​Lets talk about "Talent" in connection to psychic or mediumship development for a minute.

Talent is not some kind of magical fairy dust that some people were born with, and others not. Talent comes from having a certain understanding of something, that makes it easier for that person to get out of their own way and align with how readings work.  That understanding is built off of that person's experiences and point of view. Some people's experiences and point of view make it easier for them to understand how readings work and how to align themselves with the energy and get out of their own way. Some people's experiences make it more of a trek to get out of their own way and align with how readings work. It might take them more effort, but it doesn't mean that they can't be just as successful as the first person.  

The reason I want to talk about this is because developing psychics and mediums often get tripped up by their own limiting beliefs about talent. They stop themselves from developing because they are worried about not being talented enough. Or they get tripped up by the possibility that it isn't their "destiny" to become a reader, or worried that they were not born with the special "ingredient" for them to become a psychic or medium. 

These concepts and ideas of "specialness" aren't helpful and are often the biggest hurdles for students to cross. Our low self-esteem clings to these ideas, as a way to keep us from failing. To keep us from trying something new. To keep us from any disappointment of pursuing something we like and it not working out. That our desires will fail us and cause us more pain.

The truth of the matter, is that if you have a genuine interest and feel truly drawn in this direction, that is a good sign that this is the direction for you, whether or not that means you end up as a full-time psychic, or it ends up being part of a different journey for you. 

Of course, you can't half-ass your way through your development. It can be a bumpy ride. It's not necessarily for the faint of heart. But true desire matters more than any talent/"destiny"/secret ingredient.

Doing readings is a special kind of job, because it is often high pressure: in that you are dealing with people's grief if you're a medium, you're dealing with people's life choices if you're a psychic, if you're an animal communicator you are speaking on behalf of the animal which is a huge responsibility.

So in addition to all that pressure, we also have this idea of psychics/mediums/intuitives in popular media that if you are the real deal, you should be able to know everything about everything all the time. So even those of us who do know that this idea isn't true or realistic, we know a psychic isn't always going to be 100% right about everything, We STILL have this subconscious belief and expectation of ourselves to be 100% right on all the time.

Then add to that that there's no real way of preparing for a specific reading, because every reading is unique. There is no way for our logical brains to know what a reading is going be like beforehand, and so naturally our brains freak out.

Add to that, that it can be hard to trust the information coming through as a reader because it can feel so similar to your brain making things up.

So we have this wonderful mix of high pressure, unrealistic expectations, no way to prepare and no idea of what to expect, and a system of reading that requires us to trust information that feels extremely similar to our own imaginations. If you're just a normal person with average self esteem and no anxiety, this can still be a lot. For people with low self confidence and anxiety, this can be overwhelming.

So what often happens is we approach readings with the intention of just not failing. I call what happens the "fear of failure cycle". This is where we will approach a reading with the intention of not failing, and so we hold ourselves back and play it safe in the reading, which inevitably causes our reading to be partially or fully off, which then causes us to think we are unreliable, that our abilities are unreliable, and that the energy we are connecting to is unreliable. That causes us to hold ourselves back in our readings even more. We then think we need to practice more. When in reality it’s just you holding yourself back that started this whole cycle, and what you really need to do is approach your confidence in a different way, so that you are not holding yourself back during a reading, and that is what I guide people through in my course.

The more you can release that fear of failure, the more you can step into confidence, the more you can then give yourself to your connection to whatever it is that you're reading whether that be a spirit, or the client's energy, whatever it is, the more you can give yourself to that connection, then the better the reading will actually be and the better you can serve others.
The less confident you are, the more you hold yourself back, the worse of a connection you get, and the worse the reading is.

This is how confidence plays a huge role in our readings.

People often think that if they can first improve the quality and accuracy of their readings, THEN they will be confident. But in my experience, if you work on a solid foundation of confidence (in addition to practice), then that is going to improve your accuracy and connection.

This is the topic we go deeper into in my course "Courage & Clairs - Confidence-training for the Intuitive Reader"

As readers, so much of a reading is guided by what we believe is possible. We might have expectations, ideas of what the reading is going to be like, or how it would look if it's successful. But often those ideas get in the way of what would be truly transformational for the client. It makes you fight the flow of energy and information, and not let through everything that wants to come through. The more we try to control the reading, the more it constricts the energy of it, and the more our brain gets involved.

A good spiritual practice before doing readings is to remind yourself to soften your heart, soften your mind, and open up to anything and everything that needs to come through, even if it doesn't match your ideas of what a reading "should look like". Release your own ideas, in order to allow through the best reading possible.

A reading is also guided by what we believe is possible for us to bring through. Or ideas of how accurate we can be (which for many of us, we don't believe we can be all that accurate). Not believing in yourself constricts a reading.

Another good spiritual practice before doing readings is to remind yourself to release your ideas of who you are & what's possible for you, and shift into seeing yourself as the infinite spirit that you truly are. Infinite spirit = anything is possible.

This is why I focus so much on mindset in my course "Courage & Clairs - confidence training for the intuitive reader", to stop readers from constricting the reading so much, and instead allow through a reading experience that is ultimately better than we can understand.

Soften your heart (open your heart), soften your mind (open your mind), allow yourself to expand.