Some tips to start exercising your psychic abilities

So I received a request on techniques or exercises to try to increase your psychic abilities. I'm pretty sure I've written about some of them before (e.g. using a pendulum, automatic writing, etc) but I will try to give some other examples as well.

What I've found is that the most important thing to do before you actually want to try things out (like connect with your guides), is to center yourself. Centering yourself basically means bringing all of your attention into the present and being aware of you in your own body. There's a few ways to do this:

• Meditate (imagine for example the flower at your crown chakra opening up and roots extending from that flower into the light of Source and feel the energy come down through your chakra and rest in your heart. Similarly, focus on your feet and imagine roots planting your firmly into Mother Earth and draw the energy up from her into your feet and up your body and rest in your heart. Feel both simultaneously and then you're good to begin)
• If you've done Reiki II, chokurei yourself. I like to chokurei my feet and base of my spine in order to center myself prior to working on someone.
• Just sit or stand, take a few deep breathes through your nose and let them out of your mouth - I mean really let the air whoosh out of your mouth. Then after that just feel around your body to see how you are.

Once you've done that, you can try a couple of exercises:

• Play around with crystals - by this I mean take a crystal in your hand and close your eyes. Try to feel the crystal, you can feel its texture, how it sits in your hand, whether it feels heavy or light. You can then expand the feeling sense to see whether you can sense anything else - its vibration, its aura, or perhaps personality. You can also send a question to it like "What can you do for me?" - wait for the answer. Here's the important part - TRUST WHAT YOU GET BACK. Don't second guess it - ever! If you're not sure then ask for confirmation. It's good to do this with at least 2 crystals so you can compare.
• Tune into a person's aura - you can do this a number of ways. This will require a partner but the good thing is that you can give feedback and maybe get some feedback in return.
• The first one is by feeling... so as you begin it's good to rub your hands together a bit just so that you can feel that electrical charge and then hold your hands up around the person (not too close) and slowly move them up and down the person. What can you feel? Are some parts denser? Some parts lighter and more buzzy? Move your hands slowly away from the person. Can you feel where the aura ends... does it feel "bouncy"? Do you feel that your hands seems to be magnetically attracted to a particular area?
• The second one is just by closing your eyes and having the intent to tune into the other person's aura. What sensations do you get? Can you feel anything? Do you get any sort of information that is coming through? Do you "see" colours? Can you ask "What is this aura telling me today" and see what answer comes back?
• See if you can tune into your guides. If you want to do this, meditation will be extremely beneficial before trying and also consider using a crystal who's specific qualities are to assist you with connecting with guides (e.g. I've been using prehnite which has been GREAT - I just did a meditation to see what I could do in terms of helping a particular client and I ended up having a full on conversation with Kuan Yin about it (who btw has such a beautiful and gentle disposition about her I love it)). Another must is ensure that you are protected - i.e. only allow those "guides" in who love you unconditionally and are for your greatest and highest good. If you resonate with the concept of angels, just ask Archangel Michael to protect you and you're pretty much set!
• Once you have meditated to center yourself, ask for a guide to step forward and come into your aura. Give this a few minutes and notice whether you can feel a change in the air around you, or notice whether certain areas of your body may start to have some activity going on  (e.g. when Kuan Yin steps forward the air around my right side goes slightly cooler and I feel a subtle wind on that side of my body). See whether the energy feels masculine (e.g for me masculine energy feels very magnetic and pulsing and strong) or feminine (e.g. for me feminine energy feels light, gentle and very flowing). Don't worry if you can't identify this because some guides actually are gender neutral! If you're not sure, ask them to give you some sort of sign that they're around. Guides will connect with you in different ways so other examples are see whether there's a temperature change, whether the air around you feels denser or lighter, whether a particular area on your body feels tingly or you have the urge to scratch a particular area and you didn't have it before. Others might just feel a huge presence around them. It differs in everyone so just be open to it! 
• When you have an idea about how the guide "feels" - feel free to ask questions! What is their name? What is their purpose in working with you? Can they show you what they look like? What message do they have for you? Now some guides may decide not to reveal too much about themselves. Don't worry - they just want to pop in and assure you that they are there but they will engage with you later on down the track when you're ready and able to engage with them. E.g. if your guide was a University teacher and you were a baby, there's no way you as a baby would understand what the University teacher had to say until you actually were a bit older - that sort of thing.
• If you're happy with that and want to continue to find out about another guide then you can thank the guide who has stepped forward, ask them to go back and then ask for another guide to come forward. Repeat the same steps as above.
• Use the pendulum - hold a pendulum out, keep it stationery and invite one of your guides in. Ask for a "yes" and "no" sign and then ask questions to see what the answer is and whether the pendulum swings or not.
• Automatic writing - well my version of automatic writing isn't the same as what other people say. I tend to use it similar to a pendulum haha. Hold a pen in your non dominant hand and on a sheet of paper write down your question and place your pen in the middle. Invite your guide in to answer the question and do not resist the pen moving. 

That's probably enough examples for now. Again the most important thing is to trust in the answers that come forward. They can come in a MULTIPLE of ways too and this will in a lot of cases depend on what psychic ability you are more inclined to. For example, the answer may come as a sense of feeling, or you might actually "see" something that pops up in your mind or you may hear a voice talking to you. You might even SMELL them! For example, I know that Mother Mary is around when I smell roses and there's not a single rose around. The more you do this the more you will be able to identify your strongest psychic ability and you'll be well on the way to strengthening your own intuition!

Good luck and let me know how you go! Remember, there is nothing to fear but if you do end up being a bit scared, you are in complete control. Ask the guide to go away and close off the session or ask an angel to come in for some extra support and guidance. You have so much power and you don't even know it!