GAIA: “7 Things That Are Blocking Your Spirit Guides”

Your angels, spirit animals and spirit guides in general are supposed to be connecting and communicating with you, offering guidance for your life and acting as a source of light and encouragement. If you aren’t experiencing this, what’s the problem? As it turns out, it’s probably largely you yourself that stands in your own way, as well as the way of your spirit guides! Everything from your attitude to even the things that you eat can affect the connection with your spirit guides.

Never fear, however, there are a lot of things you can do in order to open the channels again. You are the problem, and you are also the solution.

Here are seven common problems that almost everyone faces. Of course, there are many more that you may discover in your own journey, so take these as a beginning point of examination and take a good look at your own heart and lifestyle:

INEXPERIENCE

So you’re new to the spiritual work game. That is no big deal! However, it can trip you up a little if you don’t know what you’re doing.

The best practice is to not do much at all! Keep an open heart and mind, of course, but learn to relax your mind, perhaps through a daily meditation, hold onto your patience and keep your expectations realistic.

You can also practice heightening all of your senses and increasing your awareness. Again, don’t constantly be on the lookout, but instead open the channels of your receptiveness.

DISORGANIZATION

You attract what’s around you. Is your home a big pile of clutter with random objects lost in the fray? Is your desk even visible under those stacks of who-knows-what? The state of your affairs can reflect your heart. This is why space clearing is so important in Feng Shui. Clean space, clean spirit!

That’s the kind of spirit and environment that your guides are attracted to. Make things as easy as possible on them and create the most appealing, welcoming atmosphere to them, and let them get to work.

EXPECTATIONS

Waiting for a gigantic sign with life directions to fall out of the sky and hit you on the head… literally? It’s time to move on and instead focus on your bond with your guides.

You never know how your guides will contact you, and by setting your expectations even really high, you’re putting them in a box and limiting yourself more than anything. Sometimes the gestures will be big and grand; other times, they will be just mere feelings, gentle whispers in your heart or your ears, or a fleeting visual. Sometimes, these signs are even more powerful than a huge clap of thunder!

Find the small signs, and the big ones may or may not come. It doesn’t matter! Once you connect with your guides, you’ll realize that the sign and the journey with the spirits itself is what matters.

IMPATIENCE

If you’re constantly wondering and anxiously waiting for messages from your spirit guides, the internal turmoil and anxiety you’re building up could cause you to miss it all together! Plus, when you’re in this state, you aren’t having faith in your guides, you’re demanding to have your way and your results. Where’s the beauty in that?

Building up your patience also builds your trust in your guides, thus strengthening your bond all the more. When you’re facing challenges, you can still know that your guides have your best interests at heart, and that they will be there for you at just the right time.

When you aren’t looking for it, all kinds of great things can happen unexpectedly. With a stronger bond with your guide, you’ll start to recognize that the coincidences that seem so fortuitously timed are intentional messages and guidance from the spirits who care about you.

DRAMA

The chaos of certain relationships and situations can certainly be the utmost distractions. When you’re constantly squabbling with an acquaintance or trying to make everyone happy, you yourself aren’t happy. You’re agitated, likely closed off, and unfocused. This can make it hard to connect with your spirit guides.

Ask your guides to help you clear your heart. Get rid of the negativity and fear and replace it with the peaceful, loving energy of positivity. Also ask your guides to help point out any relationships that you may have outgrown, ones that are only slowing you down and harming more than helping. It’s okay to trim back relationships that are draining you of valuable emotional and spiritual energy.

While it’s important to still love everyone around you no matter what, it’s your choice who to pour yourself into. The more negative energy you collect around yourself, your friends included, the harder it will be for your spirit guides to connect to you.

FOOD

Humans are clusters of energy waves, moving faster and faster all the time. As a human you have agreed to see yourself as solid forms through consensus reality. Everything you do and think, everything you eat and drink, in fact, everything you put into and around your body effects the overall vibration of your entire being. After all, we are energy, and food is energy for us, thus affecting our energy overall.

Therefore, it is quite essential that you pay attention to the vibrations of the foods you eat. When you eat foods that have a high and rapid vibration, you are more able to hold a strong, healthy, exuberant and joyful state. When, on the other hand, you eat foods of a slower, lower frequency, you lower your vibrations and, wonder why you don’t feel quite so good that day.

Each of us has a signature vibration; each food you ingest contributes to that vibration. Here are some of the foods for lower vibrations that you should avoid, not just for nutrition and toxin’s sakes:

  • Genetically modified (GMO) food, and conventional food that’s been treated with chemicals and pesticides
    White rice and flours
  • Sugars, sweeteners (artificial etc.)
  • Coffee
  • Sodas
  • Alcohol
  • Meat, fish and poultry
  • Processed, packaged, canned and fast foods
  • Unhealthy oils, like canola, cottonseed, margarine, and vegetable oils
  • Frozen foods
  • Pasteurized cows milk, yogurt and cheese
  • Cooked foods, deep fried foods and microwaving food

OVERANALYZING

Our egos can be one of the biggest trip-ups of all. When it’s chattering away in our ears that it knows best, tell it to be quiet for a bit! When you’re analyzing everything, you can break the connection with your guides. Some of the sweetest moments come when you have sudden clarity and insight that you hadn’t seen before.

Your guides want you to have faith in them, and it also creates the space for all the miracles they want for you. They may not be earth-shattering and crazy every time, but by letting them come to you instead of dissecting every little thing, you can reap their benefits more often and be amazed by their simple beauty.

 

 

~via Gaia.com

STEPHANIE LUCAS: “Power Animals, Totem Animals, & Animal Archetypes – Oh My!”

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We recently published a piece exploring the amazing realm of Power Animals, which brought on a few questions from readers about the difference between Power Animals and Power Totems and Animal Archetypes. It’s beautiful to see a resurgence of interest in indigenous teachings concerning the power of utilizing our animal counterparts to help guide us in connecting and realigning with our spiritual environment and oneness with Nature. So, let’s delve into these ‘differences.

What are Power Animals and How Do We ‘Run’ With Them?

You may be born with a Power Animal that you become conscious of or are guided to through a shamanic experience. They may change during your lifetime, as they are gifts of consciousness intended to guide and protect you along your journey – so they may be similar to you in traits or they may complement your aspects and assist you areas in which you need strength. Sometimes, Power Animals come to us in times of grief, pain, or in times of soul losses.

For example, if you suffer from a lack of interest or malaise, your Power Animal may return to you as a monkey to inspire curiosity and interest. If you have fallen prey to unforeseen dangers, it may be tiger that comes to assist. Under their protection it is believed that your natural instinctual self will feel safe enough to return to you and that Power Animal might then depart. Learn more about Discovering, Unleashing, and Nurturing Power Animals here.

Power Animals

Totem Animals Help Ones Self-Discovery

Totem Animals often represent ancestral lineages, lore, belief systems, and/or aspects of villages, clans, or families. Cultures around the world use totems as sources of strength – a medicine of sorts – that helps them draw and define the meaning and purpose of their soul and existence.

Many Native Americans belief that you have one Spirit Totem that will be with you for life acting as your primary guardian spirit, yet many may enter and leave your life as they are needed to aid your journey. If not through lineage, many people discover their Totem Animal simply because they have an inexplicable attraction to a particular creature or keep finding themselves in the company of a certain animal in both physical and dream realms. Intuition guides you to your totem…your Totem then guides you.

The Profound Pleasure of Animal Archetypes

According to Jungian psychology, archetypes are some of the highest developed elements of the collective unconscious that serve to interact and call upon the Divine glory of the universal web in a specific way. Many indigenous cultures consider Animal Archetypes as guides to universal organizing principles in which they ultimately orchestrate their world around. For example, to ‘shed’ old problems and reconnect with the earth, one might call on Serpent…yet, if one wants to ‘rediscover’ and enjoy the nectar of the universe – hummingbird might be called upon. Essentially, Animal Archetypes in generally may be how an entire culture chooses to define and manifest their world.

Power Animals

Use your Inner Shaman to Discover Your Power Animal or Take a fun quiz to see if they nailed your Power Animal – most importantly, use your totems and archetypes as well, just as the indigenous used them to engage with the natural world. Interact with them regularly, run wild, and unleash the beast…

 

 

 

 

 

 

©Universal Copyright 2015 is authorized here. Please distribute freely as long as both the author Stephanie Lucas and www.QuantumStones.com are included as the resource and this information is distributed on a non-commercial no charge basis.

STEPHANIE LUCAS: “Unleash Your Primal Spirit: Working with Power Animals”

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I truly enjoy spending time with my power animal. My silent friend and I walk, run, play, and dance as we move as one in our instinctually common habitats – strengthening our connection. The relationship between you and your Power Animal is typically a symbiotic one of kinship and shared traits. A strong bond allows you to tap into their primal instincts and powers as you and the animal work as one, growing spiritually. The stronger the connection, the stronger your joined experiences will be amid both the physical and metaphysical realms.

What Are Power Animals?

power animalsPower animal spirits are not perceivable by the traditional five senses, and some of the most well known are Bear, Buffalo, Owl, Eagle, Wolf, Snake, and Rabbit. Power animals are protectors and partners with whom accompany and protect you on daily and take otherworldly journeys. They know their way around and can get you into and out of your destination unharmed.

It is said that you have at least one power animal from birth, and you may actually have several. They may be present simultaneously or guide you individually as you progress along your path with each offering different types of guidance and protection in accordance with your journey. Many are most familiar with Native American Power Animals, but spirit animals animals entities exist in many cultures. Here is a great resource to discover your power animals and birth totem.

Power Animals – Connecting Your Spiritual and Physical Worlds

While not ‘teachers’ in the direct sense of other types of spiritual guides, you have much to learn from your Power Animal – mostly insights into your own character – your strengths, weaknesses, and how to better understand your mind, body, and spirit – all through understanding your animal’s habitual instincts.

Protection – Power Animals excel in journeying, and they will serve you in the physical realm as protectors when you mentally call upon them for assistance. To put things into perspective, you may want to call upon a totem like Bear or Wolf to shield you in dangerous situations, but smaller creatures like Snake or Rabbit could aid you with their hiding or movement abilities. Rely on instincts – know your animal!

Physical & Spiritual Realms – Beyond mere protection on the physical plane, your will likely have shared traits with your Power Animal or Totem. You may find that you prefer warm weather over cold or that you suffer from Seasonal Affective Disorder when it’s not your season. You may find certain activities and types work preferable. Think you’re not a cat person? Maybe your animal doesn’t care for them either! You may be able to eat very little for long periods as Snake does, or you may find comfort in running with a group like Buffalo or Wolf. Looking inside yourself and realizing your preferences in these realms can help you discover your spirit animal.

power animalsBonding with Power Animals – Welcome the Call of the Wild

The calling of the wild, primordial animal within you may be something you typically try to restrain. After all, many will assume that you are as nutty as a peanut butter cookie if you say you communicate with a Spirit Animal that guides and protects you. However, fostering the bond with your spirit animal is essential. If you don’t spend enough time with them and show appreciation for their insight and protections – just like stones and crystals disappear – your power animal can also abandon you!

Here are some tips Shamans and other spiritual guides recommend for connecting with your Power Animal.

  1. Keep the Identity of your Animal Mum: It can seem overwhelmingly tempting to share your power animal with others. However, knowing the identity of your totem can disclose your own strengths and weakness to others. This could open the door for others to tap into your realm with intent on causing psychic and physical harm to you.
  2. Communicate with Your Animal: Silently asks your friend for assistance when you are weak, afraid, or need counsel. Take time daily to acknowledge their presence when you awaken, to thank them before you sleep, and offer to ‘free’ them to a place of their pleasure while you rest if you feel so inclined.
  3. Learn About Your Power Animals: Get attuned with your animals’ habits – their food sleeping and mating patterns are essential for you to embrace and learn about to keep you totem happy. You’ll also learn more about your habits and how to be tuned into what your ‘gut’ tells you rather than what is the ‘norm.’
  4. Gratitude & Acknowledgment: Take time to honor your animal, whether it be with a photo on your sacred space/altar or through donating or volunteering to causes that preserve their species or habitat.
  5. Dance, Dance, Dance: If you are just now discovering your animal, dance with them right away – when the time of shyness and conscious predispositions may impede your dance. Animals love to play and dance, as it promotes the state of connecting with higher realms, the primordial instincts within us all, and it frees the spirit from the confines of the grounded realm. So, dance away!

Power Animals

Take a Spirit Animal Quiz and Learn More…

To get more information on Spirit Animal Totems click here, and you can also take a fun quiz on the topic and other great resources.

©Universal Copyright 2014 is authorized here. Please distribute freely as long as both the author Stephanie Lucas and www.QuantumStones.com are included as the resource and this information is distributed on a non-commercial no charge basis.