Your Psychic Self

by Melissa Alvarez

  Embrace your abilities. Practice to make them stronger and more precise. Do the best you can to use your intuitive abilities with intent and to make a positive difference in the world or in someone’s life. Then you will be living your soul’s purpose. Instead of asking “why me?” try asking “why not me?”

  Try It Now: Practice Your Intuition

  Here are some practice exercises to get you started. In a later chapter, we’ll discuss the different types of abilities. As you do these exercises, remember that it’s important to listen to your first impression, which is usually right. When you start second-guessing yourself, you’ll find your accuracy will drop.

  The telephone: Trying to predict who is on the telephone is an excellent way to begin tapping in to your abilities. When the phone rings, don’t look at the caller ID, just try to determine who is on the other end of the line before you answer. You can also write down a list of who you think will call you the next day. As they do, check them off of your list. At the end of the day, you’ll see how accurate your predictions were. We’ll discuss an in-depth exercise about using the telephone in a later chapter.

  The television: When watching the news, take note of any stories where you can predict the outcome. Make note of them in your mind or write them down. Then follow the story to see if the outcomes you saw really happen. Also, pick a famous psychic that you feel a connection with and watch them do readings on television. Try to give your answer to the person’s question before the psychic does—then compare how many times your answers match.

  Flash cards: Use flash cards or even a regular deck of cards to help you develop your abilities and practice with them. Really focus on one card at a time, trying to see a picture of it in your mind’s eye. Shuffle the deck, say which card you think it is, and then flip it over to see if you’re right. You can also work with someone else; have them shuffle and hold up the cards so that you have no contact with them.

  Voice of Your Spirit, Inner Voice, Higher Self

  If you’ve experienced whispered words of encouragement, a subtle warning, or a soft inner voice guiding you through the day, then you are connecting with your inner spirit. You hear the words in your head clearly, as if you said them out loud, yet they seem to come from a source other than your mind. It’s different from your analytical voice, which is in a state of constant babble weighing pros and cons, making to-do lists, and thinking about everything that is going on in your life. The words from your inner voice are spoken in a different tone—the voice is softer and gentler, yet it instantly grabs your attention and makes you listen, overriding that babbling analyzer. This is your inner voice, the voice of your spirit. It is part of you, yet it is a vehicle that can also be used by your higher self, angels, spirit guides, and masters to communicate with you on a soul level.

  How do you know when the voice is your babbling analyzer and not your higher self? Messages and guidance that come from your spiritual inner voice will be loving, kind, and will oftentimes make you think in a bigger, more Universal way than you normally do. Thoughts that are judgmental, negative, or condescending are coming from your thinking mind, your babbling analyzer. We tend to be really hard on ourselves on this plane of existence. It’s only when we can start listening to the spiritual inner voice—and tune out the negative one that keeps putting us down or talking a mile a minute about nothing—that we can truly become one with our own intuitive abilities and spiritual nature. The spiritual inner voice is a helper from within and from beyond. We just have to see it for what it is and understand how to use it to make progress on our journey.

  You can do this by asking yourself a question and receiving an answer from your spiritual inner voice. You might even be surprised at how wise the answers are that you receive. This is because you’re intuitively connecting at a soul level with your higher self, your spirit guides and masters, who are all at a much higher frequency than you can be on the earthly plane.

  How do you connect with your spiritual inner voice? Sometimes you’ll just hear it out of the blue when you’re not expecting it. These are times when someone from the spiritual realm has an important message that they just can’t wait to tell you. Other times, you want to take a moment to seek out your inner voice and ask questions. To do this, close your eyes, take a couple of cleansing breaths, and listen within. Sometimes you’ll intuitively hear things that your thinking mind wants to reject. You can listen to your spiritual inner voice all day long, but if you never take positive action on the things you’ve learned, you’re wasting the information you’ve been given to help you grow. Staying intuitively in tune with your inner voice can open up a wealth of information to you.

  Intention

  Does your intuitive energy feel like it’s all over the place? Or that no matter what you do to develop your ability, to truly understand and use it, nothing ever happens for you or works the way other people say it should? It’s great that you’re focusing on your abilities because that’s how you grow. But are you working on developing your abilities with the right intention? In the years that I’ve been helping other people develop their psychic ability, I’ve noticed that often, when things aren’t working properly and a person is stuck, it’s because they aren’t working from within their energy and they’re not working with the right level of intention. If you try to force your abilities, you’ll dig your tires right into the mud. To develop your ability, you must be clear and intend what you want to happen. To have the purest intention, you have to release any preconceived notions of how your abilities will work; you have to understand that the way you receive information is right for you and be receptive to what happens even if it’s unexpected. Your abilities may be totally different from your sibling or best friend. There may be similarities but there are always little differences. Granted, some experiences are going to completely overwhelm you and change your life. They come out of the blue and surprise you. But if you’re working toward a specific goal, you should have a specific intention to get you to that goal.

  If you want to meet one of your guides, then your intention could be something like, “Through focused effort on my energy, I will find a quiet, still place within my being where I can become one with divine energy. In this place I will ask my guide to come forward and speak with me telepathically, helping me to understand my place in the world and my spiritual existence.” That is a very specific intention and will help you to meet your guide. Use your own words to make your intention part of your being. Then, when you connect to your guide in this quiet place, thank your guide for meeting with you and answering your questions.

  Clear intention is necessary when trying to understand and develop your intuitive abilities. It can help you be free of fear, find your center, and enable you to be successful as you try new things. Pure intention will allow you to release any negativity you receive from those who don’t understand your experiences. You may not even understand them yourself, but by being clear and pure in your intent, you can discover windows when doors shut and phenomena that the logical mind may have trouble explaining.

  Visualization

  Have you ever had the feeling that someone you know needed you and then shortly thereafter found out that what you’d sensed was true? In situations such as these, you can use visualization to determine if you should take action. Let’s say that you get this feeling but you’re not sure if it’s just your thinking mind or an intuitive impression. Take a moment to visualize that person in the moment. You may see them in a situation where they’re upset and need to talk or they may be having dinner, laughing, and talking with friends. Depending on what you visualize, you will know whether you should reach out to them in that moment. Visualization is helpful when you’re developing your abilities because it is a method you can use to see further with your abilities. You can use visualization to double-check that what you’re sensing is correct.

  Creative visualization is different in that you use it to create
a specific outcome. For instance, if you’re trying to connect with your spirit guides, you can use creative visualization to see yourself meeting your guides, talking with them, and learning from them. You see this as an image or movie in your mind’s eye. If you want to enhance your empathic abilities, you can visualize yourself as a more feeling person who is able to sense and understand the feelings of others. Creative visualization is also important in manifesting positive things in your life. If you want to bring more optimistic situations into your life, you imagine that positivity surrounds you—upbeat and positive people, things, and circumstances—and those things will come to you because you are thinking about them with intention and desiring them in your life.

  Chakra Balancing

  Within your body there are hundreds of chakras that nurture us with Universal Life Force. Among these hundreds of chakras are seven primary ones, which are numbered and named, and are located from the top of your head down to the base of your spine. The seven primary chakras are the crown chakra (seventh) located at the top of your head, the third-eye chakra (sixth) located in the forehead between the eyes, the throat chakra (fifth) located in the neck region, the heart chakra (fourth) located in the center of your chest, the solar-plexus chakra (third) located in the stomach area near the navel, the sacral chakra (second) located in the lower abdomen right below the navel, and the root/base chakra (first) located at the base of the spine near the tailbone.

  Each chakra gives your body a specific kind of energy that is essential to both your physical and spiritual development. Sometimes the energy in a chakra can become blocked by physical injuries, emotional trauma, our beliefs and culture, or even from things that happened in our childhood that have never been addressed. When the chakras are blocked, you may encounter difficulties in your life, but when cleared, life is smoother and more joyous.

  When the energy within a chakra becomes stagnant, the chakra needs to be cleared and balanced in order to get the energy flowing correctly again so that you will be grounded and in touch with your physical body and spiritual core essence. Balancing the chakras is a form of energy therapy that will not only bring balance to your chakras but will raise your frequency as well. Chakras can be balanced through yoga, guided meditation, color therapy, aromatherapy, breathing exercises, and meditation, to name a few methods. Once you’ve found balance in your chakras, you’ll experience inner peace and higher levels of confidence and self-esteem as you grow spiritually on your life path.

  Finding and Maintaining Balance

  When you are working with your intuitive gifts, it is important to find a place of centered balance within your core spiritual self. When you find this balance, you will be better able to see the world around you with clarity and understanding. You’ll be happier overall and will find more joy in things that you may have previously ignored.

  How do you find balance? First, you must be able to notice when you’re out of balance. Think about what causes you worry or fear. Are you anxious, nervous, or completely stressed out? Do you feel overwhelmed and frustrated? Do you feel the need to be in control of everything and everyone around you? If you answered yes to any of these questions, then you’re most likely out of balance.

  To bring yourself back into balance, you have to look at the way you’re thinking, the amount you take on in your life, and how you feel about yourself in mind, body, and spirit. If you discover that you’re overly stressed or feeling anxious, then make adjustments in your life to release those things that are causing you to feel overwhelmed. As you do this, you are bringing yourself into balance and will be able to find a true connection to your intuitive gifts. Notice how you feel when you’re balanced so that you can come back to this point quickly and efficiently in the future. It’s difficult to work with your abilities when you’re upset, worried, or anxious. If you let these feelings go, even for a short time, then you’ll become balanced, which will have a positive effect on your thinking.

  Once you know what this feeling is, to maintain this newfound balance you need only to remember how you felt when you connected to it before and use visualization to quickly get back to this place within you. In your mind’s eye, take yourself back to your core essence, the place where you feel at peace, calm, and at one with your true spiritual self. Any time that you feel as though your world is spinning out of control, go back to this place. Remember what it felt like to be centered and balanced; as you reconnect with that part of yourself, you will restore balance within. As you do energy work, or work with your intuitive abilities, it’s important always to approach your abilities from a place of centered and balanced oneness so that you’re as accurate as possible, especially if you’re working with someone else.

  Try It Now: An Exercise in Finding Balance

  Find a place where you can be alone in complete silence for a few moments. Lie down on your bed, sit in a comfortable chair, or take a shower if it’s difficult to find quiet time. Once you’re in a quiet environment, imagine that all of the things causing you stress are moving away from you, lightening your load, freeing you from the chaos that the weight of these things causes you. Imagine a big box near your feet where you can store everything for a while. Let your mind and body relax as you’re placing a situation into the box. With each one that you add, let yourself relax even more. Is work causing you problems? Put everything associated with work in the box. Maybe you’re overwhelmed by your intuition because too much comes in too quickly—put your intuition in the box. Are you dealing with a situation within a personal relationship? Put that issue in the box, too. Once you’ve placed everything inside, use creative visualization to imagine the lid closing. Now, consider how you’re feeling. Do you feel lighter, less worried, and stress-free? Are your mind and body relaxed? If so, you are in your place of balance; you are now “centered.” You can return to this place at any time when you need to reconnect to your core essence and regain a feeling of balance. Now, take everything out of the box and examine it as you reclaim it. You’ll find that as you look at the situations from a state of balanced centeredness, each one seems less extreme and you may even discover a resolution as you reclaim it.

  Meditation/Grounding/Centering

  In order to work at your best with your abilities, you have to stay grounded and centered within your own core frequency. If you don’t, you’ll discover your impressions are often wrong and you feel frazzled, off balance, and easily frustrated. Not only can your psychic abilities be off-kilter, but you will feel out of sync in other areas of your life, too. It can feel as though you’ve just stuck a metal clothes hanger into a live electrical outlet and you’re getting the shock of a lifetime. If you’re a medium, you can be overwhelmed by the sheer number of spirits who want to talk to you all at once. In order to be effective as a medium or intuitive, you have to find balance to become more in tune with your intuitive nature.

  To bring yourself back into balance, also called “grounding” and “centering,” you can use a formal meditation technique or either of the two approaches in the exercise below. I’m giving you both an expanded example and a quick-and-easy version. Both ways are great to use depending on how much time you have to dedicate to it.

  Try It Now: Ground and Center Yourself

  If you have a lot of time, find a quiet place to sit comfortably with your feet flat on the floor. You can also do the following exercise in a standing position if you prefer.

  Using creative visualization, look inside yourself until you find your core essence. The first couple of times you do this, it may be difficult to find, but once you do, you’ll always be able to go straight to your core when doing this exercise. Your core is the place inside you that feels like your true self, your soul essence, your spiritual frequency. Once you’re connected with your core, imagine white light flowing into you through the top of your head. Let this light flow through you, filling you with love and light. Imagine it reaching out to every cell of your being. A
s it reaches your feet, allow it to flow into the ground beneath you, grounding you to the earth. As the light fills you, imagine all of your anxiety and frustrations converting to calm peacefulness, centering and balancing your essence. If you’re having trouble with the conversion, you can also imagine the light pushing any negativity out of your body through the bottoms of your feet to be absorbed by the earth. Once you feel stable and that you are back in balance, centered, and grounded, close yourself off to the flow of energy and keep all of the light and love inside of you.

  There are times when you don’t have the time to do a lengthy exercise but instead need a quick fix to balance and center yourself. If you only have a few minutes, then wherever you are, simply close your eyes, take a cleansing breath, and open the crown chakra at the top of your head and let white light fill you. Give the white light the intention to bring you back to a balanced center, and then imagine it filling you in seconds, dissolving any negativity and fulfilling your intention as it does so. Feel your feet planted firmly on the earth, grounding you to it like glue. Close your crown chakra and keep the white light within you. Open your eyes feeling your energy whole and complete instead of frazzled and out of sorts.