This post is probably the first in a series about developing psychic abilities, opening, use, and health. And each of these points in this short article can really be expanded upon and furthered into their own posts. So, think of think as a quick summary for those who need a good and sound place to start in opening and developing their spiritual or psychic abilities.
Whether you are empathic, kinetics, precognitives, mediums or channels, magick users, or those follow inner locution opening your gifts in a safe and sane way can be difference between you loving your ability and you feeling it is a curse on your life. In my opinion, all of these psychic abilities operate similarly, as they are energies and input that is filtered through your physical body and/or mind, in order to pass on information to others or to obtain needed information for further investigation and meditation.
These tips are meant for people looking to open all types of psychic gifts, and are based on real life experience in coming to terms with my own psychic gifts. Here, I am using the term psychic abilities very loosely, as a description of spiritual gifts or abilities that use the senses and intuition beyond normal, everyday use (like knowing how is calling you before the phone rings). I believe we are all born with some degree of psychic ability, but not everyone is called to develop and work with these gifts in this here and now. Those do have that calling, know it, and find it hard to deny.
Here are some practical tips, to safely get you started.
- Set your boundaries and shields: Really experiment with this exercise. There are hundreds of articles online about how to build psychic or auric shields for filtering other people’s energies and protecting one’s self. Really invest the time in finding out what visualizations and energies work best for you, because not all energies are meant to work with all people in the same way. For instance, using white light as shield energy may work for psychic work, but for empaths and mediums, all that pretty, shiney, and bright white light may actually attract more people (passed or mortal) to you. It is perfectly acceptable to change what shield energy you call forth based on what you would like to see happen. If you are stressed out, you want calm and comforting energies, not necessarily white light or metal energies. Use common sense and your own instinct or gut reaction. You will know when you are using your shields well, when you can call the energies around you within in minutes or seconds. Some people will feel the energy change around them, others will solely use visualizations and the completeness of the visualizations will indicate when they are being shielded, others can simply will it into being, or even sing it into being. Find your process for protection and filtering and own it. Your personal and auric boundaries are sacred and fundamental to healthy use of spiritual gifts. And never be afraid to ask guides, gods, or guardians, who you have or work with, for help with protection and filtering out negative energies. Be exact and tell them what you need and what is bothering you.
- Take a good look at your personal boundaries and how they are working in your personal relationships. Opening a psychic ability takes room and time to grow, and the people around you need to be supportive of the process that you are going through. Take the time to weed out people who bring you down or drain your energy. Your energy is yours and you need every ounce of it to bring forth your path and mission in life. It’s ok to lend your empathy and compassion, but people who constantly lean on you to help solve their problems, without ever taking any action or care of their own, aren’t being good friends, partners, or parents. It can be understandable to want to please the people you love and keep them happy, but sometimes you just needs some things to run the way you need them to. It takes a strong heart to see these kinds of compromises and changes through. But it is also a freeing process. You will feel lighter and stronger for asking for and giving yourself that time and space to explore your gift in a nurturing environment. Be grounded, be reasonable, but also know when you have say “no” or “not now” to someone.
- Be easy on yourself and take things lightly: opening and using a spiritual gift can be a very intense thing for you. There are physical effects, like getting fatigued, increased metabolism, your body running hot or cold, and, at times, taking on the stress of others feelings and emotions. It is incredibly important to listen to your body when actively using your gifts. Treat yourself as you would if you were an athlete in training. Nourish yourself properly, bodily with good foods and your soul and mind with fun and light things. REST when you need it. It is not your responsibility to take on other people’s problems and most times it is only your job to pass the message along to others. Once you have passed a message is vital to know when and how to disengage yourself from the other person. Go take a bath, blast your favorite music, go out and play. Doing something just for yourself, brings your energies back to you and away from an intense read. It is allowed, and it is necessary, to go into “off duty” mode and really give yourself time to be you and take of your own life and problems and well being.
- Know thyself: this last step, really isn’t a full step. It is more of a goal or target. When you have some understanding of how you work, your process, and how it feels in your body and mind, and how to take care of yourself during and after doing a reading or using your psychic abilities, you will have an excellent foundation for learning more techniques, doing deeper work, and negotiating your relationships while maintaining some degree of openness. Your real and daily life will not become less complicated or hectic, unless you work towards that goal, but you could be more ready and willing to deal with things as they come. Having gifts and using them will not solve your problems, and might things more complicated at first. But allowing your gifts to unfold in their own timing will allow your sense of priorities about what is really important to you to be refined, and you might even find life flowing better for you in the long run. You will also have a good sense of when you take on others problems and emotions, and know how deal with it and release back in a loving way, keeping yourself light and flowing.
Lastly, there is a time and season for everything. Your psychic abilities may ebb and flow as they are needed, seasonally, or even as you find yourself on the cusp of learning a different kind of life lesson. New guides have to sorted out about how best to be in communication with them. An Eclipse season can bring a ton of downloads and information that you might struggle to keep up with.
But the real trick to spiritual gifts is being rooted in the knowing that we are never alone. We may not always feel our connection to our guides, guardians, helpers, totems, or even the Divine, but most times that is because we have temporarily forgotten how to stay plugged into that aspect of ourselves, and not because we are being punished or are “losing our powers”. Your gifts are abilities present in this life time, generally speaking, because they are needed. But not all situations need you to use these gifts, and it is perfectly okay to just be human some days. Being human is good too!
