Connecting with Angels

Angels are the first Spirits I really felt a connection with when I began my Spiritual path.  They were the Spirits that came to me first. In my experience, when people begin opening to Spirit, there is one group of Spirits that tends to step forward first and be the first group to lay the foundation for the communication with Spirit. After the communication style has been established with this first group, each person usually moves on to opening greater connection to the other groups of spirits, such as Guides and Loved Ones. You get to know and develop relationships with all of the groups of Spirits as you continue to unfold spiritually, but just as you have certain abilities which emerge first as dominant, you also have a natural connection with one group of Spirits first. For me, it was Angels. Before I began my spiritual pathway, I had never even entertained the idea of Angels but as I began a regular meditation practice, their presence became impossible to ignore.

When I first opened to Spirit I began a regular meditation practice of two times a day 10-15 min each.  Very soon, I began to feel and discern other energies or presences in the space with me in meditation. My first strength in sensing Spirit is through feeling, so I would feel them energetically. As I stood in meditation, I would feel an energy arrive, sometimes to my right or left or even behind me. I would turn to face it and open my awareness to what I was sensing. I could feel a definite presence there – it felt high, loving, pure and gentle. I would feel a sense of liftedness – kind of like I was getting lighter in my body. Often I would have an emotional response and release.  Sometimes I would cry or weep, not out of any sadness but out of a sense of joy, relief, gladness as I felt myself to be part of a greater and higher reality and Source. As I stood there and opened my heart to the energy before me, I could feel it returned to me magnified in intensity. The love I felt coming to me was powerful and so loving. I had never experienced love like that before. It feels like pure Light entering the body. It floods me with a sense of well-being and peace. Angels connect with you through your heart and solar plexus chakras, so you will most likely feel their energy through these areas in your body.

How you can begin to discern Angels

• Step 1: As you begin your meditation, mentally or vocally invite in your Guardian Angel and the Archangel who can best assist and guide you on your life path right now. Close your eyes and bring your awareness to the inside of your body as you take a few deep breaths. Then allow your awareness to extend to the space around your body. You may see colors, feel warmth, hear whispers or just get a vague sense of something there. Just let yourself feel and experience the sensations. Open your heart and ask your Angels to bring their energy closer to you. Trust what you receive. You will have a feeling, a sense, a visual or knowingness about who is there with you.
• Step 2: When the process is complete, open your eyes and write it down. Write down adjectives, verbs, full sentences or just fragments. Use whatever words you can find to describe your sensations. You want your description to be visceral – something that you can read later that will remind you of exactly what energy you experienced. Writing it down also helps to bring the spiritual realm into the physical reality. This is really important. So much of what we receive, especially in the beginning stages of opening, is vague and you can feel unsure about it. Be aware that this is how it starts with Spirit – you are beginning to attune your senses to a different plane of energy and it is subtle and gentle. It’s important that you begin to trust your subtle senses, as these are the avenues Spirit uses to connect with you. It’s also important to be aware that the Angels, Guides and Loved Ones who connect with you in the beginning of your opening want to guide you gently on your path. In fact, they usually will err on the side of care not to scare or disturb you, so you can always ask them to intensify their energy, to come closer and to speak louder and they will.
• Step 3: Practice, practice, practice & trust, trust, trust. Go into your meditations with the intention of connecting with your Angels. They will respond in kind. You can strengthen your connection by talking to them throughout the day, asking them to send you confirmations of their presence and ask them to step closer to you. The more you can begin to discern the subtle energies of your Angels, the more you will be able to also discern the other kinds of Spirits around you – your Guides and loved Ones. Opening to Spirit is about trusting yourself and your feelings. If you sensed something, it is real. The more you can trust yourself, the more the world of Spirit will open to you.

Share your experiences! It is always helpful and encouraging to connect with likeminded friends!

With love,

Ashley

The Two Truths

How can there be two truths? What in the world does that mean? I thought there was only 1 truth. This is what you are probably saying as you read this title, and in fact it was what I myself first thought when I received guidance in a reading from another gifted and amazing medium recently. And yes, of course mediums get readings too – we get readings in order to be sure we are as much up on our game as possible both personally and professionally so we are able and clear to help others.

The guidance I received was about starting to talk to people about the two truths – the truth you tell yourself and the truth that comes from the deeper, unchangeable and eternal part of you.

At first I wasn’t so sure if I knew how to do this. But as usual, Spirit sent me the perfect situation so I could better understand. I had a reading with a client of mine who has a lot of trouble with finances. I don’t mean that this person is always broke or anything like that, but they do have more of what I would call an existential conflict with money. What this means is that he is reasonably successful, but not as much as he would like to be. But, when opportunities come up for him to take steps that would perhaps help propel him into the very successful financial bracket, he opts out. He makes decisions that take him away from the success that he so desperately claims that he wants. He does this again and again. Why does he do this?

If you ask him, he will tell you that he’s terrible with money, that he doesn’t know how to manage it at all – that he basically is financially illiterate. OK, so most of us can stand to be better money managers, but this self-professed ignorance is coming from someone with a cream of the crop education. I’m talking about someone who was handpicked for one of the most elite, specialized programs in his profession in the world. Smarts is not his problem. So, what’s the deal? Well in a reading, we found out.

Spirit showed us that in a previous lifetime he had been a young man who came from a privileged family who decided to discard it all – family, wealth, education - and went on a spiritual quest where he gave away all of his belongings, took a vow of poverty and became a monk.

So, his soul had taken a vow that precluded him from welcoming any financial comfort into his life. In this previous lifetime, his soul went on a profound spiritual journey where he vowed he would no longer adhere to the standards and practices of life at the time and instead he chose to live out his life dedicated to finding inner peace in silence and poverty. Pretty intense. By the way, the difference between a vow and a promise is huge. A vow you take from the soul, a promise you make with your mind and personality. Vows are for real: they have meaning and carry weight. This is why we have them; in order to really, truly and profoundly commit to something we want at the deepest core of ourselves. This is why they are called marriage vows, and not marriage promises.

So, what we discovered in this reading was that not that he didn’t think he was worthy of having money; it was rather that he felt money wasn’t worthy of him. Big difference. A part of his soul still felt that to have money would be breaking his vow.

This is a great example of two truths at work. There’s the truth he kept coming back to in his mind, that basically he wasn’t any good at the money game so that’s why he couldn’t seem to get a hold of his money in a satisfying way; and there was the deeper soul truth that a part of his soul was still living under the vow of poverty and to make money would break that vow. His soul still was committed to poverty as a spiritual practice and for his soul, having money was something to disdain and discard.

So what did we do to help him with this? Usually, once the two truths are illuminated and brought to scrutiny beside one another it becomes crystal clear which is the deeper truth. The deeper truth is the meaning and reason that lies behind the reason you fall back on every single time a particular issue comes up for you – be it self-worth, finances, love, weight issues, etc. As soon as it was brought to light for my client, there was an emotional release, a moment of recognition and then relief. Then, he did the work of releasing it himself with affirmations and his new perspective of the truth behind the truth. And you know what? The truth really does set you free – the real truth that is.

Uncovering and decoding these two truths is central to what Opening to Spirit is all about. It is about looking at your life from a new and higher perspective. It’s about peering behind the curtain of the surface to see not only the reasons things are the way they are in your life, but that you have the power and ability to change and release what no longer serves you so you can embrace your true eternal power as a soul making its evolutionary journey toward the light.

There are many, many versions of the two truths. Find out more about your real “truth behind the truth” in a reading or coaching session!

With love,

Ashley

Emotions as you open to Spirit

When you first begin to open to Spirit, it can be pretty emotional and you can feel a mixture of vulnerability, excitement, fear and a powerful sense of relief and release.

I just met with a good friend of mine, whom I knew well before I began my Spiritual path and work as a medium. I have had mixed responses from friends and family when I first came out as a medium, and although most have come to embrace it, some are a bit more hesitant or resistant to it than others. So, as this was my first meeting with her in a long while, I was interested to see what my friend’s response would be to the changes that have occurred in my life.

As we began talking to catch up with things, I kept trying to steer the conversation to hear about what was happening with her personally and professionally and she kept steering it back to me and the work I am doing as a medium. She had tons of questions – how it works, who I connect with, what its like to experience Spirit. I gave explanations and some good examples of readings and the information that has come through to give her an idea of what my experience was like as well as what opening to Spirit is all about. As I talked about connecting with Angels and Loved Ones and the undeniable love and light there is in that experience, she began to tear up.

As we continued our conversation, I couldn’t help but see two large and beautiful Angels over her right shoulder. The Angels kept telling me she needed to hear and feel that she is safe, protected and loved. So that’s what I began to talk about with her. I talked about how opening to Spirit is about accepting unconditional love into your life. I talked about how God has given us a team of Spirits to just watch over us, to help and guide and protect us as we navigate in our physical lives. I talked about how the unlimited and all encompassing love that we all seek is actually here, surrounding us at every moment. It exists within each of us and we have many beings in Spirit to help us connect and follow that love and light.

As she received this information from Spirit, my friend opened up. She was teary and emotional. She talked about her fear that she was alone, that she was not capable of being strong and taking care of herself or rising to challenges She also said that deep inside she knew that she could. She said it was a huge thing for her to begin to feel like she wasn’t alone but she wanted to accept that. I did finally tell her about the Angels over her shoulder and as her tears flowed, I could feel waves of relief coming from her. My meeting with my friend went in a way I didn’t anticipate and that’s what so truly amazing and awe inspiring about Spirit – they set up a situation for her where she could hear what she needed to hear and I am grateful to have been the messenger.

As you open to Spirit, you too may experience those swings of emotion. As you open and feel the love coming to you from the Angels, Guides and Loved Ones who surround you, you also open your heart to love in a larger than life capacity. That’s because it is larger than life – you are connecting to the Source of life – the All That Is, God, a Higher Power, or whatever you choose to call it. You are also resetting your entire worldview. It is a big shift inside you to accept and work with Spirit.

Opening to Spirit can also be a vulnerable place. You are beginning to open your heart – this feels fragile at times for everyone. This is why it is important, especially in the beginning, to surround yourself with the people and things that validate your new experiences and feelings. Right now, you don’t need everyone else’s opinion. Do yourself a favor and only share your path as you feel guided to – with the people who can support you. Eventually, you will open up as you gain confidence, experience and time. In the beginning, it’s OK to be private. It’s OK to be emotional and it’s more than OK to want and need validation from others who are also on a Spiritual path, because we’ve been there and felt that way too. Ask your Guides and Angels to send those people to you and they will. Chances are, they already are doing that because you’re reading this!

There are no rules or wrong steps in opening to Spirit. It is about following your heart, your intuition and your guidance that comes to you from those who love you and who can see the larger meaning, path and significance of your life and the choices you make everyday – your Guides, Angels and Loved Ones.

Trust yourself, ask your Spirits for help and know that every step you take on this path is the right one.

With love,

Ashley

Take action! Getting rid of doubt & fear.

As we all know, we each experience times when we feel our growth is blocked or stalled. Here are some more ways to get the juices flowing and clear your connection to Spirit:

• 1. Write to Archangel Michael: Working with the Archangels is a powerful way to get the energy and drive you need to move forward. Get ready to connect with Spirit directly! Find a quiet space and time where you can be undisturbed. Light a candle and get a pen and paper or opens a word document on our computer.

Start with a simple question: Archangel Michael, please work with me now. What do I need to release in order to be fully on my path and purpose?

Then, just let yourself write. It may take a second to get going, but your hand will begin to move. Try not to engage your mind too much in this process. Trust that what is coming out needs to come out. Let Archangel Michael guide you to identify issues, situations people, places, things, and events that need to be released from your energy in order to move forward. Often when we are experiencing doubt or fear, we are coming up against old issues or blocks that our personalities have held onto. These fears block us from a clear connection to our own Spirits, and a clear connection to other Spirits as well. Automatic writing under the guidance and protection of Archangel Michael is a great way to get direct guidance on what you need to release. Write until you are finished then review it. You will be surprised by what comes through! Then take the paper and burn it or immerse it in water. By doing this, you change the energetic state of the paper and the information it contains so can be fully released.

• 2. Work with Archangel Raziel. Archangel Raziel is the Archangel that oversees past life information and access. Set aside some time for meditation. Get into a comfortable position (I like to stand, but some people, sit or lie down). Clear your mind, get a pen and paper and ask Archangel Raziel to guide you to any past life experiences that you need to release in order to be fully in your power now. Allow yourself to experience and move through whatever sensations, emotions, images, sounds-anything that comes up. Try to let your self be open to whatever happens. If you feel this meditation didn't really get there, try again the next day. There is no right or wrong with this, the important thing is to set the intention and open yourself to that part of you that Archangel Raziel wants to show you now. The key to success in this exercise is to realize that you hold all the knowledge of your past life experiences within you and you can access them. You can of course work with a regressionist, as well, but don’t underestimate your ability to find and access the information you most need now. You may find that you see or experience information easier than you imagined. Don't discard or judge what you experience - let it flow. Sometimes this can be emotional and it may take more than one time to clear your energy. Let yourself be guided in this process. There are many, many guided past life meditations out there. Explore and find one that works for you.
• 3. Clear out negativity by taking an Epsom salts bath. Surprise! Sometimes the blocks you feel aren’t coming from you! You may be picking up on other people’s energies. Maybe a friend, spouse, child or other person close to you is having a rough time and you are picking up on it. Maybe you spent soem time in a store, office or house that had some not so great energy in it. If you re working on opening your psychic abilities and your connection to Spirit, chances are you are opening up to and picking up on more than your realize. It’s time to clear all of that other people’s stuff out of you! Use as much salt as you want  as the salts serve to clear your aura and help to release any stuck or caught energy. You can also add a couple of drops of Peppermint oil  - this is a great addition to a cleansing bath and helps to dispel any negative energy released.
• 4. Call upon your joy guide. We all have a joy guide or two given to us just to help us find levity in our lives. Feeling like you need some laughter and lightheartedness? Call upon your joy guide to arrange this for you. You may come across a new comedy, a new book, a friend that makes you laugh may unexpectedly show up or if you are a parent your child may do some things that crack you up. The best way to quickly release negativity is to raise your vibration and laughter is a quick way to do that.
• 5. Do something creative. Write, paint, dance, draw, sing! Expressing your feelings can do a lot to release them. When you approach any creative act with the intention of letting it be your link to your Spirit, you create a clear avenue or channel of light from your heart outwards. I find that entering into a creative act not only gets my mind focused on something positive, it also becomes a de facto outlet for my feelings and helps me to let them go and enter into a higher state of being. In fact, the creative state can be another avenue for opening to Spirit communication. Many artists enter into a channel state when creating. (More on this in another post!) For now, focus on putting your hand, mind and body into a creative act and let the feelings flow out. Even if you don;t fancy yourself a “creative” person  - do yourself a favor and try something to let your feelings flow out.

Releasing fears and doubts is a continual process. As you reach new levels of Spiritual knowingness and communication, you also reach new depths within yourself. You can encounter things you have done a great deal of work during your life to push down, ignore or forget. Encountering these things is not so fun, but you can take heart in knowing that they are big road signs that show you are in fact on the right path!

What works to clear doubt and fear for you at one point, may not be what you need at another point. Trust your inner guidance and know that wherever your healing leads you, it is the perfect place for you right now. Doubts and fears only serve to separate you from the Divine-the Divine that exists both within you and in the Spirit world, which is always all around you.

When you feel doubt crop up, don't panic, just recognize it is a normal part of Spiritual growth and will pass as you take action to release it and reconnect with Spirit. You will find that the more times you go through this process, the more trust you will have that these ups and downs serve a greater purpose by challenging you to strengthen and commit to your journey. When you find that easy clarity with Spirit again, it will be stronger, higher and more integrated into your entire self.

As always, if you want help identifying any blocks, issues or want more specific information from your Guides, Angles and Loved Ones we can work together in a reading or coaching session!

With love,

Ashley