This month’s podcast is about Spirit Guide Connection – once you have opened a portal to your Akashic Records.

Table of Contents

Welcome to my Shine podcast for September, 2026. This month, I’m sharing what I know so far from my experiences on how to connect with your spirit guides.

I’m an intuitive Akashic Records reader who helps you to know who you truly are at the soul level. Creating this connection opens you to your intuition and more.

More information about the first two Akashic Records readings mentioned in this podcast: –

Soul Star Reading»

Spirit Guide Reading»

You can also follow this podcast at my Soul Intelligence Publication on Substack.

So let’s get started. When I talk about connecting with spirit guides, I’m referring to other souls just like you and me.

There are, of course, other types of guides. I’ll begin with the guides that we have also been ourselves to other incarnated people in other lives. The main guides that we experience when we are incarnated. These are called our innercircleguides. To keep me on track and to help you with context when we delve into big spiritual subjects like spirit guides, for example, I review the chosen subject through my SHINE model.

So let’s get into spirit guides, starting with understanding them with the S in Shine, Soul Level Information.

There are many types of guides, loved ones, teacher guides, ascended masters – even star beings. But let’s start with the basics, your inner circle guides, who are your personal spiritual guides, who have been with you for a large part of your life.

Our inner circle spirit guides are souls currently not incarnated. We are incarnated, and in the body, so we can speak the human language. Inner circle guides have lived on Earth before, but currently don’t have a body, so we need to connect with them through the language of energy.

We exist in the third dimension, they exist in the fifth dimension, and we communicate by bridging the gap in between, the fourth dimension. So how do we bridge this gap through the fourth dimension to connect with our inner circle spirit guides from where we are in 3D to their location in 5D?

Includes: –

If you don’t have the Akashic Tarot Card Deck yet, you can use this link to buy it on Amazon>>

The first place we can do this is by connecting with our own Akashic records. The energy of the records is part of the energetic system of incarnation. We all have a soul blueprint, which is like our cloud or URL of the soul. When we learn about our own soul group and divine soul blueprint, we’re making our first connection between 3D and 5D. Once we do that, we can begin to relate to our inner circle spirit guides because they also have a soul group and a divine soul blueprint, maybe even have incarnated with us before. Once people have begun to connect with their guides,

it’s possible for me to intuit how many inner circle guides you have and the best ways to connect with them. Most people have between four to six spirit guides in their inner circle. Once you’ve worked on your own Akashic records a little bit, you will begin to bridge that gap between the third and fifth dimension, because you are repeatedly doing so. It’s like building a muscle. Then you’re making connections with your inner circle spirit guides.

Of course, you are in a body, and your inner circle guides aren’t. But during a spirit guide reading, I can connect you with them through the energetic information relating to their divine soul blueprint and soul groups, and also share their names and other characteristics with you. It’s like making an introduction to a new friend at a dinner party. I also channel pictures of them so that you can use them to reconnect with your guides later. People find the pictures very powerful.

As I mentioned before, most people have between four to six inner circle guides. The first guide is your guardian guide who has been with you since birth. The others join in throughout your younger life. Begin to think of them as other people, just like you, with life experiences and stories to share.

Often, people recognize their inner circle guides from intuitive experiences they have had in the past or even a familiar feeling of connection. It’s very validating. So how do we stay connected with our inner circle guides after we’ve made contact? It’s a lot like other types of friendships, really. Make a habit of chatting with your guides, connecting with them, thinking about them, and sharing information.

One reason people don’t maintain successful connections with their guides is because they don’t repeat the process of connection.

Another is that they only think of guide connection when they’re having a hard time. Imagine how a friend would feel if you did that all the time. To get firmly connected, you can also chat regularly with your guides, write to them in a journal, and even communicate through things like tarot cards. Once you start connecting regularly, you’ll start getting more regular messages back, either as words in your mind, energy in your body, or sometimes signs in your environment.

Before we move on to the H for Human Design in Shine, also begin to think of your inner circle guides as guides who have chosen to help you without incurring karma for themselves or for you. So they don’t tell you what to do next or reveal information – which as a soul you need to learn on your journey because that would be karmic.

They are here to guide. That’s why they’re called guides. You get to choose what to do next through your own free will.

Let’s move on to the H in Shine, and the concept of spirit guides through mind and body communication through our human design chart. When guides connect with you, remember they are reaching down from 5D, and you are reaching up from 3D and connecting through your mind, the mental body, emotions, how you feel, even your chakras – and the electromagnetic field that you generate in 4D that surrounds your body.

Edgar Cayce, a well-known Akashic reader, used to call 4D therealmofideas.

Sometimes people’s guides will say to me that they are connecting to a client through a specific chakra or even a human design gate. When I explain the physical sensations, thoughts or emotional reactions that a guide impulsesor sends to a client, people can really identify with it. And realize that they’ve been accessing and working with their guides all along.

Through Human Design, the gate is also imprinted by the energy of a planet and astrological sign. So this can also help a client understand the nature or flavor of messages they may already be getting from a guide. This can be very validating.

Now, let’s consider the concept of spirit guides and intuition. To me, intuition is an aspect of our higher self, that connection we have between our own soul and our body. That’s one of the primary ways that aha moments or downloads come in, often through our crown chakras at the top of the head.

When it comes to spirit guides, they might be directing a download for you to unpack through your higher self, the crown chakra, which also connects to the soul star or eighth chakra above the head. Or they could be talking to you, and you hear a message in your left ear, either in your own voice, called the Third Language, or their voice, directing you through synchronicity, through a sign, symbol, or something you notice that is unusual. If you are strong in a particular clair, such as clairaudience, you’ll likely hear more words, or through clairvoyance, you’ll receive more visions.

Language work and NLP, or Neuro Linguistic Programming, is all about getting really clear and conscious with the language we use or the magic of spelling.

When you connect with your inner circle spirit guides, you might like to try experimenting with words and synchronicity, especially if you have a guide with the divine energy center of communication, for example. If you’re beginning your spirit guide journey, then of course you might stumble up against beliefs or ideas that prevent you making a clear connection with your guides. This is only natural.

Often, regular fears, beliefs or blocks clients have around Guide connection relate to thinking that they can’t do it or that they’re doing it wrong somehow. Really, you’re not that special.

What I mean is we can all learn to connect with our guides, and it’s extremely common to have fears and blocks around the activity of doing so. So you’re not the only one if you feel that way. These can be worked through and cleared with practice. Working with affirmations is one way to help clear false beliefs you might have been programmed with around guide work, for example.

Lastly, we come onto the E in Shine for Energetics. Since guides are pure energy, how we can connect with guides relates to this subject. When I work with clients and help them connect with their inner circle guides,

I let them know how each guide in the inner circle connects with them through something called Impulsing, which simply means what type of energy is being used to connect.

Some guides connect through specific chakras, others through voice, often in the left ear, or a tingle at the back of the neck, even just a sense of someone being present. With guide connection work, it’s important to remind ourselves that we exist in a field of energy, and in fact, an entire field of souls. Just because we can’t see our inner circle soul group,

it doesn’t mean that we have a lack of connection. Knowing how they impulse you can be enormously helpful, since you can also figure out which guide is working with you at what time as well. It’s fascinating and empowering stuff.

Blog Resource: Discover New Ways to Begin Connecting With Your Spirit Guides

I hope you’ve enjoyed this podcast about Spirit Guide Connection, maybe even learned something new about Spirit Guides that you didn’t know before. If you’d like to get to work on Spirit Guide Connection, I always suggest a reading flow for clients of working with your own Akashic Records first, through the Soul Star Reading, and then connecting with your spirit guides next through the Spirit Guide Reading.

With the Soul Star Reading, you’ll learn to open a portal to your own Akashic records. Once you understand your soul blueprint and soul group, you’ll be able to relate to your spirit guides more easily as you learn their blueprints and groups through the spirit guide reading, and then how they can best guide you in this life.

If you’d like to go deeper into spirit guide work over time, then you can learn to connect with your master guides who help you with bigger life themes such as karma, timing, and life lessons. If you’d rather start by hearing messages from your guides first, then my Akashic Journey reading is the way to go to get started with all of this.

So that’s it for this month. I hope you enjoyed listening. You can find me, Sarah Lawrence, at momonaspiritualjourney.com. I’ve been writing and podcasting there since 2010, and you can also sign up for my free email learning series about the Akashic Records

if you would like. You can also find me on Substack at soulintelligence, and you can find my podcasts on places like Spotify and Apple Podcasts by searching for Podcasts with Sarah Lawrence. The last two Shine podcasts were about life lessons and synchronicity, respectively. So you might enjoy going back and listening to those, too.

If you Google Sarah Lawrence Akashic, that’s Sarah with an H, L-A-W-R-E-N-C-E, A-K-A-S-H-I-C, you’ll find me on social media, and you can email me at sarah at mumonaspiritualjourney.com. Next month’s Shine podcast will be about past lives, so I hope you’ll join me then. Lots of light to you. Thanks for listening. Until next time.

Resource Page: All Podcasts

One way to grow your connection with Spirit Guides is to begin to work with your Akashic Records. This expands the connection to your Soul through your Higher Self (also known as your intuition).

You’ll find that your intuition expands with Akashic Records work, and questions you have on the spiritual journey will be answered. It really helps you to connect the dots.

If you are interested in an Akashic Records Reading, I always recommend starting with  the Soul Star Reading.

This reading gives you 3 different immersive experiences of the Akashic Records: –

If you’d like to know about the different readings I offer on this site through the 6 Spiritual Paths, start here>>

See and Search the Full Sitemap>>

Sign up for my free email learning series and receive a free PDF, plus simple exercises to explore.

Becoming a mentor as a parent is probably the biggest role we didn’t realize we would need to do. When you are put in a mentoring role, how can intuitive guidance help you?

This podcast is about becoming a mentor. There are times in life when we find ourselves in that role, even when it’s not something we consciously sought. Suddenly, others look to us for guidance, and we’re not entirely sure how to go about it.

This episode came about because I wasn’t even sure what I was going to talk about! So, I asked my Spirit Guides for help. They immediately directed me to Caroline Myss’s Archetype Deck and told me to draw six cards.

Using Caroline Myss’s beautiful Archetype Cards, I channeled a message about the student-to-mentor journey.

Caroline Myss Archetype Cards on Amazon.

Archetypes, as you may know, are energetic blueprints, patterns of thought and behavior that exist within the collective mind. They describe the roles we embody as humans on our path of growth.

Each archetype has light and shadow aspects. In this channeling, I focused on the positive, light-filled side of each one.

I channeled a fascinating six-step cycle of transformation: how we move from student to mentor and back again.

What I discovered is that becoming a mentor isn’t a single event; it’s a cycle.

We begin as students. Often, we don’t even realize we’re stepping into mentorship until we’re already actively practicing it. Maybe a teacher once asked you to help another student, or a friend turned to you for advice.

For me, it started while working at Channel 4 Television, teaching colleagues how to use Wang typewriters (remember those?). I only learned to use one myself because I wanted to save my work! Yet, that small moment led to a lifelong path of teaching and training.

In that instance, my teacher wasn’t a person, it was new technology.

The cards my Spirit Guides directed me to were:

And then—back again to The Mentor.

The first message that came through was clear:

A Mentor is a Student in disguise.

Wisdom is not just received—it’s embodied. The eternal student learns, applies, and evolves.

As the saying goes:

“When the student is ready, the teacher appears.”

I’ve had many teachers—some conventional, others unexpected. True mentorship is synchronistic and empathic. There’s a mutual exchange of energy and understanding that helps both people grow.

A wonderful example of this is the relationship in The Karate Kid: the timeless dance of student and teacher, each reflecting the other as they both grow.

After learning from a mentor, we begin The Ascent. We take what we’ve learned and move upward into new life stages, creative pursuits, or personal challenges.

This is the part of the Hero’s Journey Joseph Campbell described so beautifully: the mountain is never the same mountain upon your return, and the river is never the same.

Growth requires courage. Along the way, we face our “monsters”, usually obstacles that test and strengthen us.

The next card, The Lover, speaks of passion and devotion, the unbridled appreciation for someone or something.

But love can also become obsession or self-destruction if we lose balance. The deeper truth of this archetype is that every act of love teaches self-love.

To love others fully, we must first learn to keep our own hearts open, even after they’ve closed and reopened many times. Love is always a mirror: in the end, all love is love of the Self, reflected through others.

I remember attending my first Kryon conference when my eldest was still a toddler. The channeling by Lee Carroll emphasized the word responsibility, and I suddenly grasped the profound responsibility of nurturing a child into adulthood.

Parenting, like mentoring, is a powerful heart-opener. It invites us to grow something new, whether that’s a child, a creative project, or even a movement.

Yet, what we create, we must also release. The child becomes an adult. The project is complete. The book is written. Growth always involves letting go so that new life can emerge.

Next comes The Scribe, the keeper of knowledge and stories.

Recently, I was reminded of the difference between preserving information and stewarding it. In truth, knowledge isn’t ours to own. It moves through us, not from us.

As scribes, we receive wisdom, process it, and share it in the way that best serves others. Information isn’t the gift, it’s the bridge to understanding.

Through this process, our experiences crystallize into insights we can transmit, whether through writing, teaching, or simply the way we live.

Finally, we arrive at The Poet.

The Poet expresses Soul insight through symbolic language, art, words, or resonance.

After the Dark Night of the Soul, after the desert of transformation, we emerge with wisdom we can’t help but express. The Poet’s role is to sing the soul’s truth in a way others can feel.

At this point, we often find ourselves mentoring others without realizing it. The cycle begins again.

The truth is, there’s no beginning and no end to the student–mentor journey. It’s a continual spiral of learning, embodying, creating, and sharing.

If we can stay in a state of curiosity, the “beginner’s mind”, we remain both student and mentor simultaneously.

As I like to say:

We’re all on the same bus—just sitting in different seats.
Each of us has a unique view to share from where we are on the journey..

Working with the Akashic Records expands your connection to the Soul through your Higher Self, your intuitive aspect.

If you’re new to this work, I recommend starting with a Soul Star Reading.

If you’ve already had one, deepening your practice with the Akashic Tarot can take your intuition even further.

Being able to access your Akashic Records through the Akashic Tarot strengthens your connection with your Higher Self — and expands your intuition as a natural side effect.

Recently, I was asked to review Debra Landwehr Engle’s book Let Your Spirit Guides Speak: A Simple Guide for a Life of Purpose, Abundance, and Joy.

Recently, I was asked to review Debra Landwehr Engle’s book Let Your Spirit Guides Speak: A Simple Guide for a Life of Purpose, Abundance, and Joy.

I saw that she was offering interview time, so I took her up on her kind offer – so this book review is also a podcast where Debra and I get to discuss the nature of our Spirit Guides, how to let them speak, build relationships with them, and more.

If you are interested in beginning to connect with your Spirit Guides or wanting to create a stronger relationship with them, you will learn something from this podcast and also from Debra’s book: –

Let Your Spirit Guides Speak: A Simple Guide for a Life of Purpose, Abundance, and Joy.

Join the waitlist for my upcoming book about Spirit Guides: –

REBEL FREQUENCY – Connecting with your Spirit Guides for Creativity, Healing, and Growth.

Read more about the book here>>

Receive excerpts and updates, too, when you join the list.

One of the questions I asked Debra was how she first came into contact with her Spirit Guides.

She answered that it was both a gradual process where comfort and presence were available to her in several different situations, and then when Debra went to see a Past Life Regressionist, she was taken to a time before she came into this life.

During the Past Life Regression, Debra saw her whole team of guides – she sensed intuitively, or knew somehow that these people were her Spirit Guides – dressed in white jogging suits!

This really validated an experience of mine, because often my Spirit Guides like to not only speak, but to disco dance across my vision or generally act funnily. Mine usually wear robes and flip them around – dare I say they also flip them up sometimes too to make me laugh. It’s quite an entertaining sight.

Debra calls this the ‘Snoopy Dance’. When you do connect with your Spirit Guides, you will feel a sense of joy, so do celebrate the moment!

Imagine your guides as nearby neighbors…perhaps living in a house with a different vibration, but still very nearby. Invite them over in your mind for coffee, even pizza.

Debra recommends connecting with your guides regularly, even at a regular time of day. Chat, think about, or even make time to write down insights from your guides.

Do this regularly, and you will create stronger connections with your Spirit Guides, and they will appreciate the focused time you can spend together. When your spirit guides speak, take note of their guidance and messages.

Think of the guides as family members who are always around. You wouldn’t ignore them or leave them out of a meal or coffee if a family were in the house, so make sure you include the guides in your activities in some part of your day, too.

Debra’s writing guide, Ella, ended up contributing quite a large chunk of content to the book, and you can read her quotes throughout. I let the energy pick a quote, and this one came up

Your capacity to know and understand yourself may be the most important by-product of partnering with your guides.

One of the main reasons to connect with your Spirit Guides and create some kind of relationship is that our guides can help us to: –

Our Spirit Guides can contact us in several ways, some you may not expect or even realize until later.

Here are some examples: –

Sometimes we get disconnected from our guides. Perhaps it’s a time when we just can’t take anything else on in our energy field. Maybe we just need a break to be in the body. When that happens, remember we will reconnect with our Spirit Guides at some point.

We also discussed Spirit Envy on the podcast. Have you ever experienced that? Why do some people hear and feel their guides speak while others can’t? Why can some people see auras and others can’t? We discuss the phenomenon of Spirit Envy and how to deal. Enjoy the podcast!

Debra Landwehr Engle is also the author of The Only Little Prayer You Need: The Shortest Route to a Life of Joy, Abundance, and Peace of Mind, workshop facilitator, and regular blogger at Patheos. She is also a long-time teacher of A Course In Miracles and a widely traveled inspirational speaker. She lives in Madison County, Iowa.

One way to grow your ability to connect with your Spirit Guides, and even hear them speak, is to begin to work with your Akashic Records. This expands the connection to your Soul through your Higher Self (aka your intuition).

If you are interested in an Akashic Records Reading, I always recommend starting with the Soul Star Reading.

This reading gives you 3 different immersive experiences of the Akashic Records: –

If you’d like to know about the different readings I offer on this site, start here>>

This podcast is an introduction to your Soul Monad.  These are also the show notes for the 6th in the 7-part podcast series of Kryon’s 7 Cosmic Laws.

Have you heard of the term Soul Monad? A psychic in Maryland first introduced me to this term and helped me connect with my spirit guides. This podcast discusses a Cosmic Law to help you understand the nature of a Soul Monad.

Dictionary.com gives us the definitions of Monad as…

noun

2. Chemistry. an element, atom, or group having a valence of one.

3. Philosophy.

4. a single unit or entity.

In many spiritual and metaphysical traditions, a soul monad is understood as the original, undivided source of consciousness from which an individual soul emerges. It is considered the highest aspect of one’s spiritual identity—the pure essence that exists beyond personality, lifetime experiences, and even the soul’s many incarnations.

Different traditions use different terminology, and there is no single universally accepted definition. However, the common thread is that the monad represents the soul’s original, indivisible spark of consciousness.

As soon as you start this search of yours, as soon as you push on the door, as soon as Spirit sees pure intent, all of your universal family knows it.

Resource: Kryon Books on Amazon

While preparing for this podcast this time, I was guided to open the Akashic Records of my personal Soul Monad.

I asked for the Spiritual meaning of the Soul Monad and then started googling it – my Spirit Guides got a bit annoyed with me and said: “Don’t look it up, we’ll tell you!”

So, they say…

The Soul Monad is the Universe as One and yet many. Consider your soul as a bubble floating up into the stratosphere of the Earth, where other bubbles recognize it and move close, connect, stick together. If they were soap bubbles they would burst, but they do not.

The Soul Monads are Soul Bubbles. They contain everything that you need in this incarnation (if you are currently incarnated) plus the knowledge and awareness of all previous and future incarnations.

More in the podcast… (see the link above).

Who is in my particular Soul Monad?

Which Spirit Guides are connected to my Soul Monad?

How can incarnated people on the journey get benefits from becoming consciously connected with their individual Soul Monad?

Akashic Records Readings are a type of reading that reviews your current life situations from a higher perspective. I include the perspective of your Divine Soul Blueprint, your Soul’s vibration rate, Life Lessons you are working on, and your Life Purpose. This gives you the structure you need to connect with spiritual information and relate it to your life in practical ways.

With my approach, more clarity results, and daily decisions become easier. Bigger Life Situations can be managed from a clearer starting point. And if we dig into your Success Codex, we can even brainstorm how to get out of stuckness, too. Who doesn’t want that on a Monday morning?

Check out this page to see all available Akashic Readings. I always recommend beginning with the Soul Star Reading if you are new here, since it sets the frame of reference for this approach.

A discussion of Kryon’s third Cosmic Law to help us embrace self-love.

I’ve heard the phrase ‘You are dearly Loved’ many times during Kryon channelings.  I’ve been present at many live channelings and often listen to the recordings at kryon.com.

For me, they started coming through for some clients during Akashic Records Readings.

From the perspective of my Akashic Records, I thought I would ask more about being loved.

We struggle with loving ourselves on this planet (let alone loving each other!). How might we get closer to the energetic concept of being dearly loved?

Relaying the words ‘You are dearly loved’ gives a wonderful energy rush in the light of the Records when I give readings for clients.

I feel it a lot in the body and often during readings.

It just seems to be such a challenge to remember to love ourselves through all of our lives here and what we go through during our daily struggles.

For you, the individual (Sarah), it’s about staying centered in the body, from top to bottom, left to right.

Keep your conscious awareness in the heart center of the body.

This gives you access to the Heart Chakra and the Solar Plexus Chakra where the Know-Knot is located. (This is an energetic aspect of our lattice, Universal Calibration Lattice, or UCL).

(I was taught by my energy teacher that if you can see it with your psychic eye, it looks kind of like a funnel cake, circular. The know-knot, when activated, downloads soul memory and Life Purpose.)

Stay here, and you will always feel dearly loved.

Move out of here, and you are now awash in the planetary sea of different energies from everything else.

Which is very interesting and nice, sometimes difficult, but that is second-hand love and not the first-hand love that comes directly from Spirit.

So stay centered, in your own special way, and all will be well. That’s also your best place to receive intuitive insights.

Everyone is different.

For some, it’s important to ground through the feet, the gardeners, the geologists, the divers.   

For others, it’s important to feel through the creative or sexual centers (this will apply to any type of artist except for one), yet for others, yet again to do what was recommended for you via the heart and solar plexus chakras.

Some will love being focused through the heart chakra, and this is where they feel most at home and therefore can feel universal love the strongest.

Why does a heart surgeon want to be a heart surgeon?

Because he or she loves the heart area of the body and the related chakra or energy center.

Many people in the caring professions care for others because to them their heart center is the return home.  This gives them the strongest sense of being dearly loved.

Those who love the focus of the high heart chakra or thyroid area are often the ones who love to be home-makers, design, build, or construct.

This is because the thyroid area of the body is the perfect balance between voice and care, so the ideas can be verbalized and turned into a unit, an item, a house, or an environment.

Ah, those with the throat chakra being energetically designed to connect them to ‘home’, or Spirit, the singers!

The talkers, the writers, the peacemakers, the mediators. You’ll know if you like this one best.

The third eye chakra is not only our clairvoyant seat but the loving location of all that is visionary.

If you are a visionary, this is the chakra that brings you home and helps you know you are dearly loved.

You may have spent many lifetimes favoring this chakra, so it is highly developed this time around, and the connection with spirit is immediate.

The crown chakra: Mahatma Gandhi, Iyengar, the yoga teacher, gurus, sages, the Buddha, Lee Carroll (Kryon partner). 

Higher teachers can reach their sense of self-love and know that they are dearly loved purely by opening this chakra.

You have had many lifetimes on the planet where other chakras were your primary connection to source.

You can ask your Records how many of these have already been activated in other lifetimes and bring them forward into this lifetime.

Why limit your sense of being dearly loved? Why only have a 3D sense of it (as Kryon would say!).

Connect first with the chakra that resonates the most for you with the body sense of being dearly loved.   Then ask to be guided to a second, then a third, and so on.

The reader (Sarah) is already sensing that in many lifetimes she worked with heart and solar plexus in the healing professions.   

Yet in other lifetimes still, all the other chakras became highly developed.

Receive our dear love, dear ones, through chakra practice.

You are dearly loved, through every chakra!

.

Akashic Records Readings are a type of reading that reviews your current life situations from a higher perspective. I include the perspective of your Divine Soul Blueprint, your Soul’s vibration rate, Life Lessons you are working on, and your Life Purpose. This gives you the structure you need to connect with spiritual information and relate it to your life in practical ways.

With my approach, more clarity results, and daily decisions become easier. Bigger Life Situations can be managed from a clearer starting point. And if we dig into your Success Codex, we can even brainstorm how to get out of stuckness, too. Who doesn’t want that on a Monday morning?

Check out this page to see all available Akashic Readings. I always recommend beginning with the Soul Star Reading if you are new here, since it sets the frame of reference for this approach.