Bonding with and Creating a Closer Connection to
the Angel Realm
Most people who are “into” angels want to feel closer to their angels. They want more guidance from their angels and they want to feel the presence of their angels in their day-to-day lives.
Your relationship with your angels is like any other relationship: It grows and deepens over time, and becomes stronger, more dynamic, and more complex the more you pay attention to it.
And like the best relationships, bonding with your angels should not usually feel like hard work, but more like fun. More like “play,” the angels tell me. On that note, I hope you enjoy this next chapter, and I hope it brings you closer to your angels.
Angel Exercise:
Make an Angel Altar in Your Home
Having a sacred place in your home dedicated to angels can help remind you of their comforting presence, create a closer bond with your angels, and even increase communication between you and the angel realm.
Some of you might already have a home altar—a space in your house, apartment, or room—designated to Spirit. You might pray there, perform ceremonies and rituals there, or simply enjoy your altar as a subtle reminder of the Divine. If space allows, you can create a separate angel altar, or you can simply incorporate some angelic elements into your current home altar. (If you incorporate your angel altar into an already existing home altar, I suggest setting aside an area just for the angels.)
Your angel altar can be anywhere in your home. Out of respect to the angels I would only add that placing your altar in the bathroom on top of your toilet or near a grease stain in the garage might be inappropriate. Keeping your altar clean and free of major dust accumulation or cobwebs is also a respectful gesture. Whether you keep your altar neat and tidy is a personal preference. I am orderly by nature and like things in their place. However, I have a friend whose altar is a gorgeous mess, with things strewn all over. It’s got a wild, fun, creative, relaxed energy.
If you want friends and family to have access to the altar, perhaps place it in a corner of your living room (tucked away or high enough that it will not be disturbed by pets or young children). On the mantel of a fireplace or hearth is a lovely spot for an angel altar. If your spirituality is something you consider private, the bedroom or your study can be the perfect place to set up your altar so it is out of the way. Someplace flat and sturdy where you can place a few objects is all that is really required.
Items you choose to place on your angel altar, or in the angel section of your existing home altar, should make you think specifically of angels. If you have a deck of angel oracle cards, pick one with an illustration of an angel and a message that speaks to you. Then set the card upright on your angel altar. Use a card that particularly resonates with you right now. Then in a few weeks or months, you can swap this card out for another one that you find especially inspiring at that moment in time. Since angel oracle cards are a popular way to communicate with angels, seeing an angel oracle card on your altar might inspire you to communicate with your angels more often.
Feathers usually remind people of angels, as some angels’ wings are made of hundreds of feathers—I witnessed this firsthand when I saw an angel (see chapter 1). The feathers on your angel altar don’t have to be real, since hurting an animal would never honor an angel. But a nice synthetic feather or an image of a feather, can be a unique and meaningful addition to your angel altar since feathers actually make up an angel’s most distinctive feature.
Angel figurines are another possibility for your altar. I have some figurines that were given to me and several that I purchased.
Is there a child in your life who made a drawing of an angel? Children have a close connection to the angels because they only recently came here from the world of Spirit, and many children will instinctively draw stick figures with wings without knowing these are angels or what to call the images. A drawing of an angel by a child you care about can be an absolutely precious addition to your angel altar. As long as their parents don’t mind you discussing angels with a child in your life, you can even commission a child to draw an angel for your altar.
Do you own any angel jewelry? Perhaps a pendant of an angel or earrings in the shape of wings? When you are not wearing this jewelry you can always lay it on your altar to add some pretty angel vibes. Angels are sensitive to beauty and beauty is one of the ways we can draw closer to Spirit.
Whatever angel paraphernalia adorns your altar, your angel altar will soon become a sacred place where you can connect with Spirit’s winged messengers. Not everyone in your house has to believe in angels or utilize this altar, but I do recommend informing everyone of its existence, and requiring that everyone in your home respect your right to display and decorate your angel altar.
You don’t have to commune with your angels exclusively at your altar, but if you ever need to feel closer to them, are struggling with angelic communication, or just want to add a little extra oomph to an angelic request, your altar can be a wonderful tool, like a divining rod that harnesses angel energy. The act of creating an altar signals to your angels that you want them to play a larger role in your life. Simply seeing the angel images on your altar every time you pass it in your home will encourage you to make more regular contact with your angels by giving them prayer requests, and this will also increase their influence in your life and their ability to aid you.
Celebrate with the Angels
Angels believe that celebrating life’s milestones and accomplishments is just as important as achieving them. Angels are noble, high-vibrational beings that are closely linked to Spirit, but they still love to party!
Your guardian angels want you to enjoy yourself, and more specifically they want you to mark those special moments that don’t happen every day: birthdays, anniversaries, work projects that get the green light, graduations, new homes, sobriety milestones, fitness or other health and healing milestones. Celebrating these benchmarks means acknowledging the important relationships and projects your soul came here for. So celebrating is actually serious, sacred, important spiritual work.
The angels also want you to celebrate more often for purely selfish reasons. They want to party with you! When you raise a glass to toast yourself or a loved one, imagine the angels in heaven doing the same. When you dance around the room after a big win, take a moment to look up and imagine the angels dancing too. (Angels are excellent dancers—they’ve got all the moves. My angels love to break-dance.) Celebrating is an excellent way to acknowledge not just all you have accomplished, but all that your angels have accomplished in helping you with your goals and relationships. Celebrating is an opportunity to stop and thank the angel realm for all the hard work angels do behind the scenes every day.
Lastly, the angels want you to know that when you don’t stop to acknowledge an accomplishment or milestone, you are sending your subconscious some very dangerous messages. Messages like: I don’t deserve to celebrate. I don’t deserve a present. I don’t deserve a break. I didn’t work hard enough to warrant a pat on the back. I didn’t do a good job. What I accomplished isn’t a big deal. This relationship isn’t a big deal.
These are all punishing, self-sabotaging messages. Exactly the opposite of the messages your angels send you all day long. Messages from the angel realm include: You are loved. You are worthy. You are special. You’ve been through a lot. You’ve accomplished a lot. You’re doing the best you can. You should be proud of yourself. You need to forgive yourself.
Your guardian angels love you so much that it actually hurts them to see you treat yourself shabbily. So if you want to make your guardian angels happy, celebrate, and when you do, be very, very good to yourself. The message from the angel realm on this is clear: celebrate, and celebrate often. The big wins and the little ones. The major milestones and all the mini achievements along the way.
Angel Affirmation: I deserve to celebrate every chance I get, and my angels love to celebrate with me.
Journaling Brings You Closer to Your Angels
Journaling can help you record your favorite memories, get more in touch with your emotions, and set goals for the future. But did you know journaling can also bring you closer to your guardian angels?
The thoughts that emerge in the pages of your journal are often not the same old notions that your brain regurgitates and dissects over and over. Journaling is like digging for buried treasure. The ideas and insights you get while journaling are jewels that come straight from the divine realm of Spirit, where the angels live, from that deeper part of yourself that is connected to Spirit and an eternal wisdom. This wisdom helps you see beyond the surface level of your life to unearth deeper truths, like the foundations of negative beliefs or self-sabotaging actions. When you journal, you mine for spiritual and psychological gold. If you’re trying to understand the lesson behind a challenge you’re facing, or get solutions to a persistent problem, say a quick prayer asking your guardian angels to be with you before you sit down to journal. Your guardian angels will help you discover the “aha” moments you’re searching for, the deeper answers that can change your life.
The angels want you to take regular sabbaticals from this hectic modern world. Setting aside even fifteen minutes a day, or thirty minutes a week, to quietly journal gets you in the habit of consciously removing yourself from the hustle and bustle of life. There’s a reason that those who devote their lives to spiritual pursuits and service spend a portion of every day removed from the world in quiet contemplation. Quiet contemplation brings you closer to Spirit. Daily or even weekly journaling gets you in the practice of adopting a silent, meditative state. There is a stillness and calmness that comes when you go inside and put pen to paper. And once you begin training your mind to be still, that stillness will last with you long after you close your journal. It is in this quiet, meditative state where we can most easily recognize the guidance of our guardian angels.
Your journal is an ideal place to communicate directly with the angel realm. Just as a prayer may be thought, spoken aloud, or even sung, so can a prayer be written down. Is there something weighing heavy on your heart? Share that burden with your guardian angels in the pages of your journal, and that burden will be halved. Is there someone you need help forgiving? Write to your angels in your journal and ask them to work on your heart. Is there someone you want forgiveness from? Ask your angels to work on their heart. Are you looking for a job or a partner? Let your angels know what you need by providing them with all the particulars in your journal. Or maybe your angels brought just the right person or opportunity into your life, and you want to say thank you. Write your angels a thank-you note in your journal—they will read every word and be grateful. Your journal is the perfect place to ask your angels for help, thank your angels for answered prayers, and seek patience and insight from your angels when a prayer is not answered.
Journaling can serve not only as a record of your life, but as a record of your faith. Jot down the moments when your faith grew to a new level because the angel realm pulled off a miracle in your life or the life of a loved one. Record the moments when you doubted Spirit and your guardian angels. Record the moments when your guardian angels sent you a special sign, or you received a sign from a loved one who has passed. Look back at old prayers that were answered by your angels beyond your wildest dreams, as well as some of the unanswered prayers that you might realize, in hindsight, weren’t really in your best interest. (One of the ways your guardian angels actually protected you was by making sure those prayers were not answered.) There will also be prayers that were not answered which still cause you pain. Ask your angels to comfort you, and give you some insight about why this prayer was not answered. Or how about those prayers that were answered in unexpected ways, almost as if the angel realm was throwing you a surprise party just to see the look on your face, or remind you that life is an adventure. Old journals allow us to see our life from an angel’s eye view, and map our spiritual growth.
Taking the time to connect with yourself and the angel realm, and express what is on your mind when you sit down to journal, will help you stay more present in your daily life. Journaling will ground you in the moment and get you in touch with your emotions and the events of day-to-day existence. Your guardian angels want you to savor your life, not rush through it. How can you learn all the lessons and feel all the joy your guardian angels send you if you are sleepwalking through your days? Journaling the contents of your heart and mind on a daily or weekly basis forces you to be aware of what is happening in your life. Then you can decide what is working, and what isn’t, and ask your guardian angels to help you set goals and make changes.
Journaling can help you feel more grateful. Your guardian angels want you to recognize all the blessings in your life, even as they help you strive to do more and be more. Expressing gratitude to your angels by writing down your blessings will make you realize just how many blessings you experience every day. Gratitude not only makes you happier, it brings you closer to your guardian angels because you suddenly sense just how much your angels adore you—just how many special people and opportunities and precious moments are carried into your life on angel’s wings every day. Seeing how many blessings you experience, written down in black and white, will inspire you to act as an angel to others. There are people who desperately need your assistance, whether it’s donating money to a charity, donating some TLC to loved ones, or just donating a smile to a stranger on the street. Your guardian angels want you to follow in their flight pattern, and be of service to those around you. When the angel realm blesses your life, the angels are counting on your joy and gratitude spilling out to bless the world around you.
Anything you do for the first time can be intimidating, and starting a journal is no exception. Some people find the blank page daunting. Where do you begin? What exactly do you write about? How much should you write? For people unaccustomed to journaling, or for those who find journaling a challenge, guided journals are a wonderful solution. For those who are old hands at journaling, guided journals can be a nice way to mix it up with something fun and different. If you’re enjoying this book, you might try Heaven on Earth: A Guided Journal for Creating Your Own Divine Paradise. It’s the guided journal I wrote, and a perfect place to start or continue your journaling practice, with lots of journal prompts to get you speaking directly to Spirit and your angels.
Angel Prayer: Guardian angels, as I journal about my feelings and experiences, please send me wisdom, guidance, and comfort to help me better understand my own needs, worth, and journey here on earth.
Beauty Is Worship
When you see something so stunningly gorgeous that your heart skips a beat, you are seeing Spirit. Spirit speaks to you through the challenges in your life, but Spirit also speaks to you, and soothes you, through beauty. Beauty has a high vibrational energy that is close to that of Spirit, and beauty therefore recharges your own spirit so that you can do all the good work, face all the challenges, and feel all the joy your soul came here for.
A rust-colored sunset, lush fabric, jewelry made from the metals and stones of the earth, the dramatic plumage of a bird. All of these are Spirit and the angel realm trying to get your attention. Trying to get you to notice, and be alive to, the present moment with all its sensual pleasures. Spirit is just as prevalent in the beautiful simplicity of minimalism as it is in the overwhelming intensity of the elaborate and ornate.
Beauty isn’t optional. The angels want you to know it is as necessary to your life as air and water—without beauty the physical body may survive, but the soul will wither. Spirit wants everyone to experience beauty, no matter what your financial circumstances, which is why there is so much beauty in nature. Beauty doesn’t have to be expensive, but it does have to be part of your life if you want a closer connection to Spirit and the angel realm.
Your guardian angels want you to indulge in beauty. Make beauty a daily practice—a worship. It will energize your own spirit while bringing you closer to the Great Spirit that is part of us all.
Angel Prayer: Guardian angels, bring me closer to you by showing me ways to bring more beauty into my life.
Angel Exercise:
Take the 30-Day Beauty Challenge
You’ve been led to this page—whether you are reading the book from front to back or skipping around—because your guardian angels think you need more beauty in your life, and would benefit from a month of intense beauty therapy. Beauty makes you more present and alive in the moment, gives you pleasure, feeds your soul, and brings you closer to Spirit, as beauty is one of the ways Spirit reveals itself to us here on earth. The angels want you to access more of Spirit and your soul in your daily life, and that means accessing more beauty.
Every morning for the next thirty days, the angels want you to wake up and ask yourself and the universe, “How can I bring more beauty into my life today?” See what answers come, both from your own mind and as signs from your angels, and then act on these ideas. Every evening, before you go to sleep, silently or out loud say this prayer, “Thank you for all the beauty that was brought into my life today.” Then look back on your day, savoring all the times you were struck by beauty. In your journal you might record both your morning insights about how to bring more beauty into your life, and your evening reflections on the beauty you witnessed. Whenever you crave more beauty in the future, you can thumb through the 30-Day Beauty Challenge section of your journal and get inspired! Don’t worry if there are some days where you are more active with this exercise than others, or some days where you forget it all together. The angels want you to work on curbing any perfectionist tendencies with the exercises in this book, and instead celebrate every insight as a major success.
The following are suggestions from the angels on finding beauty: in the faces of the people you see each day; in walks through nature, whether you experience a whole forest or a single tree by the side of the road; in the jewelry you adorn your body with; in the clothes you dress yourself in; in the way you arrange your hair or wear your makeup; in the way you maintain and decorate your home and workspace; in the tiniest of details, like the colors and design of the coffee cup you drink from every day; and in the grandest manner, like the moon glowing softly in the cool night sky or the morning sun as it sizzles just above the horizon.
Do you need to spend money to bring more beauty into your life during this 30-Day Beauty Challenge? No. But it would be an excellent time to treat yourself to a few things you’ve been wanting to update in your wardrobe or around your home. You might find them on sale or look at these purchases as a priceless long-term investment not just in your happiness, but in your sanity. The monthly beauty challenge might involve you simply becoming more aware of, and attuned to, the beauty that already surrounds you. Or it might urge you to spend time trying out a new hairstyle instead of watching television, or going out of your comfort zone by trying a new style of dress instead of sticking to the same old fashion choices, or shopping the sales for some pretty new pillows for your couch.
Be sure to also take note of how the 30-Day Beauty Challenge makes you feel: more confident, more alive, more peaceful, more vibrant, and hopefully closer to Spirit and the angel realm.
Angel Exercise:
Dedicate a Song to Your Guardian Angels
Guardian angels care for you so much that it’s hard to convey the depth of their feelings. And since their communication with you is often accomplished via signs and metaphors, or with short intuitive flashes or messages, it’s an extra challenge for your guardian angels to share the sentiments in their hearts. Yet your guardian angels are desperate for you to know how much they adore you, for you to know that there are beings of light who love you unconditionally, who have dedicated their existence to guiding and protecting you.
Guardian angels receive an enormous sense of satisfaction from loving you and keeping you safe, because all creatures, including humans, get tremendous peace from living their divine purposes. That sense of satisfaction and contentment becomes much stronger in guardian angels when their relationship with you is interactive. It’s always beneficial to both you and your guardian angels when your bond is strengthened by two-way communication. The following exercise, dedicating a song to your guardian angels, is an easy method for you to achieve that two-way communication and enhance the connection you already have with your guardian angels.
Try picking a song that makes you think of everything associated with guardian angels: unconditional love, mercy, comfort, protection, guidance, inspiration. Then dedicate that song to your guardian angels. This dedication can be done through prayer, writing in your journal, or a single conscious thought. If you are hurt or afraid, if you want to celebrate or express gratitude, or if you just want to feel closer to your guardian angels, you can listen to your angel dedication song and imagine your angels serenading you. Think of each lyric, each note, as a message straight from your angels’ hearts to your heart.
I personally have a song that reminds me of my guardian angels’ presence in my life, and you should feel free to use it for this exercise if the song resonates with you. The tune I dedicated to my guardian angels is “I’ll Stand by You” by Chrissie Hynde.
When I imagine my angels singing “I’ll Stand by You” to me, it brings to mind the fierce, determined aspect of my guardian angels’ love. Like mama bears, my guardian angels will protect me, and watch over me, no matter how dark the path before me, no matter the challenges and danger I face. This song illustrates how my guardian angels forgive me instantly and totally, no matter what is weighing heavy on my conscious. This song encourages me to express all my emotions, even the negative, complicated, messy ones, and encourages me to share those emotions with my angels—to confess everything to them. Because angels are more like us than we realize. They feel the pain of our suffering, and they feel anger at the injustice in the world. This song reminds me that there is nothing I can do to alienate my angels, nothing I can do to make my angels abandon me. When I imagine my angels singing this ballad to me, I sense they would walk through any fire on my behalf.
Choose one or two songs to dedicate to your own guardian angels. When you imagine your angels singing one of these songs to you, you will probably cry or get chills. That means you’ve hit on a song your guardian angels love too, one that they agree expresses their angelic level of love and commitment, something that is hard for the human mind to comprehend, except maybe through the magic and emotion of music, the language of angels.
Don’t be surprised if you start hearing this song often on the radio or in stores—it’s just your guardian angels reminding you of their presence. And feel free to play it whenever you need comfort, crave reassurance, or simply want to celebrate a victory you know your guardian angels had a hand in. When you listen to this song, know that your guardian angels are right beside you, giving you an angel-sized hug, offering your soul a soothing lullaby.