Enlightened Empaths

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

Choose one goal.

Identify three symbols that represent that goal.

Spend 2 minutes visualizing each symbol in vivid detail.

Repeat daily for 21 days.

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