You are no stranger to energy if you’ve been working with your psychic abilities already. However, you may have been working without protection. Understanding how energy works is the gateway to better controlling how you use it and how it affects you. It is the connection we have to the universe and allows us to connect to our intuition as well as the other side. Energy is the medium on which symbolic and other messages come through. Learning to manage our energy helps us balance our chakras and influence our auras in a way that will stimulate your gifts past a beginner level. Protecting your energy and learning how to really work with it is a crucial step in developing your metaphysical powers.
Energy can be as simple or as complex as you let it be. Electrical energy works when you complete a circuit of positive and negative or grounded energy. A battery works by connecting the positive pole to whatever you are trying to power, like a flashlight, and then it connects from a different point on the light back to the negative pole. When the circuit is completed, it will power the light. When it is interrupted in the positive or the negative return, it will shut off or extinguish the light because the energy is cut. This energy is something you can control with a switch. You can witness it visually, only because of what it produces, when you see the light turn on or off. You can instantly see the energy working. Electrical energy is simple once you know the basic principles. Psychic energy is simple too; you need only know how to work with it and what it feels like to experience it.
Yesterday, my dishwasher would not turn on. It bothered my entire household. My husband, who is a high-end custom woodworker, is also a jack of all trades. So, of course I was counting on him to fix it. Well, it turned out it wasn’t the dishwasher at all. He determined it was electrical and traced the problem through three different outlets, a circuit breaker, and my kitchen lights. Many hours later, he was able to fix it. However, the fact that a wire had come loose in our wall, which could have easily started a fire, made me stop and think. This tiny wire had interrupted our energy in a major way. It forced us to change our plans for the day; it disrupted our lives. It could even have been catastrophic. But, by grounding the loose wire, we were able to rebuild our own energy and salvage the day. Our intuitive senses work in much the same way. When you are not grounded, it can stop you dead in your tracks. When there is an attack on your psychic energy, even the smallest one, it is felt and can change your psychic abilities in a profound way.
Protecting Your Energy
When you are distressed in any way, it changes your energy, whether it’s physical, mental, or psychic. Physical energy can easily become depleted. When we exercise for long periods of time, it can exhaust us. You can become tired when you work too hard mentally. Stress can drain your energy as quickly as running a marathon. It’s the same psychically. When you get overloaded with other people’s energy or take on too much, it can be psychically exhausting. Empaths, or people who feel other’s energy to the point of taking it on themselves, can become especially fatigued, and often feel the effects through their own moods changing without apparent reason. Psychic attack happens when someone consciously or even subconsciously sends negativity your way with or without the intent of causing you damage. Often, the one attacking doesn’t even realize they are doing it. Whether from someone living or someone who’s passed, protecting yourself from psychic attacks and from energy that’s not yours is essential to keeping your own energy unpolluted.
There are a number of ways you can tell if you are being psychically attacked. Though, be careful—more often than not, these symptoms may be due to other external or internal influences. Don’t automatically attribute the following to psychic attack without exploring other solutions.
You might:
• begin to experience emotions that come out of nowhere
• start doubting yourself
• experience random headaches
• experience lethargy or a feeling of total exhaustion
• feel like you are constantly being watched or you always look over your shoulder because it feels like someone is there
• have nightmares
• have an overwhelming feeling of anxiety
• become extremely pessimistic
• feel claustrophobic
• feel uneasy or physically sick
• have angry outbursts
The list can go on and on, but essentially psychic attack will feel negative or as though you are being dragged down into something unpleasant. The best or safest method to unburden yourself of this sensation is to clear your energy and protect yourself from attack.
Exercise
Regardless of where you are on your psychic path, a good dose of protection will assist you in going beyond. The more you practice, the more natural it will be and the less effort you will need to exert. Relax and breathe. As always, being somewhere quiet will help you concentrate. Take another deep breath. Imagine beautiful silver tubes coming out of the bottoms of your feet. These tubes connect deep down into the center of the earth. Now, imagine also a large sunflower-shaped showerhead reaching down from the sky above you. Breathe in again.
Visualize in front of you a big toggle switch marked “On 1/On 2/Off.” When you are ready, reach out to the switch and move it to the “On 1” position. You might immediately feel a tingling on the bottom of your feet as the silver tubes start their process. These tubes are negativity vacuums. They are getting stronger as they continue. They are drawing the energy that no longer serves you or that you no longer need down into the earth to be recycled into positive energy.
With every breath feel the vacuum working, starting from the soles of your feet, moving up through your legs and into your hips. On the next deep breath, feel the vacuum move up into your abdomen, sucking out any negativity. Feel the draw of the silver tubes clearing out everything you don’t need to hold on to anymore, anything you’ve taken on that’s not yours. Feel the vacuum move up even further now, into your chest. Allow it to pull out the energy of anybody else you’ve taken on that you don’t need. Release any negativity or psychic debris that has been trapped in your heart and let it flow into the earth to be recycled. On the next deep breath, move the energy up through your throat, into your jaw, and release anything that no longer belongs there. And, with one more deep breath, allow any feelings that aren’t yours, anything you’ve been holding on to, anything you’ve been thinking of, to be pulled out from your face and head to the tips of your hair, to flow down through your vacuum.
Sit with the vacuum for another minute, allowing every nook and cranny to be cleared of any debris. When you feel like all the energy you don’t need has been vacuumed out, take another deep breath.
Now that you’ve cleaned out all the energy that doesn’t belong to you, it’s time to protect yourself. As you inhale, reach your hand out and flip the switch to the “On 2” position. Imagine the flower-like showerhead above you turns on. It’s showering you with warm, silver, protective rain, gently spilling down over you. As it surrounds you, it provides protection from any energies that don’t belong to you. Feel the silver energy encompass you, giving you strength and shielding you from taking on other people’s stuff. On your next deep breath, feel the silver rain coming out of the showerhead envelop you like armor, armor you can bring with you wherever you go.
When you feel fully protected and fortified with the protective silver rain, turn the switch back to “Off” knowing you are shielded from any conscious or unconscious psychic attacks. Any time you need to bolster your armor, all you need to do is visualize that showerhead spilling positive energy over you.
What Energy Can Really Do for You
Much of psychic ability is intangible. When we receive psychic energy via the clair senses, we can’t physically touch it. Rather, the information is perceived psychically. We receive impressions. These impressions are transmitted as energy. And although we can intuitively feel these impressions, we can’t hold them in our hand. It’s the energy we experience, not a tangible, physical item, person, or place.
Every living thing is connected energetically. This energy, the energy of the universe, is what allows us to tune in to our psychic abilities and discover the metaphysical side of life. With every step in your awakening process you increase your energy overall, which means you need to either expand your cosmic footprint or you have to channel that energy into something. When you don’t do one or the other, you become stifled and lose momentum. Instead, take advantage of this growth cycle and release the boundaries that may have restricted you from increasing your gifts. By tapping into this energy, you can connect to your intuitive self.
Connecting to your metaphysical self does not mean cutting off the energy from everyone else. While you don’t want to absorb the energy of others, you do want to be able to understand the energy you pick up psychically from those around you. Being able to discern the difference, and not holding on to the issues of others, is what will separate your psychic gifts from possible psychic attack. To comprehend the psychic message being communicated, you sometimes need to assume their energy—this is fine as long as you release it when you’re done.
While not always easy to recognize, taking on the energy of others does happen occasionally when I do readings. It happened most recently during a session with Pia. Before my client comes into my office, I normally sit down and meditate on them for a couple of minutes. Then I write down whatever information I receive so I can share it with them. On this day it was different. I felt foggy and couldn’t focus.
“I’m so sorry. I feel like I’m in a fishbowl or something. My brain feels foggy. I feel like I wasn’t able to tune in to you like I usually do,” I told Pia.
“Oh, well, that’s okay, I guess,” she replied, a bit unsure.
“Let’s just go ahead and start. Hopefully this confusion will lift soon!” I continued, asking for my guides to give me some clarity.
I went over everything I had written down. We had many hits, but it seemed we were missing something.
“Did someone pass from complications from a motorcycle accident? I’m getting a motorcycle, but I’m feeling they didn’t pass from that.”
“Oh, I think I know, but are you getting anything else?” Pia asked.
“I’m sorry, again! I feel all fuzzy. My brain feels like it’s in a cloud. All I got was a motorcycle and then a year or two passes. Does any of this make sense?”
I felt bad. I was trying. I knew Pia wanted to connect with someone she’d lost, someone who was very important to her, but I couldn’t pull myself out of the weird stupor I was experiencing. I explained that I was happy for all the information that I was able to share with her, but that I might have to cut the session short.
“Actually, it makes perfect sense. My dad was in a motorcycle accident. He didn’t die immediately, he was around for about a year and a half. But, he suffered a traumatic brain injury as a result of the accident and it was like he was always in a fog. That must be why you feel spacy!”
“Wow! Thanks for clarifying. I thought I was going crazy. I was ready to stop the reading.”
Pia’s dad had come through for her. He’d been trying to come through even before she got there, I just hadn’t recognized it. He was sending me his energy, having me feel a bit of what his life was like before he passed. It felt disconcerting to me, because it wasn’t my energy. Yet, it was difficult to surmise exactly what happened. By assuming his energy, I was able to bring solace and relief to Pia, letting her know he was around her and he loved her. Sometimes, we get lucky—we realize what energy really can share with us.
Chakras
We all have a subtle but powerful energetic system that connects our physical sense to our spiritual sense. These are our chakras or our spiritual batteries. We have seven of them beginning at the base of our spine, running up in a rainbow-colored line to the top of our head. Popular author and instructor on chakras, yoga, and more, Anodea Judith, shares, “Chakras are organizing centers for the reception, assimilation, and transmission of life energies … [and they] form a mythical Rainbow Bridge, a connecting channel linking Heaven and Earth, mind and body, spirit and matter, past and future.”3 To really become enlightened, it can take a lifetime to balance these energy centers. We are going to begin, balancing your chakras to increase your proficiency of using them to your advantage. The first step is to learn and identify which energetic blocks or obstacles hold you back from achieving balance. If you are already familiar, it can be useful to reexamine your connection to realize blocks that may have been previously overlooked.
Before every reading I do, I have a ritual. Whether I do an office or phone session, it’s usually the same. I sit down and do a quick meditation to stimulate all my chakras and get them flowing. This helps me balance and open them to receive information I can understand and share with my clients. It also helps ground my energy, so I can be present enough to perceive the messages and astute enough to translate them to meaningful data my client can recognize. This meditation can also help to alert you to anything that is getting in the way to allow clear communication.
Opening your chakras is an integral part of receiving psychic communications from the other side. From your root or first chakra at the base of your spine, to your seventh energy center at the top of your head, your chakras run in a straight line in the color of the rainbow. The challenge is not in trying to find them; it is in stimulating them enough, and in the right way, so they can be balanced and open and of use to you in your psychic work.
Exercise
No matter what your experience level, this exercise is a constant necessity in your psychic life because your chakras will always need your attention in order to best serve you. Go somewhere without a lot of distractions. Sit or lie down comfortably and close your eyes. Breathe deeply. Focus on the bottoms of your feet. Imagine there are roots reaching down to the ground, growing out of your soles. Feel these roots grow as they make their way down to the center of the earth, attaching themselves to a boulder down deep. As you continue to breathe, feel the energy of the earth reach up, through the roots, into your feet. You may feel a tingling sensation, or you might experience warmth.
Allow that energy to travel through your legs, up into your calves and shins. Feel the warmth as it spreads through your knees and up into your thighs. When it reaches the base of your spine, imagine a bright red, beautiful sphere of energy spinning like a wheel. Pay attention to how this root chakra spins and direct it to balance so it spins evenly, creating a steadier foundation.
Let that energy move up a few inches below your belly button and imagine this second chakra emitting a bright orange color throughout your abdomen as it spins. As this sacral chakra balances, it will increase your sensory abilities, allowing you to feel and interpret messages. As it spins, it discards any negative energy that may have become attached. You may also feel a clearer, more balanced sexuality, opening you up to increased sensuality. Once that orange chakra is spinning freely, move the energy up.
Your third chakra, located in your solar plexus, is next. Imagine a brilliant yellow disk, bright as the sun, rotating while driving out any imbalances or negativity. As it turns, feel the warmth spread, extending outside your physical body. This is the seat of your intuition, your gut instinct. Enable this chakra to open and balance as it rotates, allowing you to feel the energy around you.
It’s time to charge your fourth chakra, located in the center of your chest. Move your awareness up, into your sternum. With your psychic vision, see your heart chakra emit a luminous, gleaming green color. This is your healing center, your love and caring chakra, and it needs to be balanced so you can honor yourself as well as others. With every heartbeat, feel your fourth chakra strongly pulse and allow that energy to continue upward into your neck and throat area.
On your next inhale, picture a radiant blue light beaming from your throat chakra. This area rules communication. As this chakra rotates, any need to share information with those on this side and on the other side becomes easier, and the ability to receive and decipher messages is heightened. You may experience a tightness in your throat area as any negativity is released and your energy center spins freely.
Allow that brilliant energy to continue rising into your third eye, the space between your eyebrows. Feel your sixth chakra spin, emitting a stunning indigo light. Focus your attention here; as it spins it releases any negativity and opens your clairvoyant sense. Allow this energy to continue rotating and balancing. While this beautiful indigo center gets brighter, you may feel a temperature change in your forehead. Sit with this for another moment and then move the energy up.
Feel the top of your head, your crown chakra, as the energy opens it. Feel that area revolving, swirling, and sending out a tremendous brilliant violet color. As your energy increases, spin away any blockages, allowing your psychic abilities to open. You may feel a tingling sensation in your crown chakra as your intuition gets recharged. Visualize this purple color expanding and streaming out all around you.
Sit with your eyes closed, reveling in this feeling while your seven major chakras continue to whirl, releasing any negative energy that has accumulated. When you feel your chakras are balanced, take a few deep breaths and open your eyes. Feel a sense of peace as it washes over you, grounding you, balancing you. Sit and relax, enjoying this feeling for a few minutes.
Now that you’ve opened your chakras and begun balancing them, you may experience a rise in your kundalini, your potential life force energy. Kundalini is a Sanskrit term from ancient India that identifies a natural and powerful energy we have at birth. “Kundalini energy rests like a coiled serpent at the base of your spine … As your kundalini energy rises, it passes through each of your chakras and awakens human potentials lying dormant until activated.”4 Author and metaphysical practitioner David Pond explains that through breathing practices and meditation, we can set in motion this chi or life force energy.
When Chakras Are Out of Balance
Countless people associate opening chakras with having them balanced. This is only partially true. Opening, clearing, and balancing them goes a long way toward having a healthy mind, body, and spirit system. But chakras can get blocked when they are too open as well. If a chakra remains wide open, it can also hinder elevating your psychic gifts. If a chakra is excessively open, it can create a fixation with the properties or elements of that chakra, or if one is consistently closed it may trigger avoidance in that area.
For example, the first chakra relates to your foundation, your structure, and even your childhood. So, if it is wide open you may find you are constantly thinking about yourself or your material possessions and even believing you are above others. You may also feel you are indestructible and will always be taken care of, even to your own detriment. If it is continually closed, you may be very introverted, non-trusting, and hold a belief that you’re never going to be safe or secure. You may also feel you will never be quite good enough.
If your second chakra is wide open, you may find yourself channeling everything through your sensuality or even your sexuality. This may give you an unhealthy heightened sex drive, and produce the idea that sex is power, or that sex is control. You might find the only way to connect to others and feel in charge is through your sexuality. You may be driven to fulfill your sexual needs by channeling all energy through that chakra center, which will cause an extreme imbalance in the way you view all situations. If this chakra is blocked and closed, you might be afraid of entering into any intimate conditions and refrain, even vehemently, from any type of sexual contact. You may be fearful of sexual advances, to the point you withdraw from the situation or relationship.
Your third chakra is your power center. If it’s disproportionately open, you may find yourself constantly arguing or confronting others; in fact, you may thrive on it. You may feel the need to be correct, or believe you’re always right, regardless of the facts. Challenging everyone can become your way of being. If your solar plexus chakra is blocked because it is closed, you may run away from any type of confrontation. You may panic at the thought of defending anything you believe in and might even consider yourself wrong more often than not, so you find you give in habitually.
Having your heart center, or fourth chakra, extremely wide open might cause you to be overly sympathetic to the plight of others, even if that means damaging your own life. It can also create the idea that everything is about love, and that being in love is more important than being compatible in a relationship. The idea of love, above all else, is what drives your thoughts and communications with others. If this energy center is closed, you might experience a constant sense of loss. Feeling as though you have to protect yourself and your heart can cause you to keep others at a distance and feel somewhat detached from society. Being closed can cause you to distrust other people and might even create a lack of empathy or sympathy.
Communications can become one-sided when your fifth chakra is off. When this throat chakra is open wide, so is your voice—you may talk too much and not listen to what anyone else says. Even if you remain quiet during someone else’s narrative, you still talk in your mind and are unable to focus or hear the other person speaking. Alternatively, if this energy wheel is closed tight, you may find the cat has your tongue or you are tight-lipped and even afraid to speak up. With a blocked fifth chakra, you will find it difficult to get your words out and might even find yourself saying nonsensical things.
The third eye, the seat of your clairvoyance, when stuck wide open can cause you to have frequent daydreams or even hallucinations. Your imagination may run wild. You might even see ghosts that aren’t there. When this sixth chakra is fixed open, you may suffer from too much physical light—both artificially from lamps or natural sunlight. Your eyes may burn and want to close, though the images and brightness will continue to penetrate. Having a sealed up third eye can create a world that is darker, where you dream less and are unable to envision or imagine anything. It will keep you from utilizing your clairvoyance and hinder your attempts to connect psychically.
Finally, the crown chakra, seated at the top of your head, helps you feel linked to your psychic gifts. When your seventh chakra remains wide open, you may feel spacy and out of sorts. You will experience people and events in a surreal way and might find yourself channeling energy that doesn’t belong to you—both positive and negative. You will often feel distracted or disoriented. When this wheel of light is shut tight, you are closed off to divine or psychic guidance. You might feel alone or even lonely and disconnected from the energy of the universe that connects all living things. It can also cause anxiety or worry. You may even feel heavy and lethargic.
Working with your energy centers and focusing on each one individually is a surefire way to increase your psychic abilities. Your gifts will open at a glacial pace without tapping into and stimulating these spiritual batteries. Your chakras help you experience joy and happiness, which is crucial to motivating your gifts to expand. Raising the overall frequency of each area will improve your chakra’s function. Scanning your energy, on a physical level, will help you determine which centers need work.
Exercise
Go somewhere quiet where you won’t be disturbed. Take out your journal and your pen. When you are done scanning, you will write down everything you experienced.
Part One: Beginning with your root chakra, focus your attention on the space at the bottom of your spine. Note how that area feels. Does it feel distressed in any way? Or does it feel content? Is it warm? Cool? Burning hot? Freezing cold? How does that area behave? Does it move freely? Feel stuck? Once you’re done with your root chakra, continue scanning through the remaining six, asking the same questions.
Part Two: Now it’s time to think about your chakras and how they relate to your daily life. Using the examples of chakras that are stuck open or closed, reflect on each individual energy center and how it works. Think about its function and what each wheel regulates. Ponder each individual chakra and determine whether you feel they are balanced or out of sync, noticing how each chakra felt in part one. If you ascertain any of your energy wheels need work, decide how you can improve each one. For example, if it feels like your fifth chakra is too open, you may need to work on listening rather than talking.
Part Three: Address each chakra, one by one, and devise a plan of action that you can put into place over the coming weeks. Take your time with each energy center to be sure you give it enough attention to fully increase its performance. You can change your actions, your thoughts, and even your diet to adjust and fix the balance in each chakra. Think of the color of the chakra and the colors of the foods you eat. If you feel your second chakra is off and you don’t eat enough orange foods, you may want to add carrots to your daily food intake. Alternatively, if you eat red meat, red candy, and strawberries at every meal and your first chakra is overflowing, you may want to cut back. And, finally, write down all your discoveries. Include your findings from each part, by chakra. Be sure to record your action plan for each chakra as well.
Your chakras deserve attention. Coordinating your chakra training with your other intuitive practices will help you satisfy your psychic development goals. You’ll discover working with the energy within and from your chakras will amp up your auric energy and help propel you to a new level with your abilities. Your next move may be life-altering and multiply how quickly you progress.
Auras
It’s doubtful you’ve gotten this far in your development and not heard the word aura. Everyone has a metaphysical aura and this natural energy field can be manipulated and used to heal, tune in to your gifts, or reach out to someone locally or distantly. Our body is our physical presence and our aura is our metaphysical presence—the energy that normally projects from our corporeal body about one to six inches and, with minimal training, can usually be seen with the naked eye. Auras can pick up and send out energetic vibes and messages across the globe and to the other side. Learning the basics about the auric field is easy; essentially every living thing has one and it is part of what makes us who we are and helps us to bond with others. Using our aura as a critical tool in our psychic development can mean the difference between playing with your gifts on occasion and being in the groove and really rocking it.
The aura is a powerful and very useful component in our psychic growth process. By expanding your native field, you increase your energetic footprint. The aura contains layers of wisdom and knowledge that you can transmit or receive psychically, using your extrasensory abilities. We feel our surroundings by using our aura much like insect antennae would sense objects or predators around them. It is one of the psychic first responders and lets you know what’s happening when you walk into a room—it can pick up on energy and instantly present you with a sense of joy, fear, anger, happiness, or more. It can work as a receptor to enhance your psychic perceptions.
When working with your aura, you are able to receive impressions about a person, their mood, or their current state. You may pick up names of people around them or situations they are going through. Think of your aura as a way to filter information from the other person’s aura, information they are often unaware they put out. You can easily connect and read others using your auric reach. This is an important process to develop your psychic abilities beyond a beginner level.
An easy way to feel your personal auric field is to hold your hand about an inch away from your other arm in a relaxed manner. You should be able to feel a difference in the air between your hand and your arm. This difference is the energy you naturally project. This is your aura and, as I said, it can be pushed further out to send your ethereal field and expand your presence. Auras can also let you know if someone is in your energy in some way. If they are thinking about you or reaching out to you, this is often where you’ll feel it. It can also be where you feel a psychic attack; if someone is doing you wrong it might present in your auric field by making you uncomfortable in your own skin or giving you bad vibes, even if you don’t know what’s going on.
Feeling the aura is one way to experience it—seeing it is another. Generally, the aura is translucent, but within that translucence it is very colorful. These colors can be read to interpret what is happening with you in the moment, and the colors can and will constantly change and morph into other colors. There are many books that will help you decipher specific colors, including my Book of Psychic Symbols, but, quite simply, if you see the colors, allow yourself to interpret how they make you feel. For example, red generally represents fiery energy, even angry or powerful, forceful energy, whereas a beautiful light turquoise blue may make you feel serene or happy or relaxed. By interpreting the colors you see based on how they make you feel, you’ll be able to decipher the auric impressions you pick up from yourself or from the auric field of other people.
Assuming you already have some experience working with auras, the next exercise should help you further develop that skill. Rather than just trying to read someone else’s aura, you will also try to project your auric energy out to someone else. For this exercise there are two different options, and you can play with both.
Exercise
Option One: Ask a friend to join you at a neutral, quiet place. You want it to be neutral because you don’t want to pick up on the energy from the location attached to either person, you just need to focus on the auras you project instead. Get comfortable, seated about four feet across from each other. Decide that you will be the receiver first and your friend will be the giver, but allow that you both receive impressions.
Consciously connect to your aura by closing your eyes and focus on the area surrounding your physical body. Concentrate on the space about one inch away from your skin, your aura. Have your partner think of an emotion. They may want to think of a circumstance when they felt strongly about something, either positive or negative. Then, have them push that emotionally charged aura toward you. Have them take a deep breath and push it out even further, expanding their aura. Stay like this for a few moments, both of you feeling the emotion.
When you believe you’ve felt enough and your partner is ready, open your eyes. Intuit what emotion they sent out. Did you receive what they sent? Were you able to psychically pick up the emotion? Could you read your friend’s aura?
Don’t be discouraged if you didn’t. If your friend sent frustration and you said anger, those are pretty close. If you felt excitement and your partner sent happy, that’s okay, too!
Take it a step further and have them send an emotion through color. For example, if emoting anger they might want to project red. After you’re done, swap jobs and you convey an emotion and color to your partner. Are they able to receive the information psychically? Which way worked better for you? Receiving or sending?
Going beyond a beginning level, work on psychic messages. Have your partner think of something in their life or something they want answers to and transmit that information out toward you through their aura. Imagine the data is floating within their auric field, available for you to pick up. Using all their energy, have them push it out as far as they can. As they do, notice anything you receive. You may intuit words or images or sounds or even colors. Let them know whatever you get. Does it have anything to do with what they thought about?
Keep practicing, reversing your roles. You can also try to sit closer to each other to see if that increases your ability to psychically read each other’s auras.
Option Two: This one is a little more delicate, and you need to be sure to only try this with someone you are close to, as it can feel a bit invasive. Think of someone in your life—significant other, best friend, and so on. Randomly try to tune in to their aura to pick up what they are feeling or what they are doing in that moment, no matter where they are. Expand your aura with the intent of connecting to their aura. Once you feel like you’ve joined with them, intuit whatever you can from their energetic field. Imagine you can see, hear, feel, and even taste everything there.
When you’re done, try to immediately get in touch with them to tell them what you did. Ask them if they felt your attempt to connect. It may have made them feel they were being watched, or they might have felt heavier or as though they weren’t themselves. This is normal. Share with them whatever information you psychically gathered and see if they can validate what you received.
While beginners may learn to see auras, going beyond that opens you to reading the aura by accessing the information we all transmit, either intentionally or unintentionally. Once you begin deciphering the messages beyond the colors, you will notice a more heightened psychic ability. This naturally produces a more advanced metaphysical intelligence. It also contributes to unearthing your power.
Focusing on Energy to Awaken Your Power
We all have greatness deep down inside us. It is there, possibly undeveloped, but definitely abundant, just waiting to be discovered. Bringing that power to the surface is merely the beginning of your psychic awakening. Mastery does not come quickly. It comes with practice, effort, and the desire to go where you have not gone before. To go deeper, really digging into your energy to find your power, will connect you to your dynamic self. And then there will be no stopping how far you can take your psychic abilities.
So, just what is it that makes you powerful? Everyone is different. Our sense of personal power depends upon what drives us, what makes us whole. Our power is what gives us strength to persevere and go beyond a simple beginning. Without our power, we would never be capable of transcending a basic level. Raising our vibration aids us with that transcendence and increases our metaphysical intelligence.
There are different ways to awaken your power. But, before it can happen you have to believe in the possibility that you are, indeed, powerful. Rhonda Byrne shares in her book, The Power, that to be in your power you must come from a place of positivity and love. By shifting how you function in life you can increase your power. “Change your frequency at any time by changing how you feel, and everything around you will change because you’re on a new frequency.”5
Often, we’ve given away our power. To reclaim it you must set the intention to get it back or to release that part of you to rebuild it more positively. Your third chakra is the seat of your power; it is where you establish your feeling of self-esteem, self-image, and confidence. Also known as your solar plexus chakra, this area can cause your energy to be depleted when you are feeling inadequate. To awaken your power, you need to balance this chakra.
Trying to control everything, from your family and friends to your coworkers, can cause this chakra to go out of balance. Much like working from your ego, this unbalanced, lopsided chakra also affects your psychic gifts; the need to control how everything works and what comes through creates a disruption in the flow of information. By misdirecting your desire for self-control, you are diminishing your capacity to command your power. When you seek to control others you are, in fact, giving them your power.
My daughter was having a discussion, via text, with her teammates. They were trying to decide on a picture they would get for senior night, the night the whole team, and the entire audience, gives the seniors recognition at their last home game. Theoretically, the picture would have the graduating year and the names of the seniors along with a representation of the sport. Not a big deal, or so one would think. The people in charge of picking the picture began arguing over the merits of one design over the other. It got a bit nasty. When my daughter showed me the choices, I noticed the differences were insignificant. I asked her what she wanted.
“I’ll go with whatever,” she answered.
“You aren’t arguing with them?” I questioned.
“No, I don’t really care. Either is totally fine. I don’t need to control it,” she responded, with nonchalance.
“Great! Because they’re trying to control the situation. Such a little thing, but they’re exerting so much effort just so they can control it.”
The more they tried to control the choices the other girls and boys were making, the more they gave away their power. In the end, it didn’t matter which design they chose, they’d moved on to the next decision—hopefully without messing up their third chakra. By choosing to go with the flow, my daughter retained her power and kept her solar plexus chakra spinning.
Feeling out of control weakens your personal power. When you are faced with situations or people that are critical, or even hostile toward you, you can be deeply affected. Occasionally you can healthily walk away and brush it off, but if it feels personal, your usual response will be one of three options or even a combination: (1) you can allow their actions to make you dive deep into feelings of insecurity and poor self-esteem, (2) you can become angry toward them physically or even spew nastiness about them behind their backs, or (3) you can direct angry thoughts or negativity toward them.
The first, letting them pierce your self-confidence, creates a powerless feeling. It can even invoke memories of previously being hurt. By the very nature of withdrawing into yourself, you allow their actions to devalue you and your power to be further diminished. Through their unpleasant manipulation of your emotions, whether imagined or real, you’ve given away your power. You’ve released some of your energy, which is taking away from your ability to utilize that energy to enhance your psychic gifts.
The second, although it may feel like you’ve taken charge, is just an illusion. The reality is you haven’t addressed the feeling of being out of control, you just reacted to it. And this reaction can cause you even more damage. You’ve deceived yourself into believing that by matching their actions and being combative, you step into your power. However, you are using up so much of your energy to be angry that there’s no room left to be powerful. You are participating in a war—and there are no real winners in war, only casualties.
The third option involves sending negative thoughts into the universe to attack the person who caused you grief. Sending negativity out to someone may feel like the most passive and the least invasive to your own energy. However, think of energy like a boomerang. When you send it out, eventually it will come back. This option, though seemingly less aggressive, can do long-term damage to your power and can weaken your energy. This is the law of the universe—when you intentionally hurt someone with your thoughts you also injure yourself. You unwittingly injure yourself and your own energy, as it will rebound with an even greater force back to you.
Malia came in about five years ago. She was a beautiful spirit who hoped to increase her psychic abilities through training and practice and was willing to put in the time necessary to give it her all. She already had a strong foundation, so we were both excited to get her beyond her beginning level. We agreed to a mentoring program and began working together.
Every week between sessions, I’d give her homework to help her increase her psychic abilities. I’d done this plenty of times with others, so I knew it was a good way to have her practice. But, Malia’s results were not quite what we’d hoped. She seemed to be moving backward and we had to figure out why.
When we had our sessions, Malia connected to her gifts and she excelled at every exercise. This told me we were on the right path and that she had the capability to expand her gifts. This was totally different when she tried to connect on her own. I thought maybe she was not able to stay focused when she was alone, or that she wasn’t trying hard enough because there was no one there to hold her accountable. But, this didn’t really make sense either. So, we had to figure out what was keeping her from advancing.
“Do you feel like you’re connecting to your gifts when you’re with me?” I asked her during our office session.
“Yes! I have no problem with my psychic abilities when I’m here. I just can’t seem to get it together when I’m home,” she replied.
“Are you able to focus? Like, really focus on what you’re doing? Are you being distracted?” I pushed.
“I think so? I mean, usually no one’s even around to distract me. My kids are in school or out of the house and my husband and I are separated. He doesn’t live with us anymore,” she responded, and I detected the slightest bit of irritation.
Now, this made me think. The kids being in school while she was working on increasing her skills was good. But, I felt a nagging thought that there may be a connection with her and her spouse that was causing her a hard time.
“Tell me about your breakup. I don’t mean to be blunt, but I feel like this may have something to do with what’s holding you back. You are naturally gifted, that’s for sure; I would have thought you’d progress much more quickly than you are,” I continued.
I was beginning to realize her block was not something she was even aware of, so I was hopeful to hear what she had to say.
“Well, it’s okay. I mean, I’m pretty much running the show and have total control over what’s happening. Even though my husband was cheating on me, we’ve gotten through it enough that I don’t hate him,” Malia told me.
Aha. Now we were getting somewhere.
“Tell me, when you come in, are you thinking about your husband? What he did or even your living arrangements?”
“Um, no, I don’t think so. I wasn’t thinking about him before you brought it up. Why?”
“And, when you’re home, trying to work on yourself, are you thinking of him?”
“Yes, I guess. I have to construct visitations, a financial plan, and even dates with him, even though I’m still not sure what I want to do. I alternate between being angry at him for breaking up our family and wanting to get back together with him to mend our family. I have some wicked thoughts, that’s for sure, but I’m in control of the situation. Whatever I want to do he’ll do, because I told him he needs to keep it together or we’re definitely done,” she answered.
“That’s it. That’s what’s happening. You just said you’re having some wicked thoughts. That means, and correct me if I’m wrong, that you’re sending some negative energy his way, probably when you’re home alone. When you do this, you get back negativity even stronger. You are also trying to control everything that’s going on, even him, and that’s diminishing your strength. It’s taking away your own personal power, which means you’re not bringing enough to the table when you’re working to bring your psychic gifts to a new level. Rather than increasing your abilities, you are manifesting undesirable energy. Imagine your power like your shield and the negativity is like little arrows that are being shot at it—it’s distracting and it’s weakening your power,” I explained to Malia. “I think this may be the problem!”
After we figured out what was going on, I devised an exercise she could do every time she worked on her own. She was able to increase her gifts after doing this on a regular basis. It’s a simple exercise, but a strong one! That, coupled with the termination of intentionally sending out any bad thoughts toward her husband or anyone else, changed her life.
Exercise
Releasing Negative Energy
to Advance Your Power
Sit somewhere comfortably. Close your eyes. Breathe deeply until you’re relaxed. When you are ready, continue breathing while you imagine holding a wooden box in your left hand. This box is about ten inches square and is light enough to not weigh your hand down. In your right hand there are several black strings reaching away from you. Breathe in again and feel the heaviness of the strings and the lightness of the box.
Now, think of the last time you sent a negative thought toward someone. It doesn’t matter who it was, and it really doesn’t matter why. Imagine that thought as one of the black strings and begin reeling that string in. As you inhale, coil it up and then, on your exhale, release the negative energy and place the string into the wooden box. Move on to the next black string and think of a recent time you felt you needed to be in control, even though it wasn’t necessary. Take back your power by reeling in that string. Place it in the box and blow in positivity as you do. Continue assigning each string to a time you gave away your power in some way, releasing the negativity as you pull them in, and breathing positive energy into the box.
When you are finished, feel how your right hand, previously holding what you put into the universe, has become incredibly light. The box filled with the power you’ve taken back has become weightier, filled now with recycled positive energy. Place your powerful box against your solar plexus. Feel your third chakra spin, balancing out now that you’ve recalled your energy. As you do, notice the box becoming lighter and lighter. You are welcoming the positive energy into your power center. You may feel a vibration growing, getting stronger—this is good! Enjoy the sensation.
Once the box feels almost lighter than air, it’s time for you to take another deep breath and open your eyes. You are stronger now, filled with the power you’ve gotten back, armed with plenty of energy to awaken that power to be used to develop your psychic gifts.
The act of calling back the daggers you’ve sent toward others into the universe and releasing the need to control a person or situation does not negate the original intention. It does, however, change the energy and create a more positive platform for you to work with. When you remove the pessimistic feelings, you create the space to allow your power to reside. This, in turn, helps give you more control than you had before. The illusion you had of being in charge when you were sending out negativity is shattered, and you can begin to awaken and step into your own personal power. You are now allowing for a greater foundation to jump-start your psychic gifts to the next level.
Negative Energy Is Not Always Bad
Negative energy is not always toxic. Positive energy is useful for expansion and moving forward. But negativity can direct you to stay clear from something or someone who may be detrimental to your growth. The negativity that comes from disappointment or even disillusionment can be a gift that keeps you from making a big mistake. Paying attention to all the energy present can lead you to your perfect purpose or your truth.
Negativity can remind you there is something holding you back. It might show up because something feels off or wrong. It can also be your cue to check yourself and any bad vibes at the door. If you find yourself complaining a lot, take a minute to figure out what is bothering you or what is at the core. Remember to always discern whether you are taking on someone else’s energy, especially if you are empathic. You might be experiencing negativity from outside sources. It may also reveal someone who is wishing ill will upon you, which will alert you to their true intentions. If you are feeling negative, it may simply be a reminder to change your direction.
We all experience disappointment when something doesn’t go our way or as planned. When we don’t get what we want or what we expect, it can be hard to get past it. If we don’t get the job we think we need or the boyfriend we have been pining over, there may be a reason for it. Possibly, the job would have prevented us from getting the even better job that was coming in a week. Or going out with the boyfriend would have kept you from meeting and falling in love with your future partner. Thanking the universe and your guides for not getting what we want advances our opportunities for receiving what we need. Recognizing this comforts us in our disappointment and opens the door for more beneficial gifts and possibilities. And, even more important, it’s another link in the psychic chain—helping to connect you to the universal energy and to your guides.
Experiencing something other than positivity can happen because you step out of your comfort zone. This can be difficult and even unpleasant. But it also allows us to grow. As distressing as it may be, it can bring about positive change and help to expand our awareness. It can cause you to proceed in a new way that may be awkward, but can be a perfect opportunity to produce an abundance of gifts that may not have otherwise been there for you.
Another way negativity clues us in to what is going on with us is when we find ourselves in victim mode. “I’m not good enough.” “I don’t deserve it.” “I will never have it.” “I am not worthy of someone’s time or love.” “I am terrible at tuning in using my intuition and I will never get it.” “I am not psychic.” “I don’t have an intuitive bone in my body.” “As spiritual as I try to be, I just can’t do it.” These are all victim statements and they will most definitely hold you back from trying to accomplish whatever it is you are putting yourself down for.
So, now that we know why we should appreciate negativity, and we’ve practiced one exercise to change it, what else can we do? We know we need both positive and negative energy to balance ourselves, so we don’t always want to get rid of negativity. We can’t eradicate it, but we can use it to our advantage by understanding why it is there. And, we can change it. Here are a few ways to essentially turn that frown upside down and get ready for intuitive gifts and challenges to come your way!
Exercise
Manifesting Positive from Negative
To change from negativity to positivity, you must acknowledge where you need to evolve in your intuitive life. What do you need to change or make better? Think of a situation where you feel you don’t deserve to be successful (with your psychic gifts) because you’re not good enough. Focus on that situation. Feel it. Why do you feel you aren’t worthy? Is there a specific reason you feel you are not good enough? Where does the negativity come from?
Challenge it: Let’s challenge that limiting belief right now. If you were successful, what would it bring you? Would that make you happy? Would it be positive? Can you envision yourself being psychically successful?
Change it: Change your perspective on the situation. Can you attain a different outcome if you approach it from a different direction? Do you need to use a different psychic gift? What if you change your environment, what you’re doing, who you’re doing it with, and so on?
Adapt: Maybe you aren’t supposed to be successful at this particular juncture or with this particular situation. Possibly it’s because you are focusing on a specific psychic component when you need to adjust your approach. If you change how you approach the situation (with more love or needing to be successful for a different reason), will you attain a positive outcome?
Let it go: If you still don’t have a positive outcome from a negative beginning, maybe there’s a lesson to be learned. Once you discover what that is, you will be able to move forward and manifest something that is, indeed, better for you!
Manifest it: Instead of coming from the negative position of victim, change it up and come from a positive place of winner! Manifest a positive outcome by asking for it, trusting it can happen, letting it go without trying to control the “how” aspect, and thanking your guides and angels for helping to make it happen. Give yourself weeks or even months and check back to see if what you hoped for has manifested.
One method from this exercise may not work. But, one of the others might. It is smart to try all the different approaches and determine which works for you with each particular situation. Often, the way we expect things to happen is not how they happen at all. This is okay. Expect that. Then, appreciate the negativity that balances out our positivity and helps to keep us grounded.
One Doesn’t Work without the Other
Negative energy and positive energy are both useful. You need the balance. Working to change and adapt negativity to positivity will transform your psychic gifts, bringing you to the next level of development. You can’t talk about energy without discussing chakras, and vice versa. Chakras are a major part of your personal energetic system; they are what feeds our auras (the ethereal energetic layer we can project toward the world) and what allows us to raise our frequency so we can connect to the other side and our intuition. Coming into our power is about raising our own personal energy and discovering how to handle negative and positive situations to our advantage helps to awaken our power. Utilizing all the energetic means to elevate our psychic abilities is a crucial component to move beyond a beginner level. And, you’ll discover just how much you are energetically connected when you raise your vibration.