Anna Sayce

Author: Anna

  • Psychic Troubleshooting – 4 Reasons You’re Not Getting The Guidance You Want

    Psychic Troubleshooting – 4 Reasons You’re Not Getting The Guidance You Want

    Below is an email I sent out to my Intuitive Awakening Course students this week. I felt inspired to post it here too as it might be useful for those who are in the habit of getting guidance from their spirit, angels or guides.

    When You Don’t Get An Answer

    We don’t always get the answers we want, when we tune in for guidance. But it doesn’t mean we suck at getting answers. There are perfectly good reasons for it (4 of them actually, which I’m going to talk about in this article.) It happens to me occasionally as well. Sometimes it doesn’t matter how good you are at channeling guidance.

    I thought it was important to talk about why this might happen, mainly because it’s not a nice feeling when you lose faith in your ability to channel the information you need.

    You don’t need to lose faith, but you just need to wise up to what it might mean when there is a silence.

    Now for a nice metaphor.

    Intuition is like a lighthouse…

    It can help to guide you in the right direction so that you’re not just floating around on the ocean going nowhere.

    But sometimes the lighthouse gets switched off purposely.

    Some people think that intuition is the tool that gets you whatever you want in life and you need to develop it so that you can have whatever you want.

    That’s not always true.  Intuition guides you on YOUR unique path of what is right for you at this time. That means, what you need (+ sometimes what you want – BUT not always what you consciously want! – I discuss this in chapter eight of my Intuitive Awakening Course.)

    Anyway back to why the ‘lighthouse’ purposely gets switched off at times.  Here are four reasons why that might happen:

    1. The thing you want guidance on is not in alignment with your Higher self (i.e. it’s a dead end road)

    Let’s say that you have just been laid off from your job.  You have two options in front of you.  The first one is to retrain in another career path. The second option is to get a job similar to the one you had before.  You choose to get another job that is similar to the one you were laid off from. It’s been a few weeks and you’re finding it difficult to get another job. You ask for divine help and guidance so you can find that job that is out there for you.

    And you get none.  It’s like a closed door.

    The reason for this could be because it’s not on your path to go back to the job you left. Maybe the job didn’t help you to grow – there was nothing more for you to learn on that path.  You would have stagnated even more.  Getting laid off did you a favour and was a door closing behind you, but you’re still knocking on that door, asking for it to be opened again. Obviously when you’re in that situation, it can be hard to realize this. But when you do ask for guidance and divine help, check that the thing you’re wanting is on your path and in alignment with your soul’s purpose (checking with a pendulum is one way to do this, but if you don’t have a pendulum, just sitting quietly and asking for an answer to this question can work too.)  If you’re feeling like what you’re trying to achieve is a real chore and that’s why you want guidance around it, could it be it’s just not on your path and maybe it’s time for something different?

    Now onto the second reason why you may not be getting any answers.

    2. You’re outsourcing your life to your Spirit Guides.

    I have known people who go as far as to consult with their pendulum before they decide what to have for breakfast.  Should I have porridge or muesli today? 🙂

    Seriously, though, a couple of years ago, after being in the habit of consulting with my Spirit Guides too often about mundane matters, I realized that sometimes it’s totally appropriate for us to figure things out as humans, both when it comes to our breakfast, and occasionally even for bigger things. It doesn’t always serve us to have the answers we want right now and it’s good to make room for that possibility so that we don’t get disappointed.  I think it’s also good to know when to ‘back off’ and stop searching for answers. That may be the case especially if we’re not getting any answers.

    If you want guidance and you’re not getting any, you could ask spirit “Does it serve me to have the answer to this right now?”

    Trust that spirit will alert you when there is something you really need to know!

    Onto the next reason…

    3. You forgot your role in making things happen

    When you ask for guidance or answers, sometimes you can expect to be given things to do.  If you get ideas popping into your mind from nowhere, and you ignore them because you thought the answer might be simpler/easier, then you might have just ignored a big old pointer.

    Spirit points to the path and you have to walk down it. This is why it’s important to heed the guidance you get, whether it’s guidance that you personally received, or that you got in a reading (providing it resonates with you, of course!) Obviously spirit doesn’t do the walking part for us (although it would be great if that were the case).  So if you’re not getting any answers, ask yourself if you’re ignoring the answers you have got because you’re not 100% willing or ready to take action on what you want?

    Sometimes just realizing that you’ve been evading your role in making things happen, can spur you into action towards what you want, because you realize you already know what to do.

    4. Your answer is right in front of your nose, but you don’t like it

    Sometimes we want to know something, but we only want the answer we want.  For example, in the past, I have wanted to know if I was in the right relationship and the silence was deafening.  The evidence that I was in the wrong relationship was hitting me in the face (in my life) I just needed to acknowledge it.

    Could it be you’re getting nothing because you already know the answer, but you’re not letting it in?

    The message of this article is — when you’re not getting the answers you want, you don’t need to get disheartened, but it is a good idea to use your intuition to find out why, and then act accordingly!

    I hope you found this post helpful in some way.

    Leave me a reply if you have any comments or questions.

    PS – have you been thinking of doing my 13-week Intuitive Awakening Course? I wanted to make it more accessible to those who want to do it, so there is now the option to pay in three installments. You’ll get 4 chapters of the written and audio lessons once a month for 3 months, plus the bonus lesson and access to the Intuitive Awakening forum, exclusively for students where you can get support and advice on your psychic development questions. You can find out more about it here.

  • How Your Personality Flaws Point To Your Soul Gifts

    How Your Personality Flaws Point To Your Soul Gifts

    Today I was waiting for an appliance repairs company to drop off my washing machine.  (I know this sounds like I’m going to tell you an incredibly boring story, but bear with me! I promise it gets more interesting… 🙂 )

    Since I moved into my new apartment in June, my washing machine has broken a total of three times and I have dealt with the same repair company the whole time.  Because it has broken so often, and I have to ring up and arrange for it to be picked up for repair, I’m now quite familiar with the receptionists who work at this company.

    There are three or four receptionists at this company. One of them, I’m going to call her Debbie, always gives really good customer service, head and shoulders above the others. I can just tell she cares about customers.  I’m a tenant, and so I’m not even the one who’s paying for the service (my landlady is), but that doesn’t matter to Debbie. She’s polite, helpful and just nice.

    Today, the washing machine repair men came round to drop off the washing machine. I left them alone in the room to install it.

    As they were working, I overheard them moaning about their co-worker Debbie.  Apparently she’s too sensitive; too nice; takes it personally when people complain; not cut out for the job of being a receptionist.

    How interesting, I thought.  I don’t know what Debbie did to annoy them, but as a customer I thought Debbie was great.

    Then I remembered that a weakness and a soul gift are two extremes on the same continuum. What does that mean? Let me explain.

    The Two Sides Of The Same Coin

    Debbie probably IS sensitive.  That’s why she is nice to people.  She’s tuned into what people need. She’s not one of those hard-nosed shop assistants who gives you terrible service and then doesn’t give a monkey’s when you complain. It gets to her when people are unhappy.  She probably wants to make it right.

    Yet, those men perceived that strength as a weakness. Maybe Debbie’s dedication to customer service is inconvenient for her co-workers who don’t care about pleasing customers. Soul gifts can definitely be viewed as weaknesses or strengths, depending on who’s doing the viewing and in what context.

    Let me give you a similar example in my own life.

    Sensitivity and Empathy – Weakness or Strength?

    One of my biggest challenges in life has been my sensitivity.  As a child, I was told I was “too sensitive”.  I struggled with my overactive empathy for much of my life too.  This made me an introvert, I disliked crowds and liked being alone, especially in nature.  That way I wouldn’t soak up other peoples’ vibes.

    Yet now I make a living from my sensitivity and empathy as a professional intuitive. People stopped telling me that I should get rid of it a long time ago and now it’s seen as a gift – NOT a problem – as long as I learn to use it in the right context.

    It all depends on what you do with the ‘personality flaw’, that matters.

    Want Some More Examples?

    Here are some traits that are gifts, which also have downsides.

    The Soul Gift of Self-Expression

    Some people are naturally quiet. On the other hand, some people were born with the urge and desire to express themselves verbally.  They have to.  It’s painful for them not to do it.

    The upside?  They are great writers, great speakers, and great teachers.

    The downside? They sometimes don’t shut up.  And they want an audience – no, need an audience!  If they don’t have one, they might even treat you as their audience, even though you aren’t interested in their latest hobby horse, like their new tropical fish aquarium.  If they don’t express this big desire for self-expression in a way that honours what other people want to hear, they can be the ones that you try to get away from at parties.

    That’s an example of a gift that’s become a burden through not being expressed in the appropriate context.

    The Soul Gift of Healing and Helping

    Have you ever been in a dysfunctional relationship where you desperately wanted to rescue the other person? Do people often tell you that you’re too good and too kind?

    This is the downside of the healing gift, where you have the soul urge to help others to heal and improve their experience. If you’re not expressing it, it can rear its head in dysfunctional ways – like wanting to fix the people around you and giving too much. Expressed in a healthy way, you could be in a healing or helping profession or as a volunteer of some sort.

    Empathy

    Overwhelmed by your empathy? Feeling the strain of taking on too much energy from other people?

    Yes, this sucks. It makes you sensitive and other people might also see you as neurotic.

    On the upside, you were born with the ability to experience what life is like for another person. You make a great mediator because you can see two sides of a story and can switch your point of view easily. Take John Gray, the author of the book: Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus.

    Gray has the gift of empathy and using this gift, he has been able to clarify how some men and women experience their relationships. This man has brought a lot of healing to peoples’ relationships simply because he can help them to understand each other.

    Empathy heals and builds bridges to other peoples’ experience. If you have this gift, part of your soul purpose will be to build those bridges on this planet so that we can understand each other better. It’s a fantastic gift, as well as a burden.

    Want more?

    Here are some more traits…

    Perfectionism – to some degree this helps to keep standards high (which is a good thing) and often brings a certain attention to detail. The downside is paralysis and procrastination.

    Can you never finish a project or follow through? – maybe you’re a creator – someone who is good at starting projects and coming up with ideas.  When you’re done thinking up ideas, you need someone to take the project and run with it.

    Are you often accused of speaking your mind too directly and sometimes tactlessly? – these people often have high integrity and a dedication to seek (and speak) the truth.  This is the upside.

    Try this exercise

    I invite you to write out a list of your top five weaknesses. What do you feel insecure about? What have people criticized you for in the past? What are the issues you’ve been trying to solve? See if you can find the upsides of having those ‘weaknesses’.  Where has that weakness served you in the past?

    If you can’t see the upside to your weakness, try posting them in the comments and I’ll see if I can find an upside.

    Here are mine:

    • Too empathic (good for my work)
    • Need lots of alone time (when I get plenty of alone time, I think, and write and then I produce articles for this website.)
    • Too perfectionist (have been told in the past by employers and clients that my work is of a high standard – I hope so 🙂 )
    • A past tendency to rescue other people and to try to improve their lives for them – (This is now channelled into doing healing work with others.)

    Yes, all of these can become flaws when taken to extremes, or expressed in the wrong context. But, many of these weaknesses I have built my career around. Strengths and weaknesses are just two ends of the same continuum, depending on how you express them, and how they are viewed by other people.

    What about you? Did you recognize any of the soul gifts and personality flaws in this article?

    Why not try the exercise above and post yours in the comments for us to see. Let’s celebrate our ‘weaknesses’!

    PS – If you want more on life purpose, and soul gifts, I recorded this podcast with Alex Wu a few months ago on the topic of life purpose and our weaknesses pointing to our strengths. You can listen to it here.

  • Life Is Not Such A Bitch After All

    Life Is Not Such A Bitch After All

    Several weeks ago, I recorded a podcast with intuitive counsellor Alex Wu.

    It was a podcast about careers and life purpose.  In that podcast, while Alex and I were talking, I surprised myself with a realization.  (Maybe this realization had been percolating for a while, or maybe it had been popped in there from somewhere else a while back without me realizing.)

    It was this: what you see as your biggest weaknesses are nine times out of ten pointers to your strengths – things that other people value in you, and that you might even build a career around. (If this sounds like crazy talk, go and listen to the podcast to see what I mean – it’s 18 mins into it.)

    This was such a revolutionary realization for me to have at the time.

    Why?

    The fact is, our society (Western? mainstream? Consumerist?) tells us that we are not enough.

    Comparing ourselves to others is rife.  We do that because we are taught to.  So that we will buy the anti-wrinkle cream, or the weight loss drinks or the facelift, or the fancy car.

    We are automatically trained to see our failings, so that we will go out and buy something that will make us feel better.  Some marketers try to highlight our failings and appeal to our needs and desires to be better, to feel better.

    We are taught that we do not have enough.  We aren’t enough.  We can’t get enough.

    We must strive harder.

    We must set goals, seek abundance and a meaningful relationship.  We must know what our dreams are, we must try to achieve them.  Life needs to be ‘sorted’ on the outside.

    This belief has been exacerbated by New-Age abundance teachings. This belief that came from the Law of attraction teachings via Abraham Hicks (“everything you want is in your escrow”) and ‘the Secret’ (“If you can dream it, you can achieve it”). Although visualization can be a powerful tool, it is ludicrous to think that everyone can think and visualize themselves out of poverty and misfortune. If you have lost someone or something dear to you, it’s natural that life is going to be crappy for a while. Or if you live in the third world, that’s not going to apply to you. It’s so abundantly clear to me that not everyone is on the same path through life. To say that we can all feel good, all the time is one of the biggest delusions of some of the New-Age teachings I used to ascribe to.

    Life doesn’t owe us what we want. Evidently the only thing we are owed is what we get (whether we create that ourselves or whether life throws it at us).

    Sometimes we have no idea what is coming to us (what is ‘in our escrow’.)  Everyone’s path is different.  Our birthright is not unlimited riches, a loving relationship that lasts a lifetime, perfect health and beauty.  It may be, but everyone has a different path.

    Our birthright is the experiences and learnings we get from what we go through – both fantastic and disastrous.

    My personal journey is definitely not one of being sorted on the outside, materially – as much as I’ve struggled for it to be. Outside circumstances that life sent me governed what happened for the large part.

    Over the last seven years, I have suffered through believing that life should be better. That life is usually good, if we try hard. I thought, I need to sort my life out and get a better one – more income, a loving partner, clearer skin; a stable home and family, more friends in this country, more hobbies.  I bought countless self-help courses and books that helped me to do these things. I learned lots of interesting ideas but I don’t know if I got any further towards what I wanted.

    This week that belief that life should be better broke down. Quietly. Not in a “I’ve been working on this belief and I managed to eliminate it” kind of way, or in a blazing a-ha experience, but just in a moment of quiet grace that I didn’t notice until later, when I stopped struggling so hard.

    Let me tell you a bit about how hard I struggled with this belief. Hopefully it isn’t too boring, I aim for there to be an interesting lesson at the end.

    My Story

    I always believed that I was wronged by life in a number of ways, as ridiculous and self-pitying as it sounds.

    When I was 19, five of my closest family members felt the need to leave the UK, my country of origin and emigrate to New Zealand (there is a whole story in the reason why that I won’t go into here.) All members of my family were eligible for residency except me because of a joint condition I had when I was little.  I needed to be checked out in a London hospital and because my mother was turning 45 (and would soon no longer be eligible for residency either), there was not enough time for this to happen. They needed to make a choice about going or staying.  They went, and left me behind.  I was 19, at university at the time and not much thought was put into the consequences of not being allowed to live in the same country as my family anymore. We thought I would find a way to emigrate there too, later on. And in the meantime, tough cookie.

    I soon realized what the consequences were.  Homesickness, even while I was in the country I was born in. I fell apart at university and there are friends I haven’t thanked enough for being there for me at that time.

    In the year after they left, big changes happened in my family, relationships broke down, and I was away.  Financial resources were not available and I went for long periods away from my family.  I became estranged from beloved family members temporarily.  Bad things happened.  Grief and distance set in.

    I spent several years wandering in an aimless way, trying to find home, believing it was far away from my family who had caused me pain, the bastards.  I looked for someone to create a home with and desperately picked some – any – thoroughly unsuitable types to try to build a home with (obviously not all at once).  Relationships broke down. Again. And again.

    Later on, I realized where home was, that last horrible time I ran away to another country to get away from family.

    It was in New Zealand.

    But after all this time, I still wasn’t eligible to stay here long term.

    I wasn’t eligible to get residency through my family (it’s complicated – I have one sibling back in the UK who will not settle here, and you need all family members in New Zealand to qualify for residency.)

    I wasn’t eligible through my work (I’m self-employed and running a spiritual website is not a skill shortage.)

    I wasn’t even eligible if I dropped full-time self-employment and trained as an English teacher to foreigners (which I did – it’s my secondary career, after this website.)  I thought I was eligible, but experience has taught me that it’s totally unrealistic in that industry, to get the kind of contract and work conditions I will need for my residency.

    Then, it seemed the only option left is to train as a secondary school teacher.  One year’s training, a huge amount of money.

    Only now it seems that to train as a secondary school teacher, I need two subjects to teach in a high school and I only studied one at University – international languages (French and Spanish). So either I go back to university for another four years, or I forget the whole thing.

    Why I am recounting this long story of what I need to do in my life to get to where I want to be?

    Why should you care – after all, tons of people have been through much, much worse.

    The Point…

    But what made me suffer was the following thought:

    Why was life making it so hard for me to have what I wanted, after all the grief this had caused me in my early twenties?  Why were some people I know thriving, emotionally, financially, settling in one place, while I was being challenged financially, emotionally, from all the moving, the drained finances, the lack of momentum, the unsettledness, the qualifications I needed to get, the visas, the medicals, the frustration of feeling thwarted at every turn?

    It was so unfair.  Life was a bitch.

    Yes, this is self-centred, egoic ranting.  Of course, my life is not bad.  There are probably millions of people in this world who would swap places with me in a second.

    The fact is, life owes me nothing.

    Life owes me nothing that I want.

    Isn’t this so hard to swallow?

    What You Need

    Sometimes what I want right now is evidently not what life thinks I need to experience.

    I believe this goes for all of us. Often in healing sessions I get told about the treasures and gifts that come from the client walking their unique path – the one they’re desperately trying to fix or change and have been for a while.  The healing that comes from this can be incredible.

    The thing that makes us think that we are owed something, or that we need to change something, is when we look at what others have. We use it as a benchmark for what we should have, then we feel cheated when we don’t have it.

    Our society needs us to feel cheated, and to want, to feel like we’re underachieving, because it’s good for selling stuff.

    Consider this:

    Maybe for now your path is not to be settled (like me).

    Maybe for now your business isn’t going to make six figures in its first two years, or in five years, like other people you know.

    Maybe for now your path is not to be slim (or film-star beautiful.)

    Maybe you will struggle to get residency in a country for years (even when you’re well qualified in a profession and a good citizen) while someone else who has a criminal record gets in straight away.

    Maybe for now your path is not to have perfect health.

    I don’t have that, and no matter what I do, I can’t seem to get it either. Does that make me a new-age under-achiever?

    I am not saying we should set the bar low in life.  I’m not saying we should never strive for what we truly want.

    But I am saying that sometimes we struggle so hard, and are so attached to the idea that life owes us something, that we do not see or discover what we have been given.

    In my moment of quiet acceptance, I realized the abundance that had been given to me in the events of the last several years.  My soul had given me what I needed, not what I wanted.

    In not getting residency straight away, I was forced to stop working as a full-time psychic and teach languages.  At first, this pissed me off.

    Then I started teaching English to foreigners and I fell in love with that career all over again. It made life richer. I loved the foreign students I taught.  I got to travel every day to other cultures through them, without leaving this country.  I heard stories, I met wonderful people; my mind was opened.  Especially after spending two years in front of a computer screen, building this website.  I loved the personal contact, I was revitalized and refreshed.  It was such a gift I was given that I would never have chosen for myself otherwise.

    Another benefit of my family leaving when I was 19, was that I went wandering like a gypsy and lived a great deal.  I have many stories to tell and lots of things to write about here.  I spent a lot of time abroad and working out the world, by making mistakes.  I had a lot of relationships.  I learned a lot about people and about other ways of living.  I learned how to rely on myself.

    The Realization

    At the heart of many healing traditions is seeing the good.  At the heart of many spiritual paths is accepting where we are and the limitations of what life sends us. Then moving through it.  When we accept the path we’re on, instead of trying to change it all the time, we begin to see the treasures that our souls send us through our experiences and that has transformative power.

    That is true abundance.  Seeing the good.

    Even in the midst of what looks like a disaster.

    Then maybe change can happen, following acceptance.  Or maybe it won’t.

    If there’s one thing I’ve learned through talking with souls in readings, it’s that no two souls are walking the same path.  Life only seems like a bitch when you think you should be walking another path.

    I may have over-shared in this article.  Revealing my path in such a personal way is the only way I have of sharing this lesson and I didn’t do it lightly.  I don’t claim to have fully learned it, even.  So please be kind in the comments, even if you disagree. Tell me about your experiences with this. I would love to hear them.

  • Cord-Cutting As A Technique To Improve Relationships (And Your Emotional Health)

    Cord-Cutting As A Technique To Improve Relationships (And Your Emotional Health)

    In this article, I want to address some of the most common questions people have about negative energetic cords.

    In case you don’t know what a cord, I’ll start with that.

    What is a cord?

    When you establish a significant relationship with someone (of any kind), you form an energetic cord with that person, which contains all the negative patterns and dynamics of your relationship. You contribute negative patterns into that cord, and the other person does too.

    Those patterns of emotion, thought and behaviour circulate in the cord – it is connected to your aura, so the energies enter your aura continuously and affect you subconsciously in a variety of ways. Cords don’t just drain your energy.  They send negative patterns back and forth between you both, and into your aura.  Traumas can circulate in them, leaving you feeling haunted by them (for want of a better word).  They can also cause you to choose relationships and experiences that you wouldn’t otherwise because they predispose you to act in a certain way.

    What happens when you cut a cord?

    When you cut a negative cord, you are cleansing the negative behavioural, emotional and mental patterns that circulate between you and the other person.  If the cordee is still alive, then your relationship can improve as a result.

    If the cordee is dead or you are not in contact, then it becomes a lot easier to put the negative aspects (and thoughts) of that particular relationship behind you.

    Which cords do you recommend I cut?

    We don’t form negative cords with everyone we come into contact with.  And I will always check before we cut a cord that it’s one worth cutting.

    But here are the relationships that usually have a lot of impact when you cut a cord to that person:

    • Cutting cords to close relatives, such as parents, children or siblings can make a significant impact on your emotions.
    • When you have a cord to someone close to you who has (or has had) an addiction, it can really help to cut the cord to that relationship.
    • Cutting cords to abusers and bullies can be impactful
    • Cutting cords to someone you’ve had a difficult break up with can also be helpful.
    • Cutting cords to a current spouse or partner can be helpful too, especially if you are having difficulties in the relationship.

    So we don’t form cords with everyone that we come into contact with?

    No. We tend to have significant cords with family members. We also create cords when we become interested in a person, whether that is romantic or as a friend.

    Why do we even form cords with people?

    Negative patterns help us to grow and evolve as we strive to move beyond them. This is why I believe we form these negative  cords – as they contain the negative patterns of a relationship and in dealing with those aspects we expand and grow, as human and spiritual beings.

    When I was studying spiritual healing, I was also taught that we have a percentage of negative and a percentage of positive lessons in a relationship with someone.  The positive experiences are reflected in the tie of unconditional love and the negative lessons form an energetic structure too. If you process those negative lessons and take the learning from them, you can remove the negative connection and change how you feel about it.

    Can you feel if someone cuts an energy cord to you?

    When you cut a cord, you are cutting the cord on your end only, and the person you cut the cord with will not feel it.

    Why does it take 45-60 minutes to cut one cord? Can’t you just cut all your cords in a few minutes and be done with it?

    Sometimes healers think that you can just ask Archangel Michael to cut a cord (or all your cords) and it will be so.  Or you can just visualize the cord-cutting happening and that will do it.

    I was taught to cut cords in this way the first time I tried it.  It didn’t work, because you have to understand the energies, patterns and dynamics contained within the cord, in order to cut it.

    If you just ask Archangel Michael to cut all your cords, the cord won’t be cut. Instead, you will actually be cutting all your psychic ties, which is a more minor type of energetic structure.

    Do you ever need to cut a cord a second time?

    No, you only cut a cord once, and when you do it properly, it never comes back.

    Does cord-cutting affect the other person?

    No. It can only change your energy field and emotions.  It doesn’t impact on the other person because they have their own free will.

    Can cords be removed in other ways?

    You can reduce the negative effects of cord energies by doing EFT, or other therapies that work on the psychological level.  Personally, I have found that this form of spiritual healing is one of the most effective types of healing for relationships.

    I am thinking of cutting a cord to someone, but I’m not sure who – can you recommend someone in a session?

    By all means. If you give me a list of people that you’d like to cut cords with, I will check to see if any of them are significant enough to cut.

    Do you need to believe in cord-cutting for it to work?

    No. Although this modality will suit you more if you are a spiritual person because we will be healing your energy body and chakras. If we don’t speak the same language (so to speak) then it will be harder to do the session.

    Is it recommended to cut cords to someone you want to be with or remain married to?

    Yes, – I often cut this type of cord for clients.

    Does the cord-cutting change the relationship?

    It can change how you feel and behave in positive ways. But it won’t necessarily turn an abusive or negative relationship into a good one. In those situations, it can help you to find more power to advocate for yourself and stand your ground, or end the relationship.

    Are there some cords that are not worth cutting?

    Yes – some cords are so small that they aren’t worth cutting.  We also have tiny psychic ties to people.  I always remove those after sessions. Those are not the same as cords (see above.)

    You can find out more about my cord-cutting program here.

  • Past Life Reincarnation

    Past Life Reincarnation

    I got onto my path of training as a professional intuitive partly because I was looking for information on possible past life memories. I have always been incredibly curious about the topic of past life reincarnation.

    My Past Life Reincarnation Story

    About four or five years ago, I was still living in the UK and I went to visit my mother in New Zealand. We both went to visit a psychic there (the one and only time my mum has ever visited a psychic!) As for me, it was the second psychic reading I had had.

    At one point, I asked the psychic about my past lives. She told me that she saw many past lives behind me, but the most important one that I needed to hear more about, took place in Tuscany. But she couldn’t tell me more than that.

    When I asked my mum what she thought of her reading, she wouldn’t tell me what the woman had said, but she was not impressed. I told her about mine and she laughed and said “Tuscany – she probably saw that outside the travel agent’s on the way there” (my mum doesn’t believe in past life reincarnation.)

    Anyway…I forgot about Tuscany until, a couple of years later, I finally got another past life reading.

    In this reading, without telling the reader anything about the past reading, she went straight into a lifetime that took place in…

    …Tuscany!

    It started in 1783 and I was a British governess, teaching two children, working for a rich family. I was also having an affair with the married man of the family. Their uncle proposed to me and I said no because I was in love with the children’s father. I ended up leaving Tuscany and the situation. I had kept the karma of that lifetime open, which meant that I was behaving as if I needed to resolve it (even though it was already finished with.)

    At the time of this reading, I was teaching abroad. The bizarre thing was that the situation that occurred in that lifetime was trying to occur again, at the time of the reading. I was presented with the same opportunity to repeat the events of that lifetime, in a very similar context.

    Through closing the door to that past lifetime, I also let go of that old past life situation and did not make the same mistake with the situation that had presented itself this time around. When I said no to it, I knew I was letting go of more than just the present. I also stopped myself from attracting those situations altogether and healed the part of me that was sending that past lifetime my energy.

    Past Lives – Why Explore them?

    It can be interesting to hear that you have had a lot of lifetimes as a monk or as a nun but in the end, if you’re really interested in exploring your past lives and past life reincarnation, it’s probably because you have a lifetime that you need to resolve; one that is affecting how you live your life now – in a negative way.

    You may be wondering how a past incarnation can affect you negatively now. Here is the most common way in which a past life affects us negatively:

    Making Overzealous Promises

    When something traumatic happens in a previous lifetime, sometimes souls can refuse to let go of it and unconsciously send the old event a lot of energy, because they want to protect themselves from the trauma, grief or guilt of experiencing the same thing again.

    Let me give you an example to illustrate what I mean:

    Let’s say that you were incarnated in Europe six lifetimes ago, during the witch hunts of the seventeenth century. You told your friend as a joke that your sister might be a witch, and your friend told other people and word got around. Your sister gained a reputation based entirely on rumour, and was questioned and imprisoned for this and suffered greatly because of a stupid joke on your part. Maybe she was even killed for it.

    You experienced a lot of guilt in that lifetime because of something stupid and careless that you said.

    As a result, you make a promise to yourself that you would consider the consequences of your words very carefully before you expressed them. You would not express things in jest without thinking about them first.

    You would take the business of communication very seriously…because it WAS serious.

    As a result of that promise you made to yourself, in this lifetime you are very, very careful in what you say when you speak to people. But considering the consequences of every utterance probably becomes too much work, so in the end you inhibit your overall communication and isolate yourself from others. And you’re defensive and vague in your communication and refuse to be pinned down on what you say in case someone extracts something negative out of it.

    I made that story up. But it’s a typical example of the kind of promises we can make to ourselves (and others) when we have made a serious mistake.

    Then, when we have another reincarnation, we remember the past life promise and can continue to fulfill them even when we have learned that lesson.

    Pointlessly Re-learning Old Lessons

    In the example of the story above, the person who made a dangerous joke about a family member does not need to be reminded of that past-life promise ten times a day, and they have definitely integrated the lessons of that lifetime – they have learned not to make irresponsible jokes in societies where there is a lot of religious fanaticism. That’s not her lesson, because she’s not living in that kind of society this time around. Yet it still dictates how she lives and makes her behave in ways that stop her from enjoying her life.

    What Can Be Done About This?

    When you have past lives that are affecting you negatively, you can get a past life regression. In my view, it is important to go to a past life regression therapist who also specializes in healing past lives with you. Some practitioners of past life regression therapy only help you to revisit past life events but do not focus on healing. In order to get the maximum benefits from past life regression therapy, ask your regression therapist if you will be doing any healing in the session.

    Past life healing can impact on and improve a person’s emotional and mental life, which in turn impact on the choices you make and the life you create – including in future reincarnations.

    Was I Julius Caesar/Cleopatra?

    I’ve done just over thousands of readings and although I’ve read for clients who have belonged to ruling families or tribes in certain areas of the world at certain times, I’ve not come across any clients who were famous monarchs or historical figures that I know of. (Update 2024: I read for a client who was the civil rights activist Lucy Stone in a past life, and that is the only person I’ve read for to date who was a famous historical figure.)

    The interesting thing that I have learned through doing past life therapy is that it seems we go through the whole contrasting gamut of possible experiences, for learning and expansion. Just because someone is a positive person now doesn’t mean they haven’t tried out the other end of the spectrum, and that goes for most people.

    If you would like to read more on the topic of past lives, I recommend Dr. Brian Weiss’s book Many Lives, Many Masters – it features some very riveting past life stories.

  • The Dark Side of Spirituality? – My Past Experiences With Fundamentalist Spiritual Teachers

    The Dark Side of Spirituality? – My Past Experiences With Fundamentalist Spiritual Teachers

    Fundamentalism:

    The interpretation of every word in a sacred text as literal or absolute truth.

    I believe that fundamentalism is by its nature violent.

    This is because a religious or spiritual fundamentalist says “This is (or I am) the Way and the Truth and the Life.”

    They are also saying “your way is not the truth; your truth is not the truth” – MINE is.

    Ouch!

    Fundamentalism in New-Age Spirituality

    We usually associate fundamentalism with Radical Islam or some forms of evangelical Christianity.

    But it also exists in new-age circles.  I know because I’ve seen it.  I’m going to tell you about my experiences with it.

    Before I begin…

    I realize that I have been writing about the dark side of new-age spirituality quite a bit lately. What is up with that? I don’t know. I had some dark experiences in the past. Not all of them are on this blog, and I guess I am trying to help others recognize when a spiritual teacher or healer is out of line, so that they can spot this sort of behaviour quicker than I did.

    To date, I have met (or briefly worked with) three people who were spiritual teachers or channels that I would class as spiritual fundamentalists.  That means they declared that they had unveiled “the truth” and everyone else needed to listen and heed it.

    I also have a couple of friends who have similar stories to mine and over the last three years I’ve worked with clients who have been in a similar situation and only afterwards realized they were effectively in a cult. Not one of my clients realized at the time that they had given away their own power, otherwise they would have woken up and gotten out.

    Onto my cautionary tale…

    Fundamentalist #1

    When I lived in London, I went to see a healer who did some past life healing on me.  This man told me about how tragic my life was (OK, so it was a bit tragic at the time) and that I had until I was in my thirties to move beyond that and step into my power and ‘fulfill my potential’. If I didn’t, after a certain age, (I think it was 32) God and the angels would abandon me.  He also told me that only he could help me stop this from happening.

    I view this time as one of the low points of my life (besides the time I left the Christian church).  At the time, I had a few hundred dollars to my name, and was pretty much alone in London (my family lived overseas) apart from an ex-boyfriend who let me sleep on his couch! So I had nowhere permanent to live.

    A few years prior to this time, I had abandoned Christianity and was looking for my own spiritual truth.  I was so naive that I thought all spiritual people were good people.  They must be, I thought, as they all seemed like such lovely, caring folk. They weren’t telling me I was going to hell.  Plus, this man was not charging me anything.  He said he just wanted to help me.

    He had a dowsing rod that he would use to access the Akashic soul record and your energy field, to see if you were telling the truth or if something was true in a reading.  You’d tell him something, and he’d test the veracity of it (even if it was just in everyday conversation).  Much of the time, he’d contradict you and say you were wrong, even if it was about something incredibly subjective, like how you felt.  It was bizarre.

    If you said something he didn’t agree with, he’d tell you that you had negative entities who were messing with you and that’s why you couldn’t see the truth of the situation.  His intuition, (he said) was crystal clear and could see through any bullshit.

    It took me a week or two to work out what was going on and fire him, as a spiritual teacher and healer.  What a horrible time it was.

    It came to a head rather quickly, for one reason.

    He told me we needed to sleep together in order for me to be healed.  He needed to re-parent me, re-love me – because my parents did such a lousy job.

    This guy was 64 at the time.  And I was in my early twenties.

    I didn’t need any more evidence that he was not only a fundamentalist – but also a sleazebag.  And I made a very swift exit.

    From what I saw, this man was in conflict with everyone he came into contact with (who had any common sense about them) because they were all wrong, according to him.

    He was only interested in making friends who wanted to ‘follow’ him; people who wanted to ‘learn from him’; people who would willingly release their own search for their truth, because here was someone who had already found it and would share it with them.

    How can you know if your spiritual teacher or healer tends towards fundamentalism?

    Here are some signs to watch out for:

    • When someone claims to have channelled ‘the truth’ about God (or about you) – whether that is through the Akashic Records, or from your energy field.  Ethical channellers will advise you to take what resonates with you, and discard the rest.
    • When someone doesn’t allow for your truth or contradicts subjective things such as your feelings, or beliefs.
    • When the person tells you that only they can help you.
    • When the person encourages you to disassociate from your family members or friends
    • When you won’t allow them to impose their truth on you, they may tell you that ‘you just don’t get it’ or they will harass you about it. Sometimes they warn you about the bad things that will happen if you don’t follow their truth or their advice.
    • When they say that the reason you don’t see their truth is because your fears, ‘issues’ or personality flaws are holding you back – “you’re too afraid/stubborn to see the truth”. They may offer to ‘help’ you with your issues.
    • When the channeler or spiritual teacher channels beings who proclaim that the channeler is very gifted, great or 100% trustworthy.
    • When the fundamentalist talks about how huge everyone else’s egos are.  They may say that no-one else can see the truth because of their big ego.  Yet when their pride is hurt or their ideas are challenged, they usually go on an ego-fuelled rampage of ‘everyone must agree with me and do as I say, or else!!’
    • When the person gives you an incredibly accurate reading on yourself and uses this as evidence that you must listen to their ideas (some people are talented psychics who use their abilities for personal gain.)

    If the above seems incredibly obvious and common-sense to you, and you’re wondering why I’m writing about it, then you’re obviously not the kind of person who gets sucked into this kind of thing.

    The thing is, I consider myself an intelligent person, yet when I first came across behaviour like this, it took me about two weeks to work out what was going on.  It’s effectively brain-washing, and brain-washing is not hard to do, especially when it comes to vulnerable people.

    Fundamentalism can also go unnoticed in new-age circles because spiritual people are often so accepting of others and so open. Some of them are more likely to cast love at you than tell you that your ideas are hateful.

    This Time Around

    I am going to fast forward a little and tell you about the third person I have come across who did this.

    This was someone I met not so long ago.  It was a gentleman who has had a big hand in creating one of the modalities I trained in a while back – someone who channelled a lot of information that has helped a lot of people.  I knew of the existence of this person, yet I didn’t know him personally.  I thought he must be a great person because his information had helped so many people and he had given it away freely.

    When I came into contact with him, I was so disappointed.  Right off the bat, he declared that my methods, my truth, my work were all wrong.

    He had the truth, the right way, the right information and I should listen to him and become his student (if he considered me worthy of that privilege). All other teachers had such big egos that they had corrupted the truth. He even set me a task involving my intuitive abilities to see if I was worthy of being his student. If it didn’t align with his results, I was not ‘doing it right’.

    I am open to people telling me that I’m wrong.

    But I’m not open to people setting themselves up as spiritual authorities and telling me that all wisdom and answers come through them and no-one else.

    I had already learned my lesson and so I made my exit quickly.

    There is nothing ‘spiritual’ about this

    Being spiritual but not religious means you go within to find your truth.  (Or you can take beliefs from any religion or spiritual tradition as it suits you.)

    Finding your own truth means finding the worldview and beliefs that give you peace.

    But this also means something else:

    …that there can be no absolute search for truth – only your own truth, and my truth.

    This is OK, isn’t it?  After all, as spiritual, emotional, intellectual and physical beings, it’s almost as if we are universes unto ourselves.  Your personal universe may not correspond with mine.

    The Antidote

    If we want to create more peace in the world, and within ourselves, I believe the best thing we can do is accept and respect other peoples’ spiritual and religious truths.

    This is something I have been working on myself.  I had such a bad time with Christianity (and I hated it so much) that in the past I had thought, if anyone is Christian, then surely they must be setting themselves up for an unhappy life and must be very deluded. I read articles like this one: 10 Reasons You Should Never Have a Religion and saw it as confirmation I was on the ‘right’ path.

    Later on, I realized that not everyone is on the same path as me.  Christianity for me is a prison.  But maybe my prison is someone else’s freedom.

    In the end, that thing that causes wars and prevents peace (in us and outside of us) is the belief there is only one truth and one way.

    The Dalai Lama said:

    “There are six billion people on this Earth. There are six billion paths to the top of the mountain to meet God.”

    That is one of my favourite sayings.

    Amen to that.

    What about you? – have you ever come across a spiritual teacher like this or found yourself in a similar situation to the ones I’ve written about here?

  • Run In The Opposite Direction If A Psychic Tells You This

    Run In The Opposite Direction If A Psychic Tells You This

    From time to time, I get emails from people who have been scammed by a psychic and I am talking about it here to raise awareness so that it (hopefully) doesn’t happen to anyone who reads this.

    One of the unfortunate things about the psychic industry is that there are no regulations, no objective way to know if the psychic you’re choosing is a scammer. Only the sense you have about the person, and your impressions and feelings (and of course other peoples’ recommendations.)

    Psychics without integrity

    There are some great psychics out there who have integrity.

    There are also ones without integrity. Some of the ones without integrity have some ability.  Just because a psychic tells you something about yourself that is true, doesn’t mean they have integrity.  People can have psychic ability and be scamming ratbags.

    The scam I’m talking about is when a psychic says the following:

    “You’re cursed. This curse is at the root of all your problems. I will remove it for you in return for some money”

    Sometimes the money is a huge amount (like $1500 or more) and sometimes it’s a smaller amount, like $50. Sometimes the proposed solution may involve candles, a lucky charm or taking a bath with something peculiar in it.

    Are Curses Even Real?

    Yes, curses can be real, but they’re very rare. And you can remove them yourself through intention if you are one of the few who actually has curse energy in your aura.

    Scam Numero Uno

    I know exactly what the scam above looks like because I was nearly scammed too. When I was younger, I saw an advert online from an astrologer who offered a free reading in return for my email address. I naively handed mine over, looking forward to my free reading.  Over the next week, I received an email telling me that a relative had cursed me and my family when I was little.  And that was the reason why so many bad things had happened to us.  (It is true, our family has definitely had their ups and downs.  And the more I thought about it, yes, bad luck too.)

    I was told that I needed to buy a very expensive lucky charm to get rid of the curse. I ignored it because I didn’t believe that a lucky charm could have that power.  Then in the days that followed, I received harassing emails telling me of all the bad things that would happen to me if I didn’t take the woman’s advice and buy the lucky charm.

    I didn’t buy it.  I blocked her email address.

    A previous client also emailed me a while back because he was told the same thing as I was and wanted to know if I thought it could be true for him.  From what he told me, it sounded exactly like the same scam that I’d come across before.

    Don’t hand over money to psychics because you’re scared of what will happen if you don’t.  Now, some might feel that is obvious, but I know that people can hand over money when they’re scared.

    The second time you should take no notice (in my opinion) is when you are told that you are a ‘negative soul’ or a ‘black magician’.

    I know of at least one psychic who tells people they are a negative soul/black magician.  In the last year, I’ve read for about one dozen people who have been told this. In all of the cases I dealt with, I found it to be untrue.  The effect on the people who are told they are negative souls is always, well, negative, and distressing.

    You should definitely, always run in the opposite direction if the psychic offers to clear or get rid of your ‘negative soul’ status for you, in exchange for money.

    Further Reading

    I’ve written another, more detailed & up-to-date article on the type of scam I’ve talked about in this article – you can read it here: Curses, Witchcraft & Psychic Scams

    I also wrote an article called ‘Tips for Choosing a Psychic Reader’, for more information on choosing a good psychic. You can find that here.

  • When It Hurts To Read The News

    When It Hurts To Read The News

    Some of the clients I was meant to read for this week don’t read the news, so were surprised and shocked when I told them about the earthquake that happened in my home city of Christchurch, New Zealand.

    The earthquake (7.1 on the Richter scale) has been all over the national news channels and websites for the last few days. It’s also been in the international news. It gave me the opportunity to think about the media and TV news and how draining I find them. I wanted to write this post to share my thoughts with those who (like me) have a difficult relationship with news sites, newspapers and TV news.

    What About You?

    Empaths – do you bother with the news?

    Following the news can be difficult if you are an empath and you also feel like you need to stay informed. Do you learn to switch off your sensitivity and toughen up while reading about the news? Do you avoid it altogether and end up feeling uninformed and disconnected from current affairs?

    Ever since I was little I can shed tears for people on the television and feel huge pain that is not mine. The rest of my family do not experience this in the same way. It’s been called neurotic, too emotional or overly-sensitive. It’s actually the intuitive gift of empathy, expressed in a particularly unhelpful way.

    The Purpose of Empathy

    I believe that being plugged into others emotionally on a global scale is useless, unless you plan to do something practical about it.

    On the other hand, in a tribal context, emotional empathy and sensitivity were actually wonderful mechanisms that have helped humans. Maybe you could call them evolutionary mechanisms.

    We all need empaths within a community. They are able to anticipate needs and feelings and help keep the peace.  They are (and have been) the mediators who can see and feel both sides of a story.  They are often the ones that lend an ear and a shoulder to others in times of disappointment and grief.  They are able to validate the emotional and spiritual experiences of others.

    So, in a tribal or community context, empathy makes sense because it can be followed through with action.

    Plugged into the Whole World?

    Now this evolutionary advantage of sensitivity and empathy has the potential to weaken us – emotionally and mentally – in this era of information. I say that because these days, we’re not just plugged into our children, our extended families and our communities. We’re also able to be plugged into the citizens of countries we’ve never been to and know little about.  We see their pain on our television screens.  We read about atrocities that have happened there.

    In no period of history have we ever been so exposed to the pain and problems of so many people.

    But for what?

    Unless you plan to help poverty-stricken or suffering people in practical ways, what is the point of reading and watching such news?

    No one (and that includes empaths) can help the whole world, unless they decide to have a career on the international stage. I believe that empathy works well in a one-to-one context and as such, empaths are usually here to bring their gifts to those closest to them – their tribe, community, as they need to.

    There are 7.6 billion people in the world (as of 2018). A lot of things happen to those people in any given day.  Some good, some bad. Yet most international news sites seem to be a run-down of the most atrocious, tragic, gory, unjust and awful things to happen to the most unfortunate on our planet.

    If you feel what others feel easily, it’s madness to be plugged into it every day. Being exposed to such a horrid and tragic selection of what goes on in the world on a daily basis is downright toxic for the mind and heart.

    I am writing this for myself as much as anyone else.

    I personally have an off-on relationship with the Guardian, a British newspaper.  I don’t know why I read it.  Some mornings I will include it in my first-thing internet visits (along with my email, Facebook and Twitter) before I even make myself a drink or have breakfast.  Sometimes I read it out of boredom.

    Half of the time I regret it.  Throughout the day I have news of human rights abuses in the Middle East floating around in my brain.  Animal cruelty is another one that hurts.  Sometimes it’s mixed in with something funny, or occasionally something wonderful, but rarely.

    It’s my daily dose of human despair, that more often than not, does not have much to do with me.

    When is International News a Good Thing?

    International and national news can be a limited blessing if the news actually concerns you.  I found this out three days ago, when the earthquake happened. The night before I had driven 200 miles North to where my mother lives (Blenheim) so I was out of town when it happened. I needed to know some things that I thought the news could answer.  Was the language school where I was working still standing?  Was my apartment block likely to be damaged?  When could I go back?

    But again, the information was only useful to the extent that it could actually answer MY questions.  I only needed a small dose to know what was going on, and in the end I got my most useful information from friends, family and co-workers.  I didn’t need half-hourly updates on people losing their homes and their livelihoods.

    Beyond that, all I had to give was my tears, which helps no-one, and especially not me.

    What Can You Do?

    If I’m going to plug into international misfortunes and injustice, then the obvious outcome of this is activism or offering support.  I won’t give in to voyeurism.  If I insist upon reading about human rights abuses on a regular basis, then I will do something for Amnesty International.  If I must read about animal rights abuses, then I will support an animal charity or help at an animal shelter.  Otherwise, I won’t read about things that have nothing to do with me – that can lead to information overload and helplessness. I am motivated enough to help. The question is not if, but how.

    I know I probably won’t “toughen up” or become less ‘neurotic’ or sensitive in this area. Despite overcoming overactive empathy in interactions with individuals, it still creeps up on me when I’m reading the news, especially when there is death or great suffering involved. I haven’t managed to get rid of the sensitivity.

    Do I want to? After all, my sensitivity helps me to navigate relationships, read for people, anticipate what my language students are struggling with and want to explore.

    Without it, I wouldn’t be me.

    My Answer? – Being in Touch with Reality Without Hurting Myself

    There is a middle path.

    New-age people are often accused of being unplugged from reality and making out that everything is all sweetness & light and hearts & flowers. Maybe spiritual and sensitive people do avoid negativity and even bury their heads in the sand when it comes to what goes on in the world. I know I have done that at times.

    But I don’t think it is necessary to disconnect from all the pain in the world and pretend that it doesn’t exist; that we’ve transcended it or are OK with it.  And it is not necessary to let the spirit of activism die.

    My mantra is: I will plug in if I am in a position to help.

    If I can’t help you or offer support in some way that honours both me and you, I won’t plug in to you and feel what you’re dealing with.

    Otherwise I’m wasting my time and my energy.

    I know that sounds harsh. It doesn’t mean I lose compassion for those people. It’s just that I don’t lose my emotional energy over it. After all, being human means you don’t always have masses of emotional energy to be putting out there, for naught.

    Empathy and sensitivity are gifts to be honoured and protected.  They make you function differently from some people.  But that doesn’t mean you need to do as most people do. Most people don’t have the same level of sensitivity as you (if you’re reading this.) So don’t allow modern media and the information connection with the entire world to swallow up your emotional energy and leave you exhuasted.

    Empaths, intuitives and sensitives have always been, and continue to be, most useful in their own backyard.

    Sensitive, empathic and intuitive readers…do you read/watch the news?

    Do you agree with my approach or do you have one that is more effective for you? Please leave a comment and let me know.

    Are you an empath who feels like your empathy gift is more of a curse than a blessing? If so, I invite you to download the free preview of my book The Empath’s Toolkit: A Guide to Recovery for the Overwhelmed Empath below!

    Intuitive Experiment Worksheet

    Download the Free Preview
    of Anna’s Book The Empath’s Toolkit…

    …Packed with Instructions and Tips on How to Come Back
    Into Balance with Your Amazing Empath Gifts.

  • Thursday Odds and Ends

    Thursday Odds and Ends

    A couple of weeks ago I had the flu. I juggle a teaching job with doing readings and writing for my blog and it can be difficult to get back to normal when one of the balls gets dropped.  All the balls got dropped and I had to cancel everything and lie on the sofa for about a week.

    Then about a week after recovering, something else happened that gave me a real fright, and showed me that I was still trying too hard to get everything done, so I took a break and concentrated on getting better and taking more care.

    Holiday

    Now I have three weeks off from my teaching job, so you should see more articles on here as I have more free time.

    I have begun my holiday unwinding and spending some time on my little terrace garden. I moved into my new apartment in inner city Christchurch three months ago (it’s the beginning of spring here in the southern hemisphere). I moved in on a cold and dreary winter’s day and my terrace looked like this:

    Now, three months later, it looks like this:

    Yes, the plants need potting and the sun needs to shine more (we are on the second day of spring here).  I aim to make it into a little inner city oasis and hope the birds will come to visit as I fill it with more plants and little trees.

    Seeing as this blog has nothing of much substance to offer this week (apart from my very bad gardening photos), here is some great reading from other people’s blogs:

    What to do during Mercury Retrograde by Slade Roberson

    Are you feeling like life has suddenly slowed down in the last 10 days or so, much to your frustration?  I am not an astrology buff, but I have to say I notice it every time Mercury goes into retrograde and it annoys me, until I learn how to best utilize this period of time.

    The Manifesto of Encouragement by Danielle LaPorte

    Gorgeously uplifting.

  • Signs That You’re An Empath

    Signs That You’re An Empath

    What’s an empath?

    In short, an empath is someone who feels what other people are feeling.  This doesn’t mean you can get an idea for how other people feel just some of the time.  Being an empath means you were born with the ability to enter someone else’s aura and explore another person’s feelings and experience of life, on an intimate level. Much of the time this is done unconsciously. On the upside, you know what it feels like to be another person, so you’re often great at relating to others. Empathy is also a psychic gift and you can use it to read other people.

    On the downside…well, there are a few downsides until you learn to manage it better.  One of them is that you are like a sponge (who is often full of other peoples’ emotions – the conscious one and the unconscious ones.)

    It gets tiring.  That’s why I wrote this article.  Plenty of people are empaths without knowing it.  When that is the case for you, you might have the feeling that you’re ‘weird’ or unusual, in that you have sensitivity issues that other people don’t have.  But you’re not always sure what they are. Let’s see if you can relate to the following…

    Signs that you’re an empath include:

    • Feeling the world’s suffering on a large scale and wishing you could do something to help. Ironically, this makes you less equipped to help, because you feel overwhelmed
    • Finding it difficult to watch the news or distressing images because you feel the pain of the person/people you’re watching – as if you’re them
    • Finding it difficult to fully be present to yourself and your own feelings when conversing with other people. This is because you’re busy exploring their aura and responses to life – not your own
    • Shyness – empathy can make you somewhat self-conscious as you’re very aware of the effect your words have on another person and what they’re thinking and feeling in response
    • A tendency to say yes to the requests and demands of other people – almost as a reflex; without thinking about whether you actually want to. When you’re so immersed in another person’s experience of life and what they need – how can you say no? It’s only afterwards that you realize you forgot yourself and your own needs
    • A general tendency to put your needs last, or serve others at your own expense
    • A liking for distance in relationships, and for solitude.  This occurs because as an empath, intimacy and closeness is your default.  But when you don’t know how to stop yourself from exploring other peoples’ auras, you need some space on your own, where you aren’t around other people
    • Feeling an affinity with the animal kingdom.  When you’re an animal empath, you can get a feel for how other species experience life and you are able to relate to animals on a deep level.  Some people are plant empaths, so the same is possible for plants
    • Feeling responsible for how other people feel – and going out of your way to help them to feel better (even when it doesn’t serve you.)  After all – you feel their emotions so keenly
    • A tendency to let relationships and friendships get too heavy (and too close) – too fast
    • A strange tendency to feel aches and pains, but only around certain people
    • Finding yourself often in a counselling role, where people dump their emotions on you, and being very drained by it
    • An emotional over-identification with characters in novels, films and plays. It doesn’t matter that they’re not real – you can still feel how they felt
    • A tendency to forget to have fun and lighten up.

    Empaths are usually deeply spiritual people, simply because the gift of empathy allows you to experience oneness. This in turn gives you an expanded perspective on other people and on life.

    Are you an empath who feels like your empathy gift is more of a curse than a blessing? If so, I invite you to download the free preview of my book The Empath’s Toolkit: A Guide to Recovery for the Overwhelmed Empath below!

    Intuitive Experiment Worksheet

    Download the Free Preview
    of Anna’s Book The Empath’s Toolkit…

    …Packed with Instructions and Tips on How to Come Back
    Into Balance with Your Amazing Empath Gifts.