"Do spirit guides ever give bad advice or the wrong advice? I did what (I thought) they were saying I should do and it ended up being a mess. Now I'm afraid to trust them..."
The questioner didn't give me any specifics about her situation, so I'll adapt a few other people's stories as illustrations -- one of them being mine.
I recently went through a frustrating situation that speaks to this (which I'll tell you more about in detail in just a minute) but let me go ahead and give you my short answer up front.
In my experience, it's not so much that spirit guides can or can't give "bad" advice -- it's that we sure can do a lousy job of employing them properly and/or interpreting their messages:
- hearing what we want to hear
- interjecting our own will (even though our judgment may be flawed)
- believing their will can precede ours
- making bad decisions
- needing to learn things the hard way
- and taking the wrong actions
Bright Shiny Object Syndrome You are distracted on your quest for treasure, and veer off the map to pick up another glittering gem that just happens to be close enough to your path that you think... "Oooo! Not exactly what I'm after, but it's right here. What can it hurt?"
(Retail stores very craftily tap into the emotion of this kind of opportunity by placing items in the check out line that you didn't come in for, didn't need, and didn't know to want until you saw them -- they call them impulse buys.)
When close enough ends up closer to wrong... Last fall, my friend Jeff received some divine guidance about relocating to Hawaii and starting his own business. He had a reading with Colette Baron-Reid (we're big Colette groupies -- love her!) and she confirmed this. When I met Jeff in November, I also picked up that he was going to move to Hawaii this year as part of a major life change, and that in addition to (or prior to) launching his own business, there was also a job opportunity working for someone else (an older female) in a similar field. But I definitely got Hawaii from his guides, in a big way. Multiple psychics kept confirming this for him -- the job description, generally; and the location, very specifically.
So, in December, pretty much out-of-the-blue, he was offered a position working for an older man in a very similar capacity -- but in Arizona. It had to be the correct path for him to take, right? It was SO similar to what he wanted to be doing... only the location was really "off."
Everyone involved was a great person -- but the job started elusively shifting and changing the moment he took it. He stuck with it thinking "But it's almost perfect. Surely moving to Hawaii will be so much more challenging -- this is Right Here! Maybe I can change my original plan to accommodate the easier and seemingly more immediate path..."
Logical Override In the Angel Therapists' community we refer to this as logical override -- letting the ego-driven thinking mind deconstruct the clarity of our intuition with its "practical" fear-based arguments.
Jeff's career detour quickly deteriorated with unforeseen blocks and complications -- and it all felt awful -- stress, discomfort, anxiety. The body is a powerful and accurate divination tool.
He ultimately had to course correct, to realign with his original intention to move to Hawaii. This seemingly more monumental move unfolded effortlessly -- and quickly -- in a comparable amount of time. He experienced instances of divine timing all over the place... and he leaves for Hawaii in less than a week.
And he feels good -- invigorated, excited, enthusiastic. The right decision or action feels right.
Lost
A few weeks ago, I completed production on the latest version of my class on Talking to Your Spirit Guides. Although the information in the lectures did not change much at all, the quality of the recording was a tremendous improvement -- and the guided meditation underwent a HUGE transformation. I was very proud of the results and wanted to make the upgrade available to everyone who had already taken the class. Especially since I received such great feedback about the attunement portions of my workshops, with many requests to record them.
I talked to my spirit guides about potential courses of action to take regarding my meditations:
- getting the new version to existing students
- marketing the classes
- and producing more guided meditations on a variety of other topics.
My guides gave me very brief, succinct, simple, clear, common sense advice:
- Give the spirit guide attunement away -- to EVERYONE. The easiest way to make sure anyone who wanted to download could do so -- plus, a free preview would help to authentically market the full course.
- For several days there were 222's everywhere, which I interpret as additional confirmation of the guidance to involve others. I had planned for months to offer an affiliate program, as soon as I felt that the product was top-notch.
- Last but not least, immediately begin writing and recording more, while my creative momentum was high. I began writing new meditation scripts, on a variety of topics -- I was effortlessly downloading (channeling) them, like a court reporter, pure transcription... I had five new scripts in various stages of completion, with two of them ready to record and mix over the next two or three days...
And then I... lost my freaking mind, apparently, and wandered way off course. Got completely lost, spent two weeks working on unnecessary tasks that were not part of the original plan, and ultimately, after stressing myself into a frenzy, ended up having to revisit The Art of Surrender (yes, AGAIN!) and undo everything. Retrace my steps backwards -- a LOT of steps in both directions, just to get back to Step One.
But, hey -- change your mind; change it back. Abort when it's warranted -- when it's clearly not working.
It was exhausting. But I can not blame it on my guides. If I stuck to the simple, obvious, next, straightforward steps -- I would have uploaded the meditation preview, stuck the link in my free resource Contacting Your Spirit Guides, and posted on the blog telling all subscribers to check it out.
... Then, proceed with the new recordings...
Which is where things stand today. But let me tell you the ridiculous tangents and detours I went off on first/instead.
I am very willful. I am very aware of my free will. I am very aware that I am the authority of spirit manifested in my life. I am very aware that I'm driving the car and my guides are, at best, big mouthed passengers and back-seat navigators. I don't pray to my guides. I don't beg them to do things for me. I don't even ask my spirit guides what I should do -- I tell them what I'm planning to do and let them weigh in.
I decided to segment my lists -- a tedious activity that is unlikely to interest anyone here, except maybe those of you who are internet marketers -- let's just say it was serious overkill in getting the word out about my meditations.
Bright Shiny New Marketing Lists I decided while I was at it to build some entirely NEW lists. Guys, there are quite a few of you, I am happy to say, but the size of my list and how quickly I can build a new one meant that I TRIPLED the expense of my monthly business overhead in twenty four hours. For NO reason other than I could. (I am very proud of the fact that I have run my own business for five years on a tiny overhead budget.)
Once I had new lists, I "decided" I needed new publications to serve them and spent days coding email newsletter templates -- which is like the most aggravating activity for any designer on the planet. And to top it off, there were technical issues with the list management service that put the most serious problems entirely outside of my ability to control or fix.
Brick wall, after dead end, after briar patch, after muddy ditch, after locked door... Let me tell you one thing I absolutely know to be true:
Solutions (good solutions) are NOT complicated. The set backs and the blocks -- not to mention, the body stress that goes along with it -- are sure signs that you are NOT engaging a good plan.
- Did it positively affect my income? No.
- Were more people reached? No.
- Did it get me NEW readers? No.
- Did it cost me more money? Yes, I was going to spend three times the amount of money to run my business, with no effect on the bottom-line. STUPID.
- Did it create more work? YES, like... to infinity!
- Did my actions fulfill the intentions I had set with the advice of my guides? NO.
- Did I need to learn some lessons from this? Yeah, apparently I did.
If you can't find any other philosophical distance to maintain your sanity, the perspective of a necessary lesson will usually work when all other answers to Why Me? don't suffice.
There's a piece of marketing wisdom I learned several years ago (can't remember who said it) that has broader application:
"There's no such thing as a failed marketing campaign, only useful data about what does NOT work."
So, my spirit guides clearly did not give me bad advice, right? Well, that's the most interesting observation of all. During the course of this series misadventures -- all along the way -- I was telling myself that my guides had told me to do all this. I kept prompting them for additional input, at each hurdle I encountered because of my (ill-advised ?) detours, and they kept trying to help me -- with MY crazy-assed course of actions, not theirs -- for awhile...
I called Jeff to tell him about my meltdown and what was going on and the first thing he asked me was "What are your guides saying about all of this?"
My guides aren't saying jack. They stopped talking a while back. As a matter of fact, they had me pull over and drop them off. They said "Pick us up on your way back to Grounded, dude."
When your guides go quiet on you -- especially after you've been asking them the same thing over and over again -- chances are they've said all they have to say. They've already given you the best advice they have. You've probably been asking repeatedly, because you're not getting the answer you want. There's something already laid out there, before you, right in front of your face. Once you get it you can move forward again.
The lesson may not be fun; it may not be easy.
Most of the significant things we learn, we learn the hard way.
image credit Lupinthe3rd via Creative Commons on Flickr