Living as a Human Angel
Readers like you who are naturally attracted to celestial angels are yourselves human angels. You probably like hearing about your guardian angels and take great comfort in knowing they are near, because you share many character traits with them: You have an open heart, you are very compassionate, you feel a natural inclination toward underdogs or those who are marginalized by society, you have a hard time turning away from people in desperate states of neediness, you find it difficult to block out or ignore pain on the news or in faraway lands, you can sense and feel other people’s emotions—especially those people you care about deeply—as if their emotions were your own, you are most alive and satisfied when you are being of service to others.
Angels don’t just fly around in heaven—there are plenty of them walking around on earth. If you picked up this book, and feel like the pages were written just for you, you are indeed one of these human angels, and you have a very special bond with the heavenly angel realm.
Self-Care for Human Angels
Your guardian angels don’t have to tell you to take good care of your friends and family, to champion the downtrodden, to create a life of meaning. These are already your instincts, just as they are the instincts of celestial angels. Taking care of yourself, and putting your needs first, however, are probably either lessons you haven’t learned, or struggle to consistently implement in your day-to-day life.
Many of you human angels have gravitated toward healing, nurturing professions. You might be a teacher, healthcare professional, mother, father, social worker, artist, chef, or activist. Whatever role you are playing in your professional or personal life—friend or spouse, waitress or real estate broker—you take on that role as sacred, just as your guardian angels consider their responsibilities sacred duties. You probably find yourself going out of your way to give emotional and professional support to your clients, coworkers, and loved ones—often acting as a guardian angel to them. On the surface there is nothing wrong with that. As a human angel it is what you were born to do, to go the extra mile to serve others, and it is how you mine the most fulfillment from your days.
But there is a dark side to your human angel disposition. While your life can have incredible emotional depth, purpose, and passion, you are also more susceptible to burnout, exhaustion, and resentment. Your counterparts in heaven, your winged guardian angels, have an important message for you. A message that might seem counterintuitive to human angels, but one that is vital not only to your own emotional and physical health, but vital to your mission of service here on the planet. This message from your guardian angels is: TAKING GOOD CARE OF YOURSELF IS THE MOST SELFLESS ACT YOU CAN PERFORM. The heavenly angels guided me to write that sentence in all caps not just once, but twice: TAKING GOOD CARE OF YOURSELF IS THE MOST SELFLESS ACT YOU CAN PERFORM.
When you make self-care the cornerstone of your life, you are able to walk through the world as your best self: you will have more energy, you will be more emotionally grounded, you will be in better physical health, you will have a calmer, clearer mind. And here’s the part that will most appeal to human angels: Not only will you feel better when you take exceptional care of yourself, you will also be able to give more to others.
Being of service to others, usually to those who need it most, is of paramount importance to human angels. It’s what you were brought here to do. It satiates your soul, and makes you feel close to Spirit, like nothing else. But to truly realize your destiny as a human angel, you must grasp and embrace the ironic truth that putting yourself first is the best way for you to help others.
Do you have a hard time asking for help? Do you often not realize you are exhausted or burnt out until the situation has reached crisis level and you find yourself exploding or having a mini breakdown? When loved ones ask for your help, do you rush to their aid immediately and without question? Do you commit to things quickly without thinking the situation through, considering how much will be expected of you or how it fits into your schedule? Do you sometimes find yourself resentful of how much you give to others? Are you often overbooked or overscheduled? Do you feel like many of your important relationships are unequal or one-sided? Are you known as the emotional rock of your family or circle of friends? Are you known as one of the most competent and dependable people in the office? Do others tell you their troubles and open up to you in intimate ways even when you don’t know them well? Do people in your life express shock or act rebellious when you discuss your needs or dreams? Do you tend to put up with extremely demanding or intolerable situations at home or at work longer than your friends or family would? Are you known as the workhorse at the office or at home?
If you answered yes to even a few of these questions (and I’m guessing many of you answered yes to all of them), put this book down right now and give yourself a good, long hug. Maybe you also need to have a good cry—followed by a good laugh!
Now come back to me for a moment, because there’s another crucial message your guardian angels have for you, human angel: There’s someone in your life who desperately needs your love and kindness and attention. Someone whom you have left out in the cold and abandoned on too many occasions. That person is you, sweetheart. You’ve been so busy trying to save your family, save your friends, save your workplace, save the world, that somewhere in there you forgot to save yourself. There’s a reason flight attendants always remind passengers to put a mask on themselves before assisting a child.
Maybe what I’m saying doesn’t completely resonate with you. Maybe you’re thinking, “Tanya, I know this stuff. I know I need to make myself a priority. I know I have to take better care of me. I know I have to assert myself.” Maybe this is stuff you are already aware of, already working on. If so, I applaud you. The angels applaud you! They are even putting two fingers between their teeth and whistling right now. One of them just held up a big foam finger that says “No. 1” on it. (I’m serious!)
But here’s something to remember: Whether this angel message on self-care is coming as a total revelation or simply a welcome reminder, you probably don’t know that as a human angel, you will always be more susceptible to putting yourself last than other people, people who are great people but are not human angels. Human angels actually need to go out of their way to take good care of themselves, because your natural inclination will always be to take care of others first. You need to take on your own self-care with the same sense of sacred duty that you take on the needs of others.
So, what are some of the practical ways your guardian angels want you to take better care of yourself? Get more sleep and get more rest—by that I mean don’t do so much (human angels have an inborn tendency to be hyper “productive” in all aspects of their life). Try to play more and work less (you work so hard you can afford to slack off and do something silly—you’ll still be one of the hardest-working people you know). Eat healthy, high-quality, organic food. Make beauty a central part of your life: with your hair and makeup, with your clothes, in your home, at your office, by spending time in nature. Start getting in touch with your own needs and desires, instead of spending your days constantly tracking the emotional and physical needs of your friends, family, clients, and coworkers. Start getting comfortable with asking for help and delegating, and recognizing this as a sign of strength and not of weakness. See others as capable, instead of feeling like you are the only one who can finish a task or do it “right.” Start training the people around you to see you as someone with needs and boundaries, because you have probably trained them to see you as an uber-competent superwoman who gives and gives and never needs to stop and fill up her own reserves. The angels are guiding me to add that sometimes this is a very important lesson for spouses and children in your home. Angels are telling me kids are never too young to learn that adults in their life have needs too.
You don’t just have one guardian angel, you have a team of angels supporting you. That’s because heavenly angels know that caring for others is an enormous job. They would never try to do it alone, and neither should you. Angels love to play and celebrate and rest. They love to learn and better themselves. They love to stop and pray and feel the reverence of Spirit. They love to smell the roses. They love the good life. They love to be pampered. They want the same for human angels.
Change doesn’t happen overnight, so be gentle with yourself (and with the people in your life who will have to see you with new eyes) as you work toward making your own self-care more of a priority. You may need the help of a professional, like a therapist or life coach.
Angel Prayer: Guardian angels, mentor me in the art of being an effective human angel. Show me how to take excellent care of myself so that I have more to give others.
Angel Diet/Third-Eye Eating
Would you ever guess that you can create more intimacy with your angels through your diet? I call it the Angel Diet, although I have also referred to it as Third-Eye Eating. The rules of this diet are simple and easy to follow. This diet is healthy and may cause you to lose weight, but I am outlining it here because this diet will increase your psychic ability, your connection to Spirit, and your communication with your angels. Remember, always speak to a doctor, nutritionist, or other trusted healthcare provider before making changes to your normal diet.
Angels are sweet, and so are the people who love them—but sugar is too sweet. Sugar can cause your energy to spike and crash. Wildly fluctuating energy is far from ideal when you’re trying to stay in close contact with the angel realm. In fact, you want to be open and ready for angelic communication at any time, and for this you need to have even, steady, dependable energy. (Protein is excellent for providing you with the kind of consistent energy I’m talking about.) Angelic communication can come when you least expect it, often appearing out of the blue, and you don’t want to miss these precious messages from your angels because you are lying on the couch strung out on a bag of candy! We all need our treats, and everything in moderation, but it might surprise you to realize how much sugar is added into food that doesn’t taste sweet at all. Read labels, and investigate Stevia as a healthier alternative to sugar. Once you cut back on the amount of sugar you consume, your taste buds will adjust, and suddenly a spoonful of unsweetened almond butter will taste like a treat.
Angels are renown for being alert, and admired for their split-second timing. Angels get their quick reactions and intense presence from Spirit, not from caffeine. Abusing caffeine does a number on your human nervous system, which is much more delicate than most people realize. Your nervous system is key when engaged in psychic work and interacting with angels. Humans use their nervous systems to sense angels, to pick up on the subtle energetic shifts that accompany Spirit. When our nervous systems are overloaded with caffeine, this very fine, precise instrument called the human nervous system is thrown into overdrive and incapable of registering something as intricate and sophisticated as Spirit. Some people might be able to handle small amounts of caffeine, and even find it beneficial. But a bottomless cup of strong coffee will leave no room for the subtler influence of Spirit in your palate.
Angels know that everything in our human world comes from the earth, so when angels hear humans talk about natural and organic food … well, the angels can’t help but giggle. Yet the angels aren’t laughing for long. Angels take the care and protection of the earth very seriously, and feel that it is our job as humans to guard over this paradise we’ve been blessed with. Angels want us to think of ourselves as custodians of this planet. And harsh, dangerous chemicals and genetically modified food are not the hallmarks of good custodianship. The angels want you to be healthy, and to live a long, productive life. The use of toxic chemicals in your food puts all that the angels want for you at risk. It also puts our planet at risk, as well as every other living creature on it. Organic food has gotten more affordable and plentiful in recent years, and is an enlightened investment in the earth and your family’s health. The angels want to see you living up to your destiny, and part of that human destiny for each of us is to be good stewards of paradise. Living as closely aligned as you can to the great destiny intended for you will bring you closer to your angels, guaranteed.
Angels have a very tender spot for animals of all kinds, including farm animals. Whether you eat meat and animal products or not is an individual choice. However, buying food from animals that have been humanely treated should not be a choice, it should be the standard. These products should come from animals who do not live in cages but roam free; animals that are provided with quality food; animals who are not injected with hormones and large amounts of antibiotics. Consuming the flesh of another living thing is a sacred act. It should be done with reverence and mercy. When you take another animal inside your stomach it becomes part of you. This happens temporarily on a physical level, and is one more reason to make sure the animals you take products from are treated and fed well. The animals you eat become part of you on a spiritual and energetic level too. This is why saying a simple grace at mealtime, where you thank any animals that provided you with any part of your meal and set an intention to use their energy to do good in the world, can be a very powerful practice. “Thank you for the fish that gave its life so that I may have life” is a good starting point.
If you do eat meat, consider participating in Paul McCartney’s Meat Free Monday campaign. If everyone picked one day a week to abstain from eating meat, it would have an enormous, positive impact on the environment. The angels are asking me to tell you that if you and your family like this experiment, expand it to other days of the week too.
Cats and dogs are not the only animals who need the care and protection of humans. Showing compassion for all animals will give you something in common with the angels, and make you more in tune with your winged friends.
Angels believe in the benefits of having a good time, but angels would never be happy to see you abusing alcohol. My guardian angels are telling me that alcohol was intended to be used only for ceremonial purposes, not to numb ourselves or to relax at the end of a hard day. Whether you choose to abstain from alcohol altogether or only imbibe in moderation, I cannot overstate the benefits of sobriety when honing your psychic abilities. Once that third eye isn’t swimming in booze, you won’t believe what it’s able to see! The moment you stop drinking or decide to keep your drinking to a very moderate level, you will witness your psychic gifts increase significantly (gifts like clairaudience, clairvoyance, and clairsentience that were described in chapter three).
These gifts help you to communicate with the angel realm, and the stronger your psychic abilities the stronger your communication will be with your angels. If you feel that your drinking is out of control, the angels want you to get help. Addiction is nothing to be ashamed of or punish yourself for. And the angels love you unconditionally, whether you seek help or not. But it will be much harder for you to be present and emotionally honest with your angels and yourself when you are constantly under the influence of alcohol.
Angels want you to get all the vitamins and minerals your organs need to properly function. Receiving the right amount of nutrients like potassium, B vitamins, and omega fatty acids will go a long way not only in keeping you healthy but keeping you in closer contact with your angels. The human body is a case or temple that holds a magnificent soul. Therefore the container of this soul should be splendid and running at maximum efficiency. When the body is receiving the proper amounts of vitamins and minerals, it’s like plugging in the lights of a Christmas tree. Your body will have an inner and outer glow that matches the radiance of Spirit. Suddenly the machine is getting all it needs, and can operate on the divine level it was intended to. Another way to think of your body is like an antennae for contacting Spirit. And we want that antennae clean and straight so it can get all the information trying to come down, and send clear information back up! Not only will you be able to connect more easily with Spirit and your angels when you receive all the nutrients your body needs, but you will have the health and energy to do all the good, important work your soul came here to accomplish in the world. You are never closer to the angel realm than when you are being of service, and living your soul purpose. This is because the angels always rally around anyone striving to achieve the goals of Spirit in the world.
What else can I say about the Angel Diet? It’s not so much divine mystery as it is pure common sense: fresh, filtered water; lots of protein; plenty of vegetables; gorgeous fruit; brown rice. Follow the tenants of this diet and you will not only look and feel healthier, but you will find yourself more sensitive to Spirit and your own psychic gifts. And you know what that means—a closer connection to your angels.
Angel Prayer: Guardian angels, help me take good care of myself and this planet through my diet. Show me where I need to make changes and improvements to my diet.
Let the Angel Realm Help You Be of Service
Your guardian angels want you to experience the thrill of living your passion. The thing that makes you lose track of time, the thing that you would do for free, the thing that is the most sacred part of your identity, this is how you were meant to be of service to the world.
Each human has special gifts, and each of these gifts is needed to heal the earth and its inhabitants and bring this dimension closer to wholeness, closer to heaven. Your guardian angels want to help you find your calling. They will give you clues about your calling so watch out for these clues: intuitive guidance, feelings, and synchronicities about your calling are like divine bread crumbs that lead you home. Your calling is home, because when you are engaged in it you will feel like you are in heaven, with Spirit, your true home.
Your calling may be a role you play in your family, work you do outside the home, or a hobby or volunteer job. Your angels want you to get to know your soul during this life here on earth. Though your soul learns and grows over time it does not fundamentally change. So your calling is a calling your soul has always had, and when you discover that calling it is like meeting an old friend—finally meeting yourself, meeting your soul.
Your calling will involve obstacles and challenges, but you will have such a drive to meet and overcome them that there will be a sweetness even in the struggle. Don’t ever let anyone make you feel like your calling isn’t important, or is a waste of time. Service is your divine assignment from Spirit, and your guardian angels will work diligently to open the right doors and connect you with the right people so you can succeed.
Being of service to others is the most important part of your earthly mission, for it will also bring you the most joy (another important part of your journey here). Your guardian angels are dedicated to helping you realize this objective of service.
Angel Affirmation: I have a unique divine calling that allows me to be of service to the world. I can always ask my guardian angels to help me understand and make the most of my calling.
Get to Know Your Soul
Through Your Daydreams
Your guardian angels want you to have a sense of the magnificent nature of your soul—of its brilliance and its importance. Your guardian angels are always aware of and in touch with the grandiose nature of your soul. After all they knew you when: before you were born, when you were in heaven with Spirit. They probably knew you in any past lives you’ve experienced. Your guardian angels know who you are at your core, the essence of you. That eternal part of you that grows and evolves but on some fundamental level does not alter, even over thousands of years and tens of lifetimes. They know your soul. And your guardian angels want you to know who your soul truly is as well, because it will help you get in touch with that expansive sense of Spirit—and your purpose in this life.
Every soul has a distinct personality, and one way yours reveals itself to you is through your daydreams. The 1970s rock band Led Zeppelin made a documentary called The Song Remains the Same where each member of the group filmed a fantasy sequence. The lead singer arranged footage of himself galloping on a stallion through breathtaking Welsh countryside, finding a sacred sword, and rescuing a princess held hostage in a castle. What does this daydream reveal about the musician’s soul? His soul might be a journeyer, an adventurer. Every tour he plays is like a mini quest. Obviously this man is also intensely romantic.
The guitarist shot his sequence at midnight beneath a full moon in the dramatic Scottish Highlands. As he scaled a mountain, a hermit waited at the top, ready to bestow upon the musician profound mystical knowledge. This musician’s soul is a scholar, a seeker who is interested in esoteric spiritual subject matter. This person is probably very conscious of how souls grow and evolve and become more and more enlightened over time.
The drummer simply had a film crew take footage of him doing the things he loved best, or his fantasy of the perfect day: dancing around the house with his wife, teaching his son to play the drums, feeding his cows, and driving his favorite motorcycle. This soul is playful, mischievous, and very much enjoys being grounded in its body and this earthly physical plane with all its pleasures.
These musicians were given a rare chance to get to know their souls through an elaborate exploration of their fantasies. But each one of us can do the same by simply letting our imagination run wild. What do you daydream about? How have your daydreams changed over time? Which fantasies are the most consistent? What were some of your earliest daydreams? Your daydreams say a lot about your soul’s personality, your purpose here on earth, and where you are in your journey. Daydreams are not an indulgent waste of time. They are incredibly practical and can teach you much about your true divine nature (and possibly offer insight into a past life or future trajectory).
You might be the person who mows the yard, drops the kids off at school, and turns in their taxes on time. But you might also be a healer, a mystic, a performer, a comedian, an explorer, a philosopher, a teacher, a guardian of the earth, a nurturer, an inventor, a craftsman. Wondering what you should do with your career? Pay attention to your daydreams. Looking for a fulfilling hobby? Examine your fantasy life. Want to experience more joy in your day-to-day existence? What do you consistently imagine yourself doing, and how can you incorporate more of these fantasies into your reality?
My most recent recurring daydream? Lady of the Lake, which to me symbolizes someone who is wise, who is a teacher, who works to maintain a close relationship with Spirit. That one started surfacing consistently a few years ago. It tells me a lot about my soul, where I am in my career and spiritual development, and where I’m headed. How can I incorporate more of this daydream into my real life? Writing this book is a good start. Expanding my spiritual practice would be another. Reading books on spirituality helps. Communicating consistently with my angels is essential. Helping people get in touch with their angels, spiritual guidance squad, and departed loved ones in my Angel Readings. And of course I have to wear lots of beautiful, long flowing dresses and sacred jewelry and develop my inner diva, like the celestially named Anjelica Huston in The Mists of Avalon. Hey, Lady of the Lake is a rough gig, but some of us have to do it!
Is there a character from myth or history that you feel a special connection to? What is this figure trying to teach you about your soul? How can you incorporate some of what you love about this person into your real life? As always, ask your angels for answers and intuitive guidance when you feel stumped or blocked.
Angel Prayer: Guardian angels, encourage me to indulge my fantasy life, and help me discover ways to incorporate aspects of my daydreams into my current reality.
You Are Worthy
Your guardian angels are powerful, noble, enlightened, incredibly high-vibrational extensions of Spirit … and they chose to spend their time, and dedicate their very existence, to guiding and protecting you. That is how important, how precious, you are. Each and every living thing on this planet is worthy of infinite love and respect. And each and every person reading these words is a dynamic, wise, talented, powerful spiritual being.
Think of your guardian angels as the knights of heaven. Some of the best, bravest, and kindest beings the universe has to offer. And they have pledged their fealty to you. That knowledge should inspire you to love yourself, and respect yourself, on a whole new level. And you don’t need to do anything to earn that love and respect—from yourself or from your angels. Your worthiness is inherent, woven into the illuminated fabric of your soul by the hand of Spirit itself.
You are worthy no matter your nationality or the color of your skin. You are worthy no matter your religion or cultural background. You are worthy no matter your sexual orientation and whom you love. Whatever your job, whether you are a cashier or a teacher or president of the United States, you are worthy. If you are struggling financially, you are worthy. If your health is challenging, you are worthy. If your career hasn’t turned out as you hoped, you are worthy. If you have regrets, you are worthy. If you’ve hurt yourself and others, you are worthy. You are always worthy, just as you are right now. No matter what you do, say, or think, nothing and no one can ever change the fact that you are living, breathing magnificence.
Once you recognize and step into your own power, your own inherent worthiness as a spiritual being, and realize how much aid Spirit and the angels are prepared to offer you, you can accomplish things beyond your wildest dreams. And that is exactly what you were meant to do. You were meant to heal, to help, to love, to bring this dimension to a whole other level of enlightenment. That is your colossal assignment as a spiritual being, that is what you agreed to before you were born, and that is what you are more than capable of pulling off. Yes, actually saving the world is within your power. Once you get that, feel it as truth in your heart and your bones, you can accomplish miracles. People not only step aside to allow you to do your thing, they will offer to help you in extraordinary ways. That’s because once you understand just how dynamic you are as an individual, people around you will recognize it too—maybe not consciously, but with even deeper resonance: energetically.
When you enter a room or walk down the street, carry yourself like royalty. There is no person on the planet more deserving, more worthy, than you. You may bow to another out of respect, but realize that it is just as appropriate for them to bow to you, as you might both bow to a fox in the forest, a mountain on the horizon, a star in the sky. We are all spiritual royalty, we are all rock stars of the universe. We each have so much to offer, and in incredibly unique ways.
The angels want you to know that realizing another’s power and worth does not negate or “diminish” your own, but enhances it. Have you heard that you are only as good as the company you keep, or the other players on your team? Well, as a citizen of the earth you are surrounded by a phenomenal amount of wisdom, talent, power, and grace. Think of the whole planet as one giant red carpet.
Your guardian angels wish you to recognize not only yourself as a powerful spiritual being, but hope that you will help others recognize this same inherent worthiness in themselves.
Angel Affirmation: I am as unique and magical and precious as a unicorn, existing in a forest of other rare, mystical, priceless creatures.
Trust Your Uniqueness to Banish Jealousy
It’s easy to slip into a pattern of jealousy. To wish your life, or some aspect of it, looked more like someone else’s. Acknowledging what you admire about someone else’s life and letting that inspire you to go out and change your life for the better is one thing. But jealousy doesn’t feel inspirational. Jealousy has a stagnant energy that robs you of recognizing and enjoying what is blessed about your life right now. Your guardian angels want to remind you that everyone experiences hardship, pain, and longing. No human is spared these trials during the course of their earthly journey. The angel realm wants to assure you that whomever you are jealous of, that person walks around with heartbreak—and envy for others too. Recognizing this is one way to help ease sensations of jealousy when they arise.
But there’s an even better way to stem tendencies toward jealousy, and it will bring you closer to Spirit and your angels—celebrate the uniqueness of your life. There’s a lot about your life that is just like everyone else’s: You probably have some kind of job or career that provides money to take care of yourself. You have family and friends whom you love dearly. Maybe you have pets who are like family. You have hobbies you are passionate about. You have big dreams and goals that you’re working toward. You want to make a difference in the world. You want to feel happy and content. You have some kind of home or other space you can call your own. You believe in angels!
Yet so much about you is unique, including many of the details of your life: the people in your life, your soul purpose, your talents, your growth opportunities, your physical appearance, what you came here to teach others, your quirks, your family. Even your angels are unique! Your guardian angels are assigned to you, and not to anyone else.
Jealousy is about wanting everything to be the same. It’s of course natural to want everything to be fair, but wanting your life to look just like another’s is a rejection of what makes you and your life unique. And that is a rejection of Spirit, because it is in those places where your life appears most unique, most singular, that Spirit is working through you.
I was raised in a small Texas town by a single mother who died of AIDS when I was seventeen, but basically she exited my life when I was fifteen and I suffered from severe abandonment issues, feeling by the time that I was eighteen (subconsciously) that I was on my own. And in many practical ways I was on my own (although my father paid my tuition and most of my expenses at college, which was an enormous blessing). Those details of my life are fairly unique, especially since this all went down in the late ’80s and early ’90s, when AIDS was still, relatively, new. Did I look around and get jealous of other kids in my high school class whose lives, at least from the outside, looked a lot more normal? Of course. At the time I was living a nightmare. But was this unique situation I was placed in as a young girl somehow a way Spirit was working through me?
As an adult, I met another woman who’d lost her mother as a teenager. “You have to read the book Motherless Daughters,” she told me. Author Hope Edelman explains that young women who lose their mothers early often end up taking a lot more risks in life, simply because there is no one standing in the background saying, “Wait, hold on. You’re going to move where? You want to be what? That doesn’t sound very practical.”
My mother’s death left me without an anchor in that small Texas town, and led me to Colorado and then to London and eventually to New York City. Her absence meant that no one questioned me when I decided to be a writer. No authority figure was there to suggest it was unrealistic. These decisions—to move around a lot, to end up in New York City, to become a writer—would have been terrible mistakes for most people. But for my unique life purpose, they were perfect. Living in New York City gave me many writing opportunities, and those writing opportunities led me to opportunities to write about angels, which got me closer to Spirit and my own angels, which led me to this book, where I can help you develop a closer relationship with your angels, something I believe is part of my life purpose. Even my mother’s disease, one that, at the time, was associated with fear and shame, served me. It made an already very compassionate young woman even more sympathetic to the pain of others because she knew what it was like, at a young age, to be dealt a terrible blow. To watch her mother struggle with the diagnosis and her own mortality at the age of thirty-seven, at a time when having AIDS meant being ostracized from society (my younger brother and I were not allowed to tell anyone my mother had AIDS, and lived in constant terror that someone would find out). If you want to spend your life as a healer, there is nothing more beneficial than really knowing how people in desperate pain and fear feel. But at seventeen it was hard for me to see that perhaps my enforced, unique independence, and my suffering, would actually serve me later in life, and help me serve Spirit in the world.
Of course I am highlighting all the silver linings of this tragedy where my mother lost her life, and I lost my parent. Losing my mother this way, at a young age, naturally had terribly negative effects on my ability to show vulnerability, to ask for and accept help, to know how to take care of myself, to love others, and to love myself. Now in my early forties, despite many years of therapy, reflection, and work on myself, I am still, and always will be, dealing with the ramifications of this early trauma. Looking at some of the blessings that came from my mother’s illness and death at first felt counterintuitive and even cruel or disrespectful to my mother’s memory and the pain I experienced growing up. But now I find these silver linings an incredible comfort.
Other unique details of my life aren’t so dramatic and painful. As a New Yorker I sometimes get jealous of friends and family who live in different parts of the country where they can have large homes and own land. But I’m married to an artist who loves Manhattan. Being married to an artist has made me stronger creatively, and being stuck in Manhattan has helped my career tremendously. So my unique, very tiny New York City apartment might not always be exactly what I crave, but it’s serving me and my unique soul purpose, and that is serving Spirit. It helps to remember that when I get jealous of big backyards and remodeled basements!
Angel Prayer: Guardian angels, help me remember that each life is a complex set of circumstances and relationships, and it is in the most unique aspects of my existence that I will meet and serve Spirit.
Have a Noble Heart
It was once thought that nobility had something to do with bloodlines—the family you were born into and their history. Your guardian angels want you to know that nobility has to do entirely with what is in your heart, and the actions you take on its behalf in the world. To have a noble heart means to act with honor. Tales of knights who traveled the countryside doing good deeds might seem old-fashioned, but the world is more in need of do-gooders than ever. As I was preparing to write this section, the angel realm sent me two stories to share with you. Your guardian angels hope these stories will inspire you to walk through the world with a noble heart.
The first incredible story is one you have probably already heard, about a young teacher who risked her life to save her students. This is the kind of story that can’t be told and retold enough.3 I was reminded of this story via a Facebook post that I saw days before I planned to write this section. When I saw this woman’s picture staring back at me from my computer screen I got chills, and knew she was the kind of human angel that deserved to be included in this book. Victoria Leigh Soto had just turned twenty-seven, and had only been teaching for a few years, when a gunman entered Sandy Hook Elementary School. Victoria had time to begin hiding her students (whom she called her “angels”) in closets before the gunman reached her classroom. There are different media accounts of what occurred next, and since the only witnesses were small children we will probably never know exactly what happened. But in each version of the story, Victoria emerges as a hero who instinctively risked her life for her students. Some accounts have her acting as a decoy by meeting the gunman in the doorway and trying to convince him that her children were in another part of the building. All accounts cite her shielding her students with her own body as soon as the bullets starting flying, and she was key in helping students survive and escape. It is obvious that she was acting on instinct, and her instinct was to protect those children at any cost. As soon as she learned there was a shooter in the building, Victoria went into action to defend her students. This was her only goal, and thanks to this young teacher many of the children under her care survived. Her last act on earth was one of total bravery and selflessness. The teacher who referred to her students as “angels” became their guardian angel that day, a quick-thinking, fiercely protective guardian angel. I sense that Victoria is not the kind of person who would have wanted attention or glory, but the angels are telling me that there is a special place in heaven for people like Victoria, “for heroes” who display great “valor,” they say. This is a story I will always carry with me in my own heart, and I hope you will too. Sometimes walking through the world with a noble heart requires a sense of honor that is nothing short of divine.
The second example of nobility that the angels want me to share is not as dramatic. Fortunately most of us are not often, if ever, faced with the kind of decisions Victoria had to make that day. The next story might be more relevant in your own everyday quest to develop, or rather reveal, your noble heart.
The night before I was going to write this section, I was planning out what I would say in my mind. I knew I wanted to write about Ms. Soto, and that the angel realm had made sure I’d seen the Facebook post about her. But I also wanted to give a smaller example of nobility and honor, a more “normal” occurrence. The angel realm must have nudged a family member, who wishes to remain anonymous, to call and share with me the perfect anecdote. (We’ll refer to this gentleman here as Hank.)
“I’ve been running around all day,” Hank told me on the phone. “I’m exhausted.”
“I thought you had the day off and were going to relax,” I said.
“This was a favor for a friend.”
“Oh. Did you help them move or something?”
“No, I picked up an extra shift at work,” Hank explained. “A coworker there is a single mom, and one of her kids had an accident. She needed four days off to stay home with him, but she only had three vacation days left.”
“So did you work the fourth shift for her?”
“Not exactly,” Hank said. “She could take the day off without pay, but since she is a single mom she really could not afford to lose the money. I tried to give her one of my vacation days but the company said I couldn’t. So I just went to her house and gave her $300.”
“Oh, my gosh! That is so nice of you,” I said. “What did she say?”
Hank laughed. “She was a little shocked,” he replied. “But I insisted that she take it. I told her not to worry: I was going to pick up an extra shift at work to make up for some of the money. So I didn’t earn anything today—I just worked a shift for a friend.”
“Not only that,” I said, “you just helped me write the next section of my angel book!”
A noble heart means treating others the way you would want to be treated. Aren’t these words simple and easy to remember? The angels want you to live by them.
Angel Prayer: Guardian angels, show me where I can act with honor, valor, and nobility, and be like the knights of old.
Vulnerability Is Power
I felt guided by the angels to address the subject of vulnerability in this book. As I neared the end of the writing and editing process, I kept asking the angel realm if there was anything else they specifically wanted me to address. The word “vulnerability” was spoken into my mind over and over, even though I hadn’t planned on doing an entry on this topic. As usual, I’m committed to letting the angels guide me, and the more I thought about it I realized how important being comfortable with vulnerability is to our earthly journey.
When we think of being vulnerable, we often think of words like “weak” or “exposed.” Therefore when we think of someone being in a vulnerable position, we think of them as not having any power. The angels want to point out that the opposite is true: Allowing yourself to feel and show vulnerability—and when appropriate putting yourself in vulnerable situations—is the most powerful way to live your life.
When I think of being vulnerable, I think of showing the world who I really am, and how I really feel. Telling people how much I care for them. Following my dreams even though there is a risk of failure or heartbreak. Loving people even though I can have no way of knowing how our relationship will end. Inviting people to criticize and critique me. Allowing myself to be angry at someone I care about. Genuinely forgiving someone who’s hurt me. Admitting when I’m hurt or disappointed. Admitting when I’ve let myself down. Admitting when I’ve hurt someone else. Admitting when I want things to be different than the way they are. Speaking my mind even when it makes others uncomfortable. Being fragile. Being delicate.
Being vulnerable always means opening your heart. Your heart is closely linked to the angel realm and Spirit, and that is why vulnerability is one of your greatest strengths.
If you are unwilling to be vulnerable, you may avoid a lot of disappointment and hurt and heartbreak, but you will miss out on a lot of love, victory, excitement, personal growth, opportunity, change, and friendship. The angels want you to live at your highest potential. To have the most interesting, full, dynamic version of your life possible. To do that you have to be willing to try new things, to feel unsure, to get let down. You have to be vulnerable—you have to be willing to open your heart.
For people who experienced trauma early as a child or experienced significant trauma as an adult, being vulnerable can be absolutely terrifying. Often these people learned to be tough to survive, to put up protective walls, and they can have difficulty trusting people or the world enough to be vulnerable. But let’s face it—being vulnerable can make anyone feel unsafe and scared. The angels want you to protect yourself. They want you to stay safe. But they also want you to live—to practice opening your heart, to practice getting more comfortable with vulnerability. The angels want you to keep in mind that the heart has an infinite capacity to love and an infinite capacity to break—but it also has an infinite capacity to heal.
Ask your guardian angels for help if you find being vulnerable a particularly challenging state. They might send you some opportunities to begin exploring feeling vulnerable in small, manageable ways. And remember that whenever you are feeling vulnerable, your guardian angels are with you, their wings wrapped around you tight.
Angel Prayer: Guardian angels, help me take small, manageable steps toward embracing vulnerability, and remind me of your presence every step along the way.
See Earthly Existence as
the Soul’s Great Adventure
Angels want you to look at life as an adventure your soul embarked upon at birth. This life really is a single chapter in a saga-length tale of your soul’s existence—a tale the angels are showing me has no end. The angels are giving me an image of a book without a front or back cover (no beginning or conclusion), filled with pages that flip on and on, one turning into the next for infinity.
It’s comforting to know that you have a soul that will live on, and possibly have other experiences on earth, but it should also produce a healthy amount of anxiety. This is the only time you get to live this life, and it has an expiration date. Most of us have no clue when that expiration date is—it could come at any moment. So the angels want you to see this life as precious. Another way to think of earthly existence is like the vacation of a lifetime for your soul. If you only had ten days at a vacation destination you’d always dreamed of visiting, you would have a long list of things you wanted to do and see. The same should be true of your time on earth.
Take risks, have fun, go after your dreams. When your soul urges you to move on from a person or experience—heed that advice. Don’t let life get stale. Spend your time doing things that are exciting, that challenge you, that teach you and make you grow. Every material possession that you accumulate on earth will be taken from you when you pass away. So don’t get too hung up on building an enormous material empire. Of course you want to be comfortable and take care of yourself and your loved ones and give to charity, but passing up opportunities that your heart and soul long to experience simply for stability or more financial gain is probably shortsighted. Earth is not your home. It is only a place you are visiting. Your life’s journey should be more about what you do than what you accumulate.
The angel realm is showing me an image of a hero in a fairy tale setting sail on the sea—a hero on a quest—reminding us that this life is like an engaging story our souls have signed up to star in, a story full of twists and turns and victories and defeats. Joseph Campbell wrote about the “hero’s journey,” a dominant style of narrative that shows up in storytelling across centuries and cultures and mediums. What begins the hero’s journey is a call to adventure that eventually lures the hero outside of his normal life or environment. Our life on earth is the call to adventure our souls received in heaven, and accepted. The angels are our mentors or guides—archetypes also present in the typical hero’s journey—helping us make the most of this earthly adventure.
Angel Affirmation: The angels encourage me to make my life meaningful, thrilling, and above all a great story.
Pleasure Feeds the Soul
If you randomly opened the book to this page, or if what you read here resonates with you by coming as a relief, making you feel less stressed, giving you a sense of excitement, or even making the hair on your arms stand on end, it’s because your guardian angels want you to be more present to life’s daily pleasures. You might be living too much in the past or the future, or so absorbed in a project or goal that whole days, weeks, or even months seem to fly by. Or maybe you’re feeling overwhelming pain or anxiety and are holding the present moment at arm’s length, and not engaging with the here and now.
When you get out of bed, or walk out of the house each morning, the angels want you to get into the habit of asking yourself, “What can I do today that will bring me pleasure?” There is a common misconception that being close to Spirit involves constant sacrifice or suffering. It is true, sacrifice and suffering have their place in the human journey and can deepen your connection to Spirit. But pleasure, pure bliss, and joy simply for joy’s sake are also noble, necessary spiritual experiences.
The angels want you to meditate each morning on what will bring you pleasure today, because pleasure feeds the soul, and the soul needs to be fed daily, or it will wither and fade, just like a malnourished body. Many people think of the soul as a lofty, magnificent spiritual entity, and indeed that is correct. But the soul is also playful. It needs to have fun. Your soul is eternal—it will live on after you are dead, and cannot be killed or destroyed like the human body—yet the soul is still a living thing. The soul still needs daily attention. When we aren’t feeding our soul with pleasure we start to sleepwalk through our days. We rush through the hours, or look forward to night when we can go to sleep and put the day behind us. Our soul doesn’t disappear, but it shrinks or retracts. We feel less alive, further away from Spirit.
Take special note of the things that bring you pleasure, life’s little mercies that are constant, just as the eternal nature of your soul is a constant: phone calls with loved ones who live far away, dates with friends, a strong cup of (decaf!) coffee and a sweet pastry, beautiful clothes on sale, standing in a group of trees, walking hand in hand on a spring day, playing on the ground with an animal, the feel of sunshine on your skin, singing along to your favorite record, laughing at a good story. Your guardian angels want you to understand that these pleasures are not the dessert of your existence, but part of the main course.
Angel Affirmation: Every morning when I wake, one of my first thoughts is, “What can I do today that will bring me pleasure?” And every evening, I make a mental note of the things that consistently bring me joy.
Heaven on Earth
We don’t have to wait to experience paradise, but can discover it right here on earth. All we have to do is spend time in the confounding majesty of nature to realize this planet is a legitimate paradise, as beautiful as anything that exists in the universe, including heaven. Many people think of Spirit and the angels as residing only in heaven, but as you’ve learned by working with the ideas and exercises in this book, Spirit and the angels are all around you.
Although heaven and earth are two distinct places, the angels have explained to me that the division between heaven and earth is largely in our minds. I found that particular piece of information from the angel realm fascinating! We get reminders of how closely linked heaven and earth are when we receive a message or sign from a loved one who has passed on, or when we feel the presence of our guardian angels. Are there differences between heaven and earth? Certainly. Heaven and earth were never meant to be the same. There are experiences and feelings unique to this planet and dimension that your soul came here for. Just as there are experiences and feelings unique to heaven. But the concepts we associate with heaven: love, beauty, miracles, forgiveness, peace, and freedom are also abundant on earth. The phrase heaven on earth really means bringing more of these concepts into our daily lives, and acknowledging the close link and similarities between the two realms.
Your angels want you to know that the concept of heaven on earth is a very important one for every human to explore. Think of it as your top goal in life. The final coordinates on your inner GPS. Like a knight of old, heaven on earth is the noble quest you must either fulfill or die trying to fulfill. When you agreed to come to earth as a soul in a human body, helping to bring this planet closer to heaven on earth was your ultimate mission. There were many experiences and relationships you agreed to be part of, many objectives you agreed to try and reach, but heaven on earth was the end game. Although don’t fret; your guardian angels signed on to aid you in your search for heaven on earth, to be with you from birth to death, to put their shoulders to the wheel right alongside you as you live out your unique destiny—the unique ways in which you will bring more compassion and wisdom and fairness and love to this world.
Despite all the pain and horror, the oppression and inequality, the needless suffering and greed that still play out on this planet every second, earth and its inhabitants are getting more enlightened as the years go on. The angels want you to look back on some of humanity’s greatest accomplishments—democracy, the end of slavery (in some parts of the world), women’s rights, gay rights, equal rights for so-called minorities, better working conditions and health care—and take heart. Look at how far we have come, and let that give you hope regarding how far we have yet to go. How quickly we achieve heaven on earth, and if we achieve it at all, depends on the actions of each individual. No action is too small, and no action is insignificant. Some were born to lead revolutions and ignite progress on a grand scale. But all of us can be more loving, more forgiving. Each of us can do our part to preserve and honor nature. We can create and celebrate beauty. Everyone can stand up for justice, for the underdog. As individuals we create more peace in the world by simply creating more peace in our own lives. We can all achieve more freedom by taking more risks, and by not taking life too seriously. Everyone can practice and promote tolerance. You increase the amount of joy in the world by simply seeking out more joy for yourself, and giving yourself as much pleasure and comfort as possible.
Your guardian angels want you to know that no matter how discouraging circumstances in the world or in your own life may seem, heaven on earth is possible. But only if each person commits to do their part. Your angels can guide you and point you in the direction of heaven on earth. Yet you must take the action steps, must put one foot in front of the other, and move steadily closer to an enlightened planet.
Angel Prayer: Dear angels, show me how to make heaven on earth a reality, as well as all the ways my life is already heavenly.
Angel Exercise:
Random Acts of Angel-ness
Angels are relying on you to help them do Spirit’s work in the world. There are countless angels in the heavens, but there are also countless moments on earth that call for love, mercy, and healing. Nurturing, guiding, and protecting the population of planet Earth is a huge job, and the angels need your assistance. You’re probably used to asking the angels for help, but now they want to ask you for something: The angels need you to regularly perform Random Acts of Angel-ness.
Whenever you need inspiration for Random Acts of Angel-ness, just open up to this section of the book, or begin a section in your journal called Random Acts of Angel-ness. Record every new idea you get for angelic acts, and record all the angelic acts you perform. You might also write down how the recipient reacted to your angelic act, or how you felt after executing it. Below are a list of possible Random Acts of Angel-ness to get you started. Don’t overwhelm yourself: Doing one a day or even one a week is commendable. In time, performing Random Acts of Angel-ness will seem like second nature.
Doing the work of Spirit in the world is a sacred and vital task—and that’s exactly why the angels are asking you to help them with it. As a dynamic spiritual being you’re more than capable. Be the angel you want to see in the world!
Random Acts of Angel-ness might look like …
3 “Remembering the Passion of a Teacher Who Died Protecting Students,” New York Times, December 19, 2012; “The Teacher as Hero: Mourning Victoria Soto,” Time, December 20, 2012; “Teacher from Stratford Shielded Students,” Newstimes.com, December 15, 2012; “A Methodical Massacre: Horror and Heroics,” The Hartford Courant, December 15, 2012