There can be a lot of mystery, confusion, and complexity surrounding the understanding of the Holy Spirit and spirit guides. Human kind has a tendency to complicate these types of spiritual understandings. Our ego can get involved around what we believe to right or true and then there is the religious dogma that often surrounds the topic. I am here to tell you that we need to stop complicating the process. Opening communication to the Holy Spirit or our spirit guides is not a complex process. However, it does involve doing some inner reflection and work around mindset to clear the mind and make space for the channels we need to “see” or “feel” our guidance. Here is how to go about that process:

Just breathe to begin opening the channels

The first tactic is to pause through the day and bring awareness to your breath. That’s right — just breathe. Pause in your daily routine throughout the day and notice your breath. Many of us don’t breath properly.

Our autonomic nervous system, which controls automatic functions like heart rate and digestion, is split into two parts. The sympathetic nervous system, controls our fight-or-flight response. The other, the parasympathetic nervous system, controls our rest-and-relax response. 

While both parts of our nervous systems are always functioning, deep breathing can help quiet our sympathetic nervous system and therefore reduce feelings of stress or anxiety. This helps quiet the monkey mind.

Proper breathing involves deep breathing down into the belly. Many of us breathe shallowly only into our chests, only partially filling our lungs. Focusing on our breathing is the first way to begin opening communication to higher sources and channels.

Quiet the mind to begin opening communication

Human kind has been programmed to get caught up in the rat race. We have our constant mind chatter or “monkey mind.” There are ways to calm and quiet this monkey mind. Here are some of the best practices that work for me:

• Get outside and into nature no matter the season or time of year
• Practice taking pause and reflection in your life
• Meditate (can be walking meditations or other variations)
• Give gratitude at the beginning and end of each day
• Journaling throughout each day or week

Do not allow the many misconceptions around meditation to deter you. Simply becoming present is becoming mindfully aware. It is a form of meditation. So many people get caught up in the thinking that meditation and mindfulness must be conducted in certain ways. As a result, people get frustrated and give up far too soon on the mindset and practice.

There benefits abound when becoming aware of the present moment in your life. Quieting the mind is one of the most important aspects when it comes to opening communication to our spirit guides.

Opening communication – seeing is believing

Once we have calmed the mind, the real fun of opening communication to our spirt guides can begin. In addition, life takes on new meaning. We begin to feel guided and can use our intuition.

Be it through daily intention, meditations, or prayer — we can ask for guidance and begin receiving it. Moreover, we can really begin to empower our life and purpose.

Communication from our guides comes in a variety of forms:

• Signs (i.e. serendipitous moments brought before you
• Repeating numbers
• Songs
• Electronics
• Movies / Documentaries
• Dreams

These are just a few of the many different ways that our higher selves communicate to us here in the physical realm. In other words, however we most typically prefer our communication, we begin to see it. In addition, the more we see this communication, the more our guides will give it to us.

The key here is to open yourself up to these possibilities. How many times have you seen coincidences occur in your life that you chalk up to dumb luck? Chances are this is the universe, our spirt guides, the Holy Spirit, or our Higher Selves at work communicating with us. There can only be so many coincidences in our lives until they become mathematically improbable.

Holy Spirt vs. Spirit Guides

During my upbringing the Holy Spirit or Holy Ghost has been depicted as a white dove or bird in flight upwards toward heaven. This was the image I was given as a child. It never really quite resonated with me, and perhaps that was for good reason as it has forever made me seek more answers.

When I think of the term “Holy Spirit,” what comes to mind for me is an energetic connection to our Source, the Devine, God, or the Universe. It is the connection that is available for all of humankind if we apply ourselves towards it.

Some religious teachings tailor this meaning towards their own beliefs. Most often in the Christian teachings, it is used for connection through Christ and then God. In other words, it is opening up oneself to higher powers that exist beyond the physical realm of existence.

It is in my experience that I have come to the understanding that this connection is granted to us all if we simply open ourselves up to it. We all can connect to higher planes of existence or lower planes of existence. That is to say, “good” and “evil.”

Our spirit guides are simply other vessels that can attune us to these higher places of communication. In my study and through my own interpretation, spirit guides work alongside the Holy Spirit to connect us to our highest places of meaning and purpose. For instance, spirit guides may very well be our guardian angels and visa versa.