connected? you ask. It is no accident that spiritual traditions from around the world have used various forms of meditation practices to quiet the mind and tune into the spiritual vibrations of the universe. If new to the practice, you might feel overwhelmed by the thought of sitting down in silence to meditate. Perhaps you've tried only to have your brain fill with a laundry list of chores, problems to solve, bills to pay. That’s normal.
Begin with the intention to try. Trust that small actions every day will lead to new ways of being over time. You can try seated meditations, guided meditations, Yoga Nidra or you may prefer more active types of meditation, such as walking , Tai-chi, or attending a meditation or spiritual retreat.
In these quiet moments, open your heart to guidance. Listen. Notice the words, images, and feelings that come to you. With practice, you will come to welcome these still, quiet moments and begin to easily open to hearing messages from your guides.
3. Write
Automatic writing or psychography can channel messages from your spirit guides onto paper. Try this method after a grounding meditation session, when you feel at ease and ready to listen. Then, take a pen and piece of paper. Ask a specific question. Begin writing and don’t overthink. Trust whatever pops into your head. Try not to judge what comes through...even if it feels like it has nothing to do with your question. (You may have to do a "brain dump" before starting, in order to clear out the noise and worry which can impede your ability to receive direct guidance.)
If you feel blocked, try a crown chakra opening visualization. Imagine a lotus flower on top of your crown chakra, see each petal opening and then envision a beautiful, brilliant white light streaming down from the heavens above and entering the center of the lotus flower (on the top of your head) and filling your entire body with this high vibrational, glowing white light.
You can either put old fashioned pen to paper - or type on a keyboard. (My messages come through so quickly that I can't keep up when I try to handwrite, so I type instead...but I close my eyes as I do it and then later rely on spell check to fix all the mistakes!)
As you are doing this exercise, you may feel a presence of a spirit or nothing at all. Both are totally fine. There is no "right" way to do this. The most important thing is that you not censor or judge yourself. Remember, your guides want to come through for you...they won't give up and neither should you.
4. Pay Attention
Messages from your guides can come in many forms. When you learn to listen and pay attention, you’ll begin to recognize when they are communicating with you. (After asking my guides for help, I've had books fall right off the shelf, opening to the page that contains exactly the words I need to hear... but I had to notice it before I could receive their teaching.)
You may hear words repeat themselves on TV or on the radio. A song might come on that seems to miraculously contain the exact answer you need at that moment. Don’t overlook these seemingly unconnected or random events - instead feel into your body wisdom and notice whether or not you feel a resonance with what you are receiving. The very fact that you noticed it in the first place, means that more than likely it carries some message for you.
On the other hand, your guidance may come through in very loud, uncomfortable or even surprising ways. (One time I pleaded with my guides to show me how to have a happy, healthy relationship...and the very next day my partner suddenly and painfully ended our 6 year relationship. This was a direct answer to my question, and not one that I enjoyed at the time; but eventually, I realized that my guides were not telling me "no you can't ever have what you asked for"... instead they were answering my plea for help by clearing space for something new to come in (because, even though I didn't want to admit it, my current relationship was never going to be what I had asked my guides to help me create. They knew that I had to clear out the old before I could experience the truly joyful relationship I had asked for.)
So, rather than rejecting what they have to offer, take time to process, run it through your body wisdom (your inner-knowing) and trust that even if you don’t like what your spirit guides have to say, they have a much larger perspective on your life and only want the best for you. A "no" is only a means to creating a much better "yes".
You may also receive messages in your dreams, so it's a good idea to keep a dream journal by your bed so you can remember them later. During dreamlike states, between sleep and awake, subconscious messages from spirit guides carry through much more easily. You can also practice lucid dreaming, a way to activate your conscious mind while you sleep. When you are in a state of conscious awareness you can actually request to meet your guides on the Astral plane while our body rests. This is a more advanced practice and one that I will go into more detail in at a later date.
5. Be Present
Much of life really comes down to presence—an awareness of yourself and the world around you. You approach life mindfully, savoring the small joys of offering your attention and love to yourself and the universe.
This also applies to communication with the spiritual realm. Be present. If you want to communicate with your spirit guides, you must bring your awareness into the now of nows. When we are fixated on things that have gone wrong in the past - or trying to control how things unfold in the future - our energy, our focus and our awareness are somewhere else entirely.
We want to move our awareness out of the past and future, and more and more into a state of whole-hearted presence...right now. This is your point of power - the only moment from which you can create your thoughts and create your life. When we are conscious, aware and in the now, we'll find that it is much easier to receive guidance from the other side.
6. Practice Gratitude
Having a gratitude mindset welcomes an abundance of guidance from your spirit guides. After all, your guides are dedicated to working with you in this lifetime and at least one of them will support and guide you for your entire life. Rather than come from a place of neediness, show them your gratitude for supporting your journey. You can even tell them out loud, leave offerings (like incense or herbs), or write it down in your gratitude journal.
Most importantly, gratitude will help move you from your head to your heart and into a more receptive state of being. Gratitude is a high vibrational state. It clears blockages and opens the heart chakra. Simply taking a few moments to be grateful will uplift your spirit, brighten your energy field and make you more open and able to discern subtle energetic shifts and presences.
7. Release the Outcome
Letting go (or detaching from) a specific outcome is important when developing a new skill like communicating with your guides. To be attached to anything is to live in fear that you will somehow fall short. Fear is a low vibration which creates constriction and dulls your intuitive senses. When you detach from any one outcome, it transmutes fear into peace and doubt into belief.
Attachment also creates a state of desire, which at its heart is a state of lack. Lack will continue to magnetize more lack. Having faith that all will unfold perfectly arises when we are not insisting on the outcome we think we want, but instead have unshakeable faith that any (and all) outcomes will be perfect.
This will also shift you out of self-criticism and judgement. Let go of preconceived notions of what communication with your guide "should' be....and stay open to what it actually is. This way you won't miss your guides attempts at reaching. you..which they do all the time!
8. Rediscover Wonder
Have you ever noticed how children often have greater psychic abilities? They have “imaginary friends” and often see ghosts, spirits, and faeries. Children have entered this lifetime more recently and haven’t become indoctrinated or conditioned yet with ideas that interfere with psychic, intuitive and other extra-sensory abilities. They haven't lost their ability to believe in the unseen.
To communicate with the spirits around you, sometimes you need to just reconnect with your inner child again. That little girl or boy who believed in magic and Santa Clause and that rivers of chocolate could actually exist somewhere in the world (and if you could only find it on a map you'd go there...probably even fly there on a magic carpet!). Spending time with children and engaging with them from a place of joy is a direct and powerful way to reconnect with the spirit of you inner-child. It can help you remember that magic is real and miracles really do happen.
You can also find much to marvel at in nature. Soak in the night sky, snow covered mountains or clear blue sea. Channel that dreamlike wonder, appreciating all of nature’s beauty and taking joy in the large and small miracles around you. Rediscover awe.
When you dance in the realm of the Mystery, embrace limitless possibility and have faith in unseen things....you open a doorway to your intuition and psychic ability. They have always been there for you, but like all of us, you may forget that you are infinite, eternal and whole....and that joy is your birthright. The child within you knows this and will help you remember.
9. Get On A First Name Basis
If you want to hear what your spirit guides have to tell you, why not ask their names? Everyone has spirit guides around them, and they can come in many forms. An ancestor or loved one who has passed on may continue to guide you. Perhaps you have a special deity, guardian angel, or animal spirit walking by your side.
When you feel ready, you can ask them for their names. You may not hear anything right away. But at some point a name, a color, a song...or a memory will jump out at you. Or perhaps something will catch your eye and cause you to do a double take. At this moment allow yourself to simply receive whatever words you hear or that spring to mind from your unconscious. Trust what you receive.
When you start to use their name, and interact with them by name, they will become more real for you and you will be able to forge a deeper and more powerful connection with them.
10. Trust in your own psychic ability
Like many things in life, having confidence in yourself is half the battle. You may second guess yourself or feel cynical about communicating with your spirit guides. Accept that you are worthy of the guidance of the guidance of the spirits. When you trust in your abilities, you allow their light to support you in the chaos and fear of life.
If you are incarnated in the physical realm at this time, you have the ability to tap into your intuition and psychic gifts. Indeed, part of your soul mission is to open your Third-eye Chakra and remember your true spiritual essence (which means that you are limitless, eternal and whole...and there is absolutely nothing that you cannot achieve).
However, we can only have access to our spiritual gifts to the degree that we can handle at any given moment (what our current perception and human mind can process). As much as our spirit guides would like to pour down higher consciousness and fill us with the wisdom of the ages, we must allow the process to happen organically and at its own pace.
We must continue to do the work to clear our blockages, open our hearts to gratitude and align with faith rather than fear. The more we do this, the more our capacity for receiving energy from our guides will develop. And the more we can expand our communication with our family and team of helpers on the other side of the veil.