Connect, Pray, Love
How can love, in a spiritual sense, affect our relationships with ourselves and others? Trudie McConnochie shares her experiences…
Love is probably the most commonly used word in pop songs, arguably the biggest theme in literature and certainly the area about which I’m most often asked to provide insights in my role as an angel card reader and energy healer. Western societies focus on romantic love – how to get it, how to keep it and everything in between. But what I tap into when I give readings and healing sessions for clients is a more powerful, all-encompassing type of love: divine love.
What lightworkers – including myself – refer to as ‘the universe’, ‘the spirit’ or ‘the divine’ is the embodiment of love. Rather than an old, bearded guy sitting in the clouds and judging us, as institutional religion suggests, modern spirituality understands the divine to be an energy that vibrates at the frequency of love. It’s everywhere all at once, and our connection with it is unconditional.
This is hard for us to wrap our brains around, because it seems so nebulous and far from our experience. But learning to work with that energy can be transformational – and it affects all of our relationships.
How to connect with the Divine
Being able to connect with the divine isn’t a special gift with which only certain people are bestowed. We /all/ have that innate ability via our intuition, but most of us don’t know it – or don’t feel compelled to explore that ability. It takes practice to connect, so don’t be put off if it doesn’t feel automatic at first.
The first step to opening the channel is to turn down the volume of other stimulus. We live in a noisy, information-soaked world, which can make it harder for divine messages to get through. Regular meditation is one way to make space for your intuition – and, no, meditation is not about shutting off your mind, which is physically impossible. But anything that brings you into stillness for a while is enough; walking in nature, doing a creative activity, writing in a journal or just sitting in reflection.
A good first question to ask is, ‘What would you like me to know?’ If you don’t get answers, that’s okay. Continue to sit – or walk – calmly and release the pressure on yourself. Intuition cannot be forced. With practice, you’ll start to feel the connection. And, over time, you’ll get better at recognising intuitive messages that emerge during your day-to-day life.
The challenges of connection
It isn’t easy, at first, to recognise intuitive messages. You’ll probably think you’re making them up. (I still, after many years, occasionally think that too.) But notice the feeling that goes along with them.
A common pitfall is confusing the voice of fear with that of intuition. There isn’t an easy way to tell the difference, but the way the message makes you feel is a good guide. Intuition is a deep knowingness within, usually carrying a reassuring vibration – even if the message isn’t what you want to hear.
Fear-based messages, sometimes called ‘the ego’, can be loud, panicky, ‘Hurry up or you’ll miss out’-type messages. In my experience, fear is the voice that jumps up right away when I ask for guidance. Intuition is the message that comes through when I sit and wait a little longer. And, crucially, it feels ‘right’.
Deepening our experience of love
So, what does connecting with the divine have to do with love on a human level? Part of what we’re all here to do, as souls in human bodies, is learning how to love ourselves and each other in meaningful ways. In so doing, we harness and amplify divine energy. The words of Sufi poet Rumi are still relevant today: ‘Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.’
Many years ago, my intuition led me to work with an energy healer practising serenity vibration healing. This works at a very deep level, to clear energetic blocks built across all lifetimes. I’d been working for some time with angel cards, a wonderful tool for identifying what to focus on, but couldn’t figure out how to work through the blocks I faced; such as fear of judgement (the stigma around spirituality was a huge barrier for me) and lack mentality. The impact that energy healing had on my life was profound, freeing me up to step into my purpose as an energy healer and manifest relationships with soulmates.
That’s one example of the sort of transformation that can happen when we work in partnership with the divine and follow cues from our intuition.
The better we channel our connection to divine love, the more we embody love at a human level.
And that’s an energy we carry into all relationships. Connecting with the divine helps us understand when it’s time to walk away from relationships we’ve outgrown, and when it’s safe to open up to the right people. It points us in the direction of healers who can help us on our journey, since some healing can’t be done alone. It helps us recognise and act on red flags, and broach uncomfortable but necessary conversations with loved ones. And, too, it subtly inspires those around us to lift their game.
Trudie McConnochie is an Australian-based energy healer who helps people all around the world move forward in their lives. Follow her on Instagram @onegroundedangel or visit onegroundedangel.com.
