5 Ways to Connect With Your Spirit Guide

Spirit guides mean different things to different people. Examples include ancestors; wise spiritual masters, such as Jesus or Buddha; animal spirits; or benevolent forces like angels. We can turn to these guides for support and a little nudge when we need help finding the right direction in life. For this week’s Healthy Habit, let’s look at ways to connect with your Spirit Guide.

• Set your intention. What guidance are you seeking, and why? Some people find that keeping a spirit guide journal allows them to sort through their true intention, and adds to their contemplation before they approach their spirit guide or guides.
• Issue an invitation. Invite your spirit guide into your life. This may take the form of meditation, asking for help before sleeping (dreams), prayer, or placing a letter into a special spot.
• Let go of expectations. Rebecca Campbell, author at Heal Your Life.com, had a good insight when she wrote of her spirit guides, “I wanted to know their age, their background, their personality, and hair color. I wanted them to pop over for dinner and share a bottle of red.” Then she realized she had to release expectations of how a spirit guide may manifest. Be open to the experience in whatever form it takes. Is it a smell? A sensation? A gut feeling? It probably won’t be Great Aunt Sally’s form in a mist, sitting in your kitchenette and telling you to dump that loser boyfriend. But hey, who knows.
• Look for signs. Does a particular song keep showing up in your daily life? Chance encounters with someone you keep running into? Does a book title or certain animal keep coming up? If you’re seeing patterns, perhaps a spirit guide is trying to tell you something. Give it some reflection.
• Don’t forget to say thank you. If you feel you’ve received direct help—from angels, ancestors, or spiritual masters—say thanks in the form of prayer or meditation. A nice touch would be a devote an act of kindness or a yoga practice in that guide’s honor, while thinking about the guide.