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Spirits and signs, how do they shape your life? Psychic Helen Jacobs shares ways we can connect with our spirit guides, notice the signs and find our life’s purpose.

Helen Jacobs, psychic and author of You Already Know – a comprehensive guide to spiritualitychats with Wellspring editor, Kate Durack, discussing a framework for living more intuitively in order to see your path clearly.

Before she practised as a psychic medium, Helen was a successful PR executive. Upon the advice of her spirit guides, she was able to make this change. Helen suggests that everyone should connect with their own spirit guides to give direction to your life’s path.

A busy mum of two, Helen transformed her life’s outlook, staying grounded but believing that her spirit reaches beyond her roots. She knows the challenges life brings and taps into her psychic senses to let spirits guide her, inviting and urging others to do the same.

sunset and serenity

Spirit guides

Helen began her journey with guides in 2001 after a spirit visitation from her Aunty. After this, she began to really connect with her inner and higher guidance.

Helen has relied on spirit guides to help her through many life decisions. After studying business and journalism, Helen realised the importance of communication. However, only later and likely due to her self-proclaimed naturally curious manner, did she realise how important spirit communication is, and how it would change her life.

Helen suggests that guiding spirits are present to be called on at various times, whether that be a transitional period such as becoming a parent or other challenges in life. She knows that every life has a purpose and urges others to realise they are here for a reason, and you will be guided towards this if you use those around you.

Everyone has at least one spirit guide, who is assigned to them for the entirety of this particular lifetime.

Instead of just one spirit guide, Helen posits that everyone has access to a spiritual support team, likened to a board of advisors in a business where each spiritual guide plays a different role.  According to Helen, spirit guides do not possess a physical body and knowing they are present is not the same as sensing when someone is in the same room as you.

Their energy can be as close to us as we wish to invite it in.

girl in nature watching path

Use the ‘psychic senses’

Helen believes that everyone has psychic senses in the same way that we have the physical ones of taste, sight, smell, etc., but in a metaphysical sense.

The way that spirit is going to communicate with us is not necessarily through our physical senses, but the metaphysical.

Do the hairs on the back of your arms often stand up? Helen suggests events like this are signals that there is a lot of energy around. When you get dizzy, she likens this to a spirit being present as energy moves in circles, making you feel as though the world is spinning.

There are so many clues that our body is giving us that someone non-physical is trying to get our attention.

Colours, animals, numbers are also symbolic and can be relaying messages from the spirits around us, says Helen. Most of the time we are not even paying attention to the clues that indicate that spirits are trying to grasp our attention, she continues.

Through our intuition we can sense, we can feel that the energy in the room shifts, Helen says.

She believes in not hiding your truth and following these hunches.

tarot cards

Look backwards

Intuition plays a big role in how one expands and challenges themselves. Helen believes that everyone has a path, but this is not necessarily set in stone. Instead, listen and follow the signs around you to do what will ultimately benefit you. This intuition, she says, will help you navigate through your life’s journey.

Life will present us signposts with choices of directions and our job is to figure out, by using out intuition, which one of those directions we want to go in.

To determine what has shaped your life, Helen suggests looking at things that have shaped your life experience, as they will help inform you about how you have gotten where you are, and importantly what you will do next.

Looking backwards is one of the best ways to realise what your signposts look like.

Helen warns against getting caught up in fear-based thinking, as despite its intention to keep you safe, it might make you retreat or hide from what is presented in front of you. Instead, she encourages us to follow our intuition despite this not always being easy. In doing so, she hopes, you will be guided on your journey by the signs around you that you might be missing.

girl meditating at sunset

Ask for a sign

Once you start looking for signs, Helen says, you will find them.  Then, she believes, you will be able to see how much life is working for you. Don’t be so specific, Helen warns. For example, if you want to quit your job and ask for a yellow car to drive past as a sign, you might be waiting a while. Spirit guides can do a lot, she says, but “maybe not that.”

There is real magic in watching how the signs come to you, and what the signs are that come to us.

Helen suggests taking a step back and becoming an observer in your own life, so that you can notice what has shaped your life’s journey and start to see this “serendipitous, synchronistic life” that we are a part of.

man meditating in nature

Be present

Don’t spend too much time wondering what you purpose is, Helen urges. “Each and every moment is of purpose,” she claims, and “if there are millions of moments in a lifetime, you have already offered so much.”

Life purpose is a moot point because you don’t know what the purpose is until your life is almost is complete.

She ends the interview with an important message, reminding us to trust your intuition and its guidance.

You know more than you think you do, and when you trust yourself, your whole world can change.

Watch the full interview below or on our YouTube channel.

Spirituality is defined by an awareness of the soul, spirit or the essence of ‘you’ and whilst it can be aligned with religious beliefs, it doesn’t have to be. Where religion can provide an ethical framework, spirituality calls for deep connection to ‘self’ in order to foster qualities such as love, empathy and harmony.

What is the meaning of life?

Are we the result of an unlikely chemical reaction 13.8 billion years ago or is there some higher power? Ultimately, the question is how do we actually live a ‘good’ life?

As a race, we have pondered our existence for 2,500 years, since Plato and Aristotle concluded that all humans desired Eudaimonia (roughly translated as ‘happiness’). While this might seem obvious, how can we achieve this bliss? Ancient Greek philosophers believed Eudaimonia could be accomplished by pursuing higher knowledge and promoting the common good, thus achieving our reason for being.

Culturally, promoting the common good is often tied to religious practice where organised religion serves to provide an ethical framework to foster qualities such as selflessness, empathy, kindness and harmony. Of course, religion is not the only way to pursue these goals, which is important since younger generations are choosing spirituality over religion.

A current buzzword, Spirituality, can be defined by an awareness of the soul, spirit or one’s inner essence, which encapsulates a feeling that one is part of something larger than oneself. A spiritual journey often involves looking inwards to address inner divinity, whether as part of a religious faith or a personal journey. This path can shift conscious awareness, allowing for a more contented and enlightened state.

Recorded experiences of spiritual awakening detail a feeling of bliss, calm and euphoria; such awakenings are often triggered by trauma or turmoil. Senior lecturer in Psychology at Leeds Beckett University, Dr. Steve Taylor, began researching and collecting details of spiritual experiences and found that many awakenings occur at times of deep personal suffering and are characterised by a sudden feeling that everything is as it should be. Dr Taylor spoke to one such person, Emma, who had been hospitalised with severe depression. Plagued with suicidal thoughts, Emma hadn’t spoken to anyone for four days when she experienced a spiritual awakening after picking up a marble from her bedside table. She explains:

“I saw reality as simply this perfect one-ness. I felt suddenly removed from everything that was personal. Everything seemed just right. The marble seemed a reflection of the universe. All my problems and my suffering suddenly seemed meaningless, ridiculous, simply a misunderstanding of my true nature and everything around me. There was a feeling of acceptance and oneness. It was a moment of enlightenment.”

Another account reveals the experience of a middle aged man who was married with children when he began to realise he was attracted to men. His marriage ultimately broke down but he describes his spiritual awakening:

“It was our last family holiday before the break up. We were in Tunisia and went on an excursion down to the Sahara. We went on a camel ride across part of the desert and at the end of the day, I sat on a sand dune watching the sunset. There were quite a few people around but it was as if everyone else disappeared. Everything just ceased to be. I lost all sense of time. I lost myself. I had a feeling of being totally at one with nature, with a massive sense of peace. I was a part of the scene. There was no ‘me’ anymore. I was just sitting there watching the sun set over the desert, aware of the enormity of life, the power of nature, and I never wanted it to end.”

Although we can’t be guaranteed a spiritual experience like these, it is enlightening to realise that we have some power over how we view the world. Our thoughts and internal dialogue are key to our experience of life according to Buddhist practitioner, Sarah Napthali. Sarah quotes the Buddha: “We are what we think. All that we are arises with our thoughts. With our thoughts we make the world.”  (The Complete Buddhism for Mothers). You have the power to transform your world.

Some people claim that religion and finding God has been integral to changing their world. Depressed teenager Doug claims that lithium, counselling and anti-depressants did not work but finding God and Christianity saved him from suicide. University of Texas Astronomer, Don, was a self-proclaimed “fire-breathing atheist” until he found God after reading the book Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis (famous author of The Chronicles of Narnia).

Dr. Hugh Ross, the youngest ever director of observations at Vancouver’s Royal Astronomical Society, began to analyse a variety of religious texts for accuracy. He concluded that the Bible is more reliable than the laws of physics he had studied at university. And it’s not just Christianity, Los Angeles native, Kylie, explains how Judaism helped her to hone her moral values and find happiness after she became disillusioned with the materialistic world of the television industry.

If you have faith in religion, latest research (2015) by world-renowned and nonpartisan body, Pew Research Center, shows you are not alone: 31 per cent of the world population identify with the Christian faith, 24 per cent identify as Muslim, 16 per cent are unaffiliated with any religion and 15 per cent are Hindu. The remaining 14 per cent of the population practice smaller religions such as Buddhism, Folk Religions and Judaism.

Religious practice often focuses on external stimuli such as places of worship, scripture, ritual or Holy objects and involves an organised system of worship. World religions are often centred around the life and teachings of an individual such as Christ, Buddha, Moses or Krishna.

With reference to ancient religion, Adam Brady, an educator from The Chopra Centre, highlights the importance of the practical application of the founder’s teachings. He references the Japanese poet, Matsuo Basho, who says, “Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the wise. Seek what they sought.” This suggests that spirituality can provide another level to religious faith; religion and spirituality are not mutually exclusive.

However, the 2016 Australian Census revealed 30 per cent of Australians have no religious affiliation and this trend is accelerating; whilst those over 65 are mostly Christian, younger Australians aged 18 to 34 are more likely to have no religion.

Having no religion is not the same as being an atheist; an atheist does not believe in any gods but may have other beliefs. Aside from belief in a god, many people speculate on the possibility of a higher power or energy between us; some take this idea further and believe we all have a soul: an intense energy separate from the physical body, which will live on after we die. 

In line with this New Age thinking, there are many different branches of non-traditional world religions, such as Spiritualism ,whose followers believe that living beings can interact with departed souls, usually through a medium. Acclaimed author of Journey of Souls and Master Hypnotherapist, Dr Michael Newton, claims to have uncovered details about life in the spirit world after death on Earth through deep hypnosis sessions with 29 clients.

This may be a stretch for many, however being spiritual is simply loving all beings, including yourself; it’s about cultivating an ability to rise above one’s emotional state, to let go and to develop our essential loving nature.

Becoming more spiritual has its benefits. Research published in the Journal of Business Research has shown meditation and yoga reduces stress and improves academic performance. Professor of Medicine and Health Science at George Washington University, Dr Christina Puchalski, champions these benefits, claiming spirituality can “restore the heart and humanity to healthcare” and draws a distinction between true healing and “technical and disease oriented care”. She also argues that the caring connection between patient and doctor is integral to recovery and that, “spirituality is essential to all of medicine and healthcare”.

So, what now? If you are interested in developing spirituality, whether you are religious or not, practicing meditation is a great first step. It doesn’t have to take hours, and you don’t have to sit cross-legged on a carpet chanting, “Ohm”. Just 10 minutes of meditation daily can help us check in and reflect. You can find guided meditations on the Wellspring website. Silent contemplation is a luxury worth prioritising amongst the information overload of the 21st century; it’s a form of Self Love.

Increasing spirituality through meditation rouses a feeling of inner peace. Whether we believe that inner peace comes from a connection to God, oneself or some other energy, the effects of sustained practice are undeniable. While it may not provide all the answers to the meaning of life, it’s a great place to start.

Spirituality is a broad term and has different connotations for different people. The overarching principle is growing an awareness of oneself and one’s place in the world, expanding consciousness and ultimately promoting the common good. You can do that alone or as part of religious practice.

Philosopher Socrates famously said, “The unexamined life is not worth living”. Perhaps now is a good time to examine your own life, beliefs and spirituality.