When students embark on a personal journey of psychic growth and development, I’ve noticed certain “pressure points” that are nearly insurmountable… without the right mindset, anyway. That’s why I made an attempt over this holiday break to write an “advice” post for students stepping into psychic and spiritual growth, with training at Art of the Seer.
Whether it’s in our Psychic Essentials Class, The Art of The Seer Training, or our Graduate Trainings, this kind of learning is very different from many other “achievements” you might have pursued in your life. You might say that the energy you bring to the process requires something very different – as does how you measure your own success.
On one hand, it’s so much easier because it’s not about winning anything. It’s about more closely aligning to (and uncovering the parts of) your energy and your spirit. This part of you has been there all along, and may have gotten banged up or buried over years of invalidation or misuse.
On the other hand, because it’s so different, it’s a lot harder at first. The usual ways we get validated for achieving and winning don’t apply at all. So you have to re-learn how to learn.
These tips aren’t exhaustive, and aren’t meant to be comprehensive, but I hope that reading them will turn on a different part of your spirit. My goal is to bring you closer to yourself, and show you why this kind of work can be rewarding, creative, and exhilarating!
11. Find a place, a teacher, or a group of teachers you trust, and then commit to trusting them for a while.
So often, we flit from thing to thing, especially when we don’t immediately agree with or “like” what we find. Give it a chance! You were attracted to it for a reason, after all. If you consider someone wise and talented, choose to let them show you what they know and how they do it without fighting them. You don’t have to agree with them, or keep the lessons forever. All students move on from their teachers to find new teachers. Let the teachers you choose teach you; they’re teaching you all the time.
10. Bear in mind that your teachers and classmates are human. Everyone is.
If you’re looking for infallibility in any person (including yourself), you’ll always be disappointed. If you think someone has to be perfect to teach you something, you’ll never learn anything. Take what works for you, be forgiving of yourself and others, and ignore the rest.
9. Never look at anything as a mistake.
There is no winning, and there is no failing. There are only opportunities to grow by being in the experience. Everything that happens in an experience is meant to happen as a tool for growth and learning. This is a new picture for many, and will radically change the way you approach your experiences.
8. Don’t try to experience and understand at the same time.
They are different processes. Give each process its own space to be in; oftentimes the understanding comes much much later. Focus on being in the experience and having that, then give yourself time to digest and understand.
7. Happily participate whenever you can, and in anything you can.
Enjoy yourself! You’ve chosen this growth. Even when it’s hard. In fact, especially when it’s hard! Growth is easier than you’ve been led to believe when you allow yourself to simply choose it, and let that choice lead you through the experiences that come to you as part of that choice.
6. Actually go to every class.
Commitment is one of the key learnings whenever you choose to master something. Often times we abort right before magic happens, or when the energy gets really really charged and is ready to pop. Instead of side stepping the big deal you’ve been lining up to and having to do it again - show up to your commitments and ride the wave. Everyone makes time and space for what’s important. If you’re making other things important, give your energy to those things, and get out of other people’s way. Don’t take up a space if you’re not committed to having anything in it. Someone else wants that space more.
5. Focus on you, and your journey.
Be around your teachers and fellow students whenever you have the chance. Don’t ignore the value you might get from seeing and witnessing the experiences of those around you. Also don’t forget that those around you are learning by watching you, too. It’s a giving when you just show up. You can also use your own life as an extension of your learning. How does what you’re currently learning and working on in class show up in books, movies, conversations around you? You can have more if you apply what you’re learning about yourself in both the group and individual experiences.
4. Be aware of self-discipline.
Surrendering to playing within the game. This is hard, as you’re likely a rule breaker and a rebel. If you’re fighting an experience, you’re not having it. Agreements, boundaries, and guidelines are helpful in a group setting so everyone can have their attention on themselves and their own creative process, instead of how others are behaving. So let the teachers set up the game and then either agree to it or don’t; don’t spend lots of energy focusing on “why” the rules of the game are what they are and how you “feel” about them. Break your own rules that are keeping you from enthusiastically playing it.
3. Use every experience to support your own learning.
Consider every opportunity both in class and outside of class an experiment to try out or integrate what you are learning. Just because you try something doesn’t mean you have to continue trying it forever. Just because you experiment doesn’t mean it will change you and you won’t be able to change back. Trying new things, even things that at first seem weird, strange, or distasteful, are how we expand our worldview. Think about the first time you tried some exotic foods; don’t you savor the experience (and isn’t it a good story afterwards?)
2. Journal.
It might come in handy later. Just don’t journal during class, please! (see above about having an experience first, then understanding later.)
1. Show up with your whole self.
If you show up fully and wholly, even when you don’t think you can, or you don’t think you’re “ready”, it will lead you to something. It’s the people who keep showing up who eventually catch on to things, who start to experience mastery, and experience the most profound growth. Then those people usually keep showing up to other things too. Lifelong learning is really about showing up, repeatedly - even when it’s hard.