Spirit Speakeasy

How to Connect with Your Spirit Guides (The Truth No One Talks About)

Joy Giovanni Episode 115

In this soulful and truth-filled episode of Spirit Speakeasy, I’m pulling back the curtain on the real role of spirit guides—and how to recognize the subtle, powerful ways they’re already working with you.

Forget the Hollywood version of spiritual connection. If you've ever wondered why you’re not “hearing” your guides clearly or assumed you must be doing it wrong, this episode is going to shift your perspective—and help you build something deeper and more authentic.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

  • What spirit guides truly are (and what they aren’t)
  • The different types of guides that may be on your spirit team
  • Real-world signs your guides are near you
  • How spirit communicates through your inner language
  • Why trust is the key—and how to strengthen it over time
  • Practical steps to connect without forcing it


🦋 Plus, I’ll share why treating this as a relationship (not a transaction) is the real key to unlocking powerful, loving guidance.


“Your spirit guides already know you—and at the soul level, you already know them. This journey is about remembering.”


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Joy, hey, beautiful soul, welcome to spirit speakeasy. I'm Joy Giovanni, joyful medium. I'm a working psychic medium, energy healer and spiritual gifts mentor. This podcast is like a seat at the table in a secret club, but with mediums, mystics and the spiritual luminaries of our time. So come behind the velvet ropes with me and see inside my world as I chat insider style with profoundly gifted souls, we go deep, share juicy stories, laugh a lot, and it wouldn't be a speakeasy without great insider secrets and tips. You might even learn that you have some gifts of your own so step inside the spirit speakeasy. Hey, beautiful soul, welcome back, or welcome in for another episode of spirit speakeasy. Today, we're exploring the concept of spirit guides their purpose, plus I'm offering some practical steps for you to recognize and start cultivating a relationship with your own guides for support and guidance. Right away, I'm gonna share some of the truths that no one talks about whenever I'm looking up videos about spirit guides to see what other people are teaching, I'm seeing some of these sneaky truths that no one is talking about. So let's dive right in and really unfold this topic of spirit guides. I'm going to give you some do's and don'ts. We're going to talk about how to connect and why the way that you might have already been trying to connect might not be working. And plus, I'm going to really just unfold a little bit with you what spirit guides actually are and how to know, one, if you're making it up and two, this deeper understanding of why you actually are always connected, and hopefully, by the time we're done, you will feel and understand the same thing. So let's get started. I was wondering for some of you, have you ever felt a sudden nudge, a whisper of guidance or an unexplained sense of calm during a really difficult moment. What if that was your spirit guide trying to reach you? Let's start off with an honest truth. One of the biggest reasons people feel disconnected from their spirit guides is because they're unknowingly waiting for an experience that looks more like the movies than a real spiritual connection. Sometimes people are expecting, like an all powerful, booming voice, type of a guide who shows up like dramatically, hopefully in a puff of smoke, right with all the answers and steers them away from every challenge and has like, full on conversations like Yoda like a wise old sage in like a fantasy movie, right? But here's the thing, our spirit guides don't override our free will. They don't usually hand us step by step instructions in this way, and they're not here to keep us from discomfort. I know that's a hard truth, but in fact, sometimes the role of our spirit guide is to guide us through those uncomfortable moments so that we can develop, strengthen and grow more into the full potential of ourselves, right? I know lots of you are parents or mentors to younger people. All of us were younger people. Certainly think about the times when we had to learn something ourself or really struggle, even if we had mentorship or teachers or family around us, the difference in having someone do it for us versus support us through it, right? So kind of keep that in perspective, because understanding how spirit guides actually communicate and what their role really is, makes all the difference in your ability to understand that you can do this, because when we stop trying to force the connection to look a certain way, we really open ourselves up to subtle, consistent and powerful ways that our spirit guides are already supporting us every single day. And what I know for sure is that when you treat this like a relationship instead of a transaction, you open the door to something truly meaningful and deeply supportive. There was a time when I really didn't, I don't know if I didn't believe in spirit guides. I don't I wouldn't say that because I had some strange experiences when I was pretty young, but I didn't know that I that they could communicate with me, or how they communicated, like I was saying earlier. I was one of those people that thought, oh, it's got to be like a voice from the sky, or like a little, do you guys remember that show Casper, the Friendly Ghost, like a little friendly ghost that appears beside you, or a Smurf of some kind, right? I was looking for that, and I was really confused, personally. So it's why, now that I have this different perspective, this different understanding, I really want to help unfold this, just to dispel some myths. And it's really a beautiful experience to build a relationship with your spirit guides, and I don't want you to miss out on it. So let's break this down. What exactly. Exactly our spirit guides. How can we recognize when they really are there, and how can we recognize this connection with them when it shows up? So first, let's start by just having an understanding of what spirit guides are. I like to define spirit guides as benevolent, non physical helpers that assist us through our lifetime. So part of I think, what the confusion can be for me, and the way I understand it, and the way I separate it in my mind, is Spirit guides are not angels. That is a different type of being. And you know, we talk about angels here a lot, so dive into those Archangel episodes if you want to understand more about what angels are? They are helpers and supporters, but they're not technically our spirit guides, if we're gonna down into the nitty gritty of it today. So not angels. They're not our crossed over loved ones, our deceased loved ones. A loved one can inspire you. Can be on your spirit team over there, but they're not technically a spirit guide in the most like strict sense of the term, and I just like to clarify it, because it's just a different role. They had a relationship with us, usually in this lifetime. If there are deceased loved ones and they still support us, they still spend time with us, it's just, it's just a different function that they have. And you'll see why as we go. Because I really hopefully help you understand how we even get our spirit guides. So not angels, not deceased loved ones. Those are just different helpers and different types of support that we have. But these are benevolent, non physical helpers. You can call them light beings. You can think of them in whatever way you like, but they're a guide. I'm going to tell you the way that I picture it, but I want you to understand that their role really is to support, to guide, to give us nudges. It's not to control us, it's not to step in front of us when we're making a choice that is going to teach us a tough lesson, right? They allow us to have our human experience. It's actually part of their role. So this is how I picture it, and what my guides have helped me understand. I'm going to paint a little picture for you. So imagine you as a soul in non physical before you come into this life experience, before you're a baby in a womb, because that's ultimately how we all pass through this gate into physical reality, right? So you're a soul on the other side, and your lottery ticket has come up, because there's a lot of souls that want to come into this physical experience, and it's your turn. You put in your lottery and it's your turn. So as you're preparing to come into this human experience, you're preparing to come into human form as you so part of what's happening is that you're building, or helping to construct, the blueprint for some of, not all of, I don't believe, but for some of the collective components that you want to have in this lifetime, some of it, which we've talked about in previous episodes. The one to skip a few reincarnation episode, I think, is where we talked about it. Sometimes I think it's contracts or agreements that we have with other souls in this lifetime that help us build some of those components right? Like, maybe you agreed to a certain mom or maybe you agreed to a certain family unit, right? So that will help construct this blueprint of the parts of your life that are decided when you come in. Right? We know that some of our physicality is decided. We know that, you know, some parts of our life are decided when we get here. I don't believe that we get to know all the things, but I think we contribute to a lot of it. So as you're collecting these creative components, and you're so excited, and your time is coming to come into this physical experience, this earth school, and you're preparing, wouldn't you think that you would also select invite, request the guides that you wanted to support you and to start helping you build these cooperative components? That's the way I see it. So imagine yourself in your own like you're the CEO of this life experience that you're gonna have, and you're in this boardroom, and imagine a big whiteboard with all the components that you're adding for this lifetime, and then you start thinking, Okay, who do I want as captain of these teams? Who do I want as my life guide? Who do I want as as my, maybe your medium Who do I want as my mediumship guide? Who do I want as my professional guide, or student guide, or whatever it is that you're going to experience, there are some some things that you already know, and you can start cultivating your team on the other side, which is what I believe that we all do as souls, inviting those specific guides, those inspirers, to our celestial boardroom table, and all come together, and They sit with us in whatever version of a meeting it looks like over there, and understand our blueprint as a soul. Why are we coming into this incarnation? What are some of the experience that we've signed up for? What are some of the really the way I see it is our intention here is to, I learned this from Andy Bing, to become. Know the the most full expression of our soul's potential in this lifetime. So we would need to know what is, what is the fullest potential of our soul in this lifetime, the expression of our soul through this human self, right? So I think our guides sit there with us during that whole process on the other side. Time doesn't work the same over there. So for however long that takes for us to construct all those understandings, what do, what do we want to grow to express in this lifetime? What are the core qualities of our soul in this lifetime? So when you think of it and understand it that way, your guides aren't these strangers, you know, in the UN, non physical right? These strange beings that you don't know, that you have no idea who they are, and you're wondering if you even have them, or if they've showed up. These are beings that have been with you since before you came into this physical experience, who really have, even beyond, like a college level PhD in you, in your soul's blueprint for this lifetime, and sat with you that you made requests of them and asked them to help you in certain ways that you have soul to soul agreements with these guides. Okay, I'm gonna get off my soapbox about what guides actually are and how we know them, and so hopefully, if you can a mental picture of whatever that meeting would look like for you. Don't you think, with the intelligence of our soul and the intelligence of all of our souls as as collectives and the intelligence of the guides, don't you think that they'd be a process? Where do you think they just get assigned? When? When you think that they get assigned? And I think that they agree as well. I don't think it's like an assignment that they don't want, right? So let's talk about what types of spirit guides there are next because we said they're not angels, they're not loved ones, even though those are also helpers. I believe that we have primary guides and then we have like specialists. Let's call them. I kind of touched on it a little bit. So your primary guide would be your life guide. I feel like for some people, perhaps that guide serves a double duty as another type of guide, and for others, that's just what they do. They're your life guide that's with you, supporting you your whole life. I do believe we also have two guardian angels assigned to us individually, plus all the archangels we can work with, plus our loved ones and ancestors who support and work on our team in a different way. So on your spirit team, we have the the inspires that you have selected ahead of time. So your primary guard, this guide, this could also include specialists like if you are one of the soul, one of the soul qualities that you are striving to express in this lifetime is creativity. Maybe you have a guide that just specifically works with you, across your life, in your creative zone, in the different aspects of your life, and how you express that, right? Maybe you one of the greatest expressions of your soul is to be a healer of some kind. And that can look like energy healing. It can look like a doctor, a veterinarian. It can look like someone that does therapy or counseling. Healers come in so many career paths, right? It's just a quality of someone. And sometimes healers are teachers or not in a quote, unquote, healing profession, but you would have a healing guide that also is with you, helping to breadcrumb you along that path. Because if you think about it, we all have multiple paths happening in our lives simultaneously, right? We have whatever we're doing in that phase of our life, whether it's school or a job, and what's taking up the bulk of our day, right? And then we have family relationships or family exchanges. We might have friendship exchanges. We have dreams and goals, right? We have these, all these different little threads that we're weaving together throughout our day. We have hobbies or special interests, we have emotions, we have all these different threads. So we have this team of spirit guides that we've selected, the primary guide, plus the supporting, the supporting character guides, I guess. I believe that some of these guides are on our team. Let's just call it our spirit team. On our spirit team for our whole life. I believe some of them are a little bit more short term, a reason, a season or a lifetime. You may have heard it as so sometimes it's our whole life, sometimes it's a season, right? Maybe they're just there to help you during your younger phase, and then another guide swaps in. Or maybe it's just something you don't need guidance with anymore. Maybe it's something that you leave to the side, or a reason, a specific reason that you've called that guide in, right? Maybe you have a special event or a special project, and you want a special guide for this project, you can call them in for that. Maybe you had never been a medium before, and you're starting to develop your mediumship well, then it's kind of like your mediumship guide is now up at that and they might be with you for just that reason. And if you continue it on, they might stay on as long as you're doing, quote, unquote, that reason, right? So I do believe that we have ancestors as well as even, even sometimes animal spirits assigned to us and are not assigned, is probably not the right word, but that that also assist and and inspire and help and support us. So it's a pretty big team that we have. It's why. People might only have one or two spirit guides, plus you've got your ancestors, plus you've got your loved ones as inspirers, plus you've got and we've talked about in the ancestor episode as well. There's been a couple of those that the ancestors are not just ancestors that are like physically related to you from your family of origin, but also in the profession that you're in. So if you're a teacher, for example, all the teachers that ever taught are part of that lineage of ancestry of teachers, right? If you're a baker, say you know anything, so you get the picture. So there are lots of different kinds of guides that we can have and reasons they can be there. We do have quite a team. I want to just touch into some of the common signs that we can experience or have to understand that our spirit guides are near or are wanting to interact with us. Because I kind of think near and far are relative terms to the way we understand things here. I don't think it works like that on this in the spirit world, I don't think they're that separate from us. It's not like there's a distance of space that they need to travel. It's like they're they're instantaneously with us with just a thought or a no notice at all. So some people will see repeating recurring numbers with their spirit guides. And you can even assign a specific number to your specific guide to know, like, oh, okay, my when my life guide is here, they show me repeating threes, for example, or they show me the number 789, whatever, whatever you would want to pick, or whatever you're already experiencing. Some people have dreams of their spirit guides. I had this within the last couple years in the strangest way. I did recently talk about it in an episode, so I won't put you guys through that story again, but it was in the dreams episode that was just a couple before this one, and it just was a really interesting, surreal, very real experience. So some people receive their guides in dreams. Sometimes it's one dream in your whole life. Some people will hear it as like an inner voice. Sometimes we say a thought that's not your own. So if you were just thinking about, Oh, what am I gonna make for dinner, let me just think, what do I have in the fridge? And then all of a sudden, from like out of left field, a thought pops in. Why don't you look in the pantry cabinet? You know what? I mean, something like that. So just a thought that's just coming in from out of left field, that doesn't feel like the same train that you were just on. Some people experience it like that. A lot of the way I feel, and since my guides showing up are through synchronicities, which we're going to talk a little bit more about in a second here. Some people will especially earlier on, when you're starting to understand your guide. Some people will receive physical sensations. Like, I've had people say, like, Oh, my head tingles, or, Oh, my left fingers tingle or, you know, it could be anything. I've heard lots of different people's experience of this. So it could be a little physical sensation. But like I said, that's usually, usually earlier on in our understanding, and then as we get more experience, they kind of quiet the physical hellos. Some people have emotional shifts or just feel like a calm wash over them. But let's dive a little more into the synchronicities, since that's the one I have, the most examples of a synchronicity would be like you were just thinking about looking into learning a new language. This is something I feel like, I'm think I'm always thinking about, you're just thinking about learning a new language, and maybe you hadn't even talked to anyone about it yet. Maybe you watched a couple YouTube videos about it, and you were like, yeah, let me, let me think about learning a new language and doing a little research. So you've kind of thought about it for a little bit on your own, and then maybe later that day, maybe the next day, or a couple days later, you're out at a cafe, and you're waiting, you know, in line, and the people that are also in line waiting are talking about learning a foreign language, whether it's that they just wanted to learn a foreign language, or that they're struggling learning a foreign language, just some version of mentioning learning a foreign language. So it could be something like that, where it's like you already had started thinking about it, or talking about it, and you hear people talking about it, or even it could be a reference to the specific language that you were thinking about learning, right? Maybe it's, it's not a super common language wherever you live, and you're thinking about learning it, and then you're somewhere and you hear someone speaking that language, or you hear someone saying they're from that region or country, even. So it's really interesting the way the synchronicities can line up. It could be maybe, you know, this is super, super dorky and personal, but I am a triple A member, and so triple A sends out this, like little magazine or kind of advertisement thing every once in a while, and they feature different travel locations sometimes. So maybe then a couple days later, you get your triple A magazine, and it's one of the language you were thinking of as one of the you know, places featured in this travel magazine. So it's these little droplets of synchronicities to let you know, like, keep paying more attention here. You're on the right path here. Look more here. And sometimes we'll even find ourselves saying, like, so weird. I was just talking about that, or I was just thinking about that. So kind of watch for those sort of things to happen. Because really, the way I like to think of our guides, and the way that I feel like is is most accurate, or closest to accurate, is think of them as, like, behind the scenes, helpers trying to line. Things up for you, trying to breadcrumb you along the way, to nudge you this direction, or just like, just a little bit more to the left, type of a thing. I sometimes, in my mind, think of those. If you've ever had bowling, like bowling, ball, bowling, I know they don't do that everywhere. Oh, I'm gonna sneeze. No, I'm not. I was just kidding. So if you've ever gone bowling with little kids, some places have this ramp that you roll the ball down. Some places have these little bumpers that they put to block the gutters. So guides kind of serve as you know, it's not that they're not gonna let us go off the rails if we really push we can, but they try to nudge us back into the center. Because why? Because they sat with us and know our soul's blueprint, and know our intentions and our highest expression in this lifetime. So it's why they even know what to guide us about or towards or away from, because of the intention and blueprint of our soul. Okay, back to back to my notes, back to my outline. So behind the scenes, helpers, yes, I feel like some of the ways that my guides and I have worked in the most direct contact really are more with like my mediumship guide, I work with him all the time, and my healing guides, I have two that are probably the most interactive. But even then, it's not like a conversation in the way that you and I have a conversation, it's it's just through a subtle knowing or a sensing or so, those are the ones that I'm probably the most interactive with. Even my mediumship guide, when I do my meditation, I always say hello to him, and I feel him in the same place, in my energy field every time, and he says a little energetic hello back, but it's not a verbal Hello, because he doesn't have a verbal voice box my healing guides. When I go into a healing session, sometimes I know what kind of healing we're doing based on which guide shows up. And I've just learned through my relationship with them over the years to recognize them based on their energy, just like if you've ever I know not everyone is animal lovers, but if you are an animal lover, if you've ever had pets, if you were to close your eyes, and if you have two dogs or two cats and one of them wanders in the room, often we know which one it is or a kid, even just by their energy, right? So that's how I work with my guides, and it's really more of an energetic communication in the way I do it with my work, and those are the ones I'm probably the most interactive with. So how do you start building a relationship with your guides? Again, you already have a relationship with your spirit guides, and they already have been assisting you behind the scenes. It never needs to be anything more interactive than that. Just so, you know, I know, of course, if you're here, it's probably because you would like it to be a little bit more interactive with that than that. But they're not offended if you don't talk to them or if you don't know them. They're working on your behalf based on the relationship you as a soul on the other side already have with them. So they're working behind the scenes at all times your entire life, on your behalf and in your highest and greatest interest, but that being said, so if you want to leave them in the background, that's perfectly fine. But some simple techniques, like journaling, meaning like journaling about those little nudges that you're not sure where they came from, or those things that you're not sure intuition, or those thoughts that do pop in kind of out of left field, they're always positive. They're never, they're never negative. I know we've talked about this in the past, but spirit guides are benevolent. They're all benevolent, so they have your best interest at heart. And it's not going to be, yeah, it's not going to be scary type advice or negative type advice. It's, it's often, the truth is, it's often the thing that we already know we're supposed to be doing, or we've already, like, we've already been kind of getting the nudge, even though we haven't connected the two to two dots of one to one. You know, one plus one is two dots of like, oh yeah. This is for my spirit guide. And they're saying, like, Yes, this is a great idea for you. Please proceed, right? So making notes about like, in a journal, about synchronicities, about little signs, about when those weird things happen where you were just thinking about the thing, and then you see it on TV. So making, no, and I don't mean the ads, because we all know that devices are listening, right? But like, like, in the travel sense, for example, you're just thinking about that language, and all of a sudden tourism for Italy is the one I've been looking at pops up. So making some notes and doing some journaling, and even just setting the intention to be more aware, right and then remembering to be a little bit more aware of those synchronicities as they're happening. And meditation, of course, is where we can spend time sitting soul to soul in the energy with our spirit guides, which is my favorite way of connecting with them, especially when I'm getting to know them and starting to understand what they're going to feel like each one, because they're all individuals, so they all feel just a little bit differently. And remember, it's about spending time sitting the energy with them, starting to understand how you might recognize them, like, will they show up with a color, for example, or a specific sign? Like the numbers we were talking about, maybe there's an animal that they'll show you when they're wanting to get your attention. What are the areas in your life that they help you with? Right? If you're a writer, are they your writing guide? If you're a chef, are they your creative inspiration for chefing Guide? What do they help you with and how? Yeah, how can you work together? How can you sense them around you? I really this is one of these things that nobody talks about that I mentioned at the top. The truth is, it's not as much about learning, like if they had a job in their past life, or what ethnicities they experienced in another incarnation. If you learn those details, or receive some of those details about them over time as part of your relationship. That's fine, but it's not the goal, and it's really totally unnecessary. It's a very human demand or need, and that's not a healthy relationship making right? So you want to, like, just treat them like you would any friend, and if you start to understand different little details about them over time, then, like I said, great, but it's not demanding or needing or seeking that information. Most of my spirit guides, I don't know a lot about their last lives or some of them, I can infer some information based on some things that I have understood about them over time, or the way that they feel to me, or the way I have, like, a mental image of them, a mental picture of them in my mind. But it's not about like, I know, I know that's often what a lot of the videos I see are about. You know, was your spirit guide, a Tibetan monk in a past lifetime. Maybe, maybe they were, and that's a that's wonderful if they were, but the attachment to need to know that, or ranking that with some value system is totally human and not what our spirit guides are about at all. And quite frankly, the way that they've given it to me, and I've heard other mediums that I know articulate this in different ways. Sometimes those details are like just for us, like the way that we could best receive them. So if you would have the most respect for them as a wise medicine teacher, right, of any capacity, that's how they'll show up, whatever way you could best receive them and understand them. Release the need for all of that if it comes along as part of the relationship, wonderful. But just my strong, strong encouragement there, don't dig for that information. It's not helpful, and you'll receive it if you need it. Okay? The other little thing in this is how to tell if you're making it up? I want to pause here for just a second, because this is a question that comes up all the time when people are trying to start connecting with their guides or their loved ones or their angels, and it's a really, really valid one and an important one. So how do you know that you're not just making it up? It's totally normal that you're second guessing what you're receiving, especially when it's subtle, until you learn and start to accept it's subtle, this is the way they communicate. It's it's really common to second guess, and most of us have been conditioned to trust like our logical mind over our intuition. So when a soft inner voice or a sign or synchronicities pop up, our left brain wants to come in and say, that's just a coincidence. Oh, that's just me. Oh, that's me wanting to believe something, right? So we have to give that left brain, a little bit of permission and setting the intention that like, No, this is something I'm working on. It's okay for us to notice this and not judge it and not categorize it, right? But here's something to try on. What if it is just you and what if it's you, plus your guides, working through your own intuitive channel, your own intuitive instrument, right? Your physical body. Spirit guides often communicate by blending the energy of their soul, their energy with the energy of us as a soul. So they might drop into our thoughts. They might we might have like a mental picture, a mental image of something. It might be an idea or an inspiration. It might be feelings, like emotions that feel kind of like your own, they will use our internal language and the subtle intuitive sense and kind of intertwine with the faculty of our imagination sometimes. So just know that that is part of how it works. All of the subtle psychic senses work. We've said this before so many times, work intertwined with that faculty of the imagination. So it's natural that it feels a little bit like you're imagining it at first, until you get used to it. So yes, it can totally feel like you're making it up at first. The key is to noticing what's different. Does the thought feel loving but unexpected? Is the message clear and kind did it drop in quickly? Some people like the word download in here, where it's like a chunk of information all at once that we just understand something. And sometimes we have to process and, like unfold the I hate the word download. You guys, I don't know why. I feel like maybe it's the way I have heard it used a lot. I just don't love it. But sometimes it will just drop it. And kind of just like that, and all of a sudden you have an understanding about something, or, you know, like, oh, yeah, I know what I'm supposed to do. But then sometimes our brain wants to come in and start analyzing it, right? So these are all signs that might come from spirit, and my advice is trust. First make a note of it and then test it as you go, right? It's not an all or nothing. Write it down, sit with it, see how it plays out, see what happens, see what comes to light in the next couple days. Trust is like a muscle, and the more that we work with it, the clearer the communication becomes, because we're paying attention for how the communication comes and what it actually is. So here are some do's and don'ts to help you start working on the relationship with your spirit guides. If you choose, okay, do's first, right? Let's start with the positive. Start with the do's. What do we do in the do's column? Do stay open and curious. I would say approach this like you're getting to know someone new. You're building trust over time. You're not like going through an instruction manual and ticking off the boxes of how this works, right? This is a relationship. So stay open, stay curious, stay available. Do be consistent. It's helpful to check in with the guides regularly, sit with them regularly, just so you start to understand what that energetic exchange feels like, what each of their unique energy feels like, even if it's only one of them, which is usually how I suggest starting to work with just one first, even if it's a few minutes a day to just kind of sit quietly, connect with them, maybe do a little bit of journaling. Maybe you have a special journal for the guide you're working with. Or just even energetically saying hello starts to build that energetic relationship in a more intentional way. Because, like I said, you already have a relationship with them. Do pay attention to the subtlety. Again, spirit guides speak softly, very subtly. It's not like a disembodied voice talking to you, or like I remember those mystery movies when I was a kid where, like, the pen would just pick itself up and start writing the answer to the mystery. It's not that. So we just pay attention to those subtle intuitions, nudges, subtle imagery, subtle dreams, those gut feelings, or kind of feelings about things that don't don't match right. Sometimes it's like those synchronicities we were talking about. The communication often feels like a whisper, not a shout, and it often is breadcrumbs, or sometimes I'll see them like a string of pearls stringing along. And often it is the thing that we kind of deep inside know is the right answer or is the best choice for us, right? Even if we don't like the answer, do use tools, if it helps. Things like journaling. Oracle cards are great. There was a time where I had a couple different Oracle card decks, and I had them assigned to different guides once I built a relationship with them so they I could kind of have a different style of communication. You can invite them into your dreams and then do some journaling to help you remember you could do intuitive drawing if you're a little bit more on the artistic side, that can help you kind of understand some symbols about them, or some things about them, and start building the relationship with them that way. So there are lots of ways to use tools to help you, but I also want to encourage you to to another do. Do trust the feel of it. If the message feels loving and gentle, wise, expansive, feels it might feel a little out of your comfort zone, right? Sometimes the good, good next step, or the the greatest thing for us is outside of our comfort zone. So it might feel a little outside your comfort zone, but does it feel like it's expansive for you? Does it feel like it's growth in a positive way for you? It's probably from your guide. If it feels fearful or anxious, harsh, mean, that's probably your ego or your fear chiming in. So that's really the distinction. And the last do is, do treat this like a relationship instead of a transaction. Think of the way that we build relationships with people we don't demand. We're not immediately like disappointed if we're not understanding them. This is for the long haul over time. If you want to have a relationship with the guides, it's not I always say none of this stuff is a light switch. It's more about relationship. Okay, let's go through some don'ts really quick, just so I can give these two as well. Don't force it or overthink it. This is just not helpful. And the more we force or overthink, the more that left brain wants to come in and tell us that we're wrong, sometimes trying too hard to, quote, unquote, get something or get it right. It creates resistance. Spirit guidance flows, and it flows more easily when we can relax into it. So if you feel like you're forcing it or overthinking it, maybe take a break and try again later. Right? Don't expect it to be a booming voice or like a movie level moment. This happens once in a blue moon, and sometimes once in a lifetime, and sometimes not at all. So don't look for it that way. Most people never hear their guides in a full sentence like. A conversation. Instead, you might get an impression, a feeling, a quiet knowing that's more the way the communication is. So no booming voices. Don't assume that you're doing it wrong. Just because it's quiet or very subtle, silence doesn't mean absence. Just because you feel like they're awfully quiet doesn't mean that they're not there. You have an agreement with them, a contract with them, so they are there all of the time in assistance to you. What else do I want to say here? Sometimes your guides are are waiting for your energy to settle down. Sometimes they're waiting for a better time to move you in a direction. Sometimes you've made some choices that have moved you in one direction, and they need to allow some things to occur, some choices, some time to then help you move back in a direction that is in alignment with your greatest good, right? They're not attached to time in the way that we are. We tend to be our human nature, especially in capitalist societies, because we trade time for money or time for necessities. We tend to think like, I gotta get this done fast. I gotta get there. We're always on a race to a deadline, right, or to, like, an end point. They're not so attached to like, you know, if you express this quality from your soul when you're seven or when you're 77 they're not so attached to that. So, yeah, don't assume you're doing it wrong because it's quiet, don't compare your experiences to others, especially because the language of it doesn't quite fit. So you could be having a very similar experience to someone, but the way that they express it in the language just might not resonate as the same experience for you. So for many reasons, don't compare your experience to others. Some people feel their guides. Some people see or have mental pictures. Some people have a knowing, some dream, your connection is totally unique to you, and sometimes it's unique with those individual guides. And when they show up in the ways in which they work with you, because they have different roles, don't ask for every answer or try to outsource your intuition, right? That's not their job. That's not what they're there for. Your guides won't do the work for you. They're here to support you, to support your soul's path. They're more in support of your soul than your human desires. I'll tell it to you that way. So they're really working on behalf of you as a soul. They're not here to hand you an escape from growth or, like an easy way around, a shortcut, so to speak, it just doesn't work that way. They don't have interest in that because you're you're truly not having the full human experience when you're bypassing the emotions and the human experience itself, right? So that's just not what they do. You can sit with them for guidance or support around a choice that you're making or something that's coming up for you, but don't expect them to say you, quote, unquote, should do this. They don't give shoulds like that, but they will gently nudge us, and like I said, sometimes deep inside, we know the best choice and we don't like the answer. I've been guilty of this, or just in the experience of this, so many times in my life, where, in my heart of hearts, I know this is not the healthiest thing for me, but I just want to pursue this relationship, this opportunity, this whatever it is, so they won't step in front of us when we're doing that. They will support us and love us through it no matter what. So don't try to outsource your intuition or ask for every answer. You're not gonna get it, and then you're gonna think they're not there, but they are okay. So what happens as this connection deepens? Say you're sitting with them, you've been journaling, noticing the synchronicities. Well, the communication evolves over time, and you'll just start noticing them a little more quickly in your own awareness. Sometimes, with certain guides, I can tell when they're even in my physical space, I'll know that they're that they've shown up with my healing guides. Often, it's when I'm in the healing session that I become aware of them, because I'm in that space, and then they show up, and we work together that way, so we have a much deeper working relationship, and it's almost a telepathic communication when they're giving me, like additional to do's or instructions in a healing session, for example. So that works a little differently. It depends why you're working with them. If you're working with them for writing or a creative project of any kind, maybe you just can more quickly get into that zone where you invite them in beside you, you feel them with you, and then you start creating, and you can just accept the vibe of that co creation energy, right? So all of the connection can deepen and can expand. It doesn't necessarily get louder, though we get more sensitive to it. Is the way I understand it. We can also learn to trust our guides and the guidance a little bit more after years of practice and experience. Sometimes now I'm to the point where if I receive like a guidance, a nudge, and I know there's a certain feeling of it that I can recognize it, I won't even question it. I'll just go back and get whatever the thing was from sometimes. It's like, I'm leaving. If this just happened the other day, I think that's what I'm thinking of it I'm leaving. And all of a sudden, from out of left field into my mind, pops the thought, like, I need to bring a snack. And of course, my left brain right away is like, you don't need to bring a snack. You're going to be gone for an hour, and it's not the time of day when you like to eat, so you don't need a snack. And I've learned, like I said over the years, that I'm just like, You know what? What's it gonna hurt? I'm gonna grab that little snack. So I did, and then I left, and I needed the snack. So my point is, you just start to learn to trust the guidance a little bit more, and sometimes it's not as important for me. Oh, is it a guide telling me? Is it my intuition? Is my angels? Is it my aunt? You know what? I mean? I'm just like, I'll just get the snack and keep it moving right. So sometimes we're less attached to the nitty gritty, and we can receive more of the guidance because of it. Consistency really matters more than intensity, just like any relationship building, if we can be consistent, if we can remember to say hello, if we can remember to note or be available for synchronicities when they're happening. Our lives are so busy it can just be easy to forget. Unless it's like really quick succession, where within a couple days, you're hearing the same thing multiple places. It can be easy to forget what we were thinking about, or forget that we saw that sign by the end of the week. I mean, we can't even usually remember what we wore on Monday by Saturday, right? So making notes and being consistent really does help this connection deepen and bloom in a different way over time. Some of the common questions and misconceptions are people asking things like, what if I don't have spirit guides? I think we talked about in the first segment. Hopefully you can understand why I believe we all have spirit guides, and why, even if you've never worked with them or don't want to acknowledge them in any sort of conscious, conscious or intentional way, you have spirit guides? Why don't I hear them clearly? Well, because they don't talk like that. They don't it's not like genie in the movie Aladdin that's gonna, you know, do a little song and dance and grant all our wishes. Doesn't work like that. We have to pay attention for the way that they do communicate, right? Can guides leave or change? Yes, I know people don't like that answer, but I mean, I've known you guys know that I'm a channel, so I channel a collective of guides called the violet flame. I've known other channels that over many years of channeling one guide. That guide lets them know, hey, our channeling work is done, and your next channeling guide is gonna be stepping in. So that is sometimes how it works. It's based on the need of our soul and not the need or desire of our human personality, is the way I wanna say it. So, like I said, sometimes a guide is for a reason or a season, even so perhaps your season is done, or perhaps your reason that they were there assisting you. Maybe you were going through something medical or something emotional, and you needed a certain extra healing. Maybe they were only with you for that chapter of healing in your life, and then they might go and you might not need them anymore. So yes, they can leave and they can change depending on our needs, right? And maybe, you know, I believe there are lots of expressions of our soul in every lifetime. So maybe your soul is expressing in one direction, and then as you add in more expressions, maybe you need additional guides, or they swap out. Maybe that guide can handle this new career path, right? So it just depends totally on you and on what your soul needs for the agreed upon blueprint from the beginning. So I'm going to give you my final thoughts and a little takeaway. I want to give you a little just a little bit of heartfelt guidance. I guess your spirit guides already know you, and your soul already knows them. So building the relationship is about you remembering them. And the truth is, most people who listen to this podcast and who work with me are also working on remembering the truth of themselves as a soul. I know I'm still always working on it day to day, because we live in our humanness, but we all are a soul, having a human experience, having a human expression. So just know that your guides know you as a soul, and you know them. Your soul knows them. So it's really about you remembering this relationship you already have with them. But don't expect them to appear like the genie in the lamp. You have to make your own choices. You have to live this life experience as player one. You are in charge. You're chief in this body in this lifetime, so you have seniority. They are just the supporting crew behind the scenes, something to work on right away, if you want, ask yourself and consider what's one piece of intuitive guidance I dismissed recently or lately because I thought I was just imagining it. Focus on learning to trust yourself, learning to trust that your guides are present and that you can continue to build your own relationship with them slowly and over time. After all, isn't that how the best friendships grow and blossom? I certainly think so. So I hope you've learned a little bit about spirit guides today, what they are, why you definitely have them, and you already are communicating with them, soul to soul, even if you don't know it in your conscious mind. Let me know how it's going with you and your experience of your spirit guides, if you choose to start interacting with them in a little bit more of an intentional way, I hope that this has dispelled some myths and that you've understood some truths that really nobody else is talking about. So thanks for being here with me today. If this podcast means something to you, it would mean so much to me, if you would like and subscribe wherever you are listening or watching this, it helps me, because you'll never miss an episode, and it helps you because you'll never miss an episode. So as always, I appreciate you. Soul to soul. Big hugs. Lots of love. Bye for now. From inside spirit speakeasy, you