It’s time for another “Ask a Medium Anything” episode! Big hugs and big thanks to all those who emailed and called in your questions! In this episode you’ll get answers on questions like:

• Do all mediums have to go through Trauma to awaken their gifts?
• Are “Energy Vampires” a real thing and if so, what can I do??
• I have heard you say that meditation can help anyone strengthen their own intuition, how do I know if I am doing it right?
• How does energy healing work? 

And, of course, I’ll be sharing examples, stories and practical tips for your toolbox along the way! Be sure to check the show notes for some additional resources :) 

Show notes: 

Previous Episodes mentioned as resources: 

Episode 31: Unveiling the Mysteries of Mediumship: Can Anyone Become a Medium to Communicate with the Spirit World!? https://www.joyfulmedium.com/blog/are-you-a-medium

Episode 1: WWE Diva to Psychic Medium: Meet your Host, Joy Giovanni https://www.joyfulmedium.com/blog/wwe-joy-giovanni

Episode 70: Your Aura 101: Dive Deep PLUS Proven Tools and Techniques! https://www.joyfulmedium.com/your-aura-101

Episode 63: “I Talk to Ghosts" with Spirit Medium Jennifer Page https://www.joyfulmedium.com/blog/i-talk-to-ghosts

Episode 67: Medium, Spiritual Guide, Warrior Unicorn: Travis Holp https://www.joyfulmedium.com/blog/travis-holp

Episode 47: Ask a Medium Anything! [Your Top Questions Answered!] from Nov 2024
https://www.joyfulmedium.com/blog/ask-anything

Get Joy's Free "Sign Magnet" 3 Day Mini Course HERE https://www.joyfulmedium.com/sign-magnet
Joy's Website: www.joyfulmedium.com
Instagram: @JoyfulMedium
TikTok: @JoyfulMedium
Facebook: @JoyfulMedium
Facebook Group: Joy's Soul Spa
YouTube: Psychic Medium Joy Giovanni

Full Episode Transcript:

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 is I chat insider style with profoundly different 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. This week we are going to be doing another Ask a medium anything episode. This episode has some questions that you guys have submitted you've been submitting, I've been collecting them and condensing them boiling them down and seeing if there are common questions or really fun questions. The last asked medium episode we did was episode 47 From November 2023. I will link it in the show notes in case you want to check out that if you had a question that's not answered today, maybe it was answered in that previous the first asked medium anything episode. But I really love getting your questions. I love chatting about this. Of course. As I said in the last African medium anything episode, I don't have all the answers. I have some answers. I have been working in this field and developing and certainly doing personal development since like high school or before. So I have some answers. But I'm always learning and growing and expanding as well. And I might answer the questions one way today. And if you were to ask me in a year or five years or 10 years, I might have a different answer a more evolved answer, I might have the same answer. But these are not the end all and be all answers. It's just the answers I have for you right now based on my experience my study, and what I know to be true. So the first question is from Sarah B. And she asks, do all mediums have to go through trauma to awaken their gifts? It seems like most of the spirit, spiritual practitioners I know have had some serious traumas, lots of mediums seem to tell their story about a death of a loved one or a near death experience or a big life trauma before their awakening. Does this need to happen for gifts to start? That's a great question. The No, it doesn't need to happen. Let me take a sip here my mouth is getting dry already. So yes, it's true that some mediums have an understanding of their gifts right after a significant trauma or a significant loss or a near death experience or something profound like that. But that's not true for everyone. And if you guys have heard my story back in the one of the first solo episodes, I did WWE Diva to psychic medium, my gifts while you know looking back, I can see things in my childhood that certainly were like supernatural or paranormal or not normal, definitely mediumistic. I didn't identify them as that at the time. And really, it was only through my personal growth development, working through healing from the traumas that I experienced that my gifts started to open and present themselves. So really, ideally, it's not us chasing the gifts or trying to develop something that we're not sure if is there or not. It's really allowing the gifts to rise to the surface at any time in our life. You've heard me chat with several mediums over you know, the time that we've been having this podcast, I hear tapping and I think one of my neighbors is hammering into their wall. Sorry, I was thinking someone at my door what's going on. So we've heard from many mediums on this podcast, some who knew that they had gifts early on some who didn't know that they had gifts, some who all of a sudden knew that they had gifts. So it's different for everyone, all of our stories different and yes, of course. Some people discover their gifts through the loss of a loved one or a trauma but it's not a necessary requirement. I think we all have loss and trauma and challenging experiences as part of our human life. It's really through the expression of our own soul. So when our soul is ready for Those gifts to be expressed in this lifetime is when they will rise to the surface for some of us, it's early on, and we kind of work with them all the way through for others of us, it might be early on, and then we don't know about them for many years. So there's there's no two stories that are exactly exactly the same. We all have different versions of them. Some people discover it, certainly through near death experience changes them and others of us, it just starts to unfold or just starts to happen. One day, we will hear from my mentor, Andy being and he as part of his story, he really did a lot of depth of personal development and study and meditation and had a meditation practice and was studying many things, world religion being one of them. And then the way he says it is one day, he just knew he could talk to the spirit world. So it doesn't have to come through a trauma, I don't want you to be alarmed and think you've got to have some really terrible or traumatic or tragic experience happened to you for your gifts to start coming to the surface as a medium. If you listen to this podcast with any regularity, you will know that I believe that we all have intuitive abilities. And sometimes there was an episode that I did that was about how do you know if you're a medium or can anyone become a medium, and and that episode, I'll link that one in the show notes too. We talked about, you know that the gifts just start rising themselves or you have a natural curiosity towards it. And really the best thing to do is to start sitting with your own soul, start sitting with the spirit world start sitting with that power that's greater than your own, or the power of your own soul. So there are ways to start readying yourself for the gifts if you're interested in them, or if you think you have them. But really, even the best teacher cannot make gifts rise to the surface that are not ready to rise to the surface. It's like thinking that we can unfold the leaves of a or the petals of a rose and make it into a rose when it's tightened up, but we're just going to damage it. And certainly it's not going to be the rows that it could be. So it really is ideal if the gifts or the awareness start coming to you in some way. But it doesn't have to be in any way through a trauma. It can happen that way. But it's not certainly not a requirement. That's a really great question, though. And as a second part of this question, a few people asked about these courses that they're hearing about online these like 10 weeks to become a medium or, you know, eight weeks to develop your mediumship. And wanting to know my thoughts about that I'm gonna give them briefly this is not intended to throw shade on any other teacher or any one else's way of developing. But I will say it is impossible to expect that someone anyone, any teacher, any person can fully develop into a working medium, like a professional medium in eight weeks or 10 weeks. It's It's doesn't work like that. It's not a light switch, it's an unfolding. So I have been developing for many years and I still am developing I hope I will always be developing expanding, going deeper into my understanding into the details that are expressed in my work. So while Yeah, we could take an eight week or 10 week course to like practice or to move a little bit further or to learn something, learn a tidbit or learn a nugget or learn a bit about ourselves or to practice or play. It's I mean, you guys know it I don't think I've ever used the word impossible here before. But it is impossible for someone to go from zero to 100 of like being a fully formed and developed and ready to work medium in 10 weeks. That's just not that's just not the way it works. It's an unfoldment it's a development.
It's like someone saying that they could make you a doctor in 10 weeks, I mean, obviously is to different professions to different trades. But there's a lot more than 10 weeks of development to learn. We just don't even if you could somehow you had a photographic memory and could absorb all the what to knows and what to do and what to not do is of giving a reading. It's the practical experience. It's having practice experiences. It's learning how, you know having a group of different sessions that different spirit people express themselves in different ways. It's there's just much more to it than that. So it's a development process that for most of us lasts many years, if not the rest of our life. The next question is From John L. And he says, our energy vampires are real thing, quote unquote energy vampires. Are they a real thing? And if so, what can I do? I have a mother in law who is really pushy in her personality and leaves all of us feeling really drained after she visits she's always polite, but somehow always feels like she's complaining about someone else or nitpicking at every little thing, from my outfit to my parenting. Okay. Well, all personalities are different. Our energy vampires are real thing. Yes, in short, now what I mean by that, if you I'll again, I'll link the aura episode. If you understand and listen to that aura episode, it really goes in depth into our auric field and how it's always processing information out in front of us and how another person that is challenging in their personality that is negative as in complaining nitpicking like this person's describing. Yeah, that can drain your energy. Just like being with someone who is really argumentative or really rude can just make you tired. So that's essentially how it works, it's that your vibrational energy is probably dipping to match theirs. And what can you do? Well, in this situation, it sounds like a family member that you're needing to foster a relationship with. So it seems like someone that's going to be a part of your life. If it was a situation where it was like someone a friend, for example, maybe it's wanting to spend a little bit less time with that friend, or only talking about certain topics with that friend, or addressing with that friend, hey, when you make comments about my outfit, it feels critical and hurts my feelings, I'd rather that you didn't make comments about my physical appearance. So if it's someone like that, you could address it in that way. If it's a, like a mother in law, that's a little bit of a different situation. So I mean, family therapy would be amazing personal growth and development for you would be amazing. Because really, we can't control anyone else's behavior. That's the truth, we can control how much access we give them to us, we can control how much we let certain things upset us, you can start looking at it from the lens of one, maybe she's trying to help, maybe that's just her her way doesn't mean you have to accept it or like it. But looking at it, as you know, maybe you could defuse her a bit by just saying, You know what, thanks, thanks for your input, I'm going to consider that. And just leave it at that that might defuse her enough validating her presence, that she is a member of the family that she does have wisdom, and you're going to consider it, you're not even saying you're going to take it on board. If it was like a co worker or something, obviously, you could just move it into more of a professional exchange. But even that, and coworkers, bosses, energy vampires, I don't love that word. It's why I keep pausing at it. People that feel draining to us to our personal energy level to our like, mental health, to our mental bandwidth to our capacity of like what we can tolerate. Those people come in every relationship there is hopefully not your life partner. But they can come as you know, colleagues and friends and neighbors and in laws and siblings and all kinds of people can be draining on our energy. The options really are distance yourself, like the amount of time you spend with them.
Having other things going on while you're engaging with them. So either like an activity, we're going to where yeah, maybe they're going to be critical about that, and all the restaurant or the ballgame or whatever. But it doesn't have to come towards you. And then it's consciously, you know, if you want a deeper level of it, which sounds like you do, consciously becoming aware of your energy level, and when you feel it dropping when you're starting to feel drained, either taking a break or moving yourself going for a little walk working on a little project. If you can't do that, it's just kind of going within and building back your energy. I know it's a weird I'm trying to think of like if you guys are going to understand the way I'm explaining this, I hope you do. You have the power to not allow someone to shift your mood. You can just still have fun at the thing and not care what they're saying. Right? You don't it's like the it's like the sticks and stones. You know what I mean? It doesn't mean it's kind or that you have to enjoy it. But this is if this is a person in your family that you're going to have to engage with for holidays for visits for whatever reason. It's not someone who you can shut out of your life so then it's your responsibility. Eat, it's our responsibility to be managing our own energy. Yes, we can limit time we're spending with them. Yes, we can try to have the time we do spend be around something constructive. Sometimes people that are really critical just making conversation and asking them lots of questions critical, people often like to talk about themselves or would be willing to talk about other subjects. Some days, people that feel critical or feel draining like this have lots of opinions. So sometimes just letting them talk is enough. But even sometimes that can be draining. So that's where you get to decide, is it a situation where you want to say, you know, I'm just feeling really low energy today, I'm just going to take a few minutes to myself, probably, they're going to be critical about that. But you don't have to, it doesn't have to bother you. Just because two things can be true. You can feel the way you feel and they can be critical about it, it doesn't mean you have to take it on board, energetically. If you there were some tools in that or episode where we talked about, you know, getting a sense of your personal space bubble and just energetically not letting that person's energy really enter your space. It's like not letting their words really penetrate you not taking seriously criticism that they're saying, take it with a grain of salt, take it with, do they even have your best interest in mind, maybe if they do, you could look at the criticism a little differently or feel it a little differently. Maybe if they don't, you can just let it roll off. There was a oh my gosh, I can't believe I can't remember her name. But there was a RuPaul drag race participant that was got really famous for saying water off a duck's back. So I mean, you can just let it roll off. So is there something you can do to change someone else's behavior you can request you can suggest you can create boundaries, is there energetically something you can do besides spending less time with them? Yes, you can start to learn to manage your own energy. This doesn't have to be through meditation. Although meditation, guided visualization, those type of exercises can be useful if you're into working with the energy. I do give some, like I said tools and exercises in that episode. So I'll link it in the show notes if you wanted to listen to like, how to manage your energy. But if you're feeling drained, once you leave that situation, you know maybe your mother in law's packing up for the day and leaving, you can do something to reset the the energy for yourself for your home, you can play music, you can do something that's really upbeat, you can create a lot of laughter, you can create, play and fun. And it might feel counterintuitive, you might feel like I'm so drained, I just want to take a nap. But if you can move your energy in a creative or constructive way, maybe it's just getting outside for a walk, maybe it's opening up all the windows and playing some happy music. And you know, sitting in the sunshine, whatever it is, it's intentionally changing out that energy because you can replenish yourself, you can rebuild yourself. But if you're a specifically are particularly energetically sensitive person, you might need a nap afterwards. And that might have to be part of the plan for the days that that person comes into your home or into your world, it's that you, it's only going to be on a day when you could take a nap afterwards, for example. So yeah, people can be draining on our energy, we do have what's called seniority in our space, which means you're the, you're the boss of your body, and you're the boss of your energy system. So you don't have to allow it to affect you, we can't change other people, but we can manage our own energy level, we can manage ourselves. So that's what I would encourage you to do. In that case, and again, I'll link those exercises. So if you want to really get into the energy and play with it a little bit, you'll have some tools to do so. And it really is just about not allowing yourself to match their vibration, there is some conscious or intentional effort sometimes in that until you get used to doing it. And then it might feel less like you have to pay attention to it or be intentional. But you know, depending on the person's relationship in your life and this question, it's it's obviously the mother in law, but if it was someone a little more removed, you might just distance yourself from that person. If it's a neighbor, if it's a, you know, complaining, I keep thinking of like people have both home homeowner associations as like HOAs with like the person that goes around and like gives people tickets for having, I don't know, whatever, needing a new light on their house or whatever. You don't have to engage with those people. You don't have to let them into your heart into your personal space. And there are constructive therapeutic ways to deal with it on an emotional level as well if that's something you're interested in, or something that's possible, meaning like if that person would be willing. So I hope that's been helpful. And again, check the show notes for that or a one on one episode. Because that has some exercises that'll give you the tools to actually to shift your energy for those times that you are feeling kind of energetically suck dry a little bit by a quote unquote, energy vampire. I remember, the other thing I like to keep shifting for us, is this like victim mentality. Yes, sometimes things just happen to us, yes, some people are a different energy for us, and maybe not an ideal match.
But they do teach us things. And we do learn things. And you do have an opportunity to learn to manage your energy in a different way from this relationship. So it's up to you if you take that opportunity or not. But we allow people in our space, we allow them to affect our mood, we allow them to shake us off our grounding or our center or the way we want to feel, you can choose to feel how you want to feel or to vibrate at the vibration that you want, regardless of how someone else is behaving in your space. So you don't have to allow them to drain your energy. It takes some practice, I'll say that some people are faster learners than others. And some of it has to do with our own healing. Like if we're allowing someone to trigger us, right. So it's a whole can of worms. But that was a great question. Thank you, John, or, Joan, I'm not sure how to pronounce your name. Okay. Our next question is, from Lisa L. I've heard you say that meditation can help anyone strengthen their own intuition. So far, I feel like I'm failing at meditation. Ah, how do I know if I'm doing it? Right? Do you have any tips? Okay. So in our episode with Jennifer, the creator of I talk to ghosts, she talked to us about using the calm app, which I'm not sponsored by them. I don't personally use that app. But it's got some great meditations and tools. So that's one option for you. But I want to say, First, think about the intention of the meditation. Because there are lots of types of meditation, there's not only one way of meditating, and I'm gonna talk about some different types. The first type of meditation is guided meditation. So that is, you can find them on YouTube, I'm sure they're on the calm app. That's when the most of the meditation or the entire meditation, you're listening to a guide, a voice that is telling you now imagine a stream. Now imagine that butterflies, whatever it is, and those can be really calming. There are versions of those guided meditations that could even take us through calming our physical body or releasing tension, releasing anxiety, that kind of thing. So that's one type of meditation. There are lots of I'm not going to get through all the types of meditations, there's, you can do like contemplation and mindfulness meditation, where you're like doing a walking meditation, for example, if you've ever seen those, like maze gardens, or what are they called, like the stones that go in a circular pattern that are big enough that people can walk around them, I can't believe I can't remember what this is called right now. But you walk around them. And it's being intentional with each step being very present moment by moment focusing on your foot touching the ground, the pebbles beneath your shoes, the so that's a either like a present, or a mindful or a contemplative meditation. So that is if you're wanting to spend some time with your soul and connect with spirit in that way, that's, you know, can be clearing the mind or can just be becoming aware of what's coming into the mind. So that's another type of meditation, or meditative practice. There are some that involve movement, there are some that involve sitting still, the meditation that I think you're probably asking about is what we in the work call sitting in the power, you know, who discusses this is Travis hope and I in the Travis, the warrior unicorn episode, I will link that one too. I'm making some notes for myself. As I'm talking, I'm just reading the questions. I didn't prepare the answers ahead of time because I wanted to give you really off the cuff answers and I'm having to link a lot of other episodes. So I want to make some notes so I don't forget. So sitting in the power also sometimes called sitting in the presence is essentially sitting with the energy of your own soul. And then partway it's there's three parts to the meditation, getting quiet or kind of settling down becoming still in your space, expanding your auric field or sitting you know, letting your soul's energy rise up and become present. And then the third part of that meditation is essentially blending your energy with the energy of the spirit world as a world not communicating with a specific individual, but blending with that energy of In the unseen world, that energy that's greater than ourselves as an individual, for example. So some tips, some common misconceptions that I think are really important to mention here is, if you're doing a sitting in the power or sitting in the presence type meditation, that's the one that is really going to start honing your discernment, honing your availability, for your intuition to bubble to the surface, we're intuitive beings. So we have intuitions coming in moment by moment as we move through our day. But we also, especially in the Western world, but in present day, I feel like it's most of the world we have so much extra information and stimuli coming in from devices from the world from current events from I mean, we just have so much happening any moment in our lives that sometimes because the intuitive voice tends to be the quieter, subtler, you know, small still voice that nudges from inside of us. It gets overpowered by the loudness of the things that we experience with our physical senses, right sights, and sounds and things coming at us from all directions and buzzing devices and yelling, children and all the things. So that's why this sitting in the power of meditation is so powerful, because we're just sitting with those subtle senses. Now, something that's really, really, really, really important. And if you take nothing else from this question, take this, we will never, and I use that word like very rarely, but we will never completely quiet our conscious mind. For the purpose of meditation. It's just not the way our minds work. And the goal is not to fully quiet your mind and not to almost like holding your breath. But with your mind. That's that's just not the goal. And I think, because in older versions of meditation, and and in the language, which you guys know, I always say the language doesn't quite match up with the experience. We say, you know, quieting your mind, which, yeah, ideally, you're not actively trying to think about things. But we have these monkey minds, we have these minds that we could be sitting very still and quiet. And all of a sudden, we're thinking, like, you know, even me talking right now, once in a while, I'll look back at this candle I lit earlier thinking like, is that candles still in a safe place? Is that Is it is it what time is it is a date, I got to remember to pick up milk on my grocery list, you know what I mean? It's just our human mind. So the important thing is not to fully silence the mind, because that's just not going to happen. And it's not the intention. But it doesn't mean you have to follow those thoughts down the rabbit hole. And what I mean by that is, so say the thought pops into your mind, you're sitting, you're quieting your energy, you're becoming aware of that subtle space right around you your auric field. And you suddenly think, Oh, I got to put milk on the grocery list. It doesn't mean you have to let your mind follow that thought and think about all the other 17 things you need to put on the grocery list, you can just almost like put a pin in that or sometimes for me, the way I'll do it as like imagine putting that item, grocery list milk in a bubble like a actual soap bubble in my mind and just saying like, Okay, I'm just going to put that in that bubble right to the side. And I'm going to come back to that later. I don't need to think about that now. So it's just moving the thoughts to the side, or some people say letting the thought move through you. I often say like, I just have a lot of Disney imagery as you guys know, not chasing the rabbit. You know, Alice is rabbit now having chased that rabbit down the rabbit hole. But sometimes that happens, it's just a natural part of our human experience our human mind. So if you in this example, have gotten 10 items down the grocery list and your lamb milk, butter, bread, cheese, apples. As soon as you realize that you're thinking and not meditating, just come back to center, just let that go or put a pin in it, put it to the side and say, Okay, I'm returning to my breath. It's why a lot of people use the breath as something to tune back into because when we're focusing on one thing, it's our mind can't be doing two things at once. Right? We discovered that with you know, there's been a lot of scientific research about how our brain can very rapidly switch between two tasks, but we can't actually
technically be multitasking and having our brain focus on two things at once. It just doesn't. It's not the way our brains work. So we can very quickly be jumping between two things, but a lot of people will use the breath because if we're focusing on the gentle inhale, pause, exhale, pause. Inhale, pause not that fast, obviously, at a nap. trouble breathing pace. If we're focusing on that, then our mind is not able to start thinking it could jump right to thinking really quick. And that's why meditation is a practice. It's essentially like going to the gym, where you're gonna have to continue to work on it, continue to practice it. But don't limit yourself by putting such strict restrictive expectations on it. I'll just say the other some of the other things to know. So you're never going to quiet your thoughts just work on elongating the space between those thoughts, meaning, okay, so then you thought about the grocery list, and you're like, oh, yeah, let me come back to my breathing, let me become aware of that subtle energy around me, let me sit with the energy of my soul. And you're sitting for a minute, and then all of a sudden, you're like someone knocking on my door. And then you realize, oh, wait, I'm thinking again, okay, come back to my breath. And then maybe it's two minutes before the next thought comes in. So really, it's just over time that the time between those thoughts will start elongating. And it's that space in the middle, that's, you know, the what we're what we're moving towards, but it's never going to be completely still in there forever. That's just not the way it works. And the truth is, for me, I do a version of this meditation most days of the week, for several years now. And there are days where for several days in a row, my meditation will feel really wonderful. And I'll feel like I have an easy time focusing on the meditation, focusing on the subtle energy letting those thoughts go. And then there'll be a day that rises up or a string of days that rise up where I am struggling the whole time, where I you know, every 30 seconds, I'm like, Oh, stop, stop thinking about that thing you're trying to order online, Oh, stop worrying about this kid, or Oh, stop thinking about your sessions later. So it's just a natural part of it. And it's something that we all work with. For as long as we practice this work, it's why it's a practice, and we can move towards mastery, but it will never be totally perfect. Something else to know about meditating to strengthen your intuition is most of the time. And it's not, I won't say always, I'll just say more often than not, when we are in the meditation exercise itself, you're not gonna get the intuition during that meditation, you're not most of the time going to become aware of a spirit person, or be aware of your guide, or have a profound mystical experience. Most of the time, not a lot feels like it's happening in your, you know, besides those thoughts popping into your conscious mind during the meditation. So I often will think about it as the, you know, my guides or the spirit world, or my soul working kind of in the background, almost like, I just have so weird the way my brain works, I think but almost like how when we have an app running in the background, right, we're doing work on one screen, but there's something else working in the background on our computer on our phone, it's kind of like that. So the energy is working in the background, and you probably won't be aware of it now. Once in a while, once in a blue moon, I might have a mystical experience during a quiet meditation time during a sitting in the presence meditation. Once in a while, I might be aware of my guide sitting next to me or a loved one sitting next to me or I might have. I'm not unconscious, I'm awake. But I might have like a little dream like scenario play out. But it's few and far between few and far between. It's not the intention of those meditations, it's not what we're strengthening. So it can happen once in a while. But don't set it as an expectation and don't feel disappointed when it doesn't happen. Because it's just not what's supposed to happen. Most of the time, it really feels like just waiting for the time of the clock to run out and trying to refocus yourself from the thoughts. What it does do because I can feel some of you thinking like, Well, why are we doing this meditation, then what it does do is start sensitizing you to that more subtle energy, the additional senses, right? We always talk about that group of six senses, not our eyes, or ears or nose, mouth, none of that not touch. It's the subtle senses. It's the intuition. So what happens for me is, if there's something I'm needing intuition about, it typically doesn't come in the time of the meditation. It typically comes later or at a different time when I'm doing something maybe I'm you know, doing dishes or maybe I'm when I was a massage therapist, a lot of the time it would happen when I was folding sheets and towels, just kind of going through those motions, not really thinking about anything. Maybe I was listening to some music or a podcast and all the sudden, an intuition would come in or all of a sudden I would think You know what, I'm inspired to do this, I had it happen recently, actually, about a, I haven't announced it or like finished creating it. So I'm not gonna tell you what it is. But it's a workshop that I'm thinking of creating an in person workshop. And the inspiration came just like that I was sending an email and focusing on typing and then all of a sudden inspiration hit me about, uh, you know, what I'm going to, I want to think about and sit with the idea of creating this type of, you know, three hour workshop. So, sometimes it'll be something we know that we need inspiration or guidance about, sometimes it will be something that we like, I wasn't even thinking about creating a three hour in person workshop, and all of a sudden, that inspiration just kind of hit me. So that's the intention of that sitting in the power meditation, it's strengthening your intuition in that way. And paying attention to those intuitions when we feel a red flag when we feel something in our body when we you know, I've said this in other episodes when someone's talking to us, and one thing that they say just kind of stands out to us or sticks in our mind or hangs lower in the air. That's an intuition. So the meditation is strengthening or developing, unfolding deepening your awareness of those subtle energies. But our human life is very busy and very loud. So it's taking those breaks those times of quiet or silence, to start, honing, deepening, unfolding intuition, or whatever it is now, now that I hopefully have set up your expectations a little bit more appropriately, I'm gonna give a couple little tips. So I'm gonna take a little quick sip of a drink, here are
some tips that I can give you are as follows. Everyone has a different body rhythm. And why that's important is, the time of day that you choose to do your meditation can make a big difference. Now, there's not a specific time of day, that's better than another time of day, it's all based on you personally, and your personal rhythms. There was a time in my life where nighttime would have been better for me. And there are times in my life where I didn't do this meditation at night, after my kids had gone to bed, my day was done, I could go sit out, I have like a closed patio, I could go sit out there and do this meditation. And that's what I used to do it now that my life is different. And for the last several years, I used to go into my massage therapy office pre COVID really early in the morning to heat up towels and fold laundry and things like that. And I would do it that because my day hadn't started yet the building was still there was nothing else I needed to be doing. And it felt very much a quiet time to me, I still do my meditation first thing in the morning, I literally get up, use a restroom, sometimes brush my teeth, usually brush my teeth, because that helps to wake me up a little bit more, and then immediately do my meditation before I do anything else once in a while I'll check my emails first. If I feel like it's going to distract me thinking about it, but for me, often it helps not to look at anything because then if I get an email that I feel nervous about, like not nervous, but like urgent, like I need to answer or like something I'm going to have to address that day or need to know, sometimes my mind will think about it. So my point here is through trial and error through exploring and through getting to know yourself and what your energy prefers. Figure out which time of day works best for you. It's the time when you're uninterrupted it might be like if you feel calmer, at the end of the day, when you feel like your tasks are done. And you can have your own time. Maybe it's the end of the day for you if you're like me, and it's better to do it before the busyness of the day hits. Yeah, maybe early in the morning is the best time for you. There's no right or wrong time. It's just which time works best for you personally. And even that can change and shift throughout your life throughout throughout you know as your stages and ages of life change for you. So that's one tip is time of day and sorting out which time of day just works best for you. It's like setting yourself up for success. Really. Another little kind of mechanical tip is I would say make sure that you're like it's it's okay to do these meditations with your eyes closed. Make sure that you're setting yourself up. We're not going to fall asleep. Now. The truth is, once in a while you're going to fall asleep and maybe you're too tired that day. Maybe you're not feeling well. Maybe whatever. Maybe you're stressed or overwhelmed. Maybe you just needed a little extra rest. There will be they shouldn't it shouldn't be every time if it's every time We need to adjust some things. But once in a while you might fall asleep, it's okay. But setting yourself up in a way that it's less likely that you'll fall asleep. So maybe it's sitting in a chair instead of laying down, maybe it's having lights on, instead of having it dark for me, like I said, when I was brushing my teeth, because brush, make be in minty fresh wakes me up a little bit extra. So whatever it is for you, I also like so here in San Diego, it can get really, really hot in the summer. And I've been really bad about it lately, but I like to go for a walk in the morning. And there's times where it gets so hot that I would have to do a walk, if I was going to walk outside and not like at a gym, I would have to do it early in the morning. First thing otherwise by like 8am It's way too hot. So I might have to walk first and then do meditation. But like for example, I try not to like drink coffee before I meditate because I do my meditation for usually close to an hour and I will have to use a restroom, I won't be able to sit for an hour. And if you do have to do something like that, it's okay just do it and come right back. It's not ideal, but it's it's not the end of the world. So give yourself some grace. But I think it's setting your expectations appropriately. Picking and playing with what time of day works best for you setting yourself up for success just in like a physical, you know, setting up lights on doing what makes you feel more awake. I will say for the sitting in the power for strengthening or developing your intuition or your spiritual gifts. Better not to have music, like just quiet. But if you're just doing it for yourself and not for like development, specifically have music if you like it. At first, it can feel a little challenging to meditate without music. Now, you're in for the last like several years, if I try to have music, I find it very distracting. So, you know, I would say if it's if your purpose, like you asked in this question is about more like strengthening intuition, meditation, maybe no music for that. But it really is time for you with your soul with the energy of your own soul. There's no doing it right or doing it wrong. There's no failing at meditation. And it doesn't mean you have to jump right into an hour meditation right off the bat, if you're new at it, or if you're coming back after a spell of like, how not having meditated for a while, start with 15 minutes. And then when you feel comfortable with 15 minutes, add five more minutes and add five minutes, you know, once a week or once a month, it's there's no rush. It's it's a development, right? It's something that's going to gradually shift and change and move over time, then there's some times where emotions might come up for you as part of this. Or maybe you afterwards feel like you need to journal or journal about an experience that you had positive or challenging. So it's all part of your personal development of you inviting those qualities of your soul to rise towards the surface. And being an intuitive being is part of your birthright, it's with you. It's a part of you, you have intuition. We're really just fine tuning your ability to recognize your intuition, your ability to accept your intuition, your ability to, in some cases, heed your intuition. And it's not just intuition, it's inspiration as well. It's that subtle knowing of you know what, I just feel better about choice A than choice B. So it can it can help with a lot of things and it's carving out the time for it to do you need to do it every day. No, not necessarily great. If you did just like it'd be great to go for a walk every day or do some, you know, stretching every day. But we can't always do that. For me, I say I do more of the days of week then not for me, it's usually like five to six days a week if I'm doing it in an ideal way. Sometimes it's less than that if I have just like a busy week, or if I'm not feeling well. And I decide you know what, I really need the extra hour of sleep today, you know, if I'm trying to get over a little cold or something like that. So be kind and gentle to yourself. There is no failing. So it's the only failing is not trying at all right? And remember, it's a practice. It's not something to like, judge yourself by or to say like, oh, well, you know, I'm still doing 15 minutes, and it's been a month and I'm still having thoughts come in and I'm failing that's not failing. It's just the way it works. And it will gradually slowly change over time. It will sensitize you over time. But the other thing is our human nature and the way things work here, not energetically, but physically is things tend to feel like they're moving slow, so don't expect again, it's not a light switch. So don't expect that all of a sudden overnight. You feel totally different. Usual The the layers are so thin and incremental of change of shifting of expanding that we often don't notice until we look back, right? Like, wow, I've grown so much right? You know, I only had five thoughts in that meditation instead of 50. Wow. But it's such gradual incremental soft change and shifting that we don't always notice it like, it's like gotten snot a light switch, it's a it's a growth.
It's just like, if you haven't, I'm looking at a plant of mine, that's grown quite a bit since I got it. But if you have a friend, like a young person that's still growing, or a niece or nephew, for example, and you haven't seen them in a little bit, if you saw them day to day, you probably wouldn't recognize them growing, you know, centimeter at a time, but having not seen them for six months, you might be like, Well, you look much bigger you there's growth that's happened. So try not to judge it. Your meditation practice in a way that's like you're wanting to tick a box of, okay, I've hit this next peak, and now I'm, you know, moot climbing this ladder of meditation. It's, it's a different intention than that, right? It's Can you give yourself permission to just sit with the energy of your soul, and the energy of Spirit, something greater than yourself a power greater than your own understanding? The spirit world as a world, the unseen world, whatever you like in there, all of it is really what it is. Can you give yourself permission? Can you prioritize at some point in your day in your week sitting and just spending time in the energy of that of your soul? So those are my tips. That's how you know if you're doing it right, if you're showing up and giving it a try. Let me come on to my next question. I think we're only gonna have time for one more. Okay, I've attended a couple of your free community healing spirit circle sessions that you offer every month on Zoom. I really enjoyed them. And I felt somehow lighter, calmer, and generally just better afterwards for a couple of days. Oh, good. That's, that's the hope. I just don't understand how does energy healing work? Okay, this is a good question. And yeah, I think this might be our last one, because this one's gonna take me a minute to explain. So how does energy work now in those community energy healings, which, every month I have a free offering. So make sure you go to my website, joyful medium.com and look under the Events tab, it's this year, it's either a free group healing or like a free group mediumship reading every month that you can totally free that you can join and experience. This is specifically about the free community healings, the type of healing that I practice is Reiki. And it's also technically what would be called like psychic energy healing. So what that really is, is taking the chi or energy that's around us in all things and moving it through our body to help our bodies heal and balance itself. There is a way that she is used that most of us accept or have experienced at this point, and it's through acupuncture. For some of you, I'm about to blow your mind. If you've ever if you understand acupuncture, if you've ever heard of acupuncture, it's when an acupuncturist, a practitioner of Chinese medicine is taking these very thin, thin, thin needles and the needles are, I think the way my acupuncturist used to say it is 10 needles are as big as one strand of hair of your head. So they're so so fine. And placing these needles on points in your body to help the energy move. A lot of people don't know that this is what acupuncture is doing. So the way they're placing the needles is based on these meridians which meridian is a fancy word for energy lines, these energetic minds how we have veins that move our blood and how we have muscles that are in certain structures. We also have these meridians, these channels through our body that are energetic pathways. And the way it works in Chinese medicine is either an ailment or discomfort. Something in the physical body is either caused by too much chi, too much energy built up in one area, or stagnant chi meaning not enough energy flowing to or through that area. And there are a couple other little nuances in there. But the the needles are placed along those energy pathways to either slow down the energy, move the energy open up, you know, like a pathway, open up the energies speed up or draw more energy to that place to help the body heal and balance itself. So a lot of people don't know that acupuncture is based entirely on chi on energy. So with the healing sessions that were doing, it's the energy that's all around us that she moving through your physical body and your energetic systems. Again, that or episode goes through the layers of the energetic systems, several of them through our emotional body through our astral body, through our chakras through our auric field and helping to clear shift change increase lessen the energy in those areas and letting your intelligence systems balance and come to balance and healing with themselves.
Now, I want to point out is very I'm so passionate about healing work most
of you guys know this. I'm so I'm so happy to have this question. There is no belief system necessary to participate in or receive energy healing, you don't have to understand it. You don't have to believe any like, religious system or belief system or scientific system. It's a complementary therapy is what it's called. So I was a little bit I was always so drawn to Reiki but in like, I want to say it was like 2001. When I first heard of it, I was in massage school. And I was a little scared of it because I thought, Oh, is that like a cult am I going to have to like believe all these spiritual things, I was nervous about it. And so I didn't really pursue it because I thought it was part of a belief system. It works with every belief system. Many religions have some version of this like laying hands or healing hands or healing touch, or many systems of religion still practice a hands over or laying hands on energy healing practice, they don't really talk about what it actually is, but that's what it is. So you don't have to have a belief system it works with it doesn't offend. I don't think it offends any of the belief systems. And it's not mutually exclusive, meaning you could have your own personal religious beliefs practice and still allow work with receive energy, energy healing right. Now, when I say it's a complementary therapy, what I mean by that is one of the beautiful things about energy healing, Reiki, etc, is, it's a complementary therapy, meaning it works alongside to support any medical treatments that a traditional or non traditional doctor is working on with you. So it's practiced in Oh, geez, I want to say it's more than 1500 hospitals in the US at this point. Don't quote me on that number, but I think it's right around there. A lot of hospitals in my area use it and I know a lot of the like, name, like name recognition, major hospitals have some sort of Reiki or therapeutic touch or healing hands practice that they have as a compliment and greet therapy. It's used with oncology patients, a lot cancer patients, it's it helps with relaxation, it helps the body to replenish to heal and support itself. So it doesn't interact in an in a negative way or interfere with any treatment that someone's receiving. It actually works to support any treatment someone's receiving. So whether it's like therapy, like talk therapy, like psychotherapy, or whether it's a medical treatment, or whether it's I even give Reiki energy to any medicines supplement that I'm going to take i when I'm cooking, I'm putting Reiki energy in there. So it's just it's a healing energy on the psychic energy tools that I know. So really, it's taking the lifeforce energy that's around us at all times. We can't see this lifeforce energy, but it's, you know, in all things around us at all times, and using that energy to direct through our physical body energetic bodies, items, articles that we're wanting to put it in. I have a dear friend who has a Reiki blanket that she's infused with healing and energy and positivity that a relative made this blanket. It's a it's a heritage piece, and it's extra comforting because it's been steeped in Reiki energy. So essentially, that's how it works through the subtle energies through those psychic energies, the Chi, the lifeforce energy that's all around us. And it moves through our system to help our intelligent systems heal and balance themselves alongside you know, any other vitamins or treatments or positive things that you're doing for yourself. So that is how it works. Most people Reiki is a little Reiki and healing energy and I use these interchangeably even though they're two totally different systems. I just use them together in my practice all the time. So I think of them together, but technically they're two Reiki is a Japanese system. I'm of energy healing. And then there is also working with chi, there's also psychic energy healing different tools. It's essentially all from the same positive and well intentioned place. So, it really, I mean, I can't say enough about it. But it's, some people feel really relaxed. Some people feel really relaxed for several days, some people feel really energized. Even if you feel nothing after receiving it. Again, it's kind of like the meditation, it's working on those subtle levels. It doesn't mean you have to feel it consciously. If you do wonderful, it just means you're a little more sensitized to it, or you have more sensitivity in the subtle energies in your space. Some people drift off to sleep when they receive healing energy, some people feel even over zoom, like when I'm doing these group energy sessions, some people feel like I'm physically touching their shoulders, or physically can feel like I have my hands on their head, even though I'm in a totally different location as them. So there's a lot more to the subtle energy than we often think and realize, science is starting to prove all this most of us that have been in this work for years, don't need proof, we've done our own experiments and have our own proof. But if you're someone that needs measurable proof, you can do a little research, it's it's all there on the interwebs. There's a lot of scientific backing, and it's why these programs are used in so many hospitals. So it's not bound by time and space. It's why we can be in totally different locations, and you can be receiving the healing just the same. It's about intention. And it's about the way the energy moves, right. It's why I can also be with someone on Zoom and be working with their loved one in the spirit world, and we don't all have to be in the same physical location. Because a lot of this energy exists in physical and non physical, meaning something we can't tangibly touch, like a table, it's vibrating at a much higher level. So therefore it is non physical. It's not dense in physical form, it's non physical energy. So I know it's kind of a long winded answer. But I'm super passionate about healing. You're all invited. Of course, if you whether you've been to all of them, or whether you've never been before, you're always all invited to the spirit circle, monthly community offerings, they're always free. They are usually somewhere in the middle of the month, I try to move around the day, just to give everyone an opportunity. Because I get lots of messages about I can only do a weekend, I can only do an evening at night, I live in the UK. And I can only do in the middle of the day of you know Pacific time. So I try to move them around to give everyone an opportunity. But I usually have the next upcoming one up on my website, again, joyful medium.com and the events section. So all you got to do is sign up. So you can receive the Zoom link because it's live with me on Zoom. They're not pre recorded, I do them live with the healing sessions, I often will record them and then send out the recording afterwards. So if you can't make the live session, for example, you can watch the replay and still receive the healing because remember, healing energy is not bound by time and space. So you can watch a recording. And if your intention is to receive the healing, you can still receive the healing. So I hope that is helpful and make sense. If you've never experienced that, I hope you'll come to a free community offering and just have an experience and see for yourself how it feels. So thank you for being here with me today. For our second asking medium anything episode again, I'll link the first one from November of 2023. I think it was episode 47. I said, if you want to check that one out, if there are some questions that didn't get answered this time, they might have been answered that time. If there are some questions that didn't get answered any of the times, please feel free to email me joy at joyful medium.com and send your questions and I might include them in the next episode of Ask him medium anything which I'll try to do every few months one just so I can be answering your questions. I as you know, one of my intentions with this podcast is to have a resource out there for people who have these questions and want some trustworthy information. There's a lot of information out there on the web. So I try to be a trustworthy source of information for you guys. I'm so happy you're joining me today. I hope that you learn something or your curiosity was piqued about something or maybe I validated information that you already knew which is wonderful. We're all always learning and growing and changing and I am so honored and happy to have you here as a part of my community and to be in community with you. I hope you'll join me next time for another episode of Spirit Speakeasy, Big hugs. Bye for now, from inside Spirit Speakeasy