General interest in contacting one's personal spirit guides is at an all-time high. If you could contact your guide(s), you could benefit from their assistance in your personal growth, to whatever level you desired to seek that assistance. For example, if your desire for spiritual assistance focused on advice regarding major life changes or whether or not you should take an umbrella to work that day, you could set those limits and enjoy the fruits of that influence. However, if you really want to utilize the spirit guide or companion's talent to its full potential, then you have to provide unlimited opportunity for direction and influence in your life.

To give your spirit guide or companion (I'll define these in a moment) the ability to shape your growth is not what you might initially think. It is a relationship that requires trust, so it is not entered into lightly. Consider when you first started on an active spiritual path, a path of your choosing rather than a path chosen for you by your family or circle of friends. When you choose a personal path for spiritual growth, you soon discover that the trials of life are a little more frequent and a little more intense. If you weather these well, you will see an increase in the challenges presented to you. This is not a personal attack or punishment leveled on you by some cosmic force; it is simply an accelerated growth opportunity that you have volunteered for by accepting an active role in your spirituality.

Entering a trust-based relationship with a spirit is a similar step – it will take you into richer territory, presenting you with difficult challenges as well as blissful rewards. But as with any venture, the relationship and the growth are based on what you put into them – if you are someone who takes challenges personally, or if you are unable to step back from your own pain just long enough to get through the moment, then this relationship may be too much for you.

A spirit guide is a spirit who aids your personal journey, often in simple ways such as directing you to drive a different route to work so that you may either avoid a problem (such as an accident or traffic jam) or encounter an opportunity you would have missed. Most people who have contact with their guides leave it at that – simple instructions or prompts on a daily basis, with the occasional "You must move to Omaha, stat!" thrown in.

A spirit companion is a spirit guide and more. He or she is a personal friend or even a lover, a spirit who bonds with you and provides emotional support, who nourishes your soul and your spirit, and who is willing to go through the difficult process of teaching you things that are painful for you. Okay, let me back up. Many people have spirit companions who serve as a mate or lover, without the added challenges of the pumped-up guide aspect. But the people that Meridjet and I help are those who desire those challenges, and this blog will focus on companions and guides that guide and challenge you to become more.

I would imagine you have questions – how does a spirit serve as a lover? Who's Meridjet? and so on. I will address these questions and more in future posts here. I hope you'll join me.