If you’re like me, “spirit guides” may not be a term you heard much – or at all – growing up. My foray into the spiritual realm was mostly through a curiosity about and study of religion, and I’ve never heard that term used in religious circles. It wasn’t until I was outside of religion that I heard the term, from a mentor and friend.

Whatever your knowledge level with spirit guides is, you have them. Everyone does, in fact. And before you get nervous that what I just stated means you’re being haunted, that’s not what I mean. Spirit guides are not ghosts, wandering around shaking chains like Jacob Marley in “A Christmas Carol”. They are benevolent helpers in spirit. (Ok, so technically, Jacob Marley did try to help Ebenezer Scrooge, but I still say he falls way more in the ghost-haunting category than the spirit guide category.)

By definition, spirit guides are discarnate spirits that act as protectors or as helpers to living incarnate individuals. 

And, like I said, all humans have spirit guides, whether we’re aware of them or not. Prior to being born, we set some main objectives or goals for our lives, and we contract with spirit guides to help us accomplish them. 

And while spirit guides have personalities and opinions of their own, they respect our right to choose more than anything and realize we all learn things in our own time, so they don’t try to force their opinions on us.   (Further evidence that Jacob Marley was a ghost vs a spirit guide: he definitely intimidated Scrooge rather than encouraging him.) 

Here are some things spirit guides do:

*help us 

*guide us towards our goals

*work with us 

*stay with us most of our lives

*communicate in a variety of ways

And here are some things spirit guides don’t do:

*judge us

*impose their wills on us

*force us 

*rotate often

*test us

In contrast, most religious deities I was introduced to test and impose their wills on us, so I find this non-judgmental approach comforting. In my experience, spirit guides definitely encourage and even urge us to go in directions that will be in our highest good. But they don’t force, because we are here to make our own decisions and learn in our own ways. And while our spirit guides may get exasperated with us from time to time (I picture a lot of heavy sighs, shaking heads, and rolling eyes from my guides), they respect our own sovereignty and right to choose over everything else.

Spirit guides are helpers, available to give us perspective and guidance to grow and learn to become the people we ultimately want to be.

Want to learn more about spirit guides? Take my self-paced Connect to Your Spirit Guides online class in the comfort of your home.