Care and Management of Spirit Guides: Practice is key to maintaining a connection to one's guides, says BakeR Gendron of Gateway Cottage Wellness Center.

Guides, angels, fairies, spirit guides and/or animal helpers are “real” to some people. If they disappear, it is most likely our own fault. To maintain their beneficial presence, we must make time to sit in quiet; regularly check in with them; ask them to come along when we’re having fun, not just call on them when we’re in trouble; make time for our guides like we would a good friend; and practice working with our guides like we would practice a sport.

We must practice, practice, practice and connect, connect, connect, along with creating time to spend with our guides. Like a relationship with a good friend, which they are, we must nurture that relationship. The more we connect with them, the more we will learn from them and the easier it will be to connect. If we can carve out time for a Starbucks coffee or watch the latest series on Netflix, we can make time to work with our guides and find 10 minutes or more a day to just sit in quiet and invite them in.

We can create a sacred space like a small altar with candles, crystals, rocks, feathers, icons and any items that help us create the mood to sit quietly and connect. It might just be a special chair in the corner by a sunny window. This is where we sit when our intention is to connect with spirits, guides, animal totems, fairies or angels. It is our own private vortex where the energy feels right.

Our guides are friends, so we should treat them as such; calling on them in good times and bad. We can send gratitude for the light they bring to our life; ask them to intervene, play the muse, walk with us, laugh and create. They don’t always generate big, flashy fireworks, loud voices or a knock on the head. Their presence is usually more like a chill up our spine, hair-raising goose bumps on our arms, a quiet voice whispering, “Why don’t you try that path?”, or a friend calling at exactly the moment we thought of them.

We need to check our ego at the door, open up and listen. The ego is usually coming from a position of fear, so it will create doubt when we hear, sense or see something that seems off or strange. We might get a very clear message, but our ego decides it couldn’t possibly be right, so it shuts us down. If we truly want to work with our guides, we must remember that it’s a relationship to be nurtured—show up, spend time together, honor the sacredness and listen.

BakeR Gendron is a psychic coach and shamanic reiki practitioner at Gateway Cottage Wellness Center. For more information, phone 928-862-4400 or visit GatewayCottageWellness.com.