What is negative energy and how do we protect ourselves from it? Sometimes I think people name things that are uncomfortable as negative and want that thing to go away, when actually it may important to the big picture. For example, anger. People often think that being angry is a bad thing and want to get to a place of total peace.  I am the first one to go for peace within myself and around me.  However, I also know that anger is vital to that peace.  If I thwart my own anger, or pretend I’m not angry when I am, then I may likely to become more angry later on because I didn’t set boundaries which I needed to set with others.

In general psychics are more accepted than in the past. Even so, many people don’t want to admit they have talked with a psychic and often psychics don’t want to admit to being a psychic.  Though I have psychic abilities, I am one of those who hide my head in certain crowds and my psychic abilities are only brought out of the closet when I feel safe.  Yeah I know, I am supposed to not care what others think about me.  For the most part that’s true.  Yet I do find myself feeling less than eager to answer that “What do you do?” question with the psychic or even the Energy Work part of what I do. Well, heck, I guess I even downplay the psychotherapist part of what I do.  I usually say I’m a counselor.  That seems pretty safe. (sheepish grin)

So, what is this all about?  I can say that for me I don’t like being challenged, or debated with or about all that “woo woo” stuff.  I also don’t like to see people get scared that I’m reading their minds or that I’m going to shrink them right there in front of everyone!  I have had that happen on more than one occasion.  The funny thing is, that the reaction I get to whether I’m a shrink or psychic is just about the same.

I told a bus driver once, I was sitting right up front on a long and fairly quiet ride, that I was going to work. Of course she asked what kind of work I did, and I told her. Wow, she got so nervous I was beginning to wonder if she would be able to keep that big old bus on the road!  She started talking real fast saying, “You can’t read my mind. Oh I know you can’t, boy I hope you can’t, you’d think I was really nuts if you could read my mind. But I know you can’t.  You can’t read my mind can you?”  I honestly tried to assure her that I couldn’t.  I only told her I was a therapist.  I’m sure glad I wasn’t doing my energy work or psychic gig then, we might have had to pull that bus over right then and there!

So, that’s some of why I’m embarrassed to talk about being psychic.  What reasons do you think others have for not wanting to say they go to a psychic?

Why do people seem to need to go to a psychic?  Most people associate going to a psychic with getting answers to questions for which they don’t have answers, like their future, or what others are thinking or doing.  In my opinion, people are searching for comfort, trying to get a sense of security in their lives.  It’s a way of looking for answers outside of ourselves, a way of giving up our own power of our own lives.

I can tell when I am stressed about something in my own life because I start looking to my tarot cards.  There’s nothing wrong with wanting to know the future, or seeking external advice, it is important to realize that’s what’s going on.  When we are looking on the outside for our answers then we are not going to find them because our answers are inside of us.  We have so much more to do with our future than we realize.  Understanding all of our options is an awesome thing to do.  Psychics and tarot cards can also do that.  Gaining insights about who you are and your role in your own life, that’s what will help you empower yourself to make your own choices with full awareness.

So, yes, ask psychics for help, use your own psychic abilities, just stay focused on the real issue, awareness of your responsibility for your own life.  You really are the only one living your own life.  (warm smile)  Trust yourself.

In my very humble opinion, we all, in general, have some level of psychic abilities or intuition.  Some of us are more able to tap into those abilities and become aware of them than others.  I think psychic gifts are much like having a musical talent or a gift with numbers, or some who are “good with their hands”. There is more to being a good psychic than just having great intuition, we also need to have good people skills if we want to share our psychic abilities with others.

When I was first beginning to understnad my “gifts” I had no idea how to give the information I was receiving to the person to whom I was talking, in a way that would be beneficial to them.  I had to learn respect for psychic space, and that having a hunch about something was not always really knowing the full story.  I had to learn that giving a reading was not about me, it’s always about giving th einformation in the best way for that client.  I have learned how to gracefully tell a client that they may not be getting the whole picture without making them feel like they are dumb or shaking their trust in their own intuitions.  In other words I had to learn how to empower my clients rather than take their power from them during a session.  That’s a touchy situation and takes skill and sensitivity to do that dance well.

Another ingredient that is necessary to being a psychic for others is the ability to risk being wrong.  My human side gets really nervous when I have a client who doesn’t want to tell me much.  Yet, when I just dive in and trust my connection with Source/Spirit to be clear, the session takes off and often turns out to be incredibly powerful.  Proving my psychicness is not the point, in my sessions.  Helping my clients gain insights into themselves and their lives, is the point.  That’s why I like blending my energy work, mental health background and my psychic abilities all together to give a nice full session that not only provides information, but healing to my clients.

What does it mean to be psychic? Can anyone be psychic? What do psychics do? How come people want to go to psychics? Why are people embarrassed to admit they tak to psychics? Why are psychics embarrassed to admit they are psychic?

Well, I don’t claim to know all the answers to these questions, but I will at least give you my take on the subject. I’ve wrestled, and continue to wrestle, with these questions to this day.  I consider myself to have some psychic abilities, but I won’t be able to give you winning lottery numbers, and I won’t be able to tell your future or mine for that matter.  I’m better at some things and seem almost “dumb” in other areas.  For instance, I can telll you in great detail how your friend, lover, sibling, parent thinks and feels about you or other issues, I can describe their personality as if I’ve known them for years and yet have never met them.  However, I can’t tell you what they physically look like or if they are dead or alive.

I can label your feelings, better than you probably can, and when I do you know I get it. I can describe your motivations and your level of insight about your own life patterns, and you’ll be blown away, but I will be surprised when you tell me you are calling me from a country I’ve never heard of.  I seem to tap into an energy of the person that’s about personality, thought processes, beliefs and spirituality.  It’s just naturally where I go, I guess that has something to do with my field of expertise being in mental health and spirituality. (grin)  If my main passion in life was about fashion, maybe I would know the brand name of shoes my clients wore instead of how they feel about their love life. (chuckle).

We are so afraid of the word fear that we name it all kinds of other things to pretend it isn’t fear. Anxiety, stress, on edge, panic, worry, nervousness, concerned and scared.  Sometimes we even morph our fear into other emotions like hurt and anger.  We act out our fear by being irritable, blaming others, lazy, isolating, busy, partying, and even smiling and laughing.

So does this mean we are all afraid all the time. No. It does mean, in my opinion, that we are coping with things that we are often either magnifying or minimizing the fear factor.  Mental health is not about getting rid of fear or anger or grief or whatever emotion is going on. Being mentally healthy is about recognizing emotions for just what they are, feeling them for the moment and letting them go when they no longer serve.

Try just recognizing the many faces of fear in your own life. Just label them, and notice how long they hang around. Notice how much energy you are putting forth to pretend it isn’t there or to avoid feeling or taking care of the source of that fear.  Think how much better you would feel if you didn’t spend all that time renaming, pretending fear doesn’t exist or fighting fear in so many various ways. Now, one more step further, what if you could actually enjoy all that extra time and room in your mind with having fun and smiling because you’re happy rather than to cover up your fears.  Just think about these things, be careful to be kind to yourself and not slip into beating yourself up because you aren’t doing the happy dance instead of the fear tango. (grin)

Someone asked me to talk about Self Nurturing.  It just so happens this is one of my favorite topics. Let’s start with what it is. You would think that just reading the term would be self-explanatory, and I suppose it is on the surface.  However, nurturing ourselves is not something most of us are taught as kids.  In fact, we are taught not only to NOT nurture ourselves, but to neglect and even abuse ourselves.

Did your parents ever say to you something like, “Be sure to give your friends the biggest piece of cake, or the most frosting, or the prettiest, or the nicest…” Of course this is good manners, it’s a way to be nice and civilized to others.  If that’s all we were learning and being taught as kids, things would be just fine.  However, most of us learned lessons underneath that message of “I’m less than everyone else.” “Asking for what I need is wrong or rude”. “If I complain about anything, I’m being selfish, even if I have a legitimate complaint.”  We grow up learning NOT to nurture ourselves.

Can you recognize these thoughts in your own mind?

How to ground is very simple and quite individual.  You can try various techniques and choose what seems to work best for you.

1.  If you can get outside, that’s a really great way to get grounded. Sitting or laying on the ground.  Have you ever noticed that calm, quiet feeling you get when sit down or go camping and lay on the ground?  It’s like you’re letting all the static energy go into the ground and fall off of you.  Anywhere in nature will do that.  If you can’t get outside, then either imagine or remember being in nature or hold a rock in your hand or put your hand in the soil of a potted plant.

2.  Imagine you are a tree.  Your roots go deep into the earth and your limbs stretch up toward the sun.  this is a nice way to ground while you are doing healing work on yourself or with someone else. You are grounding yourself in both the earth energy and in spiritual “higher” energy.

3.  Wiggle your toes in your shoes, stroke your face with your fingers.  this helps you to remember you are in the moment, in your body.

If you have other grounding techniques, I’d love it if you’d share them here with other readers.

So many people want to know how to stay grounded in a world so full of distractions, drama, chaos and sensory overload. I believe grounding is certainly what is needed, so let’s start with what grounding is, by definition. The way I’m using it here is all about being in the here and now.  Some may use the term “centered”.

When I’m grounded I feel calm, no static or buzzing energy, my inner thoughts become quieter and slow down, my nerves stop jangling.  I’m simply gathering myself all in one place and facing what IS.  Being grounded is the deepest power there is while we’re in human form.  When we are grounded we are focused on our own truth, our own needs, our own values, our own moment, and so the choices we make from this space will be our own.  When we make choices that belong to our own heart, then we also take full responsibility for our choices, no one to blame.  That concept can be a little scary, yet it is also true power.  If we are making our own choices, we are responsible for the outcome, then if we don’t like how our choices are creating our lives, we can change our lives by making choices that match who we are more fully.

Can you think of some times in your life where you have felt totally present?  You may have heard the term “In the Zone”.  I think those are moments of clarity, moments of deep grounding.  Until we really understand what it is, these “Zone” moments sort of “accidentally” happen.  Just think how much more “In the Zone” moments we can have when we learn to intentionally go to and stay in “The Zone”.