Andrea Hess's blog

When I ask my clients for their spiritual development goals, I often hear that they would like to more fully embrace their Soul’s purpose, or develop a closer relationship with their Divine Self. These are wonderful goals … but, surprisingly, no-one has ever told me: “I would like to become fully enlightened.”

There are times when we are so open to intuitive guidance and inspiration, so connected to our Spirit Guides, that we are subjected to a practically limitless, constant flow of information. Ideas abound. No sooner do we finish one project than we are inspired with three new possibilities to take its place!

Have you ever found yourself in anger or fear and said to yourself: “I’m a spiritual person. Shouldn’t I be beyond feeling this way?” We want to be limitless in our compassion. We want to be kind and generous. We work so hard on our personal and spiritual development. And yet, negative emotions such as guilt or blame still seem to catch up with us.

Lately, I’ve come across a scenario that so many of my clients seem to be faced with that I thought I’d address it in a post. Here’s the situation: We ask for guidance around our purpose. And we receive a vision - a big vision. The vision may be so big and sweeping, it leaves us shaking our heads in amazement. A multi-million dollar retreat facility. An international franchise.

We all come into contact with people from time to time who have negative thoughts and opinions of us. These thoughts may remain unspoken, or only implied. But we are still left with that slight sense of disapproval, guilt, or disappointment. We tell ourselves that we’re imagining things, or that this shouldn’t bother us.

Occasionally, a client will pull out their notes from a reading we did together six months or a year ago, and start quoting what they wrote down. And then wonder why I seem to be contradicting myself.

Like it or not, the holidays are soon upon us. If you haven’t noticed the appearance of eggnog in your grocer’s dairy case, you no doubt have become aware of the friendly gift-giving suggestions offered through television commercials. Apparently, we should start our Christmas shopping right after Halloween.

I was at the grocery store today and encountered a man in a truly freakish zombie costume. His getup was so realistic that even I got a little uncomfortable. I’m sure you can imagine the reaction of my two-year-old. It will be a miracle if I get her back into that grocery store any time soon.

How do we ever know for sure what is real and what isn’t? What if our belief in Spirit Guides, a Higher Self, our intuition, the Law of Attraction, past lives, and whatever else we have incorporated into our spiritual perspective is nothing but a pretty illusion that allows us to feel better, more in control? How do we move from belief to certainty?

Self-acceptance means to have a loving relationship with ourselves in the present moment. It means releasing ourselves of judgment, and embracing all of who we are right now – the good, the bad, and the ugly. Sounds nice, doesn’t it?