Your Psychic Self

by Melissa Alvarez

  Sometimes you’ll pick up information about total strangers when you weren’t even trying to read them, and the feeling is so overwhelming that you have to say something. You’ll know when you’re experiencing that kind of strong impression because it completely fills you with the compulsion to talk. Once I had this kind of impression when standing in line at a checkout. I kept hearing that I should tell the person in front of me that Mary was okay. I didn’t know if I should say anything to her or not and I held back until I just couldn’t anymore. I told the lady that she’d probably think I was crazy, but I have intuitive abilities and I needed to tell her that Mary was okay. If it meant nothing, I was sorry to have bothered her. To my surprise, she burst out in tears, grabbed me, and hugged me tight. Mary was her daughter and she’d recently died in a car wreck. She’d been asking for a sign that her daughter was okay. The message I’d received was very important to her, the sign she’d asked for. So you’ll have to play it by ear when you receive messages like this. Act when you feel compelled to and keep quiet if you feel you should. If you’re receiving more information than you can handle, block some of the energy around you with a shield of white light and ask your guides to filter it more.

  Intuitive Band

  No, I’m not referring to a musical band of intuitively gifted people, even though that would be pretty cool. An intuitive band is a feeling of pressure on the body that occurs when you’re developing your abilities. You usually feel this band around the top of your head but it can also occur over your ears, eyes, or chest depending on which ability you’re trying to develop. Not everyone who develops their abilities will feel this band but if you do, rest assured that it will go away once you’re feeling secure in your ability.

  When I first realized that I had abilities, I occasionally felt tightness around the top of my head. I didn’t know what it was at the time so I didn’t know what to do to make it go away. The result was a lot of headaches. Now that I understand what was happening, I’m going to pass this along so that if you experience the same thing, you’ll be able to prevent headaches, or any other pain, while developing your gifts.

  The reason that you get an intuitive band is because you are unconsciously holding in and controlling the higher frequencies that you’re accessing when working on the ability instead of allowing the energy to move in its natural flow. In my case, I was working on clairvoyance, which is centered in the third-eye area and the top of the head. As I practiced, I was inadvertently holding the energy in one place instead of letting it flow freely. When Universal Energy isn’t allowed to move, it builds up and can cause pressure or even pain. I’m frequently asked about this by intuitives who suffer from headaches after doing a reading. I used to be one of them but once I discovered that the energy had to flow continuously, the headaches stopped. Other intuitives often get tired after doing readings. Or if you’re working on clairaudience, your hearing may feel muffled afterward. It’s the same principle. Your energy feels drained or you feel like you can’t hear as well because while you’re connecting to Universal Energy, you’re not allowing your own energy to flow in harmony with it.

  To prevent intuitive bands from happening, make sure that before you start the work, you intend that your energy flows harmoniously with the Universal Energy in an even, smooth manner. Imagine both energies as two rivers running side by side, each maintaining its individuality but occasionally merging to form a creek between them. The impressions that you pick up are the creek. Then when you are finished with your work, imagine the creek dividing and going back to its respective river, thus maintaining the flow of each energy pathway. By doing this creative visualization exercise along with your intuitive development work, you release any pent-up energy and don’t hold it inside. If you notice that you’re still feeling an intuitive band after you’ve finished your intuitive work, then take a few moments to connect to the ability you were working on and look for any excessive energy that you unconsciously held on to. Let it go and you’ll find the pressure of the band leaves, too.

  Hesitation

  You may not think of hesitation as an intuitive sign, but oftentimes it’s your ability stepping in to keep you from making a mistake or taking inappropriate action. Hesitation centers in your stomach region and the upper body; it makes you stop in your tracks, suspend your words, while giving you a moment to think about the possible outcome of what you’re doing or are about to say. It can make you catch your breath, lose your train of thought, or trip over your words. It can cause your stomach to clench and your heart rate to increase. Hesitation is often accompanied by fear. You may be afraid to commit, trust, succeed, participate, do or be involved with something, or even freely state your opinion. Hesitation can occur at any time, so when it does, pay particular attention to what is going on around you, the people you are with, and the root cause of what made you hesitate.

  Sometimes hesitation is followed by an intuitive impression and other times it is caused by the impression. Let’s say you’re speaking with an individual and you’re being asked to do some volunteer work that you really don’t have time to do, but you want to help out. As you’re about to say that you’ll do it, hesitation comes over you and you get the impression that if you do this, you’ll end up working much longer than you anticipated and it will interrupt an event that you had planned later in the day. So instead of accepting, you offer to volunteer at another time but not on the specific day requested. Is there any way to know for sure that volunteering on that particular day would run into your evening plans? No, you’d only know for sure if you participated and it happened.

  If you hesitate but don’t know why, scan the area and yourself with your intuitive senses to look for the reason you’ve been given pause. Is there fear involved? Or is there something else going on? You may pick up an impression that makes perfect sense and then again, you may not get anything at all. And that’s okay. If you’re hesitating, there’s a reason for it, so hold off on making any decisions or commitments until you’ve had more time to think it through, for the impression to manifest, or for the reason to become apparent.

  Gut Instincts/Gut Power

  On a soul level, you know everything. On the physical plane, you don’t. Your gut instincts are the soul’s way of guiding you along your life path, helping you to know right from wrong, good from bad, and which path to choose. There is power in the impressions you receive because they guide you so well. I also refer to this type of ability as gut power. You will always take the right path and make the right decisions if you always listen to your gut power, your instincts, and your intuitive guidance. When your gut power kicks in, so do your intuition and clair abilities, all of which work hand in hand to help you on your soul’s journey.

  Let’s take a look at some examples of gut power at work. It’s Friday night and you’re meeting up with a bunch of friends at a local restaurant to have dinner before going out to a theatrical performance. The tickets were bought months ago and it’s an event that everyone in your close circle of friends has been looking forward to attending. At the restaurant, you order cheese fries, oysters on the half shell, and pork chunks as appetizers. When the food arrives, everyone digs in but you get the impression not to eat the pork, so you don’t. Later on, everyone who ate the pork starts to get sick. In this case, because you listened to your gut instincts, you had power over your decision and prevented yourself from becoming ill.

  Your gut power can also be expressed through physical manifestations. You may get a tingling sensation all over your body, sweaty palms, sudden sleepiness, and butterflies in your stomach. Your claircognizance may kick in and you just know, without knowing how you know, that you should or shouldn’t do or say something. You may get a physical sign in conjunction with your gut instinct. Let’s say your favorite bird is a cardinal. You’re driving on the interstate and going a bit too fast when you get the impression to slow down immediately, so you do. Then a cardinal flies through your
field of vision, and then moments later, another car swerves into your lane just ahead of you. Had you not slowed down, they would have hit you. That’s one wreck you avoided by listening to your gut power and intuitive impressions. It is very important that you become aware of these physical signs that the Universe is giving for you to pick up through your intuitive impressions.

  Your gut instincts can also help you notice lies, danger, illness, potential problems, those you want to help, favorable outcomes, and areas in which you will excel. They are there to guide you in both good and bad situations.

  Sensory Overload

  Experiencing frequent sensory overload is one of the ways you can tell that you have intuitive abilities. Because you are intuitive, you tend to feel and sense emotions, loud noises, and other stimuli more than someone who isn’t in tune with their abilities. Negativity feels like it’s ripping you apart and joy can feel a thousand times multiplied. You feel loud noises in your skin; you’re anxious, nervous, and unsettled. This is especially true for those of you who are empathic. Being in a crowd drives you nuts, makes you feel claustrophobic and ill at ease. The chaos of a chain retail store on a Saturday afternoon during a major sale is nearly impossible for you to handle. You feel like you absorb the energy of those around you, letting their emotions affect your mood; you hear information about them as you walk by, see visions about things they’ve done or will do, or simply know information from an intuitive perspective that you really didn’t want to know. You find people are drawn to you and will just walk up and start telling you about all of the things that are bothering them—private, personal information. You tend to make your shopping trips short and during times when other people may not be there or you become a homebody who rarely leaves the house. You avoid watching the news on television or any type of real-life drama because you’re affected in the same way.

  Living like this can be very upsetting and aggravating if you let it, especially if you don’t understand the reason it’s happening. That’s why it is so important to learn to protect yourself by putting up specific barriers around you. Having intuitive abilities is a wonderful gift, but it’s important to learn how to understand them, control them (as much as they can be controlled), and use them while protecting yourself from an onslaught of intuitive information.

  I’ve already explained how to protect yourself with white light, so now I want to share another method that will help you. You could just avoid anything that sends your emotions into overdrive, but then you’d be living a life of isolation and loneliness, which is a waste of the life you’ve been given. You should live life to its fullest, not hide away from it. Instead of withdrawing from life, in this creative visualization exercise you’ll use a switch, a cast-iron suit, invisibility, and fire to keep you balanced in hectic, sensory-overload situations.

  There is one thing I want to clarify before I tell you how to do this exercise. Your light will always shine brightly because you are a spiritual being who is able to utilize more than just the five senses. People will be drawn to you simply for that reason. When this happens, while you might not want to hear about someone’s surgery or problem with their home, you may receive an impression that will help that person in some small way. So be open to those who approach you and always be nice. Your kindness and words may make a world of difference in their lives.

  Try It Now: Intuitively Handle a Crowd

  Let’s do this creative visualization exercise with the example of going to the store during a big sale. Before you enter the store, you’re going to imagine that you’re wearing a thin suit of living cast iron that, once you step into it, molds to your body and becomes part of your skin, covering every inch of you. This cast iron is so strong it keeps all negativity from reaching you. It has reflective ability, making sound bounce off of it before you really notice the things said, unless someone speaks directly to you. Program the cast iron with these intentions prior to its first use. Now that you have your armor on, you’re going to surround yourself within a ring of fire a specific distance away from you. This ring moves with you, so if you program it for five feet, then it will keep people at least five feet away from you. If you really don’t want someone to talk to you, use creative visualization to keep others from noticing you by placing an aura of invisibility around yourself. All of these things are controlled by a master switch and sub-switches. As you near the store, turn the switches on, focus on what you’ve created, and enter the crazy sale-day world. As you move through the store, you can try turning off specific switches or making your distance ring smaller. You might even try turning everything off except the cast-iron suit, just to see what happens. You’ll find that the more you practice, the better this exercise will work and soon it will not be needed at all. It’s basically using creative-visualization techniques and tools to help you manage your abilities.

  Physical Signs: Headaches, Vibrations in Body

  Intuitives are called “sensitives” because they are easily affected by the energy around them, whether it comes from other people in the form of emotions and feelings or from the physical and spiritual worlds. I’m going to go over some of the physical signs that you may experience in association with your intuitive ability, but make sure you always rule out any possible medical problems before assuming that the condition is related to your intuitive ability. I wouldn’t want you to really be sick and ignore it.

  Now, that said, let’s look at some of the symptoms you can experience due to your intuitive ability. For me, the worse symptom was headaches. I had to learn to tell the difference between a tension headache and one brought on by abilities. I went through a period of time when my abilities were developing so fast that I seemed to have a headache all the time, especially those ocular migraines that cause your vision to go out but you never get the actual pain in your head; you just can’t see while it’s happening. As I learned to fine-tune my abilities, I started doing more work with energy. That’s when the headaches started to go away. I still have them every now and then, but the ones I have now are not always caused by my abilities but are more often stress related.

  Working with your intuitive abilities, especially when you’re trying to develop them, can often cause fatigue, weakness, and an overall feeling of exhaustion. I’m always asked if I get tired from doing readings. I did often get tired when I first started doing readings, but now I’m at a point where readings generally don’t faze me. I’ve learned to separate my physical energy from the energy I use when I’m doing readings so that I’m not exhausted. I’m also at a higher frequency than I was when I first realized I had abilities. The higher your frequency (your personal energy vibration), the less you are impacted physically. If I’m doing online workshops and posting several hundred times during the day, then I’ll get tired from the actual typing, but not from doing the readings.

  As you work with your intuitive abilities, you may also notice moments of dizziness or lightheadedness prior to a experiencing an increase in your frequency. You may also have vision issues prior to seeing a clairvoyant vision, or you may experience a ringing in your ears before hearing a clairaudient message. When I first started having visions, my physical vision would become blurry; then I’d see what looked like a television screen that had gone off the air, with either snow or squiggly lines, prior to seeing the actual vision. This was how I knew that what I was seeing would indeed happen.

  As you become more comfortable in your abilities, you’ll find that the physical symptoms lessen because you learn to recognize your abilities without experiencing the physical manifestations.

  People Crowding Your Personal Space

  One of the situations that goes along with being intuitive is the fact that people are drawn to you. They feel a need to be in close proximity to you. Because of this, you’ll notice that your personal space can be invaded quite often.

  Your personal space is the amount of area around your body that you feel is yours. This amoun
t of space may be larger with strangers and smaller if you’re with your significant other; there are many variations in between. When someone steps into your personal space, you may feel very uncomfortable. It can feel like aggressive or passive behavior, but it’s disconcerting either way. Different situations will also affect the amount of personal space you require.

  Most people who step inside your personal space are attracted by your positive energy and light. They are comfortable with you and feel at ease when next to you even if they don’t know why; they may not even realize that standing so close to you is bothering you. You can step back only to have them return into your space. It can be that your light, your intuitive awareness, is enabling them to feel grounded and centered when they are close to you. This doesn’t mean that they’re psychic vampires—people wanting to be close to you to draw on your energy to energize themselves—it only means that they like you and feel a connection to you. As an intuitive, you have to learn to tell the difference between those who unconsciously need to be close to you because they’re drawn to your light and psychic vampires (see “Psychic Vampires” in chapter nine). The first will do you no harm, the second will. There are also people who purposefully enter your personal space to “help” you by projecting their energy to you. You do not need anyone’s energy but your own. If you feel this type of invasion, you should immediately surround yourself with white light and block that person’s attempt to change your energy or your aura and politely leave their company.