My topic today is something I've been feeling drawn to share about for a while, and that's on self-esteem from a spiritual point of view.

These are concepts that my spirit guides have shared with me over the years, that I've found incredibly helpful. Since I've benefited so much from this shift in my perspective, I wanted to share it here as well.

Self-esteem is probably something that most people struggle with at some point in their life, especially around their physical appearance. I am no exception to that, and have gone through phases of very low self-esteem in the past, also during my spiritual development.

You may have heard the quote: "We are not physical beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a physical experience."  This essentially just means that we are spirits within bodies. We are not our bodies. We just have bodies in order to experience life. We are actually much more than our bodies. I mean, imagine: if we are spirit, there is probably so much more to us than we can even fathom in our limited physical forms. And as spirit, we are all connected, and we are all facets of the Divine.

No matter what shape or size, your body is the sacred vessel through which your amazing soul experiences life. You are so much more than your body. So questions of whether or not you are beautiful are really irrelevant because you are beyond beautiful. Whether or not you are considered beautiful by society's current standards, you are so much more than your physical body. You are literally the essence of all that is. You are complete perfection.

You are beyond beautiful.

You are beyond worthy.

You are beyond lovable.

I remember one time maybe 10 years ago, when I had begun taking meditation seriously again and was also working on connecting more with my spirit guides, I allowed one of my spirit guides to share my physical body during meditation (not as scary as it sounds). Since he was sharing my space, I could "feel" his thoughts much stronger, and he shared with me the incredible wonder and ecstacy at the feeling of being in a body. I will never forget that feeling of wonderment. And I know that guide shared that with me on purpose, to show me just what a privilege it is to be in a physical body.

I know it's a cliché, but your body really is a temple: it houses your divine spirit. It's a place to worship and pay homage to your spirit. It's something to take deep care of and keep healthy, for your spirit to get the most out of life. It's a place to adorn and beautify however you wish: not to please others, but to please yourself, your divine spirit. It's something to love and accept and cherish, as it helps your spirit experience life in such a miraculous way.

I know some of us feel like we don't truly belong in a body, or are constantly living life a little disconnected from the body, in denial of it or trying to change it into something more acceptable. We miss out on so much when we are in that mode of denial.

Sending you (your divine spirit and its temple) lots of love this week,
Thea

This past weekend I taught the first two days of an animal communication course at Anamchara stables. One of the things I like to tell my students, in any of my classes, is to see themselves as colleagues with everyone else in class. No-one is better than or worse than another. We're all colleagues. Some come to these classes with more experience, but that doesn't mean that those with less experience don't have the same potential for development as the others.

I say this to help people with self-confidence because that is such a big factor in how you approach doing a reading. If you put yourself at the very bottom of a comparison chart, then you're actively self-sabotaging your own readings. But I also say this because I think it is incredibly important to foster a sense of community within this work.

I personally do not believe in competition, in the fields of mediumship or animal communication (or any other spiritual field). However, I have experienced myself when other mediums or animal communicators view me as competition and express that jealousy in destructive ways. I have friends who have gotten some serious shade from others in this field. And I have also experienced myself feeling jealous or threatened by other people who do similar work.

But from doing this work for a few years now, I have come to realize a few things:

1. On one hand, there is no need to worry.
There really is no shortage of people on the other side wanting to connect to their loved ones. Or people who want help connecting to their animals. Or people who want guidance. Truly, there is plenty to go around. Just think about the statistics. How many people go through loss in their life and would like closure? And then consider that maybe half those people are open to receiving closure and healing through a mediumship session. That's still many many more people than there are mediums out there.

2. The right people will be drawn to me. The wrong people won't. That's OK. It's actually ideal.
That there are a lot of people who offer similar services to you is actually a good thing. Firstly, because more people can be helped. Secondly, because even if you happen to offer the same services that someone else does, what you offer in your sessions is probably not an exact copy. You and your services are likely totally unique, because you are totally unique. You have your own unique combination of experiences and teachings that you've accumulated and that you draw on in your sessions. No body can truly emulate you.

And that also means that you are probably not the right fit for many people out there, just as I am not the right fit for many people out there. I am glad that there are others out there offering similar services to what I do, because that means that we can each focus on the groups of people that we can actually be of service to and not those who our breath would be wasted on.

I also trust that what is meant for me is mine. I know the universe has a way of bringing the right people to me when the time is right.

3. On the other hand, it's important to be considerate of others.
Even if there's technically enough clients and people to go around, it's still nice to be considerate of another person's territory or work. This means generally not "setting up shop" right on top of another person if you offer the same things that they do. Not stealing a person's work, like taking their materials and offering the same class yourself. Have healthy respect for others and what they do. If you teach a class, and you've included some teachings that are specifically from people you've studied with, maybe credit them!

4. Jealousy is not just jealousy.
When we are jealous of someone or judgemental of them, it's usually because that person is embodying and owning something that we haven't fully owned in ourselves yet (or that we haven't allowed ourselves to own). For example, years ago I used to judge and feel jealous of a woman who worked as a spiritual teacher who also was adding a lot of intuition to her services. I was judgy and jealous because she was fully out of the "woo-woo" closet and owning her gift, when I hadn't yet allowed myself to do that. It was something I deeply yearned to do, but hadn't felt like I could yet. Luckily I recognized that, and in the end it was part of what pushed me into fully owning that for myself.

My suggestion would be to drop your guard a little. Open up, and see if you can learn something from this person that you would normally view as competition. I personally think making friends who are also mediums or animal communicators or psychics has been the best thing about this work. Some of my closest friends do a lot of the same work as I do. It means that I have people I can talk to who completely understand me. It also means I also have a list of trusted practitioners that I can refer clients to if they're not a good fit with me.

Here's to making many more friends and contacts, and helping each other out.

Hello everyone!

I've recently been doing a lot of group readings, so I thought I would share a little bit about what it's like for a medium to do readings for a bigger group of people.

When I do readings for an audience or group, I stand at the front and open myself up to connect to the group's loved ones on the other side. I might begin to feel many different spirits step forward all at once, so I'll look for the "strongest", most prominent, energy to focus on first. Spirits who had a very outgoing energy or dominant energy in life still have that personality on the other side, and so they are usually the "loudest" of the energies and will often come through first. They might pave the way for someone in the family who is more reserved or quiet to step forward as well.

At the audience readings I do monthly, there are usually three of us mediums, so the spirits might arrange themselves to come through the mediums that suite them best. We all have different personalities and personal references that might make it easier or harder for a spirit to communicate through us.

In a group of 30+ people, they all have several loved ones on the other side. That makes for at least 60-90 spirits who would like the chance to come through. Sometimes that means several spirits will actively talk over each other and try to come through at the same time.

Spirits who have a lot in common might team up and come through all at once, so that more people can get a reading. Like at our last audience reading, 3 or 4 mother figures who had a lot in common came through at the same time. They brought up the information that was relevant to all or most of them, and then they also split and brought up information that was specific to each person and to each recipient.

It's a very different way of working with spirit and one that has taken me some practice to really feel like I've gotten the hang of it. I often feel like I am juggling spirits. Sometimes that's how it feels in one-on-one readings as well, but it's not even close to the same amount of spirits. It takes some practice to be able to discern when several spirits are coming through at the same time, rather than automatically assuming you aren't connecting right or you're wrong. It takes a lot more trust in spirit. 

It also takes an engaged audience. We need the audience to tell us if they think they connect with the spirit coming through, so that we're able to let the spirit step forward even more. If not, then we might have a hard time moving on, because the spirit keeps insisting on the information but no one is raising their hand to take it. Or the reading slows down because it makes us mediums begin to doubt ourselves.

I remember the first proper big audience reading I did, I was connecting to a big male spirit, and as I shared the information he was giving me, only one person in the audience raised their hand and could only sort of take the information. I thought that was OK, and tried to move on but I kept getting information from this Spirit, and no one was raising their hand for it. It came to the end of my turn, so I sat down and let the two other mediums work. In the middle of the last medium's turn, all of a sudden two women in the back spoke up and said "I'm sorry, but we can take the big male spirit that Thea connected to before, and every piece of information that came through after that". They hadn't raised their hand because they didn't really want to talk to that spirit, and as the reading went on it felt too late to raise their hand.

They apologized sincerely after the event, but at the time of doing the actual reading I was sweating bullets and I just wasn't able to move on to a different spirit for someone else because this spirit kept insisting he was right (which he was).

Then we have the issue of sudden amnesia hitting people as they sit in the audience. People are put on the spot when their loved ones come through, and they all of a sudden forget their own name and everything else about themselves and their loved ones.

And then of course we have the fact that sometimes the audience member just doesn't know anything about what the spirit brings up. I've had spirits blow surprise trips and out family members that have begun smoking again (the recipients of the readings emailing me to tell me about it long after the reading).

Every group is different. Some spirits are better at communicating than others which also affects the readings. And some spirits and I get along really well and makes the reading a breeze.

Even though reading for a group can be confusing sometimes, it can also feel amazing to the medium. It's the absolute best experience to have a responsive audience and some amazing spirits who have a good handle on communicating. Having a large audience can also feel really invigorating to the medium because everyone's energy adds to the energy that the medium works with.

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This weekend I am teaching another full Animal Communication class at some gorgeous stables, in addition to some wonderful readings coming up. Last Friday I also did another Facebook live with free mini-readings on my business page: www.facebook.com/theahealer   and I plan on doing more there going forward (follow me on FB to be notified about when I go live).

I hope you all have a great rest of your week!