We live in a frantic world, where some days it can be difficult to find even five minutes’ downtime away from the rush. But in order to follow this path, in order to fully step into your Light, remember that you will need to nurture yourself – mind, body and spirit – and remain balanced and strong. By this I mean consciously achieving a happy balance between your work life, your family life and your spiritual life, between health and money, love and charity, work and play.

Once you become more aware of the need to prioritize your health and wellbeing, you can develop strategies for putting that understanding into action. This might include bodywork such as massage, reflexology or yoga, and eating a nutritious diet and taking exercise. You can call in the angels to guide you toward those activities that are good for you, and assist you in reorganizing your schedule to fit it all in. Archangel Gabriel’s Light is wonderful for showing us the way.

In terms of nurturing your spiritual development, the simplest way to do this is through meditation, connecting with nature, and doing the things that make your heart sing, whether that be listening to music, dancing, walking, being with animals or children, laughing or playing.

You know when you are out of balance: the aspect of life that is draining you will leave you feeling exhausted and overwhelmed. If you have no energy or enthusiasm for something, it is time to take a break and reassess. I regularly go on retreat to far away places just to ensure I get this kind of break to realign body and soul. When you are happy and well, you are in good balance. The physical body we see and feel is not all we are, and to maximize our Light  we need to take full responsibility for our own health (on all levels) and let go of all blame and excuses.

The same is true of developing your soul. There are no “quick-fixes”. No matter what any teacher or guru says, no one but you can “accelerate your ascension process”, “realign your DNA” or mend your broken heart, no matter how much money you are willing to pay. We are each responsible for our own decisions, actions and outcomes. Here’s an affirmation you may wish to use to support you on your journey:

“I stand in my own power, taking full responsibility for my thoughts, words and actions.”

Reaching this point of self-awareness can often enable the first great changes to take place and bring a cataclysmic shift in energy. We begin to understand that although other people affect us, we are in fact in control of our own lives. Just like becoming good at sport or playing the piano, we know we have to put in the practice; we realize that in order to be happy and fulfilled we have to do the work. We are responsible for the stories we tell to others and to ourselves. By taking full ownership of our decisions, we can rewrite our stories, make a fresh start and begin again, creating anything we want to.