The other day I was out doing some  errands, and it was going pretty well. 

I went to one store and that was fine.
I went to a second store, and that was okay too.
But  by the time I got to the third store, I had exhausted my empathy quotient for the day. 

I had to skip that last store.
I needed to get home–or at the very least to some quiet place where the energy of "everything" was not quite so apparent.

If you're an empath, you know this phenomenon well. 
You are used to "reading" everyone the moment they come into your field. 
You read the person in the parking lot—their vibe, their preoccupation, their anger. 
You read the person in line next to you—their energy, their emotions, their life story. 
You read the cashier checking you out—their story, their exhaustion, their fear. 

And a a certain point, empathic overwhelm happens, because you can't turn your sensitivity off. You can't become less aware than you are. 

I've been this way since I was small. Back then, it was called "shy" or "overly sensitive". Thank goodness we're getting a better understanding of what this open-to-everything awareness really is. 

If you are empathic, please be kind to yourself. 

Your beautiful empathic self knows exactly how much of "everything" you can take before you need a break. Trust this. 

I work with a lot of people who are having spiritual awakenings.

This seems to be increasing exponentially. What's especially interesting is that it doesn't take a trauma, as it did decades ago. You no longer need a near death experience or other dramatic experience to wake you up. 

It's just happening, spontaneously. A kind of tipping point reached. And here  we are as humans, evolving. 

What you might notice, if you are having an awakening:

• Increased deja vu
• Increased dreams
• Spontaneous past lives
• Expanded meditations
• The departed show up
• Guides and angels show up
• Old beliefs don't make sense
• Old relationships fall away
• Old identities fall away
• You can read everyone
• You just "know"

If you are beginning to understand yourself as a multidimensional being,  a good rule of thumb is: the old rules don't apply. Let go of what you've been told—from religion to society to even old-school new age superstitions—and experience it for yourself. 

Your soul has been waiting for this. 
Your soul knows that way.

There are all kinds of ways to use crystals, sage, sacred objects and found objects from nature in spiritual practice. 

For myself, as I am an Aquarius, I tend to work in the etheric realm most of the time—by this, I mean I work in meditation, visioning and channeling, as opposed to working in the body or with sacred objects. 

However, when we are doing ritual where we want to ground ourselves into the experience, such as a ritual of releasing, or during the heightened energy of the new and full moons, or any other times that are important to us personally, it can be useful to use earth objects. 

Some of you like using them.
Some of you don't care that much. 
I mostly don't use them.
But sometimes I do. 
It all depends. 

Ritual in itself might be thought of as a concentrated expression of intention—and thus objects that symbolize our intention are useful, and objects such as crystals which have their own properties and powers, are also useful. 

As in all of this work, there is no one way,. 
The only "right" way, is the way that is focused on love and Light. 

Aside from that, we are all invited to be creative and engaged whatever way we find spiritual path to be meaningful to us. 

When we dream, we go on a spirit voyage. 
We leave our bodies in our beds, and we allow our spirit to journey. 

We all do this, every night—whether we remember or not. 

The question is, why would we think that dreams are not real? Or that dreams are not as real as this waking dream we live, that we call real life? 

As souls, we are multidimensional beyond our mind/ego understanding. We cling to real life—but our real life has many forms, including the metaphysical. 

If you can accept that you spirit travel every night, and that this is as much an important and real part of your life as your walking time, your dreams will reward you by becoming even more interesting, more prophetic and more useful. 

Intuition is instantaneous. There is no lag time or delay in knowing. One minute we are asleep, and the next, in a flash, we are awake and aware.

Why is this so? Because intuition is spiritual opening. 

In meditation, spiritual opening can feel like your mind space goes from grey and tamped down,, to a great lifting off in dazzling white.
 
In nature, spiritual opening can feel like your mind space is all chatter and drama, and then suddenly everything gets beautifully still, and you realize you are absolutely aware.
 
There are other ways intuition, aka spiritual opening can happen, but there is always a sense of being one way—in the world. And then suddenly the great opening, the great relief, the great lifting off, as you enter the other realms. 

If you are feeling disconnected or stressed or unsure, the best thing to do is let go of all distractions: all ways of being too busy, all ways of numbing out.
 
Go into stillness, and ask the Universe to remind you who you really are. 

Notice what you immediately sense as true—and how this knowing happens instantaneously.