Who's Actually Talking? Higher Self, Spirit Guides, Know the Difference #263

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You've probably had that moment. You get a hit of something — a knowing, a feeling, a message that seems to come from nowhere — and then immediately your brain goes, okay but where did that actually come from? Was that real? Was that me? Was that guidance?

Christina gets into what makes your Higher Self and your Spirit Guides genuinely different from each other, why that distinction matters so much for your growth, and how understanding it can completely shift the way you receive guidance and build those relationships.

If you want to enrich and deepen your intuitive life, you've got to know who's talking.

Christina Wooten helps you access the wisdom and support of the Spirit World to elevate your life.
She is a Certified Psychic Medium and Reiki Master Teacher.  Christina is the owner of Sedona Medium and co-host of Modern Life and Spirit podcast.

She offers Psychic Medium Readings, Soul Readings, and teaches how you can start communicating and receiving messages from your Spirit Guides - through her program.
Learn more about her offerings here


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Transcript

Unknown: 2:06

Chris,

Christina Wooten: 2:07

welcome to the Modern Life and Spirit podcast, where we explore spiritual topics relevant to today's world. Your hosts, certified psychic medium Christina Wooten and Reiki master teacher Robert Wootten, break down how to work with spirit to create more positive growth in your life. Consider this podcast your go-to spiritual resource for navigating the modern world. Hey there, Kindred Spirits. Welcome to Modern Life and Spirit Podcast. I'm Christina Wooten, certified psychic medium and intuition teacher at SedonaMedium.com Today we are going to be talking about the higher self and its purpose, as well as spirit guides. What are some of the differences? How can you know where certain information is coming from? We're going to get into some of those distinct differences today, but for those of you who have been following along with our feral cat saga, I wanted to share an update with you about that. We finally got our last kitty, Starla, in the house, so she is now official. She has been outdoor feral that we have slowly built trust with over long periods of time. She's very, very skittish, but she's incredibly sweet, and we finally were able to lure her in, and she's been wonderful. She's been wonderful, but now I am fully and completely outnumbered. We now have three cats and a dog, and I think that I'm, I'm most certainly done. Although that is the ultimate challenge to the universe, right, is to proclaim I'm complete, I'm done. I'm never doing this, so I'm not going to do that, because I know better than that. But I will say that this feels very complete for me. But it's lovely to have her inside here. We've had the first little cuddle puddle between her and Sky, which has been very sweet. It's been really nice. I think she's adjusting very, very well, and we're feeling good about her being inside, you know. It's, it gets really, really hot here, and you know, over 100 degrees last year, and so it's just such a peace of mind to know that she is going to be safe, that she's going to be comfortable, and that she's going to have access to water and all the resources that she needs. So I'm so thankful for that, and I truly believe that spirit has brought me all of the animals that we are stewarding here. They all have their own individual stories, but I just want to recognize and acknowledge that, that I know that they have brought them to us, and boy has that made the difference. So today we're going to be talking about your higher self and your spirit guides. What are some of the differences? So, how do you know whether things might be coming from the higher self or coming from your spirit guides? This is very confusing for a lot of people, especially at the very beginning of your development journey, where maybe you're getting little bits of information here, or glimpses, maybe you feel like you're getting a word out of a sentence, or maybe you're just looking like you're seeing through a tiny little pinhole, but you're not getting the big picture. It can be hard to determine from that place where is this information coming from? Where once you do get an impression, what is the source? But that understanding where the information is coming from is a big part of helping you to build relationships, to ask the right questions, to take things a lot deeper, and ultimately to develop your trust. And when you have that trust, it allows you to live with more courage, with more bravery, to get more support in living a life that's led by love and directed in positive ways, in service to the world, in service to all that is. So, let's get into it. What is your higher self, so your higher self is you. It's the eternal, the all-knowing, non-physical aspect of your soul that exists beyond this plane of time or this particular incarnation. So, there's a part of us that always is in the spirit world that does not come into this incarnation, so it is the aspect of our soul that's connected with the divine, that is always in the spirit world, and it is connected to the spirit that is inside of our physical body, which is, you know, part of our soul, so part of us is incarnating, and it's also connected with the other parts that is still in the spirit world. That aspect of our self holds the full blueprint of what your soul's journey in this lifetime is all about, but even beyond this lifetime, it understands your contract. Impacts your lessons, your purpose. It isn't separate from you. It is your highest expression. So, it doesn't have that flavor of your ego, your personality, for example. It's more of the side of yourself that when you go into very deep meditation, and you connect with that part of yourself that's way under the surface, that's way in the depths, that has this spark of joy, this spark of divinity that is light and joyous and free and at peace, no matter what is happening around you, that part when you are connected there, that is what the higher self is, and that higher self is able to communicate with you. Now, it often feels more like a deep inner knowing, so it's very calm, clear, steady. There's not as much emotional charge, because remember, a lot of that's going to come from our responses or our conditioning, right? The voice of your higher self, it tends to be just very gentle, very loving, because it's coming from the source of love. It's also something that feels a lot more like you're remembering something than it is that there's this new information that's coming in, and so that is a very defining feature of higher self communication. So it's like that there's something that you already knew but hadn't quite said out loud. So when you have that awareness, it's like, oh yeah, okay, now some sometimes it can show up in creative inspiration or some sudden clarity after you've gone through a really confusing period, or it can also come through in body-based yes or no signals or questions when you're talking to your body. A lot of times you might be talking to your higher self. Our higher self can also communicate in other ways, and it can look like feeling really down or really depressed when you aren't living the life that you would like to be. Sometimes it means that what you're doing is not working for you, or it can be a reminder of a commitment that you've neglected. You're not following your path, you're not following your purpose. Now, not all depression comes from that place, obviously, but when we are off track, when we're not living our highest commitment, when we're here, we feel it. It really does affect us in profound ways, and doesn't seem to lift until we make the changes that need to be made. So it's another way that our higher self can say, "Hey, I'm not happy, this isn't working, and you've got to stop doing what you're doing, or you're going to continue to feel this way. Now, the higher self tends to focus on things like what is truth to you, so soul level truth. It can also speak to you about alignment, what alignment feels like within yourself, within your body. It will also validate for you who you really are, beneath that ego or inner critic kind of chatter, the stuff that's happening in your mind all the time. It will also talk to you more about big picture sort of stuff, not necessarily how to get there. So, your higher self is generally not giving you day to day direction and advice, it's giving you more this isn't working or this isn't in alignment, and then it might return with this is where I'd like to go, and it'll give you that direction, but not necessarily the pathway of how do we go from a to c, it doesn't give you the middle part in between, and that is where your spirit guides can be very helpful. So, let's talk about your spirit guides. We've talked about them a lot before on the podcast. Just do a general search for spirit guides. There's lots of episodes here, but our spirit guides, they are distinct beings. They are not you, they are not your soul energy, but they are deeply connected to you. They understand your energy. They've made a strong commitment to help you and assist you in this lifetime. So, they've agreed to assist you, to teach you to walk with you through this incarnation, or a portion of it, so you have different guides that come in different forms with different purposes, so I think of them a lot like friends, some are here for a season, a reason, or. For a lifetime, everybody has a guide that is there for the lifetime, from the very beginning to the very end of your life and beyond. They are with you, helping you and assisting you in this journey. And then you have guides who may come in for four years, for long periods of time teaching and assisting you in specific specialties or specific areas where they can be helpful. You may have guides who come in for shorter periods of time to help supplement what you have going on, depending on what your needs are. You always have a team that's around you. You're never just one person. Your spirit guides communicate with you through more active, varied methods, so we know that the higher self is talking more through a sense of knowing, a sense of remembering, it's generalized direction without, you know, a step by step process, your guides, they are much more varied, so they work through, you know, signs. They're very creative, they work through synchronicities, they work through dreams, through physical sensations, repeated symbols, impressions. I mean, they can use the world around you like a canvas. It absolutely amazes me, some of the signs that people get - songs, numbers, animals, overheard conversations - and those are just for people who haven't even developed their intuition fully, who might see these signs in this kind of direction, you know, they driving down the road and they get behind somebody with a license plate that has special meaning to them, or they pass by a billboard that says the right thing, or they're tuning the radio station, and something comes on that's exactly what they need to hear, or the song that speaks to what their need is. The more that we continue to develop our intuition, the more that external messages and signs can also come in more direct ways, as if you're having more of an exchange with your spirit guides that uses your clears, so it uses your clear seeing, your clear hearing, your clear knowing, for example, but their conversation does feel more external. It is like receiving something rather than remembering, so that's very distinct into how you know, ah, this is definitely coming from my guides and not coming from the higher self. Your guides also have very distinct personalities, so that means that they're going to have certain tones, certain ways that they speak or carry themselves. They sometimes have a sense of humor. It's different depending on who you're interacting with. Just like if you were talking to somebody on the phone, everybody has a different tone that they use based on what their personality is. Your guides are the same way now. Your guides are more likely to show up in meditation as a presence, an image, a voice that feels very separate from your own inner dialog. So it may have a different cadence, it may use words that you would never use, for example, now our spirit guides can help us a lot with day to day guidance. They can help us with encouragement. They bring in skill and lesson based type of support, so different guides may step in for different life areas to just support you to build your knowledge to help you to understand, to grow, to develop, to make bigger changes, to raise your vibration. They can do things like renegotiate contracts on your behalf, which can be very helpful when it comes to soul contracts. Sometimes they'll bring in lots of messages and comfort, especially when you are going through a difficult time, like transitions or grief, so when you're really struggling, is you know, they try and really show up in very active ways, and also sending us messages of comfort and support and direction, or ideas of how we can process through this grief. They also bring in information and perspective that you genuinely couldn't access on your own, because they are coming from a different vibration and a higher perspective. They can share that information with you, which helps you in turn begin to raise your vibration and to continue your growth process, but you need that outer direction to help give you a step up, so their information is extremely valuable and extremely helpful in our spiritual growth process, which is really what this incarnation is. Is all about is it is the meat and potatoes of the whole thing. This is what is important, is the deep spiritual growth that we are doing. So, in your life, if you're wanting more of a big picture view, if you want to recognize things from the soul, what is going to bring more of a sense of fulfillment? What does alignment feel like for yourself? You're going to turn more towards your higher self in that direction. You're going to ask for help and support, and you want to continue to build and grow that relationship, which will always happen as a side impact of doing any sort of spiritual growth work. You will continue to move towards that higher self, because you're raising your vibration, you're continuing that growth process, you're moving closer to that energy now. If you're wanting things like support, signs, day to day guidance, for me, I use my guides a lot for problem solving, for help, and like seeing a different perspective. Maybe I'm feeling stuck. I'm not sure, like, how do I get from A to C? Like, the B part doesn't make any sense to me, you know? I keep getting this message, oh, you should do XYZ. How do I get there? I have no idea. So our guides can help fill in those gaps, helps us to understand what is the next right step for you to take in this moment, and bring that day-to-day support to us, so that we are making decisions, direction, or, you know, having things reflected back to us. Sometimes our guides are asking really important questions to us, they're not always just giving us the answer, they're saying, "Well, what about XYZ? And it's suddenly like, "Oh my gosh, and then that becomes a really guiding force for you moving forward in your future decision making. So our guides can be very, very helpful in navigating what it looks like to be in a body to have these big decisions to follow through on intuitive action, they help us in those very practical ways, as well as continuing our growth process, which is very important. They encourage us, help us get the resources that we need, the teachers that we need, the help that we need, and this is exactly why you know learning how to communicate with your spirit guides is a skill, so that you're not just sitting around waiting for messages all the time, that you are building these relationships with distinct beings who have their own ways of reaching you, and you learn more about what it is that they do, and how, how they can help you. You know who is on your team, that is really important as well. Both your higher self and your spirit guides, they are on your team, and they have a lot of the same aligned mission, which is to help you and help you in your growth process. They just have different approaches in how to do that. The more that you understand who's who, the richer that your intuitive life becomes, because you're not just picking up on signals, you start to move from that vague sensing that we all experience in the beginning of the journey to having a conversation, it really becomes a friendship. I see my guides as friends, as a wise counsel that I can go to that help actively support your journey. And speaking of building that relationship with your guides, if this episode lit something up for you, and you are really ready to do the actual work, because it is work development is work. I want to tell you about my course, Communicating with Your Spirit Guides. This is where we go from understanding your guides to genuinely connecting with them, learning how they communicate specifically with you, meeting them directly and building the kind of relationship where you can actually hear them clearly and start to trust what it is that you're receiving. Learning how you can build more validation into your intuitive connection. We have live contact sessions where we gather together as a group and do intuitive work. You have a chance for support and feedback during that time. This starts june 1, so that's when our seven week program begins, and then it'll run through mid July. So, if you have been waiting for the right time, if you want extra support to really take things to the next level with your guide, something that you will always look back on that, will always be a part of your growth journey. Something that is like putting this puzzle piece in place, that like that final puzzle piece that just makes everything light up. This is that information that you need. It will help you to continue to grow and. Develop spiritually and intuitively for years and years to come. It will be a reference that you look back on constantly, and a framework that you understand so deeply that you know how to guide yourself moving forward. You can find all the details in the show notes or description wherever you are listening, or, of course, you can go to SedonaMedium.com and click on Spirit Guide Course, SedonaMedium.com click on Spirit Guide Course. I would absolutely love to see you there. Thank you so much for joining me. As always, many blessings.

Robert Wooten: 22:41

The Modern Life and Spirit podcast is for informational purposes only, the information provided is not intended to provide medical, psychological, legal, or financial advice. Information provided is not to diagnose or treat any medical or psychological illness. To read the full disclaimer, see Sedona medium.com