Enlightened Empaths

It’s our monthly episode featuring stories, questions and comments from listeners in our Enlightened Empaths community! Please join us as we explore insights on intuition, dreams, environmental concerns, and personal growth.

If you would like to submit a question or story for a Community Connections episode, please email us: [email protected]

For more information on Samantha’s services and upcoming events: samanthafey.com

Denise and her offerings are at: thegratefulmessenger.com

Melissa Ann Lester is an integrative healer, author, mentor, and teacher whose work weaves
transpersonal psychology, somatic practices, energy medicine, and earth-based wisdom.
Rooted in a holistic, trauma-informed approach, she supports others navigating moments of
unraveling, awakening, and deep transition as they reconnect with their inner wisdom and
return home to themselves.

Her own healing journey began with therapy as her entryway, and eventually she felt called to
be a witness and guide for others, serving as a Licensed Professional Counselor for more than
ten years. A series of spiritual initiations profoundly deepened her work, ultimately leading her
to answer a soul-led calling: releasing her clinical license to offer healing that integrates the full
spectrum of the human experience — mind, body, and spirit.

Melissa holds a Master of Science in Mental Health Counseling, is certified in Complementary
and Alternative Medicine, is an Usui Reiki Master, and draws from her studies in somatics and
earth-based wisdom. For now she walks alongside individuals in one-on-one work, with
seasonal programs and group offerings beginning to take shape. She lives in Decatur, Georgia,
with her husband and two cats, where she is happily surrounded by trees.

You can follow her writing in her monthly musings newsletter and find her at
www.melissaannlester.com and on Instagram at @melissaannlester.

Have you ever wondered if there was a way you could connect more fully with your own inner thoughts and programming in order to enhance your life? We all can by becoming more aware of the power of our subconscious mind!

The subconscious mind is the silent architect of our reality; it interprets symbols, stores every experience, and shapes our decisions long before our conscious mind catches up. When we have a clearer understanding of how it works, it gives us the ability to reprogram our inner world so we can make the life shifts we are ready to manifest.

Exercises to retrain the subconscious: 

Mirror Exercise – speak to yourself in the second person. Your subconscious receives this as an instruction, a task to complete, rather than a wish. “You are successful” or “You are healthy, wealthy and happy.” 

Gratitude Letter – Write a letter to yourself as though your goal has already happened. Use the present tense.

Symbolic Visualization Ritual

The more you get to know your inner world, the more you are able to shine your own light more brightly!

For more information about Samantha and her offerings:samanthafey.com

Denise and her services can be found at: thegratefulmessenger.com

Please join us in welcoming Kristen O’Meara to the show today. Kristen is the mother of Austin, an adult on the autism spectrum. She has a master’s degree in counseling psychology and advanced certifications in mindfulness and intuitive development as well as extensive training in spiritual healing modalities. With raw honesty, Kristen shares her profound journey of healing and spiritual connection through channeling her son’s higher self, offering practical tools and insights for parents of children with autism and the reality of her journey.

Kristen began channeling her son Austin’s higher self in 2013 because Austin could not speak with her. Channeling became an integral part of her healing journey, redirecting her back to her soul and heart, and teaching her that we are all powerful souls embodied. Bridging her experiences with complex parenting, counseling work, and a sophisticated toolbox of healing techniques, her first book, The Healing Way, is the culmination of her life’s work.

The Healing Way by Kristen O’Meara

For more information about Kristen and her work, please visit: thespiritualcaregiver.com

Kristen can also be found on Substack under thespiriualcaregiver.substack.

 Here’s the shape of September, in one sentence: it’s a month of turning inward while the world asks you to engage outward.

There’s a cluster of retrograde planets active pretty much all month — Saturn, Neptune, and Pluto are already retrograde, and partway through the month, Uranus joins them. Four planets moving backward, astrologically, at the same time.

For an empath, this actually can be a relief, if you let it. So much of what exhausts us is the forward momentum of the world — the constant doing, deciding, producing, responding. A month with this many retrogrades is a month where the cosmic permission slip says: it’s okay to slow down. It’s okay to revisit. It’s okay to not have the answer yet.

But — and here’s the nuance — the inner planets, the fast-moving personal ones: the Sun, Mercury, Venus, and Mars, are all direct and quite active this month. So you’re going to feel this tug-of-war: parts of you wanting to reflect, rest, and go inward, while other parts of your life — conversations, relationships, decisions — are moving forward whether you’re ready or not.

If you take one thing from this whole episode, let it be this: you’re allowed to let your inner world move at retrograde speed even while your outer world moves at direct speed!

Empaths are often deeply connected to the animals they share their lives with, these are not merely pets but beloved friends, confidantes and family members. In this episode, we explore the soul connection many empaths feel with their pets, why in many ways it can feel easier than dealing with other people and also the reality of grieving the lose of a dear friend when they cross the Rainbow Bridge.

Books Mentioned in this Episode:

When Elephants Weep: The Emotional Lives of Animals by Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson and Susan McCarthy

Honoring Our Animals: 365 Meditations for Healing after Pet Loss By Beth Bigler

The Grief Recovery Handbook by John W. James and Russell Friedman

Goodbye, Friend: Healing Wisdom for Anyone Who Has Ever Lost a Pet by Gary Kowalski

We’re back again with one of our favorite episodes to do each month, questions, comments and stories from our amazing Enlightened Empaths community!

If you would like to submit a story, have a comment or question, please email us: [email protected].

For more information about Samantha and her offerings: samanthafey.com

And to find out more about Denise and her services and offerings: thegratefulmessenger.com

Thank you for being part of our community!

Over the past few years, it has become very obvious that many of us are feeling a deep need to free ourselves and those in our lineage from past trauma, upset and limitations. In this episode, we explore the transformative power of ancestral healing and how it can unlock personal and spiritual growth.

We’re so excited to share some wonderful guests with you today as we offer a different approach with a round table conversation about ancestral healing and why it’s so important for many of us right now. Our guests today come from varied backgrounds and experiences, but all have had powerful insights and transformation since doing this healing work. 

Rima has always been intuitive but took long detours in the worlds of academia and politics before coming home to working as an intuitive and medium. She lives on the east coast of Canada and you can find her at rimabythesea.com 

Julie is an intuitive healer and Family Constellation facilitator who helps people heal inherited family patterns, reconnect with themselves, and create lasting change through intuitive and ancestral healing practices. For more information about Julie and her services: intuitivehealingbyjulie.com

Monica offers holistic support for spiritual and healing needs. She is a psychic medium who uses her intuitive abilities to bring information to clients seeking connection. She is an artisan offering crafted jewelry pieces that carry not just aesthetic beauty but also resonate with nature. To connect with Monica: monikajakiel.com

Beth is a certified death doula, shamanic healer and reiki practitioner. All modalities of her work focus on holistic healing, transformation, personal and spiritual development. Compassion and a calming presence offer guidance, emotional support and empowerment. For more about Beth and her services: beyondsentient.com

If you’re curious about going deeper with your own ancestral healing journey, please consider joining us for the upcoming class. For more information on dates and what is involved: Embracing the Present Through Healing the Past If you have any questions that aren’t addressed, please feel free to send me an email: [email protected]

Today we’re talking about self-discovery through oracle cards with our guest Toni Savory — better known as The Card Geek — the creator of World Divination and one of the leading voices in traditional cartomancy. Toni has spent years studying Lenormand, Kipper, and Gypsy Cards across England, France, and Germany, including 15 years living near Munich, the birthplace of the original Kipper deck. Now based in Northern Ireland, she’s dedicated the last decade to researching these systems and teaching students around the world.

She’s the author of The Card Geek’s Guide to Kipper, Rainbow Kipper, Lustrous Lenormand, and Mastering the Tarot Tableau, and she’s known for helping readers reconnect with the roots of divination and unlock bold, predictive readings. Through World Divination, Toni guides people to read their own futures, navigate life’s crossroads, and step confidently into their path.

Today, we’re diving into her latest creation, The Four Selves Oracle Deck, and exploring how it helps readers understand the deeper layers of the self and transform their lives through intuitive insight.

For more information about Tori and her offerings, please visit: The Card Geek

And for more information about cartomancy and world divination, please visit: World Divination Association

Please join us as we share some upcoming astrological and energetic influences for the month of August. The overriding theme for this coming month seems to be to protect your energy without hiding your light. There are some amazing transits, new moon energy, Leo powerhouse opportunities to shine, and to top it off we go into eclipse season. There is a lot of energy and shift happening but throughout it all is the nudge to:

Protect your peace.

Speak your truth kindly.

Let your sensitivity become wisdom instead of exhaustion.

Release identities built around carrying everyone else’s pain.

Allow yourself to be seen without abandoning healthy boundaries.

The crystal of the month: Calligraphy Stone—also called Miriam Stone, Elephant Skin Jasper, and Arabic Stone, is a great stone to hold when you need to feel energetically recharged. It’s most popular nickname is the Writer’s Stone because it’s known to help with writer’s block, creative inspiration, and automatic writing.It helps you access your akashic records primarily to help you recognize and release karmic patterns that are slowing your progress. It helps you transform fears into hope, anxieties into serenity and blocks into progress.

The Tarot cards that came up: 8 of Cups, Star Reversed, 7 of Cups. The deck used was Crow Tarot by MJCullinane.

The Oracle card pulled: Carry the Torch for Others to See, Wake Up the World from Healing Spirits Oracle by Gordon Smith

For more information about Samantha and her offerings, please visit: samanthafey.com

Denise and her offerings are at: thegratefulmessenger.com