About 7 years ago, when I began this journey, I had no idea what spirit guides were or how they worked with us.  I don’t even think I had ever heard the term. So many people have asked me about spirit guides and how they work that I thought I would give you a brief introduction in a Q & A format, using the questions I get asked all the time. As always, this is my understanding and interpretation.  Take what resonates with you and leave the rest.

What are spirit guides?

Spirit guides are beings from the other side that help us connect with our higher selves. They are not to be confused with angels since angels have never incarnated.  Spirit guides are beings who have lived the human lessons and are working to learn from the other side. They are also not usually our loved ones who have crossed over.  On one or two occasions, I have seen this but not too often.

What do they do?

Spirit guides help us connect to our higher selves and offer guidance and advice about situations we are experiencing and life lessons. Usually guides do not push us to make decisions or force their selves upon us. They will wait until we request help.

How many I have?

Generally speaking, we have one master guide that has signed up with us for this lifetime.  They are there with us throughout our journey.  There are also other guides that are there with us for certain events or times in our lives.  For example, you may have a bully to contend with in 8^th grade that would have a guide specifically dedicated to that situation or you may have guides that are there to help you deal with loss. I like to look at this with an analogy to healthcare.  Your master guide is your general practitioner while the others are specialists.  You can have many guides simultaneously communicating with you or only one.

Can I share a spirit guide with someone?

Many guides help many people.  It is not uncommon to have a guide that you share with someone else but when they communicate with you, it is almost always about only you.

Who are you talking to during a reading?

When I do readings I communicate with whatever guides show up.  My guides are also present in a reading to help facilitate and conduct communication. The information that comes through in most readings (non-medium) is from your spirit guides.

What is my spirit guides name?

The name of you spirit guide is not important.  Spirit guides names can be found through doing meditations and connecting with them. However, knowing the name of your spirit guide does not make a difference.  A name is something that, as humans, we consider important.  Spirit guides are not human and they just want to be there for you.  You can give your spirit guides any name you like or try and figure their names out.  Usually the name a spirit guide will give is just to help us feel some sense of familiarity.  If you cannot find or hear your spirit guides name, don’t worry about it.  They are there and always willing to help, regardless of knowing their name or not.

How do they communicate with me?

Spirit guides communicate with us in a wide variety of ways. Usually, as in all psychic communication, we use our senses to connect as well as our 6^th sense of knowing.

Sight:  Sometimes we will see spirit guides in meditation.  We can see parts of them or all of them and usually they manifest in physical human form.  Sometimes in pictures we may see small white orbs, which can be spirit guides, angels or loved ones on the other side. Spirit guides also communicate messages with things we see every day.  For example, we may see a particular animal over and over again.  There is a lot of information on animal totems and their meanings online.  Seeing these animals may be a message from spirit that can be interpreted by looking up the meaning of that particular animal. Other ways they communicate are through intuitive card decks like Angel Cards or Tarot cards.

Smell: You may smell something familiar that reminds you of a certain time in your life or brings you comfort.  Many people experience a connection to loved ones who have passed away in a similar fashion.

Touch:  Feeling guides is fairly common.  You may just feel a presence with you or get goose bumps. We may feel our guides presence in a meditation or feel a gentle touch when we need to reconnect with reality.  This happens to me a lot when I am on the light rail.  I often space out and feel my guides touch my hand to reconnect me with the moment.

Taste:  This is pretty self-explanatory but not very common.  Sometimes a person can taste something familiar like a food they may have enjoyed or something that reminds them of a time, place or person in their life.  The best example I can give about this is that sometimes I can taste recipes or food to communicate a message to a client.  Mostly, this happens in readings with loved ones on the other side but on occasion it has happened with a living person or situation.

Hear:  Our guides communicate with us like this a lot.  Often the voice we hear is quiet, subtle and sounds like our own.  Guides do not need to be loud or overpowering to get their messages across.  Often, the messages they give us validate something we may already know.  Their voices do not sound like the man behind the curtain in the Wizard of Oz but, instead, sounds just like us. We may also hear chimes, bells or other sounds that connect us to our guides. This is the most common way that guides communicate with us.

Know: I cannot really explain this.  Some things you just ‘know’.  That’s your 6^th sense.

How can I connect with them better?

First and foremost, to connect with your intuition, guides, angels or loved ones - meditate. Meditate, meditate, meditate! I can’t stress this enough. Every source I have ever read or heard and all my experience says to meditate. When I say meditate I do not mean sitting atop a mountain with your legs folded, listening to the sounds of nature, although that works too. Setting aside about 15 or 30 minutes a day, whatever is comfortable and just quieting your mind is good enough. This is not always an easy task with our busy lives' but if you want to make a commitment to connect with spirit, please take this time! Do whatever works for you, just make sure you won’t be disturbed and you are comfortable. Remember, the more consistently you meditate the easier your connection to spirit. Learning to meditate sounds simple enough but it isn’t. Don’t be discouraged it you don’t get anything at first or even for months. If anything, you will at least be learning to quiet your mind and relax.